herself down on the ground in a small patch of shade. She lit a
cigarette and lay flat on her back with her helmet over her eyes.

For the first time since she had shaken off Gaston she began to think
seriously. What she had done was madness. She had no food for herself
or her horse, no water, and Heaven alone knew where the next well might
be. She was alone in an uncivilised country among a savage people with
no protection of any kind. She might fall in with friendly Arabs or she
might not. She might come across an encampment, or she might wander for
days and see no one, in which case death from hunger and thirst stared
her in the face. What would she do when night came? With a sharp cry
she leaped to her feet. What was she to do? She looked all around the
little oasis with startled eyes, at the few palm trees and clumps of
camel thorn, the broken well and the grey horse still snuffing about
its mouth. She felt frightened for the first time; she was alone and
about her was unending space, and she felt an atom, insignificant, the
least of all things. She looked up into the clear sky and the blue
vastness appalled her.

Then the sudden panic to which she had given way subsided and her
courage rose with a bound. It was only midday, anything might happen
between then and nightfall. Of one thing only she was sure, she did not
repent of what she had done. Behind her was Ahmed Ben Hassan and before
her was possibly death, and death was preferable. She was quite calm
again and lay down in the patch of shade once more with a resolute
determination to mind. Time to think of them when they came. For the
next hour or two she must rest and escape the intense heat. She rolled
over on her face with her head in her arms and tried to sleep, but she
was too excited, and soon gave up the attempt. And in any case, she
argued with herself, she might sleep too long and lose precious time.