on
at the moon's softness.

The body, covered in a mass of sores coated with sand, raised itself to
the knees, whilst the hands tried painfully to scoop up the silver
moonbeams and raise them to the mouth. There was no sound in all that
deathly plain, which Allah knows is accustomed to such scenes, and when
the body had fallen forward once more upon the sand, so that the open
mouth was filled with grit, neither was there movement, until upon the
pale light of dawn a silent shape, and yet another, and still another
one, sailed serenely across the sky, and with a faint rustle of folding
wings settled down around the heap; to soar noiselessly skyward when it
suddenly twitched convulsively; to settle again with faint rustling
when all once more was still.

"Verily, O! brother, I am led towards that spot upon which the birds of
death have come together."

So said the Egyptian who was partner in the small caravan proceeding
leisurely towards Cairo, as he shaded his eyes and pointed first up to
the ever lightening sky, across which from all parts floated small
black dots, and then to a distant place upon the sand, where the black
spots seemed to mingle until they formed a blot of shade.

"Nay! Raise not thy voice in dissent, O! my brother, for behold we
have made good time, and water faileth us not."

And well was it that they turned aside, and shouted as they approached
so that only one beak had time to tear a strip of flesh from beneath
the naked shoulder, ere the flock of vultures rose, hovered a second,
and were gone. The two men drew near, and having dismounted, turned
the poor thing over, and feeling the faint beating of the heart, with
no more ado than if they were setting down to food, undid one of the
goatskins from the nearest camel, and soaking the flowing bernous until
it dripped with the precious water, wrapped the body in its folds; and
collecting the gold watch, money and card-case strewn upon the sands,
slipped everything back into a waistcoat pocket with the exception of a
three day old programme announcing a cotillion at Shepherd's Hotel, a
sketch of which hideous building was elaborately and mendaciously
reproduced on the cover, so that to the mind of uneducated Yussuf,
unversed in the English tongue, there was but one thing to do, and that
to go straight to the well-known caravanserai with his burden, and
deliver it safely into the proprietor's hands.

So Yussuf, euphoniously termed a benighted he