Captured!
To the two boys, who had hoped against hope that their parched throats
could be relieved, the priceless water tasted like nectar. They had
felt sure that grim tragedy was near. Now their spirits were restored
to a new high level, and they considered themselves equal to anything.
At last, when they had fully quenched their thirst, they glanced about
the cavern.
Near the edge of the pool were the tracks of wild animals, which had
evidently made this place a frequent haunt. The youths did not
recognize all the imprints, but Joe stoutly declared that gazelles had
been there.
"Doesn't seem pleasant to know that we've been drinking after wild
animals, does it?" laughed Bob.
"No. But we won't think of that, especially since our thirst was so
great. Then, too, it's not likely that many germs are to be found away
out here in the desert mountains."
The youths stretched out on the cool white sand beside the pool. The
atmosphere in the cavern was such a departure from the fierce outside
heat that they were content idly to while the time away, despite the
fact that they should be getting back to camp. At times they bent over
to drink of the refreshing water, delightfully knowing that they could
have all they wanted.
Then they grew drowsy and gradually fell asleep, a thing that they
should not have done.
At last they were awakened--suddenly! Every nerve in their bodies
seemed tense. Something told them not to move.
Slowly they edged around and looked toward the back of the cave. Then
they started, as a savage growl rent the air. A fierce tiger cat was
crouched ready to spring. It had evidently come to the pool for water
when it had discovered the youths.
There was no time to take aim with their rifles, for the beast would
be upon them.
Slowly Bob reached for his pistol, and Joe followed suit. At last the
boys were ready for action.
With a quick motion Bob whirled about and took hasty aim; then fired.
A second later the report of Joe's gun rang out.
"Missed!" cried Joe in horror. "Both shots missed!"
"Well, we won't miss again," said Bob, gritting his teeth. "We've got
to stop him."
Bob jumped to his feet and took aim. Five shots followed in rapid
succession. Joe continued the defense with his revolver.
When the deadly fire ceased, the tiger cat was literally riddled with
bullets. It gave a convulsive twitch and rolled over, dead.
"Finally stopped him," muttered Joe, his face wet with perspiration.
"And a powerful fellow, too."
"One can do a lot of things if he has to," remarked Bob, putting his
gun back in its holster.
The youths lost no time in getting out of the cave. They would have
liked to remain in its cool retreat much longer, but they realized
that it was necessary to get back to camp.
"Won't our dads and the others be tickled beyond words when we tell
them we've found water!" smiled Joe, as they crawled through the
narrow passageway.
"Tickled is too weak to describe it," said Bob. "I bet old Tishmak
will hug us to death."
At last they reached the outside and turned their footsteps toward
camp. It was but a short distance away, beyond the tall precipice at
the entrance to the cave. The youths put unusual energy into their
legs and in but a few moments were met by all of their friends. Their
fathers, in particular, rushed forward anxiously.
"Where have you been so long?" demanded Mr. Holton, vexed to the
utmost that the young men should stay away from camp for an indefinite
period without giving an explanation of where they were going.
Joe's father's temper was also wrought up.
"Did something hold you back?" he asked.
"Yes," Joe answered quietly. "Several things kept us from returning
sooner. But it may interest you more if we tell you that we've found
water."
"Water!" Mr. Lewis was all excitement. "You mean--you actually have
located a well?"
Mr. Holton and Dr. Kirshner listened breathlessly. Fekmah translated
joyfully to Tishmak.
"Not exactly a well," returned Bob, "but something just as good. An
underground pool. And how cool it is! Come on," he added. "I know
you're all dying for a drink."
Hastily the men followed their young companions over to the large
cliff. Then, after crawling through the small opening, they found
themselves at the edge of the pool of bubbling water.
For a moment the men could hardly believe their eyes. At last! Water!
Suddenly, as though urged on by some unseen power, they bent down and
drank until they could hold no more. It was pleasure unthinkable!
At last Dr. Kirshner straightened up.
"I've never had such enjoyment in years," he said happily, and then
added: "Lucky that our thirst was no worse than it was, or it would
have been necessary to restrain ourselves from drinking too much at
once."
When the men had finished drinking, they glanced about the cave. Their
flashlights fell on the body of the tiger cat, and they looked up in
surprise.
