Our eyes were in a moment blinded by a flash, as fifty rifles opened
fire upon us from every cover the thick bushes afforded.
For a few seconds, as the sounds of the first volley died away, there
was a dead silence. So sudden had been the attack, that my comrades the
Spahis stood dumbfounded, but ere the rifles of our unknown enemies were
reloaded, fierce shrill yells rent the air, the arms that had been piled
were snatched up, horses were untethered, and almost simultaneously with
a second volley from the ambush, the _homards_, displaying cool courage,
poured into the thick growth of myrtles, hulfa, acacias, and dwarf
palms, a terribly withering fire.
The whole scene was enacted ere I could draw breath. The moon had
disappeared, and in the darkness rifles seemed to pour forth flame on
every hand. Evidently our enemies had been watching their opportunity,
and while the camp was busy preparing for the departure of the
Chasseurs, they had killed the three men on sentry duty on the other
side of the sand-hill, and then crept into ambush, and lay there until
the signal was given to open fire.
As the desperate combat commenced, and the fusillade burst forth with
deafening report, I felt for my revolver, but my heart sank within me as
I remembered that the Ennitra had relieved me of it, and I found myself
standing alone and unarmed. A few feet away Uzanne's rifle was lying,
together with his bag of cartridges. I dashed towards them and bent to
pick them up, but ere I could do so, a big fierce-looking Arab sprang
from the myrtles towards me, yelling and whirling his knife above his
head.
It was the work of an instant.
I remember feeling his sinewy grasp upon my shoulder, I saw his flashing
blade above me, and heard him cry in Arabic--
"Let the dogs perish! Kill them! Kill them all!"
The heavy knife whistled in the air as uplifted it poised aloft for a
moment.
Suddenly a shot sounded behind me. My assailant clapped his left hand
to his breast and staggered back a few steps, then clutched violently at
the air and fell. Glancing quickly in the direction whence the shot had
come, I saw my friend Uzanne had with difficulty raised himself on one
arm, and, drawing his revolver, had with unerring aim shot the Arab
through the heart.
Octave Uzanne had saved my life.
"_Sapristi_!" he shouted, with a laugh, as I dashed towards him. "That
was a close shave! _Je lui ai colle un atout sur le nez_!"
"Are you seriously hurt?" I gasped; noticing as the rifles flashed that
blood was streaming from his shoulder.
"No," he replied quickly. "I think not. Don't trouble after me now,
for I'm no good. I'll patch myself up. Take my rifle and help the
others."
Snatching up the weapon, I loaded it, and, flinging myself on the ground
behind the root of a fallen palm, I opened fire upon the thick bushes
before me. In this way the minutes, full of anxiety, passed in
ignorance of our foes. The deafening explosions were incessant, yells
and cries of enemy and friend now and then sounded above the firing, and
the air grew so thick with smoke, that I could scarcely distinguish the
bushes where the Arabs lay in ambush.
As the terrible moments went by, I knew we were fighting for our lives.
Altogether our force in camp only amounted to sixty, while we were, as
yet, unaware of the character or number of our assailants. That they
had dared to attack a military post showed they were present in
overwhelming numbers, and, further, that they had waited until the
Chasseurs had got away before swooping down to annihilate us.
Lying along the ground near my red-burnoused comrades, I fired as
regularly as I was able, until suddenly a bugle sounded. It was the
order to mount!
My comrades dashed towards their tethered horses, a number of which had
been shot down, and I followed. In the excitement I jumped upon the
saddle of the first animal I could reach, and as I did so, the bugle
again sounded.
"_I'htaris! sidi_! Keep beside me," shouted a lithe, muscular Spahi,
vaulting upon a horse a few yards away. "We'll soon clear out these
vermin."
Then, as my companion yelled an imprecation in Arabic and held his rifle
high above his head, we all, with one accord, spurred on our horses,
and, swift as the wind, tore across the open space between the line of
tents and low bushes, dashing into the cavernous darkness of the ambush
ere our enemy could be aware of our intention. The result was
frightful. Carried on by the wild rush, I found myself in the midst of
a sanguinary _melee_, where one had to fight one's adversaries literally
hand to hand. My companions, whirling their keen blades, and shouting
prayers to Allah the while, fell upon their assailants with piercing
yells and cut them down in a manner that was truly awful, but it was not
until this moment that I discovered that the officer in command of the
Spahis had cleverly divided his small force into two detachments, one of
which was repulsing the enemy from the front, while the other had made a
circuitous charge, and was now outflanking our opponents and
slaughtering them in the rear.
