As he stared ahead of him, his eyes beginning to adjust themselves now to the peculiar conditions of the desert atmosphere, he caught sight of a speck upon the sand which, unlike the majority of desert objects, the scanty tamarisk bushes, the low humpbacked hills which here and there formed an apparently endless chain, appeared to move, to grow almost imperceptibly larger as the distance between them diminished.

During their ride over the desert they had met no other human beings.

Once or twice they had seen, to right or left of their track, a collection of mud huts, overshadowed by the plumy tufts of tall date-palms, betokening the presence of a handful of _fellaheen_ scratching a livelihood from the unfriendly sand. Again they had twice beheld in the far distance a caravan winding its leisurely way upon some mysterious errand to an unknown destination; but these last had been too far away for their component parts of horses, camels, merchandise, to be distinguished; and after a brief glance towards the long snaky lines as they wound their way through the sand, Sir Richard and Anstice had wisely refused to strain their eyesight further.

But this solitary unit on the vast face of the desert was a different matter; and Anstice gazed steadily ahead in an as yet fruitless attempt to make out what this thing which appeared to move towards them might be.

At first he said nothing, thinking that his eyes might quite conceivably be playing him tricks, that this apparently moving figure might possibly be a figment of his brain, or one of those delusive sprites which are said to haunt the unwary traveller in the desert; but at length, as the distance between the object and himself diminished more and more rapidly, until he could have sworn he caught the flutter of a blue robe, Anstice felt it time to point out the vision or whatever it might be to his as yet unseeing companion.

"Sir Richard," he said, so suddenly that Sir Richard, who had been jogging along sunk in reverie, started in surprise. "Do you see anyone coming towards us over the sand?"

Sir Richard, thus appealed to, sat up more erectly in his saddle; and gazed with his keen old eyes in the direction of Anstice's pointing hand; and Anstice watched him with an anxiety which was surely out of place.

After a moment's fruitless search Sir Richard unslung the field-gla.s.ses which he carried, and applied them to his eyes; and in another moment, having adjusted the focus, he uttered an exclamation.

"By Gad, Anstice, you're right! It's a native of sorts, and he is coming directly towards us. He is too far off for me to distinguish his features--you look and see what you can make of him."

He handed the gla.s.ses to Anstice, who raised them to his eyes; and after adjusting the lenses to suit his younger, keener sight, he swept them round in an attempt to focus the distant object.

First an apparently illimitable expanse of sky and sand swam slowly into view, each insignificant landmark in the desert magnified almost incredibly by the powerful gla.s.ses; and at last the blue-robed native appeared suddenly as though only a stone's throw away from the man who searched for him.

The gla.s.s revealed him as an Arab of an ordinary type clad in a faded blue djibbeh, over which he wore the short grey coat so inexplicably beloved of the native. On his head was a scarlet fez; and his blue robe was gathered up in such a way as to leave bare his brown and sinewy legs as he paddled ruthlessly and unhesitatingly over the burning sand.

As he lowered the gla.s.ses Anstice gave a short description of the advancing native to Sir Richard, adding:

"He seems to be in something of a hurry--he's covering the ground in a most energetic fashion--and he really does appear to be making straight for us!"

All at once Sir Richard's lately-born optimism fell from him like an ill-fitting garment. Taking the gla.s.ses back he adjusted them once more with fingers that absolutely trembled; and when after a long and steady stare he lowered them and turned to his companion his face was very serious.

"Anstice, I hope to G.o.d I'm mistaken, but that fellow looks uncommonly like Ha.s.san--and from the haste he's making I should say he had been sent out to meet us. And that can only mean disaster--either Bruce is worse, or----" He broke off suddenly, his fine old face suddenly grey.

"Oh, it won't be so bad as that, sir!" Unconsciously Anstice replied to the unspoken suggestion. "Possibly your daughter has sent this chap to relieve your mind--Cheniston may have taken a turn for the better--heaps of things may have happened."

"Quite so." Sir Richard was replacing his gla.s.ses in their case with oddly fumbling movements. "But I wish to G.o.d we were safely back ... we can't even see the village for these confounded palm trees!"

As though the horses understood and sympathized with the mental tension of their riders they sprang forward with renewed energy; and some hard riding brought the two men within hailing distance of the approaching native.

"It is Ha.s.san all right," said Sir Richard with a rather painful attempt at composure. "Let us hurry on and find out what is amiss at the village."

As the native drew nearer it was easy to see that he was the bearer of important news. His coffee-coloured face was shining with drops of perspiration, and his breath came in pitiful gasps as he hurried up to Sir Richard and began pouring out his story in a flood of mixed Arabic and English which was quite unintelligible to Anstice.

"Speak slower, man, slower!" Sir Richard spoke emphatically, and for a s.p.a.ce the native obeyed; but it was evident from the look of mingled consternation and rage in his hearer's face that the story was one of dire import.

When, presently, the Arab ceased, his tongue positively lolling out of his mouth like that of a thirsty dog, Sir Richard turned to Anstice with an air of determination.

"Things have been moving, with a vengeance, in our absence," he said grimly. "It seems that yesterday morning early young Garnett found a couple of Bedouins prowling about his place and helping themselves to his choicest produce; and being a hotheaded young fool he let fly at them with his revolver, the result being that by a most unlucky chance he winged one of the rascals and the other a.s.sisted him off, vowing vengeance on the whole little English colony of eight souls. It was not an empty threat either; for when Ha.s.san, feeling uneasy at the idea of harm coming to Iris, slunk into the village to find out, if possible, what mischief was afoot, he ran slick into a conclave of the brutes, and hiding behind a rock heard their plans."

