wanted very much to return with us, but he
really was not fit to turn back immediately; and knowing how a lame
duck"--he coughed and looked suddenly embarrassed--"I mean--how one man
may delay a squadron, so to speak, he very sensibly agreed to stay at
our camp for a few hours' rest. We shall pick him up as we go back," he
added, and Iris smiled rather wearily as she answered:

"Thank you very much, Captain Lane. You are _sure_ my father is all
right?"

"Certain--only a bit fagged, and no wonder, for he'd ridden hard.
Ah--and he told me to say you were to ask Dr. Anston--Anstice, is
it?--to help you in any matter in which you wanted a little help."

"I will certainly do that," said Iris quietly; and as the other men
pressed round the little group, eagerly questioning the defenders of the
besieged Fort, Iris slipped away from the excited crowd so unobtrusively
that no eyes save those of Anstice witnessed her departure.

* * * * *

Three minutes later Anstice, leaving the rest planning the return
journey over the desert, went quietly in search of Iris.

He found her, as he had half expected, standing by the window of the
room in which Bruce Cheniston had died; and in her eyes was a forlorn
look which showed him the measure of her desolation in this sunrise
hour.

Quietly as he had entered she had heard him come, and turned to face him
with a rather tremulous smile.

"Mrs. Cheniston, I came to look for you." He approached as he spoke; and
in spite of herself she felt comforted by the mere fact of his presence.
"You are not worrying because your father very wisely let those fellows
come on ahead of him?"

"N-no," she said, with a queer little catch in her breath. "Only--I had
so wanted--so hoped--to see my father--_soon_."

"I know," he said quietly, "and you _will_ see him--very soon. We shall
start this afternoon, when the horses are rested; and then it will not
be many hours before you and your father meet again."

"Yes." She looked at him with something of appeal in her eyes. "Dr.
Anstice, my father said you would help me ... you will, won't you? You
know," said Iris simply, "you are the only person I can turn to--now."

More moved by her words than he cared to show, Anstice answered her, not
impetuously, but with something in his manner which would have inspired
confidence in any woman.

"Mrs. Cheniston, I will do all I can--and God knows I am grateful to Him
for allowing