By the time Harry got up to this latter, he saw that a man in European clothing was by his side, kneeling on one knee, and trying to check the flow of blood which pumped out of a wound in his neck. "Is there a human being here who is not a jabbering idiot?" he cried in English. "Keep back, you fools, and let the man have a chance to breathe." "Can I be of any use?" asked Harry, pushing to him. "That's right, come on," said the surgeon, as he evidently was. "Lay hold of this forceps, and hold tight--that's it--while I cut down a bit and tie it lower down. No good, I fear; there are too many vessels severed. By George, how sharp those fellows keep their tools!" He was right; it _was_ no good. In five minutes the Egyptian soldier died under his hands. Upon which he rose up and walked on to where the Arab lay, to see if anything could be done for him; but he had hardly moved since the shot struck him. "A bad business," said the doctor to Harry, who had followed him. "We have not got many soldiers in our force brave enough to lay hold of an Arab, and can ill afford to lose one of them in a stupid affair like this." "Are they such cowards?" asked Harry. "But I say," he added, as he looked in the other's face, "is not your name Howard?" "Yes, it is." "Don't you remember Forsyth at Harton--your fag?" "Remember little Forsyth! Of course I do. But you don't mean to say-- by George! Now I look at you I see a sort of a likeness. But I should never have known you." "I expect not. When you left I was thirteen, and I have altered a good bit since then. But you were eighteen or thereabouts, and have not changed so much." "That's it; though I have had plenty to change me, too. But how do you come to be here, and in that toggery?" "Well, it is rather a long story," said Harry, "and I would sooner tell it sitting down somewhere out of the sun. What are you doing here--in private practice?" "That is a long story, too," cried Howard, laughing; "and I would also sooner tell it sitting out of the sun. Come to Yussuff's, where we can wash this mess from our hands, and get anything we want." Yussuff's was not far. It was a convenient establishment, where you could get a meal, or a bottle of wine, or even beer, if you would pay for it, or simply take a chibouque or narghile, and a cup of coffee or a sherbet. "Try the lemonade; they make it first-rate here," said Howard; and Harry took his advice, and swallowed a big glassful of nectar, which no iced champagne he had ever drunk could beat. And then they washed their hands and rested on a comfortable divan while they interchanged confidences. Howard had been a bit wild, perhaps, before he passed the College of Surgeons, and did not see any opening afterwards; he had no money or professional interest. So he had gone into the Turkish service, and, thinking himself ill-treated, had passed into that of the Khedive, and had lately volunteered to accompany Hicks Pasha's expedition.