“That’s right, sir. Here goes, then.”
The next moment the man had made a brave effort, and he walked at once to his camel and mounted, Frank standing by as the ungainly beast see-sawed to and fro and sprawled out its legs, and grumbled and snarled as it rose upright.
“Don’t make that row!” cried Sam. “You ought to be used to it by this time. That’s done it, Mr Frank. Don’t tell the doctor what I said.”
“Not I, Sam. Bravo! You have plenty of pluck, you see.”
“Have I, sir?” said the man pitifully. “I began to think I hadn’t a bit. It had got to the bottom somewhere.”
“Yes,” said Frank; “now keep it up at the top.”
In another minute the little camel train was steadily pacing on again over the sands, with the air feeling fresher. The moon, too, was beginning to cast the shadows in a different direction, while the whole party had become silent, no one feeling the slightest inclination to talk.
But it did not seem long now before the silvery radiance of the moon began to grow pale before the soft opalescence in the east, and the far-spreading desert sands took a less mystic tint. Then all at once far on high there was a soft, roseate speck, which grew orange and then golden as if it were the advance guard of the gathering array of dazzling hues which now rapidly advanced till the east blazed with a glory wondrous to behold.
“Your first desert sunrise, Frank,” said the professor quietly, as he saw the young man’s rapt gaze. “Ah, we have some splendid sky effects here to make up for the want of flower and tree! The desert has glories of its own, as you will see.”
For the next half hour Frank forgot his weariness, the want of sleep, and his anxieties in the grandeur of the scene around, as the glories of the day expanded till the sun rose well above the horizon, sending the shadows of the camels long and strange over the yielding sand. Then hour after hour the monotony increased, and the silence grew more oppressive, the heat harder to bear, and but for the calm, contented ease exhibited by the Sheikh and his men, and the example they felt bound to show to their followers, both the Doctor and Frank would have put in a plea for another halt.