wing of the
palace by a number of gaily dressed attendants.

They took us to our rooms--cool, lofty chambers ornamented with glazed
tiles of quaint colour and beautiful design, and furnished somewhat
scantily with articles made of rich-hued woods. This guest-wing of the
palace, where these rooms were situated, formed, we noted, a separate
house, having its own gateway, but, so far as we could see, no passage
or other connection joining it to the main building. In front of it was
a small garden, and at its back a courtyard with buildings, in which we
were informed our camels had been stabled. At the time we noted no more,
for night was falling, and, even if it had not been, we were too worn
out to make researches.

Moreover, Orme was now desperately ill--so ill that he could scarcely
walk leaning even on our shoulders. Still, he would not be satisfied
till he was sure that our stores were safe, and, before he could be
persuaded to lie down, insisted upon being supported to a vault with
copper-bound doors, which the officers opened, revealing the packages
that had been taken from the camels.

"Count them, Sergeant," he said, and Quick obeyed by the light of a lamp
that the officer held at the open door. "All correct, sir," he said, "so
far as I can make out."

"Very good, Sergeant. Lock the door and take the keys."

Again he obeyed, and, when the officer demurred to their surrender,
turned on him so fiercely that the man thought better of it and departed
with a shrug of his shoulders, as I supposed to make report to his
superiors.

Then at length we got Orme to bed, and, as he complained of intolerable
pains in his head and would take nothing but some milk and water, having
first ascertained that he had no serious physical injuries that I could
discover, I administered to him a strong sleeping-draught from my little
travelling medicine case. To our great relief this took effect upon him
in about twenty minutes, causing him to sink into a stupor from which he
did not awake for many hours.

Quick and I washed ourselves, ate some food that was brought to us, and
then took turns to watch Orme throughout the night. When I was at my
post about six o'clock on the following morning he woke up and asked for
drink, which I gave to him. After swallowing it he began to wander in
his mind, and, on taking his temperature, I found that he had over five
degrees of fever. The end of it was that he went off to sleep again,
only wa