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"This man, who has so little to tell, knows things which would make a trained explorer famous." "It generally happens that way," said Wyllard with a dry smile. "The men who know can't tell." Overweg made a sign of assent, and then changed the subject. "What will you do now?" "Start for the inlet where we expect to find the schooner at sunrise.
He did not seem to be hostile, and Wyllard, who tossed his rifle into the hollow of his left arm, moved out to meet him a pace or two. "You are Russian?" he said, in the language the other had used, for French of a kind is freely spoken in parts of Canada. The man laughed. "That afterwards," he answered. "It is said so. My name is Overweg Albrecht Overweg.
The Germans had been cleaning their guns, and all were unloaded. Overweg had his fowling-piece charged with small shot. At length we got two or three guns in trim, and our servants followed the robbers, but nothing of them was to be seen. The cowards had fled at the first show of resistance.
Overweg does not think that the plateau is more than fifteen hundred feet above the level of the sea; but it may be two thousand, and a little more in some places. By day it is hot enough; and as there is little to be observed on these vast, elevated stretches of stony desert, I thought it best to continue my original plan for three whole nights.
I began to think this gentleman must either have gone to Ghât, or that some accident had befallen him. Soon, indeed, we began to have gloomy apprehensions, and to talk seriously of a search. The Tuaricks were not very civil, and Hateetah threw all the responsibility of the safety of my fellow-travellers on me. Dr. Overweg and several people went out in search of Dr. Barth just before sunset.
Overweg quietly nodded. "Then you have my felicitations but it might be advisable if you did not tell me too much," he said. "Afterwards I may be questioned by those in authority." Tom Lewson had been an hour in camp before he commenced the story of his wanderings, and at first he spoke slowly and falteringly, lying propped up on one elbow, with the lamplight on his worn face.
He greeted them with a wave of his hand, and rising, silently led the way up the hollow until they came in sight of a little tent that glimmered beneath a rock. There was a light inside the tent and two dusky figures were silhoueted against the canvas. Overweg drew the flap back, and the light shone upon his face as he signed them to enter.
Overweg appeared in the person of Mohammed et-Tunisee. He shot three small fowls of Carthage, one of which he gave me, I promising him a little powder in return when we came to Ghât. We noticed a small black bird with a white throat. But all through this desert we listen in vain for some songster. There is no reason for merriment in these dismal solitudes.
Night closed in; no appearance of our friend. I hoisted a lamp on the top of the ethel, and made large fires as the sun went down, in hopes that their glare might be seen at a distance from the Kasar. Our servants returned without Dr. Overweg. He had promised to be back by sunset, and I began to fear some accident had befallen him likewise.
This was most important, as it directed our attention that way, and we thought no more of his having gone to Ghât. We now calculated that our companion had been twenty-four hours without a drop of water, a gale of hot wind blowing all the time! Dr. Overweg proposed to me that we should offer a considerable reward, as the last effort. He mentioned twenty, but I increased the sum to fifty dollars.
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