Adventure, February 20, 1922 — page 17: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

The Seventeen Thieves of El-Kalil | 15 When you say a thing, Jimgrim, whoever has good sense believes it.” _ “Believe me now, then. waa shall hang before you are rescued. Neither your six- teen sons and grandsons, nor any mob incited by them shall get you alive out of our hands.” “Allah! You talk boldly, Jimgrim!” “YT have pledged my word.” “Shu halalk!* I know the situation. Jerusalem can spare no troops. There is going to be short shrift in El-Kalil, and none can prevent it. Nevertheless, you shall have the Jew’s watch, if that is all you want of me.” “It is not all.” “Then what else?” y “Give me the watch first.” . “It is not here. On my honor, Jimgrim, in the name of the Most High God and of ; his Prophet, it is not here!” “T thought not. Let me feel under your girdle. Not there? Under your arm? No. In the leg of your pantaloons then? Ah! I knew Id heard it ticking.” Grim drew up the old man’s cotton trousers and exposed the hairy leg. The ~ watch was suspended by its gold chain just — below the knee. “So that’s attended to.. Now we'll go out of here and make you more comfortable at the Governorate. Cohen is there. You may give him the watch yourself if you’d rather.” “You will take me to the Governorate? Taib!} They will burn that place down in- stead of this!” “All right, Come along.” Grim called the jailer who let us out in a hurry and seemed more glad to be rid of that mild-looking old gentleman than if he _ had had horns and a tail; but he took care to have Grim make the necessary entries in the prison book, and returned to Ali Baba the sweetest, slivery, long, gold-handled - dagger in an ivory sheath that ever I set eyes on. I offered to buy it from him right away, but he saw only humor in that. “You shall have it in your belly before | morning!” he assured me. “Keep your = money until then!” Take him on the whole he was the most delightful rascal I had met in Palestine. It was a sheer pleasure to walk the street they’d better. Cost less. a " “What talk i is this?” f“All right. in his company, Grim on one side and I on the other, lest he take it into that old splen-_ did head of his to make a break for liberty. The very stride of the man was poetry; every gesture was romance. He wasincon- —> vertible to modern ways and incorruptible — _ by modern thought—past history incarnate i E and unwilling to depart from ancient ~ y manners; as conventional in his own way | as any of the ancient kings who once made, war on Abraham. bree ee ‘ee YOU would have thought he owned the Governorate by the way he © entered it and the lecture he gave a. Aaron Cohen before returning his watch — = might have been taken out.of the Book of * ~ “A rash man and his goods are like ec wheat and the chaff,” he told him. “A wind blows and they are separated. Yet there is compassion even for fools, and the heart of the wise discerns it. I am not willing to be enriched with your goods, lest — you should meditate envy and bring evil = Into the world; for the little are envious — ss and only the great have understanding. I give you back your watch.” a “Ts he to have the fifty dollars for it?” <i Cohen asked: “A feller with a nerve like ~~ him don’t need money, but Tl stand by what I said to you.’ . “Does he speak of money? Tell him to = think rather on damnation that awaits him a after death!” said Ali Baba, turning his back. “I offered you tea_in the jail, Jim- grim,” Grim chuckled. “Shall I order tea? Koran forbids wine.” “Whisky is not wine. => It’s too bad the I have read the Koran through two hundred times and never found the word whisky mentioned ‘ in it.” a Grim set a whisky bottle down on the table in front of him and the old man helped himself to a tumblerful. . 2 “Now,” said Grim, “we'll send for your sixteen sons and grandsons. Write them ~ an invitation.” 2 He set paper and ink in front of him and looked on, smiling like the Sphinx. “No, that won’t do. Try.again. Take —- | another sheet. Nothing about politics this ee. time. Tell them you’re out of jail and quite comfortable in the Governorate as my guest. Say you’ve some advice to give