ver his shoulder as to have hit him. But he
did not. The point of the scimitar just left the scabbard as the owner
of it went down on his back motionless as a wax figure.

Harry was perfectly bewildered; he was not conscious of having fired;
yet, there lay the Arab, with his face blackened with the powder, and a
small hole in the forehead just between the eyes.

I hope you will not think the worse of Harry Forsyth for what he did
next. War makes the feelings very callous, for the time being, at all
events, with regard to certain things. Besides, Harry had had nothing
but biscuits to eat for one hundred and seventy-two hours, about, and
not many of them. He pounced upon the bread and devoured it. What to
do next?

The conviction had now forced itself upon him that there was no hope for
the Egyptian army, but that it was doomed to certain destruction. There
was no possibility of surrender; it was war to the knife, for the Arabs
neither took nor gave quarter. And thus his mind reverted to the object
of his throwing in his lot with that body, which he had in a great
measure lost sight of in the company of Howard and the excitement of a
totally new life. But, after all, he had not come out to Egypt and the
Soudan to fight but to discover Daireh and, if possible, gain possession
of the will.

The only chance for him to accomplish this now was obviously through
finding his uncle, the Sheikh Burrachee, and to do this he must follow
the course he had pointed out: find a dervish or fakir, and show the
ring and parchment. Of course the efficacy of these might all be the
delusion of a crazy brain, but he must take his chance of that. It was
certain, however, that he would never get the chance of a hearing in his
present costume. The helmet, the uniform kharkee jacket, would insure
his being shot or cut down by the first follower of the Mahdi who saw
him. They must be discarded, and the dead Arab lying hard by would
supply him with a disguise. For, instead of going nearly naked, like so
many of them, this man had a smart turban and a long garment, which came
a good bit below the knees, bound round his waist with a sort of shawl
of gay colours.

So, after having taken his life and his breakfast, Harry now proceeded
to despoil him of his clothes.

There was a fair supply of cartridges in a bag which the ill-fated Arab
had worn over his shoulder, so Harry took that and the rifle, and
presently he came out of the gl