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diff --git a/21751.txt b/21751.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..448ea21 --- /dev/null +++ b/21751.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7285 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Middy and the Moors, by R.M. Ballantyne + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Middy and the Moors + An Algerine Story + +Author: R.M. Ballantyne + +Illustrator: Arthur Twidle + +Release Date: June 7, 2007 [EBook #21751] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MIDDY AND THE MOORS *** + + + + +Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England + + + + +The Middy and the Moors, an Algerine Tale of Piracy and Slavery, by R.M. +Ballantyne. + +________________________________________________________________________ + +Robert Michael Ballantyne was born in 1825 and died in 1894. He was +educated at the Edinburgh Academy, and in 1841 he became a clerk with +the Hudson Bay Company, working at the Red River Settlement in Northen +Canada until 1847, arriving back in Edinburgh in 1848. The letters he +had written home were very amusing in their description of backwoods +life, and his family publishing connections suggested that he should +construct a book based on these letters. Three of his most enduring +books were written over the next decade, "The Young Fur Traders", +"Ungava", "The Hudson Bay Company", and were based on his experiences +with the H.B.C. In this period he also wrote "The Coral island" and +"Martin Rattler", both of these taking place in places never visited by +Ballantyne. Having been chided for small mistakes he made in these +books, he resolved always to visit the places he wrote about. With +these books he became known as a great master of literature intended for +teenagers. He researched the Cornish Mines, the London Fire Brigade, +the Postal Service, the Railways, the laying down of submarine telegraph +cables, the construction of light-houses, the light-ship service, the +life-boat service, South Africa, Norway, the North Sea fishing fleet, +ballooning, deep-sea diving, Algiers, and many more, experiencing the +lives of the men and women in these settings by living with them for +weeks and months at a time, and he lived as they lived. + +He was a very true-to-life author, depicting the often squalid scenes he +encountered with great care and attention to detail. His young readers +looked forward eagerly to his next books, and through the 1860s and +1870s there was a flow of books from his pen, sometimes four in a year, +all very good reading. The rate of production diminished in the last +ten or fifteen years of his life, but the quality never failed. + +He published over ninety books under his own name, and a few books for +very young children under the pseudonym "Comus". + +For today's taste his books are perhaps a little too religious, and what +we would nowadays call "pi". In part that was the way people wrote in +those days, but more important was the fact that in his days at the Red +River Settlement, in the wilds of Canada, he had been a little +dissolute, and he did not want his young readers to be unmindful of how +they ought to behave, as he felt he had been. + +Some of his books were quite short, little over 100 pages. These books +formed a series intended for the children of poorer parents, having less +pocket-money. These books are particularly well-written and researched, +because he wanted that readership to get the very best possible for +their money. They were published as six series, three books in each +series. One of these series is "On the Coast", which includes "Saved by +the Lifeboat". + +Re-created as an e-Text by Nick Hodson, July 2003. + +________________________________________________________________________ + +THE MIDDY AND THE MOORS, AN ALGERINE TALE OF PIRACY AND SLAVERY, BY R.M. +BALLANTYNE. + + + +CHAPTER ONE. + +AN ALGERINE STORY. + +THE HERO IS BLOWN AWAY, CAPTURED, CRUSHED, COMFORTED, AND ASTONISHED. + +One beautiful summer night, about the beginning of the present century, +a young naval officer entered the public drawing-room of a hotel at +Nice, and glanced round as if in search of some one. + +Many people were assembled there--some in robust, others in delicate, +health, many in that condition which rendered it doubtful to which class +they belonged, but all engaged in the quiet buzz of conversation which, +in such a place, is apt to set in after dinner. + +The young Englishman, for such he evidently was, soon observed an +elderly lady beckoning to him at the other end of the _salon_, and was +quickly seated between her and a fragile girl whose hand he gently took +hold of. + +"Mother," he said, to the elderly lady, "I'm going to have a row on the +Mediterranean. The night is splendid, the air balmy, the stars +gorgeous." + +"Now, George," interrupted the girl, with a little smile, "don't be +flowery. We know all about that." + +"Too bad," returned the youth; "I never rise to poetry in your presence, +Minnie, without being snubbed. But you cannot cure me. Romance is too +deeply ingrained in my soul. Poetry flows from me like--like anything! +I am a midshipman in the British Navy, a position which affords scope +for the wildest enthusiasm, and--and--I'll astonish you yet, see if I +don't." + +"I am sure you will, dear boy," said his mother; and she believed that +he would! + +"Of course you will," added his sister; and she at least hoped that he +would. + +To say truth, there was nothing about the youth--as regards appearance +or character--which rendered either the assurance or the hope +unwarrantable. He was not tall, but he was strong and active. He was +not exactly handsome, but he was possessed of a genial, hearty +disposition, a playful spirit, and an earnest soul; also a modestly +reckless nature which was quite captivating. + +"You won't be anxious about me, mother, if I don't return till pretty +late," he said, rising. "I want a good long, refreshing pull, but I'll +be back in time to say good-night to you, Minnie, before you go to +sleep." + +"Your leave expires on Thursday, mind," said his sister; "we cannot +spare you long." + +"I shall be back in good time, trust me. _Au revoir_," he said, with a +pleasant nod, as he left the room. + +And they did trust him; for our midshipman, George Foster, was +trustworthy; but those "circumstances" over which people have "no +control" are troublesome derangers of the affairs of man. That was the +last the mother and sister saw of George for the space of nearly two +years! + +Taking his way to the pebbly shore, young Foster hired a small boat, or +punt, from a man who knew him well, declined the owner's services, +pushed off, seized the oars, and rowed swiftly out to sea. It was, as +he had said, a splendid night. The stars bespangled the sky like +diamond-dust. The water was as clear as a mirror, and the lights of +Nice seemed to shoot far down into its depths. The hum of the city came +off with ever-deepening softness as the distance from the shore +increased. The occasional sound of oars was heard not far off, though +boats and rowers were invisible, for there was no moon, and the night +was dark notwithstanding the starlight. + +There was no fear, however, of the young sailor losing himself while the +city lights formed such a glorious beacon astern. + +After pulling steadily for an hour or more he rested on his oars, gazed +up at the bright heavens, and then at the land lights, which by that +time resembled a twinkling line on the horizon. + +"Must 'bout ship now," he muttered. "Won't do to keep Minnie waiting." + +As he rowed leisurely landward a sudden gust of wind from the shore +shivered the liquid mirror into fragments. It was the advance-guard of +a squall which in a few minutes rushed down from the mountains of the +Riviera and swept out upon the darkening sea. + +Young Foster, as we have said, was strong. He was noted among his +fellows as a splendid oarsman. The squall, therefore, did not +disconcert him, though it checked his speed greatly. After one or two +lulls the wind increased to a gale, and in half an hour the youth found, +with some anxiety, that he was making no headway against it. + +The shore at that point was so much of a straight line as to render the +hope of being able to slant-in a faint one. As it was better, however, +to attempt that than to row straight in the teeth of the gale, he +diverged towards a point a little to the eastward of the port of Nice, +and succeeded in making better way through the water, though he made no +perceptible approach to land. + +"Pooh! It's only a squall--be over in a minute," said the middy, by way +of encouraging himself, as he glanced over his shoulder at the +flickering lights, which were now barely visible. + +He was wrong. The gale increased. Next time he glanced over his +shoulder the lights were gone. Dark clouds were gathering up from the +northward, and a short jabble of sea was rising which occasionally sent +a spurt of spray inboard. Feeling now that his only chance of regaining +the shore lay in a strong, steady, persevering pull straight towards it, +he once more turned the bow of the little boat into the wind's eye, and +gave way with a will. + +But what could human muscle and human will, however powerful, do against +a rampant nor'wester? Very soon our hero was forced to rest upon his +oars from sheer exhaustion, while his boat drifted slowly out to sea. +Then the thought of his mother and Minnie flashed upon him, and, with a +sudden gush, as it were, of renewed strength he resumed his efforts, and +strained his powers to the uttermost--but all in vain. + +Something akin to despair now seized on him, for the alternative was to +drift out into the open sea, where no friendly island lay between him +and the shores of Africa. The necessity for active exertion, however, +gave him no time either to rest or think. As the distance from land +increased the seas rose higher, and broke so frequently over the boat +that it began to fill. To stop rowing--at least, to the extent of +keeping the bow to the wind--would have risked turning broadside-on, and +being overturned or swamped; there was nothing, therefore, to be done in +the circumstances except to keep the boat's head to the wind and drift. + +In the midst of the rushing gale and surging seas he sat there, every +gleam of hope almost extinguished, when there came to his mind a brief +passage from the Bible--"Hope thou in God." Many a time had his mother +tried, in days gone by, to impress that text on his mind, but apparently +without success. Now it arose before him like a beacon-star. At the +same time he thought of the possibility that he might be seen and picked +up by a passing vessel. + +He could not but feel, however, that the chances of this latter event +occurring were small indeed, for a passing ship or boat would not only +be going at great speed, but would be very unlikely to see his +cockle-shell in the darkness, or to hear his cry in the roaring gale. +Still he grasped that hope as the drowning man is said to clutch at a +straw. + +And the hope was quickly fulfilled, for scarcely had another half-hour +elapsed when he observed a sail--the high-peaked sail peculiar to some +Mediterranean craft--rise, ghost-like, out of the driving foam and +spray. The vessel was making almost straight for him; he knew that it +would pass before there could be time to heave a rope. At the risk of +being run down he rowed the punt in front of it, as if courting +destruction, but at the same time guided his little craft so skilfully +that it passed close to leeward, where the vessel's bulwarks were +dipping into the water. Our middy's aim was so exact that the vessel +only grazed the boat as it flew past. In that moment young Foster +sprang with the agility of a cat, capsized the boat with the impulse, +caught the bulwarks and rigging of the vessel, and in another moment +stood panting on her deck. + +"Hallo! Neptune, what do _you_ want here?" cried a gruff voice at +Foster's elbows. At the same time a powerful hand grasped his throat, +and a lantern was thrust in his face. + +"Let go, and I will tell you," gasped the youth, restraining his +indignation at such unnecessary violence. + +The grasp tightened, however, instead of relaxing. + +"Speak out, baby-face," roared the voice, referring, in the latter +expression, no doubt, to our hero's juvenility. + +Instead of speaking out, George Foster hit out, and the voice with the +lantern went down into the lee scuppers! + +Then, the glare of the lantern being removed from his eyes, George saw, +by the light of the binnacle lamp, that his adversary, a savage-looking +Turk--at least in dress--was gathering himself up for a rush, and that +the steersman, a huge negro, was grinning from ear to ear. + +"Go below!" said a deep stern voice in the Arabic tongue. + +The effect of this order was to cause the Turk with the broken lantern +to change his mind, and retire with humility, while it solemnised the +negro steersman's face almost miraculously. + +The speaker was the captain of the vessel; a man of grave demeanour, +herculean mould, and clothed in picturesque Eastern costume. Turning +with quiet politeness to Foster, he asked him in broken French how he +had come on board. + +The youth explained in French quite as much broken as that of his +interrogator. + +"D'you speak English?" he added. + +To this the captain replied in English, still more shattered than his +French, that he could, "a ver' leetil," but that as he, (the youth), was +a prisoner, there would be no occasion for speech at all, the proper +attitude of a prisoner being that of absolute silence and obedience to +orders. + +"A prisoner!" ejaculated Foster, on recovering from the first shock of +surprise. "Do you know that I am an officer in the Navy of his Majesty +the King of Great Britain?" + +A gleam of satisfaction lighted up the swarthy features of the Turk for +a moment as he replied-- + +"Ver goot. Ransum all de more greater." As he spoke, a call from the +look-out at the bow of the vessel induced him to hurry forward. + +At the same instant a slight hissing sound caused Foster to turn to the +steersman, whose black face was alive with intelligence, while an +indescribable hitch up of his chin seemed to beckon the youth to +approach with caution. + +Foster perceived at once that the man wished his communication, whatever +it was, to be unobserved by any one; he therefore moved towards him as +if merely to glance at the compass. + +"Massa," said the negro, without looking at Foster or changing a muscle +of his now stolid visage, "you's in a dreffle fix. Dis yer am a pirit. +But _I's_ not a pirit, bress you! I's wuss nor dat: I's a awrful +hyperkrite! an' I wants to give you good adwice. Wotiver you doos, +_don't resist_. You'll on'y git whacked if you do." + +"Thank you, Sambo. But what if I do resist in spite of being whacked?" + +"Den you bery soon change your mind, das all. Moreober, my name's not +Sambo. It am Peter de Great." + +As he said so Peter the Great drew himself up to his full height, and he +drew himself up to six feet four when he did that! + +The captain coming aft at that moment put an abrupt end to the +conversation. Two powerful Moorish seamen accompanied him. These, +without uttering a word, seized Foster by the arms. In the strength of +his indignation our middy was on the point of commencing a tremendous +struggle, when Peter the Great's "_don't resist_," and the emphasis with +which it had been spoken, came to mind, and he suddenly gave in. His +hands were tied behind his back, and he was led down into a small, +dimly-lighted cabin, where, being permitted to sit down on a locker, he +was left to his own reflections. + +These were by no means agreeable, as may well be supposed, for he now +knew that he had fallen into the hands of those pests, the Algerine +pirates, who at that time infested the Mediterranean. + +With the thoughtlessness of youth Foster had never troubled his mind +much about the piratical city of Algiers. Of course he knew that it was +a stronghold on the northern coast of Africa, inhabited by Moorish +rascals, who, taking advantage of their position, issued from their port +and pounced upon the merchantmen that entered the Mediterranean, +confiscating their cargoes and enslaving their crews and passengers, or +holding them to ransom. He also knew, or had heard, that some of the +great maritime powers paid subsidies to the Dey of Algiers to allow the +vessels of their respective nations to come and go unmolested, but he +could scarcely credit the latter fact. It seemed to him, as indeed it +was, preposterous. "For," said he to the brother middy who had given +him the information, "would not the nations whom the Dey had the +impudence to tax join their fleets together, pay him an afternoon visit +one fine day, and blow him and his Moors and Turks and city into a heap +of rubbish?" + +What the middy replied we have now no means of knowing, but certain it +is that his information was correct, for some of the principal nations +did, at that time, submit to the degradation of this tax, and they did +_not_ unite their fleets for the extinction of the pirates. + +Poor George Foster now began to find out that the terrible truths which +he had refused to believe were indeed great realities, and had now begun +to affect himself. He experienced an awful sinking of the heart when it +occurred to him that no one would ever know anything about his fate, for +the little boat would be sure to be found bottom up, sooner or later, +and it would of course be assumed that he had been drowned. + +Shall it be said that the young midshipman was weak, or wanting in +courage, because he bowed his head and wept when the full force of his +condition came home to him? Nay, verily, for there was far more of +grief for the prolonged agony that was in store for his mother and +sister than for the fate that awaited himself. He prayed as well as +wept. "God help me--and them!" he exclaimed aloud. The prayer was +brief but sincere,--perhaps the more sincere because so brief. At all +events it was that acknowledgment of utter helplessness which secures +the help of the Almighty Arm. + +Growing weary at last, he stretched himself on the locker, and, with the +facility of robust health, fell into a sound sleep. Youth, strength, +and health are not easily incommoded by wet garments! Besides, the +weather was unusually warm at the time. + +How long he slept he could not tell, but the sun was high when he awoke, +and his clothes were quite dry. Other signs there were that he had +slept long, such as the steadiness of the breeze and the more regular +motion of the vessel, which showed that the gale was over and the sea +going down. There was also a powerful sensation in what he styled his +"bread-basket"--though it might, with equal truth, have been called his +meat-and-vegetable basket--which told him more eloquently than anything +else of the lapse of time. + +Rising from his hard couch, and endeavouring to relieve the aching of +the bound arms by change of position, he observed that the cabin hatch +was open, and that nothing prevented his going on deck, if so disposed. +Accordingly, he ascended, though with some difficulty, owing to his not +having been trained to climb a ladder in a rough sea without the use of +his hands. + +A Moor, he observed, had taken his friend Peter the Great's place at the +tiller, and the captain stood near the stern observing a passing vessel. +A stiffish but steady breeze carried them swiftly over the waves, +which, we might say, laughingly reflected the bright sunshine and the +deep-blue sky. Several vessels of different rigs and nationalities were +sailing in various directions, both near and far away. + +Going straight to the captain with an air of good-humoured _sang froid_ +which was peculiar to him, Foster said-- + +"Captain, don't you think I've had these bits of rope-yarn on my wrists +long enough? I'm not used, you see, to walking the deck without the use +of my hands; and a heavy lurch, as like as not, would send me slap into +the lee scuppers--sailor though I be. Besides, I won't jump overboard +without leave, you may rely upon that. Neither will I attempt, +single-handed, to fight your whole crew, so you needn't be afraid." + +The stern Moor evidently understood part of this speech, and he was so +tickled with the last remark that his habitual gravity gave place to the +faintest flicker of a smile, while a twinkle gleamed for a moment in his +eye. Only for a moment, however. Pointing over the side, he bade his +prisoner "look." + +Foster looked, and beheld in the far distance a three-masted vessel that +seemed to bear a strong resemblance to a British man-of-war. + +"You promise," said the captain, "not shout or ro-ar." + +"I promise," answered our middy, "neither to `Shout' nor `ro-ar'--for my +doing either, even though like a bull of Bashan, would be of no earthly +use at this distance." + +"Inglesemans," said the captain, "niver brok the word!" After paying +this scarcely-deserved compliment he gave an order to a sailor who was +coiling up ropes near him, and the man at once proceeded to untie +Foster's bonds. + +"My good fellow," said the midshipman, observing that his liberator was +the man whom he had knocked down the night before, "I'm sorry I had to +floor you, but it was impossible to help it, you know. An Englishman is +like a bull-dog. He won't suffer himself to be seized by the throat and +choked if he can help it!" + +The Turk, who was evidently a renegade Briton, made no reply whatever to +this address; but, after casting the lashings loose, returned to his +former occupation. + +Foster proceeded to thank the captain for his courtesy and make him +acquainted with the state of his appetite, but he was evidently not in a +conversational frame of mind. Before a few words had been spoken the +captain stopped him, and, pointing down the skylight, said, sharply-- + +"Brukfust! Go!" + +Both look and tone admonished our hero to obey. He descended to the +cabin, therefore, without finishing his sentence, and there discovered +that "brukfust" consisted of two sea-biscuits and a mug of water. To +these dainties he applied himself with infinite relish, for he had +always been Spartan-like as to the quality of his food, and hunger makes +almost any kind of dish agreeable. + +While thus engaged he heard a hurried trampling of feet on deck, mingled +with sharp orders from the captain. At first he thought the sounds +might have reference to taking in a reef to prepare for a squall, but as +the noise rather increased, his curiosity was roused, and he was about +to return on deck when Peter the Great suddenly leaped into the cabin +and took hurriedly from the opposite locker a brace of highly ornamented +pistols and a scimitar. + +"What's wrong, Peter?" asked Foster, starting up. + +"We's a-goin' to fight!" groaned the negro. + +"Oh! I's a awrful hyperkrite! You stop where you am, massa, else +you'll get whacked." + +Despite the risk of being "whacked," the youth would have followed the +negro on deck, had not the hatch been slammed in his face and secured. +Next moment he heard a volley of musketry on deck. It was instantly +replied to by a distant volley, and immediately thereafter groans and +curses showed that the firing had not been without effect. + +That the pirate had engaged a vessel of some sort was evident, and our +hero, being naturally anxious to see if not to share in the fight, tried +hard to get out of his prison, but without success. He was obliged, +therefore, to sit there inactive and listen to the wild confusion +overhead. At last there came a crash, followed by fiercer shouts and +cries. He knew that the vessels had met and that the pirates were +boarding. In a few minutes comparative silence ensued, broken only by +occasional footsteps and the groaning of the wounded. + + + +CHAPTER TWO. + +AMONG PIRATES--ENSLAVED. + +When George Foster was again permitted to go on deck the sight that he +beheld was not calculated to comfort him in his misfortunes. + +Several Moorish seamen were going about with bared legs and arms, +swishing water on the decks and swabbing up the blood, with which they +were bespattered. Most of these men were more or less wounded and +bandaged, for the crew of the merchantman they had attacked had offered +a desperate resistance, knowing well the fate in store for them if +captured. + +The said merchantman, a large brig, sailed close alongside of the pirate +vessel with a prize crew on board. Her own men, who were Russians, had +been put in chains in the fore part of their vessel under the +forecastle, so as to be out of sight. Her officers and several +passengers had been removed to the pirate's quarter-deck. Among them +were an old gentleman of dignified bearing, and an elderly lady who +seemed to be supported, physically as well as mentally, by a tall, +dark-complexioned, noble-looking girl, who was evidently the daughter of +the old gentleman, though whether also the daughter of the elderly lady +young Foster could not discover, there being little or no resemblance +between them. The memory of his mother and sister strongly inclined the +sympathetic midshipman to approach the party and offer words of +consolation to the ladies. As he advanced to them for that purpose, a +doubt as to which language he should use assailed him. French, he knew, +was the language most likely to be understood, but a girl with such +magnificent black eyes must certainly be Spanish! His knowledge of +Spanish was about equal to that of an ill-trained parrot, but what of +that? Was he not a Briton, whose chief characteristic is to go in for +anything and stick at nothing? + +We do not venture to write down what he said, but when he had said it +the blank look of the elderly lady and the peculiar look of the girl +induced him to repeat the speech in his broken--his very much broken-- +French, whereupon the old gentleman turned to him gravely and said-- + +"My vife is Engleesh, an' my datter is Danish--no, not joost--vell, she +is 'af-an'-'af. Speak to dem in your nattif tong." + +"_You_ are not English, anyhow, old boy," thought Foster, as he turned +with a mingled feeling of confusion and recklessness to the elderly +lady. + +"Pardon me, madam," he said, "but from the appearance of--of--your--" + +He was interrupted at this point by the captain, who, flushed and +blood-bespattered from the recent fight, came aft with a drawn scimitar +in his hand, and sternly ordered the young midshipman to go forward. + +It was a humiliating position to be placed in; yet, despite the +"stick-at-nothing" spirit, he felt constrained to obey, but did so, +nevertheless, with an air of defiant ferocity which relieved his +feelings to some extent. The said feelings were utterly ignored by the +pirate captain, who did not condescend even to look at him after the +first glance, but turned to the other captives and ordered them, in +rather less stern tones, to "go below," an order which was promptly +obeyed. + +On reaching the fore part of the vessel, Foster found several of the +crew engaged in bandaging each other's wounds, and, from the clumsy way +in which they went to work, it was very clear that they were much more +accustomed to inflict wounds than to bandage them. + +Now it must be told that, although George Foster was not a surgeon, he +had an elder brother who was, and with whom he had associated constantly +while he was studying and practising for his degree; hence he became +acquainted with many useful facts and modes of action connected with the +healing art, of which the world at large is ignorant. Perceiving that +one of the pirates was bungling a very simple operation, he stepped +forward, and, with that assurance which results naturally from the +combination of conscious power and "cheek," took up the dressing of the +wound. + +At first the men seemed inclined to resent the interference, but when +they saw that the "Christian" knew what he was about, and observed how +well and swiftly he did the work, they stood aside and calmly submitted. + +Foster was interrupted, however, in the midst of his philanthropic work +by Peter the Great, who came forward and touched him on the shoulder. + +"Sorry to 't'rupt you, sar, but you come wid me." + +"Mayn't I finish this operation first?" said Foster, looking up. + +"No, sar. My orders is prumptory." + +Our amateur surgeon dropped the bandage indignantly and followed the +negro, who led him down into the hold, at the further and dark end of +which he saw several wounded men lying, and beside them one or two whose +motionless and straightened figures seemed to indicate that death had +relieved them from earthly troubles. + +Amongst these men he spent the night and all next day, with only a +couple of biscuits and a mug of water to sustain him. Next evening +Peter the Great came down and bade him follow him to the other end of +the hold. + +"Now, sar, you go in dere," said the negro, stopping and pointing to a +small door in the bulkhead, inside of which was profound darkness. + +Foster hesitated and looked at his big conductor. + +"'Bey orders, sar!" said the negro, in a loud, stern voice of command. +Then, stooping as if to open the little door, he added, in a low voice, +"Don' be a fool, massa. _Submit_! Das de word, if you don' want a +whackin'. It's a friend advises you. Dere's one oder prisoner dere, +but he's wounded, an' won't hurt you. _Go_ in! won't you?" + +Peter the Great accompanied the last words with a violent thrust that +sent the hapless middy headlong into the dark hole, but as he closed and +fastened the door he muttered, "Don' mind my leetle ways, massa. You +know I's bound to be a hyperkrite." + +Having thus relieved his conscience, Peter returned to the deck, leaving +the poor prisoner to rise and, as a first consequence, to hit his head +on the beams above him. + +The hole into which he had been thrust was truly a "black hole," though +neither so hot nor so deadly as that of Calcutta. Extending his arms +cautiously, he touched the side of the ship with his left hand; with the +other he felt about for some time, but reached nothing until he had +advanced a step, when his foot touched something on the floor, and he +bent down to feel it, but shrank hastily back on touching what he +perceived at once was a human form. + +"Pardon me, friend, whoever you are," he said quickly, "I did not mean +to--I did not know--are you badly hurt?" + +But no reply came from the wounded man--not even a groan. + +A vague suspicion crossed Foster's mind. The man might be dying of his +wounds. He spoke to him again in French and Spanish, but still got no +reply! Then he listened intently for his breathing, but all was as +silent as the tomb. With an irresistible impulse, yet instinctive +shudder, he laid his hand on the man and passed it up until it reached +the face. The silence was then explained. The face was growing cold +and rigid in death. + +Drawing back hastily, the poor youth shouted to those outside to let +them know what had occurred, but no one paid the least attention to him. +He was about to renew his cries more loudly, when the thought occurred +that perhaps they might attribute them to fear. This kept him quiet, +and he made up his mind to endure in silence. + +If there had been a ray of light, however feeble, in the hold, he +thought his condition would have been more bearable, for then he could +have faced the lifeless clay and looked at it; but to know that it was +there, within a foot of him, without his being able to see it, or to +form any idea of what it was like, made the case terrible indeed. Of +course he drew back from it as far as the little space allowed, and +crushed himself up against the side of the vessel; but that did no good, +for the idea occurred to his excited brain that it might possibly come +to life again, rise up, and plunge against him. At times this thought +took such possession of him that he threw up his arms to defend himself +from attack, and uttered a half-suppressed cry of terror. + +At last nature asserted herself, and he slept, sitting on the floor and +leaning partly against the vessel's side, partly against the bulkhead. +But horrible dreams disturbed him. The corpse became visible, the eyes +glared at him, the blood-stained face worked convulsively, and he awoke +with a shriek, followed immediately by a sigh of relief on finding that +it was all a dream. Then the horror came again, as he suddenly +remembered that the dead man was still there, a terrible reality! + +At last pure exhaustion threw him into a dreamless and profound slumber. +The plunging of the little craft as it flew southward before a stiff +breeze did not disturb him, and he did not awake until some one rudely +seized his arm late on the following day. Then, in the firm belief that +his dream had come true at last, he uttered a tremendous yell and +struggled to rise, but a powerful hand held him down, and a dark lantern +revealed a coal-black face gazing at him. + +"Hallo! massa, hold on. I did tink you mus' be gone dead, for I +holler'd in at you 'nuff to bust de kittle-drum ob your ear--if you hab +one!" + +"Look there, Peter," said Foster, pointing to the recumbent figure, +while he wiped the perspiration from his brow. + +"Ah! poor feller. He gone de way ob all flesh; but he hoed sooner dan +dere was any occasion for--tanks to de captain." + +As he spoke he held the lantern over the dead man and revealed the face +of a youth in Eastern garb, on whose head there was a terrible +sword-cut. As they looked at the sad spectacle, and endeavoured to +arrange the corpse, the negro explained that the poor fellow had been a +Greek captive who to save his life had joined the pirates and become a +Mussulman; but, on thinking over it, had returned to the Christian faith +and refused to take part in the bloody work which they were required to +do. It was his refusal to fight on the occasion of the recent attack on +the merchantman that had induced the captain to cut him down. He had +been put into the prison in the hold, and carelessly left there to bleed +to death. + +"Now, you come along, massa," said the negro, taking up the lantern, +"we's all goin' on shore." + +"On shore! Where have we got to?" + +"To Algiers, de city ob pirits; de hotbed ob wickedness; de home ob de +Moors an' Turks an' Cabyles, and de cuss ob de whole wurld." + +Poor Foster's heart sank on hearing this, for he had heard of the +hopeless slavery to which thousands of Christians had been consigned +there in time past, and his recent experience of Moors had not tended to +improve his opinion of them. + +A feeling of despair impelled him to seize the negro by the arm as he +was about to ascend the ladder and stop him. + +"Peter," he said, "I think you have a friendly feeling towards me, +because you've called me massa more than once, though you have no +occasion to do so." + +"Dat's 'cause I'm fond o' you. I always was fond o' a nice smood young +babby face, an' I tooked a fancy to you de moment I see you knock Joe +Spinks into de lee scuppers." + +"So--he was an Englishman that I treated so badly, eh?" + +"Yes, massa, on'y you didn't treat him bad 'nuff. But you obsarve dat I +on'y calls you massa w'en we's alone an' friendly like. W'en we's in +public I calls you `sar' an' speak gruff an' shove you into black +holes." + +"And why do you act so, Peter?" + +"'Cause, don't you see, I's a hyperkrite. I tole you dat before." + +"Well, I can guess what you mean. You don't want to appear too +friendly? Just so. Well, now, I have got nobody to take my part here, +so as you are a free man I wish you would keep an eye on me when we go +ashore, and see where they send me, and speak a word for me when it is +in your power. You see, they'll give me up for drowned at home and +never find out that I'm here." + +"`A free man!'" repeated the negro, with an expansion of his mouth that +is indescribable. "You tink I's a free man! but I's a slabe, same as +yourself, on'y de diff'rence am dat dere's nobody to ransum _me_, so dey +don't boder deir heads 'bout me s'long as I do my work. If I don't do +my work I'm whacked; if I rebel and kick up a shindy I'm whacked wuss; +if I tries to run away I'm whacked till I'm dead. Das all. But I's not +free. No, no not at all! Hows'ever I's free-an'-easy, an' dat make de +pirits fond o' me, which goes a long way, for dere's nuffin' like lub!" + +Foster heartily agreed with the latter sentiment and added-- + +"Well, now, Peter, I will say no more, for as you profess to be fond of +me, and as I can truly say the same in regard to you, we may be sure +that each will help the other if he gets the chance. But, tell me, are +you really one of the crew of this pirate vessel?" + +"No, massa, only for dis viage. I b'longs to a old sinner called +Hassan, what libs in de country, not far from de town. He not a bad +feller, but he's obs'nit--oh! as obs'nit as a deaf an' dumb mule. If +you want 'im to go one way just tell him to go toder way--an' you've got +'im." + +At that moment the captain's voice was heard shouting down the hatchway, +demanding to know what detained the negro and his prisoners. He spoke +in that jumble of languages in use at that time among the Mediterranean +nations called Lingua Franca, for the negro did not understand Arabic. + +"Comin', captain, comin'," cried the negro, in his own peculiar +English--which was, indeed, his mother tongue, for he had been born in +the United States of America. "Now, den, sar," (to Foster), "w'en you +goin' to move you stumps? Up wid you!" + +Peter emphasised his orders with a real kick, which expedited his +prisoner's ascent, and, at the same time, justified the negro's claim to +be a thorough-paced "hyperkrite!" + +"Where's the other one?" demanded the captain angrily. + +"Escaped, captain!" answered Peter. + +"How? You must have helped him," cried the captain, drawing his +ever-ready sword and pointing it at the breast of the negro, who fell +upon his knees, clasped his great hands, and rolled his eyes in an +apparent agony of terror. + +"Don't, captain. I isn't wuth killin', an' w'en I's gone, who'd cook +for you like me? De man escaped by jumpin' out ob his body. He's gone +dead!" + +"Fool!" muttered the pirate, returning his sword to its sheath, "bind +that prisoner, and have him and the others ready to go on shore +directly." + +In a few seconds all the prisoners were ranged between the cabin +hatchway and the mast. The hands of most of the men were loosely tied, +to prevent trouble in case desperation should impel any of them to +assault their captors, but the old Dane and the women were left +unfettered. + +And now George Foster beheld, for the first time, the celebrated city, +which was, at that period, the terror of the merchant vessels of all +nations that had dealings with the Mediterranean shores. A small pier +and breakwater enclosed a harbour which was crowded with boats and +shipping. From this harbour the town rose abruptly on the side of a +steep hill, and was surrounded by walls of great strength, which +bristled with cannon. The houses were small and square-looking, and in +the midst, here and there, clusters of date-palms told of the almost +tropical character of the climate, while numerous domes, minarets, and +crescents told of the Moor and the religion of Mohammed. + +But religion in its true sense had little footing in that piratical +city, which subsisted on robbery and violence, while cruelty and +injustice of the grossest kind were rampant. Whatever Islamism may have +taught them, it did not produce men or women who held the golden rule to +be a virtue, and certainly few practised it. Yet we would not be +understood to mean that there were none who did so. As there were +Christians in days of old, even in Caesar's household, so there existed +men and women who were distinguished by the Christian graces, even in +the Pirate City. Even there God had not left Himself without a witness. + +As the vessel slowly entered the harbour under a very light breeze, she +was boarded by several stately officers in the picturesque costume-- +turbans, red leathern boots, etcetera--peculiar to the country. After +speaking a few minutes with the captain, one of the officers politely +addressed the old Dane and his family through an interpreter; but as +they spoke in subdued tones Foster could not make out what was said. +Soon he was interrupted by a harsh order from an unknown Moor in an +unknown tongue. + +An angry order invariably raised in our hero the spirit of rebellion. +He flushed and turned a fierce look on the Moor, but that haughty and +grave individual was accustomed to such looks. He merely repeated his +order in a quiet voice, at the same time translating it by pointing to +the boat alongside. Foster felt that discretion was the better part of +valour, all the more that there stood at the Moor's back five or six +powerful Arabs, who seemed quite ready to enforce his instructions. + +The poor middy glanced round to see if his only friend, Peter the Great, +was visible, but he was not; so, with a flushed countenance at thus +being compelled to put his pride in his pocket, he jumped into the boat, +not caring very much whether he should break his neck by doing so with +tied hands, or fall into the sea and end his life in a shark's maw! + +In a few minutes he was landed on the mole or pier, and made to join a +band of captives, apparently from many nations, who already stood +waiting there. + +Immediately afterwards the band was ordered to move on, and as they +marched through the great gateway in the massive walls Foster felt as if +he were entering the portals of Dante's Inferno, and had left all hope +behind. But his feelings misled him. Hope, thank God! is not easily +extinguished in the human breast. As he tramped along the narrow and +winding streets, which seemed to him an absolute labyrinth, he began to +take interest in the curious sights and sounds that greeted him on every +side, and his mind was thus a little taken off himself. + +And there was indeed much there to interest a youth who had never seen +Eastern manners or customs before. Narrow and steep though the streets +were--in some cases so steep that they formed flights of what may be +styled broad and shallow stairs--they were crowded with bronzed men in +varied Eastern costume; Moors in fez and gay vest and red morocco +slippers; Turks with turban and pipe; Cabyles from the mountains; Arabs +from the plains; water-carriers with jar on shoulder; Jews in sombre +robes; Jewesses with rich shawls and silk kerchiefs as headgear; donkeys +with panniers that almost blocked the way; camels, and veiled women, and +many other strange sights that our hero had up to that time only seen in +picture-books. + +Presently the band of captives halted before a small door which was +thickly studded with large nails. It seemed to form the only opening in +a high dead wall, with the exception of two holes about a foot square, +which served as windows. This was the Bagnio, or prison, in which the +slaves were put each evening after the day's labour was over, there to +feed and rest on the stone floor until daylight should call them forth +again to renewed toil. It was a gloomy courtyard, with cells around it +in which the captives slept. A fountain in the middle kept the floor +damp and seemed to prove an attraction to various centipedes, scorpions, +and other noisome creatures which were crawling about. + +Here the captives just arrived had their bonds removed, and were left to +their own devices, each having received two rolls of black bread before +the jailor retired and locked them up for the night. + +Taking possession of an empty cell, George Foster sat down on the stone +floor and gazed at the wretched creatures around him, many of whom were +devouring their black bread with ravenous haste. The poor youth could +hardly believe his eyes, and it was some time before he could convince +himself that the whole thing was not a dream but a terrible reality. + + + +CHAPTER THREE. + +THE BAGNIO--OUR HERO SEES SOMETHING OF MISERY, AND IS SOLD AS A SLAVE. + +There are some things in this world so unbelievable that even when we +know them to be true we still remain in a state of semi-scepticism. + +When our unfortunate midshipman awoke next morning, raised himself on +his elbow, and felt that all his bones and muscles were stiff and pained +from lying on a stone floor, it was some time before he could make out +where he was, or recall the events of the last few days. The first +thing that revived his sluggish memory was the scuttling away, in +anxious haste, of a scorpion that had sought and found comfortable +quarters during the night under the lee of his right leg. Starting up, +he crushed the reptile with his foot. + +"You will get used to that," said a quietly sarcastic voice with a +slightly foreign accent, close to him. + +The speaker was a middle-aged man with grey hair, hollow cheeks, and +deep sunken eyes. + +"They trouble us a little at first," he continued, "but, as I have said, +we get used to them. It is long since I cared for scorpions." + +"Have you, then, been long here?" asked Foster. + +"Yes. Twelve years." + +"A prisoner?