.

He played his part well, knowing what a battery of keen eyes were
directed at him, while horsemen, foot, and camel riders whispered and
told those who did not know, of how this dumb black follower of the
Hakim was nearly as great a prophet and doctor as his master, and how
they had cured hundreds, from great chiefs dying of their wounds down to
children going blind from the ophthalmic curse of the desert lands.

The murmur of this whispering and the loud, ceaseless buzz of the
myriads of flies darting here and there over the sand and lighting again
and again upon the superheated walls, when they were not torturing
horse, camel and man, fell strangely upon Frank's ears as he grew more
calm, and his doubts and fears died out now that the step had been made,
and he felt ready to wonder at the calmness and confidence he displayed.

The great trouble he had now was to master the intense desire to look
round to see if the face he sought was gazing at him from some window or
doorway, as curiously as were the rest, and he would have given anything
to turn in his saddle and bring his eyes to bear in the search. But he
had well determined upon his course of action: he sat rigidly in his
place with his eyes fixed upon the doorway about which the chief's
followers were grouped, till there was a slight stir and the
stern-looking warrior appeared, looking fierce and imperious, as he
strode slowly out and acknowledged Frank's haughty bow, when his
countenance relaxed a little, but assuming ignorance of the present upon
the camel, he advanced with open hand to greet his visitor, saying a few
words of meaningless welcome.

Frank bowed again and turned slowly to the Sheikh, who bent low, and
then in a few well-chosen words spoke of the intense grief felt by his
master, the great help and chosen friend of the wonderful Hakim, of
whose miraculous cures the noble Baggara chief must have heard.

There was a bow from that individual, and Ibrahim went on about his
master and lord feeling now, of all times in his life, how painful it
was that he, the learned young Hakim, could not thank his highness in
words for the protection given to him when he was pursued by those
degenerate sons of Shaitan. He would have liked to thank the Emir
verbally, but as he could not do this he had come himself to ask his
noble friend to accept a trifling gift, because he knew how great a
lover he was of horses, and if he would condescend to accept the litt