After this, as may be supposed, we could talk of nothing else but the
means of escape. The distance between us and the tribe we wished to
reach was about thirty miles. On foot, it would be scarcely possible to
accomplish that distance during the night, even were we to run the whole
distance. We should also probably fall in with natives, who might take
it into their heads to stop us, and perhaps put us to death; while, as
soon as our flight was discovered, we should certainly be pursued.

Selim, who was as anxious to escape as we were, volunteered to go first,
to try and find some place in which we might conceal ourselves should we
be pursued, and where we might remain till the camp had broken up and
returned southward. He believed that he would have time to make a
search during the night for the sort of place which would answer our
purpose, and to return before daybreak without being discovered.

If not pursued, we intended to push on as far as we could without
stopping. We therefore hid away as large a stock of provisions as we
could, so that, should we be obliged to lie concealed for any length of
time, we might not be starved. From the information I gained, too, it
seemed likely that we should soon be shifting our camp, and we could
scarcely expect to reach a place from which we were so likely to make
our escape as where we now were. Besides, the moon was nearly at its
full, and though we might get out of the camp more easily during the
dark, still we could not find our way unless with the light which it
would afford us. We had already wandered over the country for some
distance from the hill, and had carefully noted the road that it was
evident we should take. We determined, therefore, no longer to put off
our adventure.

Selim slipped out directly all around him were asleep, made his way down
the hill without being seen, and was soon lost in the darkness. We
resolved, should he return unobserved, and report favourably, to start
the next night.

So anxious were we all, we could with difficulty go to sleep, though we
did not expect him back for some hours. My eyes at length closed; and
it seemed but a moment afterwards when I heard a voice whispering in my
ear, and looking up, saw Selim seated by my side. "All right," he said;
"I have discovered an old ruin, about a mile from this, some way off the
highroad; and though I had no little fear of meeting with hyenas or
other wild beasts, I explored it com