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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 41700 ***
+
+                                  HI JOLLY!
+
+                               By Jim Kjelgaard
+
+                         Illustrated by Kendall Rossi
+
+
+    Dodd, Mead & Company New York 1960
+
+    © _by Eddy Kjelgaard, 1959._
+
+    _Second printing_
+
+    _All rights reserved_
+
+    _No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without
+    permission in writing from the publisher_
+
+    _The general situation and many of the events described in this book
+    are based upon historical facts. However, the fictional characters
+    are wholly imaginative: they do not portray and are not intended to
+    portray any actual persons._
+
+    _Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 59-6197_
+
+    _Printed in the United States of America by Vail-Ballou Press, Inc.,
+    Binghamton, N. Y._
+
+
+
+
+    _Dedicated to_ DOROTHY AND ED HANSEN
+
+
+
+
+Contents
+
+
+     1. ALI FINDS THE DALUL        1
+
+     2. FUGITIVE                  21
+
+     3. AMBUSH                    38
+
+     4. THE HADJ                  52
+
+     5. THE UNPARDONABLE SIN      64
+
+     6. THE STRANGE SHIP          78
+
+     7. ANOTHER PILGRIMAGE        94
+
+     8. TROUBLE                  105
+
+     9. LIEUTENANT BEALE         120
+
+    10. THE EXPEDITION           133
+
+    11. THE WILDERNESS           145
+
+    12. THE ROAD                 158
+
+    13. REUNION                  174
+
+
+
+
+1. Ali Finds the Dalul
+
+
+The first gray light of very early morning was just starting to thin
+the black night when Ali opened his eyes. He came fully awake, with no
+lingering period that was part sleep and part wakefulness, but he kept
+exactly the same position he had maintained while slumbering. Until he
+knew just what lay about him, he must not move at all.
+
+Motion, even the faintest stir and even in this dim light, was sure to
+attract the eye of whoever might be near. In this Syrian desert, where
+only the reckless turned their backs to their own caravan companions,
+whoever might be near--or for that matter far--could be an enemy.
+
+When Ali finally moved, it was to extend his right hand, very slowly and
+very stealthily, to the jeweled dagger that lay snugly sheathed beneath
+the patched and tattered robe that served him as burnous by day, and bed
+and bed covering by night. When his fingers curled around the hilt, he
+breathed more easily. Next to a camel--of course a _dalul_, or riding
+camel--a dagger was the finest and most practical of possessions, as
+well as the best of friends.
+
+As for owning a _dalul_, Ali hadn't even hoped to get so much as a
+baggage camel for this journey. When it finally became apparent that the
+celestial rewards of a trip to Mecca would be augmented by certain
+practical advantages if he made his pilgrimage now, he had just enough
+silver to pay for the _ihram_, or ceremonial robe that he must don
+before setting foot in the Holy City. Even then, it had been necessary
+to provide Mustapha, that cheating dog of a tailor, with four silver
+coins--and two lead ones--and Mustapha had himself to thank for that!
+When Ali came to ask the price, it was five pieces of silver. When he
+returned to buy, it was six.
+
+But the _ihram_, as well as the fifth silver coin which Mustapha might
+have had if he'd retained a proper respect for a bargain, were now safe
+beneath Ali's burnous. The dagger was a rare and beautiful thing. It had
+been the property of some swaggering desert chief who, while visiting
+Damascus, Ali's native city, had imprudently swaggered into a dark
+corner.
+
+Though he frowned upon killing fellow humans for other than the most
+urgent reasons, and he disapproved completely of assassins who slew so
+they might rob, it never even occurred to Ali that he was obliged to do
+anything except disapprove. He knew the usual fate of swaggering desert
+chieftains who entered the wrong quarters of Damascus, and, when the
+inevitable happened, he did not spring to the rescue. That was not
+required by his code of self-preservation. So the assassin snatched his
+victim's purse and fled without any intervention. Ali got the dagger.
+
+In the light of the journey he was undertaking, and the manner in which
+he was undertaking it, a dagger was infinitely more precious than the
+best-filled purse. Mecca was indeed a holy city, but of those who
+traveled the routes leading to it, not all confined themselves to holy
+thoughts and deeds. Many a pilgrim had had his throat slit for a trifle,
+or merely because some bandit felt the urge to practice throat slitting.
+A dagger smoothed one's path, and, as he waited now with his hand on the
+hilt of his protective weapon, Ali thought wryly that his present path
+was in sore need of smoothing.
+
+He'd left Damascus two weeks ago, intending to offer his services, as
+camel driver, to the Amir of the nearby village of Sofad. He would then
+travel to Mozarib with his employer's caravan. The very fact that there
+would be force behind the group automatically meant that there would
+also be reasonable safety. Located three days' journey from Damascus,
+two from Sofad, Mozarib was the assembly point and starting place for
+the great Syrian _Hadj_, or pilgrimage. It went without saying that, if
+Ali tended to his camel driving and kept his dagger handy, he would go
+all the way to Mecca with the great _Hadj_, which often consisted of
+5000 pilgrims and 25,000 camels.
+
+Thus he had planned, but his plans had misfired.
+
+He reached Sofad on the morning scheduled for departure, only to find
+that the Amir, at the last moment, had decided to make this first march
+toward Mozarib a cool one and had left the previous night. Hoping to
+catch up, but not unmindful of the perils that beset the way when he
+neared the camp of the Sofad pilgrims, Ali had decided that it would be
+prudent to reconnoiter first. It had indeed been prudent.
+
+Peering down at the camp from a nest of boulders on a hillock, Ali was
+just in time to see the Amir and his fourteen men beheaded, in a most
+efficient fashion, by sword-wielding Druse tribesmen who'd taken the
+camp. Afterwards, the raiders had loaded everything except the stripped
+bodies of their victims on their own camels and departed.
+
+It was a time for serious thinking, to which Ali had promptly devoted
+himself. Unfortunately, he failed also to think broadly, and the only
+conclusion he drew consisted of the fact that it was still possible for
+him to go on and join the _Hadj_. Camel drivers were always welcome.
+Sparing not a single thought to the idea that Druse raiders would
+rather kill than do anything else, Ali had almost been caught unawares
+by the one who had slipped hopefully back to see if he could find
+somebody else to behead. Ali had taken to his heels and, so far, he had
+proved that he was fleeter than his pursuer. Tenacious as any bloodhound,
+the Druse had stayed on his trail until yesterday morning. Now he was
+shaken. Ali knew that he was somewhere south of Damascus and, with any
+luck, might yet join the _Hadj_.
+
+Help would not come amiss. Ali drank the last sip from his goatskin
+water flask, shifted his dagger just a little, so it would be ready to
+his hand should he have need of it, and made ready to address himself to
+the one unfailing Source of help.
+
+Though he had no more water, there was an endless supply of sand. Good
+Moslems who could read and write had assured him that this statement
+appears in the _Koran_: "When ye rise up to prayer, wash your faces and
+your hands and your arms to the elbows, and wipe your heads and your
+feet to the ankles." Though it was commonly assumed that one would
+cleanse himself with water before daring to mention Allah's name,
+special provisions applied to special occasions. For those who had no
+water, sand was an acceptable substitute.
+
+His ablutions performed, Ali faced toward Mecca, placed an open hand on
+either side of his face and intoned, "God is most great." Remaining in
+a standing position, he proceeded to the next phase of the prayer that
+all good Moslems must offer five times daily.
+
+It was the recitation of the opening _sura_, or verse, of the _Koran_.
+Ali, who'd memorized the proper words, had not proceeded beyond, "In the
+name of the merciful and compassionate God. Praise belongs to God--"
+when he was interrupted by the roar of an enraged camel.
+
+Ali halted abruptly, instantly and completely, forgetting the sacred
+rite in which he'd been absorbed and that had five more complete phases,
+each with prescribed gestures, before he might conclude it. When he
+finally remembered, he was a little troubled; Allah might conceivably
+frown upon whoever interrupted prayers to Him. But Ali remembered also
+that Allah is indulgent toward those who are at war, in danger, ill, or
+for other good reasons are unable to recite the proper prayers in the
+proper way at the prescribed times.
+
+Surely a camel in trouble--and, among other things, the beast's roar
+told Ali that it was in trouble--was the finest of reasons for ignoring
+everything else. Not lightly had the camel been designated as Allah's
+greatest gift to mankind. To slight His gift would be to slight Him. His
+conscience clear on that point, Ali devoted himself to analyzing the
+various things he'd learned about when a camel roared in the distance.
+
+The earliest recollection of Ali, who'd never known father or mother,
+was of his career as a rug vendor's apprentice in the bazaar of The
+Street Called Straight. His master worked him for as many hours as the
+boy could stay awake, beat him often and left him hungry when he was
+unable to steal food. But the life was not without compensations.
+
+Though no longer enjoying the flourishing trade it had once known,
+Damascus sat squarely astride the main route between the vast reaches of
+Mohammedan Turkey and Mecca, the city that every good Moslem must visit
+at least once during his lifetime. The Turks came endlessly, and in
+numbers, and since it's only sensible to do a little trading, even when
+on a holy pilgrimage, when they reached Damascus, they stopped to trade
+at The Street Called Straight. But though the pilgrims were interesting,
+Ali found the camels that carried both the Turks and their goods
+infinitely more so.
+
+He knew them all--plodding baggage beasts, two-humped bactrians, the
+hybrid offspring of bactrians and one-humped camels, and all the species
+and shades of species in between. But though he liked all camels, he
+saved his love for the dromedary, the _heira_, the _hygin_, riding
+camel, or, as Ali called them, the _dalul_.
+
+Invariably ridden by proud men and never used for any purpose other
+than riding, they were a breed apart. Slighter and far more aristocratic
+than the baggage beasts, they could carry a rider one hundred miles
+between sunrise and sunset, satisfy themselves with a few handfuls of
+dates when the ride ended, and go without water for five days. Their
+pedigrees, in many instances longer than those of their riders, dated
+back to pre-Biblical history. The owner of a _dalul_ considered such a
+possession only slightly less precious than his life.
+
+It was when he became acquainted with the _dalul_ that Ali invented his
+own mythical father. This parent was not a nameless vagabond, petty
+thief, or fly-by-night adventurer who never even knew he'd sired a son
+and wouldn't have cared if he had, but a renowned trainer of _dalul_. It
+was he who went to the camel pastures and chose the wild young stallions
+that were ready for breaking. Though they would kill any ordinary man
+who ventured near, Ali's father gentled them and taught them to accept
+the saddle and rein. Ali determined that he himself must go out with the
+camels and promptly ran away from his master.
+
+Because he was too young to be of any imaginable use, the few caravan
+masters who condescended to look at him usually aimed a blow right after
+the look. For two years Ali was one of the numerous boy-vagabonds who
+infested the bazaars of Damascus. If such a life did not elevate the
+mind it could not help but sharpen the wits.
+
+Then, just after his ninth birthday, Ali got his chance to go out with a
+caravan. It was a very small and very poor one, fewer than fifty camels,
+and the caravan master decided to take Ali only because he was a boy. As
+such, quite apart from the fact that he could safely be browbeaten, it
+was reasonable to assume that he had not had time to learn all the
+tricks of experienced drivers, the more talented among whom have been
+known to get rich, and leave the owners poor, on just one journey.
+
+Apart from their uses and physical functions, which he learned so
+precisely that one glance enabled him to cite any camel's past history,
+age, present state of health, and what it would probably do next, Ali
+came to appreciate the true miracle of a camel. He was the one in ten
+thousand, the camel driver who knew everything the rest did--and much
+they did not--and who transcended that to understand clearly the nature
+of the camel itself. So fine was his touch and so complete the affinity
+between camels and himself, that even beasts thought hopelessly
+unmanageable responded to him.
+
+Nine years old when he made his first trip, Ali had spent the past nine
+years on the caravan routes. He'd been to Baghdad, Istanbul, Tosya,
+Trebizond. He went where the camels went and never cared if it was two
+hundred miles or two thousand. But though every member of a caravan is
+entitled to trade for himself, and many a camel driver has become a
+caravan master or owner, Ali was as poor as on the day he started.
+
+Partly responsible for this was his consuming passion for camels and his
+negligible interest in trading. Far more at fault was his origin. The
+men of the caravans knew him as Ali, and only Allah could know more
+about camels. To the merchants, who saw camels merely as the most
+convenient method for transporting goods, he remained the orphan waif of
+Damascus. They turned their backs upon one who had neither family nor
+prestige, who could point to no achievement other than an outstanding
+skill with camels. Now, camels were very convenient, but, as every
+merchant in a perfumed drawing room knew, they also smelled!
+
+So Ali had a most compelling reason for deciding to undertake his
+pilgrimage at this time. After he'd been to Mecca, like all others who
+have completed the difficult and dangerous journey, he'd be entitled to
+add the prefix "Hadji" to his name. That alone would never make him the
+equal of the wealthy merchants who also had been to Mecca, but it would
+surely make him the superior of all who had not. And this was a vast
+number, since the life of a merchant is not necessarily conducive to
+physical achievement and the journey to Mecca is hard.
+
+Now, in a desert wilderness, while on the way to Mecca, a camel had
+cried out to Ali, and he could not have helped responding, even if the
+camel had cried while he was at prayer in the _masjid-al-haram_, the
+Great Mosque of Mecca.
+
+Its roar had already told Ali many things about the beast, including the
+exact direction he must take to find it and approximately how far he
+must go before locating it. The sound had had a certain timbre and
+quality that hinted of regal things and regal bearing, therefore it was
+not a baggage animal. However, neither did it have the awesome blast of
+a fully-grown _dalul_. It was not challenging another stallion to
+battle, but roaring in rage and defiance at something that it did not
+know how to fear.
+
+Ali's hand slipped back to the hilt of his dagger. Unmindful of the hot
+little wind that had just arisen, and that would become hotter as the
+day grew longer, he started toward the camel. Although he had never been
+here before, he had traveled similar country often enough to make a
+reasonably accurate guess as to the terrain that lay ahead.
+
+It was a land of low hills, or hillocks, whose sides and narrow crests
+supported a straggling growth of Aleppo pine intermixed with scrubby
+brush. There was more than average rainfall, so the trees were bigger
+and not as parched as those found in very arid regions. The camel was in
+a gulley between the second and third hills. Ali climbed the hill, slunk
+behind an Aleppo pine, peered around the trunk and gasped.
+
+There was a camp in the gulley--and a string of baggage camels and
+men--but at first glance Ali saw nothing except the _dalul_. Of a deep
+fawn color, which stamped it as one of the Nomanieh dromedaries, it was
+still so young that it had not yet attained full growth. Located apart
+from the rest, each separate leg was held by a separate rope, and the
+bonds were stretched so tightly that the beast could hardly move. A
+fifth rope, that encircled its neck, was equally tight.
+
+Evidently bound in such a fashion for many hours, the young _dalul_ was
+weary, thirsty and choking. But, despite its obvious misery, this was
+far and away the most magnificent beast Ali had ever beheld. It was the
+riding camel he'd often dreamed of when, plodding along some lonely
+caravan trail, he'd conjured up mental images of the perfect _dalul_.
+
+Further examination revealed why the young _dalul_ was bound so cruelly.
+Ali's lip curled in contempt.
+
+The men--he counted nineteen--were part of the same band of Druse
+tribesmen who'd pillaged the camp of Sofad and massacred its people.
+Evidently they considered themselves safe here, since they kept no watch
+at all and seemed to be unconcerned about anything. The twenty-nine
+camels on the picket line were all stolid baggage animals such as even
+Druse could handle. The young _dalul_ was something else.
+
+There was no telling just how it had fallen into the hands of the
+Druse; a _dalul_ so fine would certainly be carefully guarded.
+Regardless of how the raiders had obtained the animal, they could not
+handle it. Obviously, it had turned on them and probably hurt
+somebody--Ali voiced a fervent hope that the injury was not a light
+one--and now the _dalul_ was tightly bound, to insure that it would hurt
+nobody else.
+
+Ali whispered, "Have patience, brother."
+
+Slowly and thoroughly, beginning at one end and letting his eyes move
+alertly to the other, Ali inspected the camp and confirmed an ugly truth
+that had already been pointed out by common sense. With eight good men
+at his back, and the element of surprise in their favor, he would have a
+reasonable chance of storming the camp. But, as things were--
+
+He'd help neither the _dalul_ nor himself by joining his ancestors at
+this moment, Ali decided. He pulled the burnous over his head, drew the
+dagger from its sheath and settled down to wait.
+
+The light grew, and the heat with it, as the sun climbed higher. Ali
+risked moving just enough to pick up a pebble and put it on his tongue.
+He had no water, and if the wait proved a long one, the pebble would
+help relieve thirst. He must not move again, though. The merest flicker
+could be one too many, and certainly a Druse tribesman with even a
+baggage camel could run down a man who hadn't any.
+
+A camel rider, coming into camp from the south, roused not the least
+interest among the men already there, and Ali took mental note of the
+incident. Doubtless these raiders were flanking the great _Hadj_, but
+surely they could not be insane enough to attack it. Probably they
+intended to waylay small groups coming from various sources to join the
+_Hadj_, just as they had the camp of Sofad. The very fact that the camel
+rider came almost unnoticed proved that the raiders had a sentry posted
+to the south, and the sentry had somehow advised his companions of the
+rider's approach. Apparently, they anticipated no interference from any
+other point of the compass.
+
+Sudden hope rose in Ali's heart. The rider might be bringing news of
+another caravan to be attacked, and, if so, he and his companions would
+depart very shortly. Since they did not know how to control it anyhow,
+they would not take the _dalul_ with them. Ali's eyes strayed back to
+the tethered animal.
+
+It must have come from the very choicest of the riding camels of some
+mighty official. Even the Pasha of Damascus would not have many such,
+for the simple reason that there weren't many. More than ever, it
+represented all the perfection dreamed of by some camel breeder--some
+long-dead camel breeder, since the _dalul_ had never been produced in
+one generation or during the life span of one man--who knew the desert
+and yearned for the ideal camel.
+
+Watching the _dalul_, Ali found his own mounting thirst easier to bear.
+The animal had been without water longer than he and probably was
+desperate for a drink--but refused to show it. Ali had learned while
+still apprenticed to the rug vendor that camels may be as thirsty as any
+other creatures. He turned his eyes back to the men.
+
+One, in a rather desultory fashion, was mending a pack saddle. Two or
+three others were at various small chores and the rest were sleeping in
+the shade of their own tents. The hardness flowed back into Ali's eyes.
+
+No followers of Mohammed, the Druse were devoted to heathen gods and
+rituals. It was not for that, or their hypocrisy--a Druse tribesman
+going among other peoples usually pretended to accept the religion of
+his hosts--or their thievery, or the fact that they seldom attacked
+anyone at all unless the odds were heavily in their favor, that Ali now
+hated them. He'd have hated anyone at all who mistreated such a _dalul_
+in such a fashion!
+
+It occurred to Ali that he had neglected the prayer he should have
+offered immediately after the sun rose and probably would have to omit
+proper ceremonies at high noon, but it did not worry him. Allah, the
+Compassionate, would surely understand that there are certain
+inconveniences attached to the observance of prayers while in the full
+sight of hostile Druse. Nor would He frown upon Ali for refusing to let
+the _dalul_ out of his sight. When Ali left the camp, the _dalul_ was
+leaving with him.
+
+Passing the noon mark and starting its swing to the west, the full glare
+of the sun no longer burned down on Ali's burnous, and the branches of
+the Aleppo pine offered some shade. But since the day became hotter as
+it grew longer, with the hottest hour of any being that one just
+preceding sunset, there was little relief from the heat.
+
+Ali lay as still as possible, partly because the slightest motion would
+be sure to excite the curiosity of any Druse who happened to glance his
+way and partly because moving must inevitably make him hotter. Helping
+him to accept with grace what almost any other man of almost any other
+nation would have found an unendurable wait were certain talents and
+characteristics that had been his from birth.
+
+Though he'd never even known his own father, Ali was of ancient blood.
+Few of his ancestors, throughout all the generations, had ever had the
+facilities, even though they might possess the best of reasons, for
+going anywhere in a hurry. Ali came of people who knew how to wait, and
+added to his inheritance was his experience with the caravans.
+Regardless of when a shipment had been promised for delivery in Baghdad
+or Aleppo, it lingered along the way, if the camels that carried it
+developed sore feet en route.
+
+In some measure, Ali suffered from heat, and, to a far greater extent,
+he knew the tortures of thirst, but he accepted both with the inborn
+fatalism of one who knows he must accept what he can neither change nor
+prevent. Heat and thirst were passing factors. Unless he died first, in
+which event he'd join Allah's celestial family, sooner or later he'd be
+cool and he'd drink.
+
+There'd been little action in the camp all day, but toward night the
+Druse stirred. They did so surlily, grudgingly, after the fashion of men
+who do not like what they've been doing in the recent past and have no
+reason to suppose they'll be doing anything more interesting in the near
+future. Rather than build cooking fires, they nibbled dates, meal and
+honey cakes, and drank from goatskin flasks. There was no singing, not
+even much shouting. The Druse, born raiders who could be happy only when
+in the saddle and riding to the attack, must now be unhappy and snarl at
+each other because their scouts, who were doubtless haunting every
+caravan trail, had brought no news of quarry sighted.
+
+Night came, and with it a coolness so refreshing that it inspired Ali to
+thoughts of the heavenly bath that must be enjoyed by Allah's angels.
+The cool night air fell and enfolded him like a gentle flood, but with
+no hint of the earth's dross. After a blazing day, it was as welcome as
+the sight of green palms ringing an oasis.
+
+Ali reveled in the coolness, but not nearly as much as he did in the
+fact that, with night, the Druse camp quieted. After waiting another
+hour, he drew his dagger and went forward.