--a slave?" asked the midshipman anxiously. + +"A prisoner, yes. A slave, yes--a mummified man; a dead thing with life +enough to work, but not yet quite a brute, more's the pity, for then I +should not care! But here I have been for twelve years--long, long +years! It has seemed to me an eternity." + +"It _is_ a long time to be a slave. God help you, poor man!" exclaimed +Foster. + +"You will have to offer that prayer for yourself, young man," returned +the other; "you will need help more than I. At first we are fools, but +time makes us wise. It even teaches Englishmen that they are not +unconquerable." + +The man spoke pointedly and in a harsh sarcastic tone which tended to +check Foster's new-born compassion; nevertheless, he continued to +address his fellow-sufferer in a sympathetic spirit. + +"You are not an Englishman, I think," he said, "though you speak our +language well." + +"No, I am French, but my wife is English." + +"Your wife! Is she here also?" + +"Thank God--no," replied the Frenchman, with a sudden burst of +seriousness which was evidently genuine. "She is in England, trying to +make up the sum of my ransom. But she will never do it. She is poor. +She has her daughter to provide for besides herself, and we have no +friends. No, I have hoped for twelve years, and hope is now dead-- +nearly dead." + +The overwhelming thoughts that this information raised in Foster's mind +rendered him silent for a few minutes. The idea of the poor wife in +England, toiling for twelve years almost hopelessly to ransom her +husband, filled his susceptible heart with pity. Then the thought of +his mother and Minnie--who were also poor--toiling for years to procure +his ransom, filled him with oppressive dread. To throw the depressing +subject off his mind, he asked how the Frenchman had guessed that he was +an Englishman before he had heard him speak. + +"I know your countrymen," he answered, "by their bearing. Besides, you +have been muttering in your sleep about `Mother and Minnie.' If the +latter is, as I suppose, your sweetheart--your _fiancee_--the sooner you +get her out of your mind the better, for you will never see her more." + +Again Foster felt repelled by the harsh cynicism of the man, yet at the +same time he felt strangely attracted to him, a fact which he showed +more by his tones than his words when he said-- + +"My friend, you are not yet enrolled among the infallible prophets. +Whether I shall ever again see those whom I love depends upon the will +of God. But I don't wonder that with your sad experience you should +give way to despair. For myself, I will cling to the hope that God will +deliver me, and I would advise you to do the same." + +"How many I have seen, who had the sanguine temperament, like yours, +awakened and crushed," returned the Frenchman. "See, there is one of +them," he added, pointing to a cell nearly opposite, in which a form was +seen lying on its back, straight and motionless. "That young man was +such another as you are when he first came here." + +"Is he dead?" asked the midshipman, with a look of pity. + +"Yes--he died in the night while you slept. It was attending to him in +his last moments that kept me awake. He was nothing to me but a +fellow-slave and sufferer, but I _was_ fond of him. He was hard to +conquer, but they managed it at last, for they beat him to death." + +"Then they did _not_ conquer him," exclaimed Foster with a gush of +indignant pity. "To beat a man to death is to murder, not to conquer. +But you called him a young man. The corpse that lies there has thin +grey hair and a wrinkled brow." + +"Nevertheless he was young--not more than twenty-seven--but six years of +this life brought him to what you see. He might have lived longer, as I +have, had he been submissive!" + +Before Foster could reply, the grating of a rusty key in the door caused +a movement as well as one or two sighs and groans among the slaves, for +the keepers had come to summon them to work. The Frenchman rose and +followed the others with a hook of sullen indifference. Most of them +were without fetters, but a few strong young men wore chains and fetters +more or less heavy, and Foster judged from this circumstance, as well as +their expressions, that these were rebellious subjects whom it was +difficult to tame. + +Much to his surprise, the youth found that he was not called on to join +his comrades in misfortune, but was left behind in solitude. While +casting about in his mind as to what this could mean, he observed in a +corner the two rolls of black bread which he had received the previous +night, and which, not being hungry at the time, he had neglected. As a +healthy appetite was by that time obtruding itself on his attention, he +took hold of one and began to eat. It was not attractive, but, not +being particular, he consumed it. He even took up the other and ate +that also, after which he sighed and wished for more! As there was no +more to be had, he went to the fountain in the court and washed his +breakfast down with water. + +About two hours later the door was again opened, and a man in the +uniform of a janissary entered. Fixing a keen glance on the young +captive, he bade him in broken English rise and follow. + +By this time the lesson of submission had been sufficiently impressed on +our hero to induce him to accord prompt obedience. He followed his +guide into the street, where he walked along until they arrived at a +square, on one side of which stood a large mosque. Here marketing was +being carried on to a considerable extent, and, as he threaded his way +through the various groups, he could not help being impressed with the +extreme simplicity of the mode of procedure, for it seemed to him that +all a man wanted to enable him to set himself up in trade was a few +articles of any kind--old or new, it did not matter which--with a day's +lease of about four feet square of the market pavement. There the +retail trader squatted, smoked his pipe, and calmly awaited the decrees +of Fate! + +One of these small traders he noted particularly while his conductor +stopped to converse with a friend. He was an old man, evidently a +descendant of Ishmael, and clothed in what seemed to be a ragged +cast-off suit that had belonged to Abraham or Isaac. He carried his +shop on his arm in the shape of a basket, out of which he took a little +bit of carpet, and spread it close to where they stood. On this he sat +down and slowly extracted from his basket, and spread on the ground +before him, a couple of old locks, several knives, an old brass +candlestick, an assortment of rusty keys, a flat-iron, and half a dozen +other articles of household furniture. Before any purchases were made, +however, the janissary moved on, and Foster had to follow. + +Passing through two or three tortuous and narrow lanes, which, however, +were thickly studded with shops--that is, with holes in the wall, in +which merchandise was displayed outside as well as in--they came to a +door which was strictly guarded. Passing the guards, they found +themselves in a court, beyond which they could see another court which +looked like a hall of justice--or injustice, as the case might be. What +strengthened Foster in the belief that such was its character, was the +fact that, at the time they entered, an officer was sitting cross-legged +on a bench, smoking comfortably, while in front of him a man lay on his +face with his soles turned upwards, whilst an executioner was applying +to them the punishment of the bastinado. The culprit could not have +been a great offender, for, after a sharp yell or two, he was allowed to +rise and limp away. + +Our hero was led before the functionary who looked like a judge. He +regarded the middy with no favour. We should have recorded that Foster, +when blown out to sea, as already described, had leaped on the pirate's +deck without coat or vest. As he was still in this dismantled +condition, and had neither been washed nor combed since that event +occurred, his appearance at this time was not prepossessing. + +"Who are you, and where do you come from?" was the first question put by +an interpreter. + +Of course Foster told the exact truth about himself. After he had done +so, the judge and interpreter consulted together, glancing darkly at +their prisoner the while. Then the judge smiled significantly and +nodded his head. The interpreter turned to a couple of negroes who +stood ready to execute any commands, apparently, and said a few words to +them. They at once took hold of Foster and fastened a rope to his +wrist. As they did so, the interpreter turned to the poor youth and +said-- + +"What you tell is all lies." + +"Indeed, indeed, it is not," exclaimed the midshipman fervently. + +"Go!" said the interpreter. + +A twitch from the rope at the same moment recalled our hero to his right +mind; and the remembrance of the poor wretch who had just suffered the +bastinado, and also of Peter the Great's oft-repeated reference to +"whacking," had the effect of crushing the spirit of rebellion which had +just begun to arise in his breast. Thus he was conducted ignominiously +into the street and back to the market-square, where he was made to +stand with a number of other men, who, like himself, appeared to be +slaves. For what they were there waiting he could not tell, but he was +soon enlightened, as after half an hour, a dignified-looking Moor in +flowing apparel came forward, examined one of the captives, felt his +muscles, made him open his mouth, and otherwise show his paces, after +which he paid a sum of money for him and a negro attendant led him away. + +"I'm to be sold as a slave," Foster involuntarily groaned aloud. + +"Like all the rest of us," growled a stout sailor-like man, who stood at +his elbow. + +Foster turned quickly to look at him, but a sudden movement in the group +separated them after the first glance at each other. + +By way of relieving his overcharged feelings he tried to interest +himself in the passers-by. This, however, he found very difficult, +until he observed a sturdy young Cabyle coming along with two enormous +feathery bundles suspended over his right shoulder, one hanging before, +the other behind. To his surprise these bundles turned out to be living +fowls, tied by the legs and hanging with their heads down. There could +not, he thought, have been fewer than thirty or forty birds in each +bundle, and it occurred to him at once that they had probably been +carried to market thus from some distance in the country. At all +events, the young Cabyle seemed to be dusty and warm with walking. He +even seemed fatigued, for, when about to pass the group of slaves, he +stopped to rest and flung down his load. The shock of the fall must +have snapped a number of legs, for a tremendous cackle burst from the +bundles as they struck the ground. + +This raised the thought in Foster's mind that he could hope for no mercy +where such wanton cruelty was not even deemed worthy of notice by the +bystanders; but the sound of a familiar voice put all other thoughts to +flight. + +"Dis way, massa, you's sure to git fuss-rate fellers here. We brought +'im in on'y yesterday--all fresh like new-laid eggs." + +The speaker was Peter the Great. The man to whom he spoke was a Moor of +tall stature and of somewhat advanced years. + +Delighted more than he could express, in his degraded and forlorn +condition, at this unlooked-for meeting with his black friend, Foster +was about to claim acquaintance, when the negro advanced to the group +among whom he stood, exclaiming loudly-- + +"Here dey am, massa, dis way." Then turning suddenly on Foster with a +fierce expression, he shouted, "What you lookin' at, you babby-faced +ijit? Hab you nebber seen a handsome nigger before dat you look all +t'under-struck of a heap? Can't you hold your tongue, you chatterin' +monkey?" and with that, although Foster had not uttered a syllable, the +negro fetched him a sounding smack on the cheek, to the great amusement +of the bystanders. + +Well was it then for our middy that it flashed into his mind that Peter +the Great, being the most astounding "hyperkrite" on earth, was at work +in his deceptive way, else would he have certainly retaliated and +brought on himself swift punishment--for slaves were not permitted to +resent injuries or create riots. As it was, he cast down his eyes, +flushed scarlet, and restrained himself. + +"Now, massa," continued the negro, turning to the fine, sailor-like man +who had spoken to Foster a few minutes before, "here's a nice-lookin' +man. Strong an' healfy--fit for anyt'ing no doubt." + +"Ask him if he understands gardening," said the Moor. + +We may remark, in passing, that Peter the Great and his owner had a +peculiar mode of carrying on conversation. The latter addressed his +slave in the Lingua Franca, while Peter replied in his own nigger +English, which the Moor appeared to understand perfectly. Why they +carried it on thus we cannot explain, but it is our duty to record the +fact. + +"Understand gardening!" exclaimed the sailor, in supreme contempt, "I +should think not. Wot d'you take me for, you black baboon! Do I look +like a gardener? Ploughin' an' diggin' I knows nothin' about +wotsomever, though I _have_ ploughed the waves many a day, an' I'm +considered a fust-rate hand at diggin' into wittles." + +"Oh! massa, das de man for your money! Buy him, quick!" cried the +negro, with a look of earnest entreaty at his master. "He say he's +ploughed many a day, an''s a fuss-rate hand at diggin'. _Do_ buy 'im!" + +But the Moor would not buy him. Either he understood the sailor's +language to some extent, or that inveterate obstinacy of which Peter had +made mention as being part of his character was beginning to assert +itself. + +"Ask this one what he knows about it," said the Moor, pointing to a thin +young man, whose sprightly expression showed that he had not yet fully +realised what fate was in store for him in the pirates' stronghold. + +"Wich is it you mean, massa, dis one?" said Peter, purposely mistaking +and turning to Foster. "Oh! you needn't ask about _him_. He not wuff +his salt. I could tell him at a mile off for a lazy, useless feller. +Gib more trouble dan he's wuff. Dere now, dis looks a far better man," +he added, laying hold of the thin sprightly youth and turning him round. +"What d'ye t'ink ob dis one?" + +"I _told_ you to ask that one," replied the Moor sharply. + +"Can you do gardenin', you feller?" asked Peter. + +"Oui, oui--un peu," replied the youth, who happened to be French, but +understood English. + +"None ob your wee-wees an' poo-poos to me. Can't you speak English?" + +"Oui, yes, I gardin ver' leetle." + +"Jus' so. Das de man for us, massa, if you won't hab de oder. I likes +de look ob 'im. I don't t'ink he'll be hard on de wittles, an' he's so +t'in dat he won't puspire much when he works in de sun in summer. Do +buy _him_, massa." + +But "massa" would not buy him, and looked hard for some time at our +hero. + +"I see how it am," said the negro, growing sulky. "You set your heart +on dat useless ijit. Do come away, massa, it 'ud break my heart to lib +wid sich a feller." + +This seemed to clinch the matter, for the Moor purchased the +objectionable slave, ordered Peter the Great to bring him along, and +left the market-place. + +"Didn't I tell you I's de greatest hyperkrite as ever was born?" said +Peter, in a low voice, when sufficiently far in rear to prevent being +overheard by his master. + +"You certainly did," replied Foster, who felt something almost like +satisfaction at this change in his fate; "you are the most perfect +hypocrite that I ever came across, and I am not sorry for it. Only I +hope you won't deceive your friends." + +"Honour bright!" said the negro, with a roll of the eyes and a solemnity +of expression that told far more than words could express. + +"Can you tell me," asked the middy, as they walked along, "what has +become of that fine-looking girl that was captured with her father and +mother by your captain?" + +"Don't say _my_ captain, sar," replied Peter sternly. "He no captain ob +mine. I was on'y loaned to him. But I knows nuffin ob de gall. Bery +likely she's de Dey's forty-second wife by dis time. Hush! look sulky," +he added quickly, observing that his master was looking back. + +Poor Foster found himself under the necessity of following his black +friend's lead, and acting the "hyperkrite," in order to prevent their +friendship being discovered. He did it with a bad grace, it is true, +but felt that, for his friend's sake if not his own, he was bound to +comply. So he put on an expression which his cheery face had not known +since that period of infancy when his frequent demands for sugar were +not gratified. Wheels worked within wheels, however, for he felt so +disgusted with the part he had to play that he got into the sulks +naturally! + +"Fuss-rate!" whispered Peter, "you's a'most as good as myself." + +By this time they had reached one of the eastern gates of the city. It +was named Bab-Azoun. As they passed through it the negro told his +brother-slave that the large iron hooks which ornamented the wall there +were used for the purpose of having criminals cast on them; the wretched +victims being left to hang there, by whatever parts of their bodies +chanced to catch on the hooks, till they died. + +Having reached the open country outside the walls, they walked along a +beautiful road, from which were obtained here and there splendid views +of the surrounding country. On one side lay the blue Mediterranean, +with its picturesque boats and shipping, and the white city descending +to the very edge of the sea; on the other side rose the wooded slopes of +a suburb named Mustapha, with numerous white Moorish houses in the midst +of luxuriant gardens, where palms, bananas, cypresses, aloes, +lemon-trees, and orange groves perfumed the balmy air, and afforded +grateful shade from the glare of the African sun. + +Into one of those gardens the Moor at last turned and led the way to a +house, which, if not in itself beautiful according to European notions +of architecture, was at least rendered cheerful with whitewash, and +stood in the midst of a beauty and luxuriance of vegetation that could +not be surpassed. + +Opening a door in this building, the Turk entered. His slaves followed, +and Foster, to his surprise, found what may be styled a miniature garden +in the courtyard within. + + + +CHAPTER FOUR. + +OUR MIDDY IS PUT TO WORK--ALSO PUT ON HIS "WORD-OF-HONOUR," AND RECEIVES +A GREAT SHOCK OF SURPRISE. + +George Foster soon found that his master and owner, Ben-Ahmed, was a +stern and exacting, but by no means an ill-natured or cruel, man. He +appeared to be considerably over sixty years of age, but showed no signs +of abated vigour. In character he was amiable and just, according to +his light, but dignified and reticent. + +His first act, after seating himself cross-legged on a carpet in a +marble and tessellated recess, was to call for a hookah. He smoked that +for a few minutes and contemplated the courtyard on which the recess +opened. It was a pleasant object of contemplation, being filled with +young orange-trees and creeping plants of a tropical kind, which were +watered by a stone fountain in the centre of the court. This fountain +also served to replenish a marble bath, to cool the sultry air, and to +make pleasant tinkling music. Of course the nose was not forgotten in +this luxurious assemblage of things that were gratifying to ear and eye. +Flowers of many kinds were scattered around, and sweet-scented plants +perfumed the air. + +Ben-Ahmed's next act, after having lighted his pipe, was to summon Peter +the Great and his new slave--the former to act as interpreter, for it +was a peculiarity of this Moor that though he appeared to understand +English he would not condescend to speak it. + +After asking several questions as to our hero's name, age, and calling +in life, he told Peter to inform Foster that escape from that country +was impossible, that any attempt to escape would be punished with +flogging and other torture, that perseverance in such attempts would +result in his being sent to work in chains with the Bagnio slaves and +would probably end in death from excessive toil, torture, and partial +starvation. Having said this, the Moor asked several questions--through +the negro, and always in the Lingua Franca. + +"Massa bids me ax," said Peter, "if you are a gentleman, an' if you know +it am de custom in England for gentleman-pris'ners to give dere +word-ob-honour dat dey not run away, an' den go about as if dey was +free?" + +"Tell him that every officer in the service of the King of England is +considered a gentleman." + +"Come now, sar," interrupted Peter sternly, "you know das not true. I +bin in England myself--cook to a French rest'rung in London--an' I +nebber hear dat a _pleece_ officer was a gentleman!" + +"Well, I mean every commissioned officer in the army and navy," returned +Foster, "and when such are taken prisoner I am aware that they are +always allowed a certain amount of freedom of action on giving their +word of honour that they will not attempt to escape." + +When this was explained to Ben-Ahmed, he again said a few words to the +negro, who translated as before. + +"Massa say dat as you are a gentleman if you will gib your +word-ob-honour not to escape, he will make you free. Not kite free, ob +course, but free to work in de gardin widout chains; free to sleep in de +out-house widout bein' locked up ob nights, an' free to enjoy you'self +w'en you gits de chance." + +Foster looked keenly at the negro, being uncertain whether or not he was +jesting, but the solemn features of that arch "hyperkrite" were no index +to the working of his eccentric mind--save when he permitted them to +speak; then, indeed, they were almost more intelligible than the +plainest language. + +"And what if I refuse to pledge my word for the sake of such freedom?" +asked our hero. + +"W'y, den you'll git whacked, an' you'll 'sperience uncommon hard times, +an' you'll change you mind bery soon, so I t'ink, on de whole, you +better change 'im at once. Seems to me you's a remarkably obs'nit young +feller!" + +With a sad feeling that he was doing something equivalent to locking the +door and throwing away the key, Foster gave the required promise, and +was forthwith conducted into the garden and set to work. + +His dark friend supplied him with a new striped cotton shirt--his own +having been severely torn during his recent adventures--also with a pair +of canvas trousers, a linen jacket, and a straw hat with a broad rim; +all of which fitted him badly, and might have caused him some discomfort +in other circumstances, but he was too much depressed just then to care +much for anything. His duty that day consisted in digging up a piece of +waste ground. To relieve his mind, he set to work with tremendous +energy, insomuch that Peter the Great, who was looking on, exclaimed-- + +"Hi! what a digger you is! You'll bust up altogidder if you goes on +like dat. De moles is nuffin' to you." + +But Foster heeded not. The thought that he was now doomed to hopeless +slavery, perhaps for life, was pressed home to him more powerfully than +ever, and he felt that if he was to save himself from going mad he must +work with his muscles like a tiger, and, if possible, cease to think. +Accordingly, he went on toiling till the perspiration ran down his face, +and all his sinews were strained. + +"Poor boy!" muttered the negro in a low tone, "he's tryin' to dig his +own grave. But he not succeed. Many a man try dat before now and +failed. Howsomeber, it's blowin' a hard gale wid him just now--an' de +harder it blow de sooner it's ober. Arter de storm comes de calm." + +With these philosophic reflections, Peter the Great went off to his own +work, leaving our hero turning over the soil like a steam-plough. + +Strong though Foster was--both of muscle and will--he was but human +after all. In course of time he stopped from sheer exhaustion, flung +down the spade, and, raising himself with his hands stretched up and his +face turned to the sky, he cried-- + +"God help me! what shall I do?" + +Then, dropping his face on his hands, he stood for a considerable time +quite motionless. + +"What a fool I was to promise not to try to escape!" he thought, and a +feeling of despair followed the thought, but a certain touch of relief +came when he reflected that at any time he could go boldly to his +master, withdraw the promise, and take the consequences. + +He was still standing like a statue, with his hands covering his face, +when he felt a light touch on his shoulder. It was the negro who had +returned to see how he was getting on. + +"Look yar, now, Geo'ge," he said in quite a fatherly manner, "dis'll +neber do. My massa buy you to work in de gardin, not to stand like a +statoo washin' its face widout soap or water. We don't want no more +statoos. Got more'n enuff ob marble ones all around. Besides, you +don't make a good statoo--leastwise not wid dem slop clo'es on. Now, +come yar, Geo'ge. I wants a little combersation wid you. I'll preach +you a small sarmin if you'll allow me." + +So saying, Peter led his assistant slave into a cool arbour, where +Ben-Ahmed was wont at times to soothe his spirits with a pipe. + +"Now, look yar, Geo'ge, dis won't do. I say it once and for all--dis +_won't do_." + +"I know it won't, Peter," replied the almost heart-broken middy, with a +sad smile, "you're very kind. I know you take an interest in me, and +I'll try to do better, but I'm not used to spade-work, you know, and--" + +"Spade-work!" shouted Peter, laying his huge black hand on Foster's +shoulder, and giving him a squeeze that made him wince, "das not what I +mean. Work! w'y you's done more'n a day's work in one hour, judging by +de work ob or'nary slabes. No, das not it. What's wrong is dat you +don't rightly understand your priv'leges. Das de word, your priv'leges. +Now, look yar. I don't want you to break your heart before de time, +an' fur dat purpus I would remind you dat while dar's life dar's hope. +Moreober, you's got no notion what luck you're in. If a bad massa got +hold ob you, he gib you no noo clo'es, he gib you hard, black bread +'stead o' de good grub what you gits yar. He make you work widout +stoppin' all day, and whack you on de sole ob your foots if you dar say +one word. Was you eber whacked on de sole ob your foots?" + +"No, never," replied Foster, amused in spite of himself by the negro's +earnest looks and manner. + +"Ho! den you don't know yet what Paradise am." + +"Paradise, Peter? You mean the other place, I suppose." + +"No, sar, I mean not'ing ob de sort. I mean de Paradise what comes +arter it's ober, an' you 'gins to git well again. Hah! but you'll find +it out some day. But, to continoo, you's got eberyt'ing what's +comfrable here. If you on'y sawd de Bagnio slabes at work--I'll take +you to see 'em some day--den you'll be content an' pleased wid your lot +till de time comes when you escape." + +"Escape! How can I escape, Peter, now that I have given my word of +honour not to try?" + +"Not'ing easier," replied the negro calmly, "you's on'y got to break +your word-ob-honour!" + +"I'm sorry to hear you say that, my friend," returned Foster, "for it +shakes my confidence in you. You must know that an English gentleman +_never_ breaks his word--that is, he never _should_ break it--and you +may rest assured that I will not break mine. If your view of such +matters is so loose, Peter, what security have I that you won't deceive +_me_ and betray _me_ when it is your interest or your whim to do so?" + +"Security, Massa? I lub you! I's fond o' your smood babby face. Isn't +dat security enough?" + +Foster could not help admitting that it was, as long as it lasted! "But +what," he asked, "what security has Ben-Ahmed that you won't be as false +to him as you recommend me to be?" + +"I lub massa too!" answered the negro, with a bland smile. + +"What! love a man whom you have described to me as the most obstinate +fellow you ever knew?" + +"Ob course I do," returned Peter. "W'y not? A obs'nit man may be as +good as anoder man what can be shoved about any way you please. Ha! you +not know yit what it is to hab a _bad_ massa. Wait a bit; you find it +out, p'r'aps, soon enough. Look yar." + +He bared his bosom as he spoke, and displayed to his wondering and +sympathetic friend a mass of old scars and gashes and healed-up sores. + +"Dis what my last massa do to me, 'cause I not quite as smart as he +wish. De back am wuss. Oh, if you know'd a bad massa, you'd be +thankful to-day for gettin' a good un. Now, what I say is, nobody never +knows what's a-goin' to turn up. You just keep quiet an' wait. Some +slabes yar hab waited patiently for ten-fifteen year, an' more. What +den? Sure to 'scape sooner or later. Many are ransum in a year or two. +Oders longer. Lots ob 'em die, an' 'scape dat way. Keep up your +heart, Geo'ge, whateber you do, and, if you won't break your +word-ob-honour, something else'll be sure to turn up." + +Although the negro's mode of affording comfort and encouragement was not +based entirely on sound principles, his cheery and hopeful manner went a +long way to lighten the load of care that had been settling down like a +dead weight on young Foster's heart, and he returned to his work with a +happier spirit than he had possessed since the day he leaped upon the +deck of the pirate vessel. That night he spent under the same roof with +his black friend and a number of the other slaves, none of whom, +however, were his countrymen, or could speak any language that he +understood. His bed was the tiled floor of an out-house, but there was +plenty of straw on it. He had only one blanket, but the nights as well +as days were warm, and his food, although of the simplest kind and +chiefly vegetable, was good in quality and sufficient in quantity. + +The next day, at the first blush of morning light, he was aroused with +the other slaves by Peter the Great, who, he found, was the Moor's +overseer of domestics. He was put to the same work as before, but that +day his friend the negro was sent off on a mission that was to detain +him several days from home. Another man took Peter's place, but, as he +spoke neither English nor French, no communication passed between the +overseer and slave except by signs. As, however, the particular job on +which he had been put was simple, this did not matter. During the +period of Peter's absence the poor youth felt the oppression of his +isolated condition keenly. He sank to a lower condition than before, +and when his friend returned, he was surprised to find how much of his +happiness depended on the sight of his jovial black face! + +"Now, Geo'ge," was the negro's first remark on seeing him, "you's down +in de blues again!" + +"Well, I confess I have not been very bright in your absence, Peter. +Not a soul to speak a word to; nothing but my own thoughts to entertain +me; and poor entertainment they have been. D'you know, Peter, I think I +should die if it were not for you." + +"Nebber a bit ob it, massa. You's too cheeky to die soon. I's noticed, +in my 'sperience, dat de young slabes as has got most self-conceit an' +imprence is allers hardest to kill." + +"I scarce know whether to take that as encouragement or otherwise," +returned Foster, with the first laugh he had given vent to for a long +time. + +"Take it how you please, Geo'ge, as de doctor said to de dyin' man-- +won't matter much in de long-run. But come 'long wid me an' let's hab a +talk ober it all. Let's go to de bower." + +In the bower the poor middy found some consolation by pouring his +sorrows into the great black sympathetic breast of Peter the Great, +though it must be confessed that Peter occasionally took a strange way +to comfort him. One of the negro's perplexities lay in the difficulty +he had to convince our midshipman of his great good-fortune in having +fallen into the hands of a kind master, and having escaped the terrible +fate of the many who had cruel tyrants as their owners, who were +tortured and beaten when too ill to work, who had bad food to eat and +not too much of it, and who were whipped to death sometimes when they +rebelled. Although Foster listened and considered attentively, he +failed to appreciate what his friend sought to impress, and continued in +a state of almost overwhelming depression because of the simple fact +that he was a slave--a bought and sold slave! + +"Now, look yar, Geo'ge," said the negro, remonstratively, "you _is_ a +slabe; das a fact, an' no application ob fut rule or compasses, or the +mul'plication table, or any oder table, kin change dat. Dere you am--a +slabe! But you ain't a 'bused slabe, a whacked slabe, a tortered slabe, +a dead slabe. You're all alibe an' kickin', Geo'ge! So you cheer up, +an' somet'ing sure to come ob it; an' if not'ing comes ob it, w'y, de +cheerin' up hab come ob it anyhow." + +Foster smiled faintly at this philosophical view of his case, and did +make a brave effort to follow the advice of his friend. + +"Das right, now, Geo'ge; you laugh an' grow fat. Moreober, you go to +work now, for if massa come an' find us here, he's bound to know de +reason why! Go to work, Geo'ge, an' forgit your troubles. Das _my_ +way--an' I's got a heap o' troubles, bress you!" + +So saying, Peter the Great rose and left our forlorn midshipman sitting +in the arbour, where he remained for some time ruminating on past, +present, and future instead of going to work. + +Apart from the fact of his being a slave, the youth's condition at the +moment was by no means disagreeable, for he was seated in a garden which +must have borne no little resemblance to the great original of Eden, in +a climate that may well be described as heavenly, with a view before him +of similar gardens which swept in all their rich luxuriance over the +slopes in front of him until they terminated on the edge of the blue and +sparkling sea. + +While seated there, lost in reverie, he was startled by the sound of +approaching footsteps--very different indeed from the heavy tread of his +friend Peter. A guilty conscience made him glance round for a way of +escape, but there was only one entrance to the bower. While he was +hesitating how to act, an opening in the foliage afforded him a passing +glimpse of a female in the rich dress of a Moorish lady. + +He was greatly surprised, being well aware of the jealousy with which +Mohammedans guard their ladies from the eyes of men. The explanation +might lie in this, that Ben-Ahmed, being eccentric in this as in most +other matters, afforded the inmates of his harem unusual liberty. +Before he had time to think much on the subject, however, the lady in +question turned into the arbour and stood before him. + +If the word "thunderstruck" did justice in any degree to the state of +mind which we wish to describe we would gladly use it, but it does not. +Every language, from Gaelic to Chinese, equally fails to furnish an +adequate word. We therefore avoid the impossible and proceed, merely +remarking that from the expression of both faces it was evident that +each had met with a crushing surprise. + +We can understand somewhat the midshipman's state of mind, for the being +who stood before him was--was--well, we are again nonplussed! Suffice +it to say that she was a girl of fifteen summers--the other forty-five +seasons being, of course, understood. Beauty of feature and complexion +she had, but these were lost, as it were, and almost forgotten, in her +beauty of expression--tenderness, gentleness, urbanity, simplicity, and +benignity in a state of fusion! Now, do not run away, reader, with the +idea of an Eastern princess, with gorgeous black eyes, raven hair, tall +and graceful form, etcetera! This apparition was fair, blue-eyed, +golden-haired, girlish, sylph-like. She was graceful, indeed, as the +gazelle, but not tall, and with an air of suavity that was irresistibly +attractive. She had a "good" face as well as a beautiful, and there was +a slightly pitiful look about the eyebrows that seemed to want smoothing +away. + +How earnestly George Foster desired--with a gush of pity, or something +of that sort--to smooth it away. But he had too much delicacy of +feeling as well as common sense to offer his services just then. + +"Oh, sir!" exclaimed the girl, in perfect English, as she hastily threw +a thin gauze veil over her face, "forgive me! I did not know you were +here--else--my veil--but why should _I_ mind such customs? You are an +Englishman, I think?" + +Foster did not feel quite sure at that moment whether he was English, +Irish, Scotch, or Dutch, so he looked foolish and said-- + +"Y-yes." + +"I knew it. I was sure of it! Oh! I am _so_ glad!" exclaimed the +girl, clasping her delicate little hands together and bursting into +tears. + +This was such a very unexpected climax, and so closely resembled the +conduct of a child, that it suddenly restored our midshipman to +self-possession. Stepping quickly forward, he took one of the girl's +hands in his, laid his other hand on her shoulder, and said-- + +"Don't cry, my poor child! If I can help you in any way, I'll be only +too glad; but pray don't, _don't_ cry so." + +"I--I--can't help it," sobbed the girl, pulling away her hand--not on +account of propriety, by any means: that never entered her young head-- +but for the purpose of searching for a kerchief in a pocket that was +_always_ undiscoverable among bewildering folds. "If--if--you only knew +how long, _long_ it is since I heard an English--(where _is_ that +_thing_!)