no one could tell how long it would be
before any kind of haven could be reached.

Arthur bathed himself and his charge in a pool, after Tam had ascertained
that no many-armed squid or cuttlefish lurked within it. And while
Ulysse disported himself like a little fish, Arthur did his best to
restore him to his natural complexion, and tried to cleanse the little
garments, which showed only too plainly the lack of any change, and which
were the only Frank or Christian clothes among them, since young Hope
himself had been almost stripped when he came ashore, and wore the usual
garb of Yusuf's slaves.

Presently Fareek made an imperative sign to hush the child's merry
tongue; and peering forth in intense anxiety, the others perceived a
lateen sail passing perilously near, but happily keeping aloof from the
sharp reef of rocks around their shelter. Arthur had forgotten the
child's prayers and his own, but Ulysse connected them with dressing, and
the alarm of the passing ship had recalled them to the young man's mind,
though he felt shy as he found that Tam Armstrong was not asleep, but was
listening and watching with his keen gray eyes under their grizzled
brows. Presently, when Ulysse was dropping to sleep again, the
ex-merchant began to ask questions with the intelligence of his shrewd
Scottish brains.

The stern Calvinism of the North was wont to consign to utter neglect the
outcast border of civilisation, where there were no decent parents to
pledge themselves; and Partan Jeannie's son had grown up well-nigh in
heathen ignorance among fisher lads and merchant sailors, till it had
been left for him to learn among the Mohammedans both temperance and
devotional habits. His whole faith and understanding would have been
satisfied for ever; but there had been strange yearnings within him ever
since he had lost his wife and children, and these had not passed away
when Arthur Hope came in his path. Like many another renegade, he could
not withstand the attraction of his native tongue; and in this case it
was doubled by the feudal attachment of the district to the family of
Burnside, and a grateful remembrance of the lady who had been one of the
very few persons who had ever done a kindly deed by the little outcast.
He had broken with all his Moslem ties for Arthur Hope's sake; and these
being left behind, he began to make some inquiries about that Christian
faith to which he must needs return--if return be the right word i