"I"m afraid you must. We shan"t be long. I"ll drop the others a mile or two away, and come back for you at once."
"Never in ze vorld. I protest. I am Jarman sobjeck: is not ze life of Jarman sobjeck of more vorth zan ze life of a Mohr? Our Kaiser, who is in Berlin--"
"We can"t stop to argue it. They won"t kill you, at any rate; they know enough of your Kaiser perhaps to refrain from that: whereas they"d kill the Moor to a certainty. We can"t all lose our lives for you. In short, you must get out, and be quick about it, or, by Jove! we"ll have to throw you out."
"It is terrible; it is unkind. I cannot stay alone; no longer am I as I vas; I lose pounds in ze prison. I am not made for zis. Some vun muss remain viz me; I care not who: some vun to give me courage."
Here Abdul stepped into the breach and volunteered to stay with the German.
"I have it!" cried Oliphant. "The trapdoor that covers the opening is at the other end of the roof, by the parapet there. We can shut that down and bolt it. And, by George! the stones of the parapet are pretty loose.
Abdul and Mr. Schwab can pile some of them on the trap; we"ll leave them our revolvers, and with a little pluck they can keep the blackguards at bay until we get back."
"That"s it. You"ll be as safe as the Bank of England, Mr. Schwab. Quick!
Out with you! Here"s my revolver!"
"Ach! I am man of peace; vunce I vas var gorresbondent, and--"
"For goodness" sake get out, man. Don"t you see you"re endangering the whole lot of us, yourself included. Oliphant, we shall have to fling him out."
But at this threat Schwab rose and stepped on to the roof, his face a very picture of woe. Oliphant a.s.sisted Abdul to place the trapdoor over the opening, and of course made the discovery that the bolts were on the inside.
"But the stones will do," said Oliphant. "Buck up, Mr. Schwab; you"re not absolutely helpless, are you?"
"It is true, I have carried stones, but zey vere small," said Schwab lugubriously, remembering the means by which he had mounted the fence at Midfont in pursuit of business. Leaving him to it, Oliphant got back into the car. Tom pressed the lever, and the airship, relieved of near two hundredweight of German subject and the lesser bulk of the Moor, soared into the air. Tom"s last view, as the vessel rose clear of the kasbah, was Schwab limping across the roof under the burden of a large stone from the coping.
"A most singular proceeding!" murmured Sir Mark, as the airship whirred over the hills. "I wonder how I stand-diplomatically considered. The vessel goes with consummate ease. There is positively no roll-nothing to cause seasickness."
Tom laughed. The matter-of-fact at this moment was very refreshing.
"I hope you will redeem your promise to rescue Mr. Schwab," the envoy continued. "He has been a great joy to me in my captivity."
"Oh yes, we"ll get him. We shall drop you in a few minutes. You will not mind being left for a little while?"
"Not at all, not at all. I find the air and the motion most invigorating. I have lately been very conscious of the inconvenience of having a nose."
Tom did not know, though Oliphant suspected, that Sir Mark"s cool manner was adopted intentionally-to ease the strain on their nerves. A man is not trained to diplomacy for nothing. He kept up a quiet flow of nothings until the hill was reached.
"A very airy situation," he remarked, as he was set down on the hill-top.
"Yes. You"ll find it cold," said Tom. "Here"s my coat."
"Thanks. Having escaped asphyxia, it would certainly be a pity to contract pneumonia. You look quite comfortable yourself: the Moorish djellab is a very warm garment, I should think."
He put on Tom"s reefer, which had lain in a corner of the car. Then Tom sent the airship aloft again, and hurried back to the kasbah.
CHAPTER XII-A HITCH
Short as the time seemed, it was in reality nearly an hour before the airship once more rested on the roof of the kasbah. While it was still hovering above, Tom manuvring for a landing, there came the m.u.f.fled sound of shots and the rending of wood.
"They"ve broken in," cried Oliphant.
The Moors had indeed burst through the lower doors, released the infuriated sheikh, and, finding themselves unable to lift the trapdoor, were firing upwards through it. Schwab, who had been sitting on the pile of stones which he and Abdul had heaped on the covering, to reinforce their weight with his own, slipped off with amazing alacrity just as the airship came to rest.
"Gott sei Dank!" he exclaimed, as Tom joined him.
[Ill.u.s.tration: "TOM, SEIZING A BIG STONE, THREW IT WITH ALL HIS FORCE INTO THE BLACK ROOM BENEATH."]
He needed no invitation to hurry into the car. As soon as Abdul was aboard Tom started the engines. To his consternation the airship again refused to rise.
"Good heavens! what a weight you must be!" he exclaimed.
"Colossal! But I lose pounds in ze--"
"Oh, shut up!" cried Oliphant impatiently. "We can"t make another journey, Dorrell. The cover won"t support the stones much longer with those ruffians smashing the wood as they"re doing."
He had scarcely spoken when the woodwork gave way, the stones crashed down the staircase, and there were cries of pain and alarm from the men beneath. But it was impossible to suppose that they were all hurt, and the pa.s.sage was now clear for the rest. Something must be done at once to gain a little time until the problem of removing Schwab"s colossal weight could be solved.
Stopping his engines, which were working furiously, but with no effect, Tom, followed by Oliphant and the Moor, jumped from the car and hurried towards the opening. They were greeted by a musket shot; but Tom, seizing a big stone, threw it with all his force into the black room beneath. There were more cries from below, repeated when Oliphant and the Moor followed suit, each with missiles of the same character. Then there was silence for a time. The Moors were apparently nonplussed.
"You can find your way to the hill if I land you below?" asked Tom of Abdul.
"Yes, master."
"Hold the roof, Oliphant. I won"t be ten minutes. Don"t shoot "em unless you"re very hard pressed."
Tom and the Moor sprang into the car, the airship again ascended, and came down about a quarter of a mile from the village walls. There was n.o.body in sight; without doubt the whole population of the place was congregated about the kasbah. Once more Tom ascended, alighting on the roof just as Oliphant, using the wooden shaft of Abdul"s hammer, was driving back one man, more venturesome than the rest, who had attempted to make his way up. There was no time to carry more stones from the coping to serve as missiles, so Tom and Oliphant at last fired their revolvers, two shots each, taking care, however, to avoid the opening.
Tom hoped that the sound of the shots would give pause to the men below, most of whom must have hitherto been unaware that the intruders carried firearms.
Immediately after they had fired, the two made a dash for the car, scrambled aboard, and set the engines in motion.
"Gott sei Dank!" cried Schwab again, as the airship rose steadily above the roof.
As if they had known by some intuition what was happening, the Moors at this moment made a rush, and before the airship had sailed a hundred yards from the kasbah, figures appeared on the roof. A moment afterwards one or two shots were fired, but they were without effect; the airship sailed on, pursued by yells of baffled rage.
In order to draw away pursuit from his real direction, Tom headed the airship north-east, and it was not until he was well out of sight of the kasbah that he put the helm up and steered straight for the hill-top.
"We"ve come out of this uncommonly well," said Oliphant. "I was on thorns all the time you and Abdul were absent."
"We"re not out of it yet," rejoined Tom. "The fuel"s nearly done. These comings and goings have used a terrible lot of the paste, and I doubt whether there"s enough to make one journey to the yacht-let alone two. I didn"t reckon on another pa.s.senger besides Ingleton."
"Who is this freak? You seem to know him?" Oliphant spoke quietly: Herr Schwab was lying against the rail of the car only a few feet away.
"Met him once. His name"s Schwab; he"s an agent for the company I get my powder from. Haven"t had time yet to ask him how he got into this mess.
I say, it looks as if a storm is coming up."