r fellow, "never mind me. I'm about done
for."

"Nonsense, man! Don't let the professor see how weak you are."

"But I can't help it, sir. I'm that sore all over that it's just as if
I'd been broken. Go on and leave me; I ain't a bit o' good."

"Leave you here in the desert to die?"

"Yes, sir; it don't matter a bit. I'm regularly done for."

"Nonsense! Rouse yourself like a man."

"I couldn't do it, sir. I only want to lie still and die decently.
Daresay the next people who come along will cover me over with a bit of
sand."

Frank laughed.

"I do call that unfeeling of you, sir," moaned the poor fellow. "It's
heartless, that it is!"

"I can't help it, Sam," said Frank merrily; "the idea is so absurd."

"What, me dying out here in the desert?"

"No, what you said about being covered over with the sand."

"I don't see anything absurd, sir. It's very horrible."

"Not a bit," said Frank. "There wouldn't be anything to bury."

"What!" said Sam, rising up on one elbow and staring wildly at the
speaker.

"You see, there are the vultures to begin with, and then there would be
the jackals."

"Ugh! Don't, Mr Frank," cried the poor fellow, shuddering. "I never
thought about them. That's worse than the camel."

"Ever so much," said Frank. "Come, be a man. How do you spell
`pluck'?"

"I dunno, sir," whined the poor fellow. "I suppose it would be with a
very small `p'."

"Try and spell it with a big capital, Sam. Come, don't let the doctor
feel ashamed of you."

"But I don't seem to mind anything now, sir."

"Yes, you do, Sam. You came to help us, didn't you?"

"Yes, sir, I did, but--"

"Are you going to break down over the first difficulty."

"No, I ain't, sir. I--oh dear!--oh my!--I--ugh! what a scrunch!--Hah!
Would you mind lending me a hand, sir?"

"Not a bit, Sam," said Frank. "I'll help you in any way, as you will
me; but I want to see you master all this."

"That's right, sir. Here goes, then."

The next moment the man had made a brave effort, and he walked at once
to his camel and mounted, Frank standing by as the ungainly beast
see-sawed to and fro and sprawled out its legs, and grumbled and snarled
as it rose upright.

"Don't make that row!" cried Sam. "You ought to be used to it by this
time. That's done it, Mr Frank. Don't tell the doctor what I said."

"Not I, Sam. Bravo! You have plenty of pluck, you see."

"Have I, sir?" said the man pitifully. "I bega