He produced salt of his own, which the Master tasted.
"It is done," said the Master. "Now thou and I are _akhawat. Nahnu
malihin._" (We have eaten salt.)
"But only from this mid-day till noon of the morrow," the Olema
qualified the bond.
"Even so! Remember, though, that the salt is now in the stomachs of
all thy people, both here and in the city, as it is in the stomachs of
all my men!"
"I will remember."
"And now, O Bara Miyan, I will show thee the very great gifts that I
have brought thee!"
The Olema nodded, in silence. A great dejection held him and his men.
The Master dispatched half a dozen men for the Myzab and the Black
Stone, also for three sticks of a new explosive he had developed on
the run from the Sahara. This explosive, he calculated, was 2.75 times
more powerful than TNT.
"Men," said he to the remaining Legionaries, "be ready now for
anything. If they show fight, when they realize we have touched the
sacred things of Islam, let them have it to the limit. If the salt
holds them, observe the strictest propriety.
"Some of us may go into the city. Let no man have any traffic with
wine or women. If we commit no blunder, in less than twenty-four hours
we shall be far away, each of us many times a millionaire.
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