we are all right there in the hollow of God's hand.
Where do you think we are going, Mr. Stephens?"

The red edge of his Baedeker still projected from the lawyer's pocket,
for it had not been worth their captor's while to take it. He glanced
down at it.

"If they will only leave me this, I will look up a few references when
we halt. I have a general idea of the country, for I drew a small map
of it the other day. The river runs from south to north, so we must be
travelling almost due west. I suppose they feared pursuit if they kept
too near the Nile bank. There is a caravan route, I remember, which
runs parallel to the river, about seventy miles inland. If we continue
in this direction for a day we ought to come to it. There is a line of
wells through which it passes. It comes out at Assiout, if I remember
right, upon the Egyptian side. On the other side, it leads away into
the Dervish country--so, perhaps--"

His words were interrupted by a high, eager voice, which broke suddenly
into a torrent of jostling words, words without meaning, pouring
strenuously out in angry assertions and foolish repetitions. The pink
had deepened to scarlet upon Mr. Stuart's cheeks, his eyes were vacant
but brilliant, and he gabbled, gabbled, gabbled as he rode.
Kindly mother Nature! she will not let her children be mishandled too
far. "This is too much," she says; "this wounded leg, these crusted
lips, this anxious, weary mind. Come away for a time, until your body
becomes more habitable." And so she coaxes the mind away into the
Nirvana of delirium, while the little cell-workers tinker and toil
within to get things better for its homecoming. When you see the veil
of cruelty which nature wears, try and peer through it, and you will
sometimes catch a glimpse of a very homely, kindly face behind.

The Arab guards looked askance at this sudden outbreak of the clergyman,
for it verged upon lunacy, and lunacy is to them a fearsome and
supernatural thing. One of them rode forward and spoke with the Emir.
When he returned he said something to his comrades, one of whom closed
in upon each side of the minister's camel, so as to prevent him from
falling. The friendly negro sidled his beast up to the Colonel, and
whispered to him.

"We are going to halt presently, Belmont," said Cochrane.

"Thank God! They may give us some water. We can't go on like this."

"I told Tippy Tilly that, if he could help us, we would turn him into