He Did This With So
Much Indifference, That I Really Doubted Whether The Pistol Was
Loaded.
He cocked it a third time, and was striking the flint with
a piece of steel, when I begged them to desist, and returned with
them to the camp.
When we entered Ali's tent we found him much out
of humour. He called for the Moor's pistol, and amused himself for
some time with opening and shutting the pan; at length taking up his
powder-horn, he fresh primed it, and, turning round to me with a
menacing look, said something in Arabic which I did not understand.
I desired my boy, who was sitting before the tent, to inquire what
offence I had committed; when I was informed, that having gone out
of the camp without Ali's permission, they suspected that I had some
design of making my escape; and that, in future, if I was seen
without the skirts of the camp, orders had been given that I should
be shot by the first person that observed me.
In the afternoon the horizon to the eastward was thick and hazy, and
the Moors prognosticated a sand wind, which accordingly commenced on
the morning following, and lasted, with slight intermissions, for
two days. The force of the wind was not in itself very great; it
was what a seaman would have denominated a stiff breeze; but the
quantity of sand and dust carried before it was such as to darken
the whole atmosphere.
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