s," added Miles, "you forget that men of the desert are skilled
in observing signs and in following tracks. Should any of them pass
near this little clump of bushes, and observe our footsteps going
towards it, they will at once come to see if we are still here."

Molloy put his head on one side and looked perplexed for a moment.

"Never mind. Let 'em come," he said, with a sudden look of sagacity,
"we'll circumwent 'em. There's nothin' like circumwention w'en you've
got into a fix. See here. We'll dig a hole in a sandbank big enough to
hold us all, an' we'll cut a big bush an' stick it in front of the hole
so as they'll never see it. We can keep a bright look-out, you know,
an' if anything heaves in sight on the horizon, down we go into the
hole, stick up the bush, an there you are--all safe under hatches till
the enemy clears off."

"But they will trace our footsteps up to the hole or the bush," said
Miles, "and wonder why they can trace them no further. What then?"

Again the seaman fell into perplexed meditation, out of which he emerged
with a beaming smile.

"Why, then, my lad, we'll bamboozle 'em. There's nothin' like
bamboozlement w'en circumwention fails. Putt the two together an'
they're like a hurricane in the tropics, carries all before it! We'll
bamboozle 'em by runnin' for an hour or two all over the place, so as no
mortal man seein' our footprints will be able to tell where we comed
from, or what we've bin a-doin' of."

"You don't know the men of the desert, Jack," rejoined Miles, with a
laugh. "They'd just walk in a circle round the place where you propose
to run about and bamboozle them, till they found where our tracks
_entered_ this bit of bush. Then, as they'd see no tracks _leaving_ it,
of course they'd know that we were still there. D'you see?"

"That's a puzzler for you, Jack," remarked Moses, as he watched the
perplexed expression looming up again like a cloud on the sailor's face.

"By no manner o' means," retorted Molloy, with sudden gravity. "I sees
my way quite clear out o' that. You remember the broad track, not half
a mile off from where we now sit?"

"Yes; made I suppose by a pretty big band o' some sort crossin' the
desert," said Moses.

"Well, lad, arter runnin' about in the bush to bamboozle of 'em, as
aforesaid, we'll march back to that track on the sou'-west'ard--as it
may be--an' then do the same on the nor'-west'ard--so to speak--an' so
lead 'em to suppose we