If his hot hand had clutched it, it would have meant the death of the Emir and the massacre of the party.
And now as they rode onwards they saw one of the most singular of the phenomena of the Egyptian desert in front of them, though the ill-treatment of their companion had left them in no humour for the appreciation of its beauty.

When the sun had sunk, the horizon had remained of a slaty-violet hue.

But now this began to lighten and to brighten until a curious false dawn developed, and it seemed as if a vacillating sun was coming back along the path which it had just abandoned.

A rosy pink hung over the west, with beautifully delicate sea-green tints along the upper edge of it.

Slowly these faded into slate again, and the night had come.