Adventure, February 20, 1922 — page 56: what you’re looking at

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

OE — 34 EPS greeting. The Sheikh stopped at the hole _ and turned to face the congregation. Pee 7 . “Behold!” he cried out. “Before the eyes of ee gilt you that which was taken is returned!” so At that Ali Baba—rather lingering, as if ihe hated to be parted from his treasure— 4 se Kesh - ¥ dropped the blue fire down the hole and for _ about a minute nothing happened, while the = congregation watched in utter silence. Then i, however the ten or twenty thousand little slips of paper on the cave floor caught alight and a column of blue-gray smoke emerged ____ Jike the jinnee out of the fisherman’s jar in the - UA ’ V'"p ji Hf MA Ae { Arabian Nights’ tale—formed a great query mark in mid-air—and rose leisurely to mush- room and spread against the roof. . vad Bee That was a true miracle if ever men sat __.___ and saw one. The congregation moaned _ like the wind in a forest, swaying their _ bodies and murmuring that God is great. Ali Baba went out by the south door, __ minded, I expect, to tell the crowd outside what marvels had been seen to happen. a And the Sheikh, minded too, to make the most of things while the impression was ____ still at its height, began to thread his way toward the pulpit. ss *We’d hetter beat it quick!” said Grim and Z to save time we vaulted over the pulpit- ____ rail into the utter darkness between the back __. wall and the door we entered by. There we 5 stayed to hear the Sheikh do what he could to keep the crowd quiet until morning. PS But the Sheikh had had a change of heart since Grim last talked with him. Something os in his lean, mean face made me suspicious __ the minute he reached the pulpit and paused to look about him while the congregation faced his way. There was a thin smile and a a sneer; and a strange light in his eye. —* “My God! He’s going back on us!” Grim __ whispered. But we stayed to listen. __ «suppose most men would rather hear -them- zs _ selves condemned to death than have the _____ sentence pronounced in their absence. fy = ro You could see in a second how the Sheikh had argued it. The miracle had happened. tion in the community was likely to be stronger now than ever. The only risk to _ him was that certain men in the secret _ might betray him, and of those Ali Baba and his sons would obviously keep the secret _ for their own sake. Why not then, get rid of the handful of white men who were almost sure to talk in clubs and messes? ‘It was easy enough. a :s The fire-gift was returned. His own reputa- Adventure “Allah is all-majesty!” he began, and paused while they murmured a response. *“Ye have seen. Your eyes have seen. Your ears heard the vision from my lips. Ye know now that these dogs of Jews of EI- Kalil are to be spared awhile. But I have yet to see the vision—I have yet to hear the word explaining why the Moslems of Jerusa- lem should lay their necks beneath the feet of Jews, at the bidding of alien rulers. What says the Book? ‘And God drove back the infidels in their wrath; they won no ad- vantage; for God is strong, mighty!’ No vision yet has told me why the aliens in this place—are they not few, and ye so many— should stand between you and your faith in an hour when——” “Here! Let’s beat it quick!’ said Grim and led the way. We shinnied up the wall again and down by the lower wall that Grim had used the night before. The same roar was throbbing+ in the main streets, louder than before if anything; but Grim knew all the byways, and we made for the Governorate with the fear of death dogging our heels, every swell of the tumult “sounding in our ears like the beginning of the end and every deep shadow looking like an ambush. I don’t think Grim, had anything in mune except to get back to the Governorate know I hadn’t. The place where a man’s friends are, or ought to be, draws him when the hunt begins as his home earth draws the fox. The fact that the Governorate couldn’t possibly be defended for ten minutes made no difference; that was home and we ran for it sobbing for breath, I with a stitch in my side like a knife-wound, and Grim lend- ing a hand at intervals to pull me when wind gave out altogether. And in the end we reached the widening street, where the city leaves off and suburb begins, at almost exactly the same moment as de Crespigny, riding well-content with his eight good, dark-skinned legionaries tramping along behind him. “What’s your hurry?” he asked. Grim laid a hand on his saddle, fighting for breath to speak with. “The Sheikh’s gone back on us!” he gasped. “He feels he’s safe—wants to keep the ‘secret in the family—the swine’s ad- vising them to scupper us!” “All up, eh?” said de Crespigny. ‘Well, we gave ’em a run for their money! Take a stirrup each and run beside me.” He as “comic Book ‘S€O ——— ee