“As I said just now,” the complainant stated, “the case is plain. Our herds were grazing in the neighbourhood of Ben Serraq’s tent. On driving them home in the evening we discovered that a bullock was missing. My brethren and myself immediately took the field, to discover some trace of the robbery, but we could discover nothing. At last, after several days of fruitless search, it entered into our heads to have a look at Ben Serraq’s tent. We had suspected him, in consequence of what had happened some months previously.”
“Barbarians!” yelled the untamed innocent; “to violate the tent of an honest Mussulman!”
“But we had no need to enter it; which, moreover, we should not have done without the kaïd’s authorisation.”
“Quite right,” said the magistrate, approvingly.
“We met his wife, as she was coming from the water.”
“What an abomination!” howled the biped brute; “to stop a woman on the road!”
“And who, for the promise of a trifling reward, told us the whole affair.”
“A capital witness!—a she-beggar, who betrays me!”
“She explained that it was her husband who stole our bullock, in order to provide himself with a store of salt meat.”
“Sidi Bou Krari! That a woman should lie like that!”