THROUGH THE MOUNTAINS 259 



sleep. "Speak first!" came drowsily from Yusuf. 

 "Shoot quickly and shoot straight!" from Mohammed, 

 "or you will never speak again!" 



The only thing that disturbed my slumbers that night 

 was a little j^ellow sand mouse. I woke up feeling some- 

 thing fluffy on my cheek and the absurd little beast was 

 sitting on my nose. He scuttled to the other side of 

 the zariba when I moved and Amar, bloodthirsty after 

 a long, useless vigil, promptly killed and ate him! No 

 Tebu warriors broke our peace, but unfortunately the 

 fear of them made Mohammed wake me while the golden 

 moon was still high and brilliant. I would not move 

 without breakfast, so we hurriedly cooked rice and 

 sweet tea in the unreal light almost as clear as noon and 

 laboriouslj^ pulled to pieces our beautiful zariba of the 

 night before. We rolled the heavy date sacks down the 

 hill because the men were too tired after their hard 

 twenty-four hours to carry them. One burst and scat- 

 tered dates right and left. Thrift and fear mingled in 

 the minds of the retinue, but caution for the long road 

 before us was uppermost in my mind! We picked them 

 up in silence and dumped the load on to the protesting 

 camels with iilmost personal dislike. Then we took to 

 the trail again and, still in moonlight, began picking 

 our devious way round the irregular hills. When Sulei- 

 man finally led us back to the main pass we thought 

 any pursuing caravan must be far ahead, for it was two 

 hours after sunrise. 



By this time we were all incHned to think that the 

 four or six camels and the dozen men existed only in 

 the imagination of Yusuf and Amar, but we had hardly 

 turned into the vnde sweep of sand that led north to 

 the open spaces beyond the first range of Hawaish when 

 we came upon fresh camels' tracks ahead of us. The 

 plump one was delighted. "T was right! I was right!" 



