His face flushed, his lips curled back, he chattered his teeth
like an ape, and his eyes--those indolent eyes which had always twinkled
so placidly--were gorged and frantic. He threw himself upon the negro,
and struck him again and again, feebly but viciously, in his broad,
black face. He hit like a girl, round arm, with an open palm. The man
winced away for an instant, appalled by this sudden blaze of passion.
Then with an impatient, snarling cry, he slid a knife from his long
loose sleeve and struck upwards under the whirling arm. Brown sat down
at the blow and began to cough--to cough as a man coughs who has choked
at dinner, furiously, ceaselessly, spasm after spasm. Then the angry
red cheeks turned to a mottled pallor, there were liquid sounds in his
throat, and, clapping his hand to his mouth, he rolled over on to his
side. The negro, with a brutal grunt of contempt, slid his knife up his
sleeve once more, while the Colonel, frantic with impotent anger, was
seized by the bystanders, and dragged, raving with fury, back to his
forlorn party. His hands were lashed with a camel-halter, and he lay at
last, in bitter silence, beside the delirious Nonconformist.

So Headingly was gone, and Cecil Brown was gone, and their haggard eyes
were turned from one pale face to another, to know which they should
lose next of that frieze of light-hearted riders who had stood out so
clearly against the blue morning sky, when viewed from the deck-chairs
of the _Korosko_. Two gone out of ten, and a third out of his mind.
The pleasure trip was drawing to its climax.

Fardet, the Frenchman, was sitting alone with his chin resting upon his
hands, and his elbows upon his knees, staring miserably out over the
desert, when Belmont saw him start suddenly and prick up his head like a
dog who hears a strange step. Then, with clenched fingers, he bent his
face forward and stared fixedly towards the black eastern hills through
which they had passed. Belmont followed his gaze, and, yes-yes--there
was something moving there! He saw the twinkle of metal, and the sudden
gleam and flutter of some white garment. A Dervish vedette upon the
flank turned his camel twice round as a danger signal, and discharged
his rifle in the air. The echo of the crack had hardly died away before
they were all in their saddles, Arabs and negroes. Another instant, and
the camels were on their feet and moving slowly towards the point of
alarm. Several armed