Jakoub

“ Davoren, how we’re bound to depend on Jakoub in a business like this is.”
[136] “I suppose it would be impossible,” I suggested, “to find an Arab with Jakoub’s knowledge, who was not also a scoundrel?”
“I don’t believe,” said Welfare solemnly, “that such a man exists. A straight man couldn’t know all Jakoub knows.”
This remark silenced me. I had so often myself observed this inverse ratio between knowledge and virtue.
At dinner that evening I was somewhat oppressed by the feeling that it was probably my last night on the Astarte. We had been such good friends on board. ”

“ I was thinking aloud, forgetful of Edmund.
“My dear old man!” he cried, getting up and taking my hands, “you are straining your conscience until you’ll dislocate the poor old thing, just for my sake. Don’t do it. I cannot stand it! Welfare and I can evaporate again. The world is round and one can go round it. Hand over Jakoub and let him get what he deserves. ”

“ The cloud of anxiety for the enterprise in hand was dark over us, and beyond that the sky of the future looked gloomy enough. There was the threat of Jakoub’s malevolence and, more serious to me, the question of Edmund’s eventual future. ”

“ Somewhere before reaching Brighton he would have to leave the coast, strike inland and find a hiding-place before morning. He is sure to make for London. Jakoub is too conspicuous in the country. They will have to travel at night and find a hiding-place for Jakoub during the day. It will take them the best part of three nights to reach London.”
“Do you think they have much chance of eluding the police?” the bishop asked.
“I think they will, because Welfare can move about as he likes in the daytime. He can get provisions and reconnoitre. ”

“ I shrank from returning to the shop in Brighton, though it was a duty I had undertaken. The shop was part of the iniquity, and the prospect of re-opening all that business struck a chill through me, like getting into a wet shirt.
To discuss the matter with Schultz was particularly revolting, for he alone, of them all, struck me as being completely abject and unclean. Jakoub was at least a courageous scoundrel and had a dignity of his own; even Van Ermengen was probably in some respects a man. But there was that about Schultz which made me think of him as an insult to humanity. ”

“ But it requires consideration. It is better that Jakoub should come here. We must keep him under observation and safe from arrest. I hope your brother and Welfare will return first, for they will know better than we can how to handle the ruffian. It might even be well, if they go to Nyasaland, that they should take him with them. They could offer him safety at least, and he might look upon it as a new field for villainy.”
“He would certainly make it that,” I said.
“Yes. But no doubt Satan will see that he is employed wherever he may be. I have little hope of our power to save such as he is. ”

“ It was an intense desire to pull that trigger and kill him. It was blood-lust. It had never visited me before, and I felt it now as an intolerable temptation.
Jakoub saw it in my face. I saw it reflected by the terror in his eyes.
“Do not, effendi,” he moaned, and I pitied him. The desire for his life faded out.
“In an hour it will be day,” he argued. “The people will awake. If I am found here there will be plenty questions. It is not wise, effendi!”
[193] I reached out with my left hand and took his knife from the table. ”

“ But the Astarte will be watched every minute she’s in harbour. They searched us for Jakoub, sir, and for this little lot. Your friend will have heard of it by now.”
Captain Welfare smiled, a regrettably unrepentant smile. But many a man who has changed sides has a temporary hankering for the old colours.
“You say you could manage if you had it on the Astarte?” Edmund asked suddenly. ”

“ The young man had absorbed all the villainy and corruption that can be found in the lowest classes of the great cities of England and the continent, and returned to inherit his father’s wealth with his native Oriental brutality instructed and refined by Western cunning and Western niceties of debauchery and greed. As he lost his inherited wealth to more cunning rogues, he tried to recover it by becoming the principal organiser of the hashish trade. In this capacity he came to owe Jakoub the wages of subordinate villainy. Jakoub had taken him by surprise in his secret villa at Damanhour. ”

“ You must know the facts. I have been waiting to tell you,” Edmund answered. “I can only give you the facts as I have heard them from a [282] man who has no reason to love Jakoub. All I can say is that both Welfare and I have every reason to believe the story, for we both knew the man who was killed. ”

