Page:In Desert and Wilderness (Sienkiewicz, tr. Drezmal).djvu/158

150 manioc, and durra were totally lacking. They sold here and there water and honey of wild bees, and grains of dochnu soaked in a decoction of tamarind fruit. Idris fell into despair, for it appeared that in view of the prevailing market-prices he would soon exhaust all the money he had received from Fatma Smain for living expenses and afterwards would, in all probability, have to beg. His only hope now was in Smain, and strangely enough Stas also relied solely upon Smain's assistance.

After a lapse of an hour Nur el-Tadhil returned from the caliph Abdullahi. Evidently he had met with some kind of disagreeable mishap there, for he returned in a bad humor. So when Idris asked him if he had learned anything about Smain, he replied testily:

"Fool, do you think that the caliph and I have nothing better to do than to seek Smain for you?"

"Well, what are you going to do with me?"

"Do what you please. I gave you a night's lodging in my house and a few words of good advice, and now I do not want to know anything more about you."

"That is well, but where shall I find shelter?"

"It is all the same to me."

Saying this he took the soldiers and went away. With great difficulty Idris prevailed upon him to send to the market-place the camels and the rest of the caravan, including those Arabs who had joined it between Assuan and Wâdi Haifa. These people did not come until the afternoon, and it appeared that none of them knew what they were going to do. The two Bedouins began to quarrel with Idris and Gebhr, claiming that they had promised them an entirely different reception and that they had cheated them. After a long dispute and much deliberation they finally decided to erect at the outskirts of the city huts of dochnu boughs and reeds as