Soon a guard of about twenty appeared and started with Moses and myself to consult the Sheik; while all the town, men, women and children, ran on either side of us, eager to get a glimpse of my pants, as, apparently, neither sex had ever seen before, or much less, donned such tight-fitting garments.

After walking probably a mile we entered a dark alley, where, on one of the side walls, our escort began pounding and crying out until a gruff voice, which came as through a tube back of us, answered, and after a long wait we saw a dim light right back of where we were standing, but no one appeared.

While we were waiting Moses jokingly inquired of me, "Do you wish you were in Chicago?" "No," I replied, "it is eleven o'clock in the morning there now and they are all working hard, while I am enjoying touring just waiting here in the shadows for permission to go to bed." "You're a queer sort of a cuss," was his smiling retort.

At length, after the voice and the officer had talked back and forth through the hole, of which I overheard them speak the words English, Christian, Devil, Mohammedan, Bagdad, Nazzip and a few other words which I could understand, there seemed to be a stir, as some one from the inside began taking down boards; and with two of the party, Moses and myself crept up the rickety stairway, feeling our way through a long, dark hall which opened into a room about 20×40. In this room, which was the palace of the Sheik, there was no furniture save a bed, table and a long bench. On the table was burning an oiled rag, one end soaking in a dish shaped like a wooden shoe.

In the center of the large bed, which was, as near as I could see, composed of a mass of beautiful soft rugs, sat a sharp featured man with piercing black eyes and long white hair and whiskers. His face revealed no form or air of authority, but on the contrary, his sun-burned features wore a friendly smile while he gazed fixedly at me, apparently paying no attention to the officers' gabble, who were apparently over-estimating the enormity of the crime.

While he studied me I studied him, and concluded that in his care I was all right. Finally he inquired of Moses if I had friends in America, and why I came to a sacred city without permission, at which Moses turned to me for explanation. After explaining my position and truthfully telling him how we came into what we knew was a forbidden town because we were afraid to stay outside, I then, through Moses, word for word, explained that Americans always heard that the chiefs of Arab tribes were great and good men, and were hospitable to strangers; especially when they did not interfere with their religion. This was the substance of my drift, although we talked back and forth for more than an hour.

A skittish scene now took place; he called the chief officer to his side on the bed and by the dim light they began whispering, so Moses and I could not hear, occasionally turning their piercing gaze on me. At the conclusion he dismissed his officer and told Moses to tell me that at Me-Schwad they had a room for such people, and we must go there, for which he would send a heavy guard to protect us. Then it took about ten minutes for him to express his gratitude for my confidence in him and his protecting power, and he wanted me to feel that Allah loved upright strangers in all the world.

I then asked him if the guards at Me-Schwad would let us into the city, as it was now past midnight. To this he replied, "No," but said his force should furnish blankets and guard us all night.

I hesitated and looked down, which made him inquire of Moses if I was sorry, at which I looked him kindly in the face as Moses interpreted each word, and said that I was sorry to go home and tell my people that the Sheik of Koofa had sent me away in the desert in the dark.

Now he called the guard again, and after another continued whispering decided we could stay in the room over night, but must be prepared to leave at sunrise in the morning. As I left the room I felt his powerful influence on me, and turning quickly, I again met that kindly gaze as the old chief raised his thin, bloodless hand adieu. That night in my prayers I thanked God that the magnanimity of Abraham still tinged the veins of his people, even though they were deprived of the world's bounties through non-progressive bigotry.

Soon I was peacefully resting in the unventilated room, which my friends on the other side of the world would have spurned, but to me it was experience, and I was glad to know that pity, love and sympathy were not confined to any one people, but were God-given attributes to humanity.

My sweet dreams, if such they were, were cut short by Shammo, who began frying camel steak, goat or some other kind of meat close by my head, and soon we learned that the Sheik had ordered his special body guard to take us to Me-Schwad, Arabia, which was about twenty-five mile southwest from Koofa, over the trackless desert.

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