"What for? To be cutdown by the armed eunuchs. No; better take their chance where they are."
"I'm not going to leave them to die," said Jack; "I'll have a shy, for it, if——"
"Hold your tongue," interrupted the Irishman, anxiously; "but look, what the dooce are the girls up to with your black boys?"
Tinker and Bogey laboured under a very great disadvantage.
They could neither understand nor make themselves understood by the fair creatures by whom they were surrounded.
However, they managed to glean that they were in danger, and that a temporary haven of safety was to be found in an inner room beyond the curtain facing the chief entrance, which was guarded by the two eunuchs.
They were bustled into that apartment by the ladies of the harem to a chorus of excited whisperings.
"Whatever are they going to do?" whispered Jack.
"Silence, not a word. Look there!" said the Irish Turk.
The heavy drapery before the chief entrance was drawn aside, and in marched the fierce-looking Turk, that had tried to rob the orphan and his cash-box, closely followed by the two eunuchs, who stood sentry at the doorway.