presently," Charlie said. "It is something to
know she is in one of two houses.

"Now, about getting back into the town?"

"I have thought of that," Hossein said. "I have bought a quantity of
plantains, and two large baskets. After the gates are opened, you will
go boldly in with the baskets on your heads. No questions are asked of
the country people who go in and out. I have some stain here, which
will darken your skins.

"I will go in first in my merchant's dress, which I have here. I will
stop a little way inside the gate, and when I see you coming, will
walk on. Do you follow me, a little behind. My house is in a quiet
street. When I reach the door, do you come up and offer to sell me
plantains. If there are people about, I shall bargain with you until I
see that no one is noticing us. Then you can enter. If none are about,
you can follow me straight in."

Hossein now set about the disguises. A light was struck, and both Tim
and Charlie were shaved, up to the line which the turban would cover.
Charlie's whiskers, which were somewhat faint, as he was still under
twenty-one years old, gave but little trouble. Tim, however, grumbled
at parting with his much more bushy appendages. The shaven part of the
heads, necks, and faces were then rubbed with a dark fluid, as were
the arms and legs.

They were next wrapped in dark blue clothes, in peasant fashion, and
turbans wound round their heads. Hossein then, examining them
critically, announced that they would pass muster anywhere.

"I feel mighty quare," Tim exclaimed; "and it seems to me downright
ondacent, to be walking about with my naked legs."

Charlie laughed.

"Why, Tim, you are accustomed to see thousands of men, every day, with
nothing on but a loincloth."

"Yes, yer honor, but then they're hathens, and it seems natural for
them to do so; but for a dacent boy to go walking about in the
streets, with a thing on which covers no more than his shirt, is
onnatural altogether. Mother of Moses, what a shindy there would be,
in the streets of Cork, if I were to show myself in such a state!"

Charlie now lay down for a sleep till morning; while Tim, who had had
three hours' repose, settled himself for a comfortable chat with
Hossein, to whom sleep appeared altogether unnecessary.

Between Hossein and Tim there was a sort of brotherly attachment,
arising from their mutual love of their master. During the two years
which Tim had spent apart from all Europeans, s