ADVENTURERS THREE.

Auckland Star, Volume XLI, Issue 37, 12 February 1910, Page 19

ADVENTURERS THREE.

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XL THE BASTCs ADO EST ALGIERS. «If a good-sized earthquake was to come along/ sai d little Rakes, looking np the hillside at the neat white houses of ta-e oitr, "the whole of Algiers would glide off Us perch, and drop down into tie harbour here." "That irould be a pity," said Fairfield. "Since the French have held it, there's gome or the most attractive wickedness to be found in Algiers that , e left to-day in all North Africa. I don't 53j- the Spanish Jew worn-en are as fine here as they are in Tangier f "Oh, give us a rest," said Clydebank. "You're always after the women. Wha-t'e there to drirk?" "Red wine at nothing a glass, and find tout own stomach-ache cure, and for those who prefer it there's bad brand". The local Frenchman, who's usually a wrong 'un that France is too hot to hold, drinks himself crazy on e'jsinthe. Look here, let's go into the Jardia d'Esssi and smell the eucalyptus." "Good Lord, what for?" ■Fairfield smiled reminiscently. "Pah," said Rakes, "I know. You once proposed to a girl there in your shady past. There's a nook amongst the palms, Where I held her in my arms, And we sniggered at the dimple on her chin. , —Never mind how the rest goes; we mustn't shock the Scottie. But anyway here are the three of us without a continental cent in 'bullion amonget us, and sick for a run ashore. How are we going to afford it?" "There was once," said Fairfield reminiscently, "a Scotch-French-Eurasian Levantine-Arab woman who kept a sort of candle and perfumery shop in the Souk el Attarin that I did a good turn to. Yon see there was a chap trying to strangle her —but it's rather a complicated story." "Well," said Rakes, who always liked to get quickly to the point, "you knocked him on the head 1 , n-nA so gained her eternal gratitude. Go on."

''I'm afraid," said Fairfield, with, an awkward grin, "I rather wore out my welcome even then. We certainly might go and try and draw her, if nothing else offers. But the Souk el Attarin'a a long way off. Ifs right up by the Kasbah, and it's a bit of a grind climbing up tho&e long steep cobbled alleys in this heat."

"ATI the same, -well go," said Rakes, "because nothing better offers. But if your old woman turns out to be a frost, I shall just stand up on the nearest rock to make myself tall enough, and! Mack your blooming eyes for wasting my valueless time. So lead on, Romeo."

They did not change to shore-going clothes, as for the moment they carried all their wardrobes on their backs, but after a wash they went ashore, crossed the quays, stared at Marshal McMahon in the Place de la Republique, and then mounted the steep narrow streets which led towards the citadel, amid mingled scents of orange flowers and drain*. Hot long ago pirate Pashas had held a lively market there in assorted Christians. Faixfield. when it came to the point, had eo-me hesitation about the street, and moTe about the shop, and 1 they poked their head 3 into a dozen evil-smelling alleys, and a score of black boxes of shops before they hit upon the right one. Even when they came to it the proprietorship seemed to have been changed. A large, hook-beaked, truculent Greek was in possession, who wore the handles of two long knives in his waistbelt, and the largest moustache on earth sprouting from, his upper lip.

"I do not know you," he remarked unpleasantly. "1 manage the business for Madame, with full powers, and if she owes you money, I will not pay you."

The three firemen, recognising the probability of a row, instinctively ranged themselves in the best strategic positions for a combined rush. Somehow even under the modern French orderly rule, Alders always seems a city of violence

"■:i injustice. The Greek by way of acknowledgment dropped one brawny hand on to a knife-hilt. The street was dark, and, as it happened, empiy, and it is quite possible that in another minute the little box oi a shop might have been the Bcene of an ugly row.

