A DESPERATE MARCH 
593 
cheered us both, and we continued our way for a time in 
the pitch-dark night. 
But our strength was rapidly deserting us, our legs 
tottered under us ; we struggled hard against weariness, 
against the desire for sleep. The steep faces of the dunes 
now looked almost exclusively towards the east. I slid 
down them. I crept long distances on my hands and 
knees. We w'ere growing indifferent ; our spirits were 
flagging. Still we toiled on for life — bare life. Then 
imagine our surprise, our amazement, when on the long 
sloping surface of a dune we perceived human footsteps 
imprinted in the sand ! Down we went on our knees and 
examined them. There was no doubt of it. They were 
the footprints of human beings. Somebody had travelled 
that way. Surely we could not be very far from the river 
now ; for what could bring people out into the sandy 
waste? In an Instant we were wide awake. But Kasim 
thought, that the trail looked wonderfully fresh. “Just 
so,” I rejoined, “that is not at all strange. There has 
been no wind for several days. Perhaps our signal fire 
of the night before last has been seen by some shepherd 
in the forest beside the river, and he has come a little way 
into the desert to ascertain what was the cause of it.” 
We followed up the trail till we came to the top of a 
dune, where the sand was driven together in a hard 
compact mass, and the footprints could be more distinctly 
made out. 
Kasim dropped on his knees ; then cried in a scarcely 
audible voice, “ They are our own footsteps ! ” 
I stooped down and convinced myself that he was right. 
The footprints in the sand were plainly enough caused by 
our own boots, and at regular intervals beside them were 
the marks of the spade ; for Kasim had used it as a staff 
to support himself by. It w'as a discouraging discovery. 
How long had we been going round and round In a 
circle ? We comforted ourselves with the assurance, that 
it could not possibly have been very long. It was only 
during the last hour, that I had been so overcome with 
sleep that I forgot to look at the compass. But we had 
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