ADVENTURERS THRFF

Auckland Star, Volume XLI, Issue 31, 5 February 1910, Page 16

ADVENTURERS THRFF

JtCDfDEBANK J'NEAKES

IX. Eii: MATTER OF THE HALF CAALEL IX MOGADOR. Clydebank walked stiffly through the Stone arch of iin? Mogador customs house, because he happened to be carrying mc barrel of a smuggled M-arlin rifle down his trousers leg, and to the suspicious Moor who addressed him in Spanish, he replied with a surly, "No savvy," and trifd to pas, on into the wnrni. s» rong -smelling street beyond. The Moor put a lean brown hand on C-ly. lobar k\s shoulder, and Fairtield, who ■was walking behind, set his eye on the angle of the Moor's chin, and drew back hi> heavy list for a blow. In the decimal of another second the blow would have fallen, and then assuredly the sol-dif.-s in dowing draperies who sat round ihf walls, and nursed the long guns betivwn their knee.-, would have taken a hand in the game. But Mrs. Horton skilfully intervened. "Pooh." sai-d she, -don't make trouble over nothing. I have provided myself ■with :i pHrrr.it for all my party. You ■Buit rind it in that envelop* , ." Th.* Moor'- hand dropped off Clydebank's shoulder, and lip took the envelope anil m:iii.-> inspection. The soldiers round the walls urinned appreciatively. and the brown stone arch overhead rum-bli-il to their chatter. ""This," said the Moor, in Spanish, '"is permission for four only." "That is right."' said Mrs. Horton. "Tor th ->c three firemen and myself. "We -!i:'.il return to the steamer before nightfall. Allan be with you in the meanwhile." "What was the document?" asked the Englishman, .as they walked off together down the hot 'ua.'n street of Alogador. "A five-dollar note?" '"Four five-peseta notes." said the little woman. "The tariff for arm smuggling lias grown high no-.v that they are involuting up-country in Morocco. I call it, cheap too. Mr. er— your American friend here has thro* 1 holes in his pants where tlip barrel of his rirle shows through, for anyone that plf>n~es to look. I call that asking for trouble. 1 suppose you know t'here's a death penalty fir smuggling arms of precision into Morocco just now?" "Well, Mam," said little Rakes for hirr.si'it. '"you really couldn't expert mc to put my best clothes on to be killed in. I beg your pardon, but is the party j"ou expect to :ne«*L here a Jew?" , "A Yahoudi. yes." "Well, there's a blighter oti my starboard quarter in ;i black nightgown and & black skull 0.-ip working himself up into an apoplectic fit over some sort of a wink, and it might be a charily t.> save hU life by turning round to acknowledge : ,t." Mrr. Horton r.irn<M. caught the Jew's eye. and quelled him with a look. She had remarkably tine eves, a≤ Fairfield noticed, and he was a judge. Then she turned and addressed all her attentions to Fairtield. Women always were taken ly Fairfield. They walked nj. the four of them, through the unti.ly main street of Mojracor. ihro-asi tile varied smells, and rtn<i°r the warm Moroccan sunshine. A crowd, mostly of black-ro-bed Jew boys, limis in their wake, and whined for akns, ;>n<i on fhe shady side of the tweet, do'lging Xα and out of the swp»+-----m-eac stalls, the. leather stalls, and tl"* sherbet sel'ers, the bi;r "Slack Jew man of their earlier acquaintance kept them under ostentatious convoy. ITSsb-riK-te Moors from Fez and wildeyed tribesmen from the Sus country stored at them as they passed, supercilious camels tried to walk them down, and ahead of them danced a, purple-black 'Fenegaxnbian intent on earning an alms. The three firemen marched stiffly, by reaeon of the rifle barrels down their trousers logs. But though the gait was one tn.it men knew well in Mogador, no one took official notice, though a good many of these observant spectators after glancing at the firemen looked at ■little Mrs. Horton, and smiled. 'Evidently her face at least was not strange 'to tßem. At last, just before they came to the further walls, they turned out of the sok. and entered a street of blind windowless houses. At the further end, the <black Jew pressed forward, and knocked at an ircn-sttidded door —knocked with •two longs and a short. A grilled peep--hole opened, sbq he was inspected, and then the door grated reluctantly open. ' "?enor," said the Jew to Mxs. Horton, "I bid you enter. Your men can hand cne over all they carry, and wait here till you t*»ll them your pleasure." ''They will come in with mc," said the little woman, and led the way through the door, through the warm, greasysmelling -house, on to the internal court■yaTd where flowering orange trees in green tubs stood around the well-curb. There was a Madeira chair in the shade c.x. the further side, and Mrs. Horton took it, and invited her escort to be eeated also. Fairfield laughed. "Our dispositions just' now are unbending. But if you mean that we may pull out the rifles we'd be giad." "1 think."' said the little woman, rather nervously, "you'd better wait a minute, liieae Moroccan Jc\vs are a bit untrustworthy, and I want' to make sure all's right before we disclose too much.' , Atiil then, as if to give point to her ■words, there came from the further door, and across [he hot sunshine of the courtyard, a. iVver-shaken wretch, without hands, who thrust out the half-healed Stumps of his arms for their inspection. '"\\ iiat's broke?" asked Rakes.. The man. as though understanding the tone, if not the words of the question, mumbled out a wail in Arabic. Mrs. Horton shuddered as she made translaton ;—-He says he's been gun-running, too. 1 suppose the Knid caught him. , '" "He. didn't pay enough blackmail." said the practical t-cot. ""But, Mam, if there's gvinz to be trouble we'd better uniimber these "Tins. I can no' put up a good eerap inysel , when I'm trussed up like this. And I'm free to guess my mates are in the same box. ltd be a peety to handicap us if there's trouble coming. .We're pretty fighters with our hands, all three of us." "Trouble.-" said Mrs. Horton anxiously. "Please don't suggest such a. thing. This is the first time I've tried gun-running, out I was assured when I was in Mogadoi a couple of months ago thaC everything ■would go through quite smooLhiy. If only tiie man I liad dealings with then

