Until I had left the ridge it never occurred to me that probably the
advance party of Bedouins would scale the sides of the gap and scatter
along the edge. If they did that they would certainly see us; so it was
necessary to hide much farther away from it and take no such risk.
I whistled softly to Webster, and he came crawling across to me, keeping
well below the sky-line.
"Take your men a hundred yards along the ridge," I told him; "hide among
those rocks there, below the edge, and for Heaven's sake don't show
yourselves, not until the last Arab and the last camel have gone halfway
down the zigzag, and not until you see me move."
"I understand, sir," he answered grimly, and presently I saw him and his
two men scramble to a cluster of detached rocks much farther along.
When they were safely hidden, Jaffa, Griffiths, and myself crawled in
the opposite direction, away from the gap, behind some more boulders.
We shifted about among them until we found a position from which we
could see that gap, and also look down the zigzag path. We were about
one hundred and fifty yards from the gap, and practically on a level
with it. Of course we could see nothing of the approaching horses and
camels, but I trusted to my ears to hear them.
Lying there under these conditions was an extraordinary trial to my
nerves, and I thanked my stars that Webster had come ashore with me that
morning and not Moore. Moore would have made a hopeless muddle of his
job, and could not have controlled his own nerves, let alone those of
his men. As it was, I presently found the strain of waiting and
listening so great that I had to hang on to those rocks, like a maniac,
to prevent my legs making me crawl up to the sky-line, twenty feet above
us, to have one more look at the caravan.
I do not believe that if I lived a thousand years I could be more
excited or "jumpy".
I breathed more freely when I saw the head-man reach the bottom of the
"coffee-cup", gather his villagers together, and disappear with them,
like a lot of white ants, out of sight round that projecting corner of
rock which marked the huge crack or rent giving exit to the path. I
relied upon the old sportsman hurrying down to the village as quickly as
he could, and hoped that in another hour Commander Duckworth would
receive my note. In another forty or fifty minutes afterwards he might
be able to land his men, and in another hour and a half they might reach
the entrance to the "coffee-cup".
Then the fun would begin.
My wrist watch was, of course, still smashed--there had been no chance
of having it repaired--so I could only judge by the height of the sun
that the time was about eleven o'clock. At the earliest the _Intrepids_
could not reach the bottom of the zigzag path for another three hours;
and, if the head-man had been accurate, the head of the caravan would be
at the gap an hour and a half before they arrived.
The only thing that troubled me then was whether the leading Arabs would
have descended it, turned the corner, and sighted the _Intrepid_, and
perhaps the advancing bluejackets, before the rear of the caravan had
passed through the gap and had begun the perilous descent.
Once the rear-guard was below us I felt that we could prevent them
climbing back; but if it should happen that the _Intrepids_ were sighted
and the alarm given when only a part of the caravan had passed us, then
our position would be perilous.
If they searched the ridge before even commencing to send their camels
down I knew that we should be discovered, and in that case there would
be nothing for it except to sell our lives as dearly as possible. But I
did not think they would take the trouble to do this, nor did Jaffa, and
the chief danger lay in the alarm being given before all the camels and
Arabs had passed through the gap.
If this happened, I made up my mind to shoot as many camels as possible,
to prevent the Arabs getting away with all their rifles; and I told
Jaffa that if anything went wrong, I relied upon him and his Mauser
pistol to prevent either Griffiths or myself falling alive into their
hands.
Somehow or other I could rely upon Jaffa, and it was a comfort. Webster
would have to look after himself and his two men; I knew that he would
not fail.
Writing this now, the fact that I really thought this ending possible,
or prepared for it, seems almost unreal. Time has quickly blurred the
remembrance of the extraordinary peril of our position at that time, and
only left vivid recollections of the wonderful feeling of exhilaration
which took hold of us as we lay there feeling almost like wild beasts
waiting for our prey, and listening for the first sound of their
approaching feet.
A large bird appeared above us, circling with motionless wings.
Suddenly he came gliding downwards, disappearing behind the crest.
Looking up again into the burning sky I saw more specks coming from all
directions. Soon there were ten or twelve of the ugly brutes circling
round. So close to us did they come that I could see their heads and
their naked necks stretched towards the ground. They were vultures, and
one by one they slid downwards in huge spirals and disappeared.
Jaffa whispered: "A camel or a horse has dropped; they must be driving
them hard."
