"when enemies become sudden friends, we should know how to act."
It was evident from the look of anxiety and uncertainty depicted in the visage of the elder chaouse that he did not by any means know how to act. With the stern resolution of a bull-dog nature, however, he suddenly made up his mind to do his duty.
Advancing quickly toward Hassan, he was about to lay hold of him, when Hadji Baba stepped abruptly before him, and said with an affable air and smile—
"His Highness the Dey has sent these good fellows to arrest Sidi Hassan, and I have taken upon my own shoulders the weighty responsibility—being, as is well known, a fool—to offer our united services in the reversal of the decree by the arrestment of the Dey instead."
"A bold jest, good fellow, and one that may cost thee thy life, for the present Dey understands not a jest."
"It is no jest," returned Baba, with a keen glance at Omar, whom he knew to be a plotter in the state; "my soles tingle now with what they have already received, and my thoughts tingle with what is yet to come. If you have need of friends in the palace here are two—good and true," said Baba, turning to the chaouses, who stood mute with amazement at the man's impudence, "and I am one, which makes
