citement had suddenly gone.

"They can see that we talk together and earnestly. Idris would know of
it within the hour, the Khalifa before sunset. There would be heavier
fetters and the courbatch if we spoke at all. Lie still. You are weak,
and I too am very tired. We will sleep, and later in the day we will go
together down to the Nile."

Trench lay down beside Feversham and in a moment was asleep. Feversham
watched him, and saw, now that his features were relaxed, the marks of
those three years very plainly in his face. It was towards noon before
he awoke.

"There is no one to bring you food?" he asked, and Feversham answered:--

"Yes. A boy should come. He should bring news as well."

They waited until the gate of the zareeba was opened and the friends or
wives of the prisoners entered. At once that enclosure became a cage of
wild beasts. The gaolers took their dole at the outset. Little more of
the "aseeda"--that moist and pounded cake of dhurra which was the staple
diet of the town--than was sufficient to support life was allowed to
reach the prisoners, and even for that the strong fought with the weak,
and the group of four did battle with the group of three. From every
corner men gaunt and thin as skeletons hopped and leaped as quickly as
the weight of their chains would allow them towards the entrance. Here
one weak with starvation tripped and fell, and once fallen lay prone in
a stolid despair, knowing that for him there would be no meal that day.
Others seized upon the messengers who brought the food, and tore it from
their hands, though the whips of the gaolers laid their backs open.
There were thirty gaolers to guard that enclosure, each armed with his
rhinoceros-hide courbatch, but this was the one moment in each day when
the courbatch was neither feared, nor, as it seemed, felt.

Among the food-bearers a boy sheltered himself behind the rest and gazed
irresolutely about the zareeba. It was not long, however, before he was
detected. He was knocked down, and his food snatched from his hands; but
the boy had his lungs, and his screams brought Idris-es-Saier himself
upon the three men who had attacked him.

"For whom do you come?" asked Idris, as he thrust the prisoners aside.

"For Joseppi, the Greek," answered the boy, and Idris pointed to the
corner where Feversham lay. The boy advanced, holding out his empty
hands as though explaining how it was that he brought no food. But he
came quite close, and