CHAPTER IV 



ACROSS THE DESERT WITH SHE-IB' 



ALL that day we sat inside the tent amidst blinding 

 sand. It was in vain that we shut every curtain 

 and flap. The whirling dust penetrated as if by 

 magic. We abstained from lunch in order to save food, 

 and the only break in the monotony of removing con- 

 tinual layers of sand from faces and note-books was when 

 a peg cracked under the strain and one side of the tent 

 flew up with a scream of flapping canvas, tearing up 

 half a dozen pegs with it. We used to go out half 

 bhnded by the force of the gibli and knock them in again 

 and take the opportunity of scanning the distant rise for 

 the prayed-for caravan. Once we counted eighteen 

 camels coming over the brow, and hope rose high; but, 

 alas! they were only grazing. 



"Allah will send the solution to the problem," said 

 Mohammed simply, and he was right, for, towards 

 evening, when the wind had dropped considerably and 

 we had gone down to the wadi to buy camel's milk, 

 which I loved, but which Hassanein found too bitter, a 

 small caravan of eight camels laden with luggage for 

 Jalo, accompanied by half a dozen Mojabras returning 

 to their homes after a shopping expedition in Jedabia, 

 came down the rise. The situation changed at once. 

 These men brought much news from the "belad" 

 (village) we had left four days before. They knew all 

 about our caravan. "Inshallah! It will arrive in a day 

 or two. When we left, the men were buying their 



