And these were the critical moments that saw the tide turn in our favour. For a tantalising period the water appeared, to our anxious eyes, to pause and hold to the one mark—then slowly it was noticed to recede, uncertainly, then decidedly, until we breathed thankfully in relief. A memorable moment was past.
The sky cleared at sundown; and the storm ceased.
Whereupon there was a glorious uplifting of spirits, and sheer delight in the exhilarating new-found freshness of earth and sky, and wealth of bountiful rain.
Masters joked as they changed into dry clothing, camp-boys and camel-men sang their native songs and laughed, while they ran from place to place to marvel at the quantity of water.
“Great rain for our country,” declared the Tuaregs. “Soon our lean camels shall have plenty to eat: Allah be praised!”
And to look upon the flooded land and think that only some hours before we had dug in the river-bed, and dug in vain, in search of good water; that was almost like a far-off dream.
In the dusk, when enough firewood had been salvaged, camp-fires were kindled, and we sat around the golden glow of their friendly warmth to still the shiverings of unaccustomed dampness. And in the hearts of all there was a rich and unusual exuberance because of the rare events of the day that had gifted succour for the present to the Great Lone Land of Thirst.
II
At another time the scene shifts from the abnormal back to the normal parched dryness, and I look out upon desert that is clothed in the character by which it is best known and recognised: an awe-inspiring, sun-mastered immensity of sand and stone; secret as eternity, and filled with the stillness and brooding melancholy of a place of the dead.
The moment happens to be one of uneasiness. There are shadows of storm aslant the trail, and we hasten the caravan forward. But only with temporary purpose, knowing full well that nothing can stay the unleashing of the pent-up furies of the elements that already whisper and cry in their eagerness to descend in one great avalanche of whirling madness.