their breakfast before
being ordered to the field.

"Jim," said Sailor Bill, "I've 'alf a mind to give in. I must 'ave
somethin' to heat an' drink. I'm starvin' all over."

"Don't think of it, William," said his brother. "Unless you wish to
remain for years in slavery as I have done, you must not yield. Our
only hope of obtaining liberty is to give the Arabs but one chance of
making anything by us, the chance of selling us to our countrymen. They
won't let us die, don't think it! We are worth too much for that. They
will try to make us work if they can; but we are fools if we let them
succeed."

Again being driven to the field, another attempt was made by the Arabs
to get some service out of them.

"We can do nothing now," said Jim to the old sheik: "we are dying with
hunger and thirst. Our life has always been on the sea, and we can do
nothing on land."

"There is plenty of food for those who earn it," rejoined the sheik;
"and we cannot give those food who do not deserve it."

"Then give us some water."

"Allah forbid! We are not your servants to carry water for you."

All attempts to make the white slaves perform their task having failed,
they were ordered to sit down in the hot sun, where they were tantalised
with the sight of the food and water of which they were not permitted to
taste.

During the forenoon of the day, all the eloquence Jim could command was
required to prevent his brother from yielding. The old man-o'-war's-man
was tortured by extreme thirst, and was once or twice on the eve of
selling himself in exchange for a cooling draught.

Long years of suffering on the desert had inured Jim to its hardships;
and not so strongly tempted as the others, it was easier for him to
remain firm.

Since falling into the company of his countrymen, his hope of freedom
had revived; and he was determined to make a grand effort to regain it.

He knew that five white captives were worth the trouble of taking to
some seaport frequented by English ships; and he believed if they
refrained from making themselves useful there was a prospect of their
being thus disposed of.

Through his influence, therefore, the refractory slaves remained staunch
in their resolution to abstain from work.

Their masters now saw that they were better off in the field than in the
prison. They could not be prevented from obtaining a few heads of the
barley, which they greedily ate, nor from obtaining a little moisture b