He told me that the speed of a camel caravan was about two and a half
miles an hour. As the crow flies, Jeb was probably thirty miles away
from the spot where we lay. It was inside the mark to add another
fifteen for the turns and twists of the track through the mountains and
valleys; this would bring the probable march to forty-five miles, and if
the camels had been pressed forward day and night, as Jaffa imagined
likely, the poor beasts must be very weary.
Jaffa had noticed when he first looked through my glasses at them that
their necks were very straight. He now explained to me that the halter
of one camel is secured to the one next in front, and that, as the
leading camels of a gang were always the best, when the others tire they
tend to be dragged along, and the ropes stretch their necks until they
are almost straight and not curved.
"They were very straight," he said.
This waiting was a tremendous strain. To know that the caravan was
approaching on the other side of that ridge, behind and above us, made
the longing to climb up and look over simply maddening.
To pass the time we made little loopholes between the rocks, through
which we could fire towards the gap and down the zigzag path without
being seen ourselves. Griffiths asked me, under his breath, if he could
smoke his pipe. He asked simply to hear himself speak. He knew that I
would refuse, but it was a comfort for him to whisper and a comfort for
me to whisper back that the blue smoke might show--a fact he knew well
enough.
Then a horrid thought struck me. When we had first reached the gap I
had lighted a cigarette, and the burnt match and the end of the
cigarette must be lying somewhere there still. If either of them were
seen the alarm would be given at once. My whole mind became tortured
with picturing them lying there on the bare stones, and I would have
given anything in the world to be able to crawl across and try to find
them. I did not fear that our tracks would be found: the rocks were
quite bare; what loose stones there were between them would not leave a
foot-mark; but even now, as the scene comes back to me, I remember that
the fear of the burnt match and cigarette end being discovered was
horrible at the time.
Just as the strain became almost unbearable, and the impulse to crawl to
the gap almost more than I could resist--I had actually risen to my
hands and knees--Jaffa gave a low sound, and pressed me down.
Looking through my loophole I saw a tall, fine-looking Arab standing
erect at our side of the gap, with a rifle in his hand, turning his head
from side to side and then peering below into the chasm beneath.
[Illustration: LOOKING THROUGH MY LOOPHOLE I SAW A TALL, FINE-LOOKING
ARAB PEERING INTO THE CHASM BENEATH.]
I felt certain that the white cigarette end must be lying there at his
feet, and that in another second he must see it. My heart seemed to
stop beating and my ears buzzed. He turned and looked intently at the
very heap of boulders behind which we lay. I could have sworn that our
eyes met. I had to put my hand to my mouth to prevent me giving way to
the frantic desire to yell. Then he disappeared back into the gap, and
I breathed more freely.
"He tell others--all safe--see nothing--camels come presently," Jaffa
whispered.
In two or three minutes more Arabs--ten, then twenty--crowded through
the gap, their rifles held ready and their fierce eyes scanning every
rock.
Thank goodness! The towering sides of the "coffee-cup" hid the
_Intrepid_ from view.
They moved stiffly, as though tired, talking quietly and squatting on
the rocks for a few minutes, until they suddenly stood up, looked back
through the gap, slung their rifles over their shoulders, and commenced
to scramble down the zigzag path.
They had hardly left the gap when, with a light scraping noise, the ugly
head and neck of a camel appeared. He hesitated as he saw the steepness
of the path below him, but the camel leader beat him about his head and
lips until he condescended to move out of the gap, and with hesitating
paces, putting down his huge feet with very great care, started the
descent. As his body came into view we saw long sacks or bundles of
matting--containing rifles, we felt sure--strapped one on either side of
him.
From his quarters stretched taut the halter of the camel "next astern",
and another supercilious, scornful, ugly head appeared. Camel after
camel (all with their bundles), Arab after Arab (some armed, others
simply leading camels) squeezed after each other through the gap in the
crest and started down the zigzag path.
I was thankful to notice that the advance-guard seemed in no hurry to
reach the bottom, but would go on for a hundred yards, wait for the
leading camel to overtake them, and go on again. The longer the time
which elapsed before they sighted the _Intrepid_, the more chance would
there be that the end of the caravan had already passed through the gap
before the alarm was given.
Fifty camels I counted; sixty; sixty-two--three; but as the sixty-fourth
head emerged into sight it sank down to the rocks. The wretched brute
had fallen on his knees, his neck stretched quite straight as his halter
to the camel ahead took the strain. He was dragged bodily forward for a
few inches on the smooth rock, then the halter "parted", and his neck
curved again.
Another ugly camel's head appeared over his back, but there was no room
to pass--the gap was too narrow--and he stopped, swaying his head
angrily from side to side.
