132 LODGES IN THE WILDERNESS 



springs like a startled finger. This .was one 

 of the actual portals of the desert. I was now, 

 alas ! once more within sight of the dwellings 

 of men. Several tents had been pitched, and 

 quite a number of mat-houses set up at 

 Gamoep since we had left it, a little more than 

 a week previously. 



I turned eastward and cast mournful eyes 

 back over the sun-bathed immensity from 

 which I had emerged, and from the deepest 

 depths of which sounded a call that I knew 

 would for ever echo in my soul. What a 

 strange regret it was that tugged at my aching 

 heartstrings . . . ? 



The wind had here died down. The morrow 

 would be torrid, perhaps with a tornado from 

 the north. As the last skirts of the sea-cooled 

 breeze trailed away into the infinite east, their 

 track was marked by a line of towering sand- 

 spouts. So gently did these move across the 

 plains that it seemed as though they stood like 

 a row of lofty columns sustaining the temple- 

 dome of the sky. Yet a careful eye might 

 detect their rhythmic and concerted move- 

 ment. What was the stately measure they 

 were treading, to what sphere-music did their 

 gliding feet keep time? 



And then, O desert O steadfast face that 



