and told stories. Before finally going off to rest, each went out into
the bushes and brought in his camel; these were then arranged in a circle
around the Arabs, one of the latter being mounted as sentry to prevent
any sudden surprise--not indeed that they had the smallest fear of the
Christians, who were far distant; but then, as now, the Arabs of the
desert were a plundering race, and were ever ready to drive off each
other's camels or horses. Cuthbert determined that if flight was possible
it must be undertaken during the interval after the arrival at the
halting-place and before the bringing in of the camels. Therefore, each
day upon the halt he had pretended great fatigue from the rough motion of
the camel, and had, after hastily eating the dates handed to him, thrown
himself down, covered himself with his Arab robe, and feigned instant
sleep. Thus they had in the three days from starting come to look upon
his presence sleeping close to them as a matter of course.

The second day after entering the desert, however, Cuthbert threw himself
down by the side of an uprooted shrub of small size and about his own
length. He covered himself as usual with his long, dark-blue robe, and
pretended to go to sleep. He kept his eyes, however, on the alert through
an aperture beneath his cloth, and observed particularly the direction in
which the camel upon which he had set his mind wandered into the bushes.
The darkness came on a very few minutes after they had halted, and when
the Arabs had once settled round their fire, Cuthbert very quietly
shifted the robe from himself to the long low bush near him, and then
crawled stealthily off into the darkness.

He had no fear of his footfall being heard upon the soft sand, and was
soon on his feet, looking for the camels. He was not long in finding
them, or in picking out the one which he had selected. The bushes were
succulent, and close to the camping ground; indeed, it was for this that