el, almost
carried us off our camels.

Ahmed warned us to keep perfect silence as we scrambled down the rocky
slope, and reached the river at last; here the mighty stream flows
rapidly and silently at the foot of a great rock cliff, the stillness
being occasionally broken by the splash of the many fish which delight
to disport themselves in these cool depths. This watering-place is known
as Meshra Dehesh, and is about six miles south of Abu Hamed. A few dom
palms and shrubs have gained a slender footing on the steep bank, and
the reflection of the bright stars in the silent river could not but
make one feel impressed with the grand solitude of the place. I bent
down, scooped up the water in my hands, and refreshed my parched throat;
then we took the saddles off the camels, filled our water-skins, and ate
some biscuits; I wanted to bathe my face and eyes, which ached with the
burning of the sun and sand, but Ahmed gave the word to mount.

We were too stiff and weak to be able to stand upright, and as for the
poor sisters, Ahmed had to lift them bodily off the ground and put them
on their camels; they were far too exhausted to speak; we led the camels
out of the stony gorge, intending to mount when we reached the level. It
was long past midnight, and we were congratulating ourselves on having
passed the last critical point, hoping that by dawn we should have left
the river, which here bends to the west, far behind us.

[Illustration: "WE HAD SCARCELY GONE TWENTY PACES FROM THE RIVER, WHEN
SUDDENLY WE HEARD THE SOUND OF A CAMEL."]

We had scarcely gone twenty paces from the river, when suddenly we heard
the sound of a camel. We were almost ready to drop with fright, but
Ahmed and the guides went towards the spot from whence the sound had
come, and there they saw a camelman mounted, armed with a Remington, and
peering at us from behind a dom palm, but it was too dark for him to
have recognized our white faces. Ahmed at once approached him, seized
his rifle with his left hand, and extended his right to greet him,
asking him at the same time to alight.

The man, alarmed probably at Ahmed's energetic bearing, at once
dismounted and joined the guides. At first we thought orders must have
come from Omdurman to intercept us, but fortunately it was not so; the
guard (for such he proved to be) said he had been sent from Berber to
see that Egyptian merchants did not export slaves from the Sudan to
Egypt. He related how, the day