reached their leader's side and, calling his uncle by name, gave his own.
Hosea, in his joy and astonishment, held out his arms, but ere Ephraim
could fall upon his breast, he again lost consciousness, and stalwart
soldiers bore the senseless lad into the tent the quartermaster had
already pitched on a dune by the sea.




CHAPTER V.

It was midnight. A fire was blazing in front of Hosea's tent, and he sat
alone before it, gazing mournfully now into the flames and anon over the
distant country. Inside the canvas walls Ephraim was lying on his
uncle's camp-bed.

The surgeon who attended the soldiers had bandaged the youth's wounds,
given him an invigorating cordial, and commanded him to keep still; for
the violence with which the fever had attacked the lad alarmed him.

But in spite of the leech's prescription Ephraim continued restless.
Sometimes Kasana's image rose before his eyes, increasing the fever of
his over-heated blood, sometimes he recalled the counsel to become a
warrior like his uncle. The advice seemed wise--at least he tried to
persuade himself that it was--because it promised honor and fame, but in
reality he wished to follow it because it would bring her for whom his
soul yearned nearer to him.

Then his pride rose as he remembered the insults which she and her father
had heaped on those to whom by every tie of blood and affection, he