e southern coast of the Island of Formentera. He was rendered aware of
this and roused from his abstraction by the voice of Asad calling to him
from the poop and commanding him to make the cove.

Already the wind was failing them, and it became necessary to take to
the oars, as must in any case have happened once they were through the
coves narrow neck in the becalmed lagoon beyond. So Sakr-el-Bahr, in his
turn, lifted up his voice, and in answer to his shout came Vigitello and
Larocque.

A blast of Vigitello's whistle brought his own men to heel, and they
passed rapidly along the benches ordering the rowers to make ready,
whilst Jasper and a half-dozen Muslim sailors set about furling
the sails that already were beginning to flap in the shifting and
intermittent gusts of the expiring wind. Sakr-el-Bahr gave the word to
row, and Vigitello blew a second and longer blast. The oars dipped, the
slaves strained and the galeasse ploughed forward, time being kept by
a boatswain's mate who squatted on the waist-deck and beat a tomtom
rhythmically. Sakr-el-Bahr, standing on the poop-deck, shouted his
orders to the steersmen in their niches on either side of the stern, and
skilfully the vessel was manoeuvred through the narrow passage into the
calm lagoon whose depths were crystal clear. Here before coming to rest,
Sakr-el-Bahr followed the invariable corsair practice of going about,
so as to be ready to leave his moorings and make for the open again at a
moment's notice.

She came at last alongside the rocky buttresses of a gentle slope that
was utterly deserted by all save a few wild goats browsing near the
summit. There were clumps of broom, thick with golden flower, about
the base of the hill. Higher, a few gnarled and aged olive trees reared
their grey heads from which the rays of the westering sun struck a glint
as of silver.

Larocque and a couple of sailors went over the bulwarks on the larboard
quarter, dropped lightly to the horizontal shafts of the oars, which
were rigidly poised, and walking out upon them gained the rocks and
proceeded to make fast the vessel by ropes fore and aft.

Sakr-el-Bahr's next task was to set a watch, and he appointed Larocque,
sending him to take his station on the summit of the head whence a wide
range of view was to be commanded.

Pacing the poop with Marzak the Basha grew reminiscent of former days
when roving the seas as a simple corsair he had used this cove both for
purposes of