CHAPTER VII

"You talk like a madman!"


Grim changed the plan a little at the last minute. Mabel Ticknor left
Jerusalem by train, as agreed, but Narayan Singh was sent that way too,
to keep an eye on her. He being a Sikh, could sit in the corridor
without exciting comment, and being dressed for the part of a more or
less prosperous trader, he could travel first class without having to
answer questions or allay suspicion.

Grim, Jeremy and I drove to Ludd in a hired auto, Grim and Jeremy both
in Arab costume, and I trying to look like a tourist. Jeremy was
supposed to be a travelled Arab intent on guiding me about Damascus for
the usual consideration.

The platform was crowded, and we secured a compartment in the train
without calling much attention to ourselves. There were British
officers of all ranks, Egyptians, Jews, Greeks, refugee Armenians,
Maltese, Kurds, a Turk or two, Circassians, men from as far off as
Bokhara, Turkomans, Indians of all sorts, a sprinkling of Bedouins
looking not quite so at home as in their native desert, and local Arabs
by the score. About half of them were in a panic, encouraged to it by
their shrill women-folk, fighting in a swarm for tickets at one small
window, where an insolent Levantine demonstrated his capacity for
self-determination by making as many people as possible miss the train.
I caught sight of Mabel Ticknor in the front compartment of our car, and