Had the letter been quite sane and coherent—­or had he been in a queer mental state when he wrote it?...

He opened his eyes, saw a vulture within a few yards of him, closed them again, and, soon after, fell into an uneasy slumber as the camel padded on at a steady seven miles an hour unurged—­save by the smell of pure clear water which was still a score of miles distant....

When Damocles de Warrenne awoke, he was within a few hundred yards of the nearly dry River Helnuddi, where, failing occasional pools, the traveller can always procure water by digging and patiently awaiting the slow formation of a little puddle at the bottom of the hole.

For a minute he halted.  Should he dig while he had strength, or should he turn to the left and follow the river-bed until he came to a pool—­or could go no farther?  Perhaps he would be too weak to dig, though, by that time....  Remarkable how eager to turn to the left and get on, the camel was—­considering how tired he must be—­perhaps he could smell distant water or knew of a permanent pool hereabouts.  Well, let that decide it....

An hour later, as the camel topped a rise in the river-bank, a considerable pool came into view, tree-shaded, heron-haunted, too incredibly beautiful and alluring for belief.  Was it a mirage?...

A few minutes later, Damocles de Warrenne and his camel were drinking, and a few hours later entered the dreary featureless compound of a wretched hovel, which, to the man at least, was a palatial and magnificent asylum (no, not asylum—­of all words)—­refuge and home—­the more so that a camel knelt chewing in the shade of the building, and a man, Abdul Ghani himself, lay slumbering in the verandah....

“You understand, then,” said Dam in the vernacular, to the malodorous, hideous, avaricious Abdul who reappeared from Kot Ghazi a few days later, “you return here again, one week from to-day, bringing the things written down on this paper, from the shop of Rustomji at Kot Ghazi.  Here you wait until I come.  If I find there is truth in your khubbar[27] of ibex you will be rewarded ...  Why don’t I take you?  Because I want to be alone.  Set out now for Kot Ghazi.  I may return.”  A stone fell and clattered.  Dam shrank, cringed, and shut his eyes—­as one expecting a heavy blow. Ah-h-h-h-h—­had the beast bolted?  With the slowness of an hour-hand he raised his head above the bank of the watercourse until his eye cleared the edge. No—­still there.  After a painful crawl that seemed to last for hours, he reached the point where the low ridge ran off at right-angles, crept behind it, and lay flat on his face, to rest and recover breath.  He was soaked in perspiration from head to foot, giddy with sun and unnatural posture, very sore as to elbows and knees, out of breath, trembling—­and entirely happy.  The half-mile crawl, with the greater part of his body on the burning ground, and the rifle to shuffle steadily along without noise