Author: Henryk Sienkiewicz
Category: Nonfiction
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might not observe him, he determined tocreep over quietly to the girl's camel, not for the purpose ofescaping, but to give her assistance and encouragement. But he hadbarely extended his limbs from under him and stretched out his hands tograsp the edge of Nell's saddle, when the giant hand of Idris grabbedhim. The Sudanese snatched him like a feather, laid him before him andbegan to tie him with a palm rope, and after binding his hands, placedhim across the saddle. Stas pressed his teeth and resisted as well ashe could, but in vain. Having a parched throat and a mouth filled withsand he could not convince Idris that he desired only to go to thegirl's assistance and did not want to escape.
After a while, however, feeling that he was suffocating, he began toshout in a stifled voice:
"Save the little 'bint'! Save the little 'bint'!"
But the Arabs preferred to think of their own lives. The blasts becameso terrible that they could not sit on the camels nor could the camelsstand in their places. The two Bedouins with Chamis and Gebhr leaped tothe ground, in order to hold the animals by cords attached to themouthpieces under their lower jaws. Idris, shoving Stas to the rear ofthe saddle, did the same. The animals spread out their legs as widelyas possible in order to resist the furious whirlwind, but they lackedstrength, and the caravan, scourged by gravel which cut like hundredsof whips and the sand which pricked like pins, began now slowly, thenhurriedly, to turn about and retreat under the pressure. At times thewhirlwind tore holes under their feet, then again the sand and gravelbounding from the sides of the camels would form, in the twinkling ofan eye, mounds reaching to their knees and higher. In this manner hourpassed after hour. The danger became more and more terrible. Idrisfinally understood that the only salvation was to remount the camelsand fly with the whirlwind. But this would be returning in thedirection of Fayum, where Egyptian Courts and the gallows were waitingfor them.
"Ha! it cannot be helped," thought Idris. "The hurricane will also stopthe pursuit and when it ceases, we will again proceed southward."
And he began to shout that they should resume their seats on the camels.
But at this moment something happened which entirely changed thesituation.
Suddenly, the dusky, almost black, clouds of sand were illumined with alivid light. The darkness then became still deeper, but at the sametime there arose, slumbering on high and awakened by the whirlwind,thunder; it began to roll between the Arabian and Libyandeserts,--powerful, threatening, one might say, angry. It seemed as iffrom the heavens, mountains and rocks were tumbling down. The deafeningpeal intensified, grew, shook the world, began to roam all over thewhole horizon; in places it burst with a force as terrible as if theshattered vault of heaven had fallen upon earth and afterwards it againrolled with a hollow, continual rumble; again it burst forth, againbroke, it blinded with lightning, and struck with thunderbolts,descended, rose, and pealed continuously.* [* The author heard in thevicinity of Aden thunder which lasted without intermission for half anhour. See "Letters from Africa."]
The wind subsided as if overawed, and when after a long time somewherein the immeasurable distance the chain-bolt of heaven rattled, a deadlystillness followed the thunder.
But after a while in that silence the voice of the guide resounded. "God is above the whirlwind and the storm. We are saved."
They started. But they were enveloped by a night so impenetrable thatthough the camels ran close together, the men could not see each otherand had to shout aloud every little while in order not to lose oneanother. From time to time glaring lightning, livid or red, illuminatedthe sandy expanse, but afterwards fell a darkness so thick as to bealmost palpable. Notwithstanding the hope, which the voice of the guidepoured into the hearts of the Sudanese, uneasiness did not yet leavethem, because they moved blindly, not knowing in truth in whichdirection they were going;--whether they were moving around in a circleor were returning northward. The animals stumbled against each otherevery little while and could not run swiftly, and besides they pantedstrangely, and so loudly that it seemed to the riders that the wholedesert panted from fear. Finally fell the first drops of rain, whichalmost always follows a hurricane, and at the same time the voice ofthe guide broke out amidst the darkness:
"Khor!"
They were above a ravine. The camels paused at the brink; after whichthey began to step carefully towards the bottom.
