Page:Zodiac stories by Blanche Mary Channing.pdf/28

Rh and woe be to those with whom we came—those who have even left us to die here, and who are themselves already at Mecca, if the Bedouin have not stayed and slain them!"

"Speak not so bitterly, O wife of my heart!" answered the man, laying his hand on her head tenderly. "Thy soul is grieved for the child. Be of good comfort; it may be that she will yet mend." But though he thus sought to cheer his wife, his face betrayed his own fears.

"Give me a draught of water!" moaned the sick girl, turning in her mother's embrace and opening her large, unnaturally bright eyes. The woman groaned.

"If we had but so much as one drop!" she cried. "Thinkest thou, O my husband, that a spring is anywhere in this wilderness?"

The man shook his head, and his dark eyes were very sorrowful as he gazed at the far horizon.

At this moment, the elder child rose