r one bleak day of mist
on a Border moss; it was the appalling contrast with the hold of a
Moorish galley that at times startled him, together with the only too
great probability that he should be utterly incapable of saving poor
little Ulysse from unconscious apostacy.

Once Yusuf observed, that if he would only make outward submission to
Moslem law, he might retain his own belief and trust in the Lord he
seemed so much to love, and of whom he said more good than any Moslem did
of the Prophet.

'If I deny Him, He will deny me,' said Arthur.

'And will na He forgive ane as is hard pressed?' asked Yusuf.

'It is a very different thing to go against the light, as I should be
doing,' said Arthur, 'and what it might be for that poor bairn, whom Cod
preserve.'

'And wow! sir. 'Tis far different wi' you that had the best of gude
learning frae the gude leddy,' muttered Yusuf. 'My minnie aye needit me
to sort the fish and gang her errands, and wad scarce hae sent me to
scule, gin I wad hae gane where they girned at me for Partan Jeannie's
wean, and gied me mair o' the tawse than of the hornbook. Gin the Lord,
as ye ca' Him, had ever seemed to me what ye say He is to you, Maister
Arthur, I micht hae thocht twice o'er the matter. But there's nae
ganging back the noo. A Christian's life they harm na, though they mak'
it a mere weariness to him; but for him that quits the Prophet, tearing
the flesh wi' iron cleeks is the best they hae for him.'

This time Yusuf retreated, not as usual in anger, but as if the bare idea
he had broached was too terrible to be dwelt upon. He had by the end of
a fortnight completed all his business at El Arnieh, and Arthur, having
by this time picked up enough of the language to make himself
comprehensible, and to know fully what was set before him, was called
upon to make his decision, so that either he might be admitted by regular
ritual into the Moslem faith, and adopted by the sheyk, or else be
advertised by Yusuf at the next town as a strong young slave.

Sitting in the gate among the village magnates, like an elder of old,
Sheyk Abou Ben Zegri, with considerable grace and dignity, set the choice
before the Son of the Sea in most affectionate terms, asking of him to
become the child of his old age, and to heal the breach left by the
swords of the robbers of the mountains.

The old man's fine dark eyes filled with tears, and there was a pathos in
his noble manner that made Arthur grea