safe."

"Not so," he replied, "I and my people rest; only madmen would go to
hunt worthless wild beasts when they might rest. Have we not enough of
the desert and its dangers as it is? If you knew all that I do of lions
you would leave them alone."

"Of the desert we have plenty also, but of shooting very little,"
remarked the Captain, who talked Arabic well. "Lie in your beds; we go
to kill the beasts that harass the poor people who have treated us so
kindly."

"So be it," said Shadrach with a smile that struck me as malicious. "A
lion made this"--pointing to the dreadful threefold scar upon his face.
"May the God of Israel protect you from lions. Remember, lords, that,
the camels being fresh again, we march the day after to-morrow, should
the weather hold, for if the wind blows on yonder sand-hills, no man may
live among them;" and, putting up his hand, he studied the sky carefully
from beneath its shadow, then, with a grunt, turned and vanished behind
a hut.

All this while Sergeant Quick was engaged at a little distance in
washing up the tin breakfast things, to all appearance quite unconscious
of what was going on. Orme called him, whereupon he advanced and
stood to attention. I remember thinking how curious he looked in those
surroundings--his tall, bony frame clothed in semi-military garments,
his wooden face perfectly shaved, his iron-grey hair neatly parted and
plastered down upon his head with pomade or some equivalent after the
old private soldier fashion, and his sharp ferret-like grey eyes taking
in everything.