in a trance.

"Good Heavens, Mrs. Belmont, what _is_ the matter?" he cried.

For answer she pointed out over the desert. Far away, miles on the
other side of the scene of the fight, a small body of men were riding
towards them.

"By Jove, yes; there's some one there. Who can it be?"

They were all straining their eyes, but the distance was so great that
they could only be sure that they were camel-men and about a dozen in
number.

"It's those devils who were left behind in the palm grove," said
Cochrane. "There's no one else it can be. One consolation, they can't
get away again. They've walked right into the lion's mouth."

But Mrs. Belmont was still gazing with the same fixed intensity, and the
same ivory face. Now, with a wild shriek of joy, she threw her two
hands into the air. "It's they!" she screamed. "They are saved!
It's they, Colonel, it's they! Oh, Miss Adams, Miss Adams, it is they!"
She capered about on the top of the hill with wild eyes like an excited
child.

Her companions would not believe her, for they could see nothing, but
there are moments when our mortal senses are more acute than those who
have never put their whole heart and soul into them can ever realise.
Mrs. Belmont had already run down the rocky path, on the way to her
camel, before they could distinguish that which had long before carried
its glad message to her. In the van of the approaching party, three
white dots shimmered in the sun, and they could only come from the three
European hats. The riders were travelling swiftly, and by the time
their comrades had started to meet them they could plainly see that it
was indeed Belmont, Fardet, and Stephens, with the dragoman Mansoor, and
the wounded Soudanese rifleman. As they came together they saw that
their escort consisted of Tippy Tilly and the other old Egyptian
soldiers. Belmont rushed onwards to meet his wife, but Fardet stopped
to grasp the Colonel's hand.

"_Vive la France! Vivent les Anglais!_" he was yelling. "_Tout va
bien, n'est ce pas_, Colonel? Ah, _canaille! Vivent la croix et
les Chretiens!_" He was incoherent in his delight.

The Colonel, too, was as enthusiastic as his Anglo-Saxon standard would
permit. He could not gesticulate, but he laughed in the nervous
crackling way which was his top-note of emotion.

"My dear boy, I am deuced glad to see you all again. I gave you up for
lost. Never was as pleased at anything in my life! How did you ge