Jack Harkaway's Boy Tinker Among The Turks by Bracebridge Hemyng (books for men to read .txt) 📕

that curtain?" whispered their guide.

"Yes."

"That's the harem."

"Come on, then," said Jack, eagerly.

"Stop, stop!" exclaimed the Irishman. "The other side of the curtain are two——"

Before he could complete the sentence, the curtain was dragged aside, and two armed negroes appeared.

Their appearance was sudden and startling.

Each carried a drawn sword, a scimitar of formidable size.

They looked about as ugly customers as you would wish to see.

"Two eunuchs," whispered the Irishman, "they are guarding the seraglio. Come away."

"Ugly enough for heathen gods," whispered Harry Girdwood.

The two eunuchs stood like statues on guard.

The slipper merchant said something to them in Turkish which appeared to satisfy them.

"Massa Jack," whispered Tinker, who was one of the party, tugging at his young master's sleeve, "Massa Jack."

"What now?"

"Dat one ob de beasts what chuck de pusson in de water alive in de sack, sar."

"What!" ejaculated Harry Girdwood.

"Fack, Massa Harry," said Tinker, stoutly. "Guess I know dat ugly brack niggar, sar, a tousan' mile off—beast!"

"Come on. Don't appear to notice them," said the Irishman. "It's awkward work now. If they had half a suspicion, they would drop on us right and left, and not leave a limb on either one of our blessed bodies."

He led the way until they came to a gallery that overlooked the seraglio.

Their leader now warned them to keep silent.

In the chamber below were about a dozen Turkish ladies, all unveiled.

They were all gorgeously attired, and lolling about in indolent attitudes, as if life were an indescribable bore to them.

Upon a square fringed carpet in the middle of the room a Circassian girl of rare beauty and perfect symmetry was gliding through a graceful dance, to a low, melodious measure, which another girl of her own country was chanting.

The dance resembled nothing that Jack and Harry had seen before.

As she turned round, the shawl she waved was made to describe a series of circles.

And then, as she came to a sudden stop, it fell around her in graceful folds and she looked like a very beautiful sculptured figure.

But before you could fairly admire her graceful form and beauteous face, she had bounded off again in the mazy dance, to the intense gratification of the idle lookers-on.

"What do you think of that?" whispered the Irishman.

"Lovely," returned Jack, enthusiastically.

"Beautiful," added Harry Girdwood. "What would little Emily say, Jack, if she knew you were looking with loving eyes at that little beauty?"

The mention of little Emily's name made Jack silent for a minute or two.

Presently he asked—

"Are these professional performers?"

"The dancer and the singer are two out of three Circassian slaves that have been sent to the pasha as a present during his journey. He will be pleased with the new acquisition when he returns, although one has met an untimely end."

"Slaves! Is it possible?" said young Jack.

"Rather, my boy."

"What will they do with these slaves?"

"Various things. Perhaps keep them to amuse the ladies of the harem, as you see now; perhaps make them beasts of burden; perhaps make more wives of them. His excellency is not particular to a wife or two."

"He's a beast!" said young Jack; "and I should like to kick him."

"Gently, gently; it's the system of the country, dear boys, nothing more."

"But," said Jack, "when you speak of the Circassian girl being sent as a present to the pasha, do you mean the real pasha or the deputy? For this Turk is the one that cheated the poor orphan out of his money."

"This is only the deputy; I mean the pasha himself," returned the Irish Turk. "The deputy would like to appropriate the slaves himself."

"Do you think so?"

"I know it, and he does not mind what you would call murder now and then."

"Perhaps that would account for what we saw in the bay, for the horrible business with the sack."

"More than likely," said the Irish Turk, gravely. "But a slave, more or less, even if it's a lovely girl, doesn't count for much in these parts."

The boys gave a shudder.

They were not used to hearing murder discussed in such a cold-blooded fashion.

"Tinker," said Jack, by way of changing the topic suddenly, "do you think that you or Bogey could dance like that girl?"

"Go an' dance like dat," he said contemptuously. "Me an' dat nigger dance a lot better, sar. Bogey!"

"Wall!"

"Over wid you."

And then, to the surprise and dismay of all the rest, the two darkeys vaulted over the balustrade and dropped into the room beneath.

Had a bombshell fallen into the midst of the ladies of the harem, they could not have been more surprised.

There was a half-stifled shriek from one, and they all flew into a corner, where they stood huddled up together for protection.

But Tinker and his man were not at all put out by these strange demonstrations upon the part of the ladies.

"Bogey."

"Yes, Massa Tinker."

"We'll jest take the floor togeder and show dem female gals what de poetry of motion is like."

"Yah, yah!" grinned Bogey; "go it, my hunkey boy."

And they did go it.

There was not much of the poetry of motion about it, their dance being of the breakdown genus.

And to tell the truth, the ladies appeared more frightened than pleased with the darkeys' extraordinary evolutions.

The double shuffle excited wonderment.

When Bogey and Tinker brought down their respective hoofs with a bang, great alarm was manifested.

By degrees, however, they appeared to grow more accustomed to the eccentric evolutions of the young negroes, and presently one of them laughed aloud at the quaint capers the boys were cutting.

This set them all laughing, and the mirth of the ladies was at its height, when certain alarming sounds were heard without.

"By the holy fly," ejaculated the Irishman. "there's a row in the house, and our frisky black boys'll lose their lives if they don't watch it."

"What's the matter?" demanded young Jack.

"The deputy-pasha is back," whispered the Irishman, in evident anxiety. "He has discovered the presence of strangers in the house. He's coming along here with his guards, and there'll be the very devil to pay."

"What, about Tinker and Bogey?"

"They're dead as door-nails. There is an unwritten law which sentences any man to death who violates the sanctity of a Turkish harem."

