The Pirate Story Megapack. R.M. Ballantyne

out a-fishing with my three sons, and give the janizaries good assurance that no one else is aboard, that I may not fall into trouble on my return.”

      “That’s reasonable enough,” says I, “but where will you take us aboard?”

      “I’ll show you,” returns he, “if you will stroll down this bank with me, for my sons and I have discussed this matter ever since we heard you were seeking a ship for this project, and we have it all cut and dried properly.”

      So up we get and saunter along the bank leisurely, till we reached a part where the river spreads out very broad and shallow.

      “You see that rock,” says he, nodding at a huge boulder lapped by the incoming sea. “There shall you be at midnight. We shall lie about a half a mile out to sea, and two of my sons will pull to the shore and take you up; so may all go well and nought be known, if you are commonly secret, for never a soul is seen here after sundown.” I told him I would consult with my friends and give him our decision the next day, meeting him at this spot.

      “Good,” says he, “and ere you decide, you may cast an eye at my ship, which you shall know by a white moon painted on her beam; ’tis as fast a ship as any that sails from Alger, though she carry but one mast, and so be we agree to this venture, you shall find the cabin fitted for your lady and everything for your comfort.”

      On this we separated presently, and I, joining my friends at our inn, laid the matter before them. There being still some light, we then went forth on the mole, and there we quickly spied the White Moon, which, though a small craft, looked very clean, and with a fair cabin house, built up in the Moorish fashion upon the stern. And here, sitting down, we all agreed to accept this offer, Mr. Godwin being not less eager for the venture than we, who had so much more to dread by letting it slip, though his pass had yet a fortnight to run.

      So the next day I repaired to the rock, and meeting Haroun (as he was called), I closed with him, and put a couple of ducats in his hand for earnest money.

      “’Tis well,” says he, pocketing the money, after kissing it and looking up to heaven with a “Dill an,” which means “It is from God.” “We will not meet again till the day of Ramadah at midnight, lest we fall under suspicion. Farewell.”

      We parted as we did before, he going his way, and I mine; but, looking back by accident before I had gone a couple of hundred yards, I perceived a fellow stealing forth from a thicket of canes that stood in the marshy ground near the spot where I had lately stood with Haroun, and turning again presently, I perceived this man following in my steps. Then, fairly alarmed, I gradually hastened my pace (but not so quick neither as to seem to fly), making for the town, where I hoped to escape pursuit in the labyrinth of little, crooked, winding alleys. As I rounded a corner, I perceived him out of the tail of my eye, still following, but now within fifty yards of me, he having run to thus overreach me; and ere I had turned up a couple of alleys he was on my heels and twitching me by the sleeve.

      “Lord love you, Master,” says he, in very good English, but gasping for breath. “Hold hard a moment, for I’ve a thing or two to say to you as is worth your hearing.”

      So I, mightily surprised by these words, stop; and he seeing the alley quite empty and deserted, sits down on a doorstep, and I do likewise, both of us being spent with our exertions.

      “Was that man you were talking with a little while back named Haroun?” asks he, when he could fetch his breath. I nodded.

      “Did he offer to take you and three others to Elche, aboard a craft called the White Moon?”

      I nodded again, astonished at his information, for we had not discussed our design today, Haroun and I.

      “Did he offer to carry you off in a boat to his craft from the rock on the mouth?”

      Once more I nodded.

      “Can you guess what will happen if you agree to this?”

      Now I shook my head.

      “The villain,” says he, “will run you on a shoal, and there will he be overhauled by the janizaries, and you be carried prisoners back to Alger. Your freedom will be forfeited, and you will be sold for slaves. And that’s not all,” adds he; “the lass you have with you will be taken from you and given to Mohand ou Mohand, who has laid this trap for your destruction and the gratification of his lust.”

      I fell a-shaking only to think of this crowning calamity, and could only utter broken, unintelligible sounds to express my gratitude for this warning.

      “Listen, Master, if you cannot speak,” said he; “for I must quit you in a few minutes, or get my soles thrashed when I return home. What I have told you is true, as there is a God in heaven; ’twas overheard by my comrade, who is a slave in Mohand’s household. If you escape this trap, you will fall in another, for there is no bounds to Mohand’s devilish cunning. I say, if you stay here you are doomed to share our miserable lot, by one device or another. But I will show you how you may turn the tables on this villain, and get to a Christian country ere you are a week older, if you have but one spark of courage amongst you.”

      CHAPTER XL.

      Of our escape from Barbary, of the pursuit and horrid, fearful slaughter that followed, together with other moving circumstances.

      So Groves, as my man was named, told me how he and eight other poor Englishmen, sharing the same bagnio, had endured the hardships and misery of slavery, some for thirteen, and none less than seven, years; how for three years they had been working a secret tunnel by which they could escape from their bagnio (in which they were locked up every night at sundown) at any moment; how for six months, since the completion of their tunnel, they had been watching a favourable opportunity to seize a ship and make good their escape (seven of them being mariners); and how now they were, by tedious suspense, wrought to such a pitch of desperation that they were ripe for any means of winning their freedom. “And here,” says he, in conclusion, “hath merciful Providence given us the power to save not only ourselves from this accursed bondage, but you, also, if you are minded to join us.”

      Asking him how he proposed to accomplish this end, he replies:

      “’Tis as easy as kiss your hand. First, do you accept Haroun’s offer?”

      “I have,” says I.

      “Good!” says he, rubbing his hands, and speaking thick with joy. “You may be sure that Mohand will suffer no one to interfere with your getting aboard, to the achievement of his design. When is it to be?”

      I hesitated a moment, lest I should fall into another trap, trying to escape from the first; but, seeing he was an Englishman, I would not believe him capable of playing into the Turks’ hands for our undoing, and so I told him our business was for midnight on the feast of Ramadah.

      “Sure, nought but Providence could have ordered matters so well,” says he, doubling himself up, as if unable to control his joy. “We shall be there, we nine sturdy men. Some shall hide in the canes, and others behind the rock; and when Haroun rows to shore, four of us will get into his boat (muffled up as you would be to escape detection), and as soon as they lay themselves to their oars, their business shall be settled.”

      “As how?” asks I, shrinking (as ever) from deeds of violence.

      “Leave that to us; but be assured they shall not raise a cry that shall fright your lady. Oh, we know the use of a bow-string as well as any Turk amongst them. We have that to thank ’em for. Well, these two being despatched, we return to shore, and two more of our men will get in; then we four to the felucca, and there boarding, we serve the others as we served the first two; so back comes one of us to fetch off our other comrades and you four. Then, all being aboard, we cut our cable, up with our sail, and by the time Mohand comes, in the morning, to seek his game on the sand-bank, we shall be half way to Elche, and farther, if Providence do keep pace with this happy beginning. What say you, friend?” adds he, noting my reflective mood.

      Then I frankly confessed that I would have some assurance of his honesty.

      “I