Mysteries of the Libyan Desert

by W. J. Harding King

As we continued to follow his footprints, it became clear that this was what he was aiming at, for his route, that at first had been running nearly due north, gradually circled round Jebel el Bayed till it ran almost towards the east, evidently with the intention of cutting the tracks that we had made the day before. His trail went steadily on, circling round the great black hill behind us without a single halt to break the monotony of the journey.

We had been following his spoor for about three hours and a half when we reached the point where his trail met and crossed the one that we had made ourselves and, as Qway had not hesitated for a moment, it was clear that in the uncertain moonlight he had passed it unnoticed.

As we continued to follow his tracks, presently it became evident that he had been considerably perplexed. Several times he had halted to look round him from the top of some slight rise in the ground, and had then ridden on again in the same easterly direction and repeated the process.

Abd er Rahman, on seeing these tracks, was beside himself with delight. He slapped his thigh and burst out laughing, exclaiming that Qway was lost, and “Praise be to Allah” had only got five days’ water supply. Abdulla, if anything, seemed even more pleased.

After a time Qway apparently concluded that he would wait till daylight before proceeding any farther, for we found the place where he had lain down to sleep. That he had started off again before dawn was clear from the fact that he had not prayed where he slept, but nearly an hour’s journey farther on.

We followed him for a little farther, but as the afternoon was then far spent, I thought it best to return to the depot for the night, in case Qway should get there before us.

Frequently when out in the desert I had occasion to send Qway, or one of the men away from the caravan, to climb a hill to see if anything was to be seen from the summit, to scout ahead of the caravan, or for some other purpose, and as there was always a risk that the absentee might not get back to the caravan by dark I had a standing arrangement that if anyone got lost from this cause I would send up a rocket half an hour after sunset, and a second one a quarter of an hour later, to enable him to find the camp. These two rockets were accordingly fired from the depot and, moreover, as it was an absolutely windless night, a candle was lighted and left burning on the top of a pile of stones to attract his attention in the dark, if he were anywhere in the neighbourhood. I hoped by this means to induce him to come in and give himself up, in preference to risking a possible death by thirst—but he never materialised.

In the morning we set out again to follow his track. I could not exactly leave him to die of thirst, if he had really got lost, and I also wanted to know what he was doing. As the camels were getting into a very poor condition, owing to the hard work they had had and the short water allowance I had put them on, we left all the baggage in the depot, and took them along with us, carrying only sufficient water for our own use during the day.

We picked up Qway’s trail where we had left it and, after following it for some distance, found where he had reached the old faint footprints left by Abdulla on his first journey, when he had ridden out alone to Jebel Abdulla. They had clearly puzzled him extremely. He dismounted and stood for some time examining the track and scanning the surrounding desert, as was clear from the number of footprints he had left at the place and the number of directions in which they pointed.

After a considerable amount of hesitation, he again set off in the same easterly direction he had been previously following, probably still hoping to find the tracks of the caravan that he had crossed in the moonlight without seeing.