iles, excellency. It is dangerous, but with care we can get
safely along."

"You have quite cleared the passage, then?" said the professor.

"Right to the mouth, effendi. There, so as not to excite notice, I have
only left a hole big enough to crawl from. Not that anyone could see,
except from the mountain on the other side, and nobody is ever there."

"When do we go, then?" said Lawrence eagerly.

"If their excellencies are willing, to-morrow night," said Yussuf.
"Every hour I am expecting to see the messenger return, and you,
gentlemen, forced to agree to some terms by which in honour you will be
bound to pay heavy amounts, and then it will not be worth while to
escape."

"I say, look here, Yussuf," said Mr Burne, "are you real or only sham?"

Yussuf frowned slightly.

"Your excellency never trusted me," he replied proudly.

"I did not at first, certainly," said the old lawyer. "I'll go so far
as to say that in the full swing of my suspicions I was almost ready to
think that you had been playing into the brigands' hands and had sold
us."

"Oh, Mr Burne!" cried Lawrence reproachfully.

"You hold your tongue, boy. You're out of court. You haven't been a
lawyer for nearly forty years; I have."

"I have tried hard to win Mr Burne's confidence," said Yussuf gravely.
"I am sorry I have failed."

"But you have not failed, my good fellow," cried the old lawyer. "I
only say, Are you a real Turk or a sham?"

"Will your excellency explain?" said Yussuf with dignity. "I speak your
tongue, and understand plain meanings, but when there are two thoughts
in a word I cannot follow."

"I mean, my dear fellow, you so thoroughly understand the thoughts and
ways of English gentlemen that it is hard to think you are a born Turk."

"Oh!" said Yussuf smiling. "I have been so much with them, excellency,
and--I have tried to learn."

"There's a lesson for you, Lawrence," said the professor smiling.
"Well, then, Yussuf, to-morrow night."

"Yes, excellency."

"Then, had we not better tell the Chumleys?"

Yussuf was silent for a few moments.

"I am sorry about them," he said at last. "We cannot leave them behind,
for it would mean their death; but if we fail in our escape, it will be
through them. No, excellency, say no word till we are ready to start,
and then say, `Come!'"

"You are right, Yussuf," said Mr Burne. "That woman would chatter all
over the place if she knew: say nothing, and we must make the be