"Snakes alive!" ejaculated the colonel; "but what have we here?" his eyes fixed upon the two men.
"Some person of note, evidently," remarked his friend the judge, as he saw the foremost of these individuals mount a richly caparisoned horse which was held in readiness for him, and approach in a dignified and almost royal manner.
"This king of the desert is evidently some European renegade who is challenging the right of other nations to cross his domain without his permission," said the soldier.
"He is some daring pilot, at any rate," replied the justiciary.
"I wonder now what he intends to do with us," observed the other.
"Why, he intends to plunder us, of course," replied his companion. "What else could be his motive?"
The captives were not long to be left in doubt as to the proceedings of this daring freebooter. Raising the megaphone which he had used in the air so effectively, he shouted in perfectly good English:--
"Abandon airship!"
And to make this order immediately effective, the desert king ordered Max to see that every member of the great liner, passengers and crew, were immediately assembled before him. The navigating officer and the captain were the last to leave the vessel; they did so unwillingly, and not without a measure of compulsion at the point of a revolver. The skipper's looks as he fixed them upon this desert freebooter astride the fiery steed, conveyed to the brigand much more than mere words could have expressed.
Fixing him with his keen, malicious eyes, the pirate said: "Are you the captain of this vessel?"