CHAPTER SIXTEEN.

THE TRAIL ON THE SAND.

The tube of the telescope, firmly embedded in the sand, kept its place without the necessity of being held in hand. It only required to be slightly shifted as the horseman and camel-rider changed place, so as to keep them within its field of view.

By this means our adventures were able to mark their approach and note every movement they made, without much risk of being seen themselves.

Each of them took a peep through the gla.s.s to satisfy their curiosity, and then the instrument was wholly entrusted to its owner, who was thenceforth constantly to keep his eye to it, and observe the movements of the strangers. This the young Scotchman did, at intervals communicating with his companions in a low voice.

"I can make out their faces," muttered he after a time, "and ugly enough are they. One is yellow, the other black. He must be a negro; of course he is, he's got woolly hair too. It's he that rides the camel, just such another as this that stumbled over us. The yellow man upon the horse has a pointed beard upon his chin. He has a sharp look, like those Moors we've seen at Tetuan. He's an Arab, I suppose. He appears to be the master of the black man. I can see him make gestures, as if he was directing him to do something. There! they have stopped, they are looking this way!"

"Marcy on us!" muttered Old Bill, "if they have speered the gla.s.s!"

"Troth! that's like enough," said Terence. "It'll be flashing in the sun outside the sand. The sharp-eyed Arab is almost sure to see it."

"Had you not better draw it in?" suggested Harry Blount.

"True," answered Colin. "But I fear it would be too late now. If that's what halted them, it's all over with us so far as hiding goes."

"Slip it in anyhow. If they don't see it any more they mayn't come quite up to the ridge."

Colin was about to follow the advice thus offered, when on taking what he intended to be a last squint through the telescope, he perceived that the travellers were moving on up the beach, as if they had seen nothing that called upon them to deviate from their course.

Fortunately for the four "stowaways" it was not the sparkle of the lens that had caused them to make that stop. A ravine or opening through the sand-ridges, much larger than that in which our adventurers were concealed, embouched upon the beach, some distance below. It was the appearance of this opening that had attracted the attention of the two mounted men; and from their gestures Colin could tell they were talking about it, as if undecided whether to go that way or keep on up the strand.

It ended by the yellow man putting spurs to his horse and galloping off up the ravine, followed by the black man on the camel.

From the way in which both behaved; keeping their eyes generally bent upon the ground, but at intervals gazing about over the country; it was evident they were in search of something, and this would be the she-camel, that lay tethered in the bottom of the sand-gorse, close to the spot occupied by our adventurers.

"They've gone off on the wrong track," said Colin, taking his eye from the gla.s.s as soon as the switch tail of the maherry disappeared behind the slope of a sand-dune. "So much the better for us. My heart was at my mouth just a minute ago. I was sure it was all over with us."

"You think they haven't seen the shine of the lens?" interrogated Harry.

"Of course not; or else they'd have come on to examine it. Instead, they've left the beach altogether. They've gone inland, among the hills. They're no longer in sight."

"Good!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Terence, raising his head over the ridge, as did also the others.

"Och! good yez may well say, Masther Terence. Jist look what fools we've been all four av us! We never thought av the thracks, nayther wan nor other av us."

As Bill spoke he pointed down towards the beach, in the direction in which he had made his late crawling excursion. There, distinctly traceable in the half-wet sand, were the marks he had made both going and returning, as if a huge tortoise or crocodile had been dragging itself over the ground.

The truth of his words was apparent to all. It was chance, and not their cunning, that had saved them from discovery. Had the owner of the camel but continued another hundred yards along the beach, he could not have failed to see the double "trail" made by the sailor; and of course would have followed it to the spot where they were hidden. As it was, the two mounted men had not come near enough to note the sign made by the old salt in his laborious flounderings; and perhaps fancying they had followed the strand far enough, they had struck off into the interior, through the opening of the sand-hills, in the belief that the she-camel might have done the same.

Whatever may have been their reason, they were now gone out of sight, and the long stretch of desert sh.o.r.e was once more under the eyes of our adventurers, unrelieved by the appearance of anything that might be called a living creature.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN.

THE "DESERT SHIP."

Though there was now nothing within sight between them, they did not think it prudent to move out of the gorge, nor even to raise their heads above the level of the sand-wreath. They did so only at intervals, to a.s.sure themselves that the "coast was clear"; and satisfied on this score, they would lower their heads again, and remain in this att.i.tude of concealment.

One with but slight knowledge of the circ.u.mstances, or with the country in which they were, might consider them over-cautious in acting thus, and might fancy that in their forlorn, shipwrecked condition they should have been but too glad to meet men.

On the contrary, a creature of their own shape was the last thing they desired either to see or encounter; and for reasons already given in their conversation, they could meet no men there who would not be their enemies, worse than that, their tyrants, perhaps their torturers. Old Bill was sure of this from what he had heard. So were Colin and Harry from what they had read. Terence alone was incredulous as to the cruelty of which the sailor had given such a graphic picture.

