Stasch arose, panting and bruised, but convinced that if his father were to see and hear him now he would be proud of him, for not only had he run to Nell’s assistance without hesitation, but even now, although the blows from the scourge burned him like fire, he did not think of his own pain, but began to console the girl and to ask her if the lashes had hurt her.
“What I got, I got; but he will not touch you again. Oh, if I only had some kind of a weapon!”
The little girl put both arms around his neck, and moistening his cheeks with her tears, she began to assure him that it did not hurt, and that she did not cry from pain, but out of sympathy for him. Thereupon Stasch whispered close to her ear:
“Nell, I swear I will not forgive him—not because he beat me, but because he struck you!”
With that the conversation came to an end. After a while the brothers Idris and Gebhr, who had become reconciled, placed coats on the ground and lay down on them, and soon Chamis followed their example. The Bedouins strewed maize around for the camels. Then they mounted two of the animals and rode off in the direction of the Nile.
Nell leaned her little head on Dinah’s knee and fell asleep. The fire went out and for a while nothing was heard but the noise of the camels’ teeth crunching the maize. Small clouds appeared in the heavens, and though they now and then obscured the moon, the night continued clear. From among the rocks came the ceaseless, pitiful whining of jackals throughout the deep hours of the night.
Two hours after their departure the Bedouins reappeared with the camels, which were loaded with leather bags filled with water. Relighting the fire, they sat down on the sand and began to eat. Their arrival awoke Stasch, who had fallen asleep, and also the two Sudanese and Chamis. Then began the following conversation by the group seated around the fire, to which Stasch was an eager listener:
“No, for we must rest—we and our camels.”
“No one. We advanced between two hamlets toward the river. We heard nothing but the barking of dogs in the distance.”
“We shall always have to ride off for water at midnight, and fetch it from deserted places. When we pass the first cataract (Challal, Schellal) the villages will be farther apart and the people more devoted to the Prophet. We will certainly be pursued.”