"Alas, Khan, I fear not," said I, "for I am weak and helpless, and your staying with me only delays you to little purpose. Leave me to my fate, and if it is the will of Alla that I should recover, I will rejoin you at our home. I feel that I should be only a useless clog on your movements; for if I even get over this fever, I shall scarcely be able to sit on my horse for many a day to come." "Forsake you, Meer Sahib--never!" exclaimed all who were sitting round me. "Who will bury you if you die? or who will tend you if you recover? What words are these? Are you not our brother, and more, our leader? and what would become of us if we left you?" "Well, my friends," said I, deeply affected by their kindness, "since you prefer the bed-side of a sick man to roaming in the wide and open country, even be it so; a few days will end your suspense, and either you will have to bury me here, or, if it be the pleasure of Alla, I shall once more lead you to new enterprises." "But you must be silent," said Peer Khan, "for the Hukeem said so, and told us if you roused at all to send him word, as he had prepared some medicine for you, which he would administer, and hoped it would hasten your recovery. I will go and tell him the good news." In a short time the Khan returned, accompanied by an old and venerable person, who, after feeling my head and body, turned to the Khan and declared that my state was satisfactory. "But," said he, "as the fever proceeded from cold, which is still in his stomach, we must give him the medicine I spoke of: I have prepared it, and, being compounded of heating drugs, it will soon expel the cold, induce perspiration, and, Inshalla! to-morrow he will be a different being, though he will be weak for some time to come." The draught was prepared, and, though nauseous in the extreme, I swallowed it, and by his directions covered myself with quilts and horse-cloths. I was quickly in a profuse perspiration; and when the Hukeem, who sat by my side all the time, thought I had been long enough under this treatment, he withdrew the coverings one by one, and taking my wet clothes from me, I soon fell into a sound and refreshing sleep, from which I did not awake till the next morning's sun was shining on my eyelids.