and their possessions, if they will acknowledge him
and hand over the white pasha with the two or three white officers he
has with him. But that will make no difference to me. I know all the
country by the Great Lakes. There are Arab traders there in plenty who
buy slaves and ivory and take them down to the coast. I can find
employment with them for my camels, and can stay with them until it is
safe to return. This cannot go on for ever. Besides, in times of trouble
events pass quickly out of men's minds, and in a year the Mahdists will
have forgotten my name. As to the loss of their forty men, what is it?
They have lost thousands since the war began."

"When we get to the white pasha, sheik, would you hand me over to him if
he offered you a ransom for me?"

"No," the sheik said decidedly, "I should not take you near him. Why
should I part with you? You have brought us good fortune. Thanks to you
we defeated the Mahdists and captured their camels and all that they
had. Besides, I like you. Why should I part with you? What good would it
do you? With me you are no longer treated as a slave, but as one of my
own people. What would you be with the white pasha? An officer of his
troops, getting no pay, and running the risk of being one day seized and
sent with the others a prisoner to Khartoum."

"I have no desire to stay with the white pasha," Edgar said; "I would
rather be with you than in so hopeless a position as he is; but I might
make my way down to the coast?"

"Never," the sheik said; "at least never alone. There are fierce tribes
between the lakes and the sea. No white man could get through alone. He
could only do it by going with a great band of fighting men and
carriers, and by buying his way by presents through the great tribes and
fighting his way through the small ones. You may travel down to the sea
some day with me if I join the caravans of the Arabs, and then if there
are countrymen of yours on the coast, as I have heard, and they would
pay me a good ransom for you, we may see about it. You are ungrateful to
wish to leave me."

"Not ungrateful, sheik, for you and your wife have treated me with great
kindness; but it is natural that one should wish to go to one's own
people. Had you been taken a prisoner and carried to England, however
well you were treated you would sigh for your free life in the desert,
for your people and friends, and would escape if you saw a chance. It is
human nature to love the la