Page:Orczy--the gates of Kamt.djvu/62

 were forced to encamp in the very midst of this weird desolation. A thousand conflicting conjectures chased one another in our bewildered minds. What was the explanation of this strange and solitary abode of the dead? who were these whose whitening bones were left to mingle with the sand and shingle of the desert?

"The wandering hordes of Egypt, who found death on this spot after ceaseless roaming in the desert," was my first suggestion; obviously a foolish one, for Hugh quietly pointed to one or two skeletons on which the flesh still hung.

"None of these skeletons have been here more than ten years, I should say," he remarked.

"A battle-field, then, where some wild tribes of the desert have lately fought a bloody battle."

But he shook his head.

"There is not a single skeleton of beast among them."

"Anyhow, it is horrible," I said.

"Horrible? Well! perhaps it is. But I feel convinced that it marks the end of our journey."

"Do you think, then, that we shall add our British bones to this interesting collection?" I asked.

"No, I don't, Mark. But I think that after we have had a night's rest we shall follow this path, which obviously leads southward to that distant range of hills."

"About another twenty miles?" 46