Old Bill was able to explain the proceedings, from his experience of the preceding night; and as he saw the two sheiks repair to the place where his own proprietorship had been decided, he cried out:--
"Yere goin' to be gambled for, Masther Terry! Och! ye'll be along wid me,--for the black can bate the owld Arab at that game, all hollow."
The holes in which the _helga_ had been played on the preceding night were now resorted to. The proper number of dung pellets were procured, and the game proceeded.
It ended as the old man-o'-war's-man had prognosticated, by the black sheik becoming the winner and owner of Terence O'Connor.
The Arab appeared sadly chagrined, and by the way in which he strutted and stormed over the ground, it was evident he would not rest satisfied with his loss. When did gamester ever leave gaming-table so long as a stake was left him to continue the play?
Two of the midshipmen still belonged to the old sheik. With these he might obtain a _revanche_. He made the trial. He was unfortunate, as before. Either the luck was against him, or he was no match at "desert draughts" for his sable antagonist.
It ended in the black sheik becoming the owner of the three midshipmen, who, restored to the companionship of Sailor Bill, in less than twenty minutes after the conclusion of the game, were trudging it across the desert in the direction of Timbuctoo!
In their journey over the sea of sand, our four adventurers formed part of a company of sixteen men and women, along with six or seven children.
All were the property of one man,--the huge and dusky sheik who had won Sailor Bill and the three middies at "desert draughts."
It soon became known to his white captives that his name was Golah, a name which Terence suggested might probably be an African abbreviation of the ancient name of Goliah.
Golah was certainly a great man,--not in bone and flesh alone, but in intellect as well.
We do not claim for him the gigantic mind that by arranging a few figures and symbols, by the light of a lamp in a garret, could discover a new planet in the solar system, and give its dimensions, weight, and distance from the dome of St. Paul's. Neither do we claim that the power of his intellect, if put forth in a storm of eloquence, could move the masses of his fellow-creatures, as a hurricane stirs up the waters of the sea; yet for all this Golah had a great intellect. He was born to rule, and not a particle of all the propensities and sentiments constituting his mind was ever intended to yield to the will of another.