father and mother would far rather he were lying dead with her
under the waves in that cruel bay,' returned Arthur.

'Hout, mon, ye dinna ken what's for his gude, nor for your ain neither,'
retorted Yusuf.

'Good here is not good hereafter.'

'The life of a dog and waur here,' muttered Yusuf; 'ye'll mind me when it
is too late.'

'Nay, Yusuf, if you will only take word of our condition to Algiers, we
shall--at least the boy--be assuredly redeemed, and you would win a high
reward.'

'I am no free to gang to Algiers,' said Yusuf. 'I fell out with a loon
there, one of those Janissaries that gang hectoring aboot as though the
world were not gude enough for them, and if I hadna made the best of my
way out of the toon, my pow wad be a worricow on the wa's of the tower.'

'There are French at Bona, you say. Remember, I ask you to put yourself
in no danger, only to bear the tidings to any European,' entreated
Arthur.

'And how are they to find ye?' demanded Yusuf. 'Abou Ben Zegri will
never keep you here after having evened his gude-daughter to ye. He'll
sell you to some corsair captain, and then the best that could betide ye
wad be that a shot frae the Knights of Malta should make quick work wi'
ye. Or look at the dumbie there, Fareek. A Christian, he ca's himsel',
too, though 'tis of a by ordinar' fashion, such as Deacon Shortcoats
would scarce own. I coft him dog cheap at Tunis, when his master, the
Vizier, had had his tongue cut out--for but knowing o' some deed that
suld ne'er have been done--and his puir feet bastinadoed to a jelly. Gin
a' the siller in the Dey's treasury ransomed ye, what gude would it do ye
after that?'

'I cannot help that--I cannot forsake my God. I must trust Him not to
forsake me.'

And, as usual, Yusuf went off angrily muttering, 'He that will to Cupar
maun to Cupar.'

Perhaps Arthur's resistance had begun more for the sake of honour, and
instinctive clinging to hereditary faith, without the sense of heroism or
enthusiasm for martyrdom which sustained Estelle, and rather with the
feeling that inconstancy to his faith and his Lord would be base and
disloyal. But, as the long days rolled on, if the future of toil and
dreary misery developed itself before him, the sense of personal love and
aid towards the Lord and Master whom he served grew upon him. Neither
the gazelle-eyed Ayesha nor the prosperous village life presented any
great temptation. He would have given them all fo