"My dragoman and groom-boy will do for both. But you'll have to pay
forty shillings to the Arabs! There's no getting over that. The
consul won't even look after your dead body, if you get murdered,
without going through that ceremony."

Mr. Smith immediately produced his purse, which he tendered to me.
"If you will manage it all," said he, "it will make it so much the
easier, and I shall be infinitely obliged to you." This of course I
declined to do. I had no business with his purse, and explained to
him that if we went together we could settle that on our return to
Jerusalem. "But could he go through really hard work?" I asked. He
answered me with an assurance that he would and could do anything in
that way that it was possible for man to perform. As for eating and
drinking he cared nothing about it, and would undertake to be astir
at any hour of the morning that might be named. As for sleeping
accommodation, he did not care if he kept his clothes on for a week
together. He looked slight and weak; but he spoke so well, and that
without boasting, that I ultimately agreed to his proposal, and in a
few minutes he took his leave of me, promising to be at Z-'s door
with his horse at five o'clock on the following morning.

"I wish you'd allow me to leave my purse with you," he said again.

"I cannot think of it. There is no possible occasion for it," I
said again. "If there is anything to pay, I'll ask you for it when
the journey is over. That forty shillings you must fork out. It's
a law of the Medes and Persians."

"I'd better give it you at once," he said again, offering me money.
But I would not have it. It would be quite time enough for that