ttle juice of fruit, but he had
best eat nothing. The great thing is to prevent fever coming on. With
your permission I will stay with him, for if one of the threads you saw
me tie, round these little white tubes in the arm, should slip or give
way, he would be dead in five minutes; unless this machine round the
arm is tightened at once, and the tube that carries the blood is tied
up. It would be well that he should have a slave to fan him. I hope he
will sleep.'

"The Emir gave orders for the bed to be carried to the room adjoining
his harem.

"'His mother and his young wife will want to see him,' he said to me,
'and when the danger that you speak of is past, the women will care for
him. You will be master in the room, and will give such orders as you
please.'

"Then he turned off, and walked hastily away. I could see that he had
spoken with difficulty, and that, in spite of his efforts to appear
composed and tranquil, his mouth was twitching, and his eyes moist.

"As soon as the bed had been placed, by my directions, near the open
window, the four Dervishes left the room. The hakims were on the point
of doing so, when I said:

"'I will stay here for a few minutes, and will then come out and talk
this matter over with you. I have been fortunate, indeed, in
remembering so well what I saw. I heard a white hakim explain how he
did each thing, and why, to the sheik of the wounded man's party; and I
will tell you what I remember of it, and you, with your wisdom in these
matters, will be able to do it far better than I.'

"When they had retired, the door leading into the harem opened, and a
woman, slightly veiled, followed by a younger woman and two slave
girls, came in. I stopped her, as she was hurrying towards her son.

"'Lady,' I said, 'I pray you to speak very quietly, and in few words.
It is most important that he should not be excited, in any way, but
should be kept perfectly quiet, for the next two or three days.'

"'I will do so,' she said. 'May I touch him?'

"'You may take his hand in yours, but do not let him move. I will leave
you with him for a few minutes. Please remember that everything depends
upon his not being agitated.'

"I went out and joined the hakims.

"'Truly, Mudil, Allah has given you strange gifts,' one of them said.
'Wonderful is it that you should have remembered so well what you saw;
and more wonderful still is it, that you should have the firmness to
cut and saw flesh and bone, a