exact facts on the record,” Goodenough retorted.
“You understand, don’t you?” said Grim.
“Everything we’ve done until now has been strictly unofficial. There’s a difference.”
“And this effendi?” he asked, staring at me. “What of him?”
“He is commended to your special benevolence,” Grim answered. “The way to keep a man like him discreet is to make a friend of him. Treat him as you do me, then we three shall be friends.”
The sheikh nodded, and that proved to be the beginning of a rather intimate acquaintance with him that stood me in good stead more than once afterwards. The influence that a man in his position can exert, if he cares to, is almost beyond the belief of those who pin their faith to money and mere officialdom.
The prisoners were marched out. All except Scharnhoff and the woman were confirmed temporarily in the room in which Grim and I had breakfasted. The woman was taken to the jail until an American missionary could be found to take charge of her. They always hand the awkward cases over to Americans, partly because they have a gift for that sort of thing, but also because, in case of need, you can blame Americans without much risk of a reaction.
Goodenough left a guard of Sikhs outside the street entrance, to keep out all intruders until the sheikh could collect a few trustworthy masons to seal up the passage again. Grim, Scharnhoff and I walked quite leisurely to Grim’s quarters, where Grim left the two of us together in the room downstairs while he changed into uniform.
“What will they do with me?” asked Scharnhoff. He was not far from collapse. He lay back in the armchair with his mouth open. I got him some of Grim’s whiskey.
“Nothing ungenerous,” I said. “If you were going to be hanged Grim would have told you.”
“Do you—do you think he will let me go?”
“Not until he’s through with you,” said I, “if I’m any judge of him.”
“What use can I be to him? My life is not worth a minute’s purchase if Noureddin Ali finds me—he or that other whom they let go. Oh, what idiots to let Noureddin Ali give them the slip, and then to turn the second-worst one loose as well! Those English are all mad. That man Grim has been corrupted by them!”
Grim hardly looked corrupted, rather iron-hard and energetic when he returned presently in his major’s uniform. You could tell the color of his eyes now; they were blue-gray, and there was a light in them that should warn the wary not to oppose him unless a real fight was wanted. His manner was brisk, brusk, striding over trifles. He nodded to me.
“You sick of this?” he asked me.
“How many times? I want to see it through.”
“All right. Your own risk.”
He turned on Scharnhoff, standing straight in front of him, with both arms behind his back.
“Look here. Have you any decency in that body of yours? Do you want to prove it? Or would you rather hang like a common scoundrel? Which is it to be?”
“I—I—I—I—do not understand you. What do you mean?”
“Are you game to risk your neck decently or would you rather have the hangman put you out of pain?”
“I—I was not a conspirator, Major Grim. If I had known what they intended I would never have lent myself to such a purpose. I needed money for my excavations—it has been very difficult to draw on my bank in Vienna. Noureddin Ali represented himself to me as an enthusiastic antiquarian; and when I spoke of my need he offered money, as I told you already. I never suspected until last night that he and Abdul Ali of Damascus are French secret agents. But last night he boasted to me about Abdul Ali. He laughed at me. Then he—”
“Yes, yes,” Grim interrupted. “Will you play the man now, if I give you the chance?”
“If you will accord me opportunity, at least I will do my best.”
“Understand; you’ll not be allowed to live here afterward. You’ll be repatriated to Austria, or wherever you come from. All you’re offered is a chance to clean your slate morally before you go.”
“I shall be grateful.”
“Will you obey?”
“Absolutely—to the limit of my power, that is to say. I am not an athlete—not a man of active habits.”
“Very well. Listen.” Grim turned to me again
“Take Scharnhoff to his house. You know the way. When afternoon comes, set a table in the garden and let him sit at it. He may as well read. If nothing happens before dark, take him out a lamp and some food. He mustn’t move away. He’d better change into his proper clothes first. Your job will be to keep an eye on him until I come. You’d better keep out of sight as much as possible, especially after dark. Better watch him through the window. And, by the way, take this pistol. If Scharnhoff disobeys you, shoot him.”
He turned again on Scharnhoff.
“I hope you’re not fooling yourself. I should say the chance is two or three to one that you’ll come out of this alive. If you’re killed, you may flatter yourself that’s a mighty sight cleaner than hanging. If you come out with a whole skin, you shall leave the country without even going to jail. Time to go now.”
I slipped the heavy pistol into my pocket and led the way without saying a word. Scharnhoff followed me, rather drearily, and we walked side by side toward the German Colony, he looking exactly like one of those respectable and devout educated Arabs of the old style, who teach from commentaries on the Koran. We excited no comment whatever.
“What will he do? What is his purpose?” Scharnhoff asked me after a while. “If a man is in danger of death, he likes to know the reason—the purpose of it.”
I had a better than faint glimmering of Grim’s purpose, but saw no necessity to air my views on the subject.
“I’m amused,” said I, “at the strictly unofficial status of all this. You see, I’m no more connected with this administration than you are. I’m as alien as you. You might say, I’m a stranger in Jerusalem. Yet, here I am, with a perfectly official pistol, loaded with official cartridges, under unofficial orders to shoot you at the first sign of disobedience. And—strictly unofficially, between you and me—I shan’t hesitate to do it!”
He contrived a smile out of the depths of his despondency.
“I wonder—should you shoot me—what they would do to you afterwards.”
“Something unofficial,” I suggested. “But we’ll leave that up to them. The point is—”
“Oh, don’t worry! You shall have no trouble from me.” It took a long time to reach his house, for the poor old chap was suffering from lack of sleep, and physical weariness, as well as disappointment, and I had to let him sit down by the wayside once or twice. Being in hard condition, and not much more than half his age, I had almost forgotten that I had not slept the night before. Keen curiosity as to what might happen between now and midnight was keeping me going.
He
