"I receive a monthly salary," he boasted. "I am just from
Damascus, where the French Liaison-officer paid me and gave me
some instructions."

"Where is your home?" I asked him.

"At El-Kerak, in the mountains of Moab, across the Dead Sea. I
start this evening. Will you come with me?"

"Je m'en bien garderai!"

He smiled. "Myself, I am in favor of the British. The French
pay my expenses, that is all. What we all want is an independent
Arab government--some say kingdom, some say republic. If it is
not time for that yet, then we would choose an American mandate.
But America has deserted us. Failing America, we prefer the
English for the present. Anything except France! We do not want
to become a new Algeria."

"What is the condition now at El-Kerak?"

"Condition? There is none. There is chaos. You see, the
British say their authority ceases at the River Jordan and at a
line drawn down the middle of the Dead Sea. That leaves us with
a choice between two other governments--King Hussein's government
of Mecca, and Feisul's in Syria. But Hussein's arm is not long
enough to reach us from the South, and Feisul's is not nearly
strong enough to interfere from the North. So there is
no government, and each man is keeping the peace with his