The Talbot Mundy Megapack. Talbot Mundy

over with all my men and take service under you.”

      “You propose to do that?”

      “God forbid! I have eaten the Lion’s salt. Nevertheless, I am not your honor’s enemy. It was fitting in the circumstances that I should carry offers of peace.”

      The Avenger glanced once, swiftly, at Narayan Singh and me.

      “Why do you bring Indians with you?” he demanded.

      That was Ibrahim ben Ah’s opportunity, if he had any idea in his head of squaring personal accounts with us two. We were simply there to keep an eye on him. A polite request to have us tossed off the roof would most likely be complied with, after which he would still be in position to go through with Grim’s plan. As for explanations afterward, who was likely to make much fuss about the lives of a couple of Indians?

      The idea crossed his mind all right. He hesitated. Fortunately Narayan Singh and I were seated just a foot or so behind him, one on either side, in a line at right angles to the Avenger’s seat and facing the suspicious staff. The Avenger himself wasn’t looking, and none else could have seen the pistol that I thrust into Ibrahim’s ribs under cover of my cloak, nor the revolver that touched a corresponding ticklish spot on the Sikh’s side.

      It may be possible to mistake the feel of a pistol muzzle on a dark night, but he didn’t. He went straight ahead with the plan as Grim had outlined it, omitting nothing and introducing no personal vendettas.

      “They belong to Jimgrim’s force,” he said in a hurry. “Jimgrim sent them as his representatives.”

      “Jimgrim?” exclaimed the Avenger, startled. “Where is the man? I had news of him from the southward; it was definite.”

      “He is this side of those fires,” Ibrahim answered.

      The Avenger glanced at me incredulously, but I confirmed the statement. If our plan was going forward, it was true.

      “Why doesn’t Jimgrim come and see me, instead of keeping company with such a dog as Ali Higg?” the Avenger asked suddenly. “I have nothing against Jimgrim. Why does he consort with my enemy?”

      “He doesn’t,” I answered.

      “Where is the Lion of Petra then—as the upstart calls himself?”

      “Possibly Jimgrim knows, but we don’t,” I answered.

      “Then is that army not marching against me?”

      “At present it stands still,” said I. “Jimgrim is doing his best to prevent hostilities.”

      “Why doesn’t he come and see me?”

      “He has not been invited; nor has he a safe-conduct.”

      “One of you go back and bring him. Let that day not come that shall see me refusing to confer with Jimgrim! He shall have fifty men to escort him safely through my lines, and if we do not agree together he shall depart in peace at dawn.”

      “Jimgrim has the task of restraining Ali Higg’s army,” I answered. “There is only one condition on which he will come.”

      “Name it.”

      “That you agree beforehand to make peace with Ali Higg, not on Ali Higg’s terms, but on Jimgrim’s.”

      “And if I refuse?”

      “Then,” said I, “your honor must deal with that army on your own responsibility. It will not be possible for Jimgrim to keep them waiting there many hours. It was only with difficulty that they were restrained from pursuing your honor’s men a while ago.

      “Hitherto they have listened to him, but he will dare to leave them only on the condition I have named. If your honor will put in writing an agreement to make peace on Jimgrim’s terms, then he will come forward.”

      “But if he is on this side of the fires, how will that army know that I have yielded that point?” he asked suspiciously.

      “If your honor will set it down in writing and hand the writing over to Ibrahim ben Ah, then it has been arranged that I shall make a signal that will be understood by all.”

      He sat in gloomy meditation for about five minutes before answering.

      “What if I hold you three as hostages, and retire from Abu Lissan?” he asked suddenly.

      That being a poser, it was my turn to meditate. None of us had an answer ready. I could have told him it would be a breach of faith to treat messengers in that way, but there isn’t much to be gained, as a rule, by imputing bad faith in advance of the occurrence.

      “That would not prevent pursuit,” I said at last, “but it would lose you the good offices of Jimgrim.”

      “You mean he would—”

      “I mean,” I interrupted, “you would have to make what terms you could with your enemies, instead of signing peace on a friend’s conditions.”

      “Conditions? What conditions will he make?”

      “Who am I that I should answer that?” I replied. “You, who know Jimgrim, should be able to judge whether he will be fair with you or not.”

      “Jimgrim and I are brothers. He did me a favor once,” he muttered half-aloud; then relapsed again into silence, and was silent for so long a time that I began to be nervous about the hour.

      We had only until dawn to succeed; sunlight would show the skeleton on which our glittering display was spread.

      “Try Jimgrim again,” I suggested at last; and for answer he clapped his hands together.

      One of the staff brought him paper and pen, and at Ibrahim ben Ah’s dictation he signed a statement “in the name of Allah, the all-merciful, the compassionate” that he would agree to Jimgrim’s terms if Jimgrim would come and hold the balance squarely between himself and Ali Higg.

      He did not whine, squeal, wriggle, swear, seek to excuse himself, equivocate or make any fuss at all, but acted throughout manfully, ordering coffee to be brought as soon as he had signed the paper, and behaving generally like a gentleman, making the most of temporary failure. I was right glad to know he was being restrained from conquest that would inevitably bring him up against British artillery sooner or later.

      I TOOK the lantern off the chair and swung it in a circle round my head for several minutes, until five shots from a pistol cracked out much nearer at hand than I had expected—so near, in fact, that I went on signaling, believing it could not be Grim.

      But Grim, too, had been growing nervous about the hour, and had crept close in order to waste as little time as possible. The Avenger sent two of his staff to meet him and prevent accidents, and inside ten minutes Grim came up the stairs, not alone, but followed, of all improbable people, by Ayisha.

      She hadn’t been included in the plan as far as I knew; but Lord, how she was enjoying herself! What with her rifle and bandoleer, Amazon smile and blazing eyes, she looked as picturesque by lantern-light as any woman I have ever seen.

      Grim stood smiling at the stair-head for thirty seconds, until the Avenger called out a sonorous greeting and rose to his feet to receive him. They seized each other’s hands, and then embraced in the Arab style, which is Biblical.

      “Once before, O Jimgrim, you came to my aid in a tight place. Do you bring peace now?”

      “If you are swift,” Grim answered, turning so as to face the undulating line of fires. “I can hold those men there until dawn—no longer.”

      “Let us talk then. I am in no shape just now to fight an army such as that. Mashallah, what locusts! They have eaten up in one night a year’s supply of wood!”

      Grim turned from admiring our illuminations, and sat down in front of him. Hassan Saoud the Avenger set both elbows on his thighs, and sat still, resting his jaws on the heels of both hands.

      “Do