"Had she not told us over and over again never to be anxious on her account, that she was not the sort of woman to lose herself, and that, if she did, she would very easily find herself again? However, it was by no means probable that she had retraced her steps. It was far more likely that, under the influences of one of those impulses to which she is subject, or of a locomotive fit which she could not repress, she had set off in the middle of the night, and was now ahead of the caravan. We had, therefore, a much better chance of finding her by continuing our journey than if we remained stationary.
"Nevertheless, we could not shake off our feelings of anxiety, for Miss Poles, despite her eccentricities and her ridiculousness, is such a thoroughly good creature, and so courageous a woman, that she has quite won us over. So, when Périères proposed to me that we should gallop on in search of our companion, I jumped at the idea, and we left the caravan for several hours under the command of Madame de Guéran and the Doctor.
"We did not run any risk of losing our way. The Wady Kokreb, which we had just left, is at the entrance of a narrow valley, very easy to follow. Two lofty mountains, Badab on the right, and Wowinte on the left, imprisoned us after a fashion and showed us the way.
"We galloped along, for two hours at least, on an extensive plain, and, as we could not see a single break in the horizon, we were beginning to be seriously alarmed, when Périères rode up along side me and said—
"'Don't you see something down there at the bottom of the valley? Is it a tree, a rock, or a human being?'
"'It moves, whatever it is,' I replied, after a moment's examination.
"'Yes,' replied Périères, 'I think it does. Let us ride down this side. We shall, no doubt, find ourselves in the presence of some Bedouin, but we are already capable of saying a word or two of Arabic, and by supplementing them with a few expressive gestures, we shall obtain some information about the fugitive.'
"Without waiting for my reply, our friend made for the spot which he had been the first to discover, and I followed him.
"We were not mistaken. It was a human being, but of which sex? That we could not divine, as at a distance the bûrnus of an Arab might easily be mistaken for a woman's skirt. Anxious to settle this point without delay, we pushed on at an increased rate, but very soon we were obliged to confess, to our great astonishment, that we gained but little on the pursued. That the being was on foot was evident, but its pace was surprising.
"At length our suspense was at an end. It was Miss Poles, marching on in a quick time peculiar to herself and unknown to our finest troops, with an enormous stride, springy, rapid, but at the same time wonderfully regular.