Adventure Magazine Cover — page 176: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

166 “By Allah, let us go!” exclaimed the chieftains and sheiks. “The dhow will come close to shore along the bay between Cirrir and Ras Morba " “Your excellency,” said Cohusac, finding his voice after having been momentarily overwhelmed by finding himself in the heart of conspiracy, and with the knowl- edge that Hickson’s prophecy had come true—the jehad was about to break!— “vour excellency, today the Vixen returned from Djibouti. It was on this warship that Essevier Effendi left Aden. Will it not patrol in the moonlight and discover any dhow that attempts to approach the inner bays?” “Taib! That is true. How do you know these things?” demanded Abu Khalil sus- piciously. Cohusac shrugged disparagingly and in a whining voice said: ‘“‘Am I not a wanderer? Allah has blessed me with eyesight. I would be a fool if I could not make deductions.” “See that this hunchback does not leave our sight,” said Abu Khalil to the guard. “There is but one other place,” he added, “where we may embark without discovery— if it is the will of Allah. West of Ras Morbat is the Bay of Sharks. The dhow can ap- proach the shore there in safety.” This was what Cohusac had hoped for. He knew that neither Abu Khalil nor any of his companions would give even a mo- ment’s thought to: the risk of permitting him to go free, once he had heard the object of the conspiracy and looked upon the con- spirators. Rewards for information were too easily collected in time of war! Never- theless, having safely established himself as a Mohammedan, Cohusac believed himself in no immediate danger so long as he acted with discretion. Arriving at this conclusion, he decided that his most urgent duty was to get a mes- sage to the French consul and one to Hick- son. In the rush of his thoughts, with the men about him crying out and jabbering in several different tongues, from all of which he tried to catch scraps of information, he finally recalled the watchman whom Hick- son employed in the Bay of Sharks! Having succeeded, then, in inducing Abu Khalil to signal his dhow to approach this spot, Cohusac sank back into discreet silence once more, watching the preparations with Adventure half-closed eyes, alert for an opportunity to scribble a note. There was very little further talk. The men moved here and there like shadows swiftly passing, and within ten minutes were ready to depart. The woman, Miriam, was also ready. She refused the assistance of a servant of her own sex. At the same time she realized the importance of aloofness— for it was obvious that there was not a man among these men who did not feel the power of her beauty and secretly longed for her. Nevertheless, she felt an overwhelmning desire for a friendly association of some sort, and Cohusac appeared to her gaze as a blessing. Touching him lightly on the shoulder she said in a gentle voice with an involuntary wistfulness of which she was not aware: “Father of song, in the name of Allah, be to me as a brother! May there never be such loneliness in your case! With the help of Allah I will befriend you.” The Frenchman’s, romantic and impres- sionable heart was instantly flooded with. pity. Safe in a réle which he fitted as if it were his own true character, he prostrated himself before her, murmuring: “Mistress of hearts, queen of courage, I am your slave! Command is obedience!”’ And Cohusac felt at the moment that in some sense this woman’s cause might be made his own. Even as he kissed the hem of her black robe he thought to himself— “By Jove, Cohusac, you are making your- self the hero of a ballad!” IV IN ONES and in couples the con- @) spirators slipped out of Abu Khalil’s * godown door, down the dark alley- way and, keeping close in the shadow of the buildings on the broader street, made their way toward the mosque that stands at the base of the ridge over which Cohusac had watched Hickson pass hardly more than a week before. The waning moon shed a less brilliant light than on that occasion; so the black- robed figures managed to pass along the narrow, cindery path that twisted tortu- ously upward without much danger of observation. At any time that climb is exhausting. In the heat of a Summer’s day it is almost impassable for one unaccus- tomed to the climate; but the night was Go DOOLK 1@)