the last inundation. Let us get started. There is not an instant to
lose."

"All right," Morhange replied tranquilly.

We had the greatest difficulty to make the camels kneel. When we had
thrown ourselves into the saddle they started off at a pace which
their terror rendered more and more disorderly.

Of a sudden the wind began, a formidable wind, and, almost at the same
time the light was eclipsed in the ravine. Above our heads the sky had
become, in the flash of an eye, darker than the walls of the canyon
which we were descending at a breathless pace.

"A path, a stairway in the wall," I screamed against the wind to my
companions. "If we don't find one in a minute we are lost."

They did not hear me, but, turning in my saddle, I saw that they had
lost no distance, Morhange following me, and Bou-Djema in the rear
driving the two baggage camels masterfully before him.

A blinding streak of lightning rent the obscurity. A peal of thunder,
re-echoed to infinity by the rocky wall, rang out, and immediately
great tepid drops began to fall. In an instant, our burnouses, which
had been blown out behind by the speed with which we were traveling,
were stuck tight to our streaming bodies.

"Saved!" I exclaimed suddenly.

Abruptly on our right a crevice opened in the midst of the wall. It