ly with one eye only, she lost her sight almost
entirely during the hurricane and washing her heated eyelids did not
bring her any relief. Nell submitted passively to all of Stas' efforts;
she only gazed at him like an exhausted bird, and only when he removed
her shoes to spill out the sand and afterwards when he smoothed out the
saddle-cloths did she throw her arms around his neck.

His heart overflowed with great pity. He felt that he was a guardian,
an older brother, and at that time Nell's only protector, and he felt
at the same time that he loved this little sister immensely, far more
than ever before. He loved her indeed in Port Said, but he regarded her
as a "baby"; so, for instance, it never even occurred to him to kiss
her hand in bidding her good night. If any one had suggested such an
idea to him he would have thought that a bachelor, who had finished his
thirteenth year, could not without derogation to his dignity and age do
anything like that. But, at present, a common distress awoke in him
dormant tenderness; so he kissed not one but both hands of the little
girl.

Lying down, he continued to think of her and determined to perform some
extraordinary deed to snatch her from captivity. He was prepared for
everything, even for wounds and death; only with this little
reservation secreted in his heart, that the wounds should not be too
painful, and that the death should not be an inevitable and real death,
as in such case he could not witness the happiness of Nell when
liberated. Afterwards he began to ponder upon the most heroic manner of
saving her, but his thoughts became confused. For a while it seemed to
him that whole clouds of sand were burying him; afterwards that all the
camels were piling on his head,--and he fell asleep.

The Arabs, exhausted by the battle with the hurricane, after attending
to the camels, also fell into a sound sleep. The fire became extinct
and a dusk prevailed in the niche. Soon the snores of the men
resounded, and from outside came the splash of the downpour and the
roar of the waters clashing over the stones on the bottom of the khor.
In this manner the night passed.

But before dawn Stas was awakened from a heavy sleep by a feeling of
cold. It appeared that water which accumulated in the fissures on the
top of the rock slowly passed through some cleft in the vault of the
cave and began finally to trickle onto his head. The boy sat up on the
saddle-cloth and for some time st