die. After her
death Gebhr insisted upon cutting off her ears in order to show them to
Smain as proof that she died during the journey, and to demand of him a
separate payment for her abduction. This was done with a slave who
expired during the journey. But Hatim, at the entreaties of Stas and
Nell, would not consent to this; so they buried her decently and her
mound was safeguarded against hyenas with the assistance of stones and
thorns. The children felt yet more lonely for they realized that in her
they had lost the only near and devoted soul. This was a terrible blow,
particularly for Nell, so Stas endeavored to comfort her throughout the
whole night and the following day.

The sixth week of the journey arrived. On the next day at noon the
caravan reached Fashoda, but they found only a pyre. The Mahdists
bivouacked under the bare heaven or in huts hurriedly built of grass
and boughs. Three days previously the settlement had been burnt down.
There remained only the clay walls of the round hovels, blackened with
smoke, and, standing close by the water, a great wooden shed, which
during the Egyptian times served as a storage-place for ivory; in it at
present lived the commander of the dervishes, Emir Seki Tamala. He was
a distinguished personage among the Mahdists, a secret enemy of
Abdullahi, but on the other hand a personal friend of Hatim. He
received the old sheik and the children hospitably, but immediately at
the introduction told them unfavorable news.

Smain was not in Fashoda. Two days before he had gone southeast from
the Nile on an expedition for slaves, and it was not known when he
would return, as the nearer localities were so depopulated that it was
necessary to seek for human chattels very far. Near Fashoda, indeed,
lay Abyssinia, with which the dervishes likewise waged war. But Smain
having only three hundred men did not dare to cross its borders,
guarded vigilantly, at present, by King John's warlike inhabitants and
soldiers.

In view of this Seki Tamala and Hatim began to deliberate as to what
was to be done with the children. The consultation was held mainly at
supper, to which the emir invited Stas and Nell.

"I," he said to Hatim, "must soon start with all the men upon a distant
expedition against Emin Pasha,* [* Emin Pasha, by birth a German Jew,
was after the occupation by Egypt of the region around Albert Nyanza,
Governor of the Equatorial Provinces. His headquarters were at Wadelai.
The Ma