"Without wishing ill to anyone, Godfrey, I sincerely wish it may be so, then I might be able to win their good-will."
Little attention was paid to the party when they joined the group, all were too busy in discussing some event or other. Three or four minutes later a man came to the door of the tent and waved his hand, and gave some order. His dress was a handsome one. The little crowd fell back, but one of the men who had brought the captives in went up and spoke to him. He again waved his hand impatiently, and was turning to enter the tent when Alexis cried loudly: "I am a doctor, if anyone has been hurt I may be of service to him."
The man stepped hastily forward. "Do you say you are a doctor?"
"I am."
"Come in then," he said abruptly, and entered the tent.
"I will call you if you can be of any use," Alexis said to Godfrey as he followed him.
The tent was a large one. Some handsome Koord carpets covered the ground. Facing the door was another opening leading into a small tent serving as the women's apartment.
There were several piles of sheep-skins round the tent, and by one of these three women were standing. Two of these were richly dressed in gowns of handsome striped materials. They wore head-dresses of silver work with beads of malachite and mother-of-pearl, and had heavy silver ornaments hanging on their breasts. Their hair fell down their backs in two thick braids. The other woman was evidently of inferior rank. All were leaning over a pile of skins covered with costly furs, on which a boy of seven or eight years old was lying. His father, for such the man evidently was, said something in his own language, and the women turned eagerly to Alexis.
"You are a Russian doctor!" one of the women exclaimed joyfully.
"I am, lady," he said. "I graduated at St. Petersburg."