PLANS FOR THE FLIGHT 37 



Our busy day closed with a most humorous scene. 

 After Ah and the spies had gone wilhngly to the amuse- 

 ment or repose they desired, we dragged the six heavy 

 sacks of provisions one by one out of my room across 

 the court to the dark yard by the main door. There was 

 no moon. Tinned meat weighs incredibly heavy. We 

 fell over a lot of loose stones and we imagined we made 

 a good deal of noise. The peculiar form of an Arab 

 dwelling, however, precludes the possibility of being 

 overheard. We then dug stones and sand from the 

 unfinished bit of the house and filled some most realistic 

 looking dummy sacks which we artistically arranged in 

 the place of real ones. At 11 p.m. we got one of those 

 unexpected shocks that send cold shivers down one's 

 back and desperate thoughts to one's brain. There was 

 a sudden knock at the door. It was too soon for our 

 fellow plotters in search of the luggage. "Min da?" 

 asked Hassanein icily and I felt the tautened thrill in 

 his voice. "Mabruk," answered the voice of the chief 

 spj' and then a long ramble about wanting to see the 

 native garments already delivered, to make a pattern for 

 the others his brother the tailor was making. As a 

 matter of fact it was a perfectly genuine demand. We 

 had asked the confidential wazir to hurry up the making 

 of our clothes and he had done so to such good effect, 

 by saying it was the Sayed's wish, that the unfortunate 

 tailor proposed to work all night, but to our apprehen- 

 sive ears it sounded very suspicious. I was glad that 

 Hassanein had not got a revolver on him. He told me 

 afterwards that his first impulse had been to shoot the 

 man and buiy liim instantly! Instead of which he 

 murmured that the "sitt" was in bed and the magical 

 word which retards the progi-ess of Islam. "Bokra!" 

 (To-morrow,) 



At 1 A.M. Hassanein, shrouded from head to foot in 