"Why don't they run out?" inquired Harry, anxiously.

"What for? To be cutdown by the armed eunuchs. No; better take their chance where they are."

"I'm not going to leave them to die," said Jack; "I'll have a shy, for it, if——"

"Hold your tongue," interrupted the Irishman, anxiously; "but look, what the dooce are the girls up to with your black boys?"

Tinker and Bogey laboured under a very great disadvantage.

They could neither understand nor make themselves understood by the fair creatures by whom they were surrounded.

However, they managed to glean that they were in danger, and that a temporary haven of safety was to be found in an inner room beyond the curtain facing the chief entrance, which was guarded by the two eunuchs.

They were bustled into that apartment by the ladies of the harem to a chorus of excited whisperings.

"Whatever are they going to do?" whispered Jack.

"Silence, not a word. Look there!" said the Irish Turk.

The heavy drapery before the chief entrance was drawn aside, and in marched the fierce-looking Turk, that had tried to rob the orphan and his cash-box, closely followed by the two eunuchs, who stood sentry at the doorway.

"Now, there'll be the devil to pay," whispered the Irishman.

Osmond, the ruling bashaw for the time, had heard that strangers were within the palace, and he hurried there with all speed.

When first he was apprised of this, his greed excited him, for some of the chief sweets of his office were the presents.

The deputy-pasha was ready to accept as many as he could send.

"Strangers are present," he exclaimed, addressing one of the favourite ladies; "now, by the beard of the Prophet, the intruders shall suffer!"

"What intruders?" said the lady.

The deputy-governor made towards the curtain.

But before he could enter, the lady with whom he had been talking placed herself in his way.

"Stand aside——"

"Restrain your temper here," returned the lady; "his excellency would not be pleased to hear of this."

These words appeared to cool the ferocity of the deputy-governor a little.

"Let the strangers come forth then," he growled.

"It shall be done."

She passed to the further chamber.

A few moments later the curtain was dragged aside, and the two fair Circassians came forth, each leading a veiled girl by the hand.

Strapping girls they were too; but so closely veiled that it was impossible to see what their features were like.

"Were these the strangers?"

"Yes."

The deputy-governor glared at the new-comers, and then dismissed the Circassian girls.

They refused to go at first, upon which he grew rabid with anger.

"Your sister Selika opposed my wishes once," he said, with cruel significance; "she will never oppose me more. Begone!"

They tremblingly obeyed the tyrant.

This done, he sent the two armed eunuchs off with a wave of the hand.

"What's up now, I wonder?" whispered Jack.

"Wait."

The Irishman had an odd suspicion.

And his suspicion was very soon realised.

"Remove your veil," said Osmond, the deputy-pasha, peremptorily.

But he might as well have addressed a stone wall.

The tyrant waited a moment.

Then he seized one of the girls and dragged her aside, tearing down her veil as he did so, and—

Oh, what a roar.

A wild ejaculation of disgust escaped him, for the face under the veil was black.

Black as night, with huge, saucer-like eyes, and a huge mouth wearing a grin that was alarming.

"Yah, yah! don't you like me, old man? Tink I do for you? Yah, yah!"

And Tinker stood with his tongue out, grinning at the fierce Turk.

The deputy-governor, enraged, made a rush at poor Tinker, and gave him a spiteful, if undignified back hander.

"Golly!" cried Tinker. "Cantankerous immense beast, old Turkey."

"Oh!"

Just then the tyrant was greeted with a stinging spank on the side of his face, and turning round, there was another negress—as he thought.

Or was it the same?

It looked the very identical face and form.

"Yah, yah!" grinned Bogey.

The deputy-governor looked round with a puzzled air.

"Yah, yah!" grinned Bogey, again.

"Yah, yah!" shouted Tinker, poking his fist into the ribs of the Turk, and nearly doubling him up.

The Turk heard the derisive laugh, and he felt the tingling of his ear and the poke in his ribs.

So he dashed at Bogey first.

Bogey feinted and dodged him.

But his petticoats got between his legs, and over he went sprawling.

The Turk sprang after him, and if Tinker had not been there, goodness knows what would have been the result.

But Tinker was very much there.

He bobbed his head and shot straight forward, landing his deputy-excellency fairly in the stomach, with his bare woolly pate.

"Ugh!" gasped the Turk, and down he went.

Bogey no sooner saw him there than he hammered into the Turk's figure-head in the most violent and ungentlemanly way.

Jack and Harry Girdwood laughed until the tears ran down their cheeks.

"Begorra," whispered the Irishman, "it's better than a pantomime, but some of us will suffer."

But the end of the adventure promised to be serious.

The fierce Turk grew frightened, and he called for assistance.

In came the armed eunuchs ready for slaughter.

"Good-bye to your boys," said the Irishman, in a whisper.

"Not if I know it," returned Jack; "I'm on in this scene, old man."

"I'm with you, Jack," cried Harry.

Jack was in danger. Over went Harry to help him.

The fierce Turk was filled with wonder and dismay; the enemies appeared to drop from the clouds.

"Now, old big bags," said young Jack, saucily, "come on, and see how a Boy of England can fight."

The words were not intelligible to the Turks, but the gesture was thoroughly understood.

There was a gong-bell close beside the deputy-pasha, and one tap on this sufficed to bring a whole mob of armed men into the room.

"Seize these Franks!" exclaimed the tyrant, still holding his hands round his sides in pain; "they have earned their fate. Let it be swift. Away with them—oh, I am nearly killed—away with them!"

They resisted stoutly enough, fought like tiger-cats; but what was the use?

None whatever.

The Irishman waited to hear an ugly order given anent bowstringing, and then he came down stairs, and made his way