nest seaman's head.

"Fire away, you rascals," cried Ben in a loud voice, fixing his eyes on
his executioners. "I am not afraid of you!"

Every instant we expected to hear the fatal shot fired, but still Sinne
refrained from pulling the trigger. Feeling sure that if we rushed
forward to Ben's assistance it would be the signal for his death, we
stood stock-still, not daring to move. In equally fixed attitudes stood
the Arabs, evidently taking delight in our horror and anxiety. I dared
not even pull out my watch to note how the time went by, but it seemed
to me that a whole hour must have thus passed,--the Arab all the while
standing motionless, till I thought his arm must have ached with holding
the pistol. Halliday declared that he thought at least two hours must
have elapsed, when Sinne, giving a self-satisfied grunt, restored the
pistol to his belt, and stalked off towards the camp, followed by
Antonio, and leaving Ben kneeling before the bench.

Ben, on finding that they were gone, got up and gave himself a violent
shake. "I thought I was done for!" he exclaimed, with that cool air
which an habitual indifference to danger can alone inspire. "I didn't
care so much for myself; but I thought the villains would treat you in
the same way as they were going to serve me, and I was terribly sorry
for you, that I was."

We thanked Ben for his interest in us, assuring him how glad we were
that he had escaped; and not having before had an opportunity of hearing
the result of his expedition to the Arab camp, we inquired if he had
seen Boxall.

"Not a glimpse of him," he answered. "I went round and round the camp,
so if he was there he must have been inside a tent; but as a number of
people, whom I took to be slaves, were busy either pounding corn or
cleaning their beasts, I am pretty sure that if he had been carried
there he would have been among them, and I should have seen him. I
believe, Mr Blore, you were right after all; and that the Arab who got
hold of him must have gone off to another camp. All we can hope is,
that he is among better people than these black fellows here."

I hoped so likewise, though I began to fear that our chances of escape
were very small, and that we should be doomed to perpetual slavery by
our savage captors. Of course, from the first we had determined to
escape if we could; but the question was, In what direction should we
fly? The desert was terminable on the east by the Nile; on