should be destroyed. We had all been so proud of the trim little pinnace, with its smart brass funnel, dainty bow-plates with the Yacht Club pennant, and its tiny Union Jack. And now it was doomed. It was like watching the drowning of a favourite dog, and being powerless to help. Nearer and nearer the breakers she came, now rising on the crest of a wave, now disappearing for a moment in the trough of the sea; and as we were straining our eyes to follow her, she suddenly vanished. In her place we saw a barrel floating rapidly inshore, and knew that our bonny launch had foundered. Never more would she rouse the admiration of the good folks in Arrecife, or dodge in and out among the yachts at Cowes.

The barrel drove ashore among the rocks a little way down the coast, but it was too late to get it, as sunset was rapidly approaching. On our return to the camp we told the chiefs what had happened, and used the incident as the text for a sermon. They ought to be very grateful to us, we told them, for risking the perils of the sea to come and open trade with them on such a dangerous coast, and they should be ashamed of themselves for grumbling, because we did not land rifles in a bad sea. They listened meekly, not to say stolidly, and were like good children for the rest of the day.

About nine o'clock that night, just when we were thinking about turning in, and some of the 'Forty whom we could not keep out of our tent were already huddled up dozing, there was a sudden alarm. Two men came rushing to the door of our tent in a great state of excitement, and said that they had heard the neighing of horses not far off. Scarcely were the words out of his mouth before the Sbooyas were on

their feet. Daggers were hastily slung over their shoulders and their long guns grasped, and of course we joined them in 'belting up,' so as to be ready for any emergencies.

It proved to be a false alarm, but Sidi Mulud, one of the leading spirits among the 'Forty,' took the opportunity of pointing a moral. Our big riding-boots had from the first been a source of wonderment to him, but that anyone should take his clothes off to go to sleep was a quite incomprehensible proceeding to him. If all the Ingliz did that, in case of an enemy attacking them, he said, they would all be shot before they could get their boots on. We could only reply that if we lived in the same dread of our enemies attacking us as these fellows do, perhaps we should sleep in our clothes too. And indeed we did that night, not so much to be in readiness in case of a surprise, but in hourly apprehension that the tent would be blown down by the wind, which had by this time risen to a perfect hurricane.

And a strange sight it was in the faint candlelight to see five or six long-robed Mohammedans suddenly rise up, and turning towards Mecca, and uplifting their hands, commence in a chanting monotone to recite their prayer to Allah. One would generally say the prayer aloud for the benefit of the lot, and they would all bow and prostrate themselves to the ground at the proper moment, which occurs about half a dozen times in the course of one short prayer. The Koran enjoins that before praying the true believer shall wash his hands and feet, his forearms and his mouth and ears; but water was scarce at Arksis, and these hypocrites would go through the solemn farce of putting their open palms on the ground three times as though

dipping them in a bowl of water, and perform all the action of ablution!

With the exception of drapers' shopwalkers at home, I have never seen any people more systematically indulge in the habit of washing their hands with 'invisible soap and imperceptible water.'

[94]

CHAPTER IX.

TREACHERY AT WORK.

The Tourmaline disappears-We discuss our prospects of getting home-British prestige in Morocco-A boar-hunt without the boar-Wreckage-An impudent request-The weekly market-The yacht sighted again-Welcome and unwelcome guests-A native barber at work-Thieves again-Muley Abdallah gives us bad news-Treachery in the camp.

WE didn't feel quite so refreshed on waking the next morning, a circumstance which we attributed to the fact of our having slept in our clothes. The tent had weathered the storm without breaking a rope or uprooting a peg. But where was the Tourmaline? In all the wide expanse of sea that lay beneath us, not a sign of the yacht was to be seen.

'I wonder if she has gone to the Canaries for a surfboat,' I said, trying to put the best complexion on

matters.

But Beyerle gave utterance to the thought that had flashed across my mind. 'Suppose she has been wrecked in the gale?'

'I can hardly think that likely,' I replied. 'After the hammering she got in the Channel and the Bay, I think she could stand anything in the way of mere weather.'

We couldn't shake off a feeling of uneasiness, all the

same, and fell to discussing what we should do if the poor old Saucy Cat, as we had been wont to call her on board, had been drowned like her kitten the launch. She might have dragged her anchors in the gale, and drifted on to the rocks, in which case she would have gone to pieces in an hour.

The chiefs said they could not take us overland to Mogador, as we should certainly be stopped by the Sultan's troops as soon as we crossed the border, even if all the tribes in Sus were friendly. We said we didn't care for the Sultan's troops, as they would not dare to lay violent hands on English travellers. (For the sake of uniformity, I suppose, Beyerle preferred to represent himself as English, and the interpreter tried to do likewise; but the characteristics of his race were too strongly marked in him, apart from the fact that some of the tribesmen had seen him before, and knew him for a Jew in Mogador. Mogador. Him they dubbed El Arabi.) It was all very well for us to profess indifference to the Sultan's troops, but the Susi knew the Sherifian soldiery better than we did, and we were afterwards to learn the bitter lesson that the name of the English no longer carries with it in certain parts of Morocco the respect and awe in which it was once held. Civis Britannicus sum is not a declaration to conjure with in the presence of Moorish Kaids and officials nowadays; indeed, it is not nearly so well calculated to insure respectful treatment as the statement, 'I am an American citizen.’

The chiefs said they would take us to Cape Juby, or part of the way to Agadir, whence they would send a letter for us on to Mogador. We felt really alone, strangers in a strange land; hundreds of miles from civilization, and without mules or horses, and with