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We might never have picked it up, had not a Krooman jumped overboard and fastened a second line to the cask; and then we drew the hawser on board, and were again in tow. During the whole time of the hurricane the little vessel behaved admirably, and never shipped a single green sea.
The boys and Ben in their hunting costumes and stout boots, M. Desplaines, short and inclined to be fat and as neatly barbered and tailored as if he had just stepped off the boulevards, Madame Desplaines and her little girls in cool, white frocks and in the center of the group dominating it by his impressive manner and mighty form the huge, ebony Krooman.
The merchants then went off to complete their bargain with the old sheik, and make other arrangements for their departure. For a few minutes the white slaves kept uttering exclamations of delight at the prospect of being once more restored to liberty. Jim then gave them a translation of what he had said about the Krooman.
"And I think it would be wise if you didn't tell your friend, the doctor, that I am employing you." He was examining his finger-nails attentively as he spoke, and he did not meet her eye. "There are many reasons," he went on. "In the first place, I have blotted my copy-book, as they say, in Krooman Mansions, and it might not rebound to your credit."
The merchants at length went away, leaving Harry and Colin in an agony of despair; while Sailor Bill and the Krooman seemed wholly indifferent about their future destiny. The prospect of being again taken to the desert seemed to have so benumbed the intellect of both, as to leave them incapable of emotion.
The Krooman made this communication to the Arab sheik, who smiled only in reply. The idea of allowing slaves to guard an Arab douar, especially to furnish them with fire-arms, was very amusing to the old chieftain of the Saara. Harry understood the meaning of his smile.
The Krooman, in explanation, stated that if the Arabs were robbers, pirates of the desert, they would not molest Golah so long as he remained at the well. In this the Krooman was correct. Highway robbers do not way-lay their victims at an inn, but on the road. Pirates do not plunder ships in a harbour, but out on the open ocean.
The theft, however, was immediately detected, and a scuffle ensued, during which this soldier, who was a sentinel near the spot, threw down his musket, and ran away. The musket was taken possession of by a native, but subsequently recovered by a Krooman, not, however, without his first receiving a severe cut on his hand by the knife of the native.
While stopping for an hour at noon for the animals to be rested, the Krooman turned over a flat stone, and underneath it discovered a large scorpion. After making a hole in the sand about six inches deep, and five or six in diameter, he "chucked" the reptile into it. He then went in search of a few more scorpions to keep the prisoner company.
Their crew consisted of seven European seamen, two free negroes and one Krooman, besides the commander of the vessel and two mates. So great, however, was the mortality amongst them, that before a week had elapsed, the two Landers with the three black men were all that were left to work the vessel, and one of them only knew how to steer.
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