explanation of the matter.  He may come from an island where the Turks are masters, and has, perhaps, brought a message from some relatives of a slave; as to the talk with the prison officer, it may be wholly innocent.  If we should find that it is so we will keep this matter to ourselves, if possible, or we shall get finely laughed at by our comrades for having run upon a false scent.  If, on the other hand, the matter should turn out to be serious, you will assuredly get great credit for having discovered it.  Therefore, turn it over in your mind tonight, and see if you can arrive at some scheme for seeing further into it before we take any steps.

In the morning Gervaise again called upon Sir John Kendall.

“Well, Sir Gervaise, I hope that you have hit upon some scheme for getting to the bottom of this matter.  I confess that I myself, though I have had a sleepless night over it, have not been able to see any method of getting to the root of the affair, save by the application of torture.”

“I do not know whether the plan I have thought of will commend itself to your opinion, sir, but I have worked out a scheme which will, I think, enable us to get to the bottom of the matter.  I believe that a galley is expected back from a cruise today or tomorrow.  Now, sir, my idea is that I should go on board a small craft, under the command of a knight upon whose discretion and silence you can rely, such as, for example, Sir John Boswell, and that we should intercept the galley.  Before we board her I should disguise myself as a Turkish slave, and as such Sir John should hand me over to the officer in command of the galley, giving him a letter of private instructions from you as to my disposal.  If they have other slaves on board I would ask that I should be kept apart from them, as well as from the rowers of the galley.  On being landed I should be sent to the prison where I saw the officer enter last night, and the slaves and rowers should be distributed among the other prisons.  Thus, then, the slaves I should be placed with would only know that I had arrived in the galley with other slaves captured by it.  I have no doubt I should be able to maintain my assumed character, and should in a short time be taken into the confidence of the others, and should learn what is going on.  It would be well, of course, that none of the officials of the prison should be informed as to my true character, for others, besides the one I saw, may have been bribed to participate in whatever plot is going on.”

“And do you mean to say, Sir Gervaise, that you, a knight of the Order, are willing to submit to the indignity of being treated as a slave?  To keep up the disguise long enough to be taken into the confidence of the plotters, you might have to stay there for some time; and if the prison officials believe you to be but an ordinary slave, you will be put to work either on the walls or in one of the galleys.”