was troubled too, to make out
what was all the bustle about. It's all clare as ditch-wather now.--But
what's to be done with _me_, Rais? for if the cownsl an' the British
gin'rally are in limbo, it's a bad look-out for Ted Flaggan, seein' that
I'm on the black list already."

Rais Ali appeared to ponder the case for a few seconds.

"Come an' have one bath," he said, with sudden animation; "after that we
go brikfast togidder."

"Av we cud `brikfust' _fust_, Ally Babby, it would be plisinter,"
returned the hungry seaman; "but, I say, I dursn't go into the bath,
'cause what would they think of a man wid dark-brown arms, legs, an'
face, an' a pink body? Sure, they'd take me for a spy or a madman, an'
hand me over to the p'leece!"

"Wash here, fust," said Rais, leading his friend to a small fountain in
a retired angle of the court. "Ebbery body here too bizzy 'joyin'
theirselfs to look to yoo. An' des corner dark. Me stan' 'tween you
an' dem."

"But who ever heard of a white Moor?" objected Ted.

"Oh, lots of 'em--'alf-castes, almost white as you," said Rais.

"But I ain't got a shaved skull with a top knot," returned the seaman,
still objecting.

"Nebber mind; sailors of France, Denmark, an' odder places what hav
consuls here, when waitin' for ship carry dem home comes here for fun--"

"Ay, but they don't come disguised as Moors," said Flaggan, "and I niver
was inside a Turkish bath before. Don't know more nor a child what to
do."

"Yoo don' go in bath dressed--go naked," returned Rais, growing
impatient. "Do noting in bath, only let 'em do what dey pleases to
yoo."

"Very good, plaze yersilf, Ally Babby," said Ted, resignedly plunging
his arms into the cistern; "only remimber, I give ye fair warnin', av
the spalpeens attempts to take me prisoner, I'll let fly into their
breadbaskets right an' left, an' clear out into the street, naked or
clothed, no matter which,--for I've said it wance, an' I means to stick
to it, they'll niver take Ted Flaggan alive."

"All right," returned Rais Ali, "yoo wash yours faces an' holds your
tongue."

After removing as much as possible of the brown earth from his visage
and limbs, the seaman drew the hood of his burnous well over his face,
and--having assiduously studied the gait of Moors--strode with Oriental
dignity into the outer court, or apartment, of the bath, followed his
friend into an unoccupied corner and proceeded to undress.

"Musha! it's like a house-fu