A RESCUE PARTY 
627 
our camp in the forest. The expedition consisted of Islam 
Bai, Kasim, Ahmed Merghen, and one of his sons. They 
took with them the three horses and one camel, and by 
way of provisions, bread. Hour, mutton, and three kapaks 
(gourds) and a mesh (goat-skin) filled with water. Just as 
they were on the point of starting, Ahmed advised me to 
move out to a little island in the bed of the river, for the 
place where my hut stood abounded in scorpions. He was 
right ; for I afterwards saw several of these unpleasant 
creatures. Their trail in the sand bore a striking resem- 
blance to a lace pattern. But I liked my forest hut so well, 
and was so cosily at home in it, and besides it would have 
been so much trouble to flit, that I preferred to stay where 
I was and defy the scorpions. 
The rescue party left the camp at an hour which would 
allow them to reach that same evening the spot where 
I had hung up the spade for a sign-post. Ahmed went on 
foot with his gun over his shoulder ; the other three men 
rode on horseback. It was a pleasure to see how easily 
my new friend the hunter, like a mighty Nimrod or man of 
the woods, made his way through the thick undergrowth, 
sweeping the bushes aside and moving amongst them with 
such a light step that he almost seemed to fly. 
After they had gone, I was again alone with the three 
shepherds, and put on the armour of patience for perhaps 
a full week. The shepherds’ camp lay a few hundred 
paces from my hut ; but Pasi Akhun agreed to sleep 
near me, so as to keep up the fire during the night. He 
brought me bread and milk three times a day, and I 
could get plenty of water from a well in the bed of the 
river. 
May 14th. When I awoke at five o’clock, the sky was 
dark with clouds, and there was a thick mist and a fine 
drizzling rain. Although the rain only lasted a very short 
space, and scarcely wetted the ground, it freshened the air 
-a rare and unexpected phenomenon! At seven I got up. 
But during the long solitary days I spent in that forest hut 
I was by no means idle. I elaborated the rough notes 1 
had taken during the later stages of my desert journey. 
