but a cruel mouth and a most high, imperious bearing which, together with his rich clothes and jewels, betokened him a man of quality. Hearing who we were, he saluted us civilly enough; but there was a flash of enmity in his eyes and a tightening of his lips, which liked me not at all.
When the elder man had finished the letter, he hands it to the younger, and he having read it in his turn, they fall to discussing it in a low tone, and in a dialect of which not one word was intelligible to us. Finally, Ali Oukadi, rising from his cushions, says gravely, addressing Dawson:
"I will write without delay to Sidi ben Ahmed in answer to his letter."
"But my daughter," says Dawson, aghast, and as well as he could in the Moorish tongue. "Am I not to have her?"
"My friend says nothing here," answers the old man, regarding the letter, "nothing that would justify my giving her up to you. He says the money shall be paid upon her being brought safe to Elche."
"Why, your Excellency, I and my comrade here will undertake to carry her safely there. What better guard should a daughter have than her father?"
"Are you more powerful than the elements? Can you command the tempest? Have you sufficient armament to combat all the enemies that scour the seas? If any accident befall you, what is this promise of payment?—Nothing."
"At least, you will suffer me to make this voyage with my child."
"I do not purpose to send her to Elche," returned the old man, calmly. "’Tis a risk I will not undertake. I have said that when I am paid three thousand ducats, I will give Lala Mollah freedom, and I will keep my word. To
