h a grim smile.

"That will depend on thy behaviour. If thou art resolved to play the
fool _now_, I must of necessity be in earnest _then_."

"What mean you?"

"This," said Baba, with sudden gravity, "that those who stand by a
falling man must e'en fall along with him."

"But Hamet Dey is not falling. He has only just risen!" said the
chaouse, with a perplexed look.

"He is not the first who has risen to fall," replied Hadji Baba gravely.
"I would not stand in his slippers for all the treasure in the casba.
Be wise, and take advice from a fool. Sidi Hassan did not quit the
palace to-day to go and smoke his pipe. He is a man of power and a
malcontent. There are other men of power who are also malcontents and
more popular than Hamet. When this is so, it behoves the like of you
and me to look carefully after our necks, to say nothing of our soles!"

As he said this an exclamation from the elder chaouse drew his attention
to the fact that Sidi Hassan himself had just turned the corner of the
street in which they had been conversing, and was at that moment so
earnestly engaged in conversation with Sidi Omar, that the two
approached without at first observing the officers of justice.

The instant Hassan's eye alighted on them, he stopped and became visibly
paler. Omar also stopped, but pretended not to observe the change in
his companion's countenance, nor its cause, as he continued the
conversation.

"Hist!" whispered Hadji Baba to his companions, "when enemies become
sudden friends, we should know how to act."

It was evident from the look of anxiety and uncertainty depicted in the
visage of the elder chaouse that he did not by any means know how to
act. With the stern resolution of a bull-dog nature, however, he
suddenly made up his mind to do his duty.

Advancing quickly toward Hassan, he was about to lay hold of him, when
Hadji Baba stepped abruptly before him, and said with an affable air and
smile--

"His Highness the Dey has sent these good fellows to arrest Sidi Hassan,
and I have taken upon my own shoulders the weighty responsibility--
being, as is well-known, a fool--to offer our united services in the
reversal of the decree by the arrestment of the Dey instead."

"A bold jest, good fellow, and one that may cost thee thy life, for the
present Dey understands not a jest."

"It is no jest," returned Baba, with a keen glance at Omar, whom he knew
to be a plotter in the state; "my soles tingle n