I was right in the midst of the mess, with a camel on either side trying to get its teeth into me, and what with Grim"s shouting to get the tangle straightened, and our all trying to obey at once, it was some minutes before I got the hang of things. In fact, I think I understood last.
We were already surrounded perfectly on three sides by camel-men who kept out of reasonable rifle-range and stalked us like dark ghosts from the rear. They resembled a drag-net, drawing us in the direction of Petra, and the only unblocked segment of the circle was exactly in front of us. Every time I tried to count them there seemed more than before, and there were certainly over a hundred.
I got one close look at Grim"s face, and knew he had made his mind up what to do; but all the men were shouting different advice and it was a question whether he would be able to get control before a disaster happened. I said nothing and did nothing but kept fairly close to him. Narayan Singh found his proper place alongside me, with the halter of Ayisha"s camel in his hand; and he said nothing either.
Suddenly Grim reached out and seized old Ali Baba by the shoulder, drawing him close and growling into his ear. I could not catch the words, but he repeated them again and again, and Ali Baba nodded vehemently. Not a shot had been fired yet, for Grim had forbidden it, and the other side showed no disposition to do other than surround us at a safe distance. But I noticed they were reducing their estimate of safety and seemed to be gradually closing in for a concerted rush from all sides at once.
Then two things happened suddenly. Out of the open horizon in front, from between two great mounds that looked like ant-heaps, three figures emerged on camels, apparently all alone and unsupported. The one in the middle on the tallest camel made a signal with a long strip of cloth waved like a semaph.o.r.e against the moonlight.
Instantly the opposing force began to close in, and Ali Baba proved his mettle. Those sons and grandsons obeyed his order as efficiently as he did Grim"s. They made a feint all in a cl.u.s.ter together straight for the widest gap in the circle behind us.
The enemy drew off to a safer distance, whereat Ali Baba wheeled and charged another segment of the circle, widening it again.
Still not a shot had been fired by either side.
Around Grim now were Narayan Singh, Ayisha, and myself with our prisoner Yussuf, and Ayisha"s four. Grim watched his chance and sent me to bring back four of Ali Baba"s men, and by the time I had done that he had lessened the distance perceptibly between himself and the three lone individuals in front. He was leaning low over his camel, peering at the three like a seaman staring from a crow"s-nest in a fog.
It was a weird business--a swiftly played chess game, almost noiseless; for wherever Ali Baba charged the enemy drew off, while the rest came closer until they were charged in turn.
"It"s obvious we"re intended to be made prisoners," Grim said to me at last. "But I think it"s obvious we"re not going to be."
Nevertheless, I understood nothing of his plan, except that our little group kept drawing closer to the three, one of whom seemed in command of the other side. At the moment I suspected that Grim was one of those officers who are splendid at intelligence work and at playing a lone hand, but less than ordinary in the field; Ali Baba looked like the man of action.
Why, with all that brave old man"s ability to swing and spur his gang in absolute control, had not the lot of us burst through the circling enemy and made a bolt for it? That was what I should have done.
But suddenly Grim turned and pushed the muzzle of his pistol into Ayisha"s face as she leaned out of the _shibrayah_ to watch. It caught her under the jawbone, so that she could not see what his finger was doing, and did not dare try to move away.
"Now shout!" he ordered her. "Tell "em your name _Wallahi!_ Yell, or I"ll kill you."
She let out a bleat like a frightened goat, that might have been audible thirty yards away if there were no other noise.
"Louder! I"ll blow your brains out if you disobey!"
So she screamed at the top of her lungs, making her voice carry as all desert people can. And after she had called three times she was answered by a clear, contralto woman"s voice.
"Ay-ish-a! O Ay-ish-a!"
"Jael! Jael!" she called back; and at that the rider of the middle camel waved the cloth again.
As fast as they caught sight of it--in tens and twenties--the oncoming riders halted.
