of the moon. I urged the viscount to
hold our weapons ready to fire and not to stray from camp, while I went
on looking for my spring.

Suddenly, we heard a lion roaring a few yards away.

"Oh," whispered the viscount, "he is quite close! ... Don't you see
him? ... There ... through the trees ... in that thicket! If he roars
again, I will fire! ..."

And the roaring began again, louder than before. And the viscount
fired, but I do not think that he hit the lion; only, he smashed a
mirror, as I perceived the next morning, at daybreak. We must have
covered a good distance during the night, for we suddenly found
ourselves on the edge of the desert, an immense desert of sand, stones
and rocks. It was really not worth while leaving the forest to come
upon the desert. Tired out, I flung myself down beside the viscount,
for I had had enough of looking for springs which I could not find.

I was quite surprised--and I said so to the viscount--that we had
encountered no other dangerous animals during the night. Usually,
after the lion came the leopard and sometimes the buzz of the tsetse
fly. These were easily obtained effects; and I explained to M. de
Chagny that Erik imitated the roar of a lion on a long tabour or
timbrel, with an ass's skin at one end. Over this skin he tied a
string of catgut, which was fastened at the middle to another similar
string passing through the whole length of the tabour. Erik had only
to rub this string with a glove smeared with resin and, according to
the manner in which he rubbed it, he imitated to perfection the voice
of the lion or the leopard, or even the buzzing of the tsetse fly.

The idea that Erik was probably in the room beside us, working his
trick, made me suddenly resolve to enter into a parley with him, for we
must obviously give up all thought of taking him by surprise. And by
this time he must be quite aware who were the occupants of his
torture-chamber. I called him: "Erik! Erik!"

I shouted as loudly as I could across the desert, but there was no
answer to my voice. All around us lay the silence and the bare
immensity of that stony desert. What was to become of us in the midst
of that awful solitude?

We were beginning literally to die of heat, hunger and thirst ... of
thirst especially. At last, I saw M. de Chagny raise himself on his
elbow and point to a spot on the horizon. He had discovered an oasis!

Yes, far in the distance was an oasis ... an oasi