eir slow knees, and began to stalk in their lordly way with
outstretched necks along the road to the river. We moved through the
palm groves, a crowd of boys following us and shouting for backsheesh.
We began to be afraid they would accompany us too far and discover our
fugitive; but fortunately they all turned back with one accord at a
little whitewashed shrine near the edge of the oasis. We reached the
clump of palms; we turned the corner of the ridge. Had we missed one
another? No! There, crouching by the rocks, with her children by her
side, sat our mysterious stranger.

The Doctor was equal to the emergency. 'Make those bastes kneel!' he
cried authoritatively to the sheikh.

The sheikh was taken aback. This was a new exploit burst upon him. He
flung his arms up, gesticulating wildly. The Doctor, unmoved, made the
drivers understand by some strange pantomime what he wanted. They
nodded, half terrified. In a second, the stranger was by my side, Elsie
had taken the girl, the Doctor the boy, and the camels were passively
beginning to rise again. That is the best of your camel. Once set him on
his road, and he goes mechanically.

The sheikh broke out with several loud remarks in Arabic, which we did
not understand, but whose hostile character could not easily escape us.
He was beside himself with anger. Then I was suddenly aware of the
splendid advantage of having an Irishman on our side. Dr. Macloghlen
drew his revolver, like one well used to such episodes, and pointed it
full at the angry Arab. 'Look here, Mr. Sheikh,' he said, calmly, yet
with a fine touch of bravado; 'do ye see this revolver? Well, unless ye
make yer camels thravel sthraight to Geergeh widout wan other wurrud,
'tis yer own brains will be spattered, sor, on the sand of this desert!
And if ye touch wan hair of our heads, ye'll answer for it wid yer life
to the British Government.'

I do not feel sure that the sheikh comprehended the exact nature of each
word in this comprehensive threat, but I am certain he took in its
general meaning, punctuated as it was with some flourishes of the
revolver. He turned to the drivers and made a gesture of despair. It
meant, apparently, that this infidel was too much for him. Then he
called out a few sharp directions in Arabic. Next minute, our camels'
legs were stepping out briskly along the road to Geergeh with a
promptitude which I'm sure must have astonished their owners. We rode on
and on through the gloom in