“But they will come back?”
“I cannot say, Excellency,” replied the old man; “I only know that they have gone.”
“‘And fold their tents like the Arabs,’” said Frank softly to himself, “‘and as silently steal away.’”
Chapter Twenty.
Prisoners Indeed.
Before the sun rose Frank’s rescue party fully realised their position—that they were prisoners, guarded by about twenty of the Baggara chief’s followers, and in charge of a temporary hospital, with the leader’s son as the principal patient.
“We must look our trouble, if trouble it is, straight in the face, Frank, my lad,” said the professor, “and hope all will turn out for the best.”
“Yes,” replied Frank, with a sigh; “but of course we cannot stir from here, and the time is going so fast.”