They cut his bonds, made him sit down, wiped the sand from off his face, poured down his throat a few drops of brandy, slapped his hands, murmured comforting words in his ears, and, in a word, did all they could to revive his spirits and reassure him as to his fate.
In spite of all their attentions, it was fully five minutes before he had recovered sufficiently to be able to see and speak to his fellow-countrymen, and even then he was so bewildered that he could only stammer out that he knew nothing of M. de Morin, about whose fate every one was anxiously enquiring.
"But surely," asked M. Périères, "you have seen him. He overtook you, did he not?"
"Oh, yes," stuttered Joseph, "he overtook me—perhaps it would have been better for me if he had not, but he did."
"What did he do? What happened?" asked everybody in the same breath.
"What happened? I know nothing more."
"Come, collect your thoughts," said M. Périères. "You are no longer a prisoner, we have rescued you."
"You have rescued me," repeated Joseph, still in a state of complete bewilderment, "but they will recapture me. The monsters! the monsters! What a terrible time I have had with them! And I told them that they might keep my portmanteau. I did not want it any more. Keep all my baggage if you like, I said. I will give you a receipt— anything to please you. They did not listen to me, and the camel kept on always—kept on—kept on—I fell to the right—I fell to the left—I fell at full length—I fell—good heavens, what a night! Sometimes I thought I was on board the steamer again, and that I was sick—so sick! I had been told that a camel sometimes gives one that sensation—but I would not believe it—and I did so admire the beasts— but, I hate them—yes, I hate them!"
M. Périères thought it was high time to interrupt him, so, putting his hand on his shoulder, he said—
"If you do not stop those jeremiads at once, if you do not stand on your feet like a man, and if you do not answer my questions, and nothing but my questions, I will bring up one of those camels you are so fond of, and will have you strapped on its back."