would turn up, I'm sure everything would be settled in a minute." "Was he a Scorpion?" "Xo, an Englishman—at least, he said he was an Englishman. But I should say he'd a good deal of Spanish blood in him. He was born, he said, at Gibraltar." Fairfield laughed. "That's what we call a Scorpion —Rock Soarpion is the full title. And if he's like the rest of his breed, he's prett3 - hot stuff. Who was the black Jew, by fhe way, who met us outside the Customs House?" "His servant." "1 see. Honesty wasn't written all over his face, either. By the way, here he comes with tea." The Hebrew brought a tray, with a six-inch high table, and fhe paraphernalia of the Moroccan ceremonial meal. He poured out weak green tea into the cups, added to each a sprig of green mint, and as much sugar as the scalding water would dissolve. Then he handed them round. "Gee!" said the thirsty Scot, as he wryly sipped the mixture, "1 never knew there was such a fine argument against the errors of the Prophet Mahommed! Aweel, as long as there's whisky in the world, I'll remain true to the iaifh of my fathers. Gosh, but there's another poor mutilated brute showing his arm and foot stumps in that doorway." ilrs. Horton shivered. "And that's for gun-running, tou. Oh, I wish Mr. Delozo would come." "Those," said the Yankee, "are, I guess, advance advertising agents. When the effect of them has soaked in, your Mr. Delozo will turn up himself, and tell you he can't pay the price agreed on. He'll say there's been a slump in trade, and the risks have increased, and his family are poor, and he wants a pair of new boots himself, and won't you take twenty-live per cent on account, and the balance on a bill ut six months, less the usual fifteen and a-half discount." "I shall be rained if he doe 3," murmured the little lady, pathetically. "i v.as left very badly off, you see, and those rifles you three carry took up all the money 1 could scrape together. Mr. Delozo promised to pay mc double what they cost in England together with all expanses, if I'd smuggle them ashore here." "Ah," said Fail-field, "then I think if you"ll allow us, this firm trill take a hand now on your behalf. It's not a lady's j»b exactly. Xow just turn your eyes half-right to that narrow window above the doorway. Is that your man?"

"Yes, that was Air. Delozo. But I only caught just a glimpse of him."

"He's been dodging backwards and forwards all the time we've been here, watching us. Now I'm going to unburden myself of these rifles I've on my person —excuse mc for a minute—so. You other two ruffians better do the same. You can have this odd rifle between you, and there are a. handful of cartridges. I'll load vp —thus. Now, Mrs. Horton, if you will give mc your bill, please, I'll go and present it." Mrs. Horton from her dress extracted papers, and these Fairfield put in Jiis pocket. "If I don't turn up in twenty minutes," he advised his friends, "you may start in any kind of fancy shooting game you like if they try to stop you , , but get down to the steamer anyway, and clap niadame on board. After that you may smoke your pipes. In the meanwhile keep in the shade." Fairfield himself —a tall, blue-clad figure, with a Marlin resting comfortably over his arm—went across the scalding sunshine of the courtyard, and through the dark blue shadow of the doorway on the opposite side, and thereafter he was eclipsed for the space of nineteen aching minutes. One presumes he met Senor Delozo and did business with him, and, knowing the Rock Scorpion's shifty ways (and remembering alwaj-3 the portent of the two mutilated Moors), one wonders how the business was carried through satisfactorily. Details -I do not know. I a-sked for them, but Fairfield uncivilly 6aid they were no concern of mine. But this I can record. He placed in Mrs. Horton's lap the bill for the rifles, together with the bill of costs, and enough French gold louis pieces to liquidate both; and because that small lady was very nearly fainting from scare (although she said it was merely the heat), he counted the coins for her himself, and recklessly let the chink, chink, chink of them ring through that hot and dangerous courtyard. "Is that the fully tally?" he asked. ,r lt is. I can't tell you how much obliged I am." . "Then don't try. I've secured a job for our three selves. Mr. Solomon Delozo is moving out of here by the Dutch boat to-morrow, and he ha 3 given mc two whole Spanish dollars because I said we three would carry 'his boxes on board for him. He seems to distrust his own compatriots as ttnozos somehow. Incidentally I may mention both the dollars are bad ones." '"'The swine!" said Rakes. "Certainly. But we'll carry his bundles for all that." "Good heavens, why?" "Because I say so- Come on. Let's escort the lady" back to our packet. We're to come back for the boxes after dark." "I never could understand," said Mrs. Horton, when they were a day out from ilogador. and the steamer was snoring into the Trades—"l never could understand, Hr. Fairfield, how you could bring yourself to carry that fellow's trunks into the German boat when you knew the coins he gave you were bad ones." ""Well," said the fireman thoughtfully, "he'd annoyed mc a good deal by the way he'd have swindled you if we hadn't turned up as bodyguard, so when we got his boxes outside the walls, we just dumped the truck that was in them on to the sand, and were going to take them on board empty. But we found half a dead camel that dogs had left, and we filled them up with that. 1 should say that if the temperature's kept up in the Dutchman's hold, those boxes are getting fruity by now." (To be continued next Wednesday.)