shed slowly above them; they heard the
low hum of the Arab talk, and the dull champing of the camels, and then
in an instant, by that most mysterious and least understood of miracles,
one was in a green Irish valley, and another saw the long straight line
of Commonwealth Avenue, and a third was dining at a little round table
opposite to the bust of Nelson in the Army and Navy Club, and for him
the swishing of the palm branches had been transformed into the
long-drawn hum of Pall Mall. So the spirits went their several ways,
wandering back along the strange, un-traced tracks of the memory, while
the weary, grimy bodies lay senseless under the palm-trees in the Oasis
of the Libyan Desert.

CHAPTER VIII.

Colonel Cochrane was awakened from his slumber by some one pulling at
his shoulder. As his eyes opened they fell upon the black, anxious face
of Tippy Tilly, the old Egyptian gunner. His crooked finger was laid
upon his thick, liver-coloured lips, and his dark eyes glanced from left
to right with ceaseless vigilance.

"Lie quiet! Do not move!" he whispered, in Arabic. "I will lie here
beside you, and they cannot tell me from the others. You can understand
what I am saying?"

"Yes, if you will talk slowly."

"Very good. I have no great trust in this black man, Mansoor. I had
rather talk direct with the Miralai."

"What have you to say?"

"I have waited long, until they should all be asleep, and now in another
hour we shall be called to evening prayer. First of all, here is a
pistol, that you may not say that you are without arms."

It was a clumsy, old-fashioned thing, but the Colonel saw the glint of a
percussion cap upon the nipple, and knew that it was loaded. He slipped
it into the inner pocket of his Norfolk jacket.

"Thank you," said he; "speak slowly, so that I may understand you."

"There are eight of us who wish to go to Egypt. There are also four men
in your party. One of us, Mehemet Ali, has fastened twelve camels
together, which are the fastest of all save only those which are ridden
by the Emirs. There are guards upon watch, but they are scattered in
all directions. The twelve camels are close beside us here--those
twelve behind the acacia tree. If we can only get mounted and started,
I do not think that many can overtake us, and we shall have our rifles
for them. The guards are not strong enough to stop so many of us.
The water-skins are all filled, and we may see the Nile