Every morning the two prisoners were let out
from the prison door, they tramped along the river-bank on the outside
of the town wall, and came into the powder factory past the storehouses
of the Khalifa's bodyguard. Every evening they went back by the same
road to the House of Stone. No guard was sent with them, since flight
seemed impossible, and each journey that they made they looked anxiously
for the man in the blue robe. But the months passed, and May brought
with it the summer.
"Something has happened to Abou Fatma," said Feversham. "He has been
caught at Berber perhaps. In some way he has been delayed."
"He will not come," said Trench.
Feversham could no longer pretend to hope that he would. He did not know
of a sword-thrust received by Abou Fatma, as he fled through Berber on
his return from Omdurman. He had been recognised by one of his old
gaolers in that town, and had got cheaply off with the one thrust in his
thigh. From that wound he had through the greater part of this year been
slowly recovering in the hospital at Assouan. But though Feversham heard
nothing of Abou Fatma, towards the end of May he received news that
others were working for his escape.
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