Twice they were seen before the sun was two hours high, the first time by a caravan of merchants headed toward Sialpore, who breasted a high dune half a mile away and took no notice; but that would not prevent the whole caravansary in the city’s midst from knowing what they had seen, and just how long ago, and headed which way, within ten minutes after they arrived—­as, in fact, exactly happened.

The second party to catch sight of them consisted of four men on camels, whose rifles, worn military fashion with a sling, betrayed them as Gungadhura’s men.  “Desert police” he called them.  “Takers of tenths” was the popular, and much more accurate description.  The four gave chase, for a caravan in a hurry is always likely to pay well for exemption from delay; and coming nearly at right angles they had all the advantage.  It was crime to refuse to halt for them, for they were semi-military, uniformed police.  Yet their invariable habit of prying into everything and questioning each member of a caravan would be certain to lead to discovery.  They had a signal station on the hill two miles behind them, to keep them in touch with other parties, north, south, east and west.  It looked like Yasmini’s undoing, for they were gaining two for one along the shorter course.  Tess fingered the pistol her husband had made her bring, wondering whether Yasmini would dare show fight (not guessing yet the limitless abundance of her daring), and wondering whether she herself would dare reply to the fire of authorized policemen.  She did not relish the thought of being an outlaw with a genuine excuse for her arrest.

But the four police were oversure, and Yasmini too quick-witted for them.  They took a short cut down into a sandy hollow, letting their quarry get out of sight, plainly intending to wait on rising ground about a thousand yards ahead, where they could foil attempts to circumvent them and, for the present, take matters easy.

Instantly Yasmini changed direction, swinging her camel to the right, down a deep nullah, and leading full pelt at right angles to her real course.  It was ten minutes before the men caught sight of them again, and by that time they had nearly drawn abreast, well beyond reasonable rifle range, and were heading back toward their old direction, so that the police had lost advantage, and a stern chase on slower camels was their only hope but one.  They fired half a dozen shots by way of calling attention to themselves—­then wheeled and raced away toward the signal station on the hill.

Yasmini held her course for an hour after that, until a spur of the hillside and another long fold of the desert shut them off from the signaler’s view.  There she called a halt, unexpectedly, for the camels did not need it.  She was worried about Tess—­the one untested link in her chain of fugitives.

“Can you keep on through all the hot day?” she asked.  “These other women are as lithe as leopards, for I make them dance.  They are better able to endure than cheetahs.  But you?  Shall I put two women on one camel, and send you back to Sialpore with two men?”