Page 291 - A Knight of the White Cross

"He is a Christian," one of the overseers said. "He was smuggled into the
town and sold to Ben Ibyn the Berber, who, to conceal the matter, dyed him

black; but it got to the ears of the sultan, and he had him taken from the
Berber, and brought here; I have no doubt the merchant has been squeezed

rarely."

"Well, that is a good fellow to work," the other said. "He has just moved a

stone, single handed, that it would have taken half a dozen of the others to
lift. I wish you would put him regularly on this job; any one will do to

sweep the streets; but a fellow like that will be of real use here, especially
when the wall rises a bit higher."

"It makes no difference to me," the overseer said. "I will give orders when I
go down that he shall be always sent up with whichever gang comes here."

The head mason, who was the chief official of the work, soon saw that
Gervaise not only possessed strength, but knowledge of the manner in

which the work should be done.

Accustomed as he had been to direct the slaves at work on the fortifications
at Rhodes, he had learned the best methods of moving massive stones, and
setting them in the places that they were to occupy. At the end of the day

the head mason told one of the slaves who spoke Italian to inquire of
Gervaise whether he had ever been employed on such work before.

Gervaise replied that he had been engaged in the construction of large
buildings.

"I thought so," the officer said to the overseer; "the way he uses his lever
shows that he knows what he is doing. Most of the slaves are worth

nothing; but I can see that this fellow will prove a treasure to us."

Gervaise returned to the prison well satisfied with his day's work. The

labour, hard though it was, was an absolute pleasure to him. There was,
moreover, nothing degrading in it, and while the overseers had plied their

whips freely on the backs of many of his companions, he had not only
escaped, but had, he felt, succeeded in pleasing his masters. The next