Chapter Twenty Five.
A cautious Retreat.
The ravine, up which the maherry had carried the old man-o’-war’s-man, ran perpendicularly to the trending of the seashore, and almost in a direct line from the beach to the valley in which was the Arab encampment. It could not, however, be said to debouch into this valley. Across its mouth the sand-drift had formed a barrier, like a huge “snow-wreath,” uniting the two parallel ridges that formed the sides of the ravine itself. This “mouthpiece” was not so high as either of the flanking ridges; though it was nearly a hundred feet above the level of the beach on one side, and the valley on the other. Its crest, viewed en profile, exhibited a saddle-shaped curve, the concavity turned upward. Through the centre of this saddle of sand, and transversely, the camel had carried Bill; and over the same track the three midshipmen had gone in search of him.
They had seen the Arab tents from the summit of the pass; and had it been daylight, need have gone no nearer to note what was being there done. Even by the moonlight they had been able to make out the forms of the horses, camels, men, and women; but not with sufficient distinctness to satisfy them as to what was going on.
For this reason had they descended into the valley, creeping cautiously down the slope of the sand-wreath, and with equal caution advancing from boulder to bush, and bush to boulder.
On taking the back track to regain the beach, they still observed caution, though perhaps not to such a degree as when approaching the camp. Their desire to put space between themselves and the barbarous denizens of the desert, of whose barbarity they had now obtained both ocular and auricular proof, had very naturally deprived them of that prudent coolness which the occasion required. For all that, they did not retreat with reckless rashness; and all three arrived at the bottom of the sloping sand-ridge without having any reason to think they had been observed.
But the most perilous point was yet to be passed. Against the face of the acclivity, there was not much danger of their being seen. The moon was shining on the other side. That which they had to ascend was in shadow, dark enough to obscure the outlines of their bodies to an eye looking in that direction, from such a distance as the camp. It was not while toiling up the slope that the dreaded detection, but at the moment when they must cross the saddle-shaped summit of the pass. Then, the moon being low down in the sky, directly in front of their faces, while the camp, still lower, was right behind their backs, it was not difficult to tell that their bodies would be exactly aligned between the luminary of night and the sparkling eyes of the Arabs, and that their figures would be exhibited in conspicuous outline.
It had been much the same way on their entrance to the oasis; but then they were not so well posted up in the peril of their position. They now wondered at their not having been observed while advancing; but that could be rationally accounted for on the supposition that the Bedouins had been at the time too busy over Old Bill to take heed of anything beyond the limits of their encampment. It was different now. There was quiet in the camp, though both male and female figures could be seen stirring among the tents. The saturnalia that succeeded the capture of the castaway had come to a close. A comparative peacefulness reigned throughout the valley; but in this very tranquillity lay the danger which our adventurers dreaded.
With nothing else to attract their attention, the occupants of the encampments would be turning their eyes in every direction. If any of them should look westward at a given moment, that is, while the three mids should be “in the saddle,” the latter could not fail to be discovered. What was to be done? There was no other way leading forth from the valley. It was on all sides encircled by steep ridges of sand, not so steep as to hinder them from being scaled; but on every side, except that on which they had entered, and by which they were about to make their exit, the moon was shining in resplendent brilliance. A cat could not have crawled up anywhere, without being seen from the tents, even had she been of the hue of the sand itself.
A hurried consultation, held between the trio of adventurers, convinced them that there was nothing to be gained by turning back, nothing by going to the right or the left. There was no other way, no help for it, but to scale the ridge in front, and cut as quickly as possible across the hollow of the saddle.
There was one other way; or at least a deviation from the course which had thus recommended itself. It was to wait for the going down of the moon, before they should attempt the crossing. This prudent project originated in the brain of the young Scotchman; and it might have been well if his companions had adopted the idea. But they would not. What they had seen of Saaran civilisation had inspired them with a keen disgust for it; and they were only too eager to escape from its proximity. The punishment inflicted upon poor Bill had made a painful impression upon them; and they had no desire to become the victims of a similar chastisement.
Colin did not urge his councils. He had been as much impressed by what he had seen as his companions, and was quite as desirous as they to give the Bedouins a wide berth. Withdrawing his opposition, therefore, he acceded to the original design; and without further ado, all three commenced crawling up the slope.
Chapter Twenty Six.
A queer Quadruped.
Half way up they halted, though not to take breath. Strong-limbed, long-winded lads like them, who could have swarmed in two minutes to the main truck of a man-o’-war, needed no such indulgence as that. Instead of one hundred feet of sloping sand, any one of them could have scaled Snowdon without stopping to look back.
Their halt had been made from a different motive. It was sudden and simultaneous, all three having stopped at the same time, and without any previous interchange of speech. The same cause had brought them to that abrupt cessation in their climbing; and as they stood side by side, aligned upon one another, the eyes of all three were turned on the same object.
It was an animal, a quadruped. It could not be anything else if belonging to a sublunary world; and to this it appeared to belong. A strange creature notwithstanding; and one which none of the three remembered to have met before. The remembrance of something like it flitted across their brains, seen upon the shelves of a museum, but not enough of resemblance to give a clue for its identification.
