pasha."

The Irishman was dismissed.

He bowed and retired.

CHAPTER LXX.

OSMOND AND LOLO THE SLAVE--THREATS AND DEFIANCE--THE CIRCASSIAN'S
DOOM--OSMOND EARNS HIS REWARD.

The three Circassian slaves had been sent as a present to the real
pasha, Osmond's master, by some friendly Algerian prince, and, arriving
in the absence of the pasha, the deputy had cast greedy eyes upon the
rich prize.

Finding all his authority was lost upon the Circassians girls, who
stoutly refused to be persuaded, he grew vicious.

Nothing was positively known, but the tragedy which Jack and Harry
Girdwood had witnessed hard by the water-gate of the Konaki, coupled
with the recognition of the two eunuchs by Tinker as the two assassins
whom he and Bogey had capsized into the water, made matters look
altogether very suspicious indeed.

The few threatening words which Osmond had muttered to one of the fair
Circassians, too, should have told their own tale.

The Circassian girls had endeavoured to screen those luckless negroes,
Tinker and Bogey, for had they not led the boys into the presence of
Osmond disguised as girls?

Here, then, was a pretext for further ill-usage of the unfortunate
slaves.

The girls were brought into the tyrant's presence.

"Stand out, deceitful and faithless slave," he said, addressing one of
the girls; "you are accused of treason to the pasha, and you know your
fate."

The girl addressed made no reply but by a bold, defiant glance.

"You are to die," said Osmond, watching the effect of his words as he
spoke.

The girls did not move nor utter a word.

"You know now my power," he went on to say in a low tone. "You have one
chance of life yet; would you know what that is?"

He waited for an answer.

He waited in vain.

The proud Circassian girls did not deign to notice him.

"You remember what I told your sister?" he said. "Reconsider what I
said, and it may not yet be too late."

"We do not need to speak again," returned one of the girls. "What we
have already said is our resolve."

"Death!" hissed the Turk, between his teeth.

He eagerly watched for the terror his words should have produced.

"Sooner death ten hundred times," returned the Circassian proudly,
"than acknowledge you for our master."

"You have spoken," exclaimed the Turk, fiercely.

He struck a bell, and one of the armed eunuchs entered.

"Remove these slaves to the cells as I told you; there they will remain
unti