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Updated: May 24, 2025
"Allah kerim!" cried the astonished Arab. "God is merciful! This is a sword for a sultan. See, it is as straight as when it was made. No chief in the army of Saladin has a better blade." "True, O son of Sheik Ibyn. The blade is perfect. But the hilt is not. Seest thou not that it is made like the cross of the infidel, the unbeliever? Good luck will not follow thee, wielding that sign."
"He has not told me the sum," El Bakhat said. "Tell him the terms, Ben Ibyn," Rupert put in. "Not of course those you have already received for your expenses, but the sum that is to be paid you when you arrive at a port." The sheik repeated the terms to El Bakhat, who at once expressed himself as perfectly satisfied with them. "The English are rich and generous," he said.
Four hundred pounds was the amount that Ben Ibyn had been promised on delivering Rupert in safety at one of the ports, and an equal sum was to be given to El Bakhat.
When you land tomorrow, inquire for the house of Isaac Ben Ibyn. You are doubtless penniless, and I may be able to obtain employment for those of you who may stop at Tripoli, and to assist those who desire to take passage to their homes elsewhere.
"I will tell you, Ben Ibyn, rather than excite your displeasure, though I would much have preferred not to do so, for you speak so much more highly of the affair than it merits. I had myself the honour of being in command of that galley." The ladies broke into exclamations of surprise, while the merchant regarded him with grave displeasure.
I will give you three hundred dollars to forego your claim to it. I know the beast is worth more; but if you possess one of them it will suffice for your needs, and you will oblige me if you will part with the other." "I can refuse my lord nothing," Ben Ibyn said, "and the possession of two such heiries might well draw envy and enmity upon me. I will accept his offer."
So, that night by the camp fire at the little well under the date palms, Mohammed Ali Ben Ibyn, no longer a wild, reckless horseman, but a grave, dignified young man, thrust a fresh coal into the bowl of his long stemmed pipe, handed it politely to an elder friend, and beckoned to a slave to bring him that new weapon from his tent.
"It is early still, and it were best that you should not linger in the city, where there is sure to be a strict search for you in the morning." "But perhaps he may recognise your face?" "It is blackened, my lord, and I am dressed as you were when with Ben Ibyn." "Let us settle our plans, then, before we sally out from here; we could not find a safer place for talking.
It is well, then, that you should pass unnoticed, for were there a tumult in the street you might lose your life, and I should lose the best labour overseer I have ever had." Thus, then, as Gervaise walked through the streets on the first occasion of obtaining his liberty, he attracted no attention whatever. When he saw Ben Ibyn approaching he stepped out to meet him.
When the latter, in obedience to the order, came in from the garden, the officer said in Italian, "It having come to the ears of the sultan my master that the merchant Ben Ibyn has ventured, contrary to the law, to purchase a Christian slave brought secretly into the town, he has declared the slave to be forfeited and I am commanded to take him at once to the slaves' quarter."
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