These produced an immediate effect, for, though their adversaries were not hit, they recoiled, and so the circle was enlarged. MM. Périères and de Morin took advantage of this movement, and, without taking their eyes off the Arabs, who were already crowding in again upon them, they snatched away the bûrnus, and in a second had cut the thongs which bound M. Delange hand and foot, and relieved him of his gag. "Phew!" said the Doctor, still confused and trying to stand up. "You are just in time. I thought it was all up with me. A thousand thanks. Have you a pistol?" "No, but take the knife which served to release you." "'Half a loaf is better than no bread.' Look out! Here they come!" The Arabs, shouting and brandishing their swords, returned to the charge. Two fresh shots from the revolvers resounded on the midnight air, but the balls took no effect, and the Arabs were unscathed. "The game is not equal!" exclaimed M. de Morin. "Our task is ended. Let us run for it." The danger must have been extreme indeed for M. de Morin to speak of flight. And it was so. These three young men, armed with one knife and two revolvers, could not, as one half of their ammunition was already expended, struggle for any length of time with the slightest chance of success against six men, furnished with swords and daggers. But the successive reports of the pistols, in a suburb of Khartoum and within a few yards of the inhabited portion of it, had attracted the attention of an Egyptian picket patrolling the town. As a rule, the soldiers who in Upper Egypt act as police only put in an appearance when they think there is no danger. If they do not hesitate to take strong measures against quarrelsome slaves and drunken negroes, they prudently avoid all interference in the disputes of the Mussulmen, slave dealers and scamps of all sorts, who, knife in hand, swarm about Khartoum. But a large portion of the Egyptian army is composed of prisoners taken in former days from the territories now annexed to Egypt, and those in whom the Government places the most reliance come from the Dinka tribe, fine, brave, soldier-like looking men. The slave merchants have for some time past abandoned all idea of dealing with this tribe, their indomitable character, their independent spirit, and, above all, their strength rendering them very dangerous customers. In the ranks of the army, on the contrary, although they are occasionally insubordinate, they render valuable service. The commanding officers themselves frequently belong to this tribe, and it was only last year that the Soudan contingent was under the command of Adam Pasha, a Dinka ex-prisoner.