Soada interrupted him. "What dost thou know of love, Mahommed Selim?
The blood of the dead cries from the ground."

He came a step nearer. "The blood of Wassef the camel-driver is upon my
head," he said. "In the desert there came news of it. In the desert,
even while we fought the wild tribes, one to ten, a voice kept crying in
my ear, even as thou hast cried, 'What didst thou know of love, Mahommed
Selim!' One by one the men of Beni Souef fell round me; one by one they
spoke of their village and of their women, and begged for a drop of
water, and died. And my heart grew hot within me, and a spirit kept
whispering in my ear: 'Mahommed Selim, think of the village thou hast
shamed, of Soada thou hast wronged! No drop of water shall cheer thy
soul in dying!'"

Fatima and Soada listened now with bated breath, for this was the voice
of one who had drunk the vinegar and gall of life.

"When the day was done, and sleep was upon the barrack-house, my heart
waked up and I knew that I loved Soada as I had never loved her. I ran
into the desert, and the jackals flew before me--outcasts of the desert,
they and I. Coming to the tomb of Amshar the sheikh, by which was a
well, there I found a train of camels. One of these I stole, and again I
ran into the desert, and left the jackals behind. Hour after hour, day
and night, I rode on. But faintness was upon me, and dreams came. For
though only the sands were before me, I seemed to watch the Nile running-
-running, and thou beside it, hastening with it, hastening, hastening
towards thy home. And Allah put a thorn into my heart, that a sharp pain
went through my body--and at last I fell."