the fourth
well, one was told, was of a quite good drinking kind. I had been warned
not to touch it, but my men and camels drank some and it had equally
disastrous effects on men and beasts. Sadek, who was requested to
experiment and report on such occasions, thought his last hour had come,
and he and the camel men moaned and groaned the greater part of the
night. The water seemed not only saturated with salt, but tasted of lead
and phosphorus, and was a most violent purgative.

The rest-house could not be called luxurious; the reader is referred to
the photograph I took of it facing page 332. It was roofless--which,
personally, I did not mind--and the walls just high enough to screen one
from the wind and sand. It was in two compartments, the wall of one being
41/2 feet high, and of the other about 7 feet high, while 15 feet by 8
feet, and 10 feet by 8 feet were the respective dimensions of each
section.

The place lies in the middle of a valley amid hills of chalk or gypsum
and deep soft sand, and is screened by a low hill range to the north-east
and north, while a low flat-topped sand dune protects it on the
south-west. The new track, I believe, will go north of the north-east
range.

CHAPTER XXXII

Sick men and camels--What came of photographing Sahib
Chah--Losing the track--Divided opinions--Allah _versus_ the
compass--Sadek's way of locating positions--Picked up hungry and
thirsty by sensible Mahommed who had come in search--Curious
scenery--Trouble at Mirjawa--Mythical Perso-Beluch
frontier--Gypsum and limestone--Mushki Chah.

As all my camels as well as my men had been very sick during the night;
as we had a long march before us the following day, and as I wished to
take a photograph of the place, I resolved not to leave until the sun had
risen, and in order to avoid delay I despatched all the camels and loads,
except my camera, at four o'clock in the morning, meaning to walk some
ten or fifteen miles, and thus give my own camel a rest. Sadek, who said
it was not right for a servant to ride when his master walked, refused to
go on with the caravan and insisted on remaining with me.

When the camels left--there was a cutting northerly wind blowing raising
clouds of sand--I retreated to the shelter to wait for the sun to rise,
and had a few hours' sleep in a solitary blanket I had retained. The
track had so far been so well defined that I never thought of asking
Mahom