This arrangement was satisfactory to all but Golah himself, who expressed himself greatly displeased with it. Nevertheless, he seemed a little disposed to yield to circumstances; for, soon after the decision of his captors was made known to him, he called to Fatima, and commanded her to bring him a bowl of water.
The favorite refused, under the plea that she had been forbidden to give him anything.
This was true; for, as he had declined to accept of anything at the hands of those claiming to be his masters, they had determined to starve him into submission.
Fatima's refusal to obey him caused Golah his greatest chagrin. Ever accustomed to prompt and slavish obedience from others, the idea of his own wife--his favorite too--denying his modest request, almost drove him frantic.
"I am your husband," he cried, "and whom should you obey but me? Fatima! I command you to bring me some water!"
"And I command you not to do it," said the Arab sheik, who, standing near by, had heard the order.
Fatima was an artful, selfish woman, who had gained some influence over her husband by flattering his vanity, and professing a love she had never felt.
She had acted with slavish obedience to him when he was all-powerful; but now that he was himself a slave, her submission had been transferred with perfect facility to the chief of the band who had captured him.
It was now that Golah began to realize the fact that he was a conquered man.
His heart was nearly bursting with rage, shame, and disappointment; for nothing could so plainly awaken him to the comprehension of his real position, as the fact that Fatima, his favorite, she who had ever professed for him so much love and obedience, now refused to attend to his simplest request.
After making one more violent and ineffectual effort at breaking his bonds, he sank down upon the earth and remained silent--bitterly contemplating the degraded condition into which he had fallen.
The Krooman, who was a very sharp observer of passing events, and had an extensive knowledge of peculiar specimens of human nature, closely watched the behavior of the black sheik.
"He no like us," he remarked to the whites. "He nebba be slave. Bom-by you see him go dead."
While Golah's mind appeared to be stunned almost to unconsciousness by the refusal of Fatima to obey his orders, his other two wives were moving about, as if engaged in some domestic duty.