amped for the night.

The water was in a stone tank, placed so as to catch all the rain that
fell in a long narrow valley, gradually descending from some hills to
the northward.

Jim had visited the place before; and told his companions that the tank
had been constructed by a man whose memory was much respected, and who
died nearly a hundred years ago.

During the night, the Krooman, who had been left behind, entered the
encampment, confident in the belief that he had escaped from his
taskmasters.

At sunset he had contrived to conceal himself among the barley sheaves,
until his masters were out of sight, when he had started off on the
track taken by the Arab merchants.

He was not allowed long indulgence in his dream of liberty. On the
following morning, as the kafila was about to continue its journey,
three men were seen approaching on swift camels; and shortly after Rias
Abdallah Yezzed and two of his followers rode up.

They were in pursuit of the runaway Krooman, and in great rage at the
trouble which he had caused them. So anxious were the boy slaves that
the poor fellow should continue along with them, that, for their sake,
the Arab merchants made a strenuous effort to purchase him; but Rias
Abdallah obstinately refused to sell him at anything like a reasonable
price. The Krooman had given proof that he could be very useful in the
harvest field; and a sum much greater than had been paid for any of the
others was demanded for him. He was worth more to his present owners
than what the Arab merchants could afford to give; and was therefore
dragged back to the servitude from which he had hoped to escape.

"You can see now that I was right," said Jim. "Had we consented to cut
their harvest, we should never have had an opportunity of regaining our
liberty. Our labour for a single year would have been worth as much to
them as the price they received for us, and we should have been held in
perpetual bondage."

Jim's companions could perceive the truth of this observation; but not
without being conscious that their good fortune was, on their part,
wholly undeserved, and that had it not been for him, they would have
yielded to the wishes of their late masters.

After another march the merchants made halt near some wells, around
which a large Arab encampment was found already established, the flocks
and herds wandering over the adjacent plain. Here our adventurers had
an opportunity of observing some of th