I ask your help."

"The man on the bedstead?"

"Yes, if you will be so good. I will warn you--he was hurt three weeks
ago, and I know these people. No one will have touched him since he was
hurt. The sight will not be pretty. This is not a nice country for
untended wounds."

The German student shrugged his shoulders. "All experience is good,"
said he, and the two men rose from the table and went out on to the
upper deck.

The wind had freshened during the dinner, and, blowing up stream, had
raised waves so that the steamer and its barge tossed and the water
broke on board.

"He was below there," said the student, as he leaned over the rail and
peered downwards to the lower deck of the barge alongside. It was night,
and the night was dark. Above that lower deck only one lamp, swung from
the centre of the upper deck, glimmered and threw uncertain lights and
uncertain shadows over a small circle. Beyond the circle all was black
darkness, except at the bows, where the water breaking on board flung a
white sheet of spray. It could be seen like a sprinkle of snow driven by
the wind, it could be heard striking the deck like the lash of a whip.

"He has been moved," said the German. "No doubt he has been moved. There
is no one in the bows."

Calder bent his head downwards and stared into the darkness for a little
while without speaking.

"I believe the angareb is there," he said at length. "I believe it is."

Followed by the German, he hurried down the stairway to the lower deck
of the steamer and went to the side. He could make certain now. The
angareb stood in a wash of water on the very spot to which at Calder's
order it had been moved that morning. And on the angareb the figure
beneath the black covering lay as motionless as ever, as inexpressive of
life and feeling, though the cold spray broke continually upon its face.

"I thought it would be so," said Calder. He got a lantern and with the
German student climbed across the bulwarks on to the barge. He summoned
the two Arabs.

"Move the angareb from the bows," he said; and when they had obeyed,
"Now take that covering off. I wish my friend who is a doctor to see the
wound."

The two men hesitated, and then one of them with an air of insolence
objected. "There are doctors in Assouan, whither we are taking him."

Calder raised the lantern and himself drew the veil away from off the
wounded man. "Now if you please," he said to his companion. The German
studen