Ken was standing, looking half dazed. His rifle was on the ground, and he
was holding his left arm with his right hand.

'Are you hurt, Ken?' asked Roy, and there was real concern in his voice.
The two had known one another less than a week, yet each had come to
respect and like the other.

'No. I'm not hit. The bullet struck the barrel of my rifle. It numbed my
arm for the moment. I'm quite all right, but my rifle's done for, so far
as firing goes. Rotten luck, losing Kemp.'

'Never mind Kemp,' said Roy, serious for once. 'These Turkish Johnnies are
between us and home. And they're after us. It'll take us all our time to
get clear. Which way are we to go?'

As he spoke a shout came from the next gully. It was Kemp's voice, and he
was evidently calling his men up to pursue the two Britishers.

Ken glanced round quickly. He saw at once that it was out of the question
to make straight back for their own lines. They would be cut off for a
dead certainty. The two other alternatives were to make off to the right
or to go straight back up the gully.

But going to the right meant that they would have to climb the right-hand
wall of the gully, which was much steeper and higher than that to the
left. The result would be that they would be exposed against the sky line
to the enemy's fire.

All this flashed through his mind in a couple of seconds, and he instantly
took his decision.

'We must go back up the gully, Roy,' he said sharply. 'It's absolutely our
only chance.'

'Any way, so long as we don't drop into the clutches of that swine Kemp,'
said Roy. 'I fancy I see him giving us any parole.'

He whipped round as he spoke, and the two set to running steadily up the
gully. As they passed the scene of their late encounter where the bodies
of the dead Turks lay by the broken machine gun, Ken stooped quickly and
picked up one of their rifles, and helped himself also to a bandolier of
cartridges.

This caused only a few seconds delay, yet before they were under way
again, there came a crackle of shots from below, and bullets whizzed
uncomfortably close about their ears.

Luckily for them, a few yards farther up was a bend in the course of the
ravine, and once round that they were safe for the moment.

Safe for the moment--yes--but the prospect before them was not exactly
inviting, and Ken's lips tightened as he and Roy strained onwards up the
hill-side, which grew steeper with every yard.

They were going straight a