‘Do you think, sir, that a meeting with the new Dey could be arranged as soon as possible? Perhaps tomorrow?’
‘I am afraid not. Nor even in the near future. The Dey is hunting the lion of the Atlas, his favourite pursuit; and the Vizier, if not actually with him - for the pursuit of the lion is not to his taste - will be at the nearest oasis of comfort.’
‘Consul,’ said Stephen, after a considering pause, ‘does it seem to you reasonably prudent for a usurper to go gadding after lions within a few weeks of winning power and so leaving his capital open to the enemies and rivals that his usurpation must necessarily have brought into being?’
‘It seems unlikely, even absurd; but Omar is a case apart. He was brought up among the janissaries - he knows them through and through - and although he is illiterate he was a particularly successful head of what might be called the former Agha’s intelligence service. I am of opinion that he has made this journey into the Atlas to learn who among the janissaries are likely to form parties in his absence. He has informants everywhere and I am persuaded that when he judges the moment right he will silently return, summon a body of those devoted to his interest and take off a score of ambitious heads.’
Jacob had taken no part in the conversation other than by nods and smiles that showed his keen attention: but at these last words he uttered a most emphatic ‘Yes, indeed.’
‘Can you tell me, sir,’ said Stephen, ‘how much influence the Vizier may possess?’
‘My impression is that it is very great. He was the equivalent of the present Dey’s chief of staff and his main support, a highly intelligent and literate man with highly-placed connexions in Constantinople. Although, as you are aware, the deys have long since thrown off all but a purely nominal allegiance to the Sublime Porte, the Sultan’s titles, orders and decorations have a very real value here, particularly to men like Omar: and quite apart from that Hashin has a wide acquaintance with the chief men in the Muslim states of Africa and the Levant. He is also, I may add, fluent in French.’
‘In that case,’ said Stephen, ‘it seems to me that Dr Jacob and I should make our way into the Atlas with the utmost dispatch, if not to the Dey himself. .
‘An approach to the Dey himself without official standing or former acquaintance would be contrary to local etiquette: may I advise a call on the Vizier?’
‘Then to the Vizier, to do what can be done to prevent this shipment, which might well be fatal to our cause. Is he incorruptible, do you think?’
‘I cannot honestly speak to that. But in these parts, as you know very well, a present is rarely unwelcome. I have seen him with an aquamarine in his turban. Oh, oh ...’ The consul bent forward, his face twisted with pain. They turned him on his .side, took off his clothes, felt for and found the source of the spasm. Jacob was about to open the door when Lady Clifford appeared, looking extremely anxious. Jacob asked the way to the kitchen, prepared a hot, a very hot poultice, clapped it on and hurried out into the town, returning with a phial of Thebaic tincture.
~Thebaic tincture,’ he murmured to Stephen, who nodded and called for a spoon: raising the poor consul’s head he administered the dose and laid him gently back.
In a little while the consul said, ‘Thank you, thank you, gentlemen. I already feel it receding...oh Lord, the relief! My dear Isabel, I have never known so short a bout: do you think we might all have a cup of tea - or coffee, if these gentlemen prefer it?’
While they were drinking their tea there came the sound of a perfectly regular series of shots fired from great guns in the inner bay, twenty-one of them: it was Commodore Aubrey saluting the castle. Hardly had the echo of the twenty-first died away along the walls, towers and batteries of Algiers than the entire series of fortifications facing the sea erupted into an enormous, enormous, thunder by way of reply, one set of rounds merging into the next and a truly prodigious bank of powder-smoke drifting out over the water.
‘Heavens!’ cried Lady Clifford, taking her hands from her ears, ‘I have never heard anything like that before.’
‘It was the new Agha showing his zeal. If he had left a single piece unfired, the Dey would have had him impaled.’
‘About how many guns took part, do you suppose?’ asked Stephen.
‘Something between eight hundred and a thousand,’ said the consul. ‘I was having a count made some time ago, but my man was stopped just before the Half-Moon battery, which was just as well for him, since lions and leopards are kept there on chains which the gunners know how to work but nobody else. He had reached about eight hundred and forty, as my recollection goes. I could let you have a copy of his list, if it would interest you.’
‘Thank you, sir: you are very good, but I had