IX
The khor was wide, covered on the bottom with stones among which grewdwarfish, thorny shrubs. A high rock full of crevices and fissuresformed its southern wall. The Arabs discerned all this by the light ofquiet but more and more frequent lightning flashes. Soon they alsodiscovered in the rocky wall a kind of shallow cave or, rather, a broadniche, in which people could easily be harbored and, in case of a greatdownpour, could find shelter. The camels also could be comfortablylodged upon a slight elevation close by the niche. The Bedouins and twoSudanese removed from them their burdens and saddles, so that theymight rest well, and Chamis, son of Chadigi, occupied himself in themeantime with pulling thorny shrubs for a fire. Big single drops fellcontinually but the downpour began only when the party lay down tosleep. At first it was like strings of water, afterwards ropes, and inthe end it seemed as if whole rivers were flowing from invisibleclouds. Such rains, which occur only once in several years, swell, evenin winter time, the water of the canals and the Nile, and in Aden fillimmense cisterns, without which the city could not exist at all. Stasnever in his life had seen anything like it. At the bottom of the khorthe stream began to rumble; the entrance to the niche was veiled as ifby a curtain of water; around could be heard only splashing andspluttering.
The camels stood on an elevation and the downpour at most would givethem a bath; nevertheless the Arabs peered out every little while tosee if any danger threatened the animals. To the others it wasagreeable to sit in the cave, safe from danger, by the bright fire ofbrushwood, which was not yet soaked. On their faces joy was depicted.Idris, who immediately after their arrival had untied Stas' hands sothat he could eat, now turned to him and smiling contemptuously said:
"The Mahdi is greater than all white sorcerers. He subdued thehurricane and sent rain."
Stas did not reply for he was occupied with Nell, who was barely alive.First he shook the sand from her hair, afterwards directed old Dinah tounpack the things which she, in the belief that the children were goingto their parents, brought with her from Fayum. He took a towel, wet it,and wiped the little girl's eyes and face with it. Dinah could not dothis as seeing but poorly with one eye only, she lost her sight almostentirely during the hurricane and washing her heated eyelids did notbring her any relief. Nell submitted passively to all of Stas' efforts;she only gazed at him like an exhausted bird, and only when he removedher shoes to spill out the sand and afterwards when he smoothed out thesaddle-cloths did she throw her arms around his neck.
His heart overflowed with great pity. He felt that he was a guardian,an older brother, and at that time Nell's only protector, and he feltat the same time that he loved this little sister immensely, far morethan ever before. He loved her indeed in Port Said, but he regarded heras a "baby"; so, for instance, it never even occurred to him to kissher hand in bidding her good night. If any one had suggested such anidea to him he would have thought that a bachelor, who had finished histhirteenth year, could not without derogation to his dignity and age doanything like that. But, at present, a common distress awoke in himdormant tenderness; so he kissed not one but both hands of the littlegirl.
Lying down, he continued to think of her and determined to perform someextraordinary deed to snatch her from captivity. He was prepared foreverything, even for wounds and death; only with this littlereservation secreted in his heart, that the wounds should not be toopainful, and that the death should not be an inevitable and real death,as in such case he could not witness the happiness of Nell whenliberated. Afterwards he began to ponder upon the most heroic manner ofsaving her, but his thoughts became confused. For a while it seemed tohim that whole clouds of sand were burying him; afterwards t
hat all thecamels were piling on his head,--and he fell asleep.
The Arabs, exhausted by the battle with the hurricane, after attendingto the camels, also fell into a sound sleep. The fire became extinctand a dusk prevailed in the niche. Soon the snores of the menresounded, and from outside came the splash of the downpour and theroar of the waters clashing over the stones on the bottom of the khor.In this manner the night passed.
But before dawn Stas was awakened from a heavy sleep by a feeling ofcold. It appeared that water which accumulated in the fissures on thetop of the rock slowly passed through some cleft in the vault of thecave and began finally to trickle onto his head. The boy sat up on thesaddle-cloth and for some time struggled with sleep; he did not realizewhere he was and what had happened to him.
After a while, however, consciousness returned to him.
"Aha!" he thought, "yesterday there