nd tear, and soon enough all was over, and the carrion
seekers had had their fill.

It was a knot of these--sick and wounded--that were led or tramped up to
the front of the Hakim's tent, and there paused or were set down, a
dreadful row, horrible of aspect, bandaged, unkempt, vilely dirty,
feeble, and hopeless. They made no complaint, sent up no appeal, but
sat or lay there gazing at the handsome, polished gentleman seated
blandly before them, the mark of all those pleading, imploring eyes,
silently asking him to give them back their lost health and strength.

"Look at them," said the doctor sadly; "one is bound to pity and to
help, when hard, matter-of-fact self says, Why should they be helped--
why should they be made strong again, to go on indulging in destruction
and dealing death?"

"It's our way of doing things," said the professor.

"Yes, Heaven be praised!" replied the doctor. "No one would change it
if he could."

"But," said Frank, "there is not a wounded or suffering man here who has
not brought all his trouble upon himself. If he had given up the sword
and spear and stayed in his own country to cultivate his own lands he
would have been healthy and well."

"Of course," said the professor; "and therefore you would let the
miserable wretches die out of the way?"

"Nothing of the kind," cried Frank indignantly. "They are human beings,
suffering terribly, and I would do all I could to help them."

"Don't get excited," said the doctor smiling, "or you will have some of
them noticing that you are not the Hakim's dumb slave. Come, our work
is waiting."

It was, and they worked on hour after hour at the terrible task; but it
was impossible not to see the impression the doctor made upon his
savage-looking patients, who for the most part hesitated doubting and
half resenting his acts; but in a few minutes to a man they resigned
themselves to his influence, and when at last they crawled or were borne
away by companions, there was not one who was not ready to sing the
praises of the Hakim, not from being cured, but from the change wrought
by a skilful surgeon upon neglected wounds, and the sensations of rest
and relief afforded by a doctor who looked upon the ailments from which
the patients suffered as the simplest forms of disease, caused by
neglect, and treated them accordingly.

In the Baggara camp that night there was but one theme of conversation.
It was not with regard to the plunder taken in th