*CHAPTER XI*
*THE AIR-KING'S TRIBUTE*
Far down below, the Arab sheik and his party, ambushed amid the wavingpalms of the oasis, had watched with keen and eager eyes this thrillingencounter in the heavens between the phantom-bird and the greatleviathan. To them it seemed impossible that the aeroplane, sometimesdiminished by distance to a tiny speck, could overcome the mightyairship.
As the fight continued, and they heard the rat-tat-tat of themachine-gun, sometimes their doubts and fears overcame them, and manywere the cries that went up to Allah the Compassionate, the Faithful,etc. But when they saw that at last the great white sheik had won andthe disabled liner was slowly coming lower and lower, their pent-upfeelings gave place to wild excitement, and shouts of,
"Allah be praised! The bird of destiny has won! The great white chiefhas triumphed!" while others, more practical, and also more piratical,exclaimed: "Allah is sending down the treasures of heavens into the lapof the faithful. Praise be to Allah and to Mohammed his Prophet!"
It was with some difficulty that Max restrained these wild men fromdashing out in their frenzy to capture and loot the huge, lowering massthat now loomed but a little way above them. He began to fear that theywould not wait for the pre-arranged signal, and he urged the Arab sheikto restrain them, and to repeat the orders that the occupants of theairship must not be touched.
Nearer and nearer came the huge mass, steering badly and veering roundin attempting to gain the lee-side of the trees, lest she should betotally wrecked in the mooring. Two hundred feet of cable suddenlydropped from her bow, and, when it touched the ground, Max gave thesignal, and with a wild shout these fierce Bedouin horsemen suddenlybroke from cover, and galloped into the open.
"Ye saints!" gasped the Indian judge, when he beheld this wildtournament of galloping horsemen, brandishing their rifles and longspears. "Are we to be eaten alive?" Less than an hour ago he hadexpressed a pious wish to visit this peaceful garden in the desert; now,it was too near to be pleasant.
"All hands to the cable!" shouted Max in Arabic, and very quickly bothhorses and men were struggling with the stout hawser.
"This way," shouted the Gotha pilot. "Take it round and round thesethree trees; they should stand the strain unless the wind getsstronger," and selecting a small group of trees on the leeward side ofthe grove, he very quickly had the cable made fast in such a way thatthe leviathan of seven hundred feet in length swung easily head to wind,like a ship riding at anchor and swinging with the tide.
Then the tribesmen, kept well in hand, surrounded the prize, keepingsome thirty paces distant, for they had not yet quite overcome theirfears. Never before had such a thing been seen resting on the yellowsands of the Hamadian Desert.
As the gondolas of the _Empress of India_ came to rest quietly on theground, the _Scorpion_ descended in a rapid spiral, touched the sandslightly and taxied up to the fringe of trees.
Then, to the utter amazement of the occupants of the dirigible, some ofwhom were already descending from the gondolas, a couple of men, wearingthe loose flowing robe of the desert, including that distinctive mark ofthe Mohammedan world, the fez, leapt from the machine and approached theairship.
"Snakes alive!" ejaculated the colonel; "but what have we here?" hiseyes fixed upon the two men.
"Some person of note, evidently," remarked his friend the judge, as hesaw the foremost of these individuals mount a richly caparisoned horsewhich was held in readiness for him, and approach in a dignified andalmost royal manner.
"This king of the desert is evidently some European renegade who ischallenging the right of other nations to cross his domain without hispermission," said the soldier.
"He is some daring pilot, at any rate," replied the justiciary.
"I wonder now what he intends to do with us," observed the other.
"Why, he intends to plunder us, of course," replied his companion."What else could be his motive?"
The captives were not long to be left in doubt as to the proceedings ofthis daring freebooter. Raising the megaphone which he had used in theair so effectively, he shouted in perfectly good English:--
"Abandon airship!"
And to make this order immediately effective, the desert king orderedMax to see that every member of the great liner, passengers and crew,were immediately assembled before him. The navigating officer and thecaptain were the last to leave the vessel; they did so unwillingly, andnot without a measure of compulsion at the point of a revolver. Theskipper's looks as he fixed them upon this desert freebooter astride thefiery steed, conveyed to the brigand much more than mere words couldhave expressed.
Fixing him with his keen, malicious eyes, the pirate said: "Are you thecaptain of this vessel?"
"I am," replied the skipper in surly tones.
"Show me your bill of lading."
"Bill of lading?" echoed the captive. "You must hunt for it if you wantit."
