I must be alone, all alone with Allah--to think!" The Master nodded.
"It shall be as thou wishest," said he.

"Think, yes.

And understand that what I do is best for all of Sunnite Islam! As for the Shiah dogs, what hast thou to trouble about them ?" Saying no more, he withdrew to his own cabin, wrapped the Myzab and the Stone in the blanket and laid them carefully under his berth.
Opening his desk-drawer, he assured himself the Pearl Star was still there.

This done, he turned again to the map, carefully studied the location of the point Rrisa had designated, and--going to the pilot-house--gave directions for a new course to "Captain Alden," now at the wheel.
This course, he calculated by allowing for wind and lateral drift, would carry _Nissr_ directly toward the site of the still half-mythical Iron Mountains and the Bara Jannati Shahr.
He now returned to his cabin, locked himself in and--pondering over a few khat leaves--passed the remainder of the afternoon sunk in deep abstraction.
Evening and night still found him in profound thought, while the giant air-liner steadily rushed into the south-east, bearing him and the Legion onward toward dim regions now veiled in purple darkness under strange stars.
At nine o'clock he ordered _Nissr_ stopped, and had the body of Dr.
Lombardo sent down with six men in the nacelle, for burial.

No purpose could be served by keeping the body, and all unnecessary complications had to be dispensed with before the morrow.