n. We are going
south, by Ahaggar."

"By Ahaggar," he murmured. "But...."

"But what?"

"I do not know the road."

"Eg-Anteouen is going to guide us."

"Eg-Anteouen!"

I watched Bou-Djema as he made this suppressed ejaculation. His eyes
were fixed on the Targa with a mixture of stupor and fright.

Eg-Anteouen's camel was a dozen yards ahead of us, side by side with
Morhange's. The two men were talking. I realized that Morhange must be
conversing with Eg-Anteouen about the famous inscriptions. But we were
not so far behind that they could not have overheard our words.

Again I looked at my guide. I saw that he was pale.

"What is it, Bou-Djema?" I asked in a low voice.

"Not here, Lieutenant, not here," he muttered.

His teeth chattered. He added in a whisper:

"Not here. This evening, when we stop, when he turns to the East to
pray, when the sun goes down. Then, call me to you. I will tell
you.... But not here. He is talking, but he is listening. Go ahead.
Join the Captain."

"What next?" I murmured, pressing my camel's neck with my foot so as
to make him overtake Morhange.

* * * * *

It was about five o'clock when Eg-Anteouen who was leading the way,
came to a stop.

"Here it is," he said, getting down from his camel.

It was a beautiful and sinister place. To our left a fantastic wall of
granite outlined its gray ribs against the sky. This wall was pierced,
from top to bottom, by a winding corridor about a thousand feet high
and scarcely wide enough in places to allow three camels to walk
abreast.

"Here it is," repeated the Targa.

To the west, straight behind us, the track that we were leaving
unrolled like a pale ribbon. The white plain, the road to Shikh-Salah,
the established halts, the well-known wells.... And, on the other
side, this black wall against the mauve sky, this dark passage.

I looked at Morhange.

"We had better stop here," he said simply. "Eg-Anteouen advises us to
take as much water here as we can carry."

With one accord we decided to spend the night there, before
undertaking the mountain.

There was a spring, in a dark basin, from which fell a little cascade;
there were a few shrubs, a few plants.

Already the camels were browsing at the length of their tethers.

Bou-Djema arranged our camp dinner service of tin cups and plates on a
great flat stone. An opened tin of meat lay beside a plate of lettuce
which he had just gathered f