Mayne Reid

“ To them there was no mystery in that screaming cachinnation. Unearthly as it had echoed in the ears of the three mids, it fell with a perfectly natural tone on those of the Arabs: for it was but one of the well-known voices of their desert home, recognised by them as the cry of the laughing hyena.
The effect produced upon the encampment was twofold. The children straying outside the tents, like young chicks frightened by the swooping of a hawk, ran inward; while their mothers, after the manner of so many old hens, rushed forth to take them under their protection. ”

“ Look at his refusing that drink of water when it had been several times offered him!"
"There is something wonderful about him, certainly," assented Harry; "but I don't see anything in him to admire."
"No more do I," said Bill. "He might be as comfortable now as we are; and I say a man's a fool as won't be 'appy when he can."
"What you call his folly," rejoined Colin, "is but a noble pride that makes him superior to any of us. He has a spirit that will not submit to slavery, and we have not."
"That be truth," remarked the Krooman; "Golah nebbar be slave." ”

“ Though possessing more than average strength and power for a youth of his age, Terence knew that, in a strife with the gigantic black sheik, he would not have the slightest chance of being victor.
Should he shout to his companions, and have them all act in concert, as they had already proposed?
No. Such an act would most likely lead to two of them being shot, to the third having his brains knocked out with the butt-end of a musket; and to the fourth, himself, being strangled in the powerful grasp of Golah, if not beheaded with the scimitar in the hands of Fatima. ”

“ From the way in which the old salt appeared to be treated, they could tell that he was regarded by the hosts into whose hands he had fallen, not as a guest, but simply as a "piece of goods,"—just like any other waif of the wreck that had been washed on that inhospitable shore.
In whispers the three mids made known their thoughts to one another. Harry Blount no longer doubted the truth of Colin's statements; and O'Connor had become equally converted from his incredulity. The conduct of the women towards the unfortunate castaway—which all three witnessed—told like the tongue of a trumpet. ”

“ Let us lift that curtain which shrouds thy great Saara, and look upon some pictures that should teach the son of Shem, while despising his brothers Ham and Japhet, that he is not master of the world.
Dread is that shore between Susa and Senegal, on the western edge of Africa—by mariners most dreaded of any other in the world. The very thought of it causes the sailor to shiver with affright. And no wonder; on that inhospitable seaboard thousands of his fellows have found a watery grave; and thousands of others a doom far more deplorable than death! ”

“ Colin appealed to Golah’s son, and by signs gave him to understand that they must have water. The young black, in answer, simply condescended to sneer at him. He was not suffering himself, and could have no sympathy for another.
The hides of the blacks, besmeared with oil, seemed to repel the scorching beams of the sun; and years of continual practice had no doubt inured them to the endurance of hunger and thirst to a surprising degree. To their white fellow-captives they appeared more like huge reptiles than human beings. ”

“ In the midst of this turbulent tempest of wind and sand, with not a single drop of rain, the castaways continued to sleep.
One might suppose, as did the old man-o’-war’s man before going to sleep, that they were not in any danger; not even as much as if their couch had been under the roof of a house, or strewn amid the leaves of the forest. There were no trees to be blown down upon them, no bricks nor large chimney-pots to come crashing through the ceiling, and crush them as they lay upon their beds.
What danger could there be among the “dunes?”
Not much to a man awake, and with open eyes. ”

“ Like men upon a treadmill, they were compelled to keep on moving, although neither able nor willing.
The hour of sunset found them wading through sand that had lately been stirred by a storm. It was nearly as light and loose as snow; and the toil of moving through it was so wearisome that the mounted Arabs, having some pity on those who had walked, halted early for the night. Two men were appointed to guard the camp in the same manner as upon the night before; and with the feelings of hunger and thirst partly appeased, weary with toils of day, our adventurers were soon in a sound slumber. ”

“ And yet almost on the instant after suspending their flight, they had turned their faces towards it, as if some object of interest had suddenly shown itself in the surf. Object there was none, nothing but the flakes of white froth and the black vitreous waves over which it was dancing.
It was not an object, but a purpose that was engaging their attention, a resolve that had suddenly sprung up within their minds, almost as suddenly to be carried into execution. After all, their old home was not to prove so inhospitable. It would provide them with a place of concealment. ”

