By mutual understanding between the two sheiks, something was to be done in the morning; and their design of separating was deferred to another day.
The order to strike tents had been countermanded; and both tribes retired to rest, as soon as the captives had been disposed of for the night. The douar was silent, so far as the children of Ham and Japhet were concerned. Even their children had ceased to clamour and squall.
At intervals might be heard the neigh of a Barbary horse, the barking of a dog, the bleating of a goat, or a sound yet more appropriate to the scene, the snorting of a maherry.
In addition to these, human voices were heard. But they proceeded from the throats of the sons of Shem. For the most part they were uttered in a low tone, as the three midshipmen conversed seriously and earnestly together; but occasionally they became elevated to a higher pitch when Sailor Bill, guarded on the opposite side of the encampment, took part in the conversation, and louder speech was necessary to the interchange of thought between him and his fellow-captives.
The Arab watchers offered no interruption. They understood not a word of what was being said; and so long as the conversation of their captives did not disturb the douar, they paid no heed to it.
“What have they done to you, Bill?” was the first question asked by the new comers, after they had been left free to make inquiries.
“Faix!” responded the sailor, for it was Terry who had put the interrogatory; “iverything they cud think av, iverything to make an old salt as uncomfortable as can be. They’ve not left a sound bone in my body; nor a spot on my skin that’s not ayther pricked or scratched wid thar cruel thorns. My carcass must be like an old seventy-four, after comin’ out av action, as full av holes as a meal sieve.”
“But what did they do to you, Bill?” said Colin, almost literally repeating the interrogatory of Terence.
The sailor detailed his experiences since entering the encampment.
“It’s very clear,” remarked the young Scotchman, “that we need look for nothing but ill-treatment at the hands of these worse than savages. I suppose they intend making slaves of us.”