"No. Two of them are stallions of the Anafi breed, and the third a Bisharin mare, bought expressly for your flight from friends," was the answer. "We must hope the best of them."
We drove the creatures at their swiftest pace. The country in these parts was flat, broken now and then by solitary shrubs, with here and there small stony hillocks. We rode without stopping until near midday, when suddenly my guide called out,—
"Halt! Let the camels kneel down at once. Be quick!"
I stopped. The camels knelt.
"Why?"
"I see camels a long way off and two led horses, and fear we have been seen."
I loaded my Remington to be prepared for any issue. "But if we have been seen," I said, "it is better to ride quietly on. Our making the animals lie down will excite their suspicion. In what direction are they going?"
"You are right," said Hamed Ibn Hussein. "They are marching northwest."
We rose and changed our line of march to the northeast, and were almost confident that we had passed unobserved when, to our despair, we perceived one of the party, which was about two thousand metres away from us, jump on his horse and gallop swiftly towards us.