Page:In Desert and Wilderness (Sienkiewicz, tr. Drezmal).djvu/120

 112 "Tell us how you finished with the boy?"

The one-eyed Bedouin pointed at his companion.

"Abu-Anga," he said, "asked him whether there was not another sentinel near-by, and the sentinel replied that there was not; then Abu-Anga thrust his knife into the sentinel's throat so suddenly that he did not utter a word. We threw him into a deep cleft and covered him with stones and thorns. In the village they will think that he ran away to the Mahdi, for he told us that this does happen."

"May God bless those who run away as he blessed you," answered Idris.

"Yes! He did bless us," retorted Abu-Anga, "for we now know that we will have to keep at a three days' distance from the river, and besides we captured a rifle which we needed and a milch she-camel."

"The gourds," added the one-eyed, "are filled with water and there is considerable millet in the sacks; but we found but little powder."

"Chamis is carrying a few hundred cartridges for the white boy's rifle, from which we cannot shoot. Powder is always the same and can be used in ours."

Saying this, Idris nevertheless pondered, and heavy anxiety was reflected in his dark face, for he understood that when once a corpse had fallen to the ground, Stas' intercession would not secure immunity for them from trial and punishment, if they should fall into the hands of the Egyptian Government.

Stas listened with palpitating heart and strained attention. In that conversation there were some comforting things, especially that a pursuit was organized, that a reward was offered, and that the sheiks of the tribes on the river banks had received orders to detain caravans going southward. The boy was comforted also by the