kerchief, and Yusuf declared, with much
apparent annoyance, that the child was sick, and that this had frustrated
the sale. He was asleep, must be carried into the tent, and not
disturbed: for though the Cabyles had not purchased him, there was no
affording to loose anything of so much value. Moreover, observing Ulysse
still hovering round the Scot, he said, 'You may bide here the night,
laddie, I ha tell't the sheyk;' and he repeated the same to the slaves in
Arabic, dismissing them to hold a parting feast on a lamb stuffed with
pistachio nuts, together with their village friends.

Then drawing near to Arthur, he said, 'Can ye gar yon wean keep a quiet
sough, if we make him pass for the little black?'

Arthur started with joy, and stammered some words of intense relief and
gratitude.

'The deed's no dune yet,' said Yusuf, 'and it is ower like to end in our
leaving a' our banes on the sands! But a wilfu' man maun have his way,'
he repeated; 'so, sir, if it be your wull, ye'd better speak to the
bairn, for we must make a blackamoor of him while there is licht to do
it, or Bekir, whom I dinna lippen to, comes back frae the feast.'

Ulysse, being used to Irish-English, had little understanding of Yusuf's
broad Scotch; but he was looking anxiously from one to the other of the
speakers, and when Arthur explained to him that the disguise, together
with perfect silence, was the only hope of not being left behind among
the Moors, and the best chance of getting back to his home and dear ones
again, he perfectly understood. As to the blackening, for which Yusuf
had prepared a mixture to be laid on with a feather, it was perfectly
enchanting to _faire la comedie_. He laughed so much that he had to be
peremptorily hushed, and they were sensible of the danger that in case of
a search he might betray himself to his Moorish friends; and Arthur tried
to make him comprehend the extreme danger, making him cry so that his
cheeks had to be touched up. His eyes and hair were dark, and the latter
was cut to its shortest by Yusuf, who further managed to fasten some
tufts of wool dipped in the black unguent to the kerchief that bound his
head. The childish features had something of the Irish cast, which lent
itself to the transformation, and in the scanty garments of the little
negro Arthur owned that he should never have known the small French
gentleman. Arthur was full of joy--Yusuf gruff, brief, anxious, like one
acting under so