ld have cut his tongue out rather
than let slip a word concerning it after his first vain appeal.

As time went on and the caravan advanced on its march across the desert,
Stanton ignored the presence of Sanda as she ignored Ahmara's. She ate
and slept in her own tent, which had been Max's. He it was who saw that
she had good food and filtered water. Wherever fruit could be got, by
fair means or foul, there was some for her, whether others had it or
not. Max made coffee and tea for Sanda. He tended the camel she rode in
order that it might be strong and in good health. When the caravan came
into the country of the Touaregs he rode near her day by day, and at
night lay as close to her tent as he dared. Sometimes he noticed that
Stanton eyed him cynically when he performed unostentatious services for
Sanda, but outwardly the only two white men were on civil terms. Stanton
even seemed glad of Max's companionship, and discussed routes and
prospects with him, asking his advice sometimes; and once, when the
explorer was attacked by a Soudanese maddened by the sun and Stanton's
brutality, Max struck up the black man's weapon; almost before he knew
what he was doing he had saved the life of Sanda's husband.

"Why did I do it?" he asked himself afterward. Yet he knew some strange
"kink" in his nature would compel him to do the same thing again under
like circumstances.

Stanton, at his best, was an ideal leader of men. Many a forlorn hope he
had led and brought to success through sheer self-confidence and belief
in his star. But whether the failure of his mad marriage had disturbed
his faith in his own persistent luck, or whether Ahmara's influence made
for degeneration, in any case, a blight seemed to have fallen on the
once great man's mentality. It had been a boast of his that, though he
drank freely when "resting on his laurels" in Europe, he was strong
enough to "swear off" at any moment. He had accustomed himself to taking
tea and water only in blazing African heat; and since the serious
illness that followed his sunstroke he had been forbidden to touch
alcohol anywhere, in any circumstances. For a time he had been
frightened into obedience to doctors' orders; but gradually he had
drifted back into old habits; and after his quarrel with Ahmara at
Touggourt he found oblivion in much Scotch whisky, his favourite drink.

Perhaps if all had gone well with Stanton, if Ahmara had not come again
into his life and lost him Sand