“Very good. But the Prince will have none but his own followers around him.” “It is well. We will but be at hand, for the safety of the Prince.” CHAPTER XIX. THE BREAKING-POINT. Returning to his friends in company with the amazed and indignant sheikh of their own party Mr Hicks explained how matters stood, pointing out that discretion was preeminently the better part of valour on this occasion. “The enemy are between us and Damascus, and they don’t calculate to let us through,” he said. “I guess the odds are a bit too long for fighting, so all we can do is to select our camping-ground with an eye to possibilities, and make tracks in the night, for if they once get us to their tents we’re as good as squelched. With your leave, Count, I’ll ride slightly ahead, to keep open communications with the other platform, and also to look out for a suitable location.” Leaving the scouts, who had now come in, to bring up the rear of the convoy, the sheikh of the Beni Ayub and the main body of his men took up their position in advance of the small party from Sitt Zeynab, and Mr Hicks attached himself to them, doing his best to impress the sheikh with the greatness of the Prince of the Jews. It was evident that the man was already somewhat alarmed by his own temerity in interfering with the journey of such an important personage, and Mr Hicks spared no pains to add to his uneasiness. When sunset was at hand, and the sheikh suggested that it would be advisable to halt for the night, he was told curtly that the Prince had not yet given the signal, and when the Prince, through his representative, Mr Hicks, was pleased to direct that the journey should be at an end for the day, the spot chosen was not by any means an ideal camping-ground in the eyes of the Beni Ayub. It was a small hill--perhaps a large hillock would be a better term--accessible on one side only, and not affording space for more than Cyril and his party. “I only hope they’ll conclude to camp all round it,” said Mr Hicks to his leader, “for then they would be so scattered that we might allow to creep through them, or charge right through at the weakest point, any way. If we could stampede the horses we could get clean away, more especially since we shall have our own men in a compact body.” Mr Hicks’s hope proved fallacious. Making the best of a bad bargain, the sheikh decided to concentrate his forces at the foot of the slope, thus enclosing his unwilling guests in a trap, and his men set to work at once on their preparations for the night. “Well,” said Mr Hicks grimly, “it only means that we’ve got to land the horses some way in that cañon back of us, and without making any noise about it, either. Mr Mansfield, you just set your mighty intellect to work on that problem, if you please. Now, how are we to get these chaps to believe that we allow to sit up all night?” “Make a fire of brushwood and keep it burning,” suggested Mansfield.