will require help."

Idris lashed the camel with his whip and for a while they rode in
silence.

"Why don't you answer?" Stas asked.

"Because I am considering whether it would be better to tie you to the
saddle or tie your hands behind."

"You have become insane."

"No. I have guessed what you intended to do."

"The pursuers will overtake us anyway; so I would not have to do it."

"The desert is in the hands of God."

They became silent again. The thicker sand fell entirely; there
remained in the air a subtile red dust, something of the nature of
pollen, through which the sun shone like a copper plate. But already
they could see ahead. Before the caravan stretched level ground at the
borders of which the keen eyes of the Arabs again espied a cloud. It
was higher than the previous one and, besides this, there shot from it
what seemed like pillars, or gigantic chimneys expanding at the top. At
this sight the hearts of the Arabs and Bedouins quailed for they
recognized the great sandy whirlpools. Idris raised his hands and
drawing his palms towards his ears began to prostrate himself to the
approaching whirlwind. His faith in one God evidently did not prevent
his worship and fear of others for Stas distinctly heard him say:

"Lord! We are thy children; therefore do not devour us."

But the "lord" just dashed at them and assailed the camels with a force
so terrible that they almost fell to the ground. The animals now formed
a compact pack with heads turned to the center towards each other.
Whole masses of sand were stirred. The caravan was enveloped by a dusk
deeper than before and in that dusk there flew beside the riders dark
and indistinct objects, as though gigantic birds or camels were
dispersed with the hurricane. Fear seized the Arabs, to whom it seemed
that these were the spirits of animals and men who had perished under
the sands. Amid the roar and howling could be heard strange voices
similar to sobs, to laughter, to cries for help. But these were
delusions. The caravan was threatened by real danger, a hundredfold
greater. The Sudanese well knew that if any one of the great
whirlpools, forming incessantly in the bosom of the hurricane, should
catch them in its whirls, it would hurl the riders to the ground and
disperse the camels, and if it should break and fall upon them then in
the twinkling of an eye an immense sandy mound would cover them in
which they would remain until the next hurricane, blowin