After which they marched away singing patriotic hymns.

When they had gone Liosha crept out of the cave wherein she had hidden, and surveyed the scene of desolation.
"I tell you, I felt just mad," said Liosha at this stage of the story.
* * * * * I remember Barbara and Doria staring at her open-mouthed.

Instead of fainting or going into hysterics or losing her wits at the sight of the annihilation of her entire kith and kin--including her bridegroom to be--and of her whole worldly possessions, Liosha "felt just mad," which as all the world knows is the American vernacular for feeling very angry.
"It was enough to turn any woman into a raving lunatic," gasped Barbara.
"Guess it didn't turn me," replied Liosha contemptuously.
"But what did you do ?" asked Dora.
"I sat down on a stone and thought how I could get even with that crowd." She bit her lip and her soft brown eyes hardened.
[Illustration: Where the lonely figure in black and white sat brooding.] "And that's where we came in, don't you see ?" interposed Jaffery hastily.
You can imagine the scene.

The two Englishmen, one gigantic, red and hairy, the other wiry and hawk-like, jogging up the mountain path on ragged ponies and suddenly emerging onto that plateau of despair where the lonely figure in black and white sat brooding.
Under such unusual conditions, it was not difficult to form acquaintance.

She told her story to the two horror-stricken men.