ent there was the least booty in dispute, or even the faintest hope
of booty. No discipline was accepted save that imposed by force.

When one of these wandering bands seemed to be approaching them, Simon
carried his rifle ostentatiously as though on the point of taking aim.
He entered into conversation only at a distance and with a forbidding
and repellent air.

Dolores watched him uneasily, avoiding speech with him. Once she had
to tell him that he was taking the wrong direction and to prove his
mistake to him. But this involved an explanation to which he listened
with impatience and which he cut short by grumbling:

"And then? What does it matter if we keep to the right or to the left?
We know nothing. There is nothing to prove that Rolleston has taken
Miss Bakefield with him on his expedition. He may have imprisoned her
somewhere, until he is free to return for her . . . so that, in
following him, I risk the chance of going farther away from her.
. . ."

Nevertheless, the need of action drew him on, however uncertain the
goal to be achieved. He could never have found heart to apply himself
to investigations or to check the impulse which urged him onward.

Dolores marched indefatigably by his side, sometimes even in front.
She had taken off her shoes and stockings. He watched her bare feet
making their light imprint in the sand. Her hips swayed as she walked,
as with American girls. She was all grace, strength and suppleness.
Less distracted, paying more attention to external things, she probed
the horizon with her keen gaze. It was while doing so that she cried,
pointing with outstretched hand:

"Look over there, the aeroplane!"

It was right at the top of a long, long upward slope of the whole
plain, at a spot where the mist and the ground were blended till they
could not say for certain whether the aeroplane was flying through the
mist or running along the soil. It looked like one of those
sailing-ships which seem suspended on the confines of the ocean. It
was only gradually that the reality became apparent: the machine was
motionless, resting on the ground.

"There is no doubt," said Simon, "considering the direction, that this
is the aeroplane that crossed the river. Damaged by Mazzani's bullet,
it flew as far as this, where it managed to land as best it could."

Now the figure of the pilot could be distinguished; and he too--a
strange phenomenon--was motionless, sitting in his place, his head
almost