but it was only of water, water, water, that they could think. Mr.
Stuart in his delirium began roaring for oranges, and it was
insufferable for them to have to listen to him. Only the rough, sturdy
Irishman rose superior to that bodily craving. That gleam of river must
be somewhere near Halfa, and his wife might be upon the very water at
which he looked. He pulled his hat over his eyes, and rode in gloomy
silence, biting at his strong, iron-grey moustache.

Slowly the sun sank towards the west, and their shadows began to trail
along the path where their hearts would go. It was cooler, and a desert
breeze had sprung up, whispering over the rolling, stone-strewed plain.
The Emir at their head had called his lieutenant to his side, and the
pair had peered about, their eyes shaded by their hands, looking for
some landmark. Then, with a satisfied grunt, the chief's camel had
seemed to break short off at its knees, and then at its hocks, going
down in three curious, broken-jointed jerks until its stomach was
stretched upon the ground. As each succeeding camel reached the spot it
lay down also, until they were all stretched in one long line.
The riders sprang off, and laid out the chopped tibbin upon cloths in
front of them, for no well-bred camel will eat from the ground.
In their gentle eyes, their quiet, leisurely way of eating, and their
condescending, mincing manner, there was something both feminine and
genteel, as though a party of prim old maids had foregathered in the
heart of the Libyan Desert.

There was no interference with the prisoners, either male or female, for
how could they escape in the centre of that huge plain? The Emir came
towards them once, and stood combing out his blue-black beard with his
fingers, and looking thoughtfully at them out of his dark, sinister
eyes. Miss Adams saw with a shudder that it was always upon Sadie that