The SeaHawk....................................................................................................................................................1

Rafael Sabatini .........................................................................................................................................1

NOTE .......................................................................................................................................................2

PART I. SIR OLIVER TRESSILIAN..................................................................................................................3

CHAPTER I. THE HUCKSTER.............................................................................................................3

CHAPTER II. ROSAMUND ...................................................................................................................8

CHAPTER III. THE FORGE................................................................................................................15

CHAPTER IV. THE INTERVENER....................................................................................................20

CHAPTER V. THE BUCKLER ............................................................................................................26

CHAPTER VI. JASPER LEIGH...........................................................................................................32

CHAPTER VII. TREPANNED .............................................................................................................40

CHAPTER VIII. THE SPANIARD .......................................................................................................44

PART II. SAKRELBAHR ..............................................................................................................................50

CHAPTER I. THE CAPTIVE...............................................................................................................50

CHAPTER II. THE RENEGADE.........................................................................................................54

CHAPTER III. HOMEWARD BOUND...............................................................................................63

CHAPTER IV. THE RAID ....................................................................................................................65

CHAPTER V. THE LION OF THE FAITH.........................................................................................73

CHAPTER VI. THE CONVERT..........................................................................................................77

CHAPTER VII. MARZAKBENASAD ............................................................................................82

CHAPTER VIII. MOTHER AND SON ................................................................................................87

CHAPTER IX. COMPETITORS..........................................................................................................93

CHAPTER X. THE SLAVEMARKET ...............................................................................................99

CHAPTER XI. THE TRUTH ..............................................................................................................110

CHAPTER XII. THE SUBTLETY OF FENZILEH...........................................................................121

CHAPTER XIII. IN THE SIGHT OF ALLAH ...................................................................................127

CHAPTER XIV. THE SIGN...............................................................................................................134

CHAPTER XV. THE VOYAGE .........................................................................................................140

CHAPTER XVI. THE PANNIER.......................................................................................................145

CHAPTER XVII. THE DUPE .............................................................................................................150

CHAPTER XVIII. SHEIK MAT .........................................................................................................152

CHAPTER XIX. THE MUTINEERS ..................................................................................................160

CHAPTER XX. THE MESSENGER ..................................................................................................167

CHAPTER XXI. MORITURUS ..........................................................................................................171

CHAPTER XXII. THE SURRENDER...............................................................................................175

CHAPTER XXIII. THE HEATHEN CREED .....................................................................................182

CHAPTER XXIV. THE JUDGES .......................................................................................................186

CHAPTER XXV. THE ADVOCATE .................................................................................................192

CHAPTER XXVI. THE JUDGMENT ................................................................................................201

Lord Henry Goade, who had, as we shall see, some personal acquaintance with Sir Oliver Tressilian, tells us

quite bluntly that he was illfavoured. But then his lordship is addicted to harsh judgments and his

perceptions are not always normal. He says, for instance, of Anne of Cleves, that she was the "ugliest woman

that ever I saw." As far as we can glean from his own voluminous writings it would seem to be extremely

doubtful whether he ever saw Anne of Cleves at all, and we suspect him here of being no more than a slavish

echo of the common voice, which attributed Cromwell's downfall to the ugliness of this bride he procured for

his Bluebeard master. To the common voice from the brush of Holbein, which permits us to form our own

opinions and shows us a lady who is certainly very far from deserving his lordship's harsh stricture. Similarly,

I like to believe that Lord Henry was wrong in his pronouncement upon Sir Oliver, and I am encouraged in

this belief by the penportrait which he himself appends to it. "He was," he says, "a tall, powerful fellow of a

good shape, if we except that his arms were too long and that his feet and hands were of an uncomely

bigness. In face he was swarthy, with black hair and a black forked beard; his nose was big and very high in

the bridge, and his eyes sunk deep under beetling eyebrows were very palecoloured and very cruel and

sinister. He hadand this I have ever remarked to be the sign of great virility in a mana big, deep, rough

voice, better suited to, and no doubt oftener employed in, quarterdeck oaths and foulnesses than the worship

Thus my Lord Henry Goade, and you observe how he permits his lingering disapproval of the man to intrude

upon his description of him. The truth is thatas there is ample testimony in his prolific writings is

lordship was something of a misanthropist. It was, in fact, his misanthropy which drove him, as it has driven

many another, to authorship. He takes up the pen, not so much that he may carry out his professed object of

writing a chronicle of his own time, but to the end that he may vent the bitterness engendered in him by his

fall from favour. As a consequence he has little that is good to say of anyone, and rarely mentions one of his

contemporaries but to tap the sources of a picturesque invective. After all, it is possible to make excuses for

him. He was at once a man of thought and a man of actiona combination as rare as it is usually deplorable.

The man of action in him might have gone far had he not been ruined at the outset by the man of thought. A

magnificent seaman, he might have become Lord High Admiral of England but for a certain proneness to

intrigue. Fortunately for himsince otherwise he could hardly have kept his head where nature had placed

ithe came betimes under a cloud of suspicion. His career suffered a check; but it was necessary to afford

him some compensation since, after all, the suspicions could not be substantiated.

Consequently he was removed from his command and appointed by the Queen's Grace her Lieutenant of

Cornwall, a position in which it was judged that he could do little mischief. There, soured by this blighting of

his ambitions, and living a life of comparative seclusion, he turned, as so many other men similarly placed

have turned, to seek consolation in his pen. He wrote his singularly crabbed, narrow and superficial History

of Lord Henry Goade: his own Timeswhich is a miracle of injuvenations, distortions, misrepresentations,

and eccentric spelling. In the eighteen enormous folio volumes, which he filled with his minute and gothic

characters, he gives his own version of the story of what he terms his downfall, and, having, notwithstanding

his prolixity, exhausted this subject in the first five of the eighteen tomes, he proceeds to deal with so much

of the history of his own day as came immediately under his notice in his Cornish retirement.

For the purposes of English history his chronicles are entirely negligible, which is the reason why they have

been allowed to remain unpublished and in oblivion. But to the student who attempts to follow the history of

that extraordinary man, Sir Oliver Tressilian, they are entirely invaluable. And, since I have made this history

my present task, it is fitting that I should here at the outset acknowledge my extreme indebtedness to those

chronicles. Without them, indeed, it were impossible to reconstruct the life of that Cornish gentleman who

became a renegade and a Barbary Corsair and might have become Basha of Algiersor Argire, as his

Lord Henry wrote with knowledge and authority, and the tale he has to tell is very complete and full of

precious detail. He was, himself, an eyewitness of much that happened; he pursued a personal acquaintance

with many of those who were connected with Sir Oliver's affairs that he might amplify his chronicles, and he

considered no scrap of gossip that was to be gleaned along the countryside too trivial to be recorded. I suspect

him also of having received no little assistance from Jasper Leigh in the matter of those events that happened

out of England, which seem to me to constitute by far the most interesting portion of his narrative.

Sir Oliver Tressilian sat at his ease in the lofty diningroom of the handsome house of Penarrow, which he

owed to the enterprise of his father of lamented and lamentable memory and to the skill and invention of an

Italian engineer named Bagnolo who had come to England half a century ago as one of the assistants of the

This house of such a startlingly singular and Italianate grace for so remote a corner of Cornwall deserves,

The Italian Bagnolo who combined with his salient artistic talents a quarrelsome, volcanic humour had the

mischance to kill a man in a brawl in a Southwark tavern. As a result he fled the town, nor paused in his

headlong flight from the consequences of that murderous deed until he had all but reached the very ends of

England. Under what circumstances he became acquainted with Tressilian the elder I do not know. But

certain it is that the meeting was a very timely one for both of them. To the fugitive, Ralph Tressilianwho

appears to have been inveterately partial to the company of rascals of all denominations afforded shelter;

and Bagnolo repaid the service by offering to rebuild the decaying halftimbered house of Penarrow. Having

taken the task in hand he went about it with all the enthusiasm of your true artist, and achieved for his

protector a residence that was a marvel of grace in that crude age and outlandish district. There arose under

the supervision of the gifted engineer, worthy associate of Messer Torrigiani, a noble twostoried mansion of

mellow red brick, flooded with light and sunshine by the enormously tall mullioned windows that rose almost

from base to summit of each pilastered facade. The main doorway was set in a projecting wing and was

overhung by a massive balcony, the whole surmounted by a pillared pediment of extraordinary grace, now

partly clad in a green mantle of creepers. Above the burnt red tiles of the roof soared massive twisted

But the glory of Penarrowthat is, of the new Penarrow begotten of the fertile brain of Bagnolowas the

garden fashioned out of the tangled wilderness about the old house that had crowned the heights above

Penarrow point. To the labours of Bagnolo, Time and Nature had added their own. Bagnolo had cut those

handsome esplanades, had built those noble balustrades bordering the three terraces with their fine connecting

flights of steps; himself he had planned the fountain, and with his own hands had carved the granite faun

presiding over it and the dozen other statues of nymphs and sylvan gods in a marble that gleamed in white

brilliance amid the dusky green. But Time and Nature had smoothed the lawns to a velvet surface, had

thickened the handsome boxwood hedges, and thrust up those black spearlike poplars that completed the

Sir Oliver took his ease in his diningroom considering all this as it was displayed before him in the

mellowing September sunshine, and found it all very good to see, and life very good to live. Now no man has

ever been known so to find life without some immediate cause, other than that of his environment, for his

optimism. Sir Oliver had several causes. The first of thesealthough it was one which he may have been far

from suspectingwas his equipment of youth, wealth, and good digestion; the second was that he had

achieved honour and renown both upon the Spanish Main and in the late harrying of the Invincible

Armadaor, more aptly perhaps might it be said, in the harrying of the late Invincible Armadaand that he

had received in that the twenty fifth year of his life the honour of knighthood from the Virgin Queen; the

third and last contributor to his pleasant moodand I have reserved it for the end as I account this to be the

proper place for the most important factorwas Dan Cupid who for once seemed compounded entirely of

benignity and who had so contrived matters that Sir Oliver's wooing Of Mistress Rosamund Godolphin ran an

So, then, Sir Oliver sat at his ease in his tall, carved chair, his doublet untrussed, his long legs stretched

before him, a pensive smile about the firm lips that as yet were darkened by no more than a small black line

of moustachios. (Lord Henry's portrait of him was drawn at a much later period.) It was noon, and our

gentleman had just dined, as the platters, the broken meats and the halfempty flagon on the board beside

him testified. He pulled thoughtfully at a long pipefor he had acquired this newly imported habit of

tobaccodrinkingand dreamed of his mistress, and was properly and gallantly grateful that fortune had

used him so handsomely as to enable him to toss a title and some measure of renown into his Rosamund's lap.

By nature Sir Oliver was a shrewd fellow ("cunning as twenty devils," is my Lord Henry's phrase) and he was

also a man of some not inconsiderable learning. Yet neither his natural wit nor his acquired endowments

appear to have taught him that of all the gods that rule the destinies of mankind there is none more ironic and

malicious than that same Dan Cupid in whose honour, as it were, he was now burning the incense of that pipe

of his. The ancients knew that innocentseeming boy for a cruel, impish knave, and they mistrusted him. Sir

Oliver either did not know or did not heed that sound piece of ancient wisdom. It was to be borne in upon

him by grim experience, and even as his light pensive eyes smiled upon the sunshine that flooded the terrace

beyond the long mullioned window, a shadow fell athwart it which he little dreamed to be symbolic of the

After that shadow came the substancetall and gay of raiment under a broad black Spanish hat decked with

bloodred plumes. Swinging a long beribboned cane the figure passed the windows, stalking deliberately as

The smile perished on Sir Oliver's lips. His swarthy face grew thoughtful, his black brows contracted until no

more than a single deep furrow stood between them. Then slowly the smile came forth again, but no longer

that erstwhile gentle pensive smile. It was transformed into a smile of resolve and determination, a smile that

tightened his lips even as his brows relaxed, and invested his brooding eyes with a gleam that was mocking,

Came Nicholas his servant to announce Master Peter Godolphin, and close upon the lackey's heels came

Master Godolphin himself, leaning upon his beribboned cane and carrying his broad Spanish hat. He was a

tall, slender gentleman, with a shaven, handsome countenance, stamped with an air of haughtiness; like Sir

Oliver, he had a highbridged, intrepid nose, and in age he was the younger by some two or three years. He

wore his auburn hair rather longer than was the mode just then, but in his apparel there was no more

Sir Oliver rose and bowed from his great height in welcome. But a wave of tobaccosmoke took his graceful

"I nothing doubt it," rejoined Master Godolphin, thus early giving indications of his humour and the object of

Sir Oliver checked an answer that must have helped his visitor to his ends, which was no part of the knight's

"Therefore," said he ironically, "I hope you will be patient with my shortcomings. Nick, a chair for Master

A sneer flickered over the younger man's white face. "You pay me a compliment, sir, which I fear me 'tis not

"Time enough for that when I come to seek it," said Sir Oliver, with easy, if assumed, good humour.

"Will you sit?" Sir Oliver invited him, and spread a hand towards the chair which Nicholas had set. In the

Master Godolphin ignored the invitation. "You were," he said, "at Godolphin Court but yesterday, I hear." He

paused, and as Sir Oliver offered no denial, he added stiffly: "I am come, sir, to inform you that the honour of

In the effort he made to preserve his selfcontrol before so direct an affront Sir Oliver paled a little under his

"You will understand, Peter," he replied slowly, "that you have said too much unless you add something

more." He paused, considering his visitor a moment. "I do not know whether Rosamund has told you that

"Do you know of any good reason why she should come to change it?" asked Sir Oliver, with a slight air of

"I know a dozen," he answered. "But I need not urge them. Sufficient should it be to remind you that

Rosamund is but seventeen and that she is under my guardianship and that of Sir John Killigrew. Neither Sir

"Good lack!" broke out Sir Oliver. "Who asks your sanction or Sir John's? By God's grace your sister will

grow to be a woman soon and mistress of herself. I am in no desperate haste to get me wed, and by

natureas you may be observingI am a wondrous patient man. I'll even wait," And he pulled at his pipe.

"Waiting cannot avail you in this, Sir Oliver. 'Tis best you should understand. We are resolved, Sir John and

"Are you so? God's light. Send Sir John to me to tell me of his resolves and I'll tell him something of mine.

Tell him from me, Master Godolphin, that if he will trouble to come as far as Penarrow I'll do by him what

the hangman should have done long since. I'll crop his pimpish ears for him, by this hand!"

"Meanwhile," said Master Godolphin whettingly, "will you not essay your rover's prowess upon me?"

"You?" quoth Sir Oliver, and looked him over with goodhumoured contempt. "I'm no butcher of

fledgelings, my lad. Besides, you are your sister's brother, and 'tis no aim of mine to increase the obstacles

already in my path." Then his tone changed. He leaned across the table. "Come, now, Peter. What is at the

root of all this matter? Can we not compose such differences as you conceive exist? Out with them. 'Tis no

matter for Sir John. He's a curmudgeon who signifies not a finger's snap. But you, 'tis different. You are her

"Does it matter what our fathers did? More shame to them if, being neighbours, they could not be friends.

"You'll not impute that the fault lay with my father," cried the other, with a show of ready anger.

"If I do, I malign them both. But I do not. I no more than condemn a fault that both must acknowledge could

"Then, Sir, confine your condemnings to your own father with whom no man of honour could have lived at

"There's no call to go softly. Ralph Tressilian was a dishonour, a scandal to the countryside. Not a hamlet

between here and Truro, or between here and Helston, but swarms with big Tressilian noses like your own, in

Sir Oliver's eyes grew narrower: he smiled. "I wonder how you came by your own nose?" he wondered.

Master Godolphin got to his feet in a passion, and his chair crashed over behind him. "Sir," he blazed, "you

Sir Oliver laughed. "I make a little free with it, perhaps, in return for your pleasantries on the score of my

Master Godolphin pondered him in speechless anger, then swayed by his passion he leaned across the board,

That done, he strode off magnificently towards the door. Halfway thither he paused.

Sir Oliver laughed again. "I don't think I shall trouble to send them," said he.

"You'll publish yourself a liar if you do; for none will believe you." Then he changed his tone yet again.

"Come, Peter, we are behaving unworthily. As for the blow, I confess that I deserved it. A man's mother is

more sacred than his father. So we may cry quits on that score. Can we not cry quits on all else? What can it

"There is more than that between us," answered Master Godolphin. "I'll not have my sister wed a pirate."

"A pirate? God's light! I am glad there's none to hear you for since her grace has knighted me for my doings

upon the seas, your words go very near to treason. Surely, lad, what the Queen approves, Master Peter

Godolphin may approve and even your mentor Sir John Killigrew. You've been listening to him. 'Twas he

"I am no man's lackey," answered the other hotly, resenting the imputationand resenting it the more

"To call me a pirate is to say a foolish thing. Hawkins with whom I sailed has also received the accolade, and

who dubs us pirates insults the Queen herself. Apart from that, which, as you see, is a very empty charge,

what else have you against me? I am, I hope, as good as any other here in Cornwall; Rosamund honours me

with her affection and I am rich and shall be richer still ere the wedding bells are heard."

"Rich with the fruit of thieving upon the seas, rich with the treasures of scuttled ships and the price of slaves

captured in Africa and sold to the plantations, rich as the vampire is gluttedwith the blood of dead men."

"I heard you; but I am asking where you learnt that pretty lesson. Is Sir John your preceptor? He is, he is. No

need to tell me. I'll deal with him. Meanwhile let me disclose to you the pure and disinterested source of Sir

John's rancour. You shall see what an upright and honest gentleman is Sir John, who was your father's friend

"Nay, but you shall, in return for having made me listen to what he says of me. Sir John desires to obtain a

licence to build at the mouth of the Fal. He hopes to see a town spring up above the haven there under the

shadow of his own Manor of Arwenack. He represents himself as nobly disinterested and all concerned for

the prosperity of the country, and he neglects to mention that the land is his own and that it is his own

prosperity and that of his family which he is concerned to foster. We met in London by a fortunate chance

whilst Sir John was about this business at the Court. Now it happens that I, too, have interests in Truro and

Penryn; but, unlike Sir John, I am honest in the matter, and proclaim it. If any growth should take place about

Smithick it follows from its more advantageous situation that Truro and Penryn must suffer, and that suits me

as little as the other matter would suit Sir John. I told him so, for I can be blunt, and I told the Queen in the

form of a counterpetition to Sir John's." He shrugged. "The moment was propitious to me. I was one of the

seamen who had helped to conquer the unconquerable Armada of King Philip. I was therefore not to be

denied, and Sir John was sent home as emptyhanded as he went to Court. D'ye marvel that he hates me?

Knowing him for what he is, d'ye marvel that he dubs me pirate and worse? 'Tis natural enough so to

misrepresent my doings upon the sea, since it is those doings have afforded me the power to hurt his profit.

He has chosen the weapons of calumny for this combat, but those weapons are not mine, as I shall show him

this very day. If you do not credit what I say, come with me and be present at the little talk I hope to have

"You forget," said Master Godolphin, "that I, too, have interests in the neighbourhood of Smithick, and that

"Soho!" crowed Sir Oliver. "Now at last the sun of truth peeps forth from all this cloud of righteous

indignation at my bad Tressilian blood and pirate's ways! You, too, are but a trafficker. Now see what a fool I

am to have believed you sincere, and to have stood here in talk with you as with an honest man." His voice

swelled and his lip curled in a contempt that struck the other like a blow. "I swear I had not wasted breath

"Are a deal less than your deserts," cut in the other, and he raised his voice to call"Nick."

"I am answering now," was the stern answer. "To come here and prate to me of my dead father's

dissoluteness and of an ancient quarrel between him and yours, to bleat of my trumpedup course of piracy

and my own ways of life as a just cause why I may not wed your sister whilst the real consideration in your

mind, the real spur to your hostility is not more than the matter of some few paltry pounds a year that I hinder

"You shall hear from me again, Sir Oliver," said the other, white with anger. "You shall account to me for

"Indeed, 'tis to discredit an honourable class, I confess it. Nick, the door for Master Godolphin."

Anon, after his visitor had departed, Sir Oliver grew calm again. Then being able in his calm to consider his

position, he became angry anew at the very thought of the rage in which he had been, a rage which had so

mastered him that he had erected additional obstacles to the already considerable ones that stood between

Rosamund and himself. In full blast, his anger swung round and took Sir John Killigrew for its objective. He

Promptly, in answer to that summons, came Sir Oliver's halfbrothera slender lad favouring his mother the

dissolute Ralph Tressilian's second wife. He was as unlike Sir Oliver in body as in soul. He was comely in a

very gentle, almost womanish way; his complexion was fair and delicate, his hair golden, and his eyes of a

deep blue. He had a very charming stripling gracefor he was but in his twentyfirst year and he dressed

"Aye," growled Sir Oliver. "He came to tell me some things and to hear some others in return."

"Ha. I passed him just beyond the gates, and he was deaf to my greeting. 'Tis a most cursed insufferable pup."

"Art a judge of men, Lal." Sir Oliver stood up booted. "I am for Arwenack to exchange a compliment or two

His tightpressed lips and resolute air supplemented his words so well that Lionel clutched his arm.

"I am." And affectionately, as if to soothe the lad's obvious alarm, he patted his brother's shoulder. "Sir John,"

he explained, "talks too much. 'Tis a fault that wants correcting. I go to teach him the virtue of silence."

"So there willfor him. If a man must be saying of me that I am a pirate, a slavedealer, a murderer, and

Heaven knows what else, he must be ready for the consequences. But you are late, Lal. Where have you

"As far as Malpas?" Sir Oliver's eyes narrowed, as was the trick with him. "I hear it whispered what magnet

"I mean that you are your father's son. Remember it, and strive not to follow in his ways lest they bring you

to his own end. I have just been reminded of these predilections of his by good Master Peter. Go not over

often to Malpas, I say. No more." But the arm which he flung about his younger brother's shoulders and the

When he was gone, Lionel sat him down to dine, with Nick to wait on him. He ate but little, and never

addressed the old servant in the course of that brief repast. He was very pensive. In thought he followed his

brother on that avenging visit of his to Arwenack. Killigrew was no babe, but man of his hands, a soldier and

a seaman. If any harm should come to Oliver...He trembled at the thought; and then almost despite him his

mind ran on to calculate the consequences to himself. His fortune would be in a very different case, he

refected. In a sort of horror, he sought to put so detestable a reflection from his mind; but it returned

insistently. It would not be denied. It forced him to a consideration of his own circumstances.

All that he had he owed to his brother's bounty. That dissolute father of theirs had died as such men

commonly die, leaving behind him heavily encumbered estates and many debts; the very house of Penarrow

was mortgaged, and the moneys raised on it had been drunk, or gambled, or spent on one or another of Ralph

Tressilian's many lights o' love. Then Oliver had sold some little property near Helston, inherited from his

mother; he had sunk the money into a venture upon the Spanish Main. He had fitted out and manned a ship,

and had sailed with Hawkins upon one of those ventures, which Sir John Killigrew was perfectly entitled to

account pirate raids. He had returned with enough plunder in specie and gems to disencumber the Tressilian

patrimony. He had sailed again and returned still wealthier. And meanwhile, Lionel had remained at home

taking his ease. He loved his ease. His nature was inherently indolent, and he had the wasteful extravagant

tastes that usually go with indolence. He was not born to toil and struggle, and none had sought to correct the

shortcomings of his character in that respect. Sometimes he wondered what the future might hold for him

should Oliver come to marry. He feared his life might not be as easy as it was at present. But he did not

seriously fear. It was not in his natureit never is in the natures of such mento give any excess of

consideration to the future. When his thoughts did turn to it in momentary uneasiness, he would abruptly

dismiss them with the reflection that when all was said Oliver loved him, and Oliver would never fail to

In this undoubtedly he was fully justified. Oliver was more parent than brother to him. When their father had

been brought home to die from the wound dealt him by an outraged husbandand a shocking spectacle that

sinner's death had been with its hasty terrified repentancehe had entrusted Lionel to his elder brother's care.

At the time Oliver was seventeen and Lionel twelve. But Oliver had seemed by so many years older than his

age, that the twicewidowed Ralph Tressilian had come to depend upon this steady, resolute, and masterful

child of his first marriage. It was into his ear that the dying man had poured the wretched tale of his

repentance for the life he had lived and the state in which he was leaving his affairs with such scant provision

for his sons. For Oliver he had no fear. It was as if with the prescience that comes to men in his pass he had

perceived that Oliver was of those who must prevail, a man born to make the world his oyster. His anxieties

were all for Lionel, whom he also judged with that same penetrating insight vouchsafed a man in his last

hours. Hence his piteous recommendation of him to Oliver, and Oliver's ready promise to be father, mother,

All this was in Lionel's mind as he sat musing there, and again he struggled with that hideous insistent

thought that if things should go ill with his brother at Arwenack, there would be great profit to himself; that

these things he now enjoyed upon another's bounty he would then enjoy in his own right. A devil seemed to

mock him with the whispered sneer that were Oliver to die his own grief would not be longlived. Then in

revolt against that voice of an egoism so loathsome that in his better moments it inspired even himself with

horror, he bethought him of Oliver's unvarying, unwavering affection; he pondered all the loving care and

kindness that through these years past Oliver had ever showered upon him; and he cursed the rottenness of a

mind that could even admit such thoughts as those which he had been entertaining. So wrought upon was he

by the welter of his emotions, by that fierce strife between his conscience and his egotism, that he came

Old Nicholas, looking up abruptly, saw the lad's face, waxen, his brow bedewed with sweat.

"Master Lionel! Master Lionel!" he cried, his small bright eyes concernedly scanning his young master's face.

Lionel mopped his brow. "Sir Oliver has gone to Arwenack upon a punitive business," said he.

Lionel stood amazed at the man's easy confidence and supreme assurance of how his master must acquit

"You...you have no fear, Nicholas...." He did not add of what. But the servant understood, and his grin grew

"Fear? Lackaday! I bain't afeeard for Sir Oliver, and doan't ee be afeeard. Sir Oliver'll be home to sup with a

The servant was justified of his confidence by the events, though through a slight error of judgment Sir Oliver

did not quite accomplish all that promised and intended. In anger, and when he deemed that he had been

affronted, he wasas his chronicler never wearies of insisting, and as you shall judge before the end of this

tale is reachedof a tigerish ruthlessness. He rode to Arwenack fully resolved to kill his calumniator.

Nothing less would satisfy him. Arrived at that fine embattled castle of the Killigrews which commanded the

entrance to the estuary of the Fal, and from whose crenels the country might be surveyed as far as the Lizard,

fifteen miles away, he found Peter Godolphin there before him; and because of Peter's presence Sir Oliver

was more deliberate and formal in his accusation of Sir John than he had intended. He desired, in accusing Sir

John, also to clear himself in the eyes of Rosamund's brother, to make the latter realize how entirely odious

were the calumnies which Sir John had permitted himself, and how basely prompted.

Sir John, however, came halfway to meet the quarrel. His rancour against the Pirate of Penarrowas he had

come to dub Sir Oliver endered him almost as eager to engage as was his visitor.

They found a secluded corner of the deerpark for their business, and there Sir Johna slim, sallow

gentleman of some thirty years of age made an onslaught with sword and dagger upon Sir Oliver, full

worthy of the onslaught he had made earlier with his tongue. But his impetuosity availed him less than

nothing. Sir Oliver was come there with a certain purpose, and it was his way that he never failed to carry

In three minutes it was all over and Sir Oliver was carefully wiping his blade, whilst Sir John lay coughing

upon the turf tended by whitefaced Peter Godolphin and a scared groom who had been bidden thither to

Sir Oliver sheathed his weapons and resumed his coat, then came to stand over his fallen foe, considering him

"I think I have silenced him for a little time only," he said. "And I confess that I intended to do better. I hope,

however, that the lesson will suffice and that he will lie no moreat least concerning me."

"God forbid!" said Sir Oliver soberly. "There is no mockery in my heart. There is, believe me, nothing but

regretregret that I should not have done the thing more thoroughly. I will send assistance from the house as

From Arwenack he rode round by Penryn on his homeward way. But he did not go straight home. He paused

at the Gates of Godolphin Court, which stood above Trefusis Point commanding the view of Carrick Roads.

He turned in under the old gateway and drew up in the courtyard. Leaping to the kidneystones that paved it,

He found her in her bowera light, turreted chamber on the mansion's eastern side, with windows that

looked out upon that lovely sheet of water and the wooded slopes beyond. She was sitting with a book in her

lap in the deep of that tall window when he entered, preceded and announced by Sally Pentreath, who, now

She rose with a little exclamation of gladness when he appeared under the lintelscarce high enough to

admit him without stoopingand stood regarding him across the room with brightened eyes and flushing

What need is there to describe her? In the blaze of notoriety into which she was anon to be thrust by Sir

Oliver Tressilian there was scarce a poet in England who did not sing the grace and loveliness of Rosamund

Godolphin, and in all conscience enough of those fragments have survived. Like her brother she was tawny

headed and she was divinely tall, though as yet her figure in its girlishness was almost too slender for her

"I had not looked for you so early...." she was beginning, when she observed that his countenance was oddly

stern. "Why...what has happened?" she cried, her intuitions clamouring loudly of some mischance.

"Naught to alarm you, sweet; yet something that may vex you." He set an arm about that lissom waist of hers

above the swelling farthingale, and gently led her back to her chair, then flung himself upon the windowseat

beside her. "You hold Sir John Killigrew in some affection?" he said between statement and inquiry.

Sir Oliver made a wry face. "Aye, there's the rub. Well, I've all but killed him."

She drew back into her chair, recoiling before him, and he saw horror leap to her eyes and blench her face.

He made haste to explain the causes that had led to this, he told her briefly of the calumnies concerning him

that Sir John had put about to vent his spite at having been thwarted in a matter of his coveted licence to build

"That mattered little," he concluded. "I knew these tales concerning me were abroad, and I held them in the

same contempt as I hold their utterer. But he went further, Rose: he poisoned your brother's mind against me,

and he stirred up in him the slumbering rancour that in my father's time was want to lie between our houses.

Today Peter came to me with the clear intent to make a quarrel. He affronted me as no man has ever dared."

Do not suppose that I could harm him. He is your brother, and, so, sacred to me. He came to tell me that no

betrothal was possible between us, forbade me ever again to visit Godolphin Court, dubbed me pirate and

vampire to my face and reviled my father's memory. I tracked the evil of all this to its source in Killigrew,

and rode straight to Arwenack to dam that source of falsehood for all time. I did not accomplish quite so

much as I intended. You see, I am frank, my Rose. It may be that Sir John will live; if so I hope that he may

profit by this lesson. I have come straight to you," he concluded, "that you may hear the tale from me before

She sat very still and white, looking straight before her and not at all at Sir Oliver. At length she spoke.

"I am not skilled in reading men," she said in a sad, small voice. "How should I be, that am but a maid who

has led a cloistered life. I was told of you that you were violent and passionate, a man of bitter enmities,

"All this was I told," she pursued as if he had not spoken, "and all did I refuse to believe because my heart

"Forbearance?" she echoed, and her lips writhed in a smile of weary irony. "Surely you mock me!"

"I have told you what Sir John had done. I have told you that the greater part of itand matter all that

touched my honourI know Sir John to have done long since. Yet I suffered it in silence and contempt. Was

that to show myself easily stirred to ruthlessness? What was it but forbearance? When, however, he carries

his petty huckster's rancour so far as to seek to choke for me my source of happiness in life and sends your

brother to affront me, I am still so forbearing that I recognize your brother to be no more than a tool and go

straight to the hand that wielded him. Because I know of your affection for Sir John I gave him such latitude

Then seeing that she still avoided his regard, still sat in that frozen attitude of horror at learning that the man

she loved had imbrued his hands with the blood of another whom she also loved, his pleading quickened to a

warmer note. He flung himself upon his knees beside her chair, and took in his great sinewy hands the slender

fingers which she listlessly surrendered. "Rose," he cried, and his deep voice quivered with intercession,

"dismiss all that you have heard from out your mind. Consider only this thing that has befallen. Suppose that

Lionel my brother came to you, and that, having some measure of power and authority to support him, he

swore to you that you should never wed me, swore to prevent this marriage because he deemed you such a

woman as could not bear my name with honour to myself; and suppose that to all this he added insult to the

memory of your dead father, what answer would you return him? Speak, Rose! Be honest with thyself and

me. Deem yourself in my place, and say in honesty if you can still condemn me for what I have done. Say if

Her eyes scanned now his upturned face, every line of which was pleading to her and calling for impartial

judgment. Her face grew troubled, and then almost fierce. She set her hands upon his shoulders, and looked

"You swear to me, Noll, that all is as you have told it meyou have added naught, you have altered naught

"You need such oaths from me?" he asked, and she saw sorrow spread upon his countenance.

"If I did I should not love thee, Noll. But in such an hour I need your own assurance. Will you not be

generous and bear with me, strengthen me to withstand anything that may be said hereafter?"

She sank her head to his shoulder. She was weeping softly, overwrought by this climax to all that in silence

"Tnen," she said, "I believe you acted rightly. I believe with you that no man of honour could have acted

otherwise. I must believe you, Noll, for did I not, then I could believe in naught and hope for naught. You are

as a fire that has seized upon the better part of me and consumed it all to ashes that you may hold it in your

"True I shall ever be, sweetheart," he whispered fervently. "Could I be less since you are sent to make me

"He shall have no power to anger me," he answered. "I swear that too. Do you know that but today he struck

"My quarrel was not with him but with the rogue that sent him. I laughed at the blow. Was he not sacred to

"He is good at heart, Noll," she pursued. "In time he will come to love you as you deserve, and you will come

"And you will think ever thus during the little while of waiting that perforce must lie before us?"

"I shall never think otherwise, sweet. Meanwhile I shall avoid him, and that no harm may come should he

forbid me Godolphin Court I'll even stay away. In less than a year you will be of full age, and none may

hinder you to come and go. What is a year, with such hope as mine to still impatience?"

She stroked his face. "Art very gentle with me ever, Noll," she murmured fondly. "I cannot credit you are

"Heed them not," he answered her. "I may have been something of all that, but you have purified me, Rose.

What man that loved you could be aught but gentle." He kissed her, and stood up. "I had best be going now,"

he said. "I shall walk along the shore towards Trefusis Point tomorrow morning. If you should chance to be

She followed him to the stairhead, and watched him as he descended with eyes that took pride in the fine

Sir Oliver's wisdom in being the first to bear Rosamund the story of that day's happenings was established

anon when Master Godolphin returned home. He went straight in quest of his sister; and in a frame of mind

oppressed by fear and sorrow, for Sir John, by his general sense of discomfiture at the hands of Sir Oliver and

by the anger begotten of all this he was harsh in manner and disposed to hector.

The astounding answer she returned himthat is, astounding to himdid not tend to soothe his sorely

"I know," she said. "And I believe him to deserve no less. Who deals in calumny should be prepared for the

He stared at her in a long, furious silence, then exploded into oaths, and finally inveighed against her

"It is fortunate for me," she answered him composedly, "that he was here before you to give me the truth of

this affair." Then her assumed calm and the anger with which she had met his own all fell away from her.

"Oh, Peter, Peter," she cried in anguish, "I hope that Sir John will recover. I am distraught by this event. But

"He shall be driven harder yet, as God's my life! If you think this deed shall go unpunished...."

She flung herself upon his breast and implored him to carry this quarrel no further. She spoke of her love for

Sir Oliver and announced her firm resolve to marry him in despite of all opposition that could be made, all of

which did not tend to soften her brother's humour. Yet because of the love that ever had held these two in

closest bonds he went so far in the end as to say that should Sir John recover he would not himself pursue the

matter further. But if Sir John should dieas was very likelyhonour compelled him to seek vengeance of

"I read that man as if he were an open book," the boy announced, with callow boastfulness. "He has the

subtlety of Satan, yet he does not delude me. It was at me he struck through Killigrew. Because he desires

you, Rosamund, he could notas he bluntly told medeal with me however I provoked him, not even

though I went the length of striking him. He might have killed me for't; but he knew that to do so would place

a barrier 'twixt him and you. Oh! he is calculating as all the fiends of Hell. So, to wipe out the dishonour

which I did him, he shifts the blame of it upon Killigrew and goes out to kill him, which he further thinks

may act as a warning to me. But if Killigrew dies...." And thus he rambled on, filling her gentle heart with

anguish to see this feud increasing between the two men she loved best in all the world. If the outcome of it

should be that either were to kill the other, she knew that she could never again look upon the survivor.

She took heart at last in the memory of Sir Oliver's sworn promise that her brother's life should be inviolate to

him, betide what might. She trusted him; she depended upon his word and that rare strength of his which

rendered possible to him a course that no weaker man would dare pursue. And in this reflection her pride in

him increased, and she thanked God for a lover who in all things was a giant among men.

But Sir John Killigrew did not die. He hovered between this world and a better one for some seven days, at

the end of which he began to recover. By October he was abroad again, gaunt and pale, reduced to half the

One of his first visits was to Godolphin Court. He went to remonstrate with Rosamund upon her betrothal,

and he did so at the request of her brother. But his remonstrances were strangely lacking in the force that she

The odd fact is that in his near approach to death, and with his earthly interest dwindling, Sir John had looked

matters frankly in the face, and had been driven to the conclusiona conclusion impossible to him in normal

healththat he had got no more than he deserved. He realized that he had acted unworthily, if unconscious at

the time of the unworthiness of what he did; that the weapons with which he had fought Sir Oliver were not

the weapons that become a Gentleman or in which there is credit to be won. He perceived that he had

permitted his old enmity for the house of Tressilian, swollen by a sense of injury lately suffered in the matter

of the licence to build at Smithick, to warp his judgment and to persuade him that Sir Oliver was all he had

dubbed him. He realized that jealousy, too, had taken a hand in the matter. Sir Oliver's exploits upon the seas

had brought him wealth, and with this wealth he was building up once more the Tressilian sway in those

parts, which Ralph Tressilian had so outrageously diminished, so that he threatened to eclipse the importance

Nevertheless, in the hour of reaction he did not go so far as to admit that Sir Oliver Tressilian was a fit mate

for Rosamund Godolphin. She and her brother had been placed in his care by their late father, and he had

nobly discharged his tutelage until such time as Peter had come to full age. His affection for Rosamund was

tender as that of a lover, but tempered by a feeling entirely paternal. He went very near to worshipping her,

and when all was said, when he had cleared his mind of all dishonest bias, he still found overmuch to dislike

in Oliver Tressilian, and the notion of his becoming Rosamund's husband was repellent.

First of all there was that bad Tressilian bloodnotoriously bad, and never more flagrantly displayed than in

the case of the late Ralph Tressilian. It wasimpossible that Oliver should have escaped the taint of it; nor

could Sir John perceive any signs that he had done so. He displayed the traditional Tressilian turbulence. He

was passionate and brutal, and the pirate's trade to which he had now set his hand was of all trades the one for

which he was by nature best equipped. He was harsh and overbearing, impatient of correction and prone to

trample other men's feelings underfoot. Was this, he asked himself in all honesty, a mate for Rosamund?

Could he entrust her happiness to the care of such a man? Assuredly he could not.

Therefore, being whole again, he went to remonstrate with her as he accounted it his duty and as Master Peter

had besought him. Yet knowing the bias that had been his he was careful to understate rather than to overstate

"But, Sir John," she protested, "if every man is to be condemned for the sins of his forbears, but few could

escape condemnation, and wherever shall you find me a husband deserving your approval?"

"I was coming to 't," he answered, a thought testily, for these interruptions which made him keep to the point

robbed him of his best arguments. "However, suffice it that many of his father's vicious qualities he has

inherited, as we see in his ways of life; that he has not inherited others only the future can assure us."

"In other words," she mocked him, yet very seriously, "I am to wait until he dies of old age to make quite

He shifted in his chair and grunted. "Be it so, then," he snapped. "We will deal with the qualities that already

"But I shall not marry a man for what others think of him, but for what I think of him myself. And in my view

"'Tis that you should be spared such a discovery that I am beseeching you not to wed him."

"Yet unless I wed him I shall never make such a discovery; and until I make it I shall ever continue to love

him and to desire to wed him. Is all my life to be spent so?" She laughed outright, and came to stand beside

him. She put an arm about his neck as she might have put it about the neck of her father, as she had been in

the habit of doing any day in these past ten yearsand thereby made him feel himself to have reached an

"Why, here are wicked wrinkles of illhumour," she cried to him. "You are all undone, and by a woman's wit,

"I am undone by a woman's wilfulness, by a woman's headstrong resolve not to see."

"Words are not things; judgments are not facts. You say that he is so, and so and so. But when I ask you upon

what facts you judge him, your only answer is that you think him to be what you say he is. Your thoughts

may be honest, Sir John, but your logic is contemptible." And she laughed again at his gaping discomfiture.

"Come, now, deal like an honest upright judge, and tell me one act of hisone thing that he has ever done

and of which you have sure knowledgethat will bear him out to be what you say he is. Now, Sir John!"

"Rogue!" he criedand upon a distant day he was to bethink him of those words. "If ever he be brought to

Thereupon following up her advantage swiftly, she kissed him. "Nor could I desire him a more honest judge

What was the poor man to do thereafter? What he did. Live up to her pronouncement, and go forthwith to

The acknowledgment of his fault was handsomely made, and Sir Oliver received it in a spirit no less

handsome. But when Sir John came to the matter of Mistress Rosamund he was, out of his sense of duty to

her, less generous. He announced that since he could not bring himself to look upon Sir Oliver as a suitable

husband for her, nothing that he had now said must mislead Sir Oliver into supposing him a consenting party

"But that," he added, "is not to say that I oppose it. I disapprove, but I stand aside. Until she is of full age her

brother will refuse his sanction. After that, the matter will concern neither him nor myself."

"I hope," said Sir Oliver, "he will take as wise a view. But whatever view he takes will be no matter. For the

rest, Sir John, I thank you for your frankness, and I rejoice to know that if I may not count you for my friend,

But if Sir John was thus won round to a neutral attitude, Master Peter's rancour abated nothing; rather it

increased each day, and presently there came another matter to feed it, a matter of which Sir Oliver had no

He knew that his brother Lionel rode almost daily to Malpas, and he knew the object of those daily rides. He

knew of the lady who kept a sort of court there for the rustic bucks of Truro, Penryn, and Helston, and he

knew something of the illrepute that had attached to her in towna repute, in fact, which had been the

cause of her withdrawal into the country. He told his brother some frank and ugly truths, concerning her, by

way of warning him, and therein, for the first time, the twain went very near to quarrelling.

After that he mentioned her no more. He knew that in his indolent way Lionel could be headstrong, and he

knew human nature well enough to be convinced that interference here would but set up a breach between

himself and his brother without in the least achieving its real object. So Oliver shrugged resignedly, and

There he left the affair, nor ever spoke again of Malpas and the siren who presided there. And meanwhile the

autumn faded into winter, and with the coming of stormy weather Sir Oliver and Rosamund had fewer

opportunities of meeting. To Godolphin Court he would not go since she did not desire it; and himself he

deemed it best to remain away since otherwise he must risk a quarrel with its master, who had forbidden him

the place. In those days he saw Peter Godolphin but little, and on the rare occasions when they did meet they

Sir Oliver was entirely happy, and men noticed how gentler were his accents, how sunnier had become a

countenance that they had known for haughty and forbidding. He waited for his coming happiness with the

confidence of an immortal in the future. Patience was all the service Fate asked of him, and he gave that

service blithely, depending upon the reward that soon now would be his own. Indeed, the year drew near its

close; and ere another winter should come round Penarrow House would own a mistress. That to him seemed

as inevitable as the season itself. And yet for all his supreme confidence, for all his patience and the

happiness he culled from it, there were moments when he seemed oppressed by some elusive sense of

overhanging doom, by some subconsciousness of an evil in the womb of Destiny. Did he challenge his

oppression, did he seek to translate it into terms of reason, he found nothing upon which his wits could

fastenand he came ever to conclude that it was his very happiness by its excessiveness that was oppressing

him, giving him at times that sense of premonitory weight about the heart as if to check its joyous soarings.

One day, a week from Christmas, he had occasion to ride to Helston on some trifling affair. For half a week a

blizzard had whirled about the coast, and he had been kept chafing indoors what time layer upon layer of

snow was spread upon the countryside. On the fourth day, the storm being spent, the sun came forth, the skies

were swept clear of clouds and all the countryside lay robed in a sundrenched, dazzling whiteness. Sir

Oliver called for his horse and rode forth alone through the crisp snow. He turned homeward very early in the

afternoon, but when a couple of miles from Helston he found that his horse had cast a shoe. He dismounted,

and bridle over arm tramped on through the sunlit vale between the heights of Pendennis and Arwenack,

singing as he went. He came thus to Smithick and the door of the forge. About it stood a group of fishermen

and rustics, for, in the absence of any inn just there, this forge was ever a point of congregation. In addition to

the rustics and an itinerant merchant with his packhorses, there were present Sir Andrew Flack, the parson

from Penryn, and Master Gregory Baine, one of the Justices from the neighbourhood of Truro. Both were

well known to Sir Oliver, and he stood in friendly gossip with them what time he waited for his horse.

It was all very unfortunate, from the casting of that shoe to the meeting with those gentlemen; for as Sir

Oliver stood there, down the gentle slope from Arwenack rode Master Peter Godolphin.

It was said afterwards by Sir Andrew and Master Baine that Master Peter appeared to have been carousing, so

flushed was his face, so unnatural the brightness of his eye, so thick his speech and so extravagant and foolish

what he said. There can be little doubt that it was so. He was addicted to Canary, and so indeed was Sir John

Killigrew, and he had been dining with Sir John. He was of those who turn quarrelsome in winewhich is

but another way of saying that when the wine was in and the restraint out, his natural humour came

uppermost untrammelled. The sight of Sir Oliver standing there gave the lad precisely what he needed to

indulge that evil humour of his, and he may have been quickened in his purpose by the presence of those

other gentlemen. In his halffuddled state of mind he may have recalled that once he had struck Sir Oliver

He drew rein suddenly as he came abreast of the group, so suddenly that he pulled his horse until it almost sat

down like a cat; yet he retained his saddle. Then he came through the snow that was all squelched and

"I am from Arwenack," he announced unnecessarily. "We have been talking of you."

"You could have had no better subject of discourse," said Sir Oliver, smiling, for all that his eyes were hard

"Marry, you are right; you make an engrossing topicyou and your debauched father."

"Sir," replied Sir Oliver, "once already have I deplored your mother's utter want of discretion."

The words were out of him in a flash under the spur of the gross insult flung at him, uttered in the momentary

blind rage aroused by that inflamed and taunting face above him. No sooner were they sped than he repented

them, the more bitterly because they were greeted by a guffaw from the rustics. He would have given half his

Master Godolphin's face had changed as utterly as if he had removed a mask. From flushed that it had been it

was livid now and the eyes were blazing, the mouth twitching. Thus a moment he glowered upon his enemy.

"You dog!" he cried, in a snarling sob. "You dog!" And his lash came down and cut a long red wheal across

With cries of dismay and anger the others, the parson, the Justice and the rustics got between the pair, for Sir

Oliver was looking very wicked, and all the world knew him for a man to be feared.

"Master Godolphin, I cry shame upon you," exclaimed the parson. "If evil comes of this I shall testify to the

"Go to the devil, sir," said Master Godolphin thickly. "Is my mother's name to be upon the lips of that

bastard? By God, man, the matter rests not here. He shall send his friends to me, or I will horsewhip him

"You hear?" he roared. "There is no Sir John Killigrew this time upon whom you can shift the quarrel. Come

you to me and get the punishment of which that whiplash is but an earnest." Then with a thick laugh he drove

spurs into his horse's flanks, so furiously that he all but sent the parson and another sprawling.

"Stay but a little while for me," roared Sir Oliver after him. "You'll ride no more, my drunken fool!"

And in a rage he bellowed for his horse, flinging off the parson and Master Baine, who endeavoured to detain

and calm him. He vaulted to the saddle when the nag was brought him, and whirled away in furious pursuit.

The parson looked at the Justice and the Justice shrugged, his lips tightpressed.

"The young fool is drunk," said Sir Andrew, shaking his white head. "He's in no case to meet his Maker."

"Yet he seems very eager," quoth Master Justice Baine. "I doubt I shall hear more of the matter." He turned

and looked into the forge where the bellows now stood idle, the smith himself grimy and aproned in leather in

the doorway, listening to the rustics account of the happening. Master Baine it seems had a taste for

analogies. "Faith," he said, "the place was excellently well chosen. They have forged here today a sword

The parson had notions of riding after Sir Oliver, and begged Master Baine to join him. But the Justice

looked down his long nose and opined that no good purpose was to be served; that Tressilians were ever wild

and bloody men; and that an angry Tressilian was a thing to be avoided. Sir Andrew, who was far from

valorous, thought there might be wisdom in the Justice's words, and remembered that he had troubles enough

of his own with a froward wife without taking up the burdens of others. Master Godolphin and Sir Oliver

between them, quoth the justice, had got up this storm of theirs. A God's name let them settle it, and if in the

settling they should cut each other's throats haply the countryside would be well rid of a brace of turbulent

fellows. The pedlar deemed them a couple of madmen, whose ways were beyond the understanding of a

sober citizen. The othersthe fishermen and the rusticshad not the means to follow even had they had the

They dispersed to put abroad the news of that short furious quarrel and to prophesy that blood would be let in

the adjusting of it. This prognostication the they based entirely upon their knowledge of the short Tressilian

way. But it was a matter in which they were entirely wrong. It is true that Sir Oliver went galloping along that

road that follows the Penryn river and that he pounded over the bridge in the town of Penryn in Master

Godolphin's wake with murder in his heart. Men who saw him riding wildly thus with the red wheal across

He crossed the bridge at Penryn a halfhour after sunset, as dusk was closing into night, and it may be that

the sharp, frosty air had a hand in the cooling of his blood. For as he reached the river's eastern bank he

slackened his breakneck pace, even as he slackened the angry galloping of his thoughts. The memory of that

oath he had sworn three months ago to Rosamund smote him like a physical blow. It checked his purpose,

and, reflecting this, his pace fell to an amble. He shivered to think how near he had gone to wrecking all the

happiness that lay ahead of him. What was a boy's whiplash, that his resentment of it; should set all his future

life in jeopardy? Even though men should call him a coward for submitting to it and leaving the insult

unavenged, what should that matter? Moreover, upon the body of him who did so proclaim him he could

brand the lie of a charge so foolish. Sir Oliver raised his eyes to the deep sapphire dome of heaven where an

odd star was glittering frostily, and thanked God from a swelling heart that he had not overtaken Peter

A mile or so below Penryn, he turned up the road that ran down to the ferry there, and took his way home

over the shoulder of the hill with a slack rein. It was not his usual way. He was wont ever to go round by

Trefusis Point that he might take a glimpse at the walls of the house that harboured Rosamund and a glance at

the window of her bower. But tonight he thought the shorter road over the hill would be the safer way. If he

went by Godolphin Court he might chance to meet Peter again, and his past anger warned him against

courting such a meeting, warned him to avoid it lest evil should betide. Indeed, so imperious was the

warning, and such were his fears of himself after what had just passed, that he resolved to leave Penarrow on

the next day. Whither he would go he did not then determine. He might repair to London, and he might even

go upon another cruisean idea which he had lately dismissed under Rosamund's earnest intercession. But it

was imperative that he should quit the neighbourhood, and place a distance between Peter Godolphin and

himself until such time as he might take Rosamund to wife. Eight months or so of exile; but what matter?

Better so than that he should be driven into some deed that would compel him to spend his whole lifetime

apart from her. He would write, and she would understand and approve when he told her what had passed that

The resolve was firmly implanted in him by the time he reached Penarrow, and he felt himself uplifted by it

and by the promise it afforded him that thus his future happiness would be assured.

Himself he stabled his horse; for of the two grooms he kept, one had by his leave set out yesterday to spend

Christmas in Devon with his parents, the other had taken a chill and had been ordered to bed that very day by

Sir Oliver, who was considerate with those that served him. In the diningroom he found supper spread, and

a great log fire blazed in the enormous cowled fireplace, diffusing a pleasant warmth through the vast room

and flickering ruddily upon the trophies of weapons that adorned the walls, upon the tapestries and the

portraits of dead Tressilians. Hearing his step, old Nicholas entered bearing a great candlebranch which he

"You'm late, Sir Oliver," said the servant, and Master Lionel bain't home yet neither."

Sir Oliver grunted and scowled as he crunched a log and set it sizzling under his wet heel. He thought of

Malpas and cursed Lionel's folly, as, without a word, he loosed his cloak and flung it on an oaken coffer by

the wall where already he had cast his hat. Then he sat down, and Nicholas came forward to draw off his

When that was done and the old servant stood up again, Sir Oliver shortly bade him to serve supper.

"Master Lionel cannot be long now," said he. "And give me to drink, Nick. 'Tis what I most require."

"I've brewed ee a posset o' canary sack," announced Nicholas; "there'm no better supping o' a frosty winter's

He departed to return presently with a black jack that was steaming fragrantly. He found his master still in the

same attitude, staring at the fire, and frowning darkly. Sir Oliver's thoughts were still of his brother and

Malpas, and so insistent were they that his own concerns were for the moment quite neglected; he was

considering whether it was not his duty, after all, to attempt a word of remonstrance. At length he rose with a

sigh and got to table. There he bethought him of his sick groom, and asked Nicholas for news of him.

Nicholas reported the fellow to be much as he had been, whereupon Sir Oliver took up a cup and brimmed it

"No doubt," agreed Sir Oliver. "No need to stay for him. Here is all he needs. Carry that to Tom ere it cools."

It was his object to procure the servant's absence when Lionel should arrive, resolved as he was to greet him

with a sound rating for his folly. Reflection had brought him the assurance that this was become his duty in

view of his projected absence from Penarrow; and in his brother's interest he was determined not to spare

He took a deep draught of the posset, and as he set it down he heard Lionel's step without. Then the door was

Sir Oliver looked round with a scowl, the wellconsidered reproof already on his lips.

"So...." he began, and got no further. The sight that met his eyes drove the ready words from his lips and

mind; instead it was with a sharp gasp of dismay that he came immediately to his feet. "Lionel!"

Lionel lurched in, closed the door, and shot home one of its bolts. Then he leaned against it, facing his

brother again. He was deathly pale, with great dark stains under his eyes; his ungloved right hand was pressed

to his side, and the fingers of it were all smeared with blood that was still oozing and dripping from between

them. Over his yellow doublet on the right side there was a spreading dark stain whose nature did not intrigue

"My God!" he cried, and ran to his brother. "What's happened, Lal? Who has done this?"

Never a word said Sir Oliver, but he set his teeth and clenched his hands until the nails cut into his palms.

Then he put an arm about this lad he loved above all save one in the whole world, and with anguish in his

mind he supported him forward to the fire. There Lionel dropped to the chair that Sir Oliver had lately

"'Tis naughta flesh wound; but I have lost a mort of blood. I thought I should have been drained or ever I

With fearful speed Sir Oliver drew his dagger and ripped away doublet, vest, and shirt, laying bare the lad's

"Art a very babe, Lal," he cried in his relief. To ride without thought to stanch so simple a wound, and so lose

all this bloodbad Tressilian blood though it be." He laughed in the immensity of his reaction from that

momentary terror. "Stay thou there whilst I call Nick to help us dress this scratch."

"No, no!" There was note of sudden fear in the lad's voice, and his hand clutched at his brother's sleeve.

Sir Oliver stared, bewildered. Lionel smiled again that curious twisted, rather frightened smile.

"I gave better than I took, Noll," said he. "Master Godolphin is as cold by now as the snow on which I left

His brother's sudden start and the fixed stare from out of his slowly paling face scared Lionel a little. He

observed, almost subconsciously, the dull red wheal that came into prominence as the colour faded out of Sir

Oliver's face, yet never thought to ask how it came there. His own affairs possessed him too completely.

Lionel dropped his eyes, unable longer to meet a glance that was becoming terrible.

"He would have it," he growled almost sullenly, answering the reproach that was written in every line of his

brother's taut body. "I had warned him not to cross my path. But tonight I think some madness had seized

upon him. He affronted me, Noll; he said things which it was beyond human power to endure, and...." He

"Well, well," said Oliver in a small voice. "First let us tend this wound of yours."

"Do not call Nick," was the other's swift admonition. "Don't you see, Noll?" he explained in answer to the

inquiry of his brother's stare, "don't you see that we fought there almost in the dark and without witnesses.

It...." he swallowed, "it will be called murder, fair fight though it was; and should it be discovered that it was

"I see," said Oliver, who understood at last, and he added bitterly: "You fool!"

"I had no choice," protested Lionel. "He came at me with his drawn sword. Indeed, I think he was

halfdrunk. I warned him of what must happen to the other did either of us fall, but he bade me not concern

myself with the fear of any such consequences to himself. He was full of foul words of me and you and all

whoever bore our name. He struck me with the flat of his blade and threatened to run me through as I stood

unless I drew to defend myself. What choice had I? I did not mean to kill himas God's my witness, I did

Without a word Oliver turned to a sidetable, where stood a metal basin and ewer. He poured water, then

came in the same silence to treat his brother's wound. The tale that Lionel told made blame impossible, at

least from Oliver. He had but to recall the mood in which he himself had ridden after Peter Godolphin; he had

but to remember, that only the consideration of Rosamundonly, indeed, the consideration of his

When he had washed the wound he fetched some table linen from a press and ripped it into strips with his

dagger; he threaded out one of these and made a preliminary crisscross of the threads across the lips of the

woundfor the blade had gone right through the muscles of the breast, grazing the ribs; these threads would

help the formation of a clot. Then with the infinite skill and cunning acquired in the course of his rovings he

That done, he opened the window and flung out the bloodtinted water. The cloths with which he had

mopped the wound and all other similar evidences of the treatment he cast upon the fire. He must remove all

traces even from the eyes of Nicholas. He had the most implicit trust in the old servant's fidelity. But the

matter was too grave to permit of the slightest risk. He realized fully the justice of Lionel's fears that however

fair the fight might have been, a thing done thus in secret must be accounted murder by the law.

Bidding Lionel wrap himself in his cloak, Sir Oliver unbarred the door, and went upstairs in quest of a fresh

shirt and doublet for his brother. On the landing he met Nicholas descending. He held him a moment in talk

of the sick man above, and outwardly at least he was now entirely composed. He dispatched him upstairs

again upon a trumpedup errand that must keep him absent for some little time, whilst himself he went to get

He returned below with them, and when he had assisted his brother into fresh garments with as little

movement as possible so as not to disturb his dressing of the wound or set it bleeding afresh, he took the

bloodstained doublet, vest, and shirt which he had ripped and flung them, too, into the great fire.

When some moments later Nicholas entered the vast room he found the brothers sitting composedly at table.

