in to dawn.

The station-master, the same sleepy one with dark spectacles and red
fez, told them that he saw a boy about fourteen years old and an
eight-year-old girl with an old negress, who rode towards the desert.
He did not remember whether there were eight or nine camels altogether,
but observed that one was heavily packed as if for a long journey, and
the two Bedouins also had big pack-saddles. He recollected also that
when he stared at the caravan one of the camel drivers, a Sudanese,
said to him that those were the children of the Englishmen who before
that had gone to Wadi Rayan.

"Did those Englishmen return?" asked Pan Tarkowski.

"Yes. They returned yesterday with two slain wolves," answered the
station-master; "and I was astonished that they did not return with the
children. But I did not ask the reason as that was not my affair."

Saying this he left to attend to his duties.

During this narrative Mr. Rawlinson's face became white as paper.
Gazing at his friend with a wild look, he took off his hat, pressed his
hand to his forehead, covered with perspiration, and staggered as if he
were about to fall.

"Be a man, Rawlinson!" exclaimed Pan Tarkowski. "Our children are
kidnapped. It is necessary to rescue them."

"Nell! Nell!" repeated the unhappy Englishman.

"Nell and Stas! It was not Stas' fault. Both were enticed by trickery
and kidnapped. Who knows why? Perhaps for a ransom. Chamis undoubtedly
is in the plot, and Idris and Gebhr also."

Here he recalled what Fatma had said about both Sudanese belonging to
the Dongolese tribe, in which the Mahdi was born, and that Chadigi, the
father of Chamis, came from the same tribe. At this recollection his
heart for a moment became inert in his breast for he understood that
the children were abducted not for a ransom but as an exchange for
Smain's family.

"But what will the tribesmen of the ill-omened prophet do with them?
They cannot hide them on the desert or anywhere on the banks of the
Nile, for they all would die of hunger and thirst on the desert, and
they certainly would be apprehended on the Nile. Perhaps they will try
to join the Mahdi."

And this thought filled Pan Tarkowski with dismay, but the energetic
ex-soldier soon recovered and began in his mind to review all that
happened and at the same time seek means of rescue.

"Fatma," he reasoned, "had no cause to revenge herself either upon us
or our children. If they have been kidnapped it w