will watch me; and if I try to push that fellow Omar off the train, he
will come to the rescue. Surely you don't expect me to fight both of
them at once! Besides, you must consider Ramsden.

"That fellow Ramsden is big and strong, but he is a nervous wreck. Give
him the least excuse and he will yell for the police like a baby crying
for its mother! He looks on Omar as his bodyguard now that he has
dismissed me; and if Omar should get killed, or disappear between here
and Haifa, Ramsden would demand an escort of police. In fact, I think
he'd lose courage altogether and put that letter in a strong-room in the
Haifa bank. What is the letter, anyway? What's in it? How much will
you pay me if I get it for you?"

"Never mind what's in it. Will you get it, that's the point--will you
get it and bring it to me?"

"That isn't the point at all," answered Jeremy. "The point is how much
will you pay me if I do that?"

"Very well, I will pay you fifty pounds."

"Mashallah! You must need it awfully badly. I could have been hired
for fifty shillings to do a much more dangerous thing!"

"Well, twenty-five pounds ought to be enough. I will pay you twenty-
five."

"Nothing less than fifty!" Jeremy retorted. "I always get fifty of
everything. Fifty lashes in the jail--fifty beans at meal-time--fifty
pairs of boots to clean for Ramsden--fifty is my lucky number. I have