the
way sometimes wellnigh insurmountable. They carried water with them,
but the need for economy was great, and Herne was continually possessed
by a consuming thirst that he never dared to satisfy.

The party consisted of himself, Hassan, an Arab lad, and five natives.
The rest of his following he had left on the edge of civilization,
encamped in the last oasis between the desert and the scrub, with orders
to await his return. If, as the Arab had suggested, he succeeded in
pushing through to the farther desert, he would return by a more
southerly route, giving Wanda as wide a berth as possible.

Thus ran his plans as, day after day, he pressed farther into the heart
of the unknown country that the British had abandoned in despair over
three years before. They found it deserted, in some parts almost
impenetrable, so dense was the growth of bush in all directions. And yet
there were times when it seemed to Herne that the sense of emptiness was
but a superficial impression, as if unseen eyes watched them on that
journey of endless monotony, as if the very camels knew of a lurking
espionage, and sneered at their riders' ignorance.

This feeling came to him generally at night, when he had partially
assuaged the torment of thirst that gave him no peace by day, and his
mind was more at leisure for speculation. At such times, lying apart
from his companions, wrapt in the immense silence of the African night,
the conviction would rise up within him that every inch of their
progress through that land of mystery was marked by a close observation,
that even as he lay he was under _surveillance_, that the dense
obscurity of the bush all about him was peopled by stealthy watchers
whose vigilance was never relaxed.

He mentioned his suspicion once to Hassan; but the Arab only smiled.

"The desert never sleeps, _effendi_. The very grass of the _savannah_
has ears."

It was not a very satisfactory explanation, but Herne accepted it. He
put down his uneasiness to the restlessness of nerves that were ever on
the alert, and determined to ignore it. But it pursued him, none the
less; and coupled with it was the voice that called to him perpetually,
like the crying of a lost soul.

They were drawing nearer to the mountains when one day the Arab lad,
Ahmed, disappeared. It happened during the midday halt, when the rest of
the party were drowsing. No one knew when he went or how, but he
vanished as if a hand had plucked him off the fa