36 I GO A -FISHING. 



noon when Abd-el-Kader was holding his appellate court 

 under a tree on the bank of the Nile, and we drank cof- 

 fee and smoked latakia with him for an hour before he 

 came down to my boat. His coffee was the best of Mocha, 

 and this has Mocha in it, eh, Philip ?" 



" Right. It is half Mocha and half old Java. I learned 

 the mixture once at Aden, and have always kept it up." 



" How happened it that you and the Effendi met in the 

 East, Philip? I never heard that you were a traveler." 



" It's a long story." 



" All the better ; let us have it." 



" Not just now," said Philip, with a somewhat sad 

 smile, turning to me a wistful sort of look, as if he were 

 half inclined to tell the story. Thereby I knew, what I 

 had long suspected, that my friend had some secret in his 

 breast which might with relief to him be imparted to oth- 

 ers ; for I had only known him twenty years or so, and 

 mostly as a fisherman, and he was one of the sort who 

 wins one's heart. He was a man of rare accomplish- 

 ments, much older than I, yet with a vigorous frame. So 

 I said quietly, " Let us go a-fishing this afternoon, and 

 perhaps this evening Philip will tell us the story." 



So we went out that evening under the great trees, and 

 walked and talked and fished, and fished and talked and 

 walked ; and when the dark came down on us, and John 

 was speaking of something that happened to him in Jeru- 

 salem, our friend turned to me, and spoke in a soft, gut- 

 tural Arabic 



" Effendi, shall I tell my story ?" 



" Is it peace ?" 



" It is peace." 



"Good. Say on, Iskander Effendi." 



