264	THE EMPTY QUARTER
and worked out the necessary astronomical observations to
check the accuracy of my compass traverse. Our progress
had been certainly a little disappointing though I had dis-
counted such a contingency in advance. Two-thirds of the
desert journey lay before us—a matter of ten days, though
these might be reduced to eight with a reasonable amount of
night marching. Could the best of our camels do it ? That
was the great question, while there could be no doubt, what-
ever, that the baggage-animals must make with all possible
speed for the nearest water. There was little to choose in
the matter of distance between Naifa and Shanna, but wild
horses would not have dragged my companions back to the
latter. They feared it as the plague, and there was no
reason why their preference should not be conceded. For
the camels (and to a lesser extent for the personnel) it was
literally a question of life and death. And four of the camels
lay there before us in a state of complete collapse. Nothing
but water would revive them for further marching, and there
was no water to spare if all claims had to be considered.
Meanwhile the stream of visitors to my tent had enabled
me to devise a scheme which was at least feasible and accept-
able though not acclaimed with the enthusiasm demanded
by our parlous situation. The absentees, Zayid and 'Ali,
were to be encouraged to accompany the baggage back to
Naifa, while I insisted that Ibn Suwailim should go with my
party as guide for he alone knew the general direction and
conditions of the march before us well enough to act in such
a capacity, though even he had never traversed the desert
on any line southward of Faraja and Maqainama. Sa'dan
would, of course, go with me, for he both desired to do so
and was indispensable for my work, and that made a nucleus
of three, to which Salih adhered unconditionally, thus making
four, Farraj hedged, torn between fear and greed—and
never have I met an Arab so vacillating and uncertain in
temper—but eventually decided to throw in his lot with me.
Humaid would not be parted from Salih and that made six,
while Suwid, who had publicly denounced the scheme as
sheer madness, came to my tent alone and very mysteriously
to indicate by wordless signs that he too would be included