At the shout from the post, both guards leaped to the bottom of the hole; the camp was in an uproar; every man was on his feet, and every beast pointed its nose inquisitiver into the air. Even Merob rose to its full height, and so quickly that Rachor had either to release the girl or to obtain a better hold, and mount the self-willed beast. He chose to let the child ascend alone, and turned and took up his uncouth club, ready for defense or attack.
Merob, with its precious burden, excitedly stamped away and was lost among the other excited animals. The men, however, in a thickly massed and pressing troop, ran after the guards, who led the way towards the opposite end of the camp, over many hillocks of loose sand and through many pits and ditches. From the bed of the old pool the wide plain of the desert was not visible, and anything might happen there without the knowledge of those ensconced beneath the rocky border.
Ignorance of the nature of approaching ills and dangers always adds the weight of uncertainty to anxiety and dread. The guards had not uttered another intelligible word after sounding the alarm, and Rachor and his other men sprang after them from impulse rather than from judgment. But the guards had been stationed for the purpose of keeping watch over their brethren and of signaling any signs of danger to their rest and peace; hence there must be danger in the air.
And danger there was. Only it was present in two forms, one of which was in the open to attract attention and to lure watchfulness from its station on the scene, whereas the other lay hidden to accomplish their common design of wickedness. As the guards, who
