CHAPTER V.
"Let me hide speedily!" Timokles warned himself.
He ran, but shouts arose behind, and before he could conceal himself, two men came running after him.

The woman's shrill cry was audible.

The men came up with Timokles, and laying hold of him in a manner not wholly rough but still imperative; they brought him back with them to the spot where the woman still stood.
The three looked at him with curious yet not wholly unfriendly eyes, and Timokles felt relieved on seeing that he was not recognized as any one whom they had seen before.

This spot was so far from that on which the building stood where he had been given to the leopard, that the lad concluded these people had not witnessed that scene.
Pentaur's caravan would have left the oasis before now.

Probably the merchant was about to renew his journey at the time of his visit to the leopard's den.
The woman pointed to Timokles' branded cheek.