"It is such fun to get on shore again!" said Shelah. And scrambling out of the boat before she could do so without wetting her feet, Lammikin had the satisfaction of leaving one of her shoes in the water. As it was more awkward to limp with one shoe on than to run without any, the little Irish girl soon flung its companion into the sea!
[CHAPTER IX.]
CAUGHT.
HAROLD wished to try his Arabic on one of the Lascars who was near the first boat, and find from him the cause of the tedious delay, but was as unsuccessful as Europeans usually are when trying to extract information from Orientals. Harold knew not whether the swarthy Arab understood him or not; the man's eyes, and evidently his thoughts, were wandering in the direction which the ladies were taking. The Lascar looked like one on the watch for something, and all that Harold could draw from him were the ejaculations common on Mahomedan lips, which seem pious when translated, but which often with them express nothing more than a shrug of the shoulders does with a European.
In the meantime, Robin, who had borrowed a gun from Captain Cenci, was on the sharp look-out for game with which to mend the passengers' scanty fare. But not a partridge rose, not a hare came in view. Shelah, who liked to keep pretty near Robin, and was quite as eager as himself to find some creature that might be turned into food, suddenly exclaimed, pointing to the sand, "Partridges been here—look, look!—Hadn't they big claws!"
Robin, gun in hand, went up to the spot. "Why, Lammikin," he cried, "you are as good as a pointer! But these marks are left by much larger birds than partridges; these are the prints of ostriches' feet in the sand!"
"Oh! I want to see ostriches!" exclaimed Shelah, clapping her hands.
"I too should like to get a sight of these noble birds running before the wind," said Robin, looking, but vainly, in every direction. "They say that a horseman can hardly overtake this swift bird of the desert."
"Oh! I do so want to find an ostrich's egg," cried Shelah, with sparkling eyes. "There was one in our house, brought from a long way off; it was as big as this—" She put her clenched fists together. "It would make a famous breakfast. I'll find two eggs, Robin; one for myself and one for you," and off ran the eager child on her quest.
"Don't wander far, Lammikin," shouted Robin after her; "we must look-out for the white signal on the ship."