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Below on the waist-deck Sakr-el-Bahr was pacing with Vigitello, and Vigitello's words to him were of a tenor identical almost with those of Biskaine to the Basha. "I scarce can judge," said the Italian renegade. "But I do think that it were not wise for either thou or Asad to take the first step against the other." "Are matters, then, so equal between us?"
And with a laugh he sauntered on, leaving Lionel to writhe there with the torment of his half-knowledge. An hour later, when the cloudy outline of the Balearic Isles had acquired density and colour, Sakr-el-Bahr and Vigitello met again on the waist-deck, and they exchanged some few words in passing.
"Vigitello," said he, "is it possible that I have been betrayed to the Basha?" Vigitello looked up sharply at the question, then smiled with confidence. They were standing alone by the bulwarks on the waist-deck. "Touching what we carry yonder?" quoth he, his glance shifting to the bale. "Impossible.
Larocque was in the very act of clambering over the bulwarks amidships, towards the waist-deck where Asad awaited him in company with Marzak and the trusty Biskaine.
In lines three deep they stood ranged along the ample fighting platform of the prow; in the foremost line were the archers, behind them stood the swordsmen, their weapons gleaming lividly in the darkness. They crowded to the bulwarks of the waist-deck and swarmed upon the rat-lines of the mainmast.
In answer, then, to those who still called upon him, he leapt down the companion and strode along the gangway to the waist-deck to take his stand at the Basha's side.
And yet it was proven now that they had been right in their estimate of this traitor, whilst he himself had been a poor, blind dupe, needing Marzak's wit to tear the bandage from his eyes. Slowly he went down the gangway, followed by Marzak, Biskaine, and the others. At the point where it joined the waist-deck he paused, and his dark old eyes smouldered under his beetling brows. "So," he snarled.
He was chained, like the rest, stark naked, save for a loincloth, in the place nearest the gangway on the first starboard bench abaft the narrow waist-deck, and ere the galeasse had made the short distance between the mole and the island at the end of it, the boatswain's whip had coiled itself about his white shoulders to urge him to better exertion than he was putting forth.
The oars dipped, the slaves strained and the galeasse ploughed forward, time being kept by a boatswain's mate who squatted on the waist-deck and beat a tomtom rhythmically.
It spurred Asad. He advanced slowly along the vessel's waist-deck to the mainmast for she was rigged with main and foremasts. There he halted again to look into the face of Sakr-el-Bahr who stepped along beside him. "Why didst thou laugh?" he questioned shortly. "Why? At the folly of such a proposal," said Sakr-el-Bahr in haste, too much in haste to seek a diplomatic answer.
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