About four in the afternoon
`` What is there in the mind of Monsieur which makes him ride as if he fled from an enemy ? '' `` I know not , but he goes like a hare before the sloughi , Batouch-ben Brahim , '' answered Ali , gravely . Then they sent their horses on in chase of the cloud of sand towards the southwest . About four in the afternoon they reached the camp at Mogar . As they rode in slowly , for their horses were tired and streaming with heat after their long canter across the sands , both Domini and Androvsky were struck by the novelty of this halting-place , which was quite unlike anything they had yet seen . The ground rose gently but continuously for a considerable time before they saw in the distance the pitched tents with the dark forms of the camels and mules . Here they were out of the sands , and upon hard , sterile soil covered with small stones embedded in the earth .