"It may be that he does you injustice," said Lucien sternly, "nevertheless we have all of us good reason to believe that you are a friend of the pirate Hassan, and no friend of ours."
"Whether friend or foe, say thy say, man, and be gone," cried the bluff Francisco, whose spirit suffered even more than his body from the indignities to which he had been subjected that day.
"Listen, then," said Bacri impressively. "You know my name and nation, but you do not know that I am the chief of the Jews in this city of devils. I and my people are regarded by these followers of Mohammed as worse than the dogs in their streets, yet, while they treat us with the utmost indignity, they know that we are good traders, and as such bring riches within their walls. I have power—the power of wealth—to help you at a pinch; indeed I have helped you, for it was only by means of a promise of gold that I induced Sidi Hassan to spare your lives when his men were bent on taking them. But that is not what I came to tell you to-night. I came to say that the poor captive girls with whom you voyaged to this place are for the present out of danger."
"Say you so?" exclaimed Mariano eagerly. "How can that be? Did I not see Angela led to the slave-market this very afternoon?"
