Kitabı oku: «The Boy Slaves», sayfa 16
CHAPTER LIV.
AN UNFAITHFUL WIFE
On waking up the next morning, our adventurers were gratified with a bit of intelligence communicated by the Krooman: that they were to have a day of rest. A camel was also to be killed for food.
The Arabs were going to divide amongst themselves the slaves taken from Golah; and the opportunity was not to be lost of recruiting their strength for a long journey.
As Sailor Bill reflected upon their sufferings since leaving that same place two days before, he expressed regret that they had not been captured before leaving the well, and thus spared the horrors they had endured.
Stimulated by the remembrance of so much suffering needlessly incurred, he asked the Krooman to explain the conduct of their new masters.
The Krooman's first attempt at satisfying his curiosity was to state, that the Arabs had acted after a manner peculiar to themselves, – in other words, that it was "a way they had."
The old sailor was not satisfied with this answer; and pressed for a further explanation.
He was then told that the robbers on the desert were always in danger of meeting several caravans at a watering-place; and that any act of violence committed there would bring upon the perpetrators everlasting disgrace, as well as the enmity of all desert travellers. The Krooman explained himself by saying, that should a caravan of a hundred men arrive at the well, they would not now interfere in behalf of Golah, but would only recognize him as a slave. On the contrary, had they found him engaged in actual strife with the robbers they would have assisted him.
This was satisfactory to all but Bill. Even Colin, who had been buried alive, and Terence, who had been so unmercifully beaten, were pleased at their change of masters on any terms; but the old sailor, sailor-like, would not have been himself without some cause of complaint.
Before their newly acquired wealth could be divided, the Arabs had to come to some resolution as to the disposal of the black sheik; who still remained so unmanageable that he had to be kept bound, with a guard placed over him.
The Arabs could not agree amongst themselves as to what should be done with him. Some of them urged that, despite the color of his skin, he might be a true believer in the Prophet; and that, notwithstanding his manner of trading and acquiring wealth – a system nearly as dishonest as their own – he was entitled to his liberty, with a certain portion of his property.
Others claimed that they had a perfect right to add him and his large family to the number of their slaves.
He was not an Arab, but an Ethiopian, like most of his following; and, as a slave, would bring a high price in any of the markets where men were bought and sold.
Those who argued thus were in the minority; and Golah was at length offered his wives and their children, with a couple of camels and his scimitar.
This offer the black sheik indignantly refused, – much to the astonishment of those who had been so eloquent in his behalf.
His decision produced another debate; in which the opinions of several of his captors underwent such a change, that it was finally determined to consider him as one of the slaves.
Every article that had been obtained from the wreck was now exposed to view, and a fixed price set upon it.
The slaves were carefully examined and valued, – as well as the camels, muskets, and everything that had belonged to Golah or his dependants.
When these preliminary arrangements had been completed, the Arabs proceeded to an equitable partition of the property.
This proved a very difficult matter to manage, and occupied their time for the rest of the day. Three or four would covet the same article; and long and noisy discussions would take place before the dispute could be settled to their mutual satisfaction.
The Krooman, who understood the desert language, was attentive to all that transpired; and from time to time informed the white slaves of what was being done.
At an early period in the discussions, he discovered that each of the four was to fall to different masters.
"You and me," said he to Harry, "we no got two massas – only one."
His words were soon after proved to be true. They were carried apart from each other, evidently with the designs of being appropriated by different owners; and the fear that they might also be separated again came over them.
When the slaves, camels, tents, and articles that had been gathered from the wreck were distributed amongst the eleven Arabs, each one took the charge of his own; but there still remained Golah, his wives and their children, to be disposed of.
No one seemed desirous of becoming the owner of the black sheik and his wives. Even those who had said that he would make a valuable slave, appeared unwilling to take him, although induced to do so by the taunts of their companions.
