“The Lord only knows,” said Wrexham. “Why on earth any one should want to paint things like that on an arrow beats me. Look at this one. It’s rather obliterated, an oldish one, I should say. But isn’t that ‘to-morrow’?”
“It is,” said Forsyth. “They’re a queer crowd with their mottoed arrows. Any one see a glimmering of sense in them? Let me see the other two.” He looked at them. “Duplicates. See; there’s another ‘Freedom’ one, and this is again, ‘A little time.’ Well, I give it up.”
We did, too.
“Anything else?” I asked Wrexham.
He shook his head. “Nothing else I could see. It was practically dark in there, just a faint glimmer of moon which hardly did anything except make the darkness darker. Well, now, about to-morrow. Whatever happens, we’ll stop here for a day or two. In the first place, we want to know if there’s anything to be seen, and in the second, we must give the camels a rest. I propose we watch in turns during the day. I’ll take first shift with Sadiq, then Forsyth and Firoz can relieve us. That’ll let Firoz get breakfast, and also be back in time to get evening food. You, Harry, with Payindah, can relieve Alec and Firoz. That suit every one?”
We both agreed that it would do.
“I think,” I said, “that we ought to have a sentry all night. You say you’ve seen nothing, but there may be people moving at night, though it’s not likely. Still, it’s best to prepare for the worst, even while firmly expecting the best. If we each do a two-hour shift, it won’t come very heavy.”
The others agreed it might be sound, so we arranged that we three and the two sepoys should do two hours each at the entrance to the tangi. Wrexham went on first, followed by Firoz, who was relieved by Forsyth. Payindah took over from him, and I had the dawn watch. However, nothing happened all night, and none of us heard a sound.
Shortly after the first dawn, Wrexham and Sadiq started up the tangi, and I went back to my blankets for another hour’s sleep, feeling very chilled, for the dawn air was biting. About half-past nine, after we had had breakfast, Forsyth and Firoz started off, and an hour and a half later Wrexham and Sadiq, who looked rather as if he had been seeing ghosts, came back with nothing whatever to report.
At a quarter-past one, I turned out Payindah, and the two of us went off to relieve Forsyth and Firoz at the mouth of the clearing. All was just as it had been the day before. The same heavy smell, the same litter of bones, the same filthy vultures, the same frowning, lifeless gateway in front.