The Consul, although personally a stranger, was very kind, which did him the more credit since he thought at first there was something curious and unusual about this young Englishman with the grey hair and the sad face. Indeed, he asked Dr. Sandeman privately if Mr. Grayson was entirely in his right mind. Once reassured on this point, he gave him most efficient help. He got him a passport, advanced him the necessary money, and sent a competent and faithful dragoman, and a couple of kavasses, with him to Alexandretta, with orders not to leave him until they saw him safely on board a vessel going to England. With a sense of almost bewildering strangeness and wonder, Jack stood at last on the deck of the great steamship _Semaphore_, bound for Southampton. He watched the crowds about him--sailors preparing for the start, passengers getting on board with much stir and bustle. They had to come in boats, and there was quite a little fleet of these about the companion ladder, the rowers shouting and screaming as each tried to get his own craft in first. The dragoman had told Jack that all the Franks stopped at this place and went on shore, to visit the spot where a battle was fought long ago by Alexander the Great--the battle of Issus, that was what they called it. An official stood at the ship's side, examining the passport of every passenger who came on board. Near him stood the captain, a rough, hearty-looking British seaman. There was great hurry, crowding, and confusion, and it was very evident the passport business was not done as thoroughly as it might have been. It was not difficult for a passportless person, or even two or three, to slip in "unbeknownst," as he heard the under-steward, an Irishman, remarking casually to a friend. Jack edged himself out of the crowd, and watched. Presently he saw a boat filled with zaptiehs--well he knew their hateful uniform--put off from the shore, and make for the ships in the bay. It might be the _Semaphore_ they meant, it might be one of the others. Jack knew his passport was all in order, still he did not like that sight. He could not realize yet that he was out of Turkey, that he stood on the deck of a British ship, and that the glorious flag of old England was waving above his head. So he went quietly downstairs to the cabin, resolved to stay there until the good ship _Semaphore_ should be actually on her way. Meanwhile, the Turkish boat came on apace, and before it, faster still, flew another little boat. A young man, standing up in it, sprang on the companion ladder just about to be withdrawn, and ran up, leaving a girl and a boy in the boat. "Too late, my man," said the captain, waving him back. "Oh, sir, take us!" the young man cried. He was trembling, and his face white with terror. "Take us!--we will pay!" "I can't. We have no more room." "We will pay you well--ten pounds a-piece." "No; our second cabin is full. And we are off now." "Fifteen pounds a-piece."