orn off all the bandages, and he made me guide his finger along
them."

"Dirty finger?"

"Yes, sahib, it is a very dirty finger. At least it would be if it was
mine; but his fingers are holy. They cannot be unclean, and he says
that the touch will heal the wounds."

"I hope it will," I said; "but, I say, look here, Salaman, have you
washed your hands since you touched him?"

"Oh yes, sahib, many times," he cried eagerly.

I laughed heartily for the first time for long enough, and Salaman
looked puzzled, and then smiled.

"I know why, my--sahib laughs," he said. "These things are a puzzle. I
cannot make them out."

"Never mind; only don't let the old fakir come near me."

That day passed as the others had gone. Everything about me was
beautiful, and I was treated like a prince, but the word "renegade" was
always in my mind's eye, and I went to my rest at last as despondent as
ever, after another attempt to decipher the writing, but all in vain.

It was a very hot night, and for a long time I could not sleep; but at
last I was dozing lightly, when I woke with a start to listen.

But all was still for a time. The lamp burned with its soft shaded
light, and there was not a sign of anything startling, but, all the
same, I had awakened suddenly, in a fright, and with an instinctive
feeling that something was wrong.

All at once, from the back of the tent, there was a low, sharp hiss, and
I felt that my enemies, the snakes, were about again, trying to get in,
and I wondered at my folly in not insisting upon having some weapon at
hand, though I knew it was doubtful whether I should have been so
favoured.

I lay listening, and then rose up quickly, meaning to rush to the tent
opening, and call for whoever was on the watch, when a soft voice
whispered--"Hist, sahib!"

"Ah!" I ejaculated, with my heart beating as if I had been running.

"Hist! Friends near."

I was on my way to the side of the tent whence the voice came, when I
heard hurried steps, and had just time to throw myself back on my couch,
as the tent door was thrown open and Salaman appeared.

"The sahib called," he said.

I was nearly speechless with emotion, which I dared not show, and I knew
that my duty was to keep the man there, and engage him in conversation
so as to give my nocturnal visitor a chance of escape. Mastering myself
as well as I could, I said in a fretful, angry way--

"Come here."

He was at my side in an instant.