THE PURSUERS NONPLUSSED.
Not a 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 within 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
scatteringly 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 Saaeran 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 the 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
the 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 Saaeran 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 sat
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 Saaera. 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 tracts 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!