coming, which astonished me until we discovered that they had been
warned of our arrival by two King's messengers who travelled ahead of
us.

These men, it would seem, although our officers and guides professed
ignorance of the matter, must have left the King's palace at dawn on
the day of our departure, whereas we did not mount in the city till a
little after noon. Therefore they had six hours good start of us, and
what is more, travelled lighter than we did, having no sumpter beasts
with them, and no cooks or servants. Moreover, always they had the
pick of the horses and chose the three swiftest beasts, leading the
third in case one of their own should founder or meet with accident.
Thus it came about that we never caught them up although we covered
quite a hundred miles a day. Only once did I see them, far off upon
the skyline of a mountain range which we had to climb, but by the time
we had reached its crest they were gone.

At length we came to the desert without accident and crossed it,
though more slowly. But even here the King had his posts which were in
charge of Arabs who lived in tents by wells of water, or sometimes
where there was none save what was brought to them. So still we
galloped on, parched by the burning sand beneath and the burning sand
above, and reached the borders of Egypt.

Here, upon the very boundary line, the two officers halted the
cavalcade saying that their orders were to return thence and make
report to the King. There then we parted, Bes and I with the six
hunters who still chose to cling to me, going forward and the officers
of the King with the guides and servants going back. The good horses
that we rode from the last post they gave to us by the King's command,