Yet Higli had a conviction that Nahoum's alliance with David was a sham, and that David would pay the price of misplaced confidence one day.

More than once when David's plans had had a set-back, Higli had contrived a meeting with Nahoum, to judge for himself the true position.
For his visit to-day he had invented a reason--a matter of finance; but his real reason was concealed behind the malevolent merriment by which he was now seized.

So absorbed was he that he did not heed the approach of another visitor down an angle of the court-yard.

He was roused by a voice.
"Well, what's tickling you so, pasha ?" The voice was drawling, and quite gentle; but at the sound of it, Higli's laugh stopped short, and the muscles of his face contracted.
If there was one man of whom he had a wholesome fear--why, he could not tell--it was this round-faced, abrupt, imperturbable American, Claridge Pasha's right-hand man.

Legends of resourcefulness and bravery had gathered round his name.