Then the dragoman told Owen to prepare for sand grouse; and a short
while afterwards one of the Arabs cried, "Grouse! Grouse!" and a
pack of thirty or forty flew away, two falling into the sand.
They came upon a river in flood, and while the Arabs sought a ford
Owen went in search of blue pigeons, and succeeded in shooting
several; and these were plucked and eaten by the camp fire that
night, the coldest he had known in the Sahara. When the fire burnt
down a little he awoke shivering. And he awoke shivering again at
daybreak; and the cavalcade continued its march across a plain, flat
and empty, through which the river's banks wound like a green
ribbon.... Some stunted vegetation rose in sight about midday, and
Owen thought that they were near the oasis towards which they were
journeying; but on approaching he saw that what he had mistaken for
an oasis was but the ruins of one that had perished last year owing
to a great drought, only a few dying palms remaining. Oases die, but
do new ones rise from the desert? he wondered. A ragged chain of
mountains, delightfully blue in the new spring weather, entertained
him all the way across an immense tract of barren country; and at
the end of it his searching eyes were rewarded by a sight of his
destination--some palms showing above the horizon on the evening
sky.
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