The quadruped in question was not bigger than a “San Bernard,” a “Newfoundland”, or a mastiff; but seen as it was, it loomed larger than any of the three. Like these creatures, it was canine in shape, lupine we should rather say, but of an exceedingly grotesque and ungainly figure. A huge square head seemed set without neck upon its shoulders; while its fore limbs, out of all proportion longer than the hind ones, gave to the spinal column a sharp downward slant towards the tail. The latter appendage, short and “bunchy”, ended abruptly, as if either cut off or “driven in”—adding to the uncouth appearance of the animal. A stiff hedge of hard bristles upon the back continued its chevaux de frise along the short thick neck, till it ended between two erect tufted ears. Such was the shape of the beast that had suddenly presented itself to the eyes of our adventurers.
They had a good opportunity of observing its outlines. It was on the ridge towards the crest of which they were advancing. The moon was shining beyond. Every turn of its head or body, every motion made by its limbs, was conspicuously revealed against the luminous background of the sky.
It was neither standing nor at rest in any way. Head, limbs, and body were all in motion, constantly changing, not only their relative attitudes to one another, but their absolute situation in regard to surrounding objects.
And yet the change was anything but arbitrary. The relative movements made by the members of the animal’s body, as well as the absolute alterations of position, were all in obedience to strictly natural laws, all repetitions of the same manoeuvre, worked with a monotony that seemed mechanical.
The creature was pacing to and fro, like a well-trained sentry, its “round” being the curved crest of the sand-ridge, from which it did not deviate to the licence of an inch. Backward and forward did it traverse the saddle in a longitudinal direction—now poised upon the pommel, now sinking downward into the seat, and then rising to the level of the group, now turning in the opposite direction, and retracing in long uncouth strides the path over which it appeared to have been passing since the earliest hour of its existence!
Independent of the surprise which the presence of this animal had created, there was something in its aspect calculated to cause terror. Perhaps, had the mids known what kind of creature it was, or been in any way apprised of its real character, they would have paid less regard to its presence. Certainly not so much as they did: for instead of advancing upon it, and making their way over the crest of the ridge, they stopped in their track, and held a whispered consultation as to what they should do.
It is not to be denied that the barrier before them presented a formidable appearance. A brute, it appeared as big as a bull, for magnified by the moonlight, and perhaps a little by the fears of those who looked upon it, the quadruped was quite quadrupled in size. Disputing their passage too; for its movements made it manifest that such was its design. Backwards and forwards, up and down that curving crest did it glide, with a nervous quickness that hindered any hope of being able to rush past it, either before or behind, its own crest all the while erected, like that of the dragon subdued by Saint George.
With all his English pluck, even stimulated by this resemblance to the national knight, Harry Blount felt shy to approach that creature that challenged the passage of himself and his companions.
Had there been no danger en arrière, perhaps our adventurers would have turned back into the valley, and left the ugly quadruped master of the pass.
As it was, a different resolve was arrived at, necessity being the dictator.
The three midshipmen, drawing their dirks, advanced, in line of battle, up the slope. The devil himself could scarce withstand such an assault. England, Scotland, Ireland, abreast, tres juncti in uno, united in thought, aim and action, was there aught upon earth, biped, quadruped, or mille-pied, that must not yield to the charge?
If there was, it was not that animal oscillating along the saddle of sand, progressing from pommel to cantel, like the pendulum of a clock.
Whether natural or supernatural, long before our adventurers got near enough to decide, the creature, to use a phrase of very modern mention, “skedaddled”, leaving them free, so far as it was concerned, to continue their retreat unmolested.
It did not depart, however, until after delivering a salute, that left our adventurers in greater doubt than ever of its true character. They had been debating among themselves whether it was a thing of the earth, of time, or something that belonged to eternity. They had seen it under a fair light, and could not decide. But now that they had heard it, had listened to a strain of loud cachinnation, scarce mocking the laughter of the maniac, there was no escaping from the conclusion that what they had seen was either Satan himself, or one of his Ethiopian satellites.
Chapter Twenty Seven.
The Hue and Cry.
As the strange creature that had threatened to dispute their passage was no longer in sight, and seemed, moreover, to have gone clear away, the three mids ceased to think any more of it; their minds being given to making their way over the ridge without being seen by the occupants of the encampment.
Having returned their dirks to the sheath, they continued to advance towards the crest of the transverse sand-spur, as cautiously as at starting.
It is possible they might have succeeded in crossing without being perceived, but for a circumstance of which they had taken too little heed. Only too well pleased, at seeing the strange quadruped make its retreat, they had been less affected by its parting salutation, weird and wild as this had sounded in their ears. But they had not thought of the effects which the same salute had produced upon the people of the Arab camp, causing all of them, as it did, to turn their eyes in the direction whence it was heard. To them there was no mystery in that screaming cachinnation. Unearthly as it had echoed in the ears of the three mids, it fell with a perfectly natural tone on those of the Arabs: for it was but one of the well-known voices of their desert home, recognised by them as the cry of the laughing hyena.
The effect produced upon the encampment was twofold. The children straying outside the tents, like young chicks frightened by the swooping of a hawk, ran inward; while their mothers, after the manner of so many old hens, rushed forth to take them under their protection. The proximity of a hungry hyena, more especially one of the laughing species, was a circumstance to cause alarm. All the fierce creature required was a chance to close his strong vice-like jaws upon the limbs of one of those juvenile Ishmaelites, and that would be the last his mother would ever see of him.
