CHAPTER XII. THE ATTACK ON THE CAMP. El Arabi gets his instructions, and leaves camp-An ominous It is wonderful what a difference a good night's sleep camp. · It was something to find them in the same mind for two days running, so I thought it best to agree, with only so much discussion as would make them the more tenacious of their scheme, and by nine o'clock or so El Arabi, having provided himself with wood and tools for any further patching of the boat that might be required, was ready to start. He was instructed to take on board with him as many of the Susi chiefs as he could persuade to accompany him, and leave them on the yacht, as a setoff against Beyerle and myself, and to ask the Major to steam away to Assaka at once, without landing any more rifles or cartridges. As the yacht passed the camp, she was to let out an escape of steam from the pipe, and fly a green flag from the mast-head if all was well. We were then to make preparations to proceed to Assaka, where we would camp in the open for the night, lighting beacon-fires at sunset to show that all was well ashore. If they saw the fires, a boat was to be sent ashore at sunrise, and we would be on the beach to meet it; but in any event Sabbah was to rejoin us the next day-if not at Assaka, at Arksis. Alas for the best-laid schemes! El Arabi left camp with a party of natives, and all through a perfect morning we anxiously watched the yacht, and when, towards eleven o'clock, we saw her draw closer inshore, and a boat creep out to meet her, our hopes began steadily to rise. But I was not quite easy in my mind. There was an ominous quiet pervading the camp, scarcely more than 100 men or so being about the place. I took advantage of this circumstance to take a few snapshots, concealing my purpose from the Susi, as they, like all Mohammedans, have a strong religious objection to being photographed. But I was still puzzling over the depletion of the camp, when I suddenly bethought me of an incident which had occurred two days before, but to which I had not paid much attention at the time. A boat from the Hassani, well manned, and fitted with a sail, had been seen scudding northwards. I had asked the meaning of it at the time, but the explanation of the natives, that the boat was carrying the body of a Moorish soldier who had been shot in the skirmish the day before, for burial ashore, seemed to me rather too thin for acceptance. It now flashed across me like a revelation that her destination was Aglu, or Agadir, or some port whence a message could be sent to the Sultan's troops, to arrange a concerted attack on Arksis by sea and land. By way of a diversion, I made some green tea, and offered hospitality to Muley Abdallah, Hassan the notary-whom I greatly mistrusted, but desired to propitiate and Muley Hamed, a nephew of Muley Abdallah's, who had accompanied him on his travels, and had rendered us several little services in the camp, particularly in the way of foraging. Beyerle and I had by this time acquired considerable fondness for that poisonous and deleterious beverage, and did not require the exigency of Moorish politeness to persuade us to drink our three glasses apiece. It was a Providential inspiration. In the strength of that tea much was to be done that afternoon. Both Shortly after mid-day the yacht was on her way southward, 'full speed ahead,' and when abreast of the camp, a green flag fluttering at the peak, and a little white puff from the steam-pipe, told us that all was well, and soon afterwards a number of men returned to camp, and reported that El Arabi was aboard with nine or ten of the natives. Before Sabbah left, he had arranged with one or two Susi to accompany us to Assaka, and carry our baggage-such as we were taking and one of them came up to me at that time to indicate that he was ready. I went to see how Muley Abdallah and El F'kir Embarak were getting on, as they were both going to accompany us, but found that they had not finished loading their mules. 'Schwei, schwei,' said Muley Abdallah, turning both the palms of his hands upwards with a gesture that only a Moor can make, and in my impatience I cursed them for their sloth and their damnable infatuation for the fatal doctrine of mañana. Every moment I feared that they would say they had changed their minds, and I was hot-foot to be on the move. But what avail were maledictions in an unknown tongue? Whether they ever really meant to take us to Assaka I now shall never know; but if they did, their foolish dallying on that memorable morning cost those two old men, at least, many miserable days in the bitterness of captivity and the gall of fetters, racked by long rides upon the accursed camel, starved and goaded by brutal Moorish soldiery, only to be set free at last by a merciful, but pitiful and wretched, death by the roadside to mark the track of a 'victorious' Sultan's 'taxcollecting.' Beyerle was no whit more patient, I think, than I, and in this fever of unrest an hour went by. Then, on a sudden, several shots rang out from the hills across the plain-one, two, three. Beyerle suggested that some of the natives were trying their new possessions, and, indeed, the reports had not the sound of a flint-lock; but I thought otherwise, though I kept my counsel. Shortly afterwards there were sounds of firing to the northward, and in the valleys that cleft the hills to the eastward, and from the Hassani's boats, which had now come close inshore, there came a hail * By-and-by. of bullets; and then I knew that what I had feared would happen had come at last. Wild confusion followed. One of the Forty,' unarmed, came riding into camp in hot haste, jumped out of the saddle, flinging the reins over the neck of his panting horse, which stood on the instant, and rushed wildly into our tent, shrieking, 'Medva, medva !* and flinging his arms aloft like a raving maniac. Harush had just before then taken away the flint-lock which Sid' Embarak had given to me, and not another weapon of any sort was to be seen. Suddenly his eye lighted on the two cases containing the Major's and Beyerle's sporting rifles, which lay on the ground in the tent, and, like an enraged tiger, he flung himself upon them, and began tearing at the straps, screaming the while at the top of his voice. By signs I tried to show him that the cases were locked, but he continued to claw frantically at the unyielding leather, the picture of baffled rage. Just at that time another man rushed in and made a grab at my portmanteau. Recognising him as the man that Sabbah had chosen to carry my bag to Assaka, I let him have his way. Seizing me by the arm with his other hand, he tried to drag me out of the tent after him, shouting, 'Gomo, gomo !'t I glanced round to see where Beyerle was, but he was not in the tent. I had been so taken up with watching the man's frantic efforts to get a rifle that I had not noticed Beyerle go out. Outside, however, I saw how things were. A large squadron of cavalry, the advance guard of an army, was already on the plateau engaged in a hot skirmish with the tribesmen, and more horsemen were pouring through the defiles in the hills. Running |