A seam of black volcanic rock split the sands for a great distance, forming a kind of natural wall of forbidding aspect. In places this wall was pierced by tunnel-like openings; I think they may have been prehistoric tombs. There was no scrap of verdure visible, north, south, east or west; only desolation, sand, grayness, and this place, ghostly and wan with that ancient sorrow, that odor of remote mortality which is called "the dust of Egypt." Seated before me in the saddle, Sakîna looked up into my face with a never-changing confidence, having her little brown fingers interlocked about my neck. But her strength was failing. A short rest was imperative. Thus far I had detected no evidence of pursuit and, descending from the saddle, I placed my weary companion upon a rock over which I had laid a rug, and poured out for her a draught of cool water. Bread and dates were our breakfast fare; but bread and dates and water are nectar and ambrosia when they are sweetened with kisses. Oh! the glorious madness of youth! Sometimes, my friends, I am almost tempted to believe that the man who has never been wicked has never been happy! Picture us, then, if you can, set amid that desolation, which for us was a rose-garden, eating of that unpalatable food--which for us was the food of the gods! So we remained awhile, deliriously happy, though death might terminate our joys ere we again saw the sun, when something ... _something_ spoke to me.... Understand me, I did not say that _someone_ spoke, I did not say that anything _audible_ spoke. But I know that, unlocking those velvet arms which clung to me, I stood up slowly--and, still slowly, turned and looked back at the frowning black rocks. Merciful God! My heart beats wildly now when I recall that moment. Motionless as a statue, but in a crouching attitude, as if about to leap down, he who had warned me so truly stood upon the highest point of the rocks watching us! How long did I remain thus? I cannot pretend to say; but when I turned to Sakîna--she lay trembling on the ground, with her face hidden in her hands. Then, down over the piled-up rocks, this mysterious and ominous being came leaping. Old man though he was, he descended with the agility of a mountain goat--and sometimes, in the difficult places, _he went on all fours_. Crossing the intervening strip of sand, he stood before me. You have seen the reproach in the eyes of a faithful dog whose master has struck him unjustly? Such a reproach shone out from the yellow eyes of this desert wanderer. I cannot account for it; I can say no more.... It was impossible for me to speak; I trembled violently; such a fear and such a madness of sorrow possessed me that I would have welcomed any death--to have freed me from that intolerable reproach. He suddenly pointed towards the horizon where against the curtain of the dawn black figures appeared.