“At six o'clock. It takes an hour to cover the seven miles.”
“Are the Fuzzies on the rampage—eh?”
“About three nights a week. Fact is I'm in acting command of the night-train. It generally runs back empty to Tanai for the night.”
“Big camp at Tanai, I suppose?”
“Pretty big. It has to feed our desert-column somehow.”
“Is that far off?”
“Between thirty and forty miles—in an infernal thirsty country.”
“Is the country quiet between Tanai and our men?”
“More or less. I shouldn't care to cross it alone, or with a subaltern's command for the matter of that, but the scouts get through it in some extraordinary fashion.”
“They always did.”