and cannot
unite even when everything is at stake. The Mahdi may be the Mahdi, but
what is that to us? He tells his followers that he will lead them to
conquer Egypt, and to go to Jerusalem and Roum (Constantinople). But how
is he to do it when a handful of white soldiers defeated thousands of
his men in the desert? What would it be were he to meet a great army of
them? It is one thing to fight the Egyptians as they did at El-Obeid,
but another when it is your soldiers. I hear that multitudes of Osman
Digma's men were slain down by the sea, and yet they say they fought
well."

"They did fight well," Edgar said. "I was there and saw it; no men could
have been braver; but we have terrible weapons, and it was impossible
for them to stand against them. The Mahdi may say what he likes, but
there is no more chance of his taking Egypt as long as we stay there
than there is of his flying."

"Well, well!" the woman said, "it will be as Allah chooses. You do not
believe in Allah, Muley, you are a Kaffir."

"I beg your pardon," Edgar said; "we and you worship the same God. We
call him God, and you call him Allah; but it is the same. Your Prophet
acknowledges Moses and Christ to be prophets. The only difference
between us is that you believe that Mohammed was also a prophet, and the
greatest of all, while we do not acknowledge that, but in other respects
there is no great difference between us."

"My lord will talk to you, Muley; I am but a woman, and these things are
not for us."

Each morning one of the boys remaining at the douar was sent up to the
crest of the sand-hills, and there remained all day on watch. At the end
of the thirteenth day the sheik's wife gave orders that everything
should be in readiness for instant departure. The camels had returned
on the previous day from El Bahr Nile, having made two journeys there
and back, and were now ready for a fresh departure. There was a further
cutting of the crops until as much was gathered as would, with the
remaining tents and goods, make up a full load for the camels, for as
the party had not arrived it was almost certain that they had not
succeeded in overtaking the fugitive. On the evening of the thirteenth
day a shout from the boy on the hill proclaimed that he saw figures
coming.

"How many of them?" one of the men shouted to him.

"There are five camels, but only four of them are ridden."

There was a shout of satisfaction. This looked as if the party had
over