M. Périères ordered a general halt whilst he sent the two interpreters to the thicket pointed out by the Nubian, with orders to find out whether the slave were really killed, and, if so, to bury her.
Omar and Ali returned very quickly with the intelligence that they had found the corpse at the place indicated.
The Europeans then held a consultation, and decided that the culprit should receive a hundred lashes on the spot, in sight of the whole caravan.
But the punishment alone was not enough; it was necessary to explain why it was inflicted. The Arabs and Nubians could never have understood that any one of them ought to be chastised for simply, as in this case, making away with his own property.
The interpreters were, therefore, to explain generally that the soldier had been punished for shedding the blood, not of his slave, but of a member of the expedition, and that for the future the crime of murder, under whatever circumstances it might be committed, would carry with it the penalty of death.
Having thus established a precedent and promulgated a law, the caravan moved on.
Beginning the day at about four o'clock in the morning, the bearers had enough of it by noon, so that at that hour, and sometimes earlier, the halting-place for the night was reached. As a rule the Europeans, except when the stages of the journey happened to have been more than ordinarily long, did not retire to rest before nine or ten o'clock, the evening being occupied in chatting about their plans, questioning Nassar as to what had gone on during the day, and arranging the route for the morrow.
Madame de Guéran was the life and soul of these evenings, and when she chanced to retire early, everybody followed her example except MM. de Morin and Delange, who seized that opportunity of devoting themselves to écarté, bezique, or piquet. They had played about a hundred parties, and were quits, as far as play during the journey was concerned. The back debt remained at the same figure; the Doctor could not achieve any reduction in his floating liability, but at all events, it did not increase, and his bad luck was not sticking to him as it had done in Paris. Consequently he looked hopefully forward to the future, and, so far from being in despair about wiping off the old score, he thought he had the chance of turning the balance considerably in his own favour. This prospect enabled him to put up with the monotony of the journey, and kept him in good spirits.
Though he thought Madame de Guéran everything that was charming, he had the good sense to understand that falling in love with her would be mere waste of time. He was careful, therefore, not to follow in the footsteps of his friends, and, in the hours of relaxation he devoted himself to sentimental conversation with Miss Beatrice Poles, taking care, with his habitual prudence, not to look at her lest her physical aspect should detract from her moral and intellectual qualities.