For doubts arose as to the success of the dangerous adventure. The Sheikh felt that he was an old man, and that this journey, which must inevitably last for many months, might be his last. His followers thought of wife or child, and were ready to sigh as they pondered on the perils and dangers ahead; while Hakim, professor, servant, and Frank, each had his feeling of heart-soreness and doubt as to how the adventure would end. Frank's greatest suffering was from the thought that time went on so fast while they went on so slowly. Already five days were dying out since they reached the temporary home of the tribe, and now that the start was made at last, how were they moving? In that long line of animals and pacing men advancing like some gigantic, elongated, crawling creature, whose home was the desert sand. Creeping patiently along, step by step, as if time were nothing, while probably the distance might prove to be a thousand miles before they reached, in the neighbourhood of Khartoum, some town or village which might be the prisoner's temporary home. But there was no thought in any breast there of turning back. The start had been made, and there was to be no looking northward again till the task that had been set was achieved. "Off at last, Frank," said the professor, who came up to where the young man was riding alone; "we are going splendidly." "Splendidly?" "Yes. Everything is beautifully packed; the Sheikh's men are all trained camel-drivers; and I never saw a finer set of animals since I first came to Egypt." "But hark at them," said Frank. "What for? It is their nature to, my lad. Your camel is a creature that seems to have been born with a grievance. I was talking about it to Morris just now, and he actually tried to make a joke about them." "The doctor did?" said Frank, smiling. "Fact, my dear boy. He says it is on account of their having so many stomachs." "I always understood it was Nature's blessing to them to enable the poor beasts to exist in these waterless regions." "That's what I said to him," replied the professor; "but he said that might be a great benefit, but his medical experience of patients was that most of their troubles from early childhood arose from disordered stomachs, and if human beings suffered so much from only having one, what must it be to have a plurality of these necessary organs like a camel! Enough to make anything ill-tempered, he said. Well, you don't laugh." "No," said Frank sadly; "my spirits are too low." "The time of day, my lad. I always feel at my worst about daybreak. You'll be better soon. I say we are getting on capitally, and I feel no fear about our plan." "I do," said Frank sadly. "Why, what fresh doubts do you feel?" "Over this dumb business. There seem to be always fresh difficulties cropping up." "Seem," said the professor coolly. "Things that seem are generally like clouds: they soon fade away in the sunshine. What is the new `seem'?"