ut
recollecting their shouts, full of fervor, whenever the name of the
Mahdi was mentioned by them, he deemed this an impossibility.
Nevertheless, he did not submit passively to the events, for in that
boyish soul there was imbedded a really astonishing energy, which was
inflamed by the past failures.

"Everything which I have undertaken," he soliloquized, "ended in my
getting a whipping. But even if they flog me with that courbash every
day and even kill me, I will not stop thinking of rescuing Nell and
myself from the hands of these villains. If the pursuers capture them,
so much the better. I, however, will act as if I did not expect them."
And at the recollection of what he had met at the thought of those
treacherous and cruel people who, after snatching away the rifle, had
belabored him with fists and kicked him, his heart rebelled and rancor
grew. He felt not only vanquished but humiliated by them in his pride
as a white man. Above all, however, he felt Nell's wrong and this
feeling, with the bitterness which intensified within him after the
last failure, changed into an inexorable hatred of both Sudanese. He
had often heard, indeed, from his father that hatred blinds, and that
only such souls yield to it as are incapable of anything better; but
for the time being he could not subdue it within him, and did not know
how to conceal it.

He did not know to what extent Idris had observed it and had begun to
get uneasy, understanding that, in case the pursuing party should
capture them, he could not depend upon the boy's intercession. Idris
was always ready for the most audacious deed, but as a man not deprived
of reason, he thought that it was necessary to provide for everything
and in case of misfortune to leave some gate of salvation open. For
this reason, after the last occurrence he wanted in some manner to
conciliate Stas and, with this object, at the first stop, he began the
following conversation with him.

"After what you wanted to do," he said, "I had to punish you as
otherwise they would have killed you, but I ordered the Bedouin not to
strike you hard."

And when he received no reply, he, after a while, continued thus:

"Listen! you yourself have said that the white people always keep their
oath. So if you will swear by your God and by the head of that little
'bint' that you will do nothing against us, then I will not order you
to be bound for the night."

Stas did not answer a single word to this a