This they did by suddenly setting upon the two warders outside, and, before they could give the alarm, binding, gagging, and disarming them.
Then, mounting one of the sentry-boxes, Jack and Harry, being the lightest and most agile members of the party, contrived thus to get over the gate, and drop down inside.
Here, with great labour, they forced back the ponderous bolts, and the Arabs poured into the building.
The alarm was taken, and the old castle of Alla-hissar, as it was called, was all in an uproar.
Gaolers and soldiers, utterly taken aback by this sudden onslaught, made but ineffectual resistance.
Ere they could grasp their weapons and put themselves in order of defence, the Bedouins were on to them, striking them down, forcing away their keys, and ill-treating them in proportion to the resistance to the attack they made.
"Tell me, slave," thundered the Arab chief, to one of the gaolers, "in which cell my brother Hadj Maimoun is confined?"
"In—in No. 6," answered the man, trembling for his life.
"Art thou sure? Deceive me, dog, and thou diest," continued the chief, threateningly placing the muzzle of his pistol to the man's forehead.
"I swear, by the holy tomb of Mecca."