a.

Occupied with her pet, who, dashing into the cave, threw himself at
once at her little feet, she had heard the shouts of the Arabs, but, as
in Egypt Arabs as well as Bedouins yell on every occasion as if they
are about to annihilate each other, she did not pay any attention to
them. Not until she called Stas and received no reply from him, did she
go out to see whether he was not already seated on the camels. With
terror she saw in the first luster of the morning Stas lying on the
ground and above him a Bedouin with a courbash in his hand. At the
sight of this she screamed with all her strength and stamped with her
little feet, and when the Bedouin, not paying any attention to this,
aimed the first blow, she flung herself forward and covered the boy
with her body.

The Bedouin hesitated, as he did not have an order to strike the little
girl, and in the meantime her voice resounded full of despair and
horror:

"Saba! Saba!"

And Saba understood what was the matter and in one leap was in the
niche. The hair bristled on his neck and back, his eyes flamed redly,
in his breast and powerful throat there was a rumble as if of thunder.

And afterwards, the lips of his wrinkled jaws rose slowly upward and
the teeth as well as the white fangs, an inch long, appeared as far as
the bloody gums. The giant mastiff now began to turn his head to the
right and to the left as if he wanted to display well his terrible
equipment to the Sudanese and Bedouins and tell them:

"Look! here is something with which I shall defend the children!"

They, on the other hand, retreated hurriedly for they knew in the first
place that Saba had saved their lives and again that it was a clear
thing that whoever approached Nell at that moment would have the fangs
of the infuriated mastiff sunk at once in his throat. So they stood
irresolute, staring with an uncertain gaze and as if asking one another
what in the present situation had better be done.

Their hesitation continued so long that Nell had sufficient time to
summon old Dinah and order her to cut Stas' bonds. Then the boy,
placing his hand on Saba's head, turned to his assailants:

"I did not want to kill you--only the camels," he said through his set
teeth.

But this information so startled the Arabs that they undoubtedly would
have again rushed at Stas were it not for Saba's flaming eyes and
bristling hair. Gebhr even started to dash towards him, but one hollow
growl riveted him t