“Mr. Salathiel,” he said. “I don’t exactly know what your game is, but we think it’s advisable you should have a little rest after your arduous work with the mule. There’s a very comfortable cave some eighty feet above your head. The way to it is rather steep, but with our assistance you can mount there, and remain in perfect safety until we can fetch you and restore you to your friends.”
“I protest you treat me badly,” said Salathiel, his mien expressing mingled fear and indignation. “I am a peaceable merchant, and was on my way to treat with the sheikh of Ain Afroo for a supply of carpets from Rabat, when——”
“Still, you must be fatigued,” said Tom. “We also have business with the sheikh, and I fear that until ours is completed yours must wait. Ours is a prior engagement, Mr. Salathiel. Now if you will please climb the hillside. The first steps are easy; we will help you when you find further ascent difficult.”
For some moments the Jew tried entreaty, cajolery, even bribery—in vain. With a very bad grace he began to clamber up the rocks, reaching at length a ledge some twenty-five feet below the cave. The hill was here almost perpendicular, and when Salathiel looked at the wall of rock above him he pleaded again with great volubility to be allowed to go his way. But Abdul was already swarming up with a rope between his teeth. The Englishmen watched him with admiration. Sticking fingers and toes into the slightest crevice, taking advantage of every little irregularity in the surface, he accomplished what had seemed from below an impossible feat. When he reached the cave, he tied one end of the rope to a spur of rock at the entrance, and let down the other to Oliphant, who by its assistance managed to follow. Salathiel for a time absolutely refused to mount; but when Tom pointed out that in the cave he would at least be safe, while no one could answer for what might happen if he wandered about the country alone, he at length allowed the rope to be wound about him, and was hauled up by the two above. He was supplied with a pot of water from the hill stream and a half-dozen biscuits, then Oliphant descended, followed by Abdul with the rope.
“I don’t think he’ll attempt the descent,” said Tom. “It requires more nerve than I fancy he’s got.”
“It doesn’t matter much if he does, does it? He won’t try it while we are hereabout. He’ll hardly try it in the dark when we are gone; and if he does, and gets safely to the bottom, he’ll take so long finding his way to the village that we shall have done our business there—if we’re going to do it at all.”
“Still, I think we’ll make sure. There are one or two bits of rock sticking out that give a slight foothold; Abdul may as well knock them off. He won’t want them himself when we come back to release the Jew.”
“Suppose we don’t come back!”
“You mean, suppose we come to grief ourselves! Well, he’ll be able to signal for help from the mouth of the cave to-morrow; some of his cronies are sure to wonder what’s become of him and be prowling about. It won’t matter to us then, for we shall have either succeeded or failed.”
“Suppose we can’t come back, and nobody sees his signals!”