do, so I got him by the arm, and towed him to the bank,
through the mud [out] of which we were with difficulty dragged. Such a filthy
spectacle as we presented I have never seen before or since, and it will
perhaps give some idea of the almost superhuman dignity of Billali's
appearance when I say that, coughing, half-drowned, and covered with mud
and green slime as he was, with his beautiful beard coming to a dripping
point, like a Chinaman's freshly-oiled pig-tail, he still looked
venerable and imposing.

"Ye dogs," he said, addressing the bearers, as soon as he had
sufficiently recovered to speak, "ye left me, your father, to drown.
Had it not been for this stranger, my son the Baboon, assuredly I should
have drowned. Well, I will remember it," and he fixed them with his
gleaming though slightly watery eye, in a way I saw that they did not
like, though they tried to appear sulkily indifferent.

"As for thee, my son," the old man went on, turning towards me and
grasping my hand, "rest assured that I am thy friend through good and
evil. Thou hast saved my life: perchance a day may come when I shall
save thine."

After that we cleaned ourselves as best we could, fished out the litter,
and went on, _minus_ the man who had been drowned. I do not know if
it was owing to his being an unpopular character, or from native
indifference and selfishness of temperament, but I am bound to say that
nobody seemed to grieve much over his sudden and final disappearance,
unless, perhaps, it was the men who had to do his share of the work.

XI

THE PLAIN OF KOR

About an hour before sundown we at last, to my unbounded gratitude,
emerged from the great belt of marsh on to land that swelled upwards in
a succession of rolling waves. Just on the hither side of the crest
of the first wave we halted for the night. My first act was to examine
Leo's condition. It was, if anything, worse than in the morning, and a
new and very distressing feature, vomiting, set in, and continued till
dawn. Not one wink of sleep did I get that night, for I passed it in
assisting Ustane, who was one of the most gentle and indefatigable
nurses I ever saw, to wait upon Leo and Job. However, the air here was
warm and genial without being too hot, and there were no mosquitoes
to speak of. Also we were above the level of the marsh mist, which lay
stretched beneath us like the dim smoke-pall over a city, lit up here
and there by the wandering globes of fen fir