第24章

THE VISION OF THE SCAPEGOAT

Israel's instinct had been sure: the coming of Katrina proved to be the beginning of his end.He kept his office, but he lost his power.

No longer did he work his own will in Tetuan; he was required to work the will of the woman.Katrina's will was an evil one, and Israel got the blame of it, for still he seemed to stand in all matters of tribute and taxation between the people and the Governor.

It galled him to take the woman's wages, but it vexed him yet more to do her work.Her work was to burden the people with taxes beyond all their power of paying; her wages was to be hated as the bane of the bashalic, to be clamoured against as the tyrant of Tetuan, and to be ridiculed by the very offal of the streets.

One day a gang of dirty Arabs in the market-place dressed up a blind beggar in clothes such as Israel wore, and sent him abroad through the town to beg as one that was destitute and in a miserable condition.But nothing seemed to move Israel to pity.

Men were cast into prison for no reason save that they were rich, and the relations of such as were there already were allowed to redeem them for money, so that no felon suffered punishment except such as could pay nothing.People took fright and fled to other cities.Israel's name became a curse and a reproach throughout Barbary.

Yet all this time the man's soul was yearning with pity for the people.

Since the death of Ruth his heart had grown merciful.The care of the child had softened him.It had brought him to look on other children with tenderness, and looking tenderly on other children had led him to think of other fathers with compassion.

Young or old, powerful or weak, mighty or mean, they were all as little children--helpless children who would sleep together in the same bed soon.

Thinking so, Israel would have undone the evil work of earlier years;but that was impossible now.Many of them that had suffered were dead;some that had been cast into prison had got their last and long discharge.

At least Israel would have relaxed the rigour whereby his master ruled, but that was impossible also.Katrina had come, and she was a vain woman and a lover of all luxury, and she commanded Israel to tax the people afresh.He obeyed her through three bad years; but many a time his heart reproached him that he dealt corruptly by the poor people, and when he saw them borrowing money for the Governor's tributes on their lands and houses, and when he stood by while they and their sons were cast into prison for the bonds which they could not pay to the usurers Abraham or Judah or Reuben, then his soul cried out against him that he ate the bread of such a mistress.

But out of the eater came forth meat, and out of the strong came forth sweetness, and out of this coming of the Spanish wife of Ben Aboo came deliverance for Israel from the torment of his false position.

There was an aged and pious Moor in Tetuan, called Abd Allah, who was rumoured to have made savings from his business as a gunsmith.

Going to mosque one evening, with fifteen dollars in his waistband, he unstrapped his belt and laid it on the edge of the fountain while he washed his feet before entering, for his back was no longer supple.Then a younger Moor, coming to pray at the same time, saw the dollars, and snatched them up and ran.Abd Allah could not follow the thief, so he went to the Kasbah and told his story to the Governor.

Just at that time Ben Aboo had the Kaid of Fez on a visit to him.

"Ask him how much more he has got," whispered the brother Kaid to Ben Aboo.

Abd Allah answered that he did not know.

"I'll give you two hundred dollars for the chance of all he has,"the Kaid whispered again.

"Five bees are better than a pannier of flies--done!" said Ben Aboo.

So Abd Allah was sold like a sheep and carried to Fez, and there cast into prison on a penalty of two hundred and fifty dollars imposed upon him on the pretence of a false accusation.

Israel sat by the Governor that day at the gate of the hall of justice, and many poor people of the town stood huddled together in the court outside while the evil work was done.No one heard the Kaid of Fez when he whispered to Ben Aboo, but every one saw when Israel drew the warrant that consigned the gunsmith to prison, and when he sealed it with the Governor's seal.

Abd Allah had made no savings, and, being too old for work, he had lived on the earnings of his son.The son's name was Absalam (Abd es-Salem), and he had a wife whom he loved very tenderly, and one child, a boy of six years of age.Absalam followed his father to Fez, and visited him in prison.The old man had been ordered a hundred lashes, and the flesh was hanging from his limbs.Absalam was great of heart, and, in pity of his father's miserable condition he went to the Governor and begged that the old man might be liberated, and that he might be imprisoned instead.His petition was heard.Abd Allah was set free, Absalam was cast into prison, and the penalty was raised from two hundred and fifty dollars to three hundred.

Israel heard of what had happened, and he hastened to Ben Aboo, in great agitation, intending to say "Pay back this man's ransom, in God's name, and his children and his children's children will live to bless you." But when he got to the Kasbah, Katrina was sitting with her husband, and at sight of the woman's face Israel's tongue was frozen.

Absalam had been the favourite of his neighbours among all the gunsmiths of the market-place, and after he had been three months at Fez they made common cause of his calamities, sold their goods at a sacrifice, collected the three hundred dollars of his fine, bought him out of prison, and went in a body through the gate to meet him upon his return to Tetuan.

But his wife had died in the meantime of fear and privation, and only his aged father and his little son were there to welcome him.

"Friends," he said to his neighbours standing outside the walls, "what is the use of sowing if you know not who will reap?""No use, no use!" answered several voices.

"If God gives you anything, this man Israel takes it away," said Absalam.