The next day Gray dispatched Mirai Khan to the _amban's_ yamen to try to hire the necessary camels. He thought it better not to go himself. Without the consent of the Chinese official nothing could be done, as the _amban_ would expect a liberal commission on every transaction in Ansichow. Also the official had a dozen ill-armed and ill-minded soldiery in the town barracks--enough to enforce his authority on Gray, although the Hastings' party was numerous enough to be independent of the Chinese. Gray himself wandered moodily through the few streets of the village. Since the conversation of the evening before he had been restless. He had slept badly. Although he would not admit it to himself, the thought of Mary Hastings had preyed on him. So it happened that his wandering took him to the camp of the Hastings. He found Mary seated under the fly of the stores tent, inspecting and tallying a stock of provisions that Ram Singh had purchased. She looked up and nodded coolly at his approach. "You are busy, Miss Hastings," he observed. "But I want to ask a favor. A half hour of your time." The girl poised a pencil over her accounts doubtfully. Ram Singh scowled. "We can talk here, Captain Gray," she compromised, "while I work. Sir Lionel wants these stores----" "We can't talk here very well," objected Gray. "What I have to say is important. Last night your uncle gave me some valuable information. I want to give you return value for it." "Where?" Mary Hastings had the brisk manner of one accustomed to transacting business. Gray learned later--after the disaster that came upon them in the Gobi--that she handled the routine work of her uncle's expeditions, and very capably, too. "Outside here, in the garden," he suggested. She hesitated; then rose, reaching for her sun helmet. A dilapidated wall encircled the camp, and a few aloes struggled for existence by the tumble-down stones. Mary climbed the stones, refusing assistance from the American, until she perched on the summit of the garden wall. Here she could overlook the activity in the camp as she listened. A haze hung in the air--born of the incessant flurries of fine sand that burden the atmosphere in the Gobi. But from their small elevation, beyond the low buildings of Ansichow, Gray could see the plain of dunes that marked the desert. A dull brown they were, stretching to the long line of the horizon in the west. Gray was silent, admiring the girl's profile. There was something slender and boyish about her. Her dress was plain, and excessively neat. Under the crown of her helmet a few strands of copper hair curled against her tanned cheek. Mary glanced at the watch on her wrist significantly. "I'm afraid you are very lazy, Captain Gray," she said frankly. "I warn you that we are going to lose no time in starting from Ansichow." "I am lazy," he agreed. "But I don't want you to start at all." She looked at him calmly. "Why?"