Knowing this, the screech of the hyena had produced a momentary commotion among the women and children of the encampment. Neither had the men listened to it unmoved. In hopes of procuring its skin for house or tent furniture, and its flesh for food, for these hungry wanderers will eat anything, several had seized hold of their long guns, and rushed forth from among the tents.
The sound had guided them as to the direction in which they should go; and as they ran forward they saw, not a hyena, but three human beings just mounting upon the summit of the sand-ridge, under the full light of the moon. So conspicuously did the latter appear upon the smooth crest of the wreath, that there was no longer any chance of concealment. Their dark blue dresses, the yellow buttons on their jackets, and the bands around their caps, were all discernible. It was the costume of the sea, not of the Saara. The Arab wreckers knew it at a glance; and, without waiting a second, every man of the camp sallied off in pursuit, each, as he started, giving utterance to an ejaculation of surprise or pleasure.
Some hurried forward afoot, just as they had been going out to hunt the hyena; others climbed upon their swift camels; while a few, who owned horses, thinking they might do better with them, quickly caparisoned them, and came galloping on after the rest; all three sorts of pursuers, footmen, horsemen, and maherrymen, seemingly as intent upon a contest of screaming, as upon a trial of speed.
It is needless to say that the three midshipmen were, by this time, fully apprised of the hue and cry raised after them. It reached their ears just as they arrived upon the summit of the sand-ridge; and any doubt they might have had as to its meaning was at once determined when they saw the Arabs brandishing their arms and rushing out like so many madmen from among the tents. They stayed to see no more. To keep their ground could only end in their being captured, and carried prisoners to the encampment; and after the spectacle they had just witnessed, in which the old man-o’-war’s-man had played such a melancholy part, any fate appeared preferable to that.
With some such fear all three were affected; and simultaneously yielding to it, they turned their backs upon the pursuit, and rushed headlong down the ravine, up which they had so imprudently ascended.
Chapter Twenty Eight.
A subaqueous Asylum.
As the gorge was of no great length, and the downward incline in their favour, they were not long in getting to its lower end, and out to the level plain that formed the sea-beach.
In their hurried traverse thither, it had not occurred to them to inquire for what purpose they were running towards the sea. There could be no chance of their escaping in that direction. Nor did there appear to be much in any other, afoot, as they were, and pursued by mounted men. The night was too clear to offer any opportunity of hiding themselves, especially in a country where there was neither brake, bush, nor scaur to conceal them. Go which way they would, or crouch wherever they might, they would be almost certain of being discovered by their lynx-eyed enemies.
There was but one way in which they might have stood a chance of getting clear, at least for a time. This was to have turned aside among the sand-ridges, and by keeping along some of the lateral hollows, double back upon their pursuers. There were several such side hollows; for on going up the main ravine, they had observed them, and also in going down; but in their hurry to put space between themselves and their pursuers, they had overlooked this chance of concealment.
At best it was but slim, though it was the only one that offered. It only presented itself when it was too late for them to take advantage of it, only after they had got clear out of the gully and stood upon the open level of the sea-beach, within less than two hundred yards of the sea itself. There they halted, partly to recover breath and partly to hold counsel as to their further course.
There was not much time for either; and as the three stood in a triangle with their faces turned towards each other, the moonlight shone upon lips and cheeks blanched with dismay.
It now occurred to them for the first time, and simultaneously, that there was no hope of their escaping, either by flight or concealment.
They were already some distance out upon the open plain, as conspicuous upon its surface of white sand, as would have been three black crows in the middle of a field six inches under snow.
They saw that they had made a mistake. They should have stayed among the sand-ridges, and sought shelter in some of the deep gullies that divided them. They bethought them of going back; but a moment’s deliberation was sufficient to convince them that this was no longer practicable. There would not be time, scarce even to re-enter the ravine, before their pursuers would be upon them.
It was an instinct that had caused them to rush towards the sea, their habitual home, for which they had thoughtlessly sped, notwithstanding their late rude ejection from it. Now that they stood upon its shore, as if appealing to it for protection, it seemed still desirous of spurning them from its bosom, and leaving them without mercy to their merciless enemies.
A line of breakers trended parallel to the water’s edge, scarce a cable’s length from the shore, and not two hundred yards from the spot where they had come to a pause.
They were not very formidable breakers, only the tide rolling over a sand-bar, or a tiny reef of rocks. It was at best but a big surf, crested with occasional flakes of foam, and sweeping in successive swells against the smooth beach.
What was there in all this to fix the attention of the fugitives, for it had? The seething flood seemed only to hiss at their despair.
And yet almost on the instant after suspending their flight, they had turned their faces towards it, as if some object of interest had suddenly shown itself in the surf. Object there was none, nothing but the flakes of white froth and the black vitreous waves over which it was dancing.
It was not an object, but a purpose that was engaging their attention, a resolve that had suddenly sprung up within their minds, almost as suddenly to be carried into execution. After all, their old home was not to prove so inhospitable. It would provide them with a place of concealment.
The thought occurred to all three almost at the same instant of time; though Terence was the first to give speech to it.
