better sort who can
afford luxuries, and so in time gain my end."

"You shall teach me this business, Jack," says I, "for at present I'm
more helpless than you."

"Kit," says he, laying hold of my hand, "let us have no misunderstanding
on this matter. You go not to Barbary with me."

"What!" cries I, protesting. "You would have the heart to break from me
after we have shared good and ill fortune together like two brothers all
these years?"

"God knows we shall part with sore hearts o' both sides, and I shall
miss you sadly enough, with no Christian to speak to out there. But 'tis
not of ourselves we must think now. Some one must be here to be a father
to my Moll when she returns, and I'll trust Don Sanchez no farther than
I can see him, for all his wisdom. So, as you love the dear girl, you
will stay here, Kit, to be her watch and ward, and as you love me you
will spare me any further discussion on this head. For I am resolved."

I would say nothing then to contrary him, but my judgment and feeling
both revolted against his decision. For, thinks I, if one Christian is
worth but a groat to the Turk, two must be worth eightpence, therefore
we together stand a better chance of buying Moll's freedom than either
singly. And, for my own happiness, I would easier be a slave in Barbary
with Jack than free elsewhere and friendless. Nowhere can a man be free
from toil and pain of some sort or another, and there is no such solace
in the world for one's discomforts as the company of a true man.

But I was not regardless of Moll's welfare when she returned, neither.
For I argued with myself that Mr. Godwin had but to know of her
condition to find means of coming hither for her succour. So the next
time I met Don Sanchez, I took him aside and told him of my concern,
asking him the speediest manner of sending a letter to England (that I
had enclosed in mine to the Don having missed him through his leaving
Toledo before it arrived).

"There is no occasion to write," says he. "For the moment I learnt your
history from Sidi I sent a letter, apprising him of his wife's innocence
in this business, and the noble reparation she had made for the fault of
others. Also, I took the liberty to enclose a sum of money to meet his
requirements, and I'll answer for it he is now on his way hither. For no
man living could be dull to the charms of his wife, or bear resentment
to her for an act that was prompted by love rather than avarice, and
w