robbed. Ramsden has been seen about too much with me. Jeremy might
juggle by but he's already notorious, and these people are shrewd.
Better hold Jeremy in reserve, and the same with Narayan Singh. A
woman's best. How about you, Mabel?"

"What d'you mean, Jim?"

"Do you know a woman in Haifa?"

"Of course I do."

"Well enough to expect a bed for the night at a moment's notice?"

"Certainly."

Mabel's eyes were growing very bright indeed. It was her husband who
looked alarmed.

"Well, now, here's the point."

Grim leaned back in his chair and lit a cigarette, not looking at
anybody, stating his case impersonally, as it were, which is much the
shrewdest way of being personal.

"Feisul's up against it, and he's the best man in all this land, bar
none. They've dealt to him from a cold deck, and he's bound to lose
this hand whichever way he plays it. To put it differently, he's in
check, but not checkmated. He'll be checkmated, though, if the French
ever lay hands on him, and then good-bye to the Arab's chance for twenty
years.