Page:Ballantyne--The Pirate City.djvu/260

240 "This," said Baba, with sudden gravity, "that those who stand by a falling man must e'en fall along with him."

"But Hamet Dey is not falling. He has only just risen!" said the chaouse, with a perplexed look.

"He is not the first who has risen to fall," replied Hadji Baba gravely. "I would not stand in his slippers for all the treasure in the casba. Be wise, and take advice from a fool. Sidi Hassan did not quit the palace to-day to go and smoke his pipe. He is a man of power and a malcontent. There are other men of power who are also malcontents and more popular than Hamet. When this is so, it behoves the like of you and me to look carefully after our necks, to say nothing of our soles!"

As he said this an exclamation from the elder chaouse drew his attention to the fact that Sidi Hassan himself had just turned the corner of the street in which they had been conversing, and was at that moment so earnestly engaged in conversation with Sidi Omar that the two approached without at first observing the officers of justice.

The instant Hassan's eye alighted on them, he stopped and became visibly paler. Omar also stopped, but pretended not to observe the change in his companion's countenance, nor its cause, as he continued the conversation.

"Hist!" whispered Hadji Baba to his companions,