Several days passed, however, during which the wounded Athensian, for such they all considered him to be, lay in a stupor resembling death. Little enough had the party to go on toward solving the mystery of the raid on the Oasis Aiz-Or. The old woman whose name was Allola, and who proved to be the Sheik Abraham’s mother, recovered the use of her wits and her tongue, but what information she was able to supply was only scanty. She knew the Professor and Ben Hassim, not alone from their most recent stay with her tribe, but from their former visit. “The Crazy One,” she described the Professor, bowing her head and hushing her voice in reverence as she did so, for among all primitive peoples those afflicted with insanity are regarded as under the special protection of Providence. And, although the Professor in reality was far from insane, yet these desert Bedouins so considered him because of his eccentricities and his search for a lost city and his invasion of the dread Shaitun Mountains. When the Professor with Ben Hassim had arrived a second time at their isolated and almost forgotten oasis, Allola said the Sheik Abraham, her son, together with the dozen men of the tribe and twice as many boys greeted him with joy, while she and the women with their faces veiled watched curiously from the tents. A welcome visitor was the Professor to this little tribe living apart from the world which rarely saw or entertained anybody from the outside. For the men he brought cigarettes, for the women many cakes of sweet chocolate. They were very grateful, and a tent had been set aside for him, and women assigned to look after his needs. Days had slipped into weeks and weeks into months, while the Professor and Ben Hassim stayed on. Frequently they would depart on long expeditions, leading two fine camels which they had brought with them, carrying food and water, and bestriding their own fine animals. Allola’s sharp eyes regarded Mr. Hampton. She did not know why they made these expeditions. Perhaps, he—— Mr. Hampton smiled a little at her curiosity. Then he turned to Ali and the boys who were attentive listeners like himself. “The Professor and Ben Hassim were scouting around the base of the Shaitun Mountains,” he said. “When he left me to come on in advance, Souchard said he intended to put in his time prospecting the mountain wall in both directions from the old stone road up which he had stumbled into Korakum in the first place.