THRILLING ALARM IN JERICHO. 
383 
to his family regarding his fate, he was more affected than I 
had ever yet seen him. All this I attribute to that remark¬ 
able feature in human nature which causes us, after we have 
long cherished any fond anticipation, to feel something of a 
re-action when it is likely to be realized. Seeing clearly that 
this was what affected Yusef, I laid hold of his mattress my¬ 
self, and fixed it across the gap in the bush-work, and told 
him not to despair ; that there was every reason to believe 
that the Bedouins would be down upon us before morning. 
I then assisted him in fixing his weapons of defense ; and all 
being arranged to my satisfaction, directed him to give the 
alarm the moment the attack was made. 
Yusef, without saying a word, lay down, and was perfectly 
quiet for about ten minutes, as if in profound thought. At 
the expiration of that time, he suddenly began to snore, which 
aroused me from a doze into which I had fallen. I instantly 
thought of his singular dream in Baalbek concerning the lion ; 
and on that‘account felt some doubt as to his being asleep. 
Not content with snoring, he began to mutter broken sen¬ 
tences, and what was a little singular, he muttered in En¬ 
glish, which was not his habit generally when asleep. “Poh ! 
Bedouins ! I only wish they’d come ! Cowardly rascals ! 
I’d like to see them walk over me—I’d soon kill ’em—rip— 
shoot—” and so on, till I put out the light, fell asleep myself, 
and left him thus talking to himself in the dark. My friend, 
the tall Southerner, who took things easy, generally, had 
fallen asleep some time before, and thus we slept on, and 
might have slept soundly till morning but for what followed. 
I fancy that it must have been about midnight that I was 
aroused from a pleasant dream of home, by something like 
cold flesh lightly moved over my face. In the panic of the 
moment, I grasped at the invisible object, and, to my intense 
horror, found that it was a human hand ! Great heavens ! 
it must be a Bedouin feeling for my neck ! “A Bedouin ! 
A Bedouin !” I shouted, holding on to the struggling hand 
with all my might. “Help, Yusef! help! I’ve got him! 
A Bedouin, by all that’s horrible !” The tall Southerner 
sprang to my assistance in a moment. It was intensely dark ; 
