rom their sight.

CHAPTER TWELVE.

A FIGHT WITH A BLACK.

Now it so happened that Sam soon ceased to congratulate himself upon his
good luck. He had thrown himself upon the couch provided for his
resting-place. He had discovered by turning it up that sheep-skins were
stretched beneath it to make it soft, and that beneath these the sand
was yielding and dry. But all the same the couch felt hard, and sleep
would not come.

He tried this side and that side, front after back, and returned to the
back; but it was no good, for the fact was that he was over-tired; and
over-weariness, that is to say, exhaustion, is one of the worst
opponents to a calm and satisfying sleep.

The evening came on cool and soft after the ardour of the afternoon, and
he began thinking about the proceedings of that time, and felt a little
hurt that the doctor had not called upon him to come and act as his
assistant, and these thoughts lasted him for about an hour, but did not
weary him into dropping off to sleep. They seemed to have the contrary
effect, making him irritable; and though he made up his mind to watch
the stars peer out through the opalescent sky--he did not call it
opalescent, for the simple word dusky took its place--even their soft
light had no effect upon him, and to come to the result at once the
would-be sleeper gave it up at last for a bad job.

"I'll go and get something to eat and drink, and then try what I can
do."

In this spirit he rose from his couch, feeling stiff and awkward,
grunted, stretched, and then stood in the tent door looking out upon the
glorious, star-spangled sky, noting that it was lighter towards the
east, where the moon was about to rise.

"Ought to be able to sleep," he said. "Nice fine night, and it's all
quiet and cool."

Then his attention was taken up by the soft light which came from the
gentlemen's tent, in which a lamp was burning, while some twenty yards
away another was lighting up the opening of the Sheikh's big tent,
showing the figures of the chief and his visitors seated comfortably
smoking, as they conversed in a low voice.

Sam made up his mind at once. There would be drinking water in a brass
vessel in the gentlemen's tent, and perhaps something to eat--something
to refresh him and give him the night's rest of which he was so sorely
in need.

Walking across the open space, he turned his head for a moment,
attracted by a complaining voice as of some one in trouble, an