The reason of our flight I was at a loss to understand, yet never for a moment did I doubt that there was a reason. I somehow, without knowing why, trusted the man who had warned me. He was a stranger, and as far as I could remember, as I watched him leading our little caravan over the awful road, I had never seen him before. Once in my life already I had been saved by a stranger, who had risked his own to save mine—an Arab too, but in a land far away from the Yemen. I need not tell the story here: sufficient that I arrived at his house weary, by night, my bare feet bleeding with the stones and thorns, pursued by men who had vowed to take my life; and that he, good noble fellow, found me and took me in, bathed my blood-stained ankles, and tore up his own clothes to bind them in, and, after keeping me in hiding for two days, escorted me in safety out of the country. He died a few months later, foully murdered in a blood-feud. Perhaps it was the recollection of this that imbued me with so much confidence and trust in my new-found friend. That I was not wrong the sequel will show. Sometimes a stone loosened by our animals’ hoofs would fall, and, bounding from rock to rock, disappear into the darkness. At each of these occurrences our guide would utter a guttural sound of disapproval. Once or twice I ventured to ask him the reason of our sudden flight, but was always met with a sharp “Silence!” in reply. On and on, until some three hours after leaving Beit Saïd our path commenced to descend, and, slipping and sliding down slopes of sand and stones, we entered the large village of Seddah, now wrapt in sleep; then on through the village of Mundah, and out into the open country again. The dogs barked a little, and one or two men, armed with spears, accosted us, but, after a few words whispered with our men, we passed on again. It is at Seddah that the valley turns to the west, and here the Wadi Thuba flows into the Wadi Banna. This latter river has a direction almost north and south, and although the Banna is the main stream, the other continues the general direction of the valley.