e. The camels paused at the brink; after which
they began to step carefully towards the bottom.

IX

The khor was wide, covered on the bottom with stones among which grew
dwarfish, thorny shrubs. A high rock full of crevices and fissures
formed its southern wall. The Arabs discerned all this by the light of
quiet but more and more frequent lightning flashes. Soon they also
discovered in the rocky wall a kind of shallow cave or, rather, a broad
niche, in which people could easily be harbored and, in case of a great
downpour, could find shelter. The camels also could be comfortably
lodged upon a slight elevation close by the niche. The Bedouins and two
Sudanese removed from them their burdens and saddles, so that they
might rest well, and Chamis, son of Chadigi, occupied himself in the
meantime with pulling thorny shrubs for a fire. Big single drops fell
continually but the downpour began only when the party lay down to
sleep. At first it was like strings of water, afterwards ropes, and in
the end it seemed as if whole rivers were flowing from invisible
clouds. Such rains, which occur only once in several years, swell, even
in winter time, the water of the canals and the Nile, and in Aden fill
immense cisterns, without which the city could not exist at all. Stas
never in his life had seen anything like it. At the bottom of the khor
the stream began to rumble; the entrance to the niche was veiled as if
by a curtain of water; around could be heard only splashing and
spluttering.

The camels stood on an elevation and the downpour at most would give
them a bath; nevertheless the Arabs peered out every little while to
see if any danger threatened the animals. To the others it was
agreeable to sit in the cave, safe from danger, by the bright fire of
brushwood, which was not yet soaked. On their faces joy was depicted.
Idris, who immediately after their arrival had untied Stas' hands so
that he could eat, now turned to him and smiling contemptuously said:

"The Mahdi is greater than all white sorcerers. He subdued the
hurricane and sent rain."

Stas did not reply for he was occupied with Nell, who was barely alive.
First he shook the sand from her hair, afterwards directed old Dinah to
unpack the things which she, in the belief that the children were going
to their parents, brought with her from Fayum. He took a towel, wet it,
and wiped the little girl's eyes and face with it. Dinah could not do
this as seeing but poor