The Sea-Hawk

rayers 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 hea

it to the consideration of what at first had seemed a

and to wrest thence just those two captives; that being there he should not have r

f its love for the rose. Fenzileh reclined upon a divan that was spread with silken Turkey carpets, and one of her gold-embroidered slippers had dropped fro

and forth, and there was silence save for th

patiently at last. "Does

," the youth replied, com

of naught that wa

ly young face, so closely modelled up

and gape and trifle away thy days whilst that dog-descended Frank tramples thee underfoot, using thee but as a stepp

ven, suspecting that in such words from a woman were she twenty t

n I do?"

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

to do and thou shalt not find me lacking, O my mother. Unt

arms about his neck, set her cheek against his own. Not eighteen years in the Basha's hareem had sti

e 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 fi

e was absent which must compel him to turn and rend her did she speak so before others. Marzak vanis

fingers combing his long beard, his white d

ubt, O Fenzileh," said he.

hions and idly considered hersel

Sakr-el-Bahr 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

thou hast heard?" he ask

a matter of lesser import that on his return, meeting fortuitously a F

usly, say

nt eyes met his own quite fearlessly. "Thou'lt not tell m

lucky wind that blew that Dutchman into his path, and luckier still her being so richly fraught that he ma

smiled a smile of infinite knowledge to hide her utter ignorance, h

s keen at least as mine, that what is clear to me should be hidden from t

her wrist in a cruelly rough

e! Pour out the foulne

, flushed

ot speak,

thee whipped, Fenzileh. I have been too tender of thee these many years-so tender that thou hast forgot the ro

other 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 gr

ue!" he cried, and stalked out again, convinced from past experie

-Bahr'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

n that straggled up the hillside before him. The moon came up and bathed it in a white hard light, throwing sharp

r 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 stiff-necked race, and Rosamund bore in her frail body the spirit of a man. She looked up when he entered, started a li

p 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, wild-eyed, unshorn wretch who shrank and cowered before h

stealthy shadow crept up the companion

Oli

enly leapt up to greet him. It wa

d you already that here is no Sir Oliver. I am Oliver-Reis or Sakr-el-Bahr, as y

u faithfully and well

as den

ow it had been an easy thing for me to ha' played the traitor. I mig

ed in pieces on the sp

un the risk of capture and then cla

. But there! I grant that you have dealt loyally by me. You hav

art of the bond was t

el

I know not where home may be after all these years. If ye

am I to d

on which you toiled. I am a man of parts, Sir Ol-Sakr-el-Bahr. No better navigator ever sailed a ship from an Eng

renegade like me?"

pends upon which side you're on. I'd prefer to say tha

d plunder and robbery upon the seas

that I were afore," Captain Leigh admitted frankly. "I a

jure strong drink,

ensations," sa

chord in his heart. It would be good to have a man of his own

ou 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, Jas

t is agreed," he said. "Ye have shown me mercy who have little deserved it from you. Never fear for my

and down the companion again, touched to the heart for once in his rough villainous life by a