“ Awkward as the old salt might feel in a saddle, he felt not less awkward afoot. That is ashore,—on terra firma.
Place him on the deck of a ship, or in the rigging of one, and no man in all England's navy could have been more secure as to his footing, or more difficult to dispossess of it; but set sailor Bill upon shore, and expect him to go ahead upon it, you would be disappointed: you might as well expect a fish to make progress on land; and you would witness a species of locomotion more resembling that of a manatee or a seal, than of a human biped. ”

“ It would need a brilliant pen to convey the sensations with which the voyageur, eager for scenes of adventure and fresh from the hived-up haunts of civilization, would enter upon a desert jaunt, to whom all was full of novelty and interest, whose companions were subjects for curious study, speaking in accents the unfamiliar Oriental cadence of which fell pleasantly upon his ear, and who found in every hour some fresh cause for wonder or pleasure. But a pen of marvellous power and pathos must be invoked to portray the mingled emotions that swayed in swift succession the minds of our Boy Slaves! ”

“ He pursued his journey towards Mogador with but a faint hope that the representations made by Harry Blount would prove true, and with the determination of taking the life of the latter, should he find himself deceived. He placed more faith in the story told him by the sheik, than in the mere supposition of the pilgrim, that the white slaves would find some one to ransom them. For often,—alas too often!—the hopes which captives have dwelt on for tedious months, until they have believed them true, have proved, when put to the test, but empty and fallacious dreams. ”

“ Surging through the ocean of soft sand, now mounting the spurs that trended down to the beach, now descending headlong into deep gullies, like troughs between the ocean waves, and gliding silently, gently forward as a shallop upon a smooth sea. Such was the course that the sailor was pursuing. Very different, however, were his reflections to those he would have indulged in on board a man-o'-war; and if any man ever sneered at that simile which likens a camel to a ship, it was Sailor Bill upon that occasion. ”

“ The same irresistible antipathy to death compelled his white captives to follow the black sheik.
They were unwilling to die, not for the sole reason that they had homes and friends they wished to see again, not solely for that innate love of life, implanted by nature in the breasts of all; but there was a pleasure which they desired to experience once more, ay, yearned to indulge in it: the pleasure of quenching their terrible thirst. To gratify this pleasure they must follow Golah. ”

“ Early on the morning of the second day after the Arabs reached their home, all the slaves, both white and black, were roused from their slumbers; and after a spare breakfast of barley-gruel, were commanded to follow their masters to the grain fields, outside the walls of the town.
"Do you want us to work?" asked Jim, addressing himself directly to the old sheik.
"Bismillah! Yes!" exclaimed the Arab. "We have kept you too long in idleness. What have you done, or who are you, that we should maintain you? You must work for your living, as we do ourselves!" ”

“ There were voices of men, women and children, cries and calls of quadrupeds, each according to its own kind, all mingled together in what might have been taken for some nocturnal saturnalia of the desert.
The crisis was that in which Sailor Bill had become a subject of dispute between the two sheiks, in which not only their respective followers of the biped kind appeared to take part, but also every quadruped in the camp: dogs and dromedaries, horses, goats, and sheep, as if each had an interest in the ownership of the old man-o’-war’s-man. ”

“ Sailor Bill pronounced Golah, with his son and brother-in-law, quite a match for the six who were left. The black sheik, he thought, was equal to any four of their present masters in strength, cunning, and determination.
"But the Arabs have us to help them," remarked Colin. "We should count for something."
"So we do,—as merchandise," replied Harry; "we have hitherto been helpless as children in protecting ourselves. What can we do? The boasted superiority of our race or country cannot be true here in the desert. We are out of our element." ”

“ All started forward from the place but the three white slaves and the two whom Golah intended to remain.
"Cheer up, lad," said Bill to Colin; "we'll never go, and leave you there."
"Go on, go on!" exclaimed Colin. "You can do me no good, and will only injure yourselves."
Golah had mounted his camel and ridden forward, leaving to his two guards the task of driving on the slaves; and, as if apprehensive of trouble from them, he had directed Terence, Harry, Bill, and the Krooman to be brought on with their hands tied behind them. ”

