unnoticed, never once lifting their eyes from the ground.

As the party rode slowly on, their eyes carefully searched the buildings
they passed in these outskirts of the town, till they reached the
entrance where they first arrived, and soon after were winding their way
in and out of the narrow streets till they came to their portion of the
Emir's palace, and passed the guarded gate, to thankfully throw
themselves upon the rugs of their shadowy room, hot, weary, and choked
with dust.

"Well," said the Hakim, as soon as their guards were out of hearing,
"good news?"

"No," said Frank, "the worst. We might go wandering in and out of this
desolation of sordid hovels and crumbling huts for years, and see no
sign of the poor fellow."

"And perhaps pass the place again and again," added the professor. "We
are going the wrong way to work. What do you say, Ibrahim?"

"Thy servant fears that it is useless to go searching in such a way as
this," replied the old Sheikh. "The city is so big--there are so many
thousands crowding the place."

"Then what can we do?" said Frank wearily.

"Only try to get news of a white slave who was taken at Khartoum,
Excellency," said the old man calmly. "I am working, but I fear to ask
too much, for fear that I might do harm."

"Have we gone the wrong way to work, after all?"

"No," said the doctor decisively. "We are here, and Khartoum is so far
away. You are hot and weary now, Frank; rest and refresh, my lad; they
are grand remedies for despair."

"Yes," said the professor; "I feel as much out of heart as you, my boy,
but common-sense says that we have only tried once."

Frank nodded, and rose to go into the room he shared with Sam, too weary
and disheartened to notice that his old friend's servant had followed
him, till he was startled by feeling the man's cool hands busy about him
with a brass basin of cool water and a sponge, when he sat up quickly.

"Why, Sam," he cried, "are you going mad?"

"Hope not, sir," said the man, "though that hot sun and the dust can't
be good."

"But what are you doing?"

"What'll set you right, sir, and ready for your meal."

"But you forget that I am the Hakim's slave."

"Not I, sir. Keep still, the black won't come off."

"But I can't let you be waiting upon me. Suppose one of the Emir's men
came in."

"Well, that would be awkward, sir; but I'd chance it this time."

"No," said Frank stoically. "There, I feel a little rested now