w--that Asad might
accept the proposal he had made him. As the price of it he was fully
prepared for the sacrifice of his own life, which it must entail. But,
it was not for him to approach Asad again; to do so would be to argue
doubt and anxiety and so to court refusal. He must possess his soul in
what patience he could. If Asad persisted in his refusal undeterred by
any fear of mutiny, then Sakr-el-Bahr knew not what course remained him
to accomplish Rosamund's deliverance. Proceed to stir up mutiny he dared
not. It was too desperate a throw. In his own view it offered him no
slightest chance of success, and did it fail, then indeed all would be
lost, himself destroyed, and Rosamund at the mercy of Asad. He was as
one walking along a sword-edge. His only chance of present immunity for
himself and Rosamund lay in the confidence that Asad would dare no more
than himself to take the initiative in aggression. But that was only for
the present, and at any moment Asad might give the word to put about
and steer for Barbary again; in no case could that be delayed beyond the
plundering of the Spanish argosy. He nourished the faint hope that in
that coming fight--if indeed the Spaniards did show fight--some chance
might perhaps present itself, some unexpected way out of the present
situation.

He spent the night under the stars, stretched across the threshold of
the curtained entrance to the poop-house, making thus a barrier of
his body whilst he slept, and himself watched over in his turn by his
faithful Nubians who remained on guard. He awakened when the first
violet tints of dawn were in the east, and quietly dismissing the weary
slaves to their rest, he kept watch alone thereafter. Under the awning
on the starboard quarter slept the Basha and his son, and near them
Biskaine was snoring.

CHAPTER XIX. THE MUTINEERS

Later that morning, some time after the galeasse had awakened to life
and such languid movement as might be looked for in a waiting crew,
Sakr-el-Bahr went to visit Rosamund.

He found her brightened and refreshed by sleep, and he brought her
reassuring messages that all was well, encouraging her with hopes which
himself he was very far from entertaining. If her reception of him was
not expressedly friendly, neither was it unfriendly. She listened to the
hopes he expressed of yet effecting her safe deliverance, and whilst
she had no thanks to offer him for the efforts he was to exert on
her behalf--a