upon her pretty face. “Do look, Mr. Stephens! That’s just the one only thing we wanted to make it just perfectly grand. See the men upon the camels coming out from between those hills!”
They all looked at the long string of red-turbaned riders who were winding out of the ravine, and there fell such a hush that the buzzing of the flies sounded quite loud upon their ears. Colonel Cochrane had lit a match, and he stood with it in one hand and the unlit cigarette in the other until the flame licked round his fingers. Belmont whistled. The dragoman stood staring with his mouth half-open, and a curious slaty tint in his full, red lips. The others looked from one to the other with an uneasy sense that there was something wrong. It was the Colonel who broke the silence.
“By George, Belmont, I believe the hundred-to-one chance has come off!” said he.
