When he reached the main body of the Bedouins they opened out to let him pass and placed him in the front rank, face to face with their captive chief.
CHAPTER XXIX.
The first thought of M. de Morin, as soon as he saw that only about a dozen yards separated him from his friends, was to speak to them.
"You are indeed good to come to my rescue," said he, "for one moment later and they would have shot me. But when the report that you had seized upon their chief reached the ears of my gaolers, they postponed my execution so that I might play the part of hostage."
The Nomads, when first they heard their prisoner speaking, were silent, expecting to be able to understand what he said. When, however, they found that they could not even catch the sense of his words, one of them hit him a violent blow with the butt-end of his musket as a hint to be silent.
M. Périères at once told one of his men to hit the chief precisely as M. de Morin had been hit. The Bedouins, though horrified at this indignity, understood the lesson and took the hint.
"You are evidently at home with the lex talionis," exclaimed M. de Morin, imperturbable as ever, and apparently regardless of the blow he had just received, "accept my congratulations. The thanks I owe you we will postpone, as at this particular moment I am not exactly in a position to express myself as I should wish. Suffice it to say that ever since I have seen your dear, old, familiar figures over there I have been half wild to get to you."
He was interrupted once more. An Arab had conceived the idea of making a sort of gag with a piece of old cloth, and of inserting it in the prisoner's mouth.
"A gag for the chief!" cried M. Périères, turning towards his men.
His order was on the point of being obeyed, but the Bedouins reflected that it would be an advantage to them to hear what their leader might have to say, and so they abandoned the gag just as they had retired from the butt-end business.