ks nearer their
journey's end, and all was well.

But it was sadly monotonous. The morning and evening skies were
glorious, but their beauties soon began to pale, while on the hot days
the journeys were most exhausting, and the travellers welcomed the clear
nights when the stars blazed on high, for these were the times the
Sheikh selected for progressing.

"There is no fear then of going far astray," he said; for he knew
nothing of the use of the compass, and the adventurers had never thought
of bringing such an aid.

In company with the doctor and professor such natural history objects as
presented themselves were examined--lizards among the rocks, a few
snakes, harmless, and the poison-bearing cobra; but away from the river,
birds were rare, save those of prey, and as to animals they were heard
more than seen. A gazelle or two, little and graceful, bounded across
the track, but it was at night that the howling of the jackals and the
long, hideous snarling of hyaenas taught the travellers that there were
plenty of these loathsome creatures hungrily waiting for the weaklings
of such caravans as crossed the sandy plains.

Twice over irregularities were pointed out by the Sheikh--places where
the dead level was broken--as being the sites of former occupancy of
that part of the country, the professor discoursing learnedly about the
possibility of changes in the surface having taken place and rendered
the country barren, while he talked eagerly of how interesting it would
have been to encamp at such spots, gather together a score of the
fellaheen with shovel and basket, and explore.

"But there could never have been cities there," said the doctor.

"But there were," replied the professor. "Egypt _is_ not half explored
as yet. Out yonder where we passed to-day the land lay lower, and there
was the trace of a wady, one of those irregular valleys which doubtless
ran towards the Nile. That was once filled with water, but the
encroaching sand has filled up and covered everything. Ah, I should
like nothing better than to begin digging there. It would not be long
before I began to learn who the people were who formed that colony."

At last, on the morning of the fifteenth day, when, after a longer
night's journey than usual, a halt was made, the faint dawn began to
show that the face of the country had undergone a change. Sand there
was in plenty, but it was diversified with patches of rocks, some of
which were of