to another of their prisoners.
Then they conferred together once more, and finally said something to
Mansoor, with a contemptuous wave of the hand to indicate that he might
convey it to the others.

"Thank Heaven, gentlemen, I think that we are saved for the present
time," said Mansoor, wiping away the sand which had stuck to his
perspiring forehead. "Ali Wad Ibrahim says that though an unbeliever
should have only the edge of the sword from one of the sons of the
Prophet, yet it might be of more profit to the beit-el-mal at Omdurman
if it had the gold which your people will pay for you. Until it comes
you can work as the slaves of the Khalifa, unless he should decide to
put you to death. You are to mount yourselves upon the spare camels and
to ride with the party."

The chief had waited for the end of the explanation. "Now he gave a
brief order, and a negro stepped forward with a long, dull-coloured
sword in his hand. The dragoman squealed like a rabbit who sees a
ferret, and threw himself frantically down upon the sand once more.

"What is it, Cochrane?" asked Cecil Brown--for the Colonel had served in
the East, and was the only one of the travellers who had a smattering of
Arabic.

"As far as I can make out, he says there is no use keeping the dragoman,
as no one would trouble to pay a ransom for him, and he is too fat to
make a good slave."

"Poor devil!" cried Brown. "Here, Cochrane, tell them to let him go.
We can't let him be butchered like this in front of us. Say that we
will find the money amongst us. I will be answerable for any reasonable
sum."

"I'll stand in as far as my means will allow," cried Belmont.

"We will sign a joint bond or indemnity," said the lawyer. "If I had a
paper and pencil I could throw it into shape in an instant, and the
chief could rely upon its being perfectly correct and valid."

But the Colonel's Arabic was insufficient, and Mansoor himself was too
maddened by fear to understand the offer which was being made for him.
The negro looked a question at the chief, and then his long black arm
swung upwards and his sword hissed over his shoulder. But the dragoman
had screamed out something which arrested the blow, and which brought
the chief and the lieutenant to his side with a new interest upon their
swarthy faces. The others crowded in also, and formed a dense circle
around the grovelling, pleading man.

The Colonel had not understood this sudden change, nor had th