“Yes, that was all. Why?”
“Ah, you were on first, and I was a bit behind the professor, sir, and I saw it all.”
“What did you see?”
“Saw him go up to first one and then the other, knocking them down with a big blow of his fist; and the poor things crouched with their faces in the sand and never said a word.”
“The savage!”
“That’s right,” said Sam viciously. “I was talking to Mr Abraham about it afterwards, and he said he saw it too, and that they were slaves, like hundreds upon hundreds more, who had been taken in some village the wretches had looted, and that he hadn’t a doubt that their husbands had been cut down and killed in one of the raids. What’s a raid, sir?”
“A plundering expedition, Sam,” said Frank wearily, “such as that the Emir was upon when we were captured.”
“Oh, I see, sir. Big sort o’ savage kind o’ murder and burglary, wholesale, retail, and for exportation, as you may say. When they want anything they go out and take it?”
“Exactly.”
“Hah! That’s what old Mr Abraham meant when he said that these Soudan tribes didn’t care about settling down and doing any gardening or farming, because they could go and help themselves whenever they wanted. He said they were black locusts who came out of the south.”