“There is no time,” answered Si El Hadj Arrifa. “Listen!” He looked swiftly behind him into the shadows of the court to make sure that there were none to overhear. “The revolt in Fez was planned for to-morrow, after the Mission had departed. There was to be a scouring.”
“Yes.”
“The Askris are ready: more than ready. It was difficult to hold them in, even with the promise of to-morrow. Now that the departure is postponed, they will not wait. It needs a word perhaps, but the speaking of that word cannot be delayed.”
Paul nodded gloomily.
“And they won’t believe it,” he said in a dull quiet voice, as he stared upon the ground. Believe it? Paul Ravenel knew very well that were he to batter down the door of the Embassy, they would not even allow him to blurt his story out. Why should he come prattling his soldier’s silliness at that unearthly hour? Let him go back to his camp and await his well-deserved reprimand in the morning! There are proper channels by which presumptuous young officers must address their importunities. It is the history of many disasters. Politics and ambition and the play of parties must decide what is going to happen, not prescience or knowledge. Is a country notoriously studiis asperrima belli? Let us never admit it, lest we range against us this or that faction which is strong enough to bring us down. It’s all a gamble. So let us plank our money and everybody else’s and their lives into the bargain on to our colour and chance it turning up. “All rising to Great Place is by a winding stair.” So we must twist and turn and see nothing beyond the next step by which we mount. Authority in Fez had just been given the cravat of Grand Officer of the Legion of Honour, because the negotiations for the Protectorate had been conducted so smoothly and had ended in so resounding a success. It would never do for authority to listen to any intrusive soldier who insisted that murder and torture were knocking on the door. Had not the Maghzen declared that the tribesmen in the “bled” were only thinking of their husbandry? Did not the Grand Vizier himself guarantee the goodwill and peacefulness of Fez?
“They have stopped their ears and bandaged their eyes,” said Paul.
“But you will stay here to-night,” his friend urged. “No one, I think, saw you come into my house, and my servants are faithful. Yes, you will stay here and be safe until this danger is overpast!”
Paul shook his head.
“That I cannot do,” he said, and Si El Hadj Arrifa hearing the tone he used, knew that there would be no persuading him.
“Then go while you can, and ride quickly with your pistol loose in its holster.”