OCR Text |
Show l lpSClfv.SabatiS greatest story of love and adventure rj-g by RAFAE L SABATINr T- pttAPTER X (conttnued) gke lut that Sir Oliver saw of Gastatn Letch ni on the morning an wtrfch they let oat from the raeking Lisbon gaol. Thereafter ttfumhowt that weary march each bttff the other to be somewhere in last wretched regiment of galley-brrea; galley-brrea; bat they never came face to face again. b Cadiz Six Oliver spent a month ta a raat enclosed space that was pea to the sky, hat nevertheless of an Indescribable foulness, a place of flit., disease, and (offering beyond be-yond human conception. At the end of that month he was one ot, those picked out by an officer offi-cer who was manning a galley that ws to convey the Infanta to Na-He Na-He owed this to his vigorous constitution which had successfully wtthatacd th! Infections of that m..'?.LHic place of torments, and to the f-ne thws which the officer rumroeld and felt as though he were acquiring a beast of burden wih, indeed, is precisely what he was doing. Tha jf-illey to which our gentleman gentle-man was dispatched was a vessel of fifty cars, each manned by seven men. They were seated upon a E-irt of etr-ircace that followed the He was sparingly fed upon wee-vUled wee-vUled biscuit and vile messes of tallowy rice, and to drink! he was given lukewarm water that waB often stale, saving that sometimes when the spell of rowing was more than usually protracted the boatswains boat-swains would thrust lumps of bread sodden in wine into the mouths of the tolling slaves to sustain them. The scurvy broke out on that voyage, and there were other diseases dis-eases among the rowers, to say nothing of the festering sores begotten be-gotten of the friction of the bench which were common to all, and which each must endmre as best he could. With the slave whose disease conquered him or who, reaching the limit of his endurance, permitted himself to swoon, the boatswain had a short way. The diseased were flung overboard; the swooning were dragged out upon the gangway or bridge and flogged there to revive them; if they did not revive they were flogged on until un-til they were a horrid bleeding pulp which was then heaved into the sea. Once or twice when they stood to windward the smell of the slaves being wafted abaft and reaching the fine gilded poop where the Infanta In-fanta and her attendants traveled, the helmsmen were ordered to put about, and for long weary, hours the slaves would hold the galley in position, backing her up gentiy "Anon Sir Oliver became hardened ... to that unspeakable existence, exist-ence, that living death of the galley-slave." CHAPTER X (continuear; That was the- beginning of a j friendship between Sir Oliver and1 this man, whose name was Yusuf- j bon-Moktar. Tue Moslem con- j celved that in Sir Oliver he saw; one upon whom the grace of Allah had descended, one who was ripe to receive the Prophet's message. Yusuf was devout, and he applied, himself to the conversion of his fellow-slave. Sir Oliver listened to him, however, with indifference. Having discarded one creed, be would need a deal of satisfying on the score of another before he adopted it. and it seemed to him that all the.gloriouB things urged by Yusuf in praise of Islam he had heard before in praise of Christianity. Christian-ity. But he kept his counsel on that score, and meanwhile his intercourse in-tercourse with, the Moslem had the effect of teaching him the lingua lin-gua franca, so that at the end of six months he found himself sneaking sneak-ing it like a Mauretaniau with all the Moslem's, imagery and with more than the ordinary seasoning I of Arabic. it was toward the end of that six months that the event took place which was to restore Sir Oliver to liberty. In the meanwhile those limbs of his which had ever be,en vigorous beyond the common wont h;iil acquired an elephantine strensih. It was ever thus at the on I-. tuither you died under the strain, or your thews and sinews zreT-; to be equal to their relentless taslc. Sir Oliver in those six monibs was become a man of steel anri iron, impervious to fatigue, su-' terliniiiau almost in his endurance. Thf were returning home from b trip to Genoa when one evening as they were standing off Minorca in the Balearic Isles they were aur: prised by r. fleet of