12/03/2026 02:47

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There would be at least another two hours of light by which totravel, but Ryder was setting up his camp. Here she sat cross-legged with her writing tableton her lap, directly in his line of vision. If theenemy broke one wall, the square must not be allowed to collapse inupon itself. Theonly remaining purpose in my life is to bring my master safely out ofthe clutches of the Dervish into which my uncle so treacherously ledhim.

Shereeled and went down on her front knees. David had taken the hands of his younger daughters to restrain them,and leant over the parapet to engage in a shouted conversation withsomeone in the courtyard of the consular palace below. Itwas not an Islamic relic but must once have belonged to a Christiancrusader. At last only the low line of the Kerreri hills concealed the city ofOmdurman from the binoculars of the British officers.