"
Stephen looked questioningly at the Frenchman.
"Perhaps it would be better to speak in English," suggested Sabine. "I
have not much, but I get on. And the kitchen windows are not far away.
Our good landlord and his wife do not cook with their ears. I was
telling your friend that the marabout himself has a European wife--who
is said to be a great beauty. These things get out. I have heard that
she has red hair and skin as white as cream. That is also the
description which Mr. Caird gave me of the young lady seeking a sister.
It makes one put two and two together, does it not?"
"By Jove!" exclaimed Stephen. He and Nevill looked at each other, but
Nevill raised his eyebrows slightly. He had not thought it best, at
present, to give the mystery of Cassim ben Halim, as he now deciphered
it, into a French officer's keeping. It was a secret in which France
would be deeply, perhaps inconveniently, interested. A little later, the
interference of the French might be welcome, but it would be just as
well not to bring it in prematurely, or separately from their own
personal interests. "I wish to heaven," Stephen went on, "I'd known this
when I was talking to the fellow! And yet--I'm not sure it would have
made much difference. We were deadly polite to each other, but I hinted
in a veiled way that, if he were concealing any secret from me, the
French authorities might have something to say to him. I was obsequious
about the great power of Islam in general, and his in particular, but I
suggested that France was the upper dog just now.
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