Hall Caine, the Man and the Novelist

by C. Fred Kenyon

Katrina, the Kaid’s wife, pretends to see in this nothing but imposture. Telling her husband that Naomi’s defects have been assumed, she imparts her own rage to him, and he sentences both Israel and his daughter to be put out of the town.

“Guards, take both of them. Set the man on an ass, and let the girl walk barefoot before him; and let a crier cry beside them: ‘So shall it be done to every man who is an enemy of the Kaid, and to every woman who is a play-actor and a cheat!’ Thus let them pass through the streets and through the people until they are come to a gate of the town, and then cast them forth from it like lepers and like dogs!”

In the now driving rain Naomi and Israel are thus paraded in the streets, and all the townsfolk mass themselves to follow in a huge, howling, jeering procession. Naomi walks with closed eyes, not being able to bear the light, and for several days she seeks shade and darkness, almost in terror. Once out of the town, they find people who are kind to them, giving them food and garments; and they settle in a hut among their new-found friends. Israel’s little remaining money is expended on a few sheep and oxen, and a living is found from the sale of wool, butter and milk, which they send into the town with the neighbours’ market produce. They live in happiness for some months until a crushing blow falls. One of Israel’s last acts of mercy while in office was to liberate a number of prisoners. The knowledge of this has now come to the Kaid’s ears, and he orders the arrest of Ben Oliel. Israel is hurried away to a distant prison, and Naomi is left alone, a child in knowledge both of the world and of the dangerous people around her. The thought of the evil that may come to her preys upon Israel’s mind in his helplessness, and gradually reduces him to insanity. His comrades, in their sympathy, do all they can to arouse him, and fresh prisoners as they arrive tell of the Kaid’s tyrannies, and of how the people of Tetuan regret their treatment of Israel, wishing him back among them. The kindly efforts are useless, until the wit of the prison tells a harrowing tale in the hope of bringing Israel to tears.

That same night, when darkness fell over the dark place, and the prisoners tied up their cotton handkerchiefs and lay down to sleep, Tarby sat beside Israel’s place with sighs and moans and other symptoms of a dejected air.

“Sidi, master,” he faltered, “I had a little brother once, and he was blind. Born blind, Sidi, my own mother’s son. But you wouldn’t think how happy he was for all that? You see, Sidi, he never missed anything, and so his little face was like laughing water! By Allah! I loved that boy better than all the world! Women? Why—well, never mind! He was six and I was eighteen, and he used to ride on my back! Black curls all over, Sidi, and big white eyes that looked at you for all they couldn’t see. Well, a bleeder came from Soos—curse his great-grandfather! Looked at little Hosain—‘Scales!’ said he—burn his father! ‘Bleed him and he’ll see!’ So they bled him, and he did see. By Allah! yes, for a minute—half a minute! ‘Oh, Tarby,’ he cried—I was holding him; then he—he—‘Tarby,’ he cried faint, like a lamb that’s lost in the mountains—and then—and then—‘Oh, oh, Tarby,’ he moaned. Sidi, Sidi, I paid that bleeder—there and then—this way! That’s why I’m here!”

It was a lie, but Tarby acted it so well that his voice broke in his throat, and great drops fell from his eyes on to Israel’s hand.

Tarby is successful, and with his tears the old man’s madness leaves him. Hardly has he regained his sanity when the order comes for his release, and Israel in joy and thankfulness hurries away to rejoin his child.

In the meanwhile, much has befallen Naomi. At first she clings to her lonely hut, refusing the neighbours’ hospitality; but little by little she gathers from their talk some idea of what her father’s life in prison must be, and finally determines to follow the custom expected from prisoners’ friends and relatives, in carrying food to him. She sets out with a pannier of loaves and another of eggs on either side of her borrowed mule, paying no heed to the expostulations of the good people around her. But as her journey progresses her heart begins to sink. Knowing nothing of evil, and expecting friendliness from all men, she is disheartened by the knowledge that now forces itself upon her, and as, by theft, and in payment for her lodging, her stock of food diminishes, she almost resolves to turn back. By this time she has reached Tetuan, and close to the town gates she is met and recognised by a former servant of Israel.

The two might have passed unknown, for Habeebah was veiled, but that Naomi had forgotten her blanket and was uncovered. In another moment the poor frightened girl, with all her brave bearing gone, was weeping on the black woman’s breast.