--an English voice, you would not wonder. And my father, my +dear, dear, darling father--I have not heard of him for--for--" + +Here the poor thing broke down again and sobbed aloud, while the +midshipman looked on, imbecile and helpless. "Pray, _don't_ cry," said +Foster again earnestly. "Who are you? where did you come from? Who and +where is your father? Do tell me, and how I can help you, for we may be +interrupted?" + +This last remark did more to quiet the girl than anything else he had +said. + +"You are right," she replied, drying her eyes quickly. "And, do you +know the danger you run if found conversing with me?" + +"No--not great danger, I hope?" + +"The danger of being scourged to death, perhaps," she replied. + +"Then pray _do_ be quick, for I'd rather not get such a whipping--even +for _your_ sake!" + +"But our owner is not cruel," continued the girl. "He is kind--" + +"Owner! Is he not, then, your husband?" + +"Oh, no. He says he is keeping me for his son, who is away on a long +voyage. I have never seen him--and--I have such a dread of his coming +back!" + +"But you are English, are you not?" + +"Yes." + +"And your father?" + +"He is also English, and a slave. We have not met, nor have I heard of +him, since we were parted on board ship many months ago. Listen!" + + + +CHAPTER FIVE. + +THE MAIDEN'S STORY--PETER THE GREAT AND THE MIDDY GO FOR A HOLIDAY AND +SEE AWFUL THINGS. + +During the conversation detailed in the last chapter the young English +girl had spoken with her veil down. She now threw it carelessly back, +and, sitting down on a bench opposite our midshipman, folded her hands +in her lap and remained silent for a few seconds, during which George +Foster said--not aloud, but very privately to himself, "Although your +eyes are swelled and your little nose is red with crying, I never--no I +never--did see such a dear, sweet, pretty little innocent face in all my +life!" + +All unconscious of his thoughts, and still giving vent now and then to +an irresistible sob, the poor child--for she was little more--looked up +and began her sad tale. + +"About eight months ago my dear father, who is a merchant, resolved to +take me with him on a voyage to some of the Mediterranean ports. My +father's name is Hugh Sommers--" + +"And yours?" asked Foster. + +"Is Hester. We had only just entered the Mediterranean when one of +those dreadful Algerine pirates took our vessel and made slaves of us +all. My darling father, being a very big, strong, and brave man, fought +like a tiger. Oh! I never imagined that his dear kind face _could_ +have looked as it did that awful day. But although he knocked down and, +I fear, killed many men, it was all of no use, they were so numerous and +our men so few. The last I saw of my father was when they were lowering +him into a boat in a state of insensibility, with an awful cut all down +his brow and cheek, from which the blood was pouring in streams. + +"I tried to get to him, but they held me back and took me down into the +cabin. There I met our owner, who, when he saw me, threw a veil over my +head and bade me sit still. I was too terrified and too despairing +about my father to think of disobeying. + +"I think Ben-Ahmed, our owner, must be a man of power, for everybody +seemed to obey him that day as if he was the chief man, though he was +not the captain of the ship. After a time he took my hand, put me into +a small sailing boat, and took me ashore. I looked eagerly for my +father on landing, but he was nowhere to be seen, and--I have not seen +him since." + +"Nor heard of or from him?" asked Foster. + +"No." + +At this point, as there were symptoms of another breakdown, our middy +became anxious, and entreated Hester to go on. With a strong effort she +controlled her feelings. + +"Well, then, Ben-Ahmed brought me here, and, introducing me to his +wives--he has four of them, only think!--said he had brought home a +little wife for his son Osman. Of course I thought they were joking, +for you know girls of my age are never allowed to marry in England; but +after a time I began to see that they meant it, and, d'you know--By the +way, what is your name?" + +"Foster--George Foster." + +"Well, Mr Foster, I was going to say that I _cannot_ help wishing and +hoping that their son may _never_ come home! Isn't that sinful?" + +"I don't know much about the sin of it," said Foster, "but I fervently +hope the same thing from the very bottom of my heart." + +"And, oh!" continued Hester, whimpering a little, "you can't think what +a relief it is to be able to talk with you about it. It would have been +a comfort to talk even to our big dog here about it, if it could only +have understood English. But, now," continued the poor little creature, +while the troubled look returned to her eyebrows, "what _is_ to be +done?" + +"Escape--somehow!" said Foster promptly. + +"But nothing would induce me to even try to escape without my father," +said Hester. + +This was a damper to our midshipman. To rescue a little girl seemed to +him a mere nothing, in the glowing state of his heroic soul at that +moment, but to rescue her "very big, strong, and brave" father at the +same time did not appear so easy. Still, something _must_ be attempted +in that way. + +"Tell me," he said, "what is your father like?" + +"Tall, handsome, sweet, ex--" + +"Yes, yes. I know. But I mean colour of hair, kind of nose, etcetera; +be more particular, and do be quick! I don't like to hurry you, but +remember the possible scourging to death that hangs over me!" + +"Well, he is very broad and strong, a Roman nose, large sweet mouth +always smiling, large grey eyes--such loving eyes, too--with iron-grey +hair, moustache, and beard. You see, although it is not the fashion in +England to wear beards, my dear father thinks it right to do so, for he +is fond, he says, of doing only those things that he can give a good +reason for, and as he can see no reason whatever for shaving off his +moustachios and beard, any more than the hair of his head and eyebrows, +he lets them grow. I've heard people say that my father is wild in his +notions, and some used to say, as if it was very awful, that," (she +lowered her voice here), "he is a Radical! You know what a Radical is, +I suppose?" + +"Oh yes," said Foster, with the first laugh he had indulged in during +the interview, "a Radical is a man who wants to have everything his own +way; to have all the property in the world equally divided among +everybody; who wants all the power to be equally shared, and, in short, +who wants everything turned upside down!" + +"Hush! don't laugh so loud!" said Hester, looking anxiously round, and +holding up one of her pretty little fingers, "some one may hear you and +find us! Strange," she added pensively, "surely you must be under some +mistake, for I heard my dear father try to explain it once to a friend, +who seemed to me unwilling to understand. I remember so well the quiet +motion of his large, firm but sweet mouth as he spoke, and the look of +his great, earnest eyes--`A Radical,' he said, `is one who wishes and +tries to go to the root of every matter, and put all wrong things right +without delay.'" + +What George Foster might have said to this definition of a Radical, +coming, as it did, from such innocent lips, we cannot say, for the +abrupt closing of a door at the other end of the garden caused Hester to +jump up and run swiftly out of the bower. Foster followed her example, +and, returning to the scene of his labours, threw off his coat and began +to dig with an amount of zeal worthy of his friend the incorrigible +"hyperkrite" himself. + +A few minutes later and Ben-Ahmed approached, in close conversation with +Peter the Great. + +"Hallo!" exclaimed the latter, in stern tones, as they came up, "what +you bin about, sar? what you bin doin'? Not'ing done since I was here +more an hour past--eh, sar?" + +The midshipman explained, with a somewhat guilty look and blush, that he +had been resting in the bower, and that he had stayed much longer than +he had intended. + +"You just hab, you rascal! But I cure you ob dat," said the negro, +catching up a piece of cane that was lying on the ground, with which he +was about to administer condign chastisement to the idle slave, when his +master stopped him. + +"Hurt him not," he said, raising his hand; "is not this his first +offence?" + +"Yes, massa, de bery fust." + +"Well, tell him that the rod shall be applied next time he is found +idling. Enough, follow me!" + +With a stately step the amiable Moor passed on. With a much more +stately port Peter the Great followed him, but as he did so he bestowed +on Foster a momentary look so ineffably sly, yet solemn, that the latter +was obliged to seize the spade and dig like a very sexton in order to +check his tendency to laugh aloud. + +Half an hour later the negro returned to him. + +"What you bin do all dis time?" he asked in surprise. "I was more'n +half t'ink you desarve a lickin'!" + +"Perhaps I do, Peter," answered the young slave, in a tone so hearty and +cheerful that the negro's great eyes increased considerably in size. + +"Well, Geo'ge," he said, with a sudden change in his expression, "I +wouldn't hab expeck it ob you; no, I wouldn't, if my own mudder was to +tell me! To t'ink dat one so young, too, would go on de sly to de +rum-bottle! But where you kin find 'im's more'n I kin tell." + +"I have not been at the rum-bottle at all," returned the middy, resting +on his spade, "but I have had something to raise my spirits and brace my +energies, and take me out of myself. Come, let us go to the bower, and +I will explain--that is, if we may safely go there." + +"Go whar?" + +"To the bower." + +"Do you know, sar," replied Peter, drawing himself up and expanding his +great chest--"do you know, sar, dat I's kimmander-in-chief ob de army in +dis yar gardin, an' kin order 'em about whar I please, an' do what I +like? Go up to de bower, you small Bri'sh officer, an' look sharp if +you don't want a whackin'!" + +The slave obeyed with alacrity, and when the two were seated he +described his recent interview with Hester Sommers. + +No words can do full justice to the varied expressions that flitted +across the negro's face as the midshipman's narrative went on. + +"So," he said slowly, when it was concluded, "you's bin an' had a long +privit convissation wid one ob Ben-Ahmed's ladies! My! you know what +dat means if it found out?" + +"Well, Miss Sommers herself was good enough to tell me that it would +probably mean flogging to death." + +"_Floggin'_ to deaf!" echoed Peter. "P'r'aps so wid massa, for he's a +kind man; but wid most any oder man it 'ud mean roastin' alibe ober a +slow fire! Geo'ge, you's little better'n a dead man!" + +"I hope it's not so bad as that, for no one knows about it except the +lady and yourself." + +"Das so; an' you're in luck, let me tell you. Now you go to work, an' +I'll retire for some meditation--see what's to come ob all dis." + +Truly the changes that take place in the feelings and mind of man are +not less sudden and complete than the physical changes which sometimes +occur in lands that are swept by the tornado and desolated by the +earthquake. That morning George Foster had risen from his straw bed a +miserable white slave, hopeless, heartless, and down at spiritual zero-- +or below it. That night he lay down on the same straw bed, a free man-- +in soul, if not in body--a hero of the most ardent character--up at +fever-heat in the spiritual thermometer, or above it, and all because +his heart throbbed with a noble purpose--because an object worthy of his +efforts was placed before him, and because he had made up his mind to do +or die in a good cause! + +What that cause was he would have found it difficult to define clearly +in detail. Sufficient for him that an unknown but stalwart father, with +Radical tendencies, and a well-known and lovely daughter, were at the +foundation of it, and that "Escape!" was the talismanic word which +formed a battery, as it were, with which to supply his heart with +electric energy. + +He lived on this diet for a week, with the hope of again seeing Hester; +but he did not see her again for many weeks. + +One morning Peter the Great came to him as he was going out to work in +the garden and said-- + +"You git ready and come wid me into town dis day." + +"Indeed," returned Foster, as much excited by the order as if it had +been to go on some grand expedition. "For what purpose?" + +"You 'bey orders, sar, an' make your mind easy about purpisses." + +In a few minutes Foster was ready. + +No part of his original costume now remained to him. A blue-striped +cotton jacket, with pants too short and too wide for him; a +broad-brimmed straw hat, deeply sunburnt face and hands, with a pair of +old boots two sizes too large, made him as unlike a British naval +officer as he could well be. But he had never been particularly vain of +his personal appearance, and the high purpose by which he was now +actuated set him above all such trifling considerations. + +"Is your business a secret?" asked Foster, as he and his companion +descended the picturesque road that led to the city. + +"No, it am no secret, 'cause I's got no business." + +"You seem to be in a mysterious mood this morning, Peter. What do you +mean?" + +"I mean dat you an' me's out for a holiday--two slabes out for a +holiday! T'ink ob dat!" + +The negro threw back his head, opened his capacious jaws, and gave vent +to an almost silent chuckle. + +"That does indeed mound strange," returned Foster; "how has such a +wonderful event been brought about?" + +"By lub, Geo'ge. Di'n't I tell you before dat hub am eberyt'ing?" + +"Yes; and my dear old mother told me, long before you did, that `love is +the fulfilling of the law.'" + +"Well, I dun know much about law, 'xcep' dat I b'lieve it's a passel o' +nonsense, for what we's got here an't o' no use--leastwise not for +slabes." + +"But my mother did not refer to human laws," returned Foster. "She +quoted what the Bible says about God's laws." + +"Oh! das a _bery_ diff'rent t'ing, massa, an' I s'pose your mudder was +right. Anyway it was lub what obercame Ben-Ahmed. You see, I put it to +'im bery tender like. `Massa,' says I, `here I's bin wid you night an' +day for six year, an' you's nebber say to me yet, "Peter de Great, go +out for de day an' enjoy you'self." Now, massa, I wants to take dat +small raskil Geo'ge Fuster to de town, an' show him a few t'ings as'll +make him do his work better, an' dat'll make you lub 'im more, an' so +we'll all be more comfrable.' Das what I say; an' when I was sayin' it, +I see de wrinkles a-comin' round massa's eyes, so I feel sure; for w'en +dem wrinkles come to de eyes, it is all right. An' massa, he say, +`Go'--nuffin more; only `Go;' but ob course das nuff for me, so I hoed; +an' now--we're bof goin'." + +At this point in the conversation they came to a place where the road +forked. Here they met a number of Arabs, hasting towards the town in a +somewhat excited frame of mind. Following these very slowly on a mule +rode another Arab, whose dignified gravity seemed to be proof against +all excitement. He might have been the Dey of Algiers himself, to judge +from his bearing and the calm serenity with which he smoked a cigar. +Yet neither his occupation nor position warranted his dignified air, for +he was merely a seller of oranges, and sat on a huge market-saddle, +somewhat in the lady-fashion--side-wise, with the baskets of golden +fruit on either side of him. + +Going humbly towards this Arab, the negro asked him in Lingua Franca if +there was anything unusual going on in the town? + +The Arab replied by a calm stare and a puff of smoke as he rode by. + +"I 'ope his pride won't bust 'im," muttered Peter, as he fell behind and +rejoined his companion. + +"Do you think anything has happened, then?" + +"Dere's no sayin'. Wonderful geese dey is in dis city. Dey seem to +t'ink robbery on the sea is just, an' robbery ob de poor an' helpless is +just; but robbery ob de rich in Algiers--oh! dat awrful wicked! not to +be tololerated on no account wa'somever. Konsikence is--de poor an' de +helpless git some ob de strong an' de clebber to go on dere side, an' +den dey bust up, strangle de Dey, rob de Jews, an' set up another +guv'ment." + +"Rob the Jews, Peter! Why do they do that?" + +"Dun know, massa--" + +"Please don't call me massa any more, Peter, for I'm _not_ massa in any +sense--being only your friend and fellow-slave." + +"Well, I won't, Geo'ge. I's a-goin' to say I s'pose dey plunder de Jews +'cause dey's got lots o' money an' got no friends. Eberybody rob de +Jews w'en dere's a big rumpus. But I don't t'ink dere's a row jus' +now--only a scare." + +The scare, if there was one, had passed away when they reached the town. +On approaching the Bab-Azoun gate, Peter got ready their passports to +show to the guard. As he did so, Foster observed, with a shudder, that +shreds of a human carcass were still dangling from the large hooks on +the wall. + +Suddenly their steps were arrested by a shriek, and several men +immediately appeared on the top of the wall, holding fast a struggling +victim. But the poor wretch's struggles were vain. He was led to the +edge of the wall by four strong men, and not hurled, but dropped over, +so that he should not fail to be caught on one of the several hooks +below. + +Another shriek of terror burst from the man as he fell. It was followed +by an appalling yell as one of the hooks caught him under the armpit, +passed upwards right through his shoulder and into his jaws, while the +blood poured down his convulsed and naked limbs. That yell was the poor +man's last. The action of the hook had been mercifully directed, and +after a few struggles, the body hung limp and lifeless. + +Oh! it is terrible to think of the cruelty that man is capable of +practising on his fellows. The sight was enough, one would think, to +rouse to indignation a heart of stone, yet the crowds that beheld this +did not seem to be much affected by it. True, there were several faces +that showed traces of pity, but few words of disapproval were uttered. + +"Come, come!" cried our midshipman, seizing his companion by the arm and +dragging him away, "let us go. Horrible! They are not men but devils. +Come away." + +They passed through the gate and along the main street of the city a +considerable distance, before Foster could find words to express his +feelings, and then he had difficulty in restraining his indignation on +finding that the negro was not nearly as much affected as he himself was +by the tragedy which they had just witnessed. + +"We's used to it, you know," said Peter in self-defence. "I's seen 'em +hangin' alibe on dem hooks for hours. But dat's nuffin to what some on +'em do. Look dar; you see dat ole man a-sittin' ober dere wid de small +t'ings for sale--him what's a-doin' nuffin, an' sayin' nuffin, an' +almost expectin' nuffin? Well, I once saw dat ole man whacked for +nuffin--or next to nuffin--on de sole ob his foots, so's he couldn't +walk for 'bout two or t'ree mont's." + +They had reached the market-square by that time, and Foster saw that the +man referred to was the identical old fellow with the blue coat and +hood, the white beard, and the miscellaneous old articles for sale, whom +he had observed on his first visit to the square. The old Arab gave +Peter the Great a bright look and a cheerful nod as they passed. + +"He seems to know you," remarked Foster. + +"Oh yes. He know me. I used to carry him on my back ebery mornin' to +his place here dat time when he couldn't walk. Bress you! dar's lots o' +peepil knows me here. Come, I'll 'troduce you to some more friends, an' +we'll hab a cup o' coffee." + +Saying this, he conducted our middy into a perfect labyrinth of narrow +streets, through which he wended his way with a degree of certainty that +told of intimate acquaintance. Foster observed that he nodded +familiarly to many of those who crowded them--to Jews, Arabs, +water-carriers, and negroes, as well as to the dignified men who kept +little stalls and shops, many of which shops were mere niches in the +sides of the houses. So close were the fronts of these houses to each +other that in many places they almost met overhead and obscured much of +the light. + +At last the middy and his friend stopped in front of a stair which +descended into what appeared to be a dark cellar. Entering it, they +found themselves in a low Arab coffee-house. + + + +CHAPTER SIX. + +OUR HERO SEES THE MOORS IN SEVERAL ASPECTS, AND MAKES A GREAT DISCOVERY. + +Whatever may be said of Mohammedanism as a religion, there can be no +question, we should think, that it has done much among the Eastern +nations to advance the cause of Temperance. + +We make no defence of Mohammed--very much the reverse--but we hold that +even a false prophet cannot avoid teaching a certain modicum of truth in +his system, and when Mohammed sternly put his foot down upon strong +drink, and enforced the principle of total abstinence therefrom, he did +signal service to a large portion of the human family. Although, for +want of better teaching, Mohammedans cling to many vices, one never sees +them howling through the streets in a state of wild ferocity, or +staggering homewards in a condition of mild imbecility, from the effects +of intoxicating drink. + +Instead of entering a low den where riot and revelry, with bad language +and quarrelling, might be expected to prevail, George Foster found +himself in a small white-washed apartment, where there sat several grave +and sedate men, wrapped in the voluminous folds of Eastern drapery, +sipping very small cups of coffee, and enjoying very large pipes of +tobacco. + +The room was merely a cellar, the walls being thickly stuccoed and +white-washed, and the ceiling arched; but, although plain, the place was +reasonably clean and eminently quiet. The drinkers did not dispute. +Conversation flowed in an undertone, and an air of respectability +pervaded the whole place. + +At the further end of the apartment there was a curious-looking +fireplace, which seemed to have been formed without the use of square or +plummet, and around which were scattered and hung in comfortable +confusion the implements and utensils of cookery. Nothing of the cook +was visible except his bare legs and feet, the rest of him being +shrouded in a recess. Beside the fireplace an Arab sat cross-legged on +a bench, sipping his coffee. Beyond him in a recess another Arab was +seated. He appeared to be sewing while he conversed with a negro who +stood beside him. Elsewhere, in more or less remote and dim distances, +other customers were seated indulging in the prevailing beverage. + +"You sit down here, Geo'ge; drink an' say not'ing, but wait for me." + +With this admonition Peter the Great whispered a few words to the man +who owned the establishment, and hurriedly left the place. + +The middy naturally felt a little disconcerted at being thus left alone +among strangers, but, knowing that in the circumstances he was +absolutely helpless, he wisely and literally obeyed orders. Sitting +down on a bench opposite the fire, from which point of observation he +could see the entrance-door and all that went on around him, he waited +and said nothing until the chief of the establishment presented him with +a white cup of coffee, so very small that he felt almost equal to the +swallowing of cup and coffee at one gulp. With a gracious bow and +"Thank you," he accepted the attention, and began to sip. The dignified +Arab who gave it to him did not condescend upon any reply, but turned to +attend upon his other customers. + +Foster's first impulse was to spit out the sip he had taken, for to his +surprise the coffee was thick with grounds. He swallowed it, however, +and wondered. Then, on taking another sip and considering it, he +perceived that the grounds were not as grounds to which he had been +accustomed, but were reduced--no doubt by severe pounding--to a pasty +condition, which made the beverage resemble chocolate. "Coffee-soup! +with sugar--but no milk!" he muttered, as he tried another sip. This +third one convinced him that the ideas of Arabs regarding coffee did not +coincide with those of Englishmen, so he finished the cup at the fourth +sip, much as he would have taken a dose of physic, and thereafter amused +himself with contemplating the other coffee-sippers. + +At the time when our hero first arrived at Ben-Ahmed's home, he had been +despoiled of his own garments while he was in bed--the slave costume +having been left in their place. On application to his friend Peter, +however, his pocket-knife, pencil, letters, and a few other things had +been returned to him. Thus, while waiting, he was able to turn his time +to account by making a sketch of the interior of the coffee-house, to +the great surprise and gratification of the negroes there--perhaps, +also, of the Moors--but these latter were too reticent and dignified to +express any interest by word or look, whatever they might have felt. + +He was thus engaged when Peter returned. + +"Hallo, Geo'ge!" exclaimed the negro, "what you bin up to--makin' +picturs?" + +"Only a little sketch," said Foster, holding it up. + +"A skitch!" repeated Peter, grasping the letter, and holding it out at +arm's length with the air of a connoisseur, while he compared it with +the original. "You call dis a skitch? Well! I neber see de like ob +dis--no, neber. It's lubly. Dere's de kittles an' de pots an' de jars, +an'--ha, ha! dere's de man wid de--de--wart on 'is nose! Oh! das +fust-rate. Massa's awrful fond ob skitchin'. He wouldn't sell you now +for ten t'ousand dollars." + +Fortunately the Arab with the wart on his nose was ignorant of English, +otherwise he might have had some objection to being thus transferred to +paper, and brought, as Arabs think, under "the power of the evil eye." +Before the exact nature of what had been done, however, was quite +understood, Peter had paid for the coffee, and, with the amateur artist, +had left the place. + +"Nothing surprises me more," said Foster, as they walked along, "than to +see such beautiful wells and fountains in streets so narrow that one +actually has not enough room to step back and look at them properly. +Look at that one now, with the negress, the Moor, and the water-carrier +waiting their turn while the little girl fills her water-pot. See what +labour has been thrown away on that fountain. What elegance of design, +what columns of sculptured marble, and fine tessellated work stuck up +where few people can see it, even when they try to." + +"True, Geo'ge. De water would run as well out ob a ugly fountain as a +pritty one." + +"But it's not that I wonder at, Peter; it's the putting of such splendid +work in such dark narrow lanes that surprises me. Why do they go to so +much expense in such a place as this?" + +"Oh! as to expense, Geo'ge. Dey don't go to none. You see, we hab no +end ob slabes here, ob all kinds, an' trades an' purfessions, what cost +nuffin but a leetle black bread to keep 'em alibe, an' a whackin' now +an' den to make 'em work. Bress you! dem marble fountains an' t'ings +cost the pirits nuffin. Now we's goin' up to see the Kasba." + +"What is that, Peter?" + +"What! you not know what de Kasba am? My, how ignorant you is! De +Kasba is de citad'l--de fort--where all de money an' t'ings--treasure +you call it--am kep' safe. Strong place, de Kasba--awrful strong." + +"I'll be glad to see that," said Foster. + +"Ho yes. You be glad to see it _wid me_," returned the negro +significantly, "but not so glad if you go dere wid chains on you legs +an' pick or shovel on you shoulder. See--dere dey go!" + +As he spoke a band of slaves was seen advancing up the narrow street. +Standing aside in a doorway to let them pass, Foster saw that the band +was composed of men of many nations. Among them he observed the fair +hair and blue eyes of the Saxon, the dark complexion and hair of the +Spaniard and Italian, and the black skin of the negro--but all resembled +each other in their looks and lines of care, and in the weary anxiety +and suffering with which every countenance was stamped,--also in the +more or less dejected air of the slaves, and the soiled ragged garments +with which they were covered. + +But if some of the resemblances between these poor creatures were +strong, some of their differences were still more striking. Among them +were men whose robust frames had not yet been broken down, whose +vigorous spirits had not been quite tamed, and whose scowling eyes and +compressed lips revealed the fact that they were "dangerous." These +walked along with clanking chains on their limbs--chains which were more +or less weighty, according to the strength and character of the wearer. +Others there were so reduced in health, strength, and spirit, that the +chain of their own feebleness was heavy enough for them to drag to their +daily toil. Among these were some with hollow cheeks and sunken eyes, +whose weary pilgrimage was evidently drawing to a close; but all, +whether strong or weak, fierce or subdued, were made to tramp smartly up +the steep street, being kept up to the mark by drivers, whose cruel +whips cracked frequently on the shoulders of the lagging and the lazy. + +With a heart that felt as if ready to burst with conflicting emotions, +the poor midshipman looked on, clenching his teeth to prevent unwise +exclamations, and unclenching his fists to prevent the tendency to +commit assault and battery! + +"This is dreadful," he said, in a low voice, when the gang had passed. + +"Yes, Geo'ge, it _is_ drefful--but we's used to it, you know. Come, +we'll foller dis gang." + +Keeping about twenty yards behind, they followed the slaves into the +Kasba, where they met with no interruption from the guards, who seemed +to be well acquainted with Peter the Great, though they did not +condescend to notice him, except by a passing glance. + +"How is it that every one lets you pass so easily?" asked Foster, when +they had nearly reached the southern wall of the fortress. + +"Eberybody knows me so well--das one reason," answered the negro, with a +grin of self-satisfaction. + +"I's quite a public krakter in dis yar city, you mus' know. Den, anoder +t'ing is, dat our massa am a man ob power. He not got no partikler +office in de state, 'cause he not require it, for he's a rich man, but +he's got great power wid de Dey--we's bof got dat!" + +"Indeed; how so?" + +"Stand here, under dis doorway, and I tell you--dis way, where you can +see de splendid view ob de whole city an' de harbour an' sea b'yond. We +kin wait a bit here while de slabes are gittin' ready to work. You see +de bit ob wall dat's damaged dere? Well, dey're goin' to repair dat. +We'll go look at 'em by-an'-by." + +As the incident which Peter narrated might prove tedious if given in his +own language, we take the liberty of relating it for him. + +One fine morning during the previous summer the Dey of Algiers mounted +his horse--a fiery little Arab--and, attended by several of his +courtiers, cantered away in the direction of the suburb which is now +known by the name of Mustapha Superieur. When drawing near to the +residence of Ben-Ahmed the Dey's horse became unmanageable and ran away. +Being the best horse of the party, the courtiers were soon left far +behind. It chanced that Ben-Ahmed and his man, Peter the Great, were +walking together towards the city that day. On turning a sharp bend in +the road where a high bank had shut out their view they saw a horseman +approaching at a furious gallop. + +"It is the Dey!" exclaimed Ben-Ahmed. + +"So it am!" responded Peter. + +"He can't make the turn of the road and live!" cried the Moor, all his +dignified self-possession vanishing as he prepared for action. + +"I will check the horse," he added, in a quick, low voice. "You break +his fall, Peter. He'll come off on the left side." + +"Das so, massa," said Peter, as he sprang to the other side of the +narrow road. + +He had barely done so, when the Dey came thundering towards them. + +"Stand aside!" he shouted as he came on, for he was a fearless horseman +and quite collected, though in such peril. + +But Ben-Ahmed would not stand aside. Although an old man, he was still +active and powerful. He seized the reins of the horse as it was +passing, and, bringing his whole weight and strength to bear, checked it +so far that it made a false step and stumbled. This had the effect of +sending the Dey out of the saddle like a bomb from a mortar, and of +hurling Ben-Ahmed to the ground. Ill would it have fared with the Dey +at that moment if Peter the Great had not possessed a mechanical turn of +mind, and a big, powerful body, as well as a keen, quick eye for +possibilities. Correcting his distance in a moment by jumping back a +couple of paces, he opened his arms and received the chief of Algiers +into his broad black bosom! + +The shock was tremendous, for the Dey was by no means a light weight, +and Peter the Great went down before it in the dust, while the great man +arose, shaken indeed, and confused, but unhurt by the accident. + +Ben-Ahmed also arose uninjured, but Peter lay still where he had fallen. + +"W'en I come-to to myself," continued Peter, on reaching this point in +his narrative, "de fus' t'ing I t'ink was dat I'd been bu'sted. Den I +look up, an' I sees our black cook. She's a nigger, like myself, only a +she one. + +"`Hallo, Angelica!' says I; `wass de matter?' + +"`Matter!' says she; `you's dead--a'most, an' dey lef' you here wid me, +wid strik orders to take care ob you.' + +"`Das good,' says I; `an' you better look out an' obey your orders, else +de bowstring bery soon go round your pritty little neck. But tell me, +Angelica, who brought me here?' + +"`De Dey ob Algiers an' all his court,' says she, wid a larf dat shut up +her eyes an' showed what a _enormous_ mout' she hab. + +"`Is _he_ all safe, Angelica,' says I--`massa, I mean?' + +"`Oh, I t'ought you meant de Dey!' says she. `Oh yes; massa's all +right; nuffin'll kill massa, he's tough. And de Dey, he's all right +too.' + +"`Das good, Angelica,' says I, feelin' quite sweet, for I was beginnin' +to remember what had took place. + +"`Yes, das _is_ good,' says she; `an', Peter, your fortin's made!' + +"`Das awk'ard,' says I, `for I ain't got no chest or strong box ready to +put it in. But now tell me, Angelica, if my fortin's made, will you +marry me, an' help to spend it?' + +"`Yes, I will,' says she. + +"I was so took by surprise, Geo'ge, when she say dat, I sprung up on one +elber, an' felled down agin wid a howl, for two o' my ribs had been +broke. + +"`Neber mind de yells, Angelica,' says I, `it's only my leetle ways. +But tell me why you allers refuse me before an' accep' me _now_. Is +it--de--de fortin?' Oh, you should have seen her pout w'en I ax dat. +Her mout' came out about two inch from her face. I could hab kissed +it--but for de broken ribs. + +"`No, Peter, for shame!' says she, wid rijeous indignation. `De fortin +hab nuffin to do wid it, but your own noble self-scarifyin' bravery in +presentin' your buzzum to de Dey ob Algiers.' + +"`T'ank you, Angelica,' says I. `Das all comfrably settled. You's a +good gall, kiss me now, an' go away.' + +"So she gib me a kiss an' I turn round an' went sweetly to sleep on de +back ob dat--for I was awrful tired, an' de ribs was creakin' badly." + +"Did you marry Angelica?" asked our middy, with sympathetic interest. + +"Marry her! ob course I did. Two year ago. Don' you know it's her as +cooks all our wittles?" + +"How could I know, Peter, for you never call her anything but `cook?' +But I'm glad you have told me, for I'll regard her now with increased +respect from this day forth." + +"Das right, Geo'ge. You can't pay 'er too much respec'. Now we'll go +an' look at de works." + +The part of the wall which the slaves were repairing was built of great +blocks of artificial stone or concrete, which were previously cast in +wooden moulds, left to harden, and then put into their assigned places +by slave-labour. As Foster was watching the conveyance of these blocks, +it suddenly occurred to him that Hester Sommers's father might be +amongst them, and he scanned every face keenly as the slaves passed to +and fro, but saw no one who answered to the description given him by the +daughter. + +From this scrutiny he was suddenly turned by a sharp cry drawn from one +of a group who were slowly carrying a heavy stone to its place. The cry +was drawn forth by the infliction of a cruel lash on the shoulders of a +slave. He was a thin delicate youth with evidences of fatal consumption +upon him. He had become faint from over-exertion, and one of the +drivers had applied the whip by way of stimulus. The effect on the poor +youth was to cause him to stumble, and instead of making him lift +better, made him rest his weight on the stone, thus overbalancing it, +and bringing it down. In falling the block caught the ankle of the +youth, who fell with a piercing shriek to the ground, where he lay in a +state of insensibility. + +At this a tall bearded man, with heavy fetters on his strong limbs, +sprang to the young man's side, went down on his knees, and seized his +hand. + +"Oh! Henri, my son," he cried, in French; but before he could say more +a whip touched his back with a report like a pistol-shot, and the torn +cotton shirt that he wore was instantly crimsoned with his blood! + +The man rose, and, making no more account of his fetters than if they +had been straws, sprang like a tiger at the throat of his driver. He +caught it, and the eyes and tongue of the cruel monster were protruding +from his head before the enraged Frenchman could be torn away by four +powerful janissaries. As it was, they had to bind him hand and foot ere +they were able to carry him off--to torture, and probably to death. At +the same time the poor, helpless form of Henri was borne from the place +by two of his fellow-slaves. + +Of course a scene like this could not be witnessed unmoved by our +midshipman. Indeed he would infallibly have rushed to the rescue of the +bearded Frenchman if Peter's powerful grip on his shoulder had not +restrained him. + +"Don't be a fool, Geo'ge," he whispered. "Remember, we _must_ submit!" + +Fortunately for George, the guards around were too much interested in +watching the struggle to observe his state of mind, and it is doubtful +whether he would have been held back even by the negro if his attention +had not at the moment been attracted by a tall man who came on the scene +just then with another gang of slaves. + +One glance sufficed to tell who the tall man was. Hester Sommers's +portrait had been a true one--tall, handsome, strong; and even in the +haggard, worn, and profoundly sad face, there shone a little of the +"sweetness" which his daughter had emphasised. There were also the +large grey eyes, the Roman nose, the iron-grey hair, moustache, and +beard, and the large mouth, although the "smile" had fled from the face +and the "lovingness" from the eyes. Foster was so sure of the man that, +as he drew near to the place where he stood, he stepped forward and +whispered "Sommers." + +The man started and turned pale as he looked keenly at our hero's face. + +"No time to explain," said the middy quickly. "Hester is well and +_safe_! See you again! Hope on!" + +"What are you saying there?" thundered one of the drivers in Arabic. + +"What you say to dat feller? you raskil! you white slabe! Come 'long +home!" cried Peter the Great, seizing Foster by the collar and dragging +him forcibly away, at the same time administering several kicks so +violent that his entire frame seemed to be dislocated, while the +janissaries burst into a laugh at the big negro's seeming fury. + +"Oh! Geo'ge, Geo'ge," continued Peter, as he dragged the middy along, +shaking him from time to time, "you'll be de deaf ob me, an' ob yourself +too, if you don't larn to _submit_. An' see, too, what a hyperkrite you +make me! I's 'bliged to kick hard, or dey wouldn't b'lieve me in +arnist." + +"Well, well, Peter," returned our hero, who at once understood his +friend's ruse to disarm suspicion, and get him away safely, "you need +not call yourself a hypocrite this time, at all events, for your kicks +and shakings have been uncommonly real--much too real for comfort." + +"Didn't I say I was _'bleeged_ to do it?" retorted Peter, with a pout +that might have emulated that of his wife on the occasion of their +engagement. "D'you s'pose dem raskils don' know a real kick from a sham +one? I was marciful too, for if I'd kicked as I _could_, dere wouldn't +be a whole bone in your carcass at dis momint! You's got to larn to be +grateful, Geo'ge. Come along." + +Conversing thus pleasantly, the white slave and the black left the Kasba +together and descended into the town. + + + +CHAPTER SEVEN. + +THE MIDDY OBTAINS A DECIDED ADVANCE, AND MAKES PETER THE GREAT HIS +CONFIDANT. + +Many months passed, after the events narrated in the last chapter, +before George Foster had the good-fortune to meet again with Hugh +Sommers, and several weeks elapsed before he had the chance of another +interview with the daughter. + +Indeed, he was beginning to despair of ever again seeing either the one +or the other, and it required the utmost energy and the most original +suggestions of a hopeful nature on the part of his faithful friend to +prevent his giving way altogether, and having, as Peter expressed it, +"anoder fit ob de blues." + +At last fortune favoured him. He was busy in the garden one day +planting