A few swift words of further explanation, and Aleph hastened to the dais with his burden, and for a long time bent every energy to restore the vital warmth—by posture, by friction, by wrapping in rugs, by aiding the ribs in the scarcely perceptible breathing movement, by fanning—Seti assisting with advice and hands. It was a hard fight with death; but at last came signs that their labor would not be in vain. Sextus breathed regularly though feebly. His throat, which they had laid bare, and which was all bruised and discolored by the strangling hands of the ruffians, showed the efforts of the vital fluid to resume a forceful circulation. At last he moaned and opened his eyes. Opened them on Aleph as he knelt before him, fanning him, gently adjusting his position and wraps as usefully as possible. Opened them at first in a vague, bewildered stare into which soon came a grain of intelligence, then of astonishment, then of alarm. He tried to raise himself. Aleph gently helped him. Then followed a fixed gaze of absorbed inquiry in which thought seemed wrestling with thought, each demanding of each, What means all this? Is it possible? He then quietly closed his eyes and seemed trying to recollect himself. Seti and Rachel kept well behind, and watched with breathless interest. Again Sextus opened his eyes—this time with full intelligence in them. He tried to speak. No sound came. He tried again. Aleph put his ear near the struggling lips.
“Are you Aleph the Chaldean?” came in the faintest of whispers.
Aleph nodded.
“Aleph the prisoner?”
Aleph nodded again.
“Did you save me from the men, and the Nile, and—the crocodile?” Sextus asked in a stronger voice.
“What, did you notice the crocodile?” said Aleph. “I thought you were beyond noticing anything.”
“I saw him preparing to seize me—saw something worse than a crocodile; for all my follies and sins of many years, including my treatment of you, came up before me in one dreadful flash. Ah, it was a dreadful sight—worse than any monster on sea or land!”
“You see that it is possible to escape from monsters that are very near,” said Aleph soothingly. “But I would not talk any more just now. You are too weak. Let me adjust the rugs and wraps more comfortably for you, and lie down again. You are among friends.”