Supposing that Grim were really the notorious Ali Higg, he might easily have left Hebron with twenty men and have been joined by fifty or a hundred others in the night.

Or there might be others on the way to meet him now.
It was a big risk, for Ali Higg's vengeance was always the same; he simply turned a horde of men loose to work their will on the inhabitants of any village that defied him.

The sheikh was not quite sure yet that he really sat face to face with the redoubtable robber, yet did not dare put that doubt to the test.
"Is that all Your Honor wants ?" he asked.

"Just that messenger ?" "Him and his camel--and another thing." "What else, then?
We are poor folk in this place.

There has been a bad season.