THE WATERLESS WASTE 343

Sa'dan brought me a bowl of water and a lump of dates for
supper—it was all we had, and the camels could not be
milked after such a day. But stay, I said to Sa'dan, there
are two tins of fruit in my saddle-bag. Bring me one of them
and lend me your knife. I had carried these two ting with
me from Mecca to Hufuf, from Hufuf to the Empty Quarter,
resolved not to broach them except in a crisis. And now was
certainly the right moment for one of them. Yet a tin of
peaches would be a mere drop in the ocean amongst eleven
of us, so I shared it with Sa'dan alone to flatter my conscience.
The fruit and juice were lukewarm with the day's heating,
but delicious ; and I lay down to sleep as I had never slept
before, while the clouds gathered about us with the music
of distant thunder.

At last we had broken the back of the desert, which had so
nearly broken ours in the dismal days of our retreat from
Hawaya and again during the last two days. We had had
to fight hard, and we had won through with a final effort that
had strained us almost to the breaking-point. But we had
won through, and there 'remained but a hundred miles or so
to the watering. In six full days of marching since we rode
out of Naifa we had covered 270 miles under conditions
almost ideally unfavourable in the matter of pasture—
maintaining an average of over 40 miles a day, which would
be reckoned good going in easier circumstances. We had
certainly had three cool days to start with, but the three that
had followed had more than balanced that advantage, and
we had every reason to be content with our performance.
And the camels that had crossed Abu Bahr at its hottest
and done 48 hours without a scrap of food had not come
fresh to that ordeal. They had already travelled for two
whole months in the leanest of deserts almost without
respite. None but the best camels could have come through
such a trial, and ours were certainly as good animals as any
in all Arabia.

My companions were astir betimes next morning (March
12th), clamouring for coffee. A leaden sky with storm-clouds
to north and north-east greeted my awakening, and we were
soon on the move in the twilight gloaming. The air was