we breasted higher levels from which we could see, through gaps between
hill and forest, backward along the way we had come. There was smoke
from the direction of Adana that smudged a whole sky-line, and between
that and the sea about a dozen sooty columns mushroomed against the
clouds.

There was not a mile of the way we came that did not hold a hundred
hiding-places fit for ambuscade, but our party was too numerous and
well-armed to need worry on that account. Monty and Kagig drew ahead,
quite a little way behind the gipsies still, but far in front of us,
who had to keep Fred upright on his horse.

"My particular need is breakfast," said I.

"And Will's is the woman!" said Fred, admitting himself awake at last.
Will had been straining in the stirrups on the top of every rise his
horse negotiated ever since the sun rose. It certainly was a mystery
why Maga should have been spirited away, after the freedom permitted
her the day before.

"Rustum Khan has probably made off with her, or cut her head off!"
remarked Fred by way of offering comfort, yawning with the conscious
luxury of having slept. "I don't see Rustum Khan. Let's hope it's
true! That 'ud give the American lady a better chance for her life
in case we should overtake her!"

Will and Fred have always chosen the most awkward places and the
least excuse for horseplay, and the sleep seemed to have expelled
the last of the fever from Fred's bones, so that he felt like a schoolboy
on holiday. Will grabbed him around the neck and they wrestled,