"
"Hundreds of years in the future, it will still be the dark ages in
Islam. And this marabout thinks he _has_ a right over me."
"But if you know he hasn't?"
"I'm beginning to know it--beginning to feel it, anyhow. To feel that
legally and morally I'm free. But law and morals can't break down
walls."
"I believe they can. And if Cassim----"
"My poor child, when Cassim ben Halim died--at a very convenient time
for himself--Sidi El Hadj Mohammed ben Abd-el-Kadr appeared to claim
this maraboutship, left vacant by the third marabout in the line, an
old, old man whose death happened a few weeks before Cassim's. This
present marabout was his next of kin--or so everybody believes. And
that's the way saintships pass on in Islam, just as titles and estates
do in other countries. Now do you begin to understand the mystery?"
"Not quite. I----"
"You heard in Algiers that Cassim had died in Constantinople?"
"Yes. The Governor himself said so."
"The Governor believes so. Every one believes--except a wretched
hump-backed idiot in Morocco, who sold his inheritance to save himself
trouble, because he didn't want to leave his home, or bother to be a
marabout. Perhaps he's dead by this time, in one way or another. I
shouldn't be surprised. If he is, Maieddine and Maieddine's father, and
a few other powerful friends of Cassim's, are the only ones left who
know the truth, even a part of it. And the great Sidi El Hadj Mohammed
himself.
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