only talk with them was of the incidents of travel, of where we should
camp, of how far it might be to the next water, for water-holes or old
wells existed in this desert, of such birds as we saw, and so forth. As
to other and more important matters a kind of truce seemed to prevail.
Still, I observed that they were always studying us, and especially Lord
Ragnall, who rode on day after day, self-absorbed and staring straight
in front of him as though he looked at something we could not see.

Thus we covered hundreds of miles, not less than five hundred at the
least, reckoning our progress at only thirty miles a day, including
stoppages. For occasionally we stopped at the water-holes or small
oases, where the camels drank and rested. Indeed, these were so
conveniently arranged that I came to the conclusion that once there must
have been some established route running across these wastelands to
the south, of which the traditional knowledge remained with the Kendah
people. If so, it had not been used for generations, for save those of
one or two that had died on the outward march, we saw no skeletons of
camels or other beasts, or indeed any sign of man. The place was an
absolute wilderness where nothing lived except a few small mammals at
the oases and the birds that passed over it in the air on their way to
more fertile regions. Of these, by the way, I saw many that are known
both to Europe and Africa, especially ducks and cranes; also storks
that, for aught I can say, may have come from far-off, homely Holland.

At last the character of the country began to change. Grass appeared on
its lower-lying stretches, then bushes, then occasional trees and among
the trees a few buck. Halting the caravan I crept out and shot two of
these buck with a right and left, a feat that caused our grave escort to
stare in a fashion which showed me that they had never seen anything of
the sort done before.