lay still while
he sauntered towards them, and glided noiselessly and quickly to the
rope while his back was turned.

Thus one by one they descended the wall, crossed the ditch, ascended the
slope on the other side, without having been observed, and, ere long,
were safe among the rocks and fastnesses of the Sahel hills.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN.

IN WHICH SOLES ARE BEATEN AND MEN ARE SOLD--WITH PLOTS AND COUNTERPLOTS.

Comfortably ensconced in the palace of the Deys--elected by a majority
of his comrades--the Aga Hamet proceeded to enjoy his high position, and
to exercise the authority of ruler of the pirate city.

The day after his ascension of what we may call the dangerous throne, he
sent for Hadji Baba the story-teller.

"Thou art a witty fellow, it seems?" said the Dey, when Baba made his
appearance.

"So it has been said of me, and so I once thought," replied the jester
humbly; "but I have come to doubt the worth of my own wit, since it has
led me to dwell in a palace."

"How so, knave? What mean you?"

"In truth, I know not," replied Baba. "My wit is scarce sufficient to
make my meaning plain even to myself. Only I feel that the brilliancy
of the wit of those who dwell in palaces is too much for me. 'Twere
better, methinks, if I had remained on my shoemaker's bench."

"'Twere indeed better for thee to have done so, good fellow, if thou
canst say nothing better than that," replied Hamet angrily, for he was a
stupid as well as an ambitious man. "Let's have something better from
thee, else the bastinado shall drive sense from thy heels into thy
head."

"Nay, then, it is hard," returned Baba, with a smile, "to be asked to
talk sense when I was hired by thy late master--"

"_My_ late master!" roared the Dey.

"Surely I said `_my_ late master,' did I not?" returned Hadji Baba,
rubbing his forehead as if he were confused--as, in truth, the poor
fellow was, by the terrible scenes that had lately been enacted in the
palace. "As I meant to say, then,--it is hard for me to talk sense when
_my_ late master hired me expressly to talk nonsense."

"H'm, yes, very true," replied the Dey, looking wise. "Let me, then,
hear some of thy nonsense."

"Ah, your highness, that is easily done," said Baba, with sudden
animation. "What shall be the subject of my discourse?--the affairs of
state?"

The Dey nodded.

"Let me, then, make a broad statement of a nonsensical kind, which, in
its particular applications