He went farther down the path, asking at every two or three paces
whether we could see him. When our eyes had become accustomed to
following his white clothes we could distinguish them at quite a
distance.
At last he had gone too far.
"We can't see you!" I called.
He retraced his footsteps until he was again visible. Then he seemed to
rise in the air.
"I stand on rock by side of path!" he shouted; "path is under my
feet--to my right--very narrow--Bedouin must pass one by one--I speak to
them--make them throw away rifles--if no give up rifle I strike
match--you see match--fire below match--kill Bedouin."
"Come back!" I yelled. "It's too dangerous!"
"No! I stay!" and nothing would induce him to give up his plucky
scheme.
Plucky! Why, it was the bravest job any man could have taken on
himself.
Quite close beneath us men began shouting. I hoped these were the camel
men warning the armed Arabs to throw away their rifles if they wanted to
save their lives. I knew that in a few minutes the first of them would
reach Jaffa, and that then the crisis would come. Webster was fidgeting
with the bolt of his breech-block and breathing hard.
Already Jaffa was beginning to call out: "Khalli bunduk 'ak! Khalli
bunduk 'ak! Ma kattle kum! Ist agel! ist agel!"
Our nerves were very much on edge.
Then footsteps began to approach, softly, cautiously. Jaffa altered his
tone of voice. One could almost imagine that he was imploring someone,
for his own safety, to throw away his rifle, just as a father might have
done. We heard the noise of a rifle falling on to the rocks, then
another and another, and, before Webster and I realized it, dim, cloaked
figures came up to the gap and stopped there, as if frightened and
uncertain what to do.
My heart was in my mouth then, and I said as firmly as I could: "Ma
kattle kum! Ist agel!" Webster chipping in with a quaver in his voice,
and the two marines and Griffiths bellowing these words behind and above
us.
For a moment the Arabs still hesitated, but then they commenced to pass
through the gap between Webster and myself.
One, two, half a dozen, a dozen panting figures glided through, and more
came--twenty or thirty more--and all the time Jaffa's voice sounded--as
calmly as if he were aboard the "_B.A._"--"Khalli bunduk 'ak! khalli
bunduk 'ak! Ma kattle kum! ma kattle kum!"
Then I heard Griffiths moving among the rocks overhead, probably
shifting himself into a more comfortable position, and the fool must
have had his finger on his trigger, because his rifle went off, right in
our faces, almost blinding us.
Of course the approaching Arabs thought that we were firing at those who
had passed through the gap, and believed that they were going to be
murdered.