"This one don't, sir, a bit. If you shut your eyes and hold tight, sir, you forget that he's an animal, but begin thinking he must be what he seems like to me--a sort of giant sea-goose with you on his back and him swimming in rough water and going up and down horrid." "Oh, that's the peculiarity of the creature's pace. I'm used to it, and I find the elasticity most enjoyable." "Elastic, sir? Yes, that's just it, sir; elastic. A bit back he was going on like an Indy-rubber ball; one o' that sort, sir, as is all wind and skin. Made me wish he was one, and that I'd got a pin in my hand." "Oh, never mind, my lad," said the professor good-humouredly; "its rough work to learn riding a horse, but once you've mastered the task it's pleasant enough. What do you think of the desert, Frank?" "Do you consider that we have reached the desert now?" was the reply, as Sam fell back a little, leaving them to converse. "Oh, yes; we've left the cultivated ground behind, and right away south and west now, saving a _few_ oases, there's nothing but the sand covering all about here the ruins of ancient cities. I believe if we dug anywhere here we should find traces--buildings, temples, or tombs." "Has there been cultivation, too, here?" "No doubt. It only wants water, sandy as it is, for it to break out blushing with soft green." "Where does the Nile lie from here?" "Away to the left." "Shall we see its waters when the morning comes?" "No; we are going farther and farther away to a bit of an oasis where the Sheikh's people are gathered with their flocks. They find pasture there at this time of year, and a little employment with the travellers who come to Cairo. In the summer time, when the city is pretty well empty, they go right away to some high ground where it is rocky and fairly fertile. We shall reach the present camp before the sun gets hot in the morning." "How is the doctor getting on?" asked Frank, after a pause. "Pretty well. It makes him a little irritable, so I don't think I'd ask him. He is enjoying the night ride, though." Sam sighed and said to himself-- "He says that because he wants to make the best of it, but I'm not going to believe my poor guv'nor's enjoying this. He's wishing himself back in Wimpole Street, I know." "What's that?" said Frank suddenly. "What? I see nothing." "No, no. I mean that wild cry." "Only a jackal. I daresay if you listen you will hear another answer it. Pleasant note, isn't it?" "Horrible! It sounded like some poor creature in pain." "Hungry, perhaps," said the professor coolly. "Fine, wild, weird prospect, this, eh?" "It seems very dream-like and strange." "Yes, it impressed me like that at first. After a while you begin to think of how delightful it is, and what a change from pacing over the burning sand in the daylight with the sun making the air quiver and glow like a furnace, and your mouth turn dry and lips crack with the parching you have to undergo."