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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.
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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.
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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.
