Then footsteps began to approach, softly, cautiously. Jaffa altered his tone of voice. One could almost imagine that he was imploring someone, for his own safety, to throw away his rifle, just as a father might have done. We heard the noise of a rifle falling on to the rocks, then another and another, and, before Webster and I realized it, dim, cloaked figures came up to the gap and stopped there, as if frightened and uncertain what to do.
My heart was in my mouth then, and I said as firmly as I could: "Ma kattle kum! Ist agel!" Webster chipping in with a quaver in his voice, and the two marines and Griffiths bellowing these words behind and above us.
For a moment the Arabs still hesitated, but then they commenced to pass through the gap between Webster and myself.
One, two, half a dozen, a dozen panting figures glided through, and more came—twenty or thirty more—and all the time Jaffa's voice sounded—as calmly as if he were aboard the "B.A."—"Khalli bunduk 'ak! khalli bunduk 'ak! Ma kattle kum! ma kattle kum!"
Then I heard Griffiths moving among the rocks overhead, probably shifting himself into a more comfortable position, and the fool must have had his finger on his trigger, because his rifle went off, right in our faces, almost blinding us.
Of course the approaching Arabs thought that we were firing at those who had passed through the gap, and believed that they were going to be murdered.
I cursed Griffiths, and shouted: "Ma kattle kum! ma kattle kum!"
Jaffa yelled to us not to shoot—but no more Arabs came.
Out of the darkness Jaffa's voice sounded, higher pitched now: "Khalli bunduk 'ak," and voices at his feet answered him, angry voices, despairing voices; a crowd of Arabs seemed to be collecting all along the path, and people were calling up from below. I realized that they were refusing to part with their rifles, preferring to have a chance for their lives, or to die, if they had to, with them in their hands.
We were all shouting: "Ma kattle kum! Ist agel!" The two marines, knowing that something was wrong, ran to us.