flowers, when Peter came to him and said-- + +"I's got news for you to-day, Geo'ge." + +"Indeed," said the middy, with a weary sigh; "what may your news be?" + +"You 'member dat pictur' ob de coffee-house in de town what you doo'd?" + +"Yes, now you mention it, I do, though I had almost forgotten it." + +"Ah! but I not forgit 'im! Well, yesterday I tuk it to massa, an' he +bery much pleased. He say, bring you up to de house, an' he gib you +some work to do." + +"I wish," returned Foster, "that he'd ask me to make a portrait of +little Hester Sommers." + +"You forgit, Geo'ge, de Moors neber git deir portraits doo'd. Dey +'fraid ob de evil eye." + +"Well, when are we to go up?" + +"Now--I jist come for you." + +Throwing down his garden tools, Foster followed the negro to the house, +and was ushered into a small chamber, the light of which was rendered +soft and mellow, by the stained glass windows through which it passed. +These windows were exceedingly small--not more than a foot high by eight +inches broad--and they were placed in the walls at a height of nine feet +or more from the ground. The walls of the room were decorated with +richly-coloured tiles, and the floor was of white marble, but the part +that attracted our hero most was the ceiling, which was arched, +according to Moorish form, and enriched with elaborate designs in +stucco--if not in white marble, the difference being difficult to +distinguish. On the marble floor lay several shawls, richly embroidered +in coloured silk and gold, a pair of small scarlet slippers, covered +with gold thread, a thin veil, and several cushions of different sizes. +On one of these last reposed a little tame gazelle, whose bright eyes +greeted the two slaves with an inquiring look as they entered. + +From all these things Foster judged that this was one of the women's +apartments, and wondered much that he had been admitted into such a +jealously-guarded sanctuary, but relieved his mind by setting it down to +that eccentricity for which Ben-Ahmed was noted. + +He had just arrived at this conclusion when a door opened, and Ben-Ahmed +himself entered with the sketch of the coffee-house in his hand. + +"Tell him," said the Moor to Peter, "that I am much pleased with this +drawing, and wish him to make one, a little larger in size, of this +room. Let him put into it everything that he sees. He will find paper +in that portfolio, and all else that he requires on this ottoman. Let +him take time, and do it well. He need not work in the garden while +thus employed." + +Pointing to the various things to which he referred, the Moor turned and +left the apartment. + +"Now, Geo'ge, what you t'ink ob all dat?" asked Peter, with a broad +grin, when he had translated the Moor's orders. + +"Really I don't know what to think of it. Undoubtedly it is a step +upwards, as compared with working in the garden; but then, don't you +see, Peter, it will give me much less of your company, which will be a +tremendous drawback?" + +"Das well said. You's kite right. I hab notice from de fus' dat you +hab a well-constitooted mind, an' appruciates de value ob friendship. I +lub your smood face, Geo'ge!" + +"I hope you love more of me than my smooth face, Peter," returned the +middy, "otherwise your love won't continue, for there are certain +indications on my upper lip which assure me that the smoothness won't +last long." + +"Hol' your tongue, sar! What you go on jabberin' so to me when you's +got work to do, sar!" said Peter fiercely, with a threatening motion of +his fist. "Go to work at once, you white slabe!" + +Our hero was taken aback for a moment by this sudden explosion, but the +presence of a negro girl, who had entered softly by a door at his back, +at once revealed to him the truth that Peter the Great had donned the +garb of the hypocrite. Although unused and very much averse to such +costume, he felt compelled in some degree to adopt it, and, bowing his +head, not only humbly, but in humiliation, he went silently towards his +drawing materials, while the girl placed a tumbler of water on a small +table and retired. + +Turning round, he found that Peter had also disappeared from the scene. + +At first he imagined that the water was meant for his refreshment, but +on examining the materials on the ottoman he found a box of water-colour +paints, which accounted for its being sent. + +Although George Foster had never been instructed in painting, he +possessed considerable natural talent, and was intensely fond of the +art. It was, therefore, with feelings of delight which he had not +experienced for many a day that he began to arrange his materials and +set about this new and congenial work. + +Among other things he found a small easel, which had a very Anglican +aspect about it. Wondering how it had got there, he set it up, with a +sheet of paper on it, tried various parts of the room, in order to find +out the best position for a picture, and went through that interesting +series of steppings back and puttings of the head on one side which seem +to be inseparably connected with true art. + +While thus engaged in the profound silence of that luxurious apartment, +with its "dim religious light," now glancing at the rich ceiling, anon +at the fair sheet of paper, he chanced to look below the margin of the +latter and observed, through the legs of the easel, that the gorgeous +eyes of the gazelle were fixed on him in apparent wonder. + +He advanced to it at once, holding out a hand coaxingly. The pretty +creature allowed him to approach within a few inches, and then bounded +from its cushion like a thing of india-rubber to the other end of the +room, where it faced about and gazed again. + +"You gaze well, pretty creature," thought the embryo artist. "Perhaps +that's the origin of your name! Humph! you won't come to me?" + +The latter part of his thoughts he expressed aloud, but the animal made +no response. It evidently threw the responsibility of taking the +initiative on the man. + +Our middy was naturally persevering in character. Laying aside his +pencil, he sat down on the marble floor, put on his most seductive +expression, held out his hand gently, and muttered soft encouragements-- +such as, "Now then, Spunkie, come here, an' don't be silly--" and the +like. But "Spunkie" still stood immovable and gazed. + +Then the middy took to advancing in a sitting posture--after a manner +known to infants--at the same time intensifying the urbanity of his look +and the wheedlement of his tone. The gazelle suffered him to approach +until his fingers were within an inch of its nose. There the middy +stopped. He had studied animal nature. He was aware that it takes two +to love as well as to quarrel. He resolved to wait. Seeing this, the +gazelle timidly advanced its little nose and touched his finger. He +scratched gently! Spunkie seemed to like it. He scratched +progressively up its forehead. Spunkie evidently enjoyed it. He +scratched behind its ear, and--the victory was gained! The gazelle, +dismissing all fear, advanced and rubbed its graceful head on his +shoulder. + +"Well, you _are_ a nice little beast," said Foster, as he fondled it; +"whoever owns you must be very kind to you, but I can't afford to waste +more time with you. Must get to work." + +He rose and returned to his easel while the gazelle trotted to its +cushion and lay down--to sleep? perchance to dream?--no, to gaze, as +before, but in mitigated wonder. + +The amateur painter-slave now applied himself diligently to his work +with ever-increasing interest; yet not altogether without an +uncomfortable and humiliating conviction that if he did not do it with +reasonable rapidity, and give moderate satisfaction, he ran the chance +of being "whacked" if not worse! + +Let not the reader imagine that we are drawing the longbow here, and +making these Moors to be more cruel than they really were. Though +Ben-Ahmed was an amiable specimen, he was not a typical Algerine, for +cruelty of the most dreadful kind was often perpetrated by these +monsters in the punishment of trivial offences in those days. At the +present hour there stands in the great square of Algiers an imposing +mosque, which was designed by a Christian slave--an architect--whose +head was cut off because he had built it--whether intentionally or +accidentally we know not--in the form of a cross! + +For some hours Foster worked uninterruptedly with his pencil, for he +believed, like our great Turner in his earlier days, (though Turner's +sun had not yet arisen!) that the preliminary drawing for a picture +cannot be too carefully or elaborately done. + +After having bumped himself against the wall twice, and tripped over an +ottoman once--to the gazelle's intense surprise--in his efforts to take +an artistic view of his work, Foster at last laid down his pencil, +stretched himself to his full height, with his hands in the air by way +of relaxation, and was beginning to remember that midday meals were not +unknown to man, when the negress before mentioned entered with a small +round brass tray, on which were two covered dishes. The middy lowered +his hands in prompt confusion, for he had not attained to the Moors' +sublime indifference to the opinion or thought of slaves. + +He was about to speak, but checked the impulse. It was wiser to hold +his tongue! A kindliness of disposition, however, induced him to smile +and nod--attentions which impelled the negress, as she retired, to +display her teeth and gums to an extent that no one would believe if we +were to describe it. + +On examination it was found that one of the dishes contained a savoury +compound of rice and chicken, with plenty of butter and other +substances--some of which were sweet. + +The other dish contained little rolls of bread. Both dishes appeared to +Foster to be made of embossed gold--or brass, but he knew and cared not +which. Coffee in a cup about the size and shape of an egg was his +beverage. While engaged with the savoury and altogether unexpected +meal, our hero felt his elbow touched. Looking round he saw the gazelle +looking at him with an expression in its beautiful eyes that said +plainly, "Give me my share." + +"You shall have it, my dear," said the artist, handing the creature a +roll, with which it retired contentedly to its cushion. + +"Perhaps," thought the youth, as he pensively sipped his coffee, "this +room may be sometimes used by Hester! It obviously forms part of the +seraglio." + +Strange old fellow, Ben-Ahmed, to allow men like me to invade such a +place. + +The thought of the ladies of the harem somehow suggested his mother and +sister, and when poor George got upon this pair of rails he was apt to +be run away with, and to forget time and place. The reverie into which +he wandered was interrupted, however, by the gazelle asking for more. +As there was no more, it was fain to content itself with a pat on the +head as the painter rose to resume his work. + +The drawing was by this time all pencilled in most elaborately, and the +middy opened the water-colour box to examine the paints. As he did so, +he again remarked on the familiar English look of the materials, and was +about to begin rubbing down a little of one of the cakes--moist colours +had not been invented--when he observed some writing in red paint on the +back of the palette. He started and flushed, while his heart beat +faster, for the writing was, "_Expect me. Rub this out. H.S_." + +What could this mean? H.S? Hester Sommers of course. It was simple-- +too simple. He wished for more--like the gazelle. Like it, too, he got +no more. After gazing at the writing, until every letter was burnt into +his memory, he obeyed the order and rubbed it out. Then, in a disturbed +and anxious frame of mind, he tried to paint, casting many a glance, not +only at his subject, but at the two doors which opened into the room. + +At last one of the doors opened--not the one he happened to be looking +at, however. He started up, overturned his stool, and all but knocked +down the easel, as the negress re-entered to remove the +refreshment-tray. She called to the gazelle as she went out. It +bounded lightly after her, and the young painter was left alone to +recover his composure. + +"Ass that I am!" he said, knitting his brows, clenching his teeth, and +putting a heavy dab of crimson-lake on the ceiling! + +At that moment the other door opened, yet so gently and slightly that he +would not have observed it but for the sharp line of light which it let +through. Determined not to be again taken by surprise, he became +absorbed in putting little unmeaning lines round the dab of lake--not so +busily, however, as to prevent his casting rapid furtive glances at the +opening door. + +Gradually something white appeared in the aperture--it was a veil. +Something blue--it was an eye. Something quite beyond description +lovely--it was Hester herself, looking--if such be conceivable--like a +scared angel! + +"Oh, Mr Foster!" she exclaimed, in a half-whisper, running lightly in, +and holding up a finger by way of caution, "I have so longed to see +you--" + +"So have I," interrupted the delighted middy. "Dear H---ah--Miss +Sommers, I mean, I felt sure that--that--this _must_ be your room--no, +what's its name? boudoir; and the gazelle--" + +"Yes, yes--oh! never mind that," interrupted the girl impatiently. "My +father--darling father!--any news of _him_." + +Blushing with shame that he should have thought of his own feelings +before her anxieties, Foster dropped the little hand which he had +already grasped, and hastened to tell of the meeting with her father in +the Kasba--the ease with which he had recognised him from her +description, and the few hurried words of comfort he had been able to +convey before the slave-driver interfered. + +Tears were coursing each other rapidly down Hester's cheeks while he was +speaking; yet they were not tears of unmingled grief. + +"Oh, Mr Foster!" she said, seizing the middy's hand, and kissing it, +"how shall I _ever_ thank you?" + +Before she could add another word, an unlucky touch of Foster's heel +laid the easel, with an amazing clatter, flat on the marble floor! +Hester bounded through the doorway more swiftly than her own gazelle, +slammed the door behind her, and vanished like a vision. + +Poor Foster! Although young and enthusiastic, he was not a coxcomb. +The thrill in the hand that had been kissed told him plainly that he was +hopelessly in love! But a dull weight on his heart told him, he thought +as plainly, that Hester was _not_ in the same condition. + +"Dear child!" he said, as he slowly gathered up the drawing materials, +"if that innocent, transparent, almost infantine creature had been old +enough to fall in love she would sooner have hit me on the nose with her +lovely fist than have kissed my great ugly paw--even though she _was_ +overwhelmed with joy at hearing about her father." + +Having replaced the easel and drawing, he seated himself on an ottoman, +put his elbows on his knees, laid his forehead in his hands, and began +to meditate aloud. + +"Yes," he said, with a profound sigh, "I love her--that's as clear as +daylight; and she does not love me--that's clearer than daylight. +Unrequited love! That's what I've come to! Nevertheless, I'm not in +wild despair. How's that? I don't want to shoot or drown myself. +How's that? On the contrary, I want to live and rescue her. I could +serve or die for that child with pleasure--without even the reward of a +smile! There must be something peculiar here. Is it--can it be +Platonic love? Of course that must be it. Yes, I've often heard and +read of that sort of love before. I _know_ it now, and--and--I rather +like it!" + +"You don't look as if you did, Geo'ge," said a deep voice beside him. + +George started up with a face of scarlet. + +"Peter!" he exclaimed fiercely, "did you hear me speak? _What_ did you +hear?" + +"Halo! Geo'ge, don't squeeze my arm so! You's hurtin' me. I hear you +say somet'ing 'bout plotummik lub, but what sort o' lub that may be is +more'n I kin tell." + +"Are you _sure_ that is all you--But come, Peter, I should have no +secrets from _you_. The truth is," (he whispered low here), "I have +seen Hester Sommers--here, in this room, not half an hour ago--and--and +I feel that I am hopelessly in love with her--Platonically, that is--but +I fear you won't understand what that means--" + +The midshipman stopped abruptly. For the first time since they became +acquainted he saw a grave expression of decided disapproval on the face +of his sable friend. + +"Geo'ge," said Peter solemnly, "you tell me you hab took 'vantage ob +bein' invited to your master's house to make lub--plo--plotummikilly or +oderwise--to your master's slabe?" + +"No, Peter, I told you nothing of the sort. The meeting with Hester was +purely accidental--at least it was none of my seeking--and I did _not_ +make love to her--" + +"Did _she_ make lub to you, Geo'ge--plo--plotummikilly." + +"Certainly not. She came to ask about her poor father, and I saw that +she is far too young to _think_ of falling in love at all. What I said +was that _I_ have fallen hopelessly in love, and that as I cannot hope +that she will ever be--be _mine_, I have made up my mind to love her +hopelessly, but loyally, to the end of life, and serve or die for her if +need be." + +"Oh! das all right, Geo'ge. If dat's what you calls plo--plotummik +lub--lub away, my boy, as hard's you kin. Same time, I's not kite so +sure dat she's too young to hub. An' t'ings ain't allers as hopeless as +dey seems. But now, what's dis you bin do here? My! How pritty. Oh! +das _real_ bootiful. But what's you got in de ceiling--de sun, eh?" + +He pointed to the dab of crimson-lake. + +Foster explained that it was merely a "bit of colour." + +"Ob course! A cow wid half an eye could see dat!" + +"Well--but I mean--it's a sort of--a kind of--tone to paint up to." + +"H'm! das strange now. I don't hear no sound nowhar!" + +"Well, then, it's a shadow, Peter." + +"Geo'ge," said the negro, with a look of surprise, "I do t'ink your +plo-plotummik lub hab disagreed wid you. Come 'long to de kitchen an' +hab your supper--it's all ready." + +So saying, he went off with his friend and confidant to the culinary +region, which was also the _salle a manger_ of the slaves. + + + +CHAPTER EIGHT. + +A SEVERE TRIAL--SECRET COMMUNICATION UNDER DIFFICULTIES, AND SUDDEN +FLIGHT. + +The devotion of our middy to the fine arts was so satisfactory in its +results that Ben-Ahmed set him to work at various other apartments in +his dwelling when the first drawing was nearly finished. + +We say nearly finished, because, owing to some unaccountable whim, the +Moor would not allow the first drawing to be completed. When Foster had +finished a painting of the central court, his master was so pleased with +the way in which he had drawn and coloured the various shrubs and +flowers which grew there, that he ordered him forthwith to commence a +series of drawings of the garden from various points of view. In one of +these Foster introduced such a life-like portrait of Peter the Great +that Ben-Ahmed was charmed, and immediately gave orders to have most of +his slaves portrayed while engaged in their various occupations. + +In work of this kind many months were spent, for Foster was a +painstaking worker. He finished all his paintings with minute care, +having no capacity for off-hand or rapid sketching. During this period +the engrossing nature of his work--of which he was extremely fond-- +tended to prevent his mind from dwelling too much on his condition of +slavery, but it was chiefly the knowledge that Hester Sommers was under +the same roof, and the expectation that at any moment he might encounter +her, which reconciled him to his fate, and even made him cheerful under +it. + +But as week after week passed away, and month after month, without even +a flutter of her dress being seen by him, his heart failed him again, +and he began to fear that Ben-Ahmed's son Osman might have returned and +carried her off as his bride, or that she might have been sold to some +rich Moor--even to the Dey himself! Of course his black friend +comforted him with the assurance that Osman had not returned, and that +Ben-Ahmed was not the man to sell a slave he was fond of; but such +assurances did not afford him much comfort. His mind was also burdened +with anxiety about his mother and sister. + +He was sitting one day while in this state at an angle of the garden +trying to devote his entire mind to the portrayal of a tree-fern, and +vainly endeavouring to prevent Hester Sommers from coming between him +and the paper, when he was summoned to attend upon Ben-Ahmed. As this +was an event of by no means uncommon occurrence, he listlessly gathered +up his materials and went into the house. + +He found the Moor seated cross-legged on a carpet, smoking his hookah, +with only a negress in attendance. His easel, he found, was already +placed, and, to his surprise, he observed that the original drawing with +which his career as a painter had commenced was placed upon it. + +"I wish you to finish that picture by introducing a figure," said +Ben-Ahmed, with solemn gravity. + +He spoke in Lingua Franca, which Foster understood pretty well by that +time. + +It now became evident to him why the drawing of the room had been left +unfinished, and he thought it probable that modesty--or, perhaps, a +difficulty in overcoming the Moslem's dislike to being transferred to +canvas at all--had caused the delay. + +"In what attitude do you wish to be painted?" asked the middy, as he +moved the easel a little, and took a professional, head-on-one-side look +at his subject. + +"In no attitude," returned the Moor gravely. + +"Pardon me," said Foster in surprise. "Did you not say that--that--" + +"I said that I wish you to finish the drawing by introducing a figure," +returned Ben-Ahmed, taking a long draw at the hookah. + +"Just so--and may I ask--" + +"The figure," resumed the Moor, taking no notice of the interruption, +"is to be one of my women slaves." + +Here he turned his head slightly and gave a brief order to the negress +in waiting, who retired by the door behind her. + +The middy stood silent for a minute or so, lost in wonder and +expectation, when another door opened and a female entered. She was +gorgeously dressed, and closely veiled, so that her face was entirely +concealed; nevertheless, George Foster's heart seemed to bound into his +throat and half choke him, for he knew the size, air, and general effect +of that female as well as if she had been his own mother. + +The Moor rose, led her to a cushion, and bade her sit down. She did so +with the grace of Venus, and then the Moor removed her veil--looking +fixedly at the painter as he did so. + +But the middy had recovered self-possession by that time. He was +surprised as well as deeply concerned to observe that Hester's beautiful +face was very pale, and her eyes were red and swollen, as if from much +crying, but not a muscle in his stolid countenance betrayed the +slightest emotion. He put his head a little to one side, in the +orthodox manner, and looked steadily at her. Then he looked at his +painting and frowned, as if considering the best spot in which to place +this "figure." Then he began to work. + +Meanwhile the Moor sat down to smoke in such a position that he could +see both painter and sitter. + +It was a severe test of our middy's capacity to act the "hyperkrite!" +His heart was thumping at his ribs like a sledge-hammer anxious to get +out. His hand trembled so that he could scarcely draw a line, and he +was driven nearly mad with the necessity of presenting a calm, +thoughtful exterior when the effervescence within, as he afterwards +admitted, almost blew his head off like a champagne cork. + +By degrees he calmed down, ceased breaking the point of his pencil, and +used his india-rubber less frequently. Then he took to colour and the +brush, and here the tide began to turn in his favour. _Such_ a subject +surely never before sat to painter since the world began! He became +engrossed in his work. The eyes became intent, the hand steady, the +heart regular, the whole man intense, while a tremendous frown and +compressed lips told that he "meant business!" + +Not less intense was the attention of the Moor. Of course we cannot +tell what his thoughts were, but it seemed not improbable that his +eccentric recklessness in violating all his Mohammedan habits and +traditions as to the seclusion of women, by thus exposing Hester to the +gaze of a young infidel, had aroused feelings of jealousy and suspicion, +which were not natural to his kindly and un-Moorish cast of soul. + +But while young Foster was employed in the application of his powers to +energetic labour, the old Moor was engaged in the devotion of _his_ +powers to the consumption of smoke. The natural results followed. +While the painter became more and more absorbed, so as to forget all +around save his sitter and his work, the Moor became more and more +devoted to his hookah, till he forgot all around save the soporific +influences of smoke. An almost oppressive silence ensued, broken only +by the soft puffing of Ben-Ahmed's lips, and an occasional change in the +attitude of the painter. And oh! how earnestly did that painter wish +that Ben-Ahmed would retire--even for a minute--to give him a chance of +exchanging a word or two with his subject. + +But the Moor was steady as a rock. Indeed he was too steady, for the +curtains of his eyes suddenly fell, and shut in the owlish glare with +which he had been regarding the middy. At the same moment a sharp click +and clatter sent an electric thrill to the hearts of all. The Moor's +mouthpiece had fallen on the marble floor! Ben-Ahmed picked it up and +replaced it with severe gravity, yet a faint flicker of red in his +cheek, and a very slight air of confusion, showed that even a +magnificent Moor objects to be caught napping by his slaves. + +This incident turned Foster's thoughts into a new channel. If the Moor +should again succumb to the demands of nature--or the influence of +tobacco--how could he best make use of the opportunity? It was a +puzzling question. To speak--in a whisper or otherwise--was not to be +thought of. Detection would follow almost certainly. The dumb alphabet +would have been splendid, though dangerous, but neither he nor Hester +understood it. Signs might do. He would try signs, though he had never +tried them before. What then? Did not "Never venture, never win," +"Faint heart never won," etcetera, and a host of similar proverbs assure +him that a midshipman, of all men, should "never say die." + +A few minutes more gave him the chance. Again the mouthpiece fell, but +this time it dropped on the folds of the Moor's dress, and in another +minute steady breathing told that Ben-Ahmed was in the land of Nod--if +not of dreams. + +A sort of lightning change took place in the expressions of the young +people. Hester's face beamed with intelligence. Foster's blazed with +mute interrogation. The little maid clasped her little hands, gazed +upwards anxiously, looked at the painter entreatingly, and glanced at +the Moor dubiously. + +Foster tried hard to talk to her "only with his eyes." He even added +some amazing motions of the lips which were meant to convey--"What's the +matter with you?" but they conveyed nothing, for Hester only shook her +head and looked miserable. + +A mild choke at that moment caused the maid to fall into statuesque +composure, and the painter to put his frowning head tremendously to one +side as he stepped back in order to make quite sure that the last touch +was really equal, if not superior, to Michael Angelo himself! + +The Moor resumed his mouthpiece with a suspicious glance at both slaves, +and Foster, with the air of a man who feels that Michael was fairly +overthrown, stepped forward to continue his work. Truly, if Peter the +Great had been there at the time he might have felt that he also was +fairly eclipsed in his own particular line! + +Foster now became desperate, and his active mind began to rush wildly +about in quest of useful ideas, while his steady hand pursued its labour +until the Moor smoked himself into another slumber. + +Availing himself of the renewed opportunity, the middy wrapped a small +piece of pencil in a little bit of paper, and, with the reckless daring +of a man who had boarded a pirate single-handed, flung it at his +lady-love. + +His aim was true--as that of a midshipman should be. The little bomb +struck Hester on the nose and fell into her lap. She unrolled it +quickly, and an expression of blank disappointment was the result, for +the paper was blank and she had expected a communication. She looked up +inquiringly, and beaming intelligence displaced the blank when she saw +that Foster made as though he were writing large text on his drawing. +She at once flattened the bit of paper on her knee--eyeing the Moor +anxiously the while--and scribbled a few words on the paper. + +A loud cough from Foster, followed by a violent sneeze, caused her to +crush the paper in her hand and again become intensely statuesque. +Prompt though she was, this would not have saved her from detection if +the violence of Foster's sneeze had not drawn the Moor's first glance +away from her and towards himself. + +"Pardon me," said the middy, with a deprecatory air, "a sneeze is +sometimes difficult to repress." + +"Does painting give Englishmen colds?" asked the Moor sternly. + +"Sometimes it does--especially if practised out of doors in bad +weather," returned Foster softly. + +"H'm! That will do for to-day. You may return to your painting in the +garden. It will, perhaps, cure your cold. Go!" he added, turning to +Hester, who immediately rose, pushed the paper under the cushion on +which she had been sitting, and left the room with her eyes fixed on the +ground. + +As the cat watches the mouse, Foster had watched the girl's every +movement while he bent over his paint-box. He saw where she put the +paper. In conveying his materials from the room, strange to say, he +slipped on the marble floor, close to the cushion, secured the paper as +he rose, and, picking up his scattered things with an air of +self-condemnation, retired humbly--yet elated--from the +presence-chamber. + +Need we say that in the first convenient spot he could find he eagerly +unrolled the paper, and read-- + +"I am lost! Oh, save me! Osman has come! I have _seen_ him! +_Hateful_! He comes to-morrow to--" + +The writing ended abruptly. + +"My hideous sneeze did that!" growled Foster savagely. "But if I had +been a moment later Ben-Ahmed might have--well, well; no matter. She +_must_ be saved. She _shall_ be saved!" + +Having said this, clenched his teeth and hands, and glared, he began to +wonder _how_ she was to be saved. Not being able to arrive at any +conclusion on this point, he went off in search of his friend Peter the +Great. + +He found that worthy man busy mending a rake in a tool-house, and in a +few eager words explained how matters stood. At first the negro +listened with his wonted, cheerful smile and helpful look, which +hitherto had been a sort of beacon-light to the poor midshipman in his +troubles, but when he came to the piece of paper and read its contents +the smile vanished. + +"Osman home!" he said. "If Osman come back it's a black look-out for +poor Hester! And the paper says to-morrow," cried Foster; "to take her +away and marry her, no doubt. Peter, I tell you, she must be saved +_to-night_! You and I must save her. If you won't aid me I will do it +alone--or die in the attempt." + +"Geo'ge, if you was to die a t'ousan' times dat wouldn't sabe her. You +know de Kasba?" + +"Yes, yes--go on!" + +"Well, if you was to take dat on your shoulders an' pitch 'im into de +sea, _dat_ wouldn't sabe her." + +"Yes it would, you faint-hearted nigger!" cried the middy, losing all +patience, "for if I could do that I'd be able to wring the neck of every +pirate in Algiers--and I'd do it too!" + +"Now, Geo'ge, keep cool. I's on'y p'intin' out what you can't do; but +p'r'aps somet'ing may be done. Yes," (he struck his forehead with his +fist, as if to clinch a new idea),--"yes, I knows! I's hit it!" + +"What!" cried Foster eagerly. + +"Dat you's got nuffin to do wid," returned the negro decisively. "You +must know not'ing, understand not'ing, hear an' see not'ing, for if you +do you'll be whacked to deaf. Bery likely you'll be whacked anyhow, but +dat not so bad. You must just shut your eyes an' mout' an' trust all to +_me_. You understand, Geo'ge?" + +"I think I do," said the relieved middy, seizing the negro's right hand +and wringing it gratefully. "Bless your black face! I trust you from +the bottom of my soul." + +It was, indeed, a source of immense relief to poor Foster that his +friend not only took up the matter with energy, but spoke in such a +cheery, hopeful tone, for the more he thought of the subject the more +hopeless did the case of poor Hester Sommers appear. He could of course +die for her--and would, if need were--but this thought was always +followed by the depressing question, "What good would that do to _her_?" + +Two hours after the foregoing conversation occurred Peter the Great was +seated in a dark little back court in a low coffee-house in one of the +darkest, narrowest, and most intricate streets of Algiers. He sat on an +empty packing-box. In front of him was seated a stout negress, in whom +an Ethiopian might have traced some family likeness to Peter himself. + +"Now, Dinah," said he, continuing an earnest conversation which had +already lasted for some time, "you understand de case properly--eh?" + +"Ob course I does," said Dinah. + +"Well, den, you must go about it at once. Not a minute to lose. You'll +find me at de gardin door. I'll let you in. You know who you's got to +sabe, an' you must find out your own way to sabe her, an'--now, hol' +your tongue! You's just a-goin' to speak--I must know nuffin'. Don' +tell me one word about it. You's a cleber woman, Dinah." + +"Yes, my brudder. I wasn't born yesterday--no, nor yet the day before." + +"An', Samson, will you trust _him_?" + +"My husband is as good as gold. I trust him wid eberyt'ing!" replied +this pattern wife. + +"An' Youssef--what ob him?" + +"He's more'n t'ree quarters blind. Kin see not'ing, an' understan's +less." + +"Dinah, you's a good woman," remarked her appreciative brother, as he +rose to depart. "Now, remember, dis am de most important job you an' I +hab had to do since we was took by de pirits out ob de same ship. An' I +do t'ink de Lord hab bin bery good to us, for He's gi'n us good massas +at last, though we had some roughish ones at fust. Foller me as quick +as you can." + +Dinah, being a warm-hearted woman, and very sympathetic, did not waste +time. She reached Ben-Ahmed's villa only half an hour later than her +brother, with a basket of groceries and other provisions that Peter had +purchased in town. Peter took care that the young negress, whom we have +already introduced as an attendant in the house, should be sent to +receive the basket, and Dinah took care that she should not return to +the house until she had received a bouquet of flowers to present to the +young English girl in the harem. Inside of this bouquet was a little +note written by Peter. It ran thus-- + +"Tri an git owt to de gardin soons yoo kan." + +When Hester Sommers discovered this note, the first ray of hope entered +into her fluttering heart, and she resolved to profit by it. + +Meanwhile, Dinah, instead of quitting the place after delivering her +basket, hid herself in the shrubbery. It was growing dark by that time, +and Peter made a noisy demonstration of sending one of the slaves to see +that the garden gate was locked for the night. Thereafter he remained +all the rest of the evening in his own apartments in pretty loud +conversation with the slaves. + +Suddenly there was a cry raised, and several slaves belonging to the +inner household rushed into the outer house with glaring eyes, shouting +that the English girl could not be found. + +"Not in de house?" cried Peter, starting up in wild excitement. + +"No--nowhar in de house!" + +"To de gardin, quick!" shouted Peter, leading the way, while Ben-Ahmed +himself, with undignified haste, joined in the pursuit. + +Lanterns were lighted, and were soon flitting like fireflies all over +the garden, but no trace of the fugitive was found. Peter entered into +the search with profound interest, being as yet utterly ignorant of the +method of escape devised by his sister. Suddenly one of the slaves +discovered it. A pile of empty casks, laid against the wall in the form +of a giant staircase, showed how Hester had climbed, and a crushed bush +on the other side testified to her mode of descent. + +Ben-Ahmed and Peter ran up to the spot together. "Dey can't hab gone +far, massa. You want de horses, eh?" asked the latter. + +"Yes. Two horses, quick!" + +Peter went off to the stables in hot haste, remarking as he ran-- + +"_What_ a hyperkrite I is, to be sure!" + + + +CHAPTER NINE. + +HESTER INTRODUCED TO A NEW HOME AND NEW FRIENDS UNDER PECULIAR +CIRCUMSTANCES, AND A NEW NAME. + +Long before their flight was discovered Hester Sommers and Dinah had +penetrated into a dense thicket, where the negress proceeded to produce +a wonderful metamorphosis. + +"Now, my dear," she said, hastily undoing a large bundle which she +carried, while Hester, panting and terrified, sat down on the grass +beside her, "don't you be frighted. I's your fri'nd. I's Dinah, de +sister ob Peter de Great, an' de fri'nd also ob Geo'ge. So you make +your mind easy." + +"My mind is quite easy," said Hester; "and even if you were not Peter's +sister, I'd trust you, because of the tone of your kind voice. But who +is Geo'ge?" + +Dinah opened her eyes very wide at this question, for Peter had already +enlightened her mind a little as to the middy's feelings towards Hester. + +"You not know Geo'ge?" she asked. + +"Never heard of him before, Dinah." + +"Geo'ge Foster?" + +"Oh, I understand! It was your way of pronouncing his name that puzzled +me," returned the girl, with a faint smile. "I'm glad you are his +friend, too, poor fellow!" + +"Well, you _is_ a babby!" exclaimed Dinah, who had been mixing up what +appeared to be black paint in a wooden bowl. "Now, look yar, don't you +be frighted. It's a matter ob life an' deaf, you know, but _I's_ your +fri'nd! Jest you do zackly what I tells you." + +"Yes, Dinah," said Hester, alarmed, notwithstanding, by the earnestness +and solemnity of her new friend, "what am I to do?" + +"You come yar, an' don't moob whateber I does to you. Dere, I's goin' +to make you a nigger!" + +She applied a large brush to Hester's forehead, and drew it thence down +her left cheek, under her chin, up the right cheek, and back to the +starting point, thus producing a black band or circle two inches broad. + +"Now shut your bootiful eyes," she said, and proceeded to fill up the +circle. + +In a quarter of an hour Hester was as black as the ace of spades--neck, +hands, and arms, as well as face--her fair hair was effectually covered +and concealed by a cotton kerchief, and then her dress was changed for +the characteristic costume of negro women. + +"Now your own mudder wouldn't know you," said Dinah, stepping back to +survey her work, and, strange to say, putting her black head quite +artistically a little on one side. "You's a'most as good-lookin' as +myself--if you was on'y a little fatter. Now, mind, you's a dumb gal! +Can't speak a word. Don't forgit dat. An' your name's Geo'giana. Come +along." + +Leaving her fine clothes concealed in a deep hole, Hester followed her +companion as fast as she could. On returning to the road Dinah took her +friend by the hand and helped her to run for a considerable distance. +Then they walked, and then ran again, until poor Hester was almost +exhausted. + +Resuming their walk after a short rest, they gained the main road and +met with several people, who paid no attention to them whatever, much to +Hester's relief, for she had made sure of being detected. At last they +reached the city gate, which was still open, as the sun had not yet set. +Passing through unchallenged, Dinah at once dived into a maze of narrow +streets, and, for the first time since starting, felt comparatively +safe. + +Fortunately for the success of their enterprise, the negress costume +fitted loosely, so that the elegance of Hester's form was not revealed, +and her exhaustion helped to damage the grace of her carriage! + +"Now, dearie, you come in yar an' rest a bit," said Dinah, turning into +a dark cellar-like hole, from which issued both sounds and smells that +were not agreeable. It was the abode of one of Dinah's friends--also a +negress--who received her with effusive goodwill. + +Retiring to the coal-hole--or some such dark receptacle--Dinah held her +friend in conversation for about a quarter of an hour, during which time +several hearty Ethiopian chuckles were heard to burst forth. Then, +returning to the cellar, Dinah introduced her friend to Hester as Missis +Lilly, and Hester to Missis Lilly as Miss Geo'giana. + +Wondering why her friend had selected for her the name--if she +remembered rightly--of one of Blue Beard's wives, Hester bowed, and was +about to speak when Dinah put her flat nose close to hers and sternly +said, "Dumb." + +"Moreober," she continued, "you mustn't bow like a lady, or you'll be +diskivered 'mediately. You