he had finished his account. "He is sure before long to create a
disturbance, and the sheikh will sell him to the first caravan we meet
with."

The Arabs, however, little knew the man they had to deal with. A guard
was set over him; but though watchful enough when an enemy is expected
to attack them, the Children of the Desert are, when in charge of a
prisoner, as liable to yield to drowsiness as other people, under the
belief that he too will fall asleep. Such, probably, was the case in
the present instance. When morning dawned, Antonio was not to be found.
His guards declared that they had seen a thick smoke ascend from where
he lay, and that when they went to the spot he had disappeared,--thus
proving without doubt that the Jins (or evil spirits) had carried him
off. A diligent search was made round the camp, but no traces of him
could be found, and no one could guess the direction he had taken.

We now again moved forward, and were once more in the open country. By
Selim's advice, Halliday and I did our best to ingratiate ourselves with
the sheikh. "He thinks well of you already," he observed, "because you
can speak his language; and if you can gain his confidence you will
certainly be better treated, and perhaps be able to obtain your
liberty." We were well-disposed to take this advice. The sheikh, I
considered, was only following the instincts of his nature in making us
slaves; and I hoped, by working on his good feelings (supposing he
possessed any), ultimately to obtain our liberty: and, at all events, we
should be better off while we remained with him.

I must briefly describe the chief incidents of our journey. We had now
again obtained the use of camels, and were riding on ahead with the
sheikh, who usually liked to converse with us, as we could tell him of
strange countries, and of events of which he had no previous conception.
The noonday sun was beating down on our heads, without a breath of wind
to cool the air, when we saw before us a vast, almost perpendicular wall
of sand, which seemed completely to bar our way, extending as it did so
far to the east and west that it might require not only one, but several
days' journeys to get round it. The sheikh, though at first somewhat
daunted at the appearance of the barrier, declared that there must be a
passage through it, and that through it we must go if such passage could
be found.

Turning to the left, he led the way under the sand cliff, na