Charlie was now much stronger, but he had carefully abstained from showing any marked improvement, speaking always in a voice a little above a whisper, and allowing the men to feed him, after making one or two pretended attempts to convey the spoon to his mouth.
"Well, Master Englishman," Ben Soloman said, as he came up to his bedside, "what do you think of things ?" "I do not know what to think," Charlie said feebly.

"I do not know where I am, or why I am here.

I remember that there was a fray in the street, and I suppose I was hurt.

But why was I brought here, instead of being taken to my lodgings ?" "Because you would be no use to me in your lodging, and you may be a great deal of use to me here," Ben Soloman said.

"You know you endeavoured to entrap me into a plot against the king's life." Charlie shook his head, and looked wonderingly at the speaker.
"No, no," he said, "there was no plot against the king's life.