The Pursuit Part 18

The puzzled frown stayed on Aylmer's brow.

"And you?" he demanded. "And you?"

The Moor answered with a demure shrug of the shoulder.

"Your wounded brain has perchance forgotten, Sidi, that I entered your benign service on the morning of the day which saw you defeated by the treachery of that one whom we sought, you and I. My service has been constant ever since."

He met his victim's increasing frown with complacent a.s.surance as he spoke. Surely everything, he seemed to imply, was in order. And as the situation became clear to Aylmer's growing intelligence, the frown became an exasperated smile.

"You have used my helplessness to impose yourself into this house as my body-servant," said Aylmer. "Oh, Daoud, you are of a deceitfulness beyond my unpractised powers of speech."

"Speech beyond the mere limits of necessity was strongly discountenanced by the German doctor lord," said Daoud, hastily. "Has the Sidi any further desires?"

"None, save for information. Speak thou! Give me the plain tale of all happenings since I fell into that trap upon the road. The man we sought--did he escape?"

The Moor nodded.

"He escaped victoriously, with all his following. He took also the child, the Sidi Jan, who, so they tell me, is the son of his house. They took themselves unmolested into the tangle of the broom, leaving of our company one dead--from the kick of a horse, Sidi--half a dozen senseless, yourself among them, Absalaam grievously wounded in the bosom, though like to recover, and all, save four or five, with bruises, broken limbs, or, at least, frayed and bleeding skin. So they fled, but Ali, of the Walad Said, who had been flung away from the hardness of the open track into the heart of the thicket, had taken no harm and followed them to the caves."

Aylmer gave a start.

"The caves?" he muttered weakly. "The caves?"

"The Sidi knows them well. The caves of Hercules beyond Spartel, where the millstone carvers ply their toil and where the Sidi and other Nazrani ride forth to eat and drink upon occasion when they entertain their friends."

Aylmer nodded. The caves of Hercules are the resort of many a picnic party from Tangier.

"Leaving them there, he hastened back with news. The Sidi Van Arlen, lord of this house, was by then recovered of the stunning which he, too, had suffered, and weak though he was immediately led forth another company to search the caves. And this they did unsuccessfully, Sidi, learning from one of the millstone workers, who had doubted of the integrity of these sons of dirt before they saw him, and who had therefore hidden himself and watched them unseen, that after a rest of three or four hours the men, taking with them the child, had pa.s.sed down to the sh.o.r.e, had there awaited and been taken off by a boat which delivered them, so he conceived, to a lateen which he could descry in the moonlight about three furlongs out. And in that ship they have gone we know not whither."

Aylmer's fingers clenched and unclenched upon the coverlet. How thoroughly, how absolutely, they had been bested! But the account was rolling up. Ultimate defeat? His mind never even considered it. He merely put another item in the mental ledger from which Landon's account would one day be presented, and paid, in full.

"Let not the Sidi imagine that we have sat inactive while these sons of unchaste mothers triumph. I myself s.n.a.t.c.hed a hasty hour from your bedside to enter the town and set certain ones agog for news. The Sidi Van Arlen hath telegraphed to Spain; every Guardia Civile along the coast has knowledge of how a reward of a thousand pesetas may be gained.

By favor of the captain of the French warship all other ships of the French marine within three hundred miles have been warned to challenge unvouched-for boats. How this is done I am unable to say, but so it is.

Watch upon the seas is therefore being kept. Now steam is being raised upon the white yacht in the bay, that when news comes it may be followed without delay. Lastly, a special mission has been sent by favor of the Bashaw from town to town along the coast as far as Dar-el-Baida. Thus have we set a wide net. Yet it has holes in it, Sidi, and holes are what these jackals are ever quick to seek."

With a sudden movement, Aylmer sat up. A frown and a gesture of command warded back Daoud's outstretched hand.

"Art thou my servant?" he cried, and the Moor spread out his palms in alert a.s.sent.

"Of a surety, Sidi, but the dispenser of medicines--"

"What have I to do with medicines--I, a strong man with no more than a bruised skull? Give me my clothes!"

"But, Sidi--"

"My clothes, or return instantly to the gutter from which my favor yesterday lifted you!"

The Moor gave a fatalistic shrug.

"If Allah has written it that you are to die by the weapon of thine own obstinacy, oh, Sidi, He has written it. This is thy shirt."

With an accustomedness which spoke of previous practice, he presided over his master's toilet. He fetched water, honed a razor, shaved Aylmer with deftness and despatch, produced trousers from a press, handed coat and waistcoat brushed and folded to the last pinnacle of neatness. It was as he laced the boots that he looked up inquiringly and put a question which had been obviously hanging upon his lips since the moment of his master's rising.

"And what, oh, Sidi, are your intentions now?"

"First, to see my host. Afterwards," he made a vague gesture, "afterwards, my friend, I shall act as is directed by your perpetual gossip--Fate!"

"May Allah direct our councils!" aspired Daoud, piously. "Lean upon me, Sidi! There is no need to overtax thy returning strength!"

But Aylmer leaned upon nothing. Slowly, but walking erect, he paced across the wide entrance hall, and then halted, indeterminate.

The hangings across a door opposite him were drawn aside. Claire Van Arlen stood confronting him, her lips parted in amazement.

"You!" she protested breathlessly. "You!"

He answered with a little bow.

"Myself," he said quietly. "I must present my excuses for an ...

intrusion which it was not within my power to prevent."

She held up her hand in protest.

"When you were wounded in our service!" she cried. "When you were doing your best for us!"

He shook his head.

"No," he said. "I am working, I shall go on working, for myself. I should like that to be clear."

She half turned away with a little startled motion and the ghost of a frown. Words trembled on her lips and were thrust back. She understood, and would have sought, at any other time, this opportunity to make things clear indeed, but ... the man was wounded ... serving her and hers. No, for the moment the opportunity must go by.

She held up the cord hangings and pointed into the room behind her.

"At any rate you must not stand, and I am extremely culpable to permit your mutiny against your doctor's orders. Why have you got up?"

He strode slowly after her into the shadowed room. He sat down upon the wicker chair which she indicated. His eyes sought hers, keenly and very directly.

"You have no news?" he asked. "Nothing out of Spain, or from the coast?"

Her eyes clouded.

"None, or next to none. The signal station at Spartel saw a lateen working her sweeps in the distance at dawn. There was a gla.s.sy calm insh.o.r.e, but occasional and uncertain breezes out of the shelter of the land. She was making as if for Cadiz, but half an hour later, just as the haze covered her, a strong wind rose from the northwest and it is doubtful if she could have beaten up against it. In which case she probably stood down the coast."

Her voice was apathetic and a little weary. Her glance avoided his.

He gave a little nod as she finished.

"Yes," he said. "He has taken the first trick--Landon. And I have been no help to you but a hindrance. It was I who helped him last night--I, with my impulsiveness. There you have a right ... to suspect me."