for our own King's--'

'Eh, sirs! And has there been a rising on the Border side against the
English pock puddings? Oh, gin I had kenned it!'

Yusuf's knowledge of English politics had been dim at the best, and he
had apparently left Scotland before even Queen Anne was on the throne.
When he understood Arthur's story, he communicated his own. He had been
engaged in a serious brawl with some English fishers, and in fear of the
consequences had fled from Eyemouth, and after casting about as a common
sailor in various merchant ships, had been captured by a Moorish vessel,
and had found it expedient to purchase his freedom by conversion to
Islam, after which his Scottish shrewdness and thrift had resulted in his
becoming a prosperous itinerant merchant, with his headquarters at Bona.
He expressed himself willing and anxious to do all he could for his young
countryman; but it would be almost impossible to do so unless Arthur
would accept the religion of his captors; and he explained that the two
boys were the absolute property of the tribe, who had discovered and
rescued them when going to the seashore to gather kelp for the glass work
practised by the Moors in their little furnaces.

'Forsake my religion? Never!' cried Arthur indignantly.

'Saftly, saftly,' said Yusuf; 'nae doot ye trow as I did that they are a'
mere pagans and savage heathens, worshipping Baal and Ashtaroth, but I
fand myself quite mista'en. They hae no idols, and girn at the blinded
Papists as muckle as auld Deacon Shortcoats himsel'.'

'I know that,' threw in Arthur.

'Ay, and they are a hantle mair pious and devout than ever a body I hae
seen in Eyemouth, or a' the country side to boot; forbye, my minnie's
auld auntie, that sat graning by the ingle, and ay banned us when we came
ben. The meneester himsel' dinna gae about blessing and praying over
ilka sma' matter like the meenest of us here, and for a' the din they
make at hame about the honorable Sabbath, wha thinks of praying five
times the day? While as for being the waur for liquor, these folks kenna
the very taste of it. Put yon sheyk down on the wharf at Eyemouth, and
what wad he say to the Christian folk there?'

A shock of conviction passed over Arthur, though he tried to lose it in
indignant defence; but Yusuf did not venture to stay any longer with him,
and bidding him think over what had been said, since slavery or Islam
were the only alternatives, returned to the tents of merc