OSMOND AND LOLO THE SLAVE--THREATS AND DEFIANCE--THE CIRCASSIAN'S
DOOM--OSMOND EARNS HIS REWARD.
The three Circassian slaves had been sent as a present to the real
pasha, Osmond's master, by some friendly Algerian prince, and, arriving
in the absence of the pasha, the deputy had cast greedy eyes upon the
rich prize.
Finding all his authority was lost upon the Circassians girls, who
stoutly refused to be persuaded, he grew vicious.
Nothing was positively known, but the tragedy which Jack and Harry
Girdwood had witnessed hard by the water-gate of the Konaki, coupled
with the recognition of the two eunuchs by Tinker as the two assassins
whom he and Bogey had capsized into the water, made matters look
altogether very suspicious indeed.
The few threatening words which Osmond had muttered to one of the fair
Circassians, too, should have told their own tale.
The Circassian girls had endeavoured to screen those luckless negroes,
Tinker and Bogey, for had they not led the boys into the presence of
Osmond disguised as girls?
Here, then, was a pretext for further ill-usage of the unfortunate
slaves.
The girls were brought into the tyrant's presence.
"Stand out, deceitful and faithless slave," he said, addressing one of
the girls; "you are accused of treason to the pasha, and you know your
fate."
The girl addressed made no reply but by a bold, defiant glance.
"You are to die," said Osmond, watching the effect of his words as he
spoke.
The girls did not move nor utter a word.
"You know now my power," he went on to say in a low tone. "You have one
chance of life yet; would you know what that is?"
He waited for an answer.
He waited in vain.
The proud Circassian girls did not deign to notice him.
"You remember what I told your sister?" he said. "Reconsider what I
said, and it may not yet be too late."
"We do not need to speak again," returned one of the girls. "What we
have already said is our resolve."
"Death!" hissed the Turk, between his teeth.
He eagerly watched for the terror his words should have produced.
"Sooner death ten hundred times," returned the Circassian proudly,
"than acknowledge you for our master."
"You have spoken," exclaimed the Turk, fiercely.
He struck a bell, and one of the armed eunuchs entered.
"Remove these slaves to the cells as I told you; there they will remain
until nightfall. You understand me?"
The man placed his finger upon his lip--a sign of implicit
obedience--and the Circassian slaves were removed to prison.
They were doomed.
Another tragedy was planned--the sequel to that which Harry Girdwood
and young Jack had witnessed almost as soon as they were upon the
Turkish coast.
The cord and sack were once more to play their part.
And could nothing avert their fate?
Their peril was extreme--greater even than that of the English lads and
their faithful followers, Tinker and Bogey.
* * * *
"This is a pretty go," said Harry Girdwood, dolefully, as he looked
round him.
His tone was so grumpy, his look so glum, that Jack could not refrain
from laughing.
"Grumbling old sinner," said he; "you're never satisfied."
"Well, I like that," said Harry. "You get us into a precious hobble
through sheer wanton foolery, and then you expect me to like it."
"Now, don't get waxy," said Jack.
Tinker and Bogey did not understand the full extent of their danger.
They sat at the further end of the same chamber, grinning at their
masters, and, if the truth be told, rather enjoying the dilemma which
they were honoured by sharing with them.
Their masters would be sure to pull them all through safely.
Such was their idea.
As soon as they had been left alone in their prison, the boys had made
a survey, and Jack pronounced his opinion, and his determination with
the old air of confidence in himself.
"They're treating us with something like contempt, Harry," he said.
"How so?"
"By not guarding us better than this," was the reply.
"I don't quite see that, Jack; the door would take us all our time to
get through."
"Perhaps," returned Jack, "but look at the window, and just tell me
what you think of that?"
The window, or perhaps we had better have said hole in the wall--for
glass or lattice there was none--overlooked the sea.
They were in the part of the Konaki known as the water pavilion.
There was a drop of thirty feet to the water.
Thirty feet.
Just think what thirty feet is.
About the height of a two-story dwelling house.
"Supposing we get through there," said Harry Girdwood, "we should never
be able to swim all the way out to a friendly ship.
"My dear old wet blanket," returned Jack, "I got you into this mess,
and I'll get you out of it."
"I hope so."
They watched anxiously for a friendly ship.
At length their vigil was rewarded with success.
A big ship sailed into the bay with the British colours flying at her
masthead.
They almost shouted with joy at the sight.
"That's a deuce of a way off," said Harry Girdwood.
"About a mile."
"A mile is a precious good swim," grunted Harry.
"So much the better. These villainous old Turks won't be suspicious,
and a mile isn't much for either of us, I think. I don't mind it, and
we can answer for Tinker and his prime minister."
"Dat's so," said Bogey, grinning from ear to ear. "Yah, yah! Me and
Tinker swim with Massa Harry and Jack on our backs."
At dusk they matured their plan of action.
Tinker could float on the water like a cork, and was the swiftest
swimmer of the four.
