y we were able to
reach before the pack swung round upon the horses' tracks, and therefore
they did not view us. Here we stayed until following the loop, they came
to the patch of bush and passed behind it. Then we ran forward again as
far as we could go. Glancing backwards as we went, I saw our two poor,
foundered beasts plunging away across the plain, happily almost in the
same line along which we had ridden from the rise. They were utterly
done, but freed from our weights and urged on by fear, could still
gallop and keep ahead of the dogs, though we knew that this would not
be for very long. I saw also that the Khan, guessing what we had done
in our despair, was trying to call his hounds off the horses, but as
yet without avail, for they would not leave the quarry which they had
viewed.

All this came to my sight in a flash, but I remember the picture well.
The mighty, snow-clad Peak surmounted by its column of glowing smoke and
casting its shadow for mile upon mile across the desert flats; the plain
with its isolated rocks and grey bushes; the doomed horses struggling
across it with convulsive bounds; the trailing line of great dogs that
loped after them, and amongst these, looking small and lonely in that
vast place, the figure of the Khan and his horse, of which the black
hide was beflecked with foam. Then above, the blue and tender sky,
where the round moon shone so clearly that in her quiet, level light no
detail, even the smallest, could escape the eye.

Now youth and even middle age were far behind me, and although a very
strong man for my years, I could not run as I used to do. Also I was
most weary, and my limbs were stiff and chafed with long riding, so
I made but slow progress, and to worsen matters I struck my left foot
against a stone and hurt it much. I implored Leo to go on and leave me,
for we thought that if we could once reach the river our scent would be
lost in the water; at any rate that it would give us a chance of life.
Just then too, I heard the belling bay of the hound Master, and waited
for the next. Yes, it was nearer to us. The Khan had made a cast and
found our line. Presently we must face the end.

"Go, go!" I said. "I can keep them back for a few minutes and you may
escape. It is your quest, not mine. Ayesha awaits you, not me, and I am
weary of life. I wish to die and have done with it."

Thus I gasped, not all at once, but in broken words, as I hobbled along
clinging to Leo's arm.