"But our track's impossible to follow. There's hardly any light."
"Forsetta and Mazzani have their torches, just as you have. Besides, the firing would have told them."
"Then let's be off as quickly as possible," Simon proposed.
"They will catch us up . . . at least, unless you abandon your search of Rolleston."
Simon seized his rifle:
"That's true. So the only thing is to wait for them here and kill them one by one."
"That's so," she said. "Unfortunately. . . ."
"Well?"
"Yesterday, after firing at the tramps, you did not reload your rifle."
"No, but my cartridge-belt is on the sand, at the place where I slept."