uld'ner mak oot our reckonin'. Don't ye
see a voyage here is just like one at sea, only it be just the revarse.
When men are starvin' at sea, they want to find land, but when they are
starvin' in the desert they want to find water. The big nager, our
captain, can navigate this sea in safety,--we can't. We must let him
take us to some port and then do the best we can to escape from him."

"You are quite right," said Colin, "in thinking that we might be unable
to find our way from one watering-place to another; but it is well for
us to calculate all the chances. After reaching some _port_, as you call
it, may we not find ourselves in a position more difficult to escape
from,--where we will have to contend with a hundred or more of these
negro brutes in place of only three?"

"That's vary likely," answered the sailor; "but they're only men, and we
'av a chance of beatin' 'em. We may fight with men, and conquer 'em, an'
we may fight with water an' conquer that; but when we fight against no
water that will conquer us. Natur is sure to win."

"Bill's right there," said Terence, "and I feel that Nature is getting
the best of me already."

While they were holding this conversation, they noticed that one of the
Kroomen kept near them, and seemed listening to all that was said. His
sparkling eyes betrayed the greatest interest.

"Do you understand us?" asked old Bill, turning sharply towards the
African, and speaking in an angry tone.

"Yus, sa,--a lilly bit," answered the Krooman, without seeming to notice
the unpleasant manner in which the question had been put.

"And what are you listening for?"

"To hear what you tell um. I like go in Ingleesh ship. You talk good for
me. I go long with you."

With some difficulty the sailor and his companions could comprehend the
Krooman's gibberish. They managed to learn from him that he had once
been in an English ship, and had made a voyage along the African coast,
trading for palm-oil. While on board he had picked up a smattering of
English. He was afterwards shipwrecked in a Portuguese brig. Cast away
on the shores of the Saaera, just as our adventurers had been, and had
passed four years in the desert,--a slave to its denizens.

He gratified our adventurers by telling them that they were in no danger
of having to endure a prolonged period of captivity, as they would soon
be sold into liberty, instead of slavery. Golah could not afford to keep
slaves; and was only a kidnapper