pounding was
redoubled.

"Was the slabe white or black?" asked Mrs Lilly, with childlike
simplicity, and more for the purpose of gaining time to think than
anything else.

"She was white," interposed Osman, "and very beautiful,--in fact, one of
the ladies of the harem."

On hearing this Mrs Lilly looked inquiringly upwards, as if she
expected inspiration to flow from the bricks that formed the vaulted
ceiling. Then she looked suddenly at Peter the Great, and said--

"Das mus' be de lady you was tole me about, Peter,--Ister--Hister--w'at
you call 'er?"

"Yes--Hester! Das so. De same as I tole you all about her 'scape,"
answered Peter, quaking with anxiety and astonishment at the woman's
calm boldness, yet ready to fall in with any plan that her words might
suggest. At the same time the gasping in the hole became more and more
genuine, and the pounding more and more emphatic.

"No, massa, I don' know of no white slabe as hab took refuge wid any ob
our neighbours. Indeed I's kite sure dat none ob de neighbours knows
not'ing at all about dis Is--Es--w'at you call her? Ester! Das so,
Peter?"

"Yes, das so, Missis Lilly."

"Stop that horrible noise in the hole there! What is it?" said Osman
impatiently.

"It is only one of my negro slaves," said the master of the house.
"Call her up, Lilly, and set her to something quieter until we go."

Rendered desperate now, Peter the Great started forward with glaring
eyes. "Massa," he said, "an idea hab just struck me. Will you come out
a momint? I wants to tell you somet'ing _bery hard_."

The appearance, not less than the earnestness, of the negro, inclined
Osman to comply with his request; but, hesitating, he said--

"Why not tell me here, Peter? We are all friends, you know."

"Oh yes, I know dat, Massa Osman; but womans can never be trusted wid
t'ings ob importance, 'specially black womans! But ob course if you not
'fraid ob Missis Lilly, _I_ a'n't 'fraid ob her lettin' de secret out.
I darsay she's as good a creetur as de best ob 'um."

This readiness to give in was a politic stroke. Osman agreed to go
outside with the negro, and while the latter was ascending the short
stair to the street, he was making superhuman efforts to invent
something, for, as yet, he had not the faintest idea what his intended
communication should be. But Peter the Great was a genius, and it is
one of the characteristics of genius to be bold even to recklessness.

Trustin