+
+The sky was cloudless, but there was no moon and, at this early hour,
+very few stars shone. Ali advanced with silent and unfaltering speed, in
+spite of the fact that he could see almost nothing. A dozen times during
+the day he had marked the exact route between himself and the young
+_dalul_. He knew where he was going.
+
+Ali's fingers tightened on the dagger's hilt. If Allah saw fit to reveal
+him to the Druse, he hoped that the All Merciful would see equally fit
+to defend himself manfully. When Ali was within a dozen yards of the
+_dalul_, the peaceful night was shattered by an alarm.
+
+"Ho! Wake and arm! There is an enemy among us!"
+
+Because that was all he could do, Ali began to run. He had cast his lot,
+and now all depended on the _dalul_. If he could free it, then mount and
+ride, he and the camel would be safe at least until morning.
+
+Ali was within an arm's length of the _dalul_ when it turned and spoke
+to him. It was a guttural sound, and scarcely audible, but as different
+from the usual camel's grunt as the scream of a hawk is from the chirp
+of a robin. Even as he flung himself forward and started slashing at the
+nearest rope, Ali heard and correctly interpreted.
+
+The _dalul_ had just said that it would kill him if it could!
+
+
+
+
+2. Fugitive
+
+
+The picketed camels, that never saw any reason to give way to
+excitement just because humans did, shuffled their feet, grunted and
+went on munching fodder. His warning voiced, the young _dalul_ remained
+silent. He would waste no more breath on threats or further warnings;
+just let any man who came near enough look to his own safety! His very
+silence had all the lethal promise of a poised, unsheathed dagger!
+
+Ali said, "I hear, oh lord of all _dalul_, and I understand. But behold,
+I free you!"
+
+He spoke calmly, and there was no fear to be detected by the young
+camel because there was none in Ali. This young camel driver, who had
+seen the shadow of death, or heard death whisper, as frequently as did
+all those who ventured forth on the lonely caravan routes, now assured
+himself that he was not necessarily looking upon a forbidding being in
+this tortured camel. But, be that as it may, he must take the chance.
+The incurably ill, the weary old, the oppressed, the mistreated, knew no
+friend more kind than Ali.
+
+However, though he talked slowly and softly, he moved swiftly as a
+leaping panther while he cut the first rope and went at once to the
+second. The Druse camp was silent, and had been since that first shouted
+alarm, but it was alert and the Druse were no fools. Certainly they
+would know better than to come yelling and leaping, brandishing weapons
+and mouthing threats.
+
+Far more probable, Ali wouldn't even know an enemy was within striking
+distance until he saw--or felt--the pointed dagger that was seeking his
+heart or heard the swish of a descending sword. Then, if Allah so
+decreed, one less camel driver would return to the caravan routes.
+
+As he cut the remaining ropes, Ali continued to speak soothingly to the
+young _dalul_. Far from nervous, or even slightly excited, the young
+rescuer was almost serenely calm. Death would certainly be his portion
+if the Druse had their way, and, of course, there was also a good
+chance that he would die if he liberated the young _dalul_. But some
+deaths are much sweeter than others.
+
+It would be far easier, and more honorable, to die under the trampling
+feet of a good Moslem _dalul_ than under the sword or dagger of a
+heathen Druse. Besides, even though the _dalul_ first killed Ali, there
+remained the satisfactory probability that he would then turn upon and
+kill one or more of the villains.
+
+Ali cut the final rope, the one about the _dalul's_ neck, and waited
+calmly. He lowered the hand holding the dagger. He'd have sheathed the
+weapon, except that one or more of the Druse might be upon him at any
+moment and a dagger would be a convenient article to have in hand. But
+Ali had no intention of fighting the _dalul_, or even of resisting
+should it attack him.
+
+He said calmly, "You are free, brother."
+
+Not accustomed to freedom after standing so long bound by cramping
+ropes, the _dalul_ shook his head and stamped his forefoot. Then he gave
+two prodigious sidewise leaps toward the picketed baggage camels and
+roared.
+
+The baggage camels crowded very close together, as though for the
+comfort each found in the others, when the _dalul_ leaped. His roar
+robbed them of common sense, so that they began a wild plunging. Even
+better than Ali, the baggage camels knew the _dalul's_ quality. They'd
+have broken their tethers and stampeded had not some of the Druse taken
+note of the situation and rushed in to quiet the terrified beasts.
+
+For the first time, Ali had a few fleeting moments to wonder why he
+still lived. It had seemed inevitable that, if the Druse did not kill
+him, the _dalul_ most certainly would. Perhaps, during the tortured
+hours it had stood as captive, it had marked its enemies and knew Ali
+was not among them. More probable, Ali's gift, his ability to
+understand and be understood by all camels, had proved itself once
+again.
+
+Ali shrugged. He didn't know, and probably never would know, just why
+the _dalul_ had not killed him the instant it was free. But Allah knew,
+and it was not for Ali to question or even wonder about His judgments.
+
+Ali's business was camels. He decided that it was high time he took his
+business in hand and called the _dalul_.
+
+It responded, but before coming all the way to Ali, it stopped twice to
+bestow a long, lingering and disappointed look upon the camp of the
+Druse. Raging, but bound and helpless, the _dalul_ had promised his
+captors a battle as soon as he was free. The challenge still stood, and,
+even though the Druse were not accepting, the situation rebounded to
+Ali's benefit. While the _dalul_ roamed the camp, the enemy dared not
+move freely, and Ali's peril was correspondingly less.
+
+After his second inspection of the enemy camp, the _dalul_ did not stop
+again or even look about him but continued straight to Ali. He halted a
+few steps away and grunted a little camel song. Then he extended his
+long neck and lightly laid his head on his rescuer's shoulder. Ali
+embraced the great head with both arms and pressed his cheek close to
+the _dalul's_ neck.
+
+"Mighty one!" he crooned. "Peerless one! Where is a name worthy of such
+as you?"
+
+The Druse were continuing the hunt, and when and if they found Ali,
+they'd be overjoyed to kill him as dead as possible in the shortest
+necessary time. But creeping into an armed Druse camp, his only weapons
+a dagger and courage, was one matter. Waiting beside the young _dalul_,
+whom the Druse had every reason to fear, was quite another. Again Ali
+addressed the young stallion.
+
+"Sun of cameldom! Jewel of the caravan routes! By what title may you be
+called so that, wherever you may venture, all men shall know your deeds
+when you are called by name?"
+
+The young _dalul_--and if he had the faintest interest in the name Ali
+or anyone else might bestow, there was no indication of that--took his
+head from Ali's shoulder to sniff his hand. Obviously, it was high time
+for Ali to seek divine assistance in determining a name for the _dalul_,
+and it would not come amiss to indicate that haste was in order. Even
+Druse tribesmen, knowing Ali was in camp but failing to find him, must
+sooner or later deduce that he was with the _dalul_.
+
+Ali faced Mecca. He began his supplication with the customary "_Allahu
+akbar_--God is most great." He ended it at precisely the same place,
+more than a little overwhelmed by the speed with which Allah may respond
+to even the least of His worshipers. Ali had scarcely started when he
+knew the name he sought. He whirled to the _dalul_.
+
+"From this moment you shall be known as Ben Akbar!" he declared
+happily. "Ben Akbar!"
+
+Transcending mere perfection, the name was a stroke of genius. Ben
+Akbar, the unequaled, the peerless, the greatest _dalul_ of any. No
+matter how hard they racked their own brains, regardless of the masters
+of rhetoric they might consult, no camel rider anywhere would ever hit
+upon a name that described his favorite in terms more superlative.
+
+Now that Ben Akbar bore the only name that truly conformed to his
+dignity and power, Ali turned his thoughts to affairs of the moment.
+
+His entry into the Druse camp, audacious though it had been, never would
+have created other than momentary alarm. Freeing Ben Akbar, a confirmed
+killer camel in the mind of every Druse, gave a wholly different meaning
+to the entire affair. The least of the raiders would happily prowl the
+camp in search of Ali. But while darkness held sway, not even the best
+of them cared to chance an encounter with Ben Akbar.
+
+In addition, or so the Druse would think, killer camels made no
+distinction among Moslems, Christians, Jews, or men of any other faith.
+They killed whomsoever they were able to catch. Since Ali had been near
+enough to cut the _dalul's_ bindings, it followed that the killer camel
+had been able to catch him.
+
+Regardless of anything the Druse thought at the moment, Ali knew that
+they would not continue to remain deceived after sunrise. The signs,
+the tracks, would be there for them to read, and few desert dwellers
+read signs more skillfully. Despite anything their minds told them,
+their eyes would leave no doubt that Ali and the _dalul_ had gone away
+together.
+
+For a brief interval, Ali speculated concerning the inscrutable ways of
+Allah, who had bestowed upon the Druse tribesmen a maximum of ferocity
+and a minimum of common sense. Obviously, it was his duty to take
+certain most urgent action if he would live to greet another sunset.
+
+At night, the Druse would have no stomach for attacking, or even coming
+near, Ben Akbar. As soon as a new day brought light enough so they could
+see, they'd never hesitate. If Ali happened to be near Ben Akbar, where
+he had every intention of being, he'd be found.
+
+Ali said softly, "We go, brother." With Ben Akbar pacing contentedly at
+his shoulder, he faded into the darkness.
+
+Although Ali wanted to go south, where he thought he'd have the best
+chance of meeting the great _Hadj_, and the gulley in which the Druse
+were camped ran almost directly north-south, he did not go down that
+gulley. There was at least one enemy outpost stationed there--and
+possibly more.
+
+Ali climbed the ridge, retracing almost exactly the path he'd followed
+when he came to the rescue of Ben Akbar. Rather than stop when he
+gained the summit, he went on down into the next gulley and climbed the
+following ridge. On the summit of that, he finally halted. Ben Akbar,
+who sported neither tether rope nor rein but who was amiably willing to
+walk behind Ali where the path was narrow and beside him where space
+permitted, came up from behind and thrust his long neck over his
+friend's shoulder. Ali reached up to caress the mighty head.
+
+The baggage animals he'd seen in the Druse camp were just that,
+ponderous beasts, bred to carry six hundred or more pounds a distance of
+twenty-five miles at a stretch and to bear this enormous burden day
+after day. Under ordinary circumstances, they'd be no match for the
+_dalul_, but Ben Akbar was more than just tired and hungry. An hour of
+the torment he'd endured was enough to sap more strength than an entire
+day on the trail. His hump, that unfailing barometer of a camel's
+condition, was half the size it should have been. There was no way of
+telling when he'd had his last drink of water.
+
+This last, Ali told himself, was of the utmost importance. Every urchin
+on every caravan route knows that camels store water in their own
+bodies, and that it is entirely possible for some seasoned veterans of
+the caravan trails to plod on, though at an increasingly slower pace,
+for three, four, or even five days without any water save that which
+they absorb from their fodder. But those are the exceptions. As noted,
+given an opportunity, camels will drink as much and as frequently as any
+creature of similar size, and a thirsty camel is handicapped.
+
+So, although Ali might have laughed in their faces had Ben Akbar been
+rested and well-nourished, the Druse, who would most certainly be on
+their trail the instant it was light enough to see, had more than a good
+chance of overtaking them before nightfall. But before Ali could concern
+himself with the Druse, there was something he must do.
+
+"Kneel!" he commanded.
+
+Ben Akbar knelt, settling himself with surprising grace. Ali mounted.
+Though there was no riding saddle, he seated himself where it should
+have been and placed his feet properly, one on either side of the base
+of Ben Akbar's neck. There was no rein either, but the finest of the
+_dalul_ were carefully schooled to obey the spoken word without regard
+to rein. Ali gave the command to rise, then bade Ben Akbar go.
+
+Ben Akbar's gait was as gentle as the evening wind that ruffles the
+new-sprouted fronds of young date palms. Ali sent him to the right, then
+the left, relying on spoken commands alone and getting a response so
+perfect that there'd have been no need of a rein, even if the _dalul_
+wore one. Ali no longer had reason to wonder if Ben Akbar was the
+property of a rich man. None except the wealthy could afford the fees
+demanded by riding masters who knew the secret of teaching a camel to
+obey spoken orders.
+
+Though he knew he should not, Ali ordered Ben Akbar to run. The camel
+obeyed instantly, yet so imperceptible was the change in pace, and so
+rhythmically smooth was his run, that he had attained almost full speed
+before his rider realized that the change had been made.
+
+Ali sat unmoving, letting the wind fan his cheeks and reveling in this
+ride as he had delighted in nothing else he could remember. The gait of
+riding camels varies as much as that of riding horses, but Ben Akbar
+stood alone. Rather than landing with spine-jarring thuds as he raced
+on, his feet seemed not even to touch the earth.
+
+Ali had never ridden a smoother-gaited camel...but suddenly it occurred
+to him that the ride had better end. Bidding his mount halt, Ali slid to
+the ground and went around to where he could pet Ben Akbar's nose.
+
+"You are swift as the wind itself, and the back of the downiest bird is
+a bed of stones and thorns compared with the back of Ben Akbar," he
+stated. "But it is not now that you should run."
+
+Ben Akbar sniffed Ali gravely and blew through his nostrils. Ali
+responded, as though he were answering a question.
+
+"The Druse," he explained, "tonight they are helpless, for even if they
+would follow, they cannot see our path in the darkness. But rest assured
+that they shall be upon our trail with the first light of morning and
+they know well how to get the most speed from their baggage beasts. If
+you were rested and nourished, I would laugh at a dozen--nay!--a
+thousand such! But you are weary and ill-cared-for, so tonight we must
+spare your strength. Tomorrow, you may have to run away from the Druse!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The next day was two hours old, and Ali and Ben Akbar were still walking
+south, when Ali glanced about and saw the mounted Druse sweep over a
+hillock.
+
+At the same instant, they saw him and raced full speed to the kill.
+
+Hearing, scenting or sensing pursuit, Ben Akbar swung all the way
+around. He was very quiet, an indication that he would look to and obey
+Ali. But there was about him a complete lack of nervousness, plus a
+certain quality in the way he faced enemies, rather than turned from
+them, that betrayed a war camel. He would flee from the Druse, if that
+were Ali's wish, but he would run just as eagerly and just as swiftly
+toward them, should Ali decide to attack.
+
+Nervous, but controlling himself, Ali counted the Druse as they raced
+down the hill. There were twenty-three, three more than had been in camp
+last night, therefore some must have arrived after he left. They were
+not the organized unit they would have been if they expected formidable
+resistance. Since there was only one man to kill, and every Druse burned
+to kill him, they came in wild disorder, with those on the swiftest
+camels leading.
+
+Though the charge was only seconds old, three of the Druse had already
+drawn ahead of the rest. A glance told Ali that all three were mounted
+on _dalul_. Since there had been no riding camels in the Druse camp,
+obviously these were the three newcomers who had arrived during the
+night. The rest were all mounted on baggage camels.
+
+Because he had had a whole night's start, and the pursuing Druse should
+have been hampered by the necessity for working out his trail, Ali had
+not expected them before midday. Something had gone amiss. Possibly,
+during the night, Ali and Ben Akbar had passed another outpost that they
+had not seen, but that had managed both to shadow them and to send word
+back to the camp. Perhaps the outpost had even consisted of the three
+riders of _dalul_.
+
+Ali concentrated on the three _dalul_. All were good beasts, but none
+were outstanding, and, in an even contest, none could have come near to
+matching Ben Akbar's speed. No, however--
+
+Ali turned to Ben Akbar and said gently, "Kneel."
+
+Ben Akbar obeyed. Ali mounted and gave the command to rise, then to
+run. He unsheathed the dagger and held it in his hand. The Druse were
+armed with guns, which they knew how to use, but there were good reasons
+why they would hesitate to shoot one lone man. In the first place,
+powder and shot were expensive and to be used only when nothing else
+sufficed. In the second, when the odds were twenty-three to one, the
+Druse who shot when he might have killed his enemy with sword or dagger
+must lose face as a warrior.
+
+The dagger in his hand was Ali's only concession to the possibility that
+he might be overtaken. When and if he was, might Allah frown if at least
+one of the Druse did not join his ancestors before Ali did likewise.
+
+Other than that, the race was not unpleasant. Weary though he was, the
+power and strength that Ali had seen in Ben Akbar when the young _dalul_
+stood captive in the Druse camp were manifest now. Ben Akbar flowed
+along, seeming to do so almost without effort, and Ali thought with
+wonder of the magnificent creature this _dalul_ would be when properly
+fed and rested. Only when Ben Akbar stumbled where he should have run on
+was his rider recalled to the grim realities of the situation.
+
+He did not have to look behind him because he knew what lay there.
+Having been detected when they appeared over the crest of the far
+hillock, the Druse must still descend it, cross the gulley and climb the
+opposite hill before they could be where Ali had been when they saw him.
+Though they must know that Ben Akbar was not in condition to run his
+best, they certainly knew the quality of such a camel. Looking from the
+crest of the hill upon which Ali had been sighted and seeing nothing,
+they could by no means be certain that camel and rider had not already
+gone out of sight on the hill beyond. A terrified fugitive would
+logically run in a straight line.
+
+A third of the way down the hill, Ali gave Ben Akbar the command to turn
+left. He was about three hundred yards from the floor of the gulley and
+the same distance from its head, where a thick copse of mingled Aleppo
+pine and scrub brush offered more than enough cover to hide a whole
+caravan. Reaching the thicket, Ali halted Ben Akbar and dismounted. Then
+he turned and waited for the Druse to appear.
+
+Led by the three riders of _dalul_, they broke over the crest at the
+exact spot where Ali had been sighted. They did exactly as he had hoped
+they would and raced straight on. A smile of satisfaction flitted across
+Ali's lips as the advance riders swept past that place where he had
+turned Ben Akbar.
+
+Then something went amiss.
+
+Though the three _dalul_ had seemed equally matched, one now led the
+other two by some ten yards. Reaching the gulley's floor, the leading
+rider halted his mount, swung him abruptly and shouted, "He has gone
+another way!"
+
+As the truth forced itself on Ali, his first thought was that the rider
+of the leading _dalul_ must be a very giant among the Druse.
+
+Noted trackers, most Druse would have some trouble trailing a single
+camel on a sun-baked desert. But, incredible though it seemed, the
+leading pursuer had been tracking Ali while riding at full speed. He had
+raced on because he had thought exactly what Ali hoped he would--that
+Ali and Ben Akbar were already out of sight behind the next hill. But he
+had stopped when he no longer saw tracks.
+
+While the two remaining riders of _dalul_ swung unquestioningly in
+behind him, and the Druse mounted on baggage camels halted wherever they
+happened to be, the tracker trotted his _dalul_ back up the hill. His
+eyes were fixed on the ground as he sought to pick up the trail he had
+lost.
+
+With Ben Akbar behind him, Ali stole through the thicket toward the far
+end. He clutched the dagger tightly. He would mount and ride when he was
+clear of the thicket; nobody could ride a camel through such a place.
+But it was questionable as to how long he'd ride with such a tracker on
+his trail.
+
+Ali was almost out of the thicket when a man who swung a wicked-looking
+scimitar seemed to rise from the earth and bar his path. Ali gazed upon
+the countenance of an old acquaintance.
+
+The man was a Druse that Ali knew as The Jackal!
+
+
+
+
+3. Ambush
+
+
+Ali took a single backward step that brought him nearer Ben Akbar. The
+move could have been interpreted as a wholly natural desire to find such
+comfort as he might in his camel, the one friend he had or was likely to
+have. But Ali's purpose was more practical.
+
+Unless every imaginable advantage was on his side, the wielder of a
+dagger hadn't the faintest chance of overcoming anyone armed with a
+scimitar, but Ali intended to concede no point not already and
+unavoidably given by the difference in weapons. When The Jackal swung,
+which he would do when he considered the moment right, he would not
+miss. But if Ali was agile enough at ducking, and ducked in the right
+direction, it did not necessarily follow that he must be killed
+outright.
+
+For a split second immediately following his blow, The Jackal would be
+off guard. Before he recovered, always supposing he was still able to
+move, Ali might go forward with his dagger and work some execution, or
+at least inflict some damage, of his own. All else failing, there was
+reason to hope that Ben Akbar would trample his foe after he went down.
+Ali studied The Jackal.
+
+Of medium height and probably middle-aged, he was veiled in a certain
+mystic aura that defied penetration and prevented even a reasonably
+accurate guess as to how many years he had been on earth. He blended in
+a curious manner with the harsh and wild desert background, as though he
+had been a part of it from the beginning. His hair was concealed beneath
+a hood, but not even a thick beard succeeded in hiding a cruel mouth.
+His nose was thin and aquiline, with nostrils that seemed forever to be
+questing. His eyes were unreadable, but they possessed certain depths
+that combined with a broad sweep of forehead and a vast arrogance of
+manner to mark The Jackal as a man apart.
+
+Ali remembered the first time he had run across him, or rather, evidence
+of his work.
+
+It was Ali's third year with the caravans, and they were going from
+Mersin to Erzerum, with seven hundred camels and an assorted load, when
+they overtook all that remained of the caravan preceding them. It had
+been the entourage of some wealthy Amir, traveling north with his family
+and a powerful guard of soldiers. When Ali arrived, The Jackal had been
+there and gone, but he had left his trademark.
+
+All human males, from babes in the arms of his wives to the gray-bearded
+Amir himself, lay where they had fallen. The older women and the girl
+children were massacred, too. Only the young girls had been carried away
+with the remainder of the legitimate booty.
+
+Savagely cruel though it was, the raid was equally audacious. Of the
+many bandit leaders infesting the caravan routes, few had the
+imagination to plan a successful attack on a heavily-guarded Amir's
+caravan or the courage to proceed, once such an attack was planned.
