"No, no, Rob, you are wrong. I feel a little drowsy, but so free from pain. I could get up and walk." "The Hakim thinks differently. Silence! They are coming. Samuel, stand there! Fred, my son, bend over him with those bandages and that scalpel.--Hist! Close your eyes." His orders were obeyed, and as Harry Frere closed his sunken eyes, old cares and sufferings, combined with the mental and bodily agony he was passing through, gave his face, in the shadowy, dim, curtained room, a look that was absolutely ghastly. Directly after the curtain was drawn aside by the Sheikh for the two officers to pass in, both looking awed as they gave a sharp look round at the strange scene. The next moment the Baggara who had brought the injured man started forward a step to look down at his charge, and then recoiled, to say a few hurried words to the Sheikh, who turned gravely to the doctor and interpreted. "The Emir's servant says, Excellency, that the white slave is dead, and that he dare not go back with the tidings, lest his head should fall." The Hakim turned slowly to the officer and smiled, as he laid a hand upon his patient's forehead. "Tell him," he said, "to bear the tidings to his master that the white slave will live, and his broken arm will soon be well." "Ah!" exclaimed the Baggara. "The Hakim is great. Then we may carry him back at once?" The words were interpreted to the doctor, who made his reply. "No; if the slave is taken away he may die. Bid him tell his master that the Hakim will keep the injured slave here and make him whole, as he has the Emirs, his master's friends." The Baggara officer looked troubled and perplexed. "Tell the great Hakim that his servant was bidden to bring the slave here and take him back. There is nothing for him but to obey." "Yes," said the doctor, drawing himself up proudly and fixing the man with his eyes, pausing at times to give Ibrahim ample time to interpret his words, "it is his duty to obey till a greater man than his master bids him do this or that." The doctor's words sounded loud and imperious, and he had got so far when an impatient voice was heard from the room where Frank was lying, calling first one and then another, and a cold chill ran through all present, for the voice sounded as it were the knell of all their hopes. Even the doctor was silenced for the moment, but recalling directly that only the Sheikh could understand his words, he called angrily in a voice of thunder, looking hard at the Sheikh the while. "Lie still, Frank, till I come!" Then: "Tell thy master that the Hakim will keep the white slave here. Take him this from me as my pledge that I will cure his slave. Enough! Now go." As he spoke he raised his hand to his white turban, detached the large Egyptian jewel he wore, and then gave it to the Sheikh, who took it reverently, and as he interpreted humbly the Hakim's words ended by placing the rare token in the officer's hands.