"Come," the foppish interpreter said, "this is not a time for idling."
Ali and Mimico walked silently to the lowered hatch through which the
camels were brought on board and took their places in the boat that was
moored against it. The device employed to bring camels from shore to
ship, Ali felt, was another startling example of American ingenuity.
Twenty feet long by seven wide, the boat used as a ferry was fitted with
a hinged door at each end. A wheeled truck, sturdy enough to support the
biggest camel, could be pushed through either door and secured in such a
manner that it neither moved nor unbalanced the ferry.
Of very shallow draft, the oarsmen had no difficulty in running the
ferry up on any beach. Then the hinged door was lowered and the truck
run out. A camel was led onto the truck, made to kneel and strapped in
place. The truck was pushed back onto the ferry, the door was raised,
and the launching accomplished. Reaching the _Supply_, the door on the
opposite end was lowered and the ferry brought squarely against the
lowered hatch. Then it was necessary only to push the truck and its
helpless passenger onto the deck of the _Supply_ and into the stable.
Ali, who thought he knew all the methods of moving camels, had to admit
that he'd never even heard of this one.
Mimico, who had a fine touch with camels, brought the next passenger. It
was a great Bactrian, or two-humped male. As it was led onto the truck,
made to kneel and strapped in place, Ali wondered. Bactrians were
enormous beasts, some weighing a ton or more, and this was an especially
fine specimen. There was no doubting the strength of a two-humped camel,
but caravan trails were usually long ones. Often, what with delivering
one cargo at one point, picking up another for a different destination,
and there getting still another, a year or more might elapse before a
train of camels finally returned to the home from which they had set
out. Such wandering was certain to be attended by conditions that varied
from lush browse and ample water to scant forage and near drought. A
camel's hump changed accordingly, so that often nothing except the very
skilful application of pads made it possible to keep a firm saddle on a
beast with only one hump. Naturally, a beast with two humps could be
twice the trouble. In addition, Ali thought, Bactrians were less hardy.
Under the skilful direction of Ali and Mimico, all the camels except Ben
Akbar were finally loaded. On the final trip, Mimico leaped out as soon
as the ferry was beached and went to bring Ali's _dalul_.
Ali waited, saying nothing. The more they were together, the better he
liked Mimico, who handled camels with consummate skill and never used
words when deeds were in order. Ali waited now to find if his judgment
was sound. If Mimico passed what Ben Akbar considered a respectful
distance, the _dalul_ would show his resentment. If Mimico was the camel
man he seemed to be, he would recognize Ben Akbar for what he was and
halt before he was dangerously near.
Before Ben Akbar lunged, Mimico halted, turned and beckoned. Ali strode
forward to lead his _dalul_ to the ferry.
* * * * *
All sails spread to a stiff and favorable wind, the _Supply_ skimmed
along at a fast eight knots an hour. Leaning against an outside wall of
the camel stable, beside the porthole near which Ben Akbar was tethered,
and through which he was thrusting his nose, Ali kept anxious eyes on
the horizon where land should appear.
Since that day when the _Supply_ had sliced into the Mediterranean and
the haze-shrouded coast of Turkey had slipped always farther behind and
then disappeared, almost three full months had come and gone. By no
means had they passed swiftly.
One furious storm followed another while the _Supply_ pursued her course
in the Mediterranean. Much of the time it had been necessary to strap
the camels in place, to keep them from being tumbled about as the ship
listed one way or another. It had been impossible to prevent all injury,
but only three of the forty-four camels had died.
Two of them were Bactrians, the only two-humped camels in the present
cargo. This gave additional support for Ali's theory that they were less
hardy than their Arabian cousins. He did not draw any positive
conclusions because Lieutenant Porter disagreed with him, saying that
species had nothing to do with it and the two Bactrians merely happened
to be less hardy individuals. Ali offered no argument because of an ever
increasing respect for Lieutenant Porter's knowledge and wisdom.
In part, Ali was influenced by the fact that Porter was the only man on
board besides Ali himself who had succeeded in winning Ben Akbar's
friendship. But more than that was involved.
As the _Supply_ lay at anchor off the Turkish coast, it was evident that
Lieutenant Porter was not an authority on camels. But in sharp contrast
with some men Ali had known, the American had proven himself both
willing and eager to learn, and he included the eight native camel
drivers among his teachers. But from the first, to Ali's vast
astonishment and then to his boundless delight, Porter did not find it
necessary to base his behavior upon that pursued by haughty sheiks and
amirs who conversed with camel drivers.
Nobody on the _Supply_ ever forgot that Lieutenant Porter was in
command, but nobody ever had reason to feel that the officer considered
them inferior. Ali nursed a happy conviction that America must be a
wonderful land indeed if many Americans were like the skipper of the
_Supply_.
A little distance from Ali, Mimico was also leaning against the camel
stable and waiting for the first sight of land. The pair had become
friends during the voyage, but, after so many days at sea, neither Ali
nor Mimico wanted to do anything except look at some land.
Presently Ali saw it, the sea rolling up on a flat and treeless shore
and the waves falling back. Then it disappeared, a tantalizing vision
that first enticed and then crushed. But it came again and did not
disappear. Ali's eager eyes drank in as much as possible of this first
look at America.
The shore was flat and treeless, but not by any means was it deserted. A
great crowd of people, everything from officials come to receive the
camels to the curious who wanted only to look, awaited. There was a
wooden pier and a group of buildings that comprised the town of
Indianola, Texas.
A lighter that had been lingering at the pier was now making toward
them. The ship met the _Supply_ and drew alongside. A camel was brought
from its stall and a harness was strapped about and beneath it. A cable
dangling from the lighter's boom was attached to the harness and the
kicking, frightened camel was transferred from the _Supply_ to the
lighter.
Lieutenant Porter gestured to Ali and Mimico, ordering, "Go aboard the
lighter and help out."
The pair entered a small boat that took them to the lighter, where they
received all the camels as they came. With gentle touch and soothing
voices, they calmed the frightened animals and averted what might have
become a catastrophe.
Busy with the camels, Ali had time for only the briefest of shoreward
glances. His first close-up impression of America was a restricted
one--a small section of the pier which they were approaching. Standing
on it were two horses, hitched to a light wagon. A red-faced, red-haired
man who had come to see the unloading occupied the wagon seat and held
the horses' reins.
There was no time for a prolonged scrutiny; the camels must be put
ashore as soon as possible. Mimico climbed from the lighter to the pier
and made ready to receive them. Ali strapped the harness about the first
camel to be unloaded. The boom lifted it.
Then the horses screamed, the red-faced man roared, and a full scale
upheaval was in progress!