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Jimgrim and Allah's Peace by Talbot Mundy
page 56 of 325 (17%)
father's honour, and in the name of God, that I will not give
evidence against them, I shall have to swear."

"An oath given under compulsion--" I began. But he laughed
cynically.

"Ah! You do not know this land--these folk, effendi. If I were
to break such an oath as that, they would burn my house, steal my
cattle, ravish my wife, and hunt me to the death. If I ran away
to America, Arabs in Chicago and New York would continue the
hunt. This is a land where an oath is binding, unless you are
the stronger. I am weak--an unimportant person."

"What is your business?" I asked.

"There is no business for a man like me. The regulations forbid
commerce in the only goods for which there is a real demand
among Bedouins."

"So you're a smuggler, eh?"

He laughed, between pride and caution, and changed the subject.

"I shall do what they order me, effendi. I think they will keep
my boat over there to bring you back again. But when I get back
the Sikhs will arrest me. So I ask you to bear me witness that I
was compelled by threats and force to go with these people. In
that way, with a little ingenuity--that is to say, the ingenious
use of piastras--perhaps I can contrive to get out of the
difficulty without being punished by both Arabs and British."
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