"I swear by my father's head never to betray you," said Hassan; his spirit rising with the hope of being able to co-operate in any way towards undoing his evil work. "But how?"
"We shall find a way, if it please God," said Ali, "when the time comes. I have met you in a fortunate hour; I see by the leather thong that you wear that you belong to the Palace guards, this will give you the opportunity of letting the Jewess know that help is at hand. You must see her yourself or bribe some of the eunuchs or women. Tell her to seek delay, and profit by any occasion we may be able to devise to save her."
"I will do it," said Hassan; "at the risk of my life I will do it."
The plain around the city of Marocco is very dangerous to ride over at night, being intersected by long lines of pits, extending from the walls towards the mountains; these pits are connected with underground canals by which the town is watered; and these again are connected with each other by tunnels. The pits are twenty and thirty feet deep; and from their sides fig and other trees, and even date-palms, shoot up above the surface of the plain, while beneath is heard the rushing of the buried streams.
The horsemen were now obliged to follow each other cautiously in single file till they came to a fondak, or caravanserai, outside the town walls, near one of the closed gates. The keeper of this let them in, cursing to himself at being disturbed from his sleep. Within, all was silent except the creaking of the camels' teeth, as they lay ruminating and waving their gaunt necks in the moonlight; their drivers lay around rolled up in their hayks. After securing their horses they let themselves out. Hassan then led the way for about half-a-mile, until he stopped on the brink of one of the pits above described, and, telling his companion to follow cautiously, he lowered himself down through the branches of a spreading tree, and then, by holding on to roots and shrubs, came by an easy declivity to the bottom of the pit. Being joined by Ali, they found themselves in one of the tunnelled passages, in which there was merely a run of water; following this for some distance in a stooping posture, they came to a nearly dry well, which they ascended with ease by the projecting stones left in its sides, and emerged, through a thicket of tangled brambles and flowering shrubs, into the court-yard of a large abandoned building about a hundred feet square, surrounded by colonnades of massive stone pillars.
Ali's quick eye was not slow in calculating the advantages of such a mode of exit from a hostile town, and he treasured every mark in his mind for future use in case of need. Crossing a paved court, they went out by an unfastened gate studded with iron nails, and found themselves in an open space within the town; here they separated; Ali being well acquainted with the interior of the town; after arranging where to meet each other, without the necessity of public recognition. It happened that Ali had been very unwisely intrusted by the Sheik with the money for Abdslem; and this, as we shall see, was very nearly the means of upsetting all their plans, and at the same time of finishing the "Falcon's" career.
Abdslem was beginning to feel very impatient at the delay of the Sheik's emissary, whom he was now bent on betraying; to prove his assumed innocence, to the Sultan. Although he had with consummate assurance blinded the Sultan to the evidence of his guilt, this was wanting to restore his confidence, or ensure his safety. On this night he was standing at his open door, when he was accosted by a stranger muffled in a woollen hayk. "Peace be to you! Is your name Abdslem?"
"To you peace: my name is Abdslem! What would you with him?"
"I would speak with him in private!"
"Bismillah! come into your servant's house."