They are not fools, however much we try to persuade ourselves of the contrary.

But supposing they had got some tremendous sacred sanction--some holy thing, some book or gospel or some new prophet from the desert, something which would cast over the whole ugly mechanism of German war the glamour of the old torrential raids which crumpled the Byzantine Empire and shook the walls of Vienna?
Islam is a fighting creed, and the mullah still stands in the pulpit with the Koran in one hand and a drawn sword in the other.

Supposing there is some Ark of the Covenant which will madden the remotest Moslem peasant with dreams of Paradise?
What then, my friend ?' 'Then there will be hell let loose in those parts pretty soon.' 'Hell which may spread.

Beyond Persia, remember, lies India.' 'You keep to suppositions.

How much do you know ?' I asked.
'Very little, except the fact.