“Yes, sir; this is my weekly inspection, and the camels which had been out at pasture were brought in by their drivers to be passed. They all looked very fit; but we have not much forage for them in store.”
“We must chance that. I should be glad if you would have our riding-horses, together with a sufficient number of camels to carry the tents and their furniture, brought round here two hours before sunset. It would be impossible to travel far to-day, but if we are outside the city the required moral effect will be produced. I shall leave you and Anstruther behind to bring on the stores and the heavy luggage. We will travel by slow stages until you come up with us, and then we must make forced marches, and get out of the country as fast as possible, for we shall have no escort this time.”
For the first time in his life Dick hesitated to obey an order.
“But the ladies, sir,” he suggested. “Is it safe?”
“Is it safe for them here? The sooner we have them out of the city, the safer they will be,” and Dick, silenced, went to do his errand at the various stables in which the baggage-animals of the Mission were quartered.
To say that the sudden order to pack up and be ready to start on the homeward journey that very afternoon was startling to the ladies would be to mince matters, for it came upon them like a thunder-clap; but Lady Haigh was an old traveller, whom no vicissitudes could disturb for long, and Georgia was a soldier’s daughter, and they were both resolved that the honour of England should not be dragged in the dust on their account by the delay of a moment after the appointed hour of starting. Accordingly, they set to work immediately to take down and wrap up and stow away all the possessions with which they had made the house homelike during their tenancy of it, and were in the act of packing their dresses (which, as every lady will know, always occupy the topmost place in a box), when Dick made his appearance on the terrace. Georgia, who was standing at the table pulling out the sleeves of a favourite silk blouse, which she had just rescued from the ruthless hands of Rahah, looked at him in surprise, for his face was grave and set.
“Please don’t say that you want us to start this moment,” she said, cheerfully. “Lady Haigh and I are willing to make any sacrifice in reason for our country, but we had rather not leave our best dresses behind.”
“It won’t be necessary,” returned Dick, trying, but with poor success, to speak in the same tone. “We shall not leave to-day, after all.”
“Not leave to-day!” cried Lady Haigh, coming out on the terrace, and folding up a skirt at the same time. “Then when do we start?”
“Not just yet, I fear. The fact is, the King is trying on a little joke with us. He has fetched away all our horses and camels, and we can’t get them back.”