Adventure, February 20, 1922 — page 30: what you’re looking at

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

“ al 28 . wre eG , .. fa of this matter. Allah send a poor man wisdom that I may avoid disgrace!’’ “Well—what account has Ali Baba given of it?” “Have you not heard? He and his brood - go belching fire through the streets, saying they went into the cave and have a gift of prophecy. When men came to see the entrance of the cave and found it sealed up that old father of lies declared that one angel had broken the masonry, and after- wards another came and closed it. They _ could see that the cement was fresh and the stones slightly disarranged and that con- vinced them! Do yout realize my predica- ment? My choice lay between confession that I had not guarded the cave faithfully, or saying nothing. I have said nothing. I - continue to say nothing. Let Allah speak, or the spirit of Abraham, for I am dumb!” “T find’that you have been unwise,” said Grim after a minute’s pause; and for half a minute after that the Sheikh battled with his.own priestly pride. For many and many a year he had been fault-finder-in-chief in Hebron, and the licensed critic of others seldom suffers judgment doucely. How- . ever, he swallowed the verdict, Grim watch- ing him as if a chemical experiment were -taking-place i in a test-tube. “But not unfaithful,” Grim added, when _the right second seemed to have come to aap that new ingredient into the mixture of emotions. gal The Sheikh’s eyes that had been blazing _ grew as grateful as a dog’s. “Moreover, I find that the wisdom of your, subsequent silence offsets the former foolishness and I shall say so.to Seyyed Omar when I go back to EI- Kudz.”’. nas J starfrallah! 194 ‘ be % Rete Sa > 5 ar! STs at oe S wi 3 * ot y y @' + y “LS \ f « — A * a " 5 * 4 A - {ome — * i ~4 P= ie - 4 ~~ + a rg he ew “ & < Pa * Ae a ie + : fe ers: Ps. - ~ Ne * sell oe Pan be ye I di gnity may come deliverance,” safd Grim. “ ‘Inshallah!”} — “Those seventeen thieves are not men of ’ suddenly. “Allah! They are rogues with the brains _of foxes—no better and no less.” nes a ‘How should they have thought of such 5 a scheme as this?” “ “Shi ajib. (It is a strahge thing.) Who can fathom .-it?”’ aes “‘There must be a brain behind them.” ban / Literally: I beg God's pardon, viz., for my shortcomings; oe ten th of praise. : xe od wills. Adventure . “Tn. silence there is dignity, “aid out of keen iftellect, are they?” Grim asked him. “Perhaps the brain of Satan! Who knows?” “Think!” said Grim. “Is there any for- eigner in Hebron who might have put them up to it?” “T know of none.’ “Has there a no stranger here, who. perhaps took a particular interest in the — entrance to the cave?” “Ah! There was one, yes—about a month ago. But he was a dervish out of Egypt—a mere fanatic—a fool who did tricks with coins and eggs to amuse folk and begged his living.” ‘“‘Where is he now?” asked Grim. “They say he lives in a cave near Abra- ham’s Oak.” .« > “You say a mere mountebank?” “No better.” Grim proceeded to dismiss that subject | »as beneath consideration. If I had dared air my Arabic I would have urged him to follow it up further and by the look in Cohen’s eye he felt the same about it; but the most that either of us dared do was to sit still and eall as little attention to- our- selves as possible. .that Grim had forced the Sheikh on the defensive from the start was preserving us Nothing but the fact: from being questioned in a way that would “A have exposed me certainly, ‘and Cohen probably. - . “And this fire-gift—they are going to” display it now?” asked Grim, as if he did not know. “Aye, now. And I, who am Sheikh of this mosque, must eat humility and watch them. Truly are the ways, of ‘Allah past discerning. Verily dust is dust.” “Amen!” said Grim. “But did you never see a vision? May the Sheikh of a mosque = such as this not talk with spirits now and then?” The Sheikh stared back at him with his — jaw down. You could have put anything ‘into his mouth that you cared to and he wouldn’t have known it; the suggestion had hit home. “Tf seventeen thieves can see an angel,” Grim went on, as if propounding a con- undrum, “how many can the Sheikh of this mosque see?” “But the fire-gift? These men show a miracle. How to answer that?” ~ “With another.” “But—but—I am no mountebank. can do no tricks with fire.” _ - * I (E(0) (C6) 200 a>