Their departure was a relief to the three men who were left.
“I am glad they are gone,” said Stephens, from his heart.
“Yes, yes, it is better,” cried Fardet. “How long are we to wait?”
“Not very long now,” said Belmont grimly, as the Arabs closed in around them.
The Colonel and the three women gave one backward glance when they came to the edge of the oasis. Between the straight stems of the palms they saw the gleam of the fire, and above the group of Arabs they caught a last glimpse of the three white hats. An instant later, the camels began to trot, and when they looked back once more the palm grove was only a black clump with the vague twinkle of a light somewhere in the heart of it. As with yearning eyes they gazed at that throbbing red point in the darkness, they passed over the edge of the depression, and in an instant the huge, silent, moonlit desert was round them without a sign of the oasis which they had left. On every side the velvet, blue-black sky, with its blazing stars,
