It was well they were inspired by this hope. But for that, long before the sun had set, Sailor Bill and three or four others would have dropped down in despair, physically unable to move any farther. But the prospect of plenty of water to be found only a few miles ahead, brought at the same time, resolution, strength and life. Faint and feeble, they struggled on, nearly mad with the agony of nature’s fierce demands; and soon after sunset they succeeded in reaching the well.
It was dry!
Not a drop of the much desired element was shining in the cavity where they had expected to find it.
Sailor Bill, and some of the other slaves, sank upon the earth, muttering prayers for immediate death.
Golah was in a great rage with everything; and his wives, children, slaves, and camels, that were most familiar with his moods, rushed here and there to get out of his way.
Suddenly he seemed to decide on a course to be taken in this terrible emergency; and his anger, to some extent, subsided.
Unbuckling the last goat’s-skin of water from one of the camels, he poured out a small cup for each individual of the kafila. Each was then served with a little sangleh and a couple of dried figs.
All were now ordered to move on towards the west, Golah leading the way. The new route was at right angles to the course they had been following during the earlier part of the day.
Some of the slaves, who declared that they were unable to go farther, found out, after receiving a few ticklings of the stick, that they had been mistaken. The application of Golah’s cudgel awakened dormant energies of which they had not deemed themselves possessed.
After proceeding about two miles from the scene of their disappointment, Golah suddenly stopped, as he did so, giving to his followers some orders, in a low tone.
The camels were immediately brought into a circle, forced to kneel down, while their lading was removed from them.
While this was going on, the white captives heard voices and the trampling of horses’ hoofs.
The black sheik, with his highly educated ear, had detected the approach of strangers. This had caused him to order the halt.
When the noises had approached a little nearer, Golah called out in Arabic, “Is it peace?”
“It is,” was the answer; and as the strangers drew nearer the salutations of “Peace be with you!”
“Peace be with all here, and with your friends!” were exchanged.
The caravan they had met consisted of between fifteen and twenty men, some horses and camels; and the sheik who commanded it inquired of Golah from whence he came.
“From the west,” answered Golah, giving them to understand that he was travelling the same way as themselves.
“Then why did you not keep on to the well?” was the next inquiry.
“It is too far away,” answered Golah. “We are very weary.”
“It is not far,” said the chief, “not more than half a league. You had better go on.”
“No. I think it is more than two leagues, and we shall wait till morning.”
“We shall not. I know the well is not far away; and we shall reach it to-night.”
“Very well,” said Golah; “go, and may God be with you. But stay, masters, have you a camel to sell?”
“Yes, a good one. It is a little fatigued now, but will be strong in the morning.”
Golah was aware that any camel they would sell him that night would be one that could only move with much difficulty, one that they despaired of getting any farther on the way. The black sheik knew his own business best; and was willing they should think they had cheated him in the bargain.
After wrangling for a few minutes, he succeeded in buying their camel, the price being a pair of blankets, a shirt, and the dirk that had been taken from Terence. The camel had no cargo; and had for some time been forced onward at considerable trouble to its owner.
The strangers soon took their departure, going off in the direction of the dry well. As soon as they were out of sight Golah gave orders to reload the animals, and resume the interrupted march. To excite the slaves to a continuance of the journey, he promised that the camel he had purchased should be slaughtered on the next morning for their breakfast; and that they should have a long rest in the shade of the tents during the following day.
This promise, undoubtedly, had the anticipated effect in revivifying their failing energies, and they managed to move on until near daybreak, when the camel lately purchased laid itself down, and philosophically resisted every attempt at compelling it to continue the journey.
It was worn-out with toil and hunger, and could not recover its feet.
The other animals were stopped and unladen, the tents were pitched, and preparations made for resting throughout the day.
After some dry weeds had been collected for fuel, Golah proceeded to fulfil his promise of giving them plenty of food.
A noose was made at the end of a rope, and placed around the camel’s lower jaw. Its head was then screwed about, as far as it would reach, and the rope was made fast to the root of its tail, the long neck of the camel allowing its head to be brought within a few inches of the place where the rope was tied.