+
+Thereafter, at sporadic intervals, Ali found additional evidence that
+The Jackal was still at work, and there could be no mistake about his
+identity. His raids were noted for cruelty and for the fact that he
+never bothered with any except wealthy caravans. Three years later, Ali
+met The Jackal.
+
+The caravan for which Ali was handling camels came to an oasis one day
+out of Ankara and found another caravan already encamped. However,
+there was ample room for both and no apparent reason for either to
+challenge the other. Ali took care of the camels for which he was
+responsible, then set about to do something he would have done before
+had an opportunity offered itself.
+
+He had been in Antioch, temporarily idle, when he happened across a
+youngster mishandling some half-broken baggage camels. He had stepped in
+to bring the situation under control. On succeeding, he discovered that
+the young man had disappeared while he was occupied, and an older person
+was quietly watching him instead. The older man, whom Ali thought was
+the caravan master, invited him to come along as a camel driver.
+
+Ali had accepted and discovered, too late, that the imperious youngster
+who'd been mishandling baggage camels was the real caravan master, which
+position he held solely by virtue of the fact that his father was Pasha
+of Damascus. He didn't like Ali and he missed no opportunity to
+demonstrate his disapproval. Ali had stayed with the caravan until
+reaching this oasis for the simple reason that there was no other
+choice. If he had left sooner, he would have been one lone man in a land
+noted for the brief span of life enjoyed by solitary travelers. But he
+felt that he could make it from here to Ankara without difficulty and
+he'd had more than his fill of the Pasha's son. He went to the caravan
+master's tent to demand his pay.
+
+He found the youngster engaged in amiable conversation with the man who
+now stood before him, The Jackal, who said he was master of the other
+caravan. Ali also found that, in the eyes of the Pasha's son, his own
+state was less than exalted. He was ordered out of the tent.
+
+When Ali refused to leave without first receiving his pay, the youngster
+unsheathed a dagger and advanced with the obvious intention of having
+him carried out feet first. Unluckily for the Pasha's son, Ali also had
+a dagger and his skill with the same exceeded by a comfortable margin
+any adroitness the other might claim. Ali got his due wages, which he
+took from a moneybag, and the Pasha's son had fainted from a series of
+dagger wounds in his right arm.
+
+Ali was on the point of leaving when The Jackal, who had offered not the
+faintest interference, rose, complimented him on a superb bit of dagger
+work and thanked him for making it easier to sack the caravan. He intended
+to do this tomorrow, somewhere between the oasis and Ankara, but the
+Pasha's son had presented an awkward problem. The Jackal, who introduced
+himself as such, had no fear of soldiers in reasonable numbers but he was
+not prepared to cope with the armies that must inevitably take the field
+against whoever molested a son of the Pasha--this despite the fact that
+the Pasha had no fewer than twenty-nine known sons. The Jackal had been
+trying to persuade the young man to leave and go into Ankara when Ali's
+dagger had settled the matter in a most satisfactory fashion.
+
+The Jackal was not ungrateful, and, to prove his gratitude, he would
+arrange for Ali to ride into Ankara with a small group of his own men,
+who would leave shortly. After they had gone, The Jackal would see to it
+that a sufficient number of his own trusty brigands, under such oaths as
+might be appropriate, would swear that they had seen the Pasha's son
+struck down by an unknown assailant.
+
+Ali had ridden and so had escaped the next morning's massacre, which
+several travelers had reported as taking place after the Pasha's son had
+been "_killed by an assassin_." Thereafter, he had waited for lightning
+to strike although he had only injured his attacker in self defense, but
+so far, it hadn't which meant that The Jackal had kept his lips sealed.
+Now it no longer mattered. The Jackal would cut his own mother down if
+by so doing he served his own ends.
+
+Suddenly, "Why hesitate, Abdullah?" somebody growled.
+
+Another man came from the brush to stand beside The Jackal. Then there
+was another...and more...until nineteen men were grouped about The
+Jackal and facing Ali. The Jackal stepped aside. Another took his place.
+
+Ali glanced briefly at The Jackal. He looked at the others, all good
+Moslems and all wearing on their turbans the distinctive emblem that
+marked them as members of the Pasha's crack personal soldiery. The
+present "Abdullah," the former Jackal, wore the same emblem but, until
+now, it had escaped Ali's notice because, not in his wildest flight of
+imagination had he dreamed he'd ever see it on a Druse.
+
+The soldier who'd spoken and for whom The Jackal had stepped aside,
+evidently the commander of this patrol, spoke again and directed his
+words to Ali, "Where found you the _dalul_, dog?"
+
+Ali answered, "I stole him from some Druse."
+
+The soldier drew his dagger and spoke again, "Die you will, but choose
+whether you die swiftly or slowly. Why are you found in possession of
+the finest _dalul_ among two thousand such owned by the Pasha of
+Damascus?"
+
+"I stole him--" Ali began.
+
+At that moment, out in the thicket, one of the camels being led by the
+dismounted Druse as they made their way among the trees and brush, chose
+to grunt. The eyes of every man except the officer turned toward the
+sound.
+
+Ali said, "The Druse from whom I stole the _dalul_ are in close pursuit.
+They are twenty-three in all."
+
+Except for the officer, who thoughtfully kept the point of his dagger
+pricking Ali's ribs, the Moslems scattered and, a few seconds later, it
+was as though they had never been.
+
+The officer addressed Ali. "Bid the _dalul_ lie down."
+
+Ali gave the order and Ben Akbar obeyed. Unconcerned as though there
+were no Druse within forty miles, but not forgetting to prick Ali's ribs
+with his dagger, the officer scorned even to glance in the direction
+from which the Druse approached. Ali wondered. Some Moslems yearned so
+ardently for the life to come that they set not the least value on the
+one they already had, but the officer seemed more practical-minded.
+
+"The Druse number a score and three," Ali ventured finally. "They come
+from the direction where the camel grunted and they cannot fail to see
+you should you neglect to hide."
+
+"I did not ask your opinion," the officer growled. "Be silent!"
+
+Since the order was emphasized with a sudden jab of the dagger, Ali
+remained silent. He composed himself. This, as well as everything else,
+was now in the hands of Allah and He alone would determine the outcome.
+But it never harmed anything to ponder.
+
+The rest of the Moslems and The Jackal had disappeared as suddenly and
+completely as morning dew when the sun turns hot. Though they could not
+be very far away, neither was the end of the thicket. Once out of the
+brush, Ali could mount Ben Akbar and ride. If the pursuit were resumed,
+and, regardless of who won the forthcoming battle, it would be, it must
+still be delayed while the fight was in progress. If Allah would only
+see fit to make the officer take the point of his dagger out of Ali's
+ribs and go wherever his men had gone, it would be worth Ali's while to
+try to break away.
+
+But the officer entertained no ideas about going anywhere or of using
+his dagger for any purpose except to remind Ali how swiftly a painful
+situation could become fatal. Ali looked at Ben Akbar, still lying where
+he had been ordered to lie, but not liking it. Though reclining, he was
+anything but relaxed. His head was up, his eyes missed nothing, his
+nostrils quested, and tense muscles indicated both a readiness and an
+ability to spring instantly to his feet.
+
+Ali decided that Ben Akbar did not like these strange Moslems any better
+than he had the Druse who captured him, and that he tolerated them at
+all only because Ali commanded him to do so. It occurred to Ali that
+none of the Moslems had been eager to venture too near Ben Akbar, and,
+suddenly, he knew something he hadn't known before.
+
+Certainly no killer, Ben Akbar was most discriminating when it came to a
+choice of human companions. Incapable as the Druse of handling him
+properly, the Moslems were wisely leaving him alone. The fierce little
+officer never would have told Ali to make Ben Akbar lie down if he
+thought the _dalul_ would obey him instead.
+
+That being so, and if Allah smiled and the Moslems won the forthcoming
+fight, Ali felt that he had some hope of staying alive, at least until
+the soldiers returned to whatever headquarters camp they had left to go
+out on patrol. It would reflect little credit on any emissary of the
+Pasha of Damascus to bring a favorite _dalul_ before the eyes of his
+master as a raging brute at the end of ropes. If the Moslems could not
+take him in except by force, but Ali could, there were reasons to
+suppose that Ali would.
+
+When they appeared on foot, the Druse were led by a sinewy man who
+advanced at a trot, and who, in turn, led a _dalul_. Evidently the same
+talented tracker who'd followed Ali's trail while riding full speed, the
+man strained like a leashed gazelle hound that sights its quarry. The
+remaining Druse grouped behind him.
+
+Ali glanced at the officer.
+
+That fierce Moslem, who certainly knew the Druse were coming,
+contemptuously refused even to look around until the leader was within
+thirty yards of him. Then, maintaining enough pressure on the dagger to
+remind Ali that he was not forgotten, he swung and shouted insults.
+
+"Dogs!" he spat. "Eaters of pork! Spawn of flies that infest camel dung!
+I have your prisoner and your _dalul_! Come take them if you're men!"
+
+The leading Druse dropped the reins of his _dalul_, shouted fiercely,
+drew his sword and rushed. His followers did likewise, and, even though
+some were delayed by frightened camels that plunged to one side or the
+other, Ali counted nine sword-waving Druse hard on the heels of their
+leader and all too close for comfort. He stole another glance at the
+officer.
+
+Neither taking the dagger from Ali's ribs nor making any move to draw
+his sword, he seemed to regard the attacking Druse as he might some
+particularly repulsive vermin that might soil his shoes if he stepped on
+them. Then it happened.
+
+From both sides of the trail, where they had concealed themselves as
+soon as they knew the Druse were coming, Moslem swordsmen rose. So
+complete was the surprise and so overwhelming the shock, half the Druse
+were down before the rest even thought of rallying. Ali acknowledged his
+approval--and even some admiration--for an officer who could plan so
+well.
+
+The ambushed Moslems must have seen Ali and Ben Akbar when they were at
+least as far off as the Druse had been when they were sighted. They had
+marked the exact route, which made it unnecessary to do any second-guessing
+about the Druse. If they were following Ali, they were tracking him. So
+an ambush on either side of the track, an officer to act as bait and
+convince the Druse that there was only one man and--
+
+The last Druse went down. The Moslems ranged out to catch the scattered
+camels and bring in any loot that was worth bringing. Some wounded, but
+all on their feet, they arranged themselves and their booty before the
+officer.
+
+"You fought like old women," he sneered. "It is well that there were no
+real warriors to oppose you. But now that we have the _dalul_ we set out
+to find, we may return."
+
+"The prisoner?" someone called.
+
+"He stays." The officer pushed his dagger a quarter inch into Ali's
+ribs.
+
+Because it was an ideal time to think of something else, Ali speculated
+about The Jackal. Whatever else he might be, The Jackal was a brave man.
+What would happen, if he were detected, to a Druse who not only joined
+the _Hadj_ but the Pasha's personal soldiers too, and who was obviously
+representing himself as a Moslem, Ali couldn't even imagine.
+
+He did know that one false step would be one too many for the deceiver.
+If The Jackal took that step, he would live a very long while in agony
+before voicing his final shriek. Of course, it was a true Moslem's duty
+to tell what he knew, but The Jackal had only to speak and Ali would
+face the torturers with him. Whatever purpose had brought The Jackal
+here, he must be playing for tremendous stakes.
+
+Ali was considerably relieved, but not greatly astonished, when the
+officer withdrew his dagger and sheathed it. He addressed Ali as he
+might have spoken to a stray cur.
+
+"On second thought, we will take you to Al Misri, The Egyptian, and let
+him kill you. Bring the _dalul_, dog, and, for your own sake, see that
+it does not stray."
+
+
+
+
+4. The Hadj
+
+
+As soon as possible, which was as soon as their own riding camels
+could be brought from wherever they had been hidden, the Moslem soldiers
+mounted and prepared to set out. On the point of mounting Ben Akbar, Ali
+was knocked to the ground by the flat of the fierce officer's sword and
+informed in terms that left no room for doubt that he was Ben Akbar's
+attendant. Nobody except the Pasha of Damascus was to be his rider.
+
+Despite clear grounds for argument, Ali smothered his anger and
+comforted himself with logic. There are times to fight, but on this
+specific occasion logic indicated clearly that one man armed with a
+dagger can hope for nothing except a very certain demise by defying
+twenty men who are armed with everything. Ali walked beside the _dalul_,
+a rather simple process, since the speed of all must necessarily be
+regulated by the pace of the slow baggage camels, and Ben Akbar refused
+to leave his friend's side, anyhow.
+
+With nightfall, they made camp at a water hole too small to be dignified
+by the title of oasis. After he had finished eating, the officer
+contemptuously tossed Ali the remains of his meal and a silken cord. He
+said nothing, apparently he had no desire to degrade himself by speaking
+unnecessarily to anyone who was so clearly and so greatly his inferior,
+but the implication was obvious. Ben Akbar must not stray.
+
+Knowing the cord was unnecessary, Ali chose the diplomatic course. He
+tied one end of the cord to his wrist and the other around the young
+_dalul's_ neck. While Ben Akbar grazed, Ali sat quietly and devoted a
+few fleeting thoughts to the various possibilities of a social position
+that is approximately on a level with the fleas that torment camels--and
+sometimes riders of camels.
+
+While it was true that the soldiers, grouped about their evening fire,
+ignored him as completely as though he didn't even exist, Ali saw no
+good reason why he should ignore them in a similar fashion. He breathed
+a silent thanks to Allah for blessing him with sharp ears. What those
+ears heard as Ali sat pretending to doze, but alert as a desert fox,
+might have a powerful influence on his plans for the future.
+
+There were diverse possibilities. One that had already been considered
+most thoroughly and at great length was rooted in the pleasing thought
+that Ben Akbar was no longer a tired, hungry and thirsty _dalul_. Given
+as much as a five-second start, there wasn't another camel on the desert
+that could even hope to catch him.
+
+If this was to be Ali's choice, tonight was the time for action. But
+before committing himself to anything, he wanted to consider everything.
+
+The patrol, as Ali had learned from the conversation at the campfire,
+was one of several dispatched from the great _Hadj_ six days ago. Their
+only purpose was to find Ben Akbar; their orders were not to return
+without him.
+
+Ben Akbar had been lost, so Ali learned, through the laxity of a
+seven-times-cursed camel driver from Smyrna. His only duty, a task to
+which he'd been assigned because he was one of the very few men Ben
+Akbar would obey, was to watch over the Pasha's most-prized _dalul_.
+Somehow or other--a soldier voiced the opinion that he'd been in
+collusion with the very Druse from whom Ali had taken him--he'd managed
+to lose his charge. All the soldiers gave fervent thanks to Allah
+because their mission was successfully completed. Hunting lost camels
+was not their idea of interesting diversion.
+
+Ali digested the food for thought thus provided and decided, to his own
+satisfaction, that his previous deduction had been entirely correct. He
+had not been spared because the Moslem soldiers were compassionate, but
+because not one among them knew how to handle Ben Akbar without resorting
+to force. Furthermore, if Ben Akbar were not greatly esteemed, several
+patrols of soldiers who might at any time be needed for other duties
+never would have been charged with the exclusive task of recovering him.
+
+While Ben Akbar moved so carefully that the silken cord was never even
+taut, Ali lay back to gaze at the sky and consider the most profitable
+use of the information at his disposal.
+
+If he rode into the desert on Ben Akbar, a possibility that retained
+much appeal, he need have no fear of successful pursuit. However, the
+Pasha's soldiers would certainly continue their search. As long as Ben
+Akbar was with him--and Ali had already decided that that would be as
+long as he lived--he must inevitably be a marked man. Unless he rode
+into a country ruled by some sultan or Pasha who was hostile to the
+Pasha of Damascus--in which event there was a fine chance of having his
+throat cut by someone who wanted to steal Ben Akbar--he would lead a
+harassed and harried life.
+
+On the other hand, if he stayed with the soldiers and went into camp, he'd
+be doing exactly what he'd set out to do in the first place--he'd join the
+great _Hadj_. As there seemed to be few camel drivers who knew how to
+handle Ben Akbar, there was more than a good chance that Ali would make
+the pilgrimage as his attendant. Since he'd already determined that Ben
+Akbar would be a part of his future, regardless of what that was or where
+it led him, this prospect was entrancing. In addition, once his holy
+pilgrimage was properly completed, he would be entitled to call himself
+Hadji Ali and to take advantage of the expanded horizon derived therefrom.
+
+Only one small cloud of doubt prevented Ali from choosing this latter
+course without further hesitation or thought. The Moslem officer's voice
+had been laden with more than casual respect when he referred to Al Misri,
+or The Egyptian. The casual pronouncement that The Egyptian was to have
+the pleasure of executing Ali might be, and probably was, just another
+attempt to intimidate him. But this was the Syrian _Hadj_. As such, it
+differed distinctly from the Moslem pilgrimage that originated in and
+departed from Cairo, Egypt. Every Syrian knew that Egyptians are inferior.
+The very fact that a responsible and high-ranking officer of the Syrian
+_Hadj_ possessed the sheer brazen effrontery to call himself The Egyptian,
+plus the strength and authority to command respect for such a title, was
+more than enough to mark him as a man apart. Doubtless he was a man of
+firm convictions that were translated into action without loss of time. If
+he had, or if he should develop, a firm conviction that Ali dead was more
+pleasing than Ali alive--
+
+Ali finally decided to go in with the soldiers and trust Allah. His
+decision made, he lay down, arranged his burnous to suit him and went
+peacefully to sleep.
+
+In the thin, cold light of very early morning, he came awake and, as
+usual, lay quietly before moving. The silken cord that was tied to his
+wrist and Ben Akbar's neck was both slack and motionless; the _dalul_
+must be resting. The dagger and pilgrim's robe were safe. Reassured
+concerning the state of his personal world and possessions of the
+moment, Ali sat up and looked toward Ben Akbar.
+
+No more than a dozen feet away, the young _dalul_ was standing quietly
+where he had finished grazing. An ecstatic glow lighted Ali's eyes. Ben
+Akbar's recuperative powers must be as marvelous as his speed and
+endurance. He scarcely seemed to be the same spent and reeling beast
+that Ali had led into ambush yesterday morning. After only one night's
+rest and grazing, even his hump was noticeably bigger.
+
+Ali joined the other Moslems at morning prayer, stood humbly aside as
+they saddled and mounted and started the baggage camels moving and fell
+in behind with Ben Akbar. Nobody paid the least attention to him; if he
+planned to escape, he would not be fool enough to make the attempt by
+day.
+
+Four hours later, the travelers looked from a hillock upon the great
+_Hadj_.
+
+A sea of tents, like rippling waves, overflowed and seemed about to
+overwhelm a broad valley. There were no palms or any other indication of
+water. Obviously, this was a dry camp--one of many on the long, dangerous
+route--and dry camps were the primary reason why so many baggage camels
+were needed. But even with thousands of baggage camels burdened with food
+and water, often there was not enough. Falling in that order to thirst,
+bandits, disease or hunger--or succumbing to the desert itself--a full
+third of the pilgrims with any _Hadj_ might die before reaching the Holy
+City.
+
+Save for a few tethered camels and some horses, there were no animals in
+sight. Ali knew that the majority had been given over to herders and
+were in various pastures. The picketed camels and horses were for the
+convenience of those who might find it necessary to ride.
+
+For the most part, the camp would rest all day. Only when late afternoon
+shadows tempered the glaring sun would it come awake. Then, guided by
+blazing torches on either flank, at the mile-or mile-and-a-half-an-hour
+which was the swiftest pace so many baggage animals could maintain, it
+would march toward Mecca all night long.
+
+Impressive as the camp appeared, Ali knew also that it was just a small
+part--though one of the wealthier parts or there would not have been so
+many tents--of the great _Hadj_. There was not a single valley in the
+entire desert spacious enough to accommodate the five thousand humans,
+and the more than twenty thousand beasts, whose destination was the Holy
+City of Mecca.
+
+After a brief halt, the officer led his men down into the camp. There
+were few humans stirring, and those who were regarded the returning
+patrol with complete indifference.
+
+In the very center of the camp, before a huge and luxurious tent that,
+together with its furnishings, must require a whole herd of baggage
+camels just to transport it, the officer dismounted, handed the reins of
+his riding camel to a soldier and entered the tent. The remainder of the
+patrol formed an armed circle around Ali and Ben Akbar.
+
+Wishing he could feel as unconcerned as he hoped he appeared, Ali sought
+to ease the tension by observing and speculating. This tent, he
+presently decided, was not headquarters for the Pasha himself. Though
+the Pasha's tent couldn't possibly be much more luxurious, it would be
+surrounded by the camps of other dignitaries, and the whole would be so
+well-guarded by soldiers that nobody could have come even near. Ali
+guessed that this was the headquarters of Al Misri, and that they were
+in a camp of officers and lesser notables.
+
+Twenty minutes after he entered the tent--Ali guessed shrewdly that he
+had been allowed to cool his heels for a decorous interval--the officer
+backed out. He bowed, a curious and somehow a ludicrous gesture for anyone
+so fiery, and held the tent flaps open. When a second man emerged, the
+officer stepped humbly to one side and waited whatever action the other
+might consider.
+
+Short and squat, at first glance Al Misri seemed a shapeless lump of
+human flesh that has somehow been given the breath of life. His silken
+robe hung loosely open. Uncovered, his massive head seemed to be
+supported directly on his shoulders, without benefit of or need for a
+neck. It was bald as an egg. He plopped a date into his mouth and chewed
+it as the soldiers moved respectfully back to give him room.
+
+Yet Ali needed only one glance to tell him that Al Misri was far more
+than just a funny little fat man who chewed dates in a rather disgusting
+manner. His grotesque body was enveloped in an aura not unlike that
+which enfolded Ben Akbar. Al Misri commanded because it was his destiny
+to command.