"They were pretty deadly, I suppose?"

"They merely embraced the wholesale ma.s.sacre, under cover of night, of the English men and women who had been fools enough to trust their good faith," returned Sir Richard shortly. "Well, Ha.s.san, whose wits are as sharp as his ears are long, lost no time in going back to his mistress with the information; and between them they evolved a plan which might, with the most marvellous luck, be successful."

"And that plan, sir?" Anstice's tone was tense.

"Aided by Ha.s.san, at the approach of night the whole little group of white people crept safely into the Fort of which I told you; and when, a couple of hours later, the Bedouins came forth intent on reprisals, they found the houses of the English empty, and realized, too late, that the Fort was quite a different nut to crack."

"It is a fairly safe building?"

"Well, it has certain natural advantages, I grant." Sir Richard spoke rather dubiously. "We went over it one day, in a spirit of curiosity; and I have a pretty clear recollection of the place. To begin with, as I told you the Bedouin encampment is a sort of oasis in a valley at the foot of some quite respectably high rocks. You know the desert is not, as some people imagine, merely a flat expanse of sand. Here and there are ranges of hills, limestone, and so on--and now and then one comes across quite a chain of rocky places which in another country would be looked upon as precipices."

He paused; and Anstice waited eagerly for him to continue.

"Well, this Fort is, very luckily, built on a plateau overlooking the valley. On one side the ground slopes gently down to the little colony, but on the other the Fort overlooks a high precipice of rock which of course affords no means of transit from the ground below; so that on that side the place is absolutely impregnable."

"I see." Anstice's tone held a note of relief. "Well, that sounds fairly promising--as I suppose it means there are only three sides to defend instead of four."

"Well, it is a circular building," Sir Richard explained, "and there are only slits in the walls on two sides; and also, fortunately for us, only one means of entrance or exit, in the shape of a ma.s.sive door which could hardly be forced without a charge of dynamite. It was the stronghold, so I gather, of a kind of robber chief in the old days, and doubtless was built to resist possible a.s.saults from lawless tribesmen.

But there is one weak spot in the building--one or rather two places which are a decided menace to any defence."

"And those----"

"Well, it seems this French artist, Ma.s.senet by name, sought and obtained permission from the authorities who leased him the building to throw out a couple of windows in the upper floor which enabled him to convert the place into a very pa.s.sable studio. He was a rich man--son of a well-known Paris banker, and the cost did not intimidate him. But the result is that those two big windows, which only boast the flimsiest of sand-shutters, are, without a doubt, capable of being made into means of entry, provided, of course, that the defenders within are short of ammunition or are unable to construct efficient barricades."

"I see. I suppose they are a fair height from the ground?"

"Yes--but there are such things as ladders," said Sir Richard dryly. "Of course a mere handful of men, given a sufficiency of ammunition, might keep an attacking party at bay almost indefinitely. But I'm afraid our supply of munitions is somewhat scanty, and with women--and children--to defend----" He broke off suddenly as the native began to speak.

"You go a-back, bring help, bring many gentlemens. Me and the Effendi take care of ladees ... but you go quick--bring the soldiermans...." He stopped, as though at the end of his suggestions.

"Yes." Sir Richard's face lighted up. "I see what he means. Anstice, you or I must make all speed back to Cairo and fetch out some soldiers. The barracks swarm with them, and if I know them they'll jump at the chance of a little sc.r.a.p like this. With luck you'd be back in three days--less, if you pushed your horses--and by G.o.d I believe we could hold the Fort till then!"

As he finished the native nodded his head as though in approval of the plan; but suddenly his expressive features lengthened, and he said something in a lower tone to Sir Richard in which the words "_El Hakim_"

occurred more than once.

Sir Richard listened restively, and uttered an exclamation of annoyance.

"Well, well, there's no need to repeat it so often! Anstice, this fellow points out that after all I had better be the one to go for help, as he says your aid is urgently required at the Fort. Besides Cheniston, who seems, from what I can gather, to be in about the same state as before, Garnett got wounded last night when the besiegers tried to force an entrance, and I suppose the sooner you get to them the better."

"Well, there's something in that," conceded Anstice, reluctant to deepen the disappointment in Sir Richard's face. "You see, sir, the sooner I fix up Cheniston the better--but why shouldn't this fellow go and fetch help instead of you?"

Sir Richard's eyes brightened, but after another colloquy with the Arab his former air of dejection returned.

"He says--confound him--that the authorities in Cairo would pay more attention to me than to him--and I suppose he's not far wrong. Also he points out that with his knowledge of the land and of the language he would be of more use to the garrison"--he used the word half ashamedly--"than I, who know little of either. His plan is for me to return immediately with all possible speed to fetch help, while you and he seek, under cover of night, to enter the Fort, a task which I gather," said Sir Richard grimly, "is not altogether devoid of risk."

Anstice said nothing, but his mouth was set in a hard line which betokened ill for anyone who attempted to bar his way into that same Fort, and with a half-strangled sigh Sir Richard continued his speech.

"It seems on the whole the best plan, though G.o.d knows it's hard to turn round and leave my only daughter in this d.a.m.ned hole. Still, I see the logic of the thing, and if you are willing to go forward, why, there's nothing left for me but to turn back."

"I'll go forward all right," replied Anstice quietly. "And if you will trust me, I will do my best to carry on until you arrive with reinforcements."