Evening star., 1930-06-15

A FTER thinking of Barth for while, I re-
membered Count de Bruce telling me once
of how two of his French soldiers had be-
come lost only few miles from Ouargla and
had perished of thirst and madness.
Distressing thoughts! fired of my gun
hoping that the others would find me by the
sound. No reply. Another hour of tramping.
I began to feel hopeless, tired and dull. My
clothes were dripping with perSpration.
tried to be calm and to think out how I could
help the others find me- If only they would
climb to some high point where they could
look down on me. 1 built pyramids of stones
on the rocks to serve as signals to the party
who would surely make line and comb the
region, and began praying that they would
find the cairns.
The heat was now intense; I felt as If were
wandering in circles and all the time building
cairns (when I could find sufficient stones)
and shooting off my gun Why didn't de
Waldeck fire his gun-and the rest OF them?
Where the devil were theyl felt fear, sort
of panicky icy feeling round the heart, and
suddenly felt very tired.
The horizon of the dunes seemed trembling
and vague in the distant yellow atmosphere,
vibrating with the heat. Once more climbed
a great pile of rock and sand feeling like
drowning man grasping at a straw. But it
always the same story. AS soon as I
climbed one sand hill there appeared another
ahead of me, identical in size and shape with
all the others. The brain reeled with dizzi-
ness and weakness.
Happily a daze generally overtakes the un-
fortunate lost one The brain seems to melt.
and the last remembrance is a dancing line of
blue on the horizon looking like the bluest of
waters, but in reality only a heat mirage.
Night was falling and revived little with
the sudden coolneSs of the desert night air.
But my thirst agony. AS dusk fell
began to see things-camels people, the cars,
all seemed to loom up before me to dissolve
again into nothingneSs and further bitter dis
appointment. remember crying little and
laughing. a hollow hoarse laugh that was
echoed back with metallic sound from the
rocks and sands The echo was the laugh of
the Djinns, mocking my last hour.
However as the night wore on, the cool air
was strengthening me more and more and
began to climb sand dunes again. very tired,
terribly thirsty and the brain half numbed
by the thirst and panic. Suddenly my eyes
caught finger of light searching the sky.
Was it another dreadful illusion?
The flashes continued and my heart gave a
great beat Of joy as I realized that the powerful
flashlights of the were being thrown into
the sky to indicate the way to mel 1 was
saved, but it was many hours before 1 reached
camp, where the wine and water soon revived
me. The rest of the party had spent the whole
day anxiously scouting the desert in every
direction but they had not found a single one
of the little mounds of stones which had
placed as an indication of my whereabouts
AS long as I live shall never forget that
first drink when I reached camp, and it is
absolutely beyond my power to describe my
sensations during those delicious hours OF max
ing up for lost time.
There other commonplace hardships
which come to all who go into the Sahara.
find it very difficult to sleep in the midday
heat of the desert, and God help one in a
district where flies and mosquitoes abound
The flies are a mighty curse in the Sahara,
and with the wind, the heat and thirst, they
make dreadful combination of human Ills.
shall never forget the excavating of q pre-
historic tomb southeast Of TamanraSSet. The
flies must have followed us from the fortress,
and know that several hundred thousands