d.

Die he must, and his brother also.

The Reis-Effendi examined them, and both of them doggedly denied all
knowledge of what was written on the eggs. But there was one thing
they could not deny--the five million piastres on the English ship;
this was the most damaging piece of evidence against them, and proved
to be their ruin.

The Sultan demanded from Morrison the money of the beys, and Morrison
himself appeared before the Reis-Effendi to defend his consignment,
which he maintained he was only bound to deliver to its lawful owner.

The Reis-Effendi replied that in the Ottoman Empire there was only one
lawful owner of every sort of property, and that was the Sultan. The
property of every deceased person fell to the Grand Signior, and
nobody could make a will without his permission.

Morrison objected, very pertinently, that as the beys were not
deceased the Sultan could scarcely be looked upon as their heir.

Instead of making any answer, the Reis-Effendi sent out his officers
with a little piece of parchment which he had previously subscribed,
and a few moments later the severed heads of the beys stood in front
of Morrison on a silver trencher.

"If their not being dead was the sole impediment," remarked the
Minister of Foreign Affairs, "you perceive that it has now been
removed."

Morrison thereupon handed over all the gold and silver in his
possession as rapidly as possible, and quitted Constantinople that
very hour; he had no great love of a place where every word cost the
life of a man.

But the heads of the beys were stuck on the gates of the Seraglio for
three days and three nights in the sight of all the people, and
mounted heralds proclaimed, at intervals of an hour, "Behold the heads
of the sons of the rebellious Ali Tepelenti, who would have devastated
Stambul!"

And the people loaded the heads with curses each time the proclamation
was made.

* * * * *

A few days later the news reached Janina that Sulaiman Bey and Mukhtar
Bey had been beheaded at Stambul.

Ali Pasha thrice bowed his face to the ground and gave thanks to Allah
for His mercies. And he caused to be proclaimed on the ramparts,
amidst a flourish of trumpets, that his sons, the treacherous beys,
had been decapitated at Stambul. Such is the reward of traitors!

After that, for three days and three nights--just as long a time as
the heads of the beys had been exposed on the gates of the Seraglio-