FOR an hour, it may be -- it seemed like an eternity -- we lay in the utter darkness, not speaking, and unable to move.

At last we heard a slight scratching sound, which ceased, began again, and was followed by a light tapping. Then our door was shaken, but very carefully, and when we made no sound a voice whispered: "Effendi, do you hear me?"

"Yes," I replied.

"I have been appointed your guard. I am the man who brought you here from Hegasi yesterday. Ibn Asl would kill me if he knew that I had told you all that I did tell you during that hour when we were waiting to start. I beg you not to destroy me, but keep my indiscretion secret."

Ah, thank God! Here was a glimmer of light in the darkness! I had not thought again of certain private matters of Ibn Asl’s of which he had told me, but I instantly resolved to use the advantage his chattering gave me.

"I am sorry, but I don't see how I can spare you," I said.

"You do not! Ah, Allah pity me! Will you not be merciful, you, a Christian?"

"A Christian does not love his life less than a Moslem."

"But you cannot save yourself by repeating what I have told you."

"You are mistaken; you said a great deal that I can turn to my account."

"O Allah! O Mohamed! Then I am lost!"

I made no reply, and for awhile he, too, was silent. I waited the effect of my threat. It was not long before I heard the light tap again, and my guard murmured. "Effendi, listen; what if you could escape?"

"That would be most fortunate, certainly, for you as well as for me, for then I should not have to betray you."

"It is impossible, absolutely impossible! You are bound, you will be guarded; and if these obstacles were removed how could you get away from the ship?"

"There is nothing in these three points to make my escape impossible. I only need some one to help me."

"It would be dangerous, Effendi."

"Not at all; the only thing the person must do is to bring me a thin, sharp knife, and plan with me the best time for me to use it."

There was a long pause; evidently he was considering. Then he said: "You shall have the knife as soon as I can come back here, and -- hush! some one is coming!" It was Ibn Asl, who came with a clay lamp to see that we were still safe in his possession, and our bonds not unloosed in some miraculous way. The light of the lamp showed me that the fierce heat of the Sudan had warped the boards of the walls, opening cracks in them, many of which were wider than the thickness of a strong knife. I looked at the bolt; it was not one that would be hard to shove back. My heart beat so high in the joy of this discovery that I scarcely heard the insults with which Ibn Asl gratified his hatred by pouring upon me. His visit was brief, and when he was safely beyond hearing our fellow conspirator returned: "Effendi," he whispered, "the crew will be ashore to-night, and will not come aboard till late."

"Good! Will you see to it that some fellow who deserves punishment is on guard here when our attempt is

made, so that when our flight is discovered at least no worthy person suffers for it? Where are our weapons?" "In Ibn Asl's cabin. He will keep them for himself."

"I must get them, otherwise there would be no use in trying to escape. I want to reward you if you serve me well in this affair; nothing has been taken from our pockets. Ibn Asl evidently thinks he has us too secure to bother about robbing us till we are dead. At the last moment, when we are about to leave the ship and I know the attempt is a success, I will put money for you wherever you consider the best place."

"If you will be so good as to remember me, Effendi, there is no better place to leave your gift than at the head of the ladder, under the old palm fiber mat which lies there."

"So be it; get it as soon as we are off, or some one else may find it. When we are at a safe distance I will imitate the angry cry of the long-tailed monkey which abounds in these woods; that is a sound which will not attract attention. When you hear it you will know that we are safe; go get your reward."

"Thank you, Effendi; I hope that I may hear it, and know that you are safe. Here is the knife; make the attempt after you hear me pass here, and bid the guard watch you well. Farewell; Allah prosper your undertaking."

He drew the bolt very softly, slipped the knife through the door, closed it, made it fast again, and in a moment I heard him talking to one of the crew about the Reis Effendina having gone around by land, and the likelihood of Ibn Asl overtaking him.

