Page:Kéraban the Inflexible Part 1 (Jules Verne).djvu/125

Rh decided not to get thin, but to risk all in the attempt to keep up appearances. And this the men did, aided by several glasses of a certain alcoholized beer.

Suddenly Nizib cried, "Allah protect me!"

"What has happened?" inquired Bruno.

"Suppose what I have eaten prove to be pork?"

"Pork!" exclaimed Bruno. "Ah! just so, Nizib. A good Mussulman, like you, is not permitted to partake of that excellent but unclean animal. Well, it seems to me that if the thing we have eaten is pork, we have only one course open to us—"

"That is—?"

"To digest it as quietly as possible, now we have eaten it."

But Nizib was not so easily comforted, for he was a very strict observer of the law of the Prophet, and he felt greatly troubled in mind. So Bruno volunteered to ascertain from the landlord what he had sent up for dinner.

Nizib was quickly reassured, and his digestion was no longer troubled. The dish was not meat at all; it was fish, shebac, a kind of "Saint Peter's" fish, which, when caught, is split and dried in the sun, and then smoked. These fish are exported in considerable numbers from Rostow on the Sea of Azof.

Masters and servants had accordingly to be content with a very light supper at the Inn of Arabat. The beds appeared even more unpleasant than the gnats in the carriage; but the sleepers were not subjected to any violent jolting, and the rest they obtained in their not too comfortable rooms was sufficient to recruit their energies.

Next morning, on the 2nd of September, at daybreak, Ahmet was afoot, and he set off to the post-house in search of relays. The team which had brought our travellers to the inn was quite exhausted, and unable to continue the journey without a further rest. Ahmet had made up his mind to bring the chaise, all ready horsed, to the inn door, so as to leave his uncle and Van Mitten no excuse—they had only to enter the chaise and depart for Kertsch.

The post-house was some distance off, at the end of the