"About the Sheikh's men. Now, for instance, they must notice that I am talking to you." "Of course they do, my lad. You may take it for granted that they know quite as much as we do, and that they grasp the fact that we are playing parts to deceive the dervishes." "And sooner or later, out of no ill-will, but by accident, they will betray us." "Take it for granted that they will not do anything of the sort. These Arabs are narrow-minded, and there is a good deal of the savage about them in connection with their carelessness regarding human life. But my experience of the Arab is, that he is a gentleman, and I would as soon trust one whom I had made my friend as I would a man of any nation. Now then, I've knocked that difficulty on the head. What is the next?" "There are no more at present," said Frank, smiling. "I suppose, then, that I need not keep trying to play my part while we are in company with our own party only?" "Certainly not, my dear boy," said the professor. "Your great difficulty really is to contain yourself fully when strangers are with us." "I shall try my best," said Frank. "Yes, my fine fellow, you had better. Now then, we've made our start, and you don't feel so glum, do you?" "No." "There's the reason," said the professor cheerily, as he pointed to the sun peering over the edge of the desert. "Nothing like that golden ball for sweeping away clouds of every kind. The only objection to his work is that he is a bit too thorough at times, and treats people out here as if they were meant to cook. Now then, look back as well as forward; the camels march like a line of grenadiers. Just as if they had been drilled." "But so slowly--so slowly," said Frank, with a sigh. "Here, look sharp, Sol!" cried the professor. "Get higher; there's another cloud." "How can you be so light-hearted at a time like this?" said Frank bitterly. "Because `A merry heart goes all the day; your sad tires in a mile-a,' as Shakespeare says. Because we should never carry out our plans to success if we went at them with sad hearts. I found that out over many of my searches here. An eager, cheery captain makes an eager, cheery crew who laugh at wreck. Now then, I am going to demolish--with the help of the sun--that great, dense black cloud that has just risen above your mental horizon, my sable friend. Your fresh cloud is the slow one. Now, you must remember that we have given up civilisation, steam, electricity, and the like, to take up the regular and only way of travelling here in the desert. Some day, perhaps, we shall have the railway and wires from north to south; but until we do we must travel by caravan, and to travel by caravan you must travel in caravan fashion, in the old, long proved style. You would like to hurry on and do fifty miles the first day, instead of ten or fifteen." "Of course," said Frank, "with such things at stake."