ence
should not make the beasts ill; half an hour later, fearing he would
spoil the date-harvest by his presence, the Chief led him to a filthy
tent where an old man lay with a disease so horrible that they had
thrust him out of the village to die.

The next day Forder found that later in the week the old Chief himself
was going to the Jowf. Ripping open the waistband of his trousers,
Forder took out four French Napoleons (gold coins worth 16s. each) and
went off to the Chief, whom he found alone in his guest room.

Walking up to him Forder held out the money saying, "If you will let
me go to the Jowf with you, find me camel, water and food, I will give
you these four pieces."

"Give them to me now," said Khy-Khevan, "and we will start after
to-morrow."

"No," replied Forder, "you come outside, and before the men of the
place I will give them to you; they must be witnesses." So in the
presence of the men the bargain was made.

In the morning the camels were got together--about a hundred and
twenty of them--with eighty men, some of whom came round Forder, and
patting their daggers and guns said, "These things are for using on
Christians. We shall leave your dead body in the sand if you do not
change your religion and be a follower of Mohammed."

After these cheerful encouragements the caravan started at one
o'clock. For four hours they travelled. Then a shout went up--"Look
behind!"

Looking round Forder saw a wild troop of Bedouin robbers galloping
after them as hard as they could ride. The camels were rushed together
in a group: the men of Ithera fired on the robbers and went after
them. After a short, sharp battle the robbers made off and the men
settled down where they were for the night, during which they had to
beat off another attack by the robbers.

Forder said, "What brave fellows you are!" This praise pleased them
immensely, and they began to be friendly with him, and forgot that
they had meant to leave his dead body in the desert, though they still
told him he would be killed at the Jowf. For three days they travelled
on without finding any water, and even on the fourth day they only
found it by digging up the sand with their fingers till they had made
a hole over six feet deep where they found some.

_In the Heart of the Desert_

At last Forder saw the great mass of the old castle, "no one knows
how old," that guards the Jowf[71] that great isolated city with its
thousands of lovely green date p