"Yes, Sidi. She came in. As you see, she has gone again."
"Who landed from her?"
Again Absalaam put queries to the assembled loafers. They answered obscenely but with directness.
"A man came ashore with the captain and did not return with him," said the Moor. "Is this, then, an affair of importance?"
"I will give fifty dollars to him who brings me face to face with that man," said Aylmer, quietly. "Let your fellows know this."
Absalaam frowned ferociously and then laughed, a queer, high-pitched nasal laugh.
"My fellows!" He swept his hand towards the pier loafers witheringly. "Does the Sidi think that I am of this noble company of—of dogs and eaters of dirt?" He laughed again, cheerfully this time. "After all, I have given the Sidi every reason to believe it. But it is not so. My work in Tangier sends me strange companions, but I am not of them. And there is no need that these should debauch themselves with your fifty dollars, Sidi. I will see to this thing!"
Aylmer made a gesture of assent.
"As you will, so that the matter is done with speed. I stay at the Bristol. For the moment I visit the Villa Eulalia."
"You can spare yourself the heat and the mounting of the hill, Sidi. They of the villa set forth on an expedition to the lighthouse this morning."