The king's eyes followed the direction of the hand. Far away across the bare plain he saw black specks of men advancing at regular intervals. The sinking sun set the bayonets of Sander's little force aglitter. The Commissioner had heard the firing, and had guessed much.
"It is 'They,'" said King N'raki, and blinked furiously at the Long Man, O'Fasa.
He turned swiftly to his guard.
"Kill that man!" he said.
* * * * *
Sanders brought his half-company of Houssas to the hill and was met half-way by Ussuf.
"I heard your rifles," he said. "Have you seen anything of a long chap, of wild and aggressive mien!" He spoke in English, and Ussuf replied in the same language.
"A tall man?" he asked, and Sanders wondered a little that a man so unemotional as was Grayson Smith, of the Colonial Intelligence, should speak so shakily.
"I think he is here," said the Englishman in Arab attire, and he led the way down the hill.
N'raki's armies had moved off swiftly. The fear of "They" had been greater in its effect than all its legions.