pparently moving figure might possibly
be a figment of his brain, or one of those delusive sprites which are
said to haunt the unwary traveller in the desert; but at length, as the
distance between the object and himself diminished more and more
rapidly, until he could have sworn he caught the flutter of a blue robe,
Anstice felt it time to point out the vision or whatever it might be to
his as yet unseeing companion.

"Sir Richard," he said, so suddenly that Sir Richard, who had been
jogging along sunk in reverie, started in surprise. "Do you see anyone
coming towards us over the sand?"

Sir Richard, thus appealed to, sat up more erectly in his saddle; and
gazed with his keen old eyes in the direction of Anstice's pointing
hand; and Anstice watched him with an anxiety which was surely out of
place.

After a moment's fruitless search Sir Richard unslung the field-glasses
which he carried, and applied them to his eyes; and in another moment,
having adjusted the focus, he uttered an exclamation.

"By Gad, Anstice, you're right! It's a native of sorts, and he is coming
directly towards us. He is too far off for me to distinguish his
features--you look and see what you can make of him."

He handed the glasses to Anstice, who raised them to his eyes; and after
adjusting the lenses to suit his younger, keener sight, he swept them
round in an attempt to focus the distant object.

First an apparently illimitable expanse of sky and sand swam slowly into
view, each insignificant landmark in the desert magnified almost
incredibly by the powerful glasses; and at last the blue-robed native
appeared suddenly as though only a stone's throw away from the man who
searched for him.

The glass revealed him as an Arab of an ordinary type clad in a faded
blue djibbeh, over which he wore the short grey coat so inexplicably
beloved of the native. On his head was a scarlet fez; and his blue robe
was gathered up in such a way as to leave bare his brown and sinewy legs
as he paddled ruthlessly and unhesitatingly over the burning sand.

As he lowered the glasses Anstice gave a short description of the
advancing native to Sir Richard, adding:

"He seems to be in something of a hurry--he's covering the ground in a
most energetic fashion--and he really does appear to be making straight
for us!"

All at once Sir Richard's lately-born optimism fell from him like an
ill-fitting garment. Taking the glasses back he adjusted them once more
wi