ood, they are not
such fools as that, they make them useful. I own it must be disgusting
to be a slave, especially to these Arabs, and of many fellows I should
say they would never stand it any time. Easton wouldn't, for example. In
the first place he wouldn't work, and in the next place, if they tried
to make him he would be knocking his master down, and then of course he
would get speared. But I have great hopes of your brother; he was always
as hard as nails, and I should have no fear of his breaking down in
health. Then he is a chap that can look after himself. Look how well he
has been going on since he bolted from Cheltenham. Then he is a beggar
to stick to a thing, and I should say the first thing he will make up
his mind to do will be to escape some day, and he will be content to
wait any time till the opportunity occurs. You see he has learnt a lot
since he left school. He has been roughing it pretty severely. He has
had over a year in this beastly hot climate, and will be able to make
himself at home pretty near anywhere. I tell you, Clinton, I would lay
odds on his turning up again even if he is left to himself. Besides
that, if we go on to Khartoum and thrash the Mahdi, these Arabs will all
be coming in and swearing that they are most grateful to us for freeing
them from him, and you may be sure that any slaves they have will be
given up at once. I don't say your brother is not in a hole; but I do
say that he is just the fellow to get out of it."

"I have thought of everything you say, Skinner, and I do think that
Edgar is as likely to make his escape some day as anyone would be under
the circumstances; but I doubt whether anyone could do it."

"Why not?" Skinner asked, almost indignantly. "I don't suppose he could
make his way down the Nile, although he might do that; but there are
several caravan routes down to the Red Sea, and then there is
Abyssinia. The people are Christians there, and, they say, fighting
against the Mahdi's Arabs now; so if he got there he would be pretty
sure to be treated well. I should say that there were lots of ways that
he could escape. I don't mean now; but when he has got accustomed to the
country, it seems to me a fellow with pluck and energy such as he has
got ought to find no great difficulty in giving the people he is with
the slip, and making his way somewhere. I do think, Clinton, there is no
occasion to feel hopeless about your brother. It may be a long time
before you