Page:On the Desert - Recent Events in Egypt.djvu/67

long drawn out, and each one finds himself alone. At such times I used to cross my legs, and throwing the halter over the neck of my poor dromedary, let her stray along at her own will, now stopping to crop the scanty herbage, and now moving on with measured step. Thus "rocked," as it were, "in the cradle of the deep," who could but give way to his quiet musings? Especially did this mood come upon us at the approach of evening. Isaac went forth to meditate at eventide, and few are not more or less touched with the sweet influences of the scene and the hour. Conversation drooped with the falling of the day, and for an hour or two we rode on in silence. As the sun sank lower on the Egyptian hills, the air grew cooler, and then came the beauty of the desert. The sun went down in glory. Turning on our camels, we watched the dying day as it lingered long on the waters of the Red Sea and on the tops of the distant mountains. Then shot up something like an aurora, or the afterglow on the Nile. The scene was so beautiful that we should have stopped to gaze upon it but that we were growing anxious about our course. The baggage train had gone ahead to pitch the camp, but where was it? We looked eagerly for the white tents, but saw none. The last gleam of twilight faded into night, and the moon, nearly full, rose over the desert, and all things looked weird by its light. But the distance seemed longer and longer. By-and-by it flashed upon us that the old sheikh who was leading us had lost his way. There was not a track of any kind. For half an hour we were in a good deal of anxiety, for we might have to spend the night under the open sky. The Arabs raced the camels across the fields, and we shouted at the top of our voices. At length, to our great relief, we heard an answer, and in a few minutes saw the lights of our tents. It was half-past seven