Like Robert he gazed long into the blue west, which was flecked only by little clouds of white.
"A sign! A sign!" he said.

"If we could only behold a sign!" But the heavens said nothing.

The sun, a huge ball of glowing copper, was already far down the Western curve, and the hunter's heart beat hard with anxiety.

He felt that if help came it should come soon.

But little water was left to the soldiers, although their food might last another day, and the night itself, now not far away, would bring the danger of a new attack by a creeping foe, greatly superior in numbers.