efore.

"Where does the fellow live?" he inquired of the dervish.

The magic jugglery was set going again, and now the dancing goblet
spelled out the name, "Stambul."

That was enough. Ali beckoned to the eunuchs to take the dervish away
again.

Ali thereupon summoned forty Albanian soldiers from the garrison, and
gave to each one of them twenty ducats.

"This," said he, "is only earnest money. I want a man put to death
whose name and dwelling-place I know. His name is Gaskho Bey, and he
lives in Stambul. This man's head is worth as many gold pieces as
there are miles between him and me. He who brings the head can measure
the distance and be paid for it. The first who brings but the report
of his death shall receive two hundred ducats; he who slays him, a
thousand."

The Albanians consulted together for a brief moment, and then
intimated that if a bey of the name of Gaskho really existed, he was
as good as dead already.

Towards mid-day Ali sent for his sons. He said not a word to them of
the anxieties, the visions, and the apparitions of the night before,
but made them, after they had respectfully kissed his hands, sit down
all around him. Mukhtar Bey he invited to sit down on his left hand,
Vely on his right, and Sulaiman directly opposite.

He addressed himself first of all to Sulaiman.

"Thou art the youngest and boldest," said he. "To-morrow thou must go
to sea and take three ships with thee. These ships thou must take to
Sicily, load them there with sulphur, and return without losing an
instant."

"Oh, my father!" replied Sulaiman, "the tempest is now abroad upon the
sea. Who would venture now with a ship upon the billows? All the
monsters of the ocean are now running upon the surface seeking whom
they may devour, and the phantom ship, with her shadowy rigging and
her shadowy crew, pursues her zigzag course across the waters."

Ali Pasha said no more, but turned towards Mukhtar Bey.

"Thou art the most crafty," said he; "go then to the captains of the
Suliotes and invite them to assemble with their forces at Janina with
all despatch. Spare neither promises nor assurances nor fair winds."

Mukhtar Bey's face turned quite angry, and, wagging his head, still
heavy from his overnight debauch, he answered, sullenly: "In the
mountains the snow is now thawing; every stream is swollen into a
river; naught but a bird can find a place for its foot on the dry
ground; how, then, can armies move hither and thi