CHAPTER XIV
Falling Helplessly
Down the steep slope Joe went, powerless to catch himself. There wereno shrubs or stalks to grip, no hard soil to cling to.
His mind was in a whirl. Where would he land? How far had he yet togo? He comforted himself in the thought that there were no rocks ortree trunks to dash against, but if the soil at the bottom of the hillhappened to be hard, his doom might be sealed. Already he could feelthe jar and pain of suddenly coming to an abrupt stop on unyieldingground.
Down, down he went, past the pack camels that were still slowlyclimbing the steep side of the mound, lucky enough to have been missedby the falling camel.
Joe caught a momentary glimpse of his own dromedary, which was alsorolling rapidly down.
Suddenly he felt a severe jar and gradually came to a stop in the softsand at the foot of the dune.
A moment later he glanced up fearfully, as he saw his dromedarycoming down at him with lightning rapidity.
He tried to rise and dash to one side, but his feet failed to respondto his efforts. They had been numbed by the jar of striking theground.
The falling camel was almost upon him now. Something must be done atonce!
Summoning all his strength, he threw his body to the right of theoncoming animal. It was an act of desperation, and he felt sure thatit would fail. But a moment later there was a rush, the sound ofswishing sand, and the animal whisked past, stirring up a dense cloudof fine soil.
Joe gave a sigh of relief and for a brief period sank back down on thesand, as though waiting for his strength to be restored. Then he wasup, looking for the fallen camel.
It had come to a stop in a drift of loose sand and appeared to beuninjured. But it was snorting and kicking furiously, its angervisibly heightened to a high degree.
Joe ran over to it and attempted to give aid, but the furiousdromedary kicked at him in a rage.
Mr. Lewis and Bob came running down, finding footholds withdifficulty.
"Wait!" cautioned the naturalist. "Don't hurry the camel. Let him takehis time. His fit of anger will be over in a few minutes," and thenadded: "That was some fall! We were afraid you'd be hurt seriously.No bones broken, are there?"
"I guess not," Joe replied. "Just shaken up a bit. I'm afraid thedromedary is hurt more than I. Don't see what could prevent it."
"You may be right," his father said solemnly. "We'll find out in aminute."
Before long the animal's anger lessened, and it tried to rise. But itslegs refused to move, despite the frantic efforts.
Mr. Lewis's face took on an expression of anxiety. He bent down andfelt of the struggling legs. Then he straightened up and shook hishead hopelessly.
"Broken," he muttered in a tense voice. "Two legs are broken."
"What!" cried Mr. Holton, who, along with the others, had managed toscramble down the hill.
"Look for yourselves," Mr. Lewis said gravely. "The camel's weight wastoo great to come continually against the rather fragile limbs, andthe hind ones snapped in two."
The explorers' faces were greatly sobered by the dread discovery. Nowthere was but one thing to do. The unfortunate beast must be left todie a slow and torturing death. There was no other way out, for thelegs could not be set, and the beast could not be taken on.
Mr. Holton unstrapped his rifle from his shoulder.
"I'm going to put an end to it," he said with a sudden decision. "Itseems only humane, for otherwise death will come slowly and horribly."
He walked over to a small elevation along the side of the dune, whilehis friends moved away to a safe distance.
After a moment of careful aim, he pulled the trigger.
The high-velocity bullet sped true, penetrating the brain.
There was but one spasmodic movement; then the camel rolled over,dead.
For some time the explorers were silent. It was not pleasant to seethe useful dromedary come to such an end. Finally Joe began the ascentof the dune.
"It'll seem strange without that camel," he said. "How will I manageto have a mount?"
"You'll have to take one of the pack animals," returned Dr. Kirshner."We'll divide the supplies among the others and get along some way. Ifwe do the right kind of scheming, I don't believe the other camelswill notice the extra load."
It was difficult work climbing the treacherous slope of the dune. Manytimes their feet would scarcely find a foothold when the sand wouldgive way, making it necessary for them to sprawl out or clutch oneanother in order to prevent rolling down.
At last they reached the top and began dividing the provisions amongnine of the ten pack dromedaries. It required over an hour to completethe task, for it was difficult to find places for all theirbelongings.
"Now you may find it hard to get used to the strange camel," said Mr.Holton, as Joe straddled the kneeling animal. "He may act up andthreaten to throw you, but stick to it. It won't take long to show himyou mean business."
"He's been broken in some," remarked Fekmah. "Though it may been goodtime since he had rider."
Much to their surprise the dromedary responded to Joe's commands atonce, resigning himself over to his new master.
"And am I glad!" the youth exclaimed, as the little caravan preparedto resume the journey.
"That's rather an exceptional piece of luck," smiled Mr. Holton."Usually it takes a good while for a camel to get used to its newrider."
The explorers continued the journey, although they realized that theycould cover but a few more miles before dark. Already the sun wasbeginning to sink behind the distant hills, tinting the dunes manycolors.
"Didn't get as far today as we did yesterday," observed Bob, as theboys waited for Tishmak to find a suitable stopping place.
The guide found the place he wanted between two large dunes, whichwere spread out over a large amount of ground.
