"I think I do," said the relieved middy, seizing the negro's right hand and wringing it gratefully. "Bless your black face! I trust you from the bottom of my soul." It was, indeed, a source of immense relief to poor Foster that his friend not only took up the matter with energy, but spoke in such a cheery, hopeful tone, for the more he thought of the subject the more hopeless did the case of poor Hester Sommers appear. He could of course die for her--and would, if need were--but this thought was always followed by the depressing question, "What good would that do to _her_?" Two hours after the foregoing conversation occurred Peter the Great was seated in a dark little back court in a low coffee-house in one of the darkest, narrowest, and most intricate streets of Algiers. He sat on an empty packing-box. In front of him was seated a stout negress, in whom an Ethiopian might have traced some family likeness to Peter himself. "Now, Dinah," said he, continuing an earnest conversation which had already lasted for some time, "you understand de case properly--eh?" "Ob course I does," said Dinah. "Well, den, you must go about it at once. Not a minute to lose. You'll find me at de gardin door. I'll let you in. You know who you's got to sabe, an' you must find out your own way to sabe her, an'--now, hol' your tongue! You's just a-goin' to speak--I must know nuffin'. Don' tell me one word about it. You's a cleber woman, Dinah." "Yes, my brudder. I wasn't born yesterday--no, nor yet the day before." "An', Samson, will you trust _him_?" "My husband is as good as gold. I trust him wid eberyt'ing!" replied this pattern wife. "An' Youssef--what ob him?" "He's more'n t'ree quarters blind. Kin see not'ing, an' understan's less." "Dinah, you's a good woman," remarked her appreciative brother, as he rose to depart. "Now, remember, dis am de most important job you an' I hab had to do since we was took by de pirits out ob de same ship. An' I do t'ink de Lord hab bin bery good to us, for He's gi'n us good massas at last, though we had some roughish ones at fust. Foller me as quick as you can." Dinah, being a warm-hearted woman, and very sympathetic, did not waste time. She reached Ben-Ahmed's villa only half an hour later than her brother, with a basket of groceries and other provisions that Peter had purchased in town. Peter took care that the young negress, whom we have already introduced as an attendant in the house, should be sent to receive the basket, and Dinah took care that she should not return to the house until she had received a bouquet of flowers to present to the young English girl in the harem. Inside of this bouquet was a little note written by Peter. It ran thus-- "Tri an git owt to de gardin soons yoo kan." When Hester Sommers discovered this note, the first ray of hope entered into her fluttering heart, and she resolved to profit by it.