Had he faced Lionel he would have observed little amiss with him beyond the deep pallor of his face. But he

did not even do so much. Lionel sat with his back to the door and the servant's advance into the room was

checked by Sir Oliver with the assurance that they did not require him. Nicholas withdrew again, and the

Lionel ate very sparingly. He thirsted and would have emptied the measure of posset, but that Sir Oliver

restrained him, and refused him anything but water lest he should contract a fever. Such a sparing meal as

they madefor neither had much appetitewas made in silence. At last Sir Oliver rose, and with slow,

heavy steps, suggestive of his humour, he crossed to the fireplace. He threw fresh logs on the blaze, and

took from the tall mantelshelf his pipe and a leaden jar of tobacco. He filled the pipe pensively, then with the

He returned to the table, and standing over his brother, he broke at last the silence that had now endured some

Lionel started and shrank a little; between finger and thumb he kneaded a fragment of bread, his eyes upon it.

"'Tis not the truth. I am not to be put off with such an answer. Yourself you said that you had warned him not

Lionel leaned his elbows on the table and took his head in his hands. Weak from loss of blood, overwrought

mentally as well, in a state of revulsion and reaction also from the pursuit which had been the cause of

tonight's tragic affair, he had not strength to withhold the confidence his brother asked. On the contrary, it

seemed to him that in making such a confidence, he would find a haven and refuge in Sir Oliver.

"'Twas that wanton at Malpas was the cause of all," he complained. And Sir Oliver's eye flashed at the words.

"I deemed her quite other; I was a fool, a fool! I"he choked, and a sob shook him"I thought she loved

"I believed her pure and good, and...." He checked. "After all, who am I to say even now that she was not?

'Twas no fault of hers. 'Twas he, that foul dog Godolphin, who perverted her. Until he came all was well

"I see," said Sir Oliver quietly. "I think you have something for which to thank him, if he revealed to you the

truth of that strumpet's nature. I would have warned thee, lad. But...Perhaps I have been weak in that."

"I say it was, and if I say so I am to be believed, Lionel. I'd smirch no woman's reputation without just cause.

Lionel stared up at him. "O God!" he cried presently, "I know not what to believe. I am a shuttlecock flung

"Believe me," said Sir Oliver grimly. "And set all doubts to rest." Then he smiled. "So that was the virtuous

Master Peter's secret pastime, eh? The hypocrisy of man! There is no plumbing the endless depths of it!"

He laughed outright, remembering all the things that Master Peter had said of Ralph Tressiliandelivering

himself as though he were some chaste and selfdenying anchorite. Then on that laugh he caught his breath

quite suddenly. "Would she know?" he asked fearfully. "Would that harlot know, would she suspect that

"Ayewould she," replied the other. "I told her tonight, when she flouted me and spoke of him, that I went

straight to find him and pay the score between us. I was on my way to Godolphin Court when I came upon

"And so he did." Lionel countered instantly. "He never gave me time to speak, but flung down from his horse

and came at me snarling like a crossgrained mongrel. Oh, he was as ready for the fight as Ias eager."

"But the woman at Malpas knows," said Sir Oliver gloomily. "And if she tells...."

"Indeed, I think you are right," agreed his brother with relief. "She dare not for other reasons, when I come to

think of it. Her reputation is already such, and so well detested is she that were it known she had been the

cause, however indirect, of this, the countryside would satisfy certain longings that it entertains concerning

Sir Oliver strode the length of the room and back, pulling at his pipe. "All should be well, then, I think," said

He took up his stripling brother in his powerful arms and bore him upstairs as though he were a babe.

When he had seen him safely disposed for slumber, he returned below, shut the door in the hall, drew up the

great oaken chair to the fire, and sat there far into the night smoking and thinking.

He had said to Lionel that all should be well. All should be well for Lionel. But what of himself with the

burden of this secret on his soul? Were the victim another than Rosamund's brother the matter would have

plagued him but little. The fact that Godolphin was slain, it must be confessed, was not in itself the source of

his oppression. Godolphin had more than deserved his end, and he would have come by it months ago at Sir

Oliver's own hand but for the fact that he was Rosamund's brother, as we know. There was the rub, the bitter,

cruel rub. Her own brother had fallen by the hand of his. She loved her brother more than any living being

next to himself, just as he loved Lionel above any other but herself. The pain that must be hers he knew; he

experienced some of it in anticipation, participating it because it was hers and because all things that were

He rose up at last, cursing that wanton at Malpas who had come to fling this fresh and terrible difficulty

where already he had to face so many. He stood leaning upon the overmantel, his foot upon one of the dogs

of the fender, and considered what to do. He must bear his burden in silence, that was all. He must keep this

secret even from Rosamund. It split his heart to think that he must practise this deceit with her. But naught

else was possible short of relinquishing her, and that was far beyond his strength.

It was old Nicholas who brought the news next morning to the brothers as they were breaking their fast.

Lionel should have kept his bed that day, but dared not, lest the fact should arouse suspicion. He had a little

fever, the natural result both of his wound and of his loss of blood; he was inclined to welcome rather than

deplore it, since it set a flush on cheeks that otherwise must have looked too pale.

So leaning upon his brother's arm he came down to a breakfast of herrings and small ale before the tardy sun

Nicholas burst in upon them with a white face and shaking limbs. He gasped out his tale of the event in a

voice of terror, and both brothers affected to be shocked, dismayed and incredulous. But the worst part of that

old man's news, the true cause of his terrible agitation, was yet to be announced.

"And they do zay," he cried with anger quivering through his fear, "they do zay that it were you that killed he,

"I?" quoth Sir Oliver, staring, and suddenly like a flood there burst upon his mind a hundred reasons

overlooked until this moment, that inevitably must urge the countryside to this conclusion, and to this

In the tumult of his mind he never heeded what answer was returned by Nicholas. What could it matter where

the fellow had heard the thing; by now it would be the accusation on the lips of every man. There was one

course to take and he must take it instantlyas he had taken it once before in like case. He must straight to

Rosamund to forestall the tale that others would carry to her. God send he did not come too late already.

He stayed for no more than to get his boots and hat, then to the stables for a horse, and he was away over the

short mile that divided Penarrow from Godolphin Court, going by bridle and track meadow straight to his

goal. He met none until he fetched up in the courtyard at Godolphin Court. Thence a babble of excited voices

had reached him as he aproached. But at sight of him there fell a general silence, ominous and staring. A

dozen men or more were assembled there, and their eyes considered him first with amazement and curiosity,

He leapt down from his saddle, and stood a moment waiting for one of the three Godolphin grooms he had

"How now?" he cried. "Does no one wait here? Hither, sirrah, and hold my horse."

The groom addressed hesitated a moment, then, under the stare of Sir Oliver's hard, commanding eye, he

shuffled sullenly forward to do as he was bid. A murmur ran through the group. Sir Oliver flashed a glance

In that silence he strode up the steps, and entered the rushstrewn hall. As he vanished he heard the hubbub

behind him break out anew, fiercer than it had been before. But he nothing heeded it.

He found himself face to face with a servant, who shrank before him, staring as those in the courtyard had

stared. His heart sank. It was plain that he came a little late already; that the tale had got there ahead of him.

"I...I will tell her you are here, Sir Oliver," the man replied in a voice that faltered; and he passed through a

doorway on the right. Sir Oliver stood a moment tapping his boots with his whip, his face pale, a deep line

A moment Sir Oliver scanned the servant's faceor appeared to scan it, for it is doubtful if he saw the fellow

at all. Then for only answer he strode forward towards the door from which the man had issued. The servant

"Out of my way!" he muttered in his angry, contemptuous fashion, and as the man persistent in his duty stood

his ground, Sir Oliver took him by the breast of his jacket, heaved him aside and went in.

She was standing in midapartment, dressed by an odd irony all in bridal white, that yet was not as white as

was her face. Her eyes looked like two black stains, solemn and haunting as they fastened up on this intruder

who would not be refused. Her lips parted, but she had no word for him. She just stared in a horror that routed

all his audacity and checked the masterfulness of his advance. At last he spoke.

"I see that you have heard," said he, "the lie that runs the countryside. That is evil enough. But I see that you

She continued to regard him with a cold look of loathing, this child that but two days ago had lain against his

"Rosamund!" he cried, and approached her by another step. "Rosamund! I am here to tell you that it is a lie."

"You had best go," she said, and her voice had in it a quality that made him tremble.

"I consented to hear you more than once; refused to hear others who knew better than I, and was heedless of

their warnings. There is no more to be said between us. I pray God that they may take and hang you."

He was white to the lips, and for the first time in his life he knew fear and felt his great limbs trembling under

"They may hang me and welcome since you believe this thing. They could not hurt me more than you are

doing, nor by hanging me could they deprive me of aught I value, since your faith in me is a thing to be

He saw the pale lips twist themselves into a dreadful smile. "There is more than rumour, I think said she.

"My lies?" he cried. "Rosamund, I swear to you by my honour that I have had no hand in the slaying of Peter.

"It seems," said a harsh voice behind him, "that you fear God as little as aught else."

"So," he said slowly, and his eyes grew hard and bright as agates, "this is your work." And he waved a hand

"My work?" quoth Sir John. He closed the door, and advanced into the room. "Sir, it seems your audacity,

"Have done with that," Sir Oliver interrupted him and smote his great fist upon the table. He was suddenly

swept by a gust of passion. "Leave words to fools, Sir John, and criticisms to those that can defend them

"Aye, you talk like a man of blood. You come hectoring it here in the very house of the deadin the very

His voice was a roar, his mien terrific. And bold man though Sir John was, he recoiled. Instantly Sir Oliver

had conquered himself again. He swung to Rosamund. "Ah, forgive me!" he pleaded. "I am madstark mad

with anguish at the thing imputed. I have not loved your brother, it is true. But as I swore to you, so have I

done. I have taken blows from him, and smiled; but yesterday in a public place he affronted me, lashed me

across the face with his ridingwhip, as I still bear the mark. The man who says I were not justified in having

killed him for it is a liar and a hypocrite. Yet the thought of you, Rosamund, the thought that he was your

brother sufficed to quench the rage in which he left me. And now that by some grim mischance he has met

his death, my recompense for all my patience, for all my thought for you is that I am charged with slaying

"Sir John," he cried, "I pray you do not meddle with her choice. That you believe it, marks you for a fool, and

a fool's counsel is a rotten staff to lean upon at any time. Why God o' mercy! assume that I desired to take

satisfaction for the affront he had put upon me; do you know so little of men, and of me of all men, that you

suppose I should go about my vengeance in this holeandcorner fashion to set a hangman's noose about my

neck. A fine vengeance that, as God lives! Was it so I dealt with you, Sir John, when you permitted your

tongue to wag too freely, as you have yourself confessed? Heaven's light, man; take a proper view; consider

was this matter likely. I take it you are a more fearsome antagonist than was ever poor Peter Godolphin, yet

when I sought satisfaction of you I sought it boldly and openly, as is my way. When we measured swords in

your park at Arwenack we did so before witnesses in proper form, that the survivor might not be troubled

with the Justices. You know me well, and what manner of man I am with my weapons. Should I not have

done the like by Peter if I had sought his life? Should I not have sought it in the same open fashion, and so

Sir John was stricken thoughtful. Here was logic hard and clear as ice; and the knight of Arwenack was no

fool. But whilst he stood frowning and perplexed at the end of that long tirade, it was Rosamund who gave

"You mean," he said slowly, gently, his accents charged with reproachful incredulity, "that I am so base and

false that I could in this fashion do what I dared not for your sake do openly? 'Tis what you mean. Rosamund!

I burn with shame for you that you can think such thoughts of one whom...whom you professed to love."

Her coldness fell from her. Under the lash of his bitter, halfscornful accents, her anger mounted, whelming

"You false deceiver!" she cried. "There are those who heard you vow his death. Your very words have been

reported to me. And from where he lay they found a trail of blood upon the snow that ran to your own door.

They saw the colour leave his face. They saw his arms drop limply to his sides, and his eyes dilate with

"Aye, answer that!" cut in Sir John, fetched suddenly from out his doubts by that reminder.

Sir Oliver turned upon Killigrew again. The knight's words restored to him the courage of which Rosamund's

had bereft him. With a man he could fight; with a man there was no need to mince his words.

"I cannot answer it," he said, but very firmly, in a tone that brushed aside all implications. "If you say it was

so, so it must have been. Yet when all is said, what does it prove? Does it set it beyond doubt that it was I

who killed him? Does it justify the woman who loved me to believe me a murderer and something worse?"

He paused, and looked at her again, a world of reproach in his glance. She had sunk to a chair, and rocked

there, her fingers locking and interlocking, her face a mask of pain unutterable.

"Can you suggest what else it proves, sir?" quoth Sir John, and there was doubt in his voice.

"O God of pity!" he cried out. "There is doubt in your voice, and there is none in hers. You were my enemy

once, and have since been in a mistrustful truce with me, yet you can doubt that I did this thing. But she...she

"Sir Oliver," she answered him, "the thing you have done has broken quite my heart. Yet knowing all the

taunts by which you were brought to such a deed I could have forgiven it, I think, even though I could no

longer be your wife; I could have forgiven it, I say, but for the baseness of your present denial."

He looked at her, whitefaced an instant, then turned on his heel and made for the door. There he paused.

"Your meaning is quite plain," said he. "It is your wish that I shall take my trial for this deed." He laughed.

"Ha! Be it so. But do not think I am the man to suffer myself to be sent to the gallows upon such paltry

evidence as satisfies that lady. If any accuser comes to bleat of a trail of blood reaching to my door, and of

certain words I spoke yesterday in anger, I will take my trial but it shall be trial by battle upon the body of

my accuser. That is my right, and I will have every ounce of it. Do you doubt how God will pronounce? I call

upon him solemnly to pronounce between me and such an one. If I am guilty of this thing may He wither my

"Myself I will accuse you," came Rosamund's dull voice. "And if you will, you may claim your rights against

He returned home with hell in his heart. He knew not what the future might hold in store for him; but such

was his resentment against Rosamund that there was no room in his bosom for despair. They should not hang

him. He would fight them tooth and claw, and yet Lionel should not suffer. He would take care of that. And

then the thought of Lionel changed his mood a little. How easily could he have shattered their accusation,

how easily have brought her to her proud knees imploring pardon of him! By a word he could have done it,

In the calm, still watches of that night, as he lay sleepless upon his bed and saw things without heat, there

crept a change into his mental attitude. He reviewed all the evidence that had led her to her conclusions, and

he was forced to confess that she was in some measure justified of them. If she had wronged him, he had

wronged her yet more. For years she had listened to all the poisonous things that were said of him by his

enemiesand his arrogance had made him not a few. She had disregarded all because she loved him; her

relations with her brother had become strained on that account, yet now, all this returned to crush her;

repentance played its part in her cruel belief that it was by his hand Peter Godolphin had fallen. It must

almost seem to her that in a sense she had been a party to his murder by the headstrong course to which she

He saw it now, and was more merciful in judging her. She had been more than human if she had not felt as he

now saw that she must feel, and since reactions are to be measured by the mental exaltations from which they

spring, so was it but natural that now she must hate him fiercely whom she had loved wellnigh as fiercely.

It was a heavy cross to bear. Yet for Lionel's sake he must bear it with what fortitude he could. Lionel must

not be sacrificed to his egoism for a deed that in Lionel he could not account other than justified. He were

But if he did not contemplate it, Lionel did, and went in terror during those days, a terror that kept him from

sleep and so fostered the fever in him that on the second day after that grim affair he had the look of a ghost,

holloweyed and gaunt. Sir Oliver remonstrated with him and in such terms as to put heart into him anew.

Moreover, there was other news that day to allay his terrors: the Justices, at Truro had been informed of the

event and the accusation that was made; but they had refused pointblank to take action in the matter. The

reason of it was that one of them was that same Master Anthony Baine who had witnessed the affront offered

Sir Oliver. He declared that whatever had happened to Master Godolphin as a consequence was no more than

he deserved, no more than he had brought upon himself, and he gave it as his decision that his conscience as a

Sir Oliver received this news from that other witness, the parson, who himself had suffered such rudeness at

Godolphin's hands, and who, man of the Gospel and of peace though he was, entirely supported the Justice's

Sir Oliver thanked him, protesting that it was kind in him and in Master Baine to take such a view, but for the

rest avowing that he had had no hand in the affair, however much appearances might point to him.

When, however, it came to his knowledge two days later that the whole countryside was in a ferment against

Master Baine as a consequence of the attitude he had taken up, Sir Oliver summoned the parson and

straightway rode with him to the Justice's house at Truro, there to afford certain evidence which he had

"Master Baine," he said, when the three of them were closeted in that gentleman's library, "I have heard of the

just and gallant pronouncement you have made, and I am come to thank you and to express my admiration of

"But since I would not that any evil consequences might attend your action, I am come to lay proof before

you that you have acted more rightly even than you think, and that I am not the slayer."

"Oh, I assure you I use no subterfuge with you, as you shall judge. I have proof to show you, as I say; and I

am come to do so now before time might render it impossible. I do not desire it to be made public just yet,

Master Baine; but I wish you to draw up some such document as would satisfy the courts at any future time

It was a shrewd plea. The proof that was not upon himself was upon Lionel; but time would efface it, and if

anon publication were made of what he was now about to show, it would then be too late to look elsewhere.

"I assure you, Sir Oliver, that had you killed him after what happened I could not hold you guilty of having

"I know sir. But it was not so. One of the pieces of evidence against meindeed the chief itemis that from

The other two grew tensely interested. The parson watched him with unblinking eyes.

"Now it follows logically, I think, inevitably indeed, that the murderer must have been wounded in the

encounter. The blood could not possibly have been the victim's, therefore it must have been the slayer's. That

the slayer was wounded indeed we know, since there was blood upon Godolphin's sword. Now, Master

Baine, and you, Sir Andrew, shall be witnesses that there is upon my body not so much as a scratch of recent

date. I will strip me here as naked as when first I had the mischance to stray into this world, and you shall

satisfy yourselves of that. Thereafter I shall beg you, Master Baine, to indite the document I have mentioned."

And he removed his doublet as he spoke. "But since I will not give these louts who accuse me so much

satisfaction, lest I seem to go in fear of them, I must beg, sirs, that you will keep this matter entirely private

They saw the reasonableness of his proposal, and they consented, still entirely sceptical. But when they had

made their examination they were utterly dumbfounded to find all their notions entirely overset. Master

Baine, of course, drew up the required document, and signed and sealed it, whilst Sir Andrew added his own

With this parchment that should be his buckler against any future need, Sir Oliver rode home, uplifted. For

once it were safe to do so, that parchment should be spread before the eyes of Sir John Killigrew and

If that Christmas was one of sorrow at Godolphin Court, it was nothing less at Penarrow.

Sir Oliver was moody and silent in those days, given to sit for long hours staring into the heart of the fire and

repeating to himself again and again every word of his interview with Rosamund, now in a mood of bitter

resentment against her for having so readily believed his guilt, now in a gentler sorrowing humour which

His halfbrother moved softly about the house now in a sort of selfeffacement, never daring to intrude upon

Sir Oliver's abstractions. He was well acquainted with their cause. He knew what had happened at Godolphin

Court, knew that Rosamund had dismissed Sir Oliver for all time, and his heart smote him to think that he

should leave his brother to bear this burden that rightly belonged to his own shoulders.

The thing preyed so much upon his mind that in an expansive moment one evening he gave it tongue.

"Noll," he said, standing beside his brother's chair in the firelit gloom, and resting a hand upon his brother's

Sir Oliver looked up quickly, frowning. "Art mad? quoth he. "The truth would hang thee, Lal."

"It might not. And in any case you are suffering something worse than hanging. Oh, I have watched you

every hour this past week, and I know the pain that abides in you. It is not just." And he insisted"We had

"Not half so noble as it is in you to bear all the suffering for a deed that was my own."

"Bah!" Sir Oliver shrugged impatiently; his glance fell away from Lionel's face and returned to the

consideration of the fire. "After all, I can throw off the burden when I will. Such knowledge as that will

He had spoken in a harsh, cynical tone, and Lionel had turned cold at his words. He stood a long while in

silence there, turning them over in his mind and considering the riddle which they presented him. He thought

of asking his brother bluntly for the key to it, for the precise meaning of his disconcerting statement, but

courage failed him. He feared lest Sir 0liver should confirm his own dread interpretation of it.

He drew away after a time, and soon after went to bed. For days thereafter the phrase rankled in his mind"I

can throw off the burden when I will." Conviction grew upon him that Sir Oliver meant that he was

enheartened by the knowledge that by speaking if he choose he could clear himself. That Sir Oliver would so

speak he could not think. Indeed, he was entirely assured that Sir Oliver was very far from intending to throw

off his burden. Yet he might come to change his mind. The burden might grow too heavy, his longings for

Rosamund too clamorous, his grief at being in her eyes her brother's murderer too overwhelming.

Lionel's soul shuddered to contemplate the consequences to himself. His fears were selfrevelatory. He

realized how far from sincere had been his proposal that they should tell the truth; he perceived that it had

been no more than the emotional outburst of the moment, a proposal which if accepted he must most bitterly

have repented. And then came the reflection that if he were guilty of emotional outbursts that could so

outrageously play the traitor to his real desires, were not all men subject to the same? Might not his brother,

too, come to fall a prey to one of those moments of mental storm when in a climax of despair he would find

Lionel sought to assure himself that his brother was a man of stern fibres, a man who never lost control of

himself. But against this he would argue that what had happened in the past was no guarantee of what might

happen in the future; that a limit was set to the endurance of every man be he never so strong, and that it was

far from impossible that the limit of Sir Oliver's endurance might be reached in this affair. If that happened in

what case should he find himself? The answer to this was a picture beyond his fortitude to contemplate. The

danger of his being sent to trial and made to suffer the extreme penalty of the law would be far greater now

than if he had spoken at once. The tale he could then have told must have compelled some attention, for he

was accounted a man of unsmirched honour and his word must carry some weight. But now none would

believe him. They would argue from his silence and from his having suffered his brother to be unjustly

accused that he was cravenhearted and dishonourable, and that if he had acted thus it was because he had no

good defence to offer for his deed. Not only would he be irrevocably doomed, but he would be doomed with

ignominy, he would be scorned by all upright men and become a thing of contempt over whose end not a tear

Thus he came to the dread conclusion that in his endeavours to screen himself he had but enmeshed himself

the more inextricably. If Oliver but spoke he was lost. And back he came to the question: What assurance had

The fear of this from occurring to him occasionally began to haunt him day and night, and for all that the

fever had left him and his wound was entirely healed, he remained pale and thin and holloweyed. Indeed the

secret terror that was in his soul glared out of his eyes at every moment. He grew nervous and would start up

at the least sound, and he went now in a perpetual mistrust of Oliver, which became manifest in a curious

Coming one afternoon into the diningroom, which was ever Sir Oliver's favourite haunt in the mansion of

Penarrow, Lionel found his halfbrother in that brooding attitude, elbow on knee and chin on palm, staring

into the fire. This was so habitual now in Sir Oliver that it had begun to irritate Lionel's tense nerves; it had

come to seem to him that in this listlessness was a studied tacit reproach aimed at himself.

"Why do you sit ever thus over the fire like some old crone?" he growled, voicing at last the irritability that

Sir Oliver looked round with mild surprise in his glance. Then from Lionel his eyes travelled to the long

"It was not your wont to be driven to the fireside by rain. But rain or shine 'tis ever the same. You never go

"To what end?" quoth Sir Oliver, with the same mildness, but a wrinkle of bewilderment coming gradually

between his dark brows. "Do you suppose I love to meet lowering glances, to see heads approach one another

"Ha!" cried Lionel, short and sharp, his sunken eyes blazing suddenly. "It has come to this, then, that having

"Your very words are a reproach. D'ye think I do not read the meaning that lies under them?"

"Lal, Lal!" he said. "Your wound has left you disordered, boy. With what have I reproached you?" What was

this hidden meaning of my words? If you will read aright you will see it to be that to go abroad is to involve

myself in fresh quarrels, for my mood is become short, and I will not brook sour looks and mutterings. That

He advanced and set his hands upon his brother's shoulders. Holding him so at arm's length he considered

him, what time Lionel drooped his head and a slow flush overspread his cheeks. "Dear fool!" he said, and

shook him. "What ails you? You are pale and gaunt, and not yourself at all. I have a notion. I'll furnish me a

ship and you shall sail with me to my old huntinggrounds. There is life out yonderlife that will restore

Lionel looked up, his eye brightening. Then a thought occurred to him; a thought so mean that again the

colour flooded into his cheeks, for he was shamed by it. Yet it clung. If he sailed with Oliver, men would say

that he was a partner in the guilt attributed to his brother. He knewfrom more than one remark addressed

him here or there, and left by him uncontradictedthat the belief was abroad on the countryside that a

certain hostility was springing up between himself and Sir Oliver on the score of that happening in Godolphin

Park. His pale looks and hollow eyes had contributed to the opinion that his brother's sin was weighing

heavily upon him. He had ever been known for a gentle, kindly lad, in all things the very opposite of the

turbulent Sir Oliver, and it was assumed that Sir Oliver in his present increasing harshness used his brother ill

because the lad would not condone his crime. A deal of sympathy was consequently arising for Lionel and

was being testified to him on every hand. Were he to accede to such a proposal as Oliver now made him,

He realized to the full the contemptible quality of his thought and hated himself for conceiving it. But he

His brother observing this hesitation, and misreading it drew him to the fireside and made him sit.

"Listen," he said, as he dropped into the chair opposite. "There is a fine ship standing in the road below, off

Smithick. You'll have seen her. Her master is a desperate adventurer named Jasper Leigh, who is to be found

any afternoon in the alehouse at Penycumwick. I know him of old, and he and his ship are to be acquired. He

is ripe for any venture, from scuttling Spaniards to trading in slaves, and so that the price be high enough we

may buy him body and soul. His is a stomach that refuses nothing, so there be money in the venture. So here

is ship and master ready found; the rest I will providethe crew, the munitions, the armament, and by the

end of March we shall see the Lizard dropping astern. What do you say, Lal? 'Tis surely better than to sit,

"I'll...I'll think of it," said Lionel, but so listlessly that all Sir Oliver's quickening enthusiasm perished again at

But Lionel did not altogether reject the notion. If on the one hand he was repelled by it, on the other he was

attracted almost despite himself. He went so far as to acquire the habit of riding daily over to Penycumwick,

and there he made the acquaintance of that hardy and scarred adventurer of whom Sir Oliver had spoken, and

listened to the marvels the fellow had to tellmany of them too marvellous to be true of hazards upon

But one day in early March Master Jasper Leigh had a tale of another kind for him, news that dispelled from

Lionel's mind all interest in the captain's ventures on the Spanish Main. The seaman had followed the

departing Lionel to the door of the little inn and stood by his stirrup after he had got to horse.

"A word in your ear, good Master Tressilian," said he. "D'ye know what is being concerted here against our

"Ayin the matter of the killing of Master Peter Godolphin last Christmas. Seeing that the Justices would

not move of theirselves, some folk ha' petitioned the Lieutenant of Cornwall to command them to grant a

warrant for Sir Oliver's arrest on a charge o' murder. But the Justices ha' refused to be driven by his lordship,

answering that they hold their office direct from the Queen and that in such a matter they are answerable to

none but her grace. And now I hear that a petition be gone to London to the Queen herself, begging her to

Lionel drew a sharp breath, and with dilating eyes regarded the mariner, but made him no answer.

Jasper laid a long finger against his nose and his eyes grew cunning. I thought I'd warn you, sir, so as you

may bid Sir Oliver look to hisself. 'Tis a fine seaman and fine seamen be none so plentiful."

Lionel drew his purse from his pocket and without so much as looking into its contents dropped it into the

He rode home in terror almost. It was come. The blow was about to fall, and his brother would at last be

forced to speak. At Penarrow a fresh shock awaited him. He learnt from old Nicholas that Sir Oliver was

The instant conclusion prompted by Lionel's terror was that already the news had reached Sir Oliver and that

he had instantly taken action; for he could not conceive that his brother should go to Godolphin Court upon

But his fears on that score were very idle. Sir Oliver, unable longer to endure the present state of things, had

ridden over to lay before Rosamund that proof with which he had taken care to furnish himself. He could do

so at last without any fear of hurting Lionel. His journey, however, had been entirely fruitless. She had

refused pointblank to receive him, and for all that with a humility entirely foreign to him he had induced a

servant to return to her with a most urgent message, yet he had been denied. He returned stricken to

Sir Oliver looked at him from under brows that scowled darkly in reflection of his thoughts.

Sir Oliver stared long at him when he had done, then his lips tightened and he smote his brow.

"So!" he cried. "Would that be why she refused to see me? Did she conceive that I went perhaps to plead?

He crossed to the fireplace and stirred the logs with his boot angrily. "Oh! 'Twere too unworthy. Yet of a

"What shall you do?" insisted Lionel, unable to repress the question that was uppermost in his mind; and his

"Do?" Sir Oliver looked at him over his shoulder. "Prick this bubble, by heaven! Make an end of it for them,

He said it roughly, angrily, and Lionel recoiled, deeming that roughness and anger aimed at himself. He sank

into a chair, his knees loosened by his sudden fear. So it seemed that he had had more than cause for his

apprehensions. This brother of his who boasted such affection for him was not equal to bearing this matter

through. And yet the thing was so unlike Oliver that a doubt still lingered with him.

"A God's name, Lal, what's in thy mind now?" he asked, almost roughly. "Tell them the truth? Why, of

coursebut only as it concerns myself. You're not supposing that I shall tell them it was you? You'll not be

Sir Oliver explained the matter. The explanation brought Lionel relief. But this relief was ephemeral. Further

reflection presented a new fear to him. It came to him that if Sir Oliver cleared himself, of necessity his own

implication must follow. His terrors very swiftly magnified a risk that in itself was so slender as to be entirely

negligible. In his eyes it ceased to be a risk; it became a certain and inevitable danger. If Sir Oliver put

forward this proof that the trail of blood had not proceeded from himself, it must, thought Lionel, inevitably

be concluded that it was his own. As well might Sir Oliver tell them the whole truth, for surely they could not

fail to infer it. Thus he reasoned in his terror, accounting himself lost irrevocably.

Had he but gone with those fears of his to his brother, or had he but been able to abate them sufficiently to

allow reason to prevail, he must have been brought to understand how much further they carried him than

was at all justified by probability. Oliver would have shown him this, would have told him that with the

collapsing of the charge against himself no fresh charge could be levelled against any there, that no scrap of

suspicion had ever attached to Lionel, or ever could. But Lionel dared not seek his brother in this matter. In

his heart he was ashamed of his fears; in his heart he knew himself for a craven. He realized to the full the

hideousness of his selfishness, and yet, as before, he was not strong enough to conquer it. In short, his love of

The morrowa blustering day of late March found him again at that alehouse at Penycumwick in the

company of Jasper Leigh. A course had occurred to him, as the only course now possible. Last night his

brother had muttered something of going to Killigrew with his proofs since Rosamund refused to receive

him. Through Killigrew he would reach her, he had said; and he would yet see her on her knees craving his

Lionel knew that Killigrew was absent from home just then; but he was expected to return by Easter, and to

Easter there was but a week. Therefore he had little time in which to act, little time in which to execute the

project that had come into his mind. He cursed himself for conceiving it, but held to it with all the strength of

Yet when he came to sit face to face with Jasper Leigh in that little innparlour with the scrubbed table of

plain deal between them, he lacked the courage to set his proposal forth. They drank sherry sack stiffly laced

with brandy by Lionel's suggestion, instead of the more customary mulled ale. Yet not until he had consumed

the best part of a pint of it did Lionel feel himself heartened to broaching his loathsome business. Through his

head hummed the words his brother had said some time ago when first the name of Jasper Leigh had passed

between them" a desperate adventurer ripe for anything. So the price be high enough you may buy him

body and soul." Money enough to buy Jasper Leigh was ready to Lionel's hand; but it was Sir Oliver's

moneythe money that was placed at Lionel's disposal by his halfbrother's openhanded bounty. And this

money he was to employ for Oliver's utter ruin! He cursed himself for a filthy, contemptible hound; he cursed

the foul fiend that whispered such suggestions into his mind; he knew himself, despised himself and reviled

himself until he came to swear to be strong and to go through with whatever might await him sooner than be

guilty of such a baseness; the next moment that same resolve would set him shuddering again as he viewed

Suddenly the captain set him a question, very softly, that fired the train and blew all his lingering

"You'll ha' borne my warning to Sir Oliver?" he asked, lowering his voice so as not to be overheard by the

Master Lionel nodded, nervously fingering the jewel in his ear, his eyes shifting from their consideration of

"Will he not?" The captain stroked his bushy red beard and cursed profusely and horribly after the fashion of

"Ay," said Lionel, "if he bides." He felt his mouth turn dry as he spoke; his heart thudded, but its thuds were

He uttered the words in so curious a tone that the sailor's dark eyes peered at him from under his heavy sandy

eyebrows. There was alert inquiry in that glance. Master Lionel got up suddenly.

The captain's eyes narrowed. He scented business. There was something plaguily odd about this young

gentleman's manner. He tossed off the remains of his sack, slapped down the pot and rose.

Outside our gentleman untethered his horse from the iron ring to which he had attached the bridle; leading his

horse he turned seaward and strode down the road that wound along the estuary towards Smithick.

A sharp breeze from the north was whipping the water into white peaks of foam; the sky was of a hard

brightness and the sun shone brilliantly. The tide was running out, and the rock in the very neck of the haven

was thrusting its black crest above the water. A cable's length this side of it rode the black hull and naked

Lionel stepped along in silence, very gloomy and pensive, hesitating even now. And the crafty mariner

reading this hesitation, and anxious to conquer it for the sake of such profit as he conceived might lie in the

I think that ye'll have some matter to propose to me." said he slyly. "Out with it, sir, for there never was a

"The fact is," said Lionel, watching the other's face with a sidelong glance, "I am in a difficult position,

"I've been in a many," laughed the captain, "but never yet in one through which I could not win. Strip forth

"Why, it is this wise," said the other. "My brother will assuredly hang as you have said if he bides him here.

He is lost if they bring him to trial. And in that case, faith, I am lost too. It dishonours a man's family to have

"I would abstract him from this," pursued Lionel, and at the same time cursed the foul fiend that prompted

him such specious words to cloak his villainy. "I would abstract him from it, and yet 'tis against my

conscience that he should go unpunished for I swear to you, Master Leigh, that I abhor the deeda

"Ah!" said the captain. And lest that grim ejaculation should check his gentleman he made haste to add"To

Master Lionel stopped and faced the other squarely, his shoulders to his horse. They were quite alone in as

lonely a spot as any conspirator could desire. Behind him stretched the empty beach, ahead of him the ruddy

"I'll be quite plain and open with you, Master Leigh. Peter Godolphin was my friend. Sir Oliver is no more

than my halfbrother. I would give a deal to the man who would abstract Sir Oliver secretly from the doom

that hangs over him, and yet do the thing in such a way that Sir Oliver should not thereby escape the

It was strange, he thought, even as he said it, that he could bring his lips so glibly to utter words that his heart

The captain looked grim. He laid a finger upon Master Lionel's velvet doublet in line with that false heart of

"I am your man," said he. "But the risk is great. Yet ye say that ye'ld give a deal...."

"Yourself shall name the price," said Lionel quickly, his eyes burning feverishly, his cheeks white.

"Oh I can contrive it, never fear," said the captain. "I know to a nicety what you require. How say you now: if

I was to carry him overseas to the plantations where they lack toilers of just such thews as his? "He lowered

his voice and spoke with some slight hesitation, fearing that he proposed perhaps more than his prospective

"Ah!" said the skipper. "What o' the Barbary rovers, then! They lack slaves and are ever ready to trade,

though they be niggardly payers. I never heard of none that returned once they had him safe aboard their

galleys. I ha' done some trading with them, bartering human freights for spices and eastern carpets and the

The captain stroked his beard. "Yet 'tis the only really safe bestowal, and when all is said 'tis not so horrible

as hanging, and certainly less dishonouring to a man's kin. Ye'ld be serving Sir Oliver and yourself."

The seaman shifted on his short, sturdy legs, and his face grew pensive. "A hundred pound?" he suggested

"Done with you for a hundred pounds," was the prompt answerso prompt that Captain Leigh realized he

"That is, a hundred pound for myself," he corrected slowly. "Then there be the crew to reckon forto keep

Master Lionel considered a moment. "It is more than I can lay my hands on at short notice. But, look you,

you shall have a hundred and fifty pounds in coin and the balance in jewels. You shall not be the loser in that,

I promise you. And when you come again, and bring me word that all is done as you now undertake there

Upon that the bargain was settled. And when Lionel came to talk of ways and means he found that he had

allied himself to a man who understood his business thoroughly. All the assistance that the skipper asked was

that Master Lionel should lure his gentleman to some concerted spot conveniently near the waterside. There

Leigh would have a boat and his men in readiness, and the rest might very safely be left to him.

In a flash Lionel bethought him of the proper place for this. He swung round, and pointed across the water to

"Yonder, at Trefusis Point in the shadow of Godolphin Court at eight tomorrow night, when there will be no

"When you have him safely aboard come to me at Penarrow," he replied, which showed that after all he did

The captain was quite satisfied. For should his gentleman fail to disburse he could always return Sir Oliver to

On that they parted. Lionel mounted and rode away, whilst Master Leigh made a trumpet of his hands and

As he stood waiting for the boat that came off to fetch him, a smile slowly overspread the adventurer's rugged

face. Had Master Lionel seen it he might have asked himself how far it was safe to drive such bargains with a

rogue who kept faith only in so far as it was profitable. And in this matter Master Leigh saw a way to break

faith with profit. He had no conscience, but he loved as all rogues love to turn the tables upon a superior

rogue. He would play Master Lionel most finely, most poetically false; and he found a deal to chuckle over in

Master Lionel was absent most of the following day from Penarrow, upon a pretext of making certain

purchases in Truro. It would be halfpast seven when he returned; and as he entered he met Sir Oliver in the

"I have a message for you from Godolphin Court," he announced, and saw his brother stiffen and his face

change colour. "A boy met me at the gates and bade me tell you that Mistress Rosamund desires a word with

Sir Oliver's heart almost stopped, then went off at a gallop. She asked for him! She had softened perhaps

"Be thou blessed for these good tidings!" he answered on a note of high excitement. "I go at once." And on

the instant he departed. Such was his eagerness, indeed, that under the hot spur of it he did not even stay to

fetch that parchment which was to be his unanswerable advocate. The omission was momentous.

Master Lionel said no word as his brother swept out. He shrank back a little into the shadows. He was white

to the lips and felt as he would stifle. As the door closed he moved suddenly. He sprang to follow Sir Oliver.

Conscience cried out to him that he could not do this thing. But Fear was swift to answer that outcry. Unless

he permitted what was planned to take its course, his life might pay the penalty.

He found the table set for supper as on that other night when he had staggered in with a wound in his side to

be cared for and sheltered by Sir Oliver. He did not approach the table; he crossed to the fire, and sat down

there holding out his hands to the blaze. He was very cold and could not still his trembling. His very teeth

Nicholas came in to know if he would sup. He answered unsteadily that despite the lateness of the hour he

"He went out a moment since, I know not whither," replied Lionel. "But since he has not supped he is not like

Upon that he dismissed the servant, and sat huddled there, a prey to mental tortures which were not to be

repressed. His mind would turn upon naught but the steadfast, unwavering affection of which Sir Oliver ever

had been prodigal towards him. In this very matter of Peter Godolphin's death, what sacrifices had not Sir

Oliver made to shield him? From so much love and selfsacrifice in the past he inclined to argue now that not

even in extreme peril would his brother betray him. And then that bad streak of fear which made a villain of

him reminded him that to argue thus was to argue upon supposition, that it would be perilous to trust such an

assumption; that if, after all, Sir Oliver should fail him in the crucial test, then was he lost indeed.

When all is said, a man's final judgment of his fellows must be based upon his knowledge of himself; and

Lionel, knowing himself incapable of any such sacrifice for Sir Oliver, could not believe Sir Oliver capable

of persisting in such a sacrifice as future events might impose. He reverted to those words Sir Oliver had

uttered in that very room two nights ago, and more firmly than ever he concluded that they could have but

Then came doubt, and, finally, assurance of another sort, assurance that this was not so and that he knew it;

assurance that he lied to himself, seeking to condone the thing he did. He took his head in his hands and

groaned loud. He was a villain, a blackhearted, soulless villain! He reviled himself again. There came a

moment when he rose shuddering, resolved even in this eleventh hour to go after his brother and save him

But again that resolve was withered by the breath of selfish fear. Limply he resumed his seat, and his

thoughts took a fresh turn. They considered now those matters which had engaged them on that day when Sir

Oliver had ridden to Arwenack to claim satisfaction of Sir John Killigrew. He realized again that Oliver being

removed, what he now enjoyed by his brother's bounty he would enjoy henceforth in his own unquestioned

right. The reflection brought him a certain consolation. If he must suffer for his villainy, at least there would

The clock over the stables chimed the hour of eight. Master Lionel shrank back in his chair at the sound. The

thing would be doing even now. In his mind he saw it allsaw his brother come running in his eagerness to

the gates of Godolphin Court, and then dark forms resolve themselves from the surrounding darkness and fall

silently upon him. He saw him struggling a moment on the ground, then, bound hand and foot, a gag thrust

into his mouth, he beheld him in fancy borne swiftly down the slope to the beach and so to the waiting boat.

Another halfhour sat he there. The thing was done by now, and this assurance seemed to quiet him a little.

Then came Nicholas again to babble of some possible mischance having overtaken his master.

"What mischance should have overtaken him?" growled Lionel, as if in scorn of the idea.

"I pray none indeed," replied the servant. "But Sir Oliver lacks not for enemies nowadays, and 'tis scarce zafe

Master Lionel dismissed the notion contemptuously. For pretence's sake he announced that he would wait no

longer, whereupon Nicholas brought in his supper, and left him again to go and linger about the door, looking

out into the night and listening for his master's return. He paid a visit to the stables, and knew that Sir Oliver

Meanwhile Master Lionel must make pretence of eating though actual eating must have choked him. He

smeared his platter, broke food, and avidly drank a bumper of claret. Then he, too, feigned a growing anxiety

and went to join Nicholas. Thus they spent the weary night, watching for the return of one who Master Lionel

At dawn they roused the servants and sent them to scour the countryside and put the news of Sir Oliver's

disappearance abroad. Lionel himself rode out to Arwenack to ask Sir John Killigrew bluntly if he knew

Sir John showed a startled face, but swore readily enough that he had not so much as seen Sir Oliver for days.

He was gentle with Lionel, whom he liked, as everybody liked him. The lad was so mild and kindly in his

ways, so vastly different from his arrogant overbearing brother, that his virtues shone the more brightly by

"I confess it is natural you should come to me," said Sir John. "But, my word on it, I have no knowledge of

"Indeed, indeed, Sir John, I had not supposed it in my heart," replied the afflicted Lionel. "Forgive me that I

should have come to ask a question so unworthy. Set it down to my distracted state. I have not been the same

man these months, I think, since that happening in Godolphin Park. The thing has preyed upon my mind. It is

a fearsome burden to know your own brotherthough I thank God he is no more than my

Master Lionel looked confused, a look which Sir John entirely misunderstood and interpreted entirely in the

young man's favour. And it was thus and in that moment that was sown the generous seed of the friendship

that was to spring up between these two men, its roots fertilized by Sir John's pity that one so gentlenatured,

"I see, I see," he said. And he sighed. "You know that we are daily expecting an order from the Queen to her

Justices to take the action which hitherto they have refused against your...against Sir Oliver." He frowned

"Does it not help us perhaps to understand and explain Sir Oliver's disappearance? God lack! Surely,

knowing that, he were a fool to have tarried here, for he would hang beyond all doubt did he stay for the

Lionel hung his head. "What else, indeed?" said he, and took his leave like a man overwrought, as indeed he

was. He had never considered that so obvious a conclusion must follow upon his work so fully to explain the

He returned to Penarrow, and bluntly told Nicholas what Sir John suspected and what he feared himself must

be the true reason of Sir Oliver's disappearance. The servant, however, was none so easy to convince.

"But do ee believe that he done it?" cried Nicholas. "Do ee believe it, Master Lionel?" There was reproach

Nicholas sidled up to him with tightened lips. He set two gnarled fingers on the young man's arm.

"He'm not fled, Master Lionel," he announced with grim impressiveness. "He'm never a turntail. Sir Oliver he

don't fear neither man nor devil, and if so be him had killed Master Godolphin, he'd never ha' denied it. Don't

But in all that countryside the servant was the only one to hold this view. If a doubt had lingered anywhere of

Sir Oliver's guilt, that doubt was now dispelled by this flight of his before the approach of the expected orders

Nicholas brought word of his presence and his inquiry to Master Lionel, who bade him be admitted.

The thickset little seaman rolled in on his bowed legs, and leered at his employer when they were alone.

"He's snug and safe aboard," he announced. "The thing were done as clean as peeling an apple, and as quiet."

"Why?" Jasper leered again. "My business was with him. There was some talk between us of him going a

voyage with me. I've heard the gossip over at Smithick. This will fit in with it." He laid that finger of his to

his nose. "Trust me to help a sound tale along. 'T were a clumsy business to come here asking for you, sir.

Lionel paid him the price agreed and dismissed him upon receiving the assurance that the Swallow would put

When it became known that Sir Oliver had been in treaty with Master Leigh for a passage overseas, and that

it was but on that account that Master Leigh had tarried in that haven, even Nicholas began to doubt.

Gradually Lionel recovered his tranquillity as the days flowed on. What was done was done, and, in any case,

being now beyond recall, there was no profit in repining. He never knew how fortune aided him, as fortune

will sometimes aid a villain. The royal poursuivants arrived some six days later, and Master Baine was the

recipient of a curt summons to render himself to London, there to account for his breach of trust in having

refused to perform his sworn duty. Had Sir Andrew Flack but survived the chill that had carried him off a

month ago, Master Justice Baine would have made short work of the accusation lodged against him. As it

was, when he urged the positive knowledge he possessed, and told them how he had made the examination to

which Sir Oliver had voluntarily submitted, his single word carried no slightest conviction. Not for a moment

was it supposed that this was aught but the subterfuge of one who had been lax in his duty and who sought to

save himself from the consequences of that laxity. And the fact that he cited as his fellowwitness a

gentleman now deceased but served to confirm his judges in this opinion. He was deposed from his office and

subjected to a heavy fine, and there the matter ended, for the hueandcry that was afoot entirely failed to

For Master Lionel a new existence set in from that day. Looked upon as one in danger of suffering for his

brother's sins, the countryside determined to help him as far as possible to bear his burden. Great stress was

laid upon the fact that after all he was no more than Sir Oliver's halfbrother; some there were who would

have carried their kindness to the lengths of suggesting that perhaps he was not even that, and that it was but

natural that Ralph Tressilian's second wife should have repaid her husband in kind for his outrageous

infidelities. This movement of sympathy was led by Sir John Killigrew, and it spread in so rapid and marked

a manner that very soon Master Lionel was almost persuaded that it was no more than he deserved, and he

began to sun himself in the favour of a countryside that hitherto had shown little but hostility for men of the

The Swallow, having passed through a gale in the Bay of Biscaya gale which she weathered like the

surprisingly steady old tub she was rounded Cape Finisterre and so emerged from tempest into peace, from

leaden skies and mountainous seas into a sunny azure calm. It was like a sudden transition from winter into

spring, and she ran along now, close hauled to the soft easterly breeze, with a gentle list to port.

It had never been Master Leigh's intent to have got so far as this without coming to an understanding with his

prisoner. But the wind had been stronger than his intentions, and he had been compelled to run before it and

to head to southward until its fury should abate. Thus it fell outand all marvellously to Master Lionel's

advantage, as you shall seethat the skipper was forced to wait until they stood along the coast of

Portugalbut well out to sea, for the coast of Portugal was none too healthy just then to English

In the cramped quarters of the cabin in the poop of the little vessel sat her captain at a greasy table, over

which a lamp was swinging faintly to the gentle heave of the ship. He was smoking a foul pipe, whose fumes

hung heavily upon the air of that little chamber, and there was a bottle of Nantes at his elbow.

To him, sitting thus in state, was Sir Oliver introducedhis wrists still pinioned behind him. He was haggard

and holloweyed, and he carried a week's growth of beard on his chin. Also his garments were still in

disorder from the struggle he had made when taken, and from the fact that he had been compelled to lie in

Since his height was such that it was impossible for him to stand upright in that lowceilinged cabin, a stool

was thrust forward for him by one of the ruffians of Leigh's crew who had haled him from his confinement

He sat down quite listlessly, and stared vacantly at the skipper. Master Leigh was somewhat discomposed by

this odd calm when he had looked for angry outbursts. He dismissed the two seamen who fetched Sir Oliver,

The sunshine filtered through one of the horn windows and beat full upon Sir Oliver's expressionless face.

"It was not necessary, you knave, to bring me hither to tell me so much." he answered.

"Quite so," said Master Leigh. "But I have something more to add. Ye'll be thinking that I ha' done you a

disservice. There ye wrong me. Through me you are brought to know true friends from secret enemies;

Sir Oliver seemed to rouse himself a little from his passivity, stimulated despite himself by the impudence of

"You'll end by saying so yourself," the captain assured him. "D'ye know what I was bidden do with you?"

"Faith, I neither know nor care," was the surprising answer, wearily delivered. "If it is for my entertainment

"I was bidden," said he presently, "to carry you to Barbary and sell you there into the service of the Moors.

"The weather has been against me. It were no intention o' mine to ha' come so far south with you. But we've

been driven by the gale. That is overpast, and so that ye'll promise to bear no plaint against me, and to make

good some of the loss I'll make by going out of my course, and missing a cargo that I wot of, I'll put about

Sir Oliver looked at him and smiled grimly. "Now what a rogue are you that can keep faith with none!" he

cried. "First you take money to carry me off; and then you bid me pay you to carry me back again."

"Ye wrong me, sir, I vow ye do! I can keep faith when honest men employ me, and ye should know it, Sir

Oliver. But who keeps faith with rogues is a fooland that I am not, as ye should also know. I ha' done this

thing that a rogue might be revealed to you and thwarted, as well as that I might make some little profit out of

this ship o' mine. I am frank with ye, Sir Oliver. I ha' had some two hundred pounds in money and trinkets

But now of a sudden Sir Oliver's listlessness was all dispelled. It fell from him like a cloak, and he sat

The captain stared at him, his pipe neglected. "I say that if so be as ye'll pay me the same sum which your

There fell a pause and Sir Oliver looked straight before him, his head sunken a little between his shoulders.

"Let me understand," he said at length. "Do you say that my brother Lionel paid you money to carry me

"Whom else had ye suspected? Or did ye think that I did it for my own personal diversion?"

"I ha' answered you more than once already. Still, I tell you once again, since ye are slow to understand it,

that I was paid a matter of two hundred pound by your brother, Master Lionel Tressilian, to carry you off to

Master Leigh considered him a moment. "Sets the wind so!" said he at length, and without another word he

rose and went to a seachest ranged against the wooden wall of the cabin. He opened it and took thence a

leather bag. From this he produced a handful of jewels. He thrust them under Sir Oliver's nose. "Haply," said

he, "ye'll be acquainted with some of them. They was given me to make up the sum since your brother had

Sir Oliver recognized a ring and a long pearshaped pearl earring that had been his brother's; he recognized a

medallion that he himself had given Lionel two years ago; and so, one by one, he recognized every trinket

His head drooped to his breast, and he sat thus awhile like a man stunned. "My God!" he groaned miserably,

at last. "Who, then, is left to me! Lionel too! Lionel!" A sob shook the great frame. Two tears slowly trickled

down that haggard face and were lost in the stubble of beard upon his chin. "I am accursed!" he said.

Never without such evidence could he have believed this thing. From the moment that he was beset outside

the gates of Godolphin Court he had conceived it to be the work of Rosamund, and his listlessness was

begotten of the thought that she could have suffered conviction of his guilt and her hatred of him to urge her

to such lengths as these. Never for an instant had he doubted the message delivered him by Lionel that it was

Mistress Rosamund who summoned him. And just as he believed himself to be going to Godolphin Court in

answer to her summons, so did he conclude that the happening there was the real matter to which she had

bidden him, a thing done by her contriving, her answer to his attempt on the previous day to gain speech with

This conviction had been gall and wormwood to him; it had drugged his very senses, reducing him to a

listless indifference to any fate that might be reserved him. Yet it had not been so bitter a draught as this

present revelation. After all, in her case there were some grounds for the hatred that had come to take the

place of her erstwhile love. But in Lionel's what grounds were possible? What motives could exist for such an

action as this, other than a monstrous, a loathly egoism which desired perhaps to ensure that the blame for the

death of Peter Godolphin should not be shifted from the shoulders that were unjustly bearing it, and the

accursed desire to profit by the removal of the man who had been brother, father and all else to him? He

shuddered in sheer horror. It was incredible, and yet beyond a doubt it was true. For all the love which he had

showered upon Lionel, for all the sacrifices of self which he had made to shield him, this was Lionel's return.

Were all the world against him he still must have believed Lionel true to him, and in that belief must have

been enheartened a little. And now...His sense of loneliness, of utter destitution overwhelmed him. Then

slowly of his sorrow resentment was begotten, and being begotten it grew rapidly until it filled his mind and

whelmed in its turn all else. He threw back his great head, and his bloodshot, gleaming eyes fastened upon

Captain Leigh, who seated now upon the seachest was quietly observing him and waiting patiently until he

"Why, Sir Oliver," said he, "I think the price I was paid to carry you off would be a fair one. The one would

"You shall have twice the sum when you land me on Trefusis Point again," was the instant answer.

The captain's little eyes blinked and his shaggy red eyebrows came together in a frown. Here was too speedy

an acquiescence. There must be guile behind it, or he knew naught of the ways of men.

"Mischief, man? To you?" Sir Oliver laughed hoarsely. "God's light, knave, d'ye think I consider you in this

matter, or d'ye think I've room in my mind for such petty resentments together with that other?"

It was the truth. So absolute was the bitter sway of his anger against Lionel that he could give no thought to

"My word? Pshaw, man! I have given it already. I swear that you shall be paid the sum I've named the

moment you set me ashore again in England. Is that enough for you? Then cut me these bonds, and let us

"Faith, I am glad to deal with so sensible a man! Ye take it in the proper spirit. Ye see that what I ha' done I

ha' but done in the way of my calling, that I am but a tool, and that what blame there be belongs to them

"Aye, ye're but a toola dirty tool, whetted with gold; no more. 'Tis admitted. Cut me these bonds, a God's

The captain drew his knife, crossed to Sir Oliver's side and slashed his bonds away without further word. Sir

Oliver stood up so suddenly that he smote his head against the low ceiling of the cabin, and so sat down again

at once. And in that moment from without and above there came a cry which sent the skipper to the cabin

door. He flung it open, and so let out the smoke and let in the sunshine. He passed out on to the poopdeck,

In the waist below a little knot of shaggy seamen were crowding to the larboard bulwarks, looking out to sea;

on the forecastle there was another similar assembly, all staring intently ahead and towards the land. They

were off Cape Roca at the time, and when Captain Leigh saw by how much they had lessened their distance

from shore since last he had conned the ship, he swore ferociously at his mate who had charge of the wheel.

Ahead of them away on their larboard bow and in line with the mouth of the Tagus from which she had

issuedand where not a doubt but she had been lying in wait for such stray craft as thiscame a great

tallmasted ship, equipped with topgallants, running wellnigh before the wind with every foot of canvas

Closehauled as was the Swallow and with her topsails and mizzen reefed she was not making more than

one knot to the Spaniard's fivefor that she was a Spaniard was beyond all doubt judging by the haven

"Luff alee!" bawled the skipper, and he sprang to the wheel, thrusting the mate aside with a blow of his elbow

"Thou lubberly fool," roared the skipper. "I bade thee keep the same distance from shore. If the land comes

jutting out to meet us, are we to keep straight on until we pile her up?" He spun the wheel round in his hands,

and turned her down the wind. Then he relinquished the helm to the mate again. "Hold her thus," he

commanded, and bellowing orders as he went, he heaved himself down the companion to see them executed.

Men sprang to the ratlines to obey him, and went swarming aloft to let out the reefs of the topsails; others ran

astern to do the like by the mizzen and soon they had her leaping and plunging through the green water with

From the poop Sir Oliver watched the Spaniard. He saw her veer a point or so to starboard, heading straight

to intercept them, and he observed that although this manceuvre brought her fully a point nearer to the wind

than the Swallow, yet, equipped as she was with half as much canvas again as Captain Leigh's piratical craft,

The skipper came back to the poop, and stood there moodily watching that other ship's approach, cursing

himself for having sailed into such a trap, and cursing his mate more fervently still.

Sir Oliver meanwhile took stock of so much of the Swallow's armament as was visible and wondered what

like were those on the maindeck below. He dropped a question on that score to the captain, dispassionately,

as though he were no more than an indifferently interested spectator, and with never a thought to his position

"Should I be racing her afore the Wind if I as properly equipped?" growled Leigh. "Am I the man to run

Sir Oliver understood, and was silent thereafter. He observed a bo'sun and his mates staggering in the waist

under loads of cutlasses and small arms which they stacked in a rack about the mainmast. Then the gunner, a

swarthy, massive fellow, stark to the waist with a faded scarf tied turbanwise about his head, leapt up the

companion to the brass carronade on the larboard quarter, followed by a couple of his men.

Master Leigh called up the bo'sun, bade him take the wheel, and dispatched the mate forward to the

Thereafter followed a spell of racing, the Spaniard ever lessening the distance between them, and the land

dropping astern until it was no more than a hazy line above the shimmering sea. Suddenly from the Spaniard

appeared a little cloud of white smoke, and the boom of a gun followed, and after it came a splash a cable's

Linstock in hand the brawny gunner on the poop stood ready to answer them when the word should be given.

From below came the gunner's mate to report himself ready for action on the maindeck and to receive his

The skipper snarled in his fiery beard. "She has a longer range than most Spaniards," said he. "But I'll not

Scarcely had he spoken when a third shot boomed. There was a splintering crash overhead followed by a

sough and a thud as the maintopmast came hurtling to the deck and in its fall stretched a couple of men in

"Hold there!" he roared to the gunner who swung his linstock at that moment in preparation.

She was losing way as a result of that curtailment of her mainmast, and the Spaniard came on swiftly now. At

last the skipper accounted her near enough, and gave the word with an oath. The Swallow fired her first and

last shot in that encounter. After the deafening thunder of it and through the cloud of suffocating smoke, Sir

Master Leigh was cursing his gunner for having aimed too high. Then he signalled to the mate to fire the

culverin of which he had charge. That second shot was to be the signal for the whole broadside from the

maindeck below. But the Spaniard anticipated them. Even as the skipper of the Swallow signalled the whole

The Swallow staggered under the blow, recovered an instant, then listed ominously to larboard.

