"Would it not be as well to turn back?"

"We might meet a pair of them if we went another way. Take this lesson
from me: Never turn back from the path you have once taken, as otherwise
you will only plunge into still greater misfortunes."

Meanwhile they were drawing nearer and nearer to the bellowing
gentleman, and before long his figure came full into view.

And certainly his figure was in every respect worthy of his voice. He
was an enormous, six-foot high, herculean fellow, with his shirt-sleeves
rolled up to his shoulders, and the disorderly appearance of his dolman
and the crooked cock of his turban more than justified the suspicion
that he had already taken far more than was good for him of that fluid
which the Prophet has forbidden to all true believers.

"Gel, gel! Ne miktár dir, gel!" ("Come along the whole lot of you!")
roared the Janissary with all his might, staggering from one side of the
lane to the other, and flourishing his naked rapier in the air.

"Woe is me, my brave Mussulman!" faltered the Wallachian butcher in a
terrified whisper, "wouldn't it be as well if you were to take my
stick, for he might observe that I had it, and fancy I want to fight him
with it."

The Turk took over the stick of the butcher as the latter seemed to be
frightened of it.

"H'm! this stick of yours is not a bad one. I see that the head of it is
well-studded with knobs, and that it is weighted with lead besides. What