"Who they are?" cried the Frenchman. "You can see who they are.
They are armed men upon camels, Ababdeh, Bishareen--Bedouins, in short,
such as are employed by the Government upon the frontier."

"Be Jove, he may be right, Cochrane," said Belmont, looking inquiringly
at the Colonel. "Why shouldn't it be as he says? why shouldn't these
fellows be friendlies?"

"There are no friendlies upon this side of the river," said the Colonel
abruptly; "I am perfectly certain about that. There is no use in
mincing matters. We must prepare for the worst."

But in spite of his words, they stood stock-still, in a huddled group,
staring out over the plain. Their nerves were numbed by the sudden
shock, and to all of them it was like a scene in a dream, vague,
impersonal, and un-real. The men upon the camels had streamed out from
a gorge which lay a mile or so distant on the side of the path along
which they had travelled. Their retreat, therefore, was entirely cut
off. It appeared, from the dust and the length of the line, to be quite
an army which was emerging from the hills, for seventy men upon camels
cover a considerable stretch of ground. Having reached the sandy plain,
they very deliberately formed to the front, and then at the harsh call
of a bugle they trotted forward in line, the parti-coloured figures all
swaying and the sand smoking in a rolling yellow cloud at the heels of
their camels. At the same moment the six black soldiers doubled in from
the front with their Martinis at the trail, and snuggled down like
well-trained skirmishers behind the rocks upon the haunch of the hill.
Their breech blocks all snapped together as their corporal gave them the
order to load.