cerned from the situation and form of the khors that Assuan
was behind them, a great burden fell off Idris' breast. As they
suffered already from want of water they drew nearer to the river a
half day's distance. There Idris, concealing the caravan, sent all the
camels with the Bedouins to the Nile in order to water them well and
for a longer time. Beyond Assuan the fertile belt along the river was
narrower. In some places the desert reached the river; the villages lay
at a considerable distance from each other. The Bedouins, therefore,
returned successfully, unseen by any one, with a considerable supply of
water. It was necessary now to think of provisions. As the animals had
been fed sparingly during the past week they grew lean; their necks
lengthened, their humps sank, and their legs became weak. The durra and
the supplies for the people, with the greatest stint, would suffice for
two days more. Idris thought, however, that they might, if not during
daytime then at night, approach the pastures on the river banks and
perhaps buy biscuits and dates in some village. Saba already was given
nothing at all to eat or drink, and the children hid leavings of food
for him, but he somehow managed to take care of himself and came
running to the stopping places with bleeding jaws and marks of bites on
his neck and breast. Whether the victim of these fights was a jackal,
or a hyena, or perhaps a desert fox or a gazelle no one knew; it was
enough that there were no signs of great hunger on him. At times also
his black lips were moist as if he drank. The Bedouins surmised that he
must have dug deep holes at the bottom of the ravines, and in this
manner reached water which he scented under the ground. In this manner
travelers who get lost dig the bottoms of chasms and, if they do not
often find water, they almost always reach damp sand and, sucking it,
cheat in this way the pangs of thirst. In Saba, however, considerable
changes took place. He still had a powerful breast and neck, but his
sides were sunken, through which he appeared taller. In his eyes, about
the reddened whites, there was now something savage and threatening. To
Nell and to Stas he was as attached as previously and permitted them to
do with him whatever they pleased. He still at times wagged his tail at
Chamis, but he growled at the Bedouins and Sudanese or snapped with his
terrible teeth, which at such times clashed against each other like
steel nails. Idris and Geb