nds, with those
murderers waiting all round his. He's my saint and hero from now ever
after."

"Well, he's out of his troubles anyhow," said Miss Adams, with that
bluntness which the years bring with them.

"Then I wish I was also."

"I don't see how that would help him."

"Well, I think he might feel less lonesome," said Sadie, and drooped her
saucy little chin upon her breast.

The four had been riding in silence for some little time, when the
Colonel clapped his hand to his brow with a gesture of dismay.

"Good God!" he cried, "I am going off my head."

Again and again they had perceived it during the night, but he had
seemed quite rational since daybreak. They were shocked, therefore, at
this sudden outbreak, and tried to calm him with soothing words.

"Mad as a hatter," he shouted. "Whatever do you think I saw?"

"Don't trouble about it, whatever it was," said Mrs. Belmont, laying her
hand soothingly upon his as the camels closed together. "It is no wonder
that you are overdone. You have thought and worked for all of us so
long. We shall halt presently, and a few hours' sleep will quite restore
you."

But the Colonel looked up again, and again he cried out in his agitation
and surprise.

"I never saw anything plainer in my life," he groaned. "It is on
the point of rock on our right front,--poor old Stuart with my red
cummerbund round his head just the same as we left him."

The ladies had followed the direction of the Colonel's frightened gaze,
and in an instant they were all as amazed as he.

[Illustration: On this pinnacle stood a motionless figure p242]

There was a black, bulging ridge like a bastion upon the right side of
the terrible khor up which the camels were winding. At one point it rose
into a small pinnacle. On this pinnacle stood a solitary, motionless
figure clad entirely in black, save for a brilliant dash of scarlet upon
his head. There could not surely be two such short, sturdy figures or
such large, colourless faces in the Libyan desert. His shoulders were
stooping forward, and he seemed to be staring intently down into
the ravine. His pose and outline were like a caricature of the great
Napoleon.

"Can it possibly be he?"

"It must be. It is!" cried the ladies. "You see he is looking towards us
and waving his hand."

"Good Heavens! They'll shoot him! Get down, you fool, or you'll
be shot!" roared the Colonel. But his dry throat would only emit a
discordant croaking.

Sev