FAKI PLOT. — NAKEOW ESCAPE. 229 him that he must save us from a great peril, and that, as he knew •the road, Ave must return with him to Sennaar along the Abyssinian frontier. Our servant became now attentive, and winked to ,me to mark the Faki ; however, wo drank on stoutly, would not allow any danger was near us, and at last out came his secret. On our arrival hereabouts, the Pascha had sent his stores of powder to this village, not so much because, from the great want of caution in the soldiery, it and the camp were in great peril Avhcn it was there, but as he held it improbable the enemy would risk the blowing so many holy men and their village into tlie air by firing it. This, however, we now, to our great surprise, learned was about to be done, and the holy men were, witliin three days, •secretly to remove their possessions by night out of the village, find hide them in the great cave of the Kassela, and when all was ready, the house in which the all-important powder Avas stored would be fired. If this plot Avere carried out, the Avhole army, •and we Avith it, would be lost to a certainty, as the Ilallenga, excited by tlieir priests, Avonld have then set on us, and Ave could have offered no resistance. As by this time the Faki could no longer either get upon his legs, or stand Avheu placed on thein, our servant raised tlie burma out oi' the ground, and placed it on his beast before him, to bear it off to tlie camp, where Ave might finisli its contents. Burdeno<l Avith this important secret, l)ut otherAvise very merry, Ave rode back to the t;amp. My lirother made liis re|)ort to the Paseha as to tlie illness of the Faki, and the former could not conceal his annoyance, that, by declining the medicine, a Avaiit of confidence had been shoAvn him, — a confidence that he on so many occasions had most liorribly abused, as had l)een acknowledged by his former trusty surgeon, Soliniaii Kft'emli.

IJcfore now, I had, at t!ie instigation of his higher ofiicers, more than once begged of the I'ascha to remove the stores of powder into the camp, and jilace a cordon of sentinids round it, as the priesthood, most especiallv, were unworthy of trust. I now repeated the recpiest ; he ga/c(l on me Avith s])arkliiig eyes, and said, " I know all I " At once he g;nc orders to closely siirrouiid the A'illage Avith troops, to allow no one to pass in or out, and to strongly reinforce the guard over the po\v(U-r-ni!igazinc. Next n 4