"Hell!" roared Leigh. "She's bilging!" and Sir Oliver saw the Spaniard standing off again, as if satisfied with

what she had done. The mate's gun was never fired, nor was the broadside from below. Indeed that sudden

list had set the muzzles pointing to the sea; within three minutes of it they were on a level with the water. The

Satisfied that she could do no further harm, the Spaniard luffed and hove to, awaiting the obvious result and

intent upon picking up what slaves she could to man the galleys of his Catholic Majesty on the

Thus the fate intended Sir Oliver by Lionel was to be fulfilled; and it was to be shared by Master Leigh

SakrelBahr, the hawk of the sea, the scourge of the Mediterranean and the terror of Christian Spain, lay

Above him on the crest of the cliff ran the dark green line of the orange groves of Araishthe reputed

Garden of the Hesperides of the ancients, where the golden apples grew. A mile or so to eastward were dotted

the huts and tents of a Bedouin encampment on the fertile emerald pastureland that spread away, as far as

eye could range, towards Ceuta. Nearer, astride of a grey rock an almost naked goatherd, a lithe brown

stripling with a cord of camelhair about his shaven head, intermittently made melancholy and unmelodious

sounds upon a reed pipe. From somewhere in the blue vault of heaven overhead came the joyous trilling of a

SakrelBahr lay prone upon a cloak of woven camelhair amid luxuriating fern and samphire, on the very

edge of the shelf of cliff to which he had climbed. On either side of him squatted a negro from the Sus both

naked of all save white loincloths, their muscular bodies glistening like ebony in the dazzling sunshine of

midMay. They wielded crude fans fashioned from the yellowing leaves of date palms, and their duty was to

wave these gently to and fro above their lord's head, to give him air and to drive off the flies.

SakrelBahr was in the very prime of life, a man of a great length of body, with a deep Herculean torso and

limbs that advertised a giant strength. His hawknosed face ending in a black forked beard was of a

swarthiness accentuated to exaggeration by the snowy white turban wound about his brow. His eyes, by

contrast, were singularly light. He wore over his white shirt a long green tunic of very light silk, woven along

its edges with arabesques in gold; a pair of loose calico breeches reached to his knees; his brown muscular

calves were naked, and his feet were shod in a pair of Moorish shoes of crimson leather, with upcurling and

very pointed toes. He had no weapons other than the heavybladed knife with a jewelled hilt that was thrust

A yard or two away on his left lay another supine figure, elbows on the ground, and hands arched above his

brow to shade his eyes, gazing out to sea. He, too, was a tall and powerful man, and when he moved there

was a glint of armour from the chain mail in which his body was cased, and from the steel casque about

which he had swathed his green turban. Beside him lay an enormous curved scimitar in a sheath of brown

leather that was heavy with steel ornaments. His face was handsome, and bearded, but swarthier far than his

SakrelBahr paid little heed to him. Lying there he looked down the slope, clad with stunted corktrees and

evergreen oaks; here and there was the golden gleam of broom; yonder over a spur of whitish rock sprawled

the green and living scarlet of a cactus. Below him about the caves of Hercules was a space of sea whose

clear depths shifted with its slow movement from the deep green of emerald to all the colours of the opal. A

little farther off behind a projecting screen of rock that formed a little haven two enormous masted galleys,

each of fifty oars, and a smaller galliot of thirty rode gently on the slight heave of the water, the vast yellow

oars standing out almost horizontally from the sides of each vessel like the pinions of some gigantic bird.

That they lurked there either in concealment or in ambush was very plain. Above them circled a flock of

SakrelBahr looked out to sea across the straits towards Tarifa and the faint distant European coastline just

visible through the limpid summer air. But his glance was not concerned with that hazy horizon; it went no

further than a fine whitesailed ship that, closehauled, was beating up the straits some four miles off. A

gentle breeze was blowing from the east, and with every foot of canvas spread to catch it she stood as close to

it as was possible. Nearer she came on her larboard tack, and not a doubt but her master would be scanning

the hostile African littoral for a sight of those desperate rovers who haunted it and who took toll of every

Christian ship that ventured overnear. SakrelBahr smiled to think how little the presence of his galleys

could be suspected, how innocent must look the sunbathed shore of Africa to the Christian skipper's

diligently searching spyglass. And there from his height, like the hawk they had dubbed him, poised in the

cobalt heavens to plumb down upon his prey, he watched the great white ship and waited until she should

A promontory to eastward made something of a lee that reached out almost a mile from shore. From the

watcher's eyrie the line of demarcation was sharply drawn; they could see the point at which the white crests

of the windwhipped wavelets ceased and the water became smoother. Did she but venture as far southward

on her present tack, she would be slow to go about again, and that should be their opportunity. And all

unconscious of the lurking peril she held steadily to her course, until not half a mile remained between her

Excitement stirred the mailclad corsair; he kicked his heels in the air, then swung round to the impassive

"She will come! She will come!" he cried in the Frankish jargonthe lingua franca of the African littoral.

A tense silence fell between them again as the ship drew nearer so that now with each forward heave of her

they caught a glint of the white belly under her black hull. SakrelBahr shaded his eyes, and concentrated

his vision upon the square ensign flying from, her mainmast. He could make out not only the red and yellow

"A Spanish ship, Biskaine," he growled to his companion. "It is very well. The praise to the One!"

"Be sure she will venture," was the confident answer. "She suspects no danger, and it is not often that our

galleys are to be found so far westward. Aye, there she comes in all her Spanish pride."

Even as he spoke she reached that line of demarcation. She crossed it, for there was still a moderate breeze on

the leeward side of it, intent no doubt upon making the utmost of that southward run.

"Now!" cried BiskaineBiskaineelBorak was he called from the lightninglike impetuousness in which

"Not yet," was the calm, restraining answer. "Every inch nearer shore she creeps the more certain is her

doom. Time enough to sound the charge when she goes about. Give me to drink, Abiad," he said to one of his

The slave turned aside, swept away a litter of ferns and produced an amphora of porous red clay; he removed

the palmleaves from the mouth of it and poured water into a cup. SakrelBahr drank slowly, his eyes never

leaving the vessel, whose every ratline was clearly defined by now in the pellucid air. They could see men

moving on her decks, and the watchman stationed in the foremast fightingtop. She was not more than half a

SakrelBahr leapt instantly to his great height and waved a long green scarf. From one of the galleys behind

the screen of rocks a trumpet rang out in immediate answer to that signal; it was followed by the shrill

whistles of the bo'suns, and that again by the splash and creak of oars, as the two larger galleys swept out

from their ambush. The long armoured poops were aswarm with turbaned corsairs, their weapons gleaming

in the sunshine; a dozen at least were astride of the crosstree of each mainmast, all armed with bows and

arrows, and the ratlines on each side of the galleys were black with men who swarmed there like locusts

The suddenness of the attack flung the Spaniard into confusion. There was a frantic stir aboard her, trumpet

blasts and shootings and wild scurryings of men hither and thither to the posts to which they were ordered by

their too reckless captain. In that confusion her manceuvre to go about went all awry, and precious moments

were lost during which she stood floundering, with idly flapping sails. In his desperate haste the captain

headed her straight to leeward, thinking that by running thus before the wind he stood the best chance of

avoiding the trap. But there was not wind enough in that sheltered spot to make the attempt successful. The

galleys sped straight on at an angle to the direction in which the Spaniard was moving, their yellow dripping

oars flashing furiously, as the bo'suns plied their whips to urge every ounce of sinew in the slaves.

Of all this SakrelBahr gathered an impression as, followed by Biskaine and the negroes, he swiftly made

his way down from that eyrie that had served him so well. He sprang from red oak to corktree and from

corktree to red oak; he leapt from rock to rock, or lowered himself from ledge to ledge, gripping a handful

of heath or a projecting stone, but all with the speed and nimbleness of an ape. He dropped at last to the

beach, then sped across it at a run, and went bounding along a black reef until he stood alongside of the

galliot which had been left behind by the other Corsair vessels. She awaited him in deep water, the length of

her oars from the rock, and as he came alongside, these oars were brought to the horizontal, and held there

firmly. He leapt down upon them, his companions following him, and using them as a gangway, reached the

bulwarks. He threw a leg over the side, and alighted on a decked space between two oars and the two rows of

Biskaine followed him and the negroes came last. They were still astride of the bulwarks when SakrelBahr

gave the word. Up the middle gangway ran a bo'sun and two of his mates cracking their long whips of

bullockhide. Down went the oars, there was a heave, and they shot out in the wake of the other two to join

SakrelBahr, scimitar in hand, stood on the prow, a little in advance of the mob of eager babbling corsairs

who surrounded him, quivering in their impatience to be let loose upon the Christian foe. Above, along the

yardarm and up the ratlines swarmed his bowmen. From the masthead floated out his standard, of crimson

The naked Christian slaves groaned, strained and sweated under the Moslem lash that drove them to the

Ahead the battle was already joined. The Spaniard had fired one single hasty shot which had gone wide, and

now one of the corsair's grapplingirons had seized her on the larboard quarter, a withering hail of arrows

was pouring down upon her decks from the Muslim crosstrees; up her sides crowded the eager Moors, ever

most eager when it was a question of tackling the Spanish dogs who had driven them from their Andalusian

Caliphate. Under her quarter sped the other galley to take her on the starboard side, and even as she went her

It was a short, sharp fight. The Spaniards in confusion from the beginning, having been taken utterly by

surprise, had never been able to order themselves in a proper manner to receive the onslaught. Still, what

could be done they did. They made a gallant stand against this pitiless assailant. But the corsairs charged

home as gallantly, utterly reckless of life, eager to slay in the name of Allah and His Prophet and scarcely less

eager to die if it should please the Allpitiful that their destinies should be here fulfilled. Up they went, and

When SakrelBahr's galliot came alongside, that brief encounter was at an end, and one of his corsairs was

aloft, hacking from the mainmast the standard of Spain and the wooden crucifix that was nailed below it. A

moment later and to a thundering roar of "Alhamdolliah!" the green crescent floated out upon the breeze.

SakrelBahr thrust his way through the press in the galleon's waist; his corsairs fell back before him,

making way, and as he advanced they roared his name deliriously and waved their scimitars to acclaim him

this hawk of the sea, as he was named, this most valiant of all the servants of Islam. True he had taken no

actual part in the engagement. It had been too brief and he had arrived too late for that. But his had been the

daring to conceive an ambush at so remote a western point, and his the brain that had guided them to this

The decks were slippery with blood, and strewn with wounded and dying men, whom already the Muslimeen

were heaving overboarddead and wounded alike when they were Christians, for to what end should they

About the mainmast were huddled the surviving Spaniards, weaponless and broken in courage, a herd of

SakrelBahr stood forward, his light eyes considering them grimly. They must number close upon a

hundred, adventurers in the main who had set out from Cadiz in high hope of finding fortune in the Indies.

Their voyage had been a very brief one; their fate they knewto toil at the oars of the Muslim galleys, or at

best, to be taken to Algiers or Tunis and sold there into the slavery of some wealthy Moor.

SakrelBahr's glance scanned them appraisingly, and rested finally on the captain, who stood slightly in

advance, his face livid with rage and grief. He was richly dressed in the Castilian black, and his velvet

SakrelBahr salaamed ceremoniously to him. "Fortuna de guerra, senor capitan," said he in fluent Spanish.

"I am Don Paulo de Guzman," the man answered, drawing himself erect, and speaking with conscious pride

"So! A gentleman of family! And wellnourished and sturdy, I should judge. In the s�k at Algiers you might

"Por las Entranas de Dios!" swore Don Paulo who, like all pious Spanish Catholics, favoured the oath

anatomical. What else he would have added in his fury is not known, for SakrelBahr waved him

"For your profanity and want of courtesy we will make the ransom a thousand philips, then," said he. And to

his followers"Away with him! Let him have courteous entertainment against the coming of his ransom."

Of the others SakrelBahr made short work. He offered the privilege of ransoming himself to any who

might claim it, and the privilege was claimed by three. The rest he consigned to the care of Biskaine, who

acted as his Kayla, or lieutenant. But before doing so he bade the ship's bo'sun stand forward, and demanded

to know what slaves there might be on board. There were, he learnt, but a dozen, employed upon menial

duties on the shipthree Jews, seven Muslimeen and two heretics and they had been driven under the

By SakrelBahr's orders these were dragged forth from the blackness into which they had been flung. The

Muslimeen upon discovering that they had fallen into the hands of their own people and that their slavery was

at an end, broke into cries of delight, and fervent praise of Allah than whom they swore there was no other

God. The three Jews, lithe, stalwart young men in black tunics that fell to their knees and black skullcaps

upon their curly black locks, smiled ingratiatingly, hoping for the best since they were fallen into the hands of

people who were nearer akin to them than Christians and allied to them, at least, by the bond of common

enmity to Spain and common suffering at the hands of Spaniards. The two heretics stood in stolid apathy,

realizing that with them it was but a case of passing from Charybdis to Scylla, and that they had as little to

hope for from heathen as from Christian. One of these was a sturdy bowlegged fellow, whose garments were

little better than rags; his weatherbeaten face was of the colour of mahogany and his eyes of a dark blue

under tufted eyebrows that once had been redlike his hair and beardbut were now thickly intermingled

with grey. He was spotted like a leopard on the hands by enormous dark brown freckles.

Of the entire dozen he was the only one that drew the attention of SakrelBahr. He stood despondently

before the corsair, with bowed head and his eyes upon the deck, a weary, dejected, spiritless slave who would

as soon die as live. Thus some few moments during which the stalwart Muslim stood regarding him; then as

if drawn by that persistent scrutiny he raised his dull, weary eyes. At once they quickened, the dulness passed

out of them; they were bright and keen as of old. He thrust his head forward, staring in his turn; then, in a

bewildered way he looked about him at the ocean of swarthy faces under turbans of all colours, and back

"God's light!" he said at last, in English, to vent his infinite amazement. Then reverting to the cynical manner

"Good day to you, Sir Oliver," said he. "I suppose ye'll give yourself the pleasure of hanging me."

How it came to happen that SakrelBahr, the Hawk of the Sea, the Muslim rover, the scourge of the

Mediterranean, the terror of Christians, and the beloved of AsadedDin, Basha of Algiers, would be one and

the same as Sir Oliver Tressilian, the Cornish gentleman of Penarrow, is at long length set forth in the

chronicles of Lord Henry Goade. His lordship conveys to us some notion of how utterly overwhelming he

found that fact by the tedious minuteness with which he follows step by step this extraordinary

metamorphosis. He devotes to it two entire volumes of those eighteen which he has left us. The whole,

Sir Oliver was one of a score of men who were rescued from the sea by the crew of the Spanish vessel that

had sunk the Swallow; another was Jasper Leigh, the skipper. All of them were carried to Lisbon, and there

handed over to the Court of the Holy Office. Since they were heretics allor nearly allit was fit and

proper that the Brethren of St. Dominic should undertake their conversion in the first place. Sir Oliver came

of a family that never had been famed for rigidity in religious matters, and he was certainly not going to burn

alive if the adoption of other men's opinions upon an extremely hypothetical future state would suffice to

save him from the stake. He accepted Catholic baptism with an almost contemptuous indifference. As for

Jasper Leigh, it will be conceived that the elasticity of the skipper's conscience was no less than Sir Oliver's,

No doubt there would be great rejoicings in the Holy House over the rescue of these two unfortunate souls

from the certain perdition that had awaited them. It followed that as converts to the Faith they were warmly

cherished, and tears of thanksgiving were profusely shed over them by the Hounds of God. So much for their

heresy. They were completely purged of it, having done penance in proper form at an Auto held on the Rocio

at Lisbon, candle in hand and sanbenito on their shoulders. The Church dismissed them with her blessing and

an injunction to persevere in the ways of salvation to which with such meek kindness she had inducted them.

Now this dismissal amounted to a rejection. They were, as a consequence, thrown back upon the secular

authorities, and the secular authorities had yet to punish them for their offence upon the seas. No offence

could be proved, it is true. But the courts were satisfied that this lack of offence was but the natural result of a

lack of opportunity. Conversely, they reasoned, it was not to be doubted that with the opportunity the offence

would have been forthcoming. Their assurance of this was based upon the fact that when the Spaniard fired

across the bows of the Swallow as an invitation to heave to, she had kept upon her course. Thus, with

unanswerable Castilian logic was the evil conscience of her skipper proven. Captain Leigh protested on the

other hand that his action had been dictated by his lack of faith in Spaniards and his firm belief that all

Spaniards were pirates to be avoided by every honest seaman who was conscious of inferior strength of

Sir Oliver fervently urged that he was no member of the crew of the Swallow, that he was a gentleman who

found himself aboard her very much against his will, being the victim of a villainous piece of trepanning

executed by her venal captain. The court heard his plea with respect, and asked to know his name and rank.

He was so very indiscreet as to answer truthfully. The result was extremely educative to Sir Oliver; it showed

him how systematically conducted was the keeping of the Spanish archives. The court produced documents

enabling his judges to recite to him most of that portion of his life that had been spent upon the seas, and

many an awkward little circumstance which had slipped his memory long since, which he now recalled, and

Had he not been in the Barbados in such a year, and had he not there captured the galleon Maria de las

Dolores? What was that but an act of villainous piracy? Had he not scuttled a Spanish carack four years ago

in the bay of Funchal? Had he not been with that pirate Hawkins in the affair at San Juan de Ulloa? And so

He almost regretted that he had given himself the trouble to accept conversion and all that it entailed at the

hands of the Brethren of St. Dominic. It began to appear to him that he had but wasted time and escaped the

clerical fire to be dangled on a secular rope as an offering to the vengeful gods of outraged Spain.

So much, however, was not done. The galleys in the Mediterranean were in urgent need of men at the time,

and to this circumstance Sir Oliver, Captain Leigh, and some others of the luckless crew of the Swallow

owed their lives, though it is to be doubted whether any of them found the matter one for congratulation.

Chained each man to a fellow, ankle to ankle, with but a short length of links between, they formed part of a

considerable herd of unfortunates, who were driven across Portugal into Spain and then southward to Cadiz.

The last that Sir Oliver saw of Captain Leigh was on the morning on which he set out from the reeking

Lisbon gaol. Thereafter throughout that weary march each knew the other to be somewhere in that wretched

In Cadiz Sir Oliver spent a month in a vast enclosed space that was open to the sky, but nevertheless of an

indescribable foulness, a place of filth, disease, and suffering beyond human conception, the details of which

the curious may seek for himself in my Lord Henry's chronicles. They are too revolting by far to be retailed

At the end of that month he was one of those picked out by an officer who was manning a galley that was to

convey the Infanta to Naples. He owed this to his vigorous constitution which had successfully withstood the

infections of that mephitic place of torments, and to the fine thews which the officer pummelled and felt as

though he were acquiring a beast of burdenwhich, indeed, is precisely what he was doing.

The galley to which our gentleman was dispatched was a vessel of fifty oars, each manned by seven men.

They were seated upon a sort of staircase that followed the slope of the oar, running from the gangway in the

The place allotted to Sir Oliver was that next the gangway. Here, stark naked as when he was born, he was

chained to the bench, and in those chains, let us say at once, he remained, without a single moment's

Between himself and the hard timbers of his seat there was naught but a flimsy and dirty sheepskin. From end

to end the bench was not more than ten feet in length, whilst the distance separating it from the next one was

a bare four feet. In that cramped space of ten feet by four, Sir Oliver and his six oarmates had their

miserable existence, waking and sleepingfor they slept in their chains at the oar without sufficient room in

Anon Sir Oliver became hardened and inured to that unspeakable existence, that living death of the

galleyslave. But that first long voyage to Naples was ever to remain the most terrible experience of his life.

For spells of six or eight endless hours at a time, and on one occasion for no less than ten hours, did he pull at

his oar without a single moment's pause. With one foot on the stretcher, the other on the bench in front of

him, grasping his part of that appallingly heavy fifteenfoot oar, he would bend his back to thrust

forwardand upwards so to clear the shoulders of the groaning, sweating slaves in front of himthen he

would lift the end so as to bring the blade down to the water, and having gripped he would rise from his seat

to throw his full weight into the pull, and so fall back with clank of chain upon the groaning bench to swing

forward once more, and so on until his senses reeled, his sight became blurred, his mouth parched and his

whole body a living, straining ache. Then would come the sharp fierce cut of the boatswain's whip to revive

energies that flagged however little, and sometimes to leave a bleeding stripe upon his naked back.

Thus day in day out, now broiled and blistered by the pitiless southern sun, now chilled by the night dews

whilst he took his cramped and unrefreshing rest, indescribably filthy and dishevelled, his hair and beard

matted with endless sweat, unwashed save by the rains which in that season were all too rare, choked almost

by the stench of his miserable comrades and infested by filthy crawling things begotten of decaying

sheepskins and Heaven alone knows what other foulnesses of that floating hell. He was sparingly fed upon

weevilled biscuit and vile messes of tallowy rice, and to drink he was given lukewarm water that was often

stale, saving that sometimes when the spell of rowing was more than usually protracted the boatswains would

thrust lumps of bread sodden in wine into the mouths of the toiling slaves to sustain them.

The scurvy broke out on that voyage, and there were other diseases among the rowers, to say nothing of the

festering sores begotten of the friction of the bench which were common to all, and which each must endure

as best he could. With the slave whose disease conquered him or who, reaching the limit of his endurance,

permitted himself to swoon, the boatswains had a short way. The diseased were flung overboard; the

swooning were dragged out upon the gangway or bridge and flogged there to revive them; if they did not

revive they were flogged on until they were a horrid bleeding pulp, which was then heaved into the sea.

Once or twice when they stood to windward the smell of the slaves being wafted abaft and reaching the fine

gilded poop where the Infanta and her attendants travelled, the helmsmen were ordered to put about, and for

long weary hours the slaves would hold the galley in position, backing her up gently against the wind so as

The number that died in the first week of that voyage amounted to close upon a quarter of the total. But there

were reserves in the prow, and these were drawn upon to fill the empty places. None but the fittest could

Of these was Sir Oliver, and of these too was his immediate neighbour at the oar, a stalwart, powerful,

impassive, uncomplaining young Moor, who accepted his fate with a stoicism that aroused Sir Oliver's

admiration. For days they exchanged no single word together, their religions marking them out, they thought,

for enemies despite the fact that they were fellows in misfortune. But one evening when an aged Jew who had

collapsed in merciful unconsciousness was dragged out and flogged in the usual manner, Sir Oliver, chancing

to behold the scarlet prelate who accompanied the Infanta looking on from the pooprail with hard

unmerciful eyes, was filled with such a passion at all this inhumanity and at the cold pitilessness of that

professed servant of the Gentle and Pitiful Saviour, that aloud he cursed all Christians in general and that

"Hell," he said, "was surely made for Christians, which may be why they seek to make earth like it."

Fortunately for him the creak and dip of the oars, the clank of chains, and the lashes beating sharply upon the

wretched Jew were sufficient to muffle his voice. But the Moor heard him, and his dark eyes gleamed.

"There is a furnace seven times heated awaiting them, 0 my brother," he replied, with a confidence which

seemed to be the source of his present stoicism. "But art thou, then, not a Christian?"

He spoke in that queer language of the North African seaboard, that lingua franca, which sounded like some

French dialect interspersed with Arabic words. But Sir Oliver made out his meaning almost by intuition. He

answered him in Spanish again, since although the Moor did not appear to speak it yet it was plain he

"I renounce from this hour," he answered in his passion. "I will acknowledge no religion in whose name such

things are done. Look me at that scarlet fruit of hell up yonder. See how daintily he sniffs at his pomander lest

his saintly nostrils be offended by the exhalations of our misery. Yet are we God's creatures made in God's

image like himself. What does he know of God? Religion he knows as he knows good wine, rich food, and

soft women. He preaches selfdenial as the way to heaven, and by his own tenets is he damned." He growled

an obscene oath as he heaved the great oar forward. "A Christian I?" he cried, and laughed for the first time

since he had been chained to that bench of agony. I am done with Christians and Christianity!"

That was the beginning of a friendship between Sir Oliver and this man, whose name was

YusufbenMoktar. The Muslim conceived that in Sir Oliver he saw one upon whom the grace of Allah had

descended, one who was ripe to receive the Prophet's message. Yusuf was devout, and he applied himself to

the conversion of his fellowslave. Sir Oliver listened to him, however, with indifference. Having discarded

one creed he would need a deal of satisfying on the score of another before he adopted it, and it seemed to

him that all the glorious things urged by Yusuf in praise of Islam he had heard before in praise of

Christianity. But he kept his counsel on that score, and meanwhile his intercourse with the Muslim had the

effect of teaching him the lingua franca, so that at the end of six months he found himself speaking it like a

Mauretanian with all the Muslim's imagery and with more than the ordinary seasoning of Arabic.

It was towards the end of that six months that the event took place which was to restore Sir Oliver to liberty.

In the meanwhile those limbs of his which had ever been vigorous beyond the common wont had acquired an

elephantine strength. It was ever thus at the oar. Either you died under the strain, or your thews and sinews

grew to be equal to their relentless task. Sir Oliver in those six months was become a man of steel and iron,

They were returning home from a trip to Genoa when one evening as they were standing off Minorca in the

Balearic Isles they were surprised by a fleet of four Muslim galleys which came skimming round a

Aboard the Spanish vessel there broke a terrible cry of "AsadedDin" the name of the most redoubtable

Muslim corsair since the Italian renegade Ochialithe Ali Pasha who had been killed at Lepanto. Trumpets

blared and drums beat on the poop, and the Spaniards in morion and corselet, armed with calivers and pikes,

stood to defend their lives and liberty. The gunners sprang to the culverins. But fire had to be kindled and

linstocks ignited, and in the confusion much time was lost so much that not a single cannon shot was fired

before the grappling irons of the first galley clanked upon and gripped the Spaniard's bulwarks. The shock of

the impact was terrific. The armoured prow of the Muslim galleyAsadedDin's ownsmote the

Spaniard a slanting blow amidships that smashed fifteen of the oars as if they had been so many withered

There was a shriek from the slaves, followed by such piteous groans as the damned in hell may emit. Fully

two score of them had been struck by the shafts of their oars as these were hurled back against them. Some

had been killed outright, others lay limp and crushed, some with broken backs, others with shattered limbs

Sir Oliver would assuredly have been of these but for the warning, advice, and example of Yusuf, who was

well versed in galleyfighting and who foresaw clearly what must happen. He thrust the oar upward and

forward as far as it would go, compelling the others at his bench to accompany his movement. Then he

slipped down upon his knees, released his hold of the timber, and crouched down until his shoulders were on

a level with the bench. He had shouted to Sir Oliver to follow his example, and Sir Oliver without even

knowing what the manoeuvre should portend, but gathering its importance from the other's urgency of tone,

promptly obeyed. The oar was struck an instant later and ere it snapped off it was flung back, braining one of

the slaves at the bench and mortally injuring the others, but passing clean over the heads of Sir Oliver and

Yusuf. A moment later the bodies of the oarsmen of the bench immediately in front were flung back atop of

When Sir Oliver staggered to his feet he found the battle joined. The Spaniards had fired a volley from their

calivers and a dense cloud of smoke hung above the bulwarks; through this surged now the corsairs, led by a

tall, lean, elderly man with a flowing white beard and a swarthy eagle face. A crescent of emeralds flashed

from his snowy turban; above it rose the peak of a steel cap, and his body was cased in chain mail. He swung

a great scimitar, before which Spaniards went down like wheat to the reaper's sickle. He fought like ten men,

and to support him poured a neverending stream of Muslimeen to the cry of "Din! Din! Allah, Y'Allah!"

Sir Oliver found Yusuf struggling in vain to rid himself of his chain, and went to his assistance. He stooped,

seized it in both hands, set his feet against the bench, exerted all his strength, and tore the staple from the

wood. Yusuf was free, save, of course, that a length of heavy chain was dangling from his steel anklet. In his

turn he did the like service by Sir Oliver, though not quite as speedily, for strong man though he was, either

his strength was not equal to the Cornishman's or else the latter's staple had been driven into sounder timber.

In the end, however, it yielded, and Sir Oliver too was free. Then he set the foot that was hampered by the

chain upon the bench, and with the staple that still hung from the end of it he prised open the link that

That done he took his revenge. Crying "Din!" as loudly as any of the Muslimeen boarders, he flung himself

upon the rear of the Spaniards brandishing his chain. In his hands it became a terrific weapon. He used it as a

scourge, lashing it to right and left of him, splitting here a head and crushing there a face, until he had hacked

a way clean through the Spanish press, which bewildered by this sudden rear attack made but little attempt to

retaliate upon the escaped galleyslave. After him, whirling the remaining ten feet of the broken oar, came

Sir Oliver confessed afterwards to knowing very little of what happened in those moments. He came to a full

possession of his senses to find the fight at an end, a cloud of turbaned corsairs standing guard over a huddle

of Spaniards, others breaking open the cabin and dragging thence the chests that it contained, others again

armed with chisels and mallets passing along the benches liberating the surviving slaves, of whom the great

Sir Oliver found himself face to face with the whitebearded leader of the corsairs, who was leaning upon his

scimitar and regarding him with eyes at once amused and amazed. Our gentleman's naked body was splashed

from head to foot with blood, and in his right hand he still clutched that yard of iron links with which he had

wrought such ghastly execution. Yusuf was standing at the corsair leader's elbow speaking rapidly.

"By Allah, was ever such a lusty fighter seen!" cried the latter. "The strength of the Prophet is within him

And those were the circumstances under which he came to meet the formidable AsadedDin, Basha of

Anon, when aboard Asad's own galley he was being carried to Barbary, he was washed and his head was

shaved all but the forelock, by which the Prophet should lift him up to heaven when his earthly destiny

should come to be fulfilled. He made no protest. They washed and fed him and gave him ease; and so that

they did these things to him they might do what else they pleased. At last arrayed in flowing garments that

were strange to him, and with a turban wound about his head, he was conducted to the poop, where Asad sat

with Yusuf under an awning, and he came to understand that it was in compliance with the orders of Yusuf

YusufbenMoktar was discovered as a person of great consequence, the nephew of AsadedDin, and a

favourite with that Exalted of Allah the Sublime Portal himself, a man whose capture by Christians had been

a thing profoundly deplored. Accordingly his delivery from that thraldom was matter for rejoicing. Being

delivered, he bethought him of his oarmate, concerning whom indeed AsadedDin manifested the greatest

curiosity, for in all this world there was nothing the old corsair loved so much as a fighter, and in all his days,

he vowed, never had he seen the equal of that stalwart galleyslave, never the like of his performance with

that murderous chain. Yusuf had informed him that the man was a fruit ripe for the Prophet's plucking, that

the grace of Allah was upon him, and in spirit already he must be accounted a good Muslim.

When Sir Oliver, washed, perfumed, and arrayed in white caftan and turban, which gave him the air of being

even taller than he was, came into the presence of AsadedDin, it was conveyed to him that if he would

enter the ranks of the Faithful of the Prophet's House and devote the strength and courage with which Allah

the One had endowed him to the upholding of the true Faith and to the chastening of the enemies of Islam,

Of all that proposal, made at prodigious length and with great wealth of Eastern circumlocution, the only

phrase that took root in his rather bewildered mind was that which concerned the chastening of the enemies

of Islam. The enemies of Islam he conceived, were his own enemies; and he further conceived that they stood

in great need of chastening, and that to take a hand in that chastening would be a singularly grateful task. So

he considered the proposals made him. He considered, too, that the alternativein the event of his refusing

to make the protestations of Faith required of himwas that he must return to the oar of a galley, of a

Muslim galley now. Now that was an occupation of which he had had more than his fill, and since he had

been washed and restored to the normal sensations of a clean human being he found that whatever might be

within the scope of his courage he could not envisage returning to the oar. We have seen the ease with which

he had abandoned the religion in which he was reared for the Roman faith, and how utterly deluded he had

found himself. With the same degree of ease did he now go over to Islam and with much greater profit.

Moreover, he embraced the Religion of Mahomet with a measure of fierce conviction that had been entirely

He had arrived at the conclusion whilst aboard the galley of Spain, as we have seen, that Christianity as

practised in his day was a grim mockery of which the world were better rid. It is not to be supposed that his

convictions that Christianity was at fault went the length of making him suppose that Islam was right, or that

his conversion to the Faith of Mahomet was anything more than superficial. But forced as he was to choose

between the rower's bench and the poopdeck, the oar and the scimitar, he boldly and resolutely made the

Thus he was received into the ranks of the Faithful whose pavilions wait them in Paradise, set in an orchard

of neverfailing fruit, among rivers of milk, of wine, and of clarified honey. He became the Kayia or

lieutenant to Yusuf on the galley of that corsair's command and seconded him in half a score of engagements

with an ability and a conspicuity that made him swiftly famous throughout the ranks of the Mediterranean

rovers. Some six months later in a fight off the coast of Sicily with one of the galleys of the Religionas the

vessels of the Knights of Malta were calledYusuf was mortally wounded in the very moment of the

victory. He died an hour later in the arms of Sir Oliver, naming the latter his successor in the command of the

galley, and enjoining upon all implicit obedience to him until they should be returned to Algiers and the

The Basha's will was to confirm his nephew's dying appointment of a successor, and Sir Oliver found himself

in full command of a galley. From that hour he became OliverReis, but very soon his valour and fury earned

him the byname of SakrelBahr, the Hawk of the Sea. His fame grew rapidly, and it spread across the

tideless sea to the very shores of Christendom. Soon he became Asad's lieutenant, the second in command of

all the Algerine galleys, which meant in fact that he was the commanderinchief, for Asad was growing old

and took the sea more and more rarely now. SakrelBahr sallied forth in his name and his stead, and such

was his courage, his address, and his good fortune that never did he go forth to return emptyhanded.

It was clear to all that the favour of Allah was upon him, that he had been singled out by Allah to be the very

glory of Islam. Asad, who had ever esteemed him, grew to love him. An intensely devout man, could he have

done less in the case of one for whom the Pitying the Pitiful showed so marked a predilection? It was freely

accepted that when the destiny of AsadedDin should come to be fulfilled, SakrelBahr must succeed him

in the Bashalik of Algiers, and that thus OliverReis would follow in the footsteps of Barbarossa, Ochiali,

In spite of certain hostilities which his rapid advancement begot, and of which we shall hear more presently,

once only did his power stand in danger of suffering a check. Coming one morning into the reeking bagnio at

Algiers, some six months after he had been raised to his captaincy, he found there a score of countrymen of

his own, and he gave orders that their letters should instantly be struck off and their liberty restored them.

Called to account by the Basha for this action he took a highhanded way, since no other was possible. He

swore by the beard of the Prophet that if he were to draw the sword of Mahomet and to serve Islam upon the

seas, he would serve it in his own way, and one of his ways was that his own countrymen were to have

immunity from the edge of that same sword. Islam, he swore, should not be the loser, since for every

Englishman he restored to liberty he would bring two Spaniards, Frenchmen, Greeks, or Italians into

He prevailed, but only upon condition that since captured slaves were the property of the state, if he desired

to abstract them from the state he must first purchase them for himself. Since they would then be his own

property he could dispose of them at his good pleasure. Thus did the wise and just Asad resolve the difficulty

Thereafter what English slaves were brought to Algiers he purchased, manumitted, and found means to send

home again. True, it cost him a fine price yearly, but he was fast amassing such wealth as could easily

As you read Lord Henry Goade's chronicles you might come to the conclusion that in the whorl of that new

life of his Sir Oliver had entirely forgotten the happenings in his Cornish home and the woman he had loved,

who so readily had believed him guilty of the slaying of her brother. You might believe this until you come

upon the relation of how he found one day among some English seamen brought captive to Algiers by

BiskaineelBorakwho was become his own second in commanda young Cornish lad from Helston

He took this lad home with him to the fine palace which he inhabited near the BabelOueb, treated him as

an honoured guest, and sat through a whole summer night in talk with him, questioning him upon this person

and that person, and thus gradually drawing from him all the little history of his native place during the two

years that were sped since he had left it. In this we gather an impression of the wistful longings the fierce

nostalgia that must have overcome the renegade and his endeavours to allay it by his endless questions. The

Cornish lad had brought him up sharply and agonizingly with that past of his upon which he had closed the

door when he became a Muslim and a corsair. The only possible inference is that in those hours of that

summer's night repentance stirred in him, and a wild longing to return. Rosamund should reopen for him that

door which, harddriven by misfortune, he had slammed. That she would do so when once she knew the truth

he had no faintest doubt. And there was now no reason why he should conceal the truth, why he should

continue to shield that dastardly halfbrother of his, whom he had come to hate as fiercely as he had

In secret he composed a long letter giving the history of all that had happened to him since his kidnapping,

and setting forth the entire truth of that and of the deed that had led to it. His chronicler opines that it was a

letter that must have moved a stone to tears. And, moreover, it was not a mere matter of passionate

protestations of innocence, or of unsupported accusation of his brother. It told her of the existence of proofs

that must dispel all doubt. It told her of that parchment indited by Master Baine and witnessed by the parson,

which document was to be delivered to her together with the letter. Further, it bade her seek confirmation of

that document's genuineness, did she doubt it, at the hands of Master Baine himself. That done, it besought

her to lay the whole matter before the Queen, and thus secure him faculty to return to England and immunity

from any consequences of his subsequent regenade act to which his sufferings had driven him. He loaded the

young Cornishman with gifts, gave him that letter to deliver in person, and added instructions that should

enable him to find the document he was to deliver with it. That precious parchment had been left between the

leaves of an old book on falconry in the library at Penarrow, where it would probably be found still

undisturbed since his brother would not suspect its presence and was himself no scHol�r. Pitt was to seek out

Nicholas at Penarrow and enlist his aid to obtain possession of that document, if it still existed.

Then SakrelBahr found means to conduct Pitt to Genoa, and there put him aboard an English vessel.

Three months later he received an answera letter from Pitt, which reached him by way of Genoawhich

was at peace with the Algerines, and served then as a channel of communication with Christianity. In this

letter Pitt informed him that he had done all that Sir Oliver had desired him; that he had found the document

by the help of Nicholas, and that in person he had waited upon Mistress Rosamund Godolphin, who dwelt

now with Sir John Killigrew at Arwenack, delivering to her the letter and the parchment; but that upon

learning on whose behalf he came she had in his presence flung both unopened upon the fire and dismissed

SakrelBahr spent the night under the skies in his fragrant orchard, and his slaves reported in terror that

they had heard sobs and weeping. If indeed his heart wept, it was for the last time; thereafter he was more

inscrutable, more ruthless, cruel and mocking than men had ever known him, nor from that day did he ever

again concern himself to manumit a single English slave. His heart was become a stone.

Thus five years passed, counting from that spring night when he was trepanned by Jasper Leigh, and his fame

spread, his name became a terror upon the seas, and fleets put forth from Malta, from Naples, and from

Venice to make an end of him and his ruthless piracy. But Allah kept watch over him, and SakrelBahr

Then in the spring of that fifth year there came to him another letter from the Cornish Pitt, a letter which

showed him that gratitude was not as dead in the world as he supposed it, for it was purely out of gratitude

that the lad whom he had delivered from thraldom wrote to inform him of certain matters that concerned him.

This letter reopened that old wound; it did more; it dealt him a fresh one. He learnt from it that the writer had

been constrained by Sir John Killigrew to give such evidence of Sir Oliver's conversion to Islam as had

enabled the courts to pronounce Sir Oliver as one to be presumed dead at law, granting the succession to his

halfbrother, Master Lionel Tressilian. Pitt professed himself deeply mortified at having been forced

unwittingly to make Sir Oliver so evil a return for the benefits received from him, and added that sooner

would he have suffered them to hang him than have spoken could he have foreseen the consequences of his

So far Sir Oliver read unmoved by any feeling other than cold contempt. But there was more to follow. The

letter went on to tell him that Mistress Rosamund was newly returned from a two years' sojourn in France to

become betrothed to his halfbrother Lionel, and that they were to be wed in June. He was further informed

that the marriage had been contrived by Sir John Killigrew in his desire to see Rosamund settled and under

the protection of a husband, since he himself was proposing to take the seas and was fitting out a fine ship for

a voyage to the Indies. The writer added that the marriage was widely approved, and it was deemed to be an

excellent measure for both houses, since it would weld into one the two contiguous estates of Penarrow and

OliverReis laughed when he had read thus far. The marriage was approved not for itself, it would seem, but

because by means of it two stretches of earth were united into one. It was a marriage of two parks, of two

estates, of two tracts of arable and forest, and that two human beings were concerned in it was apparently no

Then the irony of it all entered his soul and spread it with bitterness. After dismissing him for the supposed

murder of her brother, she was to take the actual murderer to her arms. And he, that cur, that false

villain!out of what depths of hell did he derive the courage to go through with this mummery?had he no

He tore the letter into fragments and set about effacing the matter from his thoughts. Pitt had meant kindly by

him, but had dealt cruelly. In his efforts to seek distraction from the torturing images ever in his mind he took

to the sea with three galleys, and thus some two weeks later came face to face with Master Jasper Leigh

In the cabin of the captured Spaniard, Jasper Leigh found himself that evening face to face with

SakrelBahr had not yet pronounced his intentions concerning the piratical little skipper, and Master Leigh,

full conscious that he was a villain, feared the worst, and had spent some miserable hours in the forecastle

"Our positions have changed, Master Leigh, since last we talked in a ship's cabin," was the renegade's

"Indeed," Master Leigh agreed. "But I hope ye'll remember that on that occasion I was your friend."

"At a price," SakrelBahr reminded him. "And at a price you may find me your friend today."

"Name it, Sir Oliver," he answered eagerly. "And so that it ties within my wretched power I swear I'll never

boggle at it. I've had enough of slavery," he ran on in a plaintive whine. "Five years of it, and four of them

spent aboard the galleys of Spain, and no day in all of them but that I prayed for death. Did you but know

"Never was suffering more merited, never punishment more fitting, never justice more poetic," said

SakrelBahr in a voice that made the skipper's blood run cold. "You would have sold me, a man who did

you no hurt, indeed a man who once befriended youyou would have sold me into slavery for a matter of

"Nay, nay," cried the other fearfully, "as God's my witness, 'twas never part of my intent. Ye'll never ha'

forgot the words I spoke to you, the offer that I made to carry you back home again."

"Ay, at a price, 'tis true," SakrelBahr repeated. "And it is fortunate for you that you are today in a position

to pay a price that should postpone your dirty neck's acquaintance with a rope. I need a navigator," he added

in explanation, "and what five years ago you would have done for two hundred pounds, you shall do today

"Sir," cried Jasper Leigh, who could scarce believe that this was all that was required of him, "I'll sail it to

"I am not for Spain this voyage," answered SakrelBahr. "You shall sail me precisely as you would have

done five years ago, back to the mouth of the Fal, and set me ashore there. Is that agreed?"

"The conditions are that you shall have your life and your liberty," SakrelBahr explained. "But do not

suppose that arrived in England you are to be permitted to depart. You must sail us back again, though once

you have done that I shall find a way to send you home if you so desire it, and perhaps there will be some

measure of reward for you if you serve me faithfully throughout. Follow the habits of a lifetime by playing

me false and there's an end to you. You shall have for constant bodyguard these two lilies of the desert," and

he pointed to the colossal Nubians who stood there invisible almost in the shadow but for the flash of teeth

and eyeballs. "They shall watch over you, and see that no harm befalls you so long as you are honest with me,

and they shall strangle you at the first sign of treachery. You may go. You have the freedom of the ship, but

Jasper Leigh stumbled out counting himself fortunate beyond his expectations or deserts, and the Nubians

To SakrelBahr entered now Biskaine with a report of the prize captured. Beyond the prisoners, however,

and the actual vessel, which had suffered nothing in the fight, the cargo was of no account. Outward bound as

she was it was not to be expected that any treasures would be discovered in her hold. They found great store

of armaments and powder and a little money; but naught else that was worthy of the corsairs' attention.

Thou'lt set the captives aboard one of the galleys, Biskaine, and thyself convey them to Algiers, there to be

sold. All else thou'lt leave aboard here, and two hundred picked corsairs to go a voyage with me overseas,

"Not yet. I am for a longer voyage. Convey my service to AsadedDin, whom Allah guard and cherish, and

This sudden resolve of OliverReis created no little excitement aboard the galleys. The corsairs knew nothing

of navigation upon the open seas, none of them had ever been beyond the Mediterranean, few of them indeed

had ever voyaged as far west as Cape Spartel, and it is doubtful if they would have followed any other leader

into the perils of the open Atlantic. But SakrelBahr, the child of Fortune, the protected of Allah, had never

yet led them to aught but victory, and he had but to call them to heel and they would troop after him

whithersoever he should think well to go. So now there was little trouble in finding the two hundred

Muslimeen he desired for his fighting crew. Rather was the difficulty to keep the number of those eager for

You are not to suppose that in all this Sir Oliver was acting upon any preconcerted plan. Whilst he had lain

on the heights watching that fine ship beating up against the wind it had come to him that with such a vessel

under him it were a fond adventure to sail to England, to descend upon that Cornish coast abruptly as a

thunderbolt, and present the reckoning to his craven dastard of a brother. He had toyed with the fancy,

dreamily almost as men build their castles in Spain. Then in the heat of conflict it had entirely escaped his

mind, to return in the shape of a resolve when he came to find himself face to face with Jasper Leigh.

The skipper and the ship conjointly provided him with all the means to realize that dream he had dreamt.

There was none to oppose his will, no reason not to indulge his cruel fancy. Perhaps, too, he might see

Rosamund again, might compel her to hear the truth from him. And there was Sir John Killigrew. He had

never been able to determine whether Sir John had been his friend or his foe in the past; but since it was Sir

John who had been instrumental in setting up Lionel in Sir Oliver's placeby inducing the courts to presume

Sir Oliver's death on the score that being a renegade he must be accounted dead at lawand since it was Sir

John who was contriving this wedding between Lionel and Rosamund, why, Sir John, too, should be paid a

With the forces at his disposal in those days of his absolute lordship of life and death along the African

littoral, to conceive was with OliverReis no more than the prelude to execution. The habit of swift

realization of his every wish had grown with him, and that habit guided now his course.

He made his preparations quickly, and on the morrow the Spanish carack lately labelled Nuestra Senora de

las Llagas, but with that label carefully effaced from her quartertrimmed her sails and stood out for the

open Atlantic, navigated by Captain Jasper Leigh. The three galleys under the command of

BiskaineelBorak crept slowly eastward and homeward to Algiers, hugging the coast, as was the corsair

habit. The wind favoured Oliver so well that within ten days of rounding Cape St. Vincent he had his first

In the estuary of the River Fal a spendid ship, on the building of which the most cunning engineers had been

employed and no money spared, rode proudly at anchor just off Smithick under the very shadow of the

heights crowned by the fine house of Arwenack. She was fitting out for a distant vovage and for days the

work of bringing stores and munitions aboard had been in progress, so that there was an unwonted bustle

about the little forge and the huddle of cottages that went to make up the fishing village, as if in earnest of the

great traffic that in future days was to be seen about that spot. For Sir John Killigrew seemed at last to be on

the eve of prevailing and of laying there the foundations of the fine port of his dreams.

To this state of things his friendship with Master Lionel Tressilian had contributed not a little. The opposition

made to his project by Sir Oliverand supported, largely at Sir Oliver's suggestion, by Truro and

Helstonhad been entirely withdrawn by Lionel; more, indeed Lionel had actually gone so far in the

opposite direction as to support Sir John in his representations to Parliament and the Queen. It followed

naturally enough that just as Sir Oliver's opposition of that cherished project had been the seed of the hostility

between Arwenack and Penarrow, so Lionel's support of it became the root of the staunch friendship that

What Lionel lacked of his brother's keen intelligence he made up for in cunning. He realized that although at

some future time it was possible that Helston and Truro and the Tressilian property there might come to

suffer as a consequence of the development of a port so much more advantageously situated, yet that could

not be in his own lifetime; and meanwhile he must earn in return Sir John's support for his suit of Rosamund

Godolphin and thus find the Godolphin estates merged with his own. This certain immediate gain was to

It must not, however, be supposed that Lionel's courtship had thenceforward run a smooth and easy course.

The mistress of Godolphin Court showed him no favour and it was mainly that she might abstract herself

from the importunities of his suit that she had sought and obtained Sir John Killigrew's permission to

accompany the latter's sister to France when she went there with her husband, who was appointed English

ambassador to the Louvre. Sir John's authority as her guardian had come into force with the decease of her

Master Lionel moped awhile in her absence; but cheered by Sir John's assurance that in the end he should

prevail, he quitted Cornwall in his turn and went forth to see the world. He spent some time in London about

the Court, where, however, he seems to have prospered little, and then he crossed to France to pay his devoirs

His constancy, the humility with which he made his suit, the obvious intensity of his devotion, began at last

to wear away that gentlewoman's opposition, as dripping water wears away a stone. Yet she could not bring

herself to forget that he was Sir Oliver's brotherthe brother of the man she had loved, and the brother of the

man who had killed her own brother. Between them stood, then, two things; the ghost of that old love of hers

Of this she reminded Sir John on her return to Cornwall after an absence of some two years, urging these

matters as reasons why an alliance between herself and Lionel Tressilian must be impossible.

"My dear," he said, "there is your future to be thought of. You are now of full age and mistress of your own

actions. Yet it is not well for a woman and a gentlewoman to dwell alone. As long as I live, or as long as I

remain in England, all will be well. You may continue indefinitely your residence here at Arwenack, and you

have been wise, I think, in quitting the loneliness of Godolphin Court. Yet consider that that loneliness may

"I should prefer that loneliness to the company you would thrust upon me," she answered him.

"Ungracious speech!" he protested. "Is this your gratitude for that lad's burning devotion, for his patience, his

"And has he not suffered enough for that already? Is there to be no end to the price that he must pay for his

brother's sins? Besides, consider that when all is said they are not even brothers. They are but halfbrothers."

"Yet too closely kin," she said. "If you must have me wed I beg you'll find me another husband."

To this he would answer that expediently considered no husband could be better than the one he had chosen

her. He pointed out the contiguity of their two estates, and how fine and advantageous a thing it would be to

He was persistent, and his persistence was increased when he came to conceive his notion to take the seas

again. His conscience would not permit him to heave anchor until he had bestowed her safely in wedlock.

Lionel too was persistent, in a quiet, almost selfeffacing way that never set a strain upon her patience, and

In the end she gave way under the pressure of these men's wills, and did so with the best grace she could

summon, resolved to drive from her heart and mind the one real obstacle of which, for very shame, she had

made no mention to Sir John. The fact is that in spite of all, her love for Sir Oliver was not dead. It was

stricken down, it is true, until she herself failed to recognize it for what it really was. But she caught herself

thinking of him frequently and wistfully; she found herself comparing him with his brother; and for all that

she had bidden Sir John find her some other husband than Lionel, she knew full well that any suitor brought

before her must be submitted to that same comparison to his inevitable undoing. All this she accounted evil in

herself. It was in vain that she lashed her mind with the reminder that Sir Oliver was Peter's murderer. As

time went on she found herself actually making excuses for her sometime lover; she would admit that Peter

had driven him to the step, that for her sake Sir Oliver had suffered insult upon insult from Peter, until, being

but human, the cup of his endurance had overflowed in the end, and weary of submitting to the other's blows

She would scorn herself for such thoughts as these, yet she could not dismiss them. In act she could be

strongas witness how she had dealt with that letter which Oliver sent her out of Barbary by the hand of

Pittbut her thoughts she could not govern, and her thoughts were full often traitors to her will. There were

longings in her heart for Oliver which she could not stifle, and there was ever the hope that he would one day

return, although she realized that from such a return she might look for nothing.

When Sir John finally slew the hope of that return he did a wiser thing than he conceived. Never since

Oliver's disappearance had they heard any news of him until Pitt came to Arwenack with that letter and his

story. They had heard, as had all the world, of the corsair SakrelBahr, but they had been far indeed from

connecting him with Oliver Tressilian. Now that his identity was established by Pitt's testimony, it was an

easy matter to induce the courts to account him dead and to give Lionel the coveted inheritance.

This to Rosamund was a small matter. But a great one was that Sir Oliver was dead at law, and must be so in

fact, should he ever again set foot in England. It extinguished finally that curiously hopeless and almost

subconscious hope of hers that one day he would return. Thus it helped her perhaps to face and accept the

Her betrothal was made public, and she proved if not an ardently loving, at least a docile and gentle mistress

to Lionel. He was content. He could ask no more in reason at the moment, and he was buoyed up by every

lover's confidence that given opportunity and time he could find the way to awaken a response. And it must

be confessed that already during their betrothal he gave some proof of his reason for his confidence. She had

been lonely, and he dispelled her loneliness by his complete surrender of himself to her; his restraint and his

cautious, almost insidious creeping along a path which a more clumsy fellow would have taken at a dash

made companionship possible between them and very sweet to her. Upon this foundation her affection began

gradually to rise, and seeing them together and such excellent friends, Sir John congratulated himself upon

his wisdom and went about the fitting out of that fine ship of histhe Silver Heronfor the coming voyage.

Thus they came within a week of the wedding, and Sir John all impatience now. The marriage bells were to

be his signal for departure; as they fell silent the Silver Heron should spread her wings.

It was the evening of the first of June; the peal of the curfew had faded on the air and lights were being set in

the great diningroom at Arwenack where the company was to sup. It was a small party. Just Sir John and

Rosamund and Lionel, who had lingered on that day, and Lord Henry Goadeour chroniclerthe Queen's

Lieutenant of Cornwall, together with his lady. They were visiting Sir John and they were to remain yet a

Above in the house there was great stir of preparation for the departure of Sir John and his ward, the latter

into wedlock, the former into unknown seas. In the turret chamber a dozen sempstresses were at work upon

the bridal outfit under the directions of that Sally Pentreath who had been no less assiduous in the preparation

of swaddling clothes and the like on the eve of Rosamund's appearance in this world.

At the very hour at which Sir John was leading his company to table Sir Oliver Tressilian was setting foot

He had deemed it wiser not to round Pendennis Point. So in the bay above Swanpool on the western side of

that promontory he had dropped anchor as the evening shadows were deepening. He had launched the ship's

two boats, and in these he had conveyed some thirty of his men ashore. Twice had the boats returned, until a

hundred of his corsairs stood ranged along that foreign beach. The other hundred he left on guard aboard. He

took so great a force upon an expedition for which a quarter of the men would have sufficed so as to ensure

Absolutely unobserved he led them up the slope towards Arwenack through the darkness that had now closed

in. To tread his native soil once more went near to drawing tears from him. How familiar was the path he

followed with such confidence in the night; how well known each bush and stone by which he went with his

silent multitude hard upon his heels. Who could have foretold him such a return as this

Who could have dreamt when he roamed amain in his youth here with dogs and fowlingpiece that he would

creep one night over these dunes a renegade Muslim leading a horde of infidels to storm the house of Sir John

Such thoughts begot a weakness in him; but he made a quick recovery when his mind swung to all that he

First to Arwenack to Sir John and Rosamund to compel them to hear the truth at least, and then away to

Penarrow for Master Lionel and the reckoning. Such was the project that warmed him, conquered his

weakness and spurred him, relentless, onward and upward to the heights and the fortified house that

He found the massive ironstudded gates locked, as was to have been expected at that hour. He knocked, and

presently the postern gaped, and a lantern was advanced. Instantly that lantern was dashed aside and Sir

Oliver had leapt over the sill into the courtyard. With a hand gripping the porter's throat to choke all

That done they poured silently through that black gap of the postern into the spacious gateway. On he led

them, at a run almost, towards the tall mullioned windows whence a flood of golden light seemed invitingly

With the servants who met them in the hall they dealt in the same swift silent fashion as they had dealt with

the gatekeeper, and such was the speed and caution of their movements that Sir John and his company had no

suspicion of their presence until the door of the diningroom crashed open before their eyes.

The sight which they beheld was one that for some moments left them mazed and bewildered. Lord Henry

tells us how at first he imagined that here was some mummery, some surprise prepared for the bridal couple

by Sir John's tenants or the folk of Smithick and Penycumwick, and he adds that he was encouraged in this

belief by the circumstance that not a single weapon gleamed in all that horde of outlandish intruders.

Although they came full armed against any eventualities, yet by their leader's orders not a blade was bared.

What was to do was to be done with their naked hands alone and without bloodshed. Such were the orders of

Himself he stood forward at the head of that legion of brownskinned men arrayed in all the colours of the

rainbow, their heads swathed in turbans of every hue. He considered the company in grim silence, and the

company in amazement considered this turbaned giant with the masterful face that was tanned to the colour

of mahogany, the black forked beard, and those singularly light eyes glittering like steel under his black

Thus a little while in silence, then with a sudden gasp Lionel Tressilian sank back in his tall chair as if bereft

"I see that you, at least, I recognize me," said SakrelBahr in his deep voice. "I was assured I could depend

upon the eyes of brotherly love to pierce the change that time and stress have wrought in me."

Sir John was on his feet, his lean swarthy face flushing darkly, an oath on his lips. Rosamund sat on as if

frozen with horror, considering Sir Oliver with dilating eyes, whilst her hands clawed the table before her.

They too recognized him now, and realized that here was no mummery. That something sinister was intended

Sir John could not for a moment doubt. But of what that something might be he could form no notion. It was

the first time that Barbary rovers were seen in England. That famous raid of theirs upon Baltimore in Ireland

"Sir Oliver Tressilian!" Killigrew gasped, and "Sir Oliver Tressilian!" echoed Lord Henry Goade, to add "By

"Not Sir Oliver Tressilian, came the answer, but SakrelBahr, the scourge of the sea, the terror of

Christendom, the desperate corsair your lies, cupidity, and falseheartedness have fashioned out of a

sometime Cornish gentleman." He embraced them all in his denunciatory gesture. "Behold me here with my

Writing now of what his own eyes beheld, Lord Henry tells us how Sir John leapt to snatch a weapon from

the armoured walls; how SakrelBahr barked out a single word in Arabic, and how at that word a

halfdozen of his supple blackamoors sprang upon the knight like greyhounds upon a hare and bore him

Lady Henry screamed; her husband does not appear to have done anything, or else modesty keeps him silent

on the score of it. Rosamund, white to the lips, continued to look on, whilst Lionel, overcome, covered his

face with his hands in sheer horror. One and all of them expected to see some ghastly deed of blood

performed there, coldly and callously as the wringing of a capon's neck. But no such thing took place. The

corsairs merely turned Sir John upon his face, dragged his wrists behind him to make them fast, and having

SakrelBahr watched their performance with those grimly smiling eyes of his. When it was done he spoke

again and pointed to Lionel, who leapt up in sudden terror, with a cry that was entirely inarticulate. Lithe

brown arms encircled him like a legion of snakes. Powerless, he was lifted in the air and borne swiftly away.

For an instant he found himself held face to face with his turbaned brother. Into that pallid terrorstricken

human mask the renegade's eyes stabbed like two daggers. Then deliberately and after the fashion of the

"Away!" he growled, and through the press of corsairs that thronged the hall behind him a lane was swiftly

"What murderous deed do you intend?" cried Sir John indomitably. He had risen and stood grimly dignified

"Will you murder your own brother as you murdered mine?" demanded Rosamund, speaking now for the first

time, and rising as she spoke, a faint flush coming to overspread her pallor. She saw him wince; she saw the

mocking lustful anger perish in his face, leaving it vacant for a moment. Then it became grim again with a

fresh resolve. Her words had altered all the current of his intentions. They fixed in him a dull, fierce rage.

