The manner in which it was done suggested deliberate effort to provoke a quarrel.
Mahommed ben Hamza, dividing his time like a schoolboy in chapel between staring about him and attending by fits and starts, nudged me in the ribs and whispered: "See that Christian! He would not dare do that, only on this occasion they like to think that Moslems and Christians are agreeing together." The man who was reading to himself from the Bible looked up and caught my eye.

He tapped the book with his finger and nodded, as much as to ask why I did not join him.

At once I pulled my own from my pocket.

He smiled acknowledgment as I opened it at random.

Certainly he thought I did it to support his tactlessly ill-timed assertion of his own religion.