“ On the old sheik being asked when he intended taking his slaves on to Swearah, he answered:—
"Our barley is now ripe, and we must not leave it to spoil. You must help us in the harvest, and that will enable us to go to Swearah all the sooner."
"Do you really intend to take your slaves to Swearah?" asked the Krooman.
"Certainly!" replied the sheik. "Have we not promised? But we cannot leave our fields now. Bismillah! our grain must be gathered."
"It is just as I supposed," said Jim. "They will promise anything. They do not intend taking us to Mogador at all. ”

“ She had bestowed favor upon a slave,—a Christian dog,—and had aroused the jealousy of her Mahometan lord and master.
Fatima seemed happy; for nothing less than a miracle could, in her opinion, save the life of her fellow-wife, who chanced to be a hated rival.
After drawing his scimitar from its sheath, and cocking his musket, Golah ordered all the slaves to squat themselves on the ground, and in a row. ”

“ Faint and weak with hunger, nearly mad with thirst, alarmed for the condition of his brother, and pitying the agony of the others, Jim was about to answer the sheik’s question in the affirmative; but there was something in the tone in which the question had been put that determined him to refrain for a little longer.
The earthly happiness of six men might depend upon the next word he should utter, and that word he would not speak without some deliberation.
With an intellect sharpened by torture, Jim turned his gaze from the old sheik upon several other Arabs that had come near. ”

“ Shortly after, Jim could hear the flocks being driven out of the town, and looking through a small opening in the wall of the penn, he could see some of the Arabs going out towards the barley-fields.
Could it be that he had been mistaken; that the Arabs were going to apply the screw of starvation for another day? Alarmed by this conjecture, he strove to hail them, and bring them back, but the effort only resulted in a hoarse whisper.
“May God forgive me!” thought he. “My brother, as well as all the others, will die before night! I have murdered them, and perhaps myself!” ”

“ Perhaps in no other part of the world is the "milk of human kindness" so completely wanting in the female breast, as among the women of the wandering Arabs of Africa. Slaves to their imperious lords,—even when enjoying the sacred title of wife,—they are themselves treated worse than the animals which they have to manage and tend,—even worse at times than their own bond-slaves, with whom they mingle almost on an equality. ”

“ On the contrary, a creature of their own shape was the last thing they desired either to see or encounter; and for the reasons already given in their conversation, they could meet no men there who would not be their enemies,—worse than that, their tyrants, perhaps their torturers. Old Bill was sure of this from what he had heard. So were Colin and Harry from what they had read. Terence alone was incredulous as to the cruelty of which the sailor had given such a graphic picture. ”

“ Little dreamt the four sleepers as they lay unconscious under that swirl of sand, little even would they have suspected, if awake, that there was danger in the situation.
There was for all that a danger, great as it was imminent; the danger, not only of their being “smoored”, but stifled, suffocated, buried fathoms deep under the sands of the Saara; for fathoms deep will often be the drift of a single night.
The Arabs say that, once “submerged” beneath the arenaceous “flood”, a man loses the power to extricate himself. ”

“ The nearest gate of the city was still more than a mile ahead, and towards it the Moors urged their horses with all the energy that could be inspired by oaths, kicks, and blows.
As Rais Mourad’s party approached the gate, the heads of their pursuers were seen just rising over the crest of the hill behind them. But as the Moor saw that his slaves were now safe, he checked his speed, and the few yards that remained of the journey were performed at a slow pace: for the great man did not wish to enter the gate of a strange city in a hasty or undignified manner. ”

“ After he had examined the slaves, he retired with the two merchants; and shortly afterwards the Krooman learnt from one of the followers that the white slaves had become the property of the wealthy Moor.
The bright anticipations of liberty that had filled their souls for the last few days, vanished at this intelligence. Each felt a shock of pain,—of hopeless despair,—that for some moments stunned them almost to speechlessness.
Harry Blount was the first to awaken to the necessity of action.
"Where are our masters the merchants?" he exclaimed. "They cannot—they shall not sell us. ”

“ Being so near their own, they had made an effort to reach it without extending their journey into another day.
"I fear we are in the hands of the wrong masters for obtaining our freedom," said Jim to his companions. "If they were traders, they might take us farther north and sell us; but it's clear they are not! They are graziers, farmers, and robbers, when the chance arises,—that's what they be! While waiting for their barley to ripen, they have been on a raiding expedition to the desert, in the hope of capturing a few slaves, to assist them in reaping their harvest." ”