ee--few men more clearly--and the spectacle of an
armed camp at dinner under the stare was an ever fresh pleasure to the
eye. There was colour, light, and motion, without which no man has much
pleasure in living. This night there remained for him only one more
journey through the darkness that never lifts to tell a man how far he
has travelled. Then he would grip Torpenhow's hand again--Torpenhow, who
was alive and strong, and lived in the midst of the action that had once
made the reputation of a man called Dick Heldar: not in the least to be
confused with the blind, bewildered vagabond who seemed to answer to
the same name. Yes, he would find Torpenhow, and come as near to the old
life as might be. Afterwards he would forget everything: Bessie, who had
wrecked the Melancolia and so nearly wrecked his life; Beeton, who lived
in a strange unreal city full of tin-tacks and gas-plugs and matters
that no men needed; that irrational being who had offered him love
and loyalty for nothing, but had not signed her name; and most of all
Maisie, who, from her own point of view, was undeniably right in all she
did, but oh, at this distance, so tantalisingly fair.

George's hand on his arm pulled him back to the situation.

'And what now?' said George.

'Oh yes of course. What now? Take me to the camel-men. Take me to where
the scouts sit when they come in from the desert. They sit by their
camels, and the camels eat grain out of a black blanket held up at the
corners, and the men eat by their side just like camels. Take me there!'

The camp was rough and rutty, and Dick stumbled many times over the
stumps of scrub. The scouts were sitting by their beasts, as Dick knew
they would. The light of the dung-fires flickered on their bearded
faces, and the camels bubbled and mumbled beside them at rest. It was no
part of Dick's policy to go into the desert with a convoy of
supplies. That would lead to impertinent questions, and since a blind
non-combatant is not needed at the front, he would probably be forced to
return to Suakin.

He must go up alone, and go immediately.

'Now for one last bluff--the biggest of all,' he said. 'Peace be with
you, brethren!' The watchful George steered him to the circle of the
nearest fire. The heads of the camel-sheiks bowed gravely, and the
camels, scenting a European, looked sideways curiously like brooding
hens, half ready to get to their feet.

'A beast and a driver to go to the fighting line t