“ The body of Jakoub, shrouded in a white sheet, lay on a board beside the grave with ropes in place for lowering it.
The bishop took his place at the head of the grave, facing his congregation of four.
“My friends,” he said, “this is a solemn moment which must ever be present in the memory of each of us. The wages of sin is death, and this our brother, who was not the only sinner among us, [308] has paid the penalty. He has drawn his wages in this world. That he may be the only one to pay that penalty is a thought that should humble us who are left behind. ”

“ He simply looks upon you as a hypocrite by whom he has been outwitted. Of course such a man will not easily be reconciled to the loss of his share of the plunder. It should be a relief to you to know how he means to open his game.”
“I suppose it should,” I admitted, “but the prospect of seeing Jakoub here is not agreeable.”
“Of course it is disagreeable. But on the other hand, it is a great gain that Jakoub is at liberty. No doubt they are sending him here because they feel he is no longer safe in Egypt. Van Ermengen and his colleagues are as much interested in his remaining free as we are. ”

“ You never know your luck at sea in a sailing boat.”
By midday I was watching the sea break over the famous Casquets, which looked like the jaw of a dog in the water. We went down to luncheon, and were just having our coffee after the meal when the saloon door opened and Jakoub came in.
This was an unwarranted intrusion, for Jakoub had neither the status of a guest nor a servant, and etiquette is necessarily rigid at sea. I saw Welfare flush angrily and look at him with astonishment in his round bright eyes.
“What the devil——?” began Edmund. ”

“ It is a sound that would wake no sleeper. But I can imagine no sound more terrifying to one listening in the dark.
In a spasm of terror I pressed the switch and sat up, covering Jakoub with the revolver. He stood by the wall near the end of my bed. One hand was in the bosom of his galabieh. He was not smiling, but his lips were drawn back and his teeth bared in a kind of snarl, the reaction of a man startled and disconcerted by sudden fright. Fear was like a third party between us.
“Put your weapon on the table or I’ll fire.” ”

“ But that is not the point.”
“My point is that I have no wish to be murdered in a howling wilderness by a man of whom I utterly disapprove.”
“Jakoub may be a murderer for all I know,” Edmund admitted. “I am sure he would become one if it suited his convenience. But you must know that neither Welfare nor I would suggest your going if there was the slightest chance of his murdering you!”
Of course, I did know this perfectly well; but with the babyish perversity that sometimes afflicts quite sensible people, I felt compelled to go on being offended. ”

“ Those who seek me have come. They too shelter from the storm. They seek also this that we have brought with us. But Allah is merciful, and I remembered to put it here where they will not find it.”
From the sound of Jakoub’s whisper I could tell that his usual imperturbability had gone. There was fear in every syllable he uttered. Fear is said to be contagious, yet I took heart. “Those who sought him” must be the police. I knew, of course, that he was a hunted man. But I had nothing to fear from the police, and as yet I had no reason to suppose that they were concerned with our merchandise. ”

“ Edmund replied, but I thought there was a note of anxiety in his voice.
“Infernal cheek of him walking in here, whatever it is,” grumbled Welfare.
“Yes, of course,” Edmund agreed. “He should have given his message to Hassan.”
I was enjoying the situation, taking the cowardly pleasure that one does when a man one dislikes incurs the blame of people one suspects of supporting him. I had felt I was in a minority in my resentment of Jakoub, and now I tasted the craven joy of having others on my side.
“Excuse me,” said Edmund as he finished his coffee, and he went on deck. ”

“ It can only be rightly conducted in an atmosphere of eighteenth-century courtliness. It is a game for ladies and gentlemen, and soon, alas! will be played no more. I was surprised to find that Welfare played it, and could as soon have pictured him walking a minuet.
I was still dreamily content, and had ceased to have even any curiosity as to our destination; but as we drew nearer to the coast of Egypt I noticed a new preoccupation in Edmund and Welfare. They made long and intimate studies of the chart, and several times I saw them in conversation with Jakoub. ”

