"Who are you in my likeness?"
"A friend, inshallah," answered Grim.
He squatted down cross-legged on the mat in front of him; for though the Lion's neck was pretty nicely bandaged and the hypodermic had not lost its power, yet it hurt him quite a little to look up.
"I had three brothers, but thou art none of them. I had one son, but neither art thou he. In the name of the All-Knowing, name thyself!"
"I am he," said Grim, "who brought Your Honor's wife from El-Kalil."
"Oh! And a million curses on the bint! She tried within the hour to poison me. But for this Indian of thine I were a dead man now. Stay! Send for her!"
He clapped his hands.
"Let her be flung over the cliff. Go bring her!" But nobody moved to do his bidding, and it dawned on him a second time that he was cornered. He wasn't a man who took such a discovery mildly.
"Ayisha shall be dealt with at the proper time!" he snarled. "I
have not accepted those gifts. Take them up! You who have entered
Petra without my leave shall account to my men presently.
Thereafter we will talk of gifts."
"Which men?" Grim asked him blandly. "Surely not the forty and four who went to raid the Beni Aroun? Nay, I took the liberty of sending them a message signed with Your Honor's seal. They will not come for a day or two, so we can make friends undisturbed."