To his employers there had always seemed to be something comic in that flapping skirt and short cover-coat above it; but now, under the glare of the mid-day sun, with those faces gathered round them, it appeared rather to add a grotesque horror to the scene.

The dragoman salaamed and salaamed like some ungainly automatic doll, and then, as the chief rasped out a curt word or two, he fell suddenly upon his face, rubbing his forehead into the sand, and flapping upon it with his hands.
"What's that, Cochrane ?" asked Belmont.

"Why is he making an exhibition of himself ?" "As far as I can understand, it is all up with us," the Colonel answered.
"But this is absurd," cried the Frenchman excitedly; "why should these people wish any harm to me?
I have never injured them.

On the other hand, I have always been their friend.

If I could but speak to them, I would make them comprehend.