I am not pleased to wait long in the sun." "If we obey the command do we not merit Your Honor's favor ?" That was a very shrewd question.

A weak man with a weak hand would have walked into that trap by betraying the spirit of compromise.

On the other hand an ordinary bluffer would have blundered by overdoing the high hand.
"Consider what is known of me," Grim answered.

"How many have disobeyed me and escaped?
How many have obeyed and regretted it?
But by the beard of Allah's Prophet," he thundered suddenly, "I grow weary of words! What son of sixty dogs dares keep me waiting in the desert while he barks ?" Mahommed Abbas did not like that medicine, especially in front of all his men.

But they had ceased circling long ago and were waiting stock-still at a respectful distance; for the name of Ali Higg meant evidently more to them than the honor of their own sheikh--which at best depends on the sheikh's own generalship.