rugs, hakeem!--take
that!" cried Sadi, as he flung at Yusef's head a tin case containing a
few of his medicines.

Then bending down from Yusef's camel, which he himself had mounted,
Sadi hissed out between his clenched teeth, "Thou hast wronged me--I
have repaid thee, Christian! this is a Moslem's revenge!"

They had gone, the last camel had disappeared from the view of Yusef;
darkness was falling around, and he remained to suffer alone, to die
alone, amidst those scorching-sands! The Syrian's first feeling was
that of despair, as he stood gazing in the direction of the caravan
which he could no longer see. Then Yusef lifted up his eyes to the sky
above him: in its now darkened expanse shone the calm evening star,
like a drop of pure light.

Yusef, in thinking over his situation, felt thankful that he had not
been deprived of his camel in an earlier part of his journey, when he
was in the midst of the desert. He hoped that he was not very far from
its border, and resolved, guided by the stars, to walk as far as his
strength would permit, in the faint hope of reaching a well, and the
habitations of men. It was a great relief to him that the burning
glare of day was over: had the sun been still blazing over his head, he
must soon have sunk and fainted by the way. Yusef picked up the small
case of medicines which Sadi in mockery had flung at him; he doubted
whether to burden himself with it, yet was unwilling to leave it
behind. "I am not likely to live to make use of this, and yet--who
knows?" said Yusef to himself, as, with the case in his hand, he
painfully struggled on over the wide expanse of dreary desert. "I will
make what efforts I can to preserve the life which God has given."

Struggling against extreme exhaustion, his limbs almost sinking under
his weight, Yusef pressed on his way, till a glowing red line in the
east showed where the blazing sun would soon rise. What was his eager
hope and joy on seeing that red line broken by some dark pointed
objects that appeared rise out of the sand. New strength seemed given
to the weary man, for now his ear caught the welcome sound of the bark
of a dog, and then the bleating of sheep.

"God be praised!" exclaimed Yusef, "I, am near the abodes of men!"

Exerting all his powers, the Syrian, made one great effort to reach the
black tents which he now saw distinctly in broad daylight, and which he
knew must belong to some tribe of wandering Bedouin Arabs: he tot