Traces in the Sand
put the thought from him by an effort of will.
The full force of his feeling for the girl flooded in on him. From the night when her servants had seized him in the aul she had been in his thoughts. It was this feeling—the binding love that sometimes falls to the lot of a man of solitary habits, whose character does not permit him to show it—that had led him to warn her against going into the Gobi. And it was this that had urged him after her with all possible haste.
Now the Hastings' caravan had been wiped out and Mary was in the hands of the men of Sungan.
"We'll start at once," he said quietly. "That is if you feel up to it."
The Englishman roused with an effort and tried to smile.
"I'm pretty well done up, I'm afraid, Captain Gray. But put me on a mule, you know. I'll manage well enough." Gray knew that he was lying, and warmed to the pluck of the man. "I must not delay you."
"We should be at the ruins in thirty-six hours."
"Right! Where's the mule" he broke off as Mirai Khan appeared beside them.
"Excellency!" The Kirghiz's eyes were wide with excitement. "I have seen men with rifles approaching on two sides."
"Bring your mules into the brush, Captain Gray," said Sir Lionel quickly. "And place your men be-
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