“That’s his lookout! Didn’t we rescue him from the shark, which would have snapped him up when the tide rose another few inches? How has he repaid us? By trying to do for us. And it isn’t as if he were a Moor, serving his country. He hasn’t an ounce of patriotism in his composition. He’s simply on the make. He wanted to get a good haul out of the sheikh for giving us away, and upon my word, considering all things, I think he gets off pretty easily. If he’d treated Moors as he has treated us, he’d be dying a particularly slow death by this time. I don’t think we need distress ourselves about Salathiel ben Ezra.”
Leaving the Jew to his solitary reflections, the two made their way back to the airship and began to overhaul the machinery. Meanwhile Abdul had gone to the summit of the hill to bring down one or two things which had been left there. He returned with the news that he had seen in the far distance a single horseman slowly climbing the steep hill-path to the village.
“That’s our man, depend upon it,” said Oliphant. “He’ll give us away, Dorrell, as sure as fate.”
“What can’t be cured must be endured. We could catch him, I dare say; but we haven’t any too much fodder for the engine, and we should certainly be seen. He must tell the sheikh all he knows, and, upon my word, I should like to hear his account of us. It would probably be very funny.”
“But it will put the sheikh on his guard.”
“My dear fellow, you haven’t enough faith in the terrors of the unknown, or the misknown. The Moor’s story will be such a mass of exaggeration, ignorance, and superstition, that they’ll be in a state of jumps, and dread the apparition ten times more even than if it came upon them without preparation.”
“Then why go to the trouble of preventing the Jew from getting into the village?”
“Just because he knows the thing, you see, and would stick to the bare truth. His story would lay more stress on the object of our visit; the Moor’s will be mainly about the airship. Really, he may help us in the end.”
They spent the afternoon in a thorough cleaning of the engines. Once or twice Salathiel showed himself at the mouth of the cave, and Tom fancied he saw him attempt to signal with his hands. But when Oliphant made a movement towards his carbine, the Jew retreated hastily into the interior and appeared no more.
At last all was ready for the voyage. But several hours must yet pass before the ascent could be made. Tom had decided that it would be unwise to arrive at the kasbah until the Moors were either in their first sleep, or, if on their guard, were somewhat tired and nervous with watching. Learning this, Abdul, who had been making observations during the afternoon, left the two Englishmen and was not seen for a time. When he returned, he carried a couple of hares, explaining that he had snared them in the wood that lay half a mile beyond their resting-place. He produced also from the folds of his garment a number of figs and dates which he had plucked from the trees.