{"product_id":"2940013702837","title":"Mr Justice Maxell","description":"It was two hours, after the muezzin had called to evening prayer, and\u003cbr\u003enight had canopied Tangier with a million stars. In the little Sok, the\u003cbr\u003ebread-sellers, sat cross-legged behind their wares, their candles\u003cbr\u003eburning steadily, for there was not so much as the whisper of a wind\u003cbr\u003eblowing. The monotonous strumming of a guitar from a Moorish cafe, the\u003cbr\u003eagonised barlak! of a belated donkey-driver bringing his charge down the\u003cbr\u003esteep streets which lead to the big bazaar, the shuffle of bare feet on\u003cbr\u003eTangier's cobbles, and the distant hush-hush of the rollers breaking\u003cbr\u003eupon the amber shore--these were the only sounds which the night held.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eJohn Maxell sat outside the Continental Cafe, in the condition of bodily\u003cbr\u003econtent which a good dinner induces. Mental content should have\u003cbr\u003eaccompanied such a condition, but even the memory of a perfect dinner\u003cbr\u003ecould not wholly obliterate a certain uneasiness of mind. He had been\u003cbr\u003euneasy when he came to Tangier, and his journey through France and Spain\u003cbr\u003ehad been accompanied by certain apprehensions and doubts which\u003cbr\u003eCartwright had by no means dispelled.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eRather, by his jovial evasions, his cheery optimism, and at times his\u003cbr\u003eirritable outbreaks of temper, he had given the eminent King's Counsel\u003cbr\u003efurther cause for disquiet.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCartwright sat at the other side of the table, and was unusually quiet.\u003cbr\u003eThis was a circumstance which was by no means displeasing to Maxell, for\u003cbr\u003ethe night was not conducive to talk. There are in North Africa many\u003cbr\u003enights like this, when one wishes to sit in dead silence and let thought\u003cbr\u003etake its own course, unchecked and untrammelled. In Morocco such nights\u003cbr\u003eare common and, anyway, Maxell had always found it difficult to discuss\u003cbr\u003ebusiness matters after dinner.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCartwright had no temperament and his quiet was due to other causes. It\u003cbr\u003ewas he who broke the silence, knocking out his pipe on the iron-topped\u003cbr\u003etable with a bang which jarred his more sensitive companion to the very\u003cbr\u003espine.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"I'd stake my life and my soul on there being a reef,\" he said with a\u003cbr\u003esuddenness which was almost as jarring. \"Why, you've seen the outcrop\u003cbr\u003efor yourself, and isn't it exactly the same formation as you see on the\u003cbr\u003eRand?\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMaxell nodded.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThough a common-law man, he had been associated in mining cases and had\u003cbr\u003emade a very careful study of the whole problem of gold extraction.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"It looks right enough to me,\" he said, \"but as against that we have the\u003cbr\u003efact that some clever engineers have spent a great deal of time and\u003cbr\u003emoney trying to locate the reef. That there is gold in Morocco everybody\u003cbr\u003eknows, and I should say, Cartwright, that you are right. But where is\u003cbr\u003ethe reef? It would cost a fortune to bore, even though we had the other\u003cbr\u003eborings to guide us.\"","brand":"WDS Publishing","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47073765261552,"sku":"2940013702837","price":2.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940013702837_p0.jpg?v=1763584492","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940013702837","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}