-glass handed to him by Brace. "One could fancy
it was all a false alarm, and that poor Denny's injuries were the result
of some troubles in the bazaar."

"Hist! quick!" I said sharply; and I pointed to a cloud of dust far
away before us.

"Our men!"

But as the words were spoken, we caught sight of the glint of steel just
above the dust cloud; and knowing, as we did, that they were
lance-points, we obeyed a sign from Brace, and took refuge among the
trees by the roadside.

We were none too soon, for the cloud swept nearer, and, headed by a
splendidly mounted man in a yellow caftan, belted with a rich cashmere
shawl, about a couple of dozen white-clothed troopers swept by, and
disappeared as they had come, in a cloud of dust.

"What are they?" said the doctor, inquiringly.

"Soldiers of some irregular regiment," replied Brace, looking after the
horsemen thoughtfully.

"Then there is no reason why they may not be friends," I said.

"Where is their regular officer, then?" said Brace, drily. "They would
not be led by a man like the one we saw."

The opinion was unanswerable, and we tramped on along the dusty road,
wearied out, but kept going by the excitement; till, coming upon a group
of people, whose appearance suggested that they had journeyed from the
city, Brace stopped them to question them about the state of the place.

For answer they rushed by us, and pursued their way, an action telling
pretty plainly that some great change must have taken place, or these
people would have been obsequious to a degree.

The sun went down, but the heat was as great as ever; and feeling at
times as if I must drop, I kept on that weary tramp. Then darkness
fell, the great stars came out, and feeling that our prospects would be
better of getting unnoticed into the city, now not very distant, we took
heart, and tramped forward in regular military time, the swing of the
march seeming to help us forward.

Group after group of people were passed, but none heeded us, and no
further efforts were made to stay and question them.

"No," said Brace; "we will get our answer at head-quarters."

Then, calling a halt for ten minutes, we sank down by the roadside to
rest before starting for the finishing stage of our painful journey.

But we had no sooner thrown ourselves down, than from the darkness ahead
came the murmur of voices and the tramp of feet, very low and distant,
but peculiar enough to make Brace spring up, while m