four Moslem ca'leys which came skimming round a promontory to surround and engage them. Ahoard thr Sparrsh vessel there broke a terrible cry of "Asad-ed-. Oin" the name of the most redoubtable re-doubtable Moslem corsair slDce the Italian renegade Ochiali the All Pasha who had been killed at Le-panto Le-panto Trumpets blared and drumB beat on the poop, and the Spaniards in morion and corslet, armed with Hlivers and pikes, stood to defend 'heir lives and liberty, . The gunners gun-ners sprang to the culverins. But fire hnd to be kindled and . linstocks lin-stocks i.snited. and in the confusion ni'.ioh time was lost so much that nor a single cannon shot w,-is fit-ed before 'he grappling-irons of the firs galley clanked upon and e ripped the Spaniard's bulwarks. The shock of the impact was ter-ririr ter-ririr The a rmourcd prow of the Moslem Era ley Asad-ed-Din's own --st note ! he Spaniard a slanting hlow amidships that smashed fifteen fif-teen of the oars as if they had been sn rrnMiy withered twigs. Thro 'is a shriek from the s;;v Co! lowed by such piteous l roans a: the damned in hell may : miiH. Fvlly rv o score of them had I hi -.-n striK-1- by ike shafts til' their J oth hri rhe::e were hurled back :i Thirst them. Some had been kil-d o'i:r:,-'u. others lay limp and ' v .-i i s h ijt J . a v in e w i i h b ro ken ba c k s. j other's wi:h shattered limbs and Sir Oliver would assuredly have been ?f those hut for the warning. ; advje, and example of Yusuf. who was well versed in galley-fighting and who foresaw clearly what must I happen. Be thrust the oar upward ! and forward as far as it would go. compelling the others at his bench . to accompany his movement. Then he slipped down upon his knees, re-i re-i leased his hold of the timber, and crouched down until his shoulders . were on a level with the bench. He had shouted to Sir Oliver to " follow his example, and Sir Oliver, ; without even knowing what the maneuver should portend, but gath-. gath-. ering its importance from the ; other's urgency of tone, promptly obeyed. The oar was struck an instant in-stant later, and ere it snapped off It was fling back, braining one of the slaves at the bench and mortally mortal-ly injuring the others, but passing clean over the heads of Sir Olivar and Yusuf. A moment later the bodies of the oarsmen of the bench immediately in front were flung back atop of them with yells and curses. When Sir Oliver staggered to his feet he found the battle joined. The Spaniards had fired a volley from J their calivers and a dense cloud of smoke hung above the bulwarks; through this, surged now the corsairs, cor-sairs, led by a tall, lean, elderly man with a flowing white beard and a swarthy eagle face. A crescent cres-cent of emeralds flashed from his snowy turban ; above it rose the peak of a steel cap, and his body was cased in chain malL He swung a great scimitar, before which the Spaniards went down like wheat to the reaper'! tickle. Ho fonght like tea men. and to support him poured a nTerndInc stream of Moslem to the cry of: "Din? Din I Allah, r Allah!" Back and yt back want the Spaniard! Span-iard! before tkat IrreaUUble oa-UmchL 1 i bit onrer roana Tumil gtrae i In vain to rid himself of his chchk, , j and went to his assistance. Ba Btooped. seized it in both hands. , set his feet against tha bench, exerted ex-erted all his strength, and tore tie staple from the wood. Yusuf was . free, save, of course, that a length of heavy chain was dangling from his steel anklet. In his turn he; did like service by Sir OUrer, ' though not quite as speedily, for strong man though he was, either his strength was not equal to the Cornishman's r else the latter"! staple had been driven into sounder sound-er timber. In the end, however, It yielded, and Sir Oliver, too, wa free. Then he set the foot that was hampered by the chain upon the bench, and with the staple that still hung from the end of it pried open the link that attached it to his anklet. That done, he took his revenge. Crying '.'Din!" as loudly as any of the Moslem boarders, he flung himself him-self upon the rear of the Spaniards brandishing his chain. In his hands it became a terrific weapon. He used it as a scourge, lashing it to right and left of him. splitting here a head and crushing there a face, until he had hacked a