The worst of it was that I
had no provision of food or water with me, and already I was
beginning to feel thirst. I deliberated for a minute, and then
determined that I would abandon all hope of seeing my party again,
in the Desert, and would push forward as rapidly as possible
towards Suez.
It was not, I confess, without a sensation of awe that I swept with
my sight the vacant round of the horizon, and remembered that I was
all alone, and unprovisioned in the midst of the arid waste; but
this very awe gave tone and zest to the exultation with which I
felt myself launched. Hitherto, in all my wandering, I had been
under the care of other people--sailors, Tatars, guides, and
dragomen had watched over my welfare, but now at last I was here in
this African desert, and I MYSELF, AND NO OTHER, HAD CHARGE OF MY
LIFE. I liked the office well. I had the greasiest part of the
day before me, a very fair dromedary, a fur pelisse, and a brace of
pistols, but no bread and no water; for that I must ride--and ride
I did.
For several hours I urged forward my beast at a rapid though steady
pace, but now the pangs of thirst began to torment me. I did not
relax my pace, however, and I had not suffered long when a moving
object appeared in the distance before me.
Pages:
272
273
274
275
276
277
278
279
280
281
282
283
284
285
286
287
288
289
290
291
292
293
294
295
296