But the most perilous point was yet to be pa.s.sed. 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 pa.s.s. 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 chastis.e.m.e.nt.
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 att.i.tudes 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 repet.i.tions 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 pa.s.sing 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 pa.s.sage 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 pa.s.sage of himself and his companions.
Had there been no danger _en arriere_, perhaps our adventurers would have turned back into the valley, and left the ugly quadruped master of the pa.s.s.
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 a.s.sault.
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 pa.s.sage 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 circ.u.mstance 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 circ.u.mstance 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 b.u.t.tons 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 e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.i.o.n 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, hors.e.m.e.n, 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 s.p.a.ce 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.