not permit the children to die of starvation, and what is
more he kept a strict control over Gebhr; and once, when the latter at
about bed-time struck Stas while removing saddles from the camels, he
ordered the Sudanese to be stretched upon the ground and whipped thirty
times on each heel with a bamboo. For two days the cruel Sudanese could
walk only on his toes and cursed the hour when he left Fayum, and
revenged himself upon a young slave named Kali, who had been presented
to him.

Stas at the beginning was almost pleased that he had left infected
Omdurman and that he saw a country of which he always had dreamed. His
strong constitution thus far endured perfectly the toils of the journey
and the abundant food restored his energy. Several times during the
journey and at the stops he whispered to his little sister that it was
possible to escape even from beyond the White Nile, and that he did not
at all abandon that design. But her health disquieted him. Three weeks
after the day of their departure from Omdurman Nell had not indeed
succumbed to the fever, but her face grew thinner and instead of being
tanned it became more and more transparent, and her little hands looked
as if they were moulded of wax. She did not lack care and even such
comforts as Stas and Dinah with the aid of Hatim could provide, but she
lacked the salubrious desert air. The moist and torrid climate united
with the hardships of the journey more and more undermined the strength
of the child.

Stas, beginning at Goz Abu Guma, gave her daily a half powder of
quinine and worried terribly at the thought that this remedy, which
could be obtained nowhere later, would not last him long. But it could
not be helped, for it was necessary above all things to prevent the
fever. At moments despair possessed him. He deluded himself, however,
with the hope that Smain, if he desired to exchange them for his own
children, would have to seek for them a more salubrious place than the
neighborhood of Fashoda.

But misfortune seemed continually to pursue its victims. On the day
before the arrival at Fashoda, Dinah, who while in Omdurman felt weak,
fainted suddenly at the untying of the small luggage with Nell's things
taken from Fayum, and fell from the camel. Stas and Chamis revived her
with the greatest difficulty. She did not, however, regain
consciousness, or rather she regained it at the evening only to bid a
tearful farewell to her beloved little lady, and to