The Argosy, Vol. XXV, No. 3 — page 83: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

LOST IN THE NUBIAN DESERT. 467 and would, moreover, be beset by the jackals and vultures the moment I showed signs of fainting under the scourging sun. ‘The strain grew mad- dening. For along time I bore it; and then no longer able to fight with the demon of silence, and haunted more than ever now by the presence of human and animal skeletons half buried in the drifting sands, I arose and plodded on. But little did I dream that there was yet a more dreaded enemy than vultures, leopards, or even the predatory robbers, soon to encompass mie. ‘‘The first warning that I had of its terrible approach was the soft obscuration of the sun, which stood so straight overhead that it cast my form in a circling shadow about me just to the tips of my toes. “ sort of silken mist floated before the coppery sky. ‘Then this thin cloudiness seemed to descend, the wind arose, and the sirocco grew heavier and more oppressive. I bowed my head, pressing forward with increasing difficulty now. Up from the limitless southwest the dreaded scourge was closing down uponme. ‘My God!’ I murmured at last, losing courage at the sound of my own voice, ‘It is a simoon !’ ‘The wind was rising ina gale. I heard the roar of the sand blast from afar. These gusts of hot, white atoms grew sharper and fiercer now ; and if J] had worn a King Arthur coat of mail, I scarcely think it would have been proof against that volley of deadly dust. It penetrated my clothing till I felt the layer of it chafing the flesh at every movement. My nostrils were clogged so that breathing became more labored and painful. My ears were stuffed up so that it deadened the increasing whistle and roar; and though my eyes were almost closed, the awful volley seemed to penetrate the very lids. Then I finally succumbed, falling to my knees, and at last prone upon my face, covering my head with the ample folds of the burnouse. ‘“For a long time I lay there in the thick, drifting mounds, the monotonous shriek of the simoon lulling me to sleep. It was not a refreshing repose, but one filled with frightful nightmares and monitions of evil. Once in a while the shrill cry of a lost jackal or a desert bird broke the abhorrent spell, but the sound brought no cheer. After what seemed to be a dangerously long time, I awoke, recovering from this sort of daze rather than sleep, and looked vaguely about me. Shaking the sand from my burnouse, I took out my watch. It had stopped, the dust having penetrated it and clogged its delicate machinery. I stood up, and brushing the sand from my eyes, peered over the trackless plain. Nothing but a dead grim waste of whiteness; but, thank Heaven, the storm was abating. I vaguely remembered the direction of my course, although the trail was now wholly obliterated, and started bravely on. But so chafed and faint was I that I soon found all effort torture, and at last sank in my tracks with a moan. ‘For a long time I lay ina sort of stupor. Then I heard a voice. It was more human than any I had heard in the loneliness of the desert, although it was a moan of anguish rather than a call of rescue. I rose and turned sharply in the direction of the sound, and soon perceived a kneeling, swaying figure at some distance. The thought of a human being, let him prove whatever he might, made my poor heart leap. I came closer, and was amazed to discover that the swaying figure was that of a half naked and EOmMmiIicbooks (S@)