8. Trouble
As soon as the horses began to scream and the man to shout, the camelsquieted. It was what they should do, and Ali would have been astonishedif they hadn't. Taken from familiar stalls and immediately thereafterswung on the boom, they had been roused to the verge of stampede. Butthey had not been hurt and saw no indication that they might be hurtwhen the new danger threatened.
The camels had not detected this fresh peril and were not directly awareof it, but the screams of the horses and shouts of the driver wereevidence enough that it existed. The camels responded as though theywere part of a caravan under attack. Whatever peril lurked, it mightpass them by if they stood quietly.
The herd again tractable, Ali put a companionable hand on Ben Akbar'sshoulder and turned toward the pier. His eyes widened in astonishment.
Mimico had received and was holding the tether rope of the single beastthat had been transferred to the pier. It was one of the young females,and, like all the rest of the herd, it was standing very quietly. But onthe pier and within a wide radius, Mimico and the young camel seemed tobe the only living creatures that were quiet.
The terrified horses, bereft of all reason, had wrenched control fromtheir driver. Whirling crazily, they had missed dashing off the pier andinto the water by no more than a wagon wheel's width. Now, with thered-haired driver still trying with all his strength to stop them, theywere running away at top speed. As Ali watched, a wheel struck a boulderand the wagon bounded high in the air.
To one side, a black-bearded man had been indolently sitting on a gauntdun mule, with one foot in a stirrup and the other cocked up on thesaddle, while his chin rested on the upraised knee. Suddenly andobviously to the man's complete surprise--the mule began an insanebucking. The startled rider dropped his upraised foot, groped for andcouldn't find the stirrup, and missed the dangling reins when hesnatched at them. He leaned forward to wrap both arms about the mule'sneck and clung desperately.
Two saddled horses whose riders were among the crowd reared and dancedin a mad effort to break their tethers. A horse that had not beenpicketed whirled and, tail high over its rump, galloped away. Everybodyon shore except Mimico seemed to be shouting or screaming, or shoutingand screaming.
A small boat moved up beside the lighter and more men came aboard. Fourwere native camel handlers but the fifth was a quiet young Americannamed, Ali remembered, Gwynne Heap. With a taste for adventure and aknowledge of Eastern languages and customs derived from previousresidence in the East, Heap had contributed at least as much as anyoneelse to the successful purchase and importation of the camel herd. Nowhe took competent command.
"You have no trouble?" he asked quietly.
"No trouble," Ali told him.
Gwynne Heap called to Lieutenant Porter, who had remained in the smallboat, "Everything's under control."
"Keep them coming," Lieutenant Porter called back. "They must beunloaded."
Lieutenant Porter and the men who remained with him joined Mimico andmade ready to help receive the camels. Ali began to harness the nextanimal scheduled for unloading.
He became absorbed in what he was doing, adjusting each strap andfastening each buckle with a fussy attention to detail that was bothunnecessary and so time-consuming that it drew reprimanding glances fromGwynne Heap. Ali refused either to hurry or to look toward the shore,but refusing to turn his eyes toward it in no way obliterated the uglything that awaited there. The resentful crowd was still in an uproar.Ali thought sadly of the joyous welcome his imagination had created forthese camels, so vital to his own country, when they finally reachedAmerica.
The harnessed camel was finally swung away on the boom, and, stillrefusing to glance shoreward, Ali began to help prepare the next inline. He tried to console himself with the thought that LieutenantPorter was still in command and nobody would dare challenge him, but inhis heart he knew that it was not so. If camels were not wanted inAmerica, they could not be here. Nobody could force their acceptance.
Then, as always when facing a problem that seemed to have no solution,Ali stopped thinking about it. He knew from experience that it was notwise to borrow trouble. The rising sun shone on not just one but manydifferent paths that led in many different directions. One could alwaysfind the right way if he was properly diligent in the search.
One by one, the camels were landed until only Ben Akbar was left. Alifinally glanced shoreward, to discover that Lieutenant Porter and hismen had rigged a picket line, a long rope stretched across the pier, andthey were tethering the camels to it as they were lowered andunharnessed. Ali saw also that the herd was again becoming restless, butthis time there was no cause for concern.
The crowd was still in an uproar and such horses as had not alreadybroken away were trying their best to do so. The camels had definitelydecided that whatever might be bothering everything else would notdisturb them. However, after many weeks at sea, at last they were onceagain on firm footing. That was very exciting.
His companions stood back while Ali alone harnessed Ben Akbar, then tookhold of the boom and rode with him as the great _dalul_ was transferredfrom the lighter to the pier. He saw, even as he descended, that thetethered camels were fast becoming unmanageable. They both smelled andsaw the earth that lay just beyond the pier and they were frantic tofeel it. For all his skill, not even Mimico would be able to maintaincontrol much longer.