The moments crept by. I heard the crew going ashore, and waited to see if our assistant in this desperate scheme would keep his word. Yes, he was faithful to his fear for

his own safety, and the desire for gain; he came presently, tried the bolt and door of our prison, bade the guard watch us well, and went away. The time had come. I picked up the knife from the corner where I had thrown it lest Ibn Asl should visit us again and discover it, and shoved and rolled myself over to Ben Nil. My hands were tied to my back, and it was a dangerous thing to try to cut the ropes that bound his hands, for it was almost impossible not to cut him. Finding the knife-point with the fingers of the left hand, I thrust it into the ropes, and did succeed in cutting them. Ben Nil shook his hands free, and it was the work of but a moment for him to cut the thongs around his ankles, and liberate me. I thrust the blade of the knife through a convenient crack in the door and shoved back the bolt. We opened the door just far enough to admit our bodies and crept out. The guard had his back toward us as I came out, but turned in time to see Ben Nil. Before he could utter a sound I seized him around the throat, and he collapsed from lack of breath and fright. I bound him with his girdle, and gagged him with his fez.

The next step was to go above, a risky climb, which we accomplished safely. A fire burned on the shore, and lighted the deck just enough to guide us; by its light I saw that no one was about, and came fully on deck. I took from my wallet a sum of money which would generously requite our self-seeking friend for his share in our escape and hid it in the place he had designated. The most important part of our enterprise was to get our weapons, and we crawled as fast as we could on our hands and knees to Ibn Asl's cabin. We found them quickly, thrust them into our girdles, "And now for the boat," I whispered. "The tender lies under the bow; we must jump into her and row swiftly and silently up stream in the shadow."

We could not see whether or not the oars were in the boat, but trusted to finding them there, since we did not see them on deck. There was something white in the bottom of the boat, and my heart leaped for joy when Ben Nil called my attention to it, whispering that it was the sail. I sprang over the side of the ship first, and Ben Nil rose to follow me. The light of the fire blazed up that instant, and one of the men on shore discovered him. He took in the situation at a glance and gave warning, shouting: "The prisoners are out! The prisoners are out!"

"Run down the deck astern, Ben Nil," I said. "Dive off under the shadow of the sail and swim here; they must think we are hiding on the ship."

Without a moment's hesitation he obeyed me, and in five minutes' time I pulled him into the small boat and we began rowing swiftly, close to the opposite shore from the one where the crew had been sitting, under the shadow, made deeper by the light opposite.

In the meantime the crew were making all speed back to the ship. We heard them rushing up and down the deck, shouting, swearing, and above all the hubbub rose Ibn Asl's harsh voice roaring: "Where are they? Look, look for them! They are hiding in the cabin, the dogs! Catch them; quick, quick!"

We rowed up the stream, beyond the range of guns, and Ben Nil said: "You can give the cry you agreed upon, for we are safe."

"I know something better than that; I didn't think of it before," I said. "I am going to have a little fun with Ibn Asl." I had always been a bit of a ventriloquist, and at school used to entertain the boys that way. I felt like an uncommonly jolly schoolboy, who had escaped a rather severe punishment and could not resist the chance for a

prank. Standing up in the boat I put my hands to my lips, threw my voice apparently on the shore Ibn Isl had just quitted, and cried: "Ibn Asl! Ibn Asl! come catch us!"

"The dogs! They are yonder," we heard Ibn Asl roar. "Shoot them, shoot them!"

Several shots rang out; then, making my voice sound as if it came from underneath the ship, I called: "Come down after us; come down!"

"He has a devil!" shrieked Ibn Asl at the top of his voice. "I always knew it! Now he has gone down below to his master."

It was still too risky to keep up this sort of sport long. I resisted the temptation to try another locality, for I knew that at any moment they were likely to discover the loss of the boat. We bent to our oars, rowing for life and freedom, and soon had gone far enough to make it safe to hoist the sail. There was a strong breeze blowing on the river, just right for the little boat we had impressed into our service, and we sped away from our foes at a speed that soon made pursuit by a larger craft impossible.

It was late in the night when we approached Hegasi. Through the darkness a little light glimmered over the water, and soon we saw the hulk of a ship outlined in the starlight, and I recognized the graceful outline and three slender masts of "Esch Schadin," "The Falcon," the Reis Effendina's ship.

