“From now on no one shall touch him!”
“He shall always have bones and water!”
“Allah! Allah!” repeated Idris, without being able to calm down; “and death hung over us! Uf!”
They looked with hatred at Stasch, who lay before them, but they were also somewhat surprised that this small boy had so nearly caused their defeat and destruction.
“By the prophet!” said one of the Bedouins, “but we must take care that this son of Eblis does not break our necks. We owe the Mahdi a snake! What do you intend to do with him?”
“His right hand must be cut off!” cried Gebhr. The Bedouins made no reply, but Idris would not allow them to do it. It occurred to him that if the expedition sent out in search of them should find them, they would be punished much more severely if they maimed the boy. And after all, who could tell whether the boy would not die as the result of the beating he had just received? If so, only Nell would remain to be exchanged for Fatima and her children.
When Gebhr drew a knife to execute his threat Idris grasped him by the wrist and held him back.
“No!” he said. “It would be a disgrace if five of the Mahdi’s warriors were to fear one beggarly son of a Christian so much that they had to cut off his hand. Meanwhile we will bind him at night, and for what he has just attempted he will receive ten lashes with the scourge.”
Gebhr was ready to carry out the threat at once. But Idris again pushed him back and told one of the Bedouins to administer the blows, whispering into his ear not to beat him too hard. As Chamis, because he had formerly served the engineers, or perhaps for some other reason, did not want to interfere in any way, the second Bedouin laid Stasch face downward, and the torture was just about to begin when something unexpected delayed it.
At the entrance of the niche Nell appeared with Saba. Although busy with her pet, which had rushed into the cave and thrown himself at her feet, she had heard the screams of the Arabs, but as Arabs and Bedouins in Egypt scream on every occasion as if they were murdering one another, she paid no attention to this. It was only after she had called Stasch and received no answer that she went out to see if he had, perhaps, mounted his camel, and she was terrified when by the first rays of dawn she saw Stasch lying on the ground, and above him a Bedouin standing with the scourge in his hand. At this sight she began to cry out with all the power of her childish lungs and to stamp her feet; but when the Bedouin paid no attention to her and gave Stasch the first blow, she rushed forward and covered the boy with her small body.