They silenced the explanations which he was come to offer, and which he scorned to offer here after that

"It seems you love thatwhelp, that thing that was my brother," he said, sneering. "I wonder will you love

him still when you come to be better acquainted with him? Though, faith, naught would surprise me in a

woman and her love. Yet I am curious to seecurious to see." He laughed. "I have a mind to gratify myself.

He advanced upon her. "Come thou with me, lady," he commanded, and held out his hand.

"At that," he writes, "I thrust myself between to shield her. 'Thou dog,' I cried,'thou shalt be made to suffer!'

"'Suffer?' quoth he, and mocked me with his deep laugh. 'I have suffered already. 'Tis for that reason I am

"'And thou shalt suffer again, thou pirate out of hell!' I warned him. 'Thou shalt suffer for this outrage as

"'Shall I so?' quoth he, very calm and sinister. 'And at whose hands, I pray you?'

"'At thine?' he sneered. 'Thou'lt hunt the hawk of the sea? Thou? Thou plump partridge! Away! Hinder me

And he adds that again Sir Oliver spoke that short Arabic command, whereupon a dozen blackamoors

Face to face stood now Sir Oliver with Rosamundface to face after five long years, and he realized that in

every moment of that time the certainty had never departed from him of some such future meeting.

A moment she looked at him with hate and loathing in the clear depths of her deep blue eyes. Then swiftly as

lightning she snatched a knife from the board and drove it at his heart. But his hand moved as swiftly to seize

A shuddering sob escaped her then to express at once her horror of her own attempt and of the man who held

her. That horror mounting until it overpowered her, she sank suddenly against him in a swoon.

Instinctively his arms went round her, and a moment he held her thus, recalling the last occasion on which

she had lain against his breast, on an evening five years and more ago under the grey wall of Godolphin Court

above the river. What prophet could have told him that when next he so held her the conditions would be

these? It was all grotesque and incredible, like the fantastic dream of some sick mind. But it was all true, and

He shifted his grip to her waist, heaved her to his mighty shoulder, as though she were a sack of grain, and

swung about, his business at Arwenack accomplishedindeed, more of it accomplished than had been his

"Away, away!" he cried to his rovers, and away they sped as fleetly and silently as they had come, no man

Through the hall and across the courtyard flowed that human tide; out into the open and along the crest of the

hill it surged, then away down the slope towards the beach where their boats awaited them. SakrelBahr ran

as lightly as though the swooning woman he bore were no more than a cloak he had flung across his shoulder.

Ahead of him went a halfdozen of his fellows carrying his gagged and pinioned brother.

Once only before they dipped from the heights of Arwenack did Oliver check. He paused to look across the

dark shimmering water to the woods that screened the house of Penarrow from his view. It had been part of

his purpose to visit it, as we know. But the necessity had now been removed, and he was conscious of a pang

of disappointment, of a hunger to look again upon his home. But to shift the current of his thoughts just then

came two of his officersOthmani and Ali, who had been muttering one with the other. As they overtook

him, Othmani set now a hand upon his arm, and pointed down towards the twinkling lights of Smithick and

"My lord," he cried, "there will be lads and maidens there should fetch fat prices in the s�kelAbeed."

"No doubt," said SakrelBahr, scarce heeding him, heeding indeed little in this world but his longings to

"Why, then, my lord, shall I take fifty TrueBelievers and make a raid upon them? It were an easy task, all

SakrelBahr came out of his musings. "Othmani," said he, "art a fool, the very father of fools, else wouldst

thou have come to know by now that those who once were of my own race, those of the land from which I

am sprung, are sacred to me. Here we take no slave but these we have. On, then, in the name of Allah!"

But Othmani was not yet silenced. "And is our perilous voyage across these unknown seas into this far

heathen land to be rewarded by no more than just these two captives? Is that a raid worthy of SakrelBahr?"

"But reflect, my lord: there is another who will judge. How shall our Basha, the glorious AsadedDin,

welcome thy return with such poor spoils as these? What questions will he set thee, and what account shalt

thou render him for having imperilled the lives of all these TrueBelievers upon the seas for so little profit?"

"He shall ask me what he pleases, and I shall answer what I please and as Allah prompts me. On, I say!"

And on they went, SakrelBahr conscious now of little but the warmth of that body upon his shoulder, and

knowing not, so tumultuous were his emotions, whether it fired him to love or hate.

They gained the beach; they reached the ship whose very presence had continued unsuspected. The breeze

was fresh and they stood away at once. By sunrise there was no more sign of them than there had been at

sunset, there was no more clue to the way they had taken than to the way they had come. It was as if they had

dropped from the skies in the night upon that Cornish coast, and but for the mark of their swift, silent

passage, but for the absence of Rosamund and Lionel Tressilian, the thing must have been accounted no more

Aboard the carack, SakrelBahr bestowed Rosamund in the cabin over the quarter, taking the precaution to

lock the door that led to the sterngallery. Lionel he ordered to be dropped into a dark hole under the

hatchway, there to lie and meditate upon the retribution that had overtaken him until such time as his brother

should have determined upon his fatefor this was a matter upon which the renegade was still undecided.

Himself he lay under the stars that night and thought of many things. One of these things, which plays some

part in the story, though it is probable that it played but a slight one in his thoughts, was begotten of the

words Othmani had used. What, indeed, would be Asad's welcome of him on his return if he sailed into

Algiers with nothing more to show for that long voyage and the imperilling of the lives of two hundred

TrueBelievers than just those two captives whom he intended, moreover, to retain for himself? What capital

would not be made out of that circumstance by his enemies in Algiers and by Asad's Sicilian wife who hated

him with all the bitterness of a hatred that had its roots in the fertile soil of jealousy?

This may have spurred him in the cool dawn to a very daring and desperate enterprise which Destiny sent his

way in the shape of a tallmasted Dutchman homeward bound. He gave chase, for all that he was full

conscious that the battle he invited was one of which his corsairs had no experience, and one upon which they

must have hesitated to venture with another leader than himself. But the star of SakrelBahr was a star that

never led to aught but victory, and their belief in him, the very javelin of Allah, overcame any doubts that

may have been begotten of finding themselves upon an unfamiliar craft and on a rolling, unfamiliar sea.

This fight is given in great detail by my Lord Henry from the particulars afforded him by Jasper Leigh. But it

differs in no great particular from other seafights, and it is none of my purpose to surfeit you with such

recitals. Enough to say that it was stern and fierce, entailing great loss to both combatants; that cannon played

little part in it, for knowing the quality of his men SakrelBahr made haste to run in and grapple. He

prevailed of course as he must ever prevail by the very force of his personality and the might of his

example. He was the first to leap aboard the Dutchman, clad in mail and whirling his great scimitar, and his

Such was ever his fury in an engagement that it infected and inspired his followers. It did so now, and the

shrewd Dutchmen came to perceive that this heathen horde was as a body to which he supplied the brain and

soul. They attacked him fiercely in groups, intent at all costs upon cutting him down, convinced almost by

instinct that were he felled the victory would easily be theirs. And in the end they succeeded. A Dutch pike

broke some links of his mail and dealt him a flesh wound which went unheeded by him in his fury; a Dutch

rapier found the breach thus made in his defences, and went through it to stretch him bleeding upon the

deck. Yet he staggered up, knowing as full as did they that if he succumbed then all was lost. Armed now

with a short axe which he had found under his hand when he went down, he hacked a way to the bulwarks,

set his back against the timbers, and hoarse of voice, ghastly of face, spattered with the blood of his wound he

urged on his men until the victory was theirsand this was fortunately soon. And then, as if he had been

sustained by no more than the very force of his will, he sank down in a heap among the dead and wounded

Griefstricken his corsairs bore him back aboard the carack. Were he to die then was their victory a barren

one indeed. They laid him on a couch prepared for him amidships on the main deck, where the vessel's

pitching was least discomfiting. A Moorish surgeon came to tend him, and pronounced his hurt a grievous

This pronouncement gave the corsairs all the assurance they required. It could not be that the Gardener could

already pluck so fragrant a fruit from Allah's garden. The Pitiful must spare SakrelBahr to continue the

Yet they were come to the straits of Gibraltar before his fever abated and he recovered complete

consciousness, to learn of the final issue of that hazardous fight into which he had led those children of the

The Dutchman, Othmani informed him, was following in their wake, with Ali and some others aboard her,

steering ever in the wake of the carack which continued to be navigated by the Nasrani dog, Jasper Leigh.

When SakrelBahr learnt the value of the capture, when he was informed that in addition to a hundred

ablebodied men under the hatches, to be sold as slaves in the s�kelAbeed, there was a cargo of gold and

silver, pearls, amber, spices, and ivory, and such lesser matters as gorgeous silken fabrics, rich beyond

anything that had ever been seen upon the seas at any one time, he felt that the blood he had shed had not

Let him sail safely into Algiers with these two ships both captured in the name of Allah and his Prophet, one

of them an argosy so richly fraught, a floating treasurehouse, and he need have little fear of what his

enemies and the crafty evil Sicilian woman might have wrought against him in his absence.

Then he made inquiry touching his two English captives, to be informed that Othmani had taken charge of

them, and that he had continued the treatment meted out to them by SakrelBahr himself when first they

He was satisfied, and fell into a gentle healing sleep, whilst, on the decks above, his followers rendered

thanks to Allah the Pitying the Pitiful, the Master of the Day of Judgment, who Alone is AllWise,

AsadedDin, the Lion of the Faith, Basha of Algiers, walked in the evening cool in the orchard of the

Kasbah upon the heights above the city, and at his side, stepping daintily, came Fenzileh, his wife, the first

lady of his hareem, whom eighteen years ago he had carried off in his mighty arms from that little

whitewashed village above the Straits of Messina which his followers had raided.

She had been a lissom maid of sixteen in those faroff days, the child of humble peasantfolk, and she had

gone uncomplaining to the arms of her swarthy ravisher. Today, at thirtyfour, she was still beautiful, more

beautiful indeed than when first she had fired the passion of AsadReisas he then was, one of the captains

of the famous AliBasha. There were streaks of red in her heavy black tresses, her skin was of a soft

pearliness that seemed translucent, her eyes were large, of a goldenbrown, agleam with sombre fires, her

lips were full and sensuous. She was tall and of a shape that in Europe would have been accounted perfect,

which is to say that she was a thought too slender for Oriental taste; she moved along beside her lord with a

sinuous, languorous grace, gently stirring her fan of ostrich plumes. She was unveiled; indeed it was her

immodest habit to go naked of face more often than was seemly, which is but the least of the many

undesirable infidel ways which had survived her induction into the Faith of Islama necessary step before

Asad, who was devout to the point of bigotry, would consent to make her his wife. He had found her such a

wife as it is certain he could never have procured at home; a woman who, not content to be his toy, the

plaything of his idle hour, insinuated herself into affairs, demanded and obtained his confidences, and exerted

over him much the same influence as the wife of a European prince might exert over her consort. In the years

during which he had lain under the spell of her ripening beauty he had accepted the situation willingly

enough; later, when he would have curtailed her interferences, it was too late; she had taken a firm grip of the

reins, and Asad was in no better case than many a European husbandan anomalous and outrageous

condition this for a Basha of the Prophet's House. It was also a dangerous one for Fenzileh; for should the

burden of her at any time become too heavy for her lord there was a short and easy way by which he could be

rid of it. Do not suppose her so foolish as not to have realized thisshe realized it fully; but her Sicilian

spirit was daring to the point of recklessness; her very dauntlessness which had enabled her to seize a control

so unprecedented in a Muslim wife urged her to maintain it in the face of all risks.

Dauntless was she now, as she paced there in the cool of the orchard, under the pink and white petals of the

apricots, the flaming scarlet of pomegranate blossoms, and through orangegroves where the golden fruit

glowed and amid foliage of sombre green. She was at her eternal work of poisoning the mind of her lord

against SakrelBahr, and in her maternal jealousy she braved the dangers of such an undertaking, fully

aware of how dear to the heart of AsadedDin was that absent renegade corsair. It was this very affection of

the Basha's for his lieutenant that was the fomenter of her own hate of SakrelBahr, for it was an affection

that transcended Asad's love for his own son and hers, and it led to the common rumour that for

"I hear thee," answered Asad sourly. 'And were thine own hearing less infirm, woman, thou wouldst have

heard me answer thee that thy words weigh for naught with me against his deeds. Words may be but a mask

upon our thoughts; deeds are ever the expression of them. Bear thou that in mind, 0 Fenzileh."

"Do I not bear in mind thine every word, 0 fount of wisdom?" she protested, and left him, as she often did, in

doubt whether she fawned or sneered. "And it is his deeds I would have speak for him, not indeed my poor

The harsh tone of his reproof and the scowl upon his haughty face, gave her pause for a moment. He turned

"Come!" he said. "Soon it will be the hour of prayer." And he paced back towards the yellow huddle of walls

He was a tall, gaunt man, stooping slightly at the shoulders under the burden of his years; but his eagle face

was masterful, and some lingering embers of his youth still glowed in his dark eyes. Thoughtfully, with a

jewelled hand, he stroked his long white beard; with the other he leaned upon her soft plump arm, more from

High in the blue overhead a lark burst suddenly into song, and from the depths of the orchard came a gentle

murmur of doves as if returning thanks for the lessening of the great heat now that the sun was sinking

Came Fenzileh's voice again, more musical than either, yet laden with words of evil, poison wrapped in

"O my dear lord, thou'rt angered with me now. Woe me! that never may I counsel thee for thine own glory as

"Abuse not him I love," said the Basha shortly. I have told thee so full oft already."

She nestled closer to him, and her voice grew softer, more akin to the amorous cooing of the doves. "And do I

not love thee, 0 master of my soul? Is there in all the world a heart more faithful to thee than mine? Is not thy

life my life? Have not my days been all devoted to the perfecting of thine happiness? And wilt thou then

"Fear for me?" he echoed, and laughed jeeringly. "What shouldst thou fear for me from SakrelBahr?"

"What all believers must ever fear from one who is no true Muslim, from one who makes a mock and

"I am as the dust beneath thy feet, 0 my sweet lord, yet am I not what thine heedless anger calls me."

"Heedless?" quoth he. 'Not heedless but righteous to hear one whom the Prophet guards, who is the very

javelin of Islam against the breast of the unbeliever, who carries the scourge of Allah against the infidel

Frankish pigs, so maligned by thee! No more, I say! Lest I bid thee make good thy words, and pay the liar's

"And should I fear the test?" she countered, nothing daunted. "I tell thee, 0 father of Marzak, that I should

hail it gladly. Why, hear me now. Thou settest store by deeds, not words. Tell me, then, is it the deed of a

TrueBeliever to waste substance upon infidel slaves, to purchase them that he may set them free?

Asad moved on in silence. That erstwhile habit of SakrelBahr's was one not easy to condone. It had

occasioned him his moments of uneasiness, and more than once had he taxed his lieutenant with the practice

ever to receive the same answer, the answer which he now made to Fenzileh. "For every slave that he so

"Perforce, else would he be called to account. 'Twas so much dust he flung into the face of true Muslimeen.

Those manumissions prove a lingering fondness for the infidel country whence he springs. Is there room for

that in the heart of a true member of the Prophet's immortal House? Hast ever known me languish for the

Sicilian shore from which in thy might thou wrested me, or have I ever besought of thee the life of a single

Sicilian infidel in all these years that I have lived to serve thee? Such longings are betrayed, I say, by such a

practice, and such longings could have no place in one who had uprooted infidelity from his heart. And now

this voyage of his beyond the seasrisking a vessel that he captured from the archenemy of Islam, which is

not his to risk but thine in whose name he captured it; and together with it he imperils the lives of two

hundred TrueBelievers. To what end? To bear him overseas, perchance that he may look again upon the

unhallowed land that gave him birth. So Biskaine reported. And what if he should founder on the way?"

"Call me harsh names, 0 sun that warms me! Am I not thine to use and abuse at thy sweet pleasure? Pour salt

upon the heart thou woundest; since it is thy hand I'll never murmur a complaint. But heed meheed my

words; or since words are of no account with thee, then heed his deeds which I am drawing to thy tardy

notice. Heed them, I say, as my love bids me even though thou shouldst give me to be whipped or slain for

"Woman, thy tongue is like the clapper of a bell with the devil swinging from the rope. What else dost thou

"Naught else, since thou dost but mock me, withdrawing thy love from thy fond slave."

But he praised Allah too soon. Womanlike, though she protested she had done, she had scarce begun as yet.

"And a man's son should be the partner of his soul. Yet is Marzak passed over for this foreign upstart; yet

does this Nasrani of yesterday hold the place in thy heart and at thy side that should be Marzak's."

"Could Marzak fill that place," he asked. "Could that beardless boy lead men as SakrelBahr leads them, or

wield the scimitar against the foes of Islam and increase as SakrelBahr increases the glory of the Prophet's

"If SakrelBahr does this, he does it by thy favour, 0 my lord. And so might Marzak, young though he be.

"There art thou wrong, indeed, 0 mother of error. SakrelBahr is what Allah hath made him. He is what

Allah wills. He shall become what Allah wills. Hast yet to learn that Allah has bound the fate of each man

And then a golden glory suffused the deep sapphire of the sky heralding the setting of the sun and made an

end of that altercation, conducted by her with a daring as singular as the patience that had endured it. He

quickened his steps in the direction of the courtyard. That golden glow paled as swiftly as it had spread, and

In the purple gloom that followed the white cloisters of the courtyard glowed with a faintly luminous

pearliness. Dark forms of slaves stirred as Asad entered from the garden followed by Fenzileh, her head now

veiled in a thin blue silken gauze. She flashed across the quadrangle and vanished through one of the

archways, even as the distant voice of a Mueddin broke plaintively upon the brooding stillness reciting the

A slave spread a carpet, a second held a great silver bowl, into which a third poured water. The Basha, having

washed, turned his face towards Mecca, and testified to the unity of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful,

King of the Day of judgment, whilst the cry of the Mueddin went echoing over the city from minaret to

As he rose from his devotions, there came a quick sound of steps without, and a sharp summons. Turkish

janissaries of the Basha's guard, invisible almost in their flowing black garments, moved to answer that

From the dark vaulted entrance of the courtyard leapt a gleam of lanterns containing tiny clay lamps in which

burned a wick that was nourished by mutton fat. Asad, waiting to learn who came, halted at the foot of the

white glistening steps, whilst from doors and lattices of the palace flooded light to suffuse the courtyard and

A dozen Nubian javelinmen advanced, then ranged themselves aside whilst into the light stepped the

imposing, gorgeously robed figure of Asad's wazeer, Tsamanni. After him came another figure in mail that

"Peace and the Prophet's blessings upon thee, 0 mighty Asad!" was the wazeer's greeting.

"The praise to Him!" exclaimed the Basha, with uplifted hands; and there was no mistaking the thrill of his

There fell a soft step behind him and a shadow from the doorway. He turned. A graceful stripling in turban

and caftan of cloth of gold salaamed to him from the topmast step. And as he came upright and the light of

the lanterns fell full upon his face the astonishingly white fairness of it was revealeda woman's face it

Asad smiled wrily in his white beard, guessing that the boy had been sent by his everwatchful mother to

"Victorious beyond aught that was ever known," replied Tsamanni. "He sailed at sunset into the harbour, his

company aboard two mighty Frankish ships, which are but the lesser part of the great spoil he brings."

"Allah is great," was the Basha's glad welcome of this answer to those insidious promptings of his Sicilian

"His duty keeps him yet awhile aboard, my lord," replied the wazeer. "But he hath sent his kayia Othmani

"Thrice welcome be thou, Othmani." He beat his hands together, whereat slaves placed cushions for him

And Othmani standing forth related how they had voyaged to distant England in the ship that SakrelBahr

had captured, through seas that no corsair yet had ever crossed, and how on their return they had engaged a

Dutchman that was their superior in strength and numbers; how none the less SakrelBahr had wrested

victory by the help of Allah, his protector, how he had been dealt a wound that must have slain any but one

miraculously preserved for the greater glory of Islam, and of the surpassing wealth of the booty which at

That tale of Othmani's being borne anon to Fenzileh by her son was gall and wormwood to her jealous soul.

Evil enough to know that SakrelBahr was returned in spite of the fervent prayers for his foundering which

she had addressed both to the God of her forefathers and to the God of her adoption. But that he should have

returned in triumph bringing with him heavy spoils that must exalt him further in the affection of Asad and

the esteem of the people was bitterness indeed. It left her mute and stricken, bereft even of the power to curse

Anon, when her mind recovered from the shock she turned it to the consideration of what at first had seemed

"It is most singularly odd that he should have undertaken that long voyage to England to wrest thence just

those two captives; that being there he should not have raided in true corsair fashion and packed his ship with

They were alone behind the green lattices through which filtered the perfumes of the garden and the

throbbing of a nightingale's voice laden with the tale of its love for the rose. Fenzileh reclined upon a divan

that was spread with silken Turkey carpets, and one of her goldembroidered slippers had dropped from her

hennastained toes. Her lovely arms were raised to support her head, and she stared up at the lamp of many

Marzak paced the length of the chamber back and forth, and there was silence save for the soft swish of his

"The cause of it?" quoth he, his lovely young face, so closely modelled upon her own, looking blank and

"Ay, the cause of it," she cried impatiently. "Canst do naught but stare? Am I the mother of a fool? Wilt thou

simper and gape and trifle away thy days whilst that dogdescended Frank tramples thee underfoot, using

thee but as a steppingstone to the power that should be thine own? And that be so, Marzak, I would thou

He recoiled before the Italian fury of her, was dully resentful even, suspecting that in such words from a

woman were she twenty times his mother, there was something dishonouring to his manhood.

"Dost ask me? Art thou not a man to think and act? I tell thee that misbegotten son of a Christian and a Jew

will trample thee in the dust. He is greedy as the locust, wily as the serpent, and ferocious as the panther. By

Allah! I would I had never borne a son. Rather might men point at me the finger of scorn and call me mother

of the wind than that I should have brought forth a man who knows not how to be a man."

"Show me the way," he cried. "Set me a task; tell me what to do and thou shalt not find me lacking, 0 my

At this threat that strange woman heaved herself up from her soft couch. She ran to him and flung her arms

about his neck, set her cheek against his own. Not eighteen years in the Basha's hareem had stifled the

European mother in her, the passionate Sicilian woman, fierce as a tiger in her maternal love.

"O my child, my lovely boy," she almost sobbed. "It is my fear for thee that makes me harsh. If I am angry it

is but my love that speaks, my rage for thee to see another come usurping the place beside thy father that

should be thine. Ah! but we will prevail, sweet son of mine. I shall find a way to return that foreign offal to

the dungheap whence it sprang. Trust me, 0 Marzak! Sh! Thy father comes. Away! Leave me alone with

She was wise in that, for she knew that alone Asad was more easily controlled by her, since the pride was

absent which must compel him to turn and rend her did she speak so before others. Marzak vanished behind

the screen of fretted sandalwood that masked one doorway even as Asad loomed in the other.

He came forward smiling, his slender brown fingers combing his long beard, his white djellaba trailing

She sank down again upon her cushions and idly considered herself in a steel mirror set in silver.

"Answered?" she echoed lazily, with infinite scorn and a hint of rippling contemptuous laughter running

through the word. "Answered indeed. SakrelBahr risks the lives of two hundred children of Islam and a

ship that being taken was become the property of the State upon a voyage to England that has no object but

the capturing of two slaves two slaves, when had his purpose been sincere, it might have been two

"All that signifies," she replied, still mirroring herself. "I heard as a matter of lesser import that on his return,

meeting fortuitously a Frankish ship that chanced to be richly laden, he seized it in thy name."

"What else?" She lowered the mirror, and her bold, insolent eyes met his own quite fearlessly. "Thou'lt not

He frowned; his head sank slowly in thought. Observing the advantage gained she thrust it home. "It was a

lucky wind that blew that Dutchman into his path, and luckier still her being so richly fraught that he may

dazzle thine eyes with the sight of gold and gems, and so blind thee to the real purpose of his voyage."

"Its real purpose?" he asked dully. "What was its real purpose?" She smiled a smile of infinite knowledge to

hide her utter ignorance, her inability to supply even a reason that should wear an air of truth.

"Dost ask me, 0 perspicuous Asad? Are not thine eyes as sharp, thy wits as keen at least as mine, that what is

clear to me should be hidden from thee? Or hath this SakrelBahr bewitched thee with enchantments of

He strode to her and caught her wrist in a cruelly rough grip of his sinewy old hand.

"Thou wilt not? Now, by the Head of Allah! dost dare to stand before my face and defy me, thy Lord? I'll

have thee whipped, Fenzileh. I have been too tender of thee these many yearsso tender that thou hast

forgot the rods that await the disobedient wife. Speak then ere thy flesh is bruised or speak thereafter, at thy

"I will not," she repeated. "Though I be flung to the hooks, not another word will I say of SakrelBahr.

Shall I unveil the truth to be spurned and scorned and dubbed a liar and the mother of lies?" Then abruptly

changing she fell to weeping. "O source of my life!" she cried to him, "how cruelly unjust to me thou art!"

She was grovelling now, a thing of supplest grace, her lovely arms entwining his knees. "When my love for

thee drives me to utter what I see, I earn but thy anger, which is more than I can endure. I swoon beneath the

He flung her off impatiently. "What a weariness is a woman's tongue!" he cried, and stalked out again,

convinced from past experiences that did he linger he would be whelmed in a torrent of words.

But her poison was shrewdly administered, and slowly did its work. It abode in his mind to torture him with

the doubts that were its very essence. No reason, however well founded, that she might have urged for

SakrelBahr's strange conduct could have been half so insidious as her suggestion that there was a reason. It

gave him something vague and intangible to consider. Something that he could not repel since it had no

substance he could grapple with. Impatiently he awaited the morning and the coming of SakrelBahr

himself, but he no longer awaited it with the ardent wholehearted eagerness as of a father awaiting the

SakrelBahr himself paced the poop deck of the carack and watched the lights perish one by one in the little

town that straggled up the hillside before him. The moon came up and bathed it in a white hard light,

throwing sharp inky shadows of rustling date palm and spearlike minaret, and flinging shafts of silver athwart

His wound was healed and he was fully himself once more. Two days ago he had come on deck for the first

time since the fight with the Dutchman, and he had spent there the greater portion of the time since then.

Once only had he visited his captives. He had risen from his couch to repair straight to the cabin in the poop

where Rosamund was confined. He had found her pale and very wistful, but with her courage entirely

unbroken. The Godolphins were a stiffnecked race, and Rosamund bore in her frail body the spirit of a man.

She looked up when he entered, started a little in surprise to see him at last, for it was the first time he stood

before her since he had carried her off from Arwenack some four weeks ago. Then she had averted her eyes,

and sat there, elbows on the table, as if carved of wood, as if blind to his presence and deaf to his words.

To the expressions of regretand they were sincere, for already he repented him his unpremeditated act so

far as she was concernedshe returned no slightest answer, gave no sign indeed that she heard a word of it.

Baffled, he stood gnawing his lip a moment, and gradually, unreasonably perhaps, anger welled up from his

heart. He turned and went out again. Next he had visited his brother, to consider in silence a moment the

haggard, wildeyed, unshorn wretch who shrank and cowered before him in the consciousness of guilt. At

last he returned to the deck, and there, as I have said, he spent the greater portion of the last three days of that

strange voyage, reclining for the most part in the sun and gathering strength from its ardour.

Tonight as he paced under the moon a stealthy shadow crept up the companion to call him gently by his

He started as if a ghost had suddenly leapt up to greet him. It was Jasper Leigh who hailed him thus.

"Come up," he said. And when the fellow stood before him on the poop "I have told you already that here

is no Sir Oliver. I am OliverReis or SakrelBahr, as you please, one of the Faithful of the Prophet's House.

"None. But neither has any acknowledged it. When you lay wounded below it had been an easy thing for me

to ha' played the traitor. I might ha' sailed these ships into the mouth of Tagus. I might so by God!"

"I might have hugged the land and run the risk of capture and then claimed my liberation from captivity."

"And found yourself back on the galleys of his Catholic Majesty. But there! I grant that you have dealt

loyally by me. You have kept your part of the bond. I shall keep mine, never doubt it."

"The hell of it is that I know not where to find a home, I know not where home may be after all these years. If

"Faith now I am as full weary of Christians and Christendom as you was yourself when the Muslims took the

galley on which you toiled. I am a man of parts, Sir 0l SakrelBahr. No better navigator ever sailed a ship

from an English port, and I ha' seen a mort o' fighting and know the art of it upon the sea. Can ye make

"I ha' been thinking that 'renegade' is a word that depends upon which side you're on. "I'd prefer to say that

"Converted to the faith of piracy and plunder and robbery upon the seas is what you mean," said

"Nay, now. To that I should need no converting, for all that I were afore," Captain Leigh admitted frankly. "I

SakrelBahr considered. The rogue's appeal smote a responsive chord in his heart. It would be good to have

a man of his own race beside him, even though it were but such a rascal as this.

"Be it as you will," he said at last. "You deserve to be hanged in spite of what promises I made you. But no

matter for that. So that you become a Muslim I will take you to serve beside me, one of my own lieutenants

to begin with, and so long as you are loyal to me, Jasper, all will be well. But at the first sign of faithlessness,

The rascally skipper stooped in his emotion, caught up SakrelBahr's hand and bore it to his lips. "It is

agreed," he said. "Ye have shown me mercy who have little deserved it from you. Never fear for my loyalty.

My life belongs to you, and worthless thing though it may be, ye may do with it as ye please."

Despite himself SakrelBahr tightened his grip upon the rogue's hand, and Jasper shuffled off and down the

companion again, touched to the heart for once in his rough villainous life by a clemency that he knew to be

It took no less than forty camels to convey the cargo of that Dutch argosy from the mole to the Kasbah, and

the processioncarefully marshalled by SakrelBahr, who knew the value of such pageants to impress the

mobwas such as never yet had been seen in the narrow streets of Algiers upon the return of any corsair. It

was full worthy of the greatest Muslim conqueror that sailed the seas, of one who, not content to keep to the

tideless Mediterranean as had hitherto been the rule of his kind, had ventured forth upon the wider ocean.

Ahead marched a hundred of his rovers in their short caftans of every conceivable colour, their waists

swathed in gaudy scarves, some of which supported a very arsenal of assorted cutlery; many wore body

armour of mail and the gleaming spike of a casque thrust up above their turbans. After them, dejected and in

chains, came the five score prisoners taken aboard the Dutchman, urged along by the whips of the corsairs

who flanked them. Then marched another regiment of corsairs, and after these the long line of stately,

sneering camels, shuffling cumbrously along and led by shouting Saharowis. After them followed yet more

corsairs, and then mounted, on a white Arab jennet, his head swathed in a turban of cloth of gold, came

SakrelBahr. In the narrower streets, with their white and yellow washed houses, which presented blank

windowless walls broken here and there by no more than a slit to admit light and air, the spectators huddled

themselves fearfully into doorways to avoid being crushed to death by the camels, whose burdens bulging on

either side entirely filled those narrow ways. But the more open spaces, such as the strand on either side of

the mole, the square before the s�k, and the approaches of Asad's fortress, were thronged with a motley

roaring crowd. There were stately Moors in flowing robes cheek by jowl with halfnaked blacks from the Sus

and the Draa; lean, enduring Arabs in their spotless white djellabas rubbed shoulders with Berbers from the

highlands in black camelhair cloaks; there were Levantine Turks, and Jewish refugees from Spain

ostentatiously dressed in European garments, tolerated there because bound to the Moor by ties of common

Under the glaring African sun this amazing crowd stood assembled to welcome SakrelBahr; and welcome

him it did, with such vocal thunder that an echo of it from the mole reached the very Kasbah on the hilltop to

By the time, however, that he reached the fortress his procession had dwindled by more than half. At the s�k

his forces had divided, and his corsairs, headed by Othmani, had marched the captives away to the

bagnioor banyard, as my Lord Henry calls itwhilst the camels had continued up the hill. Under the great

gateway of the Kasbah they padded into the vast courtyard to be ranged along two sides of it by their

Saharowi drivers, and there brought clumsily to their knees. After them followed but some two score corsairs

as a guard of honour to their leader. They took their stand upon either side of the gateway after profoundly

salaaming to AsadedDin. The Basha sat in the shade of an awning enthroned upon a divan, attended by his

wazeer Tsamanni and by Marzak, and guarded by a halfdozen janissaries, whose sable garments made an

effective background to the green and gold of his jewelled robes. In his white turban glowed an emerald

The Basha's countenance was dark and brooding as he watched the advent of that line of burdened camels.

His thoughts were still labouring with the doubt of SakrelBahr which Fenzileh's crafty speech and craftier

reticence had planted in them. But at sight of the corsair leader himself his countenance cleared suddenly, his

eyes sparkled, and he rose to his feet to welcome him as a father might welcome a son who had been through

SakrelBahr entered the courtyard on foot, having dismounted at the gate. Tall and imposing, with his head

high and his forked beard thrusting forward, he stalked with great dignity to the foot of the divan followed by

Ali and a mahoganyfaced fellow, turbaned and redbearded, in whom it needed more than a glance to

recognize the rascally Jasper Leigh, now in all the panoply of your complete renegado.

SakrelBahr went down upon his knees and prostrated himself solemnly before his prince.

And Asad, stooping to lift that splendid figure in his arms, gave him a welcome that caused the spying

"The praise to Allah and to our Lord Mahomet that thou art returned and in health, my son. Already hath my

old heart been gladdened by the news of thy victories in the service of the Faith."

Then followed the display of all those riches wrested from the Dutch, and greatly though Asad's expectations

had been fed already by Othmani, the sight now spread before his eyes by far exceeded all those expectations.

In the end all was dismissed to the treasury, and Tsamanni was bidden to go cast up the account of it and

mark the share that fell to the portion of those concernedfor in these ventures all were partners, from the

Basha himself, who represented the State down to the meanest corsair who had manned the victorious vessels

of the Faith, and each had his share of the booty, greater or less according to his rank, one twentieth of the

In the courtyard were left none but Asad, Marzak and the janissaries, and SakrelBahr with Ali and Jasper.

It was then that SakrelBahr presented his new officer to the Bashal as one upon whom the grace of Allah

had descended, a great fighter and a skilled seaman, who had offered up his talents and his life to the service

of Islam, who had been accepted by SakrelBahr, and stood now before Asad to be confirmed in his office.

Marzak interposed petulantly, to exclaim that already were there too many erstwhile Nasrani dogs in the

ranks of the soldiers of the Faith, and that it was unwise to increase their number and presumptuous in

SakrelBahr measured him with an eye in which scorn and surprise were nicely blended.

"Dost say that it is presumptuous to win a convert to the banner of Our Lord Mahomet?" quoth he. "Go read

the Most Perspicuous Book and see what is there enjoined as a duty upon every TrueBeliever. And bethink

thee, 0 son of Asad, that when thou dost in thy little wisdom cast scorn upon those whom Allah has blessed

and led from the night wherein they dwelt into the bright noontide of Faith, thou dost cast scorn upon me and

upon thine own mother, which is but a little matter, and thou dost blaspheme the Blessed name of Allah,

Angry but defeated and silenced, Marzak fell back a step and stood biting his lip and glowering upon the

"Verily art thou full learned in the True Belief, SakrelBahr," he said. "Thou art the very father of wisdom

as of valour." And thereupon he gave welcome to Master Leigh, whom he hailed to the ranks of the Faithful

That done, the renegade and Ali were both dismissed, as were also the janissaries, who, quitting their position

behind Asad, went to take their stand on guard at the gateway. Then the Basha beat his hands together, and to

the slaves who came in answer to his summons he gave orders to set food, and he bade SakrelBahr to

Water was brought that they might wash. That done, the slaves placed before them a savoury stew of meat

Asad broke bread with a reverently pronounced "Bismillah!" and dipped his fingers into the earthenware

bowl, leading the way for SakrelBahr and Marzak, and as they ate he invited the corsair himself to recite

When he had done so, and again Asad had praised him in high and loving terms, Marzak set him a question.

"Was it to obtain just these two English slaves that thou didst undertake this perilous voyage to that distant

"That was but a part of my design," was the calm reply. "I went to rove the seas in the Prophet's service, as

"Thou didst not know that this Dutch argosy would cross thy path," said Marzak, in the very words his

"Did I not?" quoth SakrelBahr, and he smiled confidently, so confidently that Asad scarce needed to hear

the words that so cunningly gave the lie to the innuendo. "Had I no trust in Allah the Allwise, the

"Well answered, by the Koran!" Asad approved him heartily, the more heartily since it rebutted insinuations

But Marzak did not yet own himself defeated. He had been soundly schooled by his guileful Sicilian mother.

"Yet there is something in all this I do not understand," he murmured, with false gentleness.

"All things are possible to Allah!" said SakrelBahr, in tones of incredulity, as if he suggestednot without

a suspicion of ironythat it was incredible there should be anything in all the world that could elude the

The youth bowed to him in acknowledgment. "Tell me, 0 mighty SakrelBahr," he begged, "how it came to

pass that having reached those distant shores thou wert content to take thence but two poor slaves, since with

thy followers and the favour of the Allseeing thou might easily have taken fifty times that number." And he

looked ingenuously into the corsair's swarthy, rugged face, whilst Asad frowned thoughtfully, for the thought

It became necessary that SakrelBahr should lie to clear himself. Here no highsounding phrase of Faith

would answer. And explanation was unavoidable, and he was conscious that he could not afford one that did

"Why, as to that," said he, "these prisoners were wrested from the first house upon which we came, and their

capture occasioned some alarm. Moreover, it was nighttime when we landed, and I dared not adventure the

lives of my followers by taking them further from the ship and attacking a village which might have risen to

"Yet Othmani," said he, "urged thee to fall upon a slumbering village all unconscious of thy presence, and

Asad looked up sharply at that, and SakrelBahr realized with a tightening about the heart something of the

undercurrents at work against him and all the pains that had been taken to glean information that might be

"Is it so?" demanded Asad, looking from his son to his lieutenant with that lowering look that rendered his

"Ay, but knowing thy wisdom I disbelieved my ears," said SakrelBahr. "Shall it signify what Othmani may

have said? Do I take my orders or am I to be guided by Othmani? If so, best set Othmani in my place, give

him the command and the responsibility for the lives of the Faithful who fight beside him." He ended with an

"And by the Head of Allah, who will deny my right to it? Am I to conduct such an enterprise as this from

which I am returned laden with spoils that might well be the fruits of a year's raiding, to be questioned by a

He heaved himself up and stood towering there in the intensity of a passion that was entirely simulated. He

must bluster here, and crush down suspicion with whorling periods and broad, fierce gesture.

"To what should Othmani have guided me?" he demanded scornfully. "Could he have guided me to more

than I have this day laid at thy feet? What I have done speaks eloquently with its own voice. What he would

have had me do might well have ended in disaster. Had it so ended, would the blame of it have fallen upon

Othmani? Nay, by Allah! but upon me. And upon me rests then the credit, and let none dare question it

Now these were daring words to address to the tyrant Asad, and still more daring was the tone, the light hard

eyes aflash and the sweeping gestures of contempt with which they were delivered. But of his ascendancy

Asad almost cowered before his fury. The scowl faded from his face to be replaced by an expression of

SakrelBahr, having slammed the door of conciliation in the face of the Basha, now opened it again. He

"Forgive it," he said. "Blame the devotion of thy servant to thee and to the Faith he serves with little reck to

life. In this very expedition was I wounded nigh unto death. The livid scar of it is a dumb witness to my zeal.

Marzak quailed before the sudden blaze of that question, and SakrelBahr laughed softly in contempt.

"Thou art the very fount and spring of justice, 0 my lord, as this thine admission proves," protested the

corsair. He sat down again, folding his legs under him. "I will confess to you that being come so near to

England in that cruise of mine I determined to land and seize one who some years ago did injure me, and

between whom and me there was a score to settle. I exceeded my intentions in that I carried off two prisoners

instead of one. These prisoners," he ran on, judging that the moment of reaction in Asad's mind was entirely

favourable to the preferment of the request he had to make, "are not in the bagnio with the others. They are

"Because, my lord, I have a boon to ask in some reward for the service I have rendered."

Asad considered him, frowning again slightly. Despite himself, despite his affection for SakrelBahr, and

his desire to soothe him now that rankling poison of Fenzileh's infusing was at work again in his mind.

"My leave thou hast," said he. "But not the law's, and the law runs that no corsair shall subtract so much as

the value of an asper from his booty until the division has been made and his own share allotted him," was the

"Not so, my son. The law is above the Basha, who must himself conform to it so that he be just and worthy of

his high office. And the law I have recited thee applies even should the corsair raider be the Basha himself.

These slaves of thine must forthwith be sent to the bagnio to join the others that tomorrow all may be sold in

The corsair would have renewed his pleadings, but that his eye caught the eager white face of Marzak and the

gleaming expectant eyes, looking so hopefully for his ruin. He checked, and bowed his head with an

But Asad shook his head. "It is not for me to name their price, but for the buyers," he replied. "I might set the

price too high, and that were unjust to thee, or too low, and that were unjust to others who would acquire

"It shall be done," said SakrelBahr, daring to insist no further and dissembling his chagrin.

Very soon thereafter he departed upon that errand, giving orders, however, that Rosamund and Lionel should

be kept apart from the other prisoners until the hour of the sale on the morrow when perforce they must take

Marzak lingered with his father after Oliver had taken his leave, and presently they were joined there in the

courtyard by Fenzilehthis woman who had brought, said many, the Frankish ways of Shaitan into Algiers.

Early on the morrowso early that scarce had the Shehad been recited came BiskaineelBorak to the

Basha. He had just landed from a galley which had come upon a Spanish fishing boat, aboard of which there

was a young Morisco who was being conducted over seas to Algiers. The news of which the fellow was the

bearer was of such urgency that for twenty hours without intermission the slaves had toiled at the oars of

The Morisco had a cousina NewChristian like himself, and like himself, it would appear, still a Muslim at

heartwho was employed in the Spanish treasury at Malaga. This man had knowledge that a galley was

fitting out for sea to convey to Naples the gold destined for the pay of the Spanish troops in garrison there.

Through parsimony this treasuregalley was to be afforded no escort, but was under orders to hug the coast

of Europe, where she should be safe from all piratical surprise. It was judged that she would be ready to put

to sea in a week, and the Morisco had set out at once to bring word of it to his Algerine brethren that they

Asad thanked the young Morisco for his news, bade him be housed and cared for, and promised him a

handsome share of the plunder should the treasuregalley be captured. That done he sent for SakrelBahr,

whilst Marzak, who had been present at the interview, went with the tale of it to his mother, and beheld her

fling into a passion when he added that it was SakrelBahr had been summoned that he might be entrusted

with this fresh expedition, thus proving that all her crafty innuendoes and insistent warnings had been so

With Marzak following at her heels, she swept like a fury into the darkened room where Asad took his ease.

"What is this I hear, 0 my lord?" she cried, in tone and manner more the European shrew than the submissive

Eastern slave. "Is SakrelBahr to go upon this expedition against the treasuregalley of Spain?"

Reclining on his divan he looked her up and down with a languid eye. "Dost know of any better fitted to

"I know of one whom it is my lord's duty to prefer to that foreign adventurer. One who is entirely faithful and

entirely to be trusted. One who does not attempt to retain for himself a portion of the booty garnered in the

"Bah!" said Asad. "Wilt thou talk forever of those two slaves? And who may be this paragon of thine?"

"Marzak," she answered fiercely, flinging out an arm to drag forward her son." Is he to waste his youth here

in softness and idleness? But yesternight that ribald mocked him with his lack of scars. Shall he take scars in

the orchard of the Kasbah here? Is he to be content with those that come from the scratch of a bramble, or is

he to learn to be a fighter and leader of the Children of the Faith that himself he may follow in the path his

"Whether he so follows," said Asad, "is as the Sultan of Istambul, the Sublime Portal, shall decree. We are

"But shall the Grand Sultan appoint him to succeed thee if thou hast not equipped him so to do? I cry shame

on thee, 0 father of Marzakl, for that thou art lacking in due pride in thine own son."

"May Allah give me patience with thee! Have I not said that he is still over young."

"At his age I was, by the favour of Allah, taller and stronger than is he. I cherish him too dearly to let him go

"Look at him" she commanded. "He is a man, Asad, and such a son as another might take pride in. Is it not

time he girt a scimitar about his waist and trod the poop of one of thy galleys?"

"What?" barked the old Moor. "And is it so? And wouldst thou go forth then against the Spaniard? What

"What can his knowledge be since his father has never been concerned to school him?" returned Fenzileh.

"Dost thou sneer at shortcomings that are the natural fruits of thine own omissions?"

"I will be patient with thee," said Asad, showing every sign of losing patience. "I will ask thee only if in thy

"Straightly I answer thee that he is not. And, as straightly, I tell thee that it is full time he were. Thy duty is to

let him go upon this expedition that he may learn the trade that lies before him."

Asad considered a moment. Then: "Be it so," he answered slowly. "Shalt set forth, then, with SakrelBahr,

"Were I a man, 0 fountain of my soul," said she, and had I a son, none but myself should be his preceptor. I

should so mould and fashion him that he should be another me. That, 0 my dear lord, is thy duty to Marzak.

Entrust not his training to another and to one whom despite thy love for him I cannot trust. Go forth thyself

Asad frowned. "I grow too old," he said. "I have not been upon the seas these two years past. Who can say

that I may not have lost the art of victory. No, no." He shook his head, and his face grew overcast and

softened by wistfulness. "SakrelBahr commands this time, and if Marzak goes, he goes with him."

"My lord...." she began, then checked. A Nubian had entered to announce that SakrelBahr was come and

was awaiting the orders of his lord in the courtyard. Asad rose instantly and for all that Fenzileh, greatly

daring as ever, would still have detained him, he shook her off impatiently, and went out.

She watched his departure with anger in those dark lovely eyes of hers, an anger that went near to filming

them in tears, and after he had passed out into the glaring sunshine beyond the door, a silence dwelt in the

cool darkened chambera silence disturbed only by distant trills of silvery laughter from the lesser women

of the Basha's house. The sound jarred her taut nerves. She moved with an oath and beat her hands together.

To answer her came a negress, lithe and muscular as a wrestler and naked to the waist; the slave ring in her

"Bid them make an end of that screeching," she snapped to vent some of her fierce petulance. "Tell them I

The negress went out, and silence followed, for those other lesser ladies of the Basha's hareem were more

Then she drew her son to the fretted lattice commanding the courtyard, a screen from behind which they

could see and hear all that passed out yonder. Asad was speaking, informing SakrelBahr of what he had

"It is well, my son." Asad laid a hand, affectionately upon the corsair's shoulder, entirely conquered by this

readiness. "Best set out at sunrise tomorrow. Thou'lt need so long to make thee ready for the sea."

"Then by thy leave I go forthwith to give orders to prepare," replied SakrelBahr, for all that he was a little

"To capture one galley of Spain? My own galeasse, no more; she will be full equal to such an enterprise, and

I shall be the better able, then, to lurk and take covera thing which might well prove impossible with a

"Aythou art wise in thy daring," Asad approved him. "May Allah prosper thee upon the voyage."

"A moment yet. There is my son Marzak. He is approaching manhood, and it is time he entered the service of

Allah and the State. It is my desire that he sail as thy lieutenant on this voyage, and that thou be his preceptor

Now here was something that pleased SakrelBahr as little as it pleased Marzak. Knowing the bitter enmity

borne him by the son of Fenzileh he had every cause to fear trouble if this project of Asad's were realized.

"As I was thine of old!" he answered with crafty wistfulness. "Wilt thou not put to sea with us tomorrow, 0

Asad? There is none like thee in all Islam,, and what a joy were it not to stand beside thee on the prow as of

"Have others urged it?" The man's sharp wits, rendered still sharper by his sufferings, were cutting deeply and

swiftly into this matter. "They did well, but none could have urged it more fervently than I, for none knows

so well as I the joy of battle against the infidel under thy command and the glory of prevailing in thy sight.

Come, then, my lord, upon this enterprise, and be thyself thine own son's preceptor since 'tis the highest

Thoughtfully Asad stroked his long white beard, his eagle eyes growing narrow. "Thou temptest me, by

"Nay, more thou canst not. I am old and worn, and I am needed here. Shall an old lion hunt a young gazelle?

Peace, peace! The sun has set upon my fighting day. Let the brood of fighters I have raised up keep that

which my arm conquered and maintain my name and the glory of the Faith upon the seas." He leaned upon

SakrelBahr's shoulder and sighed, his eyes wistfully dreamy. "It were a fond adventure in good truth. But

no...I am resolved. Go thou and take Marzak with thee, and bring him safely home again."

"I should not return myself else," was the answer. "But my trust is in the Allknowing."

Upon that he departed, dissembling his profound vexation both at the voyage and the company, and went to

bid Othmani make ready his great galeasse, equipping it with carronades, three hundred slaves to row it, and

AsadelDin returned to that darkened room in the Kasbah overlooking the courtyard, where Fenzileh and

Marzak still lingered. He went to tell them that in compliance with the desires of both Marzak should go forth

"0 sun that warms me," Fenzileh greeted him, and from long experience he knew that the more endearing

were her epithets the more vicious was her mood, "do then my counsels weigh as naught with thee, are they

"Less," said Asad, provoked out of his habitual indulgence of her licences of speech.

"That is the truth, indeed!" she cried, bowing her head, whilst behind her the handsome face of her son was

"It is," Asad agreed. "At dawn, Marzak, thou settest forth upon the galeasse of SakrelBahr to take the seas

under his tutelage and to emulate the skill and valour that have rendered him the stoutest bulwark of Islam,

But Marzak felt that in this matter his mother was to be supported, whilst his detestation of this adventurer

who threatened to usurp the place that should rightly be his own spurred him to mad lengths of daring.

"When I take the seas with that dogdescended Nasrani," he answered hoarsely, "he shall be where rightly he

"How?" It was a bellow of rage. Upon the word Asad swung to confront his son, and his face, suddenly

inflamed, was so cruel and evil in its expression that it terrified that intriguing pair. "By the beard of the

Prophet! what words are these to me?" He advanced upon Marzak until Fenzileh in sudden terror stepped

between and faced him, like a lioness springing to defend her cub. But the Basha, enraged now by this want

of submission in his son, enraged both against that son and the mother who he knew had prompted him,

caught her in his sinewy old hands, and flung her furiously aside, so that she stumbled and fell in a panting

"The curse of Allah upon thee!" he screamed, and Marzak recoiled before him. "Has this presumptuous

hellcat who bore thee taught thee to stand before my face, to tell me what thou wilt and wilt not do? By the

Koran! too long have I endured her evil foreign ways, and now it seems she has taught thee how to tread

them after her and how to beard thy very father! Tomorrow thou'lt take the sea with SakrelBahr, I have

said it. Another word and thou'lt go aboard his galeasse even as thou saidst should be the case with himat

Terrified, Marzak stood numb and silent, scarcely daring to draw breath. Never in all his life had he seen his

father in a rage so royal. Yet it seemed to inspire no fear in Fenzileh, that congenital shrew whose tongue not

"I shall pray Allah to restore sight to thy soul, 0 father of Marzak," she panted," to teach thee to discriminate

"Nor ever shall be until I am lain dumb in death for having counselled thee out of my great love, 0 light of

"Maintain this tone," he said, with concentrated anger, "and that will soon befall."

"I care not so that the sleek mask be plucked from the face of that dogdescended SakrelBahr. May Allah

break his bones! What of those slaves of histhose two from England, 0 Asad? I am told that one is a

woman, tall and of that white beauty which is the gift of Eblis to these Northerners. What is his purpose with

herthat he would not show her in the suk as the law prescribes, but comes slinking here to beg thee set

aside the law for him? Ha! I talk in vain. I have shown thee graver things to prove his vile disloyalty, and yet

His face showed grey under its deep tan. His aspect terrified her at last and made an end of her reckless

She gasped, livid in her turn with sudden terror. "My lord, my lord!" she whimpered. "Stream of my life, be

He smiled evilly. "Do?" he growled. "What I should have done ten years ago and more. We'll have the rods to

"My lord, my lord!" she gasped in shuddering horror now that at last she found him set upon the thing to

which so often she had dared him. "Pity! Pity!" She grovelled and embraced his knees. "In the name of the

Pitying the Pitiful be merciful upon the excesses to which my love for thee may have driven this poor tongue

Her distress, her beauty, and perhaps, more than either, her unusual humility and submission may have

moved him. For even as at that moment Ayoubthe sleek and portly eunuch, who was her wazeer and

chamberlain loomed in the inner doorway, salaaming, he vanished again upon the instant, dismissed by a

Asad looked down upon her, sneering. "That attitude becomes thee best," he said. "Continue it in future."

Contemptuously he shook himself free of her grasp, turned and stalked majestically out, wearing his anger

like a royal mantle, and leaving behind him two terrorshaken beings, who felt as if they had looked over the

There was a long silence between them. Then at long length Fenzileh rose and crossed to the

meshrabiyahthe latticed windowbox. She opened it and took from one of its shelves an earthenware jar,

placed there so as to receive the slightest breeze. From it she poured water into a little cup and drank greedily.

That she could perform this menial service for herself when a mere clapping of hands would have brought

slaves to minister to her need betrayed something of her disordered state of mind.

"Ay, what now? What are we to do? Are we to lie crushed under his rage until we are ruined indeed? He is

bewitched. That jackal has enchanted him, so that he must deem well done all that is done by him. Allah

Marzak hung his head; slowly he moved to the divan and flung himself down upon its pillows; there he lay

"That is what I most desire to know. Something must be done, and soon. May his bones rot! If he lives thou

"Ay," said Marzak, with sudden vigour and significance. "If he lives!" And he sat up. "Whilst we plan and

plot, and our plans and plots come to naught save to provoke the anger of my father, we might be better

She stood in the middle of the chamber, pondering him with gloomy eyes "I too have thought of that," said

she. "I could hire me men to do the thing for a handful of gold. But the risk of it...."

"He might pull us down with him, and then what would our profit be in his death? Thy father would avenge

"Not be discovered?" she echoed, and laughed without mirth. "How young and blind thou art, 0 Marzak! We

should be the first to be suspected. I have made no secret of my hate of him, and the people do not love me.

They would urge thy father to do justice even were he himself averse to it, which I will not credit would be

the case. This SakrelBahr may Allah wither him!is a god in their eyes. Bethink thee of the welcome

given him! What Basha returning in triumph was ever greeted by the like? These victories that fortune has

vouchsafed him have made them account him divinely favoured and protected. I tell thee, Marzak, that did

thy father die tomorrow SakrelBahr would be proclaimed Basha of Algiers in his stead, and woe betide

us then. And AsadelDin grows old. True, he does not go forth to fight. He clings to life and may last long.

But if he should not, and if SakrelBahr should still walk the earth when thy father's destiny is fulfilled, I

"His grave?" said she. "The difficulty is to dig it for him without hurt to ourselves. Shaitan protects the dog."

"To curse him will not help us. Up, Marzak, and consider how the thing is to be done."

Marzak came to his feet, nimble and supple as a greyhound. "Listen now," he said. "Since I must go this

voyage with him, perchance upon the seas on some dark night opportunity may serve me."

"Wait! Let me consider it. Allah guide me to find some way!" She beat her hands together and bade the slave

girl who answered her to summon her wazeer Ayoub, and bid a litter be prepared for her. "We'll to the s�k, 0

Marzak, and see these slaves of his. Who knows but that something may be done by means of them! Guile

The open space before the gates of the s�kelAbeed was thronged with a motley, jostling, noisy crowd that

at every moment was being swelled by the human streams pouring to mingle in it from the debauching

There were brownskinned Berbers in black goathair cloaks that were made in one piece with a cowl and

decorated by a lozenge of red or orange colour on the back, their shaven heads encased in skullcaps or

simply bound in a cord of plaited camelhair; there were black Saharowi who went almost naked, and stately

Arabs who seemed overmuffled in their flowing robes of white with the cowls overshadowing their swarthy,

finely featured faces; there were dignified and prosperouslooking Moors in brightly coloured selhams

astride of sleek mules that were richly caparisoned; and there were Tagareenes, the banished Moors of

Andalusia, most of whom followed the trade of slavedealers; there were native Jews in sombre black

djellabas, and ChristianJewssocalled because bred in Christian countries, whose garments they still

wore; there were Levantine Turks, splendid of dress and arrogant of demeanour, and there were humble

Cololies, Kabyles and Biscaries. Here a waterseller, laden with his goatskin vessel, tinkled his little bell;

there an orangehawker, balancing a basket of the golden fruit upon his ragged turban, bawled his wares.

There were men on foot and men on mules, men on donkeys and men on slim Arab horses, an evershifting

medley of colours, all jostling, laughing, cursing in the ardent African sunshine under the blue sky where

pigeons circled. In the shadow of the yellow tapia wall squatted a line of whining beggars and cripples

soliciting alms; near the gates a little space had been cleared and an audience had gathered in a ring about a

Meddaha beggartroubadourwho, to the accompaniment of gimbri and gaitah from two acolytes,

Those of the crowd who were patrons of the market held steadily amain, and, leaving their mounts outside,

passed through the gates through which there was no admittance for mere idlers and mean folk. Within the

vast quadrangular space of bare, dry ground, enclosed by dustcoloured walls, there was more space. The

sale of slaves had not yet begun and was not due to begin for another hour, and meanwhile a little trading was

being done by those merchants who had obtained the coveted right to set up their booths against the walls;

they were vendors of wool, of fruit, of spices, and one or two traded in jewels and trinkets for the adornment

A well was sunk in the middle of the ground, a considerable octagon with a low parapet in three steps. Upon

the nethermost of these sat an aged, bearded Jew in a black djellaba, his head swathed in a coloured kerchief.

Upon his knees reposed a broad, shallow black box, divided into compartments, each filled with lesser gems

and rare stones, which he was offering for sale; about him stood a little group of young Moors and one or two

The whole of the northern wall was occupied by a long penthouse, its contents completely masked by

curtains of camelhair; from behind it proceeded a subdued murmur of human voices. These were the pens in

which were confined the slaves to be offered for sale that day. Before the curtains, on guard, stood some

Beyond and above the wall glistened the white dome of a zowia, flanked by a spearlike minaret and the tall

Suddenly in the crowd beyond the gates there was a commotion. From one of the streets six colossal Nubians

They were armed with great staves, grasped in their two hands, and with these they broke a path through that

motley press, hurling men to right and left and earning a shower of curses in return.

