t voice was Rosamund's.
But even that voice failed, conquered by weary nature. This last
blow following upon all that lately she had endured bereft her of all
strength. Half swooning she collapsed against Sakr-el-Bahr even as Sir
John and a handful of his followers leapt down to deliver her and make
fast their prisoner.

The corsairs stood looking on in silence; the loyalty to their great
captain, which would have made them spend their last drop of blood in
his defence, was quenched by his own act of treachery which had brought
the English ship upon them. Yet when they saw him pinioned and hoisted
to the deck of the Silver Heron, there was a sudden momentary reaction
in their ranks. Scimitars were waved aloft, and cries of menace burst
forth. If he had betrayed them, yet he had so contrived that they should
not suffer by that betrayal. And that was worthy of the Sakr-el-Bahr
they knew and loved; so worthy that their love and loyalty leapt
full-armed again upon the instant.

But the voice of Asad called upon them to bear in mind what in their
name he had promised, and since the voice of Asad alone might not have
sufficed to quell that sudden spark of revolt, there came down to them
the voice of Sakr-el-Bahr himself issuing his last command.

"Remember and respect the terms I have made for you! Mektub! May Allah
guard and prosper you!"

A wail was his reply, and with that wail ringing in his ears to assure
him that he did not pass unloved, he was hurried below to prepare him
for his end.

The ropes of the grapnels were cut, and slowly the galleon passed away
into the night, leaving the galley to replace what slaves had been
maimed in the encounter and to head back for Algiers, abandoning the
expedition against the argosy of Spain.

Under the awning upon the poop Asad now sat like a man who has awakened
from an evil dream. He covered his head and wept for one who had been
as a son to him, and whom through his madness he had lost. He cursed
all women, and he cursed destiny; but the bitterest curse of all was for
himself.

In the pale dawn they flung the dead overboard and washed the decks,
nor did they notice that a man was missing in token that the English
captain, or else his followers, had not kept strictly to the letter of
the bond.

They returned in mourning to Algiers--mourning not for the Spanish
argosy which had been allowed to go her ways unmolested, but for the
stoutest captain that ever bared his scimi