“What shall we do?” asked Terence.
“We must do nothing,” answered Jim. “We must not assist them in any way; for the more useful we are to them, the more reluctant they will be to part with us. I should have obtained my liberty years ago had I not tried to gain the goodwill of my Arab masters by trying to make myself useful to them. That was a mistake, and I can see it now. We must not give them the slightest assistance in their barley-cutting.”
“But they will compel us to help them?” suggested Colin.
“They cannot do that if we remain resolute; and I tell you all that you had better be killed at once than submit. If we assist in their harvest, they will find something else for us to do; and your best days, as mine have been, will be passed in slavery! Each of you must make himself a burden and expense to whoever owns him; and then we may be passed over to some trader who has been to Mogador, and knows that he can make money by taking us there to be redeemed. That is our only chance. These Arabs don’t know that we are sure to be purchased for a good price in any large seaport town; and they will not run any risk in taking us there. Furthermore, these men are outlaws, desert robbers, and I don’t believe that they dare enter the Moorish dominions. We must get transferred to other hands; and the only way to do that is to refuse work.”
Our adventurers agreed to be guided by Jim’s counsels, although confident that they would experience much difficulty in following them.
Early on the morning of the second day, after the Arabs reached their home, all the slaves, both white and black, were roused from their slumbers; and after a spare breakfast of barley-gruel, were commanded to follow their masters to the grain-fields outside the walls of the town.
“Do you want us to work?” asked Jim, addressing himself directly to the old sheik.
“Bismillah! Yes,” exclaimed the Arab. “We have kept you too long in idleness. What have you done, or who are you, that we should maintain you? You must work for your living, as we do ourselves!”
“We cannot do anything on land,” said Jim. “We are sailors, and have only learnt to work on board a ship.”
“By Allah, you will soon learn! Come, follow us to the barley-fields!”