captured horse and told off her crew. As there were only two men that
could ride at all these became the crew of the cutter. Spanish Dick
and Bill the Boatswain were the two.

Shard's orders were that turn and turn about they should take command
of the cutter and cruise about five miles off to the North East all
the day but at night they were to come in. And they fitted the horse
up with a flagstaff in front of the saddle so that they could signal
from her, and carried an anchor behind for fear she should run away.

And as soon as Spanish Dick had ridden off Shard sent some men to roll
all the barrels back from the depot where they were buried in the
sand, with orders to watch the cutter all the time and, if she
signalled, to return as fast as they could.

They buried the Arabs that day, removing their water-bottles and any
provisions they had, and that night they got all the water-barrels in,
and for days nothing happened. One event of extraordinary importance
did indeed occur, the wind got up one day, but it was due South, and
as the oasis lay to the North of them and beyond that they might pick
up the camel track Shard decided to stay where he was. If it had
looked to him like lasting Shard might have hoisted sail but it it
dropped at evening as he knew it would, and in any case it was not the
wind he wanted. And more days went by, two weeks without a breeze. The
dead oxen would not keep and they had had to kill three more, there
were only seven left now.

Never before had the men been so long without rum. And Captain Shard
had doubled the watch besides making two more men sleep at the guns.
They had tired of their simple games, and most of their songs, and