CHAPTER XVIII
HE FINDS HIMSELF IN DEEP WATERS
He had been lying motionless, deep down in the silent depths of an ocean of recuperative unconsciousness; complete inertia had been numbing his every faculty; he had slept the sleep that follows a prolonged struggle with death—slumbers which should have lasted for hours.
Yet to him the crack of that first Mauser had been like the crack of a whiplash to a drowsy horse. The second report had not sounded ere he was on his feet—reeling, it is true, but nevertheless standing. Automatically the man's hand went across his eyes, to brush away the cobwebs of slumber. Mechanically he looked about him, but saw nothing; he was not thinking: a single idea possessed him to the exclusion of all else. His exhausted vitality rallied to his support in the work he had to do; but his weary brain had strength to comprehend but one thing. He did not understand that he was in Madame la Princesse's marquee, so he did not wonder at the manner of his coming there. He did not know that he was too weak to move about alone, so he did not hesitate to exert himself.
Simply that he was called upon to help repulse an attack by the Tawareks—that was his whole and only thought.
It naturally followed that there was naught to be done but to obey the duty call; and he responded, if mechanically.
In an instant he was outside the marquee, staggering toward the nearest edge of the oasis. Somewhere he blundered
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