King of the Air Part 16

"Too late!" said Tom with a chuckle. "He might escape us if we were on his level, but he forgets we can look right down upon him."

"It's like a field-mouse trying to escape from a hawk," said Oliphant.

"Rather worse, for a field-mouse has its colour to help it, while Salathiel's blue coat makes him a little too conspicuous."

For a few moments the Jew, indeed, disappeared from view; but Tom steered the airship exactly above the spot where he was last seen, and there was Salathiel crouching in a cleft much too narrow for him.

There was no convenient landing-place among the rocks where the airship could be brought safely to rest, and the Jew, apparently recognizing this, did not attempt to stir from his position. But the vessel came to rest in the air, hovering like a monstrous humming-bird above the trembling man, no more than twenty feet from the ground.

"How shall we get at him?" asked Oliphant.

"We can leave that to Abdul, I think," replied Tom. "He is used to ship-board, and he has been on the end of our rope before."

Abdul understood what was required of him. Letting down the rope with the grapnel at the end, he swarmed nimbly down, armed only with his knife. The two in the car smiled to see what ensued. Salathiel was unarmed. He broke forth in a torrent of mingled threats and entreaties as the Moor approached him, then lay on his back and tried to repel the lad with his feet. But Abdul got behind him, and by discreet employment of the point of his knife at length persuaded the Jew into the open.

Then Tom let the airship gently down. When it stood upon terra firma, he and Oliphant leapt out of the car, bundled Salathiel into it, and in another minute were soaring through the air towards their former resting-place on the hill. With Salathiel's added weight the airship travelled somewhat slowly, and for some time, when a breeze rose from the eastward, it had considerable difficulty in making headway at all.

But at last the flat-topped hill was opened up on the horizon, Tom estimating that the return journey had taken more than twice as long as the outward trip in the morning.

CHAPTER X-THE KASBAH

Instead of alighting on the former spot on the top of the hill, Tom this time let the airship down at the foot.

"We haven't darkness to cover us this time," he said, "and we don't want to be spied from the village."

"What are you going to do with our fat friend?" asked Oliphant.

"Well, I thought of taking him some miles into the wilder parts of the hills and leaving him; but I don't want to use any more of our fuel than I can help. Besides, I don't want to have the fellow murdered, though his Moor friend might have done for poor Timothy. What do you say to giving him a lodging in one of the caves?"

"But how in the world could we get him up there?"

"Abdul says it can be done. I forgot to tell you that on our way to Ain Afroo that night I told Abdul of our discovery, and he said he knew the caves well, and had often climbed into them. The tradition of the country is that they were actually cut in the rocks ages ago as a refuge when the people were pressed by their enemies."

"Well, it's a capital idea if it can be managed. The Jew would be out of harm's way, at any rate."

"Yes. And if we succeed in releasing Ingleton, we can come back for him, perhaps, and take him into Rabat or Casa Blanca, and make him disgorge some of Abdul's property, which I've no doubt he has appropriated."

"But won't he starve? We can't spare him any food."

"A day's fasting won't hurt him. We're on uncommonly short rations ourselves, and there's no reason why he should fare better than we."

"But can we get him up? He's a big fellow,"

"We'll do our best with Abdul's help. One of the caves is more easy to get at than the others, Abdul says."

"By Jove, we've forgotten that fellow who got away!"

"Hang it, so we have. It can't be helped. We clearly can't catch him now without showing ourselves to the people of Ain Afroo. Perhaps he didn't make for the village after all. We must dispose of Salathiel, at any rate."

Tom and Oliphant had been talking apart, while Abdul kept watch over the Jew. The former now went up to the man.

"Mr. Salathiel," he said. "I don't exactly know what your game is, but we think it's advisable you should have a little rest after your arduous work with the mule. There's a very comfortable cave some eighty feet above your head. The way to it is rather steep, but with our a.s.sistance you can mount there, and remain in perfect safety until we can fetch you and restore you to your friends."

"I protest you treat me badly," said Salathiel, his mien expressing mingled fear and indignation. "I am a peaceable merchant, and was on my way to treat with the sheikh of Ain Afroo for a supply of carpets from Rabat, when--"

"Still, you must be fatigued," said Tom. "We also have business with the sheikh, and I fear that until ours is completed yours must wait. Ours is a prior engagement, Mr. Salathiel. Now if you will please climb the hillside. The first steps are easy; we will help you when you find further ascent difficult."

For some moments the Jew tried entreaty, cajolery, even bribery-in vain.

