Page:Harris Dickson--Old Reliable in Africa.djvu/161

, and a few timid stragglers on foot, headed west to meet the tribesmen. They crossed the narrowest part of Beni Yeb, not more than two hundred yards, between the Nile and the desert.

Pausing at the sands, Kali nodded towards a creeping mass of men and camels, donkeys, dogs, women and children. Cameron leveled his glass, scanned them critically, then lowered his glass and remarked: "Nigerines?"

Kali nodded.

"The Sheikh Tabira?"

Again Kali nodded, muttering words of Arabic explanation. What he said was for Cameron alone and seemed to puzzle him.

"Kali," he asked, "why do they come?"

"Allah knoweth their affairs," the Jaalin sheikh replied.

Colonel Spottiswoode grew anxious and McDonald whispered to him, "Might be a nasty row!" Spottiswoode drew his horse closer to Cameron and inquired, "Who are these Nigerines?"

"They're from the west, several thousand miles across the desert"—without taking his eyes from the approaching tribe.

"What are they doing here?"

"Small parties sometimes pass this way on their pilgrimage to Mecca. They travel slowly, working a week here, a few months there.