e care of
God, and we are only concerned with the present. We ought to promise
anything if we can obtain food by it."

"I think so too, now," said the Krooman; "for it am worse than sure dat
if we starve now we no be slaves bom-bye."

"They will not quite starve us to death," said Jim. "I have told you
before that we are worth too much for that. If we will not work they
will sell us, and we may reach Mogador. If we do work, we may stay here
for years. I entreat you to hold out one day longer."

"I cannot," answered one.

"Nor I," exclaimed another.

"Let us first get something to eat, and then take our liberty by force,"
said Terence. "I fancy that if I had a drink of water I could whip all
the Arabs on earth."

"And so could I," said Colin.

"And I, too," added Harry Blount.

Sailor Bill had sunk upon the floor, hardly conscious of what the others
were saying; but, partly aroused by the word water, repeated it,
muttering, in a hoarse whisper, "Water! water!"

The Krooman and the three youths joined in the cry; and then all, as
loudly as their parched throats would permit, shouted the words, "Water!
water!"

The call for water was apparently unheeded by the Arab men, but it was
evidently music to many of the children of the village, for it attracted
them to the door of the goat-penn, around which they clustered,
listening with strong expressions of delight.

Through a long night of indescribable agony, the cry of "Water! Water!"
was often repeated in the penn, and at each time in tones fainter and
more supplicating than before.

The cry at length became changed from a demand to a piteous prayer.

CHAPTER SIXTY NINE.

VICTORY.

Next morning, when the Arabs opened the door of the prison, Sailor Bill
and Colin were found unable to rise; and the old salt seemed quite
unconscious of all efforts made to awaken his attention.

Not till then did Jim's resolution begin to give way. He would now
submit, to save them from further suffering; but although knowing it was
the wish of all that he should tender their submission on the terms the
Arabs required, for a while he delayed doing so, in order to discover
the course their masters designed adopting towards them.

"Are you Christian dogs willing to earn your food now?" inquired the old
sheik, as he entered the goat-penn.

Faint and weak with hunger, nearly mad with thirst, alarmed for the
condition of his brother, and pitying the agony of the ot