Adventure, February 20, 1922 — page 35: 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 “To the sword with them in the name of Allah!” another yelled from the darkness just below us. And a pause followed, of sudden, utter silence. They were wonder- ing. They had heard strange things that night and seen strange sights. The yeast of uncertainty was working. Then Grim took a long chance. We were thirty feet above them out of reach and there were no stones they could have flung; : but the risk was infinitely greater than that. If he failed to touch the right chord of © emotion; if he said the wrong word or over- played the right appeal; if one ill-considered phrase should seize their fancy and fire imagination to take flight in violence, or one careless hint spur resentment, they would surge out of the Haram like a flood. The Governorate would be the first point of attack; then the Jews; then, perhaps, when the looting was over there would be a march on Jerusalem and a mess midway to the tune of stuttering machine guns. Grim’s voice broke the silence like a pro- phet’s; for you have to speak in measured cadence if you hope to make an impress on the Moslem mind when the wild man heri- tage is uppermost and fierce emotion sways him. They could see only the outline of his figure against the deep purple setting of the stars and in those Arab clothes he looked enough dignified to be a true seer. Cohen and I drew away from him to give him the full dramatic force of loneliness. “Brothers! The bones of Abraham lie under us. It is written that “They plotted, but Allah plotted and of plotters Allah is the best.’"* When Abraham went forth to war with kings, he waited for the word that should send him forth, and he took no share of the plunder, lest one should say an enemy and not Allah had enriched him. Who are ye but sons of Abraham? “We have heard and seen strange things this night,” continued Grim. ‘And it is written, ‘When ye prided yourselves on your numbers it availed you nothing.’* Is it wiser to be headstrong at the bidding of the rash or to wait for the appointed time and see? For all is written. “Who shall set for- ward by: an hour the courses of the stars or change the contour of the hills or postpone judgment?’ Allah ykun maak!’’} He had struck the right note. He had them. A murmur.of low voices answered *From the Koran. post be with you. 33 him and though the words were hardly audi- ble the purport was-plain; it was something about Almightiness and Allah. You can not separate the Moslem from his fatalism and it works either way, making him fierce ~ or meek according to circumstance and the method of appeal. Unless some unexpected incident should occur to change their mood again it was likely they would cut no throats = that night. But the risk entailed by lingering another — “minute on the scene would have been dead- ly. Questions and answers might have pro- duced the very spark needed to fire them to — fanatical zeal again. The cue was to dis- appear at once, leaving the dramatic effect _ at its height and there was only one way to do that. Black shadow lay behind us ‘and beneath. — I could just make out a suggestion of some- thing solid that might be a roof and might not, but there was no time for investigation. Grim seemed to step off the wall into noth- ing and the darkness swallowed him. I jumped and Cohen lay down on the wall and rolled off, clinging to the edge with both hands. THAT wasn’t a roof. Grim had landed feet-foremost on a lower wall that met ours at right angles and it © was the shadow cast by that that looked like something solid. I fell for a life-time, — wondering what death would be like when the earth should rise at last and meet me, — and was disgusted—disappointed—mad-_ dened when the end came. They cover up the water as a rule in He- bron; but that stone tank was open and the ~ - green scum floated on it inches thick. There were long green slimy weeds that clung and ~ got into your mouth and eyes and if the ° water of the Styx tastes worse than that I’d rather live in this world for a while yet. — But.it was not all bitterness. There was Cohen. He had to jump, too; and when I had scrambled cut I told him all about it and then waited until his fingers lost their hold on the wall and he came catapulting — down for his green bath just as I had done; and he liked it even less. Hemade remarks in Yiddish that I couldn’t understand and refused to apologize for having splashed me. Then Grim came, cool and dry, having ~ found some goat’s stairway down to éerra firma. _ “Both alive?” he asked. ‘“‘Well—what’s coi f . J 7 > > comicbooks=co