250 THE SECRET OF SAHARA: KUFARA 



didn't want you to see it. I knew you would laugh.'* 

 "Laugh!" I exclaimed scornfully, sucking my finger- 

 tips. "After all, you needn't make such a fuss! It's 

 no worse than your bread!" and I remembered the days 

 on the way to Taiserbo when I had insisted on treasuring 

 a piece of ten-day-old bread in my knapsack with much 

 the same sort of feehng that "it might come in useful." 

 My companion, unlawfully in search of matches — the 

 only things we refused to share were matches and soap, 

 though we never used the latter — cut his hand badly on 

 the rough, sharp edge of my precious loaf and thereafter 

 spoke of food as the most dangerous element in the 

 desert ! 



