had ridden longer and faster than had ever been intended. It seemed odd
that they had not overtaken the baggage camels. She looked at her watch
with a frown. "Where is your caravan, Mustafa Ali?" she called. "I see
no sign of an oasis, and the darkness will come."

"If Mademoiselle had started earlier----" he said sullenly.

"If I had started earlier it would still have been too far. To-morrow
we will arrange it otherwise," she said firmly.

"To-morrow----" he growled indistinctly.

Diana looked at him keenly. "What did you say?" she asked haughtily.

His hand went to his forehead mechanically. "To-morrow is with Allah!"
he murmured with unctuous piety.

A retort trembled on Diana's lips, but her attention was distracted
from her annoying guide to a collection of black specks far off across
the desert. They were too far away for her to see clearly, but she
pointed to them, peering at them intently. "See!" she cried. "Is that
the caravan?"

"As Allah wills!" he replied more piously than before, and Diana
wished, with a sudden feeling of irritation, that he would stop
relegating his responsibilities to the Deity and take a little more
active personal interest in his missing camel train.

The black specks were moving fast across the level plain. Very soon
Diana saw that it was not the slow, leisurely camels that they were