must bob. Sally!" + +This last word was shouted. The instant effect was the abrupt stoppage +of one of the disagreeable sounds before referred to--a sound as of +pounding--and the appearance of a black girl who seemed to rise out of a +pit in the floor at the darkest end of the cellar. + +"Sally, show dis yar stoopid gal how to bob." + +The girl instantly broke off, so to speak, at the knees for a moment, +and then came straight again. + +"Now, Geo'giana, you bob." + +Hester entered into the spirit of the thing and broke off admirably, +whereat Dinah and Lilly threw back their heads and shook their sides +with laughter. Sally so far joined them as to show all her teeth and +gums. Otherwise she was expressionless. + +"Now you come yar wid me into dis room," said Dinah, taking Hester's +hand and heading her along a passage which was so profoundly dark that +the very walls and floor were invisible. Turning suddenly to the left, +Dinah advanced a few paces and stood still. + +"You stop where you is, Geo'giana, till I gits a light. Don't stir," +she said, and left her. + +A feeling of intense horror began to creep over the poor girl when she +was thus left alone in such a horrible place, and she began almost to +regret that she had forsaken the comfortable home of the Moor, and to +blame herself for ingratitude. In her agony she was about to call aloud +to her negro friend not to forsake her, when the words, "Call upon Me in +the time of trouble," occurred to her, and, falling on her knees, she +cast herself upon God. + +She was not kept waiting long. Only a minute or two had elapsed when +Dinah returned with a candle and revealed the fact that they stood in a +small low-roofed room, the brick floor of which was partially covered +with casks, packing-cases, and general lumber. + +"Dis am to be your room, Geo'giana," said her friend, holding the candle +over her head and surveying the place with much satisfaction. + +Poor Hester shuddered. + +"It is an awful place," she said faintly. + +"Yes, it am a awrful good place," said Dinah, with satisfaction. "Not +easy to find you yar; an' if dey did git dis lengt' widout breakin' dere +legs, dere's a nice leetil hole yar what you could git in an' larf to +youself." + +She led the poor girl to the other end of the room, where, in a recess, +there was a boarded part of the wall. Removing one of the boards, she +disclosed an opening. + +"Das a small hole, Geo'giana, but it's big enough to hold _you_, an' +when you's inside you've on'y got to pull de board into its place, and +fix it--so." + +Setting down the candle, the woman stepped into the hole, and went +through the performance that would devolve upon Hester in case of +emergency. + +"But why leave me here at all?" pleaded Hester, when Dinah had exhausted +her eulogy of the hiding-place. "Why not take me to your own home?" + +"Cause it's not so safe as dis," answered Dinah. "P'r'aps in time you +may come dere--not now. Moreober, Missis Lilly is a fuss-rate creetur, +most as good as myself, if her temper was a leetil more 'eavenly. But +she's a winged serubim wid dem as don't rile 'er, an' she'll be awrful +good to you for my sake an' Peter's. You see, we was all on us took by +the pints at de same time, and we're all Christ'ns but ob course we +don't say much about dat yar!" + +"And am I to be always dumb--never to speak at all?" asked Hester, in a +rather melancholy tone. + +"Oh! no--bress you! It's on'y when you're in de front or outside dat +you's dumb. When you's back yar you may speak to Lilly an' Sally much +as you like, on'y not too loud; an' keep your eyes open, an' your ears +sharp always. If you don't it's lost you will be. Don't forgit Osman!" + +Hester shuddered again; said that she would _never_ forget Osman, and +would be as careful and attentive to orders as possible. + +"An' dey'll gib you a little work to do--not much--on'y a little. When +peepil speak to you, just point to your ears and mout', an' shake your +head. Das enuff. Dey won't boder you arter dat. Now, dearie, I must +go. I'll come an' see you sometimes--neber fear. What's to become ob +you in de long-run's more'n I kin tell, for it's Peter de Great as'll +hab to settle dat kestion. You's in his hands. I knows not'ing, so +you'll hab to be patient." + +Patient, indeed! Little did that poor painted slave think what demands +would yet be made upon her patience. Full two months elapsed before she +again saw Peter, or heard anything about Ben-Ahmed and her former +friends at Mustapha! + +Meanwhile, Dinah having departed, she wisely set herself to make the +most of her new friends. + +Mrs Lilly she soon found to be quite as amiable as Dinah had described +her. She and Sally were slaves to the Moor who dwelt in the house which +formed the superstructure of their cellars; but, unlike white slaves, +they were allowed a good deal of personal liberty; first, because there +was no danger of their running away, as they had no place to run to; +second, because their master wanted them to buy and sell vegetables and +other things, in order that he might reap the profit; and, last, +because, being an easy-going man, the said master had no objection to +see slaves happy as long as their happiness did not interfere in any way +with his pleasure. + +"Now, Geo'giana," said Mrs Lilly, in the course of their first +conversation, "my massa he neber come down yar, nor trouble his head +about us, as long's I take him a leetle money ebery day, an' nobody else +hab got a right to come, so you's pretty safe if dey don't send de +janissaries to make a sarch--an' if dey do, you know whar to go. I'll +tell massa we make more money if I gits anoder slabe-gal, an' he'll +agree, for he agrees to eberyt'ing ob dat sort! Den he'll forgit all +about it, an' den you an' Sally kin go about town what you like." + +"But I fear, Mrs Lilly, that I won't be able to help you to make more +money," objected Hester timidly. + +"Oh yes, you will. You'll larn to 'broider de red an' blue slippers. +Das pay well when neatly done, an' I kin see by de shape ob your fingers +you do it neatly. You's hungry now, I darsay, so go to work at your +grub, an' den I'll show you what to do." + +Somewhat comforted by the kindly tone and motherly bearing of Mrs +Lilly, Hester went into one of the dark cellar-like rooms of the +interior of her new home, and found it to be a sort of kitchen, which +borrowed its light from the outer room by means of a convenient wall +that was white-washed for the purpose of transmitting it. This +reflector was not an eminent success, but it rendered darkness visible. +At the time we write of, however, the sun having set, the kitchen was +lighted by a smoky oil-lamp of classic form and dimness. Here she found +Sally busy with her evening meal. + +Sally was apparently about as little of a human being as was consistent +with the possession of a human form and the power of speech. Most of +her qualities seemed to be negative--if we may say so. She was +obviously not unamiable; she was not unkind; and she was not sulky, +though very silent. In fact, she seemed to be the nearest possible +approach to a human nonentity. She may be described as a black +maid-of-all-work, but her chief occupation was the pounding of roasted +coffee-beans. This operation she performed in the pit in the floor +before mentioned, which may be described as a hole, into which you +descended by four steps from the front room. As the front room itself +was below the level of the street, it follows that the "pit" penetrated +considerably deeper into the bowels of the earth. In this pit Sally +laboured hard, almost day and night, pounding the coffee-beans in an +iron mortar, with an iron pestle so heavy that she had to stand up and +use it with both hands. She had got into the habit of relieving herself +by an audible gasp each time she drove the pestle down. It was not a +necessary gasp, only a remonstrative one, as it were, and conveyed more +to the intelligent listener than most of the girl's average conversation +did. This gasp was also one of the disagreeable sounds which had +saluted the ears of Hester on her first entrance into the new home. + +"Mrs Lilly is very kind," said Hester, as she sat down at a small table +beside her fellow-slave. + +Sally stopped eating for a moment and stared. Supposing that she had +not understood the remark, Hester repeated it. + +"Yes," assented Sally, and then stopped the vocal orifice with a huge +wooden spoonful of rice. + +Judging that her companion wished to eat in undisturbed silence, Hester +helped herself to some rice, and quietly began supper. Sally eyed her +all the time, but was too busy feeding herself to indulge in speech. At +last she put down her spoon with a sigh of satisfaction, and said, "Das +good!" with such an air of honest sincerity that Hester gave way to an +irresistible laugh. + +"Yes, it is very good indeed. Did you cook it?" asked Hester, anxious +to atone for her impoliteness. + +"Yes. I cook 'im. I do all de cookin' in dis yar ouse--an' most ob de +eatin' too." + +"By the way, Sally, what is it that you keep pounding so constantly in +that--that hole off the front room?" + +"Coffee," answered Sally, with a nod. + +"Indeed! Surely not the household coffee. You cannot drink such a +quantity!" + +Sally stared for a minute; then opened her mouth, shut her eyes, threw +back her head, and chuckled. + +"No," she said, with sudden gravity; "if we drink'd it all we'd all +bu'st right off. I pounds it, Missis Lilly sells it, an' massa pockets +de money." + +"Do you pound much?" asked Hester, in a tone of sympathy. + +"Oh! housefuls," said Sally, opening her eyes wide. "'Gin at daylight-- +work till dark, 'cept when doin' oder t'ings. De Moors drink it. +Awrful drinkers am de Moors. Mornin', noon, an' night dey swill leetle +cups ob coffee. Das de reason dey's all so brown." + +"Indeed? I never heard before that the brown-ness of their complexion +was owing to that. Are you sure?" + +"Oh yes; kite sure. Coffee comes troo de skin--das it," returned Sally, +with perfect confidence of tone and manner. + +Suddenly she was smitten with a new idea, and stared for some time at +her fellow-slave. At last she got it out. + +"Missis Lilly say dat you's dumb. How kin you speak so well if you's +dumb?" + +Poor Hester was greatly perplexed. She did not know how far her +companion had been let into the secret reason of her being there, and +was afraid to answer. At last she made up her mind. + +"I am not really dumb, you know; I have only to be dumb when in the +street, or when any visitor is in the house here; but when alone with +Mrs Lilly or you I am allowed to speak low." + +A gleam of intelligence beamed on the black girl's face as she said, +"No, you's not dumb. Moreober, you's not black!" + +"Oh, Sally!" exclaimed Hester, in quite a frightened tone; "how did you +find that out?" + +"Hasn't I got eyes an' ears?" demanded Sally. "Your voice ain't nigger, +your 'plexion ain't nigger, an' your mout' an' nose ain't nigger. Does +you t'ink Sally's an ass?" + +"No, indeed, I am sure you are not; but--but, you--you won't betray me, +Sally?" + +"Whas dat?" + +"You won't tell upon me? Oh, you can't think what dreadful punishment I +shall get if I am found out! You won't tell on me, _dear_ Sally--won't +you not?" entreated Hester, with tears in her eyes. + +"Dere, stop dat! Don't cry! Das wuss dan speakin', for de tearz'll +wash all de black off your face! Tell on you? Dee see dat?" + +Hester certainly did see "dat," for Sally had suddenly protruded we fear +to say how many inches of red flesh from her mouth. + +"I cut dat off wid de carvin'-knife sooner dan tell on you, for you's my +fri'nd, because Peter de Great am your fri'nd. But you muss be dumb-- +dumb as you kin, anyhow--an' you mus' neber--neber cry!" + +The earnestness of this remark caused Hester to laugh even when on the +verge of weeping, so she grasped Sally's hand and shook it warmly, thus +cementing the friendship which had so auspiciously begun. + +After the meal Mrs Lilly took her lodger into the front room and gave +her embroidery work to do. She found it by no means difficult, having +learned something like it during her residence with Ben-Ahmed's +household. At night she retired to the dark lumber-room, but as Sally +owned one of the corners of it Hester did not feel as lonely as she had +feared, and although her bed was only made of straw, it was by no means +uncomfortable, being spread thickly and covered with two blankets. + +She dreamed, of course, and it may easily be understood that her dreams +were not pleasant, and that they partook largely of terrible flights +from horrible dangers, and hairbreadth escapes from an ogre who, +whatever shape he might assume, always displayed the head and features +of the hated Osman. + +Next morning, however, she arose pretty well refreshed, and +inexpressibly thankful to find that she was still safe. + +For a long time she remained thus in hiding. Then, as it was considered +probable that search for her had been given up as useless, Mrs Lilly +resolved to send her out with Sally to one of the obscurer +market-places, to purchase some household necessaries. + +"You see, chile," said the motherly woman, "you git sick on my hands if +you not go out, an' dere's no danger. Just keep your shawl well ober +your face, an' hold your tongue. Don't forgit dat. Let 'em kill you if +dey likes, but don't speak!" + +With this earnest caution ringing in her ears, Hester went forth with +Sally to thread the mazes of the town. At first she was terribly +frightened, and fancied that every one who looked at her saw through her +disguise, but as time passed and no one took the least notice of her, +her natural courage returned, and gradually she began to observe and +take an interest in the strange persons and things she saw everywhere +around her. + + + +CHAPTER TEN. + +TORTURE IS APPLIED IN VAIN, AND TRUE LOVE IS NOT TO BE DECEIVED. + +We must return now to the residence of Ben-Ahmed at Mustapha. + +When his son Osman--who had seen Hester only once and that for but a few +minutes--discovered that the fair slave had fled, his rage knew no +bounds. He immediately sent for Peter the Great and sternly asked him +if he knew how the English girl had escaped. Their intercourse, we may +remark, was carried on in the same curious manner as that referred to in +connection with Ben-Ahmed. Osman spoke in Lingua Franca and Peter +replied in his ordinary language. + +"Oh yes, massa, I know," said the latter, with intense earnestness; "she +escaped ober de wall." + +"Blockhead!" exclaimed the irate Osman, who was a sturdy but +ill-favoured specimen of Moslem humanity. "Of course I know that, but +_how_ did she escape over the wall?" + +"Don' know dat, massa. You see I's not dere at de time, so can't +'zactly say. Moreober, it was bery dark, an' eben if I's dar, I +couldn't see peepil in de dark." + +"You lie! you black scoundrel! and you know that you do. You could tell +me much more about this if you chose." + +"No, indeed, I don't lie--if a slabe may dar to counterdick his massa," +returned Peter humbly. "But you's right when you say I could tell you +much more. Oh! I could tell you _heaps_ more! In de fuss place I was +sotin' wid de oder slabes in de kitchen, enjoyin' ourselves arter +supper, w'en we hear a cry! Oh my! how my heart jump! Den all our legs +jump, and out we hoed wid lanterns an--" + +"Fool! don't I know all that? Now, tell me the truth, has the English +slave, George Fos--Fos--I forget his name--" + +"Geo'ge Foster," suggested the negro, with an amiable look. + +"Yes; has Foster had no hand in the matter?" + +"Unpossible, I t'ink," said Peter. "You see he was wid me and all de +oder slabes when de girl hoed off, an' I don't t'ink eben a Englishman +kin be in two places at one time. But you kin ax him; he's in de +gardin." + +"Go, fetch him," growled the young Moor, "and tell four of my men to +come here. They are waiting outside." + +The negro retired, and, soon after, four stout Moorish seamen entered. +They seemed worthy of their gruff commander, who ordered them to stand +at the inner end of the room. As he spoke he took up an iron +instrument, somewhat like a poker, and thrust it into a brazier which +contained a glowing charcoal fire. + +Presently Peter the Great returned with young Foster. Osman did not +condescend to speak directly to him, but held communication through the +negro. + +Of course our hero could throw no light on the subject, being utterly +ignorant of everything--as Peter had wisely taken the precaution to +ensure--except of the bare fact that Hester was gone. + +"Now, it is my opinion," said Osman, with a savage frown, "that you are +both deceiving me, and if you don't tell the truth I will take means to +force it out of you." + +Saying this he turned to the brazier and pulled out the iron poker to +see that it was becoming red-hot. The countenance of the negro became +very grave as he observed this, and the midshipman's heart sank within +him. + +"So you deliberately tell me," said the Moor abruptly, as he wheeled +round and confronted Peter the Great, "that you have no knowledge as to +where, or with whom, this girl is?" + +"No, massa," answered the negro, with solemn sincerity. "If you was to +skin me alive I not able to tell you whar she is or who she is wid." + +Peter said no more than this aloud, but he added, internally, that he +would sooner die than give any further information, even if he had it to +give. + +Osman made a motion with his hand as a signal to the four seamen, who, +advancing quickly, seized the negro, and held him fast. One of the men +then stripped off the poor man's shirt. At the same moment Osman drew +the red-hot iron from the fire, and deliberately laid it on Peter's +back, the skin of which hissed and almost caught fire, while a cloud of +smoke arose from it. + +The hapless victim did not struggle. He was well aware that resistance +would be useless. He merely clenched his teeth and hands. But when +Osman removed the iron and applied it to another part of his broad back +a deep groan of agony burst from the poor fellow, and beads of +perspiration rolled from his brow. + +At first George Foster could scarcely believe his eyes. He was almost +paralysed by an intense feeling of horror. Then there came a tremendous +rebound. Rage, astonishment, indignation, fury, and a host of cognate +passions, met and exploded in his bosom. Uttering a yell that +harmonised therewith, he sprang forward, hit Osman a straight English +left-hander between the eyes, and followed it up with a right-hander in +the gullet, which sent the cruel monster flat on the floor, and his head +saluted the bricks with an effective bump. In his fall the Moor +overturned the brazier, and brought the glowing fire upon his bosom, +which it set alight--his garments being made of cotton. + +To leap up with a roar of pain and shake off the glowing cinders was the +work of a moment. In the same moment two of the stout seamen threw +themselves on the roused midshipman, and overcame him--not, however, +before one of them had received a black eye and the other a bloody nose, +for Moors do not understand the art of self-defence with the fists. + +"Down with him!" shouted Osman, when he had extinguished the flames. + +He seized a supple cane, or wand, as the seamen threw Foster down, and +held his feet in the air, after tearing off his shoes. + +Wild with fury, Osman brought the cane down on the poor youth's soles. +It was his first taste of the bastinado. The agony took him by +surprise, and extorted a sharp yell. Next moment his teeth were in the +calf of one of the men's legs, and his right hand grasped the baggy +trousers of the other. A compound kick and plunge overturned them both, +and as they all fell into a heap, the cheek of one seaman received a +stinging blow that was meant for the middy's soles. + +Things had reached this crisis, and Peter the Great, having hurled aside +his two assailants, was on the point of rushing to the rescue of his +friend, when the door burst open, and Ben-Ahmed stood before them +quivering with indignation. + +"Is this your return for my forbearance? Be-gone!" he shouted to his +son in a voice of thunder. + +Osman knew his father too well to require a second bidding. He left the +room angrily, and a look from Ben-Ahmed sent the four sailors after him. + +The Moor was too well accustomed to his wild son's ways to require any +explanation of the cause of the fracas. Just giving one glance at his +slaves, to make sure that neither was killed, he left the room as +hastily as he had entered it. + +"My poor friend," exclaimed the middy, grasping the negro's hand with a +gush of mingled enthusiasm and pity, "I trust you have not been much +injured by that inhuman brute?" + +"Oh, bress you! no. It do smart a bit," returned Peter, as he put on +his shirt uneasily, "an' I's used to it, Geo'ge, you know. But how's +your poo' feet?" + +"Well, I'm not vary sure," replied Foster, making a wry face as he sat +down to examine them. "How it did sting, Peter! I owe a heavy debt of +gratitude to old Ben-Ahmed for cutting it short. No, the skin's not +damaged, I see, but there are two or three most awful weals. D'you +know, I never before this day felt sorry that I wasn't born a dog!" + +"Why's dat, Geo'ge?" + +Because then I should have been able to make my teeth meet in yon +fellow's leg, and would have held on! Yes, I don't know what I would +not have given just at that time to have been born a mastiff, or a huge +Saint Bernard, or a thoroughbred British bull-dog, with double the usual +allowance of canines and grinders! + +The negro threw back his head and began one of his silent laughs, but +suddenly stopped, opened his eyes wide, pursed his lips, and moved his +broad shoulders uneasily. + +"I mus' laugh _easy_ for some time to come," he remarked. + +"Poor fellow!" said Foster, "I fear you must. I say--how my soles do +sting!" + +"Oh yes, _I_ knows," returned Peter, with a remarkably intelligent nod. +"But come. We mus' go an' see what massa's a-goin' to do, for you bery +sure he won't rest quiet till he's turned ebery stone to find Missy +Hester." + +Peter the Great left the room with a brave effort to suppress a groan; +while our middy followed with an equally valorous determination not to +limp. In both efforts they were but partially successful. + +As Peter had prophesied, Ben-Ahmed did indeed leave no stone unturned to +recover Hester Sommers, but there was one consideration which checked +him a good deal, and prevented his undertaking the search as openly as +he wished, and that was the fear that the Dey himself might get wind of +what he was about, and so become inquisitive as to the cause of the stir +which so noted a man was making about a runaway slave. For Ben-Ahmed +feared--and so did Osman--that if the Dey saw Hester he might want to +introduce her into his own household. + +The caution which they had therefore to observe in prosecuting the +search was all in favour of the runaway. + +As time passed by, Hester, _alias_ Geo'giana, began to feel more at ease +in her poor abode and among her new friends, who, although unrefined in +manners, were full to overflowing with the milk of human kindness, so +that at last the unfortunate English girl began to entertain positive +affection for Mrs Lilly and her black handmaiden. + +She also began to feel more at ease in traversing the intricate streets +of the city, for the crowds that passed her daily had evidently too much +to do attending to their own business to bestow more than an indifferent +glance at two negro girls. And if the features of one of the two was +not according to the familiar negro type, it is probable that all the +inhabitants of Algiers were aware of the fact that some of the tribes of +black people in the interior of Africa possess the well-formed features +and comparatively thin lips of Europeans. + +As Hester's anxieties about herself began to abate, however, her desire +to find out where and how her father was became more and more intense. +But the poor child was doomed to many months of hope deferred before +that desire was gratified. + +Peter the Great did indeed make a few efforts to meet with him again-- +sometimes in company with George Foster, more frequently alone, and +occasionally he visited Hester--having been informed by his sister Dinah +where to find her--in order to tell of his want of success, and to +comfort her with earnest assurances that he would "neber forsake her," +but would keep up a constant look-out for her fadder an' an eye on +herself. + +Consideration for the girl's safety rendered it necessary that these +visits should be few and far between, and, of course, owing to the same +necessity, our middy was not permitted to visit her at all. Indeed, +Peter refused to tell him even where she was hiding, all the information +he condescended to give being that she was safe. + +"You see, my dear," said Peter to Hester, in a paternal tone, on the +occasion of the first of these visits, "if I was to come yar oftin, +massa--spec'ally Osman--would 'gin to wonder, an' de moment a man 'gins +to wonder he 'gins to suspec', an' den he 'gins to watch; an' if it +comes to dat it's all up wid you an' me. So you mus' jest keep close +an' say nuffin till de tide 'gins to turn an' de wind blow fair. De +good Lord kin turn wind an' tide when He likes, so keep your heart up, +Geo'giana!" + +As he uttered the last word the negro put his great hand on the girl's +shoulder and patted it. + +"_What_ a good name Geo'giana am," he continued, bringing his eyes to +bear on the slender little black creature before him; "an' _what_ a good +nigger you would make if on'y you had an elegant flat nose an' bootiful +thick hips. Neber mind, you's better lookin' dan Sally, anyhow, an' no +mortal could guess who you was, eben if he was told to look hard at +you!" + +"But oh, Peter, this is such an anxious, weary life," began Hester, with +a trembling lip. + +"Now, hold on dar!" interrupted the negro, almost sternly; "you _mus'_ +_not_ cry, whateber you do, for it washes off de black. You mus' larn +to cumtroul your feelin's." + +"I will try," returned Hester, attempting to smile. "But it is not that +I am discontented with my lot, for they are as kind to me here as if +they were my mother and sister, and I like doing the embroidery work +very much--it's not that. It is the weary waiting, and hoping for, and +expecting news of my darling father--news which _never_ comes." + +"Now, don't you t'ink like dat, Geo'giana, but larn to submit--submit-- +das de word. De news'll come all in good time. An' news allers comes +in a heap--suddently, so to speak. It _neber_ comes slow. Now, look +yar. I wants you to make me a solum promise." + +"What is that?" asked Hester, smiling in spite of herself at the +intensity of her dark friend's look and manner. + +"It am dis. Dat you will neber look surprised, nor speak surprised, no +matter howeber much you may _feel_ surprised." + +"You impose a difficult task on me, Peter." + +"Ob course I do, Geo'giana, but as your life--an' p'r'aps mine, but dat +ain't much--depends on it, you'll see de needcessity." + +"I will certainly try--for your sake as well as my own," returned Hester +fervently. + +"Well, I t'ink you will, but it ain't easy, an' I'll test you some day." + +It was more than a month after that before Peter the Great paid her +another visit, and, to the poor girl's grief, he still came without news +of her father. He had been all over the Kasba, he said, and many other +places where the slaves worked, but he meant to persevere. The city was +big, and it would take time, but "Geo'giana" was to cheer up, for he +would _neber_ gib in. + +One morning Peter announced to Foster that he was going into town to +make purchases, and he wanted his assistance to carry the basket. + +"Are we going to make another search for poor Mr Sommers?" asked the +middy, as he walked along the road holding one handle of the empty +basket. + +"No, we's got no time for dat to-day. I mus' be back early. Got time +on'y for one call on a friend ob mine. Das all." + +As the negro did not seem inclined for conversation, Foster forebore to +trouble him, but observed, without remarking on the circumstance, that, +instead of taking their accustomed way to the market-place, they passed +along many narrow, steep, and intricate streets until they reached what +the midshipman conceived to be the very heart of the city. + +"Dis am de house ob my friend," said Peter, stopping in front of an +opening which descended into a cellar. "Foller me, Geo'ge, an' bring +down de baskit wid you. Hallo, Missis Lilly! Is you widin?" + +"Hi! Das you, Peter de Great?" came in shrill tones from below as they +descended. + +"Dumb!" exclaimed Peter, with peculiar emphasis on reaching the cellar. +"How you do, Missis Lilly? Oberjoyed to see you lookin' so fresh. Just +looked in to ax how you's gettin' along." + +Need we say that Peter's warning word was not thrown away on Hester +Sommers, who was seated in her corner embroidering with gold thread a +pair of red morocco slippers. But, forewarned though she was, her +presence of mind was put to a tremendous test when, all unexpectedly, +George Foster descended the steps and stood before her. Fortunately, +while the youth was bestowing a hearty nautical greeting on Mrs Lilly-- +for his greeting was always hearty, as well to new acquaintances as to +old friends--Hester had time to bend over her work and thus conceal the +sudden pallor followed by an equally sudden flush which changed her +complexion from a bluish grey to a burnt sienna. When George turned to +glance carelessly at her she was totally absorbed in the slipper. + +The negro watched the midshipman's glance with keen interest. When he +saw that only a passing look was bestowed on Hester, and that he then +turned his eyes with some interest to the hole where Sally was pounding +coffee and gasping away with her wonted energy, he said to himself +mentally, "Ho, Dinah, but you _am_ a cleber woman! Geo'ge don't rignise +her more'n if she was a rigler coloured gal! I do b'lieve her own +fadder wouldn't know her!" + +He then proceeded to have a talk with Mrs Lilly, and while he was thus +engaged the middy, who had an inquiring disposition, began to look round +the cellar and take mental-artistic notes of its appearance. Then he +went up to Hester, and, taking up one of the finished slippers, examined +it. + +"Most beautiful! Exquisite!" he said. "Does it take you long to do +this sort of thing?" + +The girl did not reply. + +"She's dumb!" said Peter quickly. + +"Ah, poor thing!" returned Foster, in a voice of pity. "Deaf, too, I +suppose?" + +"Well, I don't know as to dat, Geo'ge." + +"Is this one dumb too?" asked the middy, pointing to the coffee-hole. + +"Oh dear no!" interposed Lilly. "Sally a'n't dumb; she's awrful sharp +with 'er tongue!" + +"She ought to be deaf anyhow, considering the row she kicks up down +there!" + +"Come now, Geo'ge, it's time we was goin'. So pick up de baskit an' go +ahead." + +Bidding Mrs Lilly an affectionate adieu, the two shaves left the +cellar, to the intense relief of poor Hester, who scarce knew whether to +laugh or cry over the visit. She had been so eagerly anxious to speak +to Foster, yet had managed to keep her promise in spite of the +peculiarly trying circumstances. + +"Peter," said the middy, when they had got well out of the town on their +way home, "what made you say `dumb' so emphatically when you descended +into that cellar?" + +"_Did_ I say `dumb?'" returned the negro, with an inquiring look at the +clouds. + +"You certainly did." + +"'Phatically, too?" + +"Yes, most emphatically." + +"Well, now, das most remarkably strange!" + +"Not so strange as my finding Hester Sommers in a coal-hole making +golden slippers!" + +At this Peter set down the basket, threw back his head, and took a +prolonged silent laugh. + +"Now dat _is_ de strangest t'ing ob all. Didn't I t'ink you not rignise +her one bit!" + +"Peter," returned the midshipman gravely, "you ought to know from +experience that true love pierces every disguise." + +"Das troo, Geo'ge," said Peter, as he lifted his end of the basket and +resumed the journey. "Lub is a wonderful t'ing, an' I ain't sure what +might come ob it if I was took unawares to see my Angelica arter she'd +bin painted white. But dere's one t'ing as comforts me a leetle, an' +dat is, dat Peter de Great ain't de biggest hyperkrite in de world arter +all, for de way you purtended not to know dat gal, an' de way she +purtended not to know _you_, hab took de wind out ob my sails +altogidder!" + + + +CHAPTER ELEVEN. + +DANGERS, VICISSITUDES, ESCAPES, NEW SURROUNDINGS, HOPES, AND FEARS. + +It was probably an advantage to Hester Sommers that she had been +subjected to so severe a test at that time, for, not many weeks +afterwards, she experienced a shock which put her powers of +self-restraint to a much severer trial. + +It happened thus. Sally and she were on their way home from market one +day; the former with a large basket of vegetables on her head, and the +latter with a lighter basket of oranges on her arm, for the use of the +master at home. They had come to one of the wider of the narrow streets +of the town, where the small shops were numerous, and the throng of +passers-by was considerable--as also was the noise, for Jews, Moors, +Cabyles, and negroes were conversing and jostling each other in all +directions. + +Presently a band of slaves approached, and, as it passed, Hester nearly +fainted, for among them she beheld her father, with irons on his legs, +and a shovel and pick on his shoulder. + +"Father!" she exclaimed, in a faint voice, and, stretching out her arms, +made an effort to run towards him. + +Quick as lightning Sally grasped the situation, and, rising to the +occasion with that prompt energy which betokens true genius, she seized +Hester by the nape of the neck, hurled her to the ground, and sent her +oranges flying in all directions! At the same time she began to storm +at her with a volubility of invective that astonished herself as well as +the amused bystanders. As for poor Hugh Sommers, the noise had +prevented him from hearing the word "father!" and all that met his eyes +was one black girl roughly using another. Alas! the poor man had been +by that time so much accustomed to witness acts of cruelty that the +incident gave him little concern. He passed doggedly onward to his +thankless, unremitting toil, which had been rendered all the more severe +of late in consequence of his despairing violence having compelled his +drivers to put the heavy irons on his limbs. + +Meanwhile Sally, having made Hester pick up some of the oranges, seized +her by an arm and hurried her away. Nor did she desist scolding until +she had her fairly down in the back regions of their cellar-home. + +"I will never forgive you!" exclaimed Hester, with flashing eyes, +doubling up her small fists, and apparently wishing that at least for +one quarter of an hour she might be transformed into a female Samson. + +"Oh yes, you will," returned the negress coolly; "you'll forgib me when +I tells you dat I hab sab' your fadder's life, an' p'r'aps your own +too!" + +"How? What do you mean?" demanded Hester, relaxing her little fists +slightly, though still coruscating in the region of the eyes. + +"I means dat if you got hold ob yer fadder dat time, he bery likely grip +you tight an' refuse to part wid you at no price ebermore; so den, ob +course, dey tear him away, an' he kick up a shindy an' try to kill +somebody--p'r'aps _do_ it! Oh, its's allers de way. I's oftin seen it +wid the big strong men--an' your fadder am big. Dat was him, wasn't it, +wid de broad shoulders an' de nice face--a leetle wild-like, p'r'aps, +but no wonder--an' de grey beard?" + +"Yes; that was him--my darling father!" + +"Well, ob course dey take him away an' bastinado him till he die, or +strangle him, or frow him on de hooks; an' dey take you right away back +to Osman, or wuss. I doo'd it for de best, Geo'giana." + +"Oh! Sally, dear, _dear_ Sally, forgive me! But it was such an awful +disappointment to be hurried away so, _just_ as I saw him. I--I--am +_very_ wicked, Sally, will you forgive me?" said poor little Hester, +bursting suddenly into tears, throwing her arms round her friend's neck +and kissing her. + +"Forgib you, Geo'giana! Das not difficult to do, but I'll _neber_ +forgib you if you go slobberin' like dat, an' dirtyin' my face wid your +black cheeks. Dar now, I's got to polish you up again!" + +This "polishing up," it may be remarked, was a duty which Sally was +called on to perform rather frequently, in consequence of Hester's +inveterate tendency to think of her father and shed tears! But her +sable friend, whose stolid exterior concealed a wealth of affection, +rather enjoyed the process of "polishing up," and while engaged in it +broke out into quite eloquent dissertations as to the impropriety of +washing one's face with tears when there was plenty of soap and water: +coupled with earnest exhortations to "keep up heart," and +recommendations not to "gib in," "neber to say die," and the like. + +On this particular occasion the sympathetic Sally gave her friend +inexpressible comfort by assuring her that, having at last seen her +father and the gang to which he belonged, she could now easily follow +them up and find out where they were set to work. "And so, Geo'giana," +said she, in conclusion, "somet'ing may come ob dis meetin', p'r'aps +more'n you t'ink." + +Something certainly did come of it, as we shall see presently; but just +now we must turn to another danger which threatened our English slave, +and in regard to which the previous testing of her powers of +self-restraint was but a trifle. + +One morning Hester was seated in the usual corner, busily engaged with +her embroidery, and with her mind still more busily employed in devising +all sorts of impossible schemes for the deliverance of her father--for +Sally had discovered the exact spot on the fortifications where Hugh +Sommers was at work, and only prevented Hester from rushing out at once +to see him by resolutely refusing for a time to tell where that spot +was. + +Mrs Lilly and Hester were alone at the time we refer to, Sally having +gone out to the market. + +"Dearie, I 'spec's Peter de Great dis arternoon," said Mrs Lilly, +raising herself from a culinary pot to which she had been devoting her +attention. "Dis am about de time he or'nar'ly comes to see you and tell +you how de land lies. Now dat he knows you's seed your fadder, he'll +likely hab somet'ing 'tickler to say to you." + +"God grant that he may have something hopeful to suggest," said Hester, +without looking up from her work. + +"You may be sure dat prayer is answered, dearie, for you trust de Lord, +an' no one does dat in vain." + +As the woman spoke, the familiar voice was heard outside, "Hi, Missis +Lilly! how's you all git along down dar?" At the same moment the +opening to the street was darkened by Peter's bulky form as he descended +the narrow stair. + +Shaking hands with Hester, who rose eagerly to greet him, the negro was +about to begin an earnest talk with her as to how she should act in +regard to her father if she should again meet him, when a voice was +heard that sent a deadly chill alike to the hearts of Hester and the +negro. + +"Is the cellar far from this?" asked the voice, which was that of Osman. + +"No; here it is! Guard your feet; the second step is broken, and the +place is rather dark," replied the owner of the house. + +"Osman!" whispered Peter, glaring and clenching his fists in an agony of +uncertainty how to act. + +Mrs Lilly, however, black-woman-like, rose to the occasion. + +"Go down dar, you black wretch!" she cried, thrusting Hester quickly +down into the coffee-hole; "how you s'pose massa git his dollars if you +not work? Go to work, or I'll skin you!" + +Truly those negroes, male and female, seemed to possess most effective +capacity for, and original methods of, coming to the rescue of their +friends in moments of danger! + +As Mrs Lilly uttered the last words the two visitors stood in the +cellar. At the same instant the thud of the great pestle began, and so +intelligently did Hester perform her part that the familiar gasp of +Sally--admirably imitated--came up with every blow. + +"What, Peter the Great! You here!" cried Osman, in extreme surprise. + +"Yes, massa, I's here on a little bit ob business wid Missis Lilly. +She's a fri'nd ob my sister Dinah," answered Peter humbly. + +"Oh, indeed! With my father's permission, I suppose?" + +"Yes, Massa Osman. I neber dar to come in de town widout your fadder's +purmission." + +Osman turned and addressed a few words in an undertone to the master of +the house, who thereupon turned to Mrs Lilly. + +"You are a wise woman, Lilly," he said, "so I have come to consult you. +It seems that one of the slaves belonging to Ben-Ahmed of Mustapha has +made her escape, and it is rumoured that she has taken refuge with some +one in this very street, or in one not far from it. Now, as you are +well acquainted with almost every one in the neighbourhood, I thought it +best to come in the first place to you to ask your advice about the +matter." + +The gasp that came from the coffee-hole when this speech was made had +something very real in it, and immediately afterwards the pounding was +redoubled. + +"Was the slabe white or black?" asked Mrs Lilly, with