He
thrust his head forward, staring in his turn; then, in a bewildered way
he looked about him at the ocean of swarthy faces under turbans of all
colours, and back again at Sakr-el-Bahr.
"God's light!" he said at last, in English, to vent his infinite
amazement. Then reverting to the cynical manner that he had ever
affected, and effacing all surprise--
"Good day to you, Sir Oliver," said he. "I suppose ye'll give yourself
the pleasure of hanging me."
"Allah is great!" said Sakr-el-Bahr impassively.
CHAPTER II
THE RENEGADE
How it came to happen that Sakr-el-Bahr, the Hawk of the Sea, the Muslim
rover, the scourge of the Mediterranean, the terror of Christians, and
the beloved of Asad-ed-Din, Basha of Algiers, would be one and the same
as Sir Oliver Tressilian, the Cornish gentleman of Penarrow, is at long
length set forth in the chronicles of Lord Henry Goade. His lordship
conveys to us some notion of how utterly overwhelming he found that fact
by the tedious minuteness with which he follows step by step this
extraordinary metamorphosis. He devotes to it two entire volumes of
those eighteen which he has left us. The whole, however, may with
advantage be summarized into one short chapter.
Sir Oliver was one of a score of men who were rescued from the sea by
the crew of the Spanish vessel that had sunk the Swallow; another was
Jasper Leigh, the skipper. All of them were carried to Lisbon, and
there handed over to the Court of the Holy Office.
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