e in much danger. The Emirs say to
Mahmud that you ought to be killed; their followers are well-nigh
starving--why should an infidel prisoner be eating? His friends are now
close to us, and there will be a battle. None will be spared on either
side--why should this man be spared?

"Mahmud has many cares. The men are furious because he will not lead
them out to fight. Even the emirs are sullen; and Osman Digna, who was
on bad terms with him a short time ago, and who, Mahmud suspects, is
intriguing with them against him, is foremost in urging that an attack
should take place; though everyone knows he is a coward, and never
shows himself in battle, always running away directly he sees that
things are going against him. Still, he has five thousand followers of
his own.

"Mahmud told me today that he had done all in his power but, placed as
he was, he could not withstand the words of the emirs, and the
complaints of the tribesmen. When the battle comes--as it must come in
a day or two--it will need all his influence and the faith of the men
with him to win; and with so much at stake, how can he risk everything
for the sake of a single life, and that the life of an infidel? If you
would agree to aid in working his guns, as the Greeks and Egyptians do,
it would content the emirs."

"That I cannot do," Gregory said. "If I am to be killed, it is the will
of God; but better that, a thousand times, than turn traitor!"

"I knew that it would be so," Fatma said sorrowfully. "What can we do?
At other times, the protection of the harem would cover even one who
had slain a chief; but now that the Baggara are half starving, and mad
with anger and disappointment, even that no longer avails. If they
would brave the anger of the son of the Khalifa, they would not regard
the sanctity of the harem. I wish now that I had advised you to try and
escape when we left Shendy, or even when we first came here. It would
have been difficult, but not impossible; but now I can see no chance.
There is the thorn hedge round the wood, with few openings, and with
men on watch all round to prevent desertion. Several tried to escape
last night--all were caught and killed this morning. Even if it were
possible to pass through, there are bands of horsemen everywhere out on
the plain, keeping watch alike against the approach of the enemy and
the desertion of cowards.

"I have been in despair, all day, that I cannot save the life of one
who saved mine. I ha