Why should I trouble myself about him? Let Seyd
Burghash write me a letter to that purpose, and I will procure
them within two days."'
To my mind this was a time for action: Ali bin Salim should see
that it was ill trifling with a white man in earnest to start.
I rode down to his house to ask him what he meant.
His reply was, Mabruki had told a lie as black as his face. He
had never said anything approaching to such a thing. He was
willing to become my slave - to become a pagazi himself. But here I
stopped the voluble Ali, and informed him that I could not think of
employing him in the capacity of a pagazi, neither could I find it
in my heart to trouble Seyd Burghash to write a direct letter to
him, or to require of a man who had deceived me once, as Ali bin
Salim had, any service of any nature whatsoever. It would be
better, therefore, if Ali bin Salim would stay away from my
camp, and not enter it either in person or by proxy.
I had lost fifteen days, for Jemadar Sadur, at Kaole, had never
stirred from his fortified house in that village in my service,
save to pay a visit, after the receipt of the Sultan's letter.
Naranji, custom-house agent at Kaoie, solely under the thumb of
the great Ludha Damji, had not responded to Ludha's worded request
that he would procure pagazis, except with winks, nods, and
promises, and it is but just stated how I fared at the hands of Ali
bin Salim.
