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Now I will take you to Ben Ibyn, so that he may judge whether any further change is required before the servants and slaves see you." "That is excellent," the merchant said, when he had carefully inspected Gervaise, "I should pass you myself without recognizing you.
Get everything you want; you will have no difficulty in finding everything in the Arab quarter. Skinner, lend me a sovereign, will you? We have been living on barter for a long time, but they will want money here." "This is worth five dollars," he said as he handed the money to El Bakhat; "but, ah! I forgot, Ben Ibyn knows about the value of English money.
"Have you any friends on board the ships that sailed from here, or any interest in the venture, Ben Ibyn?" The merchant shook his head. "We Berbers," he said, "are not like the Moors, and have but little to do with the sea, save by the way of trade. For myself, I regret that these corsair ships are constantly putting out.
"I had hoped," he said, "that the corsair would have taken me to Syria, for there I could have communicated with Suleiman, who would, I am sure, have given me such shelter and aid as he was able, in the event of my making my escape from slavery and finding myself unable to leave by sea." The next day Gervaise went with Ben Ibyn to his stores.
Upon these occasions Ben Ibyn acted as spokesman and represented that they had friends among the Hadendowah tribesmen, and wished to learn whether any trade could be opened with the coast. When within a day's march of Kassala they met a number of camels laden with spoil from that town on their way to Khartoum, accompanied by a number of foot soldiers and ten or twelve horsemen.
"You have treated me well and honourably." "No, I will not have that, sheik; he is your property, and is a very useful slave. I will give you two hundred dollars for him." "It is well," El Bakhat said; "he is yours." "Now," Rupert said, "there are the two heiries; they are yours by right, Ben Ibyn, but I would fain give one to El Bakhat.
"He had intended to conceal his knowledge," Ben Ibyn went on, "which would have been politic; but when he found that my intentions were kind, he told us that he knew our tongue, and now revealed his knowledge, as he thought it would be dishonourable to listen to our talk, leaving us under the impression that he could not understand us." "Truly these Christians are strange men," Muley said.
"I will make him pay more heavily than the sultan would," Ben Ibyn said sternly; "I will speak to my friends among the merchants, and henceforth no Berber will buy aught from him; and we have hitherto been his best customers. But let us not waste our time in speaking of this wretch. How comes it that you are walking freely in the streets of Tripoli?
"I am sure I do not know," she said in a tone of perplexity. "I had thought of having him to hand round coffee when my friends call, and perhaps to work in the garden, but I did not think that he would be anything like this." "That is no reason why he should not do so," Ben Ibyn said.
"He is a Christian," one of the overseers said. "He was smuggled into the town and sold to Ben Ibyn the Berber, who, to conceal the matter, dyed him black; but it got to the ears of the sultan, and he had him taken from the Berber, and brought here; I have no doubt the merchant has been squeezed rarely." "Well, that is a good fellow to work," the other said.
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