+
+He came near, spat the date pit into Ali's face and spoke to the
+officer. The latter conveyed the message to Ali.
+
+"Even though Al Misri prefers to kill vermin, you are granted your life.
+You win this favor, not through compassion, but because you are able to
+ride a _dalul_ that kills other men."
+
+Ali remained silent, as was expected of him. Al Misri gave the officer
+another message for the captive camel driver.
+
+"The other keeper of the _dalul_ let it stray," the officer announced.
+"The keeper died in a fire, a very slow fire that was kindled at dawn,
+but the keeper still nodded his head at high noon. You are now keeper of
+the _dalul_. Take care that it strays not."
+
+Without another word or a backward glance, Al Misri turned and waddled
+back to his tent. The officer disbanded his men.
+
+Ali led Ben Akbar to pasture at the edge of camp.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The travelers came to Tanim, far enough outside Holy Territory so that
+there was no possibility of desecrating it, but near enough to furnish a
+convenient stopping place for donning the _ihram_, in the cool of early
+morning. Not all who had been with the _Hadj_ when Ali finally joined
+it--and not all who had since come from one place or another--were still
+present. Many good Moslems who would never see the Holy City had died
+trying to reach it.
+
+Ali reflected curiously that some of the more devout were dead, while
+some who seemed to regard this holy journey in anything except a pious
+light were very much alive. A merchant who had come all the way from
+Damascus, and who was about to don the _ihram_, deferred the ceremony so
+that he might bargain about something or other with another merchant
+from Smyrna. Though they were all Moslems--except for The Jackal, Ali
+thought quickly--obviously the true light burned brightly for some and
+dimly for others.
+
+Ali wondered uneasily about the category in which he belonged. He
+worried about the fact that he did not feel greatly different from the
+way he had felt while out on the caravan routes or in the bazaar of The
+Street Called Straight. He thought he should feel something else.
+
+Though many had died, his pilgrimage had been almost luxurious. He had
+nothing at all to do except watch over Ben Akbar, which was simplicity
+itself because the powerful young _dalul_ wanted nothing except to be
+where Ali was. Though Ali was forbidden to ride, the Pasha of Damascus,
+the only human worthy of riding Ben Akbar, had allowed himself to be
+carried all the way to Mecca in a sedan chair. Seeing the Pasha once,
+and from a distance, Ali decided, to his own satisfaction, at least,
+that he had not asked to ride Ben Akbar for the simple reason that he
+couldn't. Judging by the Pasha's looks, he'd have trouble riding an
+age-broken baggage camel.
+
+Always together, Ali and Ben Akbar had walked all the way. It had still
+been the easiest of walks since, as long as he took care of Ben Akbar
+and kept himself in the background, Ali was assured ample food and
+water. With the finest of care and nothing to do, Ben Akbar was at the
+very peak of perfection.
+
+With appropriate ceremony, Ali donned the _ihram_ and ran a mental tally
+of the things he must not do until the _Hadj_ came to an end. He must wear
+neither head nor foot covering. He must not shave, trim his nails--But
+there was nothing in the entire list that forbade taking Ben Akbar with
+him. Ali remained troubled, nevertheless because, try as he would, he was
+unable to achieve what he considered a necessary level of piety.
+
+Rather than feeling spiritually uplifted by what had been and what was
+to be, he could think only that, very shortly, he would have the right
+to call himself Hadji Ali.
+
+
+
+
+5. The Unpardonable Sin
+
+
+Mecca, Holy City of the Moslems, spoke in a strangely subdued whisper
+when this particular night finally enfolded it. The great _Hadj_ was
+ended--the official termination announced when the wealthier pilgrims
+sought barbers to shave them and those without money shaved each other.
+
+The unofficial, but more realistic, termination came about in a
+different manner.
+
+Whatever their motives, or degree of zeal, an inspired army had gone to
+Mecca. With the _Hadj_ ended, suddenly weary human beings thought with
+wistful longing of the homes they'd left and the beloved faces that
+became doubly precious because they were absent. Thus the sudden silence
+in Mecca, where--every night until this one--lone pilgrims and bands of
+pilgrims had gone noisily about various errands. However, not all pilgrims
+had chosen to spend this night in their beds.
+
+Ali, now Hadji Ali, stood very quietly in the darkest niche he'd been
+able to find of The Masa, The Sacred Course between Mounts Safa and
+Marwa. Ben Akbar, never far from Ali's side, stood just as quietly
+beside him and Ali wanted no other companion. Hoping to ease a troubled
+conscience, he had sought this lonely and deserted spot to try to find
+the true significance, which he was sure must exist but had so far
+escaped him, of the ceremonies in which he had just participated.
+
+Perhaps, he thought seriously, he was now confused because he had had no
+real understanding of any part of anything from the very beginning.
+Nobody had told him why the _ihram_ must be donned and adjusted in a
+certain way, with certain prescribed motions, and in no other fashion.
+
+With Ben Akbar, who followed like a faithful dog but aroused little
+comment in this city where camels were the commonest means of
+transportation, Ali had entered Mecca in the prescribed fashion, though
+he hadn't the faintest idea as to who had prescribed it or why. At
+intervals, and solely because all his companions were doing likewise,
+he had shouted "_Labbaika_," a word whose meaning he had not known and
+still did not know.
+
+At this point, Ali became so hopelessly entangled in matters he did not
+understand that it was necessary to start all over again. However, he
+decided not to begin with the _ihram_ this time. The Sacred Course was
+also a part of the ceremony, and, being near at hand, it might yield
+clues that could not be discerned in that which was far away.
+
+The Sacred Course, connecting the eminences of Safa and Marwa and locale
+of the liveliest and most unmanageable bazaar in Mecca, was four hundred
+and ninety three paces in length. It was the Trail of Torment imposed on
+Hagar, who ran it seven times in a desperate effort to find water for
+her infant son. Pilgrims arriving in Mecca accepted as part of their own
+ceremony a seven times running of The Sacred Course. This, as Ali had
+seen with his own eyes, was subject to various interpretations. Some
+pilgrims ran the prescribed seven times but some would have difficulty
+walking it once, for despite the hardships of the journey, some of the
+afflicted, aged and the simply lazy arrived with every _Hadj_. Then
+there were always the eccentrics. Ali himself had been an astounded
+witness when one fat Amir reclined in a cushioned sedan chair which six
+sweating slaves carried over The Sacred Course the requisite number of
+times.
+
+Ali tilted his head and stared miserably into the darkness as the utter
+hopelessness of his quest for understanding became increasingly
+apparent. It had been important that he earn the right to call himself
+Hadji Ali, but, in his heart of hearts, he knew that he'd wanted far
+more than that from his holy pilgrimage and he had not received it.
+Since millions of Moslems who found all they hoped for in Mecca could
+not be wrong, it followed that the fault was personal. So--
+
+Ali's meditations were interrupted by that which he understood
+perfectly.
+
+Ben Akbar, swinging his head in the darkness as he turned to look toward
+something that had attracted him, gave the first sign that they were no
+longer alone. Ali had not seen the move, but he knew Ben Akbar had moved
+because he always knew everything the _dalul_ did.
+
+Presently, he knew that a man, or men, were approaching because Ben
+Akbar always breathed in a certain cadence whenever men came near. Ali
+held very still, hoping the strangers would pass without noticing him.
+He knew by their footsteps that there were two of them.
+
+Ali sighed in disappointment when the pair halted only a few feet away.
+He was about to call out and make his presence known, for those who have
+reason for silence in the darkness also have reason to expect violence,
+when someone spoke.
+
+"All know of the plan then, Ahmet?" It was the voice of The Jackal!
+
+"All know," a second man replied.
+
+Ali stood very still, holding his breath. The fact that The Jackal,
+whose intentions were anything except holy, was with the _Hadj_, had
+caused Ali some uneasy moments. But, he reminded himself once more, if
+it was the obvious duty of a good Moslem to reveal a Druse or anyone
+else traveling with the _Hadj_ and pretending to be a Moslem, it was
+equally true that The Jackal was in an excellent position to do some
+revealing of his own. Ali had decided he would not be the first to
+speak. Evidently The Jackal was not talking either.
+
+"When is the exact appointed time?" the man named Ahmet asked.
+
+"In another hour, when the followers of Mohammed and the worshipers of
+Allah will be enjoying their deepest dreams."
+
+The Jackal voiced a low laugh, and, despite his anxiety, Ali had to
+wonder. In the heart of Mecca, surrounded by thousands of Moslems and
+certainly with no hope of fighting his way clear, The Jackal could laugh
+as easily as though he were in a Druse stronghold. His companion was
+less assured.
+
+"Speak gently," he cautioned. "Someone may hear!"
+
+"_Pouf!_" The Jackal scoffed. "The Moslems hear nothing tonight save
+the hot wind that shall sing about their ears until they are once again
+safe in their homes. The city sleeps, Ahmet."
+
+Ahmet said uneasily, "Some are always awake."
+
+"Have you turned lily-livered?" The Jackal asked sardonically.
+
+Ahmet answered, "I do not think so, but better a lily than a
+sword-pierced liver."
+
+"Have I not planned well?" The Jackal demanded.
+
+"One who can select thirty-four men, scatter them throughout a Moslem
+_Hadj_ and bring all safely to Mecca, has planned as wisely as he chose
+men," Ahmet commented. "Just let there be no mistake at this late hour."
+
+The Jackal said, "The only mistake of which we can be guilty now is in
+leaving this place without The Black Stone."
+
+Ali clapped a hand over his mouth to stifle a gasp. The Jackal was
+indeed playing for big stakes, one of the most colossal prizes in the
+history of brigandage, and he seemed in a fair position to get it. Fixed
+in the wall of The Kaaba, an edifice so ancient that some claimed it was
+here even before Mohammed, The Black Stone was possibly the holiest of
+Moslem shrines. In common with all other pilgrims, Ali had dutifully
+kissed it. As far as its physical aspects were concerned, it was a
+small, dark mass that at one time might have been part of a meteor.
+Should anyone ever succeed in stealing it, the Moslem world would pay a
+fantastic ransom for its safe return. If nobody stopped The Jackal and
+his accomplices, each of them could be so wealthy that the Pasha of
+Damascus would seem a beggar by comparison.
+
+Ben Akbar swung his head to nudge Ali's shoulder with an inquiring nose,
+and Ali stroked the _dalul's_ soft cheek. Accustomed to spending his
+nights in some peaceful pasture, Ben Akbar had no liking for this
+confined place, and he was telling his friend so.
+
+Ali tried to conjure up a mental image of The Sacred Course, but he
+couldn't do it, in spite of the fact that he had run its length the
+stipulated seven times. Because he had hoped to find that in their faces
+which would tell him just why they had come to Mecca, and thus furnish
+some sure basis upon which he could build his own right motivation for
+coming, Ali had studied his fellow pilgrims and ignored the street. Who
+could imagine that he or anyone else might have to leave The Masa by the
+nearest and quietest path?
+
+There had to be a way because there was always a way, but Ali was still
+seeking it when Ben Akbar, increasingly eager to be out of the city that
+he did not like and into the desert he did, expressed his impatience in
+a racking grunt.
+
+Then there was just one way. Ali drew his dagger and waited.
+
+Out in the night, there was sudden silence, but the very lack of noise
+was as lethal as and somehow remarkably similar to the desert adder that
+awaits its prey in complete silence and, in striking, makes no noise
+that is ever heard by the victim. Ali considered the situation.
+
+Since it was most improbable that there'd be a camel at this place and
+hour without a camel driver, the conspirators knew they had been
+overheard. In addition, since every camel has its own distinctive voice,
+The Jackal had probably recognized Ben Akbar. Therefore, he knew that
+Ali had overheard him.
+
+Swiftly, Ali weighed the advantages and disadvantages and considered
+possible ways to make the best use of the former, while yielding as
+little as possible to the latter.
+
+Beyond any doubt, The Jackal knew that Ben Akbar accepted certain
+favored human beings and rejected all others, unless they foolishly
+tried to interfere with him. Then he showed his resentment, often
+violently. So only a fool would rush in, and The Jackal was no fool.
+Neither, Ali told himself, was he a coward who'd be swerved from his
+determined purpose by a threatening incident. He'd face a dozen Ben
+Akbars before he'd abandon his plan to steal The Black Stone and seek
+refuge in flight, but he'd face them in his own way. Ali took a
+calculated risk.
+
+"Kneel," he whispered in the _dalul's_ ear.
+
+Ben Akbar obeyed. Stifling a sigh of relief, Ali slipped five paces to
+one side and turned so that he was again facing the _dalul_. There had
+been a certain unavoidable rattling of pebbles and other small noises
+when Ben Akbar knelt, but no sound of a camel leaving the scene. If
+Allah were kind, The Jackal would know that Ben Akbar remained where he
+had been and would expect to find Ali with him. Rushing in from an
+unexpected quarter at the right moment, Ali would have the advantage of
+surprise and some hope of victory, in spite of two to one odds.
+
+Ali thought, but very fleetingly, of calling out an offer to negotiate.
+He'd go his way and maintain his silence, if the pair would promise no
+interference. But The Jackal had come too far and risked too much to
+incur the further risk of a knowing head and a possibly loose tongue;
+he'd never accept the offer. Nor could Ali really have brought himself
+to make it.
+
+Even though he had failed to find the assured spiritual awakening he'd
+earnestly hoped to discover in Mecca, he could not be disloyal to a
+Faith he'd voluntarily accepted. Even though he himself failed to
+appreciate the significance of The Black Stone, as a good Moslem, he
+could not see it defiled.
+
+Dagger in hand, Ali stood very quietly in the darkness. Though he was
+looking toward Ben Akbar and the _dalul_ was only a few paces away, the
+darkness was so intense that he could barely discern the camel's
+outline. He neither saw nor heard anything else. It was as though Ali
+and Ben Akbar were the only inhabitants of a world suddenly turned
+black.
+
+Ali battled the illusion, for the very silence and the feeling that he
+was alone were sufficient evidence that he faced deadly danger. The
+Jackal was no amateur who would seek to cow his enemy by hissed threats,
+mislead him by thrown stones or other ruses, or indulge in any other
+melodrama. He compared favorably with the tawny-maned lion who lays his
+ambush at a water hole where gazelles drink. Having decided that killing
+was in order, The Jackal would kill with a maximum of speed and
+efficiency, brought about by a lifetime of experience.
+
+Ben Akbar did not even move. He would remain exactly as he was and where
+he was until Ali himself gave permission to get up or until circumstances
+beyond his friend's control forced him to arise. A lump rose in Ali's
+throat. Ben Akbar was far more than just a magnificent _dalul_. He was
+Ali's other self, a true brother and to be loved as such. Ali renewed
+his vow that, so long as Allah saw fit to spare him, just so long would
+he and Ben Akbar face the same winds, traveling side by side.
+
+Suddenly, seeing his pilgrimage in an entirely new light, it was no
+longer a disappointment but more than rewarding. Perhaps, in His
+infinite wisdom, Allah bestowed different gifts upon different
+pilgrims, according to their true intentions. Ali knew that he was
+contented now, for, because of his pilgrimage, he had Ben Akbar. He
+would no longer stand alone against the world.
+
+Presently, Ali became aware of great and immediate danger.
+
+It was no sudden perception accompanied by sudden shock, but a complete
+and whole revelation, the ripening of each separate incident since The
+Jackal and Ahmet had appeared. Unless he did something about it, Ali's
+senses told him, he would be dead very shortly. At the same time, so
+clear was the light that bathed his mind, he was instantly able to
+understand exactly how this had come about.
+
+He had underestimated The Jackal. Hearing Ben Akbar grunt, the man had
+identified him instantly. But he had also identified the tiny sounds
+made by a camel kneeling and he'd known why Ben Akbar was made to kneel.
+The Jackal, had decided, not only that Ali would not await directly
+beside Ben Akbar, but also exactly where he would be found. It was what
+The Jackal himself might have done under similar circumstances. Now,
+dagger poised, he stood directly behind Ali and needed only one more
+silent step to carry him into a striking position.
+
+When Ali moved, he did so swiftly, bending at the knees even while he
+swiveled the upper portion of his body forward to make a smaller
+target. At the same time, he pivoted on the balls of his feet, so that
+he made a complete turn and faced his enemy. He thrust with all his
+strength.
+
+The dagger's point found resistance, but not unyielding resistance. It
+bit hungrily into something that was both soft and warm. There was a
+gasp, a strangled grunt, then an almost gentle rustle as The Jackal
+wilted backwards and his own burnous enfolded him.
+
+A shout cracked the darkness as a hammer blow might crack a pane of
+glass. "Now then! Close in!"
+
+Bloody dagger still in his extended hand, Ali only half heard either the
+shout or the patter of running feet that immediately followed. Aghast at
+what he'd done but never intended to do, he remained rooted in his
+tracks. This was Mecca, The Holy City, and shedding blood within its
+borders was one of the very few sins for which there was no pardon.
+Mohammed himself, when making prisoners of some enemies who sought to
+hide in Mecca, could carry out his own death sentence only by locking
+them in a building and letting them starve. No Moslem was wealthy or
+influential enough to attain forgiveness for shedding blood in Mecca.
+
+So complete was his horror and so shocking, for a short space Ali was
+only vaguely aware of rough hands that gripped him. Then someone spoke.
+Ali recognized the voice of the fierce officer who had ambushed the
+Druse.
+
+"It is the camel rider who was made keeper of the _dalul_, and he too
+has let his charge stray."
+
+A groan sounded in the darkness.
+
+"He has done more than that," someone whom Ali could barely see said in
+an awed whisper. "He has shed blood in the Holy City."
+
+"Fool!" the officer said to Ali contemptuously. "We knew who they were
+and were ready to take them! I would not care to wear your burnous at
+this moment!"
+
+The single reason why he was not already lying beside the wounded man,
+Ali told himself, could be ascribed to the fact that the fierce officer
+dared not shed blood in Mecca. Certainly his execution would not be
+delayed when they no longer stood on Holy Ground.
+
+Then the fog that had dulled Ali's brain when he stabbed The Jackal
+faded away. He thought of words voiced by the officer, 'the camel rider
+who was made keeper of the _dalul_, and he too has let his charge
+stray.' Obviously, the soldiers were unaware of Ben Akbar's nearness.
+Ali saw his one hope of escape.
+
+"Ho!" he called loudly and clearly. "Ben Akbar! Come to me! Run!"
+
+There was a rattling of pebbles as Ben Akbar hastened to obey.
+Astonished soldiers, who hadn't even suspected this and needed a moment
+to decide what it might be, dodged out of the _dalul's_ path or were
+knocked out of it.
+
+Side by side, Ali and Ben Akbar ran on until the friendly mantle of
+night hid both.
+
+
+
+
+6. The Strange Ship
+
+
+The first light of day was followed almost at once by the first blast
+of heat. Then the sun rose, a burning red ball that seemed to roll
+across the eastern horizon with steadily increasing speed, as though to
+gain momentum for leaping into the sky.
+
+The rein hung slack and Ali dozed in the saddle as Ben Akbar paced
+steadily onward. When the bright sun flashed in his eyes, Ali awakened
+and halted his mount with, "Ho, my brother! Let us stop."
+
+Ben Akbar halted, knelt when commanded to do so, and Ali dismounted.
+
+As the sun climbed higher and grew hotter, Ali pondered his present
+situation, the immediate past and the probable future. In his mind's
+eye, he drew a map of the general area and of his approximate position.
+
+At a rough estimate, Mecca was halfway down the east shore of the Red
+Sea, a great sweep of water whose most northerly waves break on the
+Sinai Peninsula and whose southern extremity mingles with the Gulf of
+Aden, a thousand or more miles away. Directly to the east was the land
+of the Arabs. Ali's native Syria was northeast, and beyond Syria lay
+Turkey.
+
+Since it was manifestly impossible to cross the Red Sea without a
+suitable ship, Ali's choice of directions were north, south and east. It
+was a difficult choice, for, wherever he went, he would still be in a
+land of Moslems. Even if he might somehow contrive to cross the Red Sea,
+he must necessarily disembark in Moslem Egypt.
+
+Because he had shed blood in Holy Mecca, he was and forever must be
+outcast by all true Moslems. Moreover, with thousands of home-going
+pilgrims and each one an indignant bearer of the tale of desecration,
+very shortly Ali would be a marked man throughout the Moslem world. Any
+Moslem who killed him would be honored, not prosecuted.
+
+Now all that belonged to the dead past. This was the living present, and
+Ali wondered curiously why he was unable to regard that present in the
+grave light cast by facts as they were. He'd gained in Mecca the coveted
+right to call himself Hadji Ali, and, considering the turn of
+circumstances that now meant nothing whatever. It made not the slightest
+difference what name he carried. But, far from surrendering to despair
+or even giving way to anxiety, Ali felt that the _Hadj_ had brought him
+a whole new future and that it had never been so hopeful.
+
+He stroked the _dalul's_ neck with affectionately understanding hands.
+Ben Akbar made happy little noises with his mouth and the rein trailed
+in the desert sand. Ali stooped to pick it up. The rein was not
+necessary because he could still guide Ben Akbar by voiced commands,
+but, since he was setting out on what would most certainly be a long
+journey, he had felt that it was desirable to have proper trappings for
+his mount.
+
+As soon as Ali began to plan ahead after his flight from Mecca, he
+decided that he must reach the camp of Al Misri, the most accessible
+source of camel harness, before the soldiers were able to bring their
+news there. He accomplished that by making Ben Akbar kneel when both had
+run a safe distance, then mounting and riding at full speed until he was
+within a discreet distance of the camp. There--even if he has completed
+the _Hadj_, a camel's groom must not be caught riding a _dalul_ reserved
+exclusively for the Pasha of Damascus--Ali dismounted and walked the
+rest of the way.