Terence, however rash he was by nature, allowed himself to be overruled by his more prudent companions; and therefore, up to the hour when the twilight began to empurple the sea, no movement towards stirring from their place of concealment was made by any of the party.

The patient camel shared their silent retreat; though they had taken precautions against its straying from them, had it felt so inclined, by tying its shanks securely together. Towards evening the animal was again milked, in the same fashion as in the morning; and, reinvigorated by its bountiful yield, our adventurers prepared to depart from a spot of which, notwithstanding the friendly concealment it had afforded them, they were all heartily tired.

Their preparations were easily made, and occupied scarce ten seconds of time. It was only to untether the camel and take to the road, or, as Harry jocosely termed it, "unmoor the desert ship and begin their voyage."

Just as the last gleam of daylight forsook the white crests of the sand-hills, and went flickering afar over the blue waters of the ocean, they stole forth from their hiding-place, and started upon a journey of which they knew neither the length nor the ending.

Even of the direction of that undetermined journey they had but a vague conception. They believed that the coast trended northward and southward, and that one of these points was the proper one to head for.

It was almost "heads or tails" which of them they should take, and had they been better acquainted with their true situation, it might as well have been determined by a toss up, for any chance they had of ever arriving at a civilised settlement. But they knew not that. They had a belief, the old sailor stronger than the rest, that there were Portuguese forts along the coast, chiefly to the southward, and that by keeping along sh.o.r.e they might reach one of these. There were such establishments it is true--still are; and though at that time there were some nearer to the point where their ship had been wrecked, none were near enough to be reached by the starving castaway, however perseveringly he might travel towards them.

Ignorant of the impracticability of their attempt, our adventurers entered upon it with a spirit worthy of success--worthy of the country from which they had come.

For some time the maherry was led in hand, Old Bill being its conductor.

All four had been well rested during the day; and none of them cared to ride.

As the tide, however, was now beginning to creep up into the sandy inlets, to avoid walking in water, they were compelled to keep well high up on the beach; and this forced them to make their way through the soft yielding sand--a course that required considerable exertion.

One after another now began to feel fatigue, and talk about it as well; and then the proposal was made that the maherry, who stepped over the unsure surface with as much apparent lightness as a cat would have done, should be made to carry at least one of the party. They could ride in turns, which would give each of them an opportunity of resting.

No sooner was the proposition made than it was carried into execution; Terence, who had been the one to advance it, being hoisted up to the hump of the camel.

But though the young O'Connor had been accustomed the saddle from childhood, and had ridden "across country" on many an occasion, it was not long before he became dissatisfied with the saddle of a maherry.

The rocking, and jolting, and "pitching" as our adventurers termed it, from larboard to starboard, fore and aft, and alow and aloft, soon caused Terence to sing out "belay"; and he descended into the soft sand with a much greater desire for walking than the moment before he had had for riding.

Harry Blount took his place; but although the young Englishman had been equally accustomed to a hunting saddle, he found that his experience went but a little way towards making him easy on the hump of a maherry; and he was soon in the mood for dismounting.

The son of Scotia next climbed upon the back of the camel. Whether it was that natural pride of prowess which oft impels his countrymen to perseverance and daring deeds--whether it was that, or whether it arose from a sterner power of endurance, certain it is that Colin kept his seat longer than either of his predecessors.

But even Scotch sinews could not hold out against such a tension, such a bursting and wrenching and tossing, and it ended by Colin declaring that upon the whole he would prefer making the journey upon "Shanks's mare."

Saying this he slid down from the shoulders of the ungainly animal, resigning the creature once more to the conduct of Old Bill, who had still kept hold of the halter.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN.

HOMEWARD BOUND.

The experience of his young companions might have deterred the sailor from imitating their example; more especially as Bill, according to his own statement, had never been "aboard" a saddle in his life. But they did not, and for special reasons. Awkward as the old salt might feel in a saddle, he felt not less awkward afoot. That is ash.o.r.e--on terra firma.

Place him on the deck of a ship, or in the rigging of one, and no man in all England's navy could have been more secure as to his footing, or more difficult to dispossess of it; but set Sailor Bill upon sh.o.r.e, and expect him to go ahead, you would be disappointed; you might as well expect a fish to make progress on land; and you would witness a species of locomotion more resembling that of a manatee or a seal than of a human biped. As the old man-o'-war's-man had now been floundering for a mile through the soft sh.o.r.e-sand, he was thoroughly convinced that any mode of progression must be preferable to that; and as soon as the young Scotchman descended from his seat he climbed into it. He had not much climbing to do, for the well-trained maherry, when any one wished to mount him, at once knelt down, making the ascent to his "summits" as easy as possible.