childlike +simplicity, and more for the purpose of gaining time to think than +anything else. + +"She was white," interposed Osman, "and very beautiful,--in fact, one of +the ladies of the harem." + +On hearing this Mrs Lilly looked inquiringly upwards, as if she +expected inspiration to flow from the bricks that formed the vaulted +ceiling. Then she looked suddenly at Peter the Great, and said-- + +"Das mus' be de lady you was tole me about, Peter,--Ister--Hister--w'at +you call 'er?" + +"Yes--Hester! Das so. De same as I tole you all about her 'scape," +answered Peter, quaking with anxiety and astonishment at the woman's +calm boldness, yet ready to fall in with any plan that her words might +suggest. At the same time the gasping in the hole became more and more +genuine, and the pounding more and more emphatic. + +"No, massa, I don' know of no white slabe as hab took refuge wid any ob +our neighbours. Indeed I's kite sure dat none ob de neighbours knows +not'ing at all about dis Is--Es--w'at you call her? Ester! Das so, +Peter?" + +"Yes, das so, Missis Lilly." + +"Stop that horrible noise in the hole there! What is it?" said Osman +impatiently. + +"It is only one of my negro slaves," said the master of the house. +"Call her up, Lilly, and set her to something quieter until we go." + +Rendered desperate now, Peter the Great started forward with glaring +eyes. "Massa," he said, "an idea hab just struck me. Will you come out +a momint? I wants to tell you somet'ing _bery hard_." + +The appearance, not less than the earnestness, of the negro, inclined +Osman to comply with his request; but, hesitating, he said-- + +"Why not tell me here, Peter? We are all friends, you know." + +"Oh yes, I know dat, Massa Osman; but womans can never be trusted wid +t'ings ob importance, 'specially black womans! But ob course if you not +'fraid ob Missis Lilly, _I_ a'n't 'fraid ob her lettin' de secret out. +I darsay she's as good a creetur as de best ob 'um." + +This readiness to give in was a politic stroke. Osman agreed to go +outside with the negro, and while the latter was ascending the short +stair to the street, he was making superhuman efforts to invent +something, for, as yet, he had not the faintest idea what his intended +communication should be. But Peter the Great was a genius, and it is +one of the characteristics of genius to be bold even to recklessness. + +Trusting to some sort of inspiration, he began, with looks and tones of +the deepest solemnity, "I s'pose you guess, Massa Osman, dat I've been +inwestigatin' that coorious business ob de English gal what runned +away?" + +"No, I did not guess that," answered the Moor shortly. + +"Oh! but it's true!" said Peter. "Eber since she flooed away I's bin +goin' about dem suspekid places, lookin' arter her, and, do you know, +Massa Osman, dat at last," (here he dropped his voice and looked +unutterable things),--"at _last_ I's found--" + +"Well--found what?" asked the Moor eagerly. + +"Found her _fadder_!" + +"Bah! What do I care for her father, you fool?" + +"Das troo, massa; but don't you t'ink dat p'r'aps she'd be likely to try +for find her fadder; an' if she find 'im she'd be likely to remain _wid_ +her fadder? An' so all dat we'd hab to do would be to find her fadder +too. Ob course I don't say she's doo'd all dat; but suppose, for de +sake ob argiment, dat she _hab_ doo'd it all, won't we--won't we--we-- +No, I's lost de t'read ob my discoorse. I'll begin again fro' de +beginning. Das de on'y way I kin--" + +"Is that all you had to tell me?" interrupted the Moor, in rising wrath. + +"No--not kite all," returned Peter humbly. "Dey do say dat de fadder is +at work on de for'fications on de sout' side ob de Kasba." + +"Well, you are a greater fool than I took you for," said Osman, in whom +contempt was quickly taking the place of anger. + +"I s'pose I is, massa. An' I s'pose it am part ob my foolishness to be +lookin' arter dis yar gal--but den, you see, I lubs Ben-Ahmed, so--" + +"Well, well, Peter, I believe you mean well--" + +"I's _sure_ I does, Massa Osman!" + +"Don't interrupt me, you black villain! Can't you see that if Hester's +father is a Bagnio slave there is no chance of her having found refuge +with him?" + +"Das true, massa. I do s'pose you's right. I's a born ijit altogidder. +But, you know, when a man gits off de scent ob a t'ing, anyt'ing dat +looks de least bit like a clue should be follered up. An' dere's no +sayin' what might come ob seein' de fadder--for we's off de scent +entirely jist now." + +"There's little doubt of that, Peter," said Osman, pausing, and looking +meditatively at the ground. + +"Moreober," suggested the negro, "when a man wid a cleber head an' a +purswavis tongue like you tackles a t'ing, it's bery strange indeed if +not'ing comes ob it." + +"Well, you may be right after all," returned the Moor slowly. "I will +go and see this father. At all events it can do no harm." + +"None whateber, massa. An' I better run back and send Ali arter you." + +"Why? What has he to do with it?" + +"Oh! I only t'ought dat you was huntin' togidder. It's ob no +consikence. But I t'ink he knows de janissary officer what has charge +ob de gang, an' if _you_ don't know him Ali might be useful." + +"There is wisdom in what you say." + +"Eben zough I _is_ a `fool?'" asked the negro simply. + +Osman laughed. + +"At all events you are an honest fool, Peter, and I'm sorry I burned +your back the other day. You didn't deserve it." + +"Oh, nebber mind dat," returned Peter, feeling really uneasy. "De +back's all right now. Moreober I _did_ deserb it, for I's an awrful +sinner! Wuss dan you t'ink! Now, if you keep right up as you go, an' +when you comes to de Kasba turn to de right an' keep so till you comes +to de right angle ob de sout' wall. De fadder he work dar. I'll send +Ali arter you, quick's I can." + +They parted, and while the Moor stalked sedately up the street, the +negro hurried back to the cellar with a message to Ali to follow Osman +without a moment's delay. + +Meanwhile Ali had been cleverly engaged by the ready-witted Mrs Lilly, +who, after fiercely ordering the coffee-pounder to "stop her noise," +come out of the hole, and retire to the kitchen, drew forth a large +leathern purse, which she wisely chinked, and, going towards the stairs, +invited her master to "come to de light an' receibe de money which she +hab made by de last sale ob slippers." + +Of course the bait took--none other could have been half so successful. +But Hester apparently had not courage to take advantage of the +opportunity, for she did not quit the hole. Fortunately Peter arrived +before the cash transaction was completed. On receiving Osman's message +Ali balanced accounts promptly by thrusting the purse and its contents +into his pocket and hastening away. + +Then Peter the Great and Lilly sat down, took a long grave look at each +other, threw back their heads, opened their cavernous mouths, and +indulged in a quiet but hearty laugh. + +"Now you kin come out, dearie," said Lilly, turning to the coffee-hole +on recovering composure. + +But no response came from the "vasty deep." + +"De coast's cl'ar, my dear," said Peter, rising. + +Still no response, so Peter descended the few steps, and found Hester +lying insensible on a heap of coffee-beans, and still firmly grasping +the big pestle. The trial had been too much for the poor child, who had +fainted, and Peter emerged with her in his arms, and an expression of +solemn anxiety on his countenance. + +In a few minutes, however, she revived, and then Peter, hurrying her +away from a locality which he felt was no longer safe, placed her under +the charge of his sister Dinah--to the inexpressible regret of Mrs +Lilly and her black maid-of-all-work. + +In her new home the fugitive's circumstances were much improved. Dinah +and her husband had great influence over their owner, Youssef, the +proprietor of the small coffee-house already described. They not only +managed most of its details for him, but were permitted a good deal of +personal liberty. Among other things they had been allowed to select +the top of the house as their abode. + +To European ears this may sound rather strange, but those who have seen +the flat roofs of Eastern lands will understand it. Youssef's house, +like nearly all the other houses of the city, had a flat roof, with a +surrounding parapet nearly breast-high. Here had been placed a few +wooden boxes filled with earth and planted with flowering shrubs. These +formed quite a little garden, to which Youssef had been wont to retreat +of an evening for meditative and, we may add, smokative purposes. But +as Youssef had grown old, his eyes had nearly, and his legs had quite, +failed him. Hence, being unable to climb to his roof, he had latterly +given it up entirely to the use of his black slaves, Samson and Dinah +White. + +There was a small excrescence or hut on the roof--about ten feet by six +in dimensions--which formed--their residence. Behind this, hiding +itself as it were and almost invisible, nestled a smaller excrescence or +offshoot. It was a mere bandbox of a thing, measuring five feet by +four; it had a window about twelve inches square, and was entered by a +door inside the larger hut. This was the apartment now assigned to +Hester, who was quietly introduced into the household without the +knowledge or consent of its blind proprietor. + +There was a little bed in the small room. True, it was only a trestle +frame, and a straw-stuffed mattress with a couple of blankets, but it +was clean, and the whole room was neat, and the sun shone brightly in at +the small window at the moment that the new occupant was introduced. +Poor Hester fell on her knees, laid her head on the bed, and thanked God +fervently for the blessed change. Almost in the same moment she forgot +herself, and prayed still more fervently for the deliverance of her +father. + +The view over the housetops from the little window was absolutely +magnificent, including as it did domes, minarets, mosques, palm-trees, +shipping, and sea! Here, for a considerable time, Hester worked at her +former occupation, for Dinah had a private plan to make a little money +for her own pocket by means of embroidery. + +In this pleasant retreat our fugitive was visited one day by Peter the +Great, the expression of whose visage betokened business. After some +conversation, he said that he had come for the express purpose of taking +Hester to see her father. + +"But not to talk to him," he added quickly--"not eben to make you'self +known to him, for if you did, not'ing would keep 'im quiet, an' you an' +he would be parted _for eber_. Mind dat--for _eber_!" + +"Yes, yes, I will remember," said the poor girl, who was profoundly +agitated at the mere thought of such a meeting. + +"But you mus' _promise_," said Peter solemnly. + +"Promise on you' word ob honour dat you not say one word; not make a +sound; not gib an unor'nary look; not try in any way to attrack his +attention. Come--speak, else I go home ag'in." + +"I promise," said Hester, in a low voice. + +"An' you won't cry?" + +"I'll try not to." + +"Come 'long, den, wid me, an' see you' poor fadder." + + + +CHAPTER TWELVE. + +THE MIDDY, BECOMING DEFIANT AND VIOLENT, COMES TO GRIEF, AND HESTER'S +BLACK FRIENDS DEVISE STRANGE THINGS. + +On the afternoon of the day in which Peter the Great paid his visit to +Hester Sommers in the little boudoir, Ben-Ahmed sent for George Foster +and bade him make a portrait of a favourite dog. + +It so happened that our artist had run short of some of his drawing +materials, and said that he could not get on well without them. + +"Go to the town, then, got a supply, and return quickly," said +Ben-Ahmed, who was smoking his hookah in the court at the time and +playing gently with the lost Hester's pet gazelle. + +The graceful little creature had drooped since the departure of his +mistress, as if he felt her loss keenly. Perhaps it was sympathy that +drew it and Ben-Ahmed more together than in times past. Certainly there +seemed to be a bond of some sort between them at that time which had not +existed before, and the Moor was decidedly more silent and sad since +Hester's flight. In his efforts to recover the runaway he had at first +taken much trouble, but as time passed he left it in the hands of Osman, +who seemed even more anxious than his father to recover the lost slave. + +As the midshipman was leaving the court the Moor called him back, +addressing him as usual in Lingua Franca, while the youth, taking his +cue from Peter the Great, answered in English. + +"You know something about this English girl?" he suddenly said, with a +steady look at his slave. + +"I--I--yes, I _do_ know something about her," replied Foster, in some +confusion. + +"Do you know where she hides?" + +"N-no; I do not." + +"I have been led to understand that British officers never tell lies," +returned the Moor sternly. + +The blood rushed to the middy's face as he replied boldly, "You have +been correctly informed--at least, in regard to those officers who are +true gentlemen." + +"Why, then, do you hesitate?" retorted the Moor. "Do Englishmen blush +and stammer when they tell the truth? Tell me the truth _now_. Do you +know where the English girl hides?" + +The Moor spoke very sternly, but his slave, instead of becoming more +confused, suddenly drew himself up, and replied in a voice and with a +look as stern as his own-- + +"Ben-Ahmed, I told you the truth at first. I do _not_ know where she is +hiding. I _did_, indeed, know some time ago, but the place of her abode +has been changed, and I do not know now. I may as well however say at +once that, if I did know, nothing that you can do would induce me to +tell you where she hides. You may imprison, torture, or slay me if you +choose, but in regard to Hester Sommers I am from this moment dumb!" + +There was a curious smile on the Moor's lips while the midshipman +delivered this speech with flashing eyes and energetic action, but there +was no anger in his tone as he replied-- + +"Englishman," he said quietly, "you _love_ this girl." If a bombshell +had exploded under his feet our middy could hardly have been taken more +by surprise. But he had been put on his mettle now, and scorned to show +again a wavering front. + +"Yes, Moor," he replied, "I _do_ love her, though I have never told her +so, nor have I the slightest reason to believe that she cares a fig for +_me_. But I now tell you plainly that I will take advantage of every +opportunity that comes in my way to serve her and help her to escape. I +now also recall the promise--the word of honour--I gave you, not to try +to escape. There was a time," continued the middy, in a softened tone, +"when I thought of recalling this promise with defiance to you to do +your worst; but, Ben-Ahmed, I have lived to learn that, after a fashion, +you have been kind to me; that I might have fallen into worse hands; +therefore I am not ungrateful, and I now recall the promise only with +regret. All the same, my resolve is fixed." + +The curious smile still lingered on the Moor's lips as he said, almost +in a jesting tone-- + +"But you will not try to escape to-day if I let you go into the town for +colours?" + +"I make no promise, Ben-Ahmed. Yet this I may safely say, that I will +not try to clear off on my own account. Unless to save Hester I will +not at present try to escape; so far you may be sure of my return; but +if I get the chance I will either rescue her or die for her--God helping +me." + +The smile vanished from the Moor's lips as he turned, and said gravely-- + +"It is well, young man, that you confess to the true and only source of +all help. You Christians, as you call yourselves, have ever seemed to +me unwilling to mention the name of God save when cursing your fellows, +and then you misuse it glibly enough. Yet there are some among you who +are more consistent in their professions. Go, fulfil your commission. +I will trust you." + +"Thank you, Ben-Ahmed," returned the middy; "but remember, if I never +return, you will understand that I have not broken my word of honour." + +The Moor bowed his head in acquiescence, and took a long pull at his +pipe as the midshipman went away. + +George Foster was half-way to the town before he recovered from his +astonishment at the strange and unexpected way in which Ben-Ahmed had +received his very plain speaking. He had expected that chains and the +bastinado, if not worse, would certainly follow, but he had made up his +mind to go through with it--if need be to die--for Hester's sake. To +find himself, therefore, free to go where he pleased, and to help Hester +to escape if the opportunity to do so should come in his way, was an +amazing state of things which he could scarcely bring himself to +believe. + +Of course, our hero had not the slightest expectation of encountering +Hester that day, when he thus freed himself from his parole, and we need +scarcely add that, even if he had met her, he could not have devised any +sudden scheme for her deliverance. Nevertheless, the mere fact that he +was at liberty to act as he pleased in her behalf had such an effect on +him that he entered the town with a lighter heart than he had possessed +for many a day. Humming a nautical air as he walked along, and almost +if not quite, for the moment, oblivious of the fact of his condition of +slavery, he became keenly interested in all that he saw as he passed +through the crowded streets, now stopping to admire a picturesque group +of figures with jars and pitchers, awaiting their turn to draw water +from a public fountain, or pausing in front of a turner's shop to +observe with curiosity and interest, the deft way in which the workman +used his toes as well as his fingers in the operations of his trade. + +He was thus engaged, in calm contemplation with his back to the street, +when he was very slightly jostled by a passer-by. He scarcely noticed +the incident, but if he had known who it was that touched him he would +not have remained so placid, for it was Hester herself, in company with +Peter the Great, on their way to the city walls. + +As Hester's eyes were fixed on the ground and her thoughts on her +father, while Foster's attention was concentrated on the turner's toes, +neither observed the other, but Peter's sharp eyes had noted the middy, +and he hurried past to prevent a recognition, which might be awkward, if +not dangerous, at the moment. + +Presently Foster's attention was attracted by a Moor who was riding +along the street, sitting side-wise as was the wont of Algerines of the +trading-class. What struck Foster particularly about this man and his +donkey was that the latter was trotting very fast, although it was a +very small animal, and the man on its back a very large one. He also +observed that the donkey tossed its head and put back its ears as if it +were suffering pain. As the Moor's hand rested on the donkey's haunch, +the reason at once occurred to Foster, for he had noticed the same thing +before. It was the practice, among cruel men, to create, and keep open, +a small sore on the haunch of each animal, by irritating which with a +little bit of stick they managed to make their donkeys go in a way that +a spur or a thick stick could not accomplish! + +Now, our middy possessed a tender heart, which shrank sensitively from +the idea of giving pain to any living creature, and which almost +exploded with indignation at the sight of wanton cruelty to dumb +animals. + +When, therefore, the Moor came alongside of him, Foster gave him a look +of tremendous indignation, at the same time exclaiming, "Shame on you!" + +The Moor turned on him a look of mingled surprise and scorn. At the +same time muttering, "Christian dog!" he brought a stick smartly down on +the middy's shoulders. + +This was too much to bear meekly. The boiling blood in the youth's +heart boiled over into his face. He leaped forward, seized the donkey's +rein with one hand, caught the man's left leg with the other, and hurled +the rider backward to the ground. + +The bump with which the Moor's head came down had the effect of keeping +it low, but the spectators of the incident, who were numerous, rushed +upon the poor middy, seized him, and carried him straight to a court of +justice. + +They had a summary method of transacting business in those courts, +especially in simple cases like that of which we treat. The +investigation was rapid; the evidence of the witnesses emphatic. Almost +before he had recovered breath our hero was thrown down, his feet were +raised by two strong attendants, his shoes plucked off, and the soles of +his feet made to tingle as if they had been set on fire. + +After a few strokes, which he bore in silence, he was led to the common +prison, thrust into it, and left to his meditations. + +Meanwhile, Peter the Great conducted Hester to that part of the city +wall where her father was at work among the other slaves. It chanced to +be the hour when the wretched creatures were allowed to cease work for a +brief space in order to rest and eat. + +Poor Hugh Sommers chanced to have seated himself a little apart from the +others, so as to get the benefit of a large stone for a seat. His +figure was, therefore, prominent, as he sat there worn, weary, and +dejected, consuming his allowance of black bread. Peter the Great knew +him at once, having already, as the reader knows, seen him in his slave +garb; but Hester's anxious eyes failed for a few moments to pick out the +emaciated frame and strangely clad, ragged figure which represented her +once jovial, stalwart, and well-clothed father. + +"Das him," whispered Peter, as he loosely grasped the girl's arm by way +of precaution. + +"Where--oh, where?" asked the poor creature, glancing round among the +slaves. + +"Now, 'member your promise. Spoil eberyt'ing if you screech or run to +him. Look, dis way! De man what's settin' on de stone!" + +"Yes, yes, I see! Oh--" + +She stopped abruptly and trembled, for at the moment her father turned +his woe-begone face unconsciously towards her. Even the much-increased +grey tinge in the hair and beard, the lines of despair on the brow, and +the hollow cheeks could not disguise the face that she loved so well. A +sharp cry burst from her, and she made an attempt to rush towards him, +but the iron grip of Peter restrained her. + +"It's a dead man he'll be if you do!" he said, in a stern but low tone. +"Don't you see de janissary? Your _promise_--" + +"Yes, yes! I'll restrain myself _now_, Peter. Do let me stay a +minute--just to look--" + +"No, _no_! Come 'long wid you--idle t'ing!" he exclaimed, with sudden +severity, and apparent though not real violence, for at the moment his +watchful eye had observed one of the slave guards approaching them. + +As the two went hurriedly past the place where Hugh Sommers was sitting, +he looked up with an expression of pity. + +"Poor thing!" he said. "The black scoundrel is cruel to you, and I am +powerless to kick him!" + +He clinked the fetters on his legs significantly as he spoke. + +The mingled pathos and indignation of the loved voice was too much for +poor Hester. She was on the point of exclaiming "Father!" when Peter's +great black paw extinguished her mouth, and was not removed till they +were out of danger. + +"You's like all de rest ob de womans," said the negro, as they hurried +through the streets; "awrful dif'cult to manidge. Come 'long, we'll go +home and hab a talk ober it." + +Hester was too miserable to reply. She did not again speak till they +were both safe in the boudoir. + +There she sat down on the bed, laid her face in her hands, and burst +into a passion of tears, while Peter stood looking on, his head nearly +touching the low ceiling, his bulky frame filling half the remainder of +the little room, and two mighty unbidden tears in his great eyes. + +"Das right, Geo'giana," he said, in a soft voice; "cry away, it'll do +you good. Nuffin like cryin' w'en you's fit to bust! An' w'en you's +got it ober we'll talk all about it." + +"Oh, Peter!" cried Hester, drying her eyes somewhat impatiently; "how +_could_ you be so cruel? Why--why could you not have waited just one +minute to let me look at him?" + +"Because, my dear, de man wid de whip was comin', an' he'd bery soon hab +laid it across my back," replied the negro gently. + +"And what if he had done so?" demanded Hester, with a slight touch of +indignation; "could you not have suffered a little whipping for my +sake?" + +"Yes, Geo'giana," returned Peter, with much humility, "I could suffer +great deal more'n dat for your sake; but dere's no sich t'ings as +_little_ whippin's know'd ob in dis yar town. W'en de lash am goin' he +usu'lly makes de hair fly. Moreober, dey whip womans as well as mans, +an' if he was to took de bit out ob your pretty shoulder, I couldn't +suffer dat, you know. Likewise," continued Peter, becoming more +argumentative in his manner, "you was just a-goin' to took de bit in +your teef; an' if you'd bin allowed to frow your arms round your +fadder's neck an' rub all de black ober his face what would hab bin de +consikence?" + +Peter felt his position so strong at this point that he put the question +almost triumphantly, and Hester was constrained to acknowledge that he +had acted wisely after all. + +"But," continued she, with still a little of reproach in her tone, "what +was the use of taking me to see my darling father at all, if this is all +that is to come of it?" + +"You's a leetle obstropolous in you' fancies, Geo'giana. Dis am _not_ +all what's to come ob it. You see, I has pity on your poo' heart, so I +t'ink you might go ebery oder day an' hab a good look at your fadder; +but how kin you go if you not know whar he works? So I tooked you to +show you de way. But I's a'most sorry I did now, for you's got no +self-'straint, an' if you goes by you'self you'll git took up for +sartin', an' dey'll whip your fadder till he's dead, or frow him on de +hooks, or skin him alive, or--" + +"Oh, horrible! Don't say such dreadful things, Peter!" exclaimed +Hester, covering her face with her hands. + +Feeling that he had said quite enough to impress the poor girl with the +absolute necessity of being careful, he promised earnestly never again +to allude to such dreadful things. + +"But, Geo'giana," he added impressively, "you mus' promise me on your +word ob honour, w'ich Geo'ge Foster says English gen'lemans _neber_ +break--an' I s'pose he's right." + +"Yes, quite right, Peter; true gentlemen _never_ break their word." + +"An' I s'pose female gen'lemans am de same." + +"Of course! Go on," replied the girl, with a faint smile. + +"Well, as I was 'bout to say, you mus' promise me on your word ob +honour, dat you'll neber go _alone_ to see your fadder, but allers in +company wid Sally; dat you neber, neber speak to him, an' dat you neber +make you'self know'd to him till de right time comes." + +"These are hard conditions, Peter, but I see the reasonableness of them +all, and promise--at least I promise to do my best." + +"Das 'nuff, Geo'giana. Neezer man nor womans kin do more'n deir best. +Now I mus' bid you good-day, so keep up your heart an' you'll see +eberyt'ing come right in de end." + +With these cheering words the sympathetic negro took his leave; and +Hester, resuming her embroidery, sat down at her little window, not to +work, but to gaze dreamily at the beautiful sea, and cast about in her +mind how she should act in order to alleviate if possible her father's +sad condition. + +That very afternoon she received a visit from her stolid but +affectionate friend Sally, who at once said that she knew of a splendid +plan for doing him a great deal of good. + +"And what is your plan?" asked Hester eagerly. + +"Gib him two or t'ree biscuits," said Sally. + +Her friend received the suggestion with a look of disappointment. + +"What a stupid thing you are, Sally! How could that do him any good?" + +Sally looked at her friend with an air of pity. + +"Didn't you say he was awrful t'in?" she asked. + +"Thin? Oh yes--dreadfully thin." + +"Well, den, isn't dat 'cause he not hab 'nuff to eat? _I_ knows it, +bress you! I's bin wid a missis as starved me. Sometimes I t'ink I +could eat my shoes. Ob course I got awrful t'in--so t'in dat w'en I +stood side-wise you could hardly see me. Well, what de way to get fat +an' strong? Why, eat, ob course. Eat--eat--eat. Das de way. Now, +your fadder git not'ing but black bread, an' not 'nuff ob dat; an' he +git plenty hard work too, so he git t'in. So, what I prupposes is to +gib him two good biskits ebery day. We couldn't gib him more'n two, +'cause he'd hab to hide what he couldn't eat at once, an' de drivers +would be sure to diskiver 'em. But two biskits could be gobbled quick +on de sly, an' would help to make him fat, an' to make you easy." + +"So they would," said Hester, eagerly entertaining the idea after this +explanation; "you're a clever girl, Sally--" + +"You say I's stoopid jest now!" + +"So I did, Sally. Forgive me! I was stupid besides unkind for saying +so. But how shall we manage it? Won't the guards see us doing it?" + +"No fear, Geo'giana! De guards am fools--t'ink dere's nobody like 'em. +Dey forgit. All de asses in Algiers am like 'em. Dis de way ob it. +You an' me we'll go to markit ebery day wid baskits on our arms, an +we'll ob course go round by de walls, where your fadder works. No doubt +it's a roundabout way, but what ob dat? We'll go at de hour your fadder +feeds wid de oder slabes, an' as we pass we'll drop de two biskits in +his lap." + +"But won't he be taken by surprise, Sally?" + +"De fust time--yes; but dat won't prevent him gobblin' up de biskits +quick. Neber fear, you an' me'll manidge it 'tween us." + +"Thank you, dear Sally, I'll never, _never_ forget your kindness, and we +will try your plan to-morrow." + + + +CHAPTER THIRTEEN. + +HESTER AND HER FATHER SEVERELY TESTED. + +The very next day, accordingly, Hester Sommers and her friend sallied +forth to present Hugh Sommers with a couple of biscuits! + +It was arranged that the two girls should carry baskets of fruit on +their heads, and that Hester should have the biscuits conveniently in +her right hand, so as to be able to drop them into her father's lap +without stopping or even checking her pace as they passed. + +Of course, Hester was by this time thoroughly alive to the danger of her +intended proceedings, both to herself and her father, and was firmly +resolved to restrain her feelings. Nevertheless, she could not help +trembling when she came in sight of the gang, with which her father +worked. + +Sally observed this and grasped her by the arm. + +"Geo'giana," she said, "if you gibs way, or speaks, or trembles, or +busts up in any way, I grips you by de neck, as I once did before, an' +shobes you along wid scolds and whacks--so you look out!" + +"Anxiety for my darling father will be a much more powerful restraint, +Sally, than your threats," replied the poor girl. + +Nevertheless, the threat was not without its effect, for it showed +Hester that she must have been on the point of giving way, and impressed +on her more than ever the necessity of self-restraint. + +"W'ich am him? I don't see him," said the negress as they advanced. + +"There he is, don't you see, just before us," replied Hester, in a low, +hurried voice. + +"No, I's growin' blind, I t'ink." + +"There--look! by himself, on the stone. He seems always to sit on the +same spot at dinner-time." + +"Oh yes, I sees. Now you go on--stiddy. Mind what you's about!" + +With a brief prayer for help to control herself, Hester went straight to +where her father sat. He was languidly chewing a piece of the +regulation black bread at the time, and looked up at her with the vacant +indifference born of despair. + +The desire to fall on his neck and kiss him was, need we say, almost +irresistible, but the poor girl had received strength for the duty in +hand. She went close to him--even brushed past him--and dropped the +biscuits into his lap. + +At first the poor man was so astonished that he gazed after the retiring +figure and made no effort to conceal this unexpected addition to his +meal. Fortunately, his wits revived before any of the guards observed +him. He slid the biscuits into his shirt bosom with conjurer-like +facility, and at the same moment broke off a large bit of one, which he +devoured with unwonted satisfaction. The addition did not indeed +furnish the unfortunate slave with a full meal, but it at least tended +towards that desirable end, and sent him to work with a full heart, +because of the assurance that there was in the city, at all events, one +human being--and that being, strange to say, a negress!--who pitied him +in his forlorn condition. + +During the remainder of that day Hugh Sommers almost forgot his toils in +consequence of his mind being so thoroughly taken up with meditation on +the wonderful incident. At night, although wearied, almost worn out, +and anxious to sleep, he found it impossible to rest in the dismal +Bagnio. It chanced that he occupied the cell which had formerly been +apportioned to George Foster on the occasion of his first visit to that +cheerless prison, and his next neighbour was the despairing Frenchman +who had given such poor comfort to the middy in his distress. Finding +that this Frenchman spoke English so well, and that they worked together +in the same gang during the day, Hugh Sommers had struck up an +acquaintance with him, which, after they had spent some weeks together +in toiling by day and groaning side by side at night, ripened into a +curious sort of growling friendship. + +This friendship began with a quarrel. The night in which they were +first placed in neighbouring cells, or niches, followed a day in which +Sommers had received an application of the bastinado, and been put into +irons for fierce rebellion. Being a man of strong emotions, he had +groaned a little as he lay trying to sleep in spite of his suffering +feet. Failing of his purpose, he took to thinking about Hester, and the +groans which had been but feeble for himself became more intense on her +account. + +"Can you not stop that noise?" growled the irate Frenchman, who was kept +awake by it. + +"I'm sorry to disturb you, friend," said Sommers gently, for he was +really an unselfish man; "but if you knew all I've had to suffer you +would excuse me." + +"Oh, _I_ know what you have had to suffer!" said his comrade testily. +"I saw you get the bastinado; I've had it often myself, but--it is +bearable!" + +"It's not that, man!" returned the Englishman, with a touch of +indignation. "If I had nothing to worry me but the pain of my feet I'd +have been asleep by now. I have worse things to groan about than you +can guess, maybe." + +"Well, well, monsieur," said the Frenchman, in a resigned tone, as he +raised himself on one elbow and leaned his back against the stone wall, +"since you have driven sleep from my eyes, perhaps you will give +employment to my ears, by telling me for what it is that you groan?" + +There was something so peculiar in the tone and manner in which this was +said--so cool and off-hand, yet withal so kind--that Sommers at once +agreed. + +"I'll do it," he said, "if you will treat me to the same thing in +return. Fair exchange! You see, I am by profession a merchant, and +must have value for what I give." + +And thus on that night the two unfortunates had exchanged confidences, +and formed the friendship to which we have referred. + +To this man, then--whose name was Edouard Laronde--Sommers related the +incident that had occurred that day during the noontide period of rest. + +"It is strange. I know not what to think," said Laronde, when his +friend concluded. "If it had been a white girl I could have understood +that it might be your daughter in disguise, though even in this case +there would have been several reasons against the theory, for, in the +first place, you tell me that your daughter--your Hester--is very +pretty, and no pretty English girl could go about this city in any +disguise without being discovered at once. Now you tell me that this +girl was black--a negress?" + +"Ay, as black as a coal," responded the merchant. + +"Well, if, as you say, your Hester is pretty--" + +"Pretty, man! She's not pretty," interrupted the Englishman +impatiently; "I tell you she is beautiful!" + +"Of course, I understand," returned the other, with a smile that the +darkness of the place concealed, "I should have said beautiful! Well, +thick lips and flat nose and high cheek-bones and woolly hair are, you +know, incompatible with beauty as understood by Englishmen--" + +"Or Frenchmen either," added Sommers. "That's quite true, Laronde, +though I must confess that I paid no attention to her face when she was +approaching me, and after she dropped the biscuits in my lap she was so +far past that I only saw a bit of her black cheek and her back, which +latter, you know, was enveloped from head to foot in that loose blue +cotton thing which does not tell much about the wearer." + +"True, true," returned the Frenchman; "and, after all, even if the +girl's features had not been negro-like, you could not have been sure +that it was her, for some of the blacks who come from the interior of +Africa have features quite as classical as our own." + +"Laronde," said the merchant impressively, "I wonder to hear you, who +have a daughter of your own, suggest that I could fail to recognise my +Hester in any disguise. Why, if she were to paint her face scarlet and +her nose pea-green I'd see through it by the beautiful shape of the +features and the sweet expression of her face." + +"Forgive me, Monsieur Sommers, I doubt not that you would. As to your +reference to _my_ daughter, you forget that she was a little child when +I last saw her, so I have no experience of a father's powers of +penetrating disguises." + +Laronde sighed deeply at this point, and then hurriedly continued, as if +to prevent further reference to his own sorrows. + +"It is possible, however," he said, "that she may pass you again +to-morrow, and so give you another opportunity of seeing her features. +But let me ask, my friend, what will you do if you discover that she +_is_ your Hester?" + +"Do?" exclaimed the merchant, with an energetic action that caused his +fetters to rattle. "I--I--I'll--well--I don't know what I'll do!" + +"Of course you don't!" returned Laronde, with something of the old +cynicism in his tone. "You Englishmen are always so cock-sure--as you +express it--of success that you make no provision for defeat or failure. +It may seem very heroic, but it is mere pride and folly. Now, if you +will take a real friend's advice, you will go out to-morrow with the +determination to curb yourself and refrain from taking any notice +whatever of this girl, whether she turns out to be your daughter or not, +and leave her to work out her plan, for you may be quite sure she has +some end in view. Just consider what would be the consequence of your +giving way to your feelings and embracing her. You would by so doing +expose her disguise, cause her to be taken up and sent to the harem of +some one of the notables, and get heavier irons put on yourself, besides +another touch, perhaps, of the bastinado. Be wise, and consider well +what you intend to do." + +"Thank you, friend, for your warning. It is well timed. If you had not +spoken I would certainly have gone forth to-morrow unprepared." + +"But what is your preparation? What will you do?" persisted the +Frenchman. + +"What _can_ I do?" replied Sommers. "Have you not just shown me that I +am utterly helpless? In such a case there is only one course left-- +namely, to go to Him who can succour the helpless. I will ask counsel +of God. The pride you have referred to I admit, though it is by no +means confined to my own countrymen! Too long have I given way to it, +and acted independently of my Maker. Perhaps God sent me here to +convince me of my sin and helplessness." + +"There is no God. I do not believe in a God," said Laronde calmly. + +"Why not?" asked Sommers, in surprise. + +"Because," replied Laronde bitterly, "if there was a God He could not +stand by and see me suffering such prolonged and awful misery." + +"If, instead of misery, you had been placed during the last twelve years +in supreme felicity, would you have believed in a God?" asked Sommers. + +Laronde was silent. He saw that the reason which he had given for +disbelief was untenable, and he was too straightforward to quibble about +it. + +"I don't know," he said at last angrily. "No doubt there are hundreds +of men in happy and favourable circumstances who say, as I do, that they +don't believe in a God. I don't know. All I do know is that I am +supremely miserable!" + +"Now you are reasonable," returned the merchant, "for you talk of what +you do know, and you admit that in regard to God you `don't know,' but +you began by stating that `there is no God.' Ah, my friend, I +sympathise with you in your terrible sorrow, even as you have +sympathised with me in mine, but don't let us give way to despair and +cast the only Refuge that remains to us behind our backs. I will not +ask you to join me in praying to One, in whom you say you do not +believe, but I will pray _for_ you." + +Hugh Sommers got upon his knees and then and there--in the dark and dank +prison-house--prayed most earnestly for guidance and spiritual light in +the name of Jesus. At first the Frenchman listened with what we may +style kindly contempt, and then with