But a voice from within saved the situation. It was a fat lethargic voice, speaking out of the blackness at the back of the shop, and its remarks were pouched in an unknown tongue. The Greek had evidently received commands. Clearly he disliked them. Equally clearly he was in two minds •.bout obeying. He held up a hand to the three firemen. "Wait, if you pl-ees," he said, and they granted him a truce. Backwards and forwards shot sharp question and lethargic answer into the darkness, the voice evidently demanding lomething which the Greek hated to concede. His prodigious moustache bristled upwards with annoyance till it almost touched the tops of his ears. [And with national instinct his hands waved in unison with 'his expostulations. Algiers haa always been a city of intrigue. But Et last argument, or reiteration, won the day, and "She Bays," he observed Ungraciously, "you are to come inside."

"Suppose you lead the way," said Fairfield, whose ribs tickled with the idea ot getting a knife into them. The street ■was dark and narrow. The back of the little shop was as black as the pit. And the truculent Greek was the last man in the world to be suspected of honest Intentions towards his visitors. Also the atmosphere of the ex-pirate city even now makes its inhabitants look upon a little quiet assassination with a lenient eye.

TEey blundered down steps co worn that they resembled an inclined way, and the air that met them was rich with oil, and sa-voury with the perfume of garlic At the foot of the slope they turned through a horseshoe-headed doorWay and entered a small room, which they went far towards filling Its one occupant was an enormously fat woman, who had deposited herself, a mere mas 3 of draperies and curves, on the divan vhieh lay against the further wall. She made prompt and pungent inquiry as to which of her cherished ones it was that tad called for her.

"It was I, my full-t>lown rose of the East." said Fairfield. He always had a *ay u'lth him for women, whether their *aists measured thirteen inches or 300. •Our old tank blew into Algiers here,

and I hastened, as formerly, to throw myeelf at your charming feet."

"I donU think I ever saw you in my life before," the lady announced, after a cool inspection. "But that don't matter. I can make a use for you. In the meanwhile, what have you come for? Money or a drink?"

"Your beaux yeux alone, tendril of my heart. But in the meanwhile, as you say, we are quite open to anything you can offer—even ventilation."

"You'll have to pay for your entertainment."

"Haven'e I spent a lifetime in paying for my entertainment at the hands oi your charming sex? That's why I always enjoy myself so much."

<c Stephanopouios," said the lady, "take them to the" (they missed a word or so here) "and give them the best you can provide."

In the wake of the truculent Greek they made their way through a further warren of old houses, peopled by rustling shadows and fruity odours. Finally they came to a narrow well of a courtyard, roofed by a pink and green striped awning, round the edges of whicib. appeared narrow slices of cobalt sky far overhead. The windows that gave upon the courtyard were all high up and closely shuttered, and. of other apertures there was the one door they came in at, which from its iron-bound strength was suggestive of the portal of a fortress.

"In about an hour," said the Greek, "I will send you refreshment," and left them, and slammed the door behind him.

"Curse that dago's impudence," said the little Yankee.

"Well, you could ihardly suppose," said Fairfield by way of apology, "that he kepi a ready cooked meal up his sleeve like the person in the ' Arabian Nights. , Aβ this place doesn't run to a chair, I guess fhe tiles are warm enough to sit upon, so here goes for a siesta. ; ' True to promise, within the hour * meal arrived. There were kybobs of mutton roasted on a skewer, a plate of greasy polenta that looked like Yorkshire pudding, a large tray of elaborate tarts, and a demijohn of prussian-blue wine. The bearer of these dainties waa a Moor, and he entered the courtyard hurriedly. Rakes, who was watching, fancied he saw the gleam of a knife blade spurring him on from behind, but the passage was dark, and he could not b» sure. However, the ironbound door Cammed behind him, and the Moor's knees plainly gibbered as he shuffled off his slippers, laid a carpet, and proceeded to spread out the meal "There's trouble brerwing," said Clydebank, not because he disliked trouble, but because he was always the cautious one of the trio.

"I shouldn't wonder," lairfield admitted. "That dear stout lady has always been surrounded by a nimbus of trouble ever eince I've known her. She's quite one of the old style ol Algiers citizens. Her ancestors, I should say, were some bey's professional torturers. But in the meanwhile, dinner cools."

