of sounds that resembled a death-rattle.

Golah, with his family, rode in the advance, and seemed not to give
himself any concern whether he was followed by others or not. His two
relatives brought up the rear of the _kafila_, and any of the slaves
exhibiting a disposition to lag behind was admonished to move on with
blows administered by a thick stick.

"Tell them I must have water or die," muttered Harry to the Krooman in a
hoarse whisper. "I am worth money, and if old Golah lets me die for want
of a drop of water, he's a fool."

The Krooman refused to make the communication--which he declared would
only result in bringing ill treatment upon himself.

Colin appealed to Golah's son, and by signs gave him to understand that
they must have water. The young black, in answer, simply condescended to
sneer at him. He was not suffering himself, and could have no sympathy
for another.

The hides of the blacks, besmeared with oil, seemed to repel the
scorching beams of the sun; and years of continual practice had no doubt
inured them to the endurance of hunger and thirst to a surprising
degree. To their white fellow-captives they appeared more like huge
reptiles than human beings.

The sand along the route on this, the second day, was less compact than
before, and the task of leg-lifting, produced a weariness such as might
have arisen from the hardest work. Added to the agony of their thirst,
the white sufferers dwelt frequently on thoughts of death--that great
antidote to human miseries; yet so constrained were their actions by
force of circumstances, that only by following their leader and owner,
Golah, could they hope to find relief.

Had he allowed them to turn back to the coast, whence they had started,
or even to repose for a few hours on the way, they could not have done
so. They were compelled to move on, by a power that could not be
resisted.

That power was Hope,--the hope of obtaining some _sangleh_ and a little
dirty water.

To turn back, or to linger behind, would bring them nothing but more
suffering,--perhaps death itself.

A man intent on dying may throw himself into the water to get drowned,
and then find himself involuntarily struggling to escape from the death
he has courted.

The same irresistible antipathy to death compelled his white captives to
follow the black sheik.

They were unwilling to die,--not for the sole reason that they had homes
and friends they wished to see again,--not solel