The Portland daily press., 1897-10-27
TIL LAST CONFESSION.
Published by Special Arrangement
BY HALL GAME.
GALL RIGHTS REsERvED.)

Their talk with the American. Young as
he was he had been great Eastern trav-
eller. Egypt, Arabia, Syria, the Holy
Land-he knew them all. For his forth
coming sojourn in Morocco he had pre-.
pared himself with elaborate care. The
literature of travel in Barbary is volumi-
nous, but he had gone through the best of
it, With the faith of Islam he had long
been familiar, and the corrupt and tyran-
nical form of government of Mulatel Has
san and his kaids and kadis he had an in
innate knowledge. He had even studied
the language of the Moorish peOple-the
Moroccan Arabic, which is dialect of
the language of the Koran-and SO that
he might hold intercourse with the
Sephardic Jews also who people the
Mellahs of Morocco, he had mastered the
Spanish language as we'll
This extensive equipment, sufficient to
start crusade or to make revolution,
was meant to do more than provide him
with adventure. His intention was to
see the country and It's customs, to OBJ
serve the manners of the people and the
ordinances of their religion. 81 shall get
into the palaces and the prisons of the
Kasbas, he said, Eyes, and the mosques
and the saints houses, and the harems
also II 1t is possible to play eunuoh or
midwife
Little as knew then.of the sMoors and
their country, foresaw the dangers of
such an enterprise, and l warned him
against it. "You will get yourself into
awkward CORNERS" said.
eyes," he said, land l shall get my
self out of them"
l remem bored his doctrine propounded
on the ship, and saw that heswas man
of resolution, but / said, "Remember.
you are going to the land of this people
for amusement alone. 1t Is not necessity
that thrusts you upon their prejudices,
their superstition, and their fanaticism. .
trouble among them it will not be my
amusements but my liberty or my life
that will be in danger"
''Then in such case you will stick at
nothing TO plough your way outp''
Nothing"
laughed, for my mind refused to be-
lieve him, and we laughed noisily togeth
er, with visions of bloody daggers before
the eyes Of both.
Father, my heart believed. Silently.
secretly, unconsciously it drank in the
poison of his thought-drank it in, aye
Next day about noon we sailed for Tan.
| gier. Our ship was the Jackal, little
old iron steam tug, battered by time and
tempest, clamped and stayed at every
side, and just holding together as by the
grace of God. The storm which we had
doubled Cape St. Vincent, and the sea
was rolling heavily in the Straits. We
saw nothing of this until we had left the
bay and were standing out from Tarife;
nor would it be worthy of mention now
but that it gave mo my first real under.
standing of the tremendous hold that the
faith or the fanaticism of the Moorish
people-cali 1t what you will-has upon
their characters and lives.
The channel at that point is less than
twenty miles wide, but we were more
than five hours crossing it. Our little
crazy craft Jaboured terribly in the huge
breakers that swept inwards from the
Atlantic. Pitching until the foredeck
was covered. rolling until her boats
dipped in the water, creaking, shudder.
ing, leaping, she had enough to do to
keep afloat.
Ito be continued)