The Blind Mother, and The Last ConfessionCaine, Hall, Sir
General
The Blind Mother, and The Last Confession
Caine, Hall, Sir
Fiction
But they had reckoned without their host this time. I found that there
was an English Consul at Wazzan, and I went in search of him. His name
was Smith, and he was a typical Englishman--ample, expansive, firm,
resolute, domineering, and not troubled with too much sentiment. I told
him of the revolt of my people and of the tyranny of the subterfuges
whereby they had repeatedly extorted bribes. The good fellow came to my
relief. He was a man of purpose, and he had no dying child twelve
hundred miles away to make him a fool and a coward.
"Men," he said, "you've got to start away with this gentleman at
sundown, and ride night and day--do you hear me, night and day--until
you come to Tangier. A servant of my own shall go with you, and if you
stop or delay or halt or go slowly he shall see that every man of you is
clapped into the Kasbah as a blackmailer and a thief."
There was no more talk of rebellion. The men protested that they had
always been willing to travel. Sidi had been good to them, and they
would be good to Sidi. At sundown they would be ready.
"You will have no more trouble, sir," said the Consul; "but I will come
back to see you start."
I thanked him and we parted. It was still an hour before sunset, and I
turned aside to look at the town. I had barely walked a dozen paces when
I came face to face with Larby. In the turmoil of my conflict with the
men I had actually forgotten him for one long hour. He looked at me with
his glittering eyes, and then his cold, clear gaze followed the Consul
as he passed down the street. That double glance was like a shadowy
warning. It gave me a shock of terror.
How had I forgotten my resolve to baffle suspicion by exchanging no word
or look with any European Minister or Consul as long as I remained in
Morocco? The expression in the man's face was not to be mistaken. It
seemed to say, "So you have told all; very well, Sidi, we shall see."
With a sense as of creeping and cringing I passed on. The shadow of
death seemed to have fallen upon me at last. I felt myself to be a
doomed man. That madman would surely kill me. He would watch his chance;
I should never escape him; my home would see me no more; my boy would
die for want of me.
A tingling noise, as of the jangling of bells, was in my ears. Perhaps
it was the tinkling of the bells of the water-carriers, prolonged and
unbroken. A gauzy mist danced before my eyes. Perhaps it was the
palpitating haze which the sun cast back from the gilded domes and
minarets.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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