Feversham refused to believe. "It is nothing," he repeated in a sort of
passionate obstinacy; but in his mind there ran another question, "Will
the men with the camels wait?" Each day as he went to the Nile he saw
Abou Fatma in the blue robe at his post; each day the man made his sign,
and each day Feversham gave no answer. Meanwhile with Ibrahim's help he
nursed Trench. The boy came daily to the prison with food; he was sent
out to buy tamarinds, dates, and roots, out of which Ibrahim brewed
cooling draughts. Together they carried Trench from shade to shade as
the sun moved across the zareeba. Some further assistance was provided
for the starving family of Idris, and the forty-pound chains which
Trench wore were consequently removed. He was given vegetable marrow
soaked in salt water, his mouth was packed with butter, his body
anointed and wrapped close in camel-cloths. The fever took its course,
and on the seventh day Ibrahim said:--
"This is the last. To-night he will die."
"No," replied Feversham, "that is impossible. 'In his own parish,' he
said, 'beneath the trees he knew.' Not here, no." And he spoke again
with a passionate obstinacy. He was no longer thinking of the man in the
blue robe outside the prison walls, or of the chances of escape.
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