cultivated ground behind, and right away south
and west now, saving a _few_ oases, there's nothing but the sand
covering all about here the ruins of ancient cities. I believe if we
dug anywhere here we should find traces--buildings, temples, or tombs."

"Has there been cultivation, too, here?"

"No doubt. It only wants water, sandy as it is, for it to break out
blushing with soft green."

"Where does the Nile lie from here?"

"Away to the left."

"Shall we see its waters when the morning comes?"

"No; we are going farther and farther away to a bit of an oasis where
the Sheikh's people are gathered with their flocks. They find pasture
there at this time of year, and a little employment with the travellers
who come to Cairo. In the summer time, when the city is pretty well
empty, they go right away to some high ground where it is rocky and
fairly fertile. We shall reach the present camp before the sun gets hot
in the morning."

"How is the doctor getting on?" asked Frank, after a pause.

"Pretty well. It makes him a little irritable, so I don't think I'd ask
him. He is enjoying the night ride, though."

Sam sighed and said to himself--

"He says that because he wants to make the best of it, but I'm not going
to believe my poor guv'nor's enjoying this. He's wishing himself back
in Wimpole Street, I know."

"What's that?" said Frank suddenly.

"What? I see nothing."

"No, no. I mean that wild cry."

"Only a jackal. I daresay if you listen you will hear another answer
it. Pleasant note, isn't it?"

"Horrible! It sounded like some poor creature in pain."

"Hungry, perhaps," said the professor coolly. "Fine, wild, weird
prospect, this, eh?"

"It seems very dream-like and strange."

"Yes, it impressed me like that at first. After a while you begin to
think of how delightful it is, and what a change from pacing over the
burning sand in the daylight with the sun making the air quiver and glow
like a furnace, and your mouth turn dry and lips crack with the parching
you have to undergo."

"Shall we have to journey much by night?"

"Oh, yes; we shall do most of our marching then, but we need not trouble
about that. Ibrahim will do what is best. I have had a long talk with
him, and he proposes to go in a roundabout way for the enemy's camp."

"What! not go straight there?"

"No; it would mean suspicion. We must not go there unasked."

"Landon!" said Frank appealingly.

"It is quite ri