The spectators--those with horses had wisely left them behind--had comenearer and were arranged in a rough U at the end of the pier and oneither side. Lieutenant Porter, who looked more worried than he hadduring the stormiest part of the voyage, paced nervously back andforth. Again and again he searched the crowd, as though expecting tofind someone who should be present but was not.
Keeping a firm grip on Ben Akbar's lead rope, because he knew that big_dalul_ was as anxious as any of the rest to feel earth under his feet,Ali turned to study the crowd, too. Except for a group distinguished bytheir uniforms, and further marked as soldiers by their arms and preciseformation, he learned nothing except that Americans wear outlandishclothes.
Gwynne Heap came onto the pier and Porter asked anxiously, "Will you seeif you can find Wayne? He should have met us."
"Right," the other assented.
Gwynne Heap walked to the end of the pier and mingled with the crowd. Asecond after he disappeared, Ben Akbar shivered convulsively and Aliknew what to expect.
"I know you long to feel the earth, for I have a similar yearning," hesaid. "But wait until the time is here and the word is spoken. Do notbreak and run as a half-trained baggage camel might. Do not shame me, mybrother."
Ben Akbar quieted, but the rest of the camels would not be soothed. Theysurged forward, and there was no way to know which one broke the picketline because all were lunging. Tether ropes slipped off either end ofthe broken line as the herd ran forward.
Maintaining a firm grip on Ben Akbar's tether rope and keeping pace withthe _dalul_, Ali ran with them. He was not worried. This was noreasonless stampede that might be expected to overrun whatever lay inits path because fear-crazed camels would take no reckoning ofobstacles. These camels were running for the same reason that a younghorse runs when, after a winter spent in a confining stall, it isfinally freed in a green pasture. The people on the pier were in nodanger.
The spectators, however, thought otherwise. Most of them were thoroughlyfamiliar with horses and mules, but camels were as alien as dinosaurs.Obviously, these berserk beasts were bent on destruction.
A man shouted in fear and the contagion spread. Those directly in thepath of the running herd surged away, crowding those on either side andcompounding the confusion. Some idiot, fortunately he was too excited totake proper aim, drew and fired a revolver. Then Ali's eyes widened inhorror.
Through the gap left open when the crowd parted, the soldiers came onthe run. Their arms were ready. Their obvious intention was to avertcatastrophe by shooting the camels before they overran the crowd. Aliheard Lieutenant Porter's outraged bellow.
/> "No! No, you fools!"
If they heard the command, the soldiers ignored it. Dispersing smartly,those in front knelt and those behind were preparing to shoot over theirheads when a newcomer appeared.
Riding a sleek black horse which he handled so skillfully that somehowit seemed an extension of himself, he came through the same gap thesoldiers had used. Unmistakably a professional soldier, his presentactions proclaimed that he was accustomed to emergencies. He wheeled hishorse in front of the troops and snapped an order.
Though they had ignored Lieutenant Porter, either because they hadn'theard him or because Porter wore the Navy uniform, the soldiers gavethis officer instant obedience. Falling back to either side, they formeda lane that let the running camels through but kept the spectators out.
Seconds after the run started, Ali and Ben Akbar left the pier and stoodon the soil of America.
Back on the pier, Lieutenant Porter heaved a mighty sigh of relief. He gaveformal command of the camel herd over to Major Henry Wayne, of the UnitedStates Army. Arriving in the nick of time, Wayne's prompt and vigorousaction averted the massacre of these animals and insured establishmentof the most colorful and most unique method of transportation everattempted in the United States--the Camel Corps.
* * * * *
At the very rear of the caravan, where he had been posted by Major Wayneso that he might keep a watchful eye on all the other camels, a puzzledand apprehensive Ali sat lightly in Ben Akbar's saddle. Watching thecaravan, only forty-one animals in all, imposed no strain. From Yusuf,the belled leader who swung along as placidly as though the sevenhundred and fifty pounds he bore on his pack saddle had no weight atall, to Iba, the little female who walked just ahead of Ben Akbar andhad been relieved of all pack-carrying because of anticipatedmotherhood, none had any rebellious ideas or any inclination to doanything except walk along until they came to their destination.
Ali saw them as one learns to see the very familiar. With no need forthe fussy solicitude and anxious fretting that marked the soldiersassigned to duty with the camels, he would instantly discern anydeparture from the normal and immediately thereafter he would be makingthe proper countermove. Not required even to think about the camels,Ali's thoughts were occupied by more troublesome matters.
In this America, to which camels had been brought with so much troubleand at such vast expense, they had been granted a hostile reception and,with very few exceptions, there had been nothing but hostility since.Even those who came only to stare--and throngs of the curious appearedwherever the camels were taken--did not like what they saw.
