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Nevertheless I took a vow, that if at noon the rain should not have begun to descend upon Avignon I would repair to the head-spring of the Sorgues. When the critical moment arrived the clouds were hanging over Avignon like distended water-bags, which only needed a prick to empty themselves.
At this season and in this latitude it sheds its leaves; the flower is in full bloom without them. The course of the ironstone rise seems to be north and south. Wind, south-east. Weather a little cooler, but clouds all gone. Latitude, 15 degrees 52 minutes 58 seconds. Thursday, 12th June, Purdie Ponds. Preparing for another start to-morrow with the water-bags.
Dreadful were the sufferings of all from thirst; and children were seen sucking pieces of old water-bags to try and get a drop of moisture on their parched lips. One of the barracks was thatched; part of it was used as an hospital.
The thought rose unbidden that the remaining half must be undertaken in daylight, with wornout camels, while the Hadendowa kafila was presumably in fresh condition. Something of the sort must have been in Abdur Kad'r's mind when, he said: "The misbegotten thieves who follow, Effendi, will count on overtaking us soon after daybreak. We must keep the water-bags fastened until the dawn.
We shall water the camels as soon as it is cool enough, fill our water-bags and start on our return journey. Luckily we have buried water all the way back, we can travel lightly and rapidly. "What shall we do? They have poisoned the water-pools. One of the Arabs, the younger Hottentot, and three of our camels are dead.
Round the cartridge Andy, at Dave's suggestion, bound a strip of sail canvas that they used for making water-bags to increase the force of the explosion, and round that he pasted layers of stiff brown paper on the plan of the sort of fireworks we called 'gun-crackers'. He let the paper dry in the sun, then he sewed a covering of two thicknesses of canvas over it, and bound the thing from end to end with stout fishing-line.
"You didn't overlook any bets thought of everything, even to saddle-blankets and water-bags already full," contributed Farrar, digging up these supplies from the alfalfa. Steve cinched the saddles himself, though Farrar was a fair horseman.
This opening I have named Nash Spring, in token of my approbation. I am very much disappointed with the water-bags; in coming this distance of twenty-one miles they have leaked out nearly half. Wind, south east. Friday, 9th May, Nash Spring.
Sent King and Nash with the horses that carried the water-bags back to the depot, while I and the other two, at twenty minutes to eight o'clock a.m. proceeded on a bearing of 290 degrees, following one of the native tracks running in that direction.
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