arguing, or nonsense,” said the Colonel roughly. “Our lives all depend upon your making an effort, and we cannot possibly leave you behind.”
“But I will fall off.”
“I’ll tie you on with my puggaree. I wish I had the cummerbund which I lent poor Stuart. Now, Tippy, I think we might make a break for it!”
But the black soldier had been staring with a disconsolate face out over the desert, and he turned upon his heel with an oath.
“There!” said he sullenly. “You see what comes of all your foolish talking! You have ruined our chances as well as your own!”
Half-a-dozen mounted camel-men had appeared suddenly over the lip of the bowl-shaped hollow, standing out hard and clear against the evening sky where the copper basin met its great blue lid. They were travelling fast, and waved their rifles as they came. An instant later the bugle sounded an alarm, and the camp was up with a buzz like an overturned bee-hive. The Colonel ran back to his companions, and the black soldier to his camel. Stephens looked relieved, and Belmont
