Page:Ballantyne--The Pirate City.djvu/93

Rh beast," replied Flaggan, giving the bridle a savage pull.

"You're an Irishman, I perceive," said the consul, smiling.

"Well, now, yer right, sur; though how ye came to persaive is more nor I can understand."

"Where have you come from? and how in such a plight?" demanded the consul in some surprise, observing that a troop of janissaries came galloping up the winding road, near the top of which they stood.

"Sorrow wan o' me knows where we touched at last," replied the seaman in some perplexity; "the names goes out o' me head like wather out of a sieve. All I'm rightly sure of is that I set sail four days ago from a port they calls Boogee, or so'thin' like it, in company with a man called Seedy Hassan; an' sure he'd ha' bin seedy enough be now if his horse hadn't bin a good 'un, for we wos attacked, and half his party killed and took, forby my six messmates; but—"

"Your name is Ted Flaggan?" inquired the consul hastily.

"It is," said the seaman, in great surprise; "sure yer honour must be—"

The sentence was cut short by the arrival of the janissaries, who pulled up with looks of considerable astonishment on finding the mad fugitive engaged in quiet conversation with the British consul.