Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1897-11-24

ment. OVERLOOKING fellow he cried.
God be gracious to my father, who does
my lord mean? Not Larby; no, not
Larby. Larby is good man. He'lives
IN one OF the mosque houses at Tan
gaa. The Nadir leased it to him, and he
keeps his shop on the Sok de Barra.
Allah bless Larby! Should you want
musk, should you want cinnamon, Lar
by is the man to sell to you. But
sometimes he guides Christians to Fee,
and then his brother keeps his shop
for him.
But why is the man following us?'
/ asked.
MY sultan said Alec, 'am l not tell
ing you? Larby is returning home.
The Christian he took to Fee, where IS
he?"
Yes said, where is he?"
Alec grinned and answered, He is
gone-southwards, my lord.
why should you lie to me like that?"
/ said. you know the Christian IS
dead, and that this Larby was the means
of killing him.
"Shoo! What is my lord saying?"
cried Alec, lifting his fat hands with
warning gesture. 'What did my lord
tell the Basha? My lord must know
nothing-nothing. 1t would not be
safe
Then with chances of fear towards
Larby, and dropping his voice to whis-
per, Alec added: 1T is true the Chris
tian is dead; he died last sunset; Allah
corrected him. So Larby is going back
alone; going back to his shop, to his
house, to his wives, to his little daugh-
ter Hoolia. Allah send Larby a safe
return Not following us, Sidi. No,
no; LARRY is going back the same way
that is all"
The answer did not content me, but
I could say no more. Nevertheless my
uneasiness at the mans presence in
creased hour by hour. | could not
think of him without thinking also Of
the American and of the scene of hor-
ror near to the Karueein Mosque.
could not look at him but the blood
down my back ran cold. So / called
my guide again and said: "Send that
man away; | will not have him in our
company"
ALE pretended to be deeply wounded
"Sidi," he said, TASK anything else of
me. What will you ask? Will you ask
me to die for you? 1 am ready am
willing l am satisfied. But Larby is
my friend, Larby is my brother, and
this thing you ask of me I cannot do.
Allah has not written it. Sidi, it can
not be-"
With such protestations COM
mon cant of the country had need
to be content. But now the impression
fixed itself upon my mind that the evil
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 impotence of my
spirit and the racking fever of my
nerves. To be logged Gay and night
as by a bloodhound, never to raise my
eyes without the dread Of encountering
the mans watchful eye-the agony Of
the incubus was unbearable.
My first thought was merely that the
rascal meant robbery However far
might ride ahead of my own people in
the daytime he was always close be-
hind me, and as surely as / wandered
away from the camp at nightfall | was
overtaken by him or else | met him
face to face.
"Alee,D l said at last, that man is a
thief"
OF course Alec was horiied. 'Ya
Allah" he cried. What was my lord
saying The Moor is no thief. The
Moor is true, the Moor is honest None
so true and honest as the Moor. Where
fore should the Moor be thief? To
be a thief in Barbary is to be fool.
Say l rob Christian-good. l kill
him and take all he has and bury him
in lonely place-all right What hap
pnhn16 Gili tbic ;c hot hop,
pens. Your Christian Consul says,
Where is the Christian you took to
Fez?' / cannot tell. | lie, | deceive, l
tan Consul goes to the Kasbah, and
says to the Basha, Cast that Moor into
prison, he is robber and a 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. The Sultan-Allah preserve
our Mulai Hassan!-he pays the dollars.
Good, all right, just so. But is that
all, Sid? No, Sid, that is not all. The
Sultan-God prolong the life of our
merciful lordi-he 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 who
is dead. 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 l not say, Sid, to be thief in
Barbary is to be a fool?"
1t was cold comfort. That the man
Larby was following ME | was con-
fident, and that he meant to rob me
| was at first convinced. Small solace,
therefore, in the thought that if the
worst befell me, and my boy at home
died for the want of his father, who
lay robbed and murdered in those des-
olate wastes. my government would
exact claim in paltry dollars.
My next thought was that the man
was merely watching me out of the
country That he was aware that
] knew his secret was only too GER
tain; that he had betrayed my
knowledge to the authorities at the
Capital after I had departed from
them was more than probable, and it
was not impossible that the very men
who had taken brides of me had in
their turn bribed him that he might
follow me and see that | did not in