athen by some enlightened
Christians, seated himself upon the fastest camel in the caravan,
receiving into his arms the thing that was still a man by their good
efforts, from the hands of the other heathen, who, with hands raised to
heaven, called down the blessing of Allah upon men and beast as the
latter departed at her swiftest for the great city, leaving him to
follow in more leisurely manner.

So that consternation and excitement were great among those who sat
upon the verandah after dinner, partaking of coffee and cigarettes
before undertaking the more strenuous task of entertaining themselves,
when in the glare of the electric light a great camel suddenly appeared
out of the night, and totally disregarding the upraised voice of the
enormous hotel porter, subsided in the gutter, thereby causing a block
in the street; whilst a man clumsily dismounted and staggered up the
shallow steps, tenderly holding some covered burden the while in his
arms that were breaking with fatigue, and who, speaking with authority,
demanded speech of the proprietor, who, furious at being disturbed,
came forth as furiously to annihilate the disturber, but instead, at
the first word from the Arab, who clutched a dirty piece of paper in a
hand almost paralysed with cramp, lifted a corner of the cloth from
about that which lay so inertly under the all-hiding cloak, and choked,
and stuttered, and then recovering himself, blandly led the Arab to the
lift which whirled them to the first floor, leaving the occupants on
the verandah all a-twitter, whilst the coffee grew cold and the
cigarettes went out.

CHAPTER XLIV

Days and nights passed, and still more days and nights, in which the
man, bound from head to foot in soft wrappings soaked in unguents,
tossed and raved, screaming for water, tearing at the bed-linen which
to his distorted mind was alive with every conceivable insect, beating
blindly at the faces of the two women who, refusing any help, watched
over and tended Jack Wetherbourne through his days of distress.

"Aye, lass! Now don't 'ee lose 'eart," whispered Sarah Ann Gruntham to
the girl who, having held consultation with the doctor, was sobbing her
heart out on the elder woman's motherly bosom which covered a heart of
purest gold. "Don't 'ee listen to such fash, lass, for what's he
likely to know outside of Lady Jones's wimble-wambles and me Lor'
Fitznoodles' rheumatism. Why 'e couldn't even tell that I 'ad 'ad a
touch