But Ali Baba did not stand still. Neither did we. The three lone individuals in front of us began to approach.
"Come on!" said Grim. "Now"s our chance!"
And at last I saw his idea. I did not know which to admire more, the man who had thought of it in that sudden crisis, or Ali Baba who had understood so swiftly and carried out his part so well.
But there was no time for admiration then.
All together--Ali Baba and his men along one side of a right-angle and we from the other--we swooped on the three. And there were nine or ten shots fired before we closed on them, though none by our side.
My camel went down under me twenty yards before we reached them.
Two other camels were killed, and one of Ali Baba"s sons was grazed. But in another second we had captured two men and a woman, and it was too late for the spectators to do anything, unless they cared to risk killing their own leader.
I thrust my way on foot through the milling camels, for I wanted to be in at the death, as it were, and I saw Grim take the woman"s rifle away. She looked more surprised than any one I have ever seen--more so than a man I once saw shot in the stomach who looked suddenly into the next world and did not like it.
"Shout to "em, Jael!" he ordered in plain English. "Call "em off, or I"ll kill you! Shout to "em; d"you hear!"
"Ayisha! What does this mean? Ali? Ali Higg? You here? I don"t understand!"
"You"ll be dead before you understand if you don"t call those men off," Grim answered; and his pistol demonstrated that he meant it, for her men were closing in on us.
So she knelt up on her camel and cried out that Ali Higg was there, bidding them keep their distance.
"But what does this mean, Ali? And you speak English? Since when?
Oh, I must be mad! You are not Ali Higg! No! I see now you are not, but ..."
She turned on Ayisha and spoke in Arabic: "Ayisha, what does this mean? Answer me!"
But Ayisha said nothing. She chose to get back between the curtains of the _shibriyah,_ and I saw Narayan Singh on the far side whispering to her.
"For," as he told me afterward, "the time to persuade a woman you are her friend is when she is afraid or distracted by doubt. At all other times she is like a leopard; but then she is like a lost sheep!"
The silence was at an end now. Every one was shouting; the real Ali Higg"s men wanting to know what had happened, and Ali Baba"s answering them with threats if they dared disobey and come closer. The effect was exactly as if the figures on a motion-picture screen could be heard calling back and forth.
The two men whom we had captured with the woman Jael were silent, staring hard at Grim as if they saw a vision; and Yussuf, the prisoner we had made at the oasis, tried to talk to them, but they would not listen to him; the drama was too absorbing. Jael herself, inclined to be panicky at first, was recovering self-possession by rapid stages, and grew silent.
She hardly looked like a woman until you came quite close to her, for she was dressed like a man, in the regular Bedouin cloak and head-gear, with a bandolier full of cartridges. But her hair had come unbound, and one long reddish lock of it was over her shoulder.
She had a good-looking, strong face, badly freckled, and was probably about forty years old, although that much was hard guessing in the moonlight; for the rest, she looked like the incarnation of activity--standing still, but only by suppression.
"Now Jael Higg," said Grim, "we"ll have no squeamishness about s.e.x. I"m in a tight place, and you"ll obey orders or take the consequences. We"re going to Petra, the lot of us."
"You! Are coming with me? To Petra?"
"Yes. And we"ve escort enough. Who commands those men?"
"I!"
"Yes, yes. But who"s at the head of them now?"
"Ibrahim ben Ah."
"Call out for Ibrahim ben Ah to come here to speak with Ali Higg, and watch that he comes alone," Grim ordered, and two or three of Ali Baba"s men went off to obey. "Now, Jael, you do the talking.
Understand me, though; this pistol has a way of going off quite suddenly when the trigger is pressed. Answer: What village were you intending to raid?"
"None."
"No use lying. Ali Higg"s spy brought word to him that the British are engaged elsewhere. Raid follows promptly, of course.
Now, out with it! I don"t need you at Petra; Ayisha will serve my purpose there. You"ve ten seconds before I pull the trigger.