Just then, too, some of the Zeus overtook us and joined the hunt, though without zeal.
Meanwhile, as the day grew, the heat increased until it was so intense that the hot air danced above the sand slopes like billions of midges, and this although the sun was not visible, being hidden by a sort of mist.

A strange silence, unusual even in the desert, pervaded the earth and sky; we could hear the grains of sand trickling from the ridges.
The Zeus, who accompanied us, grew uneasy, and pointed upward with their spears, then behind toward the oasis of which we had long lost sight.
Finally, when we were not looking, they disappeared.
Now I would have followed them, guessing that they had some good reason for this sudden departure.

But Higgs refused to come, and Orme, in whom his foolish taunt seemed still to rankle, only shrugged his shoulders and said nothing.
"Let the black curs go," exclaimed the Professor as he polished his blue spectacles and mopped his face.

"They are a white-livered lot of sneaks.
Look! There she is, creeping off to the left.

If we run round that sand-hill we shall meet her." So we ran round the sand-hill, but we did not meet her, although after long hunting we struck the blood spoor afresh, and followed it for several miles, first in this direction, and then in that, until Orme and I wondered at Higgs's obstinacy and endurance.