Page:Ballantyne--The Pirate City.djvu/371

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THE PIRATE CITY.
349

"I laughed to that extint at this that he got away from me, so I gave him a finishin' Irish howl, by way o' making him kape the pace goin', an' thin stopped and putt on the hake. By and by I comes to where the burnous was, and putts it on too, an faix, ye couldn't have towld me from an Arab, for the bare legs an' feet and arms was all right, only just a taste over light in colour, d'ee see? Thinks I to mesilf, Ted, me boy, ye cudn't do better than remain as ye are. Wid a little brown dirt on yer face an' limbs, yer own mother wouldn't know ye. An' troth, Rais, I did it; an' whin I lucked at mesilf in a smooth pool on the baich, it was for all the world as if somebody else was luckin' at me. To be short wid ye, I've bin wanderin' about the country for the last three or four days quite free an' aisy."

"Nobody see yoo?" asked Rais in great surprise.

"Och! lots o' people, but few of 'em tuk a fancy to spake to me, an' whin they did I shuck me head, an' touched me lips, so they thought I was dumb."

"But why you comes to town?" asked Rais Ali, in a remonstrative tone.

"Just bekaise I'm hungry," replied the seaman, with a smile. "Ye see, Ally Babby, the gale of day before yesterday sint a breaker into the cave that washed away all the purvisions ye brought me last, so it was aither come here and look for 'ee or