d not secure immunity
for them from trial and punishment, if they should fall into the hands
of the Egyptian Government.

Stas listened with palpitating heart and strained attention. In that
conversation there were some comforting things, especially that a
pursuit was organized, that a reward was offered, and that the sheiks
of the tribes on the river banks had received orders to detain caravans
going southward. The boy was comforted also by the intelligence about
steamers filled with English troops plying on the upper river. The
dervishes of the Mahdi might cope with the Egyptian army and even
defeat it, but it was an entirely different matter with English people,
and Stas did not doubt for a moment that the first battle would result
in the total rout of the savage multitude. So, with comfort in his
soul, he soliloquized thus: "Even though they wish to bring us to the
Mahdi, it may happen that before we reach his camp there will not be
any Mahdi or his dervishes." But this solace was embittered by the
thought that in such case there awaited them whole weeks of travel,
which in the end must exhaust Nell's strength, and during all this time
they would be forced to remain in the company of knaves and murderers.
At the recollection of that young Arab, whom the Bedouins had butchered
like a lamb, fear and sorrow beset Stas. He decided not to speak of it
to Nell in order not to frighten her and augment the sorrow she felt
after the disappearance of the illusory picture of the oasis of Fayum
and the city of Medinet. He saw before their arrival at the ravine that
tears were involuntarily surging to her eyes; therefore, when he had
learned everything which he wished to know from the Bedouins'
narratives, he pretended to awake and walked towards her. She sat in a
corner near Dinah, eating dates, moistened a little with her tears. But
seeing Stas, she recollected that not long before he declared that her
conduct was worthy of a person of at least thirteen years; so, not
desiring to appear again as a child, she bit the kernel of a date with
the full strength of her little teeth, so as to suppress her sobs.

"Nell," said the boy, "Medinet--that was an illusion, but I know for a
certainty that we are being pursued; so don't grieve, and don't cry."

At this the little girl raised towards him her tearful pupils and
replied in a broken voice:

"No, Stas--I do not want to cry--only my eyes--perspire so."

But at that moment her chi