Part 9 (1/2)

But the treacherous flyer was busy elsewhere, it seemed, for the _Meteorite_ did not appear, and as the sun sank low, d.i.c.k breathed more freely and gave orders for the last meal before the battle.

Down in the Arab camp, Abdul and Suli were also watching anxiously for the plane and cursing Jess Slythe, who had disappointed them.

”By the beard of the Prophet!” cried the Arab chief, ”that dog has betrayed us.”

”What trickery can he be up to?” mused Suli, staring for the hundredth time at the heavens.

”Allah alone knows what the knave is doing! But it is for no profit but his own.”

”How can he expect us to storm these cliffs without his help?”

exclaimed Abdul.

”We would be crushed by stones and pierced by arrows,” said Suli.

”Nothing for it but to wait until tomorrow. Today, it is too late to even try.”

”We will send out scouts to see whether there is an easier pa.s.sage beyond the cliffs.--A way where we could go up on our horses and take the savages by surprise.”

”They are stubborn, hard-fighting fellows,” said Suli. ”By the Prophet, Abdul, we will find it hard to make slaves of such men.”

”You are right. They are not like the black fellows we have captured in the past. These men were not born to be conquered. We will have to fight for all the profit we make in this venture.”

The two leaders of the Bedouin slave traders scowled at the cliffs that loomed so high above the spring where they had camped. From the grim black edges, arose a fringe of smoke; the fires where the Gorols and the Taharans were roasting game for the feast before the battle.

The sky had turned flaming red, the glory of the sunset was over the desert and a deliciously cool breeze followed the parching heat of the day.

At the same time the old Gorol Chief, Wabiti, was squatting cross-legged in the rude shelter where the ex-queen Vanga had taken refuge. Both of the former rulers had repeated their grievances and grumbled about the changes in the tribe until they were in a mood of revolt.

”If only I had my warriors again!” muttered Vanga.

”And if I could lead my brave Gorols, as I did when I was younger, things would be different!”

”Tahara brought us woe!”

”He destroyed the Great Gorol!”

”Now he sets me to spinning and weaving! Is that fit work for a queen?”

”And he has made Kulki leader in my place,” growled Wabiti. ”Only a few Gorols obey my orders, and they are the weaklings of the tribe.”

”We have come upon evil days, O Wabiti.”

”Evil days, O Vanga. I do not hold with these new weapons like bows and arrows.”

”Nor I. When Cimbula was my chief adviser, all was happy in the land.”

”Would that Cimbula were here,” grunted Wabiti.

Suddenly as if he had been waiting to be called, the witch-doctor leaped from the shadowy forest and capered in a wild dance before them.