Tinker was, therefore, lowered as far down as they could manage, and
then allowed to drop into the water.
It was a drop!
"Fought dis chile was gwine on dropping for a week, sar," said the
plucky young nigger, subsequently.
However, once he was on the surface, and got his wind well, he darted
through the water like a fish.
They watched his dusky form until they could see him no more.
"Now, Bogey."
"Ready, sar."
He was lowered and dropped the same as Tinker, and speedily was upon
the latter's track.
"Now my turn," said Jack. "I shall go in for a header."
"Don't," said Harry. "You'd never come up alive if you went down head
first from this height."
And Jack was dissuaded from this purpose.
He squeezed his body through the aperture.
"Give me your hand, Harry, while I look over."
His comrade obeyed, and Jack was able to see about him.
Now on his left, not more than ten feet down, was a large doorway, with
a flap similar to the doors on the water-side warehouses, in London,
from where the stores are lowered and raised from the barges by means
of an iron crane.
"I wonder what place that is?" said Jack; "if I could only reach it, my
fall would be very considerably broken."
He had a try.
They fastened their two scarves together, and Harry, making himself a
secure hold above, lowered Jack, and the latter swinging backwards and
forwards twice, dropped the second time fairly on the ledge.
It was a perilous hold.
But Jack was only second to Nero in monkey tricks, and he held on in a
most tenacious manner.
Swinging himself up he pushed his way into a dark and gloomy place.
A low vaulted chamber, dimly lighted by a flickering old lamp.
"Where am I now?"
Before he could look further to get an answer to this question, he was
startled by the sound of footsteps.
What should he do?
Leap out?
Or should he wait?
He decided to wait.
He crept up into a corner, the darkest he could find, and there, with a
beating heart, he awaited the progress of events.
He had not long to wait.
Two dusky forms glided spectrally into the place, one bearing a lamp.
With this, they looked about, and Jack, with a sinking at heart,
recognised the two eunuchs again.
"What devilment are they working now?" thought Jack.
They flashed the light just then upon the objects of their search.
Two huge sacks lay upon the floor.
Jack but imperfectly discerned what they were; but a sickening dread
stole over him, as the two eunuchs raised one of the sacks from the
floor, and bearing it to the window, while its contents writhed and
struggled desperately, hurled it out.
A stifled groan.
A shriek.
A splash.
Jack could hear no more.
He was about to dart out from his hiding-place upon those black-hearted
wretches, when a third person stepped into the chamber.
He said something to the two men--a few sharp words in an authoritative
tone--and they retired.
Jack recognised the voice in an instant.
It was Osmond.
"What is he up to now?" muttered Jack, to himself.
A scene of intense excitement followed.
The Turk unfastened the cord which fastened the neck of the second
sack, and dragged it open.
Then, raising the sack on end, he proceeded hastily to drag it down,
revealing in the dim light the well-remembered form of one of the
Circassian girls.
"Lolo," said Osmond, "I come to give you one last chance."
"I defy and despise you!" said the girl.
"Reflect."
"I have."
"You know well, as I have seen again and again by your looks, that I do
not hate you----"
"Would you have me love the murderer of my sister?"
"Silence, slave!"
"I fear not your menaces," retorted the brave girl; "you must have seen
that. The triumph is yours now--mine is to come."
"When?"
"Hereafter. Murder is against your creed as it is against mine. Do your
worst."
Jack listened.
Osmond seized the girl by the wrist.
But she twisted himself free from his clutch without any particular
effort.
Thereupon the Turk, with a growl of rage, drew his sword, and would
have cut her down.
But Jack could stand no more.
Bounding forward from his hiding-place, he seized the uplifted hand and
wrenched the sword from his grasp.
Then, without a word, Jack struck the man with the flat of his sword
upon the back of the head.
The Turk sank to the ground with a hollow groan.
It was all so momentary that the beautiful Circassian girl looked on as
one in a dream.
Hearing footsteps now, Jack ran to the doorway and peered out.
"Quick!" exclaimed Jack. "Lend me a hand, or we are lost."
She could not understand his words, but his meaning was plain enough.
They pulled the body into the sack as quickly as possible.
Then they hastily tied the cord around the neck of it.
This done, Jack extinguished the lamp.
There was no time to be lost.
He took the girl by the hand, and pulled her back into the nook where
he had been hiding, just as the two villainous eunuchs entered the
chamber.
The two eunuchs came slowly along the corridor.
Finding the place, as they thought, deserted, they simply raised the
sack from the ground, thinking the body of the young Circassian girl
was in it, and bore it to the opening.
One swing and over it went.
As it fell, a hollow groan came from the sack.
The two men stared at each other aghast, and looked over the opening.
But before they could utter a word, a stealthy form had crept up behind
them, and with a vigorous drive, hurled them both over after the sack.
A wild, despairing yell, and the waters closed over these wholesale
butchers.