“By Saint Patrick!” he exclaimed, “let’s take to the wather! Them breakers ’ll give us a good hiding-place. I’ve hid before now in that same way, when taking a moonlight bath on the coast of owld Galway. I did it to scare my schoolfellows, by making believe I was drowned. What say ye to our trying it?”
His companions made no reply. They had scarce even waited for the wind-up of his harangue. Both had equally perceived the feasibility of the scheme; and yielding to a like impulse, all three started into a fresh run, with their faces turned towards the sea.
In less than a score of seconds, they had crossed the strip of strand; and in a similarly short space of time were plunging, thigh deep, through the water; still striding impetuously onward as if the intended to wade across the Atlantic.
A few more strides, however, brought them to a stand, just inside the line of breakers, where the seething waters, settling down into a state of comparative tranquillity, presented a surface variegated with large clouts of floating froth.
Amidst this mottling of white and black, even under the bright moonlight, it would have been difficult for the keenest eye to have detected the head of a human being, supposing the body to have been kept carefully submerged; and under this confidence the mids were not slow in submerging themselves.
Ducking down, till their chins touched the water, all three were soon as completely out of sight, to any eye looking from the shore, as if Neptune, pitying their forlorn condition, had stretched forth his trident with a bunch of seaweed upon its prongs, to screen and protect them.
Chapter Twenty Nine.
The Pursuers nonplussed.
Not one second too soon had they succeeded in making good their entry into this subaqueous asylum. Scarce had their chins come in contact with the water, when the voices of men, accompanied by the baying of dogs, the snorting of maherries, and the neighing of horses, were heard with the gorge from which they had just issued; and in a few minutes after, a straggling crowd, composed of these various creatures, came rushing out of the ravine. Of men, afoot and on horseback, twenty or more were seen pouring forth; all, apparently, in hot haste, as if eager to be in at the death of some object pursued, that could not possibly escape capture.
Once outside the jaws of the gully, the irregular cavalcade advanced scattering by over the plain. Only for a short distance, however; for, as if by a common understanding, rather than in obedience to any command, all came to a halt.
A silence followed this halt, apparently proceeding from astonishment. It was general, it might be said universal, for even the animals appeared to partake of it. At all events, some seconds transpired, during which the only sound heard was the sighing of the sea, and the only motion to be observed was the sinking and swelling of the waves.
The Saaran rovers on foot, as well as those that were mounted, their horses, dogs, and camels, as they stood upon that smooth plain, seemed to have been suddenly transformed into stone, and set like so many sphinxes in the sand.
In truth it was surprise that had so transfixed them, the men, at least; and their well-trained animals were only acting in obedience to a habit taught them by their masters, who, in pursuit of their predatory life, can cause these creatures to be both silent and still, whenever the occasion requires it.
For their surprise, which this exhibition of it proved to be extreme, the sons of the desert had sufficient reason. They had seen three midshipmen on the crest of the sand-ridge; had even noted the peculiar garb that bedecked their bodies, all this beyond doubt. Notwithstanding the haste with which they had entered on the pursuit, they had not continued it either in a reckless or improvident manner. Skilled in the ways of the wilderness, cautious as cats, they had continued the chase; those in the lead from time to time assuring themselves that the game was still before them. This they had done by glancing occasionally to the ground, where shoe tracks in the soft sand, three sets of them, leading to and fro, were sufficient evidence that the three mids must have gone back to the embouchure of the ravine; and thither emerged upon the open sea-beach.
Where were they now?
Looking up the smooth strand, as far as the eye could reach, and down it to a like distance, there was no place where a crab could have screened itself; and these Saaran wreckers, well acquainted with the coast, knew that in neither direction was there any other ravine or gully into which the fugitives could have retreated.
No wonder then that the pursuers wondered, even to speechlessness.
Their silence was of short duration, though it was succeeded only by cries expressing their great surprise, among which might have been distinguished their usual invocations to Allah and the Prophet. It was evident that a superstitious feeling had arisen in their minds, not without its usual accompaniment of fear; and although they no longer kept their places, the movement now observable among them was that they gathered closer together, and appeared to enter upon a grave consultation.
This was terminated by some of them once more proceeding to the embouchure of the ravine, and betaking themselves to a fresh scrutiny of the tracks made by the shoes of the midshipmen; while the rest sate silently upon their horses and maherries, awaiting the result.
The footmarks of the three mids were still easily traceable, even on the ground already trampled by the Arabs, their horses, and maherries. The “cloots” of a camel would not have been more conspicuous in the mud of an English road, than were the shoe-prints of the three young seamen in the sands of the Saara. The Arab trackers had no difficulty in making them out; and in a few minutes had traced them from the mouth of the gorge almost in a direct line to the sea. There, however, there was a breadth of wet sea-beach, where the springy sand instantly obliterated any foot-mark that might be made upon it, and there the tracks ended.
But why should they have extended farther? No one could have gone beyond that point, without either walking straight into the water, or keeping along the strip of sea-beach, upwards or downwards.
The fugitives could not have escaped in either way, unless they had taken to the water and committed suicide by drowning themselves. Up the coast or down it they would have been seen to a certainty.
