And he laid his hand on a modern British Army rifle the minute he caught sight of us.
Narayan Singh and I both bowed and, after greeting him with the proper sonorous blessing, stood aside to let Ayisha approach.

We should have demeaned ourselves in his eyes, and hers as well, if we had walked behind her.

He nodded to us curtly, and almost smiled at her; but that one wry twist of his lips was his nearest approach to pleasantry that morning.
She knelt and kissed his hands and feet, waiting to speak until she was spoken to; and he did not speak to her at all, but signed to her with a tap on the head and a gesture to take her place on the rug behind him.

Then at a motion from me Ali Baba's two sons brought forward the presents and the medicine-chest, setting them down before him in the cave-mouth.
The presents were pretty good, I thought.

I would not have minded owning them myself; but he eyed them dully.