He was hungry, yet he dared eat little of the dried dates he had with him.

When would he find other food?
For a time he looked warily around, but soon his sense of loneliness overcame his fear, and he watched more for some sign of his four friends than for an indication of an enemy.
"Perhaps some Christian hath escaped, even as I have," thought Timokles.
He started.
Outstretched before him lay a figure of a man! Timokles stood motionless, till he perceived the man be to be asleep.

Then the lad bent over the sleeper to scan his face.

But, as Timokles stooped, he dimly saw, in the relaxed, open palm of the man's hand, a small stone of the triangular form under which the Egyptians were wont to worship Osiris, Isis, and Horus.

Such are the stones found in the tombs of the Egyptians.
This was no Christian sleeper that lay at Timokles' feet! The lad turned and fled into the distance.
Through the desert there wailed a thin, plaintive cry.