In his feverish delirium he saw clouds of pursuers at their very heels, and during the long night he was for ever crying glad tidings which ended in disappointment and heartache.

The rise of the sun showed the desert stretching away around them with nothing moving upon its monstrous face except themselves.

With dull eyes and heavy hearts they stared round at that huge and empty expanse.

Their hopes thinned away like the light morning mist upon the horizon.
It was shocking to the ladies to look at their companion, and to think of the spruce, hale old soldier who had been their fellow-passenger from Cairo.

As in the case of Miss Adams, old age seemed to have pounced upon him in one spring.