in the long hours of gasping, breathless heat. For a mile or so the
route lay through fertile gardens and fields. Then suddenly the
cultivation ended abruptly on the edge of a sandy desert that, seamed
with _nullahs_, or deep, steep-sided ravines, and dotted with tall
clumps of thorny cactus, stretched away to the horizon. The road became
a barely discernible track; but the two _sowars_ cantered on,
confidently heading for the spot where the fresh horses awaited the
party.

Over the sand the riders swept, past a slow-plodding elephant lumbering
back to the city with a load of fodder, by groups of tethered camels.
Hares started up in alarm and bounded away, grey partridges whirred up
and yellow-beaked _minas_ flew off chattering indignantly. The slight
morning coolness soon vanished; and Wargrave, soft and somewhat out of
condition after his weeks of shipboard life, wiped his streaming face
often before the guiding _sowars_ threw up their hands in warning and
vanished slowly from sight as their sure-footed horses picked their way
down a steep _nullah_. This was the ravine in which the quarry hid. One
after another of the riders followed the leaders down the narrow track,
trotted across the sandy, rock-strewn river-bed and climbed up the far
side to where the fresh horses and a picturesque mob of wild-looking
beaters stood awaiting them.

Among the animals Wargrave noticed a smart grey Arab pony with a
side-saddle.

"I see Mrs. Norton intends coming out with us," observed the Maharajah
looking at the pony. "We must wait for her."

"It won't be for long, sir," said Raymond, pointing to a rising trail of