Not Long After Passing The Village A Horseman Met Us.
It appeared
that some of the cavalry of Ibrahim Pasha had crossed the river for
the sake of the rich pastures on the eastern bank, and that this
man was one of the troopers.
He stopped and saluted; he was
obviously surprised at meeting an unarmed, or half-armed,
cavalcade, and at last fairly told us that we were on the wrong
side of the river, and that if we proceeded we must lay our account
with falling amongst robbers. All this while, and throughout the
day, my Nazarene kept well ahead of the party, and was constantly
up in his stirrups, straining forward and searching the distance
for some objects which still remained unseen.
For the rest of the day we saw no human being; we pushed on eagerly
in the hope of coming up with the Bedouins before nightfall. Night
came, and we still went on in our way till about ten o'clock. Then
the thorough darkness of the night, and the weariness of our beasts
(which had already done two good days' journey in one), forced us
to determine upon coming to a standstill. Upon the heights to the
eastward we saw lights; these shone from caves on the mountain-
side, inhabited, as the Nazarene told us, by rascals of a low sort-
-not real Bedouins, men whom we might frighten into harmlessness,
but from whom there was no willing hospitality to be expected.
We heard at a little distance the brawling of a rivulet, and on the
banks of this it was determined to establish our bivouac. We soon
found the stream, and following its course for a few yards, came to
a spot which was thought to be fit for our purpose. It was a
sharply cold night in February, and when I dismounted I found
myself standing upon some wet rank herbage that promised ill for
the comfort of our resting-place. I had bad hopes of a fire, for
the pitchy darkness of the night was a great obstacle to any
successful search for fuel, and besides, the boughs of trees or
bushes would be so full of sap in this early spring, that they
would not be easily persuaded to burn. However, we were not likely
to submit to a dark and cold bivouac without an effort, and my
fellows groped forward through the darkness, till after advancing a
few paces they were happily stopped by a complete barrier of dead
prickly bushes. Before our swords could be drawn to reap this
welcome harvest it was found to our surprise that the fuel was
already hewn and strewed along the ground in a thick mass. A spot
for the fire was found with some difficulty, for the earth was
moist and the grass high and rank. At last there was a clicking of
flint and steel, and presently there stood out from darkness one of
the tawny faces of my muleteers, bent down to near the ground, and
suddenly lit up by the glowing of the spark which he courted with
careful breath.
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