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Updated: June 12, 2025
"But why should he be slain?" asked Harry. "He was no fighting man." "Because no man's life is safe," was the reply. "He went out upon one of the Hakim's camels, and any dervish who wanted one of the beasts would have followed him. Hundreds in the town want camels and horses now, and if the Sheikh gave his up quietly to the man who asked, it would be well.
The Hakim's air of dignity was of course assumed; but one of his followers, in spite of his long intercourse with Europeans, took to his position proudly and as if to the manner born, and this was the Sheikh, whose handsome old grey-bearded face seemed to shine with a moon-like radiance reflected from the principal, the Hakim being his sun.
He had got out of uniform and was dressed in a medley of Indian and Arab costume that made him look like one of those slaves in the "Arabian Nights" who cut off the heads of women. All he needed was a big curved simitar to fill the bill. "Henceforth I am the hakim's servant," he said, showing his teeth in an enormous grin.
"What will he do, then?" asked the Sheikh. "Attend on his master, the Hakim." "One of my young men can do that." "Hold the wounded when the Hakim bandages their cuts." "One of my young men would be safer far." "He knows the Hakim's ways, and will sponge the bullet-wounds and fetch the water bowl." "The Hakim's black slave should do all that, Excellency."
For one moment Frank thought of self, and how strange it all was that he, the young Englishman, accustomed to London and its ways, the student of chemistry, full of experimental lore, should be riding there in disguise, the Hakim's slave and assistant the favourite of a powerful Baggara Emir and his son riding through the teeming crowds of that hive of horror, bloodshed, and misery, and those familiar with his appearance making way at once.
"He said that the great Hakim's health and comfort were dear to him, and he felt that it would be better that so great a man should live as retired a life as the Khalifa himself." "Then I am to be kept regularly as a prisoner?" said the doctor, in dismay.
Unexpected calm came to Palestine through the development of the maritime powers of Italy, which could fall on Hakim's dominions at will. The largest annoyance of the pilgrims for awhile was the enforced payment of a toll for entering Jerusalem, established near this time by the Mohammedan powers.
A couple of hours were taken up over the invalids, and they were left out of pain and comforted by the Hakim's gentle hand, while when their own tent was reached the Hakim was able to say that nothing could be better than the state of his patients. With a couple more days' attention they might be left to nature, and would soon be well.
I remained a fortnight under the hakim's hands before I was well enough to walk about; and when I had reflected, I doubted whether it would not be wiser to embrace a more peaceful profession. The hakim spoke our language well; and one day said to me, "Thou art more fit to cure than to give wounds. Thou shalt assist me, for he who is now with me will not remain."
"It all depends on me," thought the adventurer, as he rode on, stern, and gazing straight before him, hardly conscious of the crowd through which he passed, or the whispers of the people who recognised the Hakim's follower; for he was busy working out his plans and picturing the scene in which he was to play that critical part.
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