o the
livery stable in the next street, or order a fresh one from the Stores.
No one knows that better than the Sheikh. He is making the caravan
travel so that it can go on for a year if necessary, and at the end of
that year the camels, which mean life to us, will be fit to go on for
another year."

"But Harry--Harry--Harry!" sighed Frank sadly.

"Harry is in Egypt, my dear boy, where things go on as slowly now with
the people as they did in the days of the old Pharaohs. Harry must
wait, and you must wait, till we can reach him. Try at once to realise
where you are, and that this is the only way in which we can achieve our
plans."

"I'll try," said Frank sadly.

"That's right, for if left to yourself you would press on, and in less
than a month all that would be left of my dear lad would be a few
whitening bones in the desert, and Harry still gazing northward and
westward for the help that did not come."

"I'm afraid you are right, Landon," said Frank sadly.

"I'm sure I am, my dear lad. Experientia has dosed me. Africa is a
problem, solemn and slow as its great deserts, and the people here, much
as we look down upon them, have been Nature-taught, educated, as it
were, from the failings of those who have gone before, how to live, how
to travel, in short, how to exist in such a land."

"Forgive me, Landon," said Frank.

"Of course, my dear boy. I know exactly how you feel. I was just as
bad when I first came out here. The men maddened me with their slow
movements when some glorious slab covered with hieroglyphics or painted
pictures cut in, lay at the bottom of a hole into which the sand kept
crumbling and trickling back. I was ready to give up over and over
again when tired out at night, but a good rest made me ready to go on
again in the morning with fresh patience, and in the end I won."

"There," said Frank, "say no more; I know you are right. This all comes
of your talking to me. If you had not spoken I should have gone on in
silence, so you have yourself to thank for my display of discontent."

"Then I am very glad I have spoken," said the professor warmly, "because
I can feel that you will take the right view of matters."

"Yes, I shall try hard to."

"That's right, and the best thing you can do is to enter into the
journey from a keen observer's point of view. Now look before you.
What can you see?"

"A wide expanse of sand baking in the sunshine."

"Nothing else?"

"No."

"Ah,