A telegram reached Gerard de Montignac at Rabat a week later from the French consul in Tetuan, which, being decoded, read: “Larti brought in here this morning. He was attacked two miles from here and left for dead. Recovery doubtful.”
The last of Ahmed’s messengers had been lured into a house in Tetuan, and upon him Larti’s final message announcing the date of his own arrival had been discovered. Further telegrams came to Rabat from Tetuan. Larti had lost his left arm just below the shoulder, and his condition was precarious. He began to mend, however, in a week, but three months passed before a French steamer brought to Casablanca a haggard thin man in mufti with a sleeve pinned to his breast, who had once been Captain Paul Ravenel of the Tirailleurs.
Gerard de Montignac met him on the quay and walked up with him to the cantonment at Ain-Bourdja.
“We have got quarters for you here,” said Gerard. “There’s nobody you know any longer here.”
“Yes!” said Paul.
“We can rig you out with a uniform. The General will want to see you.”
“Yes?” said Paul.
“You know that you have been on secret service the whole time. The troubles at Fez were the opportunity needed to make your disappearance natural.”
Paul sat down on the camp bed.
“That was arranged in Paris before you went to Bartels,” said Gerard. “Oh, by the way, I have something of yours.”