The old sheik and his followers then betook themselves to their camels; and the kafila was hurried up the dry bed of the river, leaving the wreckers to continue their toilsome and unprofitable task.
Chapter Sixty Five.
Sailor Bill’s Brother.
After leaving the coast, the travellers kept at a quick pace, and Sailor Bill and his brother had but little opportunity of holding converse together. When the douar had been pitched for the night, the old salt and the “young gentlemen”, his companions, gathered around the man whose experience in the miseries of Saaran slavery so far exceeded their own.
“Now, Jim,” began the old man-o’-war’s-man, “you must spin us the yarn of all your cruising since you’ve been here. We’ve seen somethin’ o’ the elephant since we’ve been cast ashore, and that’s not long. I don’t wonder at you sayin’ you ’ave been aboard this craft forty-three years.”
“Yes, that is the correct time according to my reckoning,” interrupted Jim; “but, Bill, you don’t look much older than when I saw you last. How long ago was it?”
“About eleven years.”
“Eleven years! I tell you that I’ve been here over forty.”