` Who expects any colt to carry heavy weight at first ? Let him run with the caravans -- like our white camel-colts -- for luck . I would take him myself , but -- ' ` There is a little business where he would be most useful -- in the South , ' said Lurgan , with peculiar suavity , dropping his heavy blued eyelids . ` E. 23 has that in hand , ' said Creighton quickly . ` He must not go down there . Besides , he knows no Turki . ' ` Only tell him the shape and the smell of the letters we want and he will bring them back , ' Lurgan insisted . ` No . That is a man 's job , ' said Creighton . It was a wry-necked matter of unauthorized and incendiary correspondence between a person who claimed to be the ultimate authority in all matters of the Mohammedan religion throughout the world , and a younger member of a royal house who had been brought to book for kidnapping women within British territory . The Moslem Archbishop had been emphatic and over-arrogant ; the young prince was merely sulky at the curtailment of his privileges , but there was no need he should continue a correspondence which might some day compromise him . One letter indeed had been procured , but the finder was later found dead by the roadside in the habit of an Arab trader , as E. 23 , taking up the work , duly reported . These facts , and a few others not to be published , made both Mahbub and Creighton shake their heads . ` Let him go out with his Red Lama , ' said the horse-dealer with visible effort . ` He is fond of the old man . He can learn his paces by the rosary at least . ' ' I have had some dealings with the old man -- by letter , ' said Colonel Creighton , smiling to himself . ` Whither goes he ? ' ` Up and down the land , as he has these three years . He seeks a River of Healing .
God 's curse upon all -- ' XXXXX checked himself .
Arab Lama Lurgan Mahbub South Turki Whither curtailment day horse-dealer