Page:On the Desert - Recent Events in Egypt.djvu/225

Rh Doctor. I dismounted, preferring to meet the enemy on foot. Soon it came. The camels turned their heads to escape the fury of the tempest. It required all the shouting of their drivers to keep their heads to the storm. Thus we struggled on. After an hour the clouds broke away, the sun came out, a rainbow spanned the sky, and we rode on in triumph. And now we had time to admire the strange formation of rocks. These limestone ranges sometimes stretch for miles, suggesting the familiar image of city walls; and as they are in places much broken, we see cropping up, again and again, the outline of old castles and towers. Here and there upon the plain stands a solitary mound, so like a pyramid that one can hardly believe it has not been fashioned by human hands.

We halted on the top of a hill, in a hollow open only to the sky. All went to work to get the camp ready, the Doctor driving the tent-pegs, and bringing stones to keep them fast, lest we should have such a blow as we had had the night before. In half an hour the tents were up, and all was snug. Better still, our men found a place where they were protected from the wind by rocks, and here they were collected round their fires, with their camels beside them. There were four camp-fires, for we had had an addition to our camp since we left Sinai, in a small party of Bedaween, who were bound to Gaza to bring back grain for the Convent As it was twelve days march, and led through tribes that might help themselves to whatever the camels carried, they asked to accompany us, that they might be under our protection. We had no objection, for in case of attack their swords and guns would be a welcome addition to ours, and we could combine our forces for the common defence.

I wonder if I can make a picture of the scene around our camp-fires, as I saw it that evening.