CHAPTER XVIII
[IN WHICH THE TAXIDERMIST AND A BASHA PREVAIL OVER A BLIND MAN]
He went at once to the taxidermist's shop. M. Fournier expected him, but not the story which he had to tell.
"You wish to discover the man who shouted through your door six months ago," said Charnock. "It was I."
M. Fournier got together his account-books and laid them on the counter of the shop. "I have much money. Where is my friend Mr. Jeremy Bentham?"
"It is Hassan Akbar whom we must ask," said Charnock, and he told Fournier of what he had seen on the day of his previous visit to Tangier.
The two men walked up to the cemetery gate, where Hassan still sat in the dust, and swung his body to and fro and reiterated his cry "Allah Ben!" as on that day when, clothed as a Moor, Ralph Warriner had come down the hill. It was the tune which that Moor had hummed, and which Miranda had repeated, that had led Charnock to identify the victim and the enemy.
Charnock hummed over that tune again as he stood beside the Moor, and the Moor stopped at once from his prayer.
"Hassan Akbar, what hast them done with the Christian who hummed that tune and dropped a silver dollar in thy lap at this gate?"
Hassan made no answer, and as though his sole anxiety had been lest Warriner should have escaped and returned, he recommenced his cry.