A DESPERATE MARCH 
595 
With my hand to my brow, I stood riveted to the 
spot by the marvellous sight. It cost me an effort to 
collect my senses. I was still half giddy, as if newly 
awakened from a hideous dream, or distressing night- 
mare. For weeks we had been dragging ourselves, 
slowly dying by inches, through the valley of the shadow 
of death, and now ! — All around us, in whichever direction 
we turned our eyes, life and springtime, the singing of 
birds, the scent of the woods, green leaves in every 
variety of tint, refreshing shade, and over there, amongst 
the hoary patriarchs of the forest, innumerable spoor 
of wild animals — tigers, wolves, deer, foxes, antelopes, 
gazelles, hares. The air was alive with flies and midges ; 
beetles went whizzing pa.st us as swift as arrows, their 
wings humming like the notes of an organ ; and the 
morning-songs of the birds trilled from every branch. 
The wood grew denser and denser. At intervals the 
stems of the poplars were entwined with creepers ; and 
our progress was often interrupted by impenetrable 
labyrinths of dead trees, branches, and brushwood, or 
equally often by dense thickets of thorny bushes. 
At ten minutes past seven the forest grew thinner. We 
saw between the trees indistinct traces of both men and 
horses. But it was impossible to determine how old they 
were ; for the forest protected them against the obliterating 
effects of the sandstorms. What joy ! what bliss ! 1 felt 
— I was sure, we were saved now. 
I suggested that we should go straight through the 
forest, steering due east, for in that direction the river 
could not be . very far away. But Kasim thought, that 
the trail, which undoubtedly marked a road of some 
kind, would gradually lead us to the river banks. And, 
as the trail was easy to follow, and kept all the time in 
the shade, I adopted Kasim’s suggestion. 
Weak and struggling, we followed the trail towards 
the south ; but by nine o’clock we were completely done 
up by the tropical heat, and dropped on the ground in 
the shade of two or three poplars. With my naked 
hands I scratched out a hole between the roots, and lay 