way clean through the Spanish press, which, bewildered by his sudden rear attack, at-tack, made but little attempt to retaliate upon the escaped galley-slave. galley-slave. After hfm, whirling the remaining re-maining ten feet of the broken oar, came Yusuf. Sir Oliver confessed afterward to knowing very little of what happened hap-pened in those moments. He came to a full possession of his senses to find the fight at an end. a cloud of turbaned corsairs standing guard over a huddle of Spaniards, others breaking opeo the cabin and dragging drag-ging thence the chests that it contained, con-tained, others again armed with chisels and mallets passing along the benches liberating the surviving surviv-ing slaves, of whom the great ma-jority ma-jority were children of Islam. ' Sir Oliver found himself face to face with the wbite-bearded leader of the corsairs, who was leaning upon his scimitar and regarding him with eyes at once amused and amazed. Oar gentleman's naked body was splashed from head to foot with blood, and in his right hand he stiH clutched that yard of iron links- with which he had wrought such ghastly execution. Yusuf was standing at the corsair leader's elbow speaking rapidly. "By Allah, was ev?r such a lusty fighter seen!" cried the latter. "The strength of the Prophet is within him thus to smite the unbelieving pi8." Sir Oliver grinned savagely. "I was returning them some of their whip-lashes with interest." said be. And those were the circumstances under which he came to meet the formidable Asad-ed-Din. Basha of Algiers; those the first words that passed between thera. Anon, when aboard Asad's own galley he was heing carried to Bar bary. he was washed and his head was shaved at! but the forelock, by which the Prophet should lift him up to Heaven when his earthly destiny should come to be fulfilled. He made no protest. They washed and fed hira and gave him ease; and so that they did these things to him they might do what else they pleased. At last arrayed !c flowing garments that were strange to him. and with turban wound around his head, be was conducted to the poop, where Asad sat with Yusuf under an awning, and he came t understand that it was in compliance with the orders of Yu- 1 suf that he had been treated as 11 he were a True-Believer. Yusnf-ben-Moktar was discovered as a. person of great consequence, I the- mephew of Asad-ed-Din, and a favrarite with that Exalted of Allah I the Sublime Portal himself, a man whose capture by Christians had been a thing profoundly deplored. Accordingly his delivery from that thraldom was a matter for rejoic- ; ing. Being delivered, he bethought ; him of his oar-mate, concerning : whom Asad-ed-Din manifested the i greatest curiosity, for in all this i world there was nothing the old I i corsair loved so much as a fighter, ; and in all his days, he vowed, never ; had he seen the equal of that stal- ; wart galley-slave, never the like of : his performance with that murder- i ous chain. Yusuf had informed him i that the man was a fruit ripe for i the Prophet's plucking, that the i grace of Allah was upon him, and i In spirit already he must be ac- i counted a good Moslem. j When Sir Oliver, washed, per- ji fumed, and arrayed in white caftan i and turban, which gave him the air i of being even taller than he was, i came into the presence of Asad-ed- ! Din. it was conveyed to him that ! if he would enter the ranks of the ! Faithful of the Prophet's House i and devote the strength and cour- i age with which Allah the One had i endowed him to the upholding of i the True Faith and to the chasten- i Ing of the enemies of Islam, great i honor, wealth and dignity were In I store for him. j (To Be Continued) slope of the -.ar. running from tho gangway in the vessel's middle1 down to the suullow bulwarks. The place Allotted to Sir Oliver was that next the gangway. Here, stark naked ac when he was born, he was chained to the bench, and iu those chains he remained with- j 5ut a single moment's intermission or six whole months. Eg t ween li imseii' and the hard j MEibcrs oC his scat there was j i.auT'ht but a flimsy and di;-ty i.ij:.;jk.in. From end to end the s-nijh was not more than tuo feet j in hiRgth, whilst the distance sepa-ra'.".n sepa-ra'.".n it from the next one was a' V-3 fo'.;r feet. In that cramped av-it.