"Come to my office; I have something important to communicate to you. Don't, for God's sake, open your lips here. The very stones feel as if they were spying at me."
The captain hesitated, but his friend whispered--
"You must come; it is urgent, and it will be made worth your while."
Whereupon the cautious commander fell like a slaughtered lamb. They were soon alone within the four walls of a sumptuously-furnished private office.
"What's the game?" asked the impatient captain, uneasily.
"This is it," said his friend, coming close up to him and speaking in a low voice: "I have a secret job for you."
"Is there danger attached to it?" asked the captain.
"Yes, a good deal," replied his friend; "and I have chosen you to do it, because I know you will carry it out successfully if you'll take the risk."
"That's all very well," responded the captain, "but I don't care to overburden myself with danger and risk of confiscation, without I'm handsomely recompensed for it."
"Hush!" said his friend, nervously; "I think I hear voices. If we are overheard by any one, we may be betrayed and pounced upon at any moment."
After listening, he was reassured, and intimated that the worthy skipper would be well rewarded.
"That entirely alters the question," said the captain. "How much am I to have, and what is it you wish me to do?"
"You are to have two hundred and fifty pounds if you succeed in getting a distinguished Turkish pasha and his suite from here, and land them at Scutari."
"What!" exclaimed the commander. "Do you expect me to run the gauntlet with a Turkish pasha for two hundred and fifty pounds? Why, his head is worth thousands, to say nothing about the danger I run of having my ship confiscated, and myself sent to Siberia. Do not let us waste time. I will risk it for a thousand pounds, and put my state-room at his disposal."
The agent demurred, but the captain was for some time obdurate. However, seven hundred and fifty for the owners with two hundred for the captain was, after keen negotiation, agreed upon. It was further arranged that the steamer was not to sail until after midnight, so that the risk of stoppage would be lessened, and in rowing off as soon as it came dark, the oars were to be muffled.