TRIPOLY TO BENGAZI. 
241 
been able to learn, but old Shekh Mahommed el Ddbbah ; and we 
have reason to believe that his opinion of Morzouk’s sagacity was 
not quite so indifferent after this night’s alarm, as it had been before 
its occunence; for the hrst thing which he discovered on turning 
out in the morning, which he usually did very early, was that three 
of his camels were missing ; and on summoning his people, and 
searching everywhere in the neighbourhood, no traces whatever 
could be seen of them, but the track of their footsteps in the sand, 
with those of a man in their company. 
It was impossible not to laugh when the fact became current that 
some of the Dhbbah’s camels had been stolen, and we really believe 
that every individual of our party, with the exception of himself and 
his sons, were wicked enough to enjoy the circumstance, and to con- 
sider it as an excellent joke. No sooner were the traces observed 
by the Dubbah of the man’s footsteps who had carried off his camels, 
than he knew them to be those, at least so he declared, of our obsti- 
nate friend the shepherd above mentioned. The man certainly 
never made his appearance again while we remained in the neigh- 
bourhood, and it is probable that he took this summary process of 
paying himself for the sheep which had been so unceremoniously 
transferred from his flock to our kitchen kettle. 
Three camels were no doubt something more than a fair remu- 
neration for the loss of a single sheep ; but then something was to 
be allowed for the risk of the raid, and everybody owned that the 
camels had been lifted in a very neat and expeditious manner, such 
as would not have disgraced the keenest moss-trooper on record in 
