lbow, a look of interest in his face,
which he tried to disguise. "See, laad," he said, "why does tha not send
messenger thaself--a troosty messenger?"

"'Ere, do you think I'm a bloomin' Crosus? I've done the trick twice-ten
pounds o' loot once, an' ten golden shillin's another. Bloomin' thieves
both of 'em--said they wuz goin' to Homdurman, and didn't not much! But
one of 'em went to 'eaven with cholery, an' one is livin' yet with a
crooked leg, with is less than I wuz workin' for."

Holgate was sitting bolt upright now. "Didst tha save them ten sooverins
to get news o' Macnamara, laad?"

"Think I bloomin' well looted 'em--go to 'ell!" said Henry Withers of
the Sick Horse Depot, and left the lower deck of the Osiris in a fit of
sudden anger.

II

Up in Omdurman Peter Macnamara knew naught of this. He ran behind his
master's horse, he sat on his master's mat, he stood in the sun before
his master's door, barefooted and silent and vengeful in his heart,
but with a grin on his face. When Khartoum fell he and Slatin had been
thrown into the Saier loaded with irons. Then, when the Mahdi died
he had been made the slave of the Khalifa's brother, whose vanity was
flattered by having a European servant. The Khalifa Abdullah being angry
one day with his brother, vented his spite by ordering Macnamara back
to prison again. Later the Khalifa gave him to a favourite Emir for
a servant; but that service was of short duration, for on a certain
morning Macnamara's patience gave way under the brutality of his master,
and he refused to help him on his horse. This was in the presence of the
Khalifa, and Abdullah was so delighted at the discomfiture of the Emir
that he saved the Irishman's life, and gave him to Osman Wad Adam, after
he had been in irons three months and looked no better than a dead man.
Henceforth things went better, for Osman Wad Adam was an Arab with a
sense of humour, very lazy and very licentious, and Macnamara's Arabic
was a source of enjoyment to him in those hours when he did nothing but
smoke and drink bad coffee. Also Macnamara was an expert with horses,
and had taught the waler, which Osman Wad Adam had looted from Khartoum,
a number of admired tricks.

Macnamara wished many a time that he could take to the desert with the
waler; but the ride that he must ride to Wady Halfa was not for a horse.
None but a camel could do it. Besides, he must have guides, and how was
he to pay guides? More than once he h