escorted by the police who day and night watch my house,
and I know that they have an order to cut off our heads soon!"

"Speak like a rational woman," answered Mr. Rawlinson, shrugging his
shoulders. "You are not in the Sudan, but in Egypt where no one is
executed without a trial. So you may be certain that not a hair will
fall from your head or the heads of your children."

But she began to implore him to intercede for her yet once more with
the Government, to procure permission for her to go to Smain.

"Englishmen as great as you are, sir," she said, "can do everything.
The Government in Cairo thinks that Smain is a traitor, but that is
false. There visited me yesterday Arabian merchants, who arrived from
Suakin, and before that they bought gums and ivory in the Sudan, and
they informed me that Smain is lying sick at El-Fasher and is calling
for me and the children to bless them--"

"All this is your fabrication, Fatma," interrupted Mr. Rawlinson.

But she began to swear by Allah that she spoke the truth, and
afterwards said that if Smain got well, he undoubtedly would ransom all
the Christian captives; and if he should die, she, as a relative of the
leader of the dervishes, could obtain access to him easily and would
secure whatever she wished. Let them only allow her to leave, for her
heart will leap out of her bosom from longing for her husband. In what
had she, ill-fated woman, offended the Government or the Khedive? Was
it her fault or could she be held accountable because she was the
relative of the dervish, Mohammed Ahmed?

Fatma did not dare in the presence of the "English people" to call her
relative "the Mahdi," as that meant the Redeemer of the world. She knew
that the Egyptian Government regarded him as a rebel and an imposter.
But continually striking her forehead and invoking heaven to witness
her innocence and unhappy plight, she began to weep and at the same
time wail mournfully as women in the East do after losing husbands or
sons. Afterwards she again flung herself with face on the ground, or
rather on the carpet with which the inlaid floor was covered, and
waited in silence.

Nell, who towards the close of the dinner felt a little sleepy, became
thoroughly aroused and, having an upright little heart, seized her
father's hand, and kissing it again and again, began to beg for Fatma.

"Let papa help her! Do please, papa!"

Fatma, evidently understanding English, exclaimed amidst her sobs, not