“And why, when so close, did he not go closer still?”
“Because of the great barrier of evil the bad spirits, which live in the mountains, have built to keep people away.”
“Exactly,” said the old man triumphantly. “We are not going to break new ground, my dear child; we are going to break through the barrier of superstition erected by the Arabs themselves, and which alone has kept them from the water of which they stand so badly in need in this terrible spot.”
“It is rather appalling, I must say, without the camp fires,” said Ralph Trenchard, who, in shorts and a silk shirt, wrestled unceasingly with insects of all sizes and shapes which flew and crawled about them, attracted by the light of the torch.
“However did those poor beggars get through without oils of lavender and lemon, kerosene and smoke of sulphur to protect them from these brutes?” He speared a spider as he spoke and flung it into the night, then took Helen’s hand in both of his. “Why not turn in, dearest? You look tired out, and we can’t move until the stars come out, either late to-night or to-morrow night.”
She shook her head as she looked first at the sullen sky, then at the huddled figures of the Arabs, sitting with their heads buried in their burnous, and at the camels lying with their muzzles hidden in each other’s sides. She put her finger to her lips and shook her head again, as she glanced at her grandfather poring over the map, then at the sentries who paced the four sides of the rough square.
The square was small and compact, with their Excellencies’ tents in the middle, and the camels so stabled that there could be no confusion between them and their drivers if danger should arise. To mark the four sides of the square a tent had been pitched at each angle. In the shadow of the one to the south a man lay with his ear to the ground. He lay like one asleep or dead until the sentry turned, when he crawled upon his belly back to the lines where, with the help of two others such as he, he unhobbled certain camels and fastened them together by means of long leather thongs buckled above the knee of the right forelegs, then let them loose. It is an invention of Satan himself to create confusion in a herd of camels, and has never been known to fail in the annals of the turbulent Peninsula.
“Yes, why don’t you go and get some sleep, child?” said Sir Richard, who paid no attention to the passing of the hours himself, having acquired the Oriental’s gift of falling asleep when and where he wished. “Two o’clock already! Dear me! How quickly time does pass when one is pleasantly occupied!” He evicted something that crawled from the vicinity of his neck and patted his granddaughter’s hand. “There’ll be plenty of time for love-making, little one, when we get back to east winds and frosts, so run along and take off your boots and comb your hair and wheedle a basinful of water from Hassin. I don’t know what I should have done without you, and I’m glad to think that there is a man almost good enough to look after you. Ah! I thought so. We’re in for a thunderstorm. That accounts for the sky and this oppressiveness.”
He turned and looked due south, childishly pleased that he had caught the distant rumbling before the others; then looked up at Ralph Trenchard, who had leapt to his feet, jerking Helen up beside him.