ted to run, and at last threw myself down in the scrub, four
or five miles away from the point from which I had started.

"I was perfectly safe, for the present. The Dervishes were not likely
to search over miles of the desert, dotted as it was with thick bushes.
The question was as to the future. My position was almost as bad as
could be. I was without food or water, and there were hundreds of miles
of desert between me and Khartoum. At every water hole I should, almost
certainly, find parties of Dervishes.

"From time to time I lifted my head, and saw several large parties of
the enemy, moving in the distance. They were evidently bound on a
journey, and were not thinking of looking for me. I chewed the sour
leaves of the camel bush; and this, to some extent, alleviated my
thirst.

"I determined at last that I would, in the first place, march to the
wells towards which we had been pressing, when the Dervishes came up to
us. They were nearly three miles south of the spot where the square had
stood. No doubt, Dervishes would be there; but, if discovered by them,
it was better to die so than of thirst.

"Half an hour before the sun sank, I started. No horsemen were in
sight, and if any were to come along, I could see them long before they
could notice me. Knowing the general direction, I was fortunate enough
to get sight of the palm grove which surrounded the wells, before
darkness set in.

"It lay about two miles away, and there were certainly moving objects
round it. I lay down until twilight had passed, and then went forward.
When within two or three hundred yards of the grove, I lay down again,
and waited. That the Dervishes would all go to sleep, however long I
might wait, was too much to hope for. They would be sure to sit and
talk, far into the night, of the events of the last three or four days.

"Shielding myself as well as I could, by the bushes, I crawled up until
I was in the midst of some camels, which were browsing. Here I stood
up, and then walked boldly into the grove. As I had expected, two or
three score of Dervishes were sitting in groups, talking gravely. They
had destroyed the Turks (as they always called the Egyptians, and their
infidel white leaders), but had suffered heavily themselves. The three
hundred Soudanese who had surrendered, and who had taken service with
the Mahdi, were but poor compensation for the losses they had suffered.

"'A year ago,' one old sheik said, 'I was the father of