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Updated: May 4, 2025
Osman has come! I have seen him! Hateful! He comes to-morrow to " The writing ended abruptly. "My hideous sneeze did that!" growled Foster savagely. "But if I had been a moment later Ben-Ahmed might have well, well; no matter. She must be saved. She shall be saved!" Having said this, clenched his teeth and hands, and glared, he began to wonder how she was to be saved.
While he was yet speaking the clatter of horses' hoofs in the distance was heard. Instantly the party made for the boat. There was no time for last adieux. Ben-Ahmed helped to shove off the boat and bundle them in. "You will hear pistol-shots," he cried, "but fear not for me. My horse can outrun the best in Algiers. I will only fire to decoy them away. Farewell!"
When his son Osman who had seen Hester only once and that for but a few minutes discovered that the fair slave had fled, his rage knew no bounds. He immediately sent for Peter the Great and sternly asked him if he knew how the English girl had escaped. Their intercourse, we may remark, was carried on in the same curious manner as that referred to in connection with Ben-Ahmed.
He left the room angrily, and a look from Ben-Ahmed sent the four sailors after him. The Moor was too well accustomed to his wild son's ways to require any explanation of the cause of the fracas. Just giving one glance at his slaves, to make sure that neither was killed, he left the room as hastily as he had entered it.
"Well, as they risked their precious lives to rescue me, it ain't likely," returned the seaman. "Would it not be well to keep Brown here till Ben-Ahmed returns?" asked Foster, turning to Peter the Great. The negro knitted his brows and looked vacantly up through the leafy roof of the bower, as if in profound meditation.
The shock was tremendous, for the Dey was by no means a light weight, and Peter the Great went down before it in the dust, while the great man arose, shaken indeed, and confused, but unhurt by the accident. Ben-Ahmed also arose uninjured, but Peter lay still where he had fallen.
"I will do as you command, Ben-Ahmed," said Foster; "but I must tell you frankly that I will not " "Silence!" thundered the Moor, with a look of ferocity which the amazed midshipman could not account for. "Have you not understood me?" "Yes, sir, perfectly, but " "When a slave receives a command," cried Ben-Ahmed in rising wrath, "it is his duty to obey in silence. Again I say go!"
He was sitting one day while in this state at an angle of the garden trying to devote his entire mind to the portrayal of a tree-fern, and vainly endeavouring to prevent Hester Sommers from coming between him and the paper, when he was summoned to attend upon Ben-Ahmed. As this was an event of by no means uncommon occurrence, he listlessly gathered up his materials and went into the house.
"Well, I'm not vary sure," replied Foster, making a wry face as he sat down to examine them. "How it did sting, Peter! I owe a heavy debt of gratitude to old Ben-Ahmed for cutting it short. No, the skin's not damaged, I see, but there are two or three most awful weals. D'you know, I never before this day felt sorry that I wasn't born a dog!" "Why's dat, Geo'ge?"
The middy at once squatted a la Turk, not on the cushion, but on the floor, in front of his master, and, with earnest voice and gesture, related the story which Peter the Great had just told him. Ben-Ahmed was visibly affected by it. "But how can I save him?" he asked, with a look of perplexity. "Did you not once save the life of the Dey?" asked Foster. "I did. How came you to know that?"
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