There was just one man in the town who found no offence in either form
of warfare. The more wicked the one and the more outrageous the other,
the better for his person.

It was the Governor of Tetuan. His name was El Arby, but he was known
as Ben Aboo, the son of his father. That father had been none other
than the late Sultan. Therefore Ben Aboo was a brother of Abd er-Rahman,
though by another mother, a negro slave. To be a Sultan's brother in
Morocco is not to be a Sultan's favourite, but a possible aspirant to
his throne. Nevertheless Ben Aboo had been made a Kaid, a chief, in the
Sultan's army, and eventually a commander-in-chief of his cavalry.
In that capacity he had led a raid for arrears of tribute on the Beni
Hasan, the Beni Idar, and the Wad Ras These rebellious tribes inhabit
the country near to Tetuan, and hence Ben Aboo's attention had been
first directed to that town. When he had returned from his expedition he
offered the Sultan fifteen thousand dollars for the place of its Basha
or Governor, and promised him thirty thousand dollars a year as tribute.
The Sultan took his money, and accepted his promise. There was a Basha
at Tetuan already, but that was a trifling difficulty. The good man
was summoned to the Sultan's presence, accused of appropriating the
Shereefian tributes, stripped of all he had, and cast into prison.

That was how Ben Aboo had become Governor of Tetuan, and the story of
how Israel had become his informal Administrator of Affairs is no
less curious. At first Ben Aboo seemed likely to lose by his dubious
transaction. His new function was partly military and partly civil. He
was a valiant soldier--the black blood of his slave-mother had counted
for so much; but he was a bad administrator--he could neither read nor
write nor reckon figures. In this dilemma his natural colleague would
have been his Khaleefa, his deputy, Ali bin Jillool, but because this
man had been the deputy of his predecessor also, he could not trust him.
He had two other immediate subordinates, his Commander of Artillery and
his Commander of Infantry, but neither of them could spell the letters
of his name. Then there was his Taleb the Adel, his scribe the notary,
Hosain ben Hashem, styled Haj, because he had made the pilgrimage to
Mecca, but he was also the Imam, or head of the Mosque, and the wily
Ben Aboo foresaw the danger of some day coming into collision with the
religious sentiment of his people. Finally, th