do some of his
work for him, but not to Hamish, who I can see has not forgiven him that
blow."

"I don't think the other does his work for him," Amina said. "He works
for me of a morning and then goes into the fields; and when I watch them
to see that they are doing their work it seems to me that he does more
than any of them."

"He does," the sheik agreed; "he is a willing slave. I am glad I did not
give him up to the Mahdi. Kaffir as he is, I think he brings good luck
to the village. If he would change his religion and follow the Prophet I
would adopt him as my son, seeing that you have only girls."

Edgar made very rapid progress with the language. It was well for him
that he had picked up a few words and sentences at Suakim and Cairo, for
this enabled him to make far more rapid progress than he would have done
had he been ignorant of the language. He attempted to keep up a constant
conversation with the negro, and although the latter often went into
screams of laughter at his mistakes he was ready to help him, correcting
his errors and repeating sentences over and over again until he was able
to pronounce them with a proper accent. In two months he was able to
converse with tolerable fluency, and the sheik was meditating broaching
the subject of his conversion to him when an event occurred that for a
time gave him other matters to think of.

One morning when the encampment woke Hamish was found to be missing, and
it was ere long discovered that the best camel in the encampment had
been stolen, and that two water-skins had been taken from the sheik's
tent, and a perfect hubbub arose in the village when this became known.
The sheik seizing a stick fell upon the other negro and showered blows
upon him, exclaiming that he must have known of and aided his companion
in his flight, although he declared he had not the least idea of his
intentions. As soon as his first burst of rage was over the sheik
ordered four of the best camels to be saddled and water-bottles to be
filled.

"The fellow must be mad," he said as he walked up and down before his
tent; "he must know that he cannot escape; he would be known as a slave
by the first people he comes upon, and it would only be a change of
masters, and he would be long before he finds one so gentle as I have
been with him."

"I do not think he has gone away to make a change in masters," Amina
said. "It is worse than that, I fear."

"What is it, Amina? What do you mean?"