"This is your famous Bir-el-Arwah, where, as you tell your faithful, the souls of the dead come to pray twice a week. This is the gulf beneath the Rock of Abraham that you tell them reaches to the middle of the world. Look at it! Shall we publish flashlight photographs?"
The sheikh's eyes twinkled as he recognized the force of that argument. He turned it over in his mind for a full minute before he answered.
"You cannot be expected to understand spiritual things," he said at last. "However," looking up, "this is not under the Rock. This is another place."
Goodenough pulled a compass from his pocket, but Grim shook his head.
"Go on," said Grim. "What of it?"
"It is better to close up this place and say nothing."
"Except this." Goodenough retorted: "you will say at the first and every succeeding opportunity that you know it is not true that Zionists tried to blow up the Dome of the Rock."
"How do I know they did not try?"
"Perhaps we'd better ask the Administrator to come and inspect this place officially and put the exact facts on the record," Goodenough retorted.
"You understand, don't you?" said Grim.