Soon he had caught his camels, for Yofa had driven them near to camp before he had departed in the night. Slowly he brought them in and caused them to kneel under cover of a ruined hut so that he might saddle them unobserved. Then Kahena joined him, in strange clothes and carrying a bundle of wood, the very simplicity of her disguise making safe her passage through the camp. But at last the services of disguise were unnecessary, and with bounding heart Rali lifted Kahena to her camel. A moment more, and they were speeding south. About two hours later Rali halted the camels among some sand-dunes, while saddles were adjusted and they rested to partake of some dried dates which Rali produced from one of his leather saddlebags. He carried also a single skin of water, upon which they must depend for the next few days. Before remounting Rali searched diligently in a sandy gully, then commenced to excavate; and when he stood upright again he carried two rifles in his hands. This was where Yofa and he had buried their arms before entering the camp of the strangers. He then proceeded to extract cartridges from a belt beneath his garment and fully loaded the weapons ere he hung them by their slings to his saddle-head. [Illustration: WHEN DAY DAWNED THEY WERE IN A STRANGE LAND OF ROUGH, ROCKY HILLS] Two days went past of anxious, constant travel across ungiving desert. Then they reached the point where Rali had arranged that Yofa should rejoin him. But Yofa was not there, and Rali was much perturbed. “Faithful, courageous brother, who had deliberately undertaken to draw the whole hornet’s nest of robbers in chase of him; pray Allah no ill-merited fate had befallen him! Yet Yofa was tireless and skilled in travel, and his camel fleet of foot: why did he wait not here?” Rali had grave misgivings that the worst had befallen his comrade. More serious thought still, if Yofa had been captured the robbers would have returned speedily to their camp, to discover his deceit and the flight of Kahena, and, at the moment, in all probability, they were following the incriminating tracks in the sand. That night Rali dared not camp, and wearily but surely he picked his way in the dark, ever onward, ever nearer to the mountains of Aïr. Another uneventful day passed, and then, terribly exhausted, in particular Kahena, at risk of being overtaken, they lay down at night to sleep, while the hungry camels were hobbled and turned away to snatch what pickings they could find in plant-starved, ungenerous surroundings. Next morning, as they hurried on southward, the northern ranges of Aïr loomed in sight, at first low and smoke-blue on the distant horizon; thereafter ever growing in dimensions and solidity as the interval lessened between the fugitives and the ancient land of their race, which offered a measure of protection.