About noon
It had stopped bleeding , but the dried and clotted blood smeared his face and clothing . He had said no word since he had fallen into the hands of these Arabs , nor had they addressed him other than to issue a few brief commands to him when the horses had been reached . For six hours they rode rapidly across the burning desert , avoiding the oases near which their way led . About noon they came to a DOUAR of about twenty tents . Here they halted , and as one of the Arabs was releasing the alfa-grass ropes which bound him to his mount they were surrounded by a mob of men , women , and children . Many of the tribe , and more especially the women , appeared to take delight in heaping insults upon the prisoner , and some had even gone so far as to throw stones at him and strike him with sticks , when an old sheik appeared and drove them away . `` Ali-ben-Ahmed tells me , '' he said , `` that this man sat alone in the mountains and slew EL ADREA .