The low mud walls grew strangely sinister; the welcome green of the waving palms, after so many arid days of sun and sand and stones, became an ironical invitation to death.

He began to wonder whether he had not already done enough for honour in venturing so near.
The sun beat upon him; his strength ebbed from him as though his veins were opened.

If he were caught, he thought, as surely he would be--oh, very surely! He saw the fanatical faces crowding fiercely about him ...
were not mutilations practised ?...

He looked about him, shivering even in that strong heat, and the great loneliness of the place smote upon him, so that his knees shook.

He faced about and commenced to run, leaping in a panic alone and unpursued across the naked desert under the sun, while from his throat feeble cries broke inarticulately.
He ran, however, only for a few yards, and it was the very violence of his flight which stopped him.