We drew in our little sail, and as we did so a voice from the dock shouted: "A boat, here on our starboard side." I whispered to Ben Nil, and we turned off as though we wanted to avoid being seen, whereupon another voice from the upper deck cried: "Stop, or I'll shoot."

At that moment the alarm bell of the "Falcon" sounded, and in an instant all hands came on deck. I did not dare

carry the joke any further, but lay to obediently. "Whose boat is this?" asked some one, and I recognized the voice of the Reis Effendina. I had no idea he had returned to the "Falcon," and was overjoyed to hear him speak and know that he was safe. Not wishing him to guess that I was there, I whispered Ben Nil and he replied for me: "It is the tender of the 'Lizard,' Ibn Asl's ship." The effect of this information was electrical. Everybody uttered exclamations of surprise and rage, while the Reis said: "You are a bold man who announces such a fact without knowing to whom you speak. Come on board." We threw our rope up to the deck and were made fast. I had kept my face shrouded so far, and made Ben Nil climb on board first. Before he had fairly planted both feet on deck he was seized, and might have been roughly treated had I not followed immediately. As I appeared and threw off my hood the emir fell back a few steps and stared at me as if I had come up out of a grave. When he got his voice and recovered sufficiently to move, he clasped me in his arms with truly Eastern effusiveness.

"Effendi!" he cried. "You here! What a joy to see you safely back from the country of the Fessarah! I have feared for you, and I cannot tell you the happiness it is to see you though I do not understand how you have come by one of Ibn Asl's boats and men."

"It is a long story, emir," I replied. "This is not one of Ibn Asl's men, but my own true Ben Nil, of whom you have heard from your lieutenant."

Before I could say more a long, thin figure, with interminable legs, pressed through the crowd on deck, and a strident voice cried: "Effendi, O Effendi, my soul overflows and my heart leaps with joy that my eyes behold you once more! I have longed for you as a loving wife longs

for her spouse. Without you my days have been dark as the ashes on the hearth when the fire is extinguished. Now new life rushes through my veins, and my wisdom and my courage shall again protect you. Welcome, Effendi!" This was a most poetical salutation, yet must I confess it? even with its flowery figures echoing in my ears, I did not feel unmixed delight in recognizing Selim!

We were given coffee, and sat down to relate our adventures, the young lieutenant who had been with me in the rescue of the Fessarah women being as glad to see us again as we were to meet him. It took all the rest of the night to tell the emir the history of the past two weeks, and I was interrupted many times with questions and exclamations, and cries of the emir's men to be led at once in pursuit of Ibn Asl.

"We really must start before dawn, you and Ben Nil and I. Time is precious. I think it would be well for us to separate, you to pursue Ibn Asl, while I ride back to meet my caravan, which I left to come and warn you. Ibn Asl will be mad with rage over our escape, and he will hasten after my caravan to set our prisoners free, with the hope at the same time of capturing us there again. My idea is that you can take your men around to intercept him and set a trap for him into which he must walk, with the double attraction of liberating his father, and getting me into his hands again to draw him. I feel sure that he will abandon the pursuit of you for the time, until he has accomplished this pretty piece of revenge."

"And your idea is that I am to head him off, and capture him? That is a well-conceived plan, Effendi. See, the stars are already beginning to pale; if you are ready we will start at once. This has been a most unsatisfactory excursion to me, but if it ends by giving into my hands the

worst of all the slave captors, Ibn Asl, and that old hypocrite of a moss-grown villain, Abd Asl, his father, I shall feel that it is a success surpassing my wildest hopes. Come then, Effendi," added the Reis Effendina, or the emir, as we more properly styled him when we addressed him, laying his hand kindly on my shoulder. "Come. You are young, but I trust to you more than to myself to bring about this happy result."

"Abd Asl we already have," I said, rising, "and Ibn Asl I feel confident of catching, if we are quick and crafty. I am ready, emir; let us start at once, for, as I have said, time is precious and we have not a second to waste."

Contents

Introduction