h began to abate,
while the yells and firing became more distant; at last all sounds
ceased, and the listeners were again oppressed by the beating on the
drums of their ears.

"They're all gone--every mother's son," said Molloy at last, breaking
the oppressive silence.

"That's so," said Rattling Bill; "up wi' the trap, Miles. You're under
it, ain't you? I'm suffocating in this hole."

"I'm not under it. Molloy came down last," said Miles.

"What if we can't find it?" suggested Stevenson.

"Horrible!" said Moses, in a hoarse whisper, "and this may be a huge
cavern, with miles of space around us, instead of a small cellar!"

"Here it is!" cried the sailor, making a heave with his broad back. "I
say--it won't move! Ah, I wasn't rightly under it. Yo! heave-o!" Up
went the door with a crash, and the soft moonlight streamed in upon
them.

A few seconds more and they stood outside the hut--apparently the only
living beings in all that region, which had been so full of human life
but a few minutes before.

"Now we must lose no time in getting away from this place, and covering
as much of the desert as we can during the night," said Miles, "for it
strikes me that we'll have to lie quiet during the day, for fear of
being seen and chased."

They spoke together in whispers for a few minutes, deciding the course
they meant to pursue. Then Molloy shouldered the provision bag, Miles
grasped his official lance--the only weapon they had among them,--and
off they set on their journey across the desert, like a ship entering on
an unknown sea, without the smallest idea of how far they were from the
frontier of Egypt, and but a vague notion of the direction in which they
ought to go.

CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT.

A Horrible Situation.

All that night our fugitives walked steadily in the direction of their
guiding-star, until the dawn of day began to absorb its light. Then
they selected a couple of prominent bushes on the horizon, and, by
keeping these always in their relative positions, were enabled to shape
their course in what they believed to be the right direction. By
repeating the process continuously they were enabled to advance in a
fairly straight line.

Molloy, as we have said, carried the provision bag, and, although it was
a very heavy one, he refused to let his comrades relieve him of it until
breakfast-time. Then it was discovered that inside of the large bag
there were rolled tight up four smaller b