The ghins will pay you back for what you have
swindled me out of."
"I have swindled you out of nothing. I risked my life for four
ducats, have earned them honestly, and it does not become you to
abuse me for it before these people.--Speak yourselves, you men, am
I right?"
"Certainly you are right," they cried with one voice.
"No; no one can abuse you for receiving your well-earned wages,"
said Mr. Lion, beckoning to the boy to follow him.
"You must be exhausted--come with me to my home. You shall dine with
me and drink a glass of wine. Your clothes are thoroughly drenched;
you shall dry them at the fire."
Mohammed laughed. "Wet I am, to be sure, but the fire that burns in
my veins will soon dry the stuff. I will, however, gladly eat a
little and drink a glass of wine with you. It was a hard fight with
the sea-monsters, they seemed to roar in my ears, 'We will have you,
we will pull you down!' And yet it sounded sweetly! There is no
finer music than when, the sea-monsters come up from the deep and
sing their wild songs."
"You are a strange being," said Mr. Lion, regarding him lovingly. "I
rejoice in you, and, if it were not that people would say of me that
I wished to convert a Mussulman to my religion, I would gladly adopt
you as my son. Tell me, if I should leave this place, would you go
with me to the land of the Franks, accept my religion, and become
the heir of my fortune?"
"And you ask this? Say that it was a jest! For you surely could not
desire that the son of his father should become a renegade! No, Mr.
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