THE FIGHT.
Page 37.
Where these men came from it would have been hard to guess, for they rose up all at once, as if they had sprung out of the earth. Long had they lain in wait to try if they could keep that ship from the shore, for that ship was a slave ship, and the white men meant to take on board all the blacks they could seize. That it was a slave ship had been found out by scouts set to watch this part of the coast.
Great was the joy of Saib when he saw the chance of help—when he thought that he should once more be free! The fight was a fight of blood, and some on each side were left dead on the shore.
The ship came near to the shore, and soon a boat was put out in which there were more white men. Few of the poor blacks were left, and those that were took to flight when they saw that all hope was gone.
Saib was one of those who could not take to flight. His cords had been cut off at the first of the fight, but such was his state of mind, so much did he feel from hope and fear, that he could not move, nor make use of his limbs.
And, oh! what a sight for him to see! There was Boa, his friend—the poor girl for whom he had more love than he had for all else on the earth—there she was on the ground at his feet. She would not look at him more; he would hear her voice no more: Boa lay there, dead!
From this time he had no sense of what was said or done; he had no care, no thought, for what might be done to him. So there he stood mute and still, like a thing cut in stone.
Some time he had stood thus when there was seen far off a dense cloud like dust.
"They come! they come!" said the white men. "More blacks are on us! To the ship! to the ship!"