But a fool's luck is like a breath of wind that passes--" Suddenly she sat bolt upright and raised her right hand.
"Oh, this night! This madness! Of all the dreams, of all the hallucinations, this is the wildest! I warned Ali Higg! I told him my foreboding, and he laughed!" She looked down at me again, and studied me for half a minute.
"Tell me," she went on, "is that Sheikh Jimgrim of yours mad, or am I mad ?" "If you ask my opinion, as a _hakim,"_ I answered, "you were mad to sit your camel alone, with only two men, within reach of our Jimgrim." "What does he think he will do with me at Petra ?" "He thinks silently," said I.
Whereat she too was silent for a few minutes, and then broke out into a new tirade of exclamations, but this time in a language of which I knew not one word--perhaps Russian, or Slovak, or Bulgarian.

I think she was praying in a sort of wild way to long-neglected saints.
She gave me the impression of being mentally almost unhinged by the sudden anticlimax of helplessness after over-confidence.

Yet when she spoke again her voice was calm, and not without a ring of rather gallant humor.
"I suppose he thinks he has stolen the queen bee, and so has the swarm in his power.

But the swarm can sting, and will come for the queen bee." "So they bring their honey with them, who minds that ?" Narayan Singh retorted.
He was enjoying himself, acting the part of a bandit's follower with perfect gusto.
"Oh, so it is honey you are after?
And you two are Indians--a Pathan and--" "From Lahore," said I.
"Five thousand pounds would buy your services ?" "Five thousand promises would make us laugh," said the Sikh.
"How much will your sheikh ever pay you?
In an hour I will show you a _wady_ down which we three can escape.

Agree to that and you shall have five thousand each the same hour that we reach Petra." _"Wallahi!_ Doubtless!" laughed Narayan Singh.