There was another reflection that to some extent mitigated the pain of his bruises; the pirate captain held his treasured gage, and it was his fixed determination to recover it.  The man had at first in a rough way treated him fairly, and had allowed him more liberty than the other captives, and he would have felt reluctant to take extreme measure against him to recover the gage.  Now he was not only free from any sense of obligation, but had a heavy score to settle with him.

After a time he got up and walked stiffly and painfully up and down the deck, knowing that this was the best plan to prevent the limbs from stiffening.  The corsair did not return until night set in; he was accompanied by an Arab, whose dress and appearance showed that he was a person of importance.  The other slaves had all been sent below, but Gervaise still remained on deck, as the mate had not cared to risk another conflict by giving him orders in the absence of the captain.  As the pirate stepped on deck he ordered some torches to be brought.

“This is the Christian I spoke of,” he said to the Arab, pointing to Gervaise, who was leaning carelessly against the bulwark.

“He is, as you see, capable of hard work of any kind; his strength is prodigious, for it took ten of my best men to bind him this morning.”

“Why did you wish to bind him?” the Arab asked coldly; “you told me that although so strong he was of a quiet disposition, and would make a good household slave.”

“I struck a slave girl who stood in my way,” the captain said, “and he came at me so suddenly that I had to call upon the men to bind him.  He threw one of them overboard, and with his naked hands knocked down two others; and, as I have told you, it took all the efforts of eight or ten more before they could overcome him.”

The Arab took a torch from one of the sailors, walked across to Gervaise, who was naked from the waist upwards, his upper garments having been torn into shreds in the struggle, and examined him closely.

“And then you beat him,” he said, turning to the captain.

“Certainly I beat him.  Do you think that a slave is to mutiny on board my ship, and escape unpunished?”

The Arab, without replying, again inspected Gervaise.

“You ask a large sum for him,” he said.

“I should ask twice as much,” the captain replied, “if it were not for the regulation that one slave from each cargo brought in belongs to the sultan, and his officers would as a matter of course choose this fellow, for the others are merely such as are sold in the market every day.  This man is one of the accursed Order of Rhodes, and would fetch a ransom many times greater than the sum I ask for him, only I have not the time to wait for months until the affair could be arranged.”

“And, moreover, Hassan,” the Arab said grimly, “it has doubtless not escaped you that as the Sultan of Turkey is fitting out an expedition to destroy the community of Rhodes, the chance of their ransoming their comrade is a very slight one.”