surprise, for the Englishman drew +to the conclusion of his very brief prayer without any mention of his +own name. Just at the close, however, Sommers said, "O God! show to my +friend here that he is wrong, and that Thou art Love." + +It was with eager and trembling heart next day that Hugh Sommers +watched, during the noontide meal, for the coming of his mysterious +black friend, and it was with no less anxiety and trembling of heart +that Hester approached her father at the same hour. + +"Now mind how you doos," said the doubtful Sally, as she glanced keenly +at Hester's face. "Mind, I'll hab no marcy on you if you gibs way!" + +Hester made no reply, for she was drawing near to her father, and saw +that he was gazing at her with fixed intensity. She raised her heart to +God and received strength to pass without a word or look, dropping the +biscuits as on the previous day. The man, however, proved less capable +of self-restraint than the girl, for he could not resist whispering, +"Hester!" + +The poor girl turned towards him as if by an irresistible impulse, but +her black guardian angel was equal to the emergency. Seizing Hester by +the shoulder, she pushed her violently forward, storming at her loudly +as on the former occasion. + +"What, you black t'ing! Hab you neber seen slabes before? You no +better'n de white folk, wastin' ob your purcious time. My! won't you +get a whackin' fro' missis w'en you gits home!" + +Recovering herself, Hester at once submitted. + +At first the poor father was about to start up and run to embrace his +child, as well as to rescue her from her rude companion, but, being what +is termed a "sharp man of business," he received into his mind, as it +were, a flash of light, and sat still. If this flash had been analysed +it would probably have produced the following thoughts--"biscuits! +kindness! companion a friend! ignorance impossible! violence +unaccountable! a ruse, perhaps! sit still!" + +Thought, they say, is swifter than light. At all events, it was swift +enough on the present occasion to prevent the shadow of a suspicion +arising in the minds either of slaves or guards, who seemed to be rather +amused at what they fancied was the bad temper of Sally. + +Next day the biscuit-dropping was repeated without the scene that had +followed, and so wisely was this affair managed by all the parties +concerned, that it was carried on for several weeks without a hitch. +Under the influence of hope and improved fare, Hugh Sommers became so +much brighter in spirits and better in health, and so much more +tractable, that his guards at length removed his heavy fetters and +allowed him to toil with free limbs, like the majority of the slaves. +Hester also became almost cheerful under the wonderful influence of +hope. But Hester and her father were each overwhelmed, more or less, by +a wet blanket at that time, and, strange to say, their wet blankets +happened to be their best friends. + +In the case of Hester, it was Sally. The more hopeful and cheery Hester +became, the more did her black friend shake her woolly head and look +dismal. + +"Why, Sally, dear, what's the matter with you?" asked the former one +day, as they sat together in the bower on the roof, after returning from +their visit to the slave-gang. + +A shake of the girl's head and an unutterable expression in her +magnificent black eyes made Hester quite uneasy. + +"Do tell me, Sally. Is there anything the matter with you?" + +"De matter wid me? Oh no! Not'ing's neber de matter wid me--'cept when +I eats too much--but it's you an' your fadder I's t'inkin' ob." + +"But we are both getting on very well, Sally, are we not? I am quite +safe here, and darling father is growing stronger and fatter every day, +thank God! and then our hope is very strong. Why should you be +anxious?" + +Sally prefaced her reply with one of the professional gasps wherewith +she was wont to bring down the iron pestle. + +"Well, now, you white folks am de greatest ijits eber was born. Do you +t'ink you'll deliber your fadder from de Moors by feedin' him on +biscuits an' _hope_? What's de end ob all dis to come to? das what I +want to know. Ob course you can't go on for eber. You sure to be +cotched at last, and de whole affair'll bust up. You'll be tooked away, +an' your fadder'll be t'rowed on de hooks or whacked to deaf. Oh! I's +most mis'rable!" + +The poor creature seemed inclined to howl at this point, but she +constrained herself and didn't. + +In the gloom of the cheerless Bagnio, Hugh Sommers found his wet blanket +in Edouard Laronde. + +"But it is unwise to look only at the bright side of things," said the +Frenchman, after sympathising with his friend's joy in having discovered +his daughter so unexpectedly and in such a curious manner. "No doubt, +from her disguise, she must, as you say, be in hiding, and in +comparative safety with friends, else she could not be moving so freely +about this accursed city, but what is to be the end of it all?" + +Laronde unconsciously echoed Sally's question to Hester, but Hugh +Sommers had not as much to say in reply as his daughter, for he was too +well acquainted with the possibilities of life to suppose that biscuits +and hope would do much towards the "end," although valuable auxiliaries +in the meantime. + +"I see not the end, Laronde," he said, after a pause; "but the end is in +the hands of God, and I will trust Him." + +"So is the middle, and so is the beginning, as well as the end," +returned Laronde cynically; "why, then, are you so perplexed and anxious +about these if the end is, as you seem to think, so sure? Why don't you +trust God all through?" + +"I do trust God all through, my friend, but there is this difference-- +that with the end I have nothing to do save to wait patiently and +trustfully, whereas with the beginning and middle it is my duty to act +and energise hopefully." + +"But why your anxiety if the whole matter is under safe guidance?" +persisted the Frenchman. + +"Because, while I am absolutely certain that God will do His part wisely +and well, I am by no means sure that I shall do my part either well or +wisely. You forget, Laronde, that we are free agents as well as sinful +and foolish, more or less, so that there is legitimate room for anxiety, +which only becomes evil when we give way to it, or when it goes the +length of questioning the love, wisdom, and power of the Creator!" + +"All mystery, all mystery, Sommers; you are only theorising about what +you do not, cannot, know anything. You have no ground for what you +hold." + +"As you confess never to have studied, or even seriously contemplated, +the ground on which I hold it, there is--don't you think?--a slight +touch of presumption on your part in criticising so severely what you do +not, cannot, understand? I profess to have _good_ reasons for what I +hold; you profess merely to disbelieve it. Is there not a vast +difference here?" + +"Perhaps there is, but I'm too sleepy to see it. Would you oblige me by +putting your foot on that centipede? He has made three ineffectual +attempts to pass the night under my wing. Make sure work of him. +Thanks. Now I will try to sleep. Oh! the weary, heart-sickness of hope +deferred! Good-night, Sommers." + +"Good-night." + + + +CHAPTER FOURTEEN. + +A BRAVE DASH FOR LIFE AND FREEDOM. + +"Geo'ge, come wid me," said Peter the Great one afternoon, with face so +solemn that the heart of the young midshipman beat faster as he followed +his friend. + +They were in Ben-Ahmed's garden at the time--for the middy had been +returned to his owner after a night in the common prison, and a threat +of much severer treatment if he should ever again venture to lay his +infidel hands on one of the faithful. + +Having led the middy to the familiar summer house, where most of their +earnest or important confabulations were held, Peter sat down and +groaned. + +"What's wrong now?" asked the middy, with anxious looks. + +"Oh! Geo'ge, eberyt'ing's wrong," he replied, flinging himself down on +a rustic seat with a reckless air and rolling his eyes horribly. +"Eberyt'ing's wrong. De world's all wrong togidder--upside down and +inside out." + +The middy might have laughed at Peter's expression if he had not been +terribly alarmed. + +"Come, Peter, tell me. Is Hester safe?" + +"I don' know, Geo'ge." + +"Don't know! Why d'you keep me in such anxiety? Speak, man, speak! +What has happened?" + +"How kin I speak, Geo'ge, w'en I's a'most busted wid runnin' out here to +tell you?" + +The perspiration that stood on Peter's sable brow, and the heaving of +his mighty chest, told eloquently of the pace at which he had been +running. + +"Dis is de way ob it, Geo'ge. I had it all fro' de lips ob Sally +herself, what saw de whole t'ing." As the narrative which Peter the +Great had to tell is rather too long to be related in his own "lingo," +we will set it down in ordinary language. + +One day while Hester was, as usual, passing her father, and in the very +act of dropping the customary supply of food, she observed that one of +the slaves had drawn near and was watching her with keen interest. From +the slave's garb and bearing any one at all acquainted with England +could have seen at a glance that he was a British seaman, though hard +service and severe treatment, with partial starvation, had changed him +much. He was in truth the stout sailor-like man who had spoken a few +words to Foster the day he landed in Algiers, and who had contemptuously +asserted his utter ignorance of gardening. + +The slaves, we need hardly say, were not permitted to hold intercourse +with each other for fear of their combining to form plans of rebellion +and escape, but it was beyond the power of their drivers to be +perpetually on the alert, so that sometimes they did manage to exchange +a word or two without being observed. + +That afternoon it chanced that Sommers had to carry a stone to a certain +part of the wall. It was too heavy for one man to lift, the sailor was +therefore ordered to help him. While bearing the burden towards the +wall, the following whispered conversation took place. + +"I say, old man," observed the sailor, "the little girl that gives you +biscuits every day is no more a nigger than I am." + +"Right!" whispered the merchant anxiously, for he had supposed that no +one had observed the daily gift; "she is my daughter." + +"I guessed as much by the cut o' your jibs. But she's in danger, for I +noticed that one o' the drivers looked at her suspiciously to-day, and +once suspicion is roused the villains never rest. Is there no means of +preventing her coming this way to-morrow?" + +"None. I don't even know where she comes from or goes to. God help +her! If suspected, she is lost, for she will be sure to come +to-morrow." + +"Don't break down, old man; they'll observe you. If she is taken are +you willing to fight?" + +"Yes," answered the merchant sternly. + +"I am with you, then. Your name?" + +"Sommers. Yours?" + +"Brown." + +A driver had been coming towards them, so that the last few words had +been spoken in low whispers. A sharp cut of the whip on the shoulders +of each showed that the driver had observed them talking. They received +it in absolute silence and without any outward display of feeling. To +that extent, at all events, they had both been "tamed." + +But the stout seaman had been for many weeks acting a part. At first, +like Sommers, he had been put in heavy irons on account of his violence +and ferocity; but after many weeks of childlike submission on his part, +the irons were removed. Despite the vigilance of the guards, a plot had +been hatched by the gang to which Brown belonged, and it was almost, +though not quite, ripe for execution when the events we are describing +occurred. Poor Hester's action next day precipitated matters and caused +the failure of the plot--at least to some extent. + +She had gone as usual with Sally to visit the slave-gang, and had +dropped her biscuits, when her anxious father said, in a low but hurried +voice, "Pass quickly, and don't come again for some time!" + +Hester involuntarily stopped. + +"Darling father!" she said, restraining herself with difficulty from +leaping into his arms, "why--oh! why am I not--" + +She had only got thus far when the janissary, whose suspicions had been +aroused, pounced upon her, and, seizing her by the wrist, looked keenly +into her face. + +"Ho! ho!" he exclaimed, glancing from the girl to her sire, "what +mystery have we here? Come, we must investigate this." + +Poor Hester winced from the pain of the rude soldier's grip as he +proceeded to drag her away. Her father, seeing that further concealment +was impossible, and that final separation was inevitable, became +desperate. With the bound of an enraged tiger he sprang on the soldier +and throttled him. Both being powerful men they fell on the ground in a +deadly struggle, at which sight Hester could only look on with clasped +hands in helpless terror. + +But the British seaman was at hand. He had feared that some such +mischief would arise. Seeing that two other soldiers were running to +the aid of their fallen comrade, he suddenly gave the signal for the +revolt of the slaves. It was premature. Taken by surprise, the +half-hearted among the conspirators paid no attention to it, while the +timid stood more or less bewildered. Only a few of the resolute and +reckless obeyed the call, but these furnished full employment for their +guards, for, knowing that failure meant death, if not worse, they fought +like fiends. + +Meanwhile the first of the two soldiers who came running, sword in hand, +towards Sommers, was met by Brown. With a piece of wood in his left +hand, that worthy parried the blow that was delivered at his head. At +the same time he sent his right fist into the countenance of his +adversary with such force that he became limp and dropped like an empty +topcoat. This was fortunate, for the companion janissary was close to +him when he wheeled round. The blazing look of the seaman, however, +induced so much caution in the Turk that, instead of using his sword, he +drew a long pistol from his girdle and levelled it. Brown leaped upon +him, caught the pistol as it exploded just in time to turn the muzzle +aside, wrenched the weapon from his foe's grasp, and brought the butt of +it down with such a whack on his head that it laid him beside his +comrade. + +Turning quickly to the still struggling pair, he saw that the janissary +was black in the face, and that Sommers was compressing his throat with +both hands and had his knee on his stomach, while Hester and Sally were +looking on horrified, but hopeful. At the same time he saw fresh +soldiers running up the street to reinforce the guard. + +"Hester," he said sharply, and seizing the girl's hand, "come, bolt with +me. I've knowed your father a good while. Quick!" + +"Impossible!" she cried, drawing back. "I will not leave my father +now!" + +"You'll have to leave him anyhow," cried the sailor. "You can do him no +good. If free you might--" + +A shout at the moment caused him to glance round. It proceeded both +from slaves and guards, for both at the same moment caught sight of the +approach of the reinforcements. The former scattered in all directions, +and the latter gave chase, while pistol-shots and yells rent the air. + +Instead of wasting more breath in useless entreaty, Brown seized the +light form of Hester in his arms and ran with her to the ramparts. In +the confusion of the general skirmish he was not observed--or, if +observed, unheeded--by any one but Sally, who followed him in anxious +haste, thinking that the man was mad, for there could be no possible way +of escape, she thought, in that direction. She was wrong. There was +method in Brown's madness. He had for a long time previously studied +all the possibilities with reference to the meditated uprising, and had +laid down for himself several courses which he might pursue according to +the success, failure, or partial failure of their plans. + +There was one part of the rampart they were engaged in repairing at that +time which had given way and partly fallen into the ditch outside. The +portion of the wall still remaining had been further demolished in order +that a more secure foundation might be laid. The broken wall here had +been but partially rebuilt, and was not nearly as high as the completed +wall. A jump from this might be possible to a strong active man if the +ground below were soft, or even level--though the risk of broken limbs +was considerable. + +Brown had observed, however, that at this place a small tree grew out +from a mass of rock which had been incorporated as part of the wall, and +that just below it there stood a huge bush of the cactus kind. To these +two he had made up his mind to intrust himself in the event of things +coming to the worst. + +Accordingly it was to this part of the rampart he ran with Hester in his +strong arms. We have said that Sally ran after the sailor with anxiety, +but that feeling was deepened into dismay when she saw him approach the +portion of the wall just described, and she gave out one of her loudest +coffee-pestle gasps when she saw him jump straight off the wall without +a moment's hesitation. + +Craning her neck and gazing downward, she saw the sailor go crashing +through the little tree and alight with a squash in the heart of the +watery cactus, out of which he leaped with such agility that Sally was +led to exclaim under her breath-- + +"Hoh! don't de spikes make 'im jump!" + +Whether it was the spikes or other influences we cannot tell, but +certain it is that Brown did jump with wonderful activity, considering +the burden he carried, dashed up the opposite bank, cut across country +like a hunted hare, and found shelter in a neighbouring wood before the +revolt in the city was completely quelled. + +Here he pulled up and set the terrified Hester down. + +"You'll excuse me, miss," he said pantingly, as he wiped his brows with +the sleeve of his shirt--which garment, with a pair of canvas trousers, +a grass hat, and thin carpet shoes, constituted his costume. "I'm wery +sorry to carry you off agin' your will, but you'll thank me for it yet, +maybe, for if I had left you behind, you couldn't have helped your poor +father, and they'd have took you off for sartin to be a slave. Now, +d'ye see, if you an' I manage to escape, there's no sayin' what we may +do in the way o' raisin' ransom to buy back your father. Anyway, he has +been so anxious about you, an' afraid o' your bein' catched, an' the +terrible fate in store for you if you are, that I made up my mind for +_his_ sake to carry you off." + +To this explanation Hester listened with varying feelings. + +"I believe, from the honesty of your look and tone," she said, at last, +"that you have acted for the best, whether wisely or not remains to be +seen; but I thank you heartily for your intentions, and especially for +your kind feelings towards my dear father; but now I must claim the +right to use my own judgment. I will return to the city and succour my +father, or perish with him. Yet, rest assured, I will never forget the +brave seaman who has so nobly risked his life to save me. Your name +is--" + +"Brown, miss--at your service." + +"Well, good-bye, Brown, and God's blessing attend you," she said, +extending her black little hand. + +The seaman gently took it and gave it a timid pressure, as if he feared +to crush it in his brawny hand. + +"I'll shake hands with you," he said, "but I won't say good-bye, for +I'll steer back to the city with you." + +"Brown, this is sheer madness. There is no reason in what you propose +to do. You cannot help me by sacrificing yourself." + +"That's exactly what yer father would say to you, miss, if he was +alongside of us--`You can't help me by sacrificin' of yerself.' Then, +p'r'aps he would foller up that obsarvation by sayin', `but you may an' +can help me if you go wi' that sailor-friend o' mine, who may be rough +and ready, but is sartinly true-blue, who knows the coast hereaway an' +all its hidin'-places, an' who'll wentur his life to do me a good turn, +cause why? I once wentured my life to do him a good turn o' the same +kind.'" + +"Is this true, Brown? Did you know my father before meeting him here; +and did he really render you some service?" + +"Yes, indeed, miss; I have sailed in one o' your father's wessels, an' +once I was washed overboard by a heavy sea, and he flung over a lifebuoy +arter me, and jumped into the water himself to keep me afloat till a +boat picked us up, for I couldn't swim. Now, look 'ere, miss, if you'll +consent to sail under my orders for a short spell, you'll have a better +chance o' doin' your father a sarvice than by returnin' to that nest o' +pirates. Moreover, you'll have to make up your mind pretty quick, for +we've lost too much time already." + +"Go on, Brown, I will trust you," said Hester, placing her hand in that +of the seaman, who, without another word, led her swiftly into the bush. + +Now, all this, and a great deal more was afterwards related by Hester +herself to her friends; but at the time all that was known to Sally--the +only witness of the exploit--was that Hester Sommers had been carried +off in the manner related by an apparently friendly British sailor. +This she told soon after to Peter the Great, and this was the substance +of the communication which Peter the Great, with glaring eyes and bated +breath, made to George Foster, who received it with feelings and +expressions that varied amazingly as the narrative proceeded. + +"Is that all?" he asked, when the negro at length came to a decided +stop. + +"Das all--an' it's enuff too! 'Pears to me you's not so much cut up +about dis leetle business as I 'spected you would be." + +"I am anxious, of course, about Hester," returned the middy; "but at the +same time greatly relieved, first, to know that she is in the hands of a +respectable British sailor; and, second, that she is _not_ in the hands +of these bloodthirsty piratical Moors. But what about her father? +Nothing more, I suppose, is known about his fate?" + +"Not'ing, on'y it's as sure as if we did know it. If his carcass isn't +on de hooks by dis time it'll soon be." + +As the negro spoke the midshipman started up with flashing eyes, +exclaimed angrily, "It shall _never_ be," and ran out of the bower. + +Entering the house, he went straight to Ben-Ahmed's private chamber, +which he entered boldly, without even knocking at the door. + +The Moor was seated cross-legs on a mat, solacing himself, as usual, +with a pipe. He was not a little surprised, and at first was inclined +to be angry, at the abrupt entrance of his slave. + +"Ben-Ahmed," said the middy, with vehemence, "the father of the English +girl you are so fond of--and whom I _love_--is in terrible danger, and +if you are a true man--as I firmly believe you are--you will save him." + +The Moor smiled very slightly at the youth's vehemence, pointed with the +mouthpiece of his hookah to a cushion, and bade him sit down and tell +him all about it. + +The middy at once squatted _a la Turk_, not on the cushion, but on the +floor, in front of his master, and, with earnest voice and gesture, +related the story which Peter the Great had just told him. + +Ben-Ahmed was visibly affected by it. + +"But how can I save him?" he asked, with a look of perplexity. + +"Did you not once save the life of the Dey?" asked Foster. + +"I did. How came you to know that?" + +"I heard it from Peter the Great, who aided you on the occasion. And he +told me that the Dey has often since then offered to do you some good +turn, but that you have always declined." + +"That is true," said Ben-Ahmed, with the look of a man into whose mind a +new idea had been introduced. + +"Yes, something may be done in that way, and it would grieve me that the +father of my poor little Hester should die. I will try. Go, have my +horse saddled, and send Peter to me." + +Our midshipman bounded rather than rose from the floor, and uttered an +irresistible, "God bless you," as he vanished through the doorway on his +errand. + +"Peter," he cried--encountering that worthy as he ran--"we'll manage it! +Go to Ben-Ahmed! He wants you--quick! I'm off to fetch his horse." + +Foster was much too anxious to have the thing done quickly to give the +order to the head groom. He ran direct to the stable, and, choosing the +fleetest of the Moor's Arab steeds, quickly put on its crimson saddle, +with its un-European peaks before and behind, and the other gay portions +of harness with which Easterns are wont to caparison their horses. + +In a wonderfully short space of time he had the steed round to the front +door, and sent another slave to tell his master that it was ready. + +The Moor had also caparisoned himself, if we may say so, for the +intended visit, and he had evidently done it in haste. Nevertheless, +his gait was stately, and his movements were slow, as he gravely mounted +the horse and rode away. The impatience of the middy was somewhat +relieved, however, when he saw that Ben-Ahmed, on reaching the main +road, put spurs to his horse, and rode towards the city at full gallop. + + + +CHAPTER FIFTEEN. + +A STRANGE VISIT, A STRANGE COMMISSION, AND A STRANGE DISPLAY OF TEMPER. + +After Ben-Ahmed had departed on his mission to the Dey of Algiers, +George Foster and Peter the Great re-entered the house, and in the +seclusion of the bower continued to discuss the hopes, fears, and +possibilities connected with the situation. + +"Dat was a clebber dodge ob yours, Geo'ge," remarked the negro, "an' I's +got good hope dat somet'ing will come ob it, for massa's pretty sure to +succeed w'en he take a t'ing in hand." + +"I'm glad you think so, Peter. And, to say truth, I am myself very +sanguine." + +"But dere's one t'ing dat 'plexes me bery much. What is we to do about +poo' Hester's fadder w'en he's pardoned? De Dey can spare his life, but +he won't set him free--an' if he don't set him free de slabe-drivers 'll +be sure to kill 'im out ob spite." + +The middy was silent, for he could not see his way out of this +difficulty. + +"Perhaps," he said, "Ben-Ahmed may have thought of that, and will +provide against it, for of course he knows all the outs and ins of +Moorish life, and he is a thoughtful man." + +"Das true, Geo'ge. He _am_ a t'oughtful man. Anyhow, we kin do not'ing +more, 'cept wait an' see. But I's much more 'plexed about Hester, for +eben if de sailor am a good an' true man, as you say, he can't keep her +or his-self alibe on not'ing in de mountains, no more'n he could swim +wid her on his back across de Mederainyon!" + +Again the middy was silent for a time. He could by no means see his way +out of this greater difficulty, and his heart almost failed him as he +thought of the poor girl wandering in the wilderness without food or +shelter. + +"P'r'aps," suggested Peter, "she may manage to git into de town an' pass +for a nigger as she's dood before, an' make tracks for her old place wid +Missis Lilly--or wid Dinah." + +"No doubt she may," cried Foster, grasping at the hope as a drowning man +grasps at a plank. "Nothing more likely. Wouldn't it be a good plan +for you to go into town at once and make inquiry?" + +"Dessay it would," returned the negro. "Das just what I'll do, an' if +she's not dere, Dinah may gib my int'lec' a jog. She's a wonderful +woman, Dinah, for workin' up de human mind w'en it's like goin' to +sleep. Poo' Samson hab diskivered dat many times. I'll go at once." + +"Do, Peter, my fine fellow, and you'll lay me for ever under the deepest +ob--" + +He was interrupted by a slave who at the moment approached the bower and +said that a man wanted to see Peter the Great. + +"To see Ben-Ahmed, you mean," said Peter. + +"No--to see yourself," returned the slave. + +"Sen' 'im here," said the negro, with a magnificent wave of the hand. + +In a few minutes the slave returned accompanied by a negro, who limped +so badly that he was obliged to use a stick, and whose head was bandaged +up with a blue cloth. Arrived at the bower, he stood before Peter the +Great and groaned. + +"You may go," said Peter to the slave, who lingered as if anxious to +hear the news of the visitor. When he was out of hearing, Peter turned +to the lame man, looked him sharply in the face, and said-- + +"You's bery black in de face, my frind, but you's much blacker in de +h'art. What business hab you to come here widout washin' your white +face clean?" + +"Well, you're a pretty smart chap for a nigger. An' I dare say you'll +understand that I'd have had some difficulty in fetchin' this here port +at all if I'd washed my face," answered the lame man, in excellent +nautical English. + +While he spoke, Foster ran towards him, laid a hand on his shoulder, and +looked earnestly into his face. + +"You are the British sailor," he said, "who rescued Hes--Miss Sommers +from the janissaries?" + +"That's me to a tee," replied the sailor, with a broad grin. + +"Is Miss Sommers safe?" asked the middy anxiously. + +"Ay! safe as any woman can be in this world. Leastwise, she's in a cave +wi' three o' the toughest sea-dogs as any man could wish to see--one o' +them bein' a Maltese an' the other two bein' true-blue John Bulls as +well as Jack Tars. But Miss Sommers gave me orders to say my say to +Peter the Great, so if this nigger is him, I'll be obleeged if he'll +have a little private conversation wi' me." + +"Did Miss Sommers say that I was not to hear the message?" asked the +middy, in some surprise. + +"She made no mention o' _you_, or anybody else at all, as I knows on," +returned the sailor firmly, "an' as my orders was to Peter the Great, +an' as this seems to be him, from Sally's description--a monstrous big, +fine-lookin' nigger, with a lively face--I'll say my say to him _alone_, +with your leave." + +"You may say it where you is, for dis yar gen'lem'n is a frind ob mine, +an' a hofficer in the Bri'sh navy, an' a most 'tickler friend of Hester +Sommers, so we all frinds togidder." + +"You'll excuse me, sir," said the seaman, touching his forelock, "but +you don't look much like a' officer in your present costoom. Well, +then, here's wot I've got to say--" + +"Don't waste your time, Brown, in spinning the yarn of your rescue of +the girl," said Foster, interrupting; "we've heard all about it already +from Sally, and can never sufficiently express our thanks to you for +your brave conduct. Tell us, now, what happened after you disappeared +from Sally's view." + +The sailor thereupon told them all about his subsequent proceedings--how +he had persuaded Hester to accompany him through the woods and by a +round about route to a part of the coast where he expected ere long to +find friends to rescue him. From some reason or other best known to +himself, he was very secretive in regard to the way in which these +friends had managed to communicate with him. + +"You see I'm not free to speak out all I knows," he said. "But surely +it's enough to say that my friends have not failed me; that I found them +waitin' there with a small boat, so light that they had dragged it up +an' concealed it among the rocks, an' that I'd have bin on my way to old +England at this good hour if it hadn't bin for poor Miss Sommers, whom +we couldn't think of desartin'." + +"Then she refused to go with you?" said Foster. + +"Refused! I should think she did! Nothing, she said, would indooce her +to leave Algiers while her father was in it. One o' my mates was for +forcing her into the boat, an' carryin' her off, willin' or not willin', +but I stood out agin' him, as I'd done enough o' that to the poor thing +already. Then she axed me to come along here an' ax Peter the Great if +he knowed anything about her father. `But I don't know Peter the +Great,' says I, `nor where he lives.' `Go to Sally,' says she, `an' +you'll get all the information you need.' `But I'll never get the +length o' Sally without being nabbed,' says I. `Oh!' says she, `no fear +o' that. Just you let me make a nigger of you. I always keep the stuff +about me in my pocket, for I so often cry it off that I need to renew it +frequently.' An' with that she out with a parcel o' black stuff and +made me into a nigger before you could say Jack Robinson. Fort'nately, +I've got a pretty fat lump of a nose of my own, an' my lips are pretty +thick by natur', so that with a little what you may call hard poutin' +when I had to pass guards, janissaries, an' such like, I managed to get +to where Missis Lilly an' Sally lived, an' they sent me on here. An' +now the question is, what's to be done, for it's quite clear that my +mates an' me can't remain for ever hidin' among the rocks. We must be +off; an' I want to know, are we to take this poor gal with us, or are we +to leave her behind, an', if so, what are her friends a-goin' to do for +her?" + +"There's no fear of your friends going off without you, I suppose?" + +"Well, as they risked their precious lives to rescue me, it ain't +likely," returned the seaman. + +"Would it not be well to keep Brown here till Ben-Ahmed returns?" asked +Foster, turning to Peter the Great. + +The negro knitted his brows and looked vacantly up through the leafy +roof of the bower, as if in profound meditation. Some of the brighter +stars were beginning to twinkle in the darkening sky by that time, and +one of them seemed to wink at him encouragingly, for he suddenly turned +to the middy with all the energy of his nature, exclaiming, "I's got +it!" and brought his great palm down on his greater thigh with a +resounding slap. + +"If it's in your breeches pocket you must have squashed it, then!" said +Brown--referring to the slap. "Anyhow, if you've got it, hold on to it +an' let's hear what it is." + +"No--not now. All in good time. Patience, my frind, is a virtoo wuf +cultivation--" + +"You needn't go for to tell _that_ to a Bagnio slave like me, Mister +Peter. Your greatness might have made you aware o' that," returned the +sailor quietly. + +An eye-shutting grin was Peter's reply to this, and further converse was +stopped by the sound of clattering hoofs. + +"Massa!" exclaimed the negro, listening. "Das good. No time lost. +Come wid me, you sham nigger, an' I's gib you somet'ing to tickle you +stummik. You go an' look arter de hoss, Geo'ge." + +While the middy ran to the gate to receive his master, Peter the Great +led the sham nigger to the culinary regions, where, in a sequestered +corner, he supplied him with a bowl containing a savoury compound of +chicken and rice. + +"I hope that all has gone well?" Foster ventured to ask as the Moor +dismounted. + +"All well. Send Peter to me immediately," he replied, and, without +another word, hurried into the house. + +Calling another slave and handing over the smoking horse to him, Foster +ran to the kitchen. + +"Peter, you're--" + +"Wanted 'meeditly--yes, yes--I knows dat. What a t'ing it is to be +in'spensible to anybody! I don't know how he'll eber git along widout +me." + +Saying which he hurried away, leaving the middy to do the honours of the +house to the sailor. + +"I s'pose, sir, you haven't a notion what sort o' plans that nigger has +got in his head?" asked the latter. + +"Not the least idea. All I know is that he is a very clever fellow and +never seems very confident about anything without good reason." + +"Well, whatever he's a-goin' to do, I hope he'll look sharp about it, +for poor Miss Sommers's fate and the lives o' my mates, to say nothin' +of my own, is hangin' at this moment on a hair--so to speak," returned +the sailor, as he carefully scraped up and consumed the very last grain +of the savoury mess, murmuring, as he did so, that it was out o' sight +the wery best blow-out he'd had since he enjoyed his last Christmas +dinner in old England. + +"Will you have some more?" asked the sympathetic middy. + +"No more, sir, thankee. I'm loaded fairly down to the water-line. +Another grain would bust up the hatches; but if I might ventur' to putt +forth a wish now, a glass o'--no? well, no matter, a drop o' water'll +do. I'm well used to it now, havin' drunk enough to float a +seventy-four since I come to this city o' pirates." + +"You will find coffee much more agreeable as well as better for you. I +have learned that from experience," said the middy, pouring out a tiny +cupful from an earthen coffee-pot that always stood simmering beside the +charcoal fire. + +"Another of that same, sir, if you please," said the seaman, tossing off +the cupful, which, indeed, scarcely sufficed to fill his capacious +mouth. "Why they should take their liquor in these parts out o' things +that ain't much bigger than my old mother's thimble, passes my +comprehension. You wouldn't mind another?