“ It’s close quarters with a man if you don’t just hit it with him. It’s a queer ship’s company, anyhow. All the crew are Arabs. You see their food costs next to nothing; flour and lentils and the milk of a couple of goats, mostly. And they work like niggers for a couple of piastres a day. We have a sort of skipper over them called Jakoub, I don’t know any other name for him. He’s a magnificent sailor-man, knows all our boat and everybody in it. He rules his men with—well, the Arab equivalent of a rod of iron, acts as interpreter and saves us all bother with natives. ”

“ Edmund laughed. “I think,” he said, “you still suspect us of some ill doings. Do you really think we are going to maroon you on a waterless desert with a single cut-throat for companion?”
“Don’t be an ass, Edmund; but if you know anything about the business, tell me how we’re going to get camels here?”
“From the Arabs,” said Captain Welfare; “there’s a tribe of them always in camp at this time of year a little inland of where we’re going to land you. At least so Jakoub says, and he knows the district. They’ll be getting in their barley crop now. They do some camel breeding here too. ”

“ The orphans looked at each other with pride, and a rich crimson mantled their cheeks, as they exclaimed: "Oh, our brave father!"
"Ah, those children," said Dagobert, as he proudly twirled his moustache. "One sees they have soldier's blood in their veins! Well," he continued, "we were now prisoners. The general's last horse had been killed under him; and, to perform the journey, he mounted Jovial, who had not been wounded that day. We arrived at Warsaw, and there it was that the general first saw your mother. She was called the Pearl of Warsaw; that is saying everything. ”

“ Jakova is the chief town of the Alpine region which extends from the Montenegrin frontier to the Drin and White Drin. This region has never been thoroughly explored, or brought under effective Turkish rule, on account of the inaccessible character of its mountains and forests, and the lawlessness of its inhabitants—a group of two Roman Catholic and three Moslem tribes, known collectively as the Malsia Jakovs, whose official representative resides in Jakova. ”

“ Yakub is a somewhat shorter man than the Khalifa, broad-shouldered, with a round face deeply pitted with small-pox; he has a small turned-up nose, and slight moustache and beard; he is distinctly more ugly than handsome, but has the art of talking in a curiously sympathetic way. He, too, like the Mahdi and the Khalifa, smiled continually; and what wonder, when their affairs were progressing so very satisfactorily! Yakub reads and writes, and knows the Kuran [293] by heart, whilst Abdullahi is comparatively very ignorant. ”

“ He himself had on red clothes, and behind him stood a young female slave dressed in red; before him was a garden filled with roses of all sorts. "Tell me, Yakub," said he, "what do you think of this salon of ours?" The other replied: "It is the very perfection of beauty. May God permit the Commander of the Faithful to enjoy it long!" "Well," said Al Mahdi, "all that it contains is yours, with this girl to crown your happiness, and, moreover, a sum of one hundred thousand dirhems" ($12,500) . Yakub invoked God's blessing on the Caliph, who then said to him: "I have something to ask of you." ”

“ But do you think the cottage will be any the worse off for your death?'
The soldier's simple and dour words outside in the blue night, his talk of Yakob's death, of his own death which might come at any moment, slowly brought sleep to Yakob.
In the morning he awoke with a start. The sun was shining on the snow, the mountains glittered like glass. The trees on the slopes were covered with millions of shining crystals; freshness floated between heaven and earth. Yakob stepped out of the shed, greeted the sentry and sat down on the boards, blinking his eyes. ”

“ At times Jacob refused to believe his eyes and ears, men seemed so different from what he had imagined them. Their language and their deportment were no longer the same. His first visit in Warsaw was paid to his former guardian. He found him absent, and it was rumoured, engaged in important enterprises. On returning from his house he met Henri Segel, for whom his aversion had augmented since, on the route from Genoa to Spezzia, he had encountered him in company with the danseuse Gigante. He recoiled and blushed on hearing the joyous voice of Mathilde's husband. ”