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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
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