"Right-O," acquiesced Captain Digby-Soames. "If I can get a clear
bearing to a point immediately below where you hover, I'll lie flat on
the ground as an affirmative signal. If there's no good landmark I'll
stay perpendicular, what?"

"That's it," said Colonel Decies, and, with a swift run and throbbing
whirr, the aeroplane soared from the ground and rose to where, a
thousand feet from the plain, lay the mangled "problem". As it came to
a halt and hovered[29] (like a gigantic dragon-fly poised on its
invisibly-rapid wings above a pool), the junior officer's practised
eye noted a practicable gully that debouched on a level with, and not
far from, the ledge over which the aeroplane hung, and that a stunted
thorn-tree stood below the shelf and two large cactus bushes on its
immediate left. Having taken careful note of other landmarks and
glanced at the sun, he lay on the ground at full length for a minute
and then arose and approached the camel, who greeted him with a
bubbling snarl. On its great double saddle were a gun-cover and a long
cane, while from it dangled a haversack, camera, cartridge-case,
satchel, canvas water-bag, and a cord-net holdall of odds and ends.

Obviously the "problem's" shikar-camel. Apparently he was out without
any shikarri, orderly, or servant--a foolish thing to do when
stalking in country in which a sprained ankle is more than a
possibility, and a long-range bullet in the back a probability
anywhere on that side of the border.

The aeroplane returned to earth and grounded near by. Stopping the
engine Colonel Decies climbed out and swung himself into the rear seat
of the camel saddle. Captain Digby-Soames sprang into the front one
and the camel lurched to its feet, and was driven to the mouth of the