Mariam brought in a light and his evening meal, and took her leave of him. The parting was a sad one. She treated him as a son, and could not have been more affected had she been saying good-bye to Naoum himself. George, on his part, was deeply touched by her solicitous care of him, but words did not come easily; yet his farewell lost nothing of its sincerity in the silence that accompanied it.
At last it was over, and he was left to himself for the few remaining hours before his departure.
It yet wanted at least a couple of hours to midnight. George had stretched himself out upon his couch, taking all the rest he could to prepare himself for his journey. He was buried in deep thought, and not a sound broke the stillness of the room; so profound was the silence that he gradually began to feel drowsy, and every now and then he found his eyelids closing involuntarily. He fought against this sleepiness for some time, but at last he fell into a light slumber.
Suddenly he was aroused by a gust of cool air passing over his face, and sitting bolt upright with a start, his eyes rested on the motionless figure of an Arab standing in the centre of the room, watching him.
George rubbed his eyes and stared again at the figure, hardly able to realize that it was a human being, and not a creature of his fancy. The sleepiness passed instantly, and his faculties became intensely acute. He sprang from his bed and stood confronting his visitor.
"Who are you, and what the deuce do you want here?" he asked sharply, eyeing the stranger from head to foot with a stern glance.
The man was dressed in the native costume of the lower class of Arab, and his features were peculiarly regular for the colour of his skin—details which George was not slow to note. The fellow was armed with the usual long knife stuck in his waist-cloth, and looked the picture of the unscrupulous mercenary so frequently found abroad at the time.
"I come as a messenger from Naoum," replied the stranger, in a peculiar, strained tone of voice. "I have matters of importance to communicate to you."
At the sound of the man's voice George eyed him keenly, then as the purport of his mission fell on his ears, the faintest suspicion of a smile passed over his face.
"Ah," he said, keeping his eyes steadily fixed on the man's face, "and what has Naoum to say to me?"