Of The Two Dromedaries Which I Had Obtained For This Journey, I
Mounted One Myself, And Put Dthemetri On The Other.
My plan was to
ride on with Dthemetri to Suez as rapidly as the fleetness of the
beasts would allow, and to let Myserri (who was still weak from the
effects of his late illness) come quietly on with the camels and
baggage.
The trot of the dromedary is a pace terribly disagreeable to the
rider, until he becomes a little accustomed to it; but after the
first half-hour I so far schooled myself to this new exercise, that
I felt capable of keeping it up (though not without aching limbs)
for several hours together. Now, therefore, I was anxious to dart
forward, and annihilate at once the whole space that divided me
from the Red Sea. Dthemetri, however, could not get on at all.
Every attempt which he made to trot seemed to threaten the utter
dislocation of his whole frame, and indeed I doubt whether any one
of Dthemetri's age (nearly forty, I think), and unaccustomed to
such exercise, could have borne it at all easily; besides, the
dromedary which fell to his lot was evidently a very bad one; he
every now and then came to a dead stop, and coolly knelt down, as
though suggesting that the rider had better get off at once and
abandon the attempt as one that was utterly hopeless.
When for the third or fourth time I saw Dthemetri thus planted, I
lost my patience, and went on without him. For about two hours, I
think, I advanced without once looking behind me. I then paused,
and cast my eyes back to the western horizon. There was no sign of
Dthemetri, nor of any other living creature. This I expected, for
I knew that I must have far out-distanced all my followers. I had
ridden away from my party merely by way of gratifying my
impatience, and with the intention of stopping as soon as I felt
tired, until I was overtaken. I now observed, however (this I had
not been able to do whilst advancing so rapidly), that the track
which I had been following was seemingly the track of only one or
two camels. I did not fear that I had diverged very largely from
the true route, but still I could not feel any reasonable certainty
that my party would follow any line of march within sight of me.
I had to consider, therefore, whether I should remain where I was,
upon the chance of seeing my people come up, or whether I would
push on alone, and find my way to Suez. I had now learned that I
could not rely upon the continued guidance of any track, but I knew
that (if maps were right) the point for which I was bound bore just
due east of Cairo, and I thought that, although I might miss the
line leading most directly to Suez, I could not well fail to find
my way sooner or later to the Red Sea.
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