* * * * *

Bou-Djema died in the middle of the night without having regained
consciousness.




VII

THE COUNTRY OF FEAR


"It is curious," said Morhange, "to see how our expedition, uneventful
since we left Ouargla, is now becoming exciting."

He said this after kneeling for a moment in prayer before the
painfully dug grave in which we had lain the guide.

I do not believe in God. But if anything can influence whatever powers
there may be, whether of good or of evil, of light or of darkness, it
is the prayer of such a man.

For two days we picked our way through a gigantic chaos of black rock
in what might have been the country of the moon, so barren was it. No
sound but that of stones rolling under the feet of the camels and
striking like gunshots at the foot of the precipices.

A strange march indeed. For the first few hours, I tried to pick out,