After being served with hot coffee and brandy from a primitive bar, we
lay down on straw mats which apparently had not been shaken for
months. My friend, as the time went on, being evidently used to an
emergency of this kind, calmly went to sleep; I, on the other hand,
being attacked by an army of fleas, did not get any rest before two
o'clock, when I fell into a deep slumber from which I found it
difficult to awake. As we had to make a start at three, I pulled
myself together, but in the hurry left my gold wrist-watch behind me.
The annexe adjoining the bar was occupied by the proprietor, his wife,
and a coffee boy.
We were soon in our saddles, escorted as before, and entered the gates
of the city, where the consul with others were in readiness to receive
us. We entered a mansion, and I was puzzled to know whether it was a
hotel or the Consulate, as the consul conducted us there. He was an
Eastern of sorts, that was certain, and one who was evidently
acclimatized to bad drainage, for I nearly choked as I was shown my
room. Upon realizing the absence of my watch, the soldier lost little
time in going back for it, but not finding it, brought back the
proprietor of the Fondak as a suspect.
Next morning I rose feeling very "chippy," but being somewhat
refreshed after partaking of a light breakfast, proceeded to the
outskirts of the town with my sketch-book, where I discovered some
picturesque bits.
On returning to my hotel I found a summons to give evidence in a case
of alleged robbery. The law court to which I was taken was presided
over by two picturesque elderly judges in the purest of white robes
and equally clean turbans. Our party was fully represented. The man
professed complete innocence of having even seen the watch, so
meanwhile he was kept under surveillance.
The effect of the poisonous atmosphere I had imbibed in my lodging
began to tell on my health, so I determined to get out of it and cut
short my otherwise interesting visit.
I was now on my homeward journey, and having conveyed my instructions
to the escort, viz. that if he should fail to extract a confession
from the man (who then had his arms bound with cord), he was to
trouble no more about him and leave him at the Fondak. About this the
soldier seems to have taken no heed and was obdurate, and upon
arriving there, arrested the coffee-coloured coffee boy as well, and
marched the two of them into Tangier. Although this annoyed me and I
tried to remonstrate at the time, I was powerless in the matter. On
arriving in Tangier, however, very tired, I was only too glad to
dismiss them from my mind and give orders that they should be at once
liberated, while I came to the conclusion that the woman was the
guilty party after all.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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