The Boy Slaves Part 42

"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!"

"No; we have all agreed to die rather than work for you! You promised to take us to Swearah and we will go there or die. We will not be slaves any longer!"

Most of the Arabs, with their wives and children, had now a.s.sembled around the white men, who were ordered instantly to move on.

"It will not do for us to say we will not or can't move on," said Jim, speaking to his companions in English. "We must go to the field. They can make us do that; but they can't make us work. Go quietly to the field; but don't make yourselves useful when you get there."

This advice was followed; and the boy slaves soon found themselves by the side of a large patch of barley, ready for the reaping-hook. A sickle of French manufacture was then placed in the hands of each, and they were instructed how to use them.

"Never mind," said Jim. "Go to work with a will, mates! We'll show them a specimen of how reaping is done aboard ship!"

Jim proceeded to set an example by cutting the grain in a careless manner, letting the heads fall in every direction, and then trampling them under foot as he moved on.

The same plan was pursued by his brother Bill, the Krooman, and Harry Blount.

In the first attempt to use the sickle Terence was so awkward as to fall forward and break the implement into two pieces.

Colin behaved no better: since he managed to cut one of his fingers, and then apparently fainted away at the sight of the blood.

The forenoon was pa.s.sed by the Arabs in trying to train their slaves to the work, but in this they were sadly unsuccessful.

Curses, threats, and blows were expended upon them to no purpose, for the Christian dogs seemed only capable of doing much harm and no good.

During the afternoon they were allowed to lie idle upon the ground, and watch their masters cutting the barley; although this indulgence was purchased at the expense of lacerated skins and aching bones. Nor was this triumph without the cost of further suffering; for they were not allowed a mouthful of food or a drop of water, although an abundance of both had been distributed to the other labourers in the field.

All five, however, remained obstinate, notwithstanding hunger and thirst, threats, cursings, and stripes; each one disdaining to be the first to yield to the wishes of their Arab masters.

CHAPTER SIXTY EIGHT.

WORK OR DIE!

That night, after being driven within the walls of the town, the white slaves, along with their guard, and the Krooman, were fastened in a large stone building partly in ruins, that had been recently used as a goat-penn.

They were not allowed a mouthful of food nor a drop of water, and sentinels walked around all night to prevent them from breaking out of their prison.

No longer targets for the beams of a blazing sun, they were partly relieved from their sufferings; but a few handfuls of barley they had managed to secrete and bring in from the field, proved only sufficient to sharpen an appet.i.te which they could devise no means of appeasing.

A raging thirst prevented them from having any repose; and, on being turned out next morning, and ordered back to the barley-fields, weak with hunger and want of sleep, they were strongly tempted to yield obedience to their masters.

The black slaves had worked well the day before; and, having satisfied their masters, had received plenty of food and drink.

Their white companions in misery saw them eating their breakfast before being ordered to the field.

"Jim," said Sailor Bill, "I've 'alf a mind to give in. I must 'ave somethin' to heat an' drink. I'm starvin' all over."

"Don't think of it, William," said his brother. "Unless you wish to remain for years in slavery as I have done, you must not yield. Our only hope of obtaining liberty is to give the Arabs but one chance of making anything by us, the chance of selling us to our countrymen. They won't let us die, don't think it! We are worth too much for that. They will try to make us work if they can; but we are fools if we let them succeed."

Again being driven to the field, another attempt was made by the Arabs to get some service out of them.

"We can do nothing now," said Jim to the old sheik: "we are dying with hunger and thirst. Our life has always been on the sea, and we can do nothing on land."

"There is plenty of food for those who earn it," rejoined the sheik; "and we cannot give those food who do not deserve it."

"Then give us some water."

"Allah forbid! We are not your servants to carry water for you."

All attempts to make the white slaves perform their task having failed, they were ordered to sit down in the hot sun, where they were tantalised with the sight of the food and water of which they were not permitted to taste.

During the forenoon of the day, all the eloquence Jim could command was required to prevent his brother from yielding. The old man-o'-war's-man was tortured by extreme thirst, and was once or twice on the eve of selling himself in exchange for a cooling draught.

Long years of suffering on the desert had inured Jim to its hardships; and not so strongly tempted as the others, it was easier for him to remain firm.

Since falling into the company of his countrymen, his hope of freedom had revived; and he was determined to make a grand effort to regain it.

He knew that five white captives were worth the trouble of taking to some seaport frequented by English ships; and he believed if they refrained from making themselves useful there was a prospect of their being thus disposed of.

Through his influence, therefore, the refractory slaves remained staunch in their resolution to abstain from work.

Their masters now saw that they were better off in the field than in the prison. They could not be prevented from obtaining a few heads of the barley, which they greedily ate, nor from obtaining a little moisture by chewing the roots of the weeds growing around them.

As soon as this was noticed, two of the Arabs were sent to conduct them back to the place where they had been confined on the night before.

It was with the utmost exertion that Sailor Bill and Colin were able to reach the town; while the others, with the exception of Jim, were in a very weak and exhausted state. Hunger and thirst were fast subduing them, in body, if not in spirit.

On reaching the door of the goat-penn, they refused to go in, all clamouring loudly for food and water.

Their entreaties were met with the declaration that it was the will of G.o.d that those who would not work should suffer starvation.

"Idleness," argued their masters, "is always punished by ill health;"

and they wound up by expressing their thanks that such was the case.

It was not until the two Arabs had obtained the a.s.sistance of several of the women and boys of the village that they succeeded in getting the white slaves within the goat-penn.

"Jim, I tell you I can't stand this any longer," said Sailor Bill.

"Call an' say to 'em as I gives in, and will work to-morrow, if they will let me have some water."

"And so will I," said Terence. "There is nothing in the future to compensate for this suffering, and I can endure it no longer."

"Nor will I," exclaimed Harry; "I must have something to eat and drink immediately. We shall all be punished in the next world for self-murder in this, unless we yield."

"Courage! patience!" exclaimed Jim. "It is better to suffer for a few hours more than to remain all your lives in slavery."

"What do I care for the future?" muttered Terence; "the present is everything. He is a fool who kills himself to-day to keep from being hungry ten years after. I will try to work to-morrow, if I live so long."