oors who were at least half
Turks, and conducted in accordance with the strictest rules of Turkish
etiquette.

Approaching the door of the bath, he observed a tall dignified and very
powerful Arab sauntering in front of it.

Rais Ali seemed troubled by the sight of him, paused, advanced, halted,
and again advanced, until the tall Arab, catching sight of him, stalked
forward with solemn dignity and held out his hand.

"What for yoo comes here?" demanded Rais rather testily.

The tall Moor slowly bent his hooded head and whispered in his
ear--"Faix, it's more than I rightly know mesilf."

"Yoo's mad," said Rais, drawing the tall Arab into the porch of the
bath, where they could avoid the observation of passers-by. "Did not I
tell yoo for to keep close?"

"So ye did, Rais Ally," said Ted Flaggan, for it was he, "and it's close
I kep' as long as I cu'd, which was aisy enough, seeing that ye brought
me purvisions so riglar--like a good feller as ye are; but body o' me,
man, I cudn't live in a cave all me lone for iver, an' I got tired o'
lookin' out for that British fleet that niver comes, so I says to mesilf
wan fine evenin', `Go out, Ted me boy, an' have a swim in the say--it'll
do 'ee good, and there's not much chance of any wan troublin' ye here.'
No sooner said than done. Out I wint round beyont the Pint Pescade, an'
off wid me close an' into the say. Och! but it _was_ plisint! Well,
just as I was coming out, who should I see on the rocks above me but a
big thief of an Arab? I knew at wance that if I was to putt on close
he'd guess, maybe, who I was, so I came out o' the wather an' ran
straight at him naked--meanin' to frighten him away like. An' sure
enough he tuk to his heels like a Munster pig. I don't know how it is,
but I have always had a strong turn for huntin'. From the time whin I
was a small gosoon runnin' after the pigs an' cats, I've bin apt to give
chase to anything that runned away from me, an' to forgit myself. So it
was now. After the Arab I wint, neck an crop, an' away he wint like the
wind, flingin' off his burnous as he ran; but I was light, bein' naked,
d'ye see, an' soon overhauled him. For a starn-chase it was the
shortest I remember. When I came up wid him I made a grab at his head,
an his hake--is that what ye calls it?--comed away in me hand, leaving
his shaved head open to view, wid the tuft o' hair on the top of it.

"I laughed to that extint at this that he got away from me