"Truly," replied the man gruffly, in Lingua Franca, "thy knock might imply friendship, but thine appearance here at such an hour requires more explanation than a mere assurance."
"Remove your hand and you shall have it," replied the youth, somewhat angrily. "Dost suppose that if I had been other than a friend I would not have ere now flung thee headlong from thine own terrace?"
"Speak quickly, then," returned the man, relaxing his hold a little.
"This ring," said the youth.
"Ha! Enough, a sure token," interrupted the Jew, in a low friendly tone, on seeing the ring, at the same time leading Mariano within the doorway. "What wouldst thou?"
"Nothing more than to be shown the nearest way to the street."
"That is soon done—follow me."
In a few minutes Mariano found himself in a narrow street, down which, after lighting his lantern and thanking the Jew, he proceeded at a rapid pace.
In the intricacies of that curious old town the youth would certainly have lost himself, but for the fact that it was built, as we have said, on the slope of a hill, so that all he had to do was to keep descending, in order to secure his final exit into the principal thoroughfare—Bab-Azoun.
