route, lest they should be stopped by the Egyptian garrison.
The elevated point of view was of service to us, as it gave us a wide sweep of the country, and enabled us to outline the two routes before us, for we had come to the parting of the ways. It was now the third day from the Convent, and we had accomplished half the return journey to Suez. If the reader will look at the map, he will see that Surabit el Khadim is at an angle, from which one route turns almost directly west. By following this, we might have reached Suez by Saturday night.
But there was another route which turned to the northeast, which did not seem very attractive, as it was at once longer, more difficult and more dangerous, and of which we were forewarned that there was absolutely nothing to see! Murray says of it: "The route to Palestine by way of Nukhl presents no object of interest to the ordinary traveller. He had much better return to Suez, and go thence, via Port Said and the sea, to Jaffa."
No doubt all this was true. Yet to an adventurous traveller there is sometimes an interest in the very want of interest — in exploring what is most desolate and dreary. Opposite to us — perhaps eight or ten miles distant — rose a chain of mountains, that seemed islanded in the desert, a broad belt of sand sweeping round it, like an arm of the sea. How the white cliffs glared in the noonday! What a prospect of weariness in climbing those heights under the blazing sun! And once there, what awaited us beyond? Long marches over the burning sand! Fatigue perhaps to exhaustion, and weariness to fainting! Such was the prospect. Was it strange if one should hesitate a little before venturing into the unknown? Well! if we repented of our rash vow, made when we departed from Sinai; if we shrank from the fatigues and
