ft the poor horses standing in a forlorn
little group, gazing with sad lack-luster eyes at the masters who had
brought them to such a plight. Inyati took with him a canvas bag that
had been used as a saddlecloth, and I wondered what he hoped to find to
fill it, for there was no vestige of vegetation to be seen, except some
tiny seeds just sprouting here and there in the hollows between the
dunes.

I could see no other evidence of the rain that Inyati spoke of, but
soon, in a deeper depression than usual, we found signs that water had
recently accumulated there, though the spot was now as dry as the
surrounding dunes. But here Inyati, who had been keenly examining the
ground, uttered a grunt of satisfaction, and pointed to a spot close to
his feet. There was no trace of a plant, but a slight swelling, as it
were, of the soil, which showed, too, some small cracks as though
something was trying to burst its way to the surface.

"Cameel-brod," said he, and kneeling down he commenced scooping away
the sand with his hands, and from a few inches below the surface he
soon drew a whitish tuber the size of a large turnip. It was full of
thin watery juice, acrid and sharp to the taste, but as I afterwards
found, extremely acceptable to the horses.

Soon we had the bag nearly full, and cutting them up on our waterproof
ground-sheet, we quickly had a quantity of watery pulp, at which the
animals nuzzled greedily, and which revived them to a remarkable extent
almost at once; so much so indeed, that we had very little difficulty
in hurrying them forward again. The last drop of water had long since
gone, and I was now consumed with thirst, and sick with misgiving as to
what might be found at the pan Inyati had seen. Now we could see it,
and, as yesterday, the flocks of partridges were all flying in that
direction. How I envied them their wings, and how I grudged them the
precious water they would be drinking! At length, footsore, weary, with
eyes scorched by the blinding glare of the sun on the bare sand, and
with lips cracked and tongues swollen with thirst, we staggered out of
the dunes into a wide pan covered with bush and sprinkled with big
trees huge cameel-doorn of thick verdant foliage, which gave the whole
expanse a park-like appearance. They were full of gay-plumaged birds,
butterflies were flitting everywhere, here and there were fine
stretches of thick grass, in fact, after all we had suffered in the
furnace of shade-less