t would seem
as if my big bullet had done no good after all."

"He will live, Inshallah! Inshallah! (Please God! Please God!) Mombo
will live to tell the story to his children on the island when he is an
old man and past work. You know the hakim (doctor) with us is wise and
learned, and, Inshallah! Mombo, after a few days, will be all right.
Sho! Mombo die? No, master; Mombo will live to laugh at this. But we
must carry him to the camp that the hakim may dress his wounds. Come,
Baruti, man--cease your cries. Take your hatchet and cut young straight
trees down while I prepare some rope whereon Mombo may be carried. You,
young master, may cut a piece of the crocodile's tail to show your
father Amer, who will be proud of what you have done."

They all three set to work. Baruti cut two young trees, which he
barked. Simba made use of the bark as rope, and in a short time a
comfortable bed had been made, on which Mombo was carefully lifted, and,
in a few moments, Selim having secured his trophy, the three friends set
out briskly on their return to camp.

Young Selim, who had "bagged" his first game, was highly gratified by
the praise bestowed on him by his father and his father's people, and
the braggart Isa was the only one of his boy-fellows who refused to say
a kind word in commendation of the feat. Noble young Khamis, on the
other hand, did not stint his appreciation of it, and youthful Abdullah
and Mussoud hung about Selim as though he were some suddenly-discovered
hero. The chieftain Khamis bin Abdullah, the noble leader of the united
caravans, took from his waist a gold-hafted curved dagger as a token of
his esteem, and Sheikh Mohammed presented him with a crimson silk sash
to put around his waist. Sultan bin Ali, the patriarch of the
expedition, who was the very type of a venerable Arab chief, gave him
out of his treasure a red fez-cap with a golden tassel, and Sheikh
Mussoud gave him a Muscat turban of a rich cherry pattern, so that
Selim, before night, was arrayed in costly garments.

The slaves among themselves did Selim honour by praising him around the
camp-fires, and Halimah, the black woman-cook of Amer bin Osman, as she
turned her ugali (porridge), declared, by this and by that, that Selim
was the noblest, sweetest lad she had ever seen.

Selim would have slept that night the sleep of those who do praiseworthy
actions, had he not been awakened at midnight by a loud shriek from one
of his