CHAPTER XVII.

THE FIGHT FOR THE PASS.

When they emerged from the Great Road, the Great Desert lay shimmering before them. Under the sun, standing directly overhead in a cloudless sky, the irregular floor of sand stretching illimitably in three directions like gently-rolling waves of the sea arrested in motion, seemed radiating heat waves like the top of a stove.

In the fourth direction, at their backs, stretched away on either hand the Great Mountain Wall. For the first time by daylight they had a good look at it, and involuntarily both Jack and Frank drew in their breaths at the sight.

Steep, precipitous, verdureless, the mountains rose in great masses of rock directly out of the sand, just as the Pillars of Hercules, guarding the Strait of Gibraltar, rise out of the sea at the northwestern extremity of the African continent. The sand was like a sea dashing vainly against these gigantic masses of rock.

One mountain overlapped another, so that only narrow, unscalable clefts broke the face of this tremendous bulwark. Truly, it was a Mountain Wall. Ahead this wall stretched to the horizon, and, looking over their shoulders, the boys saw no end in sight behind them. A full two thousand feet towered the serrated summits, jagged and sawtoothed, forming grotesque shapes that resembled crumbling turrets and, in some instances, crouching animals of gigantic proportions.

The previous evening, before the light failed, and while they still were hours away, they had been able to see that beyond this wall lay a tumbled mass of mountain tops rising higher and higher to a lofty summit far to the south, which Mr. Hampton had estimated at 14,000 or 15,000 feet in height. Apparently, then, the mountain country was of considerable extent, with many interior valleys and plateaus.

Somewhere behind that Mountain Wall and in the heart of that great upland country lay mysterious Athensi, while through the rich valley and plateaus were scattered the dwellings of the peasants comprising the last of a prehistoric white race whence had sprung, if Professor Souchard was correct, all mankind.

But to these reflections Jack and Frank, unable because they rode close to the foot of the Mountain Wall and could not see the peaks of the country behind it, gave only passing reflection. Almost immediately on debouching into the desert they had discerned far in the distance a number of tiny figures drawing away from them to the west. These undoubtedly were the horsemen of the rear guard of Captain Amanassar’s rebel troop.

“Come on, Jack,” yelled Frank, “I’ll race you for them.”

Jack yelled agreement, and away went the two boys, jouncing and bumping in the awkward camel saddles, their animals eating up the ground, while beside them galloped the four young Athensians. The boys had all they could do to hold on, but once or twice managed to steal a glance over their shoulders which assured them Mr. Hampton, Ali and the Arabs were close in the rear.

The Athensian revolutionaries ahead were riding at a brisk pace and the distance between decreased slowly. Yet steadily the boys overhauled them until, at the end of a half hour, they were up with the rear ranks. That term, however, is a misnomer, as the revolutionaries had broken ranks and were riding without formation.

Jepthah brought his horse alongside Frank’s camel as they drew near and, when the rearmost revolutionaries turned to glance back inquiringly, he called to them in their own tongue. They nodded, and several waved their hands to the boys in airy salute.

“Follow me. Let me take the lead,” Jepthah called in English to Frank and Jack. Then he and Amonasis, putting their horses together, passed through the loose ranks of the revolutionaries, with Jack and Frank on their swaying camels close behind. Shilluk and Shedrach, following a quick interchange of words in Athensian with Jepthah, fell back to await the approach of Mr. Hampton and the Arabs.

As the boys rode headlong among the revolutionaries, who parted to let them pass, many curious glances were thrown at them. Several times Jepthah or Amonasis called out in Athensian, evidently spreading the announcement of their identity, and frequent salutes were given. As for Jack and Frank, however, they were too busy clinging to their swaying camels to accord acknowledgment in kind.

Once through the ranks of the revolutionaries, the boys began glancing anxiously ahead to catch sight of Captain Amanassar’s troop and, perhaps, of the Janissaries with Bob. But neither group was in sight. Was it possible, they asked themselves, that already the pursuit had drawn so far ahead as to be lost to view? Or had the two parties already entered the break in the Mountain Wall of which they had heard so much?

Frank could not stand the anxiety without attempting to obtain an answer to these questions and called to Jepthah. After repeated attempts, he managed to obtain the latter’s attention. Jepthah who had drawn considerably ahead, pulled up his horse until Frank came alongside. The latter shouted his queries, and received a shake of the head in reply.

“Not out of sight down the desert,” cried Jepthah. “But into the old trail. Follow swiftly. We may be needed.”

Before he could spur his horse ahead, Frank called another question:

“Do you mean the Janissaries reached the pass ahead of your men?”

His voice was filled with horror.

“I’m afraid so,” replied Jepthah, with a look of sympathy. “Come on. All is not lost yet.”

Leaning forward until he lay on the neck of his splendid horse, he whispered into its ear. The animal already running swiftly seemed to leap ahead, gaining on Amonasis flying along in the lead.

Jack had drawn close during this brief conversation carried on in shouts, and had gathered the import of Jepthah’s remarks.

“Come on, Frank, come on,” he shouted. “Never say die.”

Faster and faster under shouts and blows ran the camels, and for a time the boys had all they could do to retain their precarious seats. For a time Jepthah set their course well out into the desert, in order to avoid the jumbled mass of rocks and boulders lying at the foot of the Mountain Wall. But presently he headed again toward the great bulwark and the boys, following him, saw ahead a break appear in the wall.