Fatima, the favourite, stood by, holding a copper kettle; while Golah opened a vein on the side of the animal’s neck near the breast-bone. The blood gushed forth in a stream; and before the camel had breathed its last, the vessel held to catch it had become filled more than half full.
The kettle was then placed over the fire, and the blood boiled and stirred with a stick until it had become as thick as porridge. It was then taken off, and when it had cooled down, it resembled, both in colour and consistency, the liver of a fresh-killed bullock.
This food was divided amongst the slaves, and was greedily devoured by all.
The heart and liver of the camel, Golah ordered to be cooked for his own family; and what little flesh was on the bones, was cut into strips, and hung up in the sun to dry.
In one portion of the camel’s stomach was about a gallon and a half of water, thick and dirty with the vegetation it had last consumed; but all was carefully poured into a goat’s-skin, and preserved for future use.
The intestines were also saved, and hung out in the sun to get cured by drying, to be afterwards eaten by the slaves.
During the day Harry and Terence asked for an interview with Golah; and, accompanied by the Krooman, were allowed to sit down by the door of his tent while they conversed with him.
Harry instructed the Krooman to inform their master, that if they were taken to some seaport, a higher ransom would be paid for them than any price for which they could be sold elsewhere.
Golah’s reply to this information was, that he doubted its truth; that he did not like seaport towns; that his business lay away from the sea; and that he was anxious to reach Timbuctoo as soon as possible. He further stated that, if all his slaves were Christian dogs, who had reached the country in ships, it might be worth his while to take them to some port where they would be redeemed; but as the most of them were of countries that did not pay ransoms for their subjects, there would be no use in his carrying them to the coast where they might escape from him, and he would then have had all his trouble for nothing.
He was next asked if he would not try to sell the white captives along with the two Kroomen, to some slave dealer, who would take them to the coast for a market.
Golah would not promise this. He said, that to do so, he should have to sell them on the desert, where he could not obtain half their value.
The only information they were able to obtain from him was, that they were quite certain of seeing that far-famed city, Timbuctoo, that was, if they should prove strong enough to endure the hardships of the journey.
After thanking Golah for his condescension in listening to their appeal, the Krooman withdrew followed by the others, who now, for the first time, began to realise the horror of their position. A plentiful supply of food, along with the day’s rest, had caused all the white slaves to turn their thoughts from the present to the future.
Harry Blount and Terence, after their interview with Golah, found Colin and Sailor Bill anxiously awaiting their return.
“Well, what’s the news?” asked Bill, as they drew near.
“Very bad,” answered Terence. “There is no hope for us; we are going to Timbuctoo.”
“No, I’m no going there,” said Bill, “if it was in another world I might see the place soon enough, but in this, niver, niver!”
* * *
* * *
Chapter Forty Eight.
The Well.
At an early hour next morning the caravan started on its journey, still moving westward. This direction Golah was compelled to pursue, to obtain a supply of water, although it was taking him no nearer his destination.
Two days’ journey was before them ere they could reach another well. While performing it, Golah, vexed at the delay thus occasioned, was in very ill-humour with things in general.
Some of his displeasure was vented upon the camel he was riding, and the animal was usually driven far ahead of the others.
The sheik’s wrath also fell upon his wives for lingering behind, and then upon the slaves for not following closer upon the heels of the camel. His son, and brother-in-law, would at intervals be solemnly cursed in the name of the Prophet for not driving the slaves faster.
Before the well had been reached, the four white slaves were in a very wretched condition. Their feet were blistered and roasted by the hot sand, and as the clothing allowed them was insufficient protection against the blazing sun, their neck and legs were inflamed and bleeding.
The intestines and most of the flesh of the slaughtered camel had been long ago consumed, as well as the filthy water taken from its stomach.
Colin had again established himself in the favour of the sheik’s wife, and was allowed to have the care of the child; but the little food and drink he received for his attention to it were dearly earned.
The weight of the young negro was a serious encumbrance in a weary journey through what seemed to be a burning plain; moreover, the “darkey”, in keeping its seat on the young Scotchman’s shoulders, had pulled a quantity of hair out of his head, besides rendering his scalp exceedingly irritable to further treatment of a like kind.
