The Portland daily press., 1897-11-04
Chapter III.

has not written it. Sidi, it cannot be.
With such protestations-the common
can't OF the country-l had need 10 be con.
tent But now the impression fixed it
self upon my mind that the ey1l-faced
scoundreI who had betrayed the American
to his death was not only following us,
but me. o. the torment of that idea in
the impatience of my spirit and the rack
leg fever of my nerves! To be logged
day and might as by bloodhound, never
to raise my eyes without the dread of en-
countering the mans watchful eye-the
agony of the incubus was unbearable.
My first thought was merely that the
rascal meant robbery. However far l
might ride ahead of my own people in
the daytime he was always close behind
me, and as surely as l wandered away
from the camp at nightfall was over
taken by him or else l met him face to
face.
'Alee, II said at last, ''that man is a
thief
OF course Alec was Mortified. "Ya AL
lah!'' he cried. what is my lord say
ing. The Moor is no thief. The Moor is
true, the Moor is honest. None SO true
and honest as the Moor. Wherefore
should the Moor be thief? To be thief
in Barbary is to be fool. Say rob
he has and bury him in a lonsly place
all right. What happens? Behold. Sidi,
this is what happens Your Christian
Consul says, Where. Is the Christian you
took to Fez? 1 cannot tell. I lie, de-
ceive, l make excuses. No use. Your
Christian Consul goes to the Kasbah and
says to the Basha, Cast that Moor into
prison, he is robber and murderer.
Then he goes to the Sultan at Maria
kesh, in the name of your Queen, who
lives in the country of the Nazarenes over
the sea Pay me twenty thousand dollars,
he says, for the life of my Christian,
who Is robbed and murdered. Just SO.
Th Sultan-Allah preserve our Mulai
Hassan! he pays the dollars. Good, all
right, just 80. But is that all, SidiS No,
Sidi. that is not all. The Sultan-God
prolong the life of our meroiful lord The
then comes to my people, to my Basha,
to my bashalic, and he says, Pay me
back my forty thousand dollars-do you
hear me, Sidi, forty thousand-for the
Nazarene whossis..dead. All right. But we
cannot pay. Good. The Sultan-Allah
save him!-he comes, he takes all we
have, he puts every man of my people to
the sword. We are gone, we are wiped
out Did not say, Sidi, to be thief in
Barbary is to be fool?'
1t was cold comfort. That the man
Larby was following me was confident,
first convinced. Small solace, therefore,
in the thought that il the worst befell
me, and my boy at home died for want
of his father who lay robbed and muir
dered in those desolate waters, my gov
eminent would exact q claim in paltry
dollars.
My next thought was that the man was
merely watching me out of the country.
That he was aware that l knew his Sc
cret was only too oeratin; that he had
betrayed my. knowledge to, the authorities
at the Capital after l had parted from
them was more than probable, and it was
not impossible that the very mon who
had taken brides of me had in their turn
bribed him that he might follow me and
see that did not inform the ministers
and consuIs Of foreign countries of the
murder of the American in the streets of
Fee.
That theory partly reconciled me to the
mans presence. Let him watch. His
constant company was in Its tormenting
way my best security. I should go to no
minister, and no CONSUL should see me.
living affairs to busy myself with those
of the dead American.
But such poor JUNCTION as this reflection
brought me was dissipated by second
thought What security for the man
himself or for the authorities who might
have brihed him--or perhaps menacea him
to watch me would lie in the fat that I
vealing the facts of the crime which I
had Witnessed? Safely back In England
1 might tell all with safety. Once let
me leave Morocco with their secret in my
breast and both the penalties these people
dreaded might be upon them. Merely to
watch me was wasted labor. They meant
to do more, or they would have done
nothing.
Thinking SO, another idea took possess
sion of me with a shock of terror-the
man was following me to kill me as the
sole Christian witness of the crime that
had been committed. By the light of
that theory everything became plain
When l visited the Kasbah nothing was
known OF my acquaintance with the
murdered man. My brides were taken,
and was allowed to leave Fee in spite of
public orders. But then came Larby
with alarming intelligence. had been
friend of the American, and had been
seen to speak with him in the pubic
streets. Perhaps Larby himself had seen
Inc, or perhaps my own guide, Alee, had
betrayed me to his friend and brother.
raised their eyebrows and sworn at each
other for simpletons and fools. 10 think
that the very man who intended to be-
tray them had come with an Innocent
face and a tale OF a sick child in England.
To think that they had suffered him to
Slip through Jn6lr ulHofs uuu low tuon
some naltry brides Of fifty pounds! Fifty
pounds taken by stealth against twenty
thousand dollars to be pumped down
after the Christian had told his story
These Nazarenes were SO subtle, and the
sons of Ishmael were so simple. But
diamond cut diamond. Everything was
rot yet lost. One hundred and twenty
five miles this Christian had still to
travel before he could sail from Barbary,
and not another Christian could he en-
counter on that journey. Then up, Lar
by, and after him! God make your way
easy Remember, Larby. remember,
good fellow, it is not only the pockets Of
the people Of Fee that are in danger If
that Christian should escape. Let him
leave the Gharb alive and your own neck
is in peril. You were the spy. you were
the informer, you were the hot headed
mailman who led the attack that ended In
the splitting of Christian blood. If the
Sultan should have to pay twenty thou
sand dollars to the Minister for America
at Tangier for the life of this dead deg
whom we have grubbed into the earth In
a garden; if the Basha Of Fee should
have TO pay forty thousand dollars to the
Sultan. if the people should have to pay