He had not entirely forgotten the accomplishment, and it
might serve him very well now, only--and he looked up critically at the
jagged wall--it would be difficult to get into that upper chamber, a
shell of which remained. In any case, he would not think of so extreme a
measure, until he was sure that, if he gave an alarm, it would not be a
false one.
"Let's have dinner," said Nevill. "If we have fighting to do, I vote we
start with ammunition in our stomachs as well as in our pockets."
Saidee had gone part way up the steps, and was looking over the wall.
"I see something dark, that moves," she said. "It's far away, but I am
sure. My eyes haven't been trained in the desert for nothing. It's a
caravan--quite a big caravan, and it's coming this way. That's where the
shot came from. If they killed the pigeon, or winged it, we're all lost.
It would only be childish to hope. We must look our fate in the face.
The men will be killed, and I, too. Victoria will be saved, but I think
she'd rather die with the rest of us, for Maieddine will take her."
"It's never childish to hope, it seems to me," said Nevill. "This little
fort of ours isn't to be conquered in an hour, or many hours, I assure
you."
"And we have no intention of letting you be killed, or Miss Ray carried
off, or of dying ourselves, at the hands of a few Arabs," Knight added.
"Have confidence."
"In our star," Victoria half whispered, looking at Stephen.
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