I don’t know how long I stared at the thing, but it seemed like a week.  At last it spoke, and I burst into a sweat with the reaction.

“Good job you don’t know how to fasten a door with a chair.  I’ll have to show you that trick, or you’ll be dying before your time.  Sh-h-h!  Don’t make a noise!”

I sat up and looked more closely at him.  It was the Ichwan of the afternoon—­Sheikh Suliman ben Saoud.  And he was speaking unmistakable American.  I began again to believe I was dreaming.  He chuckled quietly and lit a cigarette.

“Aren’t you wise to me yet?”

“Grim?”

“Who else?”

“But what’s happened to your face?  You’re all one-sided.”

“Oh, that’s easy.  I just take out my false teeth.  The rest is done with a razor and some brown stain.  I thought you were going to spot me when you first came.  Did you?  I didn’t think so.  Did you act as well as all that?”

“No.  Looked all over town for you afterward.”

“Uh-huh.  I thought that was too natural to be acting.  Pick up any news in town?”

“Saw a hanging, and met a man who calls himself Mahommed ben Hamza.  He’s waiting at the house of Abu Shamah.”

“Any men with him?”

“Nine.”

“Three more than he promised.  Ben Hamza is the most honest thief and dependable liar in Palestine—­a cheerful murderer who sticks closer than a brother.  I saved him once from being hung, because he smiles so nicely.  Any more news?”

“I expect none that you don’t know.  There’s a sheikh named Abdul Ali from Damascus, preaching a raid into Palestine.”

Grim nodded.

“I’m here to bag that bird.”

“Where do I come in?” I asked.

“You are the plausible excuse, that’s all.  Thanks to you old Anazeh got into El-Kerak with twenty men.  Two might not have been enough, even with ben Hamza and his nine.”

“Then our host ben Nazir is in on your game?”

“Not he!  Up at headquarters in Jerusalem we knew all about this coming conference.  These folk are ready to explode.  The only way to stop it is to pull the plug—­The plug is Abdul Ali.  We knew we could count on old Anazeh.  But the puzzle was how to get him and his men into El-Kerak.  When you told me ben Nazir had invited you, I saw the way to do it.  There wasn’t anybody else except Anazeh that ben Nazir could have sent to fetch you, and the old boy is a dependable friend of ours.”

“That did not stop him from raiding two villages on the British side of the Dead Sea,” I answered.

“Did he?”

“Sure.  I had part of a raided sheep for breakfast.”

“Um-m-m!  Well of all the—­damn his impudence!  The shrewd old devil must have figured that we can’t get after him for it, seeing how he’s playing our game.  Bloody old horse-thief!  Well, he gets away with it, this time.  You’ll have to be mighty careful not to seem to recognize me.  One slip and we’re done for.  You’re safe enough.  If they once get wise to me they’ll pull me in pieces between four horses.”