rab masters, by trying to make myself
useful to them. That was a mistake, and I can see it now. We must not
give them the slightest assistance in their barley-cutting."

"But they will compel us to help them?" suggested Colin.

"They cannot do that if we remain resolute; and I tell you all that you
had better be killed at once than submit. If we assist in their harvest,
they will find something else for us to do, and your best days, as mine
have been, will be passed in slavery! Each of you must make himself a
burden and expense to whoever owns him, and then we may be passed over
to some trader who has been to Mogador, and knows that he can make money
by taking us there to be redeemed. That is our only chance. These Arabs
don't know that we are sure to be purchased for a good price in any
large seaport town, and they will not run any risk in taking us there.
Furthermore, these men are outlaws, desert robbers, and I don't believe
that they dare enter the Moorish dominions. We must get transferred to
other hands, and the only way to do that is to refuse work."

Our adventurers agreed to be guided by Jim's counsels, although
confident that they would experience much difficulty in following them.

Early on the morning of the second day after the Arabs reached their
home, all the slaves, both white and black, were roused from their
slumbers; and after a spare breakfast of barley-gruel, were commanded to
follow their masters to the grain fields, outside the walls of the town.

"Do you want us to work?" asked Jim, addressing himself directly to the
old sheik.

"Bismillah! Yes!" exclaimed the Arab. "We have kept you too long in
idleness. What have you done, or who are you, that we should maintain
you? You must work for your living, as we do ourselves!"

"We cannot do anything on land," said Jim. "We are sailors, and have
only learnt to work on board a ship."

"By Allah, you will soon learn! Come, follow us to the barley fields!"

"No; we have all agreed to die rather than work for you! You promised to
take us to Swearah; and we will go there or die. We will not be slaves
any longer!"

Most of the Arabs, with their wives and children, had now assembled
around the white men, who were ordered instantly to move on.

"It will not do for us to say we will not or can't move on," said Jim,
speaking to his companions in English. "We must go to the field. They
can make us do that; but they can't make us work. Go quietly to the