God knows what it would have cost, the way he wanted me to do it! Are you the lord, sir ?" "What did you do ?" asked Fred.
"Do?
I parted company! I had made him drunk once.

(The Arabs aren't supposed to drink, so when they do they get talkative and lively!) And I knew Arabic before ever I crossed the Atlantic--learned it in Egypt--ran away from a sponge-fishing boat when I was a boy.

No, they don't fish sponges off the Nile Delta, but you can smuggle in a sponge boat better than in most ships.

Anyhow, I learned Arabic.

So I understood what that pig Hassan said when he talked in the dark with his brother swine.