The crowd, pressing back, went down upon its knees and grovelled as AsadedDin on a milkwhite mule

rode forward, escorted by Tsamanni his wazeer and a cloud of blackrobed janissaries with flashing

The curses that had greeted the violence of his negroes were suddenly silenced; instead, blessings as fervent

"May Allah increase thy might! May Allah lengthen thy days! The blessings of our Lord Mahomet upon

thee! Allah send thee more victories!" were the benedictions that showered upon him on every hand. He

"The peace of Allah upon the Faithful of the Prophet's House," he would murmur in response from time to

time, until at last he had reached the gates. There he bade Tsamanni fling a purse to the crouching beggars

for is it not written in the Most Perspicuous Book that of alms ye shall bestow what ye can spare, for such as

are saved from their own greed shall prosper, and whatever ye give in alms, as seeking the face of Allah shall

Submissive to the laws as the meanest of his subjects, Asad dismounted and passed on foot into the s�k. He

came to a halt by the well, and, facing the curtained penthouse, he blessed the kneeling crowd and

He beckoned SakrelBahr's officer Aliwho was in charge of the slaves of the corsair's latest raid and

announced his will to inspect the captives. At a sign from Ali, the negroes flung aside the camelhair curtains

and let the fierce sunlight beat in upon those pentup wretches; they were not only the captives taken by

SakrelBahr, but some others who were the result of one or two lesser raids by Biskaine.

Asad beheld a huddle of men and womenthough the proportion of women was very smallof all ages,

races, and conditions; there were pale fairhaired men from France or the North, oliveskinned Italians and

swarthy Spaniards, negroes and halfcastes; there were old men, young men and mere children, some

handsomely dressed, some almost naked, others hung with rags. In the hopeless dejection of their

countenances alone was there any uniformity. But it was not a dejection that could awaken pity in the pious

heart of Asad. They were unbelievers who would never look upon the face of God's Prophet, accursed and

unworthy of any tenderness from man. For a moment his glance was held by a lovely blackhaired Spanish

girl, who sat with her locked hands held fast between her knees, in an attitude of intense despair and

sufferingthe glory of her eyes increased and magnified by the dark brown stains of sleeplessness

surrounding them. Leaning on Tsamanni's arm, he stood considering her for a little while; then his glance

travelled on. Suddenly he tightened his grasp of Tsamanni's arm and a quick interest leapt into his sallow

On the uppermost tier of the pen that he was facing sat a very glory of womanhood, such a woman as he had

heard tell existed but the like of which he had never yet beheld. She was tall and graceful as a cypresstree;

her skin was white as milk, her eyes two darkest sapphires, her head of a coppery golden that seemed to glow

like metal as the sunlight caught it. She was dressed in a close gown of white, the bodice cut low and

AsadedDin turned to Ali. "What pearl is this that hath been cast upon this dungheap?" he asked.

"She is the woman our lord SakrelBahr carried off from England." Slowly the Basha's eyes returned to

consider her, and insensible though she had deemed herself by now, he saw her cheeks slowly reddening

under the cold insult of his steady, insistent glance. The glow heightened her beauty, effacing the weariness

She was seized by two of the negroes, and to avoid being roughly handled by them she came at once, bracing

herself to bear with dignity whatever might await her. A goldenhaired young man beside her, his face

haggard and stubbled with a beard of some growth, looked up in alarm as she was taken from his side. Then,

with a groan, he made as if to clutch her, but a rod fell upon his raised arms and beat them down.

Asad was thoughtful. It was Fenzileh who had bidden him come look at the infidel maid whom SakrelBahr

had risked so much to snatch from England, suggesting that in her he would behold some proof of the bad

faith which she was forever urging against the corsair leader. He beheld the woman, but he discovered about

her no such signs as Fenzileh had suggested he must find, nor indeed did he look for any. Out of curiosity had

he obeyed her prompting. But that and all else were forgotten now in the contemplation of this noble

He put forth a hand to touch her arm, and she drew it back as if his fingers were of fire.

He sighed. "How inscrutable are the ways of Allah, that He should suffer so luscious a fruit to hang from the

Tsamanni watching him craftily, a mastersycophant profoundly learned in the art of playing upon his

"Even so perchance that a Faithful of the Prophet's House may pluck it. Verily all things are possible to the

"Yet is it not set down in the Book to be Read that the daughters of the infidel are not for TrueBelievers?"

But Tsamanni knowing full well how the Basha would like to be answered, trimmed his reply to that desire.

"Thou meanest Fenzileh. But then, by the mercy of Allah, I was rendered the instrument of her

"It may well be written that thou shalt be the same again, my lord," murmured the insidious Tsamanni. There

was more stirring in his mind than the mere desire to play the courtier now. 'Twixt Fenzileh and himself there

had long been a feud begotten of the jealousy which each inspired in the other where Asad was concerned.

Were Fenzileh removed the wazeer's influence must grow and spread to his own profit. It was a thing of

which he had often dreamed, but a dream he feared that was never like to be realized, for Asad was ageing,

and the fires that had burned so fiercely in his earlier years seemed now to have consumed in him all thought

of women. Yet here was one as by a miracle, of a beauty so amazing and so diverse from any that ever yet

had feasted the Basha's sight, that plainly she had acted as a charm upon his senses.

"She is white as the snows upon the Atlas, luscious as the dates of Tafilalt," he murmured fondly, his

gleaming eyes considering her what time she stood immovable before him. Suddenly he looked about him,

And then quite suddenly at their elbow a voice that was naturally soft and musical of accent but now rendered

Startled, both the Basha and his wazeer swung round. Fenzileh, becomingly veiled and hooded, stood before

them, escorted by Marzak. A little behind them were the eunuchs and the litter in which, unperceived by

Asad, she had been borne thither. Beside the litter stood her wazeer AyoubelSamin.

Asad scowled down upon her, for he had not yet recovered from the resentment she and Marzak had

provoked in him. Moreover, that in private she should be lacking in the respect which was his due was evil

enough, though he had tolerated it. But that she should make so bold as to thrust in and question him in this

peremptory fashion before all the world was more than his dignity could suffer. Never yet had she dared so

much nor would she have dared it now but that her sudden anxiety had effaced all caution from her mind. She

had seen the look with which Asad had been considering that lovely slave, and not only jealousy but positive

fear awoke in her. Her hold upon Asad was growing tenuous. To snap it utterly no more was necessary than

that he who of late years had scarce bestowed a thought or glance upon a woman should be taken with the

Hence her desperate, reckless courage to stand thus before him now, for although her face was veiled there

was hardy arrogance in every line of her figure. Of his scowl she took no slightest heed.

"If this be the slave fetched by SakrelBahr from England, then rumour has lied to me," she said. "I vow it

was scarce worth so long a voyage and the endangering so many valuable Muslim lives to fetch this

"Yellowfaced? Longshanked?" quoth he. Then reading Fenzileh at last, he displayed a slow, crooked

smile. "Already have I observed thee to grow hard of hearing, and now thy sight is failing too, it seems.

Assuredly thou art growing old." And he looked her over with such an eye of displeasure that she recoiled.

He stepped close up to her. "Too long already hast thou queened it in my hareem with thine infidel, Frankish

ways," he muttered, so that none but those immediately about overheard his angry words. "Thou art become a

very scandal in the eyes of the Faithful," he added very grimly. "It were well, perhaps, that we amended that."

Abruptly then he turned away, and by a gesture he ordered Ali to return the slave to her place among the

others. Leaning on the arm of Tsamanni he took some steps towards the entrance, then halted, and turned

"To thy litter," he bade her peremptorily, rebuking her thus before all, "and get thee to the house as becomes a

seemly Muslim woman. Nor ever again let thyself be seen roving the public places afoot."

She obeyed him instantly, without a murmur; and he himself lingered at the gates with Tsamanni until her

litter had passed out, escorted by Ayoub and Marzak walking each on one side of it and neither daring to

"As her beauty wanes so her presumption waxes, he growled. "She is growing old, Tsamanniold and lean

and shrewish, and no fit mate for a Member of the Prophet's House. It were perhaps a pleasing thing in the

sight of Allah that we replaced her." And then, referring obviously to that other one, his eye turning towards

"Didst thou mark, 0 Tsamanni, with what a grace she moved?lithely and nobly as a young gazelle. Verily,

"May it not have been sent to comfort some TrueBeliever?" wondered the subtle wazeer. "To Allah all

"Why else, indeed?" said Asad. "It was written; and even as none may obtain what is not written, so none

may avoid what is. I am resolved. Stay thou here, Tsamanni. Remain for the outcry and purchase her. She

shall be taught the True Faith. She shall be saved from the furnace." The command had come, the thing that

"Price?" quoth Asad. "Have I not bid thee purchase her? Bring her to me, though her price be a thousand

But already Asad had left his side and passed out under the arched gateay, where the grovelling anew at the

It was a fine thing for Asad to bid him remain for the sale. But the dalal would part with no slave until the

money was forthcoming, and Tsamanni had no considerable sum upon his person. Therefore in the wake of

his master he set out forthwith to the Kasbah. It wanted still an hour before the sale would be held and he had

It happened, however, that Tsamanni was malicious, and that the hatred of Fenzileh which so long he had

consumed in silence and dissembled under fawning smiles and profound salaams included also her servants.

There was none in all the world of whom he entertained a greater contempt than her sleek and greasy eunuch

It was written, too, that in the courtyard of the Kasbah he should stumble upon Ayoub, who indeed had by his

mistress's commands been set to watch for the wazeer. The fat fellow rolled forward, his hands supporting his

"Allah increase thy health, Tsamanni," was his courteous greeting. "Thou bearest news?"

"News? What news?" quoth Tsamanni. "In truth none that will gladden thy mistress."

Tsamanni smiled, a thing that angered Ayoub, who felt that the ground he trod was becoming insecure; it

followed that if his mistress fell from influence he fell with her, and became as the dust upon Tsamanni's

"By the Koran thou tremblest, Ayoub!" Tsamanni mocked him. "Thy soft fat is all aquivering; and well it

"Callest me dog? Thou?" Deliberately Tsamanni spat upon his shadow. "Go tell thy mistress that I am bidden

by my lord to buy the Frankish girl. Tell her that my lord will take her to wife, even as he took Fenzileh, that

he may lead her into the True Belief and cheat Shaitan of so fair a jewel. Add that I am bidden to buy her

though she cost my lord a thousand philips. Bear her that message, 0 father of wind, and may Allah increase

"May thy sons perish and thy daughters become harlots," roared the eunuch, maddened at once by this evil

Quivering still with a rage that entirely obliterated his alarm at what he had learnt, Ayoub rolled into the

She listened to him in a dumb white fury. Then she fell to reviling her lord and the slavegirl in a breath, and

called upon Allah to break their bones and blacken their faces and rot their flesh with all the fervour of one

born and bred in the True Faith. When she recovered from that burst of fury it was to sit brooding awhile. At

length she sprang up and bade Ayoub see that none lurked to listen about the doorways.

"We must act, Ayoub, and act swiftly, or I am destroyed and with me will be destroyed Marzak, who alone

could not stand against his father's face. SakrelBahr will trample us into the dust." She checked on a

sudden thought. "By Allah it may have been a part of his design to have brought hither that whitefaced

wench. But we must thwart him and we must thwart Asad, or thou art ruined too, Ayoub."

"Thwart him?" quoth her wazeer, gaping at the swift energy of mind and body with which this woman was

endowed, the like of which he had never seen in any woman yet. "Thwart him?" he repeated.

"How? Can thy wit suggest no way? Hast thou wits at all in that fat head of thine? Thou shalt outbid

Tsamanni, or, better still, set someone else to do it for thee, and so buy the girl for me. Then we'll contrive

that she shall vanish quietly and quickly before Asad can discover a trace of her."

His face blanched, and the wattles about his jaws were shaking. "And...and the cost? Hast thou counted the

"He shall gain no knowledge of it," she answered him. "Or if he does, the girl being gone beyond recall, he

"Lady, lady!" he cried, and wrung his bunches of fat fingers. "I dare not engage in this!"

"Engage in what? If I bid thee go buy this girl, and give thee the money thou'lt require, what else concerns

thee, dog? What else is to be done, a man shall do. Come now, thou shalt have the money, all I have, which is

a matter of some fifteen hundred philips, and what is not laid out upon this purchase thou shalt retain for

He considered an instant, and conceived that she was right. None could blame him for executing the

commands she gave him. And there would be profit in it, clearlyay, and it would be sweet to outbid that

dog Tsamanni and send him emptyhanded home to face the wrath of his frustrated master. He spread his

At the s�kelAbeed it was the hour of the outcry, announced by a blast of trumpets and the thudding of

tomtoms. The traders that until then had been licensed to ply within the enclosure now put up the shutters of

their little booths. The Hebrew pedlar of gems closed his box and effaced himself, leaving the steps about the

well clear for the most prominent patrons of the market. These hastened to assemble there, surrounding it and

facing outwards, whilst the rest of the crowd was ranged against the southern and western walls of the

Came negro watercarriers in white turbans with aspersers made of palmetto leaves to sprinkle the ground

and lay the dust against the tramp of slaves and buyers. The trumpets ceased for an instant, then wound a

fresh imperious blast and fell permanently silent. The crowd about the gates fell back to right and left, and

very slowly and stately three tall dalals, dressed from head to foot in white and with immaculate turbans

wound about their heads, advanced into the open space. They came to a halt at the western end of the long

The chattering of voices sank upon their advent, it became a hissing whisper, then a faint drone like that of

bees, and then utter silence. In the solemn and grave demeanour of the dalals there was something almost

sacerdotal, so that when that silence fell upon the crowd the affair took on the aspect of a sacrament.

The chief dalal stood forward a moment as if in an abstraction with downcast eyes; then with hands

outstretched to catch a blessing he raised his voice and began to pray in a monotonous chant:

"In the name of Allah the Pitying the Pitiful Who created man from clots of blood! All that is in the Heavens

and in the Earth praiseth Allah, Who is the Mighty, the Wise! His the kingdom of the Heavens and of the

Earth. He maketh alive and killeth, and He hath power over all things. He is the first and the last, the seen and

"The praise to Him who sent us Mahomet His Prophet to give the world the True Belief, and curses upon

"The blessings of Allah and our Lord Mahomet upon this market and upon all who may buy and sell herein,

and may Allah increase their wealth and grant them length of days in which to praise Him."

"Ameen," replied the crowd, as with a stir and rustle the close ranks relaxed from the tense attitude of prayer,

The dalal beat his hands together, whereupon the curtains were drawn aside and the huddled slaves

In the front rank of the middle penthe one containing Rosamund and Lionelstood a couple of stalwart

young Nubians, sleek and muscular, who looked on with completest indifference, no whit appalled by the fate

which had haled them thither. They caught the eye of the dalal, and although the usual course was for a buyer

to indicate a slave he was prepared to purchase, yet to the end that good beginning should be promptly made,

the dalal himself pointed out that stalwart pair to the corsairs who stood on guard. In compliance the two

"Here is a noble twain," the dalal announced, strong of muscle and long of limb, as all may see, whom it were

a shameful thing to separate. Who needs such a pair for strong labour let him say what he will give." He set

out on a slow circuit of the well, the corsairs urging the two slaves to follow him that all buyers might see and

In the foremost ranks of the crowd near the gate stood Ali, sent thither by Othmani to purchase a score of

stout fellows required to make up the contingent of the galeasse of SakrelBahr. He had been strictly

enjoined to buy naught but the stoutest stuff the market could afford with one exception. Aboard that

galeasse they wanted no weaklings who would trouble the boatswain with their swoonings. Ali announced his

"I need such tall fellows for the oars of SakrelBahr," said he with loud importance, thus drawing upon

himself the eyes of the assembly, and sunning himself in the admiring looks bestowed upon one of the

officers of OliverReis, one of the rovers who were the pride of Islam and a swordedge to the infidel.

"They were born to toil nobly at the oar, 0 AliReis," replied the dalal in all solemnity. "What wilt thou give

"Two hundred philips am I offered for a pair of the lustiest slaves that by the favour of Allah were ever

A portly Moor in a flowing blue selham rose from his seat on the step of the well as the dalal came abreast of

him, and the slaves scenting here a buyer, and preferring any service to that of the galleys with which they

were threatened, came each in turn to kiss his hands and fawn upon him, for all the world like dogs.

Calm and dignified he ran his hands over them feeling their muscles, and then forced back their lips and

"Two hundred and twenty for the twain," he said, and the dalal passed on with his wares, announcing the

"Two hundred and twenty is now the price, 0 Ali! By the Koran, they are worth three hundred at the least.

Back to the Moor went the dalal. "Two hundred and thirty I am now offered, 0 Hamet. Thou wilt give another

"They are thine, then, 0 Ali, for two hundred and thirty. Give thanks to Allah for so good a bargain."

The Nubians were surrendered to Ali's followers, whilst the dalal's two assistants advanced to settle accounts

"The inviolable law is that the purchase money be paid ere a slave leaves the market, 0 valiant Ali."

"It shall be observed," was the impatient answer, and I will so pay before they leave. But I want others yet,

and we will make one account an it please thee. That fellow yonder now. I have orders to buy him for my

captain." And he indicated Lionel, who stood at Rosamund's side, the very incarnation of woefulness and

Contemptuous surprise flickered an instant in the eyes of the dalal. But this he made haste to dissemble.

The corsairs laid hands on Lionel. He made a vain attempt to struggle, but it was observed that the woman

leaned over to him and said something quickly, whereupon his struggles ceased and he suffered himself to be

"Dost want him for the oar, Ali?" cried AyoubelSamin across the quadrangle, a jest this that evoked a

"Cheap?" quoth the dalal in an affectation of surprise. "Nay, now. 'Tis a comely fellow and a young one.

"A hundred philips!" cried Ali derisively. "A hundred philips for that skinful of bones! Ma'sh'Allah! Five

Again laughter crackled through the mob. But the dalal stiffened with increasing dignity. Some of that

laughter seemed to touch himself, and he was not a person to be made the butt of mirth.

"'Tis a jest, my master," said he, with a forgiving yet contemptuous wave. "Behold how sound he is." He

signed to one of the corsairs, and Lionel's doublet was slit from neck to girdle and wrenched away from his

body, leaving him naked to the waist, and displaying better proportions than might have been expected. In a

passion at that indignity Lionel writhed in the grip of his guards, until one of the corsairs struck him a light

blow with a whip in earnest of what to expect if he continued to be troublesome. "Consider him now," said

the dalal, pointing to that white torso. "And behold how sound he is. See how excellent are his teeth." He

"He is muttering curses in his infidel tongue," said Ali. "His temper is none too good, you see. I have said

With a shrug the dalal began his circuit of the well, the corsairs thrusting Lionel after him. Here one rose to

"Five philips is the foolish price offered me for this fine young Frank," cried the dalal. "Will no

TrueBeliever pay ten for such a slave? Wilt not thou, O Ayoub? Thou, Hametten philips?"

But one after another those to whom he was offered shook their heads. The haggardness of Lionel's face was

too unprepossessing. They had seen slaves with that look before, and experience told them that no good was

ever to be done with such fellows. Moreover, though shapely, his muscles were too slight, his flesh looked

too soft and tender. Of what use a slave who must be hardened and nourished into strength, and who might

very well die in the process? Even at five philips he would be dear. So the disgusted dalal came back to Ali.

Ali grinned, and his men seized upon Lionel and bore him off into the background to join the two negroes

And then, before Ali could bid for another of the slaves he desired to acquire, a tall, elderly Jew, dressed in

black doublet and hose like a Castilian gentleman, with a ruffle at his neck, a plumed bonnet on his grey

locks, and a serviceable dagger hanging from his girdle of hammered gold, had claimed the attention of the

In the pen that held the captives of the lesser raids conducted by Biskaine sat an Andalusian girl of perhaps

Her face was of the warm pallor of ivory, her massed hair of an ebony black, her eyebrows were finely

pencilled, and her eyes of deepest and softest brown. She was dressed in the becoming garb of the Castilian

peasant, the folded kerchief of red and yellow above her bodice leaving bare the glories of her neck. She was

very pale, and her eyes were wild in their look, but this detracted nothing from her beauty.

She had attracted the jew's notice, and it is not impossible that there may have stirred in him a desire to

avenge upon her some of the cruel wrongs, some of the rackings, burning, confiscations, and banishment

suffered by the men of his race at the hands of the men of hers. He may have bethought him of invaded

ghettos, of Jewish maidens ravished, and Jewish children butchered in the name of the God those Spanish

Christians worshipped, for there was something almost of contemptuous fierceness in his dark eyes and in the

"Yonder is a Castilian wench for whom I will give fifty Philips, 0 dalal," he announced. The datal made a

"So much loveliness may not be bought for fifty Philips, 0 Ibrahim," said he. "Yusuf here will pay sixty at

"Allah knows I have three wives who would destroy her loveliness within the hour and so leave me the

The dalal moved on, the girl following him but contesting every step of the way with those who impelled her

forward, and reviling them too in hot Castilian. She drove her nails into the arms of one and spat fiercely into

the face of another of her corsair guards. Rosamund's weary eyes quickened to horror as she watched hera

horror prompted as much by the fate awaiting that poor child as by the undignified fury of the futile battle she

waged against it. But it happened that her behaviour impressed a Levantine Turk quite differently. He rose, a

But Ibrahim was not to be outbidden. He offered seventy, the Turk countered with a bid of eighty, and

The dalal spurred on the Turk. "Wilt thou be beaten then, and by an Israelite? Shall this lovely maid be given

to a perverter of the Scriptures, to an inheritor of the fire, to one of a race that would not bestow on their

fellowmen so much as the speck out of a datestone? It were a shame upon a TrueBeliever."

Urged thus the Turk offered another five Philips, but with obvious reluctance. The Jew, however, entirely

unabashed by a tirade against him, the like of which he heard a score of times a day in the course of trading,

Ere the dalal's pious and seductive tongue could urge him further the Turk sat down again with a gesture of

The Israelite relinquished the purse to the dalal's whiterobed assistants and advanced to receive the girl. The

corsairs thrust her forward against him, still vainly battling, and his arms closed about her for a moment.

"Thou has cost me dear, thou daughter of Spain," said he. "But I am content. Come." And he made shift to

lead her away. Suddenly, however, fierce as a tigercat she writhed her arms upwards and clawed at his face.

With a scream of pain he relaxed his hold of her and in that moment, quick as lightning she plucked the

"Valga me Dios!" she cried, and ere a hand could be raised to prevent her she had buried the blade in her

lovely breast and sank in a laughing, coughing, heap at his feet. A final convulsive heave and she lay there

quite still, whilst Ibrahim glared down at her with eyes of dismay, and over all the market there hung a hush

Rosamund had risen in her place, and a faint colour came to warm her pallor, a faint light kindled in her eyes.

God had shown her the way through this poor Spanish girl, and assuredly God would give her the means to

take it when her own turn came. She felt herself suddenly uplifted and enheartened. Death was a sharp, swift

severing, an easy door of escape from the horror that threatened her, and God in His mercy, she knew, would

justify selfmurder under such circumstances as were her own and that poor dead Andalusian maid's.

At length Ibrahim roused himself from his momentary stupor. He stepped deliberately across the body, his

"Are we to give back the price of every slave that dies?" the dalal questioned him.

"But she was not yet delivered to me," raved the Jew. "My hands had not touched her. Give me back my

"Thou liest, son of a dog," was the answer, dispassionately delivered. "She was thine already. I had so

Ibrahim was frothing at the lips, his eyes were bloodinjected. "But it was never written that...."

"Peace," said the dalal. "Had it not been written it could not have come to pass. It is the will of Allah! Who

"I want my hundred philips," the Jew insisted, whereupon the murmur swelled into a sudden roar.

"Thou hearest?" said the dalal. "Allah pardon thee, thou art disturbing the peace of this market. Away, ere ill

"Hence! hence!" roared the crowd, and some advanced threateningly upon the luckless Ibrahim. "Away, thou

Such was the uproar, such the menace of angry countenances and clenched fists shaken in his very face, that

But the dalal summoned him back. "Take hence thy property," said he, and pointed to the body. And so

Ibrahim was forced to suffer the further mockery of summoning his slaves to bear away the lifeless body for

Yet by the gates he paused again. "I will appeal me to the Basha," he threatened. "AsadedDin is just, and

"So he will, said the dalal, "when thou canst restore the dead to life," and he turned to the portly Ayoub, who

was plucking at his sleeve. He bent his head to catch the muttered words of Fenzileh's wazeer. Then, in

She offered no least resistance, advancing in a singularly lifeless way, like a sleepwalker or one who had

been drugged. In the heat and glare of the open market she stood by the dalal's side at the head of the well,

whilst he dilated upon her physical merits in that lingua franca which he used since it was current coin among

all the assorted races represented therea language which the knowledge of French that her residence in

France had taught her she was to her increasing horror and shame able to understand.

The first to make an offer for her was that same portly Moor who had sought to purchase the two Nubeans.

He rose to scrutinize her closely, and must have been satisfied, for the price he offered was a good one, and

"'Tis not enough. Consider me the moonbright loveliness of her face," said the dalal as he moved on. Chigil

"Not yet enough. Behold the stately height which Allah hath vouchsafed her. See the noble carriage of her

head, the lustre of her eye! By Allah, she is worthy to grace the Sultan's own hareem."

He said no more than the buyers recognized to be true, and excitement stirred faintly through their usually

But still the dalal continued to sing her praises. He held up one of her arms for inspection, and she submitted

with lowered eyes, and no sign of resentment beyond the slow flush that spread across her face and vanished

"Behold me these limbs, smooth as Arabian silks and whiter than ivory. Look at those lips like pomegranate

Hamet showed himself angry that his original bid should so speedily have been doubled. "By the Koran, I

"Wouldst thou compare a squatfaced girl from the Sus with this narcissuseyed glory of womanhood?"

The watchful Tsamanni considered that the time had come to buy her for his lord as he had been bidden.

He spun round in his amazement and met the leering face of Ayoub. A murmur ran through the ranks of the

buyers, the people craned their necks to catch a glimpse of this openhanded purchaser.

Yusuf the Tagareen rose up in a passion. He announced angrily that never again should the dust of the s�k of

Algiers defile his slippers, that never again would he come there to purchase slaves.

"By the Well of ZemZem," he swore, "all men are bewitched in this market. Four hundred philips for a

Frankish girl! May Allah increase your wealth, for verily you'll need it." And in his supreme disgust he

stalked to the gates, and elbowed his way through the crowd, and so vanished from the s�k.

Yet ere he was out of earshot her price had risen further. Whilst Tsamanni was recovering from his surprise at

the competitor that had suddenly appeared before him, the dalal had lured an increased offer from the Turk.

"'Tis a madness," the latter deplored. "But she pleaseth me, and should it seem good to Allah the Merciful to

lead her into the True Faith she may yet become the light of my hareem. Four hundred and twenty philips,

Yet scarcely was his little speech concluded than Tsamanni with laconic eloquence rapped out: "Five

"Y'Allah!" cried the Turk, raising his hands to heaven, and "Y'Allah!" echoed the crowd.

And now such was the general hubbub provoked by these unprecedented prices that the dalal was forced to

"Is this a jest, O father of wind?" he cried, and excited laughter by the taunt implicit in that appellation.

"And thou'rt the jester," replied Ayoub with forced calm, "thou'lt find the jest a costly one."

With a shrug Tsamanni turned again to the dalal. "A thousand philips," said he shortly.

"Silence there!" cried the dalal again. "Silence, and praise Allah who sends good prices."

And now Tsamanni not only found himself outbidden, but he had reached the outrageous limit appointed by

Asad. He lacked authority to go further, dared not do so without first consulting the Basha. Yet if he left the

s�k for that purpose Ayoub would meanwhile secure the girl. He found himself between sword and wall. On

the one hand did he permit himself to be outbidden his master might visit upon him his disappointment. On

the other, did he continue beyond the limit so idly mentioned as being far beyond all possibility, it might fare

He turned to the crowd, waving his arms in furious gesticulation. "By the beard of the Prophet, this bladder of

wind and grease makes sport of us. He has no intent to buy. What man ever heard of the half of such a price

Ayoub's answer was eloquent; he produced a fat bag and flung it on the ground, where it fell with a mellow

chink. "There is my sponsor," he made answer, grinning in the very best of humours, savouring to the full his

enemy's rage and discomfiture, and savouring it at no cost to himself. "Shall I count out one thousand and one

"Dost thou know for whom I buy?" roared Tsamanni. "For the Basha himself, AsadedDin, the exalted of

Allah," He advanced upon Ayoub with hands upheld. "What shalt thou say to him, 0 dog, when he calls thee

But Ayoub remained unruffled before all this fury. He spread his fat hands, his eyes twinkling, his great lips

pursed. "How should I know, since Allah has not made me allknowing? Thou shouldst have said so earlier.

'Tis thus I shall answer the Basha should he question me, and the Basha is just."

And so they stood glaring each at the other until the dalal called them back to the business that was to do.

"The price is now one thousand and one hundred philips. Wilt thou suffer defeat, 0 wazeer?"

But the sale was not yet to be completed. From the dense and eager throng about the gates rang a crisp

The dalal, who had conceived that the limits of madness had been already reached, stood gaping now in fresh

amazement. The mob crowed and cheered and roared between enthusiasm and derision, and even Tsamanni

brightened to see another champion enter the lists who perhaps would avenge him upon Ayoub. The crowd

parted quickly to right and left, and through it into the open strode SakrelBahr. They recognized him

That Barbary name of his conveyed no information to Rosamund, and her back being turned to the entrance

she did not see him. But she had recognized his voice, and she had shuddered at the sound. She could make

nothing of the bidding, nor what the purpose that surely underlay it to account for the extraordinary

excitement of the traders. Vaguely had she been wondering what dastardly purpose Oliver might intend to

serve, but now that she heard his voice that wonder ceased and understanding took its place. He had hung

there somewhere in the crowd waiting until all competitors but one should have been outbidden, and now he

stepped forth to buy her for his ownhis slave! She closed her eyes a moment and prayed God that he might

not prevail in his intent. Any fate but that; she would rob him even of the satisfaction of driving her to

sheathe a poniard in her heart as that poor Andalusian girl had done. A wave almost of unconsciousness

passed over her in the intensity of her horror. For a moment the ground seemed to rock and heave under her

Then the dizziness passed, and she was herself again. She heard the crowd thundering "Ma'sh'Allah!" and

"SakrelBahr!" and the dalal clamouring sternly for silence. When this was at last restored she heard his

"One thousand and five hundred," screamed Ayoub, thus reaching not only the limit imposed by his mistress,

but the very limit of the resources at her immediate disposal. Gone, too, with that bid was all hope of profit to

But SakrelBahr, impassive as Fate, and without so much as deigning to bestow a look upon the quivering

"One thousand and six hundred philips!" cried the dalal, more in amazement than to announce the figure

reached. Then controlling his emotions he bowed his head in reverence and made confession of his faith. "All

things are possible if Allah wills them. The praise to Him who sends wealthy buyers."

He turned to the crestfallen Ayoub, so crestfallen that in the contemplation of him Tsamanni was fast

gathering consolation for his own discomfiture, vicariously tasting the sweets of vengeance. "What say you

"I say," choked Ayoub, "that since by the favour of Shaitan he hath so much wealth he must prevail."

But the insulting words were scarcely uttered than SakrelBahr's great hand had taken the wazeer by the

nape of his fat neck, a growl of anger running through the assembly to approve him.

"By the favour of Shaitan, sayest thou, thou sexless dog?" he growled, and tightened his grip so that the

wazeer squirmed and twisted in an agony of pain. Down was his head thrust, and still down, until his fat body

gave way and he lay supine and writhing in the dust of the s�k. "Shall I strangle thee, thou father of filth, or

shall I fling thy soft flesh to the hooks to teach thee what is a man's due from thee?" And as he spoke he

"Mercy!" squealed the wazeer. "Mercy, 0 mighty SakrelBahr, as thou lookest for mercy!"

"I do unsay them. I have foully lied. Thy wealth is the reward sent thee by Allah for thy glorious victories

"Put out thine offending tongue," said SakrelBahr, and cleanse it in the dust. Put it forth, I say."

Ayoub obeyed him in fearful alacrity, whereupon SakrelBahr released his hold and allowed the

unfortunate fellow to rise at last, halfchoked with dirt, livid of face, and quaking like a jelly, an object of

Ayoub departed in all haste to the increasing jeers of the multitude and the taunts of Tsamanni, whilst

"At one thousand and six hundred philips this slave is thine, 0 SakrelBahr, thou glory of Islam. May Allah

"Pay him, Ali," said the corsair shortly, and he advanced to receive his purchase.

Face to face stood he now with Rosamund, for the first time since that day before the encounter with the

One swift glance she bestowed on him, then, her senses reeling with horror at her circumstance she shrank

back, her face of a deathly pallor. In his treatment of Ayoub she had just witnessed the lengths of brutality of

which he was capable, and she was not to know that this brutality had been a deliberate piece of mummery

Pondering her now he smiled a tightlipped cruel smile that only served to increase her terror.

She cowered back against the dalal as if for protection. SakrelBahr reached forward, caught her by the

wrists, and almost tossed her to his Nubians, Abiad and ZalZer, who were attending him.

The sun was dipping swiftly to the world's rim when SakrelBahr with his Nubians and his little retinue of

corsairs came to the gates of that white house of his on its little eminence outside the BabelOueb and

When Rosamund and Lionel, brought in the wake of the corsair, found themselves in the spacious courtyard

beyond the dark and narrow entrance, the blue of the sky contained but the paling embers of the dying day,

and suddenly, sharply upon the evening stillness, came a mueddin's voice calling the faithful unto prayer.

Slaves fetched water from the fountain that played in the middle of the quadrangle and tossed aloft a slender

silvery spear of water to break into a myriad gems and so shower down into the broad marble basin.

SakrelBahr washed, as did his followers, and then he went down upon the prayingmat that had been set

for him, whilst his corsairs detached their cloaks and spread them upon the ground to serve them in like stead.

The Nubians turned the two slaves about, lest their glances should defile the orisons of the faithful, and left

them so facing the wall and the green gate that led into the garden whence were wafted on the cooling air the

perfumes of jessamine and lavender. Through the laths of the gate they might have caught a glimpse of the

riot of colour there, and they might have seen the slaves arrested by the Persian waterwheel at which they had

been toiling and chanting until the call to prayer had come to strike them into statues.

SakrelBahr rose from his devotions, uttered a sharp word of command, and entered the house. The

Nubians followed him, urging their captives before them up the narrow stairs, and so brought them out upon

the terrace on the roof, that space which in Eastern houses is devoted to the women, but which no woman's

foot had ever trodden since this house had been tenanted by SakrelBahr the wifeless.

This terrace, which was surrounded by a parapet some four feet high, commanded a view of the city

straggling up the hillside to eastward, from the harbour and of the island at the end of the mole which had

been so laboriously built by the labour of Christian slaves from the stones of the ruined fortressthe Pe�on,

which KheyredDin Barbarossa had wrested from the Spaniards. The deepening shroud of evening was

now upon all, transmuting white and yellow walls alike to a pearly greyness. To westward stretched the

fragrant gardens of the house, where the doves were murmuring fondly among the mulberries and lotus trees.

Beyond it a valley wound its way between the shallow hills, and from a pool fringed with sedges and

bullrushes above which a great stork was majestically sailing came the harsh croak of frogs.

An awning supported upon two gigantic spears hung out from the southern wall of the terrace which rose to

twice the height of that forming the parapet on its other three sides. Under this was a divan and silken

cushions, and near it a small Moorish table of ebony inlaid with motherofpearl and gold. Over the opposite

parapet, where a lattice had been set, rioted a trailing rosetree charged with bloodred blossoms, though

Here Lionel and Rosamund looked at each other in the dim light, their faces gleaming ghostly each to each,

whilst the Nubians stood like twin statues by the door that opened from the stairhead.

The man groaned, and clasped his hands before him. The doublet which had been torn from him in the s�k

had since been restored and temporarily repaired by a strand of palmetto cord. But he was woefully

bedraggled. Yet his thoughts, if his first words are to be taken as an indication of them were for Rosamund's

"0 God, that you should be subjected to this!" he cried. "That you should have suffered what you have

suffered! The humiliation of it, the barbarous cruelty! Oh!" He covered his haggard face with his hands.

"What I have suffered is but a little thing," she said, and her voice was wonderfully steady and soothing.

Have I not said that these Godolphins were brave folk? Even their women were held to have something of the

male spirit in their breasts; and to this none can doubt that Rosamund now bore witness. "Do not pity me,

Lionel, for my sufferings are at an end or very nearly." She smiled strangely, the smile of exaltation that you

"How?" she echoed. "Is there not always a way to thrust aside life's burden when it grows too

His only answer was a groan. Indeed, he had done little but groan in all the hours they had spent together

since they were brought ashore from the carack; and had the season permitted her so much reflection, she

might have considered that she had found him singularly wanting during those hours of stress when a man of

worth would have made some effort, however desperate, to enhearten her rather than repine upon his own

Slaves entered bearing four enormous flaming torches which they set in iron sconces protruding from the

wall of the house. Thence they shed a lurid ruddy glow upon the terrace. The slaves departed again, and

presently, in the black gap of the doorway between the Nubians, a third figure appeared unheralded. It was

He stood a moment at gaze, his attitude haughty, his face expressionless; then slowly he advanced. He was

dressed in a short white caftan that descended to his knees, and was caught about his waist in a shimmering

girdle of gold that quivered like fire in the glow of the torches as he moved. His arms from the elbow and his

legs from the knee were bare, and his feet were shod with goldembroidered red Turkish slippers. He wore a

He signed to the Nubians and they vanished silently, leaving him alone with his captives.

He bowed to Rosamund. "This, mistress," he said, "is to be your domain henceforth which is to treat you

more as wife than slave. For it is to Muslim wives that the housetops in Barbary are allotted. I hope you like

Lionel staring at him out of a white face, his conscience bidding him fear the very worst, his imagination

painting a thousand horrid fates for him and turning him sick with dread, shrank back before his halfbrother,

But Rosamund confronted him, drawn to the full of her splendid height, and if her face was pale, yet it was as

composed and calm as his own; if her bosom rose and fell to betray her agitations yet her glance was

contemptuous and defiant, her voice calm and steady, when she answered him with the question"What is

"My intent?" said he, with a little twisted smile. Yet for all that he believed he hated her and sought to hurt, to

humble and to crush her, he could not stifle his admiration of her spirit's gallantry in such an hour as this.

"My intent is not for you to question," he replied. "There was a time, Rosamund, when in all the world you

had no slave more utter than was I. Yourself in your heartlessness, and in your lack of faith, you broke the

golden fetters of that servitude. You'll find it less easy to break the shackles I now impose upon you."

She smiled her scorn and quiet confidence. He stepped close to her. "You are my slave, do you

understand?bought in the marketplace as I might buy me a mule, a goat, or a cameland belonging to

me body and soul. You are my property, my thing, my chattel, to use or abuse, to cherish or break as suits my

whim, without a will that is not my will, holding your very life at my good pleasure."

She recoiled a step before the dull hatred that throbbed in his words, before the evil mockery of his swarthy

"So now you understand the bondage into which you are come in exchange for the bondage which in your

And then from the background came an inarticulate sound, a strangled, snarling sob from Lionel.

SakrelBahr turned slowly. He eyed the fellow a moment in silence, then he laughed.

"Ha! My sometime brother. A pretty fellow, as God lives is it not? Consider him Rosamund. Behold how

gallantly misfortune is borne by this pillar of manhood upon which you would have leaned, by this stalwart

Under the lash of that mocking tongue Lionel's mood was stung to anger where before it had held naught but

"You are no brother of mine," he retorted fiercely. "Your mother was a wanton who betrayed my father."

SakrelBahr quivered a moment as if he had been struck. Yet he controlled himself.

"Let me hear my mother's name but once again on thy foul tongue, and I'll have it ripped out by the roots. Her

memory, I thank God, is far above the insults of such a crawling thing as you. None the less, take care not to

And then turning at bay, as even the rat will do, Lionel sprang upon him, with clawing hands outstretched to

reach his throat. But SakrelBahr caught him in a grip that bent him howling to his knees.

"You find me strong, eh?" he gibed. "Is it matter for wonder? Consider that for six endless months I toiled at

the oar of a galley, and you'll understand what it was that turned my body into iron and robbed me of a soul."

He flung him off, and sent him crashing into the rosebush and the lattice over which it rambled.

"Do you realize the horror of the rower's bench? to sit day in day out, night in night out, chained naked to the

oar, amid the reek and stench of your fellows in misfortune, unkempt, unwashed save by the rain, broiled and

roasted by the sun, festering with sores, lashed and cut and scarred by the boatswain's whip as you faint under

"Do you realize it? "From a tone of suppressed fury his voice rose suddenly to a roar. "You shall. For that

He paused; but Lionel made no attempt to avail himself of this. His courage all gone out of him again, as

"Before you go there is something else," SakrelBahr resumed, "something for which I have had you

"Not content with having delivered me to all this, not content with having branded me a murderer, destroyed

my good name, filched my possessions and driven me into the very path of hell, you must further set about

"I hope," he went on reflectively, "that in your own poor way you love her, too, Lionel. Thus to the torment

that awaits your body shall be added torment for your treacherous soulsuch torture of mind as only the

damned may know. To that end have I brought you hither. That you may realize something of what is in store

for this woman at my hands; that you may take the thought of it with you to be to your mind worse than the

"If you will manufacture devils, little toad of a brother, do not upbraid them for being devils when next you

"Give him no heed, Lionel!" said Rosamund. "I shall prove him as much a boaster as he has proved himself a

"'Tis you are the boaster there," said SakrelBahr. "And for the rest, I am what you and he, between you,

"Did we make you liar and coward?for that is what you are indeed," she answered.

"Coward?" he echoed, in genuine surprise. "'Twill be some lie that he has told you with the others. In what,

"In what? In this that you do now; in this taunting and torturing of two helpless beings in our power."

"I speak not of what I am," he replied, "for I have told you that I am what you have made me. I speak of what

"You speak of the past?" she echoed, her voice low. "You speak of the past and to me? You dare?"

"It is that we might speak of it together that I have fetched you all the way from England; that at last I may

tell you things I was a fool to have kept from you five years ago; that we may resume a conversation which

"I did you a monstrous injury, no doubt," she answered him, with bitter irony. "I was surely wanting in

consideration. It would have become me better to have smiled and fawned upon my brother's murderer."

"I swore to you, then, that I was not his murderer," he reminded her in a voice that shook.

"Ay, and on that you dismissed methe word of the man whom you professed to love, the word of the man

"When I gave you my trust," she retorted, "I did so in ignorance of your true self, in a headstrong wilful

ignorance that would not be guided by what all the world said of you and your wild ways. For that blind

"Liesall lies!" he stormed. "Those ways of mineand God knows they were none so wild, when all is

saidI abandoned when I came to love you. No lover since the world began was ever so cleansed, so

"The shame of it all; the shame that is ever mine in the reflection that for a season I believed I loved you."

He smiled. "If you can still feel shame, it shall overwhelm you ere I have done. For you shall hear me out.

Here there are none to interrupt us, none to thwart my sovereign will. Reflect then, and remember. Remember

what a pride you took in the change you had wrought in me. Your vanity welcomed that flattery, that tribute

to the power of your beauty. Yet, all in a moment, upon the paltriest grounds, you believed me the murderer

"Because," she cut in, "they accounted that you had been sufficiently provoked. Because you had not sworn

to them as you swore to me that no provocation should ever drive you to raise your hand against my brother.

He considered her a moment. Then he took a turn on the terrace. Lionel crouching ever by the rosetree was

"God give me patience with you!" he said at length. "I need it. For I desire you to understand many things

this night. I mean you to see how just is my resentment; how just the punishment that is to overtake you for

what you have made of my life and perhaps of my hereafter. Justice Baine and another who is dead, knew me

"They knew you for innocent?" There was scornful amazement in her tone. "Were they not witnesses of the

"That was an oath sworn in the heat of anger. Afterwards I bethought me that he was your brother."

He considered her for a long moment; then he laughed. "Have you ever," he asked, "known a man to lie

without some purpose? Men lie for the sake of profit, they lie out of cowardice or malice, or else because

they are vain and vulgar boasters. I know of no other causes that will drive a man to falsehood, save

thatah, yes!" (and he flashed a sidelong glance at Lionel)"save that sometimes a man will lie to shield

another, out of selfsacrifice. There you have all the spurs that urge a man to falsehood. Can any of these be

urging me tonight? Reflect! Ask yourself what purpose I could serve by lying to you now. Consider further

that I have come to loathe you for your unfaith; that I desire naught so much as to punish you for that and for

all its bitter consequences to me that I have brought you hither to exact payment from you to the uttermost

"To make you realize to the full the injustice that you did. To make you understand the wrongs for which you

are called to pay. To prevent you from conceiving yourself a martyr; to make you perceive in all its deadly

bitterness that what now comes to you is the inevitable fruit of your own faithlessness."

"Ay, that is clear," she agreed scornfully, "since even now you waste breath in attempting to persuade me

against my reason. But words will not blot out facts. And though you talk from now till the day of judgment

no word of yours can efface those bloodstains in the snow that formed a trail from that poor murdered body

to your own door; no word of yours can extinguish the memory of the hatred between him and you, and of

your own threat to kill him; nor can it stifle the recollection of the public voice demanding your punishment.

You dare to take such a tone as you are taking with me? You dare here under Heaven to stand and lie to me

that you may give false gloze to the villainy of your present deedfor that is the purpose of your falsehood,

since you asked me what purpose there could be for it. What had you to set against all that, to convince me

that your hands were clean, to induce me to keep the troth whichGod forgive me!I had plighted to you?"

"Do not suppose," said he, that I could not support my word by proofs if called upon to do so."

"Proofs?" She stared at him, wideeyed a moment. Then her lip curled. "And that no doubt was the reason of

your flight when you heard that the Queen's pursuivants were coming in response to the public voice to call

He stood at gaze a moment, utterly dumbfounded. "My flight?" he said. "What fable's that?"

"You will tell me next that you did not flee. That that is another false charge against you?"

And then light burst upon him, to dazzle and stun him. It was so inevitably what must have been believed,

and yet it had never crossed his mind. 0 the damnable simplicity of it! At another time his disappearance must

have provoked comment and investigation, perhaps. But, happening when it did, the answer to it came

promptly and convincingly and no man troubled to question further. Thus was Lionel's task made doubly

easy, thus was his own guilt made doubly sure in the eyes of all. His head sank upon his breast. What had he

done? Could he still blame Rosamund for having been convinced by so overwhelming a piece of evidence?

Could he still blame her if she had burnt unopened the letter which he had sent her by the hand of Pitt? What

else indeed could any suppose, but that he had fled? And that being so, clearly such a flight must brand him

irrefutably for the murderer he was alleged to be. How could he blame her if she had ultimately been

He looked at her, and then averted his glance again, unable now to endure the haggard, strained yet fearless

"What else, indeed, could you believe?" he muttered brokenly, thus giving some utterance to what was

"Naught else but the whole vile truth," she answered fiercely, and thereby stung him anew, whipped him out

She had shown herself, he thought in that moment of reviving anger, too ready to believe what told against

"The truth?" he echoed, and eyed her boldly now. "Do you know the truth when you see it? We shall

discover. For by God's light you shall have the truth laid stark before you now, and you shall find it hideous

There was something so compelling now in his tone and manner that it drove her to realize that some

revelation was impending. She was conscious of a faint excitement, a reflection perhaps of the wild

"Your brother," he began, "met his death at the hands of a false weakling whom I loved, towards whom I had

a sacred duty. Straight from the deed he fled to me for shelter. A wound he had taken in the struggle left that

trail of blood to mark the way he had come." He paused, and his tone became gentler, it assumed the level

note of one who reasons impassively. "Was it not an odd thing, now, that none should ever have paused to

seek with certainty whence that blood proceeded, and to consider that I bore no wound in those days? Master

Baine knew it, for I submitted my body to his examination, and a document was drawn up and duly attested

which should have sent the Queen's pursuivants back to London with drooping tails had I been at Penarrow to

Faintly through her mind stirred the memory that Master Baine had urged the existence of some such

document, that in fact he had gone so far as to have made oath of this very circumstance now urged by Sir

Oliver; and she remembered that the matter had been brushed aside as an invention of the justice's to answer

the charge of laxity in the performance of his duty, particularly as the only cowitness he could cite was Sir

Andrew Flack, the parson, since deceased. Sir Oliver's voice drew her attention from that memory.

"But let that be," he was saying. "Let us come back to the story itself. I gave the craven weakling shelter.

Thereby I drew down suspicion upon myself, and since I could not clear myself save by denouncing him, I

kept silent. That suspicion drew to certainty when the woman to whom I was betrothed, recking nothing of

my oaths, freely believing the very worst of me, made an end of our betrothal and thereby branded me a

murderer and a liar in the eyes of all. Indignation swelled against me. The Queen's pursuivants were on their

"So far I have given you facts. Now I give you surmisemy own conclusionsbut surmise that strikes, as

you shall judge, the very bull'seye of truth. That dastard to whom I had given sanctuary, to whom I had

served as a cloak, measured my nature by his own and feared that I must prove unequal to the fresh burden to

be cast upon me. He feared lest under the strain of it I should speak out, advance my proofs, and so destroy

him. There was the matter of that wound, and there was something still more unanswerable he feared I might

have urged. There was a certain womana wanton up at Malpaswho could have been made to speak, who

could have revealed a rivalry concerning her betwixt the slayer and your brother. For the affair in which Peter

"Patience, mistress," he commanded. "I malign none. I speak the truth of a dead man that the truth may be

known of two living ones. Hear me out, then! I have waited long and survived a deal that I might tell you this

"That craven, then, conceived that I might become a danger to him; so he decided to remove me. He

contrived to have me kidnapped one night and put aboard a vessel to be carried to Barbary and sold there as a

slave. That is the truth of my disappearance. And the slayer, whom I had befriended and sheltered at my own

bitter cost, profited yet further by my removal. God knows whether the prospect of such profit was a further

temptation to him. In time he came to succeed me in my possessions, and at last to succeed me even in the

At last she started from the frozen patience in which she had listened hitherto. "Do you say that...that

And then Lionel spoke at last, straightening himself into a stiffly upright attitude.

A wave of colour suffused the swarthy face of SakrelBahr. A moment his eyes followed her as she moved

away a step or two, then they turned their blazing light of anger upon Lionel. He strode silently across to him,

SakrelBahr caught his brother's wrist in a grip that was as that of a steel manacle. "We'll have the truth this

night if we have to tear it from you with redhot pincers," he said between his teeth.

He dragged him forward to the middle of the terrace and held him there before Rosamund, forcing him down

upon his knees into a cowering attitude by the violence of that grip upon his wrist.

"Do you know aught of the ingenuity of Moorish torture?" he asked him. "You may have heard of the rack

and the wheel and the thumbscrew at home. They are instruments of voluptuous delight compared with the

Oliver released his brother's wrist and beat his hands together. Without heeding Rosamund he looked down

"What do you say to a match between your fingers? Or do you think a pair of bracelets of living fire would

A squat, sandybearded, turbaned fellow, rolling slightly in his gait, cameas had been prearrangedto

"Look up, dog," he bade him. "Consider me that man, and see if you know him again. Look at him, I say!"

And Lionel looked, yet since clearly he did so without recognition his brother explained: "His name among

Christians was Jasper Leigh. He was the skipper you bribed to carry me into Barbary. He was taken in his

own toils when his ship was sunk by Spaniards. Later he fell into my power, and because I forebore from

hanging him he is today my faithful follower. I should bid him tell you what he knows," he continued,

turning to Rosamund, "if I thought you would believe his tale. But since I am assured you would not, I will

take other means." He swung round to Jasper again. "Bid Ali heat me a pair of steel manacles in a brazier and

"I have naught to confess," protested Lionel. "You may force lies from me with your ruffianly tortures.

Oliver smiled. "Not a doubt but that lies will flow from you more readily than truth. But we shall have truth,

too, in the end, never doubt it." He was mocking, and there was a subtle purpose underlying his mockery.

"And you shall tell a full story," he continued, "in all its details, so that Mistress Rosamund's last doubt shall

vanish. You shall tell her how you lay in wait for him that evening in Godolphin Park; how you took him

"That is false!" cried Lionel in a passion of sincerity that brought him to his feet.

It was false, indeed, and Oliver knew it, and deliberately had recourse to falsehood, using it as a fulcrum upon

which to lever out the truth. He was cunning as all the fiends, and never perhaps did he better manifest his

"False?" he cried with scorn. "Come, now, be reasonable. The truth, ere torture sucks it out of you. Reflect

that I know allexactly as you told it me. How was it, now? Lurking behind a bush you sprang upon him

unawares and ran him through before he could so much as lay a hand to his sword, and so...."

"The lie of that is proven by the very facts themselves," was the furious interruption. A subtle judge of tones

might have realized that here was truth indeed, angry indignant truth that compelled conviction. "His sword

But Oliver was loftily disdainful. "Do I not know? Yourself you drew it after you had slain him."

The taunt performed its deadly work. For just one instant Lionel was carried off his feet by the luxury of his

"As God's my witness, that is false!" he cried wildly. "And you know it. I fought him fair...."

Then silence followed, all three remaining motionless as statues: Rosamund white and tense, Oliver grim and

sardonic, Lionel limp, and overwhelmed by the consciousness of how he had been lured into selfbetrayal.

At last it was Rosamund who spoke, and her voice shook and shifted from key to key despite her strained

"What...what did you say, Lionel?" she asked. Oliver laughed softly. "He was about to add proof of his

statement, I think," he jeered. "He was about to mention the wound he took in that fight, which left those

tracks in the snow, thus to prove that I liedas indeed I didwhen I said that he took Peter unawares.

"Lionel!" she cried. She advanced a step and made as if to hold out her arms to him, then let them fall again

beside her. He stood stricken, answering nothing. "Lionel!" she cried again, her voice growing suddenly

She stood swaying a moment, looking at Lionel, her white face distorted into a mask of unutterable pain.

Oliver stepped towards her, ready to support her, fearing that she was about to fall. But with an imperious

hand she checked his advance, and by a supreme effort controlled her weakness. Yet her knees shook under

her, refusing their office. She sank down upon the divan and covered her face with her hands.

Lionel started at that heartbroken cry. Cowering, he approached her, and Oliver, grim and sardonic, stood

back, a spectator of the scene he had precipitated. He knew that given rope Lionel would enmesh himself still

further. There must be explanations that would damn him utterly. Oliver was well content to look on.

"Rosamund!" came Lionel's piteous cry. "Rose! Have mercy! Listen ere you judge me. Listen lest you

"Ay, listen to him," Oliver flung in, with his soft hateful laugh. "Listen to him. I doubt he'll be vastly

That sneer was a spur to the wretched Lionel. "Rosamund, all that he has told you of it is false. I...I...It was

done in selfdefence. It is a lie that I took him unawares." His words came wildly now. "We had quarrelled

about...about...a certain matter, and as the devil would have it we met that evening in Godolphin Park, he and

I. He taunted me; he struck me, and finally he drew upon me and forced me to draw that I might defend my

life. That is the truth. I swear to you here on my knees in the sight of Heaven! And...."

"Enough, sir! Enough!" she broke in, controlling herself to check these protests that but heightened her

"Nay, hear me yet, I implore you; that knowing all you may be merciful in your judgment."

"It was an accident that I slew him," Lionel raved on. "I never meant it. I never meant to do more than ward

and preserve my life. But when swords are crossed more may happen than a man intends. I take God to

She had checked her sobs, and she considered him now with eyes that were hard and terrible.

"Was it also an accident that you left me and all the world in the belief that the deed was your brother's?" she

He covered his face, as if unable to endure her glance. "Did you but know how I loved youeven in those

"Pity?" She leaned forward and seemed to spit the word at him. "'Sdeath, man! Do you sue for pityyou?"

"Yet you must pity me did you know the greatness of the temptation to which I succumbed."

"I know the greatness of your infamy, of your falseness, of your cowardice, of your baseness. Oh!"

He stretched out suppliant hands to her; there were tears now in his eyes. "Of your charity, Rosamund...." he

"I think you are wearying the lady," he said, and stirred him with his foot. "Relate to us instead some more of

your astounding accidents. They are more diverting. Elucidate the accident, by which you had me kidnapped

to be sold into slavery. Tell us of the accident by which you succeeded to my property. Expound to the full

the accidental circumstances of which throughout you have been the unfortunate victim. Come, man, ply your

And then came Jasper to announce that Ali waited with the brazier and the heated manacles.

"They are no longer needed," said Oliver. "Take this slave hence with you. Bid Ali to take charge of him, and

Oliver caught him by the nape of his neck, spun him round, and flung him into the arms of Jasper. "Take him

away!" he growled, and Jasper took the wretch by the shoulders and urged him out, leaving Rosamund and

Oliver considered the woman for a long moment as she sat halfcrouching on the divan, her hands locked,

her face set and stony, her eyes lowered. He sighed gently and turned away. He paced to the parapet and

looked out upon the city bathed in the white glare of the full risen moon. There arose thence a hum of sound,

dominated, however, by the throbbing song of a nightingale somewhere in his garden and the croaking of the

Now that truth had been dragged from its well, and tossed, as it were, into Rosamund's lap, he felt none of the

fierce exultation which he had conceived that such an hour as this must bring him. Rather, indeed, was he

saddened and oppressed. To poison the unholy cup of joy which he had imagined himself draining with such

thirsty zest there was that discovery of a measure of justification for her attitude towards him in her

He was weighed down by a sense that he had put himself entirely in the wrong; that in his vengeance he had

overreached himself; and he found the fruits of it, which had seemed so desirably luscious, turning to ashes in

Long he stood there, the silence between them entirely unbroken. Then at length he stirred, turned from the

parapet, and paced slowly back until he came to stand beside the divan, looking down upon her from his great

"At last you have heard the truth," he said. And as she made no answer he continued: "I am thankful it was

surprised out of him before the torture was applied, else you might have concluded that pain was wringing a

false confession from him." He paused, but still she did not speak; indeed, she made no sign that she had

heard him. "That," he concluded, "was the man whom you preferred to me. Faith, you did not flatter me, as

At last she was moved from her silence, and her voice came dull and hard. "I have learnt how little there is to

choose between you," she said. "It was to have been expected. I might have known two brothers could not

It was a speech that angered him, that cast out entirely the softer mood that had been growing in him.

His teeth gleamed in his wry smile. "I hope the knowledge will bring you as much bitterness as the

knowledge of womenof one womanhas brought me. To have believed me what you believed meme

whom you conceived yourself to love!" He felt, perhaps the need to repeat it that he might keep the grounds

"If I have a mercy to beg of you it is that you will not shame me with the reminder."

"Of your faithlessness?" he asked. "Of your disloyal readiness to believe the worst evil of me?"

