The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1912-06-07


night
I'VE knew this and did not wake
me?"
There was no need; we could not
have moved ere this without detection.
Now, they are all a-stir, and We in
the night, may pass for them-until
moon-up."
The guide turned away to rouse the
/ mehara, prodding them up, mutinous.
snarling and ugly. In another five
minutes they were again moving for
ward. By the time the silver rim of
the moon peered over the edge OF the
east they were pelting on at full speed,
as yet, apparently, undetected by the
Touaregg.
An hour passed, and the chill In the
air became more intense; dawn was
at hand. A sense of security, of dan
gers left behind came to the Irish
man; he began to breathe more free
ly, though still the polished butt of
repeating rifle swinging from the sad
die remained a comfort to his palm.
He grew more confident, mentally at
ease, seeing the desert take shape
in the moonlight and show itself desc
late on every hand.
Even as he gained assurance from
this thought, the guide turned In his
saddle and cried a warning: The Tou-
aregg!" From that moment on both
welded merciless whips. For out of
the moonlit wastes behind them had
shrilled a voice, cruel and wild, an
nouncing discovery and the inception
Of the chase. The fugitives had need
Of no sharper spur.
A rife shot rang sharp on the echoes
Of that cry, but the bullet must have
fallen far short. A moment later, in
deed, they opened brisk scattering
| Internationally Intellectual, though the
bullets dropping right and left in the
sand proved that the chase had got
within range.
Even with that warning. the end
was nearer than he had dreamed or
hoped. 1t came in twinkling and as
unexpected as a bolt out of a clear
sky: a fash of fire ahead, a spitful
snap and-pttt!-the song of a bullet
speeding past his head.
The guide pulled up with a jerk.
O'Rourke, refining in desperately,
swung his camel wide to avert the
threatened collision. simultaneously
the sharp "Qui vive?" of a French
sentry rang out, loud and sweet to
| hear
Thank Cod" said the adventurer
In his heart And aloud, "Friends!"
he cried, driving past the sentry in a
cloud of dust
By a blessed miracle the man was
quick of wit, and swift to grasp the
situation-of which, however, he
must have had some warning from
the rattle Of firing. He screamed
something in O'Rourke's ear as the
latter passed, and turning threw him
self fiat and began to pump the trig-
gef his carbine, emptying the maya
zine at the on-sweeping line of Tou-
aregg.
The alarm was hardly needed;
: O'Rourke and the guide swept on
over the slip of a depression in the
desert and halted in the midst of a
camp already quickened and alive
> with shadowy figures running method
:. ically to their posts, carbine and &C
coutrement cleaning in the moon
light: men of the camel crops, hard
ened to and familiar with their work.
They buckled down to 1t in a busi-
ness-like way that thrilled the heart
of O'Rourke. In a trice they were
doubling out past lines of tethered
mehara, past the white hillocks of
-. the officers shelter-tents and, like the
sentry, throwing themselves down
upon the ground to take shelter of
, whatever inequalities the face of the
desert offered; and their firing ringed
the bivouac with fringe of flame.
ORourke slipped from his camel
Y and turned to watch the skirmish.
, Massed, the Touaregg, in strength
t greater than the adventurer had be-
: lieved- something like two hundred
I mounted men, in all-charged down
upon the camp as If to over-run and
: stampede it.
t Yet at the critical moment when
: it seemed that of a surety there was
1 no stopping them, they divided and
/ | swung round the camp In two wide
t circles, scattering into open order and
: firing as they scattered. Here and
+ there a horse fell, a rider threw out
4 | his hands and toppled from his sad
e die, camel seemed to buckle at full
tilt like faulty piece of machinery
: and so gaps appeared In the flying
i | wiz
i F. the men of the flying column
0 | were picked shots. They had need tC
be. who had such tasks as this to cope
D with.
,, Nor-for that matter-were the Tou
e aregg the only sufferers. Here and
\ there in the camp a man plunged for
D ward in mid-stride, and on the firing
d line beyond the tents now and again
l. a sharpshooter shuddered and lay still
e upon his arms. Even at O'Rourke's
i side an officer was shot as he ran to
- the front and would have fallon had