He then turned to the Syrian merchant, whom he thanked for such favors as they had received.
The merchant made a deprecatory gesture and declared that it was nothing, which he well might have done, considering the fact that he had been well paid for those favors.
It did not take our friends long to make arrangements for accompanying the waiting Bedouins.
The people of the train were greatly relieved, and they lost no time in preparing to move onward once more.
As Dick, Brad, and the professor followed Ali Beha, they looked back and saw the head of the train already in motion, with the camel drivers and their loaded “ships of the desert” falling into line in regular order.
“I certain am plenty glad to abandon camel riding,” grinned Brad. “I’d rather ride a pitching cayuse than a hump-backed camel, for a bucker won’t buck forever, while a camel does keep up that rocking, swaying, back-breaking movement just as long as he travels. I suppose one might get used to it in time, but I’d rather be excused some.”
As they drew near the Bedouins they discovered that the men who had seemed so picturesque at a distance were unkempt and dirty, although none the less fierce on close inspection.
These wild men regarded our friends with an air of curious contempt. There was nothing of friendliness in their manner.
Arrangements were quickly made for the boys and the professor to mount behind three of the Bedouins. Zenas was assisted to his seat behind a thin, dirty chap, and told to cling fast to the man by clasping him around the body. This the old pedagogue did, although he made a wry face over it.
Dick could not wonder at Gunn’s repulsion, for he, also, found himself mounted behind an unkempt rascal, whose matted hair and beard looked as if it might be infested, and who gave forth anything but an agreeable odor.