Not one second too soon had they succeeded in making good their entry
into this subaqueous asylum. Scarce had their chins come in contact
with the water, when the voices of men, accompanied by the baying of
dogs, the snorting of maherries, and the neighing of horses, were heard
with the gorge from which they had just issued; and in a few minutes
after, a straggling crowd, composed of these various creatures, came
rushing out of the ravine. Of men, afoot and on horseback, twenty or
more were seen pouring forth; all, apparently, in hot haste, as if eager
to be in at the death of some object pursued, that could not possibly
escape capture.
Once outside the jaws of the gully, the irregular cavalcade advanced
scattering by over the plain. Only for a short distance, however; for,
as if by a common understanding, rather than in obedience to any
command, all came to a halt.
A silence followed this halt, apparently proceeding from astonishment.
It was general, it might be said universal, for even the animals
appeared to partake of it. At all events, some seconds transpired,
during which the only sound heard was the sighing of the sea, and the
only motion to be observed was the sinking and swelling of the waves.
The Saaran rovers on foot, as well as those that were mounted, their
horses, dogs, and camels, as they stood upon that smooth plain, seemed
to have been suddenly transformed into stone, and set like so many
sphinxes in the sand.
In truth it was surprise that had so transfixed them, the men, at least;
and their well-trained animals were only acting in obedience to a habit
taught them by their masters, who, in pursuit of their predatory life,
can cause these creatures to be both silent and still, whenever the
occasion requires it.
For their surprise, which this exhibition of it proved to be extreme,
the sons of the desert had sufficient reason. They had seen three
midshipmen on the crest of the sand-ridge; had even noted the peculiar
garb that bedecked their bodies, all this beyond doubt. Notwithstanding
the haste with which they had entered on the pursuit, they had not
continued it either in a reckless or improvident manner. Skilled in the
ways of the wilderness, cautious as cats, they had continued the chase;
those in the lead from time to time assuring themselves that the game
was still before them. This they had done by glancing occasionally to
the ground, where shoe tracks in the soft sand, three sets of them,
leading to and fro, were sufficient evidence that the three mids must
have gone back to the embouchure of the ravine; and thither emerged upon
the open sea-beach.
Where were they now?
Looking up the smooth strand, as far as the eye could reach, and down it
to a like distance, there was no place where a crab could have screened
itself; and these Saaran wreckers, well acquainted with the coast, knew
that in neither direction was there any other ravine or gully into which
the fugitives could have retreated.
No wonder then that the pursuers wondered, even to speechlessness.
Their silence was of short duration, though it was succeeded only by
cries expressing their great surprise, among which might have been
distinguished their usual invocations to Allah and the Prophet. It was
evident that a superstitious feeling had arisen in their minds, not
without its usual accompaniment of fear; and although they no longer
kept their places, the movement now observable among them was that they
gathered closer together, and appeared to enter upon a grave
consultation.
This was terminated by some of them once more proceeding to the
embouchure of the ravine, and betaking themselves to a fresh scrutiny of
the tracks made by the shoes of the midshipmen; while the rest sate
silently upon their horses and maherries, awaiting the result.
The footmarks of the three mids were still easily traceable, even on the
ground already trampled by the Arabs, their horses, and maherries. The
"cloots" of a camel would not have been more conspicuous in the mud of
an English road, than were the shoe-prints of the three young seamen in
the sands of the Saara. The Arab trackers had no difficulty in making
them out; and in a few minutes had traced them from the mouth of the
gorge almost in a direct line to the sea. There, however, there was a
breadth of wet sea-beach, where the springy sand instantly obliterated
any foot-mark that might be made upon it, and there the tracks ended.
But why should they have extended farther? No one could have gone
beyond that point, without either walking straight into the water, or
keeping along the strip of sea-beach, upwards or downwards.
The fugitives could not have escaped in either way, unless they had
taken to the water and committed suicide by drowning themselves. Up the
coast or down it they would have been seen to a certainty.
Their pursuers, clustering around the place where the tracks terminated,
were no wiser than ever. Some of them were ready to believe that
drowning had been the fate of the castaways upon their coast, and so
stated it to their companions. But they spoke only conjectures, and in
tones that told them, like the rest, to be under the influence of some
superstitious fear. Despite their confidence in the protection of their
boasted Prophet, they felt a natural dread of that wilderness of waters,
less known to them than the wilderness of sand.
Ere long they withdrew from its presence; and betook themselves back to
their encampment, under a half belief that the three individuals seen
and pursued had either drowned themselves in the great deep, or by some
mysterious means known to these strange men of the sea, had escaped
across its far-reaching waters.