hinking
with agony of his friends below there. How many were now living, and
what chance had they of getting clear if they had survived thus far?

And his own position, was that any better? Nay, they indeed would die
fighting, but he would either probably perish of want, or be barbarously
murdered in cold blood. He still wore his uncle the sheikh's ring on
his finger, and carried the silver case containing the parchment in his
breast, but since he had thrown in his lot with the Egyptian army, his
faith in those talismans had become weakened. Why, he did not know; it
was an illogical feeling, for, of course, the circumstances had not
altered. Probably it was because it is impossible to trust to two
diametrically opposite sources of aid at the same time.

Then his thoughts wandered to home, and his mother and sister, and their
terrible anxiety at his long silence, and how they would not know
whether or not to mourn him as dead. And then he dropped asleep.

He woke at dawn, wondering how he could have slept when his comrades
were in such sore straits. Had they got away? In answer to his
thought, the firing recommenced as before, and in the same quarter,
answering "No!"

All day long the noise of battle lasted, and Harry watched in vain for a
change in the situation.

At one period a body of Arabs came up and crossed the mountain from his
rear, and he only just had time to conceal himself in his rocky hole to
escape observation.

But they pushed on, and went down into the fight; doubtless carrying
ammunition. How Harry got through that long day he could not remember.
He made his water-bottle last, but he had no food beyond one biscuit.
But anxiety for some time prevented his feeling hungry. There seemed no
change in the situation, except that the volume of fire diminished
perceptibly; and the cloud of smoke becoming thinner, he could, from one
point, just distinguish something of the square. It was still existing,
then, and might, perhaps, cut through that night, though it had failed
to do so on the preceding.

When darkness fell, Harry crept back to his hole, and again he slept.
But he awoke before dawn, roused by the cravings of hunger. It was of
no use to stop where he was, and at the first glimpse of daylight he
commenced his descent towards the plain, not by the way he had come, but
on the opposite side, in the direction he calculated the remains of the
army must take if they succeeded in pushing th