62 LODGES IN THE WILDERNESS 



How many hot human hearts have searched 

 for a clue to the nature of that Power which 

 energises as much through evil as through 

 good, — which could foster the development of 

 a numerous people under painful and inex- 

 orable laws until it harmonised with its rigorous 

 environment, — that could implant in its units 

 the capacity for love, heroism and faithfulness 

 — and then ordain or sanction its obliteration, 

 — an obliteration so absolute that, with the ex- 

 ception of one aged and senile pair, and a few 

 delineations on sheltered rocks, of animals that 

 shared its doom, this people has not left a trace 

 behind. Literally, not a trace ; hardly so much 

 evidence that it ever existed as is afforded in 

 the case of an extinct sub-species of diatoms, 

 the imprint of whose forms may be found on 

 the fractured face of a chalk-cliff. 



Musing thus, I suddenly became aware that 

 day was at hand, for the pallid moonlight grew 

 paler and the thrill of approaching dawn 

 pulsated through the firmament. If all my 

 trouble were not to be thrown away, I should at 

 once select a spot suitable for my ambush. 

 But first I had to look out for a certain shallow- 

 rooted shrub of globular form which grew in 

 patches here and there throughout the desert. 

 A few such shrubs had to be pulled out of the 



