re you quite sure you saw him take the ring?" demanded the cadi of
Ziffa.

"Quite sure," replied the girl.

"And you are sure you did _not_ take it?" he asked of the negro.

"Absolutely certain," answered the old man.

"And you are convinced that you once had the ring, and now have it not?"
he said, turning to Hadji Baba.

"Quite."

"The case is very perplexing," said the cadi, turning to the
administrators of the law who stood at his elbow; "give the master and
the servant each one hundred strokes of the bastinado, twenty at a time,
beginning with the servant."

The officers at once seized on the old negro, threw him down and gave
him twenty blows. They then advanced to Hadji Baba, and were about to
seize him, when he cried out--

"Beware what thou doest! I am an officer of the Dey's palace and may
not be treated thus with impunity."

The cadi, who either did not, or pretended not, to believe the
statement, replied sententiously--

"Justice takes no note of persons.--Proceed."

The officers threw Baba on his face, and were about to proceed, when
Ziffa in alarm advanced with the ring and confessed her guilt.

Upon this the cadi was still further perplexed, for he could not now
undo the injustice of the blows given to the negro. After a few
minutes' severe thought he awarded the diamond ring to the old servant,
and the two hundred blows to the master as being a false accuser.

The award having been given, the case was dismissed, and Hadji Baba went
home with smarting soles, resolved to punish Ziffa severely.

"Spare me!" said Ziffa, whimpering, when her father, seizing a rod, was
about to begin.

"Nay, thou deservest it," cried Baba, grasping her arm.

"Spare me!" repeated Ziffa, "and I will tell you a great secret, which
will bring you money and credit."

The curiosity of the story-teller was awakened.

"What is it thou hast to tell?"

"Promise me, father, that you won't punish me if I tell you the secret."

"I promise," said Baba, "but see that it is really something worth
knowing, else will I give thee a severer flogging."

Hereupon the false Ziffa related all she knew about the hiding-place of
the Rimini family. Her father immediately went to the palace, related
it to the Dey, and claimed and received the reward.

That night a party of soldiers were sent off to search the head of Frais
Vallon, and before morning they returned to town with Francisco and his
two sons, whom they threw int