With a very bad grace he began to clamber up the rocks, reaching at length a ledge some twenty-five feet below the cave. The hill was here almost perpendicular, and when Salathiel looked at the wall of rock above him he pleaded again with great volubility to be allowed to go his way. But Abdul was already swarming up with a rope between his teeth.

The Englishmen watched him with admiration. Sticking fingers and toes into the slightest crevice, taking advantage of every little irregularity in the surface, he accomplished what had seemed from below an impossible feat. When he reached the cave, he tied one end of the rope to a spur of rock at the entrance, and let down the other to Oliphant, who by its a.s.sistance managed to follow. Salathiel for a time absolutely refused to mount; but when Tom pointed out that in the cave he would at least be safe, while no one could answer for what might happen if he wandered about the country alone, he at length allowed the rope to be wound about him, and was hauled up by the two above. He was supplied with a pot of water from the hill stream and a half-dozen biscuits, then Oliphant descended, followed by Abdul with the rope.

"I don't think he'll attempt the descent," said Tom. "It requires more nerve than I fancy he's got."

"It doesn't matter much if he does, does it? He won't try it while we are hereabout. He'll hardly try it in the dark when we are gone; and if he does, and gets safely to the bottom, he'll take so long finding his way to the village that we shall have done our business there-if we're going to do it at all."

"Still, I think we'll make sure. There are one or two bits of rock sticking out that give a slight foothold; Abdul may as well knock them off. He won't want them himself when we come back to release the Jew."

"Suppose we don't come back!"

"You mean, suppose we come to grief ourselves! Well, he'll be able to signal for help from the mouth of the cave to-morrow; some of his cronies are sure to wonder what's become of him and be prowling about.

It won't matter to us then, for we shall have either succeeded or failed."

"Suppose we can't come back, and n.o.body sees his signals!"

"That's his lookout! Didn't we rescue him from the shark, which would have snapped him up when the tide rose another few inches? How has he repaid us? By trying to do for us. And it isn't as if he were a Moor, serving his country. He hasn't an ounce of patriotism in his composition. He's simply on the make. He wanted to get a good haul out of the sheikh for giving us away, and upon my word, considering all things, I think he gets off pretty easily. If he'd treated Moors as he has treated us, he'd be dying a particularly slow death by this time. I don't think we need distress ourselves about Salathiel ben Ezra."

Leaving the Jew to his solitary reflections, the two made their way back to the airship and began to overhaul the machinery. Meanwhile Abdul had gone to the summit of the hill to bring down one or two things which had been left there. He returned with the news that he had seen in the far distance a single horseman slowly climbing the steep hill-path to the village.

"That's our man, depend upon it," said Oliphant. "He'll give us away, Dorrell, as sure as fate."

"What can't be cured must be endured. We could catch him, I dare say; but we haven't any too much fodder for the engine, and we should certainly be seen. He must tell the sheikh all he knows, and, upon my word, I should like to hear his account of us. It would probably be very funny."

"But it will put the sheikh on his guard."

"My dear fellow, you haven't enough faith in the terrors of the unknown, or the misknown. The Moor's story will be such a ma.s.s of exaggeration, ignorance, and superst.i.tion, that they'll be in a state of jumps, and dread the apparition ten times more even than if it came upon them without preparation."

"Then why go to the trouble of preventing the Jew from getting into the village?"

"Just because he _knows_ the thing, you see, and would stick to the bare truth. His story would lay more stress on the object of our visit; the Moor's will be mainly about the airship. Really, he may help us in the end."

They spent the afternoon in a thorough cleaning of the engines. Once or twice Salathiel showed himself at the mouth of the cave, and Tom fancied he saw him attempt to signal with his hands. But when Oliphant made a movement towards his carbine, the Jew retreated hastily into the interior and appeared no more.

At last all was ready for the voyage. But several hours must yet pa.s.s before the ascent could be made. Tom had decided that it would be unwise to arrive at the kasbah until the Moors were either in their first sleep, or, if on their guard, were somewhat tired and nervous with watching. Learning this, Abdul, who had been making observations during the afternoon, left the two Englishmen and was not seen for a time. When he returned, he carried a couple of hares, explaining that he had snared them in the wood that lay half a mile beyond their resting-place. He produced also from the folds of his garment a number of figs and dates which he had plucked from the trees.

"Here's a tuck-in!" cried Tom. "I'm as hungry as a hunter. Oatmeal biscuits are all very well, but they're a trifle too chippy for my taste. I suppose you, as a Scotsman, think 'em quite succulent, Oliphant?"