“By George, Belmont, I believe the hundred-to-one chance has come off!” said he.

CHAPTER IV.

“What’s the meaning of this, Mansoor?” cried Belmont harshly.  “Who are these people, and why are you standing staring as if you had lost your senses?”

The dragoman made an effort to compose himself, and licked his dry lips before he answered.

“I do not know who they are,” said he in a quavering voice.

“Who they are?” cried the Frenchman.  “You can see who they are.  They are armed men upon camels, Ababdeh, Bishareen—­Bedouins, in short, such as are employed by the Government upon the frontier.”

“Be Jove, he may be right, Cochrane,” said Belmont, looking inquiringly at the Colonel.  “Why shouldn’t it be as he says? why shouldn’t these fellows be friendlies?”

“There are no friendlies upon this side of the river,” said the Colonel abruptly; “I am perfectly certain about that.  There is no use in mincing matters.  We must prepare for the worst.”

But in spite of his words, they stood stock-still, in a huddled group, staring out over the plain.  Their nerves were numbed by the sudden shock, and to all of them it was like a scene in a dream, vague, impersonal, and un-real.  The men upon the camels had streamed out from a gorge which lay a mile or so distant on the side of the path along which they had travelled.  Their retreat, therefore, was entirely cut off.  It appeared, from the dust and the length of the line, to be quite an army which was emerging from the hills, for seventy men upon camels cover a considerable stretch of ground.  Having reached the sandy plain, they very deliberately formed to the front, and then at the harsh call of a bugle they trotted forward in line, the parti-coloured figures all swaying and the sand smoking in a rolling yellow cloud at the heels of their camels.  At the same moment the six black soldiers doubled in from the front with their Martinis at the trail, and snuggled down like well-trained skirmishers behind the rocks upon the haunch of the hill.  Their breech blocks all snapped together as their corporal gave them the order to load.

And now suddenly the first stupor of the excursionists passed away, and was succeeded by a frantic and impotent energy.  They all ran about upon the plateau of rock in an aimless, foolish flurry, like frightened fowls in a yard.  They could not bring themselves to acknowledge that there was no possible escape for them.  Again and again they rushed to the edge of the great cliff which rose from the river, but the youngest and most daring of them could never have descended it.  The two women clung one on each side of the trembling Mansoor, with a feeling that he was officially responsible for their safety.  When he ran up and down in his desperation, his skirts and theirs all fluttered together.  Stephens, the lawyer, kept close to Sadie Adams, muttering mechanically,