It would be tough to pass out without seeing her again. But tougher still to have to go home and acknowledge that he had let her brother be captured and carried away to certain death without having done his utmost, even to life itself, to rescue him. “If I don’t come back, old scout,” he muttered, soundlessly, “maybe word of it will get to you some way.” “Here,” said Jack, “quit talking to yourself.” Frank looked up guiltily. “Did—did—you hear what I said?” he asked. “No,” said Jack. Then he regarded him fixedly. “Della’s the real stuff, Frank,” he said. “She’s worth everything.” Frank dropped his eyes, but reached out to squeeze Jack’s hand. Mr. Hampton slid into position beside them. His approach had been soundless. He appeared worried, and laid a finger on his lips to enjoin silence and, as Jack half rose, pulled him down beside him. Then motioning Frank to draw near, he whispered the startling information that a troop of horsemen was approaching along the Great Road from the direction of Korakum. “The scout sent up the Great Road brought back the information several minutes ago,” he whispered, “and as he said the horsemen still were some distance off, I sent him down the pass to bring in the man stationed there, who, otherwise, would have been cut off. Both have just returned. I suppose you fellows were too busy to notice what was going on. Get your rifles and come along.” Without further words, he turned and walking bent over made his way back toward the front of the plateau where Ali and his Arabs awaited. The boys, with beating hearts, seized their rifles and followed. What did this portend? Was the band of horsemen coming to attack them? Had they been discovered? Or were the Athensians riding out to meet and escort back the raiders? Either contingency spelled disaster to their project for Bob’s rescue. Frank and Jack felt their hearts sink. The front of the plateau, at the edge of a terrace sloping ten feet down to the road, was narrow. Their force of ten was sufficient to defend it, as Mr. Hampton had said, against an army. Lying down, a yard or two apart, they were able to cover it completely. Moreover, the thick underbrush afforded an effective screen against detection. Unless it were known they were there, or unless their presence was betrayed by some noise made by the camels, they could lie securely hidden. Little time for speculation was afforded. Barely had the boys crept into the holes left for them in the center of the line, between Mr. Hampton and Ali, when the ringing sound of horses’ hoofs, echoing between high walls, announced the near approach of a considerable body of horsemen.