The Believers bent their steps towards the same goal, not knowing whether they would meet the caravan, the Quraish army, or both united. In order to find out, Mohammad sent Ali and Zubayr as scouts. They caught two young men seeking for a well from which to fill their empty goat-skins, strapped to their shoulders. They were made prisoners and taken to the camp to be interrogated, but as the Prophet was at his devotions, the scouts questioned the lads. 'We were looking for water for the Quraish army,' the two captives confessed. The Quraish forces, therefore, were already in these parts? This seemed most unlikely, for the scouts did not know the strength of the enemy in camels and horses, and considered the prisoners' avowal to be a falsehood. So they fell to brutally beating the young idolaters. 'Think not that ye can hoodwink us with your lies,' said Ali and Zubayr. 'We know perfectly well that ye belong to the caravan of Abu Sufyan.' Again they rained blows on the boys. To escape such unjust chastisement, and also to keep the Mussulmans in this state of error so profitable to Abu Jahal's plans, because it prevented Mohammad's men from suspecting how close their enemies were to them, the prisoners began to supplicate their tormentors. 'Mercy, my lords! Verily nothing escapeth your sharp sight! Yea, we confess it--we belong to Abu Sufyan's caravan.' Proud of their perspicacity and content with having obtained this avowal, Ali and Zubayr set them free. Meanwhile the Prophet had finished praying, and as he knew how to read men's minds, he upbraided his disciples. 'What is all this? When your prisoners tell you the truth, ye beat them, and now they lie and ye set them free?' He continued the examination. 'Where are the Quraish?'--'On the other side of that high hill of sand.'--'How many are they?'--'We know not.'--'How many camels do they slaughter daily?'--'Nine or ten.'--'Oho? they number from nine hundred to a thousand,' said Mohammad to himself. 'Who is at their head?' The prisoners quoted the names of the most noted men of the city, and the Prophet, shaking his head sadly, turned to his companions, saying: 'Of a truth, Makkah sends against us the best part of its liver!' (Meaning its best beloved children.)