It
don't amount to much thus far, but still it is noticeable.
We have a tendency to sink, and, in order to keep our
elevation, I am compelled to give greater dilation to the
hydrogen."
"The deuce!" exclaimed Kennedy with concern; "I
see no remedy for that."
"There is none, Dick, and that is why we must hasten
our progress, and even avoid night halts."
"Are we still far from the coast?" asked Joe.
"Which coast, my boy? How are we to know whither chance
will carry us? All that I can say is, that Timbuctoo is
still about four hundred miles to the westward.
"And how long will it take us to get there?"
"Should the wind not carry us too far out of the way,
I hope to reach that city by Tuesday evening."
"Then," remarked Joe, pointing to a long file of animals
and men winding across the open desert, "we shall
arrive there sooner than that caravan."
Ferguson and Kennedy leaned over and saw an immense
cavalcade. There were at least one hundred and
fifty camels of the kind that, for twelve mutkals of gold,
or about twenty-five dollars, go from Timbuctoo to Tafilet
with a load of five hundred pounds upon their backs. Each
animal had dangling to its tail a bag to receive its excrement,
the only fuel on which the caravans can depend when
crossing the desert.
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