The Tragedy of the Korosko

ry voice calling upon them, and a red turban bobbed about among the rocks, with the large white face of the Nonconformist minister smiling from beneath it. He had a thick lance with w

negroes with a bas

up, Miss Adams; you shall have some more presently. Now your turn, Mrs. Belmont! Dear me, dear me, you poor souls, how my heart does bleed for you! The

e asked, his face t

eft them behind at the wells. I f

expression; "you thought, no doubt, that it was all over with me, but here I am in spite of it. Nev

down to delirium," said the Colonel. "If the ladies had

ns, and that I deserved to be tried by a drumhead court-martial and shot. The fact is that, whe

ny drumhead court-martial," said the Colon

and I was quite myself again by next day. I came with the Sarras people after we met them, because they have the doctor with them. My wound is nothing, and he says that a man of my habit will be the better for the loss of blood. And now, my friends"-his big, brown eyes lost their twinkle, and became very solemn and reverent-

rible, jagged facts of life. Battered and shaken, they must have something to cling to. A blind, inexorable destiny was too horrible a belief. A chastening power, acting intelligently and for a purpose-a living, working power, tearing them out of their grooves, breaking down their small sectarian ways, forcing them into the better path-that was what they had learned to realise during these days of horror. Great hands had closed su

id Cochran

another and another. The Colonel was fidgeting about like an old h

e see what i

path up to the top. If the ladies will come after me

ay to the summit at last. Beneath them lay the vast expanse of the rolling desert, and in the foreground such a scene as none of them are ever likely to forget. In that perfectly dry and cl

o be. It was no wonder that they were puzzled, for upon their spent camels their situation was as hopeless as could be conceived. The Sarras men had all emerged from the khor, and had dismounted, the beasts being held in groups of four, while the rifle-men knelt in a long line with a woolly, curling fringe of smoke, sending volley after volley at the Arabs, who shot back in a desultory fashion

ied the Colon

them was a tall, stately figure, who could only be the Emir Wad Ibrahim. They saw him kneel for an instant in prayer

Colonel. "He is standi

mean by that?

less, and yet is determined to fight to the death, he takes his sheepskin off and stands upon it un

odless victory for the Egyptians. But now there was a stirring bugle call from the Sarras men, and another answered it from the Halfa Corps. Their camels were down also, and the men had formed up into a single, long, curved line. One last volley, and they were charging inwards with the wild inspiriting yell which the blacks had brought with them from their central African wilds. For a minute there was

re sobbing together. The Colonel had turned to them with some cheering words when his eyes fell upon the face of Mrs. Belm

Belmont, what is t

ay, miles on the other side of the scene of the fi

re's some one ther

nce was so great that they could only be sure tha

Cochrane. "There's no one else it can be. One consolation, they c

oy, she threw her two hands into the air. "It's they!" she screamed. "They are saved! It's they, Colonel, it's they! O

uish that which had long before carried its glad message to her. In the van of the approaching party, three white dots shimmered in the sun, and they could only come from the three European hats. The riders were travelling swiftly, and by the time their comrades had started to meet them they could plainly see

t va bien, n'est ce pas, Colonel? Ah, canaille! Vivent la

dard would permit. He could not gesticulate, but he laughed i

ain. I gave you up for lost. Never was as please

all your

in

been quarrelling with you-

did I s

Then, when we were left, they crept up with their rifles and shot the men who were about to murder us. That cursed Moolah, I am sorry they shot him, for I believe that I could have persuaded him to be a Christi

. Shlesinger and her child, who had escaped unhurt, had already been sent down from the frontier. Miss Adams had been very ill after her privations, and this was the first time that she had been allowed to come upon deck after dinner. She sat now in a lounge chair, thinner, sterner, and

ernment in not taking a more complete control of the Egyptian frontier, while the Colonel stood v

way in which his privations had blanched him, and then diving into his cabin, he had reappeared within an hour exactly as he had been before that fatal moment when he had been cut off from the manifold resources of civilisation. And he looked in such a sternly questioning manner at every one who stared at him, that no one had the moral courage to make any remark about this modern miracle. It was observed from that time forwa

it mottled the broad, smooth river with crimson. Dimly they could discern the tall figures of herons standing upon the sand-banks, and farther off the line of riverside date-palms glided past them in a maj

Cairo, Miss Adams?" as

ard's,

, Mr. St

heard's,

ntinental. I hope we shal

elmont," cried Sadie. "Oh, you must come to the

ed, in her pleasan

has his business, and I have my home, and they are both going to rack and ruin. Besides," she a

o talk our adventures over once more. It will be e

rovidence is very good in softening disagreeable remembrances in our mind

rist with a cotton b

as the mind. This does not look very

rown and Mr. Headingly were with us, then I should not have one care in

with an open book in his hand, a th

on. "We know nothing of the spiritual state of these poor dear young fellows, but the great Master G

e yellow light shone upon his heavy cheek and the red edges of hi

astray in the wilderness out of the way, and found no city to dwell in. Hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted in them. So they cried unto the Lord in their trouble, and He delivered them from their distress.

closed the book. "In every age man has been forced to acknowledge the guiding hand which leads him. For my part I do

trust that

e final go

him, just as Micah or Ezekiel, when the world was youn

arranged all things, He ever put me into that pain and danger. I have, in my opinion, more occasion to blame than to praise. You would not thank me for pulling you

deny the difficulty. Look how boldly Tennyson faced it in that same poem, the grandest and de

where I fi

with my we

eat world's

hrough darkne

e hands of fa

dust and ch

feel is Lo

trust the

of God with man. But take our own case as an example. I, for one, am very clear what I have got out of our experience. I say it with all humility, but I have a cle

n all my life put together. I have learned so mu

I can hardly say that I had a nature to understand. I lived

lonel remarked. "Too much of the feather-bed-and-f

t rise to a greater height during those days in the desert than ever before or since. When

ed, and the wild-fowl flew past in dark straggling V's over the dull metallic surface of the great smooth-flowing Nile. A

promised when you were in

was

ed you would try in future

I must

d their hands met under