THE EXD OF THE JOURXEY 303 



Thereafter our journey was just the chronicle of a 

 very gallant feat of endurance. The golden sickle died 

 behind us, but we plodded on. Xo longer were the 

 85 kilometres in front of us a friendly desert to be 

 traversed slowly and comfortably. At all costs we must 

 reach Siwa and a doctor before the fractured bone broke 

 the skin and set up mortification. The greatest difficulty 

 was the retinue, who could not believe that the "Alimed 

 Bey" who laughed at them and urged them to sing 

 could really have a broken bone. 'Tt is a little 

 sprain," said Yusuf hopefully. ''We will make a fire 

 and massage it with oil of jasmine and it will be cured." 

 But I drove them on unrelenting till the rough ground 

 west of Kusebeya made the camels stumble hopelessly 

 in the darkness. I hated Abu Bekr when he calmly 

 lit himself a fire and, warming his feet at the blaze, 

 started chanting the Koran in a loud, exasperating voice. 



"We could not get the unfortunate Hassanein into a 

 flea-bag and no position we could devise could give rest 

 to his shoulder, already jarred by the unending bumps 

 and jerks of a camel's pace. All we could do was to 

 pile our cushions and blankets under him and cover him 

 with the sleeping-sacks. Yusuf toiled nobly and, in the 

 cold night which followed, during wliich Abu Bekr was 

 the only one who slept, I heard him come shutHing 

 several times to see if he could help. 



Xever was a dawn more welcome, but as we helped 

 my infinitely plucky companion on to a camel, waiting 

 for no breakfast except coffee, made overnight in a 

 thermos flask, I wondered whether himian endurance 

 could last out another forty-eight hours hke tliis. The 

 shoulder was already inflamed and the ground terribly 

 rough, so that every few minutes the rider was jerked and 

 jolted painfully. We passed the blue salt lake of Kuse- 

 beya, a strip of colour on our left, and clambered down 



