The Boy Slaves

The waders had still some distance to go before reaching dry land; but, after splashing for about twenty minutes longer, they at length stood upon the shore. As the tide was sti...

We do not claim for him the gigantic mind that by arranging a few figures and symbols, by the light of a lamp in a garret, could discover a new planet in the solar system, and g...

The four castaways had been asleep for a couple of hours, that is, from the time that, following the example of the young Scotchman, they had stretched themselves along the bott...

The next morning on resuming the journey Golah condescended to tell his captives that they should reach a well or spring that afternoon, and stay by it for two or three days.

On entering within the tent to which they had been directed, they found, lying upon the ground, a man of about forty years of age. Although he appeared a mere skeleton, consisti...

Two days elapsed, during which time our adventurers were served with barley-gruel twice a day. They were allowed a sufficient quantity of water, with only the trouble of bringin...

On the evening of that same day they saw the sun sink down into a shining horizon, which they knew was not that of the burning sand-plain over which they had been so long moving.

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 dom...

At an early hour next morning the caravan started on its journey, still moving westward. This direction Golah was compelled to pursue, to obtain a supply of water, although it w...

It was well they were inspired by this hope. But for that, long before the sun had set, Sailor Bill and three or four others would have dropped down in despair, physically unabl...

Early next morning the kafila was _en route_ for the seashore, which was discovered not far distant. On coming near, a _douar_ of seven tents was seen standing upon the beach, a...

The second sand-pit was dug a short distance from the first; and when it had been sunk to the depth of about four and a half feet, Golah commanded the blacks to leave off their...

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 b...

The sufferings of slaves for water and food again commenced, while the pace at which they were compelled to travel, to keep up with the camels, soon exhausted the little strengt...

Golah's fear of the Arabs met by the well had not been without a cause. His forced night march, to avoid meeting them again, had not secured the object for which it had been made.

The swim proved shorter than any of them had anticipated. They had scarce made half a mile across the bay, when Terence, who was the worst swimmer of the three, and who had been...

In setting the watch for the night, one of the sentinels was stationed on the shore about a hundred yards north of the _douar_. His instructions were to walk a round of about tw...

Soon after encountering the locusts, the kafila came upon a well-beaten road running through a fertile country, where hundreds of acres of barley could be seen growing on both s...

It was no longer a question of slaying the camel. That would be killing the goose that gave the golden eggs. Though they were still very hungry the rich milk had to some extent...

As the gully in which they had gone to rest was too narrow to permit of them lying side by side, they were disposed in a sort of lengthened chain, with their heads all turned in...

He made himself very useful to his new masters in looking after the camel, and doing all the other necessary work, which his knowledge of Saaran life enabled him effectually to...

After two hours had been passed in moving slowly to and fro, hearing the word "_Akka_," and seeing nothing but grey sand, Sailor Bill began to feel weary, and now regretted that...

During the night's journey Golah still seemed to have some fear of the Arabs; and so great was the desire to place as much ground as possible between himself and them that he di...

The presence of a ship's topsail-yard thus bestridden plainly proclaimed that a ship had been wrecked--although no other evidence of the wreck was within sight. Not a speck was...

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,...

The merchants were themselves obliged to caparison the animals; and just as they were about to use some strong arguments to induce their refractory slaves to mount, they were to...

Golah's first act after coming forth was to take some thongs from his saddle. Having done this, he beckoned to the two who guarded the slaves, giving them some admonition in an...

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...

The sun, as it soared up into a cloudless sky, shot forth its rays much warmer than upon the day before, while not a breath of air fanned the sterile plain. The atmosphere was a...

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.

Near the tip of this tongue, almost within "licking" distance, on an evening in the month of June, 18--, a group of the kind last alluded to--three or four castaways upon a spar...

After leaving the coast, the travellers kept at a quick pace, and Sailor Bill and his brother had but little opportunity of holding converse together. When the _douar_ had been...

The next morning, Rais Mourad was summoned to appear before the governor of the place. He was ordered also to bring his slaves along with him. He had no reluctance in obeying th...

In reality the maherry had made off with him, though for what reason the sailor could not divine. He only knew that it was going at the rate of nine or ten knots an hour, and go...

From the spot, where the camel still lay couched in his "entetherment", the sea was not visible to one lying along the ground. It was only by standing erect and looking over a s...

The Arab merchants had purchased from their late hosts three donkeys, upon which the white slaves were allowed to ride in turns. Harry Blunt, however, was distinguished from the...

After suffering a long lesson teaching the virtue of patience, they learnt from Krooman that one of those who had been conversing with their masters was a grazier, owning large...

Notwithstanding this, he pursued his journey towards Mogador with but a faint belief that the representations made by the young Englishman would prove true, and with the determi...

On the first appearance of day Rais Mourad ordered the march to be resumed, himself riding in the advance over a long ridge of sand. The sun soon after shone forth, and on a hig...

They proceeded with caution, Colin even more than his companions. The young Englishman was not so distrustful of the "natives", whoever they might be, as the son of Scotia; and...

His first salute appeared to be some words of menace or command, rendered more emphatic by a series of gestures made with his long gun; which was successively pointed at the hea...

After a journey of two long dreary days, days that were to the boy slaves periods of agonising torture, from fatigue, hunger, thirst, and exposure to a burning sun, the kafila a...

The process of watering the camels was carried on with the utmost diligence and care. It was too important to be trifled with, or negligently performed. While filling the capaci...

