Page:A Prisoner of the Khaleefa.djvu/86

56 dervishes, he might see his section come to the front as the support of the Government, and maybe be in possession of the coveted title of Bey and a Nishan (decoration), if his plans succeeded I have no doubt that, had his first plan succeeded, he would have been prepared with a plausible tale, and gaining any slight advantage over the dervishes would certainly have atoned for his defections His plan as originally conceived was as follows: — First, he wrote to his own sheikh giving him full details of the arms and ammunition awaiting Saleh's caravan, and there is every reason to believe that the letters sent by General Stephenson to Sheikh Saleh in the first instance, were delayed by Gabou until his plans were complete The guide Hassan, whom I believed had been engaged at the last moment, had been engaged some time before, and fully instructed in the part he had to play Gabou had promised his people that after Sheikh Saleh's caravan left El Selima Wells, they would be led towards the Wadi el Kab instead of El] Agia Wells, so that even had we filled our waterskins at leisure at Selima, we should only have been provided with four, instead of eight days' water, and two days on the desert without water has its discomforts When a Bedawi will travel two or three days without water and not murmur, it can be better imagined than described what Gabou's promise to hand us over "thirsty" meant; it meant precisely what actually did occur — the madness of thirst approaching — the lips glued together, the tongue swollen and sore in vain attempts to excite the salivary glands