+
+Familiar figures about the camp, the pair attracted only indifferent
+glances from the sentries. As though he were acting under orders, Ali
+went directly to the supply tent to choose a proper saddle and bridle.
+The bridle presented no problem, but Ali was able to find a saddle only
+after rejecting a dozen of the biggest ones and finally hitting upon the
+largest of all. In superb condition, Ben Akbar's sleek hump seemed ready
+to burst. None but the biggest saddle would fit.
+
+However, foreseeing probable hardship, and the consequent shrinking of
+the _dalul's_ hump, Ali gathered up a sufficient supply of saddle pads.
+Finally, he chose a goatskin water bag and, as payment for all, left the
+single coin that had remained to him after paying for his _ihram_. It
+was not enough, and he knew it, but it was all he had.
+
+Leading Ben Akbar, Ali filled his water bag at the oasis and went on.
+The sentries who watched all this but failed to act were lulled partly
+by the fact that Ali was a familiar part of the camp and, as far as the
+sentries knew, above suspicion. They were further disarmed by the very
+audacity of the scheme. Nobody, certainly not a camel's groom, would
+walk brazenly into a camp commanded by Al Misri and steal trappings to
+equip the Pasha's prized _dalul_, which he also intended to steal!
+
+A safe distance from camp, Ali mounted and rode. He struck inland,
+veering away from the route that would be selected by most of the
+home-going pilgrims, letting Ben Akbar choose his own moderate pace all
+night long. Nobody could follow him in the darkness, anyhow, and it was
+wise to spare his mount.
+
+Now, as he stood beside the reclining _dalul_ and the burning sun
+pursued its torrid course, Ali considered that which was as inevitable
+as the eventual setting of the sun.
+
+It was a foregone conclusion that some tracker had taken the trail as
+soon as he was able to see it, and the pursuers would waste no time. Nor
+would they ever give up. Who stole a _dalul_ from the Pasha of Damascus
+might escape only if he sought and found asylum with one of the Pasha's
+powerful enemies. But who desecrated Holy Mecca would never find safety
+in any Moslem land. In addition, Ali thought, the officer and all the
+men who'd been with him would now make a heretic's punishment a point of
+honor, a blood quest from which only death would free them.
+
+Ali still saw hope that could not have been without Ben Akbar. As
+individuals, either was assailable. Together, they were invincible.
+
+Counting from the time they'd left Al Misri's camp to the first light of
+day, Ali gave meticulous consideration to the pace set by Ben Akbar and
+the type of terrain they'd traveled. When finished, he knew within a few
+rods either way just how far they had come and within a few minutes,
+plus or minus, when pursuers could be expected. Ali turned to Ben Akbar.
+
+"Rest," he crooned, as he removed saddle and bridle. "Rest and forage,
+oh Prince among _dalul_. Come to me then, and you shall teach the
+Pasha's soldiers the true speed of a _dalul_."
+
+Ben Akbar wandered forth to crop the coarse desert vegetation. Choosing
+the doubtful shade offered by a copse of scrub, Ali lay down and drew
+his burnous about him. He slept peacefully and soundly, as though he'd
+somehow managed to purge his mind of certain grim prospects for the
+immediate future and rest alone mattered. A bit more than three hours
+later, as Ali had planned when he chose his bed, the blazing sun shone
+directly upon him and its glare broke his slumber.
+
+He did not, as had been his habit, lie quietly and without moving until
+he determined exactly what lay about him and what, if anything, he
+should do about it. Ben Akbar, who always knew long before his master
+when anything approached--and always let Ali know--made such precautions
+unnecessary. The great _dalul_ was grazing quietly and only a few feet
+away.
+
+"To me, my brother," Ali called softly.
+
+Ben Akbar came at once and Ali replaced the saddle and bridle. About to
+take a swallow of water, he decided to wait until Ben Akbar could also
+have a satisfactory drink or until thirst became unbearable. In the
+latter event, they'd share the contents of the water bag.
+
+Ali thought calmly of the journey before him. A novice attempting such a
+trip would invite his own death, and even an experienced desert traveler
+would find such an undertaking very precarious. However, Ali, who'd
+spent most of his life on the caravan routes, thought of it as just one
+more journey.
+
+The merciless sun spared nothing. Waves of heat rolled along with
+monotonous regularity, as though the heat blanket were a mighty ocean
+beset by a steady wind. Ali turned his back to the sun's direct rays and
+watched Ben Akbar. He was hot and thirsty, and becoming hotter and
+thirstier, but so had he been before and would be again.
+
+The sun was almost exactly where Ali had decided it should be when Ben
+Akbar raised his head and fixed his attention on the western horizon. It
+was the direction from which they had come, that from which pursuit
+should come. Ali turned to face the same way as Ben Akbar.
+
+A few minutes later, they rode over a hillock and Ali saw them. They
+were a little group of the Pasha's crack troops, superbly mounted on
+magnificent _dalul_ and maintaining tight formation behind a tracker.
+Ali reached up to fondle Ben Akbar's neck but kept his eyes on the
+riders. They were seven, including the tracker, and Ali knew at once why
+there were no more than seven and no fewer.
+
+He was no ordinary outlaw, but a direct affront to all that Moslems held
+most dear. He must be brought to justice, and no effort would be spared
+to do so. Thus the tracker was the best to be found. The six soldiers
+were picked men. Finally, the seven _dalul_ were the very elite of the
+almost thirty thousand camels with the _Hadj_. There were no more than
+seven pursuers because there was not another _dalul_ to keep pace with
+these seven.
+
+Ali did not have to ask himself if the seven _dalul_ were fresh or
+weary; their riders would know how to conserve their mounts. Ben Akbar
+had had less than four hours' rest.
+
+Standing quietly beside Ben Akbar, Ali told himself that he had wanted
+and planned to have the pursuit take form in just this way, and he would
+not change now if he could. He himself might have ridden much farther in
+the hours that had elapsed since leaving Al Misri's camp, but he'd have
+done it at the expense of Ben Akbar. The test had to come, and it was
+better to meet it in this fashion.
+
+The soldiers sighted him and urged their mounts from an easy trot to a
+swift lope. Ali waited until they were within two hundred and fifty
+yards, well beyond effective range of smoothbore muskets, before he
+turned to Ben Akbar and said quietly, "Kneel."
+
+Ben Akbar knelt and Ali mounted. At ease in the saddle, he turned to
+watch the soldiers sweep nearer. A momentary doubt assailed him as a
+close-up inspection of their _dalul_ revealed the full magnificence of
+such animals. Ali put the doubt behind him and told Ben Akbar to run.
+
+At home in a camel saddle as he seldom fitted in elsewhere, Ali did not
+waste another backward glance as Ben Akbar flew on. He knew what lay
+behind him, and that he could expect no mercy whether his back or his
+face was toward the pursuers. Wherever it struck, the blade of a sword
+would be equally sharp and bite as deeply.
+
+After fifteen minutes, and the blade not felt, Ali knew he'd chosen
+wisely when he gave his very life into Ben Akbar's keeping. He still did
+not look behind him. _Dalul_ such as the soldiers mounted were not
+easily outdistanced, but there was a mighty vein of comfort in that very
+thought. Ben Akbar would never again be pursued by swifter _dalul_ or
+more skilful riders. If he won this race, he'd win all to come.
+
+An hour and a half afterwards, Ali finally looked around. With less than
+a two-hundred-yard lead at the beginning of the race, Ben Akbar had
+doubled that distance between himself and the three swiftest pursuers.
+The remaining four, in order of their speed, straggled behind the
+leaders. Ali slowed Ben Akbar so that his pace exceeded by the scantiest
+margin that of the three leaders.
+
+When a cool wind announced the going of the day and the coming of the
+night, the nearest of the seven pursuers was a mere dot in the distance.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The bitter autumn wind that snarled in from the Mediterranean had sent a
+herd of tough, desert-bred goats to the shelter of some boulders and
+made them stand close together for the warmth one found in another.
+Riding past on Ben Akbar, Ali gave the shivering herd the barest of
+glances and turned his gaze to the horizon. He missed nothing, a highly
+practical talent whose development had been markedly accelerated by
+necessity.
+
+Behind lay an incredible journey. Eluding the soldiers, Ali rode on into
+the very heart of the Arabian desert. Always he sought the lonelier
+places, shepherd's or camel herder's camps and the smallest villages. At
+first his experiences had conformed strictly to what any solitary
+traveler might expect. As the news spread and Ali's ill fame became part
+of the talk at even the most isolated campfires, his fortunes changed
+accordingly.
+
+He seldom met anything except cold hatred and outright hostility.
+Normally it was accompanied by dread, not entirely a disadvantage since,
+whatever else they thought, trembling natives who recognized Ali feared
+to refuse him food and other necessities. He fought when he could not
+avoid fighting, but much preferred to run. Ben Akbar had shown his heels
+to more soldiers, tribesmen and just plain bandits than Ali could
+remember.
+
+With an almost desperate yearning for anyone at all who'd exchange a
+friendly word, eventually Ali turned to his native Syria, where he hoped
+to find a friend. He found a hatred more bitterly intense than anything
+experienced elsewhere; every Syrian seemed to think that he must bear
+part of the shame for a countryman who had defiled the Holy City. Now
+Ali was farther north, in the land of the Turks and riding toward the
+port of Smyrna.
+
+Rounding a bend that brought him in sight of the Mediterranean, Ali
+halted Ben Akbar and stared in amazement.
+
+He was on the shoreside wall of a u-shaped rock ledge that extended into
+the sea and formed a natural harbor. Some distance out, a great sailing
+ship that flew a foreign flag rode at anchor. Though he could not read
+it and had no more than a vague notion that it might be read, Ali could
+make out her name. She was the _Supply_.
+
+Halfway between shore and ship, a scow propelled by oarsmen and carrying
+a kneeling camel that seemed to be strapped in position, was making
+toward the _Supply_. On the shore beneath Ali, a number of other camels
+were tethered. One had lain down, and eight Egyptian camel handlers
+seemed interested in making it get up again.
+
+With a fine contempt for Egyptians generally, and Egyptian camel
+handlers specifically, Ali had decided to his own satisfaction that
+these last fell back on forceful crudity simply because they were too
+stupid to master the right ways of handling camels. Ali's curiosity
+mounted because, contrary to their usual procedure, these handlers were
+gently trying to make the camel get up.
+
+Then the scow reached the ship, the men who had been on the scow
+disappeared on the _Supply_ and took the camel with them, whereupon the
+Egyptian handlers abruptly changed tactics. Kicking together a pile of
+rubble, someone started a fire. A pail appeared from somewhere and was
+put over the fire. A raging Ali leaped from Ben Akbar and toward the
+group.
+
+He had not intended to interfere. If the Egyptians were stupid enough to
+abuse their own camel, then let them be deprived of the beast that much
+sooner. Ali would not have interfered if the Egyptian handlers had done
+almost anything except what they were obviously about to do--make the
+camel get up by pouring boiling pitch over its tail. Hearing Ali, the
+eight turned as one and greeted him with hostile stares.
+
+"Swine!" Ali snarled. "Offspring of diseased fleas! Eaters of camel
+dung!"
+
+He emphasized his insults with a blow to the midriff that sent the
+nearest Egyptian spinning, and immediately the seven were upon him. Ali
+delivered a smart kick to the shin that left one hopping about on one
+foot and howling with pain, landed a clenched fist squarely on the jaw
+of another, and then a sledge hammer collided with his own head.
+
+Night came suddenly. Then light shone through the dark curtain, and Ali
+looked up at two men who stood before him. One, a native interpreter,
+was foppish in garment and manner. The other, arrayed in clothing such
+as Ali had never seen, commanded instant respect. Tall, slim, strong and
+young, he had the same air of strength and authority that marked Al
+Misri. He spoke in a strange tongue to the interpreter, who addressed
+Ali.
+
+"Lieutenant Porter demands to know why you attacked his men."
+
+Ali gestured toward the kneeling camel. "They would have made it rise by
+pouring boiling pitch on its tail."
+
+The interpreter conveyed this information to Lieutenant Porter, who
+whirled at once on the Egyptians.
+
+"I've told all of you that I will tolerate no cruelty," he began.
+
+Not understanding a word, nevertheless Ali listened with mingled awe and
+admiration as Lieutenant Porter continued to speak. His words, Ali
+thought happily, were a lion's roar, and it was better to be whipped
+than to endure them because a whip could not remove skin nearly as well.
+The eight Egyptians, like eight beaten dogs, slunk away. Lieutenant
+Porter addressed the interpreter, who conveyed the message to Ali.
+
+"Can you make the camel rise?"
+
+Ali got to his feet, smoothed his burnous and went to the stubborn
+camel. He took hold of the tether rope while he stooped to whisper in
+its ear, "Rise, my little one. Rise, my beauty. The trail is long and
+the day is short."
+
+The camel rose and began to lick Ali's hand. Ali addressed the
+interpreter. "Where are these camels going?"
+
+"To America," the interpreter assured him.
+
+"But--" A bewildered Ali looked from the stately ship to the tethered
+camels. "Is a land wealthy enough to have such a ship, so poor as to
+have no camels?"
+
+Treating this question with haughty disdain, the interpreter relayed
+another message. "Lieutenant Porter wishes to know if you will go to
+America with the camels?"
+
+Ali hesitated, then asked, "Is America a land of Moslems?"
+
+The interpreter conferred with Lieutenant Porter and turned to Ali.
+"There are no Moslems."
+
+Ali indicated Ben Akbar, silhouetted on top of the ledge. "May my
+_dalul_ come, too?"
+
+"He may," the interpreter assured him.
+
+Ali said joyously, "Then we will go."
+
+He didn't know where America was or what he might find on arrival, but
+he was sure that he and Ben Akbar, together, could make their own way
+anywhere at all.
+
+
+
+
+7. Another Pilgrimage
+
+
+Beginning at her stern and bearing to the starboard side, Ali set out
+to become more intimately acquainted with the ship. Almost every step
+brought to light a fresh marvel. As a camel driver who traveled with
+caravans, at one time or another he had been in every port that a
+caravan can visit, and he was not unfamiliar with ships. But never
+before had he seen anything to compare with the _Supply_.
+
+A hundred and forty-one feet over all, the wooden three-master had a
+main and a quarterdeck. An official United States Navy ship, she was
+armed with a battery of four twenty-four pounders. One glance revealed
+that her crew of forty officers and men believed in and strictly adhered
+to the rules of first-class seamanship; the _Supply_ was as spotlessly
+clean as she was trim.
+
+Had she been a conventional ship, Ali would have considered her
+impressive enough. As it was, he found her overwhelming.
+
+Jefferson Davis, United States Secretary of War, was one of several
+outstanding Americans who'd long cherished the notion that camels might
+very well help solve some of the troublesome problems of transportation
+involved in settling America's vast, arid and little-known Southwest.
+Finally, granted official permission to subject this theory to a
+practical test, the _Supply_ had been rebuilt for the sole purpose of
+importing an experimental herd.
+
+A well-built stable, sixty feet long, twelve feet wide and not quite
+seven feet six inches high, extended from just behind the foremast to
+just in front of the quarterdeck. On either side were twenty portholes
+that could be left open when weather permitted, but each porthole was
+equipped with a panel of glass that closed from the inside in cold
+weather and wooden shutters that swung from the outside and were to be
+used during violent storms or in heavy seas. Midway was a hatch that
+offered direct entry to the stable, and that could be lowered for
+loading or unloading and raised when the ship was at sea.
+
+Front and rear, high enough above the main deck so that even the most
+turbulent waves would not wash over them, were other hatches fitted with
+wind sails--canvas funnels--that admitted air but excluded everything
+else. Thus, even when it was necessary to close the portholes, there was
+no danger that the camels would suffocate.
+
+Every stall was fitted with a harness, so arranged that the stall's
+occupant might have complete freedom of movement when the _Supply_ was
+in smooth sailing, or be strapped firmly in a kneeling position and
+unable to move at all, when the ship was in stormy seas. Further to
+minimize injuries that might result from being tossed about, bags filled
+with hay were secured to every beam and anything else that a camel might
+bump. The stable floor was covered with clean, fresh litter. Reflector
+lamps would illuminate the stable if it should be necessary to attend
+the camels at night.
+
+A supply of fresh water was contained in two huge tanks, each holding
+thirty thousand gallons, and a fire extinguisher was arranged so that it
+could draw on either tank or both. A sterile cabinet held an ample
+supply of every known remedy for any aliment that might afflict a camel.
+The hold of the _Supply_ was filled to the bursting point with a store
+of the finest and cleanest hay and grain. No necessity or luxury that a
+camel might need--or that somebody fancied a camel might need--had been
+omitted.
+
+There were twenty camels already in the stable and they were making
+themselves at home there. Twenty-four, including Ben Akbar, remained to
+be brought on board.
+
+Thirty-seven of the herd were young females, many of which were with
+young. Every one of the forty-three beasts that the American buyers had
+selected was an outstanding creature, all in their prime and none with
+any blemishes or deformities. But even though he must concede that the
+Americans knew how to choose camels, Ali was both baffled and dazzled by
+their sending of the _Supply_, obviously representing a tremendous
+investment, to carry a mere forty-four of even the finest camels all the
+way to America. Few of the desert-roving camel breeders of Ali's
+acquaintance would consider it worth their while to drive so small a
+herd to market, not even if the market was only four miles away.
+
+Rounding the front of the stable and continuing sternward on the
+opposite side of the _Supply_, Ali felt a tense ripple travel up his
+spine and reassured himself that his dagger was at hand when he saw
+another camel handler approaching. Eight natives in all, seven besides
+Ali, had been retained to accompany this herd to America and Ali hadn't
+the faintest doubt that each one knew all the details of his story. But
+far from any hostile gesture or incident, nobody had even mentioned
+Mecca, to say nothing of the punishment sure to attend any who shed
+blood in the Holy City. There was a variety of possible explanations for
+such forbearance. Maybe the seven were lukewarm Moslems, who simply
+didn't care; perhaps, like Ali, they had personal reasons for wanting to
+go to some land where Moslems were few; possibly they intended to take
+action but were waiting for the right moment.
+
+When he was near enough to his fellow camel handler, Mimico Teodara, Ali
+said decorously, "I greet thee."
+
+"And I thee," the other replied.
+
+Ali relaxed. If Mimico knew his story--and beyond doubt he did know--and
+if he were a strict Moslem, he would not have spoken to Ali at all. For
+a moment they remained side by side and both glanced toward the tethered
+camels that remained on shore. Ali, who somehow felt that Mimico might
+become his friend, spoke of the riddle that had been puzzling him.
+
+"It is strange, almost past understanding, that Americans would send
+such a ship, at vast expense, to carry only forty-four camels to
+America."
+
+"Strange indeed," his companion agreed. "Even more to be wondered at is
+the fact that, the first time they came, they returned with only
+thirty-three camels."
+
+Surprised, Ali asked, "They have been here before?"
+
+Mimico nodded. "This is their second voyage."
+
+"Come," the foppish interpreter said, "this is not a time for idling."
+
+Ali and Mimico walked silently to the lowered hatch through which the
+camels were brought on board and took their places in the boat that was
+moored against it. The device employed to bring camels from shore to
+ship, Ali felt, was another startling example of American ingenuity.
+Twenty feet long by seven wide, the boat used as a ferry was fitted with
+a hinged door at each end. A wheeled truck, sturdy enough to support the
+biggest camel, could be pushed through either door and secured in such a
+manner that it neither moved nor unbalanced the ferry.
+
+Of very shallow draft, the oarsmen had no difficulty in running the
+ferry up on any beach. Then the hinged door was lowered and the truck
+run out. A camel was led onto the truck, made to kneel and strapped in
+place. The truck was pushed back onto the ferry, the door was raised,
+and the launching accomplished. Reaching the _Supply_, the door on the
+opposite end was lowered and the ferry brought squarely against the
+lowered hatch. Then it was necessary only to push the truck and its
+helpless passenger onto the deck of the _Supply_ and into the stable.
+
+Ali, who thought he knew all the methods of moving camels, had to admit
+that he'd never even heard of this one.
+
+Mimico, who had a fine touch with camels, brought the next passenger. It
+was a great Bactrian, or two-humped male. As it was led onto the truck,
+made to kneel and strapped in place, Ali wondered. Bactrians were
+enormous beasts, some weighing a ton or more, and this was an especially
+fine specimen. There was no doubting the strength of a two-humped camel,
+but caravan trails were usually long ones. Often, what with delivering
+one cargo at one point, picking up another for a different destination,
+and there getting still another, a year or more might elapse before a
+train of camels finally returned to the home from which they had set
+out. Such wandering was certain to be attended by conditions that varied
+from lush browse and ample water to scant forage and near drought. A
+camel's hump changed accordingly, so that often nothing except the very
+skilful application of pads made it possible to keep a firm saddle on a
+beast with only one hump. Naturally, a beast with two humps could be
+twice the trouble. In addition, Ali thought, Bactrians were less hardy.
+
+Under the skilful direction of Ali and Mimico, all the camels except Ben
+Akbar were finally loaded. On the final trip, Mimico leaped out as soon
+as the ferry was beached and went to bring Ali's _dalul_.
+
+Ali waited, saying nothing. The more they were together, the better he
+liked Mimico, who handled camels with consummate skill and never used
+words when deeds were in order. Ali waited now to find if his judgment
+was sound. If Mimico passed what Ben Akbar considered a respectful
+distance, the _dalul_ would show his resentment. If Mimico was the camel
+man he seemed to be, he would recognize Ben Akbar for what he was and
+halt before he was dangerously near.
+
+Before Ben Akbar lunged, Mimico halted, turned and beckoned. Ali strode
+forward to lead his _dalul_ to the ferry.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+All sails spread to a stiff and favorable wind, the _Supply_ skimmed
+along at a fast eight knots an hour. Leaning against an outside wall of
+the camel stable, beside the porthole near which Ben Akbar was tethered,
+and through which he was thrusting his nose, Ali kept anxious eyes on
+the horizon where land should appear.
+
+Since that day when the _Supply_ had sliced into the Mediterranean and
+the haze-shrouded coast of Turkey had slipped always farther behind and
+then disappeared, almost three full months had come and gone. By no
+means had they passed swiftly.
+
+One furious storm followed another while the _Supply_ pursued her course
+in the Mediterranean. Much of the time it had been necessary to strap
+the camels in place, to keep them from being tumbled about as the ship
+listed one way or another. It had been impossible to prevent all injury,
+but only three of the forty-four camels had died.
+
+Two of them were Bactrians, the only two-humped camels in the present
+cargo. This gave additional support for Ali's theory that they were less
+hardy than their Arabian cousins. He did not draw any positive
+conclusions because Lieutenant Porter disagreed with him, saying that
+species had nothing to do with it and the two Bactrians merely happened
+to be less hardy individuals. Ali offered no argument because of an ever
+increasing respect for Lieutenant Porter's knowledge and wisdom.
+
+In part, Ali was influenced by the fact that Porter was the only man on
+board besides Ali himself who had succeeded in winning Ben Akbar's
+friendship. But more than that was involved.
+
+As the _Supply_ lay at anchor off the Turkish coast, it was evident that
+Lieutenant Porter was not an authority on camels. But in sharp contrast
+with some men Ali had known, the American had proven himself both
+willing and eager to learn, and he included the eight native camel
+drivers among his teachers. But from the first, to Ali's vast
+astonishment and then to his boundless delight, Porter did not find it
+necessary to base his behavior upon that pursued by haughty sheiks and
+amirs who conversed with camel drivers.
+
+Nobody on the _Supply_ ever forgot that Lieutenant Porter was in
+command, but nobody ever had reason to feel that the officer considered
+them inferior. Ali nursed a happy conviction that America must be a
+wonderful land indeed if many Americans were like the skipper of the
+_Supply_.
+
+A little distance from Ali, Mimico was also leaning against the camel
+stable and waiting for the first sight of land. The pair had become
+friends during the voyage, but, after so many days at sea, neither Ali
+nor Mimico wanted to do anything except look at some land.
+
+Presently Ali saw it, the sea rolling up on a flat and treeless shore
+and the waves falling back. Then it disappeared, a tantalizing vision
+that first enticed and then crushed. But it came again and did not
+disappear. Ali's eager eyes drank in as much as possible of this first
+look at America.
+
+The shore was flat and treeless, but not by any means was it deserted. A
+great crowd of people, everything from officials come to receive the
+camels to the curious who wanted only to look, awaited. There was a
+wooden pier and a group of buildings that comprised the town of
+Indianola, Texas.
+
+A lighter that had been lingering at the pier was now making toward
+them. The ship met the _Supply_ and drew alongside. A camel was brought
+from its stall and a harness was strapped about and beneath it. A cable
+dangling from the lighter's boom was attached to the harness and the
+kicking, frightened camel was transferred from the _Supply_ to the
+lighter.
+
+Lieutenant Porter gestured to Ali and Mimico, ordering, "Go aboard the
+lighter and help out."
+
+The pair entered a small boat that took them to the lighter, where they
+received all the camels as they came. With gentle touch and soothing
+voices, they calmed the frightened animals and averted what might have
+become a catastrophe.
+
+Busy with the camels, Ali had time for only the briefest of shoreward
+glances. His first close-up impression of America was a restricted
+one--a small section of the pier which they were approaching. Standing
+on it were two horses, hitched to a light wagon. A red-faced, red-haired
+man who had come to see the unloading occupied the wagon seat and held
+the horses' reins.
+
+There was no time for a prolonged scrutiny; the camels must be put
+ashore as soon as possible. Mimico climbed from the lighter to the pier
+and made ready to receive them. Ali strapped the harness about the first
+camel to be unloaded. The boom lifted it.
+
+Then the horses screamed, the red-faced man roared, and a full scale
+upheaval was in progress!
+
+
+
+
+8. Trouble
+
+
+As soon as the horses began to scream and the man to shout, the camels
+quieted. It was what they should do, and Ali would have been astonished
+if they hadn't. Taken from familiar stalls and immediately thereafter
+swung on the boom, they had been roused to the verge of stampede. But
+they had not been hurt and saw no indication that they might be hurt
+when the new danger threatened.
+
+The camels had not detected this fresh peril and were not directly aware
+of it, but the screams of the horses and shouts of the driver were
+evidence enough that it existed. The camels responded as though they
+were part of a caravan under attack. Whatever peril lurked, it might
+pass them by if they stood quietly.
+
+The herd again tractable, Ali put a companionable hand on Ben Akbar's
+shoulder and turned toward the pier. His eyes widened in astonishment.
+
+Mimico had received and was holding the tether rope of the single beast
+that had been transferred to the pier. It was one of the young females,
+and, like all the rest of the herd, it was standing very quietly. But on
+the pier and within a wide radius, Mimico and the young camel seemed to
+be the only living creatures that were quiet.
+
+The terrified horses, bereft of all reason, had wrenched control from
+their driver. Whirling crazily, they had missed dashing off the pier and
+into the water by no more than a wagon wheel's width. Now, with the
+red-haired driver still trying with all his strength to stop them, they
+were running away at top speed. As Ali watched, a wheel struck a boulder
+and the wagon bounded high in the air.
+
+To one side, a black-bearded man had been indolently sitting on a gaunt
+dun mule, with one foot in a stirrup and the other cocked up on the
+saddle, while his chin rested on the upraised knee. Suddenly and
+obviously to the man's complete surprise--the mule began an insane
+bucking. The startled rider dropped his upraised foot, groped for and
+couldn't find the stirrup, and missed the dangling reins when he
+snatched at them. He leaned forward to wrap both arms about the mule's
+neck and clung desperately.
+
+Two saddled horses whose riders were among the crowd reared and danced
+in a mad effort to break their tethers. A horse that had not been
+picketed whirled and, tail high over its rump, galloped away. Everybody
+on shore except Mimico seemed to be shouting or screaming, or shouting
+and screaming.
+
+A small boat moved up beside the lighter and more men came aboard. Four
+were native camel handlers but the fifth was a quiet young American
+named, Ali remembered, Gwynne Heap. With a taste for adventure and a
+knowledge of Eastern languages and customs derived from previous
+residence in the East, Heap had contributed at least as much as anyone
+else to the successful purchase and importation of the camel herd. Now
+he took competent command.
+
+"You have no trouble?" he asked quietly.
+
+"No trouble," Ali told him.
+
+Gwynne Heap called to Lieutenant Porter, who had remained in the small
+boat, "Everything's under control."
+
+"Keep them coming," Lieutenant Porter called back. "They must be
+unloaded."
+
+Lieutenant Porter and the men who remained with him joined Mimico and
+made ready to help receive the camels. Ali began to harness the next
+animal scheduled for unloading.
+
+He became absorbed in what he was doing, adjusting each strap and
+fastening each buckle with a fussy attention to detail that was both
+unnecessary and so time-consuming that it drew reprimanding glances from
+Gwynne Heap. Ali refused either to hurry or to look toward the shore,
+but refusing to turn his eyes toward it in no way obliterated the ugly
+thing that awaited there. The resentful crowd was still in an uproar.
+Ali thought sadly of the joyous welcome his imagination had created for
+these camels, so vital to his own country, when they finally reached
+America.
+
+The harnessed camel was finally swung away on the boom, and, still
+refusing to glance shoreward, Ali began to help prepare the next in
+line. He tried to console himself with the thought that Lieutenant
+Porter was still in command and nobody would dare challenge him, but in
+his heart he knew that it was not so. If camels were not wanted in
+America, they could not be here. Nobody could force their acceptance.
+
+Then, as always when facing a problem that seemed to have no solution,
+Ali stopped thinking about it. He knew from experience that it was not
+wise to borrow trouble. The rising sun shone on not just one but many
+different paths that led in many different directions. One could always
+find the right way if he was properly diligent in the search.
+
+One by one, the camels were landed until only Ben Akbar was left. Ali
+finally glanced shoreward, to discover that Lieutenant Porter and his
+men had rigged a picket line, a long rope stretched across the pier, and
+they were tethering the camels to it as they were lowered and
+unharnessed. Ali saw also that the herd was again becoming restless, but
+this time there was no cause for concern.
+
+The crowd was still in an uproar and such horses as had not already
+broken away were trying their best to do so. The camels had definitely
+decided that whatever might be bothering everything else would not
+disturb them. However, after many weeks at sea, at last they were once
+again on firm footing. That was very exciting.
+
+His companions stood back while Ali alone harnessed Ben Akbar, then took
+hold of the boom and rode with him as the great _dalul_ was transferred
+from the lighter to the pier. He saw, even as he descended, that the
+tethered camels were fast becoming unmanageable. They both smelled and
+saw the earth that lay just beyond the pier and they were frantic to
+feel it. For all his skill, not even Mimico would be able to maintain
+control much longer.
+
+The spectators--those with horses had wisely left them behind--had come
+nearer and were arranged in a rough U at the end of the pier and on
+either side. Lieutenant Porter, who looked more worried than he had
+during the stormiest part of the voyage, paced nervously back and
+forth. Again and again he searched the crowd, as though expecting to
+find someone who should be present but was not.
+
+Keeping a firm grip on Ben Akbar's lead rope, because he knew that big
+_dalul_ was as anxious as any of the rest to feel earth under his feet,
+Ali turned to study the crowd, too. Except for a group distinguished by
+their uniforms, and further marked as soldiers by their arms and precise
+formation, he learned nothing except that Americans wear outlandish
+clothes.
+
+Gwynne Heap came onto the pier and Porter asked anxiously, "Will you see
+if you can find Wayne? He should have met us."
+
+"Right," the other assented.
+
+Gwynne Heap walked to the end of the pier and mingled with the crowd. A
+second after he disappeared, Ben Akbar shivered convulsively and Ali
+knew what to expect.
+
+"I know you long to feel the earth, for I have a similar yearning," he
+said. "But wait until the time is here and the word is spoken. Do not
+break and run as a half-trained baggage camel might. Do not shame me, my
+brother."
+
+Ben Akbar quieted, but the rest of the camels would not be soothed. They
+surged forward, and there was no way to know which one broke the picket
+line because all were lunging. Tether ropes slipped off either end of
+the broken line as the herd ran forward.
+
+Maintaining a firm grip on Ben Akbar's tether rope and keeping pace with
+the _dalul_, Ali ran with them. He was not worried. This was no
+reasonless stampede that might be expected to overrun whatever lay in
+its path because fear-crazed camels would take no reckoning of
+obstacles. These camels were running for the same reason that a young
+horse runs when, after a winter spent in a confining stall, it is
+finally freed in a green pasture. The people on the pier were in no
+danger.
+
+The spectators, however, thought otherwise. Most of them were thoroughly
+familiar with horses and mules, but camels were as alien as dinosaurs.
+Obviously, these berserk beasts were bent on destruction.
+
+A man shouted in fear and the contagion spread. Those directly in the
+path of the running herd surged away, crowding those on either side and
+compounding the confusion. Some idiot, fortunately he was too excited to
+take proper aim, drew and fired a revolver. Then Ali's eyes widened in
+horror.
+
+Through the gap left open when the crowd parted, the soldiers came on
+the run. Their arms were ready. Their obvious intention was to avert
+catastrophe by shooting the camels before they overran the crowd. Ali
+heard Lieutenant Porter's outraged bellow.
+
+"No! No, you fools!"
+
+If they heard the command, the soldiers ignored it. Dispersing smartly,
+those in front knelt and those behind were preparing to shoot over their
+heads when a newcomer appeared.
+
+Riding a sleek black horse which he handled so skillfully that somehow
+it seemed an extension of himself, he came through the same gap the
+soldiers had used. Unmistakably a professional soldier, his present
+actions proclaimed that he was accustomed to emergencies. He wheeled his
+horse in front of the troops and snapped an order.
+
+Though they had ignored Lieutenant Porter, either because they hadn't
+heard him or because Porter wore the Navy uniform, the soldiers gave
+this officer instant obedience. Falling back to either side, they formed
+a lane that let the running camels through but kept the spectators out.
+
+Seconds after the run started, Ali and Ben Akbar left the pier and stood
+on the soil of America.
+
+Back on the pier, Lieutenant Porter heaved a mighty sigh of relief. He gave
+formal command of the camel herd over to Major Henry Wayne, of the United
+States Army. Arriving in the nick of time, Wayne's prompt and vigorous
+action averted the massacre of these animals and insured establishment
+of the most colorful and most unique method of transportation ever
+attempted in the United States--the Camel Corps.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+At the very rear of the caravan, where he had been posted by Major Wayne
+so that he might keep a watchful eye on all the other camels, a puzzled
+and apprehensive Ali sat lightly in Ben Akbar's saddle. Watching the
+caravan, only forty-one animals in all, imposed no strain. From Yusuf,
+the belled leader who swung along as placidly as though the seven
+hundred and fifty pounds he bore on his pack saddle had no weight at
+all, to Iba, the little female who walked just ahead of Ben Akbar and
+had been relieved of all pack-carrying because of anticipated
+motherhood, none had any rebellious ideas or any inclination to do
+anything except walk along until they came to their destination.
+
+Ali saw them as one learns to see the very familiar. With no need for
+the fussy solicitude and anxious fretting that marked the soldiers
+assigned to duty with the camels, he would instantly discern any
+departure from the normal and immediately thereafter he would be making
+the proper countermove. Not required even to think about the camels,
+Ali's thoughts were occupied by more troublesome matters.
+
+In this America, to which camels had been brought with so much trouble
+and at such vast expense, they had been granted a hostile reception and,
+with very few exceptions, there had been nothing but hostility since.
+Even those who came only to stare--and throngs of the curious appeared
+wherever the camels were taken--did not like what they saw.
+
+It was true that camels just naturally frightened horses and mules, and
+thus were responsible for an unrehearsed but extremely lively rodeo
+wherever they made an unexpected appearance. In an attempt to avoid such
+incidents, a rider preceded the caravan and warned all that camels were
+en route. But the rider never succeeded in warning everyone, and some of
+those he did advise insisted on staying around with their horses or
+mules, to see for themselves whether he spoke the truth.
+
+Ali managed a flitting grin as he thought of an incident that had
+followed the unloading. The excited camels, savoring their first happy
+taste of land after such a long time at sea, were permitted to race
+about and frolic as they pleased until they tired themselves out and
+could again be herded. Then they were taken to a corral built especially
+for them.
+
+The corral was large enough, and as an enclosure for horses or mules it
+would have been satisfactory enough. In this land, however, conventional
+building materials were both scarce and expensive. Since prickly-pear
+cactus was abundant, the builders had used it to construct their fence.
+Far from being repelled by such a thorny barrier, the camels happily ate
+it!
+
+Regardless of other considerations, the very fact that they could eat
+such fodder was another indication that they were well adapted to this
+American Southwest. Ali already knew that, although he might encounter
+problems different from any previously experienced, there'd be none
+incapable of solution. Nor was there anything horses and mules could do
+that camels couldn't do better. A good pack camel was capable of bearing
+five or six times as much as the best pack horse or mule, and, day for
+day, he'd carry it farther. He would keep on going, at the same steady
+pace, past dry water holes or across drought-shriveled areas where lack
+of water would drive a horse or mule to madness. Although it was often
+necessary to carry hay and grain for other beasts of burden, a camel
+would always live off the country.
+
+These camels would do all anyone expected from them and then surpass
+expectations, but Ali sighed dolefully as he thought of what had been and
+what was. Even Major Wayne had been unable to counteract a spontaneous
+public rejection of these beasts from a far land. Accosted by skeptics
+who doubted a camel's ability to pack anything at all, Wayne had bales
+of hay packed on a kneeling camel. The enormous load totaled more than
+twelve hundred pounds, but, with no hesitation and no visible strain,
+the camel rose and walked away with the load when ordered to do so.
+
+Compared with the pack animals they knew, it was an incredible feat.
+But, although they themselves were eyewitnesses, the onlookers seemed to
+regard what they had seen as the trick of some circus master. Seeing,
+they neither accepted nor approved.
+
+The real trouble, Ali thought sadly, was nothing that had yet appeared
+or would appear on the surface. Although this country was markedly
+similar to his own native land, there were fundamental differences that
+had nothing to do with topography. They lay in the hearts and traditions
+of people who, for past generations, had looked to the horse, the mule
+and the ox for help in building up their land.
+
+With very few exceptions, even the soldiers assigned to the Camel Corps
+resented their new duties. For the most part, they were former mule
+skinners who had been chosen because of their outstanding ability to
+handle mules. Almost to a man, they yearned to be rid of camels and back
+with their mules. Only Major Wayne and a very few others had complete
+confidence in the proposed Camel Corps. Fortunately, some of these were
+so influential that they must be heard.
+
+Presently, Ali caught his first glimpse of Camp Verde, the military post
+where the camels were to be held until a major expedition was organized.
+His heart grew lighter and his troubles less.
+
+Obviously, Camp Verde had been planned by someone who knew camels.
+Glancing briefly at a cluster of adobe buildings, Ali centered intent
+scrutiny on the khan, or camel corral. Constructed of stone, wood and
+timber, it was patterned after the time-tested khans of Ali's native
+country. Rectangular, the north wall angled outward. The gate was in
+this wall and a house for the chief camel handler stood beside the gate.
+Spacious enough for five times as many camels, the corral differed in a
+notable respect from most khans Ali had seen. It was sparkling clean.
+
+A few camels, some with pack and some with riding saddles, stood here
+and there about the camp and more were visible in the khan. Evidently
+this was the herd Mimico had mentioned, the thirty-three previously
+imported. The new arrivals were halted, stripped of their burdens and
+herded into the khan.
+
+With an affectionate parting slap for Ben Akbar, Ali turned to face a
+strange camel handler. Arrived with the first camels and presently
+serving as interpreter, he already had Mimico and the six other handlers
+in tow.
+
+"You are to come with me," he announced.
+
+He escorted the newcomers to a building and lined them up before a desk,
+behind which sat a bored-looking clerk. The clerk inscribed each man's
+name in his records while the interpreter told each about the wages he
+would receive. Ali, last in line, presently faced the clerk.
+
+"You are to be paid twenty dollars a month and receive full rations,"
+the interpreter said.
+
+Without looking up, the clerk asked, "Name?"
+
+"Hadji Ali," Ali answered.
+
+"What?" the clerk asked.
+
+"Hadji Ali," Ali repeated.
+
+The clerk wrote with his goose quill, and, still without looking up, he
+flipped the book around for Ali's inspection. Unable to read or write,
+but with no intention of admitting that while the interpreter might
+overhear, Ali scanned his written name.
+
+"Right?" the clerk asked.
+
+Ali nodded approval. Thus did Hadji Ali cease to be. From that moment,
+not only as long as he lived but as history would record him after his
+death, Ali would be known by the name the clerk had written.
+
+It was _Hi Jolly_.
+
+
+
+
+9. Lieutenant Beale
+
+
+Except for the camels, that never seemed to be affected by any
+weather, everything at Camp Verde had sought the nearest shade. It was
+hot, Ali admitted to himself. The Syrian sun at its fiercest was not
+more savage than this blazing sun of Texas. But it was not unendurable.
+
+Since for the present there was no reason to endure it, Ali and Mimico
+sat cross-legged in the shade of the camel khan. Wan and weak, Mimico
+was still recovering from some devastating malady that had almost cost
+his life. For an interval neither spoke. Then Mimico broke the silence.
+
+"I came to this thrice-accursed camp while winter was still with us," he
+growled. "I have been here since, doing the work of a stable boy and as
+a stable boy regarded. All this I endured without complaint--"
+
+Ali smothered a quick grin. Throughout a very monotonous period of doing
+nothing worthwhile, as they waited for somebody to decide what should be
+done, no voice had declared more loudly or more frequently than Mimico's
+that camels and camel men belonged out on the trails. They should not be
+restricted to a rest home for obsolete Pashas--Mimico's personal title
+for Camp Verde--who could do nothing except talk because they had grown
+too old or too fat to ride.
+
+Mimico saw the grin and lapsed into a sulky silence. Then he resumed,
+amending his narrative to conform with truth.
+
+"All this I endured with little complaint, for I knew that it was a
+passing thing. Sooner or later, there would be work for men, and men
+would be needed. Now that the opportunity is here--"
+
+Mimico's voice trailed off into silence, and he gazed moodily at the
+sun-shriveled horizon. Ali's heart went out to his friend.
+
+Camp Verde had indeed proved dull. Ali would have taken Ben Akbar and
+gone elsewhere weeks ago, except that he, too, foresaw a need for both
+camels and camel men. Now that time was not only at hand, but it
+promised to be the most exciting caravan of Ali's life.
+
+A full-scale expedition was to be commanded by a Lieutenant Beale, an
+officer Ali had not met. The object was to survey a wagon road.
+According to rumor, a great deal of the proposed route lay through
+wilderness, of which none was well-known and much was unknown. There was
+more than a fair chance of encountering Indians, America's own savage
+tribesmen!
+
+Most important and most exciting, the expedition was to provide a major
+test for the camels. Twenty-five were to go along, with Ali as a sort of
+overseer-teacher. Besides handling the camels, he was to instruct others
+in their proper handling.
+
+Ali could well understand his friend's disappointment. Mimico, who
+otherwise would have accompanied the expedition, had been declared
+physically unfit by the post surgeon and ordered to remain at Camp
+Verde.
+
+Ali offered such comfort as he could. "It is the will of Allah."
+
+"Save your pious lectures for fledglings who may be impressed!" Mimico
+snapped. "If the will of Allah were truly what men proclaim it to be,
+you would have been shriveled by His wrath on a certain night when you
+left Mecca in a very great hurry."
+
+Ali said nothing. Gray November skies had prevailed when he joined the
+company on the _Supply_ and had his first meeting with Mimico. This was
+June in a new land, and never once had Mimico even intimated that he knew
+of the incident in Mecca. Mentioning it now was a breach of etiquette,
+but Ali did not forget that Mimico was both sick and heartbroken.
+
+After a moment, "Forgive me, my friend!" Mimico implored. "I shall not
+make my own hurt less painful by inflicting hurt upon you!"
+
+Ali said, "It is forgotten."
+
+"I care not what you or anyone else did in Mecca," Mimico went on. "None
+of us may truly know what lies beyond this mortal life until we have
+taken leave of it and may find out for ourselves. Getting back to
+earthly matters, which are the only ones I admit to understanding, I
+hear the journey will be long."
+
+"I have heard the same," Ali declared. "But the longer it is, the
+better. I do not like this place."
+
+Mimico said fervently, "Nor do I! Aside from being wearisome, it has
+been most absurd. I wonder at the Amirs who have made it so."
+
+Ali told himself that that was also true. Major Wayne, in command at
+Camp Verde, was a thoroughly competent officer who maintained a smoothly
+running organization when left alone. But various officers who ranked
+Wayne, of whom few had any real knowledge of camels but all cherished
+pet theories, had visited from time to time and insisted on trying
+their ideas.
+
+One had convinced himself--and submitted an official report that he hoped
+would convince others--that camels were greatly inferior to horses. He
+arrived at such a conclusion by arranging a race, a quarter-mile sprint,
+between a racehorse and a riding camel. The horse finished before the
+camel was fairly started, it is true, but the officer in question refused
+to recognize the sound fact that quarter-mile sprints would not be
+especially valuable to the proposed Camel Corps. Nor could he be convinced
+that, although a good horse may outdistance a camel in the first half day
+of travel, the camel will overtake and pass the horse before night.
+Furthermore, the camel will be fresh for the next day's start and will be
+going on long after the horse is worn out.
+
+Another officer had proved conclusively that, due to peculiarities of
+the terrain, camels would be worse than useless in the Southwest because
+they quickly became sore-footed. This officer derived such an opinion by
+requisitioning six camels that hadn't been outside the khan for six
+weeks, having them packed and sending them off on a fifty-mile trip. The
+camels went lame solely because they had had no trail work to harden
+their feet.
+
+In a similar fashion, it had been demonstrated that the gait of a riding
+camel is so stiff and jarring that Americans couldn't possibly get used
+to it; that camels are subject to a bewildering variety of ailments;
+that they are too vicious to be practical, and that there were a few
+dozen other reasons why the whole project couldn't possibly work and the
+camels had better be disposed of right now! Throughout, those who had
+originally had faith in a camel corps persisted in battling all skeptics
+and going ahead.
+
+At long last, this proper expedition was organized and a true test was
+at hand. What happened afterward, Ali told himself, depended in great
+measure on Lieutenant Beale. If he was one of those officers whose every
+thought is already written in the Manual of Regulations--Ali had seen
+for himself that the American Army has a full quota of such--his report
+might very well doom future expeditions. If Beale was able to think for
+himself, if he was capable of honest analysis and could adapt to new
+situations, it was wholly possible that his favorable report would
+remove all obstacles and be the making of the Camel Corps.
+
+Mimico asked wistfully, "What think you of the savage tribesmen, whose
+country you are to enter?"
+
+"I have never met them," Ali answered seriously. "But I have met and
+fought the Druse, and I know well the bandits of the caravan routes.
+It is difficult to suppose that these savages are more fierce."
+
+"Difficult indeed," Mimico said. "I am most envious, Ali."
+
+Ali said, "There will be a chance for you."
+
+"There is already a chance for you," Mimico pointed out, "and it is
+better to have one honey cake in the hand than to yearn for twenty and
+have none. It is said that you will enter desert country."
+
+"I am no stranger to the desert," Ali said.
+
+Mimico asked, "Have you no fears at all?"
+
+"Only fools go without fear," said Ali. "To fear the unknown is to be
+prepared for it."
+
+"Some have so much fear that they refuse even to be prepared," Mimico
+grunted. He named various other camel drivers who found the existence of
+Camp Verde ideal, since they had the finest of care and nothing to do.
+Asked to accompany the expedition and honestly informed of its nature
+and probable dangers, they had promptly terminated their employment and
+requested passage back to their native land.
+
+When Mimico finished his appraisal of this worthless lot, Ali said
+simply, "They are Egyptians."
+
+"They are cowards," Mimico amended. "I have known many old women with
+more courage. When does the leader of this expedition arrive, Ali?"
+
+"I do not know the day, but it will be soon. I have been asked to be
+present at all times, for this man is expected to tarry only long enough
+to choose his camels."
+
+Mimico said, "I wish you luck, Ali."
+
+"And may fortune attend you," Ali responded.
+
+Halfway across the camel khan, Ali stood grimly unmoving and silently
+awaited that which Allah had ordained. At any rate, none but Allah could
+now direct the tide of destiny, for Ali himself had tried.
+
+A former Navy officer whose title derived from that service, and not now
+attached to the military, Lieutenant Beale had arrived late yesterday
+afternoon. Ali knew that because he had remained at a respectful distance
+and witnessed the arrival. It was what he had expected; camel drivers
+do not participate in formal welcomes for caravan masters.
+
+Beale was accompanied by two companions, men so young that they were
+hardly more than boys, and all were greeted by and escorted to the house
+of Major Wayne. Ali drew his rations and retired to his own house, a
+lean-to behind the camel khan. Two hours ago, while the light of a new
+day was only a dim promise in the sky, he had been routed out and told
+to make ready.
+
+Shortly thereafter, he met Lieutenant Beale. Again skipping formality,
+which did not bother Ali, the introduction consisted of a good look at
+his future chief. Ali liked what he saw.
+
+Edward Beale looked older than his mid-thirties, but it was a look that
+experience alone had imparted. A trained surveyor and veteran of numerous
+excursions into the wilderness, Kit Carson was one of his many friends.
+Beale's knowledge of dangerous situations resulted from facing danger and
+finding his own way out. One of the original few who had conceived the
+idea of a Camel Corps and then worked tirelessly for it, Beale was a
+demanding taskmaster, with a touch of the martinet. However, Ali had
+seen enough men to know Beale as very much of a man.
+
+The sun was just rising as Ali followed Major Wayne's party to the khan,
+so Lieutenant Beale might select the animals he wanted. He rose
+considerably in Ali's opinion when his first choice was Old Mohamet, the
+wisest and best baggage camel in the herd. Beale followed with Gusuf
+and, without a single error selected twenty-four of the best animals in
+the herd. Finally, he fixed his eyes on Ben Akbar.
+
+"That's as fine a _dalul_ as I've seen," he remarked. "We'll take him."
+
+Ali nodded, not even slightly surprised. Could anyone who chose camels
+with such a discerning eye fail to choose Ben Akbar? The expedition
+certainly had the right commander.
+
+Lieutenant Beale looked from Ben Akbar to Sied, an all-white animal
+previously chosen and, next to Ben Akbar, the best _dalul_ in the herd.
+A soldier came to advise Major Wayne that he was wanted elsewhere and
+the commanding officer of Camp Verde left. Lieutenant Beale, his young
+companions and Ali were left alone in the khan.
+
+After studying Sied thoroughly, a time-consuming process if correctly
+done, Lieutenant Beale turned to subject Ben Akbar to the same intense
+scrutiny. Ali discarded all doubts he might still have concerning Beale.
+Anyone could look at a camel, but few had the knack of looking, seeing
+and understanding.
+
+Ali had known cameleers of great experience who would never bother with
+such preliminaries. Faced with two apparently equal _dalul_, they would
+accept either, after assuring themselves that both were good. But the
+best of the camel men never chose lightly. Among them, an elite few were
+entirely willing to spend as much time as necessary to study every beast
+in a herd, so that they might finally select the one best fitted to
+their requirements.
+
+Finally, Beale gestured toward Ben Akbar and turned to his companions.
+"That red Nomanieh dromedary is superb," he said. "I want a closer
+look."
+
+He started toward Ben Akbar, who was standing quietly near the far wall
+of the khan. Ali, who had understood none of the conversation but who
+knew all too clearly what Beale's gesture indicated, felt his heart
+catch in his throat.
+
+He whirled toward the gate, and eyes already worried became desperate
+when there was no evidence of Major Wayne. Ali turned back to Lieutenant
+Beale, already a third of the way across the khan, and he shivered in
+terrible indecision. A camel driver did not presume to give orders to
+his leader!
+
+The two young men seemed to have forgotten Ali and kept fascinated eyes
+on Lieutenant Beale. Ali ran forward. A camel driver did not command his
+chief, but neither did he let him go to certain injury and possible
+death.
+
+Running up behind the officer, Ali grasped his arm. Lieutenant Beale
+stopped and swung about, but his eyes were questioning rather than
+angry, and he arched interrogatory brows.
+
+"Well, boy?" he asked.
+
+Ali remained speechless. Though he could have voiced a warning in Syrian
+or any of a dozen Arabic dialects, he did not know how to speak in a
+tongue Beale might understand. Presently, and happily, he found the
+perfect solution in one of the bits of English he had mastered but sadly
+misinterpreted.
+
+The fists of a constantly brawling soldier had hammered out an unbroken
+string of victories. As a result, his companions trod with appropriate
+wariness and offered proper respect. Obviously, therefore, the name
+bestowed on their pugnacious brother-in-arms indicated that which was
+better left alone. Ali gestured toward Ben Akbar.
+
+"Sad Sam," he pronounced.
+
+"What?" Lieutenant Beale's quizzical frown became an engaging grin.
+
+"Sad Sam," Ali repeated.
+
+Lieutenant Beale turned to glance at Ben Akbar. "Sad Sam, eh? He does
+look a bit melancholy at that. I'll see if I can make him smile."
+
+Pulling away from Ali, he resumed walking toward Ben Akbar. Ali waited
+in his tracks, unable to think of anything else he might do. Lieutenant
+Beale passed Ben Akbar's point of no return, and only Allah could help
+now.
+
+Then, even as Ali drew each quick breath with a dreadful certainty that
+it must mark Ben Akbar's quick lunge, the _dalul_ stepped forward. He
+thrust his head over Lieutenant Beale's shoulder and waited in shivering
+ecstasy for his neck to be scratched.
+
+Ali caught his breath and the look in his eyes was one of profound
+respect. This man was indeed to command. There would be no failure.
+
+Major Wayne shouted suddenly, "Ned! Watch yourself!"
+
+Still scratching Ben Akbar's neck, Lieutenant Beale glanced toward the
+returning Major. "What's up?"
+
+"That's a killer dromedary. Didn't anybody warn you?"
+
+"Somebody tried but I guess I didn't understand." The look Lieutenant
+Beale gave Ali meant that one man recognized another. "I won't be so
+stupid again," Lieutenant Beale promised.
+
+
+
+
+10. The Expedition
+
+
+Ali awakened in the dim light of very early morning. For a startled
+moment, he reverted to old habit and lay perfectly still, for he was not
+at once sure as to what lay about him. Then came comprehension.
+
+The many nights he had slept in his lean-to shelter behind the camel
+khan marked the longest uninterrupted period of his life ever spent in
+any one house. He had become accustomed to it and was momentarily
+bewildered to awake in unfamiliar surroundings. Then the days at Camp
+Verde seemed to fade away and it was as though he had never slept
+anywhere except on bare earth, with the sky his only roof. The fact
+that he was wrapped in a blanket rather than his burnous was the only
+difference between this and the life he had always led.
+
+Ali preferred the burnous, but his was becoming tattered and a new
+burnous seemed to be almost the only article one could not hope to find
+in the rich markets of vast America. Putting the garment away against
+some vague future when nothing else would serve, Ali had taken the first
+step toward becoming an American by accepting American clothes.
+
+He raised on one elbow and looked toward the corral. All was peaceful
+there, so he settled back down. His plan had worked.
+
+The camels had not had enough trail work to toughen their feet, and the
+journey from Camp Verde to the expedition's base camp near San Antonio
+had necessarily been a slow one. Arriving with some sore-footed camels,
+in spite of a leisurely pace, the horses and mules that were also to be
+part of the expedition promptly took the usual violent exception to
+these trespassers from a far land.
+
+In any other circumstances, Ali could have corrected all trouble simply by
+going on with his camels. In this instance, it was not only impossible to
+go on, but the camels must travel with the rest of the expedition's
+livestock for many days and miles and a full-scale rodeo every day and
+every mile was not the way to assure success. Since a definite and final
+settlement was obviously indispensable, Ali requested and received
+Lieutenant Beale's permission to put the camels in the same corral
+with the horses and mules.
+
+The immediate result was pandemonium. Though the camels again refused to
+give way to excitement, just because everything about them was hysterical,
+and remained serene, the horses and mules did everything except tear the
+corral apart. Since no flesh and blood could maintain such a pace,
+eventually they had to quiet down because they were too tired to do
+anything else. Now, although the camels formed their own group and stood
+apart from the rest, all was still peaceful. East and West had finally
+met, and, even though neither considered the other socially acceptable,
+at least they had become acquainted. What might have been a major
+problem was already solved.
+
+Some distance away from the corral, a herd of more than three hundred
+sheep were bedded under the watchful eye of a Mexican herder and his
+dog. The sheep were also to go with the expedition, Ali neither knew nor
+cared why. There were to be eight big freight wagons, each drawn by six
+mules, and two smaller wagons for personal effects and Lieutenant
+Beale's engineering equipment. There was a total of fifty-six men, most
+of them soldiers who had discarded conventional uniforms in favor of
+more practical buckskin garb. There was a miscellany of livestock, to
+serve wherever extra animals were needed.
+
+Some of the soldiers were to help with the camels. Ali knew nothing
+about any of them except that they knew nothing about camels. Some, as
+usual, resented such duty but, for once, resentment of Ali and his
+charges posed no problem. Though relations were on a congenial and
+informal basis, nobody had the faintest doubt but that Lieutenant Beale
+commanded.
+
+Foremost among the enthusiastic advocates of the proposed Camel Corps,
+Beale had taken a strong liking to Sied, the white _dalul_, and Ali had
+already given him a few riding lessons. In addition, whenever he could
+spare the time, Beale was sitting at Ali's feet and doing his best to
+learn Syrian, so that he might address the camels in a tongue with which
+they were already familiar.
+
+Known as a fair-minded man, Beale also had a reputation for meting out
+deserved punishment with anything except kid gloves. Thus there was
+small probability that smoldering resentment would be expressed in
+hostile action, as had been the case at Camp Verde. One of the camels,
+that had somehow escaped from the khan and strayed, died shortly after
+she was recovered. Subsequent examination disclosed that she had been
+hit on the neck with sufficient force to fracture the bones. Nobody ever
+found out who did it.
+
+Presently, Ali got up and carefully folded his blanket. He laid it
+beside the spare clothing and few personal articles that belonged to him
+and wrapped all in a square of canvas. Though he hadn't the least
+trouble carrying all his worldly goods in one hand, it never even
+occurred to Ali that he lacked anything. On those rare occasions when he
+gave the matter any thought, the contents of his bundle were wealth
+indeed compared with what he'd had on the night he rode Ben Akbar away
+from Al Misri's camp.
+
+Leaving the bundle where it lay, Ali devoted himself to the first solemn
+duty of every morning. He walked toward the corral. Seeing him, Ben
+Akbar detached himself from the little herd of camels and came to the
+fence. Ali dug in his pocket for a lump of sugar, a delicacy that only
+the wealthy could enjoy elsewhere but that was available to even the
+poorest in America. Ben Akbar licked it from the palm of his hand and
+made gusty smacking noises as he chewed. Ali scratched the big _dalul's_
+neck.
+
+"We are on the way," he murmured. "The camp of idleness lies behind, and
+once more the caravan routes are ahead. It is well."
+
+Only the cook, a sour individual who must necessarily be astir long
+before anyone else if breakfast was to be eaten in time for an early
+start, had been up before Ali. He greeted the young camel driver with a
+grunt, but heaped a plate with food and filled a mug with coffee. Ali
+had finished his breakfast when the rest of the camp began to stir.
+
+Returning to the corral, Ali looked past Ben Akbar to the remaining
+camels. A troubled frown creased his brow.
+
+The horses and mules were none of his responsibility, for which he was
+duly thankful. The camels were, and Ali's frown deepened as the problem
+he must solve assumed its correct proportions. On the trip from Camp
+Verde, the camels had carried little except their bells, harness and a
+few gay trappings to add color. In spite of that, and a leisurely pace,
+some had come in sore-footed.
+
+Because Lieutenant Beale was determined to forestall any possible
+accusations to the effect that there had been no fair test, every camel
+was to carry a full load from this camp on. Though all were in superb
+condition in every respect save one, that single lack could be serious
+and perhaps disastrous. Since their feet were still soft, sore-footed
+camels were not only to be expected but were practically inevitable.
+Until such time as they were again trail-hardened, camels that might
+otherwise have left a favorable impression on a highly-skeptical public
+would make a dismal showing indeed.
+
+Ali shrugged. There was nothing for it except go on, hope for the best
+and trust Lieutenant Beale.
+
+Entering the corral, Ali saddled and bridled Ben Akbar and tied him to
+the top rail. It would help nothing if some soldier who decided he could
+handle Ben Akbar as he might a fractious mule were trampled and mauled
+for his pains.
+
+Presently the soldiers came. All had considerable experience in
+conventional Army transport and all would have known exactly what to
+do if they were about to deal with conventional beasts of burden. As it
+was, none had the vaguest notion of the correct procedure with camels,
+and their lack of knowledge was expressed in a lack of confidence. They
+were awkward and self-conscious, and, at the same time, they were trying
+to conceal their uncertainty beneath a mask of indifference.
+
+"Here we are, pal," the leader informed Ali. "What's next?"
+
+Ali grinned, understanding nothing but having been previously informed
+that his helpers would need instruction. Before anything else, he pointed
+to Ben Akbar. As Lieutenant Beale had instructed, he said, "Bad one. Stay
+away."
+
+The soldiers regarded Ben Akbar with respect plus challenging interest.
+All had met the bad ones and none had stayed away, but they had been
+handling beasts with which they were familiar. This time, at least until
+they had a better idea of what they were doing, it might be well to take
+this camel driver's advice. They turned expectantly back to him.
+
+Ali saddled Mohamet, seeming to do so with a few deft motions, but years
+of experience and great skill were his invisible helpers. None knew
+better than he that a camel must be saddled with absolute perfection. If
+anything less, a slipping saddle will be certain a chafe a tender hump.
+It was an unwise practice, even if one had no regard for the animal
+itself; sore-backed camels cannot carry packs.
+
+When Ali finished, each soldier selected a saddle and set about to
+practice the lesson he had just learned. Busy with a second camel, Ali
+pivoted when the air was split with a thunderous, "You ornery,
+slab-sided, no good, devil-begotten son of nothing!"
+
+One of the aspiring cameleers was reeling back with both hands over his
+eyes. The camel he had been trying to saddle was standing quietly,
+apparently interested in nothing but a dreamy contemplation of the
+horizon. The soldier wiped his eyes.
+
+"The critter spit at me!" he ejaculated. Again, and as though he didn't
+quite believe, "The critter _spit_ at me, and got me square in the
+eyes!"
+
+Ali went patiently to the aid of the agitated soldier. If he had known
+how, he would have explained that improperly handled camels will not
+only spit, but are uncannily accurate. Wilder beasts than these would
+bite.
+
+Two hours later, an anxious Lieutenant Beale entered the corral. "How's
+it going?" he queried.
+
+Ali indicated the few saddled camels that were tied to the rail and the
+many unsaddled ones that were presently dodging about the corral and
+rather deftly eluding amateur packers. It would be necessary to catch
+every one. Since nobody except Ali had yet succeeded in bringing a camel
+and a camel saddle together, it followed that Ali would have to saddle
+every one after he caught it.
+
+Lieutenant Beale nodded and left.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Back pillowed against a boulder, Ali sprawled in the warm sun and
+watched the camels browse. Far more than a pleasant sight, he thought,
+it was a vision that could not fail to lift the heart of anyone not too
+dull to be inspired. For to see the camels as they were--and where they
+were--meant that a great victory was won.
+
+It was no small victory.
+
+The camels had arrived at the expedition's base camp on the twenty-first
+of June. Departure was scheduled for the next morning. But with camels
+already driven wild by inexperienced help and rapidly getting wilder,
+they hadn't even succeeded in saddling all of them on that day or for
+several days thereafter.
+
+Not until June the twenty-fifth were they finally under way, and Ali could
+not recall a sorrier caravan. The soldiers had acquired just enough skill
+so they could put a pack on a camel and have some assurance that it
+wouldn't fall off. In accordance with Lieutenant Beale's wish for a
+thorough test, the minimum load for any baggage animal was seven hundred
+pounds. That was far more than should have been carried by animals whose
+exercise in recent months had consisted of shuffling about the khan.
+
+There were immediate complications. Freight wagons drawn by six mules,
+conveyances not noted for speed, whizzed past sore-footed and overloaded
+camels and seemed swift in comparison. To the unrestrained hilarity of
+those who came to watch--and presently of the country at large when news
+sources got hold of the story--the camels functioned in every way except
+efficiently. Far from reaching the Colorado River at the California
+border, the end of the survey, it became increasingly apparent that
+Beale and his camels would be fortunate indeed if they were trapped in
+the suburbs of a growing San Antonio.
