“You talk like a prophet, Jimgrim, but let me tell you something.  It is mainly a question of money after all.  The British paid us a subsidy until they withdrew from Syria.  They did their best for us even then, for they left behind guns, ammunition, wagons and supplies.  When the French seized the ports they promised to continue the subsidy, because they are collecting the customs dues and we have no other revenue worth mentioning.  But rather than send us money the French have told our people not to pay taxes; so our treasury is empty.  Nevertheless, we contrived by one means and another.  We arranged a bank credit, and ordered supplies from abroad.  The supplies have reached Beirut, but the French have ordered the bank to cancel the credit, and until we pay for the supplies they are withheld.”

“Any gas masks among the supplies you ordered?” Grim asked him; and Feisul nodded.

“That banker has played fast and loose with us until the last minute.  Relying on our undertaking not to molest foreigners he has resided in Damascus, making promises one day and breaking them the next, keeping his funds in Beirut and his agency here, draining money out of the country all the while.”

“Why didn’t you arrest him?”

“We gave our word to the French that he should have complete protection and immunity.  It seemed a good thing to us to have such an influential banker here; he has international connections.  As recently as yesterday, twenty minutes before that ultimatum came, he was in this room assuring me that he would be able to solve the credit difficulty within a day or two.”

“Would you like to send for him now?” suggested Grim.

“I doubt if he would come.”

“Well, have him fetched!”

Feisul shook his head.

“If other people break their promises, that is no reason why we should break ours.  If we can defeat the French and force them to make other terms, then we will expel him from Syria.  I leave at midnight, Jimgrim.”

“To defeat the French?  You go to your Waterloo!  You’re in check with only one move possible, and I’m here to make you realize it.  You’re a man after my own heart, Feisul, but you and your Arabs are children at dealing with these foreign exploiters!

“They can beat you at every game but honesty.  And listen:  If you did defeat the French—­if you drove them into the sea tomorrow, they’d get away with all the money in Beirut and you’d still be at the mercy of foreign capitalists!  Instead of an independent Arab kingdom here you’d have a mixture of peoples and religions all plotting against one another and you, with capitulations and foreign consuls getting in the way, and bond-holding bankers sitting on top of it all like the Old Man of the Sea in the story of Sindbad the Sailor!