Their pursuers, clustering around the place where the tracks terminated, were no wiser than ever. Some of them were ready to believe that drowning had been the fate of the castaways upon their coast, and so stated it to their companions. But they spoke only conjectures, and in tones that told them, like the rest, to be under the influence of some superstitious fear. Despite their confidence in the protection of their boasted Prophet, they felt a natural dread of that wilderness of waters, less known to them than the wilderness of sand.
Ere long they withdrew from its presence; and betook themselves back to their encampment, under a half belief that the three individuals seen and pursued had either drowned themselves in the great deep, or by some mysterious means known to these strange men of the sea, had escaped across its far-reaching waters.
Chapter Thirty.
A double Predicament.
Short time as their pursuers had stayed upon the strand, it seemed an age to the submerged midshipmen.
On first placing themselves in position, they had chosen a spot where, with their knees resting upon the bottom, they could just hold their chins above water. This would enable them to hold their ground without any great difficulty, and for some time they so maintained it.
Soon, however, they began to perceive that the water was rising around them—a circumstance easily explained by the influx of the tide. The rise was slow and gradual, but for all that they saw that should they require to remain in their place of concealment for any length of time, drowning must be their inevitable destiny.
A means of avoiding this soon presented itself. Inside the line of breakers, the water shoaled gradually towards the shore. By advancing in this direction they could still keep to the same depth. This course they adopted, gliding cautiously forward upon their knees whenever the tide admonished them to repeat the manoeuvre.
This state of affairs would have been satisfactory enough, but for a circumstance that, every moment, was making itself more apparent. At each move they were not only approaching nearer to their enemies, scattered along the strand, but as they receded from the line of the breakers, the water became comparatively tranquil, and its smooth surface, less confused by the masses of floating foam, was more likely to betray them to the spectators on the shore.
To avoid this catastrophe, which would have been fatal, they moved shoreward only when it became absolutely necessary to do so, often permitting the tidal waves to sweep completely over the crown of their heads, and several time threaten suffocation.
Under circumstances so trying, so apparently hopeless, most lads—ay, most men—would have submitted to despair, and surrendered themselves to a fate apparently unavoidable. But with that true British pluck, combining the tenacity of the Scotch terrier, the English bulldog, and the Irish stag-hound, the three youthful representatives of the triple kingdom determined to hold on.
And they held on, with the waves washing against their cheeks, and at intervals quite over their heads, with the briny fluid rushing into their ears and up their nostrils, until one after another began to believe that there would be no alternative between surrendering to the cruel sea, or to the not less cruel sons of the Saara.
As they were close together, they could hold council, conversing all the time in something louder than a whisper. There was no risk of their being overheard. Though scarce a cable’s length from the shore, the hoarse soughing of the surf would have drowned the sound of their voices, even if uttered in a much louder tone; but being skilled in the acoustics of the ocean, they exchanged their thoughts with due caution: and while encouraging one another to remain firm, they speculated freely upon the chances of escaping from their perilous predicament.
While thus occupied, a predicament of an equally perilous and still more singular kind, was in store for them. They had been hitherto advancing towards the water’s edge, in regular progression with the influx of the tide, all the while upon their knees. This, as already stated, had enabled them to sustain themselves steadily, without showing anything more than three-quarters of the head above the surface.
All at once, however, the water appeared to deepen; and by going upon their knees they could no longer surmount the waves, even with their eyes. By moving on towards the beach, they might again get into shallower water; but just at this point the commotion caused by the breakers came to a termination, and the flakes of froth, with the surrounding spray of bubbles here bursting, one after another, left the surface of the sea to its restored tranquillity. Anything beyond a cork, or the tiniest waif of seaweed, could scarce fail to be seen from the strand, though the latter was itself, constantly receding as the tide flowed inward.
The submerged middies were now in a dilemma they had not dreamed of. By holding their ground, they could not fail to “go under”. By advancing farther, they would run the risk of being discovered to the enemy.
Their first movement was to get up from their knees, and raise their heads above water by standing in a crouched attitude on their feet. This they had done before, more than once, returning to the posture of supplication only when too tired to sustain themselves.
This they attempted again, and determined to continue it to the last moment, in view of the danger of approaching nearer to the enemy.
To their consternation they now found that it would no longer avail them. Scarce they had risen erect before discovering that, even in his position, they were immersed to the chin, and after plunging a pace or two forward, they were still sinking deeper. They could feel that their feet were not resting on firm bottom; but constantly going down.
“A quicksand!” was the apprehension that rushed simultaneously into the minds of all three.
Fortunately for them, the Arabs, at that moment, yielding to their fatalist fears, had faced away from the shore; else the plunging and splashing made by them in their violent endeavours to escape from the quicksand could not have failed to dissipate these superstitions, and cause their pursuers to complete the capture they had so childishly relinquished.
As it chanced, the Saaran wreckers saw nothing of all this; and as the splashing sounds, which otherwise might have reached them, were drowned by the louder sough of the sea, they returned toward their encampment in a state of perplexity bordering upon bewilderment.
Chapter Thirty One.
Once more the mocking Laugh.
After a good deal of scrambling and struggling, our adventurers succeeded in getting clear of the quicksand, and planting their feet upon firmer bottom, a little nearer to the water’s edge. Though at this point more exposed than they wished to be, they concealed themselves as well as they could, holding their faces under the water up to the eyes.
