To which Jack, with all his ready impudence, replies—
"Yes, sir, he is an Arab. He was one of Abd-el-Kader's lieutenants."
We need scarcely remind our readers that Abd-el-Kader was the doughty Arab chief who made so heroic a resistance to the French in Algiers.
This satisfied the commissaire, who respectfully bade Mole pass on.
They went on, and Mole anxiously questioned Jack.
"I'm getting quite deaf," said he, by way of a pretext for not having understood the conversation. "Whatever were you saying?"
"I told him your name was Isaac Mole, sir," returned Jack.
"You said Ikey Mole, sir," retorted Mole, "and that is a very great liberty, sir."
"Not at all. Iké is the French for Isaac," responded the unblushing Jack.
"But what was all that they were saying about Arab?"