The Arabs called shrilly one to another---half-dazed they seemed to be,
probably from fatigue--and a dozen of them, surrounding the kneeling
camel, tried to make him rise to his feet. They prodded him with their
rifles and spears, howling execrations, hauled on the broken halter, and
beat him on the nose and face. They actually fired rifles close to his
face; but he took not the slightest notice. He never even moved his
head, holding it up quite motionless, with that extraordinary sarcastic,
supercilious look which camels always have, and appeared to be quite
unaware of the cruel treatment.
"Camel--finish--much tired--never get up--stay to die," Jaffa whispered.
Two vultures--appearing from nowhere--perched silently on the rocks
behind which lay Webster and his two men, saw them, and flapped across
to another rock. The Arabs were too busy to notice this or they might
have been suspicious.
Then a fine-looking, very richly dressed Arab, with a flowing red[#]
patriarchal beard and a green turban pushed past the camel and began to
give orders. The ropes securing the bundles were unlashed, the bundles
were dragged aside and propped up against the projecting rocks, and
then, hauling on those ropes (they passed under the camel's belly),
shouting and yelling as though hell had broken loose, the Arabs tried to
hoist him to his feet.
[#] The sheikh must have visited Mecca three times, as only after three
such pilgrimages are beards dyed red.
The sheikh, or whoever he was, climbed to the top of the gap, the better
to superintend operations. A grand-looking chap he was, with a fine
"fighting" face, beetling eyebrows, and a great hooked nose.
For a moment I thought again of that cigarette end, and grew sick with
fear lest it was there and he should see it. But he was too much
interested in the camel to see anything else. Although his men heaved
with all their might they only raised the poor beast a few inches, and
down it would sink again.
Then the sheikh gave more orders. Men began calling down to those on
the paths of the zigzag, immediately underneath the helpless camel, and
I saw these hurriedly making large gaps in the line of camels. Two men
took hold of the poor brute's halter and hauled the head round until it
was touching the hind quarters; the others, gathering at the side of the
camel farther from the precipice below, using their rifles as levers and
also pressing against his lean flanks, shoved "all together"; the men on
the head-rope tugged the head still farther round, and the helpless
brute toppled over the edge. Rolling and falling, sliding through the
gaps in the lines beneath, bounding from boulder to boulder, he at last
"fetched up", two hundred feet below, against a rock, and lay there a
shapeless mass of broken back and neck and legs.
The two vultures hopped about excitedly and flapped a little farther
down, eyeing the remains with twisted heads.
At another order from the sheikh those bundles were torn open, and I
simply "thrilled" to see at least two dozen rifles--brand-new
rifles--hauled out. Each man, taking one or two of them as he passed,
started off again along the zigzag path after the rest of the camels.
The sheikh, clambering down to the path, followed them slowly, and that
procession of camels commenced afresh through the gap, camel after
camel, until I had counted eighty-three. After the eighty-third came
many more, pace by pace, with weary feet, but these were loaded with
boxes of ammunition. No attempts had been made to conceal that fact;
the boxes were just as they had left the manufacturers, slung in great
nets across the camels' backs.
One hundred and thirty-four passed through, counting both those with
rifles and those with ammunition; and, last of all, led by two men, a
magnificent camel, splendidly caparisoned, with a scarlet,
silver-embroidered cloth and with silver-mounted harness, stalked
angrily through, followed by two smaller ones with unwieldy burdens.
These three were doubtless the sheikh's own camels, his riding camel and
the two which carried his tent and the cooking gear and food which he
might want on the march.
No more camels came.
I could hardly believe our good fortune. Everything had turned out as
we had planned. Looking down into the "coffee-cup" I could see the
zigzag of painfully-descending camels; and still farther below them the
white figures of the advance-guard, not yet near the bottom or that
corner beyond which they would be able to see the _Intrepid_. Not one
of those Bedouin Arabs suspected that we six were lying there above
them, or that the _Intrepids_ were--possibly--hurrying up to drive them
back to us. I would have given much to know what was happening beyond
the mountain screen, whether the _Intrepids_ had actually landed, and,
if they had landed, how near they were. I reckoned that, by now, if all
had happened as I hoped, they would be about halfway up from the
village, and in another quarter of an hour, or less, the first of those
Arabs would have scrambled out of the bottom of the "coffee-cup" and
should see them.
