!' and
sobbing, screaming, and crying, Ulysse threw himself on his friend's
breast. He was pursued by one or two of the hangers-on of the sheyk's
household, and the first comer seized him by the arm; but he clung to
Arthur, screamed and kicked, and the old nurse who had come hobbling
after coaxed in vain. He cried out in a mixture of Arabic and French
that he _would_ sleep with Arthur--Arthur must put him to bed; no one
should take him away.

'Let him stay,' responded Yusuf; 'his time will come soon enough.'

Indulgence to children was the rule, and there was an easy good-nature
about the race, which made them ready to defer the storm, and acquiesce
in the poor little fellow remaining for another evening with that last
remnant of his home to whom he always reverted at nightfall.

He held trembling by Arthur till all were gone, then looked about in
terror, and required to be assured that no one was coming to take him
away.

'They shall not,' he cried. 'Arthur, you will not leave me alone? They
are all gone--Mamma, and Estelle, and _la bonne_, and Laurent, and my
uncle, and all, and you will not go.'

'Not now, not to-night, my dear little mannie,' said Arthur, tears in his
eyes for the first time throughout these misfortunes.

'Not now! No, never!' said the boy hugging him almost to choking. 'That
naughty Ben Kader said they had sold you for a slave, and you were going
away; but I knew I should find you--you are not a slave!--you are not
black--'

'Ah! Ulysse, it is too true; I am--'

'No! no! no!' the child stamped, and hung on him in a passion of tears.
'You shall not be a slave. My papa shall come with his soldiers and set
you free.'

Altogether the boy's vehemence, agitation, and terror were such that
Arthur found it impossible to do anything but soothe and hush him, as
best might be, till his sobs subsided gradually, still heaving his little
chest even after he fell asleep in the arms of his unaccustomed nurse,
who found himself thus baffled in using this last and only opportunity of
trying to strengthen the child's faith, and was also hindered from
pursuing Yusuf, who had left the tent. And if it were separation that
caused all this distress, what likelihood that Yusuf would encumber
himself with a child who had shown such powers of wailing and screaming?

He durst not stir nor speak for fear of wakening the boy, even when Yusuf
returned and stretched himself on his mat, drawing a thick woollen