-o ot ten t'cet by four, Sir Oliver ?."d his nix oar-amtes had their m'Trable existence, waking and sleeping for they slepi in their i c.h.iins at the oar without sufficient ! room in which to lie at stretch. Anon Sir Oliver became hard-' er.sd and' inured to that unspeak-. p.ble existence, that living death of ;o galley-slave. But that first long voyage to Naples was ever to remain re-main the most terrible experience ; his life. For spells of sis ov eU'ht endless hours ata tirn-e and1 on one occasion for no less than ten. I.ourB did he pull at his oar without a single moment's pause. With one' foot on the stretcher, the othei on the bench in front of him, grasping his part of that appallingly heavy fifteen-foot oar, he would bend his back to thrust forward and upward up-ward so to clear the shoulders of the groaning, sweating slaves in Iront of him then he would lift the end so as to bring the blade down to the water, and having gripped he would rise from his seat to throw his full weight into the pull, and so tall back with clank of chain uon the groaning bench to swing against the wind so aB not to lose vay. The number that died in the tirsi week of that voyage amounted to close upon a quarter of the total, j But there were reserves in the prow, and these were drawn iirxm to fill the empty places. None uu' the fittest could survive this turn-I turn-I ide orcioal. Of these was Sir Oliver, and ot these, too. was his i mmd,.- te neighbor at the oar. a s;ul-w;irt. powerful, impassive, iin'.-oin;;!;: cim. j young iV.oor. who Hcccp ed his I'ate ! with a stoicism tlmt aroused ir j Oliver's ad!rir;ji ion. For (kij,--. Uv;y 1 exchanged do fingie- vrord' t o ::' Ltt-i-. their religion marking t.iom out. ! they thought, for enemies dvs;i;ie the fact th.it they were fallows in misfortune. But one evening whon an aged J o w who, ha d coi la p s ed in merciful unconstiamsness was dragged out and flogged in the usual manner. Sir Oli-ver was tilled with such a passion ait all this inhumanity in-humanity and at vhG co-Id pitiless1 ness of it, all that aloud he cursed ;all Christians in general and Spaniards Span-iards in particular. He turned to the Mewr beside him, and addressing hiru to Spanish: Span-ish: "Hell," he said; "was- surely made for Christians, which may be why they seek to make earth like if Fortunately for him the . creak and dip of th oars the clank of the chains, aa-d the lashes beating sharply upon that wretched Jew were sufficient to muffle his voice. But the Moot heard him', and his dark eyes gleamed. "There is a furnace seT&m times heated awaiting tfaem, O my brother," broth-er," he replied, with a confidence i which seemed to be the source of i his present stoicism. "But art forward once more, and so on until bis senses reeled, his sight became blurred, bis mouth parched, and hia whole body a living, straining ache. Then would come the sharp, flare cut ol the boatswain's whip t rTlve energies that flagged how-erer how-erer little, and sometimes to leave a bleed In stripe upon bis naked tnek. That day In day out, mow broiled nd blistered by the pitiless southern south-ern sua. now chilled by the night dews whilst he took his cramped and tmrfrehinj rest. Indescribably Indescrib-ably filthy and dishevelled, his hair ta4 beard matted with endless mat, avratod nn by the rains wfcb na that season were all tsw tu sawlinl slmssl ky Ik ataman at nts ariaenakta enomsHa aad ta taatad 17 VOtf amwQnc tfs ka-jttea ka-jttea at Isaajlar atMantJctaa and Kasmn ataaa knsnra want eUar Btaaaa at anas laarfni kaO. thou, tnen, not a unnstianr- He spoke in that queer language ot the North African seaboard, that lingua franca, which sounded like some French dialect interspersed with Arabic words. But Sir Oliver made out his meaning almost by Intuition. He answered him in Spanish again, since although the Moor did not appear to speak It, yet It was plain he understood It 1 renounce trom this hour," he answered In his passion. "I will acknowledge no religion In whose nam such things are done." E growled an obscene oath u be heaved the great oar forward. "A Christian, IT he cried, and nuigmad for tha first time sine as had baas snsfnsa to that beach M soay. 1 am daai with Cartrttans and Ckrtattanttr.- "Vrtr we ar God's, and t EQa fcaS vt retnm," said the Kaar, |