"What's this?" inquired Mr. Lewis, pointing to the bullet-riddled
carcass.
Bob and Joe smiled.
"That old boy tried to make us remain for dinner, but we fooled him,"
explained Bob. "We had to empty our revolvers to stop him, though."
There was a clamor of excited questions, and the youths were forced to
relate every detail of the encounter. When they had finished, the
naturalists bent over to examine the striped skin.
"Too bad, but I'm afraid you've put too many bullets in him for us to
use the skin," said Mr. Holton regretfully. "And a large specimen,
too. But then," he went on, "we won't think of that when your lives
hung in the balance."
The explorers spent a few minutes sitting in the cool white sand. Then
they went back outside to get the water containers.
They had had an uneasy feeling that perhaps the camels had been
molested during their stay in the cavern, and gave a sigh of relief
upon seeing them sitting peacefully near the tent.
As it was getting late, camp was broken, and the dromedaries were led
to the entrance of the cave. The water containers were carried in to
the pool and filled to capacity with what stood between the explorers
and death.
"Now that everything is in readiness, I suppose we must be getting on
our way," said Dr. Kirshner. "But I must admit I hate to leave that
pool behind. Somehow I've become greatly attached to it."
"Does seem too bad," Mr. Lewis agreed. "But I suppose we will find
other wells and sources of water. Where is the next one, Fekmah?"
"Many miles away," the Arab returned. "But come to think of it,
Tishmak says one around here near. If it very far away, we go to it."
When the question was put to him, the guide replied that the well was
but a few miles away. He considered it unnecessary to find it, as
another was a day's journey in their direction. He informed them that
since it was very large, it could not be easily covered up by the two
thieves.
With one last look at the high precipice, the explorers turned the
camels back on the lane between the mountains. With the right kind of
luck they would come to the gorge of Arak some time the next day, and
another landmark on Fekmah's duplicate map would have been noted.
As they penetrated farther into the mountains, the scenery became more
beautiful. There were many wonders that caused the explorers to gasp
in astonishment.
"The Ahaggar range is of larger extent than the Alps," said Dr.
Kirshner, as they circled about among the rugged cliffs. "And although
not of extremely high altitude, these Saharan mountains have many show
points that cannot be found elsewhere."
"And they are comparatively unknown to the outside world," put in Bob.
"Why, the average person doesn't even dream of mountains being in the
heart of the old Sahara."
All along the way Bob and Joe took motion pictures of the many strange
marvels of nature. They photographed the tall peaks, the deep gorges,
and the narrow valleys. They turned the cameras on the many ancient
inscriptions that were of so much interest to the archæologist.
"We've run off a good many hundred feet of film," remarked Joe, after
the cameras had "purred" for an unusually long period as the youths
filmed a deep canyon through which they passed. "In fact, if they had
given us twice as much film we could easily have used it all."
Bob nodded.
"And there's less danger of losing it in a hot, dry region like this,"
he said. "Isn't at all to be compared with the damp, tropical climate
of Brazil."
Slowly the country became more rough, until that evening, after the
meal, the adventurers found it very difficult to pick out a way
between the many large rocks. On one occasion they passed through a
dark tunnel-like passage beneath high, overhanging peaks, and had
literally to feel their way through. There was not the faintest ray of
moonlight to lighten the deep passageway.
When they finally came to the other end they gave sighs of relief that
at last the moon could again be seen. But now something else hindered
progress. A peculiar desert plant, with sharp, poisonous needles and a
rather disagreeable odor, had been known previously to the explorers.
Now, as they emerged from the dark recesses of the tunnel, they came
upon large clusters of these plants. Everywhere the dromedaries went,
it seemed, they were forced to tramp through these formidable shrubs.
"It's a wonder they can stand it," said Joe, shaking his head. "Their
feet are already swollen almost double."
"Be tragedy if the animals would have to stop," the other youth said.
"It would mean our end, I guess."
"They'll make it all right," put in Mr. Lewis, who was riding at the
rear with the boys. "But, needless to say, we couldn't walk on them."
Suddenly, as they came to the edge of a dry river bed, Dr. Kirshner
halted his camel and looked about on the ground. The others waited a
moment to see what he had discovered.
"An ancient tool of flint," he announced, commanding his camel to
kneel.
