The Tragedy of the Korosko

nt harshly. "Who are these people, and why are you

compose himself, and licked h

they are," said he

They are armed men upon camels, Ababdeh, Bishareen-Bedouins, in

oking inquiringly at the Colonel. "Why shouldn't it be

he Colonel abruptly; "I am perfectly certain about that. Ther

eat, therefore, was entirely cut off. It appeared, from the dust and the length of the line, to be quite an army which was emerging from the hills, for seventy men upon camels cover a considerable stretch of ground. Having reached the sandy plain, they very deliberately formed to the front, and then at the harsh call of a bugle they trotted forward in line, the parti-coloured

could never have descended it. The two women clung one on each side of the trembling Mansoor, with a feeling that he was officially responsible for their safety. When he ran up and down in his desperation, his skirts and theirs all fluttered together. Stephens, the lawyer, kept close to Sadie Adams, muttering mechanically, "Don't be alarmed, Miss Sadie; don't be at all alarmed!" though his own limbs were twitching with agitation. Monsieur F

Colonel. "There's no escape for us

alted," sa

that there is no escape from them, and they ar

how many of us are here. When they have taken us, the women can c

This way, please, Miss Adams. Bring the ladies he

t very visible. The two ladies were squeezed into this, and they crouched together, Sadie's arms thrown round her aunt. When they had walled them up, the men turned with lighter hearts to see what was going on. As they did so there rang out the sharp, peremptory crack of a rifle-shot from the escort, followed by another and another, but these isolated shots were drowned in the long, spattering roll of a

fore closing in upon them. Most of them were firing from the backs of their camels, but a few had dismounted and were kneeling here and there-little shimmering white spots against the golden back-ground. Their shots came sometimes

three of the Soudanese. "A bullet is the best we have to hope for," said Cochrane grimly. "What an infernal fool I have been, Belmont, not to pro

there's no

he fai

firing might bring the

ix miles from here to the steamer. Fro

return, the steamer

hall we be b

orah!" muttered Belmont, in the

hey will do with us, Cochra

ves to Khartoum. I don't know that there is much to c

to realise that he had been shot through the head. He neither stirred nor groaned. His comrades bent over him for a moment, and then, shrug

rass cylinders upon the palm of his hand. "We've let them shoo

nel. "I've heard of you as one of the cracks. D

ch i

white camel on their right front. I mean the fell

," said he. "This is where the low point-blank trajectory of the Lee-Metford comes in useful. Well, we'

see any s

saw n

k my sight a t

him a

ed. The third shot must have been nearer, for he moved a few paces to the right, as if he

my wasting three cartridges in that fashion! If I had him at Bisley I'd shoot the turban

where be had been crouching, with the intention of dragging the demented Frenchman into a place of safety, but he had not taken three paces before he was himself hit in the loins, and fell with a dreadful crash among the stones. He staggered to his feet, and then fell again in the same place, floundering up and down like a horse which has broken its back. "I'm done!" he

ad received a bullet in his thigh. He sat upon a stone, tying up his injury with a grave, preoccupied look upon his wrinkled black face, like an old woman piecing t

cried Belmont, loo

ts. Suddenly he pulled one fist out, and shook it furiously in the air. "Oh, th

had sprung upon their animals with shrill, inarticulate cries of fear, and had galloped off across the plain. A small flanking-party of eight or ten camel-men had worked round while the firing had been going on, and these dashed in among the flying donkey-boys, hacking and hewing with a cold-blooded,

d dismounted, and leaving their camels kneeling, had rushed furiously onward. Fifty of them were clambering up the path and over the rocks together, their red turbans appearing and vanishing again as they scrambled over the boulders. With

reputation as a marksman, was troubling him more than his impending fate. Cecil Brown stood erect, and plucked nervously at the up-turned points of his little prim moustache. Monsieur Fardet groaned over his wounded wrist. Mr. Stephens, in sombre impotence, shook his head slowly, the living embodiment of prosaic law and order. Mr. Stuart stood, his umbrella still over him, with no expre

a stick, he struck right and left among the Arabs with a fury which was more savage than their own. One who helped to draw up this narrative has left it upon record that, of all the pictures which have been burned into his brain, there is none so clear as that of this man, his large face shining with perspiration, and his great body dancing about with unwieldy agility, as he struck at the shrinking, snarling savages. Then a spear-head flashed from behind a rock with a quick, vicious, upward thrust, the clergym

ptives. They were clad in some approach to a uniform, red turbans gathered around the neck as well as the head, so that the fierce face looked out of a scarlet frame; yellow, untanned shoes, and white tunics with square brown patches let into them. All carried rifles, and one had a small discoloured bugle slung over his shoulder. Half of them were negroes-fine, muscular men, with the limbs of a jet Hercules; and the other half were Baggara Arabs-small, brown, and wiry, with little, vicious eyes, and thin, cruel lips. The chief was also a Baggara, but he

nt back and outstretched supplicating palms. To his employers there had always seemed to be something comic in that flapping skirt and short cover-coat above it; but now, under the glare of the mid-day sun, with those faces gathered round them, it appeared rather to

ed Belmont. "Why is he makin

and, it is all up with u

harm to me? I have never injured them. On the other hand, I have always been their frie

yes of the Baggara chief upon him. Again he asked a curt qu

a friend of the Khalifa. Tell him that my countrymen have neve

ansoor. "The Khalifa, he says, has no necessity for any

ance we look upon al

ood as the other. He says that if you are indeed the friend of the Khalifa, you will accept the Koran and beco

if

in the same way

hief, and tell him that it is not the custom for Fr

then turned to consult with a

he will make a trough out of you for the dogs to feed from. Say nothin

?" asked t

e who raided last year, and kil

ng one of the boldest and the most fanatical of all the Khalif

who was still kneeling upon the sand. They plied him with questions, pointing first to one and then to another of their prisoners. Then they conferr

nbeliever should have only the edge of the sword from one of the sons of the Prophet, yet it might be of more profit to the beit-el-mal at Omdurman if it had the gold which your people will pa

gro stepped forward with a long, dull-coloured sword in his hand. The dragoman squealed l

Colonel had served in the East, and was the only o

ping the dragoman, as no one would trouble to pay a ra

can't let him be butchered like this in front of us. Say that we will

r as my means will a

ad a paper and pencil I could throw it into shape in an instant, a

chief, and then his long black arm swung upwards and his sword hissed over his shoulder. But the dragoman had screamed out something which arrested the blow, and which brought

had the others fathomed the reason of it, but some in

your tongue, you miserable creature! Be sil

ly, pointing up the hill. At a word from the Baggara, a dozen of the raiders rushed up the path and were lost to view upon the top. Then came a shrill cry, a horrible strenuous scream of surprise and terror, and an instant later the party streamed into sight again, dragging the women in thei

upt order, and the prisoners were hurried in a miserable, hopeless drove to the cluster of kneeling camels. Their pockets had already

e wretched Mansoor, "I've got a little hip revolver which they have not d

el shook

a sombre face. "The women may find som