The Rescue
Hastily dismounting I drew an accurate diagram on the desert, which is ideally adapted for geometric study. All my life long I have clung to the knowledge that the square of the hypotenuse is equal to the sum of the squares of the other two sides. It stood me in good stead now. Quickly figuring the approximate distance which Azad and I must have travelled I leaped into the saddle with a cry of “Q.E.D.” to the mystification of my followers. From now on I was leader indeed. According to my figures and time allowance the distance to be travelled should be about nineteen miles which, with our superb animals, we could expect to travel in a little more than an hour. “Pray Heaven Euclid was right,” I murmured.
The sun had cleared the horizon and struck brightly on our flowing cloaks.
“You are a wonderful sight!” cried Swank, who had ridden off at a distance to take a photograph. “Superb! You are like a swift-running tide-race foaming over a hidden reef!”
But I was oblivious to his poetic similes for, far off but dead ahead, I seemed to see an answering gleam of white and a faint dusty blur on the horizon. My heart stood still as my horse bounded forward more swiftly than ever.
“On!” I shouted hoarsely. The others caught the infection of my excitement and we thundered onward.
Yes! ... it was Azad and his assassins!