e present.
Thus we argued. Poisoning in Morocco is such an every-day occurrence that
it was a most ordinary suspicion on Tahara's part. After all, there might
be nothing in it, but merely a fear grounded on all sorts of reasons and
assumptions. It is only a matter of sitting down and thinking to conjure
up plenty of fears in Morocco.

Feeling that it was not pleasant to have a bottle marked "Poison" in the
house, and not to be positive as to its contents, I resolved to empty and
wash it out, sending the so-called "water" to an analyst at Tangier, and
refilling the bottle with _bona-fide_ water before replacing it. The
chicken test was not thoroughly satisfactory. As matters stood, Miss
Z---- decided to come out that afternoon to our house, while S`lam should
be sent away on an errand, in order that Tahara might be interrogated and
the thing ended.

[Illustration: CHARMING SNAKES.

[_To face p. 214._]

Arrived home, I found that S`lam had been dispatched to the city to
market, and that Maman had gone with him. Alas! the little bottle had
disappeared; it was no longer in the niche which could be seen every time
the door was passed. Miss Z---- arrived in the afternoon. By that time
some other occult influence had come to work in Tahara's mind, and
directly Miss Z---- spoke to her it was evident that she was hedging. As
long as she was terrified and had lost her head she blurted out the
truth; but given time to think the matter over, a thousand side-issues
weighed with her, and she was no more inclined to trust us than she would
have been to trust a Moorish woman, who is brought up to lies, intrigue,
and diplomacy, and fed upon such axioms as "When you have nothing else to
tell, tell the truth." _The bottle_, she said, _had been taken away by
S`lam and his mother. It belonged to his mother. It was poison to poison
people in the Riff._ A little later on she said _it had nothing whatever
to do with S`lam, and that it had only water in it--that S`lam had told
her so. That she had never seen him put anything into her food. That he
was "good." That she only had a bad pain last night. That she did not
know why the bottle had been brought there._ And so on. Her one prayer
was that the signoritas would forget all that had happened. But for days
she would not let us: by creeping up when S`lam was out of the way and
putting her finger on her lips, by anxious questionings and
gesticulations, the thing was never allowed to rest. Sh