en in complete Arab costume, his European
clothes being made into a bundle and shoved under a rock. The only
article of dress he had retained was a light linen waistcoat, in which
were pockets containing the silver case with the parchment, his watch,
and his money. The dead man's pistols, though ornamental, had flint
locks and were heavy, so he left them, but the scimitar he stuck,
together with his own revolver, in the waist-shawl, and the rifle he
slung over his shoulder.

Then he went to the hygeen, or camel, hoping that water might revive it,
but the poor beast was past that--its eyes were already glazing.

All this time the roll of musketry in the distant ravine still
continued, and with a heavy heart he turned from the spot, and went out
into the wilderness.

His idea was boldly to accost the first living being he met, and ask the
way to El Obeid, intending to represent himself as a merchant whose
caravan had been attacked and robbed by Nubian blacks. He knew that he
would be recognised as a European by his speech, and probably arrested
as a spy, but then would be the time to test the efficacy of his uncle's
talisman. It might be inefficacious, or he might perish in the desert
before he met any one, but he did not give up all hope of a better fate.
His being sent out on that scouting expedition, wounded, and so
prevented from rejoining the ill-fated column, was so extraordinary that
he felt that his hour was not yet come. For it almost seemed to him as
if a miracle had been performed in his behalf.

He had not gone a hundred yards before he noticed several black specks
in the distant sky. Nearer and larger they came, till he could
distinguish two eagles and five vultures hovering lower and lower, till
at length they settled down in the dell by the spring which he had just
left. And he shuddered. How soon he might lie, helpless and dying, and
watching these loathsome birds of prey swooping towards him!

His idea was to keep bearing to the west, which was the direction in
which he knew that El Obeid lay, unless indeed he had passed to one side
of it, which he did not think probable, or he should most likely have
seen it from the mountain-top. Any other high ground he came to he
would ascend, so as to get as wide a view as possible. And so he
tramped on towards the declining sun till it sank; then he lay down in
the solitude and darkness, and fatigue gave him sleep.

When dawn awoke him he was beyond