a point for the
erection of the zareba. It was a patch of rock cropping up from the
summit of a sand-hill that fell away from it on all sides, and was just
about the size required for the zareba. The camels were unloaded and the
bundles of forage laid down side by side and formed into a square, the
wall being some four feet thick and two feet high. The whole party,
including the boys who were to take back the camels, then set to work to
cut thorny bushes. These were piled thickly at the foot of the rock all
round, being kept in their places by stakes driven into the sand and by
ropes interlacing them. The work was only completed just as daylight
broke.

"I don't think," Edgar said, walking round the little fort, "that any
men can get through this hedge of thorns until they have pulled it away
piece by piece, and that, with us lying in shelter above and firing down
upon them, will be a difficult task indeed."

The Arabs, who had obeyed the chief's orders with reluctance and had
been very silent upon the journey out, were now jubilant, feeling
convinced that they could beat off the attack of such a force as that
which they heard was advancing. The camels were now sent off, and they
had scarcely disappeared among the sand-hills when an Arab was seen
approaching on a camel.

"It is our scout," the sheik said; "he brings us news."

He tied a cloth to the end of a spear and waved it. A minute later the
camel's course was changed and the rider soon arrived outside the fort.

"What is your news, Yussuf?"

"They are going to start this morning," the man said. "I crept in as
soon as it became dark last night and made my way close up to them, and
I gathered that they have decided to march this morning on to Wady El
Bahr Nile. They could not stay where they were any longer as they had
only brought with them sufficient food for the camels for the march to
the wady, where they made sure they should find an abundant supply, and
having given them a day's rest they were going to push forwards at once
to the next wady, where they made certain of finding the fugitives."

"Will they be here to-night?" Edgar asked the sheik.

"I should think not, Muley. The regular halting-place is five miles
away, and as that is about half-way they will probably stop there and
start perhaps an hour before daybreak."

The scout was sent off to the wady with the news, and the little
garrison spent the day in strengthening their fort, making another