irected, they found,
lying upon the ground, a man about forty years of age. Although he
appeared a mere skeleton, consisting of little more than skin and bones,
he did not present the general aspect of a man suffering from ill
health; nor yet would he have passed for a _white_ man anywhere out of
Africa.

"You are the first English people I've seen for over thirty years," said
he, as they entered the tent: "for I can tell by your looks that every
one of you are English. You are my countrymen. I was white once myself;
and you will be as black as I am when you have been sun-scorched here
for forty-three years, as I have been."

"What!" exclaimed Terence; "have you been a slave in the Saaera so long
as that? If so, God help us! What hope is there of our ever getting
free?"

The young Irishman spoke in a tone of despair.

"Very little chance of your ever seeing home again, my lad," answered
the invalid; "but _I_ have a chance now, if you and your comrades don't
spoil it. For God's sake don't tell these Arabs that they are the fools
they are for making salvage of the ballast. If you do, they'll be sure
to make an end of me. It's all my doing. I've made them believe the
stones are valuable, so that they may take them to some place where I
can escape. It is the only chance I have had for years,--don't destroy
it, as you value the life of a fellow-countryman."

From further conversation with the man, our adventurers learned that he
had been shipwrecked on the coast many years before, and had ever since
been trying to get transported to some place where he might be ransomed.
He declared that he had been backward and forward across the desert
forty or fifty times; and that he had belonged to not less than fifty
masters!

"I have only been with these fellows a few weeks," said he, "and
fortunately when we came this way we were able to tell where the sunken
ship was by seeing her foremast then sticking out of the water. The
vessel was in ballast; and the crew probably put out to sea in their
boats, without being discovered. It was the first ship my masters had
ever heard of without a cargo; and they would not believe but what the
stones were such, and must be worth something--else why should they be
carried about the world in a ship. I told them it was a kind of stone
from which gold was obtained; but that it must be taken to some place
where there was plenty of coal or wood, before the gold could be melted
out of it, and t