The self-styled king of the desert frowned. He knew that he was upagainst an English skipper, and that he must adopt other measures togain his end. Without lifting his gaze from the commander of theair-liner, or flinching a muscle, he replied firmly, "One word from me,Captain, and your life would be forfeit. You would swing from that treeby one of your own cables."
"I know that, brigand," replied the prisoner. "Get a cable and carryout your threat; the rope that will hang you is not so very far away,either."
"Very well," exclaimed the German. "Then, I need only give the order tothese, my faithful subjects, and the whole of your valuable cargo willbe strewn on the sands, and your airship will be alight. I do notpropose to adopt those measures unless you compel me. I will give youfive minutes to decide." As the pirate uttered these words in a cool,nonchalant manner, he glanced at the European emblem on his wrist, agold, gem-studded wristlet watch with luminous dial.
"I deny your right to interfere with a peaceful trader," blurted out thecaptain, when he saw the full force of the two alternatives which hadbeen offered to him. He was wondering, moreover, how much the brigandknew about the presence of the specie on the vessel.
"You deny my right, do you?" returned the other.
"Yes. Who are you?"
"I am Sultan von Selim, Air-King of the Hamadian Desert. I told youthat once before when I first challenged you in the air."
"Who made you king?" snorted the captain.
There was silence for the space of ten seconds, during which time thebrigand consulted his watch again, then replied:--
"The Allies made me king, particularly you _verdammt_ English when youdrove me from my Fatherland with those impossible peace terms. King Iam, and king I will remain, of all the aerial regions where I choose toabide, until there comes a better man who can beat me in the air. Andyou, Captain, of all men, must know from what you have already seen thatmy powers in that realm are considerable."
The captain, having cooled somewhat after this outburst, had to admit tothis German irreconcilable that there was certainly some truth in hisstatement about being king of the air. Certain things were beginning todawn upon this English captain, and he was now wondering how far itwould be wise to humour the brigand. He added, however, to hisadmission, the following words, "You are only king by might!"
"Ha! ha!" laughed the outlaw, "but that also is some admission. Myposition is precisely that of the British in India or Egypt. Withdrawyour soldiers from these two countries and what becomes of yourgovernment there? So am I King of the Hamadian Desert till a strongerman comes. When that time comes one of us must die. There is no room fortwo kings, even in the desert. Till then I am supreme. But come,captain, four minutes have passed already. Your bill of lading, quicklynow, for we are but wasting time, and these my subjects"--and here thebrigand waved his hand towards the restive Arabs--"or rather I shouldsay my customs' officials, are waiting to examine your cargo, and tolevy the king's tribute."
The captain looked around first upon
his own followers and then upon theimpatient Bedouins--the vultures around the carcase.
"I could have brought your ship down in flames, but I preferred a mildermethod," continued the outlaw, as he watched the seconds of the lastminute being ticked away on his jewelled watch.
"But helium will not burn!" returned the captain smartly. "That wasbeyond your powers."
A mocking, sardonic laugh came from the robber chief as the Englishmanuttered these words.
"Would you like to see it burn?" he almost hissed.
The captain faltered in his reply; he was not quite so decisive as hehad been. Evidently there was some sense of humour, if not much, aboutthis irreconcilable German.
"Here, Carl!" cried the bandit. "Detach one of those nineteenballonettes from the airship."
"Yes, sir," replied the subordinate, stepping up to the king andsaluting smartly.
"Take it away to leeward there, and show this dull Englishman how he maylearn chemistry and science even from inhabitants of the HamadianDesert. Here, take this, you will need it," and the chief handed to hisassistant a small cylindrical tube with which to carry out his orders.
Turning next to the Englishman, he observed, "Know, you dullard, that asmall admixture of a secret gas, which is known only to three livingmen, will make your renowned helium flare like hydrogen. You shall seeit in a short space of time."
"Recall your man, I will take your word for it, Sultan!" exclaimed thecaptain, who now felt that it must be so, for he was already bewilderedby the strange things which he had witnessed that day, and he had nodesire to see this experiment carried out.
"You believe me, then," returned the air-king, who seemed particularlyto relish this interview with the Englishman, especially with this groupof celebrities within earshot, for they had listened eagerly to everyword which he had spoken. And the German knew that though his daysmight be numbered, as indeed he felt they were, yet his fame would begreatly enhanced by the episodes of this day, for vanity was not theleast among his failings.
Once more he glanced at his watch; for the allotted space of time hadnearly run.
"How now, Englishman!" he exclaimed in a harsher tone. "The bill oflading, where is it?"
The chief purser, receiving the captain's nod, at once advanced towardsthe regal horseman, handed him a bundle of papers and said: "Here, sir,is the document you desire."