"There's the pistol, Miss Adams," said Belmont.

"Give it here! We won't be tortured! We won't stand it!"

"Offer them money, Mansoor! Offer them anything!" cried Stephens. "Look.
here, I'll turn Mohammedan if they'll promise to leave the women alone.
After all, it isn't binding--it's under compulsion. But I can't see the
women hurt."

"No, wait a bit, Stephens!" said the Colonel. "We mustn't lose our
heads. I think I see a way out. See here, dragoman! You tell that
grey-bearded old devil that we know nothing about his cursed tinpot
religion. Put it smooth when you translate it. Tell him that he cannot
expect us to adopt it until we know what particular brand of rot it is
that he wants us to believe. Tell him that if he will instruct us, we
are perfectly willing to listen to his teaching, and you can add that
any creed which turns out such beauties as him, and that other bounder
with the black beard, must claim the attention of every one."

With bows and suppliant sweepings of his hands the dragoman explained
that the Christians were already full of doubt, and that it needed but
a little more light of knowledge to guide them on to the path of Allah.
The two Emirs stroked their beards and gazed suspiciously at them. Then
Abderrahman spoke in his crisp, stern fashion to the dragoman, and the
two strode away together. An instant later the bugle rang out as a
signal to mount.

"What he says is this," Mansoor explained, as he rode in the middle of
the prisoners. "We shall reach the wells by mid-day, and there will be a
rest. His own Moolah, a very good and learned man, will come to give you
an hour of teaching. At the end of that time you will choose one way or
the other. When you have chosen, it will be decided whether you are to
go to Khartoum or to be put to death. That is his last word."

"They won't take ransom?"

"Wad Ibrahim would, but the Emir Abderrahman is a terrible man. I
advise you to give in to him."

"What have you done yourself? You are a Christian, too."

Mansoor blushed as deeply as his complexion would allow.

"I was yesterday morning. Perhaps I will be to-morrow morning. I serve
the Lord as long as what He ask seem reasonable; but this is very
otherwise."

He rode onwards amongst the guards with a freedom which showed that his
change of faith had put him upon a very different footing to the other
prisoners.

So they were to have a reprieve of a few hours, though they rode in that
dark shado