Page 298 - A Knight of the White Cross

"I shall now," he went on, "be able to carry out any plan of escape that may
occur to me; but before I leave, as I shall certainly do ere long, I mean to

settle my score with Hassan, and I pray you to send one of the men who
were with me in the galley, and whom you took into your employment,

directly you hear that his ship is in harbour. Do not give him either a note
or a message: bid him simply place himself in the road between the prison
gate and the palace, and look fixedly at me as I pass. I shall know it is a

signal that Hassan is in the port."

"Can I aid you in your flight? I will willingly do so."

"All that I shall need is the garb of a peasant," Gervaise said. "I might buy

one unnoticed; but, in the first place, I have no money, and in the second,
when it is known that I have escaped, the trader might recall the fact that

one of the slave overseers had purchased a suit of him."

"The dress of an Arab would be the best," the merchant said. "That I will

procure and hold in readiness for you. On the day when I send you word
that Hassan is here, I will see that the gate of my garden is unbarred at

night, and will place the garments down just behind it. You mean, I
suppose, to travel by land?"

"I shall do so for some distance. Were I to steal a boat from the port, it
would be missed in the morning, and I be overtaken. I shall therefore go

along the coast for some distance and get a boat at one of the villages,
choosing my time when there is a brisk wind, and when I may be able to
get well beyond any risk of being overtaken. Now, Ben Ibyn, I will leave

you; it were better that we should not meet again, lest some suspicion might
fall upon you of having aided in my escape. I cannot thank you too much

for all your past kindness, and shall ever bear a grateful remembrance of
yourself and your family."

"Perhaps it were better so," Ben Tbyn said; "for if the Moors can find any
excuse for plundering us, they do so. Have you heard the news that the

Sultan of Turkey's expedition for the capture of Rhodes is all but complete,
and will assuredly sail before many weeks have passed?"