"Tishmak say we wait here and get supper," said Fekmah, after a momentof conversation in the native tongue. "Then when moon come out, we goon and try to make up for lost time."
"That suits me," agreed Dr. Kirshner. "Almost anything would satisfymy appetite right now."
The explorers dismounted and prepared the meal, which after thestrenuous hours of constant traveling tasted delicious. Then they satquietly in the semidarkness.
At last the moon came out, and the desert was again seen to take on anew appearance. The sand was even more beautiful than the nightbefore, white as it was from the soft light.
Tishmak motioned for the adventurers to mount their dromedaries andget under way. If they expected to get over much more territory, itwould be necessary to hurry.
"Here's hoping we can come up to our hundred-mile minimum," said Joe,urging his camel to trot faster.
It was nearly ten o'clock when they finally stopped for the night'sslumber. Fekmah was well satisfied with the distance they had madethat day.
"Tomorrow we will come to Tudemait Plateau," he said, afterconversing with Tishmak. "It is a rocky region, with large blackboulders."
"Then we won't see any more sand dunes?" asked Bob.
"No. The country will be rather level, but we will have to go manykilometers out of way to avoid rocks."
"That'll suit me," put in Joe. "I'm tired of seeing nothing but sand."
That night they trusted to good fortune and did not set a guard.Tishmak informed them that there was little danger of robbers in thatregion, and the alertness of the camels would be an added precaution.
"We are nearing the country of the Tuaregs," explained Fekmah. "Thesenatives are friendly, but drive away nomad robbers. We probably besafe tonight."
And they were. The next morning they had completely regained theirnatural liveliness and pep, feeling thoroughly refreshed and ready foranything the day might bring.
Breakfast over, the long journey was resumed.
As Tishmak had predicted, the country gradually began to change. Thesand dunes that had recently been high slowly became smaller andlower, and vegetation increased still m
ore. Small rocks wereeverywhere, their color a dark gray or black. In the distance thesharp crags of the Tudemait Plateau could be seen.
As the explorers neared a low long mound, Tishmak's dromedary suddenlyhalted and sniffed nervously. A moment later the animals of the otherexplorers also came to a stop.
"What's this!" exclaimed Mr. Lewis, looking about wonderingly.
"Guess they heard something," said Dr. Kirshner. "What it was, we'llsee in a moment. They have an uncanny power of detecting noises thatwe men can't catch."
Tishmak unstrapped his rifle and motioned for the others to dolikewise.
"Wonder if it's bandits," muttered Joe, holding his gun in readiness.
The sound of camels' footsteps now reached the adventurers' ears. Thenfrom behind a hill appeared a long trading caravan of Arabs, who alsohad their rifles in readiness.
Tishmak rushed forward, throwing his hands apart in a gesture offriendliness. He was followed by Fekmah and the others.
As soon as the Arabs saw that the whites meant no harm, they stoppedand talked freely. Much to Dr. Kirshner's delight, he could understandthe men easily, their language differing greatly from that of Tishmak.
The Americans learned that the caravan was on its way to Wargla,loaded with a large supply of dried dates, grapes, and many otherproducts of the desert oases. It was made up of over seven hundredcamels, which were in a line several miles long.
"Look at the leader," said Joe to his chum, referring to the headcamel. "It's decorated with about as many colors as there are."
"Want to make a good showing," smiled Bob. "From what I've heard, acaravan is judged by how well the first camel is engulfed by colors."
Much as the explorers would have liked to talk with the Arabs, theydid not stop long. Time was too valuable to be wasted, especially whenthey were literally running a race with the two thieves who had stolenFekmah's map.
But before they left, Bob and Joe took motion pictures of the caravanat several distances. Especially were the youths pleased by thefriendly attitude of the Arabs when the camera was held before them.
"Doubt if they know what it's all about," smiled Bob. "But thatdoesn't keep the pictures from being good."
"Wouldn't they be surprised if they could see themselves on thescreen!" laughed Joe. "They'd probably think something supernaturalwas taking place."
With a cheery farewell the American expedition left the Arabs at thehead of the trading caravan and again took up the journey. But itrequired nearly a half-hour to pass the last of the pack camels, whichwere guarded at intervals of every fifty animals by an armed Arab.
"Seven hundred camels is a good many," remarked Bob, as the youthsrode at the rear of their own pack animals. "Their owner must have agood bit of money."
"Many of those Arabs are wealthy, I guess," said Joe. "Fekmah saidsome have as many as two thousand camels."
As the explorers moved on, they saw other signs of small game.Occasionally Mr. Holton and Mr. Lewis displayed their skill with arifle by shooting creatures from a great distance.
"Seems to be getting a little darker," remarked Joe, as they descendedinto a little valley.
"Darker? Couldn't be."
Then, as Bob gazed ahead at the opposite slope, he uttered anexclamation of bewilderment.
"It _is_ getting darker!" he cried. "Why--why, it's impossible. Darkat nine in the morning! Something's wrong somewhere!"
A second later Mr. Holton rode up to the boys anxiously.
"Get out your goggles!" he directed them. "We seem to be riding into afog of black dust. Tishmak thinks we may have to stop for the day."