n to move. They spoke hardly at all.
The sunset, however, came at the last, the friendly darkness gathered
about them, and a cool wind rustled through the darkness across the
desert.

"Listen!" said Trench; and both men as they strained their ears heard
the soft padding of camels very near at hand. A moment later a low
whistle brought them out of their shelter.

"We are here," said Feversham, quietly.

"God be thanked!" said Abou Fatma. "I have good news for you, and bad
news too. The boat is ready, our friends are waiting for us, camels are
prepared for you on the caravan track by the river-bank to Abu Hamed.
But your escape is known, and the roads and the ferries are closely
watched. Before sunrise we must have struck inland from the eastern bank
of the Nile."

They crossed the river cautiously about one o'clock of the morning, and
sank the boat upon the far side of the stream. The camels were waiting
for them, and they travelled inland and more slowly than suited the
anxiety of the fugitives. For the ground was thickly covered with
boulders, and the camels could seldom proceed at any pace faster than a
walk. And all through the next day they lay hidden again within a ring
of stones while the camels were removed to some high ground where they
could graze. During the next night, however, they made good progress,
and, coming to the groves of Abu Hamed in two days, rested for twelve
hours there and mounted upon a fresh relay. From Abu Hamed their road
lay across the great Nubian Desert.

Nowadays the traveller may journey through the two hundred and forty
miles of that waterless plain of coal-black rocks and yellow sand, and
sleep in his berth upon the way. The morning will show to him, perhaps,
a tent, a great pile of coal, a water tank, and a number painted on a
white signboard, and the stoppage of the train will inform him that he
has come to a station. Let him put his head from the window, he will see
the long line of telegraph poles reaching from the sky's rim behind him
to the sky's rim in front, and huddling together, as it seems, with less
and less space between them the farther they are away. Twelve hours will
enclose the beginning and the end of his journey, unless the engine
break down or the rail be blocked. But in the days when Feversham and
Trench escaped from Omdurman progression was not so easy a matter. They
kept eastward of the present railway and along the line of wells among
the hills. And on th