Even the Colonel, after that first indignant outburst, had forgotten all about them.

The advancing camel-men had trotted to the bottom of the hill, had dismounted, and leaving their camels kneeling, had rushed furiously onward.

Fifty of them were clambering up the path and over the rocks together, their red turbans appearing and vanishing again as they scrambled over the boulders.

Without a shot or a pause they surged over the three black soldiers, killing one and stamping the other two down under their hurrying feet.

So they burst on to the plateau at the top, where an unexpected resistance checked them for an instant.
The travellers, nestling up against one another, had awaited, each after his own fashion, the coming of the Arabs.