Page 267 - A Knight of the White Cross

bound as he was, two of their comrades to the deck, had won for him the
respect of his captors, and he was therefore allowed privileges not granted

to the seamen of the vessel that had had the ill fortune to be cast on shore so
close to the spot where the corsair was hiding. These had been seized,

driven to the ship, and having been stripped of the greater portion of their
clothes, shut down in the hold.

Although angry that but one out of the four who landed had been captured,
the captain was in a good humour at having tricked his redoubtable foes,

and was disposed to treat Gervaise with more consideration than was
generally given to captives. The latter had not spoken a word of Turkish
from the time he was captured, and had shaken his head when first

addressed in that language. No suspicion was therefore entertained that he
had any knowledge of it, and the Turks conversed freely before him.

"Where think you we had better sell him?" the mate asked the captain,
when Gervaise was leaning against the bulwark watching the land, a short

quarter of a mile away. "He ought to fetch a good ransom."

"Ay, but who would get it? You know how it was with one that Ibrahim
took two years ago. First there were months of delay, then, when the
ransom was settled, the pasha took four-fifths of it for himself, and Ibrahim

got far less than he would have done had he sold him as a slave. The pashas
here, and the sultans of the Moors, are all alike; if they once meddle in an

affair they take all the profit, and think they do well by giving you a tithe of
it. There are plenty of wealthy Moors who are ready to pay well for a
Christian slave, especially when he is a good looking young fellow such as

this. He will fetch as much as all those eight sailors below. They are only
worth their labour, while this youngster will command a fancy price. I

know a dozen rich Moors in Tripoli or Tunis who would be glad to have
him; and we agreed that we would run down to the African coast for
awhile, for that galley has been altogether too busy of late for our comfort,

and will be all the more active after this little affair; besides, people in these
islands have got so scared that one can't get within ten miles of any of them

now without seeing their signal smokes rising on the hills, and finding,
when they land, the villages deserted and stripped of everything worth