“Bring me a pipe,” said Ali Bey, suddenly turning to Murad and speaking in a loud stern voice. Murad never stirred, but stared in the Colonel’s face and opened his little tin box.
“Jaffier spoke the truth,” muttered the Colonel half aloud. “I thought he would not dare to deceive me; the imp is as deaf as a stone.” They then continued to drink their cans of arrack, which Murad refilled for them, while they spoke without reserve of the plans which they had met to arrange, and which were neither more nor less than to seize or kill Mohammed Ali and overthrow his Government.
“Are you sure of your Bashi-Bazouks, Ali?” inquired Osman Bey.
“Never fear them,” replied Ali; “the dogs are as savage as bears. We have drawn their pay from the Treasury, but we have not given them a para of it for some months, and have told them that Mohammed Ali refuses to pay them and threatens to bastinado any of them that demand their pay. They are all on guard at the Esbekiah Palace, and if he falls into their clutches he will not give us much more trouble. The difficulty is how to bring him there, for the guards at Shoobra are obstinate fellows, and would fight like devils!”
“I will manage that matter,” said Osman Bey. “Those Shoobra guards are from Delì Pasha’s regiment. I will go there to-morrow morning and ask an audience of Mohammed Ali, and will easily persuade him that those guards are not to be trusted, for that Delì Pasha wants to marry his daughter to that outlawed robber Hassan, who is now in Cairo, and as they have not been able to obtain his pardon, they are conspiring against the Viceroy and tampering with the guards, who are of Delì Pasha’s own regiment. Mohammed Ali will assuredly believe there is some truth in this statement, and will agree to my proposal of coming in at once to his palace at the Esbekiah.”
“Have you succeeded yet in introducing the brother of your man Ferraj into the household at Shoobra?” inquired another of the conspirators.
“Yes,” replied Osman Bey. “Hadji Mohammed is employed in the house, and tells me all that goes on. If our other plans fail, that scoundrel can do the job for us with a cup of coffee; and he must do my bidding, for he knows that a word of mine can send him when I will to the gellad [executioner] or the galleys.”
“How are your fellows, Nour-ed-din?” said Ali, the Colonel, addressing one of the conspirators. “Can we count upon them?”
“I am not sure,” replied the officer thus interrogated. “I have kept back their pay too, and have thrown out a few phrases to stir their discontent. They grumble enough, and if our first blow succeeds they will doubtless join us; but they are much afraid of Ibrahim Pasha. How is he affected in this matter?”
“We must not tell it him beforehand,” replied Osman Bey; “for with all his cruelty he is a craven at heart and might betray us, not from the love but the fear that he has for Mohammed Ali. Let us put the Old Lion out of the way, and I will answer for managing Ibrahim afterwards. He will not be very angry, depend upon it.”