for
he paid no attention to his beast. His head was still full of unquiet
thoughts.

Then the air around me began to smell acrid and raw, and I saw that a
fog was winding up from the hollows.

'Here's the devil's own luck,' I cried to Hussin. 'Can you guide us in
a mist?'

'I do not know.' He shook his head. 'I had counted on seeing the
shape of the hills.'

'We've a map and compass, anyhow. But these make slow travelling. Pray
God it lifts!'

Presently the black vapour changed to grey, and the day broke. It was
little comfort. The fog rolled in waves to the horses' ears, and
riding at the head of the party I could but dimly see the next rank.

'It is time to leave the road,' said Hussin, 'or we may meet
inquisitive folk.'

We struck to the left, over ground which was for all the world like a
Scotch moor. There were pools of rain on it, and masses of tangled
snow-laden junipers, and long reefs of wet slaty stone. It was bad
going, and the fog made it hopeless to steer a good course. I had out
the map and the compass, and tried to fix our route so as to round the
flank of a spur of the mountains which separated us from the valley we
were aiming at.

'There's a stream ahead of us,' I said to Hussin. 'Is it fordable?'

'It is only a trickle,' he said, coughing. 'This accursed mist is from
Eblis.' But I knew long before we reached it that it was no trickle.
It was a hill stream coming down in spate, and, as I soon guessed, in a
deep ravine. Presently we were at its edge, one long whirl of yeasty
falls and brown rapids. We could as soon get horses over it as to the
topmost cliffs of the Palantuken.

Hussin stared at it in consternation. 'May Allah forgive my folly, for
I should have known. We must return to the highway and find a bridge.
My sorrow, that I should have led my lords so ill.'

Back over that moor we went with my spirits badly damped. We had none
too long a start, and Hilda von Einem would rouse heaven and earth to
catch us up. Hussin was forcing the pace, for his anxiety was as great
as mine.

Before we reached the road the mist blew back and revealed a wedge of
country right across to the hills beyond the river. It was a clear
view, every object standing out wet and sharp in the light of morning.
It showed the bridge with horsemen drawn up across it, and it showed,
too, cavalry pickets moving along the road.

They saw us at the same instant. A word was passed down the road,