"Allah Kerin, it was a mercy your back was not broken," exclaimed the bashaw.
"I feel sore all over, your highness," said Bosja, ruefully, "and fear I am seriously injured."
"And the culprit was endeavouring to escape, was he not?" asked the judge.
"He was, your mightiness, when my soldiers discovered him clinging to the wall," replied the officer of the soldiers.
"Wallah thaih, it is well said."
The bashaw conferred again with his vizier for a moment, and then, turning towards the luckless Figgins, who found himself changed from the plaintiff into the defendant, he said to him sternly—
"And now, unbelieving dog, what have you to say?"
"Only this," the orphan replied, without hesitation; "that that witness has uttered a tissue of abominable lies."
"I have spoken naught but the truth," exclaimed the unblushing Bosja, solemnly. "Bashem ustun, upon my head be it."
"Well, let us hear what account you have to give," said the bashaw to the defendant.