Bob’s experience of the previous night was reversed. Then, the curtain of shade had rolled up from the valley, ever higher, until sky and earth were mingled in one blackness. Now, the dark crept gradually downward, every minute uncovering a few more feet of the barren hill-sides. But during the brief flight from the mine the depths of the valley were scarcely penetrated by the feeble rays of morning, and it was not until the aeroplane came to the neighbourhood of the bridge that the river and the track upon its bank were distinguishable. Bob knew not what he might have passed during that forty minutes. Once, when he judged that about two-thirds of the flight was completed, he thought he heard a shout from below, and guessed that the Pathans, marching down the track, had caught the sound of his propeller, and had called to let him know that all was well. The twilight had banished darkness from the bottom of the valley by the time he came in sight of the bridge. He looked anxiously down for his brother’s party, and was on the point of shifting the elevator so as to drop a little nearer earth when he saw puffs of smoke just beyond the bend in the left bank, and immediately afterwards heard the crack of rifles. Evidently the enemy were still in position. Reversing his movement, so as to rise instead of falling, and avoid the fate that had overtaken his uncle, he glanced down at the rocks near the bridge head, and saw grouped there a number of figures among whom he thought he recognized Lawrence. At the same moment a vociferous cheer reached him through the throbbing hum of the engine, and the greeting relieved him of anxiety about his brother.