220	THE EMPTY QUARTER
next morning I summoned him to pick up one coin that he
had overlooked. I learned afterwards that the money had
been returned to Zayid, whose well-meant effort to force
me to a general distribution of bounty at a most unsuitable
moment had thus been frustrated.
In spite of this incident—and possibly because of it—a
very special effort was made next day to record better
progress than heretofore. In the midst of my slumbers I
sensed an unwonted activity in the camp at an atrociously
early hour and the baggage actually started off before I was
aroused by an unusually early call to prayer. The baggage
thus got a start of more than two hours on us, and I wandered
about after dawn stalking an eagle which had taken up its
position on a peak of the neighbouring dune range. I
managed to get within reasonable range, but the shot from
my little revolver only disturbed the sand close to the bird,
which flew off to appear no more. The tracks of bustard were
very plentiful here but the haste of our marching allowed of
no pursuit although on one occasion three of them got up
from under our feet. Wheatears and warblers were also
seen in plenty and, as I was packing up, I had become aware
of a little tragedy. The previous day we had secured a hare
and Sa'dan, having skinned it, had laid the pelt and skull—
thickly smeared with arsenical soap—by my bedside to dry.
In the morning I found no trace of either, and the tell-tale
sand soon revealed the identity of the thief, who was none
other than the Saluqi bitch. She must have swallowed both
skull and skin, and it was evident, as she marched with us
that day, that she was feeling acutely the effects of her
surreptitious, poisoned supper. At every other bush she
lay down uneasily seeking shelter from the sun and scrabbling
away the sand to get at the cool under-surface. But by the
evening she had more or less recovered from her indisposition.
Meanwhile we made excellent progress over the ridges and
valleys of Bard Jafhan—an immense sandy expanse of sea-
like troughs each beginning with a lofty rounded wave break-
ing southward. The general colouring of the tract was a
light brownish red with a very copious covering of the desert
vegetation, in whose midst here and there we observed a