l66 CHALLENGER 



canvas sheet was laid over the generator for its protection v^hich 

 succeeded in cutting off completely its air supply and it burnt out 

 and the lights faded. If there vs^ere heavy dews there must also 

 have been heavy evaporation, for the following evening the water 

 in the drums had shrunk alarmingly and discontinuance of shaving 

 by all hands was ordered. The campers at once began to assume 

 that scruffy appearance which comes to all beard growers in the 

 early stages. 



Bill Ashton was soon friendly with the few dhow crews that 

 passed that way, and as he wished to have everything possible laid 

 on, he returned late from surveying one evening to say that he 

 had been arranging the camp fish supplies. At about 2 a.m. 

 Ashton 's assistant heard a gentle scraping on the canvas of the 

 tent, and lifting the flap saw in the light of his torch an Arab of 

 uncommonly evil appearance. He had but one eye and a few 

 straggling hairs for a beard and in his scrofulous hand he held a 

 coarse, grey sting ray. Its skin was dry and cracked, and here and 

 there it was coated with sand, which had adhered to it when it 

 had been set down upon the ground. 'Fish, Sahib, Fish,' said the 

 fisherman, holding up the ray into the full light of the torch, 

 Ashton was informed that the fishmonger had arrived and a long 

 conversation then took place outside the tent between Ashton 

 and the seller of fish. 'Fish, Sahib, Fish' — again and again came 

 the dismal chant to which Ashton parried, 'Yes, my dear fellow, 

 but I didn't say at 2 o'clock in the morning.' The fishmonger only 

 left the camp in peace for the night when he had been given some 

 tinned rations in return for the inedible fish which he left behind 

 upon the sand. 



If water had been scarce in the early days of this camp it came 

 in abundance one night when a shamal of unprecedented ferocity 

 began to blow. At first the campers ignored the wind until the 

 tents began to flap and pull at their pegs, uprooting them from 

 the loose sand. The men then had to gather large stones to keep 

 down the edges of the canvas, and as soon as they retired again 

 into their camp beds the rain began to pour down in a way they 

 had not believed possible in the desert. It flooded every tent, 

 carrying sand with it into the bread supplies, the cooking 

 utensils and the bedding. And still the wind blew harder, till it 

 became a full-time job for every man to keep his tent from blow- 



