said, "and murmured two or three words,
but I could not hear what he said."

"There are hopes at any rate that he is not mortally wounded," Edgar
said. "Now let us go on again with him; do you two each take one of the
spears at his head, I will take my place at his feet; we shall get on
faster so."

Bearing down towards the river, they reached, after an hour's fast
walking, a grove of palm-trees near a village.

"We will leave him here," Edgar said; "it must be five miles from the
town. The French will have enough to do to-day without searching for
wounded. Do you two stay with him. If he becomes sensible and wants
anything, here is some money, and one of you can get food from the
village, but beyond some fresh fruit to make him a cooling drink with,
he is not likely to need anything. I shall return at once and enter the
town by the Boulak gate as soon as it is open. I heard in the town that
there were three or four hundred prisoners taken, and that they were
confined in the citadel, and would be tried in the morning. The first
thing to do is to find out if Sidi is among them, in which case I shall
do all in my power to save him. Pour a little water over my hands, Ali.
Wait a moment," and he took up a double handful of the sandy soil, "now
pour it on to this. I must get rid of these blood-stains."

After a vigorous rubbing with the wet sand his hands were, as far as he
could see in the moonlight, clean, and with a few last words to the men,
he started back for the city. It was with difficulty that he made his
way to the spot where the horses had been left. It had been a terrible
twenty-four hours, with their excitements and emotions, and he had lost
a good deal of blood from the flesh wound in his arm. The gray light was
just stealing over the sky when he arrived there, and he threw himself
down on a secluded spot a short distance from his old camping-ground,
and slept for a couple of hours. Waking, he went to the hut, by the side
of which the horses were tethered. He and Sidi had spoken several times
to the man who lived there, and he possessed two donkeys which worked
for hire in the city.

"You do not recognize me?" he said.

The man shook his head.

"I am one of the young Arabs who were staying in the little tent close
by. You see I am in disguise. It was not safe to be in the city
yesterday in Arab dress, nor is it to-day."

"Of course I remember you now," the man said. "Where are those to whom
the horse