"You'll have a big going concern here in no time," observed Lacey. "Now,
if I had those millions I left in Mexico--" Suddenly he stopped. "Is it
you that's trying to settle up an estate here--at Assiout--belonged to an
uncle?"

David inclined his head.

"They say that you and Prince Kaid are doing the thing yourselves, and
that the pashas and judges and all the high-mogul sharks of the Medjidie
think that the end of the world has come. Is that so?"

"It is so, if not completely so. There are the poor men and humble--the
pashas and judges and the others of the Medjidie, as thee said, are not
poor. But such as the orderly yonder--" He paused meditatively.

Lacey looked at David with profound respect. "You make the poorest
your partners, your friends. I see, I see. Jerusalem, that's masterly!
I admire you. It's a new way in this country." Then, after a moment:
"It'll do--by golly, it'll do! Not a bit more costly, and you do some
good with it. Yes--it--will--do."

"I have given no man money save in charity and for proper service done
openly," said David, a little severely.

"Say--of course. And that's just what isn't done here. Everything goes
to him who hath, and from him who hath not is taken away even that which
he hath. One does the work and another gets paid--that's the way here.
But you, Mr. Claridge, you clinch with the strong man at the top, and,
down below, you've got as your partners the poor man, whose name is