CHAPTER XI

THE CROSS OF DUTY We rode hard all the next day, and the two girls, thanks to the hard training of the previous weeks, stood the strain well. It was for the sake of the camels and not for that of the two brave women that I at length drew rein and halted for a four-hour rest at a water-hole. As I strode up and down, in misery and grief at the thoughts that filled my mind--thoughts of those splendid men whom I had left to die, Mary Vanbrugh came from the little _tente d'abri_ which I had insisted that she and Maudie …