Thus the outlaws were quickly hemmed in, and although we were unable to
follow them far, owing to the dense undergrowth, yet we silenced their
fire.
Then it was that we made a discovery. The Spahi beside whom I had
ridden--a splendid fellow, who sat as firmly in his saddle as if he were
part of it, and who, while galloping, could fire his rifle with deadly
effect--shouted as he drew rein for a moment--
"_Diable_! They are the children of Eblis--the Ennitra!" Hadj
Absalam's band had followed me!
The cry was taken up. The news spread rapidly from mouth to mouth, and
the knowledge that they were being attacked by the daring marauders for
whom they had been searching so long and so fruitlessly, caused every
_homard_ to redouble his energy, and strike a blow towards their
extermination. The audacity of the outlaws roused the ire of these
fierce native troopers, for the fact that several Spahis had been shot
dead in the first moments of the attack, caused an unanimous resolve to
follow up the thieves and give them no quarter.
But scarcely had this decision been arrived at, when the attack was
renewed even more vigorously. Concealed amidst the dense tropical
foliage, they opened fire with their rifles from a quarter whence we
least expected it, and in this direction we rode, only to be received by
a fusillade more galling than any that had been previously poured upon
us.
Their success, however, was not of long duration. A bugle brought our
horses in line, and then, with a terrific rush that none could
withstand, we dashed upon them, felling them to earth with shot or sabre
thrust.
Suddenly a sharp sting in the left side caused me a twinge, and I felt
the warm blood trickling. I hesitated a moment, knowing that I was
wounded. With an imprecation the Spahi officer shouted to his men to
sweep the marauders away, and in the sudden rush and intense excitement
that followed I forgot my mishap. Just, however, as I became separated
from my companions-in-arms, my wound gave me a second twinge of pain,
and there shot up from the tall grass at my side a brawny Arab, whose
white burnouse showed distinctly in the semi-darkness, and whose eyes
flashed with the fire of hatred. Seizing my horse's head, he swung
round his _jambiyah_, but by good fortune I pulled the trigger of my
rifle just in time. The bullet entered his throat, and he tumbled back
into the rank grass with a curse upon his lips.
The fight was long and desperate; not merely a skirmish, but a
thoroughly well-planned attack by Hadj Absalam's men to annihilate the
Spahis for the purpose of securing arms, ammunition, and horses.
Whether Absalam himself was present directing the operations we could
not learn, although two prisoners we captured both denied that he was
with them.
Presently the moon shone out again brightly, showing up both friend and
enemy, but the silence of night was still broken by rapid shots, mingled
with the loud, exultant shout of the victor and the hoarse, despairing
cry of the dying. In that brief hour the scenes of bloodshed were
terrible. Little did either the Ennitra or the Spahis value life, and
as they struggled desperately for the mastery, they fought with that
fierce courage characteristic of the barbarian of the desert.
Amid the wild massacre, when at last my comrades catching their enemies
unprepared and making a sudden onslaught cut through them with fire and
sword, the thought suddenly occurred to me that this fierce nomadic
tribe who had dared to attack us had been spoken of by Zoraida as "her
people." Now at last they were being outflanked, unable to reach their
horses which had been captured by our detachment operating in their
rear, and we were sweeping them down--slaughtering them without mercy!
Sickened by the bloody fight in which I had involuntarily borne a part,
and feeling rather faint owing to my wound,--which happily, however,
proved a very slight one,--I left my comrades to complete their work of
annihilating the murderous band, which they did by following them as
they fell back through the tangled vegetation and away across the oasis
into the desert beyond, where, with the exception of eighteen who were
taken prisoners, the whole of those who had attacked us so desperately
were killed or wounded.
Where was Zoraida? As hot and faint I rode back to the spot where my
whilom companion Uzanne was lying, I wondered whether the woman, whose
half-veiled face seemed ever before my eyes with tantalising
distinctness, had accompanied the unfortunate men of her barbaric tribe,
or was she waiting with the notorious old cut-throat at a safe distance
from the oasis, expecting each moment to learn of a brilliant success,
and impatient to assist in the high revelry and divide the plunder?
None of those of her people who had gone forth to attack us would,
however, return.
Seventy of them were stretched dead under the bright stars of the
Eastern sky, and nearly a hundred were lying with great ugly stains of
blood upon their burnouses, racked by the agony of their wounds, and
well knowing that ere the morrow's sun would set they would succumb to
heat and thirst; that in a few short hours the vultures would lay bare
their bones and leave them whitening on the glaring sand.