ning, I let the horse graze, and threw myself down
among the bushes, intending to remain there until nightfall. In the
afternoon, on waking from a long sleep, I sat up and saw, a quarter of
a mile away, a Dervish making his way along on foot, slowly and
painfully. This was the very chance I had hoped might occur. I got up
at once, and walked towards him.

"'My friend is sorely wounded,' I said.

"'My journey is well-nigh ended,' he said. 'I had hoped to reach El
Obeid, but I know that I shall not arrive at the well, which lies three
miles away. I have already fallen three times. The next will be the
last. Would that the bullet of the infidel had slain me, on the spot!'

"The poor fellow spoke with difficulty, so parched were his lips and
swollen his tongue. I went to the bush, where I had left the gourd,
half full of water. The man was still standing where I had left him,
but when he saw the gourd in my hand he gave a little cry, and tottered
feebly towards me.

"'Let my friend drink,' I said. I held the gourd to his lips. 'Sip a
little, first,' I said. 'You can drink your fill, afterwards.'

"'Allah has sent you to save me,' he said; and after two or three gulps
of water, he drew back his head. 'Now I can rest till the sun has set,
and then go forward as far as the well, and die there.'

"'Let me see your wound,' I said. 'It may be that I can relieve the
pain, a little.'

"He had been shot through the body, and it was a marvel to me how he
could have walked so far; but the Arabs, like other wild creatures,
have a wonderful tenacity of life. I aided him to the shelter of the
thick bush, then I let him have another and longer drink, and bathed
his wound with water. Tearing off a strip from the bottom of his robe,
I bound it round him, soaking it with water over the wound. He had been
suffering more from thirst than from pain, and he seemed stronger,
already.

"'Now,' I said, 'you had better sleep.'

"'I have not slept since the last battle,' he said. 'I started as soon
as it was dark enough for me to get up, without being seen by the
Turks. I have been walking ever since, and dared not lie down. At
first, I hoped that I might get to the town where my wife lived, and
die in my own house. But that hope left me, as I grew weaker and
weaker, and I have only prayed for strength enough to reach the well,
to drink, and to die there.'

"'Sleep now,' I said. 'Be sure that I will not leave you. Is it not our
duty to h