rchase them and take them with them upon
their journey. This was out of the question now, nor was it possible
to hold any communication with them, or to present them with a small
sum of money to alleviate their misery without exciting suspicion. The
whole party were heartily glad when on the morning of the fourth day
after their arrival the boat was pushed off from the shore and the
work of ascending the rapids began.

CHAPTER XVII.

OUT OF EGYPT.

The river had begun to rise before they left Thebes, and although it
had not yet reached its highest point, a great volume of water was
pouring down; and the boatmen assured Jethro that they would be able
to ascend the cataract without difficulty, whereas when the Nile was
low there was often great danger in passing, and at times indeed no
boats could make the passage. Ten men were engaged in addition to the
crew to take the boats up beyond the rapids.

But although assured that there was no danger, the girls declared that
they would rather walk along the bank, for the hurry and rush of the
mighty flood, rising sometimes in short angry waves, were certainly
trying to the nerves. Jethro and the lads of course accompanied them,
and sometimes seized the rope and added their weight when the force of
the stream brought the men towing to a standstill and seemed as if it
would, in spite of their efforts, tear the boat from their grasp. At
last the top of the rapids was gained, and they were glad to take
their places again in the boat as she floated on the quiet water. So a
month passed--sometimes taken along by favorable winds, at others
being towed along quiet waters close to the shore, at others battling
with the furious rapids. They found that the cataract they had first
passed was as nothing to those higher up. Here the whole cargo had to
be unloaded and carried up to the top of the rapids, and it needed
some forty men to drag the empty boat through the turmoil of waters,
while often the slightest error on the part of the helmsman would have
caused the boat to be dashed to pieces on the great rocks rising in
the midst of the channel. But before arriving at the second cataract
they had tarried for several days at Ibsciak, the city to which their
crew belonged.

They had passed many temples and towns during the hundred and eighty
miles of journey between Syene and this place, but this was the
largest of them. Here two great grotto temples were in course of
construct