CHAPTER V
The Sandstorm
As Arthur Reeves had predicted, the captives were now better treatedby their Arab masters. The camel's rope was cut off, although theiron chains still secured their wrists; and when the camp was struck,and the march southwards was resumed, they were allowed to take turnsat riding upon one of the baggage camels.
The two tribes parted peaceably at the oasis, with many shouts offarewell and firing of guns; but there was no doubt that had thefollowers of the Sheikh Abdullah been the more numerous, thedisappointed bargainer would not have hesitated to take the desiredKafir from the Sheikh Wadherim's possession by force.
True to his vow, the latter reached El Keifa ere morning. This stageof the journey was not so tedious as the first day's, the distancebeing shorter, while there were two small intervening oases wherehalts were made under the light of the stars.
Here the Arabs rested for the following day, for the next stage,crossing a waterless tract of desert, where the only guide posts werethe bleached bones of camels that had fallen out by the way, requiredat least forty hours to complete.
Just after sunset the laborious task commenced. The three captiveshad each been provided with a dirty, ragged _burnous_, which duringthe heat of the day protected not only the head but also the back.Already the upper parts of their bodies were getting accustomed tothe sun. At first the skin burned a vivid red, but it soon acquired adeep bronze tint. Well it was that the captives at this stage wereunable to make use of water for washing purposes, or their fleshwould have been raw with the effect of the fierce heat.
Throughout the long night the march continued, and long beforemorning the lads, in spite of having a camel to ride betweenthem--for Reeves firmly refused to avail himself of the animal--werealmost crippled. Even the slow, measured, ungainly gait of the shipof the desert caused their bones to ache, till the alternate restsseemed to try them far more than tramping through the sand.
During the day the terrors of the march were intensified. Even someof the Arabs--hardy sons of the desert--had to fall out, although inevery case a camel-man would chivalrously give up his beast to thesufferer and trudge patiently on foot. Many of the camels also sankupon the burning sand, never again to rise, while in the rear of thecolumn gaunt vultures hovered in dreadful expectancy of a feast. Thesheep and cattle, too, died in large quantities, till the SheikhWadherim began to think that he would arrive at his journey's end farpoorer than when he set out for the seacoast to enrich himself withthe spoils of the Kafir invaders. Strangely enough, the horses cameoff best. They were thoroughly seasoned, and could stand thehardships of a day's journey better than the camels, although had thedistance been greater the conditions would have been reversed.
Before the sun was low in the heavens, the camel that the lads hadbeen provided with was taken to assist a helpless Arab, and theEnglishmen had perforce to complete the journey afoot--if they could.Mile after mile they trudged despairingly, without the heart to speaka word. To them there seemed no end to their trials. Ahead was thegently undulating desert, with its gruesome monuments of sun-bleachedbones, but nothing to indicate the oasis for which the caravan wasmaking.
Suddenly a warning shout came from the head of the column. Men beganto dismount from their lofty steeds, and to run towards the baggageanimals and the camels on which the women and children were seated.Others, with frantic cries, urged the already quivering animals totheir knees.
"Cover your faces, boys!" gasped the correspondent, as he led them tothe side of a prostrate hierie. "It's a sandstorm!"
The lads had barely time to grasp the situation. The air around them,almost motionless, was hot and oppressive; but less than threehundred yards away, and momentarily drawing nearer, was a dark-brownpillar of sand, trailing away into a seething, ill-defined cloud.
Already the Arabs, drawing their _haiks_ over their faces, werekneeling beside their steeds. The deathly silence was broken only bythe startled cries of some of the younger children and theever-increasing hiss of the wind.
Then the sandstorm burst. If one has ever had the experience ofstanding in the midst of a continuous shower of spray, and gaspingsalt-laden air into the lungs, the sensation can be faintlyrealized--only instead of spray it was sand-laden, burning,suffocating vapour.
For just half a minute the lads stood the terrible ordeal; then, intheir desperation, they rose to their feet, only to be forced to theground by the strong grasp of Arthur Reeves. There they lay, gaspinglike stranded fishes, for a space of nearly five minutes, till thecorrespondent's detaining grip was relaxed.
When the mist cleared from before their throbbing, blood-shot eyes, astrange sight met their gaze.
Some of the horses, half-buried in sand, were plunging wildly andsnorting with terror.
Those of the Arabs who had managed to extricate themselves from thehot sand were endeavouring to release their less-fortunate comrades;while the half-buried camels remained in a kneeling position, withtheir long-lashed eyelids drooping over their large dark eyes, as ifabsolutely indifferent to the peril they had undergone.
Fortunately the storm had been of comparatively short duration, andthe loss of life was in consequence confined to the cattle andhorses. Some of the latter, in their terror, had fled wildly from thehot blast, and, being overtaken by it, had perished miserably, a fewhummocks of drifted sand marking the places where they fell.
Ere the march could be resumed, a prolonged halt was called, and afairly liberal amount of water given to men and cattle. Much of thebaggage had to be abandoned, for want of sufficient means oftransport.
At length the wearied men arrived at the oasis of El Tebat, where twomore days were spent ere the march was resumed. Thence, after thirtydays, following a widely-spaced chain of oases, the Sheikh Wadherimbrought his tribe back to their native haunts of Wadi Tlat. With hismen, and their wives and families, flocks, herds, and otherpossessions, he had journeyed to the sea in the belief that thefollowers of Mohammed would gain an easy victory over theunbelievers, and, rich in booty, would live at their ease in thefertile oases by the coast till the call of the desert would onceagain have to be obeyed. If his faith in the Prophet had been rudelyshaken, the sheikh gave no sign of his bad fortune.
Wadi Tlat, situated on the southern border of the great Plateau ofAhaggar, was the name given by the Tlat River to the surroundingvalley. The country, though rugged, abounded with coarse herbage, andnearly ten thousand nomads found means of subsistence in the districtwatered by the river and two of its tributaries.
What lay to the southward of the plateau none of the Arabs knew. Tothem it was a broad, trackless desert, peopled by the jinns orspirits of an evil world; and although the Tlat--usually little morethan a series of shallow pools, connected at certain points of theriver by a narrow stream fed by a lake up in the mountains--flowed ina south-westerly direction, none of the Arabs had the courage tofollow its course beyond Bab-el-Jinn--the Gate of Evil Spirits--twobleak and massive rocks standing like giant pinnacles in the middleof a narrow gorge.
Here, at Wadi Tlat, full six hundred miles from the sea, ArthurReeves, Hugh, and Gerald entered into a new phase of their captivity,far beyond the help of any European influence, and doomed,apparently, to lifelong slavery!