t seemed, like his
frail old body, to be bowed to the very dust.

"My dear friend," exclaimed the consul, almost overwhelmed with grief at
the sight, "has the villain robbed you of all your wealth?"

"He has," replied the old man, taking the consul's proffered hand and
pressing it warmly; "but he has done worse than that--"

"What! has he dared to--"

Sidi Cadua interrupted and answered the question by quietly removing the
lower part of his robe, and exposing his feet, which were dreadfully
swollen and scarred with the bastinado.

"Even that is not the worst of it," said the old man, re-covering his
mutilated feet; "my daughter, my sweet, tender Ashweesha, has been
cruelly bastinadoed for--"

He broke down here, and, covering his face with his withered hands,
groaned aloud.

For a few moments Colonel Langley could not speak.

"But why," he said at length, "why such cruelty?"

Recovering himself, Sidi Cadua slowly related the circumstances. An
enemy, he said, had accused him to the Dey Omar of having hidden away a
large amount of treasure, and he had been put to the torture in order to
force him to disclose the truth; but the truth was that he had never
concealed treasure, and had no confession to make. Believing that his
silence was the result of sheer obstinacy, and that the truth might
perhaps be extorted from his daughter, the cruel monster had the gentle
Ashweesha dragged from her apartments and subjected to the bastinado.

"Dreadful!" exclaimed the consul. "Where is she now?"

Sidi Cadua silently pointed to a ragged old burnous in a dark corner of
the little cellar, under which a human form lay crouched up and
motionless.

"Not dead?" asked the consul anxiously.

"No, not dead," replied the old man, with an upward glance of gratitude.

"Sidi Cadua," exclaimed the consul, rising hastily, "excuse my leaving
you now. I have to attend the divan. You shall hear from me soon.
You--you,"--looking round--"have no other house than this--no food?"

"Nothing!" said the old man in a low voice, as his white head sank on
his bosom.

"Listen, my man," said the consul earnestly, as he hastened down to the
Marina.

"Yis, Signor," answered Bobi.

"Can you find time to go out to my house just now?"

"Yis, Signor."

"Then, go--go as fast as legs or horse can carry you. See my wife; tell
her what we have seen; let her send Rais Ali into town with other
servants--separately, not to attract attention--with