baskets--full
baskets, you understand?"

"Yis, Signor, full to bustin'," answered Bobi, with glittering eyes.

"Full as they can hold of all that is needful--she will understand
that.--There, be off--lose no time," said the consul, thrusting a
quantity of silver into the man's hand.

"Kurnul Langley," said Bobi, with enthusiasm glowing in his solitary
eye, as he turned to go; "you--by the beard of the Prophet!--you're the
ace of trumps!"

With this strong, if not elegant expression of his sentiments, the
sympathetic Bobi hurried away, and Colonel Langley entered the divan,
where were assembled the Dey and the chief officers of state.

The discussion on that occasion was conducted warmly, for the pirates
believed that they had made a good and legitimate prize in the shape of
a Greek vessel, which was owned by a Mr and Mrs de Lisle, who, with
their little son, were also captured.

Colonel Langley claimed these as British subjects, and the vessel as
British property.

In this case the pirates had taken a precaution which, they had hoped,
would save them all trouble. On boarding the vessel they had demanded
all Mr de Lisle's papers and passports, which, when delivered up, were
torn into atoms and thrown into the sea. Thus they sought to destroy
all evidence of the nature of the prize.

Mr de Lisle was a native of Guernsey, and therefore an English subject.
Early in life he had entered a commercial house in Holland, and been
naturalised there. Afterwards he was sent to a branch of the same house
in Naples, which at that time was occupied by the French. Amassing
considerable property, he resolved to return to his native land, and
hired a Greek vessel, as being a neutral one, to convey him. On his
way, he fell into the hands of the Algerines.

At the divan the British consul claimed that Mr de Lisle and his family
and property should be delivered up to him.

The Turks, with whom Colonel Langley was out of favour now that his
friend Achmet was dead, were furious. How could he be an Englishman,
they said, when it was well-known that the French would not have
permitted one of their chief enemies to remain at Naples?

"And besides," added Omar, with a touch of sarcasm, "where are his
papers to prove that what he says is true?"

The consul had made his demand with unusual firmness and dignity, for
the memory of poor Sidi Cadua was strong upon him, but this latter
remark somewhat perplexed him. Fortunately, at