Meanwhile a troop of mounted ciauses was approaching the kettle of the first Janissary regiment in whose leader we recognise Halil Pelivan. Allah had been with him--he was now raised to the rank of a ciaus-officer. The giant stood among the Janissaries and inquired in a voice of thunder: "Which of you common Janissary fellows goes by the name of Halil Patrona?" Patrona stepped forth. "Methinks, Halil Pelivan," said he, "it does not require much brain-splitting on your part to recognise me." "Where is your comrade Musli?" "Can you not give me a handle to my name, you dog of a ciaus?" roared Musli. "I am a gentleman I tell you. So long as you were a Janissary, you were a gentleman too. But now you are only a dog of a ciaus. What business have you, I should like to know, in Begta's flower-garden?" "To root out weeds. The pair of you, bound tightly together, must follow me." "Look ye, my friends!" cried Musli, turning to his comrades, "that man is drunk, dead drunk. He can scarce stand upon his feet. How dare you say," continued he, turning towards Pelivan--"how dare you say that two Janissaries, two of the flowers from Begta's garden, are to follow you when the banners of warfare are already waving before us?" "I am commanded by the Kapu-Kiaja to bring you before him." "Say not so, you mangy dog you! Let him come for us himself if he has anything to say to us! What, my friends! am I not right in saying that the Kapu-Kiaja, if he did his duty, ought to be here with us, in the camp and on the battlefield? and that it is no business of ours to dance attendance upon him? Am I not right? Let him come hither!" This sentiment was greeted with an approving howl. "Let him come hither if he wants to talk to a Janissary!" cried many voices. "Who ever heard of summoning a Janissary away from his camp?" It was as much as Pelivan could do to restrain his fury. "You two are murderers," said he, "you have killed the Sultan's Berber-Bashi." At this there was a general outburst of laughter. Everybody knew that already. Musli had told the story hundreds of times with all sorts of variations. He had described to them how Halil had slain Ali Kermesh with a single blow of his fist, and how the latter's jaw had suddenly fallen and collapsed into a corner, all of which had seemed very comical indeed to the Janissaries. So five or six of them, all speaking together, began to heckle and cross-question Pelivan. "Are there no more barbers in Stambul that you make such a fuss over this particular one?" "What an infamous thing to demand the lives of a couple of Janissaries for the sake of a single beard-scraper!" "May you and your Kapu-Kiaja have no other pastime in Paradise than the shaving of innumerable beards!" At last Patrona stepped forth and begged his comrades to let him have _his_ say in the matter.