w."

"Won't you wait until after Mr. Caird has come, and you can tell about
the little boy?" Victoria suggested.

"He mayn't arrive till very late, and--I promised Captain Sabine that he
should hear to-night."

"But think how quickly a pigeon flies! Surely it can go in less than
half the time we would take, riding up and down among the dunes."

"Oh, much less than half! Captain Sabine said that from the bordj of
Toudja the pigeon would come to him in an hour and a half, or two at
most."

"Then wait a little longer. Somehow I feel you'll be glad if you do."

Saidee looked quickly at the girl. "You make me superstitious," she
said.

"Why?"

"With your 'feelings' about things. They're almost always right. I'm
afraid of them. I shouldn't dare send the pigeon now, for fear----"

"For fear of what?"

"I hardly know. I told you that you made me superstitious."

Stephen stood between the open gates of the bordj, looking north, whence
Nevill should come. The desert was empty, a great, waving stretch of
gold, but a caravan might be engulfed among the dunes. Any moment
horses or camels might come in sight; and he was not anxious about
Nevill or the boy. It was impossible that they could have been cut off
by an attacking party from the Zaouia. Captain Sabine and he, Stephen,
had kept too keen a watch for that to happen, for the Zaouia lay south
of Oued Tolga the city.

Others besides himself were searching the sea of sand. One of his own
guides was standing outside the gates, talking with two of the
marabout's men, and looking into the distance. But rather oddly, it
seemed to him, their faces were turned southward, until the guide said
something to the others. Then, slowly, they faced towards the north.
Stephen remembered how he had told himself to neglect no sign. Had he
just seen a sign?

For some moments he did not look at the Arabs. Then, glancing quickly at
the group, he saw that the head man sent by the marabout was talking
emphatically to the guide from Oued Tolga, the city. Again, their eyes
flashed to the Roumi, before he had time to turn away, and without
hesitation the head man from the Zaouia came a few steps towards him.
"Sidi, we see horses," he said, in broken French. "The caravan thou dost
expect is there," and he pointed.

Stephen had very good eyesight, but he saw nothing, and said so.

"We Arabs are used to looking across great distances," the man answered.
"Keep thy gaze steadily upon the spo