What the time was, or how long it had taken those one hundred and
thirty-seven camels to pass through the gap, I had no idea; but the sun
was already slanting downwards in the west and was no longer lighting
the rocks at the bottom of the "coffee-cup". In fact they had
disappeared for some time in the shadow cast by the ridge on which we
were hidden, and as the sun gradually sank, so did the sharply-outlined
shadow of the ridge and the gap, rising upwards along the opposite face
of the chasm, gradually shade the zigzag path higher and higher.
We were fearfully thirsty, but we still dared not shift our cramped
positions to get at our water-bottles and make ourselves more
comfortable. We simply lay where we were, peering through our loopholes
between the rocks at the caravan crawling down the path. Vultures,
perched on the rocks around us, craned their bare necks downwards and
watched too. It looked like some huge centipede or caterpillar, as each
camel carefully felt for his next foothold and swung his long ungainly
legs stiffly and cautiously forward. I caught sight of one, the third
in a gang or string of five, evidently making very "heavy weather" of
it. Whenever the path was sufficiently broad I noticed that an Arab
would take hold of his halter to steady him. I pointed out this camel
to Jaffa, and scarcely had he whispered: "He fall--soon," when the poor
brute stumbled, tried to recover his feet, and fell on one knee, the
other leg sprawling over the edge, violently pawing space. The Arab
guiding him sprang away, clinging to the rocks, and in a moment the
camel had toppled over. I heard wild cries of alarm; the camel leaders
on the zigzag below tried desperately to make a gap in their line as
they saw what was happening over their heads; but too late. The camel
fell; the two camels behind were dragged after him, and the three slid
like an avalanche down the rocks, sweeping more camels and one or two
Arabs from the narrow zigzags below, bursting their bundles and
scattering rifles until they disappeared in the gloom beneath.
It was a horrid sight, and for two or three minutes there was the utmost
confusion. The frightened drivers pulled the camels' heads this way and
that, and how the poor stupid creatures could keep their foothold at all
was marvellous, especially as in many places the path was so narrow
that, even from where I was, I could see the "inner" bundles of rifles
scraping against the rocks.
We were so intent on watching this that we never turned our heads; but
when I did again look across the gap to see whether Webster and his men
were still hidden, I had a terrible fright.
Squatting right in the mouth of the gap, and on both edges of it, were a
score or more of Arabs, their rifles slung over their shoulders. Jaffa
saw them; Griffiths saw them. If they were as frightened as I was they
did not show it.
We hardly dared to breathe. There they were, the nearest of them not
fifty yards away. They evidently meant to stay, for they had brought
firewood, and some of them were trying to set light to it, whilst others
were pouring water from a skin into a brass cooking pot.
That anything such as this should happen had never entered my head. I
never thought that they would have taken the precaution of leaving a
rearguard to protect their line of retreat, and to have done so entirely
altered the whole situation and upset all my calculations.
If they took to wandering along that ridge we should be discovered, and
if they simply remained where they were we could not fire on the caravan
without exposing ourselves to this new force. At the very first shot
they would take cover, find out where we lay, and then crawl to the
rocks overhead and shoot down. In those first few moments my whole idea
was to kill as many as possible before being killed myself.
We watched them with straining eyes. If they had scattered and come
near us I should have opened fire. My fingers clutched my rifle to draw
it to me, and then loosened again, because they all collected round that
cooking pot; the blue smoke came curling up among them, and they
evidently had no other thought than to rest and make coffee. They never
even troubled to look down to see whether their comrades and the camels
were recovering from their disorder, but huddled close together,
sheltering their heads from the sun with their dirty cloaks.
There was no immediate danger, so I turned to watch the caravan. Down
at the gloomy bottom of the "coffee-cup" I could just distinguish little
white figures moving among the boulders---the advance party had at last
reached the gorge which led them out into the open. Three or four
disappeared round the shoulder of the rocks which shut out my view of
the gorge, and I knew that in a moment or two they would sight the
_Intrepid_ lying at anchor--and perhaps her advancing men.
I was right. Hardly had they disappeared before back they came into
view, very hurriedly, and in a marvellously short space of time the
whole of that "coffee-cup" rang with strange cries and shouts as they
passed the word up and up its precipitous sides. Along the zigzag
path--from one zigzag shouted to the next above--we could hear the news
being passed. The camel leaders seized the heads of their camels and
stopped them; the Arabs crouching round the gap sprang to their feet as
the shouting disturbed them, unslung their rifles, and began talking
excitedly.
Down below I saw the green turban of the sheikh as he worked his way
along the lowest zigzag, until he too reached the bottom and also
disappeared from view.