experience of wandering in circles, lost in the most inhospitable
desert on the earth. Vultures! He had not realized there were so many
in the world. Hour after hour, a post at every few yards, and on every
post a vulture--a vulture that opened its eyes as he approached,
regarded him from its own point of view--that of the Eater whose life
is an unending search for Meat--calculatingly, and closed them again
with a sigh at his remaining vigorousness.

He must have passed hundreds, thousands,--had he died of thirst in
actual fact and was he doomed to follow this line through this desert
for evermore as a punishment for his sins? No--much too mild a
punishment for the God of Love to inflict, according to the Chaplain.
This would be Eternal Bliss compared with the Eternal Fire. He must be
still alive ... Was he mad, then, and _imagining_ these unending
bird-capped posts? If not mad, he soon would be. Why couldn't they say
something--mannerless brutes! Should he swerve off and leave the
telegraph line? No, he had starved and suffered the agonies of thirst
for nearly a week--and, if he could hang on all night, he might reach
water tomorrow and be saved. Food was a minor consideration and if he
could drink a few gallons of water, soak his clothes in it, lie in
it,--he could carry on for another day or two. Nearly as easy to
sprawl face-downward on a camel-saddle as on the ground--and he had
tied himself on. The camel would rub along all right for days with
camel-thorn and similar dainties.... No, better not leave the line.
Halt and camp within sight of it till the morning, when the brutes
would fly away in search of food? No ... might find it impossible to
get going again, if once man and beast lay down now ... Ride as far as
possible from the line, keeping it in sight? No ... if he fell asleep
the camel would go round in a circle again, and he'd wake up a dozen
miles from the line, with no idea of direction and position. Best to
carry straight on. The camel would stick to the line so long as he was
left exactly on it ... think it a road ... He could sleep without
danger thus. He would shut his eyes and not see the vultures, for if
he saw a dozen more he knew that he would go raving mad, halt the
camel and address an impassioned appeal to them to _say_
something--for God's sake to _say something_. Didn't they know that he
had been in solitary confinement in a desert for three weeks or three
centuries (what is time?) without he