Hungry, thirsty, weak, lame, and weary, the wretched captives struggled on until the well was reached.
On arriving within sight of a small hill on which were growing two or three sickly bushes, Golah pointed towards it, at the same time turning his face to those who were following him. All understood the signal, and seemed suddenly inspired with hope and happiness. The travellers pressed forward with awakened energy, and after passing over the hill came in sight of the well at its foot.
The eagerness exhibited by the slaves to quench their thirst might have been amusing to any others than those who beheld them; but their master seemed intent on giving them a further lesson in the virtue of patience.
He first ordered the camels to be unladen, and the tents to be pitched. While some were doing this, he directed others to seek for fuel.
Meanwhile, he amused himself by collecting all the dishes and drinking-vessels, and placing them contiguous to the well.
He then attached a rope to a leathern bucket, and, drawing water from the reservoir, he carefully filled the utensils with the least possible waste of the precious fluid his followers were so anxious to obtain.
When his arrangements were completed, he called his wives and children around him. Then, serving out to each of them about a pint of the water, and giving them a few seconds for swallowing it, he ordered them off.
Each obeyed without a murmur, all apparently satisfied.
The slaves were next called up; and then there was a rush in real earnest. The vessels were eagerly seized, and their contents greedily swallowed. They were presented for more, refilled and again emptied.
The quantity of water swallowed by Sailor Bill and his three young companions, and the rapacity with which it was gulped down, caused Golah to declare that there was but one God, that Mahomet was his Prophet, and that four of the slaves about him were Christian swine.
After all had satisfied the demands of nature, Golah showed them the quantity of water he deemed sufficient for a thirsty individual, by drinking about a pint himself, not more than a fifth of the amount consumed by each of his white slaves.
Long years of short allowance had accustomed the negro sheik to make shift with a limited allowance of the precious commodity, and yet continue strong and active.
About two hours after they had reached the well, and just as they had finished watering the camels, another caravan arrived. Its leader was hailed by Golah with the words, “Is it peace?” the usual salutation when strangers meet on the desert.
The answer was, “It is peace;” and the new comers dismounted and pitched their camp.
Next morning Golah had a long talk with their sheik, after which he returned to his own tent in much apparent uneasiness. The caravan newly arrived consisted of eleven men, with eight camels and three Saaran horses. The men were all Arabs, none of them being slaves. They were well-armed, and carried no merchandise. They had lately come from the north-west, for what purpose Golah knew not, since the account the stranger sheik had given of himself was not satisfactory.
Though very short of provisions, Golah resolved not to leave the well that day; and the Krooman learnt that this resolution was caused by his fear of the strangers.
“If he is afraid of them,” said Harry, “I should suppose that would make him all the more anxious to get out of their company.”
The Krooman, in explanation, stated that if the Arabs were robbers, pirates of the desert, they would not molest Golah so long as he remained at the well.
In this the Krooman was correct. Highway robbers do not way-lay their victims at an inn, but on the road. Pirates do not plunder ships in a harbour, but out on the open ocean. Custom, founded on some good purpose, has established a similar rule on the great sandy ocean of the Saara.
“I wish they were robbers, and would take us from Golah!” said Colin. “We should then perhaps be carried to the north, where we might be ransomed some time or other. As it is, if we are to be taken to Timbuctoo, we shall never escape out of Africa.”
“We shall not be taken there,” cried Terence. “We shall turn robbers ourselves first. I will for one; and when I do, Golah shall be robbed of one of his slaves at least.”
“An’ that wan will be Misther Terence O’Connor, av coorse?” said Bill.
“Yes.”
“Thin ye will ’ave done no more than Master Colly, who has already robbed ’im av twa, the haffections av ’is wife an’ bairn.”
“That will do, Bill,” said Colin, who did not like hearing any allusion made to the woman. “We have something else that should engage our attention. Since we have learnt that they intend taking us to Timbuctoo, it is time we began to act. We must not go there.”
