“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.