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224 knows how to use it. He will explain the mode of escape which you must follow, while I hold private converse with my brother."

So saying the kindly Jew bowed his tall form to his friends with the air of a king, and accompanied Jacob Mordecai into an inner room.

At the end of the time specified—which had appeared an age to the impatient trio—Bacri returned to the skiffa with two coarse burnouses similar to the one worn by Mariano. He directed Francisco and Lucien to put these on, after exchanging their varied habiliments for the jacket, short drawers, and red fez or cap, worn by Moors of the middle class. He then produced some brown ochre, with which he stained their hands and their legs below the knee—these latter parts being usually uncovered in Moors who did not belong to the wealthy classes.

"Why not paint our faces too?" asked Mariano, amused at the figure they cut, despite the dangers which rendered the disguise necessary.

"Because neither the painting of your faces," replied Bacri, "nor the shaving of your heads—which latter would be essential to the converting of you into genuine Moors—would constitute any disguise were your voices to be heard or your features to be scrutinized. You must be careful to pull the hoods of your burnouses well forward on your faces. All that you can hope to gain by your costume is to