"Start again," the command went round, and in fifteen minutes the two
thousand camels swung grumbling and groaning out on the endless trail
of the desert. The captured Arabs were marched in the centre. All
through the night the caravan went on from moonrise to moonset, and
through the morning from dawn till ten o'clock--for they dared not
rest while the tribe from whom they had captured the prisoners could
get near them. Then they released the captives and sent them back,
for on the horizon they saw the green palms of Kaf, the city that they
sought.
The camels had only rested for thirty minutes in forty hours.[68] With
grunts of pleasure they dropped on their knees and were freed from
their loads, and began hungrily to eat their food.
Forder leapt down and was so glad to be in Kaf that he ran into some
palm gardens close by and sang "Praise God from Whom all blessings
flow," jumped for joy, and then washed all the sweat and sand from
himself in a hot spring of sulphur water.
Lying down on the floor of a little house to which he was shown, he
slept, with his head on his saddlebags, all day till nearly sunset.
At sunset a gun was fired. The caravan was starting on its return
journey. Forder's companions on the caravan came to him.
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