They all gave another burst of laughter, and then they called out:—
“A mirage, a mirage! You saw a mirage!”
In another instant, the flock of them had risen straight above him and vanished into nothing in the graying sky.
Now that the youngest camel found himself alone in the falling night, he sank down upon his knees in despair. He laid his quivering chin upon his forelegs and sobs shook his bowed little shoulders. He was alone, he was lost, with nothing to eat or drink and not even his harp to comfort him. Which way Aqsu lay he no longer knew, and in his grief he believed that he would never find his mother or any other living thing again.
“Hope, hope, where are you?” he cried out in desperation. But he knew that magic word was powerless now to bring Mohammed’s son to his side. As complete darkness fell around him, his terror grew and he rose to his feet again and stumbled blindly on. “Oh, why, why did I let the sun fall warm on my tail?” he wept aloud. “It was just what he told me not to do.”
V
DURING THAT night the youngest camel must have dropped in his tracks and fallen asleep from sheer exhaustion, for the next thing he knew the sun was shining on his face again. He jumped to his feet quickly in the early day and, as if his life depended on it, he began running towards the rising sun. But in a moment he stopped short, saying to himself:—
“But it wasn’t in the morning when Mohammed’s son said I should run straight in the direction of the sun’s face. Perhaps that makes a difference. Perhaps I should run with the sun behind me now if I want to find my way to the oasis.”
So he turned around and began running as fast as he could in the opposite direction, thinking to himself that everything would surely be all right now. All he need do was to run away from the sun until the noon hour came and it was exactly in the middle of the sky, and then as it came down the other side he would race straight towards it, and perhaps he wouldn’t be too late to catch up his mother and the caravan if they had taken their time about setting out from Aqsu. He was feeling quite comforted by these thoughts, and at the same time he was trying very hard not to feel too self-satisfied because he had worked out the movements of the sun without any help from anyone older and wiser than himself. He was hungry and he wanted a drink very badly, but somehow he was filled with new hope and courage now that another day had dawned.