The fact was, that they were afraid of him. He would be too difficult to manage; and none of them wished to be the master of one who obstinately refused both food and drink, and who so defiantly invoked upon the heads of his captors the curse of Mahomet, and swore by the beard of the Prophet that the moment his hands were free, he would kill the man who should dare to own or claim him as a slave.
Golah, with all his faults, was neither cunning nor deceitful, and, having a spirit too great to affect submission, he did not intend to yield.
He was arrogant, cruel, avaricious, and vindictive; but the wrongs he did were always accomplished in a plain, open-handed way, and never by stratagem or treachery.
By accepting the terms the Arabs had offered him, his strength, courage, and unconquerable will might afterwards have enabled him to obtain revenge upon his captors, and regain a portion of his property; but it was not in his nature to sham submission, even for the sake of gaining a future advantage.
As not one of the Arabs was willing to accept of him, at the value at which he had been appraised, or to allow another to have him for less, it was finally decided that he should be retained as the common property of all, until he could be sold to some other tribe, when a distribution might be made of the proceeds of the sale. His wives and children were to be disposed of in like manner.
This arrangement was satisfactory to all but Golah himself, who expressed himself greatly displeased with it. Nevertheless, he seemed a little disposed to yield to circumstances; for, soon after the decision of his captors was made known to him, he called to Fatima, and commanded her to bring him a bowl of water.
The favorite refused, under the plea that she had been forbidden to give him anything.
This was true; for, as he had declined to accept of anything at the hands of those claiming to be his masters, they had determined to starve him into submission.
Fatima's refusal to obey him caused Golah his greatest chagrin. Ever accustomed to prompt and slavish obedience from others, the idea of his own wife – his favorite too – denying his modest request, almost drove him frantic.
"I am your husband," he cried, "and whom should you obey but me? Fatima! I command you to bring me some water!"
"And I command you not to do it," said the Arab sheik, who, standing near by, had heard the order.
Fatima was an artful, selfish woman, who had gained some influence over her husband by flattering his vanity, and professing a love she had never felt.
She had acted with slavish obedience to him when he was all-powerful; but now that he was himself a slave, her submission had been transferred with perfect facility to the chief of the band who had captured him.
It was now that Golah began to realize the fact that he was a conquered man.
His heart was nearly bursting with rage, shame, and disappointment; for nothing could so plainly awaken him to the comprehension of his real position, as the fact that Fatima, his favorite, she who had ever professed for him so much love and obedience, now refused to attend to his simplest request.
After making one more violent and ineffectual effort at breaking his bonds, he sank down upon the earth and remained silent – bitterly contemplating the degraded condition into which he had fallen.
The Krooman, who was a very sharp observer of passing events, and had an extensive knowledge of peculiar specimens of human nature, closely watched the behavior of the black sheik.
"He no like us," he remarked to the whites. "He nebba be slave. Bom-by you see him go dead."
CHAPTER LV.
TWO FAITHFUL WIVES
While Golah's mind appeared to be stunned almost to unconsciousness by the refusal of Fatima to obey his orders, his other two wives were moving about, as if engaged in some domestic duty.
Presently the woman he had buried in the sand was seen going towards him with a calabash of water, followed by the other who carried a dish of sangleh.
One of the Arabs perceiving their intention, ran up, and, in an angry tone, commanded them to retire to their tents. The two women persisted in their design, and in order to prevent them, without using violence, the Arab offered to serve the food and drink himself.
This they permitted him to do; but when the water was offered to Golah it was again refused.
The black sheik would not receive either food or drink from the hand of a master.
The sangleh was then consumed by the Arab with a real or sham profession of gratitude; the water was poured into a bucket, and given to one of the camels; and the two calabashes were returned to the women.
Neither a keen longing for food, nor a burning thirst for water, could divert Golah's thoughts from the contemplation of something that was causing his soul extreme anguish.
His physical tortures seemed, for the time, extinguished by some deep mental agony.
