If we learn he's alive, and where he is
living, it may be almost the same as knowing where Miss Ray has gone."
XV
Nothing could be heard of Victoria at any place of departure for ships,
nor at the railway stations. Stephen agreed with Nevill that it would
not be fair to lay the matter in the hands of the police, lest in some
way the girl's mysterious "plan" should be defeated. But he could not
put out of his head an insistent idea that the Arab on board the
_Charles Quex_ might stand for something in this underhand business.
Stephen could not rest until he had found out the name of this man, and
what had become of him after arriving at Algiers. As for the name,
having appeared on the passenger list, it was easily obtained without
expert help. The Arab was a certain Sidi Maieddine ben el Hadj Messaoud;
and when Jeanne Soubise was applied to for information concerning him,
she was able to learn from her Arab friends that he was a young man of
good family, the son of an Agha or desert chief, whose douar lay far
south, in the neighbourhood of El-Aghouat. He was respected by the
French authorities and esteemed by the Governor of Algiers. Known to be
ambitious, he was anxious to stand well with the ruling power, and among
the dissipated, sensuous young Arabs of his class and generation, he was
looked upon as an example and a shining light. The only fault found in
him by his own people was that he inclined to be too modern, too French
in his political opinions; and his French friends found no fault with
him at all.
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