I had just completed my dressing,--the costume was simply a short pair
of loose trousers, hands, arms, and feet bare, and a small Fez cap on my
head,--when Halkett came down to me to say that he had been speaking
to Sir Dudley about the matter, and that as I had never yet accustomed
myself to the whelps, it was better that I should not begin the
acquaintance after they had been four days in durance. "At the same
time," added Halkett, "he gives you the choice; you can venture if you
please."

"I've made up my mind," said I. "I'm sure I'm able for anything the
black fellow can do."

"My advice to you, boy," said he, "is to leave them alone. Those Moorish
chaps are the creatures' countrymen, and have almost the same kind of
natures,--they are stealthy, treacherous, and cruel. They never trust
anything, man or beast!"

"No matter," said I. "I'm as strong as he is, and my courage is not
less."

"If you will have it so, I have nothing to say,--indeed, I promised Sir
Dudley I'd give you no advice one way or other; so now get the staff
from Jarasch, and come on deck."

The staff was a short thick truncheon of oak, tipped with brass at each
end, and the only weapon ever used by the boy in his encounters.

"So you're going to take my place!" said the black fellow, while his
dark eyes were lighted up like coals of fire, and his white teeth
glanced between his purple lips. "Don't hurt my poor pet cubs; be gentle
with them."

"Where's the staff?" said I, not liking the tone in which he spoke, or
well knowing if he affected earnest or jest.

"There it is," said he; "but your white hands will be enough without
that. You'll not need the weapon the coward used!" and as he spoke, a
kind of shuddering convulsion shook his frame from head to foot.

"Come, come," said I, stretching out my hand, "I ought not to have
called you a coward, Jarasch,--that you are not! I ask you to forgive
me; will you?"

He never spoke, but nestled lower down in the hammock, so that I could
not even see his face.

"There, they 're calling me already. I must be off! Let us shake hands
and be friends this time at least. When you're well and up, we can fight
it out about something else!"

"Kiss me, then," said he; and though I had no fancy for the embrace, or
the tone it was asked in, I leaned over the hammock, and while he placed
one arm round my neck, and drew me towards him, I kissed his forehead,
and he mine, in true Moorish fashion; and not so