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"Oh, I won't bite her head off," said Anstice, with a short laugh of genuine a women here; and no doubt when she understands that she will ao and find her" With a last look towards the bed Iris vanished; and for a brief e and unexpected situation in which he now found hi in the heart of the desert with a handful of souls for whose safety he could not but feel hiuise fro Even though Sir Richard reached Cairo without ather together what Iris had called the relieving force; and although Anstice had no reason to doubt the staunchness and courage of his fellow-defenders, he could not fail to realize that as a fighting unit they were altogether outmatched by the two or three score of eneely for their blood

Then, too, the shadow of death already hovered over the little garrison; and as Anstice turned once more to survey the pale and wasted features of the man who had supplanted him in the one supreme desire of his life, he told hi enough to see the arrival of the help on which so o, I ," he told himself rather hopelessly "But now I' to die, I'h I hope to God I may be mistaken; and heaven only knoill happen in the course of the next three days"

As he reached this point in his , he beheld a pale and distraught-looking young woht in happier circumstances have laid claim to a certain uninspired prettiness At this moment, however, her eyes red-rimmed with lack of sleep, her ashy-coloured hair limp and dishevelled round her unintellectual forehead, she was rather a piteous object; and in spite of his resolve to speak bracingly to her Anstice's voice was quite gentle as he replied to her murmured question

"Yes, I ah to sit here and look after Mr Cheniston while I talk over entlemen"