ltogether beyond the track
of caravans. But now there is nothing to do but to wait until my lord
returns. It will be, I think, on the fourteenth day. You were eight days
coming across the desert. They will do it in six but will be eight on
their return, for there will be no occasion for haste. Hamish will take
two more days to get to Khartoum; it may be a day or two before a party
is sent out from there, and they will take ten days getting here, so
that it should be some days at least after my lord's return before they
appear."

"I am sorry, indeed, to have been the cause of so much trouble falling
upon you," Edgar said.

"It is not your fault. It was the will of Allah that you should be
brought here. But anyhow we should not have stopped here much longer. We
have been here six months now, and my lord was saying but a few days
since that as soon as the rest of the crops were gathered he should send
those who are not fit to travel to El Bahr Nile, and should leave you
there and should start with the camels to Khartoum, sell our crops
there, and then carry merchandise to El-Obeid or some other distant
place. He has been waiting for things to settle down; we have only been
stopping here so long because trade has been stopped by the siege of
Khartoum, and since then he has not ventured to go there lest his camels
should be seized by the Mahdi; but, as he said, he must risk something.
Of what use is it to have camels if you do not employ them. They are
getting fat and lazy; never have they had so long a rest before. It
matters nothing our having to leave this wady. The worst is that the
Mahdi will be set against us, and that we shall have to move away far
from here to get trade."

"It is possible that at the present time Khartoum is in the hands of the
English," Edgar said. "We have heard no news from without since I came
here three months ago now, and by this time our expedition may have
arrived there and the Mahdi's power may be altogether broken."

"I hope it may be so," the woman said; "before the Mahdi came the
country was peaceful and prosperous; there was employment and trade for
our camels, and all went about their occupations unmolested. Now
everything is changed; trade is at an end, the villages are destroyed,
and the fields deserted. I know not how it will end. If the tribes would
all turn together against them they would soon drive them out of the
land. But there is no hope of this; we have our own quarrels,