Lowther, the son of the Speaker peared merely to have come of the House of Commons. I formed the fifth member of the party. One hot summer's morning we rode out, having sent our lunch on in advance. On nearing Zinat we were hailed by a countryman who was ploughing his fields. I rode to see what he wanted, and was informed that Raisuli's band was back at Zinat, apparently having come to take away some treasure which had, by being buried, escaped the looting of the soldiery at the time of the destruction of the castle. He advised us not to proceed. We discussed this news, and in the folly of an enjoyable excursion, decided, as the lunch was on ahead, to proceed. Nothing could surpass the tranquillity of the scene on our arrival, and we were soon lunching under the shade of the olive-trees. I confess that the pleasure of the foie-gras was mingled, in my case, with a certain nervous apprehension from which the others appeared immune. We did not believe, or had pretended not to believe, the story of the return of Raisuli's brigands. Lunch was nearly over when the glint of a rifle-barrel in the thick brushwood caught my eye, and another and yet another in the rocks, for the hill at Zinat is a wild precipitous slope of broken masses of rock and scrub. A minute later we were surrounded. The men were perfectly polite, and to all intents and purposes ap VOL. CCIX.-NO. MCCLXIII. to wish us good-day. At their head was the good-looking young Ahmed el-Aoufi, Raisuli's second-in-command, a personal friend of my own, who had shown me considerable kindness during my captivity with the brigands in 1903. He shook us warmly by the hand, and, his rifle between his knees, sat down to pass the time of day. A few yards away, in a complete circle round us, were thirty or forty of his men. I confess that situations like this exhilarate me. I hate bloodshed and noisy encounters, but a delicate situation has a zest that is unique-and, heavens! it was a delicate situation. The British Minister and the French Chargé d'Affaires-what a coup! I was the only member of the party who spoke Arabic, and the suspense the others must have suffered during the next hour or two must have been extreme. Yet no one made a sign. I have often seen great examples of self-restraint, but never, I think, greater than on this occasion. Remember, my friends understood nothing of what I was saying, except that every now and again I referred to them for confirmation of my assertions. For me the situation was very exciting. If I was taken, after all it was only what had happened before, and I was used to adventure and hardship; but for the others! and I could not help thinking of the terms-proqably impossible terms-that D Raisuli would demand for their release, and of the possible consequences! I have found on occasions like these for this was by no means the only tight place of the kind that I had been in-that not only is there a kind of exhilaration, but also that one's power of concentration of thought is accentuated. However inauspicious the actual surroundings may be, one feels and knows that the mental superiority rests with the European, and that hereditary training of thought and education stand one in good stead. The Moor is no fool; he is cunning and astute, but his mind is untrained, and he is confiding when dealing with Europeans. In the first moments of our encounter at Zinat I knew that our safety depended upon the game that I was determined to play and which I played successfully. gier and the surrounding tribes at the demand of the European Powers. They had acted unwisely and realised it, and now they regretted their action. "Do you know," I asked, "who these people are who are here to-day!" "We are not sure," they replied. I 66 Then I will tell you," and did. Instead of, as would seem natural, trying to conceal the identity of my distinguished friends, I launched out into exaggerated statements as to their importance. I saw I had made an impression. My audience were now thoroughly puzzled. "And why are they here?" I asked. "Listen, and I will tell you. The Powers of Europe regret Raisuli's departure and disgrace. They desire him to be reinstated, but the Sultan has refused. The Powers insist, and as the Makhzen still holds out, the Governments of England and France have telegraphed to their representatives I began with an enormous untruth. Holding El-Aoufi's hand, I told him I was delighted to see him, and that the gentlemen you see here his visit was most opportune -nothing, in fact, could have been better. Then I sat him down, and talked to him and to his chief companions seriously. It was at this moment that Madame de Beaumarchais, with the admirable sangfroid of a talented and courageous Frenchwoman, took a photograph. The story that I told them was this. I reminded them that Raisuli had been driven from the Governorship of Tan to-day-instructing them to visit the scene of the depredations on Raisuli's castle, and to make all the necessary arrangements for its reconstruction as quickly as possible, so that Raisuli can be restored to his own and once more introduce law and order into the region. For this purpose we are come to-day-against the advice of all our friendsso that the work can be undertaken at once. Meanwhile the letter recalling Raisuli from the mountains is being drawn up." I then added, "We were warned on the way that we should find you here, and advised to turn back; but I told the people who warned us that Raisuli's men would perfectly understand our mission, and nice trouble they would get into with their chief if they captured the very men who were insisting on restoring him to his former grandeur, and obtaining the return of all his confiscated property-and even rebuilding his castle at the expense of the Governments they represent. I should like to see your face, friend Ahmed el - Aoufi, after Raisuli