on saint will look after you, and
therefore expect to see you back here in a fortnight's time at the
outside."

"I hope so with all my heart, Ralph. It will be no fault of mine if I
tarry."

"Will you keep the open sea, or skirt the land, Tresham?" one of the
others asked.

"I shall keep the open sea. The grand master left me to choose my
course; but I think there is more danger by the coast--where pirates may
be hiding in unfrequented bays, in readiness to pounce upon a passing
craft--than in the open sea, where we should have at least the advantage
that we could not be taken by surprise, and might make a race of it. But
the sun will be up in a few minutes, and my orders were to set out at
sunrise, so I must say goodbye at once."

As soon as the vessel was under way, Gervaise took a seat on the poop by
the side of Suleiman Ali, and related to him the conversation he had had
with the grand master.

"The risk that you will run has not escaped me," the Turk said, "and
indeed, I now regret that you were chosen as my escort. I almost wish
that my son had not purchased my freedom at the present time, since it
involves the risk of you losing yours. There is no doubt that the sea
swarms with pirates; the sultan is too busy with his own struggles for
Empire to bestow any attention upon so small a matter. The pashas and
the officers of the ports have not the power, even had they the will,
to put down piracy in their districts, and indeed are, as often as not,
participators in the spoils. Your Order, which, years back, scoured the
seas so hotly that piracy well nigh ceased, have now for forty years
been obliged to turn their attention chiefly to their own defence. They
possess a comparatively small fleet of galleys, and their wealth is
expended on their fortress.

"What with Egypt and the sultan their hands are too full for them to act
as the police of the sea, and the consequence is that from every port,
bay, and inlet, pirate craft set out--some mere rowboats, some, like
those under the command of Hassan Ali, veritable fleets. Thus the
humblest coasters and the largest merchant craft go alike in fear of
them, and I would that the sultan and Egypt and your Order would for two
or three years put aside their differences, and confine their efforts to
sweeping the seas of these pests, to storming their strongholds, and to
inflicting such punishment upon them as that, for a very long time to
come, peaceful merchants might car