you know me. I have been very selfish and
thoughtless."

"At least you had no need for all these strong emotions. You were
sufficiently alive without them. Now it has been different with me."

"Why did you need emotions, Mr. Stephens'?"

"Because anything is better than stagnation. Pain is better than
stagnation. I have only just begun to live. Hitherto I have been
a machine upon the earth's surface. I was a one-ideaed man, and a
one-ideaed man is only one remove from a dead man. That is what I
have only just begun to realise. For all these years I have never been
stirred, never felt a real throb of human emotion pass through me. I had
no time for it. I had observed it in others, and I had vaguely wondered
whether there was some want in me which prevented my sharing the
experience of my fellow-mortals. But now these last few days have
taught me how keenly I can live--that I can have warm hopes and deadly
fears--that I can hate and that I can--well, that I can have every
strong feeling which the soul can experience. I have come to life. I
may be on the brink of the grave, but at least I can say now that I have
lived."

"And why did you lead this soul-killing life in England?"

"I was ambitious--I wanted to get on. And then there were my mother and
my sisters to be thought of. Thank Heaven, here is the morning coming.
Your aunt and you will soon cease to feel the cold."

"And you without your coat?"

"Oh, I have a very good circulation. I can manage very well in my
shirt-sleeves."

And now the long, cold, weary night was over, and the deep blue-black
sky had lightened to a wonderful mauve-violet, with the larger stars
still glinting brightly out of it. Behind them the grey line had
crept higher and higher, deepening into a delicate rose-pink, with the
fan-like rays of the invisible sun shooting and quivering across it.
Then, suddenly, they felt its warm touch upon their backs, and there
were hard black shadows upon the sand in front of them. The Dervishes
loosened their cloaks and proceeded to talk cheerily among themselves.
The prisoners also began to thaw, and eagerly ate the doora which was
served out for their breakfasts. A short halt had been called, and a cup
of water handed to each.

"Can I speak to you, Colonel Cochrane?" asked the dragoman.

"No, you can't," snapped the Colonel.

"But it is very important--all our safety may come from it."

The Colonel frowned and pulled at his moustache.

"Well