he stood for a moment, when Komel exclaimed,
trembling as she said so:

"Is this a miracle, or do my eyes deceive me? that is--is--"

"Aphiz Adegah," said the Armenian, while an honest tear wet his
cheek.

"Komel!" murmured the young mountaineer, as he pressed her trembling
form to his breast.

All there knew their story, and could appreciate their feelings,
while not a word was spoken, to break the spell of so joyous a
meeting, the joy of such unhoped for bliss.

"The Sultan then deceived me," said Komel, suddenly recovering her
voice.

"He was himself deceived, and thinks me dead," replied Aphiz; "my
escape was miraculous."

"O, let us away at once from here," said Komel, anxiously; "the
Sultan's agent will surely trace us, and I should die to go back to
his harem again. Cannot we go at once?"

"Nay, have patience, my dear girl," said the Armenian, "our plans
have been carefully laid, and we shall hardly run a single risk of
detection or discovery if they are adhered to."

All this while, the half-witted boy lay coiled up in one corner of
the cabin unseen, but himself noticing every movement that
transpired, until as they all settled more quietly to a realizing
sense of their relative positions, when Komel seeking him brought
him to Aphiz, and told him how much she owed the poor boy for
kindness rendered to her, and even that he had saved her life once,
if not a second time, by his mastering the guard.

While the boy looked upon Komel as she spoke, his fine eye glowed
with warmth and expression, but when Aphiz took his hand, and he
turned towards him, that light was gone, like the fire from a seared
coal, and the optics of the idiot were cold and expressionless.

CHAPTER XIV.

THE CHASE.

The reader will remember the fleet and beautiful slaver mentioned in
an early chapter, when lying off the port of Anapa. The same clipper
craft that had conveyed Komel away from her native shores, was
destined, singularly enough, to carry her back again, for this was
the vessel Selim had secretly purchased and prepared for his escape
with his companions from the domain of the Sultan. He was too good a
seaman not to manage affairs shrewdly, and though the coming night
was the one on which he had resolved to sail, yet the schooner
floated as lazily as ever at her moorings. The sails were closely
trailed, and the ropes and sheets coiled away as though they would
not be used for months again.

But could one h