Though believing that their enemies were gone for good, they dared not as yet wade out upon the beach. The retiring pursuers would naturally be looking back; and as the moon was still shining clearly as ever, they might have been seen from a great distance.
They felt that they would not be safe in leaving their place of concealment until the horde had re-crossed the ridge and descended once more into the oasis that contained their encampment.
Making a rough calculation as to the time it would take for the return journey, and allowing a considerable margin against the eventuality of any unforeseen delay, the mids remained in their subaqueous retreat without any material change of position.
When at length it appeared to them that the coast was clear, they rose to their feet and commenced wading towards the strand.
Though no longer believing themselves observed, they proceeded silently and with caution, the only noise made among them being the chattering of their teeth, which were going like three complete sets of castanets.
This they could not help. The night breeze playing upon the saturated garments, that clung coldly around their bodies, chilled them to the very bones; and not only their teeth, but their knees knocked together, as they staggered towards the beach.
Just before reaching it, an incident arose that filled them with fresh forebodings. The strange beast that had threatened to intercept their retreat over the ridge, once more appeared before their eyes. It was either the same or one of the same kind, equally ugly, and, to all appearance, equally determined to dispute their passage.
It was now patrolling the strand close by the water’s edge; going backwards and forwards, precisely as it had done along the saddle-shaped sand-wreath; all the while keeping its hideous face turned towards them. With the moon behind their backs, they had a better view of it than before; but this, though enabling them to perceive that it was some strange quadruped, did not in any way improve their opinion of it. They could see that it was covered with a coat of long shaggy hair, of a brindled brown colour; and that from a pair of large orbs, set obliquely in its head, gleamed forth a fierce sullen light.
How it had come there they knew not; but there it was. Judging from the experience of their former encounter with it they presumed it would again retreat at their approach; and, once more drawing their dirks, they advanced boldly towards it.
They were not deceived. Long before they were near, the uncouth creature turned tail; and, again giving utterance to its unearthly cry, scampered off towards the ravine, in whose shadowy depths it soon disappeared from their view.
Supposing they had nothing further to fear, our adventures stepped out upon the strand, and commenced consultation as to their future course.
To keep on down the coast and get as far as possible from the Arab encampment was the thought of all three; and as they were unanimous in this, scarce a moment was wasted in coming to a determination. Once resolved, they faced southward; and started off as briskly as their shivering frames and saturated garments would allow them.
There was not much to cheer them on their way, only the thought that they had so adroitly extricated themselves from a dread danger. But even this proved only a fanciful consolation: for scarce had they made a score of steps along the strand, when they were brought to a sudden halt, by hearing a noise that appeared to proceed from the ravine behind them.
It was a slight noise, something like a snort, apparently made by some animal; and for a moment, they supposed it to come from the ugly quadruped that, after saluting them, had retreated up the gorge.
On turning their eyes in that direction, they at once saw that they were mistaken. A quadruped had produced the noise, but one of a very different kind from the hairy brute with which they had parted. Just emerging from the shadow of the sand-hills, they perceived a huge creature, whose uncouth shape proclaimed it to be a camel.
The sight filled them with consternation. Not that it was a camel; but because, at the same time, they discovered that there was a man upon its back, who brandishing a long weapon, was urging the animal towards them.
The three midshipmen made no effort to continue the journey thus unexpectedly interrupted. They saw that any attempt to escape from such a fast-going creature would be idle. Encumbered as they were with their wet garments, they could not have distanced a lame duck; and, resigning themselves to the chances of destiny, they stood awaiting the encounter.
Chapter Thirty Two.
A cunning Sheik.
When the camel and its rider first loomed in sight, indistinctly seen under the shadow of the sand-dunes, our adventurers had conceived a faint hope that it might be Sailor Bill.
It was possible, they thought, that the old man-o’-war’s-man, left unguarded in the camp, might have laid hands on the maherry that had made away with him, and pressed it into service to assist his escape.
The hope was entertained only for a instant. Bill had encountered no such golden opportunity, but was still a prisoner in the tent of the black sheik, surrounded by his shrewish tormentors. It was the maherry, however, that was seen coming back; for as it came near, the three middies recognised the creature whose intrusion upon their slumbers of the preceding night had been the means, perhaps, of saving their lives.
Instead of a Jack Tar now surmounting its high hunch, they saw a little weazen-faced individual, with sharp angular features, and a skin of yellowish hue puckered like parchment. He appeared to be at least sixty years of age; while his costume, equipments, and above all, a certain authoritative bearing, bespoke him to be one of the head men of the horde.
Such in truth was he—one of the two sheiks—the old Arab to whom the straying camel belonged; and who was now mounted on his own maherry.
His presence on the strand at this, to our adventurers, most inopportune moment, requires explanation.
He had been on the beach before, along with the others; and had gone away with the rest. But instead of continuing on to the encampment, he had fallen behind in the ravine; where, under the cover of some rocks, and favoured by the obscure light within the gorge, he had succeeded in giving his comrades the slip. There he had remained, permitting the rest to recross the ridge, and return to the tents.
He had not taken these steps without an object. Less superstitious than his black brother sheik, he knew that there must be some natural explanation of the disappearance of the three castaways; and he determined to seek, and if possible, discover it.
