ouls. It was not
an empty threat either; for when Hassan, feeling uneasy at the idea of
harm coming to Iris, slunk into the village to find out, if possible,
what mischief was afoot, he ran slick into a conclave of the brutes, and
hiding behind a rock heard their plans."

"They were pretty deadly, I suppose?"

"They merely embraced the wholesale massacre, under cover of night, of
the English men and women who had been fools enough to trust their good
faith," returned Sir Richard shortly. "Well, Hassan, whose wits are as
sharp as his ears are long, lost no time in going back to his mistress
with the information; and between them they evolved a plan which might,
with the most marvellous luck, be successful."

"And that plan, sir?" Anstice's tone was tense.

"Aided by Hassan, at the approach of night the whole little group of
white people crept safely into the Fort of which I told you; and when, a
couple of hours later, the Bedouins came forth intent on reprisals, they
found the houses of the English empty, and realized, too late, that the
Fort was quite a different nut to crack."

"It is a fairly safe building?"

"Well, it has certain natural advantages, I grant." Sir Richard spoke
rather dubiously. "We went over it one day, in a spirit of curiosity;
and I have a pretty clear recollection of the place. To begin with, as I
told you the Bedouin encampment is a sort of oasis in a valley at the
foot of some quite respectably high rocks. You know the desert is not,
as some people imagine, merely a flat expanse of sand. Here and there
are ranges of hills, limestone, and so on--and now and then one comes
across quite a chain of rocky places which in another country would be
looked upon as precipices."

He paused; and Anstice waited eagerly for him to continue.

"Well, this Fort is, very luckily, built on a plateau overlooking the
valley. On one side the ground slopes gently down to the little colony,
but on the other the Fort overlooks a high precipice of rock which of
course affords no means of transit from the ground below; so that on
that side the place is absolutely impregnable."

"I see." Anstice's tone held a note of relief. "Well, that sounds fairly
promising--as I suppose it means there are only three sides to defend
instead of four."

"Well, it is a circular building," Sir Richard explained, "and there are
only slits in the walls on two sides; and also, fortunately for us, only
one means of entrance or exit,