Pages 116-133 Summary

He goes back to the village after receiving a cable and arrives on the steamer. It has only been thirty-two days since he left the village. He is met by his friend Mahjoub and is told that the boys are all right. "I had not thought of the boys during the whole of the ghastly journey. I had been thinking of her. Again I said to Mahjoub: 'What happened?'" (Chapter 8, pg. 116). They mount their donkeys and ride. The narrator says he should have listened to Mahjoub and married her.

Mahjoub asks what is happening in Khartoum and is told about the educational conference. Mahjoub says they should build schools and hospitals before doing anything else. He doesn't tell Mahjoub that a conference delegate told him that he reminded him of Dr. Mustafa Sa'eed who had been the President of the...