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 favourite too, denying his modest request, almost drove him frantic. "I am your husband," he cried, "and whom should you obey but me? Fatima! I commanded 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 realise 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 favourite, 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 behaviour of the black sheik. "He no like us," he remarked to the whites. "He nebba be slave. Bom-bye you see him go dead." CHAPTER FIFTY FOUR. TWO FAITHFUL WIVES. 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. Presently the woman he had buried in the sand was seen going towards him with a calabash of water, followed by the other, who carried a dish of sangleh. One of the Arabs, perceiving their intention, ran up, and, in an angry tone, commanded them to retire to their tents. The two women persisted in their design; and in order to prevent them, without using violence, the Arab offered to serve the food and drink himself. This they permitted him to do; but when the water was offered to Golah it was again refused. The black sheik would not receive either food or drink from the hand of a master. The sangleh was then consumed by the Arab with a real or sham profession of gratitude; the water was poured into a bucket, and given to one of the camels; and the two calabashes were returned to the women. Neither a keen longing for food, nor a burning thirst for water, could divert Golah's thoughts from the contemplation of something that was causing his soul extreme anguish. His physical torture seemed, for the time, extinguished by some deep mental agony.