e age, with a round and kindly face tanned by the sun,
and somewhat deep-set dark eyes having an eyeglass fixed in one of them,
through which its wearer regarded him with much commiseration.

"How do you do, sir?" said the stranger in a pleasant voice. "So far
as I can make out from your servant you seem to be in a baddish way. By
George! there is a lady."

"How do you do?" answered Leonard. "Capital sun-helmet that of yours.
I envy it, but you see I have had to go bare-headed lately," and he
ran his fingers through his matted hair. "Who is the maker of that
eight-bore? Looks a good gun!"

"Achmet," said the stranger, turning to an Arab at his side, "go to the
first donkey and fetch this lord of the earth a pint of champagne and
some oatmeal cakes; he seems to want them. Tell the bearers also to
bring up my tent and to pitch it there by the water. Quick, now."

Forty-eight hours had passed, and the benevolent stranger was sitting
on a camp-stool in the door of his tent, looking at two forms that lay
wrapped in blankets and comfortably asleep within it.

"I suppose that they will wake some time," he murmured, dropping his
eyeglass and taking the pipe from his mouth. "The quinine and champagne
have done them a lot of good: there is nothing like quinine and
champagne. But what an unconscionable liar that dwarf must be! There
is only one thing he can do better, and that is eat. I never saw a chap
stow away so much grub, though I must say that he looks as though he
needed it. Still, allowing for all deductions, it is a precious queer
story. Who are they, and what the deuce are they doing here? One thing
is clear: I never saw a finer-looking man nor a prettier girl." And
he filled his pipe again, replaced the eyeglass in his eye, and began
smoking.

Ten minutes later Juanna sat up suddenly, whereupon the stranger
withdrew out of sight. She looked round her wildly, then, seeing Leonard
lying at the further side of the tent, she crept to him and began
kissing him, saying: "Leonard! Thank God that you are still alive,
Leonard! I dreamed that we both were dead. Thank God that you are
alive!"

Then the man who had been thus adjured woke up also and returned her
caresses.

"By George! this is quite affecting," said the traveller. "I suppose
that they are married; if not, they ought to be. Any way, I had better
clear out for a while."

An hour later he returned to find that the pair had made themselves as
presentable as