be for him what with the lovely women and the great playing on the
flutes, the birds singing, and the sun shining, the crystal rivers
and the flowers of the world. And after a while the Old Man of the
Mountain would call for him, and tell him he was sending him back
on earth again on a mission to punish Such-and-Such. And the Old
Man would put sleep on him and a knife in his hand, and when he woke
he would be outside the Castle of Alamoot. And he would start on
his mission. And when he came back he would be readmitted to
paradise. And if he didn't come back, there were others to take
his place.

The Old Man of the Mountain always kept one hundred and one assassins
and four hundred and four women to tend them.

Now when the caravan of the Polos had come to rest for the day, the
Old Man of the Mountain put out white, not black magic, and he drew
Marco Polo to the castle as a magnet draws a needle. And Marco Polo
galloped up to the Castle in the waning moon, and the Old Man looked
down on him from the battlements and stroked his long white beard.

"Do you know me, Marco Polo?"

"I know you and I have no fear of you, Old Man of the Mountain."

"And why have you no fear of me, Marco Polo?"

"Because the cross of the Lord Jesus is between me and harm.
Because it protects me night and day."

"I know Eesa ben-Miriam," said the Old Man. "He was a great prophet.