"Then you see no reason to think that he is likely to be a danger to the public peace?" "Unfortunately no, sir, no!" The Sirdar laughed. "He hasn’t yet given ’divine’ sanction for your removal, Colonel?" "Not that I know of, at all events." "Then you and your wife may sleep in peace for the present, I suppose." There was a little general laughter, and then the Inspector-General, a sceptic with a contempt for holy men of all kinds, said— "All the same, your Excellency, I should make short work of this pseudo-Messiah." "Without plain cause we cannot," said the Sirdar, who was the friend of all faiths and the enemy of none. "Indeed, a broad-minded Mohammedan such as this man is said to be might possibly be of service in directing the religion of the Soudan." "Yes, sir, but too many of these religious celebrities are contaminated by Mahdism." "Surely Mahdism is dead, my dear fellow." "Not yet, sir! Only yesterday I saw a man kneeling by the Mahdi’s tomb—so hard do religions die! As for this man, Ishmael, he may be preaching peace while he is gathering his followers, but wait till they’re numerous enough to fight and you’ll see what he will do. Besides, isn’t there evidence enough already that the tranquillity of the Soudan has been disturbed?" "What evidence do you mean?" "I mean ... my informers all over the country tell me the people are no longer pleading poverty as an excuse for remission of taxation—they are boldly _refusing_ to pay." The Financial Secretary corroborated this statement, saying that the taxes due on the land and the date-trees had not yet been collected, and that he had heard from Cairo that the same difficulty was being met with in Egypt in respect of the taxes on berseem and wheat. "You mean," said the Sirdar, "that a conspiracy of passive resistance against the Government has been set afoot?" "It looks like it, sir," said the Inspector-General. "A pretty insidious kind of conspiracy it is, too, and I think all the signs are that Ishmael Ameer is at the head of it." There was silence, for some minutes, during which the Sirdar was telling himself that, if this was so, the rule of England in Egypt was face to face with a most subtle enemy—subtler far than the Mahdi and immeasurably more dangerous. "Well, the first thing we’ve got to do is to find out the truth," he said, and thereupon he gave the Zabit an order to summon the Ulema of Khartoum, the Cadi, the Notables, and Sheikhs to a meeting in the Palace. "Let it be soon," he said. "Yes, sir." "And secret." "Certainly, your Excellency." The Governor and the Financial Secretary went off with the police officer, but for some minutes longer the Inspector-General remained with the Sirdar. "If the man were likely to cause a disturbance," said the Sirdar, "it would be easy to deal with him, but he’s not. Public security is in no present danger. On the contrary, everything I hear of the man’s teaching is calculated to promote peace."