Again the wives – the unloved ones – advanced towards him, bearing water and food; and again the Arab stepped forward to intercept them. The two women persisted in their design, and, while opposing the efforts of the Arab to turn them back, they called on the two youths, the relatives of the black sheik, as also on Fatima, to assist them.
Of the three persons thus appealed to, only Golah's son obeyed their summons; but his attempt to aid the women was immediately frustrated by the Arab, who claimed him as a slave, and who now commanded him to stand aside. His command having no effect, the Arab proceeded to use force. At the risk of his life the youth resisted. He dared to use violence against a master – a crime that on the desert demands the punishment of death.
Aroused from his painful reverie by the commotion going on around him, Golah, seeing the folly of the act, shouted to his son to be calm, and yield obedience; but the youth, not heeding the command of his father, continued his resistance. He was just on the point of being cut down, when the Krooman ran forward, and pronouncing in Arabic two words signifying "father and son," saved the youth's life. The Arab robber had sufficient respect for the relationship to stay his hand from committing murder; but to prevent any further trouble with the young fellow, he was seized by several others, fast bound, and flung to the ground by the side of his father.
The two women, still persisting in their design to relieve the wants of their unfortunate husband, were then knocked down, kicked, beaten, and finally dragged inside the tents.
This scene was witnessed by Fatima; who, instead of showing sympathy, appeared highly amused by it, – so much so as even to give way to laughter! Her unnatural behavior once more roused the indignation of her husband.
The wrong of being robbed – the humiliation of being bound – the knowledge that he himself, along with his children, would be sold into slavery – the torture of hunger and thirst – were sources of misery no longer heeded by him; all were forgotten in the contemplation of a far greater anguish.
Fatima, the favorite, the woman to whom his word should have been law, – the woman who had always pretended to think him something more than mortal, – now not only shunning but despising him in the midst of his misfortunes!
This knowledge did more towards subduing the giant than all his other sufferings combined.
"Old Golah looks very down in the mouth," remarked Terence to his companions. "If it was not for the beating he gave me yesterday, I could almost pity him. I made an oath, at the time he was thwacking me with the ramrod, that if my hands were ever again at liberty, I'd see if it was possible to kill him; but now that they are free, and his are bound, I've not the heart to touch him, bad as he is."
"That is right, Terry," said Bill; "it's only wimin an' bits o' boys as throws wather on a drowned rat, – not as I mane to say the owld rascal is past mischief yet. I believe he'll do some more afore the Devil takes 'im intirely; but I mane that Him as sits up aloft is able to do His own work without your helping Him."
"You speak truth, Bill," said Harry; "I don't think there is any necessity for seeking revenge of Golah for his cruel treatment of us; he is now as ill off as the rest of us."
"What is that you say?" inquired Colin. "Golah like one of us? Nothing of the kind. He has more pluck, endurance, obstinacy, and true manly spirit about him than there is in the four of us combined."
"Was his attempt to starve you dictated by a manly spirit?" asked Harry.
"Perhaps not, but it was the fault of the circumstances under which he has been educated. I don't think of that now; my admiration of the man is too strong. Look at his refusing that drink of water when it had been several times offered him!"
"There is something wonderful about him, certainly," assented Harry; "but I don't see anything in him to admire."
"No more do I," said Bill. "He might be as comfortable now as we are; and I say a man's a fool as won't be 'appy when he can."
"What you call his folly," rejoined Colin, "is but a noble pride that makes him superior to any of us. He has a spirit that will not submit to slavery, and we have not."
"That be truth," remarked the Krooman; "Golah nebbar be slave."
Colin was right. By accepting food and drink from his captors, the black sheik might have satisfied the demands of mere animal nature, but only at the sacrifice of all that was noble in his nature. His self-respect, along with the proud, unyielding spirit by which everything good and great is accomplished, would have been gone from him for ever.
Sailor Bill and his companions, the boy slaves, had been taught from childhood to yield to circumstances, and still retain some moral feeling; but Golah had not.
The only thing he could yield to adverse fate was his life.
