ON A WATERLESS WAY 147 



blistered, black waste, picking up specimens of as many- 

 kinds of stone as possible and then, as we clambered up 

 a rough bank between two of the sombre sheer-cut hills, 

 the long line of Buseima palms spread before us with 

 the thin silver strip of lake — real water, no mirage — ^that 

 had seemed to be but a fable of Jedabia imagination! 

 Till we reached the stony track by the gara we had 

 marched in very businesslike formation — three soldiers 

 ahead, the camels in the middle, and scouts flung out on 

 the highest dunes, while everyone had rifle or revolver 

 ready. Abdullah, himself a Zouia, had mocked the 

 blacks with "Look out, you soldiers, for now you are 

 coming to the land where men fight!" and therefore 

 every slave was athirst for battle and revenge! 