It was true that camels just naturally frightened horses and mules, andthus were responsible for an unrehearsed but extremely lively rodeowherever they made an unexpected appearance. In an attempt to avoid suchincidents, a rider preceded the caravan and warned all that camels wereen route. But the rider never succeeded in warning everyone, and some ofthose he did advise insisted on staying around with their horses ormules, to see for themselves whether he spoke the truth.
Ali managed a flitting grin as he thought of an incident that hadfollowed the unloading. The excited camels, savoring their first happytaste of land after such a long time at sea, were permitted to raceabout and frolic as they pleased until they tired themselves out andcould again be herded. Then they were taken to a corral built especiallyfor them.
The corral was large enough, and as an enclosure for horses or mules itwould have been satisfactory enough. In this land, however, conventionalbuilding materials were both scarce and expensive. Since prickly-pearcactus was abundant, the builders had used it to construct their fence.Far from being repelled by such a thorny barrier, the camels happily ateit!
Regardless of other considerations, the very fact that they could eatsuch fodder was another indication that they were well adapted to thisAmerican Southwest. Ali already knew that, although he might encounterproblems different from any previously experienced, there'd be noneincapable of solution. Nor was there anything horses and mules could dothat camels couldn't do better. A good pack camel was capable of bearingfive or six times as much as the best pack horse or mule, and, day forday, he'd carry it farther. He would keep on going, at the same steadypace, past dry water holes or across drought-shriveled areas where lackof water would drive a horse or mule to madness. Although it was oftennecessary to carry hay and grain for other beasts of burden, a camelwould always live off the country.
These camels would do all anyone expected from them and then surpassexpectations, but Ali sighed dolefully as he thought of what had been andwhat was. Even Major Wayne had been unable to counteract a spontaneouspublic rejection of these beasts from a far land. Accosted by skepticswho doubted a camel's ability to pack anything at all, Wayne had balesof hay packed on a kneeling camel. The enormous load totaled more thantwelve hundred pounds, but, with no hesitation and no visible strain,the camel rose and walked away with the load when ordered to do so.
Compared with the pack animals they knew, it was an incredible feat.But, although they themselves were eyewitnesses, the onlookers seemed toregard what they had seen as the trick of some circus master. Seeing,they neither accepted nor approved.
The real trouble, Ali thought sadly, was nothing that had yet appearedor would appear on the surface. Although this country was markedlysimilar to his own native land, there were fundamental differences thathad nothing to do with topography. They lay in the hearts and traditionsof people who, for past generations, had looked to the horse, the muleand the ox for help in building up their land.
With very few exceptions, even the soldiers assigned to the Camel Corpsresented their new duties. For the most part, they were former muleskinners who had been chosen because of their outstanding ability tohandle mules. Almost to a man, they yearned to be rid of camels and backwith their mules. Only Major Wayne and a very few others had completeconfidence in the proposed Camel Corps. Fortunately, some of these wereso influential that they must be heard.
Presently, Ali caught his first glimpse of Camp Verde, the military postwhere the camels were to be held until a major expedition was organized.His heart grew lighter and his troubles less.
Obviously, Camp Verde had been planned by someone who knew camels.Glancing briefly at a cluster of adobe buildings, Ali centered intentscrutiny on the khan, or camel corral. Constructed of stone, wood andtimber, it was patterned after the time-tested khans of Ali's nativecountry. Rectangular, the north wall angled outward. The gate was inthis wall and a house for the chief camel handler stood beside the gate.Spacious enough for five times as many camels, the corral differed in anotable respect from most khans Ali had seen. It was sparkling clean.
A few camels, some with pack and some with riding saddles, stood hereand there about the camp and more were visible in the khan. Evidentlythis was the herd Mimico had mentioned, the thirty-three previouslyimported. The new arrivals were halted, stripped of their burdens andherded into the khan.
With an affectionate parting slap for Ben Akbar, Ali turned to face astrange camel handler. Arrived with the first camels and presentlyserving as interpreter, he already had Mimico and the six other handlersin tow.
"You are to come with me," he announced.
He escorted the newcomers to a building and lined them up before a desk,behind which sat a bored-looking clerk. The clerk inscribed each man'sname in his records while the interpreter told each about the wages hewould receive. Ali, last in line, presently faced the clerk.
"You are to be paid twenty dollars a month and receive full rations,"the interpreter said.
Without looking up, the clerk asked, "Name?"
"Hadji Ali," Ali answered.
"What?" the clerk asked.
"Hadji Ali," Ali repeated.
The clerk wrote with his goose quill, and, still without looking up, heflipped the book around for Ali's inspection. Unable to read or write,but with no intention of admitting that while the interpreter mightoverhear, Ali scanned his written name.
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"Right?" the clerk asked.
Ali nodded approval. Thus did Hadji Ali cease to be. From that moment,not only as long as he lived but as history would record him after hisdeath, Ali would be known by the name the clerk had written.
It was _Hi Jolly_.