"Be patient, be composed, madame," Nahoum said gently. "I have tried you greatly--forgive me. Nay, do not weep. I have hope. We may hear from him at any moment now," he added softly, and there was a new look in his wide blue eyes as they were bent on her. CHAPTER XLI IN THE LAND OF SHINAR "Then I said to the angel that talked with me, Whither do these bear the Ephah? "And he said unto me, To build it an house in the land of Shinar; and it shall be established, and set there upon her own base." David raised his head from the paper he was studying. He looked at Lacey sharply. "And how many rounds of ammunition?" he asked. "Ten thousand, Saadat." "How many shells?" he continued, making notes upon the paper before him. "Three hundred, Saadat." "How many hundredweight of dourha?" "Eighty--about." "And how many mouths to feed?" "Five thousand." "How many fighters go with the mouths?" "Nine hundred and eighty-of a kind." "And of the best?' "Well, say, five hundred." "Thee said six hundred three days ago, Lacey." "Sixty were killed or wounded on Sunday, and forty I reckon in the others, Saadat." The dark eyes flashed, the lips set. "The fire was sickening--they fell back?" "Well, Saadat, they reflected--at the wrong time." "They ran?" "Not back--they were slow in getting on." "But they fought it out?" "They had to--root hog, or die. You see, Saadat, in that five hundred I'm only counting the invincibles, the up-and-at-'ems, the blind-goers that 'd open the lid of Hell and jump in after the enemy." The pale face lighted. "So many! I would not have put the estimate half so high. Not bad for a dark race fighting for they know not what!" "They know that all right; they are fighting for you, Saadat." David seemed not to hear. "Five hundred--so many, and the enemy so near, the temptation so great." "The deserters are all gone to Ali Wad Hei, Saadat. For a month there have been only the deserted." A hardness crept into the dark eyes. "Only the deserted!" He looked out to where the Nile lost itself in the northern distance. "I asked Nahoum for one thousand men, I asked England for the word which would send them. I asked for a thousand, but even two hundred would turn the scale--the sign that the Inglesi had behind him Cairo and London. Twenty weeks, and nothing comes!"