fluttered together. Stephens,
the lawyer, kept close to Sadie Adams, muttering mechanically, "Don't be
alarmed, Miss Sadie. Don't be at all alarmed!" though his own limbs were
twitching with agitation. Monsieur Fardet stamped about with a guttural
rolling of r's, glancing angrily at his companions, as if they had in
some way betrayed him, while the fat clergyman stood with his umbrella
up, staring stolidly with big, frightened eyes at the camel-men.
Cecil Brown curled his small, prim moustache, and looked white but
contemptuous. The Colonel, Belmont, and the young Harvard graduate were
the three most cool-headed and resourceful members of the party.

"Better stick together," said the Colonel. "There's no escape for us, so
we may as well remain united."

"They've halted," said Belmont. "They are reconnoitring us. They know
very well that there is no escape from them, and they are taking their
time. I don't see what we can do."

"Suppose we hide the women," Headingly suggested. "They can't know how
many of us are here. When they have taken us, the women can come out of
their hiding-place and make their way back to the boat."

"Admirable!" cried Colonel Cochrane. "Admirable! This way, please, Miss
Adams. Bring the ladies here, Mansoor. There is not an instant to be
lost."

There was a part of the plateau which was invisible from the plain, and
here in feverish haste they built a little cairn. Many flaky slabs of
stone were lying about, and it did not take long to prop the largest
of these against a rock, so as to make a lean-to, and then to put two
side-pieces to complete it. The slabs were of the same colour as the
rock, so that to a casual glance the hiding-place was not very visible.
The two ladies were squeezed into this, and they crouched together,
Sadie's arms thrown round her aunt. When they had walled them up, the
men turned with lighter hearts to see what was going on. As they did
so there rang out the sharp, peremptory crack of a rifleshot from the
escort, followed by another and another, but these isolated shots were
drowned in the long, spattering roll of an irregular volley from the
plain, and the air was full of the phit-phit-phit of the bullets.
The tourists all huddled behind the rocks, with the exception of the
Frenchman, who still stamped angrily about, striking his sun-hat with
his clenched hand. Belmont and Cochrane crawled down to where the
Soudanese soldiers were firing slowly and steadily, resti