t been one of longer duration.
Amina took the lead in the whole matter. She gave orders to the men,
scolded the women, and saw that everything was done in order.

"Do you think that the sheik has any chance of catching Hamish?" Edgar
asked her as they stood together watching the retreating line of camels.

She shook her head.

"Very little," she said, "unless the camel breaks down, which is not
likely, or he misses the track. When he once gains the cultivated land
he will turn the camel adrift and will make his way on foot to Khartoum.
He will avoid all villages where he might be stopped and go straight to
the city, where he will tell his story to the first officer of the
Mahdi he meets. If the sheik does not overtake him before he gets beyond
the limit of the desert he will pursue no further. It would be useless.
He would never find him in the fields, where he might lie down among the
crops. It would only be waste of time to search for him."

"Does Hamish know of the other wady?"

She nodded. "It may be that the Mahdists will not follow further. It
will depend upon the orders they have received. Of course we shall leave
someone here to watch, and if they start for the wady he will bring us
news before they get there."

"Are there any other wells?"

"None nearer than six days' journey to the south. Then there is a great
cultivated country with many villages and towns, but the journey would
be terrible. I do not know what we shall do. But do not be afraid,
Muley; whatever we do you will not be given up until the last thing.
When my lord once sets his face one way he never turns it. He has said
the Mahdi shall not have you, for you are his captive and none other's,
and he will never go back from that."

"You have been very good to me," Edgar said, "and I would rather run my
own risk than that suffering and perhaps death should fall upon the
women and children of the douar."

"My lord will never hear of it," she said. "When he has said a thing he
has said it. There is nothing to do now but to wait until we learn what
force is coming against us. There is another encampment of the tribe in
a wady two days' journey to the north, and we may summon help from there
if the party is not too strong. The great thing will be to kill Hamish,
for the Wady El Bahr Nile is known only to a few of our own tribe, and
were he not with them they would not be able to find their way there.
Even this wady is known to few, for it lies a