cii. XIX.] Anxious IMomcnts, 75 



jerih,^' (close by, close by). AVitli tliis comfortable 

 news we accordingly put our camels' beads towards 

 tbe south. 



The plain now began to ascend, and, by follow- 

 ing the line of a long winding wady, we reached the 

 crest of the hills, and found them, as I said, to be 

 only the broken edge of an upper plateau. There, 

 far and wide before us, the level plain stretched out, 

 unbroken except by one three-peaked hill, higher 

 than any we had yet seen, and recognised by Jazzer 

 as Jebel Ghorab or " Raven's Hill," about ten miles- 

 away to the south. Of tents or camels nothing 

 at all was to be seen. 



The situation required some speediness of de- 

 cision, as the information given us by the ghazii 

 party might be false, and we were advancing into a 

 thirsty land with a \qxj limited supply of water. 

 Jazzer seemed in doubt whether to continue in the new 

 direction or to revert to the old one ; and the rest of 

 the party were of course without knowledge of the 

 country, or ability to form an opinion, Wilfrid, 

 however, decided that the hill was our best chance. 

 It would serve at least as a look-out from which we 

 might hope to spy out something, and towards it we 

 steered. He and Mohammed rode on in front, the 

 rest of the party keeping them just in sight. As 

 we came near the hill, whicli is of limestone and 

 capped with three peaks, I could see Wilfrid and 

 Mohammed like specks upon the top of it. They 

 seemed to be wavingf their cloaks but I could not 



