_I_ know what it is--who knows so well as I?
Listen! you hear his laughter! Well, he must weep, or he will be mad for ever.

He must be _made_ to weep.
Yes, by Allah! and I must do it." That same night, when darkness fell over the dark place, and the prisoners tied up their cotton headkerchiefs and lay down to sleep, 'Larby sat beside Israel's place with sighs and moans and other symptoms of a dejected air.
"Sidi, master," he faltered, "I had a little brother once, and he was blind.

Born blind, Sidi, my own mother's son.

But you wouldn't think how happy he was for all that?
You see, Sidi he never missed anything, and so his little face was like laughing water! By Allah! I loved that boy better than all the world! Women?
Why--well, never mind! He was six and I was eighteen, and he used to ride on my back! Black curls all over, Sidi, and big white eyes that looked at you for all they couldn't see.
Well a bleeder came from Soos--curse his great-grandfather! Looked at little Hosain--'Scales!' said he--burn his father! Bleed him and he'll see! So they bled him, and he did see.

By Allah! yes, for a minute--half a minute! 'Oh, 'Larby,' he cried--I was holding him; then he--he--' 'Larby,' he cried faint, like a lamb that's lost in the mountains--and then--and then--'Oh, oh, 'Larby,' he moaned Sidi, Sidi, I _paid_ that bleeder--there and then--_this_ way! That's why I'm here!" It was a lie, but 'Larby acted it so well that his voice broke in his throat, and great drops fell from his eyes on to Israel's hand.
The effect on Israel himself was strange and even startling.