happened, of the bloodshed and the horrors which she that day had
witnessed. He recalled how, a few moments before, she withdrew her
hand, not wishing to pat Saba, who had finished, by strangling, one of
the Bedouins. Yes! Stas himself felt an incubus on his breast. It was
one thing to read in Port Said about American trappers, killing in the
far west red-skinned Indians by the dozens, and another to accomplish
that personally and see men, alive a short while before, struggling in
their death-throes, in a pool of blood. Yes, Nell's heart undoubtedly
was full of fear and at the same time aversion which would always
remain with her. "She will fear me," Stas thought, "and in the depths
of her heart, involuntarily, she will not cease holding it ill of me,
and this will be my reward for all that I have done for her."

At this thought great bitterness swelled in his bosom, for it was
apparent to him that if it were not for Nell he would either have been
killed or would have escaped. For her he suffered all that he had
endured; and those tortures and that hunger resulted only in this, that
she now stood before him frightened, as if she was not the same little
sister, and lifted her eyes towards him not with former trustfulness,
but with a strange fear. Stas suddenly felt very unhappy. For the first
time in his life he understood what it was to be moved to tears. In
spite of his will tears flowed to his eyes and were it not for the fact
that it did not under any circumstances become "a formidable warrior"
to weep, he might perhaps have shed tears.

He restrained himself, however, and, turning to the little girl, asked:

"Do you fear, Nell?"

And she replied in a low voice:

"Somehow--it is so horrible!"

At this Stas ordered Kali to bring the saddle-cloths from a saddle and,
covering with one of them a rock on which he had previously dozed, he
spread the other upon the ground and said:

"Sit here beside me near the fire. How chilly the night is! If sleep
overcomes you, rest your head upon me and you will fall asleep."

But Nell repeated:

"Somehow--it is so horrible!"

Stas wrapped her carefully in plaids and for some time they sat in
silence, supporting each other and illuminated by a rosy luster which
crept over the rocks and sparkled on the mica plates with which the
stony fissures were bespangled.

Beyond the zareba could be heard the snorting of horses and the
crunching of grass in their teeth.

"Listen, N