At this moment the Krooman, by a gesture, called their attention towards the captive sheik, at the same time giving utterance to a sharp ejaculation.
"Look!" exclaimed he, "Golah no stay longer on de Saära. You him see soon die now – look at him!"
At the same instant Golah had risen to his feet, inviting his Arab master to a conference.
"There is but one God," said he, "Mahomet is his prophet; and I am his servant. I will never be a slave. Give me one wife, a camel, and my scimitar, and I will go. I have been robbed; but God is great, and it is his will, and my destiny."
Golah had at length yielded, though not because that he suffered for food and water; not that he feared slavery or death; not that his proud spirit had become weak or given way; but rather that it had grown stronger under the prompting of Revenge.
The Arab sheik conferred with his followers; and there arose a brief controversy among them.
The trouble they had with their gigantic captive, the difficulty they anticipated in disposing of him, and their belief that he was a good Mussulman, were arguments in favor of granting his request, and setting him at liberty.
It was therefore decided to let him go – on the condition of his taking his departure at once.
Golah consented; and they proceeded to untie his hands. While this was being done, the Krooman ran up to Colin's master, and cautioned him to protect his slave, until the sheik had departed.
This warning was unnecessary, for Golah had other and more serious thoughts to engage his mind than that of any animosity he might once have felt against the young Scotchman.
"I am free," said Golah, when his hands were untied. "We are equals, and Mussulmen. I claim your hospitality. Give me some food and drink."
He then stepped forward to the well, and quenched his thirst, after which some boiled camel meat was placed before him.
While he was appeasing an appetite that had been two days in gaining strength, Fatima, who had observed a strange expression in his eyes, appeared to be in great consternation. She had believed him doomed to a life of slavery, if not to death; and this belief had influenced her in her late actions.
Gliding up to the Arab sheik, she entreated to be separated from her husband; but the only answer she received was, that Golah should have either of the three wives he chose to take; that he (the sheik) and his companions were men of honor, who would not break the promise they had given.
A goat-skin of water, some barley meal, for making sangleh, and a few other necessary articles, were placed on a camel, which was delivered over to Golah.
The black sheik then addressed a few words in some African language to his son; and, calling Fatima to follow him, he started off across the desert.
CHAPTER LVI.
FATIMA'S FATE
A complete change had come over the fortunes of Fatima. Vain, cruel, and tyrannical but the moment before, she was now humbled to the dust of the desert. In place of commanding her fellow wives, she now approached them with entreaties, begging them to take charge of her child, which she seemed determined to leave behind her. Both willingly assented to her wishes.
Our adventurers were puzzled by this circumstance, for there appeared to be no reason that Fatima should leave her offspring behind her. Even the Krooman could not explain it; and as the shades of night descended over the desert, the mother separated from her child, perhaps never more to embrace it in this world of wickedness and woe.
About two hours before daybreak, on the morning after the departure of Golah, there was an alarm in the douar, which created amongst the Arabs a wonderful excitement.
The man who had been keeping guard over the camp was not to be seen; and one of the fleetest camels, as well as a swift desert horse, was also gone.
The slaves were instantly mustered, when it was found that one of them was likewise missing. It was Golah's son.
His absence accounted for the loss of the camel, and perhaps the horse, but what had become of the Arab guard?
He certainly would not have absconded with the slave, for he had left valuable property behind him.
There was no time for exchanging surmises over this mystery. Pursuit must be instantly made for the recovery of slave, camel, and horse.
The Arab sheik detailed four of his followers to this duty, and they hastened to make ready for their departure. They would start as soon as the light of day should enable them to see the course the missing animals had taken.
All believed that the fugitives would have to be sought for in a southerly direction; and therefore the caravan would have to be further delayed in its journey.
While making preparations for the pursuit, another unpleasant discovery was made. Two ship's muskets, that had been taken from Golah's party were also missing.
They had been extracted from a tent in which two of the Arabs had slept, – two of the four who were now preparing to search for the missing property.
