And while you sit alone, keep our revolver handy.' He told me that in cities robberies of private dwellings are oftener committed at high noon, when many houses are left empty, than at night, when they are full of snoring folk.

I did not doubt the truth of this assertion, but differed from him in believing that we harboured nothing likely to attract a thief.
'I would not lose the buckle of a strap, a single grain of sesame, by such foul means,' he would reply with vehemence.
One morning--it was in Damascus--he went out, after imploring me as usual to take care of everything.

The room we occupied was at the end of a blind alley, up a flight of nine stone steps.

The alley led into a crowded, narrow street, bordered with shops of many-coloured wares, which at that point was partly shaded by a fine old ilex tree.

From where I sprawled upon a bed of borrowed cushions in the room, reading a chap-book I had lately purchased--_The Rare Things of Abu Nawwas_--I saw the colour and the movement of that street as at the far end of a dark kaleidoscope, for all the space between was in deep shadow.
When a man turned up our alley--a most rare occurrence--I noticed his appearance.