The Pirate City, page 169 by Robert Michael Ballantyne
<< Return to Title Details & Download170
sent by Bacri before his father.
Feeling sensations like those of a starved wolf, Francisco merely smiled, nodded, and shook hands with the sailor, and then, seizing the remains of the loaf and the pork,--"wild-boar," or "lion," pie, commenced with infinite gusto to his unexpected meal.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Note 1. This held true of the Kabyles until they were conquered, disarmed, and completely subdued by the French, who now hold possession of their land.
CHAPTER TWENTY
TWO.
SHOWS HOW THE PIRATES WERE WONT TO TREAT MEN OF NOTE.
When his hunger was appeased, Francisco Rimini turned to Ted Flaggan and asked him, through Lucien, to go over again in detail the course of action which Bacri advised him and his sons to adopt in order to effect their escape out of the country. "For," said he with emphasis, "I'm neither a lion nor a rabbit, and cannot therefore make up my mind to spend the rest of my days in a hole."
We will spare the reader Mister Flaggan's repetition of the details referred to, merely remarking that they embraced careful directions as to when and where a boat would be found on the coast ready to carry them out to sea, and that they contained many earnest cautions to be wary, as nothing short of death by slow torture would be their fate if recaptured--this being their second attempt at escape.
Meanwhile circumstances were transpiring which gave a new turn to the state of affairs in the pirate city.
We have elsewhere remarked on the amazing fact that the great powers of Europe and America tolerated the system of barefaced piracy which was carried on by the Algerines against all nations that did not pay them "black-mail," but it must not be supposed that this disgraceful submission was the result of fear or of indifference. The truth is, that the great powers were so busily engaged in throttling each other that they h