Part 14 (2/2)
Of all this Sakr-el-Bahr gathered an iroes, he swiftly made his way down fro from red oak to cork-tree and from cork-tree to red oak; he leapt froripping a handful of heath or a projecting stone, but all with the speed and nimbleness of an ape He dropped at last to the beach, then sped across it at a run, and went bounding along a black reef until he stood alongside of the galliot which had been left behind by the other Corsair vessels She awaited hith of her oars froht to the horizontal, and held there fir hiway, reached the bulwarks He threw a leg over the side, and alighted on a decked space between two oars and the ts of six slaves that were roes came last They were still astride of the bulwarks when Sakr-el-Bahr gave the word Up thetheir long whips of bullock-hide Doent the oars, there was a heave, and they shot out in the wake of the other two to join the fight
Sakr-el-Bahr, scimitar in hand, stood on the prow, a little in advance of thein their i the yardarm and up the ratlines swarmed his bowmen Froed with a green crescent
The naked Christian slaves groaned, strained and sweated under the Moslem lash that drove them to the destruction of their Christian brethren
Ahead the battle was already joined The Spaniard had fired one single hasty shot which had gone wide, and now one of the corsair's grappling-irons had seized her on the larboard quarter, a withering hail of arroas pouring down upon her decks froer Moors, ever s who had driven them from their Andalusian Caliphate Under her quarter sped the other galley to take her on the starboard side, and even as she went her archers and stingers hurled death aboard the galleon
It was a short, sharp fight The Spaniards in confusion fro been taken utterly by surprise, had never been able to order theht Still, what could be done they did They ainst this pitiless assailant But the corsairs charged hoer to slay in the naer to die if it should please the All-pitiful that their destinies should be here fulfilled Up they went, and back fell the Castilians, outnualliot caside, that brief encounter was at an end, and one of his corsairs was aloft, hacking from the mainmast the standard of Spain and the wooden crucifix that was nailed below it
Aroar of ”Al-hareen crescent floated out upon the breeze
Sakr-el-Bahr thrust his way through the press in the galleon's waist; his corsairs fell back before hi way, and as he advanced they roared his name deliriously and waved their scimitars to acclaim him this hawk of the sea, as he was named, this most valiant of all the servants of Islaement
It had been too brief and he had arrived too late for that But his had been the daring to conceive an ambush at so reuided them to this swift sweet victory in the name of Allah the One
The decks were slippery with blood, and streounded and dyingoverboard--dead and wounded alike when they were Christians, for to what end should they be troubled with maimed slaves?
About theSpaniards, weaponless and broken in courage, a herd of timid, bewildered sheep
Sakr-el-Bahr stood forward, his light eyes considering therimly They must number close upon a hundred, adventurers in thefortune in the Indies Their voyage had been a very brief one; their fate they knew--to toil at the oars of the Musliiers or Tunis and sold there into the slavery of solance scanned thely, and rested finally on the captain, who stood slightly in advance, his face livid with rage and grief He was richly dressed in the Castilian black, and his velvet thiold cross
Sakr-el-Bahr salaauerra, senor capitan,” said he in fluent Spanish ”What is your name?”
”I a hi with conscious pride in himself and entlee In the sok at Algiers you ht fetch two hundred philips You shall ransom yourself for five hundred”
”Por las Entranas de Dios!” swore Don Paulo who, like all pious Spanish Catholics, favoured the oath anatomical What else he would have added in his fury is not known, for Sakr-el-Bahr waved him contemptuously away
”For your profanity and want of courtesy ill make the ransom a thousand philips, then,” said he And to his followers--”Aith hiainst the co
Of the others Sakr-el-Bahrhie was clained to the care of Biskaine, who acted as his Kayla, or lieutenant But before doing so he bade the shi+p's bo'sun stand forward, and deht be on board There were, he learnt, but a dozen, employed upon menial duties on the shi+p--three Jews, seven Muslimeen and two heretics--and they had been driven under the hatches when the peril threatened
By Sakr-el-Bahr's orders these were dragged forth fro The Musli that they had fallen into the hands of their own people and that their slavery was at an end, broke into cries of delight, and fervent praise of Allah than whom they swore there was no other God The three Jews, lithe, stalwart young men in black tunics that fell to their knees and black skull-caps upon their curly black locks, s for the best since they were fallen into the hands of people ere nearer akin to them than Christians and allied to them, at least, by the bond of co at the hands of Spaniards The two heretics stood in stolid apathy, realizing that with the from Charybdis to Scylla, and that they had as little to hope for from heathen as froed fellohose gars; his weather-beaten face was of the colour of any and his eyes of a dark blue under tufted eyebrows that once had been red--like his hair and beard--but were now thickly interrey He was spotted like a leopard on the hands by enormous dark brown freckles
Of the entire dozen he was the only one that drew the attention of Sakr-el-Bahr He stood despondently before the corsair, with bowed head and his eyes upon the deck, a weary, dejected, spiritless slave ould as soon die as live Thus soarding him; then as if drawn by that persistent scrutiny he raised his dull, weary eyes At once they quickened, the dulness passed out of theht and keen as of old He thrust his head forward, staring in his turn; then, in a bewildered way he looked about him at the ocean of swarthy faces under turbans of all colours, and back again at Sakr-el-Bahr
”God's light!” he said at last, in English, to vent his infinite a to the cynicalall surprise--
”Good day to you, Sir Oliver,” said he ”I suppose ye'll give yourself the pleasure of hanging reat!” said Sakr-el-Bahr impassively
CHAPTER II THE RENEGADE