Part 24 (1/2)
”You do not trust me,” said Ha.s.san reproachfully.
”I _have_ trusted you with my secret and my life,” replied Omar, ”it is but fitting that thou shouldst give me some sure guarantee of thy friends.h.i.+p--though I doubt it not.”
”Be it so,” said Ha.s.san, as he rose, and, following the conspirator into the street, hurried up to the citadel.
When Hamet Dey issued the order to have Sidi Ha.s.san arrested, as already related, Hadji Baba, having returned to his wonted place in the lobby of the palace, heard the order, and, being a bold man, ventured into the audience-chamber after the Dey had left it. There he found the pieces of the torn commission. Picking them hastily up, he retired to his own apartment, put them together, and very soon guessed the nature of the quarrel between his new master and Sidi Ha.s.san. Rightly concluding, from the insolent violence of Ha.s.san's exit and the extremity of the Dey's rage, that the breach was irreparable, and knowing that Ha.s.san was a man of some weight with the army, he resolved to ascertain the views of that worthy, and, in the event of his designing mischief, to aid him.
With this end in view he hastened out to search for Ha.s.san, but, like the officers of justice, failed for some time to find him. He met, however, with two of the searchers in the persons of the chaouses who had so recently administered the bastinado in a mild manner to himself.
”Well met, comrades,” he said, with a nod; ”we have no chance of finding Sidi Ha.s.san, I fear, for when fools are abroad, wise men stop at home.”
”Thou hadst better get thee home, then,” retorted the executioner gruffly.
”Not badly thrust,” said the jester, laughing; ”but have patience with me, comrade. I am no fool to-day. For once in a way I mean to act the wiseacre. You see,”--here he became confidential--”what the household of the palace may expect from our new master.”
”I see nothing,” replied the man testily, ”except that whatever master rules there is always plenty of work for me and my chum here to do; and let me tell you, Master Baba, that I am no revolutionist--I mind my own business.”
”Very good, comrade,” returned Baba lightly; ”thou wilt play the fool to-day and change places with me. But bear in remembrance that a chaouse may have to be beaten as well as a jester, and that it would not be difficult to find others to take thy place. I might even be tempted to do so myself in case of necessity. It would be a rare jest to have a chaouse beaten by a jester, would it not?”
”If it ever comes to that, I hope you will prove grateful and lay on lightly,” returned the man, with 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 Ha.s.san 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 Ha.s.san 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 Ha.s.san'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 Ha.s.san, 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 Ha.s.san, 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 now with what they have already received, and my thoughts tingle with what is yet to come. If you have need of friends in the palace here are two--good and true,”