had discovered the 'gaffe' that you had made; and if I know your chief, friend and confidant as you are, I can imagine the stripes he could lay upon your bare back. Do you think that, unless we had been really his benefactors, we should ever have been such fools to have ventured into this hornets' nest? Now, up with you," I cried, rising, "and we will see what we can do with these ruins." I led the way down to the ruins, and for the next hour measured walls, took notes of the local price of masons and carpenters and the possibilities of obtaining bricks on the spot, proposed a new water-supply which the laws of gravitation rendered quite impossible, and even whispered in El-Aoufi's ear that there would be money to build him a little house adjoining his chief's. We came to the conclusion that for between £12,000 and £15,000, taking into consideration that Raisuli could obtain a plentiful supply of forced labour and as much material as he liked, the house could be restored to more than its pristine glories. Another photograph taken by Madame de Beaumarchais pictures me pacing out the length of the walls of the house. 66 My note-book full of figures, I sat down again and dictated to El-Aoufi the following letter, which he wrote: To the trusted and well beloved Shereef, the learned Mulai Ahmed er-Raisuli, peace and the mercy of God be upon you; and acting on the instructions of their Governments, of which the letter I sent you yesterday will have given you full particulars, the British Minister and the French Chargéd'Affaires have paid a visit to the ruins of your Kasbah. They have grieved much to see its piteous state. As you will have learned by the contents of my letter, it is the intention of their Governments not only to restore you to power but also to reconstruct your castle. To-day we are at Zinat, and we had the good fortune to find your faithful and intelligent deputy, my lord Ahmed el-Aoufi, and your followers, who have been of great use to us, and have shown us many things that have helped us, and have guarded us in security and peace from any bad people who may have been about. We are grateful. And my lord of them and thanked them for their visit, and they rode slowly away. we have slowly away. My fears were at an end. Ahmed el-Aoufi will tell you of many things which in our friendship for you we have confided to him. We will await at Tangier a reply to the letter I sent you yesterday explaining fully those things, and immediately on receiving the reply measures will be taken to commence the restoration of your Kasbah; but it is trusted that you will not wait its completion before returning to your former position, for any delay will only protract the unsatisfactory state of affairs existing at present, and continue the nervousness of the population of Tangier and the oppression of the poor country people. My lord El-Aoufi will tell you all. May peace be with you." To this epistle I put my signature, and not one pang of conscience did I feel, nor have felt since. Raisuli and I had played many gamesonly this this one was a little bigger than the rest. To tell the truth, so far from feeling guilty, I literally revelled in my deception. It was time to return to Tangier, and I confess I was nervous. I proposed to ElAoufi that the others should start first, and that I should remain for a while and catch them up on the road. I wanted to spend, I said, a little while longer in his company-it was a pleasure so rare and so valued. With a sigh of relief I saw the rest of our party mount. El-Aoufi shook hands with all I sat for half an hour, and explained to El-Aoufi that Raisuli would have already received my (perfectly imaginary) letter of yesterday, which explained the whole situation, and that on his return to his chief in the mountains, some six or eight hours' journey farther on, he would find him fully informed. He (El-Aoufi) must, I added, have crossed my letter en route. Had he not met the messenger, whose name I gave-No? Well, then, he must have taken another track. My friends were now no more than little black specks far away in the plain. I rose and embraced El-Aoufi, and in the manner of the country we kissed each other's shoulders. My horse was brought, and cantering slowly down the slope, I rode away toward Tangier. In spite of the deliberate series of falsehoods of which I had been guilty during those few hours, I never felt less conscience-stricken-and perhaps never happier-in my life. I have seen Raisuli many times since the incident. He referred to El-Aoufi as a lion of courage. "There was no finer creature in God's world," I replied, "than the lion, but sometimes the wily jackal deceives him." I noticed a little flash in Raisuli's eye, but he answered languidly, "Verily, the jackal and El-Aoufi when the latter is an unclean beast." related the incident and gave him my letter. He fell from favour for a time, as might be expected, but he came to see me in Tangier a few months later. We did not mention the visit to Zinat, but discussed more general subjects. Talking of the good and bad qualities of mankind, El-Aoufi said, "The most degrading thing in the world is deceit," and he said it quite nastily. Sir Gerard Lowther, the Beaumarchais, Christopher Lowther, and I all dined to gether the night of our adventure, but we didn't talk very much about it. Our thankfulness for our escape was only equalled by our appreciation of our immense folly in having undertaken the expedition. We agreed that, if possible, the incident was to be kept a secret, but a few weeks later Temps' contained the whole story, which had leaked out from native sources and got to Paris. I should have liked to have seen the interview of Raisuli "In my opinion there is something even more humiliating," I replied. "That is? "To be made a fool of." But we parted the best of friends. (To be concluded.) |