Yussuf the Guide Part 50

"Fight, eh?" said the professor gravely.

"Yes, sir, fight, and I only wish I understood the use of this gun and long knife as well as I do that of a ruler and a pen."

"Look here, Yussuf, if we fight, what will be the consequences?"

"I will fight for your excellencies to the last," said the Turk calmly; "but I am afraid that we can do no good."

"Confound you, sir!" cried Mr Burne; "if we give in they will take off our heads."

"No, no, excellency, they will make us prisoners, and strip us of our arms and all that we have of value."

"Humph! Is that all?"

"No, excellency. They will demand a heavy ransom for your release--so many Turkish pounds."

"Then we'll fight," cried Mr Burne furiously. "I never would and I never will be swindled. Ransom indeed! Why, confound it all, Preston!

is this real, or is it a c.o.c.k-and-bull story told in a book?"

"It is reality, Burne, sure enough," said the professor calmly; "and I feel with you, that I would sooner fight than give up a shilling; but, cowardly as it may seem, I fear that we must give up."

"Give up? Never, sir. I am an Englishman," cried the old lawyer.

"But look at our position. We are completely at their mercy. Here we are in the centre of this half-moon curve, and the scoundrels hold the two horns in force."

"Then we'll dash up the mountain."

"It is impossible, excellency," said Yussuf.

"Then we'll go downwards."

"To death, Burne?" said the professor smiling.

"Confound it all!" cried Mr Burne, "we are in a complete trap. Here, you, Yussuf, this is your doing, and you are in league with these rascals to rob us."

"Excellency!"

"Oh, Mr Burne!" cried Lawrence, with his face scarlet; and he leaned towards Yussuf, and held out his hand to the Turk, who sat with angry, lowering countenance upon his horse.

"Mr Burne is angry, Yussuf," said the professor in a quiet, stern manner. "He does not mean what he says, and I am sure he will apologise as an English gentleman should."

Yussuf bowed coldly, and Mr Preston continued:

"I have the most perfect confidence in your integrity, sir, and as we are brothers in misfortune, and you know these people better than we--"

"Of course," said Mr Burne, with an angry e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.i.o.n.

"I ask you," said Mr Preston, "to give us your advice. What had we better do--fight or give up?"

Yussuf's face brightened, and he turned to the old lawyer.

"Effendi," he said gravely, "you will know me better before we part, and you will tell me you are sorry for what you have said."

"I won't, sir! No, confound me, never!" cried the old lawyer; and he blew his nose like a challenge upon a trumpet.

"I am deeply grieved, effendi," continued Yussuf, smiling as he turned to the professor, "for this is a terrible misfortune, and you will be disappointed of your visit to the old city. But it would be madness to light. We should be throwing away our lives, and that of the young effendi here, who has shown us of late that he has a long and useful life to lead. It is our fate. We must give up."

"Never!" cried Mr Burne, c.o.c.king his gun.

"Don't be foolish, my dear Burne," said the professor. "I would say, let us fight like men; but what can we do against fifty well-armed scoundrels, who can shelter themselves and pick us off at their ease?

Come, keep that gun still, or you will shoot one of us instead of an enemy."

"Now, that's cruel!" cried Mr Burne with an air of comical vexation.

"Well, I suppose you are right. Here, Yussuf, old fellow, I beg your pardon. I was only in a savage temper. I suppose we must give in; but before I'll pay a shilling of ransom they shall take off my head."

Yussuf smiled.

"Confound you, sir, don't grin at a man when he's down," cried Mr Burne. "You've got the better of me, but you need not rejoice like that."

"I do not rejoice, excellency, only that you believe in me once more."

"Here! hi! you black-muzzled, unbelieving scoundrels, leave off, will you! Don't point your guns at us, or, by George and the dragon and the other champions of Christendom, I will fight."

He had looked at the two points of the half-moon road, and seen that about a dozen men were now dismounted, and were apparently taking aim at them.

"Well, Yussuf, we give up," said the professor. "Perhaps, after all, they may be honest people. Will you go to them and ask what they want with us?"

"They are brigands, excellency."

"Well, ask them what they will take to let us continue our journey in peace," cried Mr Burne. "Offer 'em five shillings all round; I suppose there are about fifty--or, no, say we will give them ten pounds to go about their business; and a precious good day's work for the ragged jacks."

"I will go forward," said Yussuf. "Excellency," he continued to the professor, "trust me, and I will make the best bargain I can."

"Go on, then," said the professor; "but is there any risk to yourself?"

"Oh, no, effendi, none at all. I have no fear. They will know I come as an amba.s.sador."

"Go on, then," said the professor; and the Turk rode slowly forward to the men, who blocked their way, and who still held their guns menacingly before them as if about to fire.

CHAPTER THIRTY SIX.

GOOD OUT OF EVIL.

"We've brought our pigs to a pretty market," grumbled Mr Burne, as they sat watching Yussuf ride up to the brigands. "It means ruin, sir, ruin."

"There's no help for it, Burne," said the professor calmly; "it is of no use to complain."

"I am an Englishman, sir, and I shall grumble as much and as long as I please," cried the old gentleman snappishly; "and you, Lawrence, if you laugh at me, sir, I'll knock you off your horse. Here, what was the use of our buying weapons of war, if we are not going to use them?"