"Isn't it time to see something, Captain Ringgold?" asked Mrs. Belgrave, to whom he had directed his steps.
"There is always something to be seen in a narrow gulf like this, though we shall be out of sight of land to-morrow morning when you come on deck. We are now abreast of a plateau 1,600 feet high, which extends for about thirty miles along the coast. It is a part of the desert of Kaa, which extends to the southern point of the peninsula, over which you would have had to travel first by camel for nearly twenty miles, if we had gone to Mount Sinai by the only route open to us.
"We have seen about deserts enough," added the lady.
"Then you are the better prepared for the immense contrast between plains of sand and the rich lands of India, covered with the most luxuriant foliage. Now we have it at its best!" exclaimed the commander.
"We have Mount Serbal, which some believe is the genuine Mount Sinai," continued the commander, as he pointed out the loftiest peak in sight, and which was readily distinguished from all others.
All the passengers had by this time gathered near him; for all of them were anticipating a sight at the lofty height which had given a name to the peninsula, though its real name is Arabia Petræa, as we used to read about it in "Stephens's Travels" sixty years ago.
"That mountain is the highest on the peninsula; and if it is not the real Mount Sinai, where the law was delivered to Moses, some insist that it ought to be, for they say it is loftier, grander, nobler, and more worthy the great event than the one which is generally assigned as its location," said the captain. "As you have been informed before, Serbal is 8,712 feet high."
Mrs. Blossom did not appear to be satisfied. Evidently she desired to "gush" over the Holy Mountain; but the doubt as to "which was which," as she stated it, bothered her very seriously, and she was not at all friendly to the "pesky Bible critics," who had raised the doubt as to its identity.
"Jebel Musa!" shouted the commander a couple of hours later; and the party gathered around him again.
"What on earth is that?" demanded the good lady.
"Keep cool, Sarah," said Mrs. Belgrave to her. "The captain will tell you all about it in due time."