It was not mere curiosity that prompted him to this determination. He had been all out of sorts with himself since losing Sailor Bill in the game of helga; and he was desirous of obtaining some compensation for his ill luck, by capturing the three castaways who had so mysteriously disappeared.
As to their having either drowned themselves, or walked away over the waste of waters, the old sheik had seen too many Saaran summers and winters to give credence either to one tale or the other. He knew they would turn up again; and though he was not quite certain of the where, he more than half suspected it. He had kept his suspicions to himself, not imparting them even to his own special followers. By the laws of the Saara, a slave taken by any one of the tribe belongs not to its chief but to the individual who makes the capture. For this reason had the cunning sexagenarian kept his thoughts to himself, and fallen solus into the rear of the returning horde.
It might be supposed that he would have made some of his following privy to his plan, for the sake of having help to effect such a wholesale capture. But no. His experience as a “Barbary wrecker” had taught him that there would be no danger, no likelihood of resistance, even though the castaways numbered thirty instead of three.
Armed with this confidence, and his long gun, he had returned down the ravine; and laid in wait near its mouth, at a point where he commanded a view of the coast line, to the distance of more than a mile on each side of him.
His vigil was soon rewarded by seeing the three individuals for whom it had been kept step forth from the sea, as if emerging from its profoundest depths, and stand conspicuously upon the beach.
He waited for nothing more; but, giving the word to his maherry, had ridden out of the ravine, and was now advancing with all speed upon the tracks of the retreating mids.
Chapter Thirty Three.
A queer Encounter.
In about threescore seconds from the time he was first seen pursuing them, the old sheik was up to the spot where our adventurers had awaited him.
His first salute appeared to be some words of menace or command, rendered more emphatic by a series of gestures made with his long gun; which was successively pointed at the heads of the three. Of course, none of them understood what was said; but his gesticulations made it clear enough that he required their company to the Arab encampment.
Their first impulse was to yield obedience to this command; and Terence had given a sign of assent, which was acquiesced in by Colin. Not so Master Blount, in whom the British bulldog had become aroused even to the showing of his teeth.
“See him hanged first!” cried Harry. “What! yield up to an old monkey like that, and walk tamely to the camp at the tail of his camel? No such thing! If I am to become a prisoner, it will be to one who can take me.”
Terence, rather ashamed at having shown such facile submission, now rushed to the opposite extreme; and drawing his dirk, cried out, “By Saint Petrick! I’m with you, Harry! Let’s die, rather than yield ourselves prisoners to such a queer old curmudgeon!”
Colin, before declaring himself, glanced sharply around, carrying his eye towards the embouchure of the ravine, to assure himself that the Arab was alone.
As there was nobody else in sight, and no sound heard that would indicate the proximity of any one, it was probable enough that the rider of the maherry was the only enemy opposed to them.
“The deil take him!” cried Colin, after making his cautious reconnaissance. “If he take us, he must first fight for it. Come on, old skinflint! you’ll find we’re true British tars, ready for a score such as you!”
The three youths had by this time unsheathed their shining daggers, and thrown themselves into a sort of triangle, the maherry in their midst.
The old sheik, unprepared for such a reception, was altogether taken aback by it; and for some seconds sate upon his high perch seemingly irresolute how to act.
Suddenly his rage appeared to rise to such a pitch that he could no longer command his actions; and bringing the long gun to his shoulder, he levelled it at Harry Blount, who had been foremost in braving him.
The stream of smoke, pouring forth from its muzzle, for a moment enveloped the form of the youthful mariner; but from the midst of that sulphury nimbus came forth a clear manly voice, pronouncing the word “Missed!”
“Thank God!” cried Terence and Colin, in a breath; “now we have him in our power! He can’t load again! Let’s on him altogether! Heave he!”
And uttering this nautical phrase of encouragement, the three mids, with naked dirks, rushed simultaneously towards the maherry.
The Arab, old as he may have been, showed no signs either of stiffness or decrepitude. On the contrary, he exhibited all the agility of a tiger-cat; along with a fierce determination to continue the combat he had initiated, notwithstanding the odds that were against him. On discharging his gun, he had flung the useless weapon to the ground; and instead of it now grasped a long curving scimitar, with which he commenced cutting around him in every direction.
Thus armed, he had the advantage of his assailants; for while he might reach any one of them by a quick cut, they with their short dirks could not come within thrusting distance of him, without imminent danger of having their arms, or perchance their heads, lopped sheer off their shoulders.
Defensively, too, had the rider of the maherry an advantage over his antagonists. While within distance of them, at the point of his curving blade, seated upon his high perch, he was beyond the reach of their weapons. Get close to him as they might, and spring as high as they were able, they could not bring the tips of their daggers in contact with his skin.
In truth, there seemed no chance for them to inflict the slightest wound upon him; while at each fresh wheel of the maherry, and each new sweep of the scimitar, one or other of them was in danger of decapitation.
On first entering upon the fight, our adventurers had not taken into account the impregnable position of their antagonist. Soon, however, did they discover the advantages in his favour, with their own proportionate drawbacks. To neutralise these was the question that now occupied them. If something was not done soon, one or other, perhaps all three, would have to succumb to that keen cutting of the scimitar.
“Let’s kill the camel!” cried Harry Blount, “that’ll bring him within reach; and then—”
The idea of the English youth was by no means a bad one; and perhaps would have been carried out. But before he could finish his speech, another scheme had been conceived by Terence, who had already taken steps towards its execution.
