The Near East adores ice-cream, and there was lots of it.
Two of the Arab chiefs were Christians; the rest were not.

The peace and war record of the Colony was what had brought them all there.

Hardly an Arab in the country was not the Colony's debtor for disinterested help, direct or indirect, at some time in some way.

The American Colony was the one place in the country where a man of any creed could go and be sure that whatever he might say would not be used against him.

So they were talking their heads off.