Would you be ready to leave at once for Petra ?" "As soon as I can join a caravan." "Today?
This evening, for instance ?" "Allah provide it!" "That's settled, then." He turned toward Grim.
"This is Sheik Hajji,* Jimgrim bin Yazid of El-Abdeh, who has twice made the pilgrimage to Mecca.

He is my honored friend.

He starts tonight with a caravan toward Petra.

You may travel with him and be in safe hands all the way." -- -------- * One who has made the pilgrimage to Mecca -- -------- She eyed Grim curiously, startled, it seemed to me.

Then her expression changed slowly to excitement, followed by a look of baffling wisdom, as much as to say she knew something and would not tell.