He turned his head, to show his face in profile.

"Nay, I never saw thee!"

"Thou, then! Thou with the belly! Thou! Thou!"

They all denied ever having seen him.

So he stepped back until the moon shone full in his face and pulled
off his turban, changing his expression at the same time.

"Now look!"

"Ma'uzbillah! (May God protect us!)"

"Now ye know me?"

"Hee-yee-yee!" yelled Ismail, hugging himself by the elbows and
beginning to dance from side to side. "Hee-yee-yee! What said I?
Said I not so? Said I not this is a different man? Said I not
this is a good one--a man of unexpected things? Said I not there
was magic in the leather bag? I shook it often, and the magic grew!
Hee-yee-yee! Look at him! See such cunning! Feel him! Smell
of him! He is a good one--good!"

Three of the others stood and grinned, now that their first shock
of surprise had died away. The fourth man poked among the packs.
There was little to see except gleaming teeth and the whites of eyes,
set in hairy faces in the mist. But Ismail danced all by himself
among the stones of Khyber road and he looked like a bearded ghoul