The Talbot Mundy Megapack. Talbot Mundy

are some men who can lead people—who can understand an alien race, deserve their allegiance and lift them toward progress. Grim undoubtedly had that gift. And how many exceptions are there to the rule in such cases that women have been first to recognize the fact, and to egg the man on in spite of himself? But Grim has less personal vanity than any man I know, as well as a business instinct for appraising facts in all their bearings.

      “‘Between the promise and the deed a man may marry off his ugly daughter,’” he quoted, using the famous Arab proverb. “Tell me what you know and I will listen.”

      “You are at Jael’s mercy,” she said, “unless you consent to be guided by me.”

      “How then?”

      “You gave her too much opportunity. You let her talk with Ali Higg. You left them alone together. Then, like one who has set match to gunpowder, you came away, knowing nothing of what the fire said to the powder. But I listened, and I heard a little. And what I did not hear, another heard; and this shivering fool came in the night, bringing me word of it.”

      “I listen, O Lady Ayisha,” said Grim.

      “As a man to a tale that is told between waking and sleeping, or as a man to his wife, do you listen?”

      “I have but one pair of ears,” Grim answered.

      “Aye, that listen to the she-wolf Jael!”

      “That listen to all voices, whoever speaks. Who am I that should bury my head in the sand like an ostrich?”

      She held her tongue for a full minute, while an owl hooted weirdly in the darkness up the fiumara. Then—

      “Unless I speak you are ruined,” she said at last.

      Grim considered it his turn to wait. He simply watched her face with interest. The rest of us hardly breathed. At the end of a minute, since he made no suggestion:

      “What if I do not speak?” she asked. “And what if I do?”

      “If you do not, you are not my friend.”

      “And?”

      “I have other friends,” he answered calmly.

      “None like me,” she retorted.

      “Truly. My other friends drive no hard bargains before they consent to tell me what they know.”

      Maybe Ayisha had forgotten Narayan Singh; more extraordinary things than that have happened in the strain of concentration. There was a general once who forgot an army corps. Or perhaps she thought he was so enamored of her that he would hold his tongue. At any rate, she ignored him, which was easy enough while he stood alongside me behind her.

      But he bulks big in any kind of light, and she could not pretend not to see him when he strode around behind Grim and stood there facing her, with folded arms and his eyes fixed on her face. He said nothing. He didn’t even cough to draw attention to himself. But it was an ultimatum, and she realized it.

      I half-suspected by that time that the Sikh was bluffing. It seemed to me that if he had really overheard all that she said to my prisoner, and that the prisoner had said to her, Narayan Singh would have helped Grim out of a predicament and saved time by telling all he knew at once. But if she, too, suspected he was bluffing, she didn’t dare challenge him.

      “May you deal with your enemies like iron, even as you deal with me,” she said to Grim at last. “Behold, it is the way of men to devour the women’s harvest; and the women plant again, and reap again, and grind again, that their lords may eat. I will tell all; then, like all women, I will desire my lord’s favor.”

      * * * *

      I could see the milk-white of Narayan Singh’s teeth in the midst of his black beard, but if she saw the smile too, she pretended not to notice it. Grim merely nodded to her to continue.

      “In the cave in Petra Jael said to Ali Higg:

      “‘Behold, this fellow comes in your guise, letting men believe that he is the Lion of Petra. By a trick he has worsted you, for he is very cunning. In your name he will go against the Avenger, and it is well to let him go, for because of his cunning he will be too much for the Avenger, and will bring him to terms likewise. Thereafter both you and the Avenger will be as strong men bound, and this Jimgrim will be reckoned a great one. Like honey in his mouth is the success he tastes already. But is honey sweet only to the bees?’”

      My prisoner was in as abject terror as I have ever known a man to be. I had my leg against him, so as to be aware of any movement he might make, and he was shivering as if he had the ague. I expect he was thinking of what Ali Higg would do to him if it ever transpired that he had helped betray the Lion’s plans.

      Grim nodded again, and Ayisha went on with her story.

      “Ali Higg was unwilling to be urged into action, because his neck is sore; and besides he is ever opposed to Jael’s plans at first, although always yielding to her finally. He said: ‘Let him go against the Avenger. Who am I that should complain when Allah sends me aid? Can I overcome the Avenger without help? This Jimgrim, as you say, is cunning, and I shall reap the fruit of his cunning, and all will be well.’

      “But she answered:

      “‘Fool! Not thou, but he will reap. Who labors for other than his own reward? Hast thou ruled in Petra all these months, to believe yet that men risk their lives for the love of it, or for the love of thee?

      “‘Consider now: There are three parties to this—thou, this Jimgrim, and the Avenger. Whose is the advantage to begin with? The Avenger’s! And whose is the disadvantage? Thine!

      “‘But this Jimgrim has taken on himself thy part. Take thou then his part. Jimgrim is the Lion. Let the Lion be Jimgrim. A sheep in the skin of a lion; a lion pretending to be a sheep! He has twenty men in all. Go thou abroad with twenty.’”

      Ayisha paused dramatically to give her revelation time to take effect. In lands where almost no men, and even fewer women, can read, the art of reporting orally maintains a high plane. She waited for Grim to nod once more before resuming.

      “Ali Higg was doubtful and afraid. He complained about his neck. He feared to leave Petra ungoverned. But she told him to cover up his neck with bandages, and to hide the bandages beneath the kuffiyi [headdress].

      “He said he knew no English, and therefore could not pretend to be Jimgrim. But she said:

      “‘Neither does the Avenger or any of his men know English; and is not Jimgrim pretending to be an Arab? Can not an Arab pretend to be an Arab likewise?’

      “So he said again that if Petra were left ungoverned there would be no knowing what might happen. And she said:

      “‘Then I myself will return and govern Petra. I will go with this Jimgrim, and make believe to fall in with his plans, displaying reluctance for the sake of being all the more convincing when I yield; but I will seize the first chance to escape and return to Petra, and occupy thy place until thou come again.’

      “So spake Jael, and the Lion finally agreed.”

      She paused, and Grim spoke at last.

      “Do she and the Lion still propose to let me deal with the Avenger?”

      “Surely. And to defeat you afterward.”

      “Then who do they think will make Ibrahim ben Ah and his hundred and forty men obey me, seeing that Jael was to have contrived that part?”

      “The Lion thought of that at once,” Ayisha answered. “But Jael said: ‘Malaish [No matter]. This Jimgrim thinks himself so clever. Let him puzzle out that problem after I have left him. If he finds a way, well and good. If not, we shall be no worse off, and an intruder will have burned his fingers. If Ibrahim ben Ah should suspect him, and lay hands on him, and kill him, let that be the judgment of Allah, and we will find another way to deal with the Avenger.’”

      “And has Ali Higg left