Yes, Paul Ravenel was undoubtedly6 rapping upon the Segma gate, but rapping rather urgently, rather insistently7. How those dogs of watchmen slept, to be sure! And Si El Hadj Arrifa woke with a start and very cold. It was upon his own outer door that some one knocked urgently and insistently.
The Moor rose to his feet and stopped. His eyes had fallen upon his fine silver candlesticks and he stood upright and stiff in a paralysis8 of terror. The candles had burnt low. He had slept there for a long time. Mohammed should have been back an hour ago. The sound of his knocking, too, urgent, yet with all its urgency, discreet9, spoke10, like a voice of fear. Something untoward11 then had happened. Yet the city still slept. Si El Hadj Arrifa was no braver than most of his fellow townsmen. He shivered suddenly and violently and little whimpers of panic broke from his lips. Massacres12 were not conducted quietly. Uproar13 and clamour waited upon them; and the strange and eerie14 silence brooding over the town daunted15 the soft luxurious16 Moor till his bones seemed to melt within his body. It was stealthy and sinister17 like an enemy hidden in the dark. He crept into the passage and listened. There was nothing to hear but the urgent scratching and rapping upon the door.
“Is that you, Mohammed?” he asked.
“Yes, Master.”
Si El Hadj Arrifa unfastened the door and held it ajar, looking out. Mohammed was alone, and there was no longer a lantern in his hand.
“Come in! And make no noise!” said Si El Hadj Arrifa.
Mohammed slipped into the passage, closed the strong door so cautiously that not a hinge whined18, then locked and bolted and barred it.
“Now follow me!”
The Moor led the way back to the room with the brass19 bedstead and sank like a man tired out on to the cushions. His servant stood in front of him with a passive mask-like face and eyes which shone bright with fear in the light of the candles. “Speak low!” said Si El Hadj Arrifa; and this is the story which Mohammed told in a voice hardly above a whisper.
The French officer did not ride to the Segma Gate. He called in a quiet voice to Mohammed and turned off towards the Bab-el-Hadid on the south of the town.
“The Bab-el-Hadid,” Si El Hadj Arrifa repeated in wonderment.
“But his Excellency did not go as far as the gate. He stopped at the hospital and dismounted,” said Mohammed.
Si El Hadj Arrifa’s face lightened. The hospital was the headquarters of the military command. Paul Ravenel had taken his story there.
Paul had remained for a long time in the hospital. Two officers came out with him at length, one of whom was dressed in slippers20 and pyjamas21 with a dressing22 gown thrown on as if he had been wakened from his bed.
“Was his Excellency smiling?” asked Si El Hadj Arrifa.
“No. The other two were smiling. His Excellency shrugged23 his shoulders and mounted his horse heavily like a man in trouble.”
Si El Hadj Arrifa nodded his head and muttered to himself.
“They will not believe,” he said. “No, they will not believe.” He looked towards Mohammed. “Then he went out by the Bab-el-Hadid?”
But Paul had not. He had turned his back to the Bab-el-Hadid and bade Mohammed lead to the Karouein quarter.
They went for a while through silent empty streets, Mohammed ten paces or so ahead, holding the lantern so that the light shone upon the ground and Paul Ravenel following upon his horse. Mohammed did not turn round at all to see that the Captain was following him, but the shoes of the horse clacked on the cobbles just behind him and echoed from wall to wall. They came to the first gate and it was open. The great doors stood back against the wall and the watchman was not at his post. Mohammed was frightened. An omission24 to shut off the quarters of the city one from the other at night could not be due to negligence25. This was an order given by authority. However, no one stopped them; they saw no one; they heard no one.
They came to a second gate. This too stood wide. Beyond the gate the street was built over for a long way making a black tunnel, and half way down the tunnel it turned sharply at a right angle. When this corner had been turned, a glimmer26 of twilight27 far ahead would show where the tunnel ceased.
Mohammed passed in under the roof over the street and after he had walked some twenty paces forward, he judged that Captain Ravenel had fallen a little behind, the shoes of the horse no longer rang so clearly on the stones. He turned then, and saw horse and rider outlined against the dark sky, as they reached the tunnel’s mouth. He noticed Paul Ravenel bent28 forward over the neck of his horse to prevent his head from knocking against the low roof. Then he entered the tunnel and was at once swallowed up in the blackness of it.
Mohammed walked forward again rather quickly. For he was afraid of this uncanny place, and turned the angle of the street without looking round again. He did not think at all. If he had, he would have understood that once the feeble flicker29 of his lantern were lost beyond the corner, Paul Ravenel would be left in the darkness of the blind, the mouth of the tunnel behind him, a blank wall before his face. Mohammed was in a fever to reach the open street again and now that he saw it in front of him at the end of the passage opaquely30 glimmering31 as an uncurtained window on a dark night will glimmer to one in a room, he pushed eagerly forward. He was close to the outlet32 when he realised that no horse’s hoofs33 rang on the cobbles behind him.
He turned and peered back into the tunnel. There was nothing to be seen and there was no sound. Mohammed did not dare to call out. He stood wavering between his duty and his fear; and suddenly a tremendous clatter34 broke the silence and frightened Mohammed out of his wits. Mohammed had just time to draw back close against the wall when a horse dashed past him at a full gallop35. A stirrup iron struck and tore his djellaba and the horse was gone—out of the tunnel up the street. But Mohammed’s eyes were now accustomed to the darkness. He was able to see against the sky that the horse was riderless.
Something had startled the horse and the French Captain was thrown. He was lying on the ground back there, in the darkness. That was all! Thus Mohammed reasoned, listening. Yes, certainly that was all—except that it might well be that the French Captain was hurt.
