incoming
tide; but I ought not to tell you these things. We are half across now,
and the moon is getting high, so we shall have more light presently.

Bump! The horse on the off-side runs out of his traces suddenly and
stands facing the other one in a sort of mild amazement. The harness has
given way once more. Grumbling and growling the driver climbs down and
pulls him back and goes on muttering to himself. Far off the lapping of
the water is heard out at sea; it wouldn't do to be caught by the tide
in this situation, but they tell us the tide has not turned yet. The
moon sheds a curious unearthly light that fills the air with mystery.
The long low sandhills on the shore show up plainly, and nearer there
are countless wrecks which have been piled up on this desolate coast.
That large one, nearest of all, looks just like the huge up-curving ribs
of some mammoth that has had the flesh picked clean from his bones.
Look! There is something moving close to it, in the shadow; what is it?
It comes out a little way into the light, it is a furtive-looking
little four-footed creature whose fur shines with a reddish tinge; there
is another, peeping out from the sandhills, and another and another!
They are all over, but so silent and light-footed are they that it is
difficult to believe them to be anything but shadows. A wave of the hand
and they have disappeared! They are jackals, inquisitively watching us
with their bright eyes. Nothing to be afraid of. They dare not attack a
man if he is alive, though they would gleefully devour him dead. They
are much more frightened of you than you are of them. Weird, shy,
furtive little beasts. One can imagine them on a night like this playing
games and chasing one another in and out of the ribs of the drowned ship
in a sort of witches' dance.

Heigho! Well, we're on again at last.

We journey at a foot's pace for another mile or so and the lights of
Haifa begin to shine out clearly ahead, when all of a sudden the
carriage seems to be going down on one side. The two Turkish women, who
are on the high side, roll violently down on to us, screaming and
sobbing hysterically. I don't know what you feel like, but I am nearly
smothered by the flowing shawls and the strong smell of scent; when I
manage to get free I find that you have disappeared altogether till I
get hold of a leg and jerk you forth.

The carriage has gone further and further over; the horses are splashing
and struggling; and a