--thankee." + +"As many as you please, Brown," said the middy, laughing, as he poured +out cupful after cupful; "there's no fear of your getting half-seas-over +on that tipple!" + +"I only wish I _was_ half-seas-over, or even a quarter that length. +Your health, sir!" returned Brown, with a sigh, as he drained the last +cup. + +Just then Peter the Great burst into the kitchen in a very elated +condition. + +"Geo'ge," he cried, "you be off. Massa wants you--'meeditly. But fust, +let me ax--you understan' de place among de rocks whar Brown's mates and +de boat am hidden?" + +"Yes, I know the place well." + +"You knows how to get to it?" + +"Of course I do." + +"Das all right; now come along--come along, you sham nigger, wid me. +Has you got enuff?" + +"Bustin'--all but." + +"Das good now; you follow me; do what you's tol'; hol' you tongue, an' +look sharp, if you don' want your head cut off." + +"Heave ahead, cap'n; I'm your man." + +The two left the house together and took the road that led to the hill +country in rear of the dwelling. + +Meanwhile George Foster went to the chamber of the Moor. He found his +master seated, as was his wont, with the hookah before him, but with the +mouthpiece lying idly on his knee, and his forehead resting on one hand. +So deeply was he absorbed in communing with his own thoughts, that he +did not observe the entrance of his slave until he had been twice +addressed. Then, looking up as if he had been slightly startled, he +bade him sit down. + +"George Foster," he began impressively, at the same time applying a +light to his hookah and puffing sedately, "you will be glad to hear that +I have been successful with my suit to the Dey. God has favoured me; +but a great deal yet remains to be done, and that must be done by +_you_--else--" + +He stopped here, looked pointedly at the middy, and delivered the +remainder of his meaning in pufflets of smoke. + +"I suppose you would say, sir, that unless it is done by me it won't be +done at all?" + +To this the Moor nodded twice emphatically, and blew a thin cloud +towards the ceiling. + +"Then you may count upon my doing my utmost, if that which I am to do is +in the interest of Hester Sommers or her father, as no doubt it is." + +"Yes, it is in their interest," rejoined Ben-Ahmed. "I have done my +part, but dare not go further; for much though I love little Hester--who +has been to me as a sweet daughter--I must not risk my neck for her +unnecessarily. But, if I mistake not, you are not unwilling to risk +that?" + +"Ay, fifty necks would I risk for her sake if I had them," returned our +middy with enthusiasm, for he was in that stage of love which glories in +the acknowledgment of thraldom. + +Ben-Ahmed looked at him with interest, sighed, and sought solace in the +pipe. + +After a few meditative puffs, he continued-- + +"After all, you run little risk, as you shall see. When I asked the +Dey, with whom I am familiar, for the pardon of the slave Sommers, he +did not seem pleased, and objected that there had been too many revolts +of late; that this man's case was a bad one, and that it was necessary +to make an example or two. + +"`Very true, your highness,' I replied, `but may I beg you to make an +example of some other slaves, and forgive Sommers?' + +"`Why do you take so much interest in this man?' demanded the Dey, who +seemed to me rather short in his temper at the time. + +"`Because he is the father of one of my female slaves, your highness,' I +replied; `and it is the fear that they will be separated for ever that +makes the man desperate and the girl miserable. If you will permit me, +I should like to reunite them. Your highness has often expressed a wish +to do me some kindness for the privilege I once had of saving your +highness's life. Will you now refuse me this man's life?' `Nay, I will +not refuse you, Ben-Ahmed. But I do not see that my granting your +request will reunite the father and child, unless, indeed, you are +prepared to purchase the man.' + +"`I am prepared to do so, your highness,' I said. + +"`In that case you are at liberty to go to the Bagnio and take him out. +Here is my ring.' + +"Now, Foster," continued the Moor, drawing the ring in question from his +vest-pocket, "take this. Show it to the captain of the guard at the +Bagnio, who will admit you. Tell him that I sent you for one of the +slaves. After that your own intelligence must guide you. Go, and God +go with you." + +"I will do as you command, Ben-Ahmed," said Foster; "but I must tell you +frankly that I will not--" + +"Silence!" thundered the Moor, with a look of ferocity which the amazed +midshipman could not account for. "Have you not understood me?" + +"Yes, sir, perfectly, but--" + +"When a slave receives a command," cried Ben-Ahmed in rising wrath, "it +is his duty to obey in silence. Again I say--go!" + +The middy bowed with feelings of indignation, but on reaching the door +paused, and again essayed to speak. + +"I give you fair warning, Ben-Ahmed, that I will _not_--" + +"Silence!" again roared the Moor, seizing an ornamental box and hurling +it violently at his slave, who, dipping his head, allowed it to go +crashing against the wall, while he went out and shut the door. + +"Well, old boy, I'm absolved from any allegiance to _you_," he muttered, +as he walked smartly down the garden walk towards the gate; "so if I do +a good deal more than your bidding you mustn't be surprised. But your +sudden burst of anger is incomprehensible. However, that's not my +business now." + +Had any one been there to observe the Moor after the middy had taken his +departure, he would have seen that the passion he had displayed +evaporated as rapidly as it had arisen, and that he resumed the amber +mouthpiece of his hookah with a peculiar smile and an air of calm +contentment. Thereafter he ordered out his horse, mounted it in his +usual dignified manner, and quietly rode away into the darkness of the +night. + +It may be observed here our middy had improved greatly in the matter of +costume since his appointment to the rank of limner to Ben-Ahmed. The +old canvas jacket, straw hat, etcetera, had given place to a picturesque +Moorish costume which, with the middy's fine figure and natural bearing, +led people to suppose him a man of some note, so that his appearance was +not unsuited to the mission he had in hand. + +We need scarcely say that his spirit was greatly agitated, as he walked +towards the town, by uncertainty as to how he ought to act in the +present emergency, and his mind was much confused by the varied, and, to +some extent, inexplicable incidents of the evening. His thoughts +crystallised, however, as he went along, and he had finally made up his +mind what to do by the time he passed the portals Bab-Azoun and entered +the streets of Algiers. + + + +CHAPTER SIXTEEN. + +MYSTERIOUS AND DARING DEEDS ARE CROWNED WITH SUCCESS. + +Threading his way carefully through the badly lighted streets, our middy +went straight to the Kasba, and, rapping boldly at the gate, demanded +admittance. + +"Show me to the guard-room. I wish to speak with the officer in +command," he said, in the tone of one accustomed to obedience. + +The soldier who admitted him introduced him to the officer in charge for +the night. + +"I come, sir," said Foster, with quiet gentlemanly assurance, "to demand +an escort for slaves." + +"By whose orders?" asked the officer. + +"The order of his Highness the Dey," answered Foster, producing the +ring. + +The officer examined it, touched his forehead with it in token of +submission, and asked how many men were required. + +"Six will do," returned the middy, in a slow, meditative manner, as if a +little uncertain on the point--"yes, six will suffice. I only wish +their escort beyond the gates. Friends might attempt a rescue in the +town. When I have them a short distance beyond the gates I can manage +without assistance." + +He touched, as he spoke, the handle of a silver-mounted pistol which he +carried in his belt. Of course, as he spoke Lingua Franca, the officer +of the guard knew quite well that he was a foreigner, but as the +notables and Deys of Algiers were in the habit of using all kinds of +trusted messengers and agents to do their work, he saw nothing unusual +in the circumstance. Six armed soldiers were at once turned out, and +with these obedient, unquestioning slaves he marched down the tortuous +streets to the Bagnio. + +The ring procured him admittance at once, and the same talisman +converted the head jailer into an obsequious servant. + +"I have come for one of your slaves," said the middy, walking smartly +into the court where most of the miserable creatures had already +forgotten their wretchedness in the profound sleep of the weary. The +tramp of the soldiers on the stone pavement and the clang of their arms +awoke some of them. "The name of the man I want is Hugh Sommers." + +On hearing this one of the slaves was observed to reach out his hand and +shake another slave who still slumbered. + +"Rouse up, Sommers! You are wanted, my poor friend." + +"What say you, Laronde?" exclaimed the merchant, starting up and rubbing +his eyes. + +"Get up and follow me," said Foster, in a stern commanding tone. + +"And who are _you_, that orders me as if I were a dog?" fiercely +returned Sommers, who, since the day of the unsuccessful mutiny, had +again become desperate, and was in consequence heavily ironed. + +"The Dey of Algiers gives the order through me," replied Foster, +pointing to the soldiers, "and it will be your highest wisdom to obey +without question. Knock off his irons," he added, turning abruptly to +the chief jailer. + +The air of insolent authority which our `hipperkritical' middy assumed +was so effective that even Sommers was slightly overawed. While the +irons were being removed, the unhappy Frenchman, Edouard Laronde, sought +to console him. + +"I told you it would soon come to this," he said in English. "I only +wish I was going to die with you." + +"Knock off this man's irons also," said the middy, to whom a new idea +had suddenly occurred, and who was glad to find that his altered costume +and bearing proved such a complete disguise that his old comrade in +sorrow did not recognise him. + +"I thought," said the jailer, "that you said only one slave was wanted." + +"I say _two_ slaves are wanted," growled the midshipman, with a look so +fierce that the jailer promptly ordered the removal of Laronde's +fetters. + +"Did I not often tell you," muttered Hugh Sommers, "that your unguarded +tongue would bring you to grief?" + +"It matters not. I submit, and am ready," returned the Frenchman in a +sad tone. "If it were not for my poor wife and child, the world would +be well rid of such a useless rebel as I." + +When the two slaves were ready, Foster demanded a piece of rope with +which he fastened the left and right wrists of the two men together. +Then, placing them in the midst of the soldiers, he led them out of the +prison and along the main street in the direction of the western gate of +the city. Passing through this the little party advanced into the +suburbs until they reached a part of the road beyond which pedestrians +usually found it convenient not to travel after dark. Here Foster +called a halt. + +"I thank you," he said to the leader of the soldiers, at the same time +giving him a piece of money. "There is no further occasion for your +services, all danger of rescue being past. I can now take care of them +myself, being armed, as you see, while they are bound. Convey my thanks +and compliments to your commanding officer." + +The soldier acknowledged the piece of money with a grave inclination of +the head, ordered his men to right-about-face, and marched back to the +Kasba, leaving the three slaves standing not far from the seashore, and +gazing at each other in silence. + +"You seem to have forgotten me, friends," said the middy in English, +pulling a clasp-knife out of his pocket. "Yet you have both met me +before when we were slaves." + +"_Were_ slaves!" repeated the Frenchman, who was the first to recover +from his astonishment, "are we not still slaves?" he asked, glancing at +the cords that bound their wrists. + +"Not now," said Foster, cutting the cords with his knife--"at least we +shall soon be free if we make good use of our opportunities." + +"Free!" exclaimed both men together, with the energy of a sudden and +almost overwhelming hope. + +"Ay, free! But this is no time for explanation. Follow me closely, and +in silence." + +Scarcely crediting their senses, and more than half disposed to believe +that the whole affair was one of their too familiar dreams, yet +strangely convinced at the same time that it was a reality, the two men +followed their young leader with alacrity. + +The reader will remember that before parting from Foster that day Peter +the Great had taken special care to ascertain that he knew the +whereabouts of the rocks where the boat belonging to Brown and his +friends was concealed. As Foster walked along in the dark he thought a +good deal about this, and felt convinced that Peter must have had some +idea of the event that was likely to follow from his mission to the +Bagnio. But he was much perplexed in attempting to account for his +reticence in the matter. Altogether, there was mystery about it which +he could not see through, so he wisely gave up thinking about it, and +braced his energies to the carrying out of his own little plot. This +was, to lead Hugh Sommers to his daughter and assist them to escape in +the boat, along with Brown the sailor and his companions--intending, of +course, to escape along with them! His taking advantage of the +opportunity to free Edouard Laronde was the result of a sudden +inspiration--a mere afterthought! + +The distance to the spot for which they were making was considerable, +and at first the fugitives proceeded with caution and in silence, but as +their distance from the pirate city increased, and the danger of pursuit +diminished, the middy relaxed a little, gave his companions +interjectional scraps of information, and finally revealed to them all +that he knew and purposed. + +Suddenly their conversation was interrupted by the sight of something +moving at the side of the road. It looked too small for a man, yet its +movements seemed too intelligent for a dog or a stray donkey. + +"Stay here, I will soon find out," whispered Foster, drawing his pistol, +and bounding towards the object in question. + +It ran from him, but our middy was swift of foot. He quickly overtook +it, and seized firmly by the arm what in the dark he thought to be a +boy. + +A slight scream undeceived him, and at the same time caused his heart to +bound. + +"Oh, you hurt me!" exclaimed a well-remembered voice. + +"Hester!" cried the youth, and next moment, folding her in his arms, he +kissed her--quite unintentionally, but irresistibly. + +Thrusting him away with indignation, the maiden said, with flashing +eyes, "You forget yourself, sir, and take advantage of my defenceless +position." + +"No--no, indeed! I did not intend to frighten you, dear child," (in his +desperation the middy assumed the paternal _role_). "Pray forgive me, +it was only my joy at the prospect of reuniting you to your father, +and--" + +"My father!" cried Hester, forgetting her offended dignity. "Where is +he? You are alone! Peter the Great sent me here to meet him, but he +did not say I should meet _you_." + +"Peter the Great sent you here--and alone!" exclaimed Foster, in +amazement. + +"Yes; he went out first to make sure that my father was coming, and then +sent me to meet him that we might be alone. But Peter is close at +hand." + +"Ho, yis! bery close at hand, Geo'ge!" said Peter himself, suddenly +emerging from a place of concealment. "Now you come along wid me, sar, +an' let dat poo' chile meet her fadder in private." + +"But she cannot do that, Peter, for Edouard Laronde is with him." + +"Who'n all de wurld's Eddard Larongd?" + +Before Foster could reply Hester had bounded from his side, and next +moment was locked in her father's arms. + +"Come away, Geo'ge--an' you too, Eddard La--La-whatever-it-is!" cried +the negro, grasping the latter by the arm and hurrying him along the +road in the direction of the seashore, while the reunited father and +child knelt down together and poured out their gratitude to God. + +"Dey'll foller us in a minnit or two," continued the negro. "What kep' +you so long, Geo'ge?" + +"Couldn't manage it sooner. But can you guess, Peter, why Ben-Ahmed +behaved in the strange way he has done? He got into a rage when I +attempted to tell him honestly, that I did not intend to go back to him, +or to take Sommers to his house, and that I'd try to escape along with +him if I could, but he would not listen or let me say a word." + +"Did you t'ink ob tellin' him all dat?" asked Peter. + +"I certainly did." + +"Well, you're not half such a hipperkrite as I t'ink you was." + +"I'm glad to hear you say so, for I don't like to play the part of a +hypocrite, Peter; I like to be all fair and above-board." + +"Was it all fair an' above-board, Geo'ge, to kiss dat leetle gal when +she was all alone and unpurtected? Was it all fair an' above-board to +call her you dear _chile_, as if you was her fadder?" + +"Come, come, Peter, `everything is fair,' you know, `in love and war.' +But that's not the point. Can you guess, I ask, Ben-Ahmed's motive for +acting so oddly?" + +"Oh! yis, Geo'ge, I kin guess a'most anybody's motives, zough, p'r'aps, +I mightn't guess right. I shouldn't wonder, now, if Ben-Ahmed will hab +to account to do Dey for de tottle disappearance of Hugh Sommers--to say +not'ing ob Eddard La--La--what's-'is-name--an' p'r'aps he'd like to be +able to say he'd no notion o' what de man he sent to fetch de slabe was +goin' to do. Now he couldn't hab say dat, you know, if he let you tell +him all about it--like a goose as you was. So he let you go off, d'ye +see, gib you your orders so far, an' labes de rest to your good sense-- +zough dere wasn't too much ob dat to leab it to, or you wouldn't hab +bring away Eddard La--La--t'ing-um-bob." + +"But do you really mean to tell me, Peter, that Ben-Ahmed intended me +and Hugh Sommers to escape?" + +"Das really what I means to tell you, Geo'ge." + +"Then why didn't you tell me all, this before, and save me from a deal +of uncertainty?" + +"Cause, in de fuss' place, I had no time to tell you; in de second +place, I was ordered not to tell you; in de t'ird place, it's good for +midshipmen to be put on deir mettle, an' lef' to find deir own way out +ob diffikilties, an', in de fourf place, slabes hab no business to be +axin' de outs an' ins, de whys an' de wherefores of deir massa's +affairs." + +"Well, I always knew Ben-Ahmed had a kind heart, but little thought it +was so kind and self-sacrificing as to buy Sommers for the very purpose +of setting him free. I regret, deeply, that I did not know this sooner, +and that I cannot now have the chance of thanking him with all my heart +and soul, and bidding the good man farewell. It is one comfort, +however, that I'll be able to send a message back by you. And I'm also +glad that I shall not have to part from you, my dear Peter, without +telling you how much I love you and how sorry, very, _very_ sorry, I am +to say good-bye." + +"Geo'ge," returned the negro earnestly, "don't you count your cheekins +afore dey's hatched! You're not away yit." + +Foster made no reply. To say truth, he felt a little hurt by the way in +which his protestations of regard were received, and, by way of changing +the subject, he asked if Peter had ever heard anything about the old +Dane and his wife and daughter who had been captured at the same time +with himself. + +"Dey's bin ransom'd, all ob dem. Got rich friends, you see. Hole your +tongue now, Geo'ge, we's comin' to de place." + +By that time Sommers and his daughter had overtaken the party. As they +all proceeded silently along the road, wondering how the matter would +end, they observed a figure, like that of a female, glide, as it were, +out of the darkness, and, taking Peter quietly by the arm, walk along +with him. + +Impelled by curiosity, Foster went forward and looked into her face. + +"Angelica!" he exclaimed in surprise. + +"Ob course!" answered her husband for her, "you don't suppose de wife ob +Peter de Great would let Geo'ge Foster go away widout comin' to de boat +to see him off?" + +Ere the middy could recover from his astonishment, the party came +suddenly upon a small cavern in which a light glimmered. At its +entrance lay a boat, and beside it, engaged in putting it to rights, +were Brown and his three companions--the two British tars and the +Maltese seaman. + +"Is all right?" asked Brown, in a low voice, as they approached. + +"All right," answered Peter. + +"Now, Geo'ge, you go in." + +The middy entered the cave, and with, if possible, increased surprise, +he found Ben-Ahmed standing there! + +"You are astonished, my friend," said the Moor with a gentle smile, as +he extended his hand. + +"I am indeed," returned the middy, heartily grasping and warmly shaking +it, "but I am also rejoiced that I have the opportunity--which I had not +hoped for--of thanking you for all your great kindness to me in time +past--especially for this crowning act." + +"You have not to thank me," returned the Moor, "you have to thank the +little English girl;" as he spoke he made a graceful motion of the hand +towards Hester, who, with her father, entered the cave at the moment. +"Little Hester has taught me--not by word but by example--the grand +lesson of your Christian Scriptures, that a man should do to others what +he would have others do to him. I have resolved to keep no more slaves, +and, as a first step, I now set you all free!" + +"God's blessing rest on you for that, sir," said Hugh Sommers, stepping +forward and grasping the hand that Foster had relinquished. "Have you, +then, forsaken the faith of Mohammed and adopted that of Christ?" + +"Be not over-curious," said the Moor reprovingly. "Sufficient for you +to know that fresh water cannot spring from a salt fountain. We must +not waste time. The boat is in the water by this time. Farewell. Kiss +me, my child. We may not meet again on earth, but--we shall certainly +meet hereafter!" + +Hester, who saw the Moor assume all shapes and sizes through the tears +that filled her eyes, ran to him, and, throwing her arms round his neck +gave him a hug that made even her father jealous. + +"Now, away, all of you," cried Ben-Ahmed, when he was released, "and may +the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob go with you." + +While he was yet speaking the clatter of horses' hoofs in the distance +was heard. Instantly the party made for the boat. There was no time +for last adieux. Ben-Ahmed helped to shove off the boat and bundle them +in. + +"You will hear pistol-shots," he cried, "but fear not for me. My horse +can outrun the best in Algiers. I will only fire to decoy them away. +Farewell!" + +He ran up into the shrubbery that bordered the road, and next minute the +sound of the horse's feet was heard in the distance, as the boat skimmed +swiftly out to sea under the powerful impulse of its stalwart crew. + +A few minutes later and, as the Moor had prophesied, pistol-shots were +heard on shore. From the sound they appeared to come from a short +distance in the interior of the land, but musket-shots were also heard +among them, and from the flashes on the beach it became evident that the +Moor had not succeeded in turning all their pursuers off the scent--a +fact which was further illustrated by the skipping of a musket ball +close past the boat. + +Just then it struck George Foster that Peter the Great and his wife were +seated beside him. + +"Hallo, Peter!" he exclaimed; "how are you and Angelica to get on +shore?" + +"We's not goin' on shore at all, Geo'ge." + +"What do you mean, Peter?" + +"I means what I says. De fact is, Geo'ge, dat I's come to de conclusion +dat I couldn't lib widout you. Angelica's ob de same opinion, so we's +made up our minds, wid massa's purmission, to go wid you to ole England. +We's all goin' togidder, Geo'ge. Ain't dat jolly?" + +"But how can we ever get to England in a small boat like this?" asked +the middy, in much anxiety, for in the hurry and excitement of the start +the difficulty had not occurred to him. + +"No fear about that, sir," answered Brown, who pulled the bow oar; "we +ain't such fools as to make the voyage in a cockle-shell like this! The +boat b'longs to a privateer as is owned by a friend o' mine, an' the +wessel's lyin' off an' on waitin' for us." + +"There she goes!" said one of the sailors. "Look out!" + +As he spoke a large schooner loomed up against the dark sky, and was +hailed. A gruff voice replied. Another moment the sails flapped, and +the boat was towing alongside. Our middy was first to leap on deck--and +not without a purpose in view, for he was thus in a position to hand up +the passengers. + +"Do you forgive me, Hester?" he whispered humbly, as he stooped to grasp +her little hand. + +"I forgive you!" she whispered timidly, as she passed him, and was led +by her father into the vessel's cabin. + +That night two of the swiftest of the piratical war-vessels were seen to +warp out from the Mole, and put to sea, but long before the land breeze +filled their peaked sails the privateer was cleaving her way, homeward +bound, through the dark waters of the Mediterranean. + + + +CHAPTER SEVENTEEN. + +THE LAST. + +"Geo'ge, your mudder wants you." + +Such were the words which aroused George Foster from a reverie one +morning as he stood at the window of a villa on the coast of Kent, +fastening his necktie and contemplating the sea. + +"Nothing wrong, I hope," said the middy, turning quickly round, and +regarding with some anxiety the unusually solemn visage of Peter the +Great. + +"Wheder dere's anyfing wrong or not, 'snot for me to say, massa, but I +t'ink dere's suffin' up, for she seems in a carfuffle." + +"Tell her I shall be with her instantly." Completing his toilet +hastily, our hero repaired to his mother's apartment, where he found her +seated in dishabille with an open letter in her hand, and some +excitement in her face. + +"Is Laronde better this morning?" she asked as her son sat down on a +sofa at the foot of her bed. + +"I don't know, mother--haven't been to his room this morning. Why do +you ask? Has anything happened?" + +"I will tell you presently, but first let me know what success you have +had in your search." + +"Nothing but failure," said the middy, in a desponding tone. "If there +had been anything good to tell you I would have come to your room last +night despite the lateness of the hour. We were later than usual in +arriving because a trace broke, and after that one of the horses cast a +shoe." + +"Where did you make inquiries, George?" + +"At the solicitors' office, of course. It is through them that we +obtained what we hoped would be a clue, and it is to them that poor +Marie Laronde used to go to inquire whether there was any chance of her +husband being released for a smaller sum than was at first demanded. +They had heard of a dressmaker who employed a girl or woman named +Laronde in the West End, so I hunted her up with rather sanguine +expectations, but she turned out to be a girl of sixteen, dark instead +of fair, and unmarried! But again I ask, mother, what news, for I see +by your face that you have something to tell me. That is a letter from +Minnie, is it not?" + +"It is, George, and I am very hopeful that while you have been away on +the wrong scent in the West End of London, Minnie has fallen, quite +unexpectedly, on the right scent in one of the low quarters of +Liverpool. You know that she has been nursing Aunt Jeanette there for +more than a fortnight." + +"Yes, I know it only too well," answered the middy. "It is too bad that +Aunt Jeanette should take it into her head to get ill and send for +Minnie just three weeks after my return from slavery!--But what do you +mean by her having fallen on the right scent? Surely she has not found +leisure and strength both to hunt and nurse at the same time!" + +"Yes, indeed, she has. Our last winter in that charming south of France +has so completely restored her--through the blessing of God--that she +has found herself equal to almost anything. It happens that Aunt +Jeanette has got a friend living close to her who is an enthusiastic +worker amongst the poor of the town, and she has taken your sister +several times to visit the districts where the very poor people live. +It was while she was thus engaged, probably never thinking of poor +Laronde's wife at all, that she--but here is the letter. Read it for +yourself, you need not trouble yourself to read the last page--just down +to here." + +Retiring to the window the middy read as follows:-- + + "Darling Mother,--I must begin at once with what my mind is full of, + just remarking, by the way, that Aunt Jeanette is improving steadily, + and that I hope to be home again in less than a week. + + "Well, I told you in my last that Miss Love--who is most appropriately + named--had taken me out once or twice on her visits among the poor. + And, do you know, it has opened up a new world of ideas and feelings + to me. It is such a terrible revelation of the intensity of sorrow + and suffering that is endured by a large mass of our fellow-creatures! + I am persuaded that thousands of the well-to-do and the rich have no + conception of it, for it must be seen to be understood. I feel as if + my heart had become a great fountain of pity! And I can well--at + least better--understand how our dear Saviour, when He wanted to give + evidence of the truth and character of His mission, said, `The poor + have the gospel preached unto them,' for if any class of beings on the + face of this earth stand in need of good news it is the poor. God + help and bless them! + + "Well, the other day Miss Love came to ask me to go out with her to + visit some of her poor people, among others one--a very singular + character--a woman who was reported to be a desperate miser, insomuch + that she starved herself and her child for the sake of saving money. + It was said that she was very ill at the time--thought to be dying-- + and seemed to be in a wretched state of destitution. Her name, Miss + Love told me, was Lundy. + + "As Auntie was pretty well that day I gladly accompanied my friend to + her district. And it _was_ an awful place! I shudder even now when I + think of the sights and sounds and dreadful language I saw and heard + there--but I must not turn aside from what I have to tell. I pass + over our visits to various families and come at once to the reputed + miser. She was in bed, and from her flushed face and glittering eyes + I could see that she was in high fever. She started, raised herself + on an elbow, and glared at us as we entered. + + "I was deeply interested in her from the first moment. Although worn + and thin, with lines of prolonged suffering indelibly stamped on her, + she had a beautiful and refined face. Her age appeared to be about + thirty-five. A lovely, but wretchedly clothed girl, of about fourteen + years of age, sat on a low stool at her bedside. And oh! such a bed + it was. Merely a heap of straw with a piece of sacking over it, on a + broken bedstead. One worn blanket covered her thin form. Besides + these things, a small table, and a corner cupboard, there was + literally nothing else in the room. + + "The girl rose to receive us, and expressed regret that she had no + chairs to offer. While Miss Love went forward and talked tenderly to + the mother, I drew the girl aside, took her hand affectionately, and + said, `You have not always been as poor as you now are?' + + "`No indeed,' she said, while tears filled her eyes, `but work failed + us in London, where we once lived, and mother came to Liverpool to a + brother, who said he would help her, but he died soon after our + arrival, and then mother got ill and I had to begin and spend our + savings--savings that darling mother had scraped and toiled so hard to + gain--and this made her much worse, for she was _so_ anxious to save + money!' + + "This last remark reminded me of the reports about the mother's + miserly nature, so I asked a question that made the poor girl reply + quickly-- + + "`Oh! you mustn't think that darling mother is a miser. People so + often fall into that mistake! She has been saving for ever so many + years to buy father back--' + + "`Buy father back!' I repeated, with a sudden start. + + "`Yes, to buy him from the Algerine pirates--' + + "I waited for no more, but, running to the bedside, looked the poor + woman steadily in the face. There could be no doubt about it. There + was the fair hair, blue eyes, and clear complexion, though the last + was sadly faded from ill-health. + + "You should have seen the look of surprise she gave me. But I had + been foolishly precipitate. Her mind had been wandering a little + before we came in. The shock seemed to throw it further off the + balance, for she suddenly looked at me with a calm sweet smile. + + "`Yes,' she said, `he always called me Marie, though my name was Mary, + being a Frenchman, you know--his little Marie he called me! I often + think how pleased he will be to see another little Marie grown big + when we get him back--but oh! how long--how _long_ they are about + sending him, though I have sent the money over and over again. Hush!' + + "She looked round with a terrified expression and clutched my shawl + with her thin hand. `You won't tell, will you?' she went on; `you + have a kind face, I am sure you will not tell, but I have been + saving--saving--saving, to send more money to the Moors. I keep it in + a bag here under my pillow, but I often fear that some one will + discover and steal it. Oh! these Moors must have hard, hard hearts to + keep him from me so long--so _very_ long!' + + "Here she thrust me from her with unexpected violence, burst into a + wild laugh, and began in her delirium to rave against the Moors. Yet, + even in the midst of her reproaches, the poor thing prayed that God + would soften their hearts and forgive her for being so revengeful. + + "Now, mother, I want to know what is to be done, for when we sent for + a doctor he said that not a word must be said about the return of her + husband until she is out of danger and restored to some degree of + health." + +Thus far the middy read the letter. + +"Mother," he said, firmly, "the doctor may say what he likes, but I am +convinced that the best cure for fever and every other disease under the +sun is joy--administered judiciously, in small or large doses as the +patient is able to bear it! Now, the primary cause of poor Marie's +illness is the loss of her husband, therefore the removal of the cause-- +that is, the recovery of her husband--" + +"With God's blessing," interjected Mrs Foster. + +"Admitted--with the blessing of the Great Physician--that is the natural +cure." + +"Very true, George, but you wisely spoke of small doses. I am not sure +that it would be safe to tell Monsieur Laronde that we have actually +found his wife and child. He also is too weak to bear much agitation." + +"Not so weak as you think, mother, though the sufferings of slave-life +and subsequent anxiety have brought him very near to the grave. But I +will break it to him judiciously. We will get my dear little Hester to +do it." + +"_Your_ Hester!" exclaimed Mrs Foster, in surprise. "I trust, George, +that you, a mere midshipman, have not dared to speak to that child of--" + +"Make your mind easy, mother," replied the middy, with a laugh, "I have +not said a word. Haven't required to. We have both spoken to each +other with our eyes, and that is quite enough at present. I feel as +sure of my little Hester as if we were fairly spliced. There goes the +breakfast-bell. Will you be down soon?" + +"No. I am too happy to-day to be able to eat in public, George. Send +it up to me." + +The breakfast-room in that seaside villa presented an interesting +company, for the fugitives had stuck together with feelings of powerful +sympathy since they had landed in England. Hugh Sommers was there, but +it was not easy to recognise in the fine, massive, genial gentleman, in +a shooting suit of grey, the ragged, wretched slave who, not long +before, had struggled like a tiger with the janissaries on the walls of +Algiers. And Hester was there, of course, with her sunny hair and sunny +looks and general aspect of human sunniness all over, as unlike to the +veiled and timid Moorish lady, or the little thin-nosed negress, as +chalk is to cheese! Edouard Laronde was also there, and he, like the +others, had undergone wonderful transformation in the matter of +clothing, but he had also changed in body, for a severe illness had +seized him when he landed, and it required all Mrs Foster's careful +nursing to "pull him through," as the middy styled it. Brown the sailor +was also there, for, being a pleasant as well as a sharp man, young +Foster resolved to get him into the Navy, and, if possible, into the +same ship with himself. Meanwhile he retained him to assist in the +search for Marie Laronde and her daughter. Last, but by no means least, +Peter the Great was there--not as one of the breakfast party, but as a +waiter. + +Peter had from the first positively refused to sit down to meals in a +dining-party room! + +"No, Geo'ge," he said, when our middy proposed it to him, on the +occasion of their arrival at his mother's home--"No, Geo'ge. I _won't_ +do it. Das flat! I's not bin used to it. My proper speer is de +kitchen. Besides, do you t'ink I'd forsake my Angelica an' leabe her to +feed alone downstairs, w'ile her husband was a-gorgin' of his-self +above? Neber! It's no use for you, Geo'ge, to say you'd be happy to +see her too, for she wouldn't do it, an' she's as obsnit as me--an' +more! Now you make your mind easy, I'll be your mudder's black +flunkey--for lub, not for munny. So you hole your tongue, Geo'ge!" + +Thus the arrangement came to be made--at least for a time. + +The middy was unusually grave that morning as he sat down to breakfast. +They were all aware that he had returned from London late the previous +night, and were more or less eager to know the result of his visit, but +on observing his gravity they forbore to ask questions. Only the poor +Frenchman ventured to say sadly, "Failed again, I see." + +"Not absolutely," said Foster, who was anxious that the invalid should +not have his breakfast spoilt by being excited. "The visit I paid to +the solicitor did indeed turn out a failure, but--but I have still +strong hopes," he added cheerily. + +"So hab I, Geo'ge," remarked Peter the Great, from behind the chair of +Miss Sommers, who presided at the breakfast table, for although Peter +had resigned his right to equality as to feeding, he by no means gave up +his claim to that of social intercourse. + +"Come, Laronde. Cheer up, my friend," said Hugh Sommers heartily; "I +feel sure that we'll manage it amongst us, for we have all entered on +the search heart and soul." + +"Right you are, sir," ejaculated Brown, through a mouthful of buttered +toast. + +"It only requires patience," said the middy, "for London is a big place, +you know, and can't be gone over in a week or two." + +"Das so, Geo'ge," said Peter, nodding approval. + +After breakfast Foster sought a private interview with Hester, who +undertook, with much fear, to communicate the news to Laronde. + +"You see, I think it will come best from you, Hester," said George in a +grave fatherly manner, "because a woman always does these sort of things +better than a man, and besides, poor Laronde is uncommonly fond of you, +as--" + +He was going to have said "as everybody is," but, with much sagacity, he +stopped short and sneezed instead. He felt that a commonplace cough +from a man with a sound chest would inevitably have betrayed him--so he +sneezed. "A hyperkrite as usual!" he thought, and continued aloud-- + +"So, you see, Hester, it is very important that you should undertake it, +and it will be very kind of you, too." + +"I would gladly undertake a great deal more than that for the poor man," +said Hester earnestly. "When must I do it?" + +"Now--at once. The sooner the better. He usually goes to the bower at +the foot of the garden after breakfast." + +Without a word, but with a glance that spoke volumes, the maiden ran to +the bower. + +What she said to the Frenchman we need not write down in detail. It is +sufficient to note the result. In the course of a short time after she +had entered the bower, a loud shout was heard, and next moment Laronde +was seen rushing towards the house with a flushed countenance and the +vigour of an athlete! + +"My little girl has been too precipitate, I fear," remarked Hugh Sommers +to the middy. + +"Your little girl is never `_too_'--anything!" replied the middy to +Hugh, with much gravity. + +The ex-Bagnio slave smiled, but whether at the reply or at the rushing +Frenchman we cannot tell. + +When Laronde reached his room he found Peter the Great there, on his +knees, packing a small valise. + +"Hallo! Peter, what are you doing? I want that." + +"Yes, Eddard, I know dat. Das why I's packin'." + +"You're a good fellow, Peter, a true friend, but let me do it; I'm in +terrible haste!" + +"No, sar, you's not in haste. Dere's lots ob time." (He pulled out a +watch of the warming-pan type and consulted it.) "De coach don't start +till one o'clock; it's now eleben; so dere's no hurry. You jest lie +down on de bed an' I'll pack de bag." + +Instead of lying down the poor Frenchman fell on his knees beside the +bed and laid his face in his hands. + +"Yes--das better. Dere's some sense in _dat_," muttered the negro as he +quietly continued to pack the valise. + +Two hours later and Laronde was dashing across country as fast as four +good horses could take him, with George Foster on one side, Peter the +Great on the other, and Brown on the box-seat--the fo'c'sl, he called +it--beside the red-coated driver. + +Whatever may be true of your modern forty-mile-an-hour iron horse, there +can be no question that the ten-mile-an-hour of those days, behind a +spanking team with clattering wheels, and swaying springs, and cracking +whip, and sounding horn, _felt_ uncommonly swift and satisfactory. +Laronde shut his eyes and enjoyed it at first. But the strength +engendered by excitement soon began to fail. The long weary journey +helped to make things worse, and when at last they arrived at the +journey's end, and went with Miss Love and Minnie to the lodging, poor +Laronde had scarcely strength left to totter to his wife's bedside. +This was fortunate, however, for he was the better able to restrain his +feelings. + +"She has had a long satisfactory sleep--is still sleeping--and is much +better," was the nurse's report as they entered. The daughter looked +with surprise at the weak worn man who was led forward. Laronde did not +observe her. His eyes were fixed on the bed where the pale thin figure +lay. One of Marie's hands lay outside the blanket. The husband knelt, +took it gently and laid his cheek on it. Then he began to stroke it +softly. The action awoke the sleeper, but she did not open her eyes. + +"Go on," she murmured gently; "you always used to do that when I was ill +or tired--don't stop it yet, as you _always_ do now, and go away." + +The sound of her own voice seemed to awake her. She turned her head and +her eyes opened wide while she gazed in his face with a steady stare. +Uttering a sharp cry she seized him round the neck, exclaiming, "Praise +the Lord!" + +"Yes, Marie--my own! Praise the Lord, for He has been merciful to me--a +sinner." + +The unbeliever, whom lash, torture, toil, and woe could not soften, was +broken now, for "the goodness of the Lord had led him to repentance." + +Did the middy, after all, marry Hester, _alias_ Geo'giana Sommers? No, +of course, he did not! He was a full-fledged lieutenant in his +Majesty's navy when he did that! But it was not long--only a couple of +years after his return from slavery--when he threw little Hester into a +state of tremendous consternation one day by abruptly proposing that +they should get spliced immediately, and thenceforward sail the sea of +life in company. Hester said timidly she couldn't think of it. George +said boldly he didn't want her to _think_ of it, but to _do it_! + +This was putting the subject in quite a new light, so she smiled, +blushed, and hurriedly hid her face on his shoulder! + +Of course all the fugitive slaves were at the wedding. There was +likewise a large quantity of dark-blue cloth, gold lace, and brass +buttons at it. + +Peter the Great came out strong upon that occasion. Although he +consented to do menial work, he utterly refused to accept a menial +position. Indeed he claimed as much right to, and interest in, the +bride as her own radiant "fadder," for had he not been the chief +instrument in "sabing dem bof from de Moors?" + +As no one ventured to deny the claim, Peter retired to the privacy of +the back kitchen, put his arm round Angelica's neck, told her that he +had got a gift of enough money to "ransom his sister Dinah," laid his +woolly head on her shoulder, and absolutely howled for joy. + +It may be well to remark, in conclusion, that Peter the Great finally +agreed to become Mrs Foster's gardener, as being the surest way of +seeing "Geo'ge" during his periodical visits home. For much the same +reason Hugh Sommers settled down in a small house near them. Laronde +obtained a situation as French master in an academy not far off, and his +wife and daughter soon gave evidence that joy is indeed a wonderful +medicine! + +As for George Foster himself, he rose to the top of his profession. How +could it be otherwise with such an experience--and such a wife? And +when, in after years, his sons and daughters clamoured, as they were +often wont to do, for "stories from father," he would invariably send +for Peter the Great, in order that he might listen and corroborate or +correct what he related of his wonderful adventures when he was a Middy +among the Moors. + +THE END. + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Middy and the Moors, by R.M. 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