"Of my ever having believed that I loved you. That is the thought that shames me, as nothing else in life

could shame me, as not even the slavemarket and all the insult to which you have submitted me could

"I do more than taunt you with it," he broke in, his anger mounting under the pitiless lash of her scorn. "I lay

to your charge the wasted years of my life, all the evil that has followed out of it, all that I have suffered, all

She looked up at him coldly, astonishingly mistress of herself. "You lay all this to my charge?" she asked

"I do." He was very vehement. "Had you not used me as you did, had you not lent a ready ear to lies, that

whelp my brother would never have gone to such lengths, nor should I ever have afforded him the

"All this is very idle," she said coldly. Yet perhaps because she felt that she had need to justify herself she

continued: "If, after all, I was so ready to believe evil of you, it is that my instincts must have warned me of

the evil that was ever in you. You have proved to me tonight that it was not you who murdered Peter; but to

attain that proof you have done a deed that is even fouler and more shameful, a deed that reveals to the full

the blackness of your heart. Have you not proved yourself a monster of vengeance and impiety?" She rose

and faced him again in her sudden passion. "Are you notyou that were born a Cornish Christian

gentleman become a heathen and a robber, a renegade and a pirate? Have you not sacrificed your very God

He met her glance fully, never quailing before her denunciation, and when she had ended on that note of

"And your instincts had forewarned you of all this? God's life, woman! can you invent no better tale than

that?" He turned aside as two slaves entered bearing an earthenware vessel. "Here comes your supper. I hope

They set the vessel, from which a savoury smell proceeded, upon the little Moorish table by the divan. On the

ground beside it they placed a broad dish of baked earth in which there were a couple of loaves and a red,

shortnecked amphora of water with a drinkingcup placed over the mouth of it to act as a stopper.

His cold eye played over her. "Henceforth, girl, you will consider not what you want, but what I bid you do. I

"Will not?" he echoed slowly. "Is that a speech from slave to master? Eat, I say."

"Then kill me," she answered fiercely, leaping up to confront and dare him. "Kill me. You are used to killing,

"I will kill you if I please," he said in level icy tones. "But not to please you. You don't yet understand. You

are my slave, my thing, my property, and I will not suffer you to be damaged save at my own good pleasure.

For a moment she stood defiant before him, white and resolute. Then quite suddenly, as if her will was being

bent and crumpled under the insistent pressure of his own, she drooped and sank down again to the divan.

Slowly, reluctantly she drew the dish nearer. Watching her, he laughed quite silently.

She paused, appearing to seek for something. Failing to find it she looked up at him again, between scorn and

His eyes gleamed with understanding, or at least with suspicion. But he answered her quite calmly"It is

against the Prophet's law to defile meat or bread by the contact of a knife. You must use the hands that God

"Do you mock me with the Prophet and his laws? What are the Prophet's laws to me? If eat I must, at least I

To indulge her, as it seemed, he slowly drew the richly hilted dagger from his girdle. "Let that serve you,

With a quick indrawn breath she pounced upon it. "At last," she said, "you give me something for which I can

be grateful to you." And on the words she laid the point of it against her breast.

Like lightning he had dropped to one knee, and his hand had closed about her wrist with such a grip that all

her arm felt limp and powerless. He was smiling into her eyes, his swarthy face close to her own.

"Did you indeed suppose I trusted you? Did you really think me deceived by your sudden pretence of

yielding? When will you learn that I am not a fool? I did it but to test your spirit."

She looked at him, with something that would have been mockery but for the contempt that coloured it too

deeply. "Is it so difficult a thing," she asked, "to snap the thread of life? Are there no ways of dying save by

the knife? You boast yourself my master; that I am your slave; that, having bought me in the marketplace, I

belong to you body and soul. How idle is that boast. My body you may bind and confine; but my soul.... Be

very sure that you shall be cheated of your bargain. You boast yourself lord of life and death. A lie! Death is

Quick steps came pattering up the stairs, and before he could answer her, before he had thought of words in

which to do so, Ali confronted him with the astounding announcement that there was a woman below asking

But even as he spoke a dark figure glided like a shadow across the threshold on to the terrace. She was in

black from head to foot, including the veil that shrouded her, a veil of the proportions of a mantle, serving to

Ali swung upon her in a rage. "Did I not bid thee wait below, thou daughter of shame?" he stormed. "She has

followed me up, my lord, to thrust herself in here upon you. Shall I drive her forth?"

Something about that black immovable figure arrested his attention and fired his suspicions. Unaccountably

almost it brought to his mind the thought of AyoubelSarnin and the bidding there had been for Rosamund

He stood waiting for his visitor to speak and disclose herself. She on her side continued immovable until Ali's

footsteps had faded in the distance. Then, with a boldness entirely characteristic, with the recklessness that

betrayed her European origin, intolerant of the Muslim restraint imposed upon her sex, she did what no

Truebelieving woman would have done. She tossed back that long black veil and disclosed the pale

For all that it was no more than he had expected, yet upon beholding herher countenance thus bared to his

Having announced herself in that dramatic fashion she composedly readjusted her veil so that her

"To come here, to my house, and thus!" he protested. "Should this reach the ears of thy lord, how will it fare

"No need to fear his knowing of this unless, thyself, thou tell him," she answered. "To thee I need no excuse

"But Algiers is not thy native Sicily, and whatever thou wast born it were well to remember what thou art

He went on at length to tell her of the precise degree of her folly, but she cut in, stemming his protestation in

"To thy purpose then, in Allah's name, that thus thou mayest depart the sooner."

She came to it straight enough on that uncompromising summons. She pointed to Rosamund. "It concerns

that slave," said she. "I sent my wazeer to the s�k today with orders to purchase her for me."

"But it seems that she caught thy fancy, and the fool suffered himself to be outbidden."

"Thou'lt relinquish her to me at the price she cost thee?" A faint note of anxiety trembled in her voice.

"Ah, wait," she cried. "The price paid was highmany times higher than I have ever heard tell was given for

a slave, however lovely. Yet I covet her. 'Tis a whim of mine, and I cannot suffer to be thwarted in my

He looked at her and wondered what devilries might be stirring in her mind, what evil purpose she desired to

"Thou'lt pay three thousand philips?" he said slowly. Then bluntly asked her: "Why?"

"And this desire to possess her, whence is it sprung?" he returned, as patient as he was relentless.

She set her arms akimbo and faced him squarely. Faintly through her veil he caught the gleam of her eyes,

and he cursed the advantage she had in that her face was covered from his reading.

"Thou'lt not? Not for three thousand philips?" Her voice was charged with surprise, and he wondered was it

"Not for thirty thousand," answered he. "She is mine, and I'll not relinquish her. So since I have proclaimed

my mind, and since to tarry here is fraught with peril for us both, I beg thee to depart."

There fell a little pause, and neither of them noticed the alert interest stamped upon the white face of

Rosamund. Neither of them suspected her knowledge of French which enabled her to follow most of what

Fenzileh drew close to him. "Thou'lt not relinquish her, eh?" she asked, and he was sure she sneered. "Be not

so confident. Thou'lt be forced to it, my friendif not to me, why then, to Asad. He is coming for her,

"AsadedDin," she answered, and upon that resumed her pleading. "Come, then! It were surely better to

He shook his head and planted his feet squarely. "I intend to make no bargain with either of you. This slave is

"Shalt thou dare resist Asad? I tell thee he will take her whether she be for sale or not."

"I see," he said, his eyes narrowing. "And the fear of this, then, is the source of thy whim to acquire her for

thyself. Thou art not subtle, 0 Fenzileh. The consciousness that thine own charms are fading sets thee

trembling lest so much loveliness should entirely cast thee from thy lord's regard, eh?"

If he could not see her face, and study there the effect of that thrust of his, at least he observed the quiver that

ran through her muffled figure, he caught the note of anger that throbbed in her reply"And if that were so,

"Indeed, it should be much," she answered quickly, breathlessly. "Have I not ever been thy friend? Have I not

ever urged thy valour on my lord's notice and wrought like a true friend for thine advancement,

"Laugh as thou wilt, but it is true," she insisted. "Lose me and thy most valuable ally is lostone who has

the ear and favour of her lord. For look, SakrelBahr, it is what would befall if another came to fill my

place, another who might poison Asad's mind with lies against thee for surely she cannot love thee, this

"Be not concerned for that," he answered lightly, his wits striving in vain to plumb the depths and discover

the nature of her purpose. "This slave of mine shall never usurp thy place beside Asad."

He looked down upon her, head on one side and arms akimbo. "If he can take her from me, the more easily

can he take her from thee. No doubt thou hast considered that, and in some dark Sicilian way considered too

how to provide against it. But the costhast thou counted that? What will Asad say to thee when he learns

"What do I care for that?" she cried in sudden fury, her gestures becoming a little wild. "She will be at the

bottom of the harbour by then with a stone about her neck. He may have me whipped. No doubt he will. But

'twill end there. He will require me to console him for his loss, and so all will be well again."

At last he had drawn her, pumped her dry, as he imagined. Indeed, indeed, he thought, he had been right to

say she was not subtle. He had been a fool to have permitted himself to be intrigued by so shallow, so

"Depart in peace, 0 Fenzileh," he said. "I yield her to nonebe his name Asad or Shaitan."

His tone was final, and her answer seemed to accept at last his determination. Yet she was very quick with

"Then it is surely thine intent to wed her." No voice could have been more innocent and guileless than was

hers now. "If so," she went on, "it were best done quickly, for marriage is the only barrier Asad will not

overthrow. He is devout, and out of his deep reverence for the Prophet's law he would be sure to respect such

Yet notwithstanding her innocence and assumed simplicitybecause of it, perhapshe read her as if she

"And thy purpose would be equally well served, eh?" he questioned her, sly in his turn.

"Say 'better,' Fenzileh," he rejoined. "I said thou art not subtle. By the Koran, I lied. Thou art subtle as the

serpent. Yet I see whither thou art gliding. Were I to be guided by thine advice a twofold purpose would be

served. First, I should place her beyond Asad's reach, and second, I should be embroiled with him for having

"Thou dost me wrong," she protested. "I have ever been thy friend. I would that...." She broke off suddenly to

listen. The stillness of the night was broken by cries from the direction of the BabelOueb. She ran swiftly

"Look, look!" she cried, and there was a tremor of fear in her voice. "It is heAsadedDin."

SakrelBahr crossed to her side and in a glare of torches saw a body of men coming forth from the black

"It almost seems as if, departing from thy usual custom, thou hast spoken truth, 0 Fenzileh."

She faced him, and he suspected the venomous glance darted at him through her veil. Yet her voice when she

spoke was cold. "In a moment thou'lt have no single doubt of it. But what of me?" The question was added in

"I am sure he would," SakrelBahr agreed. "Yet muffled thus, who should recognize thee? Away, then, ere

he comes. Take cover in the courtyard until he shall have passed. Didst thou come alone?"

"Should I trust anyone with the knowledge that I had visited thee?" she asked, and he admired the strong

Sicilian spirit in her that not all these years in the Basha's hareem had sufficed to extinguish.

"Be at ease," he answered her, on so resolved a note that she departed satisfied.

SakrelBahr stood lost in thought after she had gone. Again he weighed her every word and considered

precisely how he should meet Asad, and how refuse him, if the Basha's were indeed such an errand as

Thus in silence he remained waiting for Ali or another to summon him to the presence of the Basha. Instead,

however, when Ali entered it was actually to announce AsadedDin, who followed immediately upon his

heels, having insisted in his impatience upon being conducted straight to the presence of SakrelBahr.

"And upon thee, my lord." SakrelBahr salaamed. "My house is honoured." With a gesture he dismissed

"A suppliant, thou? No need, my lord. I have no will that is not the echo of thine own."

The Basha's questing eyes went beyond him and glowed as they rested upon Rosamund.

"I come in haste," he said, "like any callow lover, guided by my every instinct to the presence of her I

seekthis Frankish pearl, this penfaced captive of thy latest raid. I was away from the Kasbah when that

pig Tsamanni returned thither from the s�k; but when at last I learnt that he had failed to purchase her as I

commanded, I could have wept for very grief. I feared at first that some merchant from the Sus might have

bought her and departed; but when I heardblessed be Allah! that thou wert the buyer, I was comforted

He spoke with such confidence that Oliver had a difficulty in choosing the words that were to disillusion him.

"I will make good thy, loss," Asad ran on. "Thou shalt have the sixteen hundred philips paid and another five

hundred to console thee. Say that will content thee; for I boil with impatience."

SakrelBahr smiled grimly. "It is an impatience well known to me, my lord, where she is concerned," he

answered slowly. "I boiled with it myself for five interminable years. To make an end of it I went a distant

perilous voyage to England in a captured Frankish vessel. Thou didst not know, 0 Asad, else thou wouldst...."

"Bah!" broke in the Basha. "Thou'rt a huckster born. There is none like thee, SakrelBahr, in any game of

wits. Well, well, name thine own price, strike thine own profit out of my impatience and let us have done."

"My lord," he said quietly, "it is not the profit that is in question. She is not for sale."

Asad blinked at him, speechless, and slowly a faint colour crept into his sallow cheeks.

"Not if thou offered me thy Bashalik as the price of her," was the solemn answer. Then more warmly, in a

voice that held a note of intercession "Ask anything else that is mine," he continued, "and gladly will I lay

"But I want nothing else." Asad's tone was impatient, petulant almost. "I want this slave."

"Then," replied Oliver, "I cast myself upon thy mercy and beseech thee to turn thine eyes elsewhere."

Asad scowled upon him. "Dost thou deny me?" he demanded, throwing back his head.

There fell a pause. Darker and darker grew the countenance of Asad, fiercer glowed the eyes he bent upon his

lieutenant. "I see," he said at last, with a calm so oddly at variance with his looks as to be sinister. "I see. It

seems that there is more truth in Fenzileh than I suspected. So!" He considered the corsair a moment with his

Then he addressed him in a tone that vibrated with his suppressed anger. "Bethink thee, SakrelBahr, of

what thou art, of what I have made thee. Bethink thee of all the bounty these hands have lavished on thee.

Thou art my own lieutenant, and mayest one day be more. In Algiers there is none above thee save myself.

Art, then, so thankless as to deny me the first thing I ask of thee? Truly is it written 'Ungrateful is Man.'"

"I neither know nor care," Asad cut in. "Whatever it may be, it should be as naught when set against my

will." Then he discarded anger for cajolery. He set a hand upon SakrelBahr's stalwart shoulder. Come, my

son. I will deal generously with thee out of my love, and I will put thy refusal from my mind."

"Be generous, my lord, to the point of forgetting that ever thou didst ask me for her."

"Dost still refuse?" The voice, honeyed an instant ago, rang harsh again. "Take care how far thou strain my

patience. Even as I have raised thee from the dirt, so at a word can I cast thee down again. Even as I broke the

shackles that chained thee to the rowers' bench, so can I rivet them on thee anew.

"All this canst thou do," SakrelBahr agreed. "And since, knowing it, I still hold to what is doubly

mineby right of capture and of purchase thou mayest conceive how mighty are my reasons. Be merciful,

SakrelBahr stiffened. He threw back his head and looked the Basha squarely in the eyes.

"It is my prayer that thou'lt not be so ungenerous and unjust as to compel thy servant to a course so hateful."

A moment the Basha stood regarding him, his glance baleful. Then deliberately, as one who has taken his

resolve, he strode to the door. On the threshold he paused and turned again. "Wait!" he said, and on that

SakrelBahr remained a moment where he had stood during the interview, then with a shrug he turned. He

met Rosamund's eyes fixed intently upon him, and invested with a look he could not read. He found himself

unable to meet it, and he turned away. It was inevitable that in such a moment the earlier stab of remorse

should be repeated. He had overreached himself indeed. Despair settled down upon him, a full consciousness

of the horrible thing he had done, which seemed now so irrevocable. In his silent anguish he almost

conceived that he had mistaken his feelings for Rosamund; that far from hating her as he had supposed, his

love for her had not yet been slain, else surely he should not be tortured now by the thought of her becoming

Asad's prey. If he hated her, indeed, as he had supposed, he would have surrendered her and gloated.

He wondered was his present frame of mind purely the result of his discovery that the appearances against

him had been stronger far than he imagined, so strong as to justify her conviction that he was her brother's

"I understood enough," said she. "This lingua franca is none so different from French." And again she

"Indeed," she said bitterly, "there is scarce the need perhaps. And yet can it be that your lust of vengeance is

so insatiable that sooner than willingly forgo an ounce of it you will lose your head?"

His face became grim again. "Of course," he sneered, "it would be so that you'd interpret me."

She shuddered, and her glance fell from his, yet her voice was composed when she answered him"Is it so

very much worse than becoming the prey of OliverReis or SakrelBahr, or whatever they may call you?"

"If you say that it is all one to you there's an end to my opposing him," he answered coldly. "You may go to

him. If I resisted himlike a fool, perhapsit was for no sake of vengeance upon you. It was because the

She flashed him an upward glance and looked as if she would have spoken. But he went on, suddenly

passionate, without giving her time to interrupt him. "0 God! It needed this to show me the vileness of the

thing I have done. Asad has no such motives as had I. I wanted you that I might punish you. But he...0 God!"

She rose slowly, a strange agitation stirring in her, her bosom galloping. But in his overwrought condition he

failed to observe it. And then like a ray of hope to illumine his despair came the counsel that Fenzileh had

given him, the barrier which she had said that Asad, being a devout Muslim, would never dare to violate.

"There is a way,'' he cried. "There is the way suggested by Fenzileh at the promptings of her malice." An

instant he hesitated, his eyes averted. Then he made his plunge. "You must marry me."

It was almost as if he had struck her. She recoiled. Instantly suspicion awoke in her; swiftly it drew to a

"Ay," he insisted. And he set himself to explain to her how if she were his wife she must be sacred and

inviolable to all good Muslimeen, that none could set a finger upon her without doing outrage to the Prophet's

holy law, and that, whoever might be so disposed, Asad was not of those, since Asad was perfervidly devout.

"It is too desperate a remedy even for so desperate an ill," said she, and thus drove him into a frenzy of

"You must, I say," he insisted, almost angrily. "You mustor else consent to be borne this very night to

Asad's hareemand not even as his wife, but as his slave. Oh, you must trust me for your own sake! You

"Trust you!" she cried, and almost laughed in the intensity of her scorn. "Trust you! How can I trust one who

He controlled himself that he might reason with her, that by cold logic he might conquer her consent.

"You are very unmerciful," he said. "In judging me you leave out of all account the suffering through which I

have gone and what yourself contributed to it. Knowihg now how falsely I was accused and what other bitter

wrongs I suffered, consider that I was one to whom the man and the woman I most loved in all this world had

proven false. I had lost faith in man and in God, and if I became a Muslim, a renegade, and a corsair, it was

because there was no other gate by which I could escape the unutterable toil of the oar to which I had been

It moved her a little, for if she maintained a hostile attitude, at least she put aside her scorn.

"No wrongs," she told him, almost with sorrow in her voice, "could justify you in outraging chivalry, in

dishonouring your manhood, in abusing your strength to persecute a woman. Whatever the causes that may

have led to it, you have fallen too low, sir, to make it possible that I should trust you."

He bowed his head under the rebuke which already he had uttered in his own heart. It was just and most

deserved, and since he recognized its justice he found it impossible to resent it.

"I know," he said. "But I am not asking you to trust me to my profit, but to your own. It is for your sake alone

that I implore you to do this." Upon a sudden inspiration he drew the heavy dagger from his girdle and

proffered it, hilt foremost. "If you need an earnest of my good faith," he said, "take this knife with which

tonight you attempted to stab yourself. At the first sign that I am false to my trust, use it as you willupon

She pondered him in some surprise. Then slowly she put out her hand to take the weapon, as he bade her.

"Are you not afraid," she asked him, "that I shall use it now, and so make an end?"

"I am trusting you," he said, "that in return you may trust me. Further, I am arming you against the worst. For

if it comes to choice between death and Asad, I shall approve your choice of death. But let me add that it

"What chance?" she asked, with a faint return of her old scorn. "The chance of life with you?"

"No," he answered firmly. "If you will trust me, I swear that I will seek to undo the evil I have done. Listen.

At dawn my galeasse sets out upon a raid. I will convey you secretly aboard and find a way to land you in

He smiled wistfully. "Do you still fear a trap? Can naught convince you of my sincerity? A Muslim marriage

is not binding upon a Christian, and I shall account it no marriage. It will be no more than a pretence to

"How?" He paused, baffled; but only for a moment. "You have the dagger," he answered pregnantly.

She stood considering, her eyes upon the weapon's lividly gleaming blade. "And this marriage?" she asked.

He explained to her then that by the Muslim law all that was required was a declaration made before a kadi,

or his superior, and in the presence of witnesses. He was still at his explanation when from below there came

"Here is Asad returning in force," he cried, and his voice trembled. "Do you consent?"

"But the kadi?" she inquired, and by the question he knew that she was won to his way of saving her.

"I said the kadi or his superior. Asad himself shall be our priest, his followers our witnesses."

"And if he refuses? He will refuse!" she cried, clasping her hands before her in her excitement.

"Ay," he answered, wildeyed. "I have thought of that, too. But it is a risk we must run. If we do not prevail,

"And for me there will be the rope or the sword," he answered. "Be calm! They come!"

But the steps that pattered up the stairs were Ali's. He flung upon the terrace in alarm.

"My lord, my lord! AsadedDin is here in force. He has an armed following with him!"

"There is naught to fear," said SakrelBahr, with every show of calm. "All will be well."

Asad swept up the stairs and out upon that terrace to confront his rebellious lieutenant. After him came a

dozen blackrobed janissaries with scimitars along which the light of the torches rippled in little runnels as of

The Basha came to a halt before SakrelBahr, his arms majestically folded, his head thrown back, so that

"I am returned," he said, "to employ force where gentleness will not avail. Yet I pray that Allah may have

"The praise to Him!" exclaimed Asad in a voice that rang with joy. "The girl, then!" And he held out a hand.

SakrelBahr stepped back to her and took her hand in his as if to lead her forward. Then he spoke the fateful

"In Allah's Holy Name and in His Allseeing eyes, before thee, AsadedDin, and in the presence of these

witnesses, I take this woman to be my wife by the merciful law of the Prophet of Allah the Allwise, the

The words were out and the thing was done before Asad had realized the corsair's intent. A gasp of dismay

But SakrelBahr, cool and undaunted before that royal anger, took the scarf that lay about Rosamund's

shoulders, and raising it, flung it over her head, so that her face was covered by it.

"May Allah rot off the hand of him who in contempt of our Lord Mahomet's holy law may dare to unveil that

face, and may Allah bless this union and cast into the pit of Gehenna any who shall attempt to dissolve a

It was formidable. Too formidable for AsadedDin. Behind him his janissaries like hounds in leash stood

eagerly awaiting his command. But none came. He stood there breathing heavily, swaying a little, and turning

from red to pale in the battle that was being fought within him between rage and vexation on the one hand

and his profound piety on the other. And as he yet hesitated perhaps SakrelBahr assisted his piety to gain

"Now you will understand why I would not yield her, 0 mighty Asad," he said. "Thyself hast thou oft and

rightly reproached me with my celibacy, reminding me that it is not pleasing in the sight of Allah, that it is

unworthy a good Muslim. At last it hath pleased the Prophet to send me such a maid as I could take to wife."

Asad bowed his head. "What is written is written," he said in the voice of one who admonished himself. Then

he raised his arms aloft. "Allah is Allknowing," he declared. "His will be done!"

"Ameen," said SakrelBahr very solemnly and with a great surge of thankful prayer to his own

The Basha stayed yet a moment, as if he would have spoken. Then abruptly he turned and waved a hand to

his janissaries. "Away!" was all he said to them, and stalked out in their wake.

From behind her lattice, still breathless from the haste she had made, and with her whelp Marzak at her side,

Fenzileh had witnessed that first angry return of the Basha from the house of SakrelBahr.

She had heard him bawling for Abdul Mohktar, the leader of his janissaries, and she had seen the hasty

mustering of a score of these soldiers in the courtyard, where the ruddy light of torches mingled with the

white light of the full moon. She had seen them go hurrying away with Asad himself at their head, and she

"It is done," Marzak had cried exultantly. "The dog hath withstood him and so destroyed himself. There will

But from Fenzileh came no response to his prayer of thanksgiving. True, SakrelBahr must be destroyed,

and by a sword that she herself had forged. Yet was it not inevitable that the stroke which laid him low must

wound her on its repercussion? That was the question to which now she sought an answer. For all her

eagerness to speed the corsair to his doom, she had paused sufficiently to weigh the consequences to herself;

she had not overlooked the circumstance that an inevitable result of this must be Asad's appropriation of that

Frankish slavegirl. But at the time it had seemed to her that even this price was worth paying to remove

SakrelBahr definitely and finally from her son's pathwhich shows that, after all, Fenzileh the mother

was capable of some selfsacrifice. She comforted herself now with the reflection that the influence, whose

waning she feared might be occasioned by the introduction of a rival into Asad's hareem, would no longer be

so vitally necessary to herself and Marzak once SakrelBahr were removed. The rest mattered none so

much to her. Yet it mattered something, and the present state of things left her uneasy, her mind a cockpit of

emotions. Her grasp could not encompass all her desires at once, it seemed; and whilst she could gloat over

the gratification of one, she must bewail the frustration of another. Yet in the main she felt that she should

In this state of mind she had waited, scarce heeding the savagely joyous and entirely selfish babblings of her

cub, who cared little what might betide his mother as the price of the removal of that hated rival from his

path. For him, at least, there was nothing but profit in the business, no cause for anything but satisfaction; and

Anon they witnessed Asad's return. They saw the janissaries come swinging into the courtyard and range

themselves there whilst the Basha made his appearance, walking slowly, with steps that dragged a little, his

head sunk upon his breast, his hands behind him. They waited to see slaves following him, leading or

carrying the girl he had gone to fetch. But they waited in vain, intrigued and uneasy.

They heard the harsh voice in which Asad dismissed his followers, and the clang of the closing gate; and they

saw him pacing there alone in the moonlight, ever in that attitude of dejection.

What had happened? Had he killed them both? Had the girl resisted him to such an extent that he had lost all

patience and in one of those rages begotten of such resistance made an end of her?

Thus did Fenzileh question herself, and since she could not doubt but that SakrelBahr was slain, she

concluded that the rest must be as she conjectured. Yet, the suspense torturing her, she summoned Ayoub and

sent him to glean from Abdul Mohktar the tale of what had passed. In his own hatred of SakrelBahr,

Ayoub went willingly enough and hoping for the worst. He returned disappointed, with a tale that sowed

Fenzileh, however, made a swift recovery. After all, it was the best that could have happened. It should not be

difficult to transmute that obvious dejection of Asad's into resentment, and to fan this into a rage that must

end by consuming SakrelBahr. And so the thing could be accomplished without jeopardy to her own place

at Asad's side. For it was inconceivable that he should now take Rosamund to his hareem. Already the fact

that she had been paraded with naked face among the Faithful must in itself have been a difficult obstacle to

his pride. But it was utterly impossible that he could so subject his selfrespect to his desire as to take to

Fenzileh saw her way very clearly. It was through Asad's devoutnessas she herself had advised, though

scarcely expecting such rich results as thesethat he had been thwarted by SakrelBahr. That same

Taking up a flimsy silken veil, she went out to him where he now sat on the divan under the awning, alone

there in the tepidscented summer night. She crept to his side with the soft, graceful, questing movements of

a cat, and sat there a moment unheeded almostsuch was his abstractionher head resting lightly against

"Lord of my soul," she murmured presently, "thou art sorrowing." Her voice was in itself a soft and soothing

"My heart," she answered, her voice melodious as a viol. "Can sorrow burden thine and mine go light?" she

wooed him. "Is happiness possible to me when thou art downcast? In there I felt thy melancholy, and thy

need of me, and I am come to share thy burden, or to bear it all for thee." Her arms were raised, and her

He looked down at her, and his expression softened. He needed comfort, and never was she more welcome to

Gradually and with infinite skill she drew from him the story of what had happened. When she had gathered

"The dog!" she cried. "The faithless, ungrateful hound! Yet have I warned thee against him, 0 light of my

poor eyes, and thou hast scorned me for the warnings uttered by my love. Now at last thou knowest him, and

he shall trouble thee no longer. Thou'lt cast him off, reduce him again to the dust from which thy bounty

But Asad did not respond. He sat there in a gloomy abstraction, staring straight before him. At last he sighed

wearily. He was just, and he had a conscience, as odd a thing as it was awkward in a corsair Basha.

"In what hath befallen," he answered moodily, "there is naught to justify me in casting aside the stoutest

"Yet his duty to thee suffered him to thwart thee, 0 my lord," she reminded him very softly.

"In my desiresay!" he answered, and for a moment his voice quivered with passion. Then he repressed it,

and continued more calmly"Shall my selfseeking overwhelm my duty to the Faith? Shall the matter of a

slavegirl urge me to sacrifice the bravest soldier of Islam, the stoutest champion of the Prophet's law? Shall

I bring down upon my head the vengeance of the One by destroying a man who is a scourge of scorpions unto

the infideland all this that I may gratify my personal anger against him, that I may avenge the thwarting of

"Dost thou still say, 0 my life, that SakrelBahr is the stoutest champion of the Prophet's law?" she asked

"I know of one deed no TrueBeliever could have wrought. If proof were needed of his infidelity he hath

now afforded it in taking to himself a Nasrani wife. Is it not written in the Book to be Read: 'Marry not

idolatresses'? Is not that the Prophet's law, and hath he not broken it, offending at once against Allah and

Asad frowned. Here was truth indeed, something that he had entirely overlooked. Yet justice compelled him

still to defend SakrelBahr, or else perhaps he but reasoned to prove to himself that the case against the

At that she cried out in admiration of him. "What a fount of mercy and forbearance art thou, 0 father of

Marzak! Thou'rt right as in all things. It was no doubt in thoughtlessness that he offended, but would such

thoughtlessness be possible in a TrueBelieverin one worthy to be dubbed by thee the champion of the

It was a shrewd thrust, that pierced the armour of conscience in which he sought to empanoply himself. He

sat very thoughtful, scowling darkly at the inky shadow of the wall which the moon was casting. Suddenly he

"By Allah, thou art right!" he cried. "So that he thwarted me and kept that Frankish woman for himself, he

She glided to her knees and coiled her arms about his waist, looking up at him. "Still art thou ever merciful,

"I would there were no more. Yet more there is, to which thy angelic mercy blinds thee. He did worse. Not

merely was he reckless of how he sinned against the law, he turned the law to his own base uses and so

"He employed it as a bulwark behind which to shelter himself and her. Knowing that thou who art the Lion

and defender of the Faith wouldst bend obediently to what is written in the Book, he married her to place her

"The praise to Him who is Allwise and lent me strength to do naught unworthy!" he cried in a great voice,

glorifying himself. "I might have slain him to dissolve the impious bond, yet I obeyed what is written."

"Thy forbearance hath given joy to the angels," she answered him, "and yet a man was found so base as to

He shook off her clasp, and strode away from her a prey to agitation. He paced to and fro in the moonlight

there, and she, wellcontent, reclined upon the cushions of the divan, a thing of infinite grace, her gleaming

eyes discreetly veiled from himwaiting until her poison should have done its work.

She saw him halt, and fling up his arms, as if apostrophizing Heaven, as if asking a question of the stars that

Then at last he paced slowly back to her. He was still undecided. There was truth in what she had said; yet he

knew and weighed her hatred of SakrelBahr, knew how it must urge her to put the worst construction upon

any act of his, knew her jealousy for Marzak, and so he mistrusted her arguments and mistrusted himself.

Also there was his own love of SakrelBahr that would insist upon a place in the balance of his judgment.

"Enough," he said almost roughly. "I pray that Allah may send me counsel in the night." And upon that he

She followed him. All night she lay at his feet to be ready at the first peep of dawn to buttress a purpose that

she feared was still weak, and whilst he slept fitfully, she slept not at all, but lay wideeyed and watchful.

At the first note of the mueddin's voice, he leapt from his couch obedient to its summons, and scarce had the

last note of it died upon the winds of dawn than he was afoot, beating his hands together to summon slaves

and issuing his orders, from which she gathered that he was for the harbour there and then.

"May Allah have inspired thee, 0 my lord!" she cried. And asked him: "What is thy resolve?"

"I go to seek a sign," he answered her, and upon that departed, leaving her in a frame of mind that was far

She summoned Marzak, and bade him accompany his father, breathed swift instructions of what he should do

"Thy fate has been placed in thine own hands," she admonished him. "See that thou grip it firmly now."

In the courtyard Marzak found his father in the act of mounting a white mule that had been brought him.

He was attended by his wazeer Tsamanni, Biskaine, and some other of his captains. Marzak begged leave to

go with him. It was carelessly granted, and they set out, Marzak walking by his father's stirrup, a little in

advance of the others. For a while there was silence between father and son, then the latter spoke.

"It is my prayer, 0 my father, that thou art resolved to depose the faithless SakrelBahr from the command

Asad considered his son with a sombre eye. "Even now the galeasse should be setting out if the argosy is to

be intercepted," he said. "If SakrelBahr does not command, who shall, in Heaven's name?"

Asad smiled with grim wistfulness. "Art weary of life, 0 my son, that thou wouldst go to thy death and take

"Yet more than kind, 0 my son," replied Asad, and they went on in silence thereafter, until they came to the

The splendid galeasse was moored alongside, and all about her there was great bustle of preparation for

departure. Porters moved up and down the gangway that connected her with the shore, carrying bales of

provisions, barrels of water, kegs of gunpowder, and other necessaries for the voyage, and even as Asad and

his followers reached the head of that gangway, four negroes were staggering down it under the load of a

On the poop stood SakrelBahr with Othmani, Ali, JasperReis, and some other officers. Up and down the

gangway paced Larocque and Vigitello, two renegade boatswains, one French and the other Italian, who had

sailed with him on every voyage for the past two years. Larocque was superintending the loading of the

vessel, bawling his orders for the bestowal of provisions here, of water yonder, and of powder about the

As the palmetto pannier was brought aboard, Larocque shouted to the negroes to set it down by the mainmast.

But here SakrelBahr interfered, bidding them, instead, to bring it up to the stern and place it in the

Asad had dismounted, and stood with Marzak at his side at the head of the gangway when the youth finally

begged his father himself to take command of this expedition, allowing him to come as his lieutenant and so

Asad looked at him curiously, but answered nothing. He went aboard, Marzak and the others following him.

It was at this moment that SakrelBahr first became aware of the Basha's presence, and he came instantly

forward to do the honours of his galley. If there was a sudden uneasiness in his heart his face was calm and

"May the peace of Allah overshadow thee and thy house, 0 mighty Asad," was his greeting. "We are on the

Asad considered him with eyes of wonder. So much effrontery, so much ease after their last scene together

seemed to the Basha a thing incredible, unless, indeed, it were accompanied by a conscience entirely at peace.

"It has been proposed to me that I shall do more than bless this expeditionthat I shall command it," he

answered, watching SakrelBahr closely. He observed the sudden flicker of the corsair's eyes, the only

"Command it?" echoed SakrelBahr. "'Twas proposed to thee?" And he laughed lightly as if to dismiss that

That laugh was a tactical error. It spurred Asad. He advanced slowly along the vessel's waistdeck to the

mainmastfor she was rigged with main and foremasts. There he halted again to look into the face of

"Why? At the folly of such a proposal," said SakrelBahr in haste, too much in haste to seek a diplomatic

SakrelBahr made haste to cover his mistake. "In the suggestion that such poor quarry as waits us should be

worthy thine endeavour, should warrant the Lion of the Faith to unsheathe his mighty claws. Thou," he

continued with ringing scorn, "thou the inspirer of a hundred glorious fights in which whole fleets have been

engaged, to take the seas upon so trivial an errandone galeasse to swoop upon a single galley of Spain! It

were unworthy thy great name, beneath the dignity of thy valour!" and by a gesture he contemptuously

But Asad continued to ponder him with cold eyes, his face inscrutable. "Why, here's a change since

"But yesterday in the marketplace thyself didst urge me to join this expedition and to command it," Asad

reminded him, speaking with deliberate emphasis. "Thyself invoked the memory of the days that are gone,

when, scimitar in hand, we charged side by side aboard the infidel, and thou didst beseech me to engage

again beside thee. And now...." He spread his hands, anger gathered in his eyes. "Whence this change?" he

SakrelBahr hesitated, caught in his own toils. He looked away from Asad a moment; he had a glimpse of

the handsome flushed face of Marzak at his father's elbow, of Biskaine, Tsamanni, and the others all staring

at him in amazement, and even of some grimy sunburned faces from the rowers' bench on his left that were

He smiled, seeming outwardly to remain entirely unruffled. "Why...it is that I have come to perceive thy

reasons for refusing. For the rest, it is as I say, the quarry is not worthy of the hunter."

Marzak uttered a soft sneering laugh, as if the true reason of the corsair's attitude were quite clear to him. He

fancied too, and he was right in this, that SakrelBahr's odd attitude had accomplished what persuasions

addressed to AsadedDin might to the end have failed to accomplishhad afforded him the sign he was

come to seek. For it was in that moment that Asad determined to take command himself.

"It almost seems," he said slowly, smiling, "as if thou didst not want me. If so, it is unfortunate; for I have

long neglected my duty to my son, and I am resolved at last to repair that error. We accompany thee upon this

expedition, SakrelBahr. Myself I will command it, and Marzak shall be my apprentice in the ways of the

SakrelBahr said not another word in protest against that proclaimed resolve. He salaamed, and when he

"The praise to Allah, then, since thou'rt determined. It is not for me to urge further the unworthiness of the

His resolve being taken, Asad drew Tsamanni aside and spent some moments in talk with him, giving him

certain instructions for the conduct of affairs ashore during his absence. That done, and the wazeer dismissed,

the Basha himself gave the order to cast off, an order which there was no reason to delay, since all was now

The gangway was drawn ashore, the boatswains whistle sounded, and the steersmen leapt to their niches in

the stern, grasping the shafts of the great steeringoars. A second blast rang out, and down the gangwaydeck

came Vigitello and two of his mates, all three armed with long whips of bullockhide, shouting to the slaves

to make ready. And then, on the note of a third blast of Larocque's whistle, the fiftyfour poised oars dipped

to the water, two hundred and fifty bodies bent as one, and when they heaved themselves upright again the

great galeasse shot forward and so set out upon her adventurous voyage. From her mainmast the red flag with

its green crescent was unfurled to the breeze, and from the crowded mole, and the beach where a long line of

That breeze blowing stiffly from the desert was Lionel's friend that day. Without it his career at the oar might

have been short indeed. He was chained, like the rest, stark naked, save for a loincloth, in the place nearest

the gangway on the first starboard bench abaft the narrow waistdeck, and ere the galeasse had made the

short distance between the mole and the island at the end of it, the boatswain's whip had coiled itself about

his white shoulders to urge him to better exertion than he was putting forth. He had screamed under the cruel

cut, but none had heeded him. Lest the punishment should be repeated, he had thrown all his weight into the

next strokes of the oar, until by the time the Pe�on was reached the sweat was running down his body and his

heart was thudding against his ribs. It was not possible that it could have lasted, and his main agony lay in

that he realized it, and saw himself face to face with horrors inconceivable that must await the exhaustion of

his strength. He was not naturally robust, and he had led a soft and pampered life that was very far from

But as they reached the Pe�on and felt the full vigour of that warm breeze, SakrelBahr, who by Asad's

command remained in charge of the navigation, ordered the unfurling of the enormous lateen sails on main

and foremasts. They ballooned out, swelling to the wind, and the galeasse surged forward at a speed that was

more than doubled. The order to cease rowing followed, and the slaves were left to return thanks to Heaven

for their respite, and to rest in their chains until such time as their sinews should be required again.

The vessel's vast prow, which ended in a steel ram and was armed with a culverin on either quarter, was

crowded with lounging corsairs, who took their ease there until the time to engage should be upon them.

They leaned on the high bulwarks or squatted in groups, talking, laughing, some of them tailoring and

repairing garments, others burnishing their weapons or their armour, and one swarthy youth there was who

thrummed a gimri and sang a melancholy Shilha lovesong to the delight of a score or so of bloodthirsty

The gorgeous poop was fitted with a spacious cabin, to which admission was gained by two archways

curtained with stout silken tapestries upon whose deep red ground the crescent was wrought in brilliant green.

Above the cabin stood the three cressets or sternlamps, great structures of gilded iron surmounted each by

the orb and crescent. As if to continue the cabin forward and increase its size, a green awning was erected

from it to shade almost half the poopdeck. Here cushions were thrown, and upon these squatted now

AsadedDin with Marzak, whilst Biskaine and some three or four other officers who had escorted him

aboard and whom he had retained beside him for that voyage, were lounging upon the gilded balustrade at the

SakrelBahr alone, a solitary figure, resplendent in caftan and turban that were of cloth of silver, leaned

upon the bulwarks of the larboard quarter of the poopdeck, and looked moodily back upon the receding city

of Algiers which by now was no more than an agglomeration of white cubes piled up the hillside in the

Asad watched him silently awhile from under his beetling brows, then summoned him. He came at once, and

Asad considered him a moment solemnly, whilst a furtive malicious smile played over the beautiful

"Think not, SakrelBahr," he said at length, "that I bear thee resentment for what befell last night or that

that happening is the sole cause of my present determination. I had a dutya longneglected dutyto

Marzak, which at last I have undertaken to perform." He seemed to excuse himself almost, and Marzak

misliked both words and tone. Why, he wondered, must this fierce old man, who had made his name a terror

throughout Christendom, be ever so soft and yielding where that stalwart and arrogant infidel was concerned?

SakrelBahr bowed solemnly. "My lord," he said, "it is not for me to question thy resolves or the thoughts

"Are they so?" said Asad tartly. "Thy deeds will scarce bear out thy protestations." He sighed. "Sorely was I

wounded yesternight when thy marriage thwarted me and placed that Frankish maid beyond my reach. Yet I

respect this marriage of thine, as all Muslims mustfor all that in itself it was unlawful. But there!" he ended

with a shrug. "We sail together once again to crush the Spaniard. Let no illwill on either side o'ercloud the

"No more!" the Basha interrupted him. "Thou wert never a man to fear anything, which is why I have loved

But it suited Marzak not at all that the matter should be thus dismissed, that it should conclude upon a note of

weakening from his father, upon what indeed amounted to a speech of reconciliation. Before SakrelBahr

"I have lived too little with women to be able to give thee an answer," said the corsair.

Marzak winced before a reply that seemed to reflect upon himself. But he returned to the attack.

"I compassionate thee that art the slave of duty, driven so soon to abandon the delight of her soft arms. Where

"Where should a Muslim bestow his wife but according to the biddings of the Prophetin the house?"

But Asad caught the sneer, and stared at his son. "What cause is there to marvel in that a true Muslim should

sacrifice his inclinations to the service of the Faith?" His tone was a rebuke; but it left Marzak undismayed.

"No more!" growled the Basha. "Peace to thy tongue, Marzak, and may Allah the Allknowing smile upon

our expedition, lending strength to our arms to smite the infidel to whom the fragrance of the garden is

To this again SakrelBahr replied "Ameen," but an uneasiness abode in his heart summoned thither by the

questions Marzak had set him. Were they idle words calculated to do no more than plague him, and to keep

fresh in Asad's mind the memory of Rosamund, or were they based upon some actual knowledge?

His fears were to be quickened soon on that same score. He was leaning that afternoon upon the rail, idly

observing the doling out of the rations to the slaves, when Marzak came to join him.

For some moments he stood silently beside SakrelBahr watching Vigitello and his men as they passed

from bench to bench serving out biscuits and dried dates to the rowersbut sparingly, for oars move

sluggishly when stomachs are too well nourishedand giving each to drink a cup of vinegar and water in

Then he pointed to a large palmetto bale that stood on the waistdeck near the mainmast about which the

"That pannier," he said, "seems to me oddly in the way yonder. Were it not better to bestow it in the hold,

SakrelBahr experienced a slight tightening at the heart. He knew that Marzak had heard him command that

bale to be borne into the poopcabin, and that anon he had ordered it to be fetched thence when Asad had

announced his intention of sailing with him. He realized that this in itself might be a suspicious circumstance;

or, rather, knowing what the bale contained, he was too ready to fear suspicion. Nevertheless he turned to

"Why merely that it might become thee better to be content to observe and learn. Thou'lt soon be telling me

how grapnels should be slung, and how an action should be fought." Then he pointed ahead to what seemed

to be no more than a low cloudbank towards which they were rapidly skimming before that friendly wind.

Although he said it without any object other than that of turning the conversation, yet the fact itself was

sufficiently remarkable to be worth a comment. Whether rowed by her two hundred and fifty slaves, or sailed

under her enormous spread of canvas, there was no swifter vessel upon the Mediterranean than the galeasse

of SakrelBahr. Onward she leapt now with bellying tateens, her wellgreased keel slipping through the

windwhipped water at a rate which perhaps could not have been bettered by any ship that sailed.

"If this wind holds we shall be under the Point of Aguila before sunset, which will be something to boast of

Marzak, however, seemed but indifferently interested; his eyes continued awhile to stray towards that

palmetto bale by the mainmast. At length, without another word to SakrelBahr, he made his way abaft, and

flung himself down under the awning, beside his father. Asad sat there in a moody abstraction, already

regretting that he should have lent an ear to Fenzileh to the extent of coming upon this voyage, and assured

by now that at least there was no cause to mistrust SakrelBahr. Marsak came to revive that drooping

mistrust. But the moment was illchosen, and at the first words he uttered on the subject, he was growled into

"Thou dost but voice thine own malice," Asad rebuked him. "And I am proven a fool in that I have permitted

Thereupon Marzak fell silent and sulking, his eyes ever following SakrelBahr, who had descended the

three steps from the poop to the gangway and was pacing slowly down between the rowers' benches.

The corsair was supremely ill at ease, as a man must be who has something to conceal, and who begins to

fear that he may have been betrayed. Yet who was there could have betrayed him? But three men aboard that

vessel knew his secretAli, his lieutenant, Jasper, and the Italian Vigitello. And SakrelBahr would have

staked all his possessions that neither Ali nor Vigitello would have betrayed him, whilst he was fairly

confident that in his own interests Jasper also must have kept faith. Yet Marzak's allusion to that palmetto

bale had filled him with an uneasiness that sent him now in quest of his Italian boatswain whom he trusted

Vigitello looked up sharply at the question, then smiled with confidence. They were standing alone by the

"Touching what we carry yonder?" quoth he, his glance shifting to the bale. "Impossible. If Asad had

knowledge he would have betrayed it before we left Algiers, or else he would never have sailed without a

"What need of bodyguard for him?" returned SakrelBahr. "If it should come to grips between usas well

it may if what I suspect be truethere is no doubt as to the side upon which the corsairs would range

"Is there not?" quoth Vigitello, a smile upon his swarthy face. "Be not so sure. These men have most of them

followed thee into a score of fights. To them thou art the Basha, their natural leader."

"Maybe. But their allegiance belongs to AsadedDin, the exalted of Allah. Did it come to a choice between

us, their faith would urge them to stand beside him in spite of any past bonds that may have existed between

"Yet there were some who murmured when thou wert superseded in the command of this expedition,"

Vigitello informed him. "I doubt not that many would be influenced by their faith, but many would stand by

thee against the Grand Sultan himself. And do not forget," he added, instinctively lowering his voice, "that

many of us are renegadoes like myself and thee, who would never know a moment's doubt if it came to a

choice of sides. But I hope," he ended in another tone, "there is no such danger here."

"And so do I, in all faith," replied SakrelBahr, with fervour. "Yet I am uneasy, and I must know where I

stand if the worst takes place. Go thou amongst the men, Vigitello, and probe their real feelings, gauge their

humour and endeavour to ascertain upon what numbers I may count if I have to declare war upon Asad or if

Vigitello closed one of his black eyes portentously. "Depend upon it," he said, "I'll bring you word anon.

On that they parted, Vigitello to make his way to the prow and there engage in his investigations,

SakrelBahr slowly to retrace his steps to the poop. But at the first bench abaft the gangway he paused, and

looked down at the dejected, whitefleshed slave who sat shackled there. He smiled cruelly, his own

"So you have tasted the whip already," he said in English. "But that is nothing to what is yet to come. You are

in luck that there is a wind today. It will not always be so. Soon shall you learn what it was that I endured by

Lionel looked up at him with haggard, bloodinjected eyes. He wanted to curse his brother, yet was he too

"But you will, sweet brother," was the answer. "You will care for yourself most damnably and pity yourself

most poignantly. I speak from experience. 'Tis odds you will not live, and that is my chief regret. I would you

"I tell you I care nothing for myself," Lionel insisted. "What have you done with Rosamund?"

"Will it surprise you to learn that I have played the gentleman and married her?" Oliver mocked him.

"Why abuse me? Could I have done more?" And with a laugh he sauntered on, leaving Lionel to writhe there

An hour later, when the cloudy outline of the Balearic Isles had acquired density and colour, SakrelBahr

and Vigitello met again on the waistdeck, and they exchanged some few words in passing.

"It is difficult to say exactly," the boatswain murmured, "but from what I gather I think the odds would be

"I am not like to do so," replied SakrelBahr. "I should not be like to do so in any case. I but desired to

Yet his uneasiness was no whit allayed; his difficulties were very far from solved. He had undertaken to carry

Rosamund to France or Italy; he had pledged her his word to land her upon one or the other shore, and should

he fail, she might even come to conclude that such had never been his real intention. Yet how was he to

succeed, now, since Asad was aboard the galeasse? Must he be constrained to carry her back to Algiers as

secretly as he had brought her thence, and to keep her there until another opportunity of setting her ashore

upon a Christian country should present itself? That was clearly impracticable and fraught with too much risk

of detection. Indeed, the risk of detection was very imminent now. At any moment her presence in that

pannier might be betrayed. He could think of no way in which to redeem his pledged word. He could but wait

and hope, trusting to his luck and to some opportunity which it was impossible to foresee.

And so for a long hour and more he paced there moodily to and fro, his hands clasped behind him, his

turbaned head bowed in thought, his heart very heavy within him. He was taken in the toils of the evil web

which he had spun; and it seemed very clear to him now that nothing short of his life itself would be

demanded as the price of it. That, however, was the least part of his concern. All things had miscarried with

him and his life was wrecked. If at the price of it he could ensure safety to Rosamund, that price he would

gladly pay. But his dismay and uneasiness all sprang from his inability to discover a way of achieving that

most desired of objects even at such a sacrifice. And so he paced on alone and very lonely, waiting and

He was still pacing there when an hour or so before sunsetsome fifteen hours after setting outthey stood

before the entrance of a long bottlenecked cove under the shadow of the cliffs of Aquila Point on the

southern coast of the Island of Formentera. He was rendered aware of this and roused from his abstraction by

the voice of Asad calling to him from the poop and commanding him to make the cove.

Already the wind was failing them, and it became necessary to take to the oars, as must in any case have

happened once they were through the coves narrow neck in the becalmed lagoon beyond. So SakrelBahr,

in his turn, lifted up his voice, and in answer to his shout came Vigitello and Larocque.

A blast of Vigitello's whistle brought his own men to heel, and they passed rapidly along the benches

ordering the rowers to make ready, whilst Jasper and a halfdozen Muslim sailors set about furling the sails

that already were beginning to flap in the shifting and intermittent gusts of the expiring wind. SakrelBahr

gave the word to row, and Vigitello blew a second and longer blast. The oars dipped, the slaves strained and

the galeasse ploughed forward, time being kept by a boatswain's mate who squatted on the waistdeck and

beat a tomtom rhythmically. SakrelBahr, standing on the poopdeck, shouted his orders to the steersmen

in their niches on either side of the stern, and skilfully the vessel was manoeuvred through the narrow passage

into the calm lagoon whose depths were crystal clear. Here before coming to rest, SakrelBahr followed the

invariable corsair practice of going about, so as to be ready to leave his moorings and make for the open

She came at last alongside the rocky buttresses of a gentle slope that was utterly deserted by all save a few

wild goats browsing near the summit. There were clumps of broom, thick with golden flower, about the base

of the hill. Higher, a few gnarled and aged olive trees reared their grey heads from which the rays of the

Larocque and a couple of sailors went over the bulwarks on the larboard quarter, dropped lightly to the

horizontal shafts of the oars, which were rigidly poised, and walking out upon them gained the rocks and

SakrelBahr's next task was to set a watch, and he appointed Larocque, sending him to take his station on

Pacing the poop with Marzak the Basha grew reminiscent of former days when roving the seas as a simple

corsair he had used this cove both for purposes of ambush and concealment. There were, he said, few

harbours in all the Mediterranean so admirably suited to the corsairs' purpose as this; it was a haven of refuge

in case of peril, and an unrivalled lurkingplace in which to lie in wait for the prey. He remembered once

having lain there with the formidable DragutReis, a fleet of six galleys, their presence entirely unsuspected

by the Genoese admiral, Doria, who had passed majestically along with three caravels and seven galleys.

Marzak, pacing beside his father, listened but halfheartedly to these reminiscences. His mind was all upon

SakrelBahr, and his suspicions of that palmetto bale were quickened by the manner in which for the last

He broke in suddenly upon his father's memories with an expression of what was in his mind.

"The thanks to Allah," he said, "that it is thou who command this expedition, else might this coves

"Not so," said Asad. "SakrelBahr knows them as well as I do. He has used this vantage point aforetime. It

was himself who suggested that this would be the very place in which to await this Spanish craft."

"Yet had he sailed alone I doubt if the Spanish argosy had concerned him greatly. There are other matters on

his mind, 0 my father. Observe him yonder, all lost in thought. How many hours of this voyage has he spent

thus. He is as a man trapped and desperate. There is some fear rankling in him. Observe him, I say."

"Allah pardon thee," said his father, shaking his old head and sighing over so much impetuosity of judgment.

"Must thy imagination be for ever feeding on thy malice? Yet I blame not thee, but thy Sicilian mother, who

has fostered this hostility in thee. Did she not hoodwink me into making this unnecessary voyage?"

"Nay, then thou seest wrong. I have not forgot it. But neither have I forgot that since Allah hath exalted me to

be Basha of Algiers, He looks to me to deal in justice. Come, Marzak, set an end to all this. Perhaps

tomorrow thou shalt see him in battle, and after such a sight as that never again wilt thou dare say evil of

him. Come, make thy peace with him, and let me see better relations betwixt you hereafter."

And raising his voice he called SakrelBahr, who immediately turned and came up the gangway. Marzak

stood by in a sulky mood, with no notion of doing his father's will by holding out an olive branch to the man

who was like to cheat him of his birthright ere all was done. Yet was it he who greeted SakrelBahr when

SakrelBahr laughed. "Thou'lt tell me next that I am afraid. Yet I should counsel thee to wait until thou hast

The slight altercation drew the attention of Asad's officers who were idling there. Biskaine and some three

others lounged forward to stand behind the Basha, looking, on in some amusement, which was shared by

"Indeed, indeed," said Asad, laying a hand upon Marzak's shoulder, "his counsel is sound enough. Wait, boy,

until thou hast gone beside him aboard the infidel, ere thou judge him easily perturbed."

Petulantly Marzak shook off that gnarled old hand. "Dost thou, 0 my father, join with him in taunting me

upon my lack of knowledge. My youth is a sufficient answer. But at least," he added, prompted by a wicked

notion suddenly conceived, "at least you cannot taunt me with lack of address with weapons."

"Give him room," said SakrelBahr, with ironical goodhumour, "and he will show us prodigies."

Marzak looked at him with narrowing, gleaming eyes. "Give me a crossbow," he retorted, "and I'll show

"Thou'lt show him?" roared Asad. "Thou'lt show him!" And his laugh rang loud and hearty. "Go smear the

"Boy, thou'rt mad! Why, SakrelBahr's quarrel will check a swallow in its flight."

"And what may thine be?" quoth SakrelBahr. "To hit the Island of Formentera at this distance?"

"And thou shalt have it," was the answer viciously delivered. Marzak strode to the rail. "Ho there! Vigitello!

"An it were not against the Prophet's law to make a wager...." he was beginning, when Marzak interrupted

"So that," said SakrelBahr, "thy purse would come to match thine head for emptiness."

Marzak looked at him and sneered. Then he snatched from Vigitello's hands one of the crossbows that he

bore and set a shaft to it. And then at last SakrelBahr was to learn the malice that was at the root of all this

"Look now," said the youth, "there is on that palmetto bale a speck of pitch scarce larger than the pupil of my

eye. Thou'lt need to strain thy sight to see it. Observe how my shaft will find it. Canst thou better such a

His eyes, upon SakrelBahr's face, watching it closely, observed the pallor by which it was suddenly

overspread. But the corsair's recovery was almost as swift. He laughed, seeming so entirely careless that

Marzak began to doubt whether he had paled indeed or whether his own imagination had led him to suppose

"Ay, thou'lt choose invisible marks, and wherever the arrow enters thou'lt say 'twas there! An old trick, 0

"Then," said Marzak, "we will take instead the slender cord that binds the bale." And he levelled his bow. But

"Wait," he said. "Thou'lt choose another mark for several reasons. For one, I'll not have thy shaft blundering

through my oarsmen and haply killing one of them. Most of them are slaves specially chosen for their brawn,

and I cannot spare any. Another reason is that the mark is a foolish one. The distance is not more than ten

Marzak lowered his bow and SakrelBahr released his arm. They looked at each other, the corsair

supremely master of himself and smiling easily, no faintest trace of the terror that was in his soul showing

He pointed up the hillside to the nearest olive tree, a hundred paces distant. "Yonder," he said, "is a man's

But Marzak shrugged his shoulders with makebelieve contempt. "I knew he would refuse the mark I set,"

said he. "As for the olivebranch, it is so large a butt that a child could not miss it at this distance."

"If a child could not, then thou shouldst not," said SakrelBahr, who had so placed himself that his body

was now between Marzak and the palmetto bale. "Let us see thee hit it, 0 Marzak." And as he spoke he raised

his crossbow, and scarcely seeming to take aim, he loosed his shaft. It flashed away to be checked,

A chorus of applause and admiration greeted the shot, and drew the attention of all the crew to what was

Marzak tightened his lips, realizing how completely he had been outwitted. Willynilly he must now shoot at

that mark. The choice had been taken out of his hands by SakrelBahr. He never doubted that he must cover

himself with ridicule in the performance, and that there he would be constrained to abandon this pretended

"By the Koran," said Biskaine, "thou'lt need all thy skill to equal such a shot, Marzak."

"Thou wert the challenger, 0 Marzak," his father reminded him. Therefore the choice of mark was his. He

Marzak would have flung the bow from him in that moment, abandoning the method he had chosen to

investigate the contents of that suspicious palmetto bale; but he realized that such a course must now cover

"Have a care of the sentinel on the hilltop," SakrelBahr admonished him, provoking a titter.

Angrily the youth drew the bow. The cord hummed, and the shaft sped to bury itself in the hill's flank a dozen

Since he was the son of the Basha none dared to laugh outright save his father and SakrelBahr. But there

was no suppressing a titter to express the mockery to which the proven braggart must ever be exposed.

Asad looked at him, smiling almost sadly. "See now," he said, "what comes of boasting thyself against

"My will was crossed in the matter of a mark," was the bitter answer. "You angered me and made my aim

SakrelBahr strode away to the starboard bulwarks, deeming the matter at an end. Marzak observed him.

