“Oh, yes; we’ve left the cultivated ground behind, and right away south and west now, saving a few oases, there’s nothing but the sand covering all about here the ruins of ancient cities. I believe if we dug anywhere here we should find traces—buildings, temples, or tombs.”
“Has there been cultivation, too, here?”
“No doubt. It only wants water, sandy as it is, for it to break out blushing with soft green.”
“Where does the Nile lie from here?”
“Away to the left.”
“Shall we see its waters when the morning comes?”
“No; we are going farther and farther away to a bit of an oasis where the Sheikh’s people are gathered with their flocks. They find pasture there at this time of year, and a little employment with the travellers who come to Cairo. In the summer time, when the city is pretty well empty, they go right away to some high ground where it is rocky and fairly fertile. We shall reach the present camp before the sun gets hot in the morning.”
“How is the doctor getting on?” asked Frank, after a pause.
“Pretty well. It makes him a little irritable, so I don’t think I’d ask him. He is enjoying the night ride, though.”
Sam sighed and said to himself—