"I heard Golah calling for Muley after hearing the report of a gun.
From that I knew that he was wounded. Muley ran to assist him, while I
stayed behind with the horse and camels. I am starving!
"Very soon Muley came running back, followed by his father, who seemed
possessed of an evil spirit. He ran this way and that way, swinging his
scimitar about, and trying to kill us both as well as the camels. He
could not see, and we managed to keep out of his way. I am starving!"
The young negro here paused, and, once more picking up the piece of
camel's flesh, proceeded to devour it with an alacrity that proved the
truth of his assertion.
"Pig!" exclaimed the sheik, "tell your story first, and eat afterwards."
"Praise be to Allah!" said the youth, as he resumed his narrative;
"Golah ran against one of the camels and killed it."
His listeners looked towards the dead camel. They saw that the body
bore the marks of Golah's great scimitar.
"After killing the camel," continued the young man, "the sheik became
quiet. The evil spirit had passed out of him; and he sat down upon the
sand. Then his wives came up to him; and he talked to them kindly, and
put his hands on each of the children, and called them by name. They
screamed when they looked at him, and Golah told them not to be
frightened, that he would wash his face, and frighten them no more. The
little boy led him to the water, and he rushed into the sea as far as he
could wade. He went there to die. Muley ran after to bring him out,
and they were both drowned. I could not help them, for I was starving!"
The emaciated appearance of the narrator gave strong evidence of the
truth of the concluding words of his story. For nearly a week he had
been travelling night and day, and the want of sleep and food could not
have been much longer endured.
At the command of the Arab chief, the slaves now buried the bodies of
Golah and his son.
Gratified at his good fortune, in being relieved from all further
trouble with his implacable foeman, the sheik determined to have a day
of rest; which to his slaves was very welcome, as was also the flesh of
the dead camel, now given them to eat.
About the death of Golah there was still a mystery the Arabs could not
comprehend, and the services of the Krooman as interpreter were again
called into requisition.
When the sheik learnt what the sailor had done, how the pistol had been
made an effective weapon by filling the barrel with sand, he expressed
much satisfaction at the manner in which the old man-o'-war's-man had
performed his duty.
Full of gratitude for the service thus rendered him, he promised that
not only the sailor himself, but the boy slaves, his companions, should
be taken to Mogador and restored to their friends.