"There's a delightful air of mystery," I said, "I'd hate to
spoil it!"
"Come up on the tower," he said. "There's just time before
sunset. If you've good eyes, I'll show you El-Kerak."
It is an enormous tower. The wireless apparatus connected with
it can talk with Paris and Calcutta. From the top you feel as if
you were seeing "all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of
time." There are no other buildings to cut off the view or
tamper with perspective. The Dead Sea was growing dark. The
Moab Hills beyond it looked lonely and savage in silhouette.
"Down there on your left is Jericho," said Grim. "That winding
creek beyond it is the Jordan. As far eastward as that there's
some peace. Beyond that, there is hardly a rock that isn't used
for ambush regularly. Let your eye travel along the top of the
hills--nearly as far as the end of the Dead Sea. Now--d'you see
where a touch of sunlight glints on something? That's the top of
the castle-wall of El-Kerak. Judge what strategists those old
crusaders were. That site commands the ancient high road from
Egypt. They could sit up there and take toll to their hearts'
content. The Turks quartered troops in the castle and did the
same thing. But the Turks overdid it, like everything else.
They ruined the trade. No road there nowadays that amounts
to anything."
"It looks about ten miles away."
"More than eighty."
The sun went down behind us while we watched, and here and there
the little scattered lights came out among the silent hills in
proof that there were humans who thought of them in terms of
home.
Venus and Mars shone forth, yellow and red jewels; then the
moon, rising like a stage effect, too big, too strongly lighted
to seem real, peering inch by inch above the hills and ushering
in silence. We could hear one muezzin in Jerusalem wailing that
God is God.
"That over yonder is savage country," Grim remarked. "I think
maybe you'll like it. Time to go now."
He said nothing more until we were scooting downhill in the car
in the midst of a cloud of dust.
"You won't see me again," he said then, "until you get to El-
Kerak. There are just one or two points to bear in mind. D'you
care if I lecture?"
"I wish you would."
"When the messenger comes from ben Nasir, go to the Governorate,
just outside the Damascus Gate, phone OETA, say who you are, and
ask for the car. Travel light. The less you take with you, the
less temptation there'll be to steal and that much less danger
for your escort. I always take nothing, and get shaved by a
murderer at the nearest village. If you wash too much, or change
your shirt too often, they suspect you of putting on airs. Can't
travel too light. Use the car as far as Jericho, or thereabouts,
and send it back when the messenger says he's through with it.
After that, do whatever the leader of the escort tells you, and
you'll be all right."
"How do I cross the Dead Sea?"
"That's ben Nasir's business. There's another point I'll ask you
to bear in mind. When you see me at El-Kerak, be sure not to
make the slightest sign of recognition, unless and until you
get word from me. Act as if you'd never seen me in your
life before."
I felt like an arch-conspirator, and there is no other sensation
half so thrilling. The flattery of being let in, as it were,
through a secret door was like strong wine.
"Is your memory good?" Grim asked me. "If you make notes, be
sure you let everybody see them; you'll find more than one of
them can read English. If you should see or overhear anything
that you'd particularly like to remember because it might prove
useful to me, note it down by making faint dots under the letters
of words you've already written; or--better yet--take along a
pocket Bible; they're all religious and respect the Bible. Make
faint pencil lines underneath words or letters, and they'll think
you're more than extra devout. There's nothing special to watch
out for; just keep your ears and eyes open. Well, here's your
hotel. See you again soon. So long."
I got out of the car and went to get ready for a Christian dinner
served by Moslems, feeling like a person out of the Arabian
Nights, who had just met the owner of a magic carpet on which one
only had to sit in order to be wafted by invisible forces into
unimaginable realms of mystery.