Thus they had in the three days from starting come to look upon his presence sleeping close to them as a matter of course.
The second day after entering the desert, however, Cuthbert threw himself down by the side of an uprooted shrub of small size and about his own length.

He covered himself as usual with his long, dark-blue robe, and pretended to go to sleep.

He kept his eyes, however, on the alert through an aperture beneath his cloth, and observed particularly the direction in which the camel upon which he had set his mind wandered into the bushes.
The darkness came on a very few minutes after they had halted, and when the Arabs had once settled round their fire, Cuthbert very quietly shifted the robe from himself to the long low bush near him, and then crawled stealthily off into the darkness.
He had no fear of his footfall being heard upon the soft sand, and was soon on his feet, looking for the camels.

He was not long in finding them, or in picking out the one which he had selected.

The bushes were succulent, and close to the camping ground; indeed, it was for this that the halting-places were always chosen.