In the Mahdi's Grasp Part 53

"Your Excellency is wiser in my eyes everyday I live," said the old man softly. "Yes, he is right; if you had left here to-night the chief would have died."

"What do you mean, Ibrahim?" whispered the professor.

"Your Excellency knows," replied the old man quietly. "For one thing, they would not have the wisdom to do what is right. For another thing, Excellency, they are jealous with the jealousy of ignorant, superst.i.tious believers in false doctrines."

The professor looked at the Sheikh searchingly.

"I thought I knew you thoroughly, Ibrahim," he said at last; "but I find you are a wiser man than I thought."

"No, Excellency," said the old man sadly; "I have only tried to be wise; and in a long life mixing a great deal with the people from the West I have learned far more than my people could ever know; but what is it?"

he said, holding out his hollowed hand as if it contained something.

"So little; and there is so much to know."

"Yes," said the doctor slowly, "so much to know, Ibrahim, and life seems so short. I would give even some of that for the greater power of healing that would enable me to say, This man will live."

CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT.

A SCIENTIFIC MARVEL.

The day broke at last, after a long and watchful night of silence, during which the Hakim had never left his patient's side, but he had insisted upon his companions taking watch and watch.

The patient had not stirred, but lain as motionless as if already dead, apparently free from all suffering, and displaying symptoms which made the lines grow deeper in the doctor's brow.

Twice over during the night a slight rustling of a curtain had startled the watchers, and thoughts of treachery had arisen; but in each case the rustling was succeeded by a weary sigh, and there was silence once more.

The daylight which turned the lamp-rays pale was stealing in at the narrow window, when there was a louder rustle of the curtain, and the Emir entered, to find the Hakim bending over his friend, with Frank kneeling a short distance away.

The chief glanced round for the interpreter, and then went to the door leading into the next room, to draw back directly, for the Sheikh and Landon were lying upon divans, asleep.

The Emir nodded, and went straight to the Hakim, pointing down at the patient, questioning him with his eyes.

"Yes," said the doctor, bowing his head; "he lives still, but I am afraid."

The Emir seemed to grasp his meaning, and to enforce it Morris took the chiefs hand and separating his fingers, placed two upon the wounded man's pulse.

There was a faint beating going on, and without another sign the Emir crossed to the curtain and pa.s.sed out.

The sun rose soon after, and filled the gloomy room with cheery light; but the hard, drawn countenance of the wounded man suggested that dissolution could not be far distant; and when a few minutes later the professor and the Sheikh came in, refreshed by a couple of hours' rest, the doctor, spoke in a low voice--

"Help me," he said; "I must make another examination at all risks;" and busy minutes followed, during which the probe was used, and used in vain.

"He will sink in a few hours in spite of all I can do," said the doctor.

"If I could trace that bullet there might be a chance, and I will try; but everything is against him here."

"What do you mean to do?" asked the professor.

The Hakim was silent, standing leaning over his patient, deep in thought, while his friends waited patiently for him to speak.

It was no longer the calm, easy-going companion now, but the earnest student of the human frame, straining every mental fibre to the encounter in this emergency.

A minute later he had turned to Frank, and spoke to him earnestly, with the result that the young man shook his head.

"Yes, I know," said the doctor; "you are unprepared; the difficulties seem out here insuperable; but a man's life is at stake, so is our reputation amongst these people, for one failure will balance a hundred cures, just as at home one evil deed stands out strongly against so many good which pa.s.s unnoticed. It is barely possible, but we must try."

Frank stood for a few moments thinking, and then turned his eyes upon those of his friend.

"Think, my dear boy," said the latter; "it may be a step nearer to finding Hal."

Frank still remained silent. He needed no such stimulus as that, though; he was only shrinking for fear that he would fail in his part of the experiment that was to be tried.

At last his face lit-up, and signing to the professor and the Sheikh to follow him he hurried back to their part of the palace, where a leathern case that had travelled so far on the big camel, and remained unopened, was rapidly unstrapped, and one by one the carefully packed portions of some new scientific apparatus were undone and arranged upon one of the rugs placed for the purpose.

Frank worked hard, and the professor aided him with all the energy he could throw into the task, first one and then the other uttering a word or two of satisfaction to find that everything was intact.

"Is this the apparatus with which you experimented at your place?" said the professor.

They were alone, and Frank answered in a low tone full of excitement--

"Yes," he said; "again and again with perfect success."

"But you are nervous about it now?"

"Yes, there seems to be so much at stake. Suppose we fail?"

"The best thing Lytton ever wrote, Frank, lad," said the professor: "'In the bright Lexicon of youth, there is no such word as fail.'"

"Then you would try?" whispered Frank.

"Try? Yes, and succeed, my lad. Why should you not?"

"I don't know," sighed the young man, "unless I dread that anything should go wrong, for Morris's sake."

"And he would be sorry for yours. There, work. Everything seems right: battery, wires, vacuum tubes--all looking new and perfect."

"Yes," said Frank, whose voice trembled a little; "but if we could put the experiment off for a while, so as to test it first."

"It might be wiser, but while we are trying the apparatus that man's life may ebb away."

"Then you would not wait?"

"No. Test it upon the patient. It may save him."

Taking heart as he fully grasped the need for immediate action, Frank toiled away till he was able to say that he was ready, the Sheikh looking on in silent wonder and admiration the while.

Before the manipulator of the wondrous adaptation was ready he said a word or two to the Sheikh, who hurried out and returned with a couple of his young men, and then in solemn silence and with great care the apparatus was carried as if in procession to the great tent-like sick-chamber, where at the first glance Frank's eyes rested upon the three Mullahs, who had returned during his absence, and once more stood together silent and scornful, gazing down at the Emir's friend, the pulsations of whose arteries the Hakim was still feeling, while the Emir and his son stood hard by watching and waiting for the end.

No word was spoken. The Hakim turned and ran his eyes over the apparatus that was brought in and rapidly placed in position, wires connected to the battery, and after rapid preparation everything was at last announced by the professor as being ready, while Frank's black face glistened with perspiration as he looked firmly now at his brother's old friend, who questioned him with a look, and received a quick nod in reply.