ou may try to pass yourself off as a white man, though your face is
not so white as might be desired; however, you can comfort yourself with
the knowledge that it is whiter than your heart!"

The Arab smiled and glanced at his lieutenant. Marizano smiled, bowed
in acknowledgment of the compliment, and replied that he believed
himself to be second to no one except his employer in that respect.

"Well, then," continued Yoosoof, "you must follow up the discoveries of
this Englishman; give out that you are his friend, and have come there
for the same purposes; and, when you have put them quite at their ease,
commence a brisk trade with them--for which purpose you may take with
you just enough of cloth and beads to enable you to carry out the
deception. For the rest I need not instruct; you know what to do as
well as I."

Marizano approved heartily of this plan, and assured his chief that his
views should be carried out to his entire satisfaction.

"But there is still another point," said Yoosoof, "on which I have to
talk. It appears that there are some white men who have been taken
prisoners by one of the interior tribes--I know not which--for the
finding of whom the British consul at Zanzibar has offered me five
hundred dollars. If you can obtain information about these men it will
be well. If you can find and rescue them it will be still better, and
you shall have a liberal share of the reward."

While the Arab was speaking, the half-caste's visage betrayed a slight
degree of surprise.

"White men!" he said, pulling up his sleeve and showing a gun-shot wound
in his arm which appeared to be not very old. "A white man inflicted
that not long ago, and not very far from the spot on which we stand. I
had vowed to take the life of that white man if we should ever chance to
meet, but if it is worth five hundred dollars I may be tempted to spare
it!"

He laughed lightly as he spoke, and then added, with a thoughtful
look,--"But I don't see how these men--there were two of them, if not
more--can be prisoners, because, when I came across them, they were
well-armed, well supplied, and well attended, else, you may be sure,
they had not given me this wound and freed my slaves. But the
scoundrels who were with me at the time were cowards."

"You are right," said Yoosoof. "The white men you met I heard of at
Zanzibar. They cannot be the prisoners we are asked to search for.
They have not yet been long enough away, I s