Forgetting their fatigue, the lads slipped from their saddles and staggered towards the nearest pool, while Reeves, stopping only to hobble the camels, made haste to follow them. Half a minute later the three were on their knees, plunging their heads into the tepid water, and taking copious draughts of the invigorating liquid.
"Steady, boys!" cautioned Reeves, knowing that an excess would be almost as bad as a lack of water; "there's plenty of time. Here we stay for the rest of the day."
"Are we safe?" asked Hugh.
"As safe as we can reasonably hope to be," replied the correspondent. "I'll bring the camels down, and while they are drinking we'll have a meal."
"Is this the same river as at Wadi Tlat?" asked Gerald.
"As far as I can judge, but it has made a fairly wide sweep to the south-west. I believe that had we kept due south from the spot where we were at sunrise, we should have struck the river within an hour or so."
"Perhaps it turned out for the best."
"That I do not doubt. We might not have found such an admirable spot to hold our own against the Arabs, and had those fellows caught us in the open, it would have gone hard with us. That reminds me—do you know how to load these guns?"
The lads shook their heads. They had both used rook rifles before, but these long-barrelled flintlocks were beyond them.
"I can't see the place for the caps," said Gerald.