"Yet at that small mark," he said, "I challenge him again." As he spoke he fitted a second shaft to his bow.

But swift as thought, SakrelBahrheedless now of all consequences levelled at Marzak the bow which

"Hold!" he roared. "Loose thy shaft at that bale, and I loose this at thy throat. I never miss!" he added grimly.

There was a startled movement in the ranks of those who stood behind Marzak. In speechless amazement

they stared at SakrelBahr, as he stood there, whitefaced, his eyes aflash, his bow drawn taut and ready to

Slowly then, smiling with unutterable malice, Marzak lowered his bow. He was satisfied. His true aim was

"Ay, mad indeed," said Marzak; "mad with fear." And he stepped quickly aside so that the body of Biskaine

should shield him from any sudden consequences of his next words. "Ask him what he keeps in that pannier,

SakrelBahr lowered his bow, master of himself again. His composure was beyond all belief.

"I carry in it goods of price, which I'll not see riddled to please a pert boy," he said.

"Goods of price?" echoed Asad, with a snort. "They'll need to be of price indeed that are valued above the life

of my son. Let us see these goods of price." And to the men upon the waistdeck he shouted, "Open me that

"Stay, my lord!" he entreated almost fiercely. "Consider that this pannier is my own. That its contents are my

"Wouldst babble of rights to me, who am thy lord?" blazed the Basha, now in a towering passion. "Open me

They were quick to his bidding. The ropes were slashed away, and the front of the pannier fell open on its

palmetto hinges. There was a halfrepressed chorus of amazement from the men. SakrelBahr stood frozen

In silence the men swung the bale about, and disclosed to the eyes of those upon the poopdeck the face and

form of Rosamund Godolphin. Then SakrelBahr, rousing himself from his trance of horror, reckless of all

but her, flung down the gangway to assist her from the pannier, and thrusting aside those who stood about

For a little while Asad stood at gaze, speechless in his incredulity. Then to revive the anger that for a moment

had been whelmed in astonishment came the reflection that he had been duped by SakrelBahr, duped by

the man he trusted most. He had snarled at Fenzileh and scorned Marzak when they had jointly warned him

against his lieutenant; if at times he had been in danger of heeding them, yet sooner or later he had concluded

that they but spoke to vent their malice. And yet it was proven now that they had been right in their estimate

of this traitor, whilst he himself had been a poor, blind dupe, needing Marzak's wit to tear the bandage from

Slowly he went down the gangway, followed by Marzak, Biskaine, and the others. At the point where it

joined the waistdeck he paused, and his dark old eyes smouldered under his beetling brows.

"So," he snarled. "These are thy goods of price. Thou lying dog, what was thine aim in this?"

Defiantly SakrelBahr answered him: "She is my wife. It is my right to take her with me where I go." He

turned to her, and bade her veil her face, and she immediately obeyed him with fingers that shook a little in

"None questions thy right to that," said Asad. But being resolved to take her with thee, why not take her

openly? Why was she not housed in the poophouse, as becomes the wife of SakrelBahr? Why smuggle

"And why," added Marzak, "didst thou lie to me when I questioned thee upon her whereabouts?telling me

"All this I did," replied SakrelBahr, with a loftyalmost a disdainfuldignity, "because I feared lest I

should be prevented from bearing her away with me," and his bold glance, beating full upon Asad, drew a

"What could have caused that fear?" he asked. "Shall I tell thee? Because no man sailing upon such a voyage

as this would have desired the company of his newwedded wife. Because no man would take a wife with

"Allah has watched over me his servant in the past," said SakrelBahr, "and I put my trust in Him."

It was a specious answer. Such wordslaying stress upon the victories Allah sent himhad aforetime

served to disarm his enemies. But they served not now. Instead, they did but fan the flames of Asad's wrath.

"Blaspheme not," he croaked, and his tall form quivered with rage, his sallow old face grew vulturine. "She

was brought thus aboard in secret out of fear that were her presence known thy true purpose too must stand

"And whatever that true purpose may have been," put in Marzak, "it was not the task entrusted thee of raiding

"'Tis what I mean, my son," Asad agreed. Then with a commanding gesture: "Wilt thou tell me without

"How?" said SakrelBahr, and he smiled never so faintly. "Hast thou not said that this purpose was revealed

by what I did? Rather, then, I think is it for me to ask thee for some such information. I do assure thee, my

lord, that it was no part of my intention to neglect the task entrusted me. But just because I feared lest

knowledge of her presence might lead my enemies to suppose what thou art now supposing, and perhaps

persuade thee to forget all that I have done for the glory of Islam, I determined to bring her secretly aboard.

"My real aim, since you must know it, was to land her somewhere on the coast of France, whence she might

return to her own land, and her own people. That done, I should have set about intercepting the Spanish

"By the horns of Shaitan," swore Marzak, thrusting himself forward, "he is the very father and mother of lies.

Wilt thou explain this desire to be rid of a wife thou hadst but wed?" he demanded.

"But I warn you," the corsair continued, "that to you it will seem less easy to believe by much than any

falsehood I could invent. Years ago in England where I was born I loved this woman and should have taken

her to wife. But there were men and circumstances that defamed me to her so that she would not wed me, and

I went forth with hatred of her in my heart. Last night the love of her which I believed to be dead and turned

to loathing, proved to be still a living force. Loving her, I came to see that I had used her unworthily, and I

On that he paused, and after an instant's silence Asad laughed angrily and contemptuously. "Since when has

man expressed his love for a woman by putting her from him?" he asked in a voice of scorn that showed the

"Is it not plain, 0 my father, that this marriage of his was no more than a pretence?" cried Marzak.

"As plain as the light of day," replied Asad. "Thy marriage with that woman made an impious mock of the

True Faith. It was no marriage. It was a blasphemous pretence, thine only aim to thwart me, abusing my

regard for the Prophet's Holy Law, and to set her beyond my reach." He turned to Vigitello, who stood a little

"Heaven hath guided thee to a wise decision, 0 my father!" cried Marzak, his voice jubilant. But his was the

"The decision is more like to guide you both to Heaven," replied SakrelBahr, undaunted. On the instant he

had resolved upon his course. "Stay!" he said, raising his hand to Vigitello, who, indeed had shown no sign of

stirring. He stepped close up to Asad, and what he said did not go beyond those who stood immediately about

the Basha and Rosamund, who strained her ears that she might lose no word of it.

"Do not think, Asad," he said, "that I will submit me like a camel to its burden. Consider thy position well. If

I but raise my voice to call my seahawks to me, only Allah can tell how many will be left to obey thee.

Darest thou put this matter to the test?" he asked, his countenance grave and solemn, but entirely fearless, as

Asad's eyes glittered dully, his colour faded to a deathly ashen hue. "Thou infamous traitor...." he began in a

"Ah no," SakrelBahr interrupted him. "Were I a traitor it is what I should have done already, knowing as I

do that in any division of our forces, numbers will be heavily on my side. Let then my silence prove my

unswerving loyalty, Asad. Let it weigh with thee in considering my conduct, nor permit thyself to be swayed

And there was peace whilst the Basha stood moodily combing his white beard, his glittering eyes sweeping

from Oliver to Rosamund and back again. He was weighing what SakrelBahr had said. He more than

feared that it might be no more than true, and he realized that if he were to provoke a mutiny here he would

be putting all to the test, setting all upon a throw in which the dice might well be cogged against him.

If SakrelBahr prevailed, he would prevail not merely aboard this galley, but throughout Algiers, and Asad

would be cast down never to rise again. On the other hand, if he bared his scimitar and called upon the

faithful to support him, it might chance that recognizing in him the exalted of Allah to whom their loyalty

was due, they would rally to him. He even thought it might be probable. Yet the stake he put upon the board

was too vast. The game appalled him, whom nothing yet had appalled, and it scarce needed a muttered

He looked at SakrelBahr again, his glance now sullen. "I will consider thy words," he announced in a voice

that was unsteady. "I would not be unjust, nor steer my course by appearances alone. Allah forbid!"

Under the inquisitive gaping stare of all about them stood Rosamund and SakrelBahr regarding each other

in silence for a little spell after the Basha's departure. The very galleyslaves, stirred from their habitual

lethargy by happenings so curious and unusual, craned their sinewy necks to peer at them with a flicker of

SakrelBahr's feelings as he considered Rosamunds's white face in the fading light were most oddly

conflicting. Dismay at what had befallen and some anxious dread of what must follow were leavened by a

He realized that in no case could her concealment have continued long. Eleven mortal hours had she spent in

the cramped and almost suffocating space of that pannier, in which he had intended to do no more than carry

her aboard. The uneasiness which had been occasioned him by the impossibility to deliver her from that close

confinement when Asad had announced his resolve to accompany them upon that voyage, had steadily been

increasing as hour succeeded hour, and still he found no way to release her from a situation in which sooner

or later, when the limits of her endurance were reached, her presence must be betrayed. This release which he

could not have contrived had been contrived for him by the suspicions and malice of Marzak. That was the

one grain of consolation in the present perilto himself who mattered nothing and to her, who mattered all.

Adversity had taught him to prize benefits however slight and to confront perils however overwhelming. So

he hugged the present slender benefit, and resolutely braced himself to deal with the situation as he found it,

taking the fullest advantage of the hesitancy which his words had sown in the heart of the Basha. He hugged,

too, the thought that as things had fallen out, from being oppressor and oppressed, Rosamund and he were

become fellows in misfortune, sharing now a common peril. He found it a sweet thought to dwell on.

Therefore was it that he faintly smiled as he looked into Rosamund's white, strained face.

"Now," said he coolly, "let us be thankful that you are delivered from quarters destructive both to comfort

and to dignity. Let me lead you to those I had prepared for you, which you would have occupied long since

but for the illtimed coming of Asad. Come." And he waved an inviting hand towards the gangway leading

She shrank back at that, for there on the poop sat Asad under his awning with Marzak, Biskaine, and his other

"Come," he repeated, "there is naught to fear so that you keep a bold countenance. For the moment it is Sheik

"For the moment, naught," he answered firmly. "Against what the future may hold, we must determine. Be

"I do not fear," she assured him, and if her face continued white, her eyes grew steady, her voice was

"Then come," he repeated, and she obeyed him instantly now as if to prove the absence of all fear.

Side by side they passed up the gangway and mounted the steps of the companion to the poop, their approach

watched by the group that was in possession of it with glances at once of astonishment and resentment.

Asad's dark, smouldering eyes were all for the girl. They followed her every movement as she approached

Outwardly she bore herself with a proud dignity and an unfaltering composure under that greedy scrutiny; but

inwardly she shrank and writhed in a shame and humiliation that she could hardly define. In some measure

Oliver shared her feelings, but blent with anger; and urged by them he so placed himself at last that he stood

between her and the Basha's regard to screen her from it as he would have screened her from a lethal weapon.

"Permit, exalted lord," said he, "that my wife may occupy the quarters I had prepared for her before I knew

Curtly, contemptuously, Asad waved a consenting hand without vouchsafing to reply in words. SakrelBahr

bowed again, stepped forward, and put aside the heavy red curtain upon which the crescent was wrought in

green. From within the cabin the golden light of a lamp came out to merge into the bluegray twilight, and to

Thus for a moment Asad's fierce, devouring eyes observed her, then she passed within. SakrelBahr

The small interior was furnished by a divan spread with silken carpets, a low Moorish table in coloured wood

mosaics bearing the newly lighted lamp, and a tiny brazier in which aromatic gums were burning and

Out of the shadows in the farther corners rose silently SakrelBahr's two Nubian slaves, Abiad and ZalZer,

to salaam low before him. But for their turbans and loincloths in spotless white their dusky bodies must have

The captain issued an order briefly, and from a hanging cupboard the slaves took meat and drink and set it

upon the low tablea bowl of chicken cooked in rice and olives and prunes, a dish of bread, a melon, and a

clay amphora of water. Then at another word from him, each took a naked scimitar and they passed out to

place themselves on guard beyond the curtain. This was not an act in which there was menace or defiance,

nor could Asad so interpret it. The acknowledged presence of SakrelBalir's wife in that poophouse,

rendered the place the equivalent of his hareem, and a man defends his hareem as he defends his honour; it is

a spot sacred to himself which none may violate, and it is fitting that he take proper precaution against any

Rosamund sank down upon the divan, and sat there with bowed head, her hands folded in her lap.

"Eat," he bade her at last. "You will need strength and courage, and neither is possible to a fasting body."

She shook her head. Despite her long fast, food was repellent. Anxiety was thrusting her heart up into her

"I cannot eat," she answered him. "To what end? Strength and courage cannot avail me now."

"Never believe that," he said. "I have undertaken to deliver you alive from the perils into which I have

So resolute was his tone that she looked up at him, and found his bearing equally resolute and confident.

"Never count it lost whilst I am living," he replied. She considered him a moment, and there was the faintest

"Just as long as God pleases," he replied quite coolly. "What is written is written. So that I live long enough

Her head sank. She clasped and unclasped the hands in her lap. She shivered slightly.

"I think we are both doomed," she said in a dull voice. "For if you die, I have your dagger still, remember. I

He took a sudden step forward, his eyes gleaming, a faint flush glowing through the tan of his cheeks. Then

he checked. Fool! How could he so have misread her meaning even for a moment? Were not its exact limits

"God will forgive me if I am driven to itif I choose the easier way of honour; for honour, sir," she added,

He paused there, as if hoping that his expression of penitence might evoke some answer from her, might spur

her to vouchsafe him some word of forgiveness. Seeing that she continued, mute and absorbed, he sighed

"Here you will find all that you can require," he said. "Should you lack aught you have but to beat your hands

together, one or the other of my slaves will come to you. If you address them in French they will understand

you. I would I could have brought a woman to minister to you, but that was impossible, as you'll perceive."

"Naturally. But be sure that I shall be very near at hand. And meanwhile be no less sure that you have no

cause for immediate fear. At least, matters are no worse than when you were in the pannier. Indeed, much

better, for some measure of ease and comfort is now possible to you. So be of good heart; eat and rest. God

Outside on the poopdeck he found Asad alone now with Marzak under the awning. Night had fallen, the

great crescent lanterns on the stern rail were alight and cast a lurid glow along the vessel's length, picking out

the shadowy forms and gleaming faintly on the naked backs of the slaves in their serried ranks along the

benches, many of them bowed already in attitudes of uneasy slumber. Another lantern swung from the

mainmast, and yet another from the pooprail for the Basha's convenience. Overhead the clustering stars

glittered in a cloudless sky of deepest purple. The wind had fallen entirely, and the world was wrapped in

stillness broken only by the faint rustling break of waves upon the beach at the cove's end.

Marzak showed his teeth and growled inarticulately, whilst the Basha, taken aback by the ease reflected in the

captain's careless, mocking words, could but quote a line of the Koran with which Fenzileh of late had often

"A man's son is the partner of his soul. I have no secrets from Marzak. Speak, then, before him, or else be

"He may be the partner of thy soul, Asad," replied the corsair with his bold mockery, "but I give thanks to

Allah he is not the partner of mine. And what I have to say in some sense concerns my soul."

"I thank thee," cut in Marzak, "for the justice of thy words. To be the partner of thy soul were to be an infidel

"Nay in that it aims at what it cannot hit. Now, Allah, pardon me! Shall I grow angry at such words as

thine? Hath not the One proven full oft that he who calls me infidel dog is a liar predestined to the Pit? Are

such victories as mine over the fleets of the unbelievers vouchsafed by Allah to an infidel? Foolish

"Haply so," said SakrelBahr, with a laugh. "And my good sense, too, it seems. Since thou wilt retain

beside thee this partner of thy soul, I must speak before him. Have I thy leave to sit?"

Lest such leave should be denied him he dropped forthwith to the vacant place beside Asad and tucked his

"Lord," he said, "there is a rift dividing us who should be united for the glory of Islam."

"It is of thy making, SakrelBahr," was the sullen answer, "and it is for thee to mend it."

"To that end do I desire thine ear. The cause of this rift is yonder." And he jerked his thumb backward over

his shoulder towards the poophouse. "If we remove that cause, of a surety the rift itself will vanish, and all

He knew that never could all be well again between him and Asad. He knew that by virtue of his act of

defiance he was irrevocably doomed, that Asad having feared him once, having dreaded his power to stand

successfully against his face and overbear his will, would see to it that he never dreaded it again. He knew

that if he returned to Algiers there would be a speedy end to him. His only chance of safety lay, indeed, in

stirring up mutiny upon the spot and striking swiftly, venturing all upon that desperate throw. And he knew

that this was precisely what Asad had cause to fear. Out of this assurance had he conceived his present plan,

deeming that if he offered to heal the breach, Asad might pretend to consent so as to weather his present

danger, making doubly sure of his vengeance by waiting until they should be home again.

"How remove that cause?" he asked. "Wilt thou atone for the mockery of thy marriage, pronounce her

"That were not to remove her," replied SakrelBahr. "Consider well, Asad, what is thy duty to the Faith.

Consider that upon our unity depends the glory of Islam. Were it not sinful, then, to suffer the intrusion of

aught that may mar such unity? Nay, nay, what I propose is that I should be permittedassisted evento

bear out the project I had formed, as already I have frankly made confession. Let us put to sea again at

dawnor this very night if thou wiltmake for the coast of France, and there set her ashore that she may go

back to her own people and we be rid of her disturbing presence. Then we will return there is time and to

spareand here or elsewhere lurk in wait for this Spanish argosy, seize the booty and sail home in amity to

Algiers, this incident, this little cloud in the splendour of our comradeship, behind us and forgotten as though

The bait was cunningly presented, so cunningly that not for a moment did Asad or even the malicious Marzak

suspect it to be just a bait and no more. It was his own life, become a menace to Asad, that SakrelBahr was

offering him in exchange for the life and liberty of that Frankish slavegirl, but offering it as if unconscious

Asad considered, temptation gripping, him. Prudence urged him to accept, so that affecting to heal the

dangerous breach that now existed he might carry SakrelBahr back to Algiers, there, beyond the aid of any

friendly mutineers, to have him strangled. It was the course to adopt in such a situation, the wise and sober

course by which to ensure the overthrow of one who from an obedient and submissive lieutenant had

suddenly shown that it was possible for him to become a serious and dangerous rival.

SakrelBahr watched the Basha's averted, gleaming eyes under their furrowed, thoughtful brows, he saw

Marzak's face white, tense and eager in his anxiety that his father should consent. And since his father

"He is wise, 0 my father!" was his crafty appeal. "The glory of Islam above all else! Let him have his way in

this, and let the infidel woman go. Thus shall all be well between us and SakrelBahr!" He laid such a stress

upon these words that it was obvious he desired them to convey a second meaning.

Asad heard and understood that Marzak, too, perceived what was here to do; tighter upon him became

temptation's grip; but tighter, too, became the grip of a temptation of another sort. Before his fierce eyes there

arose a vision of a tall stately maiden with softly rounded bosom, a vision so white and lovely that it enslaved

him. And so he found himself torn two ways at once. On the one hand, if he relinquished the woman, he

could make sure of his vengeance upon SakrelBahr, could make sure of removing that rebel from his path.

On the other hand, if he determined to hold fast to his desires and to be ruled by them, he must be prepared to

risk a mutiny aboard the galeasse, prepared for battle and perhaps for defeat. It was a stake such as no sane

Basha would have consented to set upon the board. But since his eyes had again rested upon Rosamund, Asad

was no longer sane. His thwarted desires of yesterday were the despots of his wits.

"Since for thyself thou dost not want her, why dost thou thwart me?" he asked, and his voice trembled with

suppressed passion. "So long as I deemed thee honest in taking her to wife I respected that bond as became a

good Muslim; but since 'tis manifest that it was no more than a pretence, a mockery to serve some purpose

hostile to myself, a desecration of the Prophet's Holy Law, I, before whom this blasphemous marriage was

performed, do pronounce it to be no marriage. There is no need for thee to divorce her. She is no longer thine.

SakrelBahr laughed unpleasantly. "Such a Muslim," he announced, "will be nearer my sword than the

Paradise of Mahomet." And on the words he stood up, as if in token of his readiness.

Asad rose with him in a bound of a vigour such as might scarce have been looked for in a man of his years.

"Threaten?" sneered SakrelBahr. "I prophesy." And on that he turned, and stalked away down the gangway

to the vessel's waist. There was no purpose in his going other than his perceiving that here argument were

worse than useless, and that the wiser course were to withdraw at once, avoiding it and allowing his veiled

Quivering with rage Asad watched his departure. On the point of commanding him to return, he checked,

fearing lest in his present mood SakrelBahr should flout his authority and under the eyes of all refuse him

the obedience due. He knew that it is not good to command where we are not sure of being obeyed or of

being able to enforce obedience, that an authority once successfully flouted is in itself halfshattered.

Whilst still he hesitated, Marzak, who had also risen, caught him by the arm and poured into his ear hot,

"It is the sure way," he cried insistently. "Shall all be jeopardized for the sake of that wheyfaced daughter of

perdition? In the name of Shaitan, let us be rid of her; set her ashore as he demands, as the price of peace

between us and him, and in the security of that peace let him be strangled when we come again to our

Asad turned at last to look into that handsome eager face. For a moment he was at a loss; then he had

recourse to sophistry. "Am I a coward that I should refuse all ways but sure ones?" he demanded in a

"My anxiety is all for thee, 0 my father," Marzak defended himself indignantly. "I doubt if it be safe to sleep,

"Have no fear," replied Asad. "Myself I have set the watch, and the officers are all trustworthy. Biskaine is

even now in the forecastle taking the feeling of the men. Soon we shall know precisely where we stand."

"In thy place I would make sure. I would set a term to this danger of mutiny. I would accede to his demands

"Abandon that Frankish pearl?" quoth Asad. Slowly he shook his head. "Nay, nay! She is a garden that shall

yield me roses. Together we shall yet taste the sweet sherbet of Kansar, and she shall thank me for having led

her into Paradise. Abandon that rosylimbed loveliness!" He laughed softly on a note of exaltation, whilst in

"She is an infidel," his son sternly reminded him, "so forbidden thee by the Prophet. Wilt thou be as blind to

that as to thine own peril?" Then his voice gathering vehemence and scorn as he proceeded: "She has gone

naked of face through the streets of Algiers; she has been gaped at by the rabble in the s�k; this loveliness of

hers has been deflowered by the greedy gaze of Jew and Moor and Turk; galleyslaves and negroes have

feasted their eyes upon her unveiled beauty; one of thy captains hath owned her his wife." He laughed. "By

Allah, I do not know thee, 0 my father! Is this the woman thou wouldst take for thine own? This the woman

for whose possession thou wouldst jeopardize thy life and perhaps the very Bashalik itself!"

Asad clenched his hands until the nails bit into his flesh. Every word his son had uttered had been as a lash to

his soul. The truth of it was not to be contested. He was humiliated and shamed. Yet was he not conquered of

his madness, nor diverted from his course. Before he could make answer, the tall martial figure of Biskaine

"Well?" the Basha greeted him eagerly, thankful for this chance to turn the subject.

Biskaine was downcast. His news was to be read in his countenance. "The task appointed me was difficult,"

said he. "I have done my best. Yet I could scarce go about it in such a fashion as to draw definite conclusions.

But this I know, my lord, that he will be reckless indeed if he dares to take up arms against thee and challenge

"No more than that?" asked Asad. "And if I were to take up arms against him, and to seek to settle this matter

Biskaine paused a moment ere replying. "I cannot think but that Allah would vouchsafe thee victory," he

said. But his words did not delude the Basha. He recognized them to be no more than those which respect for

him dictated to his officer. "Yet," continued Biskaine, "I should judge thee reckless too, my lord, as reckless

"I see," said Asad. "The matter stands so balanced that neither of us dare put it to the test."

"Then is thy course plain to thee!" cried Marzak, eager to renew his arguments. "Accept his terms, and...."

But Asad broke in impatiently. "Every thing in its own hour and each hour is written. I will consider what to

Below on the waistdeck SakrelBahr was pacing with Vigitello, and Vigitello's words to him were of a

"I scarce can judge," said the Italian renegade. "But I do think that it were not wise for either thou or Asad to

"Numbers, I fear," replied Vigitello, "would be in favour of Asad. No truly devout Muslim will stand against

the Basha, the representative of the Sublime Portal, to whom loyalty is a question of religion. Yet they are

accustomed to obey thee, to leap at thy command, and so Asad himself were rash to put it to the test."

Upon that he quitted Vigitello, and slowly, thoughtfully, returned to the poopdeck. It was his hopehis

only hope nowthat Asad might accept the proposal he had made him. As the price of it he was fully

prepared for the sacrifice of his own life, which it must entail. But, it was not for him to approach Asad again;

to do so would be to argue doubt and anxiety and so to court refusal. He must possess his soul in what

patience he could. If Asad persisted in his refusal undeterred by any fear of mutiny, then SakrelBahr knew

not what course remained him to accomplish Rosamund's deliverance. Proceed to stir up mutiny he dared not.

It was too desperate a throw. In his own view it offered him no slightest chance of success, and did it fail,

then indeed all would be lost, himself destroyed, and Rosamund at the mercy of Asad. He was as one walking

along a swordedge. His only chance of present immunity for himself and Rosamund lay in the confidence

that Asad would dare no more than himself to take the initiative in aggression. But that was only for the

present, and at any moment Asad might give the word to put about and steer for Barbary again; in no case

could that be delayed beyond the plundering of the Spanish argosy. He nourished the faint hope that in that

coming fightif indeed the Spaniards did show fightsome chance might perhaps present itself, some

He spent the night under the stars, stretched across the threshold of the curtained entrance to the poophouse,

making thus a barrier of his body whilst he slept, and himself watched over in his turn by his faithful Nubians

who remained on guard. He awakened when the first violet tints of dawn were in the east, and quietly

dismissing the weary slaves to their rest, he kept watch alone thereafter. Under the awning on the starboard

Later that morning, some time after the galeasse had awakened to life and such languid movement as might

He found her brightened and refreshed by sleep, and he brought her reassuring messages that all was well,

encouraging her with hopes which himself he was very far from entertaining. If her reception of him was not

expressedly friendly, neither was it unfriendly. She listened to the hopes he expressed of yet effecting her safe

deliverance, and whilst she had no thanks to offer him for the efforts he was to exert on her

behalfaccepting them as her absolute due, as the inadequate liquidation of the debt that lay between

themyet there was now none of that aloofness amounting almost to scorn which hitherto had marked her

He came again some hours later, in the afternoon, by when his Nubians were once more at their post. He had

no news to bring her beyond the fact that their sentinel on the heights reported a sail to westward, beating up

towards the island before the very gentle breeze that was blowing. But the argosy they awaited was not yet in

sight, and he confessed that certain proposals which he had made to Asad for landing her in France had been

rejected. Still she need have no fear, he added promptly, seeing the sudden alarm that quickened in her eyes.

"Why then I will make one," he answered, lightly almost. "I have been making them all my life, and it would

be odd if I should have lost the trick of it on my life's most important occasion."

"How did you contrive the chance that has made you what you are? I mean," she added quickly, as if fearing

that the purport of that question might be misunderstood, "that has enabled you to become a corsair captain."

"No," she replied, and shook her head, her clear eyes solemnly meeting his clouded glance. "You would not

With bowed head he paced the length of the small chamber, and back again. His desire was to do her will in

this, which is natural enoughfor if it is true that who knows all must perforce forgive all, never could it

So he told his tale. Pacing there he related it at length, from the days when he had toiled at an oar on one of

the galleys of Spain down to that hour in which aboard the Spanish vessel taken under Cape Spartel he had

determined upon that voyage to England to present his reckoning to his brother. He told his story simply and

without too great a wealth of detail, yet he omitted nothing of all that had gone to place him where he stood.

And she, listening, was so profoundly moved that at one moment her eyes glistened with tears which she

sought vainly to repress. Yet he, pacing there, absorbed, with head bowed and eyes that never once strayed in

"And so," he said, when at last that odd narrative had reached its end, "you know what the forces were that

drove me. Another stronger than myself might have resisted and preferred to suffer death. But I was not

strong enough. Or perhaps it is that stronger than myself was my desire to punish, to vent the bitter hatred

"Not so," he corrected her. "I hated you for your unfaith, and most of all for your having burnt unread the

letter that I sent you by the hand of Pitt. In doing that you contributed to the wrongs I was enduring, you

destroyed my one chance of establishing my innocence and seeking rehabilitation, you doomed me for life to

the ways which I was treading. But I did not then know what ample cause you had to believe me what I

seemed. I did not know that it was believed I had fled. Therefore I forgive you freely a deed for which at one

time I confess that I hated you, and which spurred me to bear you off when I found you under my hand that

"To carry you off together with him?" he asked. "I swear to God I had not premeditated that. Indeed, it was

done because not premeditated, for had I considered it, I do think I should have been proof against any such

temptation. It assailed me suddenly when I beheld you there with Lionel, and I succumbed to it. Knowing

"I think I can understand," she murmured gently, as if to comfort him, for quick pain had trembled in his

He tossed back his turbaned head. "To understand is something," said he. "It is halfway at least to

forgiveness. But ere forgiveness can be accepted the evil done must be atoned for to the full."

"It must be made possible," he answered her with heat, and on that he checked abruptly, arrested by a sound

He recognized the voice of Larocque, who at dawn had returned to his sentinel's post on the summit of the

"My lord! My lord!" was the cry, in a voice shaken by excitement, and succeeded by a shouting chorus from

SakrelBahr turned swiftly to the entrance, whisked aside the curtain, and stepped out upon the poop.

Larocque was in the very act of clambering over the bulwarks amidships, towards the waistdeck where

Asad awaited him in company with Marzak and the trusty Biskaine. The prow, on which the corsairs had

lounged at ease since yesterday, was now a seething mob of inquisitive babbling men, crowding to the rail

and even down the gangway in their eagerness to learn what news it was that brought the sentinel aboard in

"No need for alarm in that," replied the Basha at once. "Since she has anchored there it is plain that she has

"Of England!" cried Asad in surprise. "She'll need be a stout vessel to hazard herself in Spanish waters."

Larocque turned at the question. "Ay," he answered, "a narrow blue pennant on her mizzen is charged with a

"A stork?" echoed SakrelBahr thoughtfully. He could call to mind no such English blazon, nor did it seem

to him that it could possibly be English. He caught the sound of a quickly indrawn breath behind him. He

turned to find Rosamund standing in the entrance, not more than half concealed by the curtain. Her face

"How? Not by much?" Intrigued by something in her tone and glance, he stepped quickly up to her, whilst

"That which he takes to be a stork is a herona white heron, and white is argent in heraldry, is't not?"

He looked at her. "'S life!" said he, "I reck little whether it be the silver heron or the golden grasshopper.

"It is Sir John's shipSir John Killigrew's," she explained. "She was all but ready to sail when...when you

came to Arwenack. He was for the Indies. Insteaddon't you see?out of love for me he will have come

"God's light!" said SakrelBahr, and fell to musing. Then he raised his head and laughed. "Faith, he's some

But the jest evoked no response from her. She continued to stare at him with those eager yet timid eyes.

"And yet," he continued, "he comes opportunely enough. If the breeze that has fetched him is faint, yet surely

Then, "Were it possible to communicate with him?" she asked, yet with hesitation.

"Possibleay," he answered. "Though we must needs devise the means, and that will prove none so easy."

"And you would do it?" she inquired, an undercurrent of wonder in her question, some recollection of it in

"Why, readily," he answered, "since no other way presents itself. No doubt 'twill cost some lives," he added,

"Ah, no, no! Not at that price!" she protested. And how was he to know that all the price she was thinking of

was his own life, which she conceived would be forfeited if the assistance of the Silver Heron were invoked?

Before he could return her any answer his attention was diverted. A sullen threatening note had crept into the

babble of the crew, and suddenly one or two voices were raised to demand insistently that Asad should put to

sea at once and remove his vessel from a neighbourhood become so dangerous. Now, the fault of this was

Marzak's. His was the voice that first had uttered that timid suggestion, and the infection of his panic had

Asad, drawn to the full of his gaunt height, turned upon them the eyes that had quelled greater clamours, and

raised the voice which in its day had hurled a hundred men straight into the jaws of death without a protest.

"Silence!" he commanded. "I am your lord and need no counsellors save Allah. When I consider the time

come, I will give the word to row, but not before. Back to your quarters, then, and peace!"

He disdained to argue with them, to show them what sound reasons there were for remaining in this secret

cove and against putting forth into the open. Enough for them that such should be his will. Not for them to

But AsadedDin had lain overlong in Algiers whilst his fleets under SakrelBahr and Biskaine had

scoured the inland sea. The men were no longer accustomed to the goad of his voice, their confidence in his

judgment was not built upon the sound basis of past experience. Never yet had he led into battle the men of

So now they set their own judgment against his. To them it seemed a recklessnessas, indeed, Marzak had

suggestedto linger here, and his mere announcement of his purpose was far from sufficient to dispel their

The murmurs swelled, not to be overborne by his fierce presence and scowling brow, and suddenly one of the

renegadessecretly prompted by the wily Vigitelloraised a shout for the captain whom they knew and

"SakrelBahr! SakrelBahr! Thou'lt not leave us penned in this cove to perish like rats!"

It was as a spark to a train of powder. A score of voices instantly took up the cry; hands were flung out

towards SakrelBahr, where he stood above them and in full view of all, leaning impassive and stern upon

the pooprail, whilst his agile mind weighed the opportunity thus thrust upon him, and considered what profit

Asad fell back a pace in his profound mortification. His face was livid, his eyes blared furiously, his hand

flew to the jewelled hilt of his scimitar, yet forbore from drawing the blade. Instead he let loose upon Marzak

the venom kindled in his soul by this evidence of how shrunken was his authority.

"Thou fool!" he snarled. "Look on thy craven's work. See what a devil thou hast raised with thy woman's

counsels. Thou to command a galley! Thou to become a fighter upon the seas! I would that Allah had stricken

Marzak recoiled before the fury of words that he feared might be followed by yet worse. He dared make no

Meanwhile Rosamund in her eagerness had advanced until she stood at SakrelBahr's elbow.

"God is helping us!" she said in a voice of fervent gratitude. "This is your opportunity. The men will obey

He looked at her, and smiled faintly upon her eagerness. "Ay, mistress, they will obey me," he said. But in

the few moments that were sped he had taken his resolve. Whilst undoubtedly Asad was right, and the wise

course was to lie close in this sheltering cove where the odds of their going unperceived were very heavily in

their favour, yet the men's judgment was not altogether at fault. If they were to put to sea, they might by

steering an easterly course pass similarly unperceived, and even should the splash of their oars reach the

galleon beyond the headland, yet by the time she had weighed anchor and started in pursuit they would be

well away straining every ounce of muscle at the oars, whilst the breezea heavy factor in his

considerationswas become so feeble that they could laugh at pursuit by a vessel that depended upon wind

alone. The only danger, then, was the danger of the galleon's cannon, and that danger was none so great as

Thus was he reluctantly forced to the conclusion that in the main the wiser policy was to support Asad, and

since he was full confident of the obedience of the men he consoled himself with the reflection that a moral

victory might be in store for him out of which some surer profit might presently be made.

In answer, then, to those who still called upon him, he leapt down the companion and strode along the

gangway to the waistdeck to take his stand at the Basha's side. Asad watched his approach with angry

misgivings; it was with him a foregone conclusion that things being as they were SakrelBahr would be

ranged against him to obtain complete control of these mutineers and to cull the fullest advantage from the

situation. Softly and slowly he unsheathed his scimitar, and SakrelBahr seeing this out of the corner of his

"How now?" he thundered wrathfully. "What shall this mean? Are ye all deaf that ye have not heard the

commands of your Basha, the exalted of Allah, that ye dare raise your mutinous voices and say what is your

Sudden and utter silence followed that exhortation. Asad listened in relieved amazement; Rosamund caught

What could he mean, then? Had he but fooled and duped her? Were his intentions towards her the very

opposite to his protestations? She leant upon the pooprail straining to catch every syllable of that speech of

his in the lingua franca, hoping almost that her indifferent knowledge of it had led her into error on the score

She saw him turn with a gesture of angry command upon Larocque, who stood there by the bulwarks,

"Back to thy post up yonder, and keep watch upon that vessel's movements, reporting them to us. We stir not

Larocque without a murmur threw a leg over the bulwarks and dropped to the oars, whence he clambered

SakrelBahr's dark glance swept the ranks of the corsairs crowding the forecastle.

"Because this pet of the hareem," he said, immensely daring, indicating Marzak by a contemptuous gesture,

"bleats of danger into the ears of men, are ye all to grow timid and foolish as a herd of sheep? By Allah!

What are ye? Are ye the fearless seahawks that have flown with me, and struck where the talons of my

"Thou liest," he answered. "Dragut was not trapped, for Dragut found a way out. And against Dragut there

was the whole navy of Genoa, whilst against us there is but one single galleon. By the Koran, if she shows

fight, have we no teeth? Will it be the first galleon whose decks we have overrun? But if ye prefer a coward's

counsel, ye sons of shame, consider that once we take the open sea our discovery will be assured, and

Larocque hath told you that she carries twenty guns. I tell you that if we are to be attacked by her, best be

attacked at close quarters, and I tell you that if we lie close and snug in here it is long odds that we shall never

be attacked at all. That she has no inkling of our presence is proven, since she has cast anchor round the

headland. And consider that if we fly from a danger that doth not exist, and in our flight are so fortunate as

not to render real that danger and to court it, we abandon a rich argosy that shall bring profit to us all."

"But I waste my breath in argument," he ended abruptly. "You have heard the commands of your lord,

Without so much as waiting to see them disperse from the rail and return to their lounging attitudes about the

"It might have been well to hang the dog who spoke of Dragut and Jerba," he said. "But it was never in my

Asad from amazement had passed quickly to admiration and a sort of contrition, into which presently there

crept a poisonous tinge of jealousy to see SakrelBahr prevail where he himself alone must utterly have

failed. This jealousy spread allpervadingly, like an oil stain. If he had come to bear illwill to SakrelBahr

before, that illwill was turned of a sudden into positive hatred for one in whom he now beheld a usurper of

the power and control that should reside in the Basha alone. Assuredly there was no room for both of them in

Therefore the words of commendation which had been rising to his lips froze there now that SakrelBahr

and he stood face to face. In silence he considered his lieutenant through narrowing evil eyes, whose message

SakrelBahr was not a fool, and he did not misunderstand it for a moment. He felt a tightening at the heart,

and illwill sprang to life within him responding to the call of that illwill. Almost he repented him that he

had not availed himself of that moment of weakness and mutiny on the part of the crew to attempt the entire

The conciliatory words he had in mind to speak he now suppressed. To that venomous glance he opposed his

"Withdraw," he curtly bade him, "and take that stout seawarrior with thee." And he indicated Marzak.

"My lord," said SakrelBahr, when they were alone, "yesterday I made thee a proposal for the healing of

this breach between us, and it was refused. But now had I been the traitor and mutineer thou hast dubbed me I

could have taken full advantage of the humour of my corsairs. Had I done that it need no longer have been

mine to propose or to sue. Instead it would have been mine to dictate. Since I have given thee such crowning

proof of my loyalty, it is my hope and trust that I may be restored to the place I had lost in thy confidence,

and that this being so thou wilt accede now to that proposal of mine concerning the Frankish woman yonder."

It was unfortunate perhaps that she should have been standing there unveiled upon the poop within the range

of Asad's glance; for the sight of her it may have been that overcame his momentary hesitation and stifled the

caution which prompted him to accede. He considered her a moment, and a faint colour kindled in his cheeks

"It is not for thee, SakrelBahr," he answered at length, "to make me proposals. To dare it, proves thee far

removed indeed from the loyalty thy lips profess. Thou knowest my will concerning her. Once hast thou

thwarted and defied me, misusing to that end the Prophet's Holy Law. Continue a barrier in my path and it

"Not so loud," said SakrelBahr, his eyes gleaming with a response of anger. "For should my men overhear

these threats of thine I will not answer for what may follow. I oppose thee at my peril sayest thou. Be it so,

then." He smiled grimly. "It is war between us, Asad, since thou hast chosen it. Remember hereafter when the

SakrelBahr turned on his heel. "Pursue the path of an old man's folly," he said over his shoulder, "and see

Upon that he strode away up the gangway to the poop, leaving the Basha alone with his anger and some slight

fear evoked by that last bold menace. But notwithstanding that he menaced boldly the heart of SakrelBahr

was surcharged with anxiety. He had conceived a plan; but between the conception and its execution he

"Mistress," he addressed Rosamund as he stepped upon the poop. "You are not wise to show yourself so

"Not wise?" said she, her countenance scornful. "You mean that I may see more than was intended for me.

What game do you play here, sir, that you tell me one thing and show me by your actions that you desire

He did not need to ask her what she meant. At once he perceived how she had misread the scene she had

"I'll but remind you," he said very gravely, "that once before you did me a wrong by overhasty judgment, as

"I do but ask you to save your judgment for the end. If I live I shall deliver you. Meanwhile I beg that you

She looked at him, a prayer for explanation trembling on her lips. But before the calm command of his tone

For the rest of the day she kept the cabin, chafing with anxiety to know what was toward and the more racked

by it because SakrelBahr refrained through all those hours from coming to her. At last towards evening,

unable longer to contain herself, she went forth again, and as it chanced she did so at an untimely moment.

The sun had set, and the evening prayer was being recited aboard the galeasse, her crew all prostrate.

Perceiving this, she drew back again instinctively, and remained screened by the curtain until the prayer was

ended. Then putting it aside, but without stepping past the Nubians who were on guard, she saw that on her

left AsadedDin, with Marzak, Biskaine, and one or two other officers, was again occupying the divan

under the awning. Her eyes sought SakrelBahr, and presently they beheld him coming up the gangway

with his long, swinging stride, in the wake of the boatswain's mates who were doling out the meagre

Suddenly he halted by Lionel, who occupied a seat at the head of his oar immediately next to the gangway.

He addressed him harshly in the lingua franca, which Lionel did not understand, and his words rang clearly

SakrelBahr bent over him, and his face as all could see was evil and mocking. No doubt he spoke to him in

English also, but no more than a murmur reached the straining ears of Rosamund, though from his

countenance she had no doubt of the purport of his words. And yet she was far indeed from a correct surmise.

"Take no heed of my looks," he was saying. "I desire them up yonder to think that I abuse you. Look as a

man would who were being abused. Cringe or snarl, but listen. Do you remember once when as lads we

"What do you mean?" quoth Lionel, and the natural sullenness of his mien was all that SakrelBahr could

"I am wondering whether you could still swim as far. If so you might find a more appetizing supper awaiting

you at the endaboard Sir John Killigrew's ship. You had not heard? The Silver Heron is at anchor in the

bay beyond that headland. If I afford you the means, could you swim to her do you think?"

Lionel stared at him in profoundest amazement. "Do you mock me?" he asked at length.

SakrelBahr laughed, and he mocked now in earnest. He set his left foot upon the rowers' stretcher, and

leaned forward and down his elbow upon his raised knee so that his face was close to Lionel's.

"For your deliverance?" said he. "God's life! Lionel, your mind was ever one that could take in naught but

your own self. 'Tis that has made a villain of you. Your deliverance! God's wounds! Is there none but yourself

whose deliverance I might desire? Look you, now I want you to swim to Sir John's ship and bear him word of

the presence here of this galeasse and that Rosamund is aboard it. 'Tis for her that I am concerned, and so

little for you that should you chance to be drowned in the attempt my only regret will be that the message was

not delivered. Will you undertake that swim? It is your one sole chance short of death itself of escaping from

"Very well." SakrelBahr leaned nearer still. "Naturally it will be supposed by all who are watching us that

I am goading you to desperation. Act, then, your part. Up, and attempt to strike me. Then when I return the

blowand I shall strike heavily that no makebelieve may be suspectedcollapse on your oar pretending to

swoon. Leave the rest to me. Now," he added sharply, and on the word rose with a final laugh of derision as if

But Lionel was quick to follow the instructions. He leapt up in his bonds, and reaching out as far as they

would permit him, he struck SakrelBahr heavily upon the face. On his side, too, there was to be no

makebelieve apparent. That done he sank down with a clank of shackles to the bench again, whilst every

SakrelBahr was seen to reel under the blow, and instantly there was a commotion on board. Biskaine leapt

to his feet with a halfcry of astonishment; even Asad's eyes kindled with interest at so unusual a sight as that

of a galleyslave attacking a corsair. Then with a snarl of anger, the snarl of an enraged beast almost,

SakrelBahr's great arm was swung aloft and his fist descended like a hammer upon Lionel's head.

Lionel sank forward under the blow, his senses swimming. SakrelBahr's arm swung up a second time.

"Thou dog!" he roared, and then checked, perceiving that Lionel appeared to have swooned.

He turned and bellowed for Vigitello and his mates in a voice that was hoarse with passion. Vigitello came at

"Unshackle me this carrion, and heave it overboard," was the harsh order. "Let that serve as an example to the

others. Let them learn thus the price of mutiny in their lousy ranks. To it, I say."

Away sped a man for hammer and chisel. He returned with them at once. Four sharp metallic blows rang out,

and Lionel was dragged forth from his place to the gangwaydeck. Here he revived, and screamed for mercy

Biskaine chuckled under the awning, Asad looked on approvingly, Rosamund drew back, shuddering,

She saw Lionel borne struggling in the arms of the boatswain's men to the starboard quarter, and flung over

the side with no more compunction or care than had he been so much rubbish. She heard the final scream of

terror with which he vanished, the splash of his fall, and then in the ensuing silence the laugh of

For a spell she stood there with horror and loathing of that renegade corsair in her soul. Her mind was

bewildered and confused. She sought to restore order in it, that she might consider this fresh deed of his, this

act of wanton brutality and fratricide. And all that she could gather was the firm conviction that hitherto he

had cheated her; he had lied when he swore that his aim was to effect her deliverance. It was not in such a

nature to know a gentle mood of penitence for a wrong done. What might be his purpose she could not yet

perceive, but that it was an evil one she never doubted, for no purpose of his could be aught but evil. So

overwrought was she now that she forgot all Lionel's sins, and found her heart filled with compassion for him

"Yonder!" A man was pointing. Others had joined him and were peering through the gathering gloom at the

moving object that was Lionel's head and the faintly visible swirl of water about it which indicated that he

"Out to sea!" cried SakrelBahr. "He'll not swim far in any case. But we will shorten his road for him." He

snatched a crossbow from the rack about the mainmast, fitted a shaft to it and took aim.

From the poopdeck whence with his father he too was watching the swimmer's head, which at every

moment became more faint in the failing light, Marzak looked with cold disdain upon his challenger, making

"If thou delay much longer," put in Asad, "he will be beyond thine aim. Already he is scarcely visible."

"The more difficult a butt, then," answered SakrelB ahr, who was but delaying to gain time. "The keener

test. A hundred philips, Marzak, that thou'lt not hit me that head in three shots, and that I'll sink him at the

"The unbeliever is for ever peeping forth from thee," was Marzak's dignified reply. "Games of chance are

"Make haste, man!" cried Asad. "Already I can scarce discern him. Loose thy quarrel."

"Pooh," was the disdainful answer. "A fair mark still for such an eye as mine. I never missnot even in the

"Am I so?" SakrelBahr loosed his shaft at last into the gloom, and peered after it following its flight, which

was wide of the direction of the swimmer's head. "A hit!" he cried brazenly. "He's gone!"

"Thine eyes deceive thee in this light. No man was ever known to swim with an arrow through his brain."

And then Asad turned from the vessel's side. "Well, wellshot or drowned, he's gone," he said, and there the

In the gloom he found himself confronted by Rosamund's white face between the two dusky countenances of

his Nubians. She drew back before him as he approached, and he, intent upon imparting his news to her,

When these had been kindled they faced each other, and he perceived her profound agitation and guessed the

"You beast! You devil!" she panted. "God will punish you! I shall spend my every breath in praying Him to

punish you as you deserve. You murderer! You hound! And I like a poor simpleton was heeding your false

words. I was believing you sincere in your repentance of the wrong you have done me. But now you have

"How have I hurt you in what I have done to Lionel?" he cut in, a little amazed by so much vehemence.

"Hurt me!" she cried, and on the words grew cold and calm again with very scorn. "I thank God it is beyond

your power to hurt me. And I thank you for correcting my foolish misconception of you, my belief in your

pitiful pretence that it was your aim to save me. I would not accept salvation at your murderer's hands.

Though, indeed, I shall not be put to it. Rather," she pursued, a little wildly now in her deep mortification,

"are you like to sacrifice me to your own vile ends, whatever they may be. But I shall thwart you, Heaven

helping me. Be sure I shall not want courage for that." And with a shuddering moan she covered her face, and

He looked on with a faint, bitter smile, �hderstanding her mood just as he understood her dark threat of

"I came," he said quietly, "to bring you the assurance that he has got safely away, and to tell you upon what

Something compelling in his voice, the easy assurance with which he spoke, drew her to stare at him again.

"I mean Lionel, of course," he said, in answer to her questioning glance. "That scene between usthe blow

and the swoon and the rest of itwas all makebelieve. So afterwards the shooting. My challenge to Marzak

was a ruse to gain timeto avoid shooting until Lionel's head should have become so dimly visible in the

dusk that none could say whether it was still there or not. My shaft went wide of him, as I intended. He is

swimming round the head with my message to Sir John Killigrew. He was a strong swimmer in the old days,

He shrugged. "You will have a difficulty in perceiving the object I might serve by falsehood."

She sat down suddenly upon the divan; it was almost as if she collapsed bereft of strength; and as suddenly

He departed from her presence with bitterness in his heart, leaving a profound contrition in her own. The

sense of this her last injustice to him so overwhelmed her that it became the gauge by which she measured

that other earlier wrong he had suffered at her hands. Perhaps her overwrought mind falsified the perspective,

exaggerating it until it seemed to her that all the suffering and evil with which this chronicle has been

Since all sincere contrition must of necessity bring forth an ardent desire to atone, so was it now with her.

Had he but refrained from departing so abruptly he might have had her on her knees to him suing for pardon

for all the wrongs which her thoughts had done him, proclaiming her own utter unworthiness and baseness.

But since his righteous resentment had driven him from her presence she could but sit and brood upon it all,

considering the words in which to frame her plea for forgiveness when next he should return.

But the hours sped, and there was no sign of him. And then, almost with a shock of dread came the thought

that ere long perhaps Sir John Killigrew's ship would be upon them. In her distraught state of mind she had

scarcely pondered that contingency. Now that it occurred to her all her concern was for the result of it to Sir

Oliver. Would there be fighting, and would he perhaps perish in that conflict at the hands either of the

English or of the corsairs whom for her sake he had betrayed, perhaps without ever hearing her confession of

penitence, without speaking those words of forgiveness of which her soul stood in such thirsty need?

It would be towards midnight when unable longer to bear the suspense of it, she rose and softly made her way

to the entrance. Very quietly she lifted the curtain, and in the act of stepping forth almost stumbled over a

body that lay across the threshold. She drew back with a startled gasp; then stooped to look, and by the faint

rays of the lanterns on mainmast and pooprail she recognized Sir Oliver, and saw that he slept. She never

heeded the two Nubians immovable as statues who kept guard. She continued to bend over him, and then

gradually and very softly sank down on her knees beside him. There were tears in her eyestears wrung

from her by a tender emotion of wonder and gratitude at so much fidelity. She did not know that he had slept

thus last night. But it was enough for her to find him here now. It moved her oddly, profoundly, that this man

whom she had ever mistrusted and misjudged should even when he slept make of his body a barrier for her

A sob escaped her, and at the sound, so lightly and vigilantly did he take his rest, he came instantly if silently

to a sitting attitude; and so they looked into each other's eyes, his swarthy, bearded hawk face on a level with

She drew back instantly, taken with sudden panic at that question. Then recovering, and seeking womanlike

to evade and dissemble the thing she was come to do, now that the chance of doing it was afforded her"Do

He flashed a glance in the direction of the divan under the awning where the Basha slept. There all was still.

Besides, the question had been asked in English. He rose and held out a hand to help her to her feet. Then he

"There is scarce the need," he assured her. "Sir John will not be like to stir until dead of night, that he may

make sure of taking us unawares. I have little doubt that Lionel would reach him. It is none so long a swim.

Indeed, once outside the cove he could take to the land until he was abreast of the ship. Never doubt he will

She sat down, her glance avoiding his; but the light falling on her face showed him the traces there of recent

"Like enough. But what can it avail? We shall be caughtas was said todayin just such a trap as that in

which Andrea Doria caught Dragut at Jerba, saving that whilst the wily Dragut found a way out for his

galleys, here none is possible. Courage, then, for the hour of your deliverance is surely at hand."

He paused, and then in a softer voice, humbly almost, "It is my prayer," he added, "that hereafter in a happy

future these last few weeks shall come to seem no more than an evil dream to you."

"I would it might be done without fighting," she said presently, and sighed wearily.

"You need have no fear," he assured her. "I shall take all precautions for you. You shall remain here until all

"You mistake me," she replied, and looked up at him suddenly. "Do you suppose my fears are for myself?"

"I thank you for the thought," he replied gravely. "No doubt I shall meet with my deserts. Let it but come

"What else remains?" he asked, and smiled. "What better fate could anyone desire me?"

"You shall live to return to England," she surprised him by exclaiming. "The truth must prevail, and justice

He looked at her with so fierce and searching a gaze that she averted her eyes. Then he laughed shortly.

"There's but one form of justice I can look for in England," said he. "It is a justice administered in hemp.

Believe me, mistress, I am grown too notorious for mercy. Best end it here tonight. Besides," he added, and

his mockery fell from him, his tone became gloomy, "bethink you of my present act of treachery to these men

of mine, who, whatever they may be, have followed me into a score of perils and but today have shown

their love and loyalty to me to be greater than their devotion to the Basha himself. I shall have delivered them

to the sword. Could I survive with honour? They may be but poor heathens to you and yours, but to me they

are my seahawks, my warriors, my faithful gallant followers, and I were a dog indeed did I survive the death

As she listened and gathered from his words the apprehension of a thing that had hitherto escaped her, her

"I trust not," he replied. "I have something in mind that will perhaps avoid it."

"Why waste a thought upon so poor a thing? My life was forfeit already. If I go back to Algiers they will

assuredly hang me. Asad will see to it, and not all my seahawks could save me from my fate."

She sank down again upon the divan, and sat there rocking her arms in a gesture of hopeless distress.

"I see," she said. "I see. I am bringing this fate upon you. When you sent Lionel upon that errand you

voluntarily offered up your life to restore me to my own people. You had no right to do this without first

consulting me. You had no right to suppose I would be a party to such a thing. I will not accept the sacrifice. I

"Indeed, you have no choice, thank God!" he answered her. "But you are astray in your conclusions. It is I

alone who have brought this fate upon myself. It is the very proper fruit of my insensate deed. It recoils upon

me as all evil must upon him that does it." He shrugged his shoulders as if to dismiss the matter. Then in a

changed voice, a voice singularly timid, soft, and gentle, "it were perhaps too much to ask," said he, "that you

"For my unfaith, which has been the source of all. For my readiness to believe evil of you five years ago, for

having burnt unread your letter and the proof of your innocence that accompanied it."

He smiled upon her very kindly. "I think you said your instinct guided you. Even though I had not done the

thing imputed to me, your instinct knew me for evil; and your instinct was right, for evil I amI must be.

These are your own words. But do not think that I mock you with them. I have come to recognize their truth."

She stretched out her hands to him. "If...if I were to say that I have come to realize the falsehood of all that?"

"I should understand it to be the charity which your pitiful heart extends to one in my extremity. Your instinct

But he was not to be driven out of his conviction. He shook his head, his countenance gloomy. "No man who

was not evil could have done by you what I have done, however deep the provocation. I perceive it clearly

"I am not," he answered with a swift resumption of his more habitual manner. "'Tis death that is so set on me.

But at least I meet it without fear or regret. I face it as we must all face the inevitable the gifts from the

She rose suddenly, and came to him. She caught his arm, and standing very close to him, looked up now into

"We have need to forgive each other, you and I, Oliver," she said. "And since forgiveness effaces all, let...let

"Is it impossible for us to go back five years? Is it impossible for us to go back to where we stood in those old

The light that had suddenly been kindled in his face faded slowly, leaving it grey and drawn. His eyes grew

"Who has erred must abide by his errorand so must the generations that come after him. There is no going

"Then let us leave them so. Let us turn our backs upon that past, you and I, and let us set out afresh together,

and so make amends to each other for what our folly has lost to us in those years."

He set his hands upon her shoulders, and held her so at arm's length from him considering her with very

"Sweet lady!" he murmured, and sighed heavily. "God! How happy might we not have been but for that evil

chance...." He checked abruptly. His hands fell from her shoulders to his sides, he halfturned away, brusque

now in tone and manner. "I grow maudlin. Your sweet pity has so softened me that I had almost spoke of

love; and what have I to do with that? Love belongs to life; love is life; whilst I... Moriturus te salutat!"

"It is too late," he answered her. "There is no bridge can span the pit I have dug myself. I must go down into

"Then," she cried in sudden exaltation, "I will go down with you. At the last, at least, we shall be together."

"Now here is midsummer frenzy!" he protested, yet there was a tenderness in the very impatience of his

accents. He stroked the golden head that lay against his shoulder. "How shall that help me?" he asked her.

"Would you embitter my last hourrob death of all its glory? Nay, Rosamund, you can serve me better far

by living. Return to England, and publish there the truth of what you have learnt. Be yours the task of

clearing my honour of this stain upon it, proclaiming the truth of what drove me to the infamy of becoming a

From without had come a sudden cry, "Afoot! To arms! To arms! Hol�! Bal�k! Bal�k!"

"It is the hour," he said, and turning from her suddenly sprang to the entrance and plucked aside the curtain.

Up the gangway between the lines of slumbering slaves came a quick patter of feet. Ali, who since sunset had

been replacing Larocque on the heights, sprang suddenly upon the poop still shouting.

Throughout the vessel's length came the rustle and stir of waking men. A voice clamoured somewhere on the

forecastle. Then the flap of the awning was suddenly whisked aside and Asad himself appeared with Marzak

From the starboard side as suddenly came Biskaine and Othmani, and from the waist Vigitello, Jasperthat

Ali delivered his message breathlessly. "The galleon has weighed anchor. She is moving out of the bay."

Asad clutched his beard, and scowled. "Now what may that portend? Can knowledge of our presence have

"Why else should she move from her anchorage thus in the dead of night?" said Biskaine.

"Why else, indeed?" returned Asad, and then he swung upon Oliver standing there in the entrance of the

SakrelBahr stepped forward, shrugging. "What is there to say? What is there to do?" he asked. "We can

but wait. If our presence is known to them we are finely trapped, and there's an end to all of us this night."

His voice was cool as ice, contemptuous almost, and whilst it struck anxiety into more than one it awoke

"May thy bones rot, thou illomened prophet!" he screamed, and would have added more but that

"Indeed, indeed," Asad agreed, grasping at the fatalist's consolation. "If we are ripe for the gardeners hand,

"It were well to act upon the assumption that we are indeed discovered, and make for the open sea while yet

"But that were to make certain what is still doubtful," broke in Marzak, fearful ever. "It were to run to meet

"Not so!" cried Asad in a loud, confident voice. "The praise to Allah who sent us this calm night. There is

"Let us but win safely from this cove and they will never overtake us," announced Biskaine.