The sheik became alarmed. The camp seemed full of traitors; and yet, as the guns were the private property of the two men who slept in the tent, they could not, for losing them, reasonably be accused of anything more than stupidity.
Contrary to the anticipations of all, the tracks of the lost animals were found to lead off in a north-westerly direction; and at about two hundred yards from the camp a dark object was seen lying upon the ground. On examination it proved to be the Arab who had been appointed night-guard over the douar.
He was stone dead; and by his side lay one of the missing muskets, with the stock broken, and covered with his own brains.
The tragedy was not difficult to be explained. The man had seen one or two of the hoppled animals straying from the camp. Not thinking that they were being led gently away, he had, without giving any alarm, gone out to bring them back. Golah's son, who was leading them off, by keeping concealed behind one of the animals, had found an opportunity of giving the guard his death-blow, without any noise to disturb the slumbering denizens of the douar.
No doubt he had gone to rejoin his father, and the adroit manner in which he had made his departure, taking with him a musket, a camel, and a horse, not only excited the wonder, but the admiration of those from whom he had stolen them.
In the division of the slaves, young Harry Blount and the Krooman had become the property of the Arab sheik. The Krooman having some knowledge of the Arabic language, soon established himself in the good opinion of his new master. While the Arabs were discussing the most available mode to obtain revenge for the murder of their companion, as well as to regain possession of the property they had lost, the Krooman, skilled in Golah's character, volunteered to assist them by a little advice.
Pointing to the south, he suggested to them that, by going in that direction, they would certainly see or hear something of Golah and his son.
The sheik could the more readily believe this, since the country of the black chief lay to the southward, and Golah, on leaving the douar, had gone in that direction.
"But why did his dog of a son not go south?" inquired the Arabs, pointing to the tracks of the stolen horse, which still appeared to lead towards the northwest.
"If you go north," replied the Krooman, "you will be sure to see Golah; or if you stay here, you will learn something of him?"
"What! will he be in both directions at the same time, and here likewise?"
"No, not that; but he will follow you."
The Arabs were willing to believe that there was a chance of recovering their property on the road they had been intending to follow, especially as the stolen horse and camel had been taken in that direction.
They determined, therefore, to continue their journey.
Too late they perceived their folly in treating Golah as they had done. He was now beyond their reach, and, in all likelihood, had been rejoined by his son. He was an enemy against whom they would have to keep a constant watch; and the thought of this caused the old Arab sheik to swear by the Prophet's beard that he would never again show mercy to a man whom he had plundered.
For about an hour after resuming their march, the footprints of the camel could be traced in the direction they wished to go; but gradually they became less perceptible, until at length they were lost altogether. A smart breeze had been blowing, which had filled the tracks with sand, which was light and easily disturbed.
Trusting to chance, and still with some hope of recovering the stolen property, they continued on in the same direction, and, not long after losing the tracks, they found some fresh evidence that they were going the right way.
The old sheik, who was riding in advance of the others, on looking to the right, perceived an object on the sand that demanded a closer inspection. He turned and rode towards it, closely followed by the people of his party.
On drawing near to the object it proved to be the body of a human being, lying back upwards, and yet with the face turned full towards the heavens. The features were at once recognized as those of Fatima, the favorite!
The head of the unfortunate woman had been severed from her body, and then placed contiguous to it, with the face in an inverted position.
The ghastly spectacle was instructive. It proved that Golah, although going off southward, must have turned back again, and was now not far off, hovering about the track he believed his enemies would be likely to take. His son, moreover, was, in all likelihood, along with him.
When departing along with her husband, Fatima had probably anticipated the terrible fate that awaited her; and, for that reason, had left her child in the care of the other wives.
Neither of these seemed in the least surprised on discovering the body. Both had surmised that such would be Fatima's fate; and it was for that reason they had so willingly taken charge of her child.
The caravan made a short halt, which was taken advantage of by the two women to cover the body with sand.
The journey was then resumed.
