ound himself that evening face to face with Sakr-el-B

er, and Master Leigh, full conscious that he was a villain, feared the worst, and had sp

, since last we talked in a ship's cabin,

ut I hope ye'll remember that on

nded him. "And at a price you m

ipper's heart l

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

hr in a voice that made the skipper's blood run cold. "You would have sold me, a man who did you no hurt, ind

as never part of my intent. Ye'll never ha' forgot the words I s

hat should postpone your dirty neck's acquaintance with a rope. I need a navigator," he added in explanation, "and what five years

elieve that this was all that was required of

ll sail me precisely as you would have done five years ago, back

lied Master Leigh wit

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

d his expectations or deserts, and the Nubians followed hi

ered 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 discove

efly issued his

to Algiers, there to be sold. All else thou'lt leave aboard here, and two hundred picke

t returning to Algi

ice to Asad-ed-Din, whom Allah guard and cherish,

it is doubtful if they would have followed any other leader into the perils of the open Atlantic. But Sakr-el-Bahr, 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 af

essel 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,

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 place-by inducing the courts to presume Sir Oliver

African littoral, to conceive was with Oliver-Reis no more than the prelude to execution. The hab

ed her sails and stood out for the open Atlantic, navigated by Captain Jasper Leigh. The three galleys under the command of Biskaine-el-Borak crept slowly eastward and homeward