When the two guards had again resumed their former stations in front of the line, as before with their muskets at full cock, Golah advanced towards the woman, who, disengaging herself from her children, stood up at his approach. Then succeeded a moment of intense interest. Was he going to kill her? If so, in what manner? All looked on with painful anticipation of some dire event. It soon transpired. The woman was seized by Golah himself, dragged towards the pits that had been dug, and thrust into one of them. The slave who wielded the spade was then commanded to fill up the excavation around her. Terence was the first to speak. "God help her!" he exclaimed; "the monster is going to bury her alive! Can't we save her?" "We are not men, if we do not try!" exclaimed Harry, as he suddenly sprang to his feet. His example was immediately followed by his white companions. The two muskets were instantly directed towards them; but at a shout from Golah their muzzles were as quickly dropped. The sheik's son then, at his father's command, ran to the pit to secure the woman; while Golah himself rushed forward to meet the helpless men who were advancing towards him. In an instant the four were thrown prostrate to the earth. With their hands tied, the powerful sheik upset them as easily as though they had been bags of sand. Raising Harry by the hair of his head with one hand, and Terence with the other, he dragged them back to their places in the line where they had been already seated. Sailor Bill saved himself from like treatment, by rolling over and over until he had regained his former place. Colin was allowed to lie on the ground, where the sheik had knocked him over. Golah now returned to the pit where the woman stood half buried. She made no resistance, she uttered no complaint, but seemed calmly to resign herself to a fate that could not be averted. Golah apparently did not intend to behold her die; for, when the earth was filled in around her body, her head still remained above ground. She was to be starved to death! As the sheik was turning away to attend to other matters, the woman spoke. Her words were few, and produced no effect upon him. They did, however, upon the Krooman, whose eyes were seen to fill with tears that rapidly chased each other down his mahogany-coloured cheeks. Colin, who seemed to notice everything except the fate threatening himself, observed the Krooman's excitement, and inquired its cause. "She asked him to be kind to her little boy," said the man, in a voice trembling with emotion. Are tears unmanly?--No. The shining drops that rolled from that man's eyes, and sparkled adown his dusky cheeks, on hearing the unfortunate woman's prayer for her children, proved that he was not a brute, but a man--a man with a soul that millions might envy. After leaving the place where the woman was buried, Golah walked up to Colin, and, dragging him to his feet, led him away to the other pit.