"Whose are these?"
"Mine," answered Nell with a sleepy and tired voice.
"Yours, little viper?" the Sudânese hissed through set teeth. "Then you mark the road so that your father can know where to pursue us."
Saying this, he struck her with a courbash, a terrible Arabian whip, which cuts even the hide of a camel. Nell, though she was wrapped in a thick plaid, shrieked from pain and fright, but Gebhr was unable to strike her a second time, for at that moment Stas leaped like a wildcat, butted Gebhr's breast with his head, and afterwards clutched him by the throat.
It happened so unexpectedly that the Sudânese fell upon his back and Stas on top of him, and both began to roll on the ground. The boy was exceptionally strong for his age, nevertheless Gebhr soon overcame him. He first pulled his hands from his throat, after which he turned him over with face to the ground and, pressing heavily on his neck with his fist, he began to lash his back with the courbash.
The shrieks and tears of Nell, who seizing the hand of the savage at the same time begged him "to forgive" Stas, would not have availed if Idris had not unexpectedly come to the boy's assistance. He was older than Gebhr and from the beginning of the flight from Gharak el-Sultani all complied with his orders. Now he snatched the courbash from his brother's hand and, pushing him away, exclaimed:
"Away, you fool!"
"I'll flog that scorpion!" answered Gebhr, gnashing his teeth.
But at this, Idris seized his cloak at the breast and gazing into his eyes began to say in a threatening though quiet voice:
"The noble* [* All relatives of the Mahdi were termed "noble.">[ Fatma forbade us to do any harm to those children, for they interceded for her—"