Part of the time the kafila would be traversing a narrow valley by the seashore, and in the next hour following a zigzag path up the side of some precipitous mountain.

The next morning when the caravan started, Colin again had the care of the young black. He did not always have to carry him, as part of the time the boy trotted along by his side.

Six days had passed, during which the white slaves were comparatively well treated, far better than at any other time since their shipwreck. They were not allowed to suffer from...

Half way up they halted, though not to take breath. Strong-limbed, long-winded lads like them, who could have swarmed in two minutes to the main truck of a man-o'-war, needed no...

"Seen him! sartinly I did," answered the sailor. "He was not more nor four paces from me at the time I peppered him. I tell you he is gone and done for."

During this time, at intervals, they continued to hear the sounds that had so astonished them, the stamping, the snorts and the screaming, though they no longer saw the creature...

As the gorge was of no great length, and the downward incline in their favour, they were not long in getting to its lower end, and out to the level plain that formed the sea-beach.

Though there was now nothing within sight between them, they did not think it prudent to move out of the gorge, nor even to raise their heads above the level of the sand-wreath....

One of the four castaways could not swim. Which one? You will expect to hear that it was one of the three midshipmen; and will be conjecturing whether it was Harry Blount, Teren...

But although they did not understand the words that were exchanged between the two sheiks, they were not without having a conjecture as to their import. The gestures made by the...

There was a remarkable difference between the two men thus claiming ownership in the body of Old Bill. One was a little weazen-faced individual, whose yellow complexion and shar...

The afternoon of this day was very warm, yet Golah rode on at such a quick pace, that it required the utmost exertion of the slaves to keep up with him.

As already stated, the two sheiks, by a mutual understanding, had been about to shake hands, and separate, the son of Japhet going north, to the markets of Morocco, while the de...

The ravine, up which the maherry had carried the old man-o'-war's-man, ran perpendicularly to the trending of the seashore, and almost in a direct line from the beach to the val...

Not one second too soon had they succeeded in making good their entry into this subaqueous asylum. Scarce had their chins come in contact with the water, when the voices of men,...

Through that freak, or law, of nature by which peninsulas are shaped, the point of the sandspit was elevated several feet above the level of the sea; while its neck, nearer the...

As already said, the mirth of the three midshipmen was brought to a quick termination. It ended on the instant of Sailor Bill's disappearance behind the spur of the sand-hills....

It need scarce be said that the advent of the stranger produced some surprise among the Terpsichorean crowd, into the midst of which he had been so unceremoniously projected. An...

On first placing themselves in position, they had chosen a spot where, with their knees resting upon the bottom, they could just hold their chins above water. This would enable...

On the day after parting from the wreckers, a walled town was reached; and near it, on the sides of some of the hills, were seen growing a few patches of barley.

The morning meal was eaten as soon as prepared. Its scantiness surprised our adventurers. Even the more distinguished individuals of the horde partook of only a very small quant...

For the first hour of their journey, Harry, Colin, and Sailor Bill, were borne along, fast bound upon the backs of their animals. So disagreeable did they find this mode of loco...

The experience of his young companions might have deterred the sailor from imitating their example; more especially as Bill, according to his own statement, had never been "aboa...

Land of the unicorn and the lion, of the crouching panther and the stately elephant, of the camel, the camel-leopard, and the camel-bird! Land of the antelopes, of the wild gems...

He was not allowed to remain undisturbed. During the progress of the game, he had become the cynosure of a large circle of eyes, belonging to the women and children of the unite...

The tube of the telescope, firmly embedded in the sand, kept its place without the necessity of being held in hand. It only required to be slightly shifted as the horseman and c...

Next morning, when the Arabs opened the door of the prison, Sailor Bill and Colin were found unable to rise; and the old salt seemed quite unconscious of all efforts made to awa...

Melancholy as was the situation of the self-caught camel, it was a joyful sight to those who beheld it. Hungry as they were, its flesh would provide them with food; and thirstin...

The struggle between Terence and the sheik still continued, upon the back of the maherry. The object of the young Irishman was to unhorse, or rather uncamel, his antagonist, and...

After a good deal of scrambling and struggling, our adventurers succeeded in getting clear of the quicksand, and planting their feet upon firmer bottom, a little nearer to the w...

Seeing that the merchants, rather than have any unnecessary trouble with them, were disposed to sell them all, Jim had been unwilling to deprive his brother and the others of an...

Foe a time they floundered on, the old sailor in the lead, the three boys strung out in a line after him. Sometimes they departed from this formation, one or another trying towa...

In an incredibly short space of time the tents were down, and the _douar_ with all its belongings was no longer to be seen; or only in the shape of sundry packages balanced upon...

You may fancy it could have been easily answered. The direction of the wind and waves was landward. It was the sea-breeze, which at night, as every navigator is aware, blows hab...

As the strange creature that had threatened to dispute their passage was no longer in sight, and seemed, moreover, to have gone clear away, the three mids ceased to think any mo...

On the evening of the second day after passing the Jews' Leap, Rais Mourad, with his followers, reached the city of Mogador, but too late to enter its gates, which were closed f...

The women and children of both hordes were seen flitting like shadows among the tents. Some squatted under camels, or kneeling by the sides of the goats, drew from these animals...

When the camel and its rider first loomed in sight, indistinctly seen under the shadow of the sand-dunes, our adventurers had conceived a faint hope that it might be Sailor Bill.

Our adventurers made their approach to the _douar_, for such is the title of an Arab encampment, with as much unwillingness as Sailor Bill had done. Equally _sans ceremonie_, or...