He heard the footsteps advancing, in hopes that the man would pass either in front or behind him.

Then he felt a sudden kick, an exclamation, and a heavy fall.

He leapt to his feet, but the Arab sheik was as quick and, springing up, also seized him, at the same time drawing his knife and uttering a loud shout.
Gregory grasped the Arab's wrist, and without hesitation snatched his own knife from the sash, and drove it deep into his assailant's body.
The latter uttered another loud cry for help, and a score of men rushed from behind the tents.
Gregory set off at the top of his speed, dashed over the brow of the bridge, and then, without entering the camp there, he kept along close to the crest, running at the top of his speed and wrapping his blanket as much as possible round him.

He heard an outburst of yells behind, and felt sure that the sheik he had wounded had told those who had rushed up which way he had fled.

With loud shouts they poured over the crest, and there were joined by others running up from the camp.
When Gregory paused for a moment, after running for three or four hundred yards, he could hear no sound of footsteps behind him.