It was now Janaki’s turn to sigh.

“I have sought her everywhere, and nowhere can I find her.”

“How did you lose her?”

“One Saturday she went with some companions on a pleasure excursion in the Sea of Marmora in a sailing-boat.  Their music and dancing attracted a Turkish pirate to the spot, and in the midst of a peaceful empire he stole all the girls, and contrived to dispose of them so secretly that I have never been able to find any trace of them.  I am now disposed to believe that she was taken to the Sultan’s Seraglio.”

“You will never get her out of there then.”

Janaki sighed deeply.

“You think, then, that I shall never get at her if she is there?” and he shook his head sadly.

“Not unless the Janissaries, or the Debejis, or the Bostanjis lay their heads together and agree to depose the Sultan.”

“Who would even dare to think of such a thing, Halil?”

“I would if my daughter were detained in the harem against her will and against mine also.  But that is not at all in your line, Janaki.  You have never shed any blood but the blood of sheep and oxen, but let me tell you this, Janaki:  if I were as rich a man as you are, trust me for finding a way of getting my girl out of the very Seraglio itself.  Wealth is a mightier force than valour.”

“I pray you, speak not so loudly.  One of your neighbours might hear you, and would think nothing of felling me to the earth to get my money.  For I carry a great deal of money about with me, and am always afraid of being robbed of it.  In front of the bazaar a slave is awaiting me with a mule.  On the back of that mule are strung two jars seemingly filled with dried dates.  Let me tell you that those jars are really half-filled with gold pieces, the dates are only at the top.  I should like to deposit them at your house.  I suppose your slave-girl will not pry too closely?”

“You can safely leave them with me.  If you tell her not to look at them she will close her eyes every time she passes the jars.”

Meanwhile Patrona had closed his booth and invited his guest to accompany him homewards.  On the way thither he looked in at the house of his neighbour, the well-mannered Janissary, who mended slippers.  Musli willingly offered Halil’s guest a night’s lodging.  In return Patrona invited him to share with him a small dish of well-seasoned pilaf and a few cups of a certain forbidden fluid, which invitation the worthy Janissary accepted with alacrity.

And now they crossed Halil’s threshold.

Guel-Bejaze was standing by the fire-place getting ready Halil’s supper when the guests entered, and hearing footsteps turned round to see who it might be.

The same instant the Greek wayfarer uttered a loud cry, and pitching his long hat into the air, rushed towards the slave-girl, and flinging himself down on his knees before her fell a-kissing, again and again, her hands and arms, and at last her pale face also, while the girl flung herself upon his shoulder and embraced the fellow’s neck; and then the pair of them began to weep, and the words, “My daughter!” “My father!” could be heard from time to time amidst their sobs.