‘There could be no doubt of that Shape.’
I SAT erect. We were near to Abu Zabal. And in the sky a strange radiance was blossoming. I peered across the bent tip of Kalaun’s nose. Night had quite descended and we slid along the yellow canals of our head-lights. Meantime, that soft glow persisted in the sky and then suddenly betook itself to earth. While I stared towards it Quaritch’s voice spoke from the opening above my head.
“That must be the Princess’s house on fire, sir.”
“Eh?”
“Or something in the camp. Too far in the west to come from Abu Zabal proper.”
He was right. I caught the wheel from Kalaun. “Change places.”
He crawled behind me, squeezing himself into small bulk to make the passage. I put my foot on the accelerator. The light-channel through which we rushed quivered itself into swifter flow. Little stones pattered against the wind-screen, ping, pong, slowly at first, but presently as a rattling hail. Ahead grew the lights of Abu Zabal, and the dim markings of the by-road that led to the camp and Gault’s.
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