“‘_Certainement non_, sare,’ he replied, with something of the ineffable polish of his nation, ‘we know dat—have de goodness, monsieur, to show me de visitors in de ship—de runavays, if you please, Monsieur Miller.’ “I felt the eunuch’s devouring eyes creeping, in their slow, malevolent way, from the deck up to my face, as I answered. “‘That is easy enough, monsieur—provided any such be in the ship. You cannot suppose us such fools as to receive deserters in a full ship, with plenty of idlers already on board. If the men are in the Tartar, they must have been concealed by the people for’ard, and I advise you to look in the fore-peak.’ “He interpreted what I said to the eunuch; Hadji then made some remark in an under tone, and the renegade, shrugging his shoulders, addressed me again. “‘Monsieur Capitaine Miller,’ said he, decidedly, yet still with as much suavity as before, ‘you will confer de grand obligation to make de plain answer, sare, vidout de bagatelle. _C’est bien malapropos à present_,’ muttered he, taking snuff out of a gold box, and glancing aside at the two mutes, as they stood near Hadji’s seat, their small, serpent eyes never off of his face for a moment, and their jetty, tattooed arms folded across their naked breasts. Before I could devise an answer, groping in the dark as I was, upon gaping ground, two Arabs pushed into the throng, leading the mulatto by the collar. The fellow was terribly frightened, and looked round as if for some one to address, when his eyes lighting on the captain of the Tartar, he seemed to turn dumb as a mute at once. However, the fatal moment was not to be staved off longer, for Hadji, with a look of devilish cunning, drew a small golden whistle from the folds of his _juma_, and blew it till the cabin rang again; I started to hear a sort of scratching, struggling noise in the after-cabin, and the next moment some sort of an animal, between a rat and squirrel, ran through the crowd, cowering at the eunuch’s sandaled feet. A smile of triumphant malice played upon Hadji’s face, and the Frenchman, snatching up his sword, rushed through the group to the cabin-door. At that instant the thick gloom, which had been setting bodily down on deck for the last ten minutes, was rent by an awful glare of lightning, and, as the parted air collapsed, with a crash which made the ship tremble to her keel, I saw the Arab chief, standing, pistol in hand, at the door; the renegade reeled back against one of his men, while the redder flash of the pistol again illumined the cabin, and bounding like a tiger in its leap, cimiter in hand, Halel sprang over the table at the eunuch. The lamp was extinguished in the fray, and had it been the chief’s intention to escape on deck, perhaps he might have done so in the confusion which followed; for the lightning glared incessantly through the stern-ports, while the thunder, reverberated by the rocks, crashed over our heads in one continuous peal, till you’d’ve