Arabs withdrew; we were Christians, and they did
not know that we were friends. Now the other sambuk was so near that we
could have swam to it in half an hour, but the seas were too high. At
each trip a good swimmer trailed along, hanging to the painter of the
canoe. When it became altogether dark we could not see the boat any
more, for over there they were prevented by the wind from keeping any
light burning. My men asked 'In what direction shall we swim?' I
answered: 'Swim in the direction of this or that star; that must be
about the direction of the boat.' Finally a torch flared up over
there--one of the torches that were still left from the _Emden_. But we
had suffered considerably through submersion. One sailor cried out: 'Oh,
pshaw! it's all up with us now; that's a searchlight.' The man who held
out best was Lieutenant Schmidt, who later lost his life. About 10
o'clock we were all safe aboard, but one of our typhus patients, Seaman
Keil, wore himself out completely by the exertion; he died a week later.
On the next morning we went over again to the wreck in order to seek the
weapons that had fallen into the water. You see, the Arabs dive so well;
they fetched up a considerable lot--both machine guns, all but ten of
the rifles, though these were, to be sure, all full of water. Later they
frequently failed to go off when they were used in firing.

[Sidenote: Sami Bey becomes guide.]

"Now we numbered, together with the Arabs, seventy men on the little
boat, until evening. Then we anchored before Konfida, and met Sami Bey,
who is still with us. He had shown himself useful even before in the
service of the Turkish Government, and has done good service as guide in
the last two months. He is an active man, thoroughly familiar with the
country. He procured for us a larger boat, of fifty-four tons, and he
himself, with his wife, sailed alongside on the little sambuk. We sailed
from the 20th to the 24th unmolested to Lith. There Sami Bey announced
that three English ships were cruising about in order to intercept us. I
therefore advised traveling a bit overland. I disliked leaving the sea a
second time, but it had to be done."

[Sidenote: Travelling overland.]

"Lith is, to be sure, nothing but this," said Muecke, with a sweeping
gesture toward the desert through which we were traveling, "and
therefore it was very difficult to get up a caravan at once. We remained
aboard ship so long. We marched away on the 28th. We h