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
field; but don't make yourselves useful when you get there."

This advice was followed; and the boy slaves soon found themselves by
the side of a large patch of barley, ready for the reaping-hook. A
sickle of French manufacture was then placed in the hands of each, and
they were instructed how to use them.

"Never mind," said Jim. "Go to work with a will, mates! We'll show
them a specimen of how reaping is done aboard ship!"

Jim proceeded to set an example