way into
the silver moonlit desert. In the utter stillness, with the cold pure
air, the sands unmarked by any footstep, and the impression of
unlimited space, the desert seemed a new world--a world far away from
the old one.

But busy days followed, and the desert soon lost its first charm in the
solid practical work of leading the horses across it on foot till they
should be strong enough to be ridden again. It was hot dusty work in
the midday sun, and Mac was thankful when the day came for him to hoist
his lazy bones into the saddle. The camp grew, and became a place of
importance with its great piles of stores, its roads and its rows of
mean speedily-erected shops of Greek, Armenian and Egyptian cheapjacks.
The troops quickly fell in with the life, and set out to make the most
of Egypt and its pleasures. They were there until the end of April,
and in those five months Mac saw most of the country one way or
another, though all his journeyings are not chronicled in the pages to
come. In the course of time he hated the place, and longed with the
rest of the mounted men to pass to new fields and fresh adventures.
But he looks back now on those Egyptian days as the jolliest days there
ever were, and breathes a sigh of sorrow that they can never come again.

CHAPTER VI

DAYS IN THE DESERT

Mac felt absolutely dejected, and looked it. His mare, too, appeared
neither happy nor spirited. Except for some nebulous figures,
indistinct in the yellow murk, little else was visible. Mac crouched
scowling in the lee of the mare, who stood with drooping head and
closed eyes, swaying occasionally to the violent buffetings of the
desert storm, and patiently waiting for some move on the part of her
master. The three squadrons and the transport had left camp
independently just after dawn with instructions to bivouac together, at
midday, at a certain spot known to the High Command by the enigmatical
formula "No. 3. Tower, 105 deg.--Virgin's Breasts 45 deg.."

Mac, who carried the compass, had taken various bearings before the
breaking of the storm, and had now halted where the Major and he
considered angles, bearings, and letters indicated. There was no sign
of the other units. Either they had sagaciously abandoned the
expedition earlier or else they had other opinions regarding the
trysting place. Anyhow, whether they were still wandering about the
infernal desert or not, Mac was firmly convinced that camp was the