mean?"

In another moment Ben Aboo had read the riddle his own way. "Wait!" he
cried, looking vainly for help and answer into the faces of his people
about him. "Who said that when he was away from Tetuan he went to Fez?
The Sultan was there then. He had just come up from Soos. That's it! I
knew it! The man is like all the rest of them. Abd er-Rahman has bought
him. Allah! Allah! What have I done that every soul that eats my bread
should spy and pry on me?"

Satisfied with this explanation of Israel's conduct, Ben Aboo waited for
no further assurance, but fell to a wild outburst of mingled prayers and
protests. "O Giver of Good to all! O Creator! It is Abd er-Rahman again.
Ya Allah! Ya Allah! Or else his rapacious satellites--his thieves,
his robbers, his cut-throats! That bloated Vizier! That leprous Naib
es-Sultan! Oh, I know them. Bismillah! They want to fleece me. They want
to squeeze me of my little wealth--my just savings--my hard earnings
after my long service. Curse them! Curse their relations! O Merciful! O
Compassionate! They'll call it arrears of taxes. But no, by the beard of
my father, no! Not one feels shall they have if I die for it. I'm an old
soldier--they shall torture me. Yes, the bastinado, the jellab--but I'll
stand firm! Allah! Allah! Bismillah! Why does Abd er-Rahman hate me?
It's because I'm his brother--that's it, that's it! But I've never risen
against him. Never, never! I've paid him all! All! I tell you I've paid
everything. I've got nothing left. You know it yourself, Israel, you
know it."

Thus, in the crawling of his fear he cried with maudlin tears, pleaded
and entreated and threatened fumbling meantime the beads of his rosary
and tramping nervously to and fro about the patio until he drew up
at length, with a supplicating look, face to face with Israel. And if
anything had been needed to fix Israel to his purpose of withdrawing for
ever from the service of Ben Aboo, he must have found it in this pitiful
spectacle of the Kaid's abject terror, his quick suspicion, his base
disloyalty, and rancorous hatred of his own master, the Sultan.

But, struggling to suppress his contempt, Israel said, speaking as
slowly and calmly as at first, "Basha, have no fear; I have not sold
myself to Abd er-Rahman. It is true that I was at Fez--but not to see
the Sultan. I have never seen him. I am not his spy. He knows nothing
of me. I know nothing of him, and what I am doing now is being done for
myself