o purchase his freedom, as I suppose you must, I
will promise, when we return to the coast, to repay you the cost,
whatever it may be."

Sayd smiled at the request.

"Abdullah is not the man willingly to dispose of a healthy slave, who
will be able to carry a whole tusk on his shoulders back to the coast,"
he answered. "Perhaps when the journey is over he may be ready to talk
over the matter, but he will demand a high price, of that you may be
certain."

"I will pay him any price he may ask. I am sure I shall find friends
ready to help me to advance the money until I can send it to them from
England."

This answer showed that, although Ned was tramping over the desert in
the interior of Africa without a penny in his pocket, or any equivalent
in his possession, he had not lost his spirits, and was as sanguine as
ever as to getting home some day. As he looked round, however, at the
haggard countenances of the Arab leaders and their armed followers, as
well as at those of the pagazis, he might with good reason have dreaded
that none of them would ever reach the fertile region said to lie beyond
the desert. Already many more had fallen, and their track was strewn
with the bodies of dead or dying men.

The survivors staggered on, well knowing that to stop was certain
destruction. The Arabs no longer attempted to drive them forward, or to
distribute the loads of those who sank down among the rest. They
themselves were too eager to reach a stream where they might quench
their thirst and rest their weary limbs. They would then send back to
recover the loads, and pick up any of the men who might still be alive.
But hour after hour went by, and the hot sun glared in their faces like
the flame from a furnace, almost blinding their eyes. Darkness came on,
but still they pushed forward. The same cry resounded from all parts of
the caravan: "They must march through the night." Should they halt, how
many would be alive in the morning? Ned had told Chando to keep close
to his side, and had supplied him every now and then with a few drops of
water. Had others seen this, Ned would have run the risk of having his
bottle taken from him. He would, indeed, have been glad to share the
water with his companions, but he knew that, divided among many, it
would avail them nothing. Not a word was now exchanged among any of
Sayd's party, but they kept compactly together. At length Ned caught
sight of some objects rising up ahea