In the meantime, too, scouts were sent ahead with glasses furnished by Amrath and Mr. Hampton, who had worn his in a case slung over his shoulder, to mount into the tops of a grove of date palms just beyond the mouth of the pass and inspect the valley. They returned presently with word that in the distance, where the gas bombs had fallen, the Great Road was still littered with men, but that to the left of this spot, in the cleared space in front of the ruins of the ancient temple, where the revolutionists had been accustomed to hold their meetings, officers were re-assembling the scattered Janissaries not struck down by the gas. A considerable number, perhaps four or five hundred, were collecting. Lieutenant Maspah looked thoughtful. “They will be better armed than we,” he said. “Yet we have thirty horsemen, which gives us a big advantage and if we strike at once we shall have the advantage of surprise, while if we delay they will recover from their demoralization. Ah, here come the footmen,” he added. “I shall attack at once.” Only four of the camels of the Hampton party had been brought in, the others having lumbered away to their grazing grounds in a distant portion of the valley when their masters had been wounded. Akmet and his two companions had been carried to the barricade on the camels of their comrades. But from mounting these four camels, Ali and his remaining Arabs could not be dissuaded. Their blood was up and they wanted a hand in the last phase of the battle. This left no mounts for the boys and Roy Stone, which caused Bob, who wanted to “take a crack” at the bloody rascals, as he expressed it, to grumble exceedingly. Mr. Hampton, however, was pleased that it should be so, as he felt the lives of all had been risked sufficiently. Besides, he had undertaken to look after the wounded, who as yet lay on the roadside in the shadow of the western wall, and he needed aid to transport them to the shade of their own camp in the grove where, with medical instruments and drugs, he could make shift to probe wounds, extract bullets, bandage and do his best to ease pain. “The four of you,” he said to his son and Frank, Bob and Roy, “can do vastly more good helping me than out there in Korakum. We need litters to move these fellows to the grove, so hurry back, cut down some of those young trees coming up in the brush, and then return. Make your best speed, too. I’ll go along and get out my supplies and have everything ready to do what I can when you bring me the wounded.” An hour later, word arrived by messenger sent back by Amrath, who knew Mr. Hampton would be anxious to hear the result of the battle, that the Janissaries had put up only a feeble resistance in their demoralized state and that, after being badly cut up by the horsemen, they had surrendered. A little later Ali and his Arabs returned, unwounded, swaggering a bit, and gave them a lurid account of the fight.