lect of the Lord."

"The Mahdi is merciful," answered Idris.

After which he pondered for a while and said:

"Nevertheless, Smain having both in his hands will be certain that
neither the Turks nor the English people will kill his children and
Fatma."

"So he may reward us?"

"Yes. Let Abdullahi's post take them to Fashoda. A weight will fall off
our heads, and when Smain returns here we will demand recompense from
him."

"You say then that we will remain in Omdurman?"

"Allah! Have you not had enough in the journey from Fayum to Khartum?
The time for rest has come."

The huts were now not far off. Stas, however, slackened his pace for
his strength began to wane. Nell, though light, seemed heavier and
heavier. The Sudanese, who were anxious to go to sleep, shouted at him
to hurry and afterwards drove him on, striking him on the head with
their fists. Gebhr even pricked him painfully in the shoulder with a
knife. The boy endured all this in silence, protecting above all his
little sister, and not until one of the Bedouins shoved him so that he
almost fell, did he say to them through his set teeth:

"We are to arrive at Fashoda alive."

And these words restrained the Arabs, for they feared to violate the
commands of the Mahdi. A yet more effective restraint, however, was the
fact that Idris suddenly became so dizzy that he had to lean on Gebhr's
arm. After an interval the dizziness passed away, but the Sudanese
became frightened and said:

"Allah! Something ails me. Has not some sickness taken hold of me?"

"You have seen the Mahdi, so you will not fall sick," answered Gebhr.

They finally reached the huts. Stas, hurrying with the remnants of his
strength, delivered sleeping Nell to the hands of old Dinah, who,
though unwell also, nevertheless made a comfortable bed for her little
lady. The Sudanese and the Bedouins, swallowing a few strips of raw
meat, flung themselves, like logs, on the saddle-cloth. Stas was not
given anything to eat, but old Dinah shoved into his hand a fistful of
soaked durra, a certain amount of which she had stolen from the camels.
But he was not in the mood for eating or sleeping, for the load which
weighed on his shoulders was in truth too heavy. He felt that in
rejecting the favor of the Mahdi, for which it was necessary to pay
with denial of faith and soul, he had acted as he should have done; he
felt that his father would have been proud and happy at his conduct,
but at the sa