After some slight opposition on the part of the others, this proposal was adopted, and the remaining pirates took their departure.  The sound of their footsteps along the rocky path had scarcely died away on the ears of the anxiously listening captives, when loud acclamations and cries of joy announced the arrival of the first detachment at the castle.  The heavy gates of the fortress were opened with much din and rattle; after a short space they were again slammed to, the portcullis fell, and then no further sound broke the deep silence that reigned in the ravine.

The collection of the plunder, the discussion among the pirates, and their departure, had passed so rapidly, that the young Turk had scarcely had time to recover from the giddy, half-stunned state into which the rough usage he had received had thrown him, when he found himself alone with his old fellow-captive.

“Well, Hassan,” said he at last, in a voice of suppressed fury, “what think you of all this?”

The old man made no verbal reply, but merely stroked his beard, shrugged his shoulders, and opened his eyes wider than before, as much as to say, “I don’t think at all; what do you think?”

“It is not the prospect of passing the night in this damp hole, bound hand and foot, that chafes me to madness, and makes my very blood boil in my veins,” resumed the young man after a pause.  “That is a small matter, but”—­

“A small matter!” interrupted Hassan with unusual vivacity.  “That is, because you have forgotten the most dreadful part of our position.  Bound hand and foot as we are, we can expect nothing less than to fall, ere cock-crow, into the power of Satan.”

“Of Satan!” repeated the other.  “Has terror turned thy brain?”

“Of a truth, the Evil One has already tied the three fatal nooses which he hangs over the head of the sleeping believer,” replied the old Mahometan in a lachrymose tone.  “He who awakes and forthwith invokes the holy name of Allah, is thereby delivered from the first noose; by performing his ablutions, the second becomes loosened; and by fervent prayer he unties the third.  Our bonds render it impossible for us to wash, and the second noose, therefore, will remain suspended over our devoted heads.”

“Runs it so in the Koran, old man?” asked the youth.

“In the Koran!  What Mussulman are you?  It is the hundred and forty-ninth passage of the Suna.”

“The Suna!” repeated the other, in a tone of indifference.  “If that is all, it will not break my slumbers.”

“Allah protect me!” exclaimed the old man, as he made an attempt to pluck out his beard, which the shackles on his wrists rendered ineffectual.  “Allah protect me!  Is it not enough that I have fallen into captivity?  Am I also doomed to pass the night under the same roof with an unbeliever, even as the Nazarenes are?”

“May the bolt of Heaven fall on thy lying tongue!” exclaimed the youth in great wrath.  “I an unbeliever!  I, Ibrahim, the adopted son of Hassan, pacha of Bosnia!”