er side, and there
are gunboats coming on nearly opposite here."

"At last!" cried Harry. "Oh, but it has been long, long! This time
they will not be too late."

"It seemed last night that the great battle was to take place; but at
dusk the Khalifa halted his army, thousands upon thousands; their white
garments seemed to spread for three or four miles, and I felt that at
last the great time had come."

"Yes, yes?" cried Frank, and the old Sheikh's voice sounded dull and
strange now, overborne by the distant muttering thunder of the firing,
which seemed to be on the increase.

"But I would not come back till I could be sure of the tidings I had to
bring, and I lay out with my camel among the hills over yonder, till
just at daybreak I could see that the dervish army was in motion, and I
mounted my camel, keeping to the highest parts I could find. I made a
circuit, after seeing the British and Egyptian forces far back by the
river, and the dervishes in one long, white wave sweeping steadily along
as if to lap round and drive their foes into the stream."

"And that they will never do!" said Harry proudly.

"I don't know, Excellency. The dervishes looked so many. Your friends
seemed so few. But I had learned all I wanted, for I could see that the
great fight was about to begin, and I came with the tidings. What will
your Excellencies do?"

He looked at the doctor as he spoke, and the latter replied, "We can do
nothing while we are here, Ibrahim. Our orders are to wait till our
guard gives the word for us to start."

"And then we hope to make for the desert if we can shake our guardians
off," said the professor.

The old Sheikh was silent, as if deep in thought.

"I know not how to advise," he said. "If the English are beaten--"

"They will not be!" cried Harry excitedly.

"I pray not, Excellency, but if the day goes against them it would be
madness to take to the desert, for the dervishes will be swarming
everywhere, athirst for blood. We could not escape, and we should be
safer here. Even if the Khalifa's army is routed it will be as bad, for
we should have to mingle with the flying Baggara, while the pursuing
Egyptians would be as dangerous as the dervishes themselves. I feel
that we ought to stay."

"But our orders are, to be ready to start at any time," said the doctor
gravely.

"Then, Excellency, we must accept our fate. We shall be taken to
Khartoum, where the beaten force will rally and