“Together,” said Helen softly; “yes, together we cannot fail, and even if we were separated for a time we should still be together. Mentally and spiritually we are so one that no one and nothing can ever separate the real us. I—what’s that?”
There had come the sharp report of a rifle from some spot far ahead of them in the desert, followed immediately by the sound of a great disturbance in the camp.
“Excellency! hasten thy footsteps,” cried a camel driver who ran to meet them as they hurried towards the camp. “Eblis, the black devil, has possessed the senses of his offspring, the camels. Hobbled, they essay to flee back upon the path by which they have come; fallen, they fight where they lay until the ground is not a fit sight for the eyes of our lady. Hasten, Excellency; our master, full of wrath, calleth his Excellency’s name, with much groaning of spirit.”
“My God!” exclaimed Ralph Trenchard a few minutes later as he stood looking at the camels. “How ghastly!”
To rest both man and beast the camp had been pitched for a week near a well sunk many years ago by Arabs, beneath a clump of palm trees which, in its isolated fertility, they had recognized as the sure sign of water somewhere beneath the surface.
The camels had been unloaded so that the packs could be more evenly distributed and their backs attended to before starting on the last and most trying lap of the expedition; they had lain contentedly sprawling, or had stood as contentedly ruminating, as near the brackish well as they could get, until fear had swept through the whole herd.
There is no explaining the fear which at any moment, in any place, will suddenly grip this most unimaginative and most stupid of all beasts. In the middle of a crowded thoroughfare, as when alone in the empty desert, it will stop for no reason whatever and begin to shiver, with head outstretched, eyes rolling, and forelegs planted wide as though to resist the onslaught of some unseen enemy.
It is of no avail to kick or beat the terror-stricken creature, and for the following reason it is most unwise to approach too near its formidable mouth. It will stand and shiver until it comes to wellnigh dropping to its knees, and then, with a sudden quick movement of the long neck, will snap at something only visible to its eyes. The fear then passes, and, demoniacal rage filling the vacuum created by the passing of its fear, it will turn and savage the nearest object at hand, be it man or fellow-beast or inanimate substance, until, its wrath appeased, it proceeds calmly, indifferently upon its contemptuous way.
“Excellency! Excellency!” wailed Abdul, whose garments hung in shreds. “Something which neither I nor my brethren could see walked amongst them an hour ago. They became convulsed with fear of the unknown, Excellency, and shook in their terror, until some fell to the ground, and, being bound, remained there foaming at the mouth. Then, at the sound of firing, Eblis the devil entered their black hearts, and they fought, all of them, those that lay upon the ground biting at the dust, those that stood tearing the hair and flesh from each other’s back until the place runs with blood, as your Excellency sees. I have done my best, but neither I nor my brethren will take another step into this desert, which is the abiding place of all evil.”
“I don’t blame them,” said Ralph Trenchard to himself, when, having given orders for the tending of the wounded beasts, he went to report the mutiny to Sir Richard.