I nodded. In spite of its import the tragedy could not fail to be spectacular.
“Better milk the female,” I said.
Lady Sarah managed to extract about a gallon from our only cow-camel. With heavy hearts and heavier loads we began our fateful march across the wastes—afoot.
Just how long or how far we walked is not quite clear in my mind. At times we were unreasonably gay. Day and night became confused. We struggled on when we were not too exhausted. Snatches of an old refrain, “The Japanese Sandman,” burst from my lips; then I would sing the old Indian love lyric “Cold hands I held, behind the Samo-va-ah, where are you now,—where are-ah you now?” And we would both weep, watching our tears vanish in the aridity underfoot, “like snow upon the desert’s dusty face.”
On an undated day we lay down for what we felt to be our last rest. We had done our best and it was not enough. In the early dawn Fate mocked us again. A tractor caravan passed at a distance of half a mile, part of the regular bus line between Tripoli and Assouan, their head lights shining dimly in the wan light. Struggling to my feet I tried to run toward them. Ignominious though it might be to be rescued by such contraptions I had another’s life to consider. “Jitney!” I shouted—“Jitney,” but the noise of their motors drowned my voice and, the effort proving too much, I fell forward, gazing mournfully after the receding tail-lights, two dim, red sparks that rose and fell and vanished.
“What was it?” asked Lady Sarah, half-aroused.
“Citroens,” I answered.
“French ... for lemons,” she said with a weak smile, sinking again to lethargy.
Later in the day we managed to advance a few miles. I think we crawled part of the way. All supplies were now exhausted. I was burned like a cinder; Lady Sarah was a flaming red—she never tanned; she was peeling, I remember, but still beautiful. Suddenly I sank back and pointed with trembling finger—“Look! Look!” I cried through cracked lips.
Before us not over a mile away, in a low depression of the desert, lay water! blessed water, fringed with green trees, to which I could see animals coming to drink, impala, umpahs, gazelles and countless birds.