ack them when they
could with their horsemen cut off all retreat."

"I will think, sheik," Edgar said, rising and walking away.

In half an hour he returned. "I have thought of a plan, sheik, but it is
not without great danger."

"I care not for danger," the sheik said, "so that it be but possible."

"My idea is this: that we should load up all your camels with
closely-pressed bundles of forage; then that we should advance a day's
march across the desert; and there that we should form a zareba. With
the forage we should, of course, take water-skins with us, with
sufficient to last for at least a week. I should send the camels back
again as soon as they are unloaded, and should order those who remained
behind to load all their goods upon them and to set out either for the
other douar of your tribe or for the villages to the south. I should
send a messenger to the other douar to say that we are going to defend
the zareba to the last and praying them to come at once to our rescue,
promising the moment they appear to sally out and fall upon the
dervishes while they attack them in rear. Your messenger should point
out that before they arrive a number of the enemy will certainly have
fallen in their attack upon us, and we shall, therefore, be decidedly
superior to them in point of numbers."

"The plan is a bold one," the sheik said; "but do you think that it
would be possible for us to defend the zareba?"

"I think so, sheik. It need be but a small one some twelve feet square
inside. They will have to cross the open to attack us, and outside we
can protect it by a facing of prickly shrubs."

"We will do it!" the sheik said in a tone of determination, springing to
his feet. "One can but die once, and if we succeed it will be a tale for
the women of our tribe to tell for all time."

CHAPTER XVIII.

THE ZAREBA.

No sooner had the sheik decided to carry out Edgar's plan than he
rapidly issued his orders. In five minutes the whole of the inhabitants
of the douar were at work, the boys going out to fetch the camels, the
men cutting down the long grass near the well and laying it in great
bundles very tightly pressed together, the women cooking a large supply
of flat cakes for the party. In two hours the preparations were
completed and the twenty men moved off from the oasis. They travelled
until ten o'clock in the evening. By the light of the moon, which was
four days short of full, the sheik and Edgar selected