"But their guns may," SakrelBahr quietly reminded them to damp their confidence. His own alert mind had

already foreseen this one chance of escaping from the trap, but he had hoped that it would not be quite so

"That risk we must take," replied Asad. "We must trust to the night. To linger here is to await certain

destruction." He swung briskly about to issue his orders. "Ali, summon the steersmen. Hasten! Vigitello, set

your whips about the slaves, and rouse them." Then as the shrill whistle of the boatswain rang out and the

whips of his mates went hissing and cracking about the shoulders of the already halfawakened slaves, to

mingle with all the rest of the stir and bustle aboard the galeasse, the Basha turned once more to Biskaine.

"Up thou to the prow," he commanded, "and marshal the men. Bid them stand to their arms lest it should

come to boarding. Go!" Biskaine salaamed and sprang down the companion. Above the rumbling din and

"Crossbowmen, aloft! Gunners to the carronades! Kindle your linstocks! Put out all lights!"

An instant later the cressets on the pooprail were extinguished, as was the lantern swinging from the rail,

and even the lamp in the poophouse which was invaded by one of the Basha's officers for that purpose. The

lantern hanging from the mast alone was spared against emergencies; but it was taken down, placed upon the

Thus was the galeasse plunged into a darkness that for some moments was black and impenetrable as velvet.

Then slowly, as the eyes became accustomed to it, this gloom was gradually relieved. Once more men and

After the excitement of that first stir the corsairs went about their tasks with amazing calm and silence. None

thought now of reproaching the Basha or SakrelBahr with having delayed until the moment of peril to take

the course which all of them had demanded should be taken when first they had heard of the neighbourhood

of that hostile ship. In lines three deep they stood ranged along the ample fighting platform of the prow; in

the foremost line were the archers, behind them stood the swordsmen, their weapons gleaming lividly in the

darkness. They crowded to the bulwarks of the waistdeck and swarmed upon the ratlines of the mainmast.

On the poop three gunners stood to each of the two small cannon, their faces showing faintly ruddy in the

Asad stood at the head of the companion, issuing his sharp brief commands, and SakrelBahr, behind him,

leaning against the timbers of the poophouse with Rosamund at his side, observed that the Basha had

The steersmen climbed to their niches, and the huge steering oars creaked as they were swung out. Came a

short word of command from Asad and a stir ran through the ranks of the slaves, as they threw forward their

weight to bring the oars to the level. Thus a moment, then a second word, the premonitory crack of a whip in

the darkness of the gangway, and the tomtom began to beat the time. The slaves heaved, and with a creak and

splash of oars the great galeasse skimmed forward towards the mouth of the cove.

Up and down the gangway ran the boatswain's mates, cutting fiercely with their whips to urge the slaves to

the very utmost effort. The vessel gathered speed. The looming headland slipped by. The mouth of the cove

appeared to widen as they approached it. Beyond spread the dark steely mirror of the deadcalm sea.

Rosamund could scarcely breathe in the intensity of her suspense. She set a hand upon the arm of

"I pray that we may not," he answered, muttering. "But this is the handiwork I feared. Look!" he added

They had shot clear to the headland. They were out of the cove, and suddenly they had a view of the dark

bulk of the galleon, studded with a score of points of light, riding a cable's length away on their larboard

"Faster!" cried the voice of Asad. "Row for your lives, you infidel swine! Lay me your whips upon these

hides of theirs! Bend me these dogs to their oars, and they'll never overtake us now."

Whips sang and thudded below them in the waist, to be answered by more than one groan from the tormented

panting slaves, who already were spending every ounce of strength in this cruel effort to elude their own

chance of salvation and release. Faster beat the tomtom marking the desperate time, and faster in response to

it came the creak and dip of oars and the panting, stertorous breathing of the rowers.

"Lay on! Lay on!" cried Asad, inexorable. Let them burst their lungs they were but infidel lungs!so that

And so indeed they were. Visibly the lights of the galleon were receding. With every inch of canvas spread

yet she appeared to be standing still, so faint was the breeze that stirred. And whilst she crawled, the galeasse

raced as never yet she had raced since SakrelBahr had commanded her, for SakrelBahr had never yet

Suddenly over the water from the galleon came a loud hail. Asad laughed, and in the darkness shook his fist

at them, cursing them in the name of Allah and his Prophet. And then, in answer to that curse of his, the

galleon's side belched fire; the calm of the night was broken by a roar of thunder, and something smote the

"No need to fear their marksmanship," he cried. "They cannot see us. Their own lights dazzle them. On! On!"

"He is right," said SakrelBahr. "But the truth is that they will not fire to sink us because they know you to

She looked out to sea again, and beheld those friendly lights falling farther and farther astern.

So feared SakrelBahr. He more than feared it. He knew that save for some miraculous rising of the wind it

must be as she said. And then out of his despair leapt inspirationa desperate inspiration, true child of that

"There is a chance," he said to her. "But it is as a throw of the dice with life and death for stakes."

"Then seize it," she bade him instantly. "For though it should go against us we shall not be losers."

"Have I not said that I will go down with you this night? Ah, don't waste time in words!"

"Be it so, then," he replied gravely, and moved away a step, then checked. "You had best come with me," he

Obediently she complied and followed him, and some there were who stared as these two passed down the

gangway, yet none attempted to hinder her movements. Enough and to spare was there already to engage the

He thrust a way for her, past the boatswain s mates who stood over the slaves ferociously plying tongues and

whips, and so brought her to the waist. Here he took up the lantern which had been muffled, and as its light

once more streamed forth, Asad shouted an order for its extinction. But SakrelBahr took no least heed of

that command. He stepped to the mainmast, about which the powder kegs had been stacked. One of these had

been broached against its being needed by the gunners on the poop. The unfastened lid rested loosely atop of

it. That lid SakrelBahr knocked over; then he pulled one of the horn sides out of the lantern, and held the

A cry of alarm went up from some who had watched him. But above that cry rang his sharp command:

"Cease rowing!" he commanded again. "Asad!" he called. "Bid them pause, or I'll blow you all straight into

the arms of Shaitan." And he lowered the lantern until it rested on the very rim of the powder keg.

At once the rowing ceased. Slaves, corsairs, officers, and Asad himself stood paralyzed, all at gaze upon that

grim figure illumined by the lantern, threatening them with doom. It may have crossed the minds of some to

throw themselves forthwith upon him; but to arrest them was the dread lest any movement towards him

Marzak, standing at his father's side, set a quarrel to the bow which he had snatched up. "Why do you all

stand and stare?" he cried. "Cut him down, one of you!" And even as he spoke he raised his bow. But his

"If any man takes a step towards me, the lantern goes straight into the gunpowder," said SakrelBahr

serenely. "And if you shoot me as you intend, Marzak, or if any other shoots, the same will happen of itself.

"SakrelBahr!" cried Asad, and from its erstwhile anger his voice had now changed to a note of

intercession. He stretched out his arms appealingly to the captain whose doom he had already pronounced in

his heart and mind. "SakrelBahr, I conjure thee by the bread and salt we have eaten together, return to thy

"I am in my sense," was the answer, "and being so I have no mind for the fate reserved me in Algiersby the

memory of that same bread and salt. I have no mind to go back with thee to be hanged or sent to toil at an oar

"Thou'lt be forsworn. I would not trust thee now, Asad. For thou art proven a fool, and in all my life I never

found good in a fool and never trusted onesave once, and he betrayed me. Yesterday I pleaded with thee,

showing thee the wise course, and affording thee thine opportunity. At a slight sacrifice thou mightest have

had me and hanged me at thy leisure. 'Twas my own life I offered thee, and for all that thou knewest it, yet

thou knewest not that I knew." He laughed. "See now what manner of fool art thou? Thy greed hath wrought

thy ruin. Thy hands were opened to grasp more than they could hold. See now the consequence. It comes

Every word of it sank into the brain of Asad thus tardily to enlighten him. He wrung his hands in his blended

fury and despair. The crew stood in appalled silence, daring to make no movement that might precipitate their

"Name thine own price," cried the Basha at length, "and I swear to thee by the beard of the Prophet it shall be

"I named it yesterday, but it was refused. I offered thee my liberty and my life if that were needed to gain the

Had he looked behind him he might have seen the sudden lighting of Rosamund's eyes, the sudden clutch at

her bosom, which would have announced to him that his utterances were none so cryptic but that she had

"I will make thee rich and honoured, SakrelBahr," Asad continued urgently. "Thou shalt be as mine own

son. The Bashalik itself shall be thine when I lay it down, and all men shall do thee honour in the meanwhile

"I am not to be bought, 0 mighty Asad. I never was. Already wert thou set upon my death. Thou canst

command it now, but only upon the condition that thou share the cup with me. What is written is written. We

have sunk some tall ships together in our day, Asad. We'll sink together in our turn tonight if that be thy

"May thou burn for evermore in hell, thou blackhearted traitor!" Asad cursed him, his anger bursting all the

And then, of a sudden, upon that admission of defeat from their Basha, there arose a great clamour from the

crew. SakrelBahr's seahawks called upon him, reminding him of their fidelity and love, and asking could

"Have faith in me!" he answered them. "I have never led you into aught but victory. Be sure that I shall not

"But the galleon is upon us!" cried Vigitello. And so, indeed, it was, creeping up slowly under that faint

breeze, her tall bulk loomed now above them, her prow ploughing slowly forward at an acute angle to the

prow of the galeasse. Another moment and she was alongside, and with a swing and clank and a yell of

victory from the English seamen lining her bulwarks her grappling irons swung down to seize the corsair ship

at prow and stern and waist. Scarce had they fastened, than a torrent of men in breastplates and morions

poured over her side, to alight upon the prow of the galeasse, and not even the fear of the lantern held above

the powder barrel could now restrain the corsairs from giving these hardy boarders the reception they

reserved for all infidels. In an instant the fighting platform on the prow was become a raging, seething hell of

battle luridly illumined by the ruddy glow from the lights aboard the Silver Heron. Foremost among those

who had leapt down had been Lionel and Sir John Killigrew. Foremost among those to receive them had been

Jasper Leigh, who had passed his sword through Lionel's body even as Lionel's feet came to rest upon the

A dozen others went down on either side before SakrelBahr's ringing voice could quell the fighting, before

"Hold there!" he had bellowed to his seahawks, using the lingua franca. "Back, and leave this to me. I will

rid you of these foes." Then in English he had summoned his countrymen also to desist. "Sir John Killigrew!"

he called in a loud voice. "Hold your hand until you have heard me! Call your men back and let none others

Sir John, perceiving him by the mainmast with Rosamund at his side, and leaping at the most inevitable

conclusion that he meant to threaten her life, perhaps to destroy her if they continued their advance, flung

"This, Sir John, that unless you order your men back aboard your ship, and make oath to desist from this

encounter, I'll take you straight down to hell with us at once. I'll heave this lantern into the powder here, and

we sink and you come down with us held by your own grappling hooks. Obey me and you shall have all that

you have come to seek aboard this vessel. Mistress Rosamund shall be delivered up to you.

"Though not prepared to make terms with you," he announced, "yet I will accept the conditions you impose,

but only provided that I have all indeed that I am come to seek. There is aboard this galley an infamous

renegade hound whom I am bound by my knightly oath to take and hang. He, too, must be delivered up to

Instantly, unhesitatingly, came the answer"Him, too, will I surrender to you upon your sworn oath that you

Rosamund caught her breath, and clutched SakrelBahr's arm, the arm that held the lantern.

And then Sir John pledged him his word that upon his own surrender and that of Rosamund he would

SakrelBahr turned to his waiting corsairs, and briefly told them what the terms he had made.

He called upon Asad to pledge his word that these terms would be respected, and no blood shed on his behalf,

"Since he wants thee that he may hang thee, he may have thee and so spare us the trouble, for 'tis no less than

"Thus, then, I surrender," he announced to Sir John, and flung the lantern overboard.

One voice only was raised in his defence, and that voice was Rosamund's. But even that voice failed,

conquered by weary nature. This last blow following upon all that lately she had endured bereft her of all

strength. Half swooning she collapsed against SakrelBahr even as Sir John and a handful of his followers

The corsairs stood looking on in silence; the loyalty to their great captain, which would have made them

spend their last drop of blood in his defence, was quenched by his own act of treachery which had brought the

English ship upon them. Yet when they saw him pinioned and hoisted to the deck of the Silver Heron, there

was a sudden momentary reaction in their ranks. Scimitars were waved aloft, and cries of menace burst forth.

If he had betrayed them, yet he had so contrived that they should not suffer by that betrayal. And that was

worthy of the SakrelBahr they knew and loved; so worthy that their love and loyalty leapt fullarmed

But the voice of Asad called upon them to bear in mind what in their name he had promised, and since the

voice of Asad alone might not have sufficed to quell that sudden spark of revolt, there came down to them the

"Remember and respect the terms I have made for you! Mektub! May Allah guard and prosper you!"

A wail was his reply, and with that wail ringing in his ears to assure him that he did not pass unloved, he was

The ropes of the grapnels were cut, and slowly the galleon passed away into the night, leaving the galley to

replace what slaves had been maimed in the encounter and to head back for Algiers, abandoning the

Under the awning upon the poop Asad now sat like a man who has awakened from an evil dream. He covered

his head and wept for one who had been as a son to him, and whom through his madness he had lost. He

cursed all women, and he cursed destiny; but the bitterest curse of all was for himself.

In the pale dawn they flung the dead overboard and washed the decks, nor did they notice that a man was

missing in token that the English captain, or else his followers, had not kept strictly to the letter of the bond.

They returned in mourning to Algiersmourning not for the Spanish argosy which had been allowed to go

her ways unmolested, but for the stoutest captain that ever bared his scimitar in the service of Islam. The

story of how he came to be delivered up was never clearly told; none dared clearly tell it, for none who had

participated in the deed but took shame in it thereafter, however clear it might be that SakrelBahr had

brought it all upon himself. But, at least, it was understood that he had not fallen in battle, and hence it was

assumed that he was still alive. Upon that presumption there was built up a sort of legend that he would one

day come back; and redeemed captives returning a halfcentury later related how in Algiers to that day the

coming of SakrelBahr was still confidently expected and looked for by all true Muslimeen.

SakrelBahr was shut up in a black hole in the forecastle of the Silver Heron to await the dawn and to spend

the time in making his soul. No words had passed between him and Sir John since his surrender. With wrists

pinioned behind him, he had been hoisted aboard the English ship, and in the waist of her he had stood for a

moment face to face with an old acquaintanceour chronicler, Lord Henry Goade. I imagine the florid

countenance of the Queen's Lieutenant wearing a preternaturally grave expression, his eyes forbidding as

they rested upon the renegade. I knowfrom Lord Henry's own penthat no word had passed between

them during those brief moments before SakrelBahr was hurried away by his guards to be flung into those

For a long hour he lay where he had fallen, believing himself alone; and time and place would no doubt

conduce to philosophical reflection upon his condition. I like to think that he found that when all was

considered, he had little with which to reproach himself. If he had done evil he had made ample amends. It

can scarcely be pretended that he had betrayed those loyal Muslimeen followers of his, or, if it is, at least it

must be added that he himself had paid the price of that betrayal. Rosamund was safe, Lionel would meet the

justice due to him, and as for himself, being as good as dead already, he was worth little thought. He must

have derived some measure of content from the reflection that he was spending his life to the very best

advantage. Ruined it had been long since. True, but for his illstarred expedition of vengeance he might long

have continued to wage war as a corsair, might even have risen to the proud Muslim eminence of the

Bashalik of Algiers and become a feudatory prince of the Grand Turk. But for one who was born a Christian

gentleman that would have been an unworthy way to have ended his days. The present was the better course.

A faint rustle in the impenetrable blackness of his prison turned the current of his thoughts. A rat, he thought,

and drew himself to a sitting attitude, and beat his slippered heels upon the ground to drive away the loathly

"Who's there?" the voice repeated, querulously to add: "What black hell be this? Where am I?"

And now he recognized the voice for Jasper Leigh's, and marvelled how that latest of his recruits to the ranks

"Faith," said he, "you're in the forecastle of the Silver Heron; though how you come here is more than I can

"I suppose that is what they will call me now. It is as well perhaps that I am to be buried at sea, else it might

plague these Christian gentlemen what legend to inscribe upon my headstone. But youhow come you

hither? My bargain with Sir John was that none should be molested, and I cannot think Sir John would be

"As to that I know nothing, since I did not even know where I was bestowed until ye informed me. I was

knocked senseless in the fight, after I had put my bilbo through your comely brother. That is the sum of my

"I believe so," was the cool answer. "At least I sent a couple of feet of steel through him'twas in the press

of the fight when first the English dropped aboard the galley; Master Lionel was in the vanthe last place in

"Not a doubt but you gave him no more than he was seeking. You are right, Master Leigh; the van was the

last place in which to look for him, unless he came deliberately to seek steel that he might escape a rope. Best

"No doubt they took you because of that," Sir Oliver pursued, as if communing with himself. "Being in

ignorance perhaps of his deserts, deeming him a saint and martyr, they resolved to avenge him upon you, and

dragged you hither for that purpose." He sighed. "Well, well, Master Leigh, I make no doubt that knowing

yourself for a rascal you have all your life been preparing your neck for a noose; so this will come as no

The skipper stirred uneasily, and groaned. "Lord, how my head aches!" he complained.

"They've a sure remedy for that," Sir Oliver comforted him. "And you'll swing in better company than you

deserve, for I am to be hanged in the morning too. You've earned it as fully as have I, Master Leigh. Yet I

"There is no God but God, and Mohammed is his Prophet," was the answer, and from his tone Master Leigh

"Nay, now; it's a creed by which men live. They perform as they preach, which is more than can be said of

"Faith," said Sir Oliver, "it's considered the season of truth above all others."

"Of hell, damnation, and eternal fire," roared the skipper, voicing his own belated terrors.

"I have but fulfilled the destiny which in His Omniscience He marked out for me," replied Sir Oliver. "My

life hath been as He designed it, since naught may exist or happen save by His Will. Shall I then fear

"'Tis a comforting one," said Sir Oliver, "and it should comfort such a sinner as thou."

But Master Leigh refused to be comforted. "Oh!" he groaned miserably. "I would that I did not believe in

"Your disbelief could no more abolish Him than can your fear create Him," replied Sir Oliver. "But your

"Will not you pray with me?" quoth that rascal in his sudden fear of the hereafter.

"I shall do better," said Sir Oliver at last. "I shall pray for youto Sir John Killigrew, that your life be

"He shall. His honour is concerned in it. The terms of my surrender were that none else aboard the galley

"Truebut that was in the scrimmage that preceded my making terms. Sir John pledged me his word, and

Sir John will keep to it when I have made it clear to him that honour demands it."

A great burden was lifted from the skipper's mindthat great shadow of the fear of death that had overhung

him. With it, it is greatly to be feared that his desperate penitence also departed. At least he talked no more of

damnation, nor took any further thought for Sir Oliver's opinions and beliefs concerning the hereafter. He

may rightly have supposed that Sir Oliver's creed was Sir Oliver's affair, and that should it happen to be

wrong he was scarcely himself a qualified person to correct it. As for himself, the making of his soul could

Upon that he lay down and attempted to compose himself to sleep, though the pain in his head proved a

difficulty. Finding slumber impossible after a while he would have talked again; but by that time his

companion's regular breathing warned him that Sir Oliver had fallen asleep during the silence.

Now this surprised and shocked the skipper. He was utterly at a loss to understand how one who had lived Sir

Oliver's life, been a renegade and a heathen, should be able to sleep tranquilly in the knowledge that at dawn

he was to hang. His belated Christian zeal prompted him to rouse the sleeper and to urge him to spend the

little time that yet remained him in making his peace with God. Humane compassion on the other hand

suggested to him that he had best leave him in the peace of that oblivion. Considering matters he was

profoundly touched to reflect that in such a season Sir Oliver could have found room in his mind to think of

him and his fate and to undertake to contrive that he should be saved from the rope. He was the more touched

when he bethought him of the extent to which he had himself been responsible for all that happened to Sir

Oliver. Out of the consideration of heroism, a certain heroism came to be begotten in him, and he fell to

pondering how in his turn he might perhaps serve Sir Oliver by a frank confession of all that he knew of the

influences that had gone to make Sir Oliver what he was. This resolve uplifted him, and oddly enough it

uplifted him all the more when he reflected that perhaps he would be jeopardizing his own neck by the

So through that endless night he sat, nursing his aching head, and enheartened by the first purpose he had

ever conceived of a truly good and altruistic deed. Yet fate it seemed was bent upon frustrating that purpose

of his. For when at dawn they came to hale Sir Oliver to his doom, they paid no heed to Jasper Leigh's

"Maybe not," retorted Master Leigh, "because Sir John little knows what it is in my power to tell him. Take

me before him, I say, that he may hear from me the truth of certain matters ere it be too late."

"Be still," the seaman bade him, and struck him heavily across the face, so that he reeled and collapsed into a

corner. "Thee turn will come soon. Just now our business be with this other heathen."

"Naught that you can say would avail," Sir Oliver assured him quietly. "But I thank you for the thought that

marks you for my friend. My hands are bound, Jasper. Were it otherwise I would beg leave to clasp your

Sir Oliver was led out into the golden sunlight which almost blinded him after his long confinement in that

dark hole. They were, he gathered, to conduct him to the cabin where a short mockery of a trial was to be

held. But in the waist their progress was arrested by an officer, who bade them wait.

Sir Oliver sat down upon a coil of rope, his guard about him, an object of curious inspection to the rude

seamen. They thronged the forecastle and the hatchways to stare at this formidable corsair who once had been

a Cornish gentleman and who had become a renegade Muslim and a terror to Christianity.

Truth to tell, the sometime Cornish gentleman was difficult to discern in him as he sat there still wearing the

caftan of cloth of silver over his white tunic and a turban of the same material swathed about his steel

headpiece that ended in a spike. Idly he swung his brown sinewy legs, naked from knee to ankle, with the

inscrutable calm of the fatalist upon his swarthy hawk face with its light agate eyes and black forked beard;

and those callous seamen who had assembled there to jeer and mock him were stricken silent by the

If the delay chafed him, he gave no outward sign of it. If his hard, light eyes glanced hither and thither it was

upon no idle quest. He was seeking Rosamund, hoping for a last sight of her before they launched him upon

But Rosamund was not to be seen. She was in the cabin at the time. She had been there for this hour past, and

In the absence of any woman into whose care they might entrust her, Lord Henry, Sir John, and Master

Tobias, the ship's surgeon, had amongst them tended Rosamund as best they could when numbed and

Master Tobias had applied such rude restoratives as he commanded, and having made her as comfortable as

possible upon a couch in the spacious cabin astern, he had suggested that she should be allowed the rest of

which she appeared so sorely to stand in need. He had ushered out the commander and the Queen's

Lieutenant, and himself had gone below to a still more urgent case that was demanding his attentionthat of

Lionel Tressilian, who had been brought limp and unconscious from the galeasse together with some four

At dawn Sir John had come below, seeking news of his wounded friend. He found the surgeon kneeling over

As he entered, Master Tobias turned aside, rinsed his hands in a metal basin placed upon the floor, and rose

The surgeon tossed aside the napkin, and slowly drew down the upturned sleeves of his black doublet. "All

but dead," he answered. "The wonder is that any spark of life should still linger in a body with that hole in it.

He is bleeding inwardly, and his pulse is steadily weakening. It must continue so until imperceptibly he

passes away. You may count him dead already, Sir John." He paused. "A merciful, painless end," he added,

and sighed perfunctorily, his pale shaven face decently grave, for all that such scenes as these were

commonplaces in his life. "Of the other four," he continued, "Blair is dead; the other three should all

But Sir John gave little heed to the matter of those others. His grief and dismay at this quenching of all hope

"And he will not even recover consciousness?" he asked insisting, although already he had been answered.

"As I have said, you may count him dead already, Sir John. My skill can do nothing for him."

Sir John's head drooped, his countenance drawn and grave. "Nor can my justice," he added gloomily.

"Though it avenge him, it cannot give me back my friend." He looked at the surgeon. "Vengeance, sir, is the

"A quibble, when all is said." He stepped to Lionel's side, and looked down at the pale handsome face over

which the dark shadows of death were already creeping. "If he would but speak in the interests of this justice

that is to do! If we might but have the evidence of his own words, lest I should ever be asked to justify the

"Surely, sir," the surgeon ventured, "there can be no such question ever. Mistress Rosamund's word alone

"Ay! His offenses against God and man are too notorious to leave grounds upon which any should ever

There was a tap at the door and Sir John's own body servant entered with the announcement that Mistress

"She will be impatient for news of him," Sir John concluded, and he groaned. "My God! How am I to tell

her? To crush her in the very hour of her deliverance with such news as this! Was ever irony so cruel?" He

turned, and stepped heavily to the door. There he paused. "You will remain by him to the end?" he bade the

Sir John looked across at Lionel againa glance of valediction. "God rest him!" he said hoarsely, and passed

In the waist he paused a moment, turned to a knot of lounging seamen, and bade them throw a halter over the

yardarm, and hale the renegade Oliver Tressilian from his prison. Then with slow heavy step and heavier

The sun, new risen in a faint golden haze, shone over a sea faintly rippled by the fresh clean winds of dawn to

which their every stitch of canvas was now spread. Away on the larboard quarter, a faint cloudy outline, was

Sir John's long sallow face was preternaturally grave when he entered the cabin, where Rosamund awaited

him. He bowed to her with a grave courtesy, doffing his hat and casting it upon a chair. The last five years

had brought some strands of white into his thick black hair, and at the temples in particular it showed very

grey, giving him an appearance of age to which the deep lines in his brow contributed.

He advanced towards her, as she rose to receive him. "Rosamund, my dear!" he said gently, and took both her

"Poor lamb, poor lamb!" he murmured, as a mother might have done, and drew her towards him, stroking that

gleaming auburn head. "We'll speed us back to England with every stitch of canvas spread. Take heart then,

But she broke in impetuously, drawing away from him as she spoke, and his heart sank with foreboding of

"I overheard a sailor just now saying to another that it is your intent to hang Sir Oliver Tressilian out of

He misunderstood her utterly. "Be comforted," he said. "My justice shall be swift; my vengeance sure. The

yardarm is charged already with the rope on which he shall leap to his eternal punishment."

She caught her breath, and set a hand upon her bosom as if to repress its sudden tumult.

"And upon what grounds," she asked him with an air of challenge, squarely facing him, "do you intend to do

"Upon what grounds?" he faltered. He stared and frowned, bewildered by her question and its tone. "Upon

what grounds?" he repeated, foolishly almost in the intensity of his amazement. Then he considered her more

closely, and the wildness of her eyes bore to him slowly an explanation of words that at first had seemed

"I see!" he said in a voice of infinite pity; for the conviction to which he had leapt was that her poor wits were

all astray after the horrors through which she had lately travelled. "You must rest," he said gently, "and give

no thought to such matters as these. Leave them to me, and be very sure that I shall avenge you as is due."

"Sir John, you mistake me, I think. I do not desire that you avenge me. I have asked you upon what grounds

In increasing amazement he continued to stare. He had been wrong, then. She was quite sane and mistress of

her wits. And yet instead of the fond inquiries concerning Lionel which he had been dreading came this

"Need I state to youof all living folkthe offences which that dastard has committed?" he asked,

"You need to tell me," she answered, "by what right you constitute yourself his judge and executioner; by

what right you send him to his death in this peremptory fashion, without trial." Her manner was as stern as if

"But you," he faltered in his evergrowing bewilderment, "you, Rosamund, against whom he has offended so

grievously, surely you should be the last to ask me such a question! Why, it is my intention to proceed with

him as is the manner of the sea with all knaves taken as Oliver Tressilian was taken. If your mood be merciful

towards himwhich as God lives, I can scarce conceiveconsider that this is the greatest mercy he can

"You speak of mercy and vengeance in a breath, Sir John." She was growing calm, her agitation was quieting

He made a gesture of impatience. "What good purpose could it serve to take him to England?" he demanded.

"There he must stand his trial, and the issue is foregone. It were unnecessarily to torture him."

"The issue may be none so foregone as you suppose," she replied. "And that trial is his right."

Sir John took a turn in the cabin, his wits all confused. It was preposterous that he should stand and argue

upon such a matter with Rosamund of all people, and yet she was compelling him to it against his every

"If he so urges it, we'll not deny him," he said at last, deeming it best to humour her. "We'll take him back to

England if he demands it, and let him stand his trial there. But Oliver Tressilian must realize too well what is

in store for him to make any such demand." He passed before her, and held out his hands in entreaty. "Come,

"I am indeed distraught, Sir John," she answered, and took the hands that he extended. "Oh, have pity!" she

He dropped her hands and stood away. "God's light!" he swore. "You sue for pity for Oliver Tressilian, for

that renegade, that incarnate devil? Oh, you are mad!" he stormed. "Mad!" and he flung away from her,

That answer smote him instantly still. Under the shock of it he just stood and stared at her again, his jaw

"You love him!" he said at last below his breath. "You love him! You love a man who is a pirate, a renegade,

"He did not." She was fierce in her denial of it. "I have learnt the truth of that matter."

"From his lips, I suppose?" said Sir John, and he was unable to repress a sneer. "And you believed him?"

"Married him?" Sudden horror came now to temper his bewilderment. Was there to be no end to these

astounding revelations? Had they reached the climax yet, he wondered, or was there still more to come? "You

"I didin Algiers on the night we landed there." He stood gaping at her whilst a man might count to a dozen,

and then abruptly he exploded. "It is enough!" he roared, shaking a clenched fist at the low ceiling of the

cabin. "It is enough, as God's my Witness. If there were no other reason to hang him, that would be reason

and to spare. You may look to me to make an end of this infamous marriage within the hour."

"Listen to you?" He paused by the door to which he had stepped in his fury, intent upon giving the word that

there and then should make an end, and summoning Oliver Tressilian before him, announce his fate to him

and see it executed on the spot. "Listen to you?" he repeated, scorn and anger blending in his voice. "I have

It was the Killigrew way, Lord Henry Goade assures us, pausing here at long length for one of those

digressions into the history of families whose members chance to impinge upon his chronicle. "They were,"

he says, "ever an impetuous, shortreasoning folk, honest and upright enough so far as their judgment carried

Sir John, as much in his earlier commerce with the Tressilians as in this pregnant hour, certainly appears to

justify his lordship of that criticism. There were a score of questions a man of perspicuity would not have

asked, not one of which appears to have occurred to the knight of Arwenack. If anything arrested him upon

the cabin's threshold, delayed him in the execution of the thing he had resolved upon, no doubt it was sheer

curiosity as to what further extravagances Rosamund might yet have it in her mind to utter.

"This man has suffered," she told him, and was not put off by the hard laugh with which he mocked that

statement. "God alone knows what he has suffered in body and in soul for sins which he never committed.

Much of that suffering came to him through me. I know today that he did not murder Peter. I know that but

for a disloyal act of mine he would be in a position incontestably to prove it without the aid of any man. I

know that he was carried off, kidnapped before ever he could clear himself of the accusation, and that as a

consequence no life remained him but the life of a renegade which he chose. Mine was the chief fault. And I

"Not another word!" he blazed at her. "It is because I do love youlove and pity you from my heartthat I

will not listen. It seems I must save you not only from that knave, but from yourself. I were false to my duty

by you, false to your dead father and murdered brother else. Anon, you shall thank me, Rosamund." And

"Thank you?" she cried in a ringing voice. "I shall curse you. All my life I shall loathe and hate you, holding

you in horror for a murderer if you do this thing. You fool! Can you not see? You fool!"

He recoiled. Being a man of position and importance, quick, fearless, and vindictive of temperamentand

also, it would seem, extremely fortunateit had never happened to him in all his life to be so

uncompromisingly and frankly judged. She was by no means the first to account him a fool, but she was

certainly the first to call him one to his face; and whilst to the general it might have proved her extreme

sanity, to him it was no more than the culminating proof of her mental distemper.

"Pish!" he said, between anger and pity, "you are mad, stark mad! Your mind's unhinged, your vision's all

distorted. This fiend incarnate is become a poor victim of the evil of others; and I am become a murderer in

your sighta murderer and a fool. God's Life! Bah! Anon when you are rested, when you are restored, I pray

He turned, all aquiver still with indignation, and was barely in time to avoid being struck by the door which

Lord Henry Goade, dressedas he tells usentirely in black, and with his gold chain of officean

ominous sign could they have read itupon his broad chest, stood in the doorway, silhouetted sharply

against the flood of morning sunlight at his back. His benign face would, no doubt, be extremely grave to

match the suit he had put on, but its expression will have lightened somewhat when his glance fell upon

"I was overjoyed," he writes, "to find her so far recovered, and seeming so much herself again, and I

"She were better abed," snapped Sir John, two hectic spots burning still in his sallow cheeks. "She is

"Sir John is mistaken, my lord," was her calm assurance, "I am very far from suffering as he conceives."

"I rejoice therein, my dear," said his lordship, and I imagine his questing eyes speeding from one to the other

of them, and marking the evidences of Sir John's temper, wondering what could have passed. "It happens," he

added sombrely, "that we may require your testimony in this grave matter that is toward." He turned to Sir

John. "I have bidden them bring up the prisoner for sentence. Is the ordeal too much for you, Rosamund?"

"Indeed, no, my lord," she replied readily. "I welcome it." And threw back her head as one who braces herself

"No, no," cut in Sir John, protesting fiercely. "Do not heed her, Harry. She...."

"Considering," she interrupted, "that the chief count against the prisoner must concern his...his dealings with

"Surely, indeed," Lord Henry agreed, a little bewildered, he confesses, "always provided you are certain it

will not overtax your endurance and distress you overmuch. We could perhaps dispense with your

"In that, my lord, I assure you that you are mistaken," she answered. "You cannot dispense with it."

"Be it so, then," said Sir John grimly, and he strode back to the table, prepared to take his place there.

Lord Henry's twinkling blue eyes were still considering Rosamund somewhat searchingly, his fingers tugging

thoughtfully at his short tuft of ashencoloured beard. Then he turned to the door. "Come in, gentlemen," he

Steps clanked upon the deck, and three of Sir John's officers made their appearance to complete the court that

was to sit in judgment upon the renegade corsair, a judgment whose issue was foregone.

Chairs were set at the long brown table of massive oak, and the officers sat down, facing the open door and

the blaze of sunshine on the poopdeck, their backs to the other door and the horn windows which opened

upon the sterngallery. The middle place was assumed by Lord Henry Goade by virtue of his office of

Queen's Lieutenant, and the reason for his chain of office became now apparent. He was to preside over this

summary court. On his right sat Sir John Killigrew, and beyond him an officer named Youldon. The other

A chair had been set for Rosamund at the table's extreme right and across the head of it, so as to detach her

from the judicial bench. She sat there now, her elbows on the polished board, her face resting in her

halfclenched hands, her eyes scrutinizing the five gentlemen who formed this court.

Steps rang on the companion, and a shadow fell athwart the sunlight beyond the open door. From the vessel's

waist came a murmur of voices and a laugh. Then Sir Oliver appeared in the doorway guarded by two

He paused an instant in the doorway, and his eyelids flickered as if he had received a shock when his glance

alighted upon Rosamund. Then under the suasion of his guards he entered, and stood forward, his wrists still

The five considered him in silence, but Lord Henry's glance, as it rested upon the corsair's Muslim garb, was

"You are no doubt aware, sir," said Sir John after a long pause, "of the purpose for which you have been

"Scarcely," said the prisoner. "But I have no doubt whatever of the purpose for which I shall presently be

taken hence. "However," he continued, cool and critical, "I can guess from your judicial attitudes the

superfluous mockery that you intend. If it will afford you entertainment, faith, I do not grudge indulging you.

I would observe only that it might be considerate in you to spare Mistress Rosamund the pain and weariness

"I have made it abundantly plain to her," Sir John interrupted, almost vindictively.

The prisoner looked at her as if in surprise, his brows knit. Then with a shrug he turned to his judges again.

"In that case," said he, "there's no more to be said. But before you proceed, there is another matter upon

"The terms of my surrender were that all others should be permitted to go free. You will remember, Sir John,

that you pledged me your knightly word for that. Yet I find aboard here one who was lately with me upon my

galeassea sometime English seaman, named Jasper Leigh, whom you hold a prisoner."

"That may be, Sir John. But the blow was delivered before I made my terms with you, and you cannot violate

"So I had supposed. It is a privilege for which you agreed to pay a certain price, and now it seems you have

been guilty of filching something back. It seems so, I say. For I cannot think but that the arrest was

inadvertently effected, and that it will suffice that I draw your attention to the matter of Master Leigh's

Sir John considered the table. It was beyond question that he was in honour bound to enlarge Master Leigh,

whatever the fellow might have done; and, indeed, his arrest had been made without Sir John's knowledge

"That is for yourself to decide, Sir John. But I can tell you what you may not do with him. You may not keep

him a prisoner, or carry him to England or injure him in any way. Since his arrest was a pure error, as I

gather, you must repair that error as best you can. I am satisfied that you will do so, and need say no more.

Your servant, sirs," he added to intimate that he was now entirely at their disposal, and he stood waiting.

There was a slight pause, and then Lord Henry, his face inscrutable, his glance hostile and cold, addressed the

"We have had you brought hither to afford you an opportunity of urging any reasons why we should not hang

Sir Oliver looked at him in almost amused surprise. "Faith!" he said at length. "It was never my habit to waste

"I doubt you do not rightly apprehend me, sir," returned his lordship, and his voice was soft and silken as

became his judicial position. "Should you demand a formal trial, we will convey you to England that you may

"But lest you should build unduly upon that," cut in Sir John fiercely, "let me warn you that as the offences

for which you are to suffer were chiefly committed within Lord Henry Goade's own jurisdiction, your trial

will take place in Cornwall, where Lord Henry has the honour to be Her Majesty's Lieutenant and dispenser

"It is for you to choose, sir," Sir John ran on, "whether you will be hanged on sea or land."

"My only possible objection would be to being hanged in the air. But you're not likely to heed that," was the

Lord Henry leaned forward again. "Let me beg you, sir, in your own interests to be serious," he admonished

"I confess the occasion, my lord. For if you are to sit in judgment upon my piracy, I could not desire a more

"I am glad to deserve your approval," Sir John replied tartly. "Piracy," he added, "is but the least of the counts

"As God's my life, then, your other counts must needs be soundor else, if there be any justice in your

methods, you are like to be disappointed of your hopes of seeing me swing. Proceed, sirs, to the other counts.

"Deny it? No. But I deny your jurisdiction in the matter, or that of any English court, since I have committed

Lord Henry admits that the answer silenced and bewildered him, being utterly unexpected. Yet what the

prisoner urged was a truth so obvious that it was difficult to apprehend how his lordship had come to

overlook it. I rather fear that despite his judicial office, jurisprudence was not a strong point with his lordship.

But Sir John, less perspicuous or less scrupulous in the matter, had his retort ready.

"Nay, now, nay, now," the corsair interrupted, goodhumouredly. "Go back to school, Sir John, to learn that

"You are trifling, sir. But we shall mend that presently," and Sir John banged the table with his fist, his face

flushing slightly in anger. (Lord Henry very properly deplores this show of heat at such a time.) "You cannot

pretend to be ignorant," Sir John continued, "that abduction is punishable by death under the law of England."

He turned to his fellowjudges. "We will then, sirs, with your concurrence, say no more of the piracy."

"Faith," said Lord Henry in his gentle tones, "in justice we cannot." And he shrugged the matter aside. "The

prisoner is right in what he claims. We have no jurisdiction in that matter, seeing that he committed no piracy

in English waters, norso far as our knowledge goesagainst any vessel sailing under the English flag."

Rosamund stirred. Slowly she took her elbows from the table, and folded her arms resting them upon the

edge of it. Thus leaning forward she listened now with an odd brightness in her eye, a slight flush in her

cheeks reflecting some odd excitement called into life by Lord Henry's admissionan admission which

Sir Oliver, watching her almost furtively, noted this and marvelled, even as he marvelled at her general

composure. It was in vain that he sought to guess what might be her attitude of mind towards himself now

"Be it so," he admitted impatiently. "We will deal with him upon the counts of abduction and murder. Have

"Nothing that would be like to weigh with you," replied Sir Oliver. And then with a sudden change from his

slightly derisive manner to one that was charged with passion: "Let us make an end of this comedy," he cried,

"of this pretence of judicial proceedings. Hang me, and have done, or set me to walk the plank. Play the

pirate, for that is a trade you understand. But a' God's name don't disgrace the Queen's commission by playing

Sir John leapt to his feet, his face aflame. "Now, by Heaven, you insolent knave...."

But Lord Henry checked him, placing a restraining hand upon his sleeve, and forcing him gently back into his

"Sir, your words are unworthy one who, whatever his crimes, has earned the repute of being a sturdy, valiant

fighter. Your deeds are so notoriousparticularly that which caused you to flee from England and take to

roving, and that of your reappearance at Arwenack and the abduction of which you were then guiltythat

your sentence in an English court is a matter foregone beyond all possible doubt. Nevertheless, it shall be

"Yet," he added, and his voice was lowered and very earnest, "were I your friend, Sir Oliver, I would advise

"Sirs," replied Sir Oliver, "your right to hang me I have not disputed, nor do I. I have no more to say."

Thus Rosamund at last, startling the court with her crisp, sharp utterance. All turned to look at her as she rose,

"Since in this matter of the abduction with which Sir Oliver is charged," she said, "I am the person said to

have been abducted, it were perhaps well that before going further in this matter you should hear what I may

Sir John shrugged, and sat down again. She would have her way, he realized; just as he knew that its only

Lord Henry turned to her, his manner full of deference. "Since the prisoner has not denied the charge, and

since wisely he refrains from demanding to be taken to trial, we need not harass you, Mistress Rosamund.

"There you are at fault, my lord," she answered, her voice very level. "I shall be called upon to say something

when I impeach you all for murder upon the high seas, as impeach you I shall if you persist in your intent."

"Rosamund!" cried Oliver in his sudden amazementand it was a cry of joy and exultation.

She looked at him, and smileda smile full of courage and friendliness and something more, a smile for

which he considered that his impending hanging was but a little price to pay. Then she turned again to that

"Since he disdains to deny the accusation, I must deny it for him," she informed them. "He did not abduct me,

sirs, as is alleged. I love Oliver Tressilian. I am of full age and mistress of my actions, and I went willingly

Had she flung a bomb amongst them she could hardly have made a greater disorder of their wits. They sat

And then Sir John cut in fiercely. "A lie! A lie to save that foul villain's neck!"

Rosamund leaned towards him, and her smile was almost a sneer. "Your wits were ever sluggish, Sir John,"

she said. "Else you would not need reminding that I could have no object in lying to save him if he had done

me the wrong that is imputed to him." Then she looked at the others. "I think, sirs, that in this matter my word

"Faith, that's true enough!" ejaculated the bewildered Lord Henry. "A moment, Killigrew!" And again he

stilled the impetuous Sir John. He looked at Sir Oliver, who in truth was very far from being the least

"To that?" echoed the almost speechless corsair. "What is there left to say?" he evaded.

"'Tis all false," cried Sir John again. "We were witnesses of the eventyou and I, Harryand we saw...."

For a moment that silenced them again. They were as men who stand upon crumbling ground, whose every

effort to win to a safer footing but occasioned a fresh slide of soil. Then Sir John sneered, and made his

"No doubt she will be prepared to swear that her betrothed, Master Lionel Tressilian, accompanied her

"No," she answered. "As for Lionel Tressilian he was carried off that he might expiate his sinssins which

he had fathered upon his brother there, sins which are the subject of your other count against him."

"That the story that Sir Oliver killed my brother is a calumny; that the murderer was Lionel Tressilian, who,

to avoid detection and to complete his work, caused Sir Oliver to be kidnapped that he might be sold into

"This is too much!" roared Sir John. "She is trifling with us, she makes white black and black white. She has

"Wait!" said Lord Henry, raising his hand. "Give me leave." He confronted her very seriously. "This...this is a

grave statement, mistress. Have you any proofanything that you conceive to be a proof of what you are

But Sir John was not to be repressed. "'Tis but the lying tale this villain told her. He has bewitched her, I say.

Sir Oliver laughed outright at that. His mood was growing exultant, buoyant, and joyous, and this was the

first expression of it. "Bewitched her? You're determined never to lack for a charge. First 'twas piracy, then

"Oh, a moment, pray!" cried Lord Henry, and he confesses to some heat at this point. "Do you seriously tell

us, Mistress Rosamund, that it was Lionel Tressilian who murdered Peter Godolphin?"

"Seriously?" she echoed, and her lips were twisted in a little smile of scorn. "I not merely tell it you, I swear

it here in the sight of God. It was Lionel who murdered my brother and it was Lionel who put it about that the

deed was Sir Oliver's. It was said that Sir Oliver had run away from the consequences of something

discovered against him, and I to my shame believed the public voice. But I have since discovered the truth...."

"The truth, do you say, mistress?" cried the impetuous Sir John in a voice of passionate contempt. "The

"Have patience, man," he admonished the knight. "The truth will prevail in the end, never fear, Killigrew."

"Meanwhile we are wasting time," grumbled Sir John, and on that fell moodily silent.

"Are we further to understand you to say, mistress," Lord Henry resumed, "that the prisoner's disappearance

from Penarrow was due not to flight, as was supposed, but to his having been trepanned by order of his

"That is the truth as I stand here in the sight of Heaven," she replied in a voice that rang with sincerity and

carried conviction to more than one of the officers seated at that table. "By that act the murderer sought not

only to save himself from exposure, but to complete his work by succeeding to the Tressilian estates. Sir

Oliver was to have been sold into slavery to the Moors of Barbary. Instead the vessel upon which he sailed

was captured by Spaniards, and he was sent to the galleys by the Inquisition. When his galley was captured

by Muslim corsairs he took the only way of escape that offered. He became a corsair and a leader of corsairs,

"What else he did we know," Lord Henry interrupted. "And I assure you it would all weigh very lightly with

"That, mistress," said Lord Henry, his manner extremely gentle, "is proof that yourself you believe this

amazing story. But it is not proof that the story itself is true. You had it, I suppose," he continued smoothly,

"That is so; but in Lionel's own presence, and Lionel himself confirmed itadmitting its truth."

"You dare say that?" cried Sir John, and stared at her in incredulous anger. "My God! You dare say that?"

Lord Henry sat back in his chair, and tugged gently at his ashen tuft of beard, his florid face overcast and

thoughtful. There was something here he did not understand at all. "Mistress Rosamund," he said quietly, "let

me exhort you to consider the gravity of your words. You are virtually accusing one who is no longer able to

defend himself; if your story is established, infamy will rest for ever upon the memory of Lionel Tressilian.

Let me ask you again, and let me entreat you to answer scrupulously. Did Lionel Tressilian admit the truth of

"Once more I solemnly swear that what I have spoken is true; that Lionel Tressilian did in my presence, when

charged by Sir Oliver with the murder of my brother and the kidnapping of himself, admit those charges. Can

Lord Henry spread his hands. "After that, Killigrew, I do not think we can go further in this matter. Sir Oliver

But there was one presentthat officer named Youldonwhose wits, it seems, were of keener temper.

"By your leave, my lord," he now interposed, and he turned to question the witness. "What was the occasion

Truthfully she answered. "At his house in Algiers on the night he...." She checked suddenly, perceiving then

the trap that had been set for her. And the others perceived it also. Sir John leapt into the breach which

"On the night we arrived there," she answered desperately, the colour now receding slowly from her face.

"And that, of course," said Sir John slowly, mockingly almost, "was the first occasion on which you heard

"So that," insisted Sir John, determined to leave her no loophole whatsoever, "so that until that night you had

She hung her head in silence, realizing that the truth could not prevail here since she had hampered it with a

"There is no need to answer," said Lord Henry slowly, in a voice of pain, his eyes lowered to the table.

"There can, of course, be but one answer. Mistress Rosamund has told us that he did not abduct her forcibly;

that she went with him of her own free will and married him; and she has urged that circumstance as a proof

of her conviction of his innocence. Yet now it becomes plain that at the time she left England with him she

still believed him to be her brother's slayer. Yet she asks us to believe that he did not abduct her." He spread

"Ah, wait!" she cried. "I swear that all that I have told you is true all but the matter of the abduction. I

But she went on without heeding him. "Knowing what he has suffered through the evil of others, I gladly

own him my husband, hoping to make some amends to him for the part I had in his wrongs. You must

believe me, sirs. But if you will not, I ask you is his action of yesterday to count for naught? Are you not to

"To what do you refer now, mistress? What action of his is responsible for this?"

"Do you need to ask? Are you so set on murdering him that you affect ignorance? Surely you know that it

Lord Henry tells us that at this he smote the table with his open palm, displaying an anger he could no longer

curb. "This is too much!" he cried. "Hitherto I have believed you sincere but misguided and mistaken. But so

deliberate a falsehood transcends all bounds. What has come to you, girl? Why, Lionel himself told us the

circumstances of his escape from the galeasse. Himself he told us how that villain had him flogged and then

"Ah!" said Sir Oliver between his teeth. "I recognize Lionel there! He would be false to the end, of course. I

Rosamund at bay, in a burst of regal anger leaned forward to face Lord Henry and the others. "He lied, the

"And more than damned," added Sir Oliver. "Sirs," he cried, "you prove naught but your own stupidity when

"Have you so, by God!" he roared, stung suddenly to anger. "You shall hear yet a little more. The truth will

prevail, you have said yourself; and prevail the truth shall since this sweet lady so desires it."

He was flushed, and his light eyes played over them like points of steel, and like points of steel they carried a

certain measure of compulsion. He had stood before them halfmocking and indifferent, resigned to hang and

desiring the thing might be over and ended as speedily as possible. But all that was before he suspected that

life could still have anything to offer him, whilst he conceived that Rosamund was definitely lost to him.

True, he had the memory of a certain tenderness she had shown him yesternight aboard the galley, but he had

deemed that tenderness to be no more than such as the situation itself begot. Almost he had deemed the same

to be here the case until he had witnessed her fierceness and despair in fighting for his life, until he had heard

and gauged the sincerity of her avowal that she loved him and desired to make some amends to him for all

that he had suffered in the past. That had spurred him, and had a further spur been needed, it was afforded

him when they branded her words with falsehood, mocked her to her face with what they supposed to be her

lies. Anger had taken him at that to stiffen his resolve to make a stand against them and use the one weapon

that remained himthat a merciful chance, a just God had placed within his power almost despite himself.

"I little knew, sirs," he said, "that Sir John was guided by the hand of destiny itself when last night, in

violation of the terms of my surrender, he took a prisoner from my galeasse. That man is, as I have said, a

sometime English seaman, named Jasper Leigh. He fell into my hands some months ago, and took the same

road to escape from thraldom that I took myself under the like circumstances. I was merciful in that I

permitted him to do so, for he is the very skipper who was suborned by Lionel to kidnap me and carry me

into Barbary. With me he fell into the hands of the Spaniards. Have him brought hither, and question him."

In silence they all looked at him, but on more than one face he saw the reflection of amazement at his

It was Lord Henry who spoke at last. "Surely, sir, this is most oddly, most suspiciously apt," he said, and

there could be no doubt that he was faintly sneering. "The very man to be here aboard, and taken prisoner

"Not quite by chance, though very nearly. He conceives that he has a grudge against Lionel, for it was

through Lionel that misfortune overtook him. Last night when Lionel so rashly leapt aboard the galley, Jasper

Leigh saw his opportunity to settle an old score and took it. It was as a consequence of that that he was

"Miracles, my lord, must happen sometimes if the truth is to prevail," Sir Oliver replied with a tinge of his

earlier mockery. "Fetch him hither, and question him. He knows naught of what has passed here. It were a

madness to suppose him primed for a situation which none could have foreseen. Fetch him hither, then."

The door was flung open, and the lean black figure of the surgeon made its appearance.

"Sir John!" he called urgently, breaking without ceremony into the proceedings, and never heeding Lord

Henry's scowl. "Master Tressilian has recovered consciousness. He is asking for you and for his brother.

To that cabin below the whole company repaired in all speed in the surgeon's wake, Sir Oliver coming last

between his guards. They assembled about the couch where Lionel lay, leadenhued of face, his breathing

Sir John ran to him, went down upon one knee to put loving arms about that chilling clay, and very gently

"Lionel!" he cried in stricken accents. And then as if thoughts of vengeance were to soothe and comfort his

Very slowly and with obvious effort Lionel turned his head to the right, and his dull eyes went beyond Sir

"There is not the need to distress you...." Sir John was beginning, when Lionel interrupted him.

"I am here," said Sir Oliver's deep voice, and those who stood between him and his brother drew aside that

Lionel looked at him for a long moment in silence, sitting up a little. Then he sank back again slowly against

"God has been merciful to me a sinner," he said, since He accords me the means to make amends, tardily

Then he struggled up again, and held out his arms to Sir Oliver, and his voice came in a great pleading cry.

Oliver advanced, none hindering until, with his hands still pinioned behind him he stood towering there

above his brother, so tall that his turban brushed the low ceiling of the cabin. His countenance was stern and

"What is it that you ask me to forgive?" he asked. Lionel struggled to answer, and sank back again into Sir

John's arms, fighting for breath; there was a trace of bloodstained foam about his lips.

"Speak! Oh, speak, in God's name!" Rosamund exhorted him from the other side, and her voice was wrung

He looked at her, and smiled faintly. "Never fear," he whispered, "I shall speak. God has spared me to that

end. Take your arms from me, Killigrew. I am the...the vilest of men. It...it was I who killed Peter

"My God!" groaned Sir John, whilst Lord Henry drew a sharp breath of dismay and realization.

"Ah, but that is not my sin," Lionel continued. "There was no sin in that. We fought, and in selfdefence I

slew himfighting fair. My sin came afterwards. When suspicion fell on Oliver, I nourished it...Oliver knew

the deed was mine, and kept silent that he might screen me. I feared the truth might become known for all

that...and...and I was jealous of him, and...and I had him kidnapped to be sold...."

His fading voice trailed away into silence. A cough shook him, and the faint crimson foam on his lips was

increased. But he rallied again, and lay there panting, his fingers plucking at the coverlet.

"Tell them," said Rosamund, who in her desperate fight for Sir Oliver's life kept her mind cool and steady and

directed towards essentials, "tell them the name of the man you hired to kidnap him."

"Jasper Leigh, the skipper of the Swallow," he answered, whereupon she flashed upon Lord Henry a look that

contained a gleam of triumph for all that her face was ashen and her lips trembled.

Then she turned again to the dying man, relentlessly almost in her determination to extract all vital truth from

"Tell them," she bade him, "under what circumstances Sir Oliver sent you last night to the Silver Heron."

"Nay, there is no need to harass him," Lord Henry interposed. "He has said enough already. May God forgive

"Is it you, Sir John?" whispered the dying man. "What? Still there? Ha!" he seemed to laugh faintly, then

checked. "I am going...." he muttered, and again his voice grew stronger, obeying the last flicker of his

shrinking will. "Noll! I am going! I...I have made reparation...all that I could. Give me...give me thy hand!"

"I should have given it you ere this but that my wrists are bound," cried Oliver in a sudden frenzy. And then

exerting that colossal strength of his, he suddenly snapped the cords that pinioned him as if they had been

thread. He caught his brother's extended hand, and dropped upon his knees beside him. "Lionel...Boy!" he

cried. It was as if all that had befallen in the last five years had been wiped out of existence. His fierce

relentless hatred of his halfbrother, his burning sense of wrong, his parching thirst for vengeance, became

on the instant all dead, buried, and forgotten. More, it was as if they had never been. Lionel in that moment

was again the weak, comely, beloved brother whom he had cherished and screened and guarded, and for

whom when the hour arrived he had sacrificed his good name, and the woman he loved, and placed his life

"Lionel, boy!" was all that for a moment he could say. Then: "Poor lad! Poor lad!" he added. "Temptation

was too strong for thee." And reaching forth he took the other white hand that lay beyond the couch, and so

From one of the ports a ray of sunshine was creeping upwards towards the dying man's face. But the radiance

that now overspread it was from an inward source. Feebly he returned the clasp of his brother's hands.

"Oliver, Oliver!" he whispered. "There is none like thee! I ever knew thee as noble as I was base. Have I said

enough to make you safe? Say that he will be safe now," he appealed to the others, "that no...."

"It is well. The past is past. The future is in your hands, Oliver. God's blessing on't." He seemed to collapse,

to rally yet again. He smiled pensively, his mind already wandering. "That was a long swim last nightthe

longest I ever swam. From Penarrow to Trefusisa fine long swim. But you were with me, Noll. Had my

strength given out...I could have depended on you. I am still chill from it, for it was cold...cold...ugh!" He

Gently Sir John lowered him to his couch. Beyond it Rosamund fell upon her knees and covered her face,

whilst by Sir John's side Oliver continued to kneel, clasping in his own his brother's chilling hands.

There ensued a long spell of silence. Then with a heavy sigh Sir Oliver folded Lionel's hands across his

The others seemed to take this for a signal. It was as if they had but waited mute and still out of deference to

Oliver. Lord Henry moved softly round to Rosamund and touched her lightly upon the shoulder. She rose and

went out in the wake of the others, Lord Henry following her, and none remaining but the surgeon.

Outside in the sunshine they checked. Sir John stood with bent head and hunched shoulders, his eyes upon

the white deck. Timidly almosta thing never seen before in this bold manhe looked at Sir Oliver.

"He was my friend," he said sorrowfully, and as if to excuse and explain himself, "and...and I was misled

Sir John, resolved, drew himself up into an attitude preparatory to receiving with dignity a rebuff should it be

"Can you find it in your generosity, sir, to forgive me?" he asked, and his air was almost one of challenge.

Silently Sir Oliver held out his hand. Sir John fell upon it almost in eagerness.

"We are like to be neighbours again," he said, "and I give you my word I shall strive to be a more

"Then, sirs," said Sir Oliver, looking from Sir John to Lord Henry, "I am to understand that I am no longer a

"You need not hesitate to return with us to England, Sir Oliver," replied his lordship. "The Queen shall hear

your story, and we have Jasper Leigh to confirm it if need be, and I will go warranty for your complete

reinstatement. Count me your friend, Sir Oliver, I beg." And he, too, held out his hand. Then turning to the

They tramped away, leaving Oliver and Rosamund alone. The twain looked long each at the other. There was

so much to say, so much to ask, so much to explain, that neither knew with what words to begin. Then

Rosamund suddenly came up to him, holding out her hands. "Oh, my dear!" she said, and that, after all,

One or two overinquisitive seamen, lounging on the forecastle and peeping through the shrouds, were

disgusted to see the lady of Godolphin Court in the arms of a beturbaned barelegged follower of Mahound.