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.