"I had water, thanks. Back there, by the tamarisk tree. The caravan camped there for the night, two--or three days ago. I don't remember which." He wheeled slowly in his tracks. "Come." A moment's walk took them to the few bushes and the tamarisk. There a well had been dug. Sir Lionel refused to mount one of the mules, although he was plainly far gone with exhaustion. At the time Gray was too preoccupied to notice it, but the Kirghiz--as he recalled later--were talking together earnestly, looking frequently in their direction. The Englishman moved, as he spoke, automatically. He walked by dint of will power. When Gray, knowing the strength of the sun, placed his own hat on the man's head Sir Lionel thanked him mechanically. It was this quiet of the man that disturbed Gray profoundly. There was something aimless and despairing in his dull movements. Gray, seeing how ill he was, refrained from asking further questions until they were seated in the small patch of shadow. The Kirghiz retired to a neighboring knoll with their rifles. "It was near here we discovered camel tracks--wild camel tracks." The words startled Gray, coming on top of the dispute with Mirai Khan that morning. "Did you lose the caravan?" he exclaimed. "Good Lord, man! Where is Mary?" "I've lost the caravan," said Sir Lionel. "And Mary as well." Sudden dread tugged at Gray's heart. "At Sungan." Sir Lionel looked up at the American, and Gray saw the pain mirrored in his inflamed eyes. "Was she with Ram Singh?" "Ram Singh is dead." "The others?" "Killed. I do not think that Mary was killed." Gray drew a deep breath and was silent. From the knoll the hunters watched intently. "I will tell you what happened." Sir Lionel drew his hand across his eyes. "The sun--I'm rather badly done up. No food for two days. No----" as Gray started to rise. "I'm not hungry." He lay back on the sand with closed eyes. His face was strained with the effort he made to speak. Yet what he said was uttered clearly, with military brevity. "The night after we sighted the camel tracks we were attacked in force. I think that was four nights ago. There was a crescent moon. Of course I had stationed sentries. They gave the alarm. There was a brisk action." "Who attacked you?" "Ram Singh said they might have been a party of wandering Kirghiz. We did not see them clearly in the bad light. Peculiar thing. They seemed to be afoot. When they beat a retreat, after exchanging shots, we looked over the ground. No footprints. Only camel tracks. And they carried off their wounded." Gray wondered briefly if Sir Lionel's mind had been affected by the sun. But the Englishman spoke rationally. Moreover, Mirai Khan had been alarmed when they first sighted the imprints in the earth.