I had wrapped myself up
in my blankets, shivering with the fever that had seized me quite
violently, and the kittens were playing about near my bed. My men were
all sound asleep and only the occasional hoarse roar of the squatted
camels all round our camp broke the silence of the night. I eventually
fell asleep with my hat over my face screening it from the heavy fall of
dew.

Suddenly I woke up, startled by the kittens dashing under my blankets and
sticking their claws into me and making a fearful racket, and also by
some other animals sniffing my face. I jumped up, rifle in hand, for
indeed there were some wolves visiting our camp. One--a most impudent
rascal--was standing on one of my boxes, and another had evidently made a
dash for the white cat; hence the commotion.

The wolves bolted when I got up--I could not fire owing to the camels and
people being all round--but the kittens did not stir from their hiding
place until the next morning, when in broad day-light they cautiously
peeped out to see that the danger had passed.

With the coming day the gruesome reality had to be faced, that one and
all of my party had contracted fever of the desert in more or less
violent form, even the kittens, who sneezed and trembled the whole day.
Some of the camels, too, were unwell and lay with their long necks
resting upon the ground and refused to eat. The prospects of crossing the
most difficult part of the desert with such a sorry party were not very
bright, but we made everything ready, and at ten o'clock in the evening
we were to make a start.

I purchased here a third and most beautiful cat--a weird animal, and so
wild that when let out of the bag in which it had been brought to me, he
covered us all over with scratches. He was three months old, and had
quite a will of his own. When introduced to Master Kerman and Miss Zeris,
there were reciprocal growls and arched backs, and when asked to share
their travelling home for the night there was evident objection and some
exchange of spitting. But as there were four corners in the wooden box
and only three cats, they eventually settled down, one in each, watching
the new comer with wide expanded eyes and fully outstretched claws,
merely for defensive emergencies, but otherwise quite peacefully
inclined.

CHAPTER V

Salt sediments as white as snow--Brilliant stars--Plaintive songs
of the camel men--An improvisatore--Unpleasant odour of camels--A
larg