Challis was too tired and weak to care what was done. There was no bed but the hot dry sand; but after eating a little he stretched himself on the spot assigned to him in the centre of the encampment, and forgot his sufferings for a time in a troubled sleep.
CHAPTER VI
THE NORTHWARD TRAIL
The information which the old chief had given Royce influenced his choice of route when he started on his return journey.
"You see, John," he said to the headman, "we don't want to meet this Goruba again. No doubt he stumbled on us by accident, and we have no reason to suppose that he has any particular spite against white men; certainly I had done nothing to upset him. But as he appears to be a dangerous character, we had better keep out of his way. Don't you think so?"
"Dat all same berry good, sah," said John.
"Then we won't go back by way of the fort," Royce pursued. "I dare say, indeed, these men know a nearer way to the village. Ask them."
The carriers assured John, when he questioned them, that they knew a much nearer way, by which they would leave the fort a long distance on their right. Royce therefore left the leadership to their headman, who carried no load, and went on with him, slightly ahead of the rest, to keep a good look-out in case of possible danger.
It was not until they had been marching for an hour or more that the suspicion flashed upon him that Goruba might have been concerned in the raid on the ruined village. True, John had said that the raiders were Tubus, and Goruba was not a Tubu, but probably, from his appearance, and from what the chief had said, a Nubian. But, remembering that Rabeh, Goruba's former master, had himself been a slave, who had gradually worked his way up to the lordship of a considerable empire, Royce wondered whether Goruba had raised himself to a similar position among the Tubus.
A puzzling fact was that he had appeared at the fort alone. As Rabeh's lieutenant he no doubt had made himself so much hated in this part of the country that he could expect no mercy if he fell into the hands of any of his former victims. It seemed therefore unlikely that he was really quite alone. He must belong to a party, and what could be more probable than that he was a member, if not the leader, of the party who had burnt the village?