It was this that had interrupted Harry Blount in the utterance of his counsel.
At school the young Milesian had been distinguished in the exercise of vaulting. Leap-frog had been his especial delight; and no mountebank could bound to a greater height than he. At this crisis he remembered his old accomplishment, and called it to his aid.
Seeking an opportunity, when the head of the maherry was turned towards his comrades, and its tail to himself he made an energetic rush; sprang half a score of feet from the ground; and flinging apart his feet, while in the air, came down, stride legs upon the croup of the camel.
It was fortunate for the old Arab that the effort thus made by the amateur saltimbanque had shaken the dirk from his grasp, else, in another instant, the camel would have ceased to “carry double.”
As it was, its two riders continued upon its back; but in such close juxtaposition, that it would have required sharp eyes and a good light to tell that more than one individual was mounted upon it.
Fast enfolded in the arms of the vigorous young Hibernian, could scarce be distinguished the carcase of the old Arab sheik, shrunken to half size by the powerful compression; while the scimitar, so late whistling with perilous impetuosity through the air, was now seen lying upon the sand, its gleam no longer striking terror into the hearts of those whose heads it had been threatening to lop off.
Chapter Thirty Four.
Holding on to the Hump.
The struggle between Terence and the sheik still continued, upon the back of the maherry. The object of the young Irishman was to unhorse, or rather uncamel, his antagonist, and get him to the ground.
This design the old Arab resisted toughly, and with all his strength, knowing that dismounted he would be no match for the trio of stout lads whom he had calculated on capturing at his ease. Once à pied he would be at their mercy, since he was now altogether unarmed. His gun had been unloaded; and the shining scimitar, of which he had made such a dangerous display, was no longer in his grasp. As already stated it had fallen to the ground, and at that precious moment was being picked up by Colin; who in all probability would have used it upon its owner, had not the latter contrived to escape beyond its reach.
The mode of the sheik’s escape was singular enough. Still tenaciously holding on to the hump, from which the young Irishman was using every effort to detach him, he saw that his only chance of safety lay in retreating from the spot, and, by this means, separating the antagonist who clutched him from the two others that threatened upon the ground below.
A signal shout to the maherry was sufficient to effect his purpose. On hearing it the well-trained quadruped wheeled, as upon a pivot, and in a shambling, but quick pace, started back towards the ravine, whence it had late issued.
To their consternation, Colin and Harry beheld this unexpected movement; and before either of them could lay hold of the halter, now trailing along the sand, the maherry was going at a rate of speed which they vainly endeavoured to surpass. They could only follow in its wake, as they did so, shouting to Terence to let go his hold of the sheik, and take his chance of a tumble to the ground.
Their admonitions appeared not to be heeded. They were not needed, at least after a short interval had elapsed.
At first the young Irishman had been so intent on his endeavours to dismount his adversary that he did not notice the signal given to the maherry, nor the retrograde movement it had inaugurated. Not until the camel was re-entering the ravine, and the steep sides of the sand-dunes cast their dark shadows before him, did he observe that he was being carried away from his companions.
Up to this time he had been vainly striving to detach the sheik from his hold upon the hump. On perceiving the danger, however, he desisted from this design, and at once entered upon a struggle of a very different kind, to detach himself.
In all probability this would have proved equally difficult: for struggle as he might, the tough old Arab, no longer troubling himself about the control of his camel, had twisted his sinewy fingers under the midshipman’s dirk-belt, and held the latter in juxtaposition to his own body, supported by the hump of the maherry, as if his very life depended on not letting go.
A lucky circumstance, and this only, hindered the young Irishman from being carried to the Arab encampment: a circumstance very similar to that which on the preceding night had led to the capture of that same camel.
Its halter was again trailing.
Its owner, occupied with the “double” which it had so unexpectedly been called upon to carry, was conducting it only by his voice, and had neither thought nor hands for the halter.
Once again the trailing end got into the split hoof, once again the maherry was tripped up; and came down neck foremost upon the sand.
Its load was spilled, Bedouin and Hibernian coming together to the ground, both, if not dangerously hurt, at least so shaken, as, for some seconds to be deprived of their senses.
Neither had quite recovered from the shock, when Harry Blount and Colin, coming up in close pursuit, stooped over the prostrate pair; and neither Arab nor Irishman was very clear in his comprehension, when a crowd of strange creatures closed around them, and took possession of the whole party; as they did so yelling like a cohort of fiends.
In the obfuscation of his “sivin” senses, the young Irishman may have scarcely understood what was passing around him. It was too clear to his companions, clear as a catastrophe could be, to those who are its victims.
The shot fired by the sheik, if failing in the effect intended, had produced a result almost equally fatal to the three fugitives. It had given warning to the Arabs in their encampment; who, again sallying forth, had arrived just in time to witness the “decadence” of the camel, and now surrounded the group that encircled it.
The courageous representative of England, and the cool young Scotchman, were both taken by surprise, too much so to give them a chance of thinking either of resistance or flight; while the mind of the Irish middy, from a different cause, was equally in a hopeless “muddle.”
It resulted in all three being captured, and conducted up the ravine towards the camp of the wreckers.