“Did any one see you?”
“No one. We advanced between two hamlets toward the river. We heard nothing but the barking of dogs in the distance.”
“We shall always have to ride off for water at midnight, and fetch it from deserted places. When we pass the first cataract (Challal, Schellal) the villages will be farther apart and the people more devoted to the Prophet. We will certainly be pursued.”
Thereupon Chamis turned over, and supporting his head on his hands, said:
“The Mehendisi will wait a whole night in El-Fasher for the children to come on the next train, and then they will go to Fayoum, and from there to Gharak. Not till they reach the latter place can they find out what has happened, and then they will have to return to Medinet, to send words along a copper wire to the towns on the banks of the Nile—and men on camels will pursue us. All this will take three days at least. We need not urge our camels on before then, and so we can smoke our pipes in comfort.”
At these words he took a burning rose twig from the fire and lighted his pipe with it. Then Idris began, after the Arabian custom, to show his satisfaction by smacking his lips.
“Chadigi’s son, you have brought the matter off well,” he said, “but we must make use of these three days and nights to advance as far as possible toward the south. I shall not breathe freely until we have passed over the desert between the Nile and Chargeh.[[3]] Pray God that the camels do not give out.”
“They will stand it,” remarked one of the Bedouins.
“The people also say,” Chamis interposed, “that the Mahdi’s soldiers—God lengthen his life—have already got as far as Assuan.”
Stasch, who had not lost a word of this conversation, and had also noted what Idris had told Gebhr before, arose and said: