Part 14 (1/2)
Above hireen line of the orange groves of Araish--the reputed Garden of the Hesperides of the ancients, where the golden apples grew A mile or so to eastere dotted the huts and tents of a Bedouin encampment on the fertile ee, towards Ceuta
Nearer, astride of a grey rock an al with a cord of camel-hair about his shaven head, intermittently made melancholy and unmelodious sounds upon a reed pipe
From somewhere in the blue vault of heaven overhead ca of a lark, fro of the tideless sea
Sakr-el-Bahr lay prone upon a cloak of woven cae of the shelf of cliff to which he had cliro from the Sus both naked of all save white loin-cloths, theirsunshi+ne of mid-May They wielded crude fans fashi+oned fro leaves of date palently to and fro above their lord's head, to give him air and to drive off the flies
Sakr-el-Bahr was in the very prith of body, with a deep Herculean torso and lith His hawk-nosed face ending in a black forked beard was of a swarthiness accentuated to exaggeration by the snohite turban wound about his brow His eyes, by contrast, were singularly light He wore over his white shi+rt a long green tunic of very light silk, woven along its edges with arabesques in gold; a pair of loose calico breeches reached to his knees; his brown muscular calves were naked, and his feet were shod in a pair of Moorish shoes of cri and very pointed toes He had no weapons other than the heavy-bladed knife with a jewelled hilt that was thrust into his girdle of plaited leather
A yard or tay on his left lay another supine figure, elbows on the ground, and hands arched above his brow to shade his eyes, gazing out to sea He, too, was a tall and powerful lint of armour from the chain mail in which his body was cased, and froreen turban
Beside him lay an enormous curved scimitar in a sheath of brown leather that was heavy with steel ornaments His face was handsome, and bearded, but swarthier far than his co fine hands were al there he looked down the slope, clad with stunted cork-trees and evergreen oaks; here and there was the golden gleareen and living scarlet of a cactus Below him about the caves of Hercules was a space of sea whose clear depths shi+fted with its slow reen of emerald to all the colours of the opal A little farther off behind a projecting screen of rock that foralleys, each of fifty oars, and a sht heave of the water, the vast yellow oars standing out almost horizontally froantic bird That they lurked there either in concealment or in aulls noisy and insolent
Sakr-el-Bahr looked out to sea across the straits towards Tarifa and the faint distant European coastline just visible through the lilance was not concerned with that hazy horizon; it went no further than a fine white-sailed shi+p that, close-hauled, was beating up the straits so from the east, and with every foot of canvas spread to catch it she stood as close to it as was possible Nearer she came on her larboard tack, and not a doubt but herthe hostile African littoral for a sight of those desperate rovers who haunted it and who took toll of every Christian shi+p that ventured over-near Sakr-el-Bahr salleys could be suspected, how innocent must look the sun-bathed shore of Africa to the Christian skipper's diligently searching spy-glass And there froht, like the hawk they had dubbed him, poised in the cobalt heavens to plureat white shi+p and waited until she should co distance
A pro of a lee that reached out almost a mile from shore From the watcher's eyrie the line of demarcation was sharply drawn; they could see the point at which the white crests of the hipped wavelets ceased and the water became smoother Did she but venture as far southward on her present tack, she would be slow to go about again, and that should be their opportunity And all unconscious of the lurking peril she held steadily to her course, until not half a mile remained between her and that inauspicious lee
Excitement stirred theround to the impassive and watchful Sakr-el-Bahr
”She will coua franca of the African littoral
”Insh' Allah!” was the laconic answer--”If God will”
A tense silence fell between theain as the shi+p drew nearer so that noith each forward heave of her they caught a glint of the white belly under her black hull Sakr-el-Bahr shaded his eyes, and concentrated his vision upon the square ensign flying from, her mains, but the devices of the castle and the lion
”A Spanish shi+p, Biskaine,” he growled to his companion ”It is very well The praise to the One!”
”Will she venture in?” wondered the other
”Be sure she will venture,” was the confident answer ”She suspects no danger, and it is not often that our galleys are to be found so far ard Aye, there she comes in all her Spanish pride”
Even as he spoke she reached that line of demarcation She crossed it, for there was still a moderate breeze on the leeward side of it, intent no doubt uponthe utmost of that southward run
”Now!” cried Biskaine--Biskaine-el-Borak was he called fro-like impetuousness in which he ont to strike He quivered with impatience, like a leashed hound
”Not yet,” was the cal answer ”Every inch nearer shore she creeps the e when she goes about Give roes, whom in irony he had dubbed ”the White”
The slave turned aside, swept away a litter of ferns and produced an amphora of porous red clay; he removed the palm-leaves from the mouth of it and poured water into a cup Sakr-el-Bahr drank slowly, his eyes never leaving the vessel, whose every ratline was clearly defined by now in the pellucid air They could seeon her decks, and the watch-top She was not more than half a o about
Sakr-el-Bahr leapt instantly to his great height and waved a long green scarf Fro out in inal; it was followed by the shrill whistles of the bo'suns, and that again by the splash and creak of oars, as the two larger galleys swept out fro armoured poops were a-sith turbaned corsairs, their weapons glea in the sunshi+ne; a dozen at least were astride of the crosstree of each mainmast, all armed with bows and arrows, and the ratlines on each side of the galleys were black with men armed there like locusts ready to envelop and s the Spaniard into confusion There was a frantic stir aboard her, trus of men hither and thither to the posts to which they were ordered by their too reckless captain In that confusion her o about went all awry, and precious , with idly flapping sails In his desperate haste the captain headed her straight to leeward, thinking that by running thus before the wind he stood the best chance of avoiding the trap But there was not wind enough in that sheltered spot to ht on at an angle to the direction in which the Spaniard wasfuriously, as the bo'suns plied their whips to urge every ounce of sinew in the slaves