n to think I hadn't a
bit. It had got to the bottom somewhere."

"Yes," said Frank; "now keep it up at the top."

In another minute the little camel train was steadily pacing on again
over the sands, with the air feeling fresher. The moon, too, was
beginning to cast the shadows in a different direction, while the whole
party had become silent, no one feeling the slightest inclination to
talk.

But it did not seem long now before the silvery radiance of the moon
began to grow pale before the soft opalescence in the east, and the
far-spreading desert sands took a less mystic tint. Then all at once
far on high there was a soft, roseate speck, which grew orange and then
golden as if it were the advance guard of the gathering array of
dazzling hues which now rapidly advanced till the east blazed with a
glory wondrous to behold.

"Your first desert sunrise, Frank," said the professor quietly, as he
saw the young man's rapt gaze. "Ah, we have some splendid sky effects
here to make up for the want of flower and tree! The desert has glories
of its own, as you will see."

For the next half hour Frank forgot his weariness, the want of sleep,
and his anxieties in the grandeur of the scene around, as the glories of
the day expanded till the sun rose well above the horizon, sending the
shadows of the camels long and strange over the yielding sand. Then
hour after hour the monotony increased, and the silence grew more
oppressive, the heat harder to bear, and but for the calm, contented
ease exhibited by the Sheikh and his men, and the example they felt
bound to show to their followers, both the Doctor and Frank would have
put in a plea for another halt.

As it was they sat firmly as they could, swaying to and fro with the
monotonous motion of the camels, and growing more and more faint, while
at last Frank spoke to the Sheikh to set one of his young men to keep an
eye upon Sam, for he felt at times too much irritated to meet the poor
fellow's pleading eyes, and followed close behind the professor, who
kept turning in his seat to make some remark to cheer him up.

Then apparently all at once, after he had been straining his eyes vainly
over the far-spreading, interminable plain in search of their
halting-place, the Sheikh rode alongside, smiling and apparently as
fresh as when they had started, to point away in the direction they were
going.

"The tents, Excellency," he said.

Frank felt as if he had taken a draught o