CHAPTER XXXVIII
HIS HIGHNESS IN THE ORIENTAL CITY
When Louis and Felix returned to the street they found Scott and Morris bargaining for a horse with one of the Arabs who keep them to let. These men are found in the principal parts of the city; and when the horse is taken, they accompany him on foot wherever he goes. With the assistance of Munif they had made the trade, and Morris had mounted the horse. Scott and the guide attended him.
"I think we had better go to the landing, Flix," said Louis as soon as they came out of the hotel; and they started down the steep and filthy street.
"Do you believe now that the gentleman is the Pacha, my darling?" asked the Milesian.
"I have no doubt of it," replied the young millionaire. "He is dressed like a Christian now; but there is no mistaking his face. He is the handsomest man I ever saw in my life, not only in his figure-head, but in his form."
"I was just going to say the same thing; and he could make his fortune in a dime museum, with his circus clothes on, though his present dress shows him off to the best advantage," added Felix.
"According to all accounts, he is about as bad a man as ever lived, in spite of his masculine beauty, and he is as rich as Crœsus; a Mohammedan millionaire. The Portuguese gentlemen at Funchal said that he travelled all over Europe, Asia, and Africa on shore or in his yacht, and spent his money as freely as water," continued Louis. "He is a man of the world in the worst sense of the term."
"But how did the blackguard get here so soon?"
"We have not seen the steam-yacht in which he sails since we left Gibraltar; but she may be in the Bosporus or Golden Horn for all that. We stopped a day at Algiers, and the ship slowed down to the ordinary speed of the Maud. But he could have come here by land in much less time," Louis explained.