ay-time de city is full of enemies, who all knows
me. Do you t'ink dey will salute, and say, `Go in peace,' to de runner
of de Mahdi when he is running away with his best horse?"

"Perhaps not," said Miles, "but I would try if I were you."

"You will be me very soon," returned the runner, "and you can try. I
did try--twice. I was caught both times and beat near to death. But I
did not die! I learn wisdom; and now I submit and wait my chance to
kill him. If you is wise you begin _at once_ to submit and wait too."

"There is truth in what you say," rejoined Miles, after a few minutes'
thought. "I will take your advice and submit and wait, but only till
the opportunity to escape offers. I would not murder the man even if I
had the chance."

"Your words remind me of de good Gordon. He was not vengeful. He loved
God," said the runner, in a low and very different tone. "But," he
added, "Gordon was a white man. He did not--could not--understand de
feelings of de black chief."

As the last remark opened up ground which Miles was not prepared to
traverse, he made no rejoinder but asked the runner what the Mahdi
required of him in his new capacity.

"He require you to learn de city, so as you know how to run when you is
told--an' I is to teach you, so you come wid me," said the runner,
rising.

"But am I to go in this costume, or rather in this half-naked state?"
asked Miles, rising and spreading out his hands as he looked down at his
unclothed chest and lower limbs.

"You not cause for be ashamed," replied the runner, with a nod.

This was true, for the hard travelling which Miles had recently endured,
and the heavy burdens which he had borne, had developed his muscles to
such an extent that his frame was almost equal to that of the negro, and
a fit subject for the sculptor's chisel.

"Your white skin will p'r'aps blister at first," continued the runner,
"but your master will be glad for dat. Here is a t'ing, however, will
save you shoulders. Now, you makes fuss-rate runner."

He took the little green tippet off his own shoulders and fastened it on
those of his successor.

"Come now," he added, "let us see how you can run."

They passed out into the street together, and then poor Miles felt the
full sense of his degradation, when he saw some of the passers-by stop
to gaze with looks of hatred or contempt or amusement at the "Christian
captive."

But he had not much leisure to think or feel, for the