Chapter Seventy Eight.
Bo Muzem back again.
As soon as the white slaves recognised the messenger to Mogador, they all rushed forward to meet him.
“Speak, Krooman!” exclaimed Harry. “Ask him if the money for our ransom will be paid? If so, we are free, and they dare not sell us again.”
“Here—here!” exclaimed Bill, pointing to the man who came along with Bo Muzem. “Axe this man where be brother Jim an’ Master Terence?”
Harry and Colin turned towards the man, from whom Bill desired this inquiry to be made, and recognised in him the grazier to whom Terence and Jim had been sold.
The Krooman had no opportunity for putting the question; for Bo Muzem, on drawing near to the gate of the town, had allowed his passion to mount into a violent storm. As soon as he beheld the slaves, he shouted out, “Christian dogs! you have deceived me! Let every man, woman, and child, in this town assemble, and be witnesses of the fate that this lying infidel so richly deserves. Let all witness the death of a slave, who has falsely declared he has an uncle in Swearah, named ‘For-God’s-sake-bias’. Let all witness the revenge Bo Muzem will take on the unbelieving dog who has deceived him.”
As soon as Bo Muzem’s tongue was stopped sufficiently to enable him to hear the voices of those around him, he was informed that the white slaves were all sold, the nephew of “For-God’s-sake-bias” among the rest, and on better terms than he and his partners had expected to get at Swearah.
Had Harry Blount been reserved, Bo Muzem would have been much pleased at this news; but he now declared that his partners had no right to sell without his concurrence—that he owned an interest in the slaves; and that the dog who had deceived him should not be sold, but should suffer the penalty incurred, for sending him, Bo Muzem, on his long and bootless journey.