himself with his tools or been crushed by
machinery, or caused by shot, sword, and spear. So the Hakim toiled
away hour after hour till his last patient had left the space in front
of his tent and he had leisure to re-examine the chief's son, the father
looking anxiously on in spite of an assumed sternness, and waiting till
the keen-eyed surgeon rose from one knee.

"Tell him," said the Hakim gravely, "that it will be days before the
young chief can be moved."

The words were interpreted, and the chief seemed to forget his own
injury as he said in an angry tone that the little force must start at
daybreak the next morning.

"Then the young man will die," said the Hakim coldly.

Ibrahim again interpreted, and the chief suggested that a camel litter
should be prepared.

But the Hakim shook his head.

"Can't you give way?" said the professor softly. "A fairly easy couch
could be made."

"The man will certainly die if he is moved to-morrow," replied Morris
sternly, "and if I lose a patient now a great deal of my prestige goes
with him."

"Yes, I know," said the professor; "but we are making an enemy instead
of a friend; this man is not in the habit of having his will crossed."

"We shall lose his friendship all the same," said the doctor, "if his
son dies in my hands. I can save his life if he is left to me."

"Dare you say that for certain?"

The doctor was silent for a few minutes, during which he bent over his
patient again, took his temperature, and examined the pupils of his
eyes, and at last rose up and stepped from beneath the shade of the
rough little tent.

"Yes," he said; "I can say, I think for certain, that I will save his
life if he is left to me."

"What does the wise Hakim say?" asked the Baggara of Ibrahim; and the
question was interpreted to the doctor.

"Tell him, No! That his son must not stir if he is to live. If he is
left for say a week all may be well."

There was no outburst of anger upon the interpretation of these words,
the Baggara hearing them to the end and then walking away, frowning and
stern, without once looking back.

About an hour later some half-dozen men came up leading a couple of
camels laden with a larger tent and other gear. This was set up a short
distance from the small one in which the young chief lay, and soon after
it was done the chief rode up once more to see his son, looking anxious
and careworn upon seeing the young man lying apparently unchanged.