The archæologist picked up the instrument and examined it carefully
with the aid of a flashlight. It was about a foot long and shaped to
resemble a crescent. The inner edge was as sharp as a razor.
"Doubtless some kind of a knife," Dr. Kirshner said, as the others
crowded around him. "Shaped out of flint by people of the Neolithic
age. Perhaps it was used to harvest crops."
"Crops? In the desert?" Bob was amazed.
The scholar nodded.
"It is firmly believed that primitive people lived in what is now the
desert rather than along river valleys of more modern prominence. Of
course the Sahara was at that time much less arid, or dry, than it is
today."
Dr. Kirshner searched about for other relics, but found none.
"It is strange how that tool got on the surface of the ground," he
remarked, as they turned the dromedaries ahead. "Other expeditions
have penetrated into this region, and it is quite obvious that they
would have found it had it been in sight."
"Perhaps a rainstorm washed it out of the ground," suggested Mr.
Holton.
They rode until late that night, for they were anxious to come to the
gorge of Arak some time the next day.
"We should see it tomorrow afternoon," predicted Fekmah.
Notwithstanding this, they rode all the next morning without coming to
the landmark. Finally Tishmak gave up in disgust and stopped in the
shade of an overhanging rock. It was nearly noon, and the necessity to
get a meal was becoming more apparent.
When they had finished eating they continued to rest in the tent. At
this high altitude the sun was less hot than it had been on the
plateaux, and it would have been possible to ride farther. But they
had become accustomed to the usual afternoon rest and were loath to
depart from this regularity.
But Dr. Kirshner had sat only a few minutes before he got up and
stretched. Mr. Holton and Mr. Lewis were asleep, but Fekmah and
Tishmak remained awake. Bob and Joe sat in one corner of the tent,
sleepily gazing out at the distant peaks.
"I'm going out and look around," Dr. Kirshner said to them. "Care to
go along?"
Bob replied in the negative, but Joe arose and walked over to his
rifle.
"Don't stay too long," advised Bob, as Joe and the archæologist
started out.
They were familiar with the country in the immediate vicinity of camp.
As there was nothing of new interest to be found there, they hiked
farther to the south. The scientist wished particularly to find more
ancient inscriptions, and, if possible, other evidences of ancient
civilizations.
"What's this?" cried Joe, slapping his hand to his face. "Well I'll
be---- Some kind of a fly."
"It is a wonder we haven't come across insect pests long before this,"
Dr. Kirshner said. "They are very common all through this section."
The flies had been discovered while they were trudging through a long,
hot passageway between two high wall-like rocks. Now, as the two
adventurers passed farther on, they came into more of the insects,
which swarmed about as if thirsty for human blood.
"Ought to have some kind of a spray," remarked Joe, pushing them away
in great numbers.
"We have, in camp," his friend said. "If the pests bother us much
we'll have to make use of it."
After an hour's hike they came to another dry river bed, and again
Dr. Kirshner found flint implements scattered about. Joe had a small
motion-picture camera with him, and at the scientist's request he
filmed the half-buried primitive tools as they lay hardly visible in
the sand.
"I want proof that these antiquities came from the Sahara," Dr.
Kirshner said, placing them in the small box he carried over his
shoulder for the purpose.
A little later Joe started to take a motion picture of a small animal
that darted across the river bed, but cried out in disgust.
"A pesky fly got in front of the lens," the youth explained. "Looked
as big as an elephant."
"One scene ruined," laughed the archæologist. "But you'll have to get
used to that."
The adventurers stopped here and there to rest and sip a small amount
of water. Then they would hike on, always on the lookout for the
unusual.
They had just rounded the corner of a tall, cone-shaped peak when Joe
stopped and pointed to the sand near by.
Dr. Kirshner's jaw dropped in surprise.
"Footprints!" he cried. "Human footprints!"
He had hardly uttered the words when there came a chorus of yells from
behind a large rock. A moment later ten or twelve rough-looking Arabs
darted out and surrounded the Americans. The natives at once disarmed
the whites by sheer force and then displayed long knives
threateningly.
The Arabs chattered ominous words, which caused Dr. Kirshner to start
in alarm and fear.
"We are being captured!" he exclaimed excitedly. "These Arabs are
hired by the two thieves who stole Fekmah's map!"