They at once set up a howl and fell on Stasch, tearing the gun and cartridges from his grasp; they threw him on the ground, bound his hands and feet with ropes, beat him, and stamped on him with their feet until Idris, fearing the boy would be killed, drove them away. Then they began to speak in broken sentences, as people do who have had some great danger hovering over them, from which they have only escaped by chance.

“That boy is Satan personified!” cried Idris, his face pale with fright and excitement.

“He would have shot us down as he would wild geese for dinner!” added Gebhr.

“Yes, if it hadn’t been for this dog!”

“God sent him!”

“And you wanted to kill him!” said Chamis.

“From now on no one shall touch him!”

“He shall always have bones and water!”

“Allah! Allah!” repeated Idris, without being able to calm down; “and death hung over us! Uf!”

They looked with hatred at Stasch, who lay before them, but they were also somewhat surprised that this small boy had so nearly caused their defeat and destruction.

“By the prophet!” said one of the Bedouins, “but we must take care that this son of Eblis does not break our necks. We owe the Mahdi a snake! What do you intend to do with him?”

“His right hand must be cut off!” cried Gebhr. The Bedouins made no reply, but Idris would not allow them to do it. It occurred to him that if the expedition sent out in search of them should find them, they would be punished much more severely if they maimed the boy. And after all, who could tell whether the boy would not die as the result of the beating he had just received? If so, only Nell would remain to be exchanged for Fatima and her children.

When Gebhr drew a knife to execute his threat Idris grasped him by the wrist and held him back.

“No!” he said. “It would be a disgrace if five of the Mahdi’s warriors were to fear one beggarly son of a Christian so much that they had to cut off his hand. Meanwhile we will bind him at night, and for what he has just attempted he will receive ten lashes with the scourge.”

Gebhr was ready to carry out the threat at once. But Idris again pushed him back and told one of the Bedouins to administer the blows, whispering into his ear not to beat him too hard. As Chamis, because he had formerly served the engineers, or perhaps for some other reason, did not want to interfere in any way, the second Bedouin laid Stasch face downward, and the torture was just about to begin when something unexpected delayed it.

At the entrance of the niche Nell appeared with Saba. Although busy with her pet, which had rushed into the cave and thrown himself at her feet, she had heard the screams of the Arabs, but as Arabs and Bedouins in Egypt scream on every occasion as if they were murdering one another, she paid no attention to this. It was only after she had called Stasch and received no answer that she went out to see if he had, perhaps, mounted his camel, and she was terrified when by the first rays of dawn she saw Stasch lying on the ground, and above him a Bedouin standing with the scourge in his hand. At this sight she began to cry out with all the power of her childish lungs and to stamp her feet; but when the Bedouin paid no attention to her and gave Stasch the first blow, she rushed forward and covered the boy with her small body.

The Bedouin hesitated, for he had not been told to beat the girl, and meanwhile she cried out in tones of terror and despair:

“Saba! Saba!”

Saba understood, and with one leap he reached the entrance. The hair on his neck and back bristled, his eyes glared with a red light, while from his chest and his powerful throat came a thundering roar. Then his lips slowly receded, and his teeth, as well as his inch-long white fangs, stood out, displaying his bloody gums. The enormous dog now began to turn his head from right to left, as if he wanted to give the Sudanese a good view of his terrible set of teeth and say to them:

“Look! With these I shall defend the children!”

They desisted at once, because they knew that they owed their lives to Saba and also that any one who attempted to approach Nell at that moment would have the enraged animal’s fangs fastened in his throat.

So they stood there powerless, looking helplessly and inquiringly at one another, as if asking what was to be done now.

They hesitated so long that Nell had time to call old Dinah and order her to cut Stasch’s bonds. Then the boy arose, and laying his hand on Saba’s head, turned to the assailants:

“I did not mean to kill you,” he said with clenched teeth, “but only the camels.”

This speech, which was intended to pacify them, only terrified them the more, and they would certainly have attacked Stasch again had not Saba’s flaming eyes and his still bristling hair kept them back. Gebhr still wanted to rush at Stasch, but a deep growl pinned him to the spot where he stood.

A short silence ensued—then Idris’ far-resounding voice rang out:

“Let us break camp! Let us start on our way!”