Adventure Magazine Cover — page 60: what you’re looking at

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

54 were little beads of sweat on his temple. It was Grim at last without the mask on. “Allah marks the destiny of all of us. Do you suppose we’re here for nothing—at this time?” Feisul smiled. “T am glad to see you,” he said simply. ‘Are you planning to fight the French?” Grim asked him suddenly, in the sort of way that a man at close quarters lets rip an upper-cut. “T must fight or yield. They have sent an ultimatum, but delayed it so as not to per- mit me time to answer. It has expired already. They are probably advancing.” ‘And you intend to sit here and wait for them?” “T shall be at the front.” “You know you haven’t a chance “My advisers think that my presence at the front will encourage our men sufficiently to win the day.” “Have you a charm against mustard gase”’ ‘“‘That is our weakness. No, we have no masks.”’ “And the wind setting up from the sea at this time of year! Your army is going straight into a trap, and you along with it. Half of the men who advise you to go to the front will fight like lions against a net, and the other half will sell you to the French! Your fifty thousand men will melt like butter in the sun and your Arab cause will be left without a leader!” Feisul pondered that for about a minute, leaning back and watching Grim’s face. “We held a council of war, Jimgrim,”’ he said at last. ‘It was the unanimous opinion of the staff that we ought to fight and the cabinet upheld them. I couldn’t cancel the order if I wished. What would you think of a king who left his army in the lurch?” ‘“Nobody will ever accuse you of coward- ice,” Grim answered. ‘‘You’re a proven brave man if ever there was one. The point is, do you want all your bravery and hard work for the Arab cause to go for nothing? Do you want the prospect of Arab indepen- dence to go up in smoke on a gas-swept battle-field?”’ “It would break my heart,” said Feisul, “although one heart hardly matters.” “It would break more hearts than yours,” Grim retorted. ‘There are millions looking to you for leadership. Leave me out of it. Leave Lawrence out of it, and all 199 Adventure the other non-Moslems who have done their bit for you. Leave most of these Syrians out of it; for they’re simply politicians making use of you—a mess of breeds and creeds so mixed and corrupted that they don’t know which end up they stand! Ifthe Syrians had guts they’d have rallied so hard to you long ago that no outsider would have had a chance.” “What do you mean? What are you pro- posing?” Feisul asked quietly. “Bagdad is your place, not Damascus!’’ ‘But here Iam in Damascus,” Feisul re- torted; and for the first time there was a note of impatience in his voice. “I came here at the request of the Allies, on the strength of their promises. I did not ask to be king. I would rather not be. Let any man be ruler whom the Arabs choose, and I will work for him loyally. But the Arabs chose me and the Allies consented. It was only after they had won their war with our help that the French began raising objec- tions and the British deserted me. It is too late to talk of Bagdad now.”’ “Tt isn’t! It’s too soon!”’ Grim answered, bringing down a clenched fist on his knee, and Feisul laughed in spite of himself. “You talk like a prophet, Jimgrim, but let me tell you something. It is mainly a question of money after all. The British paid us a subsidy until they withdrew from Syria. They did their best for us even then, for they left behind guns, ammunition, wagons and supplies. When the French seized the ports they promised to continue the subsidy, because they are collecting the customs dues and we have no other revenue worth mentioning. But rather than send us money the French have told our people not to pay taxes; so our treasury is empty. Nevertheless, we contrived by one means and another. We arranged a bank credit, and ordered supplies from abroad. The supplies have reached Beirut, but the French have ordered the bank to cancel the credit, and until we pay for the supplies they are withheld.” ‘““Any gas masks among the supplies you ordered?’”’ Grim asked him; and Feisul nodded. “That banker has played fast and loose with us until the last minute. Relying on our undertaking not to molest foreigners he has resided in Damascus, making prom- ises one day and breaking them the next, keeping his funds in Beirut and his agency MICLOOOKS (©