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 sh.o.r.e; else the plunging and splashing made by them in their violent endeavours to escape from the quicksand could not have failed to dissipate these superst.i.tions, 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 pa.s.sage.

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 s.h.a.ggy 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. Enc.u.mbered 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 a.s.sist 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 superst.i.tious 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 s.e.xagenarian 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 a.s.sent, 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.