quite excited, only I don't
know yet whether it's true."

"It is true enough," said Lawrence laughing.

"Oh, I don't know so much about that. It doesn't seem to be possible.
Couldn't believe that such things went on in these days, when people use
telephones and telegraphs and read newspapers."

"It does seem strange and unreal, sir, but then so do all these
beautiful valleys and mountains."

"So they do to us, my boy. Shouldn't wonder if they are all theatrical
scenery, or else we shall wake up directly both of us and say, `Lo! it
was a dream.'"

Lawrence sneezed twice heavily, for it was impossible to be in Mr
Burne's company long without suffering from the impalpable dust that
pervaded all his clothes; and as the old gentleman looked on with a grim
smile and clapped his young companion on the shoulder, he exclaimed:

"You are right, Lawrence, my lad, it is all real, and that proves it. I
never knew anyone sneeze in a dream. There, go back. Relieve guard.
I'm sentry now, and I feel as if I were outside Buckingham Palace, or
the British Museum, only I ought to have a black bearskin on instead of
this red fez with the yellow roll round it. How does it look, eh?"

"Splendid, sir. It quite improves you," replied Lawrence.

"Get out, you young impostor!" cried the old lawyer. "There, be off.
You are getting well."

Lawrence laughed and went back to the camping-place by the spring, where
Hamed was bathing his ankles in the cold water, and Yussuf was
diligently attending to the horses, whose legs he hobbled so as to keep
them from straying away, though they showed very little inclination for
this, the clear water and the abundant clover proving too great an
attraction for them to care to go far.

It was rapidly getting dark now, and hearing from Yussuf that the
professor had taken his gun and strolled off along the great gorge,
Lawrence was disposed to follow him, but the sensation of stiffness, the
result of many hours in the saddle, made him prefer to await his return.
Picking out, then, a snug spot among some stones that had fallen from
above, where a clump of myrtles perfumed the soft evening air, he
settled himself down, and soon sank into a comfortable drowsy state, in
which he listened to the _munch munch_ of the horses, and a low crooning
song uttered by Hamed as he finished his task of bathing his swollen
ankles, and then walked up and down more strongly, pausing every now and
then to stoop and r