Mohammed must return and find out. Quaking with alarm he retraced36 his steps, throwing the light of his lantern on one side of the passage after the other. But so far the passage was empty. No doubt the Captain would be lying on the ground beyond the angle where the tunnel turned. But here too he searched in vain. The Captain had disappeared: somewhere between the two outlets37 in this black place. He had gone!
Mohammed lifted the lantern above his head, swinging it this way and that so that the light flickered38 and danced upon the walls. Then his arm grew steady. Opposite it to him in the darkest corner there was a little door studded with great nails—a door you never perceived though you passed through the tunnel ten times a day. Mohammed crossed to it, touched it, shook it. It was locked and bolted. He was debating whether he should knock upon it or no. But he dared not. This was the beginning of that Holy War which was to free El Magreb from the clutch of the Christians,—the stealthy beginning. To-morrow there would not be one of them alive in Fez, and outside Fez the land would be one flame of vengeance39. If the French Captain were behind that little door he must be praying for a swift death!
Mohammed drew back and suddenly the mouth of the tunnel was obscured and he saw the figures of two men. Panic had been hovering40 about Mohammed these many minutes since. It took him by the throat and the heart now. With a cry he dashed his lantern on the ground and fled leaping, past the two men. He was not followed.
This is the story which Mohammed told to Si El Hadj Arrifa in the room with the clocks and the brass bedstead and the silver candelabra.
“Yes.”
Si El Hadj Arrifa nodded his head thoughtfully. He did not believe that the Captain had been captured or slain42 in this noiseless fashion. He himself had been bidden not to open that big envelope locked away upstairs until he was very certain that Paul Ravenel was dead. The Captain had his plans into which it was no business of his friend to pry43.
“As to that little door, Mohammed,” he said. “It will be well to forget it.”
“It is forgotten, Master,” answered Mohammed, and far away but very clear and musical in the silence of the night the voice of a mueddin on a lofty minaret44 called the Faithful to their prayers.
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1
squatted
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| v.像动物一样蹲下( squat的过去式和过去分词 )；非法擅自占用（土地或房屋）；为获得其所有权；而占用某片公共用地。 | |
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2
turbulence
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| n.喧嚣，狂暴，骚乱，湍流 | |
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3
intensity
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| n.强烈，剧烈；强度；烈度 | |
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moor
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| n.荒野，沼泽；vt.(使)停泊；vi.停泊 | |
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5
drowsiness
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| n.睡意；嗜睡 | |
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6
undoubtedly
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| adv.确实地，无疑地 | |
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7
insistently
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| ad.坚持地 | |
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paralysis
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| n.麻痹(症)；瘫痪(症) | |
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discreet
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| adj.(言行)谨慎的；慎重的；有判断力的 | |
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10
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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11
untoward
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| adj.不利的，不幸的，困难重重的 | |
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12
massacres
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| 大屠杀( massacre的名词复数 )； 惨败 | |
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13
uproar
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| n.骚动，喧嚣，鼎沸 | |
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14
eerie
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| adj.怪诞的；奇异的；可怕的；胆怯的 | |
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15
daunted
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| 使（某人）气馁，威吓( daunt的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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16
luxurious
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| adj.精美而昂贵的；豪华的 | |
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sinister
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| adj.不吉利的，凶恶的，左边的 | |
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18
whined
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| v.哀号( whine的过去式和过去分词 )；哀诉，诉怨 | |
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19
brass
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| n.黄铜；黄铜器，铜管乐器 | |
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20
slippers
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| n. 拖鞋 | |
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21
pyjamas
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| n.（宽大的）睡衣裤 | |
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22
dressing
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| n.(食物)调料；包扎伤口的用品，敷料 | |
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23
shrugged
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| vt.耸肩（shrug的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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24
omission
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| n.省略，删节；遗漏或省略的事物，冗长 | |
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25
negligence
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| n.疏忽，玩忽，粗心大意 | |
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26
glimmer
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| v.发出闪烁的微光；n.微光，微弱的闪光 | |
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27
twilight
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| n.暮光，黄昏；暮年，晚期，衰落时期 | |
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28
bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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29
flicker
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| vi./n.闪烁，摇曳，闪现 | |
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30
opaquely
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| adv.不透明地，无光泽地 | |
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31
glimmering
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| n.微光，隐约的一瞥adj.薄弱地发光的v.发闪光，发微光( glimmer的现在分词 ) | |
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32
outlet
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| n.出口/路；销路；批发商店；通风口；发泄 | |
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33
hoofs
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| n.（兽的）蹄，马蹄( hoof的名词复数 )v.（兽的）蹄，马蹄( hoof的第三人称单数 ) | |
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34
clatter
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| v./n.(使)发出连续而清脆的撞击声 | |
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35
gallop
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| v./n.(马或骑马等)飞奔；飞速发展 | |
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36
retraced
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| v.折回( retrace的过去式和过去分词 )；回忆；回顾；追溯 | |
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37
outlets
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| n.出口( outlet的名词复数 )；经销店；插座；廉价经销店 | |
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38
flickered
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| （通常指灯光）闪烁，摇曳( flicker的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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39
vengeance
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| n.报复，报仇，复仇 | |
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40
hovering
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| 鸟( hover的现在分词 )； 靠近（某事物）； （人）徘徊； 犹豫 | |
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41
mosque
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| n.清真寺 | |
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42
slain
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| 杀死，宰杀，杀戮( slay的过去分词 )； (slay的过去分词) | |
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43
pry
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| vi.窥(刺)探，打听；vt.撬动(开，起) | |
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44
minaret
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| n.（回教寺院的）尖塔 | |
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