r souls, how my heart does
bleed for you! There's bread and meat in the basket, but you must be
very moderate at first." He chuckled with joy, and slapped his fat hands
together as he watched them.

"But the others?" he asked, his face turning grave again.

The Colonel shook his head. "We left them behind at the wells. I fear
that it is all over with them."

"Tut, tut!" cried the clergyman, in a boisterous voice, which could not
cover the despondency of his expression; "you thought, no doubt, that
it was all over with me, but here I am in spite of it. Never lose heart,
Mrs. Belmont. Your husband's position could not possibly be as hopeless
as mine was."

"When I saw you standing on that rock up yonder, I put it down to
delirium," said the Colonel. "If the ladies had not seen you, I should
never have ventured to believe it."

"I am afraid that I behaved very badly. Captain Archer says that I
nearly spoiled all their plans, and that I deserved to be tried by a
drumhead court-trial and shot. The fact is that, when I heard the Arabs
beneath me, I forgot myself in my anxiety to know if any of you were
left."

"I wonder that you were not shot without any drumhead court-martial,"
said the Colonel. "But how in the world did you get here?"

"The Haifa people were close upon our track at the time when I was
abandoned, and they picked me up in the desert. I must have been
delirious, I suppose, for they tell me that they heard my voice, singing
hymns, a long way off, and it was that, under the providence of God,
which brought them to me. They had a camel ambulance, and I was quite
myself again by next day. I came with the Sarras people after we met
them, because they have the doctor with them. My wound is nothing, and
he says that a man of my habit will be the better for the loss of blood.
And now, my friends,"--his big, brown eyes lost their twinkle, and
became very solemn and reverent,--"we have all been upon the very
confines of death, and our dear companions may be so at this instant.
The same power which saved us may save them, and let us pray together
that it may be so, always remembering that if, in spite of our prayers,
it should _not_ be so, then that also must be accepted as the best and
wisest thing."

So they knelt together among the black rocks, and prayed as some of them
had never prayed before. It was very well to discuss prayer and treat it
lightly and philosophically upon the deck of the _Korosko_. It was