t rendered such an act impossible.

"Go, you little whelp," said Moosa, pointing to the fallen chief, and at
the same time giving the child a cut with the whip.

With a cry of mingled pain and delight poor Obo, for it was he, rushed
into his father's open arms, and laid his sobbing head on his breast.
He could not nestle into his neck as, in the days of old, he had been
wont to do,--the rough goree effectually prevented that.

Kambira bent his head over the child and remained perfectly still. He
did not dare to move, lest any action, however inoffensive, might induce
Moosa to change his mind and separate them again.

Poor Kambira! How different from the hearty, bold, kindly chief to whom
we introduced the reader in his own wilderness home! His colossal frame
was now gaunt in the extreme, and so thin that every rib stood out as
though it would burst the skin, and every joint seemed hideously large,
while from head to foot his skin was crossed and recrossed with terrible
weals, and scarred with open sores, telling of the horrible cruelties to
which he had been subjected in the vain attempt to tame his untameable
spirit. There can be no question that, if he had been left to the
tender mercies of such Portuguese half-caste scoundrels as Moosa or
Marizano, he would have been brained with an axe or whipped to death
long ago. But Yoosoof was more cool and calculating in his cruelty; he
had more respect for his pocket than for the gratification of his angry
feelings. Therefore Kambira had reached the coast alive.

Little had the simple chief imagined what awaited him on that coast, and
on his way to it, when, in the fulness of his heart, he had stated to
Harold Seadrift his determination to proceed thither in search of
Azinte. Experience had now crushed hope, and taught him to despair.
There was but one gleam of light in his otherwise black sky, and that
was the presence of his boy. Life had still one charm in it as long as
he could lay hold of Obo's little hand and hoist him, not quite so
easily as of yore, on his broad shoulders. Yoosoof was sufficiently a
judge of human character to be aware that if he separated these two,
Kambira would become more dangerous to approach than the fiercest
monster in the African wilderness.

"We must sail to-night and take our chance," said Yoosoof, turning away
from his captives; "the time allowed for our trade is past and I shall
run straight north without delay."

The Arab h