But Mrs. Belmont’s eyes were far away, and she shook her head sadly as she gently put the girl’s hands aside.

“I do not care how I look.  I cannot think of it,” said she; “could you, if you had left the man you love behind you, as I have mine?”

“I’m begin—­beginning to think I have,” sobbed poor Sadie, and buried her hot face in Mrs. Belmont’s motherly bosom.

CHAPTER X.

The Camel Corps had all passed onwards down the khor in pursuit of the retreating Dervishes, and for a few minutes the escaped prisoners had been left alone.  But now there came a cheery voice calling upon them, and a red turban bobbed about among the rocks, with the large white face of the Nonconformist minister smiling from beneath it.  He had a thick lance with which to support his injured leg, and this murderous crutch combined with his peaceful appearance to give him a most incongruous aspect—­as of a sheep which has suddenly developed claws.  Behind him were two negroes with a basket and a water-skin.

“Not a word!  Not a word!” he cried, as he stumped up to them.  “I know exactly how you feel.  I’ve been there myself.  Bring the water, Ali!  Only half a cup, Miss Adams; you shall have some more presently.  Now your turn, Mrs. Belmont!  Dear me, dear me, you poor souls, how my heart does bleed for you!  There’s bread and meat in the basket, but you must be very moderate at first.”  He chuckled with joy, and slapped his fat hands together as he watched them.

“But the others?” he asked, his face turning grave again.

The Colonel shook his head.  “We left them behind at the wells.  I fear that it is all over with them.”

“Tut, tut!” cried the clergyman, in a boisterous voice, which could not cover the despondency of his expression; “you thought, no doubt, that it was all over with me, but here I am in spite of it.  Never lose heart, Mrs. Belmont.  Your husband’s position could not possibly be as hopeless as mine was.”

“When I saw you standing on that rock up yonder, I put it down to delirium,” said the Colonel.  “If the ladies had not seen you, I should never have ventured to believe it.”

“I am afraid that I behaved very badly.  Captain Archer says that I nearly spoiled all their plans, and that I deserved to be tried by a drumhead court-martial and shot.  The fact is that, when I heard the Arabs beneath me, I forgot myself in my anxiety to know if any of you were left.”

“I wonder that you were not shot without any drumhead court-martial,” said the Colonel.  “But how in the world did you get here?”