Narrower than the pass through which ran the Great Road, it seemed as their eyes pierced deeper with each forward lurch of the camels that it was choked with fallen boulders over which it would be difficult to make their way. But even as this thought entered their minds, and while yet they were a matter of a hundred yards distant, with Jepthah and Amonasis somewhat nearer, around the nearest bend of this pass came a fleeing mass of horsemen.

Down toward the desert leaped the horses, surefooted as goats, over the mass of boulders and debris. Involuntarily, Frank and Jack pulled up their camels, whose great padded hoofs slid in the sand as they braced their legs to come to a halt. Then they saw Jepthah turn in his saddle and wave wildly for them to approach, after which he and Amonasis flung themselves forward, unlimbering their rifles as they ran.

At the same time, from beyond the bend in the pass, came the rattle of rifles, and this time three horses with empty saddles and a fourth dragging the body of a fallen man whose foot was caught in the saddle and who bumped sickeningly over the rocks, came down the rock-choked pass.

In one illuminating flash the meaning of the situation appeared to Jack. Shouting across the gap separating him from Frank, racing beside him, he called:

“Rebels followed ’em into the pass and were ambushed, I’ll bet.”

Frank made no answer. His face was white. Undoubtedly, he thought, Jack had read the situation aright. Then what of Bob? Had he been killed in the fighting? Or had his captors escaped with him into the interior?

Another man and another tumbled down the pass, his horse taking the rocks at a sickening pace, until ten were gathered at the foot, where Jepthah and Amonasis could be seen rallying them. Just as Frank and Jack gained the group, one more revolutionary turned the bend, from beyond which the sound of firing had drawn closer, and came down the pass. The boys gasped in mingled admiration of his daring horsemanship and fear for him.

He sat loosely in his saddle, the reins lying on his horse’s neck, leaving the sagacious animal to pick his own way over the rock-strewn course. Half-turned about, he held rifle to shoulder. Not thirty feet behind him another horseman suddenly appeared rounding the sharp turn in the pass, and the rifle of the revolutionary cracked and almost simultaneously the other pitched from his saddle.

A cheer went up from those in the plain, and with a wave of the hand in acknowledgment, the lone revolutionary continued the descent.

“Who is he?” asked Jack of Jepthah, beside whom he had pulled up his camel.

“Captain Amanassar on his wonder horse, Sheelah,” replied the other in a tone of pride. “Here they come. Give them a volley,” he added, and raising his voice shouted a similar command in Athensian.

Only five of the Athensians carried rifles, and none was a modern arm. They were long barrelled Arab weapons. However, with these they shot over the head of Captain Amanassar, while their comrades loosed a flight of arrows, and Jack, Frank, Jepthah and Amonasis also joined in. The repeaters of the boys worked deadly execution, and the head of a tumultuous mass of Athensian Janissaries which, pushed forward apparently by the weight of numbers in the rear, swept around the bend in the pass on the heels of the fallen leader whom Captain Amanassar had shot down, melted away. Men and horses fell in a writhing heap on the narrow, rock-strewn causeway, and effectually blocked the advance of those behind.

Bewildering events succeeded almost too rapid, in fact, for Jack and Frank to follow. Captain Amanassar took charge of the situation, shouting his orders in Athensian which the boys could not understand. They saw him cast a surprised, frowning glance at them, and turn to Jepthah who pushed to his side and spoke rapidly. Then his eyes, which had not been taken from them, lighted up with a rare smile, and across the intervening horsemen, Jack and Frank saw him lift his hand to his forehead in a semi-formal salute.

After that, for a time, in the press of more urgent matters, he paid them no attention. Mr. Hampton with his Arabs arrived, and sharp on their heels the vanguard of the main body of revolutionaries, with the others continually spurring forward. Rapidly the dimensions of the force at the foot of the pass grew.

Mr. Hampton withdrew to one side with the boys and his Arabs, and Jack and Frank in broken sentences recounted what had occurred before his arrival. All watched the disposition Captain Amanassar was making of his forces, seeing groups of horsemen detach themselves from the main body and go whirling away to the westward along the Great Mountain Wall, while those remaining dismounted and handed over their horses to a small guard.

“I must see about this,” said Mr. Hampton. “It looks as if they planned to attempt to retake the pass, probably attacking afoot directly while others go to hunt paths up over the rocks which will permit them to take the enemy in the rear. Perhaps we can be of help. Let everybody await me here.”

So saying he went forward toward Captain Amanassar who, like the others, had dismounted, and by whose side stood Jepthah. The boys saw Mr. Hampton join the two Athensian revolutionaries in conversation and, after a vigorous interchange of words, turn and make his way back to them.

“It is as I suspected,” he reported. “So I have offered to take over the duty of looking after their horses, which will permit all their forces to engage. Also, we are going to lend our repeaters to the revolutionaries, as Jepthah says there are a number of men in the ranks familiar with their use. Here they come now to receive them,” he added, as Jepthah advanced with two others to receive the rifles of Mr. Hampton and the boys. “So hand them over, along with your ammunition.”

“But Mr. Hampton,” protested Frank, “I want to have a hand. Think of old Bob.” His voice broke.

“I know,” said the older man, kindly. “But the pass must be forced if the revolutionaries are to gain the interior. The raiders, they tell me, were met here by a force of two score Athensian Janissaries, who beat off Captain Amanassar’s first attack. If we are to be of any help to Bob, we must let these men clear the way. And in doing that, you might lose your life uselessly, if you were to take active part in the attack. Come, now, hand over your rifle.”

Reluctantly, Frank and Jack consented, after which with the Arabs they went to relieve the horse guard. Mr. Hampton, however, joined Captain Amanassar, who stayed in the plain directing operations.