Night faded away. They were just about to mount the camels when they suddenly perceived a desert wolf, which, dropping its tail between its legs, crossed over the narrow pass that lay about a hundred feet from the caravan, and gaining the opposite plateau, ran on, terrified, as if fleeing before an enemy. In the Egyptian wilderness there are no wild animals of which wolves are afraid, and therefore this sight greatly worried the Sudanese. What could this mean? Could it be that the pursuers were coming upon them? One of the Bedouins quickly climbed a rock, but hardly had he taken a look than he ran down again.
“By the prophet,” he cried, distracted and frightened. “There seems to be a lion running toward us, and he is already quite near.”
Just then from behind the rock a “Wurgh” in a deep bass voice was heard, at which Stasch and Nell with one voice cried out with joy:
“Saba! Saba!”
As this means “lion” in Arabic, the Bedouins were still more frightened. But Chamis laughed out loud and said:
“I know this lion.”
With these words he gave a long whistle, whereupon an enormous dog rushed among the camels. When he saw the children he bounded upon them, threw Nell down as she stretched out her hands toward him, climbed up on Stasch, then ran around them, whining and barking. Again he knocked Nell down, again climbed up on Stasch, and at last lay down at their feet and began to pant.
His flanks were sunken in and froth dripped from his protruding tongue, but he wagged his tail and raised his eyes, looking affectionately at Nell, as if to say to her: “Your father told me to protect you, and here I am!”
The children sat down on either side of him and began to caress him. The two Bedouins, who had never seen a similar creature before, looked at him with surprise, and repeatedly cried out: “Ouallach! O kelb kebir!” (Great heavens! What a large dog!). The latter remained quiet for a while, then raised his head in the air and drew in his breath through his black nose, which resembled an enormous truffle, sniffed, and sprang to the dying fire, near which lay remains of food.
At the same moment the goat and sheep bones began to crack and break like straws between his enormous teeth. The remains of a meal for eight people, including Dinah and Nell, were enough for even such a “kelb kebir.”
But the Sudanese were worried at the dog’s arrival; the two camel-drivers drew Chamis to one side and began to talk to him in a worried and excited manner:
“Idris brought this dog here,” cried Gebhr; “but how was he able to find his way to the children, for they came to Gharak by train?”
“Probably he followed the tracks of the camels,” answered Chamis.
“That is bad. Any one seeing him with us will mark our caravan, and will be able to show which road we have taken. By all hazards we must get rid of him!”
“But how?” asked Chamis.
“Here’s a gun—take it and put a bullet in his head.”
“It is true we have a gun; but I don’t know how to fire it. Perhaps you do.”
Chamis might have been able to fire it off in case of necessity, for Stasch had often opened and shut the lock of the gun in his presence; but his sympathy was aroused by the dog, which he had grown to like, even before the arrival of the children in Medinet. Besides, he knew very well that the two Sudanese had no idea how to use a gun of the newest pattern, and that they would not take the trouble to find out.
“If you are unable to do it,” he said with a cunning smile, “then no one but this little Christian will be able to kill the dog; but this gun might go off several times in succession, and so I do not advise you to give it into his hands.”
“Heaven forbid!” answered Idris. “He would shoot us down like quail.”
“We have knives,” remarked Gebhr.
“Try them, but remember that you also have a throat, which the dog may tear open before you have time to stab him.”
“Then what are we to do?”
Chamis raised his eyebrows.
“Why do you want to kill the dog? Even if you bury him in the sand the hyenas will dig him out, and the pursuers will find his bones and know that we have not gone along the Nile, but have crossed over to this side. So let him follow us. Whenever the Bedouins go for water, and we are hidden in a ravine, you may be sure that the dog will stay with the children. Allah!”
“It is well he caught up to us here; otherwise he would have led the pursuers on our tracks as far as Barbary. You will not need to feed him, for if he is not satisfied with the remnants of our meals he will not go hungry; he can always catch a hyena or a jackal. Let him alone, I tell you, and waste no more time chattering.”
“Perhaps you are right,” said Idris.
“If I am right, I will give him water, so that he will not run to the Nile and be seen in the villages.”
Thus was Saba’s fate decided, and after having rested a little and had a good meal he lapped up a dish of water, and thus refreshed, followed the caravan with renewed energy.
They now rode over a tableland, on which the wind had made furrows of sand, and from which reached wide stretches of desert. The sky assumed the hue of a pearl mussel-shell. Light clouds gathered in the east, shining like opals, and then melting into golden tints.
First one, then a second ray of light shot forth, and the sun—as is usual in southern countries, in which there is scarcely any twilight or dawn—did not rise, but burst forth from behind the clouds like a pillar of fire, flooding the horizon with living light. Heaven and earth were calm, and far as human eyes could see lay the trackless sand plains, now suddenly disclosed in the vivid glow.
“We must hurry,” said Idris, “for we can be seen here from a great distance.”
The camels, strengthened by their rest, and having had plenty to drink, raced along with the fleetness of gazels. Saba remained behind, but there was no fear that he would get lost and not be forthcoming at the next feeding-place. The dromedary on which Idris rode with Stasch ran alongside of Nell’s camel, so that the children could easily speak to each other. The seat which the Sudanese had padded proved to be very comfortable, and the girl really looked like a little bird in a nest; even if asleep she could not fall out. This ride fatigued her less than the one during the night, and the bright daylight gave her and Stasch courage. The lad’s heart was full of hope; as Saba had overtaken them, might not the rescuers also be able to do so? He immediately mentioned this to Nell, who now smiled at him for the first time since they had been carried off.
“And when will they overtake us?” she asked in French, so that Idris would not understand.
“I don’t know. Maybe to-day, maybe to-morrow, maybe in two or three days.”
“But on the return journey we shall not ride on camels?”
“No. Only as far as the Nile, and then on the Nile to El-Wasta.”
“Oh, that’s good, that’s good!”
Poor Nell, who used to be so fond of riding on camels, was now evidently sick and tired out.
“On the Nile—to El-Wasta and to papa!” she began to repeat in a sleepy voice.
As she had not rested long at their last stopping-place, she now fell asleep, the heavy sleep that comes in the morning after great fatigue. Meanwhile the Bedouins drove the camels ceaselessly on without letting them stop for an instant. Stasch noticed that they were going toward the interior of the desert.
To make Idris less confident that the party would be able to elude the pursuers, and also to show him that he felt certain of their being found, Stasch said:
“You are leaving the Nile