chanced at us could hardly fail to hit somebody. Two or three
well-placed shots might sink us. But Anazeh had presence of
mind. He changed helm, so as to present us end-on to the shore.
Low in the water though the boat was, we were beginning to make
good headway.

The Sikhs lost no time. Shots began to whizz overhead and to
splash the water around us. But the boat was painted gray; as
we increased the distance we must have looked like a moving patch
of darker water with a puzzling wake behind us. The sea was
still. The stars were reflected in it in unsteady dots and
streaks. The moon cast a silver patch of light that shimmered,
and confused the eye. Sikhs are not by any means all marksmen.
At any rate, the shots all missed. Though some of our party,
Anazeh included, returned the fire, none boasted of having hit
any one. And an Arab boasts at the least excuse.

In a few minutes we were out of range and, since there was no
pursuing launch in sight, could afford to jeer at the Sikhs in
chorus. There were things said about their habits and their
ancestry that it is to be hoped they did not hear, or at any rate
understand, for the sake of any Arab prisoners they might take in
future. It always struck me as a fool game to mock your enemy.
If you fall in his power at any time he would be almost more than
human if he did not remember it. It seemed to me unlikely that
those Sikhs would forget to avenge the Arab compliments that must
have sizzled in ears across that star-lit sea. After that the
only immediate danger was from the wind that sometimes blows down
in sudden gusts from between the mountain-tops. It would have
needed only half a sea to swamp us. But the Dead Sea was living