This last fact was so obvious that they felHx> without further argument, eating with their fingers in the absence of more modern tools, and drinking the wine in turn from the mouth of the demijohn. The Moor, in snowy jellab, waited on them with twittering lemon-coloured fingers. " Have a pull at the demijohn yourself, old cock," said the Scot hospitably. " We •don't want to keep all the stomachache to ourselves, and there's no one here that'll sing out in your kirk that you've (looked upon the forbidden liquor." But the Moor gave tihem clearly to understand that he was quite unworthy to drink with such distinguished effendie.

"That's very true," Clydebank" admitted. " Still, if I were you I'd no' refuse a drink with, your betters, when iit'g offered. However, if you think the liqour "will endanger your salvation, hand mc the demijohn. My soul's 6cotoh and tougher." It was not till they had dined to repletion and lit their pipes that the letter arrived. It fluttered down through the hot air from one of the closed windows above, and though it was ill-spelt and badly expressed they gathered the gist of its contents easily enough. The Moor Who had waited on them was their hostess's enemy; she wished her guests to give him the bastinado; to be precise, two hundred strokes lustily applied to the soles of his feet, " so that the meat be flogged from them down to the bone." If they objected to doing her tnis smaJl service they might stay in the courtyard ■till they rotted. If they performed it they would have her thanks, and—the door would be unlocked. The Moor, it was evident, guessed the drift of the epistle, and also Clydebank's nod towards a bundle of canes whi<jh stood propped up beside the door. He flopped to his knees, and with his lips began nuzding the firemen's boots. " Here, I say," Rakes expostulated, " drop that If you are fond of the taste of blacking, lick your own. I'm not a Pasha. I wonder why the old woman's got her knife into you?" "Not knowing Arabic," said Fairfield, " you'll have to wonder. But still I don't feel inclined to give the poor beggar a hiding on spec. Nor do I intend to get into trouble on board the boat by outstaying our leave." " Good Lord, but how get out?"

"The lowest of those windows strikes mc as being about twenty feet above the ground level. If Mahomet here, and Clydebsuik stand beneath and embrace firmly, and I climb on to their shoulders and stand on their heads, and then Rakes climbs up and stands on mine—and we don't fall down and get hurt—why then he should be able to get his fingers on the sill. After that, if he doesn't get his throat cut on landing "

"You leave that to mc," said Bakes " Make your ladder."

They did this, and not being acrobats, damaged one another's heads and shoulders severely, and had some nasty falls befoTe the little Yankee finally got aloft. But he reached the -window at last, tore open the shutter and found—an empty room. By whisper and gesture he told them they must make a rope, and bo they stripped the Moor of his white robes, and tore these up into strings, which they laboriously plaited into sennit. Then one by. one they scrambled and were hauled up to the window, and by tile time that all had landed, they were pretty ra.w for revenge. They went out looking for it; getting lost in a maze of old grimy rooms that smelt stale with the old lees of fast

sin; and finally coming upon tie very iron-bound fortreee-Bke door thtut l*d into the courtyard. .It was unlocked, a-nd opened easily. "Well, paint mc blue!" said Rakee. "We took her word that it wae locked."

"And never tried it," said Fairfleld. "She always was a bumoTOua little piuss. Let's go and thank her for her Mndneee; and if I don't pull those big moustaches off that ugly looking Greek, I'll i eel I've wasted my day's work." But the Greek and Madame remained uninterviewed. They had taken advantage of the interval to make a mid-day flit. The Moor, by the help oi an interpreter, pointed this out to the trio.

Hβ said he was the landlord. He seemed to think he had got off cheaply by being swindled only. Even to-day in Algiers they mix up a good deal of savagery with their humour amongst the steep streets of the old native city. (To be continued next Wednesday.)

v&IRFIELD ICDTOEBANK ?) NAND