“Then how do you know that we are going far away?”
“Because I heard Idris say that he and Gebhr would depart at once with the camels. That means that we are going by train and that the camels will be sent there in advance to where our fathers are, and from there we shall make various excursions.”
Nell had hopped about so long that her loose front hair covered not only her eyes, but her whole face, and her feet rebounded as quickly as though made of rubber.
A quarter of an hour later Chamis came and bowed before them:
“Khauagé (young man),” said he to Stasch, “we leave in three hours by the next train.”
“For what place?”
“To El-Gharak el-Sultani, and from there, together with the two gentlemen, on camels to Wadi Rayan.”
Stasch’s heart beat with joy, but at the same time he was surprised at Chamis’ words. He knew that Wadi Rayan was a large, round, sandy ledge of rocks which rises in the Libyan Desert to the south and southwest of Medinet, and that Mr. Tarkowski and Mr. Rawlison had said when they left that they were going in a diametrically opposite direction—toward the Nile.
“What has happened?” asked Stasch. “So my father and Mr. Rawlison are not in Beni Suef, but in El-Gharak?”
“That is so,” answered Chamis.