“Gott sei Dank!” cried Schwab again, as the airship rose steadily above the roof.
As if they had known by some intuition what was happening, the Moors at this moment made a rush, and before the airship had sailed a hundred yards from the kasbah, figures appeared on the roof. A moment afterwards one or two shots were fired, but they were without effect; the airship sailed on, pursued by yells of baffled rage.
In order to draw away pursuit from his real direction, Tom headed the airship north-east, and it was not until he was well out of sight of the kasbah that he put the helm up and steered straight for the hill-top.
“We’ve come out of this uncommonly well,” said Oliphant. “I was on thorns all the time you and Abdul were absent.”
“We’re not out of it yet,” rejoined Tom. “The fuel’s nearly done. These comings and goings have used a terrible lot of the paste, and I doubt whether there’s enough to make one journey to the yacht—let alone two. I didn’t reckon on another passenger besides Ingleton.”
“Who is this freak? You seem to know him?” Oliphant spoke quietly: Herr Schwab was lying against the rail of the car only a few feet away.
“Met him once. His name’s Schwab; he’s an agent for the company I get my powder from. Haven’t had time yet to ask him how he got into this mess. I say, it looks as if a storm is coming up.”
“Yes, the wind’s rising, and the clouds are scudding along at a great pace. How will she behave in a storm?”
“Don’t know, and don’t want to know just now. We should be in a pretty hobble if the machine were to get smashed up altogether.”
While Tom and Oliphant were thus talking in low tones, Herr Schwab was deeply ruminating. He had been struck, on the roof of the kasbah, by something familiar in the speech of this Englishman who was masquerading as a Moor, but in the agitation of the moment he could not sift his recollections. Now, however, safe in the car of an aeroplane, sailing with almost imperceptible motion through the air, he was taking the opportunity to search his memory. Just as the airship arrived above the hill-top where Sir Mark Ingleton was waiting, and Tom was preparing to descend, he was startled by a loud exclamation from the German.