must soon have sunk and fainted by the way. Yusef picked up the small
case of medicines which Sadi in mockery had flung at him; he doubted
whether to burden himself with it, yet was unwilling to leave it
behind. "I am not likely to live to make use of this, and yet--who
knows?" said Yusef to himself, as, with the case in his hand, he
painfully struggled on over the wide expanse of dreary desert. "I will
make what efforts I can to preserve the life which God has given."

Struggling against extreme exhaustion, his limbs almost sinking under
his weight, Yusef pressed on his way, till a glowing red line in the
east showed where the blazing sun would soon rise. What was his eager
hope and joy on seeing that red line broken by some dark pointed
objects that appeared rise out of the sand. New strength seemed given
to the weary man, for now his ear caught the welcome sound of the bark
of a dog, and then the bleating of sheep.

"God be praised!" exclaimed Yusef, "I, am near the abodes of men!"

Exerting all his powers, the Syrian, made one great effort to reach the
black tents which he now saw distinctly in broad daylight, and which he
knew must belong to some tribe of wandering Bedouin Arabs: he tottered
on for a hundred yards, and then sank exhausted on the sand.

But the Bedouins had seen the poor, solitary stranger, and as
hospitality is one of their leading virtues, some of these wild sons of
the desert now hastened toward Yusef. They raised him, they held to
his parched lips a most delicious draught of rich camel's milk. The
Syrian felt as if he were drinking in new life, and was so much revived
by what he had taken, that he was able to accompany his preservers to
the black goat's-hair tent of their Sheik or chief, an elderly man of