This tranquillity only related to any disturbance experienced from their
captors. There was none.
These had been on the eve of striking their tents, and moving off to
some other oasis, previous to the last incident that had arisen.
As already stated, the two sheiks, by a mutual understanding, had been
about to shake hands, and separate, the son of Japhet going north, to
the markets of Morocco, while the descendant of Ham was to face homeward
to his more tropical and appropriate clime, under the skies of
Timbuctoo.
The "windfall" that had so unexpectedly dropped into the _douar_, first
in the shape of Sailor Bill, and afterwards, in more generous guise, by
the capture of the three "young gentlemen" of the gunroom, had caused
some change in the plans of their captors.
By mutual understanding between the two sheiks, something was to be done
in the morning; and their design of separating was deferred to another
day.
The order to strike tents had been countermanded; and both tribes
retired to rest, as soon as the captives had been disposed of for the
night. The _douar_ was silent, so far as the children of Ham and Japhet
were concerned. Even their children had ceased to clamour and squall.
At intervals might be heard the neigh of a Barbary horse, the barking of
a dog, the bleating of a goat, or a sound yet more appropriate to the
scene, the snorting of a maherry.
In addition to these, human voices were heard. But they proceeded from
the throats of the sons of Shem. For the most part they were uttered in
a low tone, as the three midshipmen conversed seriously and earnestly
together; but occasionally they became elevated to a higher pitch when
Sailor Bill, guarded on the opposite side of the encampment, took part
in the conversation, and louder speech was necessary to the interchange
of thought between him and his fellow-captives.
The Arab watchers offered no interruption. They understood not a word
of what was being said; and so long as the conversation of their
captives did not disturb the _douar_, they paid no heed to it.
"What have they done to you, Bill?" was the first question asked by the
new comers, after they had been left free to make inquiries.
"Faix!" responded the sailor, for it was Terry who had put the
interrogatory; "iverything they cud think av, iverything to make an old
salt as uncomfortable as can be. They've not left a sound bone in my
body; nor a spot on my skin that's not ayther pricked or scratched wid
thar cruel thorns. My carcass must be like an old seventy-four, after
comin' out av action, as full av holes as a meal sieve."
"But what did they do to you, Bill?" said Colin, almost literally
repeating the interrogatory of Terence.
The sailor detailed his experiences since entering the encampment.
"It's very clear," remarked the young Scotchman, "that we need look for
nothing but ill-treatment at the hands of these worse than savages. I
suppose they intend making slaves of us."
"That at least," quietly assented Harry, "Sartin," said the sailor.
"They've let me know as much a'ready. There be two captains to their
crew: one's the smoke-dried old sinner as brought yer in; the other a
big nayger, as black as the ace o' spades. You saw the swab? He's
inside the tent here. He's my master. The two came nigh quarrelling
about which should have me, and settled it by some sort o' a game they
played wi' balls of kaymals' dung. The black won me; and that's why I'm
kep by his tent. Mother av Moses! Only to think of a British tar being
the slave o' a sooty nayger! I never thought it wud a come to this."
"Where do you think they'll take us, Bill?"
"The Lord only knows, an' whether we're all bound for the same port."
"What! you think we may be separated?"
"Be ma saul, Maister Colin, I ha'e ma fears we wull!"
"What makes you think so?"
"Why, ye see, as I've telt ye, I'm booked to ship wi' the black--`sheik'
I've heerd them ca' him. Well, from what I ha'e seed and heerd there's
nae doot they're gaein' to separate an' tak different roads. I didna
ken muckle o' what they saved, but I could mak oot two words I ha'e
often heerd while cruisin' in the Gulf o' Guinea. They are the names o'
two great toons, a lang way up the kintry, Timbuctoo and Sockatoo. They
are negro toons: an' for that reezun I ha'e a suspeshun my master's
bound to one or other o' the two ports."
"But why do you think that we are to be taken elsewhere?" demanded Harry
Blount.
"Why, because, Master 'Aarry, you belong to the hold sheik, as is
plainly a Harab, an' oose port of hentry lies in a different direction,
that be to the northart."
"It's all likely enough," said Colin; "Bill's prognostication is but too
probable."
"Why, ye see, Maister Colin, they are only land sharks who ha'e got hold
o' us. They're too poor to keep us; an' wull be sure to sell us
somewhere, an' to somebody that ha'e got the tocher to gie for us.
That's what they'll do wi' us poor bodies."
"I hope," said Terence, "they'll not part us. No doubt slavery will be
hard enough to bear under any circumstances; but harder if we have to
endure it alone. Together, we might do something to alleviate one
another's lot. I hope we shall not be separated!"
To this hope all the others made a sincere response; and the
conversation came to an end. They who had been carrying it on, worn-out
by fatigue, and watchfulness long protracted, despite the unpleasantness
of their situation, soon after, and simultaneously, yielded their
spirits to the soothing oblivion of sleep.