“I’m just about fed up with Mongars,” Quest declared.

“We do nothing but lie about, and they won’t even let us fire a gun off.”

“Personally,” the Professor confessed, holding up a glass bottle in front of him from which a yellow beetle was making frantic efforts to escape, “I find this little patch of country unusually interesting.  The specimen which I have here—­I spare you the scientific name for him—­belongs to a class of beetle which has for long eluded me.”

Laura regarded the specimen with disfavour.

“So far as I am concerned,” she observed, “I shouldn’t have cared if he’d eluded you a little longer.  Don’t you dare let him out, Professor.”

“My dear young lady,” the Professor assured her, “the insect is perfectly secure.  Through the cork, as you see, I have bored a couple of holes, hoping to keep him alive until we reach Port Said, when I can prepare him as a specimen.”

“Port Said!” Lenora murmured.  “It sounds like heaven.”

Quest motioned them to sit a little nearer.

“Well,” he said, “I fancy we are all feeling about the same except the Professor, and even he wants to get some powder for his beetle.  I had a moment’s talk with Craig this morning, and from what he says I fancy they mean to make a move a little further in before long.  It’ll be all the more difficult to escape then.”

“You think we could get away?” Lenora whispered eagerly.

Quest glanced cautiously around.  They were surrounded by thick vegetation, but they were only a very short distance from the camp.

“Seems to me,” he continued, “we shall have to try it some day or other and I’m all for trying it soon.  Even if they caught us, I don’t believe they’d dare to kill us, with the English soldiers so close behind.  I am going to get hold of two or three rifles and some ammunition.  That’s easy, because they leave them about all the time.  And what you girls want to do is to hide some food and get a bottle of water.”

“What about Craig?” the Professor asked.

“We are going to take him along,” Quest declared grimly.  “He’s had the devil’s own luck so far, but it can’t last forever.  I’ll see to that part of the business, if you others get ready and wait for me to give the signal....  What’s that?”

They all looked around.  There had been a little rustling amongst the canopy of bushes.  Quest peered through and returned, frowning.

“Feerda again,” he muttered.  “She hangs around all the time, trying to listen to what we are saying.  She couldn’t have heard this, though.  Now, girls, remember.  When the food is about this evening, see how much you can get hold of.  I know just where to find the guns and the horses.  Let’s separate now.  The Professor and I will go on a beetle hunt.”

They dispersed in various directions.  It was not until late in the evening, when the Mongars had withdrawn a little to indulge in their customary orgy of crooning songs, that they were absolutely alone.  Quest looked out of the tent in which they had been sitting and came back again.