"He has been lying to Your Honor. He has said that the British are helpless. He brought Your Honor a report from Palestine that was a skein of falsehood hung up on little pegs of truth. He told you the British are not able to defend themselves, he knowing better; for he is one of those men who say always what the hearer would like to hear."
"What has that to do with thee?" demanded Ali Higg.
He was looking about him furtively, and Narayan Singh picked up his rifle off the rug and stood it against the wall. Grim turned toward Ali Baba.
"Bring Yussuf!" he ordered.
The ranks opened, and Yussuf was thrust forward into the cave, where he stood looking like a felon awaiting sentence.
"Did you speak the truth, or did you lie to the Lion of Petra?"
Grim demanded.
"Who am I that should know the truth of such matters?" the man whined, his voice squeaking like a cart-wheel. "I obeyed. I looked. I asked. Perhaps I did not understand all I saw and what was told me."
"Is the Lion of Petra with ten-score fighting men able to stand against the British with twenty thousand?" Grim asked him.
"Inshallah. The Lion is brave. Who knows? Yet I forgot to speak of the twenty aeroplanes at Ludd, each having ten bombs of a hundred pounds weight that could make short work in an hour or two of ten score men."
"Why don't they come?" snarled Ali Higg.