ld man."

Soolsby dropped on his knees and caught David by the arms. "How did you
know-how did you know?" he asked hoarsely. "It's been just as you say.
You've watched some one fighting?"

"I have watched some one fighting--fighting," answered David clearly,
but his eyes were moist.

"With drink, the same as me?"

"No, with opium--laudanum."

"Oh, I've heard that's worse, that it makes you mad, the wanting it."

"I have seen it so."

"Did the man break down like me?"

"Only once, but the fight is not yet over with him."

"Was he--an Englishman?"

David inclined his head. "It's a great thing to have a temptation to
fight, Soolsby. Then we can understand others."

"It's not always true, Egyptian, for you have never had temptation to
fight. Yet you know it all."

"God has been good to me," David answered, putting a hand on the old
man's shoulder. "And thee is a credit to Hamley, friend. Thee will never
fall again."

"You know that--you say that to me! Then, by Mary the mother of God, I
never will be a swine again," he said, getting to his feet.

"Well, good-bye, Soolsby. I go to-morrow," David said presently.

Soolsby frowned; his lips worked. "When will you come back?" he asked
eagerly.

David smiled. "There is so much to do, they may not let me come--not
soon. I am going into the desert again."

Soolsby was shaking. He spoke huskily. "Here is your place," he said.
"You shall come back--Oh, but you shall come back, here, where you
belong."

David shook his head and smiled, and clasped the strong hand again. A
moment later he was gone. From the door of the but Soolsby muttered to
himself:

"I will bring you back. If Luke Claridge doesn't, then I will bring you
back. If he dies, I will bring you--no, by the love of God, I will bring
you back while he lives!"

...........................

Two thousand miles away, in a Nile village, women sat wailing in dark
doorways, dust on their heads, black mantles covering their faces. By
the pond where all the people drank, performed their ablutions, bathed
their bodies and rinsed their mouths, sat the sheikh-el-beled, the
village chief, taking counsel in sorrow with the barber, the holy man,
and others. Now speaking, now rocking their bodies to and fro, in the
evening sunlight, they sat and watched the Nile in flood covering the
wide wastes of the Fayoum, spreading over the land rich deposits of
earth from the mountains of Abyssinia. When that flood