"We will take him on the way back."
After great toil they reached the top of the sand height, and saw the Libyans. For them too the road had been murderous, two of their horses had stopped.
The camp of the Egyptian army was hidden completely behind the rolling land, and if Pentuer and the Asiatics had not known how to guide themselves by the sun they could not have gone back to the camping- place. In the prince's party another man fell, and threw bloody foam from his mouth. He was left, with his horse. To finish their trouble, on the outline of the sands stood a group of cliffs; among these the Libyans vanished.
"Lord," said Pentuer, "that may be an ambush."
"Let it be death, and let it take me!" replied the heir, in a changed voice.
The priest gazed at him with wonder; he had not supposed such resolve in Ramses.
The cliffs were not distant, but the road was laborious beyond description. They had not only to walk themselves, but to drag their horses out of the soft sand. They waded, sinking below their ankles; they sank to their knees even in some places.
Meanwhile the sun was flaming above them, that dreadful sun of the desert, every ray of which not only baked and blinded, but pricked also. The men dropped from weariness: in one, tongue and lips were swollen; another had a roaring in his head, and saw black patches before his eyes; drowsiness seized a third, all felt pain in their joints, and lost the sensation of heat. Had any one asked if it were hot, they would not have answered.
The ground grew firm under their feet again, and the party passed in between the cliffs.
The prince, who had more presence of mind than those who were with him, heard the snorting of horses; he turned to one side, and in the shade cast by the cliff saw a crowd of people lying as each man had dropped. Those were the Libyans.