man was seeking for?"

_Answer_. "No, I have never seen either of them; I speak from hearsay,
and know nothing more than I have told you."

There was nothing more to be got out of Grady's captive.

But still, to know that Forsyth had reached his uncle was something.
And the probability was that he was living, for if he had been dead the
news would very likely have reached this gossiping Arab.

"I told you about the missing will in which I have an interest,"
Kavanagh said to Sergeant Barton, when all that could had been got out
of the Arab.

"Yes; and Daireh the Egyptian led your friend, who undertook to trace
it, a pretty dance out here, and all over the Soudan."

"Yes; well I expect that he has traced him, for it seems he is living
with this Sheikh Burrachee, as he calls himself, who is as mad as a
hatter, and he would not do that without a very strong reason."

"Then the man who may be the Irish sheikh's son, or may be merely a
magical illusion, and vanish or turn into a cat some fine morning, is
your friend, I suppose?" said Barton.

"Sure to be," replied Kavanagh; "though whether he has found Daireh yet
is another question, and if, having found him, he has also got the will
is still more problematical."

"It would be hard lines if, after all that risk and trouble and running
his man to earth, he should find the will destroyed or lost after all,"
said Barton. "I cannot believe in such ill-luck!"

"No more should I three months ago," said Kavanagh; "but after getting
to Khartoum just three days too late I am prepared for anything. What
is the journey undertaken by Forsyth compared to the expedition fitted
out, the persevering struggle against the forces of Nature, and the
opposition of hosts of desperate foes for the purpose of rescuing
Gordon? And that all that should fail seemed too bad to be possible.
Yet so it was. I shall always be prepared for the worst for the rest of
my life."

CHAPTER TWENTY TWO.

SWORD VERSUS BAYONET.

After the skirmish which was fatal to poor Binks, and in which Grady
effected his clever capture, the convoy had not been annoyed, save now
and then by a distant shot which fell short; but in the afternoon of the
day that Kavanagh got his information about Harry Forsyth, such as it
was, out of the man Grady had taken prisoner, bullets fell closer again.

They had entered a wide valley, and there was water on the south side of
it, near the black rocks. No zereba was