260 THE SECRET OF SAHARA: KUFARA 



he exclaimed, "and now we are safe, for, when they do 

 not catch us, they will think we have been warned and 

 gone to Zieghen to avoid them." Perhaps his surmise 

 was correct. We never knew. We found no more 

 traces of the mysterious caravan. Its origin and destina- 

 tion remained a secret. It had travelled two days and 

 a half on the route to Zakar far beyond the point where, 

 long ago, travellers turned west to Zieghen. Then it 

 vanished as completely as a mirage, but mirage does not 

 leave footprints and camel dung! 



In spite of the sleepless night the Beduins marched 

 well that day. "If we reach those mountains to-night," 

 had said Suleiman at 11 a.m., when we saw the second 

 range of Hawaish, blue and mauve, beyond a wide 

 expanse of pale sand waves and low dunes, "we shall 

 say our Asr prayers to-morrow at Zakar." So we 

 plodded on cheerfully. It was cool and cloudy, with 

 the usual north wind and an incessant mirage that made 

 pools and lakes in every hollow. The old camel I had 

 ridden when we left Jedabia seemed to know the way. 

 He made a bee-line for a certain cleft in the hills. Yusuf 

 noticed this also and asked if I knew the story of the 

 sand grouse and the camel. "They were arguing one 

 day as to which was the cleverer," said the plump one, 

 smiling. "I lay my eggs at random in the trackless 

 desert," urged the sand grouse, "and then I fly far and 

 wide in search of food, but I can always come straight 

 back to hatch them." The camel sniffed scornfully. 

 "If I drink at a well as a tiny foal trotting beside my 

 mother, though I never see it again, I can find my way 

 back to it even when I am very old and bhnd!" "No> 

 no, he is cleverer than that!" interrupted Mohammed. 

 "If a naga has tasted the water of a well when she is 

 in foal, the camel she gives birth to can return to it 

 surely." "Let us hope this particular camel has drunk 



