for arguing," said the Colonel,
roughly. "Our lives all depend upon your making an effort, and we cannot
possibly leave you behind."

"But I will fall off."

"I'll tie you on with my puggaree. I wish I had the cummerbund which I
lent poor Stuart. Now, Tippy, I think we might make a break for it!"

But the black soldier had been staring with a disconsolate face out over
the desert, and he turned upon his heel with an oath.

"There!" said he, sullenly. "You see what comes of all your foolish
talking! You have ruined our chances as well as your own!"

Half a dozen mounted camel-men had appeared suddenly over the lip of the
bowl-shaped hollow, standing out hard and clear against the evening
sky, where the copper basin met its great blue lid. They were travelling
fast, and waved their rifles as they came. An instant later the bugle
sounded an alarm, and the camp was up with a buzz like an overturned
bee-hive. The Colonel ran back to his companions, and the black soldier
to his camel. Stephens looked relieved, and Belmont sulky, while
Monsieur Fardet raved, with his one uninjured hand in the air.

"Sacred name of a dog!" he cried. "Is there no end to it, then? Are we
never to come out of the hands of these accursed Dervishes?"

"Oh, they really are Dervishes, are they?" said the Colonel, in an acid
voice. "You seem to be altering your opinions. I thought they were an
invention of the British Government."

The poor fellows' tempers were getting frayed and thin. The Colonel's
sneer was like a match to a magazine, and in an instant the Frenchman
was dancing in front of him with a broken torrent of angry words. His
hand was clutching at Cochrane's throat before Belmont and Stephens
could pull him off.

"If it were not for your grey hairs----" he said.

"Damn your impudence!" cried the Colonel.

"If we have to die, let us die like gentlemen, and not like so many
corner-boys," said Belmont, with dignity.

"I only said I was glad to see that Monsieur Fardet had learned
something from his adventures," the Colonel sneered.

"Shut up, Cochrane! What do you want to aggravate him for?" cried the
Irishman.

"Upon my word, Belmont, you forget yourself! I do not permit people to
address me in this fashion."

"You should look after your own manners, then."

"Gentlemen, gentlemen, here are the ladies!" cried Stephens, and the
angry, overstrained men relapsed into a gloomy silence, pacing up and
down, and jerking viciously