Page:Ballantyne--The Pirate City.djvu/242

222 "Hist! be quiet," said Bacri, seizing Francisco by the arm in his powerful grasp and dragging him along.

The interference of the Jew was not a moment too soon, for several soldiers who were patrolling the streets at the time overheard the sound of their voices and hurried towards them.

They ran now, in good earnest, and quickly reached the door of Jacob Mordecai's house, which Bacri opened with a key, and shut gently after letting his friends pass, so that the soldiers lost sight of them as if by a magical disappearance.

"Your house is plundered," said Francisco to Bacri, after Jacob Mordecai had conducted them to the skiffa of his dwelling.

"I guessed as much." But how came you to escape?" asked Bacri.

Lucien related the circumstances of their escape, while his father dipped his head in the fountain, for the purpose, as be remarked, of cooling his brains.

"And what is now to be done?" asked Mariano, with a look of perplexity. "Bacri has been kind enough to get me out of that horrible Bagnio just in time to save me from torture of some sort; but here we are in the heart of a city in a state of insurrection, with almost every street-corner guarded, and bands of men, that appear to me to be devils in