"Wallah! How should I know him?" Jeremy answered. "He looks like a
Hindu thinking of reincarnation. Inshallah, he will turn into a tiger
presently!"

"Beware of him! He is an Administration spy. He is watching me talk to
you, and perhaps he will ask you afterward what I have said. You must
be very careful how you answer him."

"I will tell him you asked me for a love-potion for the engine-driver's
wife," Jeremy answered.

"I am listening. What is it you are really going to say?"

"That master of yours--that Ramsden, who dismissed you so tyrannically
just now--"

"That drunkard? There is nothing interesting to be said about him,"
Jeremy answered. "He is a fool who has paid my fare as far as Damascus.
May Allah reward him for it!"

"Are you telling me the truth?" demanded Yussuf Dakmar, fixing his eyes
sternly on Jeremy's.

Your con man never overlooks a chance to put his intended victim on the
defensive at an early stage in the proceedings. "How can he have paid
your fare as far as Damascus? This line only goes to Haifa, where you
have to change trains and buy another ticket."

"I see you are a clever devil," Jeremy retorted. "May Allah give you a