Page:Harold Lamb--The House of the Falcon.djvu/297

 men numbed by pain and the relief from long suspense.

"Excellency, during the pause between the first attack and the end, the whole village of Yakka Arik came to the Kurgan. You saw what followed, when rifles were useless before daggers near at hand in the dark. But it was the fear of Mahmoud that brought it to pass."

"Fear?" Donovan dipped his hand into the water and laid it on Edith's curls gently. "I wonder. Then, after all, as Major Fraser-Carnie might say, it was merely a question of morale. But why did the camels come?"

Aravang did not reply at once.

"Soon you will see," he muttered.