186 THE SECRET OF SAHARA: KUFARA 



few days what was left of us would hardly be woi-th send- 

 ing back! Then the blow fell. "You must take an order 

 at once to Yusuf and Mohammed Quemish." In vain 

 the guide protested, pleaded, argued. The kaimakaan 

 was firm. It was then the afternoon and there was plenty 

 of time to reach Hawari before night. The energetic 

 official hustled Abdullah out of the town and the plotter 

 saw his neat little plan for our destruction in jeopardy. 



He knew that Mohammed was intelligent and that 

 Yusuf was known to many people in Kufara. Both were 

 loyal. Therefore, unless we were killed fairly quickly, 

 in the general inquiry his own perfidy would come to 

 light. He had meant to ensure that we were not imme- 

 diately invited to Jof. He had no desire to return to us 

 even with an order for our detention, for though it might 

 make things uncomfortable for us temporarily, in the 

 long run he was bound to suffer. Therefore he spent the 

 night in the mountains and only arrived at our camp at 

 9 o'clock, hoping that by this time we should have come 

 to blows with the Zouias, for he had particularly in- 

 structed Yusuf to start off with the caravan at dawn. 



I do not know which was more aghast at seeing the 

 other, Abdullah or I! At that moment, of course, I 

 knew nothing of his work at Kufara. I only felt that 

 we had jumped to wrong conclusions the preceding day 

 and when, with restless ej^es downcast, he murmured that 

 we could not leave Hawari yet as they were preparing a 

 house for us in Jof which would not be ready for several 

 days, but that the slave-girls were to go on at once, I 

 felt that something was seriously wrong. He tried to 

 avoid presenting the note to Yusuf and Mohammed in 

 front of me, but I would not leave him, so the paper, 

 which was presumably meant to be private, was read 

 before me. It ran, "You will see that you do not 

 stir from Hawari until you receive fm-ther orders.'* 



