When Durrance had suggested that Harry might be taken to Omdurman, Ethne had at once replied, "Colonel Trench is in Omdurman." She needed no explanation of Harry's disappearance from Wadi Halfa into the southern Soudan.

It was deliberate; he had gone out to be captured, to be taken to Omdurman.

Moreover, Ethne had spoken of the untrustworthiness of the go-between, and there again had helped Durrance in his conjectures.

There was some obligation upon Feversham to come to Trench's help.

Suppose that Feversham had laid his plans of rescue, and had ventured out into the desert that he might be his own go-between.