+
+Then the outlook changed.
+
+Though it did not happen overnight, eventually the camels became
+trail-hardened. Weary and sore beasts that had plodded into camp hours
+after the mule wagons were already there during the first harassed days
+began arriving at the next night's camp hours before the wagons were
+even sighted. Two camels so ill that they were abandoned on the trail,
+rejoined the caravan, apparently as well as ever, a few days
+afterwards.
+
+Baggage camels that staggered under over-heavy loads on the day of
+departure, now bore equally-heavy burdens without the least effort. They
+proved as indifferent to drenching rains as they had been to blazing
+sun. They not only ate but thrived on any forage they found; the
+expedition's store of grain never had to feed starving camels.
+
+Soldiers who hadn't known the first thing of camel transport had
+acquired a liberal education. Most had come to like these strange
+beasts. Some turncoats had even been heard to declare that camels were
+far better than mules in any way anyone might compare the two species.
+
+Probably the outstanding triumph belonged to Lieutenant Beale. Growing
+ever fonder of Sied, Beale had ridden the white _dalul_ at every
+opportunity and even Ali admitted that he had become a very skilful
+rider. Near Albuquerque, Beale had news that a friend, Colonel Loring,
+was in the vicinity.
+
+Mounting Sied, Lieutenant Beale set out to find his friend. The camel,
+whose only nourishment since leaving San Antonio had consisted of
+whatever forage the trail offered, not only carried his rider to Colonel
+Loring, but when Loring accepted an invitation to visit the expedition's
+camp, outdistanced the grain-fed horses of the colonel and his men on
+the return trip.
+
+All was well, Ali thought dreamily, and may Allah have mercy on whoever
+was unable to see sublime beauty in the camels as they were and where
+they were. For they were still fat and healthy and they were at Fort
+Defiance. The pedestrian and least interesting part of the journey was
+behind. Fort Defiance was a true frontier post. Unless they turned back,
+which was unthinkable, they must go ahead.
+
+And ahead lay the unknown.
+
+
+
+
+11. The Wilderness
+
+
+The trail was rough, but Ben Akbar's saddle remained a veritable bed
+of feathers as the big _dalul_ continued at the same swift trot he had
+started two hours ago. Ali turned in the saddle to look behind him.
+
+There was nothing there, but neither was there anything ahead except the
+same boulder-strewn, scrub-grown, sun-baked land that he saw when he
+glanced around. The place had no visible attractions, but it did
+furnish reason anew to marvel at the vastness of America. Ali knew some
+self-contained nations, complete from Pasha to slaves, that were not as
+large as this forbidding corner of America wherein the entire expedition
+was presently lost.
+
+Never jarring his rider, Ben Akbar continued without a noticeable
+variation in gait. Ali turned back to face the west.
+
+The anxiety that clouded his eyes deepened, but it was not for himself
+that he worried. As far as he personally was concerned, by far the
+happiest days of his life began when the expedition left Zuni, west of
+Fort Defiance and the last settlement this side of California, on the
+thirty-first of August. That day, a lifelong dream finally came true.
+
+Illiterate, Ali had developed skills vital to those who may never consult
+written records. When necessary to do so, he had only to close his eyes
+and see in memory a map of all the caravan routes he'd ever traveled. It
+was invariably in proper detail--the shortest route was never omitted and
+the longest was never extended beyond correct proportions. Every mile
+of every trail was again as it had been when Ali went that way with
+the camels.
+
+For various reasons, some of those journeys had been very exciting. But
+this promised far more than any other trail Ali had traveled.
+
+Wild and dangerous though they had been, and some still were, the camel
+trails of Ali's native country were almost as ancient as the land itself.
+Caravans had certainly been traversing them since recorded history, and
+fable told of camels on the march long before any recording. Thus there
+had never been even a faint possibility of doing anything that had not
+already been done over and over, or of going anywhere not already visited
+by multitudes.
+
+This route must forever stand apart. Even though people had come this
+way, with very few exceptions, they were wild as the wild beasts that
+slunk from their path. Certainly there had never been a caravan, and for
+that reason alone there must be the challenge of the mysterious and
+unknown. In addition, Ali found something else he'd never known before.
+
+Here were no petty Amirs, with an endless array of petty decrees.
+Confining Camp Verde was far behind; there wasn't even a camel khan.
+Space was limitless, and freedom was restricted only by a need for
+caution. Obviously, when at last one had all the room he needed for
+growing and roaming, he would not do a great deal of either if he fell
+prey to either the savages or the elements.
+
+Ali knew that even this parched and barren country was not repulsive to
+his eyes. He must consider it forbidding, or at least undesirable,
+because of its current threat to the expedition.
+
+Fighting a sudden powerful notion that he had missed something and had
+better turn around again, Ali looked steadfastly ahead. He hadn't missed
+anything and knew it, but he would anxiously grasp any straw as he neared
+the place where he must turn about and hope faded.
+
+Largely because, in Ali's eyes, Lieutenant Beale's stature had long since
+exceeded that of any other man and was rapidly nearing heroic proportions,
+Ali could not blame his leader for the present dilemma. The signs had been
+present; any man who had good camels should think seriously as to the
+wisdom of bringing horses and mules too into a land where water was
+uncertain.
+
+Ali was unable to blame his leader for anything, and, anyhow, the guide
+was directly at fault. After leading the entire expedition astray--as
+yet nobody knew how far--the guide offered only a sheepish grin as an
+excuse when he finally admitted choosing the wrong landmarks. He'd
+risked everyone's life but he'd never know, Ali thought, how close he'd
+come to paying for his carelessness with his own life. Ali had been
+watching Lieutenant Beale's eyes when the guide confessed his error. The
+guide had been looking at the ground.
+
+Except for the strict rations allotted each man, they had run out of
+water shortly afterwards. The camels were in no trouble, but the horses
+and mules were already frantic with thirst. Had Ali been in command, he
+would have shot the horses and mules and gone on with camels only. But
+Ali was not in command, and because Lieutenant Beale wished to find
+water for his suffering beasts, Ali could not wish otherwise. Even
+though they still had rations, some of the expedition's men were already
+apprehensive.
+
+The sun was almost at that point where Ali must turn Ben Akbar and go
+back. His heart grew heavier as it became increasingly evident that he
+would have no news of water. Such failure was all the more galling
+because he never doubted but that he'd been close to success.
+
+There was no use in comparing this with his own country, since this
+specific problem could never arise there. All the water holes were
+known. A thirsty traveler who found one dry, simply went on toward the
+next one. If he got there, he drank. If he did not, he died. However, it
+was reasonable to suppose that some fundamental rules applied in
+America, even as they did throughout the rest of the world.
+
+Where there was water, there should be green foliage. Of course, he must
+not expect to find familiar date palms. There must be some other trees
+indigenous to this parched area, and any that received water would be
+green, and any color at all in such drab surroundings would glow like a
+candle at midnight.
+
+Reaching the place where he had been ordered to turn around, a reluctant
+Ali halted Ben Akbar. For a moment he sat the saddle, searching
+everything still ahead and hoping desperately to see a splash of green
+that must mark an oasis. He saw only more desert. The last feeble spark
+of hope almost flickered out.
+
+Then, suddenly, it flared. Though Lieutenant Beale had told him when he
+must return, he had not said that Ali must come back by the same route.
+Some distance to the south was a series of rocky ridges from whose crests
+it would surely be possible to see much new country. Ali swung south.
+
+With a much clearer understanding of the expedition's true purpose, Ali
+lauded the wisdom that had prompted it. If some of this Southwest was
+bleak and forbidding, some was as fine and rich as anything Ali had ever
+seen. Villages and even cities might thrive here and there would still
+be ample grazing for flocks and herds.
+
+Almost without exception, however, the few white men who had dared enter
+the region cared for nothing except high adventure and possible riches,
+with high adventure accorded a definite priority. Far from taming the
+wilderness, they much preferred it untamed. Their opposites, who would
+bring settlement and civilization, must first be provided with some
+means of access. Though the wild men could live by their rifles and from
+their saddlebags, families could not.
+
+Following the 35th parallel, except wherever circumstance, such as
+terrain unsuited for wagons, made it wise to deviate from that line,
+the expedition was to lay out a wagon road between Fort Defiance and
+the California border. Besides opening new country, the road would
+close the final gap in a transcontinental highway.
+
+Ali, who knew something about roads, had only unstinted admiration for
+the course so far. That camels could travel it was not open to question,
+for camels were breaking the trail. Lieutenant Beale, however, was
+choosing the route so carefully and with such skill that the heaviest
+and clumsiest wagons could hereafter follow where the camels led.
+
+It was an admirable road, and the fact that the entire expedition was
+lost at the moment would be of no consequence if it were not for lack
+of water. Even that would be no more than a minor annoyance, except
+that horses and mules must drink or find it impossible to go on.
+
+Ali's hopes, that had burned brightly when he turned south to swing
+along these ridges, flickered dimly as time passed and no oasis was
+sighted. The appointed rendezvous for this evening's camp--at least it
+would be a rendezvous if the struggling mule teams were able to come so
+far--was only a few miles ahead and night would fall soon. Ali put Ben
+Akbar to a fast lope.
+
+Suddenly he wheeled and rode back. He'd seen something--or thought he
+had--for it was so faintly traced that he could not be sure. It was
+worth a second look. Returning to the place where something had caught
+his eye, Ali halted Ben Akbar, dismounted and knelt to study the ground.
+
+He had seen something, but it was not to be wondered that he had almost
+passed without seeing it. A small, unshod horse, traveling at a fast
+trot, had passed this way within the hour and gone directly southeast.
+Ali frowned thoughtfully.
+
+Every one of the expedition's horses was shod and none had so small a
+hoof. This animal was either separated from its companions and trying
+to find them, or it carried a rider. Wandering horses do not travel
+fast and straight.
+
+Ali rose and remounted Ben Akbar. Since the horse did not belong to
+the expedition, obviously it was the property of someone else. The
+only human inhabitants of this forsaken waste were Indians. Though
+he had seen nothing except the track of one horse, Ali knew the Druse
+and the brigands of the caravan routes too well, and had fought them
+too often, to shrug it off as meaningless. One Druse going somewhere
+in a hurry could either be running from enemies or going to join some
+companions bent on raiding.
+
+Since there was no indication of pursuit, obviously the Indian was not
+fleeing. But in Ali's opinion and experience, there was every reason to
+believe that any group of brigands anywhere would sack the expedition
+if they could.
+
+So a group of bandits were assembling for the purpose of attacking the
+expedition. Or, Ali admitted, they were not assembling. He was certain
+only that there was at least one horse in the area and equally certain
+that there was water not too far away. The whole thing should properly
+be reported to Lieutenant Beale, but Ali remained indecisive.
+
+If Beale knew what Ali knew, he would most certainly insist on a personal
+investigation at the earliest moment. Never doubting that his chief was a
+renowned and experienced warrior, Beale was also one to rush in where
+anything else feared to tread. Should one with so many distressing problems
+already on his mind be further burdened? Finally, and conclusively, the
+expedition might do very well without Ali. It couldn't possibly succeed
+without Lieutenant Beale. Therefore, who should logically run the risk?
+There was only one choice.
+
+Ben Akbar trotted into camp where the remaining camels were contentedly
+feeding on greasewood. Sied was among them. Lieutenant Beale, who had
+also scouted for water, must have returned. He proved to be one of the
+little group who stood watching the agonized approach of the mules.
+Nobody had found water; if they had, they would not appear so downcast.
+
+Dismounting, Ali removed Ben Akbar's trappings and the big _dalul_
+joined the feeding herd. Ali turned toward the oncoming wagons.
+
+Heads bent, tongues lolling, the mules swayed in their traces and moved
+at a slow crawl. When the wagons finally drew up, the mules remained as
+they were when halted and did not so much as glance to one side or the
+other, even when stripped of their harnesses.
+
+His mules unharnessed, but so nearly finished that they retained their
+team positions, the first driver went to his wagon and lifted down the
+water keg. He turned to Lieutenant Beale and spoke in a husky whisper,
+"Nary a drop left. Must of sprung a leak and--"
+
+The mules came alert with a frantic rush and were upon him in a wild
+scramble. Surrounding the driver, their eager grunts and harsh gasping
+seemed the voice of madness itself as they fought each other for the
+privilege of licking the dry keg's bung hole. Unable to look, the
+soldiers turned away. Lieutenant Beale remained the leader.
+
+"We can't move from here without water," he said quietly. "We'll try
+again tomorrow."
+
+Ali offered, "I'll go again at dawn."
+
+Beale continued to speak softly. "Any preferred direction?"
+
+Ali gestured toward the horse track and Lieutenant Beale nodded
+permission. "Be back by sundown."
+
+It was so early that the dim gray light still made for uncertain
+observation when Ali halted Ben Akbar and dismounted. He bent very near
+the earth, unable to see until he did so. The track was here, he had not
+erred. Leading Ben Akbar, he followed, slowly at first, then faster as
+the strengthening light permitted. From the crest of one hill, he looked
+over the top of another and finally saw what he so desperately wanted to
+see.
+
+It was the topmost branches of a full-leafed tree, and here, in this
+place of no color, it was startling as snow on a naked cliff.
+
+Ali turned his mount and said softly, "Kneel."
+
+The big _dalul_ knelt. Ali crawled forward. On the summit of the hill
+over which the tree top appeared, he crouched in a nest of boulders and
+verified his preconceived opinion that he would see more than water when
+he finally beheld the oasis.
+
+Water there was, a limpid pool, shaded by one great tree and a cluster
+of small ones, and seeping underground to bring life to a patch of
+grass. Sixty-one horses cropped the grass, and sixty-one Indians lazed
+about.
+
+Though he knew where he was and who these men were, Ali felt as he had
+when spying on the Druse tribesmen. Even external differences between
+burnous-clad Druse and half-naked Indians did not set them so very far
+apart. If the Indians were not bent on raiding, there would be women
+and children among them. The expedition was the only prize worth the
+assembly of so many warriors. At present, they were idling away their
+time until a scout reported.
+
+The scout appeared, as Ali was sure he would, from the direction in
+which the expedition was encamped. Ali waited for the scout to reach his
+companions. When he did and began his report, Ali returned to Ben Akbar.
+He rode first toward the camp, so that he was between the warriors and
+the expedition. Then he put Ben Akbar up a hill, but not quite over it.
+He wanted only to look down on the path taken by the scout and which, by
+all reason, should be the path of the warriors.
+
+Presently they appeared, as Ali had prayed they would, and, obviously,
+the scout had reported well. In no hurry at all, it was clear that the
+Indians knew of the distress in camp. The time to take it was now, with
+most of the animals unfit, all of the men uncertain, and some so near
+the breaking point that a little more stress would break them. When the
+Indians were directly beneath him, Ali spoke to his mount. "Ho! Now!"
+
+Ben Akbar shot over the crest and unhesitatingly did as Ali wished, he
+charged the mounted column. The leader, a fiercely painted young warrior
+whose thoughts were pleasantly filled with an easy conquest and ample
+loot, had time for only one good look before his horse took charge.
+
+The panic spread like wind-driven fire in dry grass. Ali halted Ben
+Akbar and gave himself up to complete enjoyment, for indeed it was
+enjoyable. Sixty-one horses, as was customary with horses of America,
+took instant leave of their senses when confronted by a _dalul_ of
+Syria. For the first time since arriving in America, and the last, this
+was one unscheduled rodeo for which a camel would never be held to
+accounting.
+
+Two hours later, bulging water bags tied wherever Ben Akbar's saddle
+offered a buckle or knob to tie one, and two more over his shoulders,
+Ali rode back into camp. He halted near Lieutenant Beale, who had just
+come in on Sied, and grinned amiably as teamsters snatched at his load
+and ran to their parched animals.
+
+When he and Ali were alone, Lieutenant Beale asked, "How did you locate
+it, Ali?"
+
+"First," Ali said, "I saw a green tree."
+
+"What next?"
+
+"Then I saw some Indians," Ali reported, "but they all ran away and are
+not at the water now. We may go take as much as we need."
+
+
+
+
+12. The Road
+
+
+When he came to the California bank of the Colorado River, Ali halted
+Ben Akbar and surrendered to complete astonishment. Reason told him he
+had been this way before, but so drastic were the changes and so little
+was as he remembered it, that he challenged reason itself. Ali took a
+deep breath and tried vainly to assure himself that this really was
+Beale's Crossing where, two years ago and fifty days out of Fort
+Defiance, the expedition's work had been successfully completed.
+
+Ali and Lieutenant Beale, on Ben Akbar and Sied, had reached the river
+on the seventeenth of October. They were met by a horde of Indians, all
+of whom were so deliriously excited at their first sight of camels that
+any English they might have known was submerged in the shock. Two days
+later, Ali had proved that camels can swim by swimming Ben Akbar across
+the Colorado. The rest of the expedition had followed. Some horses and
+mules, which the Indians promptly retrieved and ate, were drowned. All
+the camels had crossed safely.
+
+Ali's dazed mind strove to reconcile that scene of the past and this
+one.
+
+On the opposite bank, where the Indians had grown their corn and melons,
+covered wagons with canvas tops that billowed in the little wind that
+stirred were lined up as far as the eye could see. Horses, mules and
+oxen rested in the traces while awaiting their turn on a ferry that was
+presently in mid-river, its cargo a wagon and a six-mule team. Adults
+gossiped and children played about the waiting wagons. There was a
+barking of dogs, a cackling of fowl, a lowing of cattle, all the noises
+that accompany a nation on the march.
+
+Transfixed, Ali could not move. Then the spell that gripped him was
+broken by a shout.
+
+"Hey you! Move that blasted camel!"
+
+Glancing toward the ferry, Ali saw the six mules dancing skittishly and
+two men trying to quiet them. Ali moved downriver. In some ways, all had
+changed and in some, nothing had; camels still panicked livestock.
+
+Presently, Ali halted and turned back to watch, appalled by this monster
+that he had somehow helped to spawn. The road had seemed a good thing,
+but all the people who would ever use it, or so Ali thought, were not
+half as many as the multitude awaiting the ferry.
+
+For a while he sat entranced as a wild deer that cannot turn its eyes
+from some fascinating thing, then his flight was sudden as the deer's
+when the intriguing but unknown object is abruptly recognized as a
+dreaded enemy. Wheeling Ben Akbar, Ali rode downriver at top speed. He
+did not dare look around, and he did not think of slackening the pace
+until even Ben Akbar could no longer maintain it and slowed of his own
+accord. Instantly contrite, Ali drew his mount to a halt.
+
+"I'm sorry, oh brother, that I could let you run so far and fast," he
+apologized. "Great fear stole my senses. Perhaps I am becoming craven."
+
+The panting Ben Akbar nosed his arm and accepted and ate a lump of
+sugar. Ali dared look back up the river. He heaved a mighty sigh of
+relief.
+
+Not only had Ben Akbar run far beyond the sight of any wagons, but far
+beyond hearing. Here was only the peaceful river, its tule-lined banks
+disturbed by nothing except a horde of waterfowl and an occasional
+ripple that marked the wake of a great fish hunting smaller ones in the
+shallows.
+
+Ali grinned sheepishly. Certainly there had been no real danger; he had
+fled from shadows. Tongues would wag along many caravan routes if it
+were known that Hadji Ali had run away from nothing. Just the same, Ali
+liked this better. He decided to ride farther down the riverbank before
+crossing.
+
+The farther he went, the lonelier it became and the better he liked it.
+Presently, his wild flight seemed more amusing than otherwise, and Ali
+chuckled throatily, but he had no thought of going back up the river. He
+rounded a bend and saw a dwelling.
+
+Built of driftwood and roofed with adobe, it was a one-room affair.
+Glassless windows had been cut in such a manner as to admit the morning
+sun. An adobe fireplace was built against an outside wall and an adobe
+chimney rose a little above the flat roof.
+
+Ali halted Ben Akbar. He was no longer afraid. There had never been
+anything about such houses to frighten him. However, if there was any
+livestock about, he would avoid argument by circling around. If not, it
+was safe to go directly past.
+
+Then a man came from the house and hailed him, "Come on, stranger! Come
+on an' light!"
+
+Ali rode ahead to meet a wiry, fierce-eyed man whose uncut hair and long
+beard were snow-white, but who fought the advancing years as furiously
+as he had once battled advancing Indians. Everything about him, from
+his buckskins to the way he had built his house, marked him for what he
+was. Here was one of the wild men, who had gone where he wished and done
+as he pleased, and never fretted about anything if he had a gun in his
+hands and a knife at his belt. Grown too old for such a life, he had
+chosen to spend the rest of his days here in this isolated spot.
+
+Ali dismounted and the old man extended his hand. "I'm Hud Perkins an'
+you're welcome."
+
+"I'm Hi Jolly." Ali gave the Americanized version of his name.
+
+Hud Perkins said, "I looked out an' saw a man comin' on a camel, I
+couldn't believe it! Of course, lots of men come, hardly a week passes
+but what somebody goes up or down river, but not on camels. Is he tame?"
+
+"Tamer than he was at one time," Ali answered. "He has been among so
+many people that almost anybody can pet him now."
+
+Hud Perkins said, "Don't know as I'd hold with pettin' him, but such a
+critter sure makes a man think. On my way out here, I run across a
+passel of 'em."
+
+Ali's interest quickened. "You did? Where?"
+
+"On the Heely River," Hud Perkins stated, "an' there wasn't rightly a
+passel. There was five, but five such critters look like a passel. Will
+yours stay about or do you picket him?"
+
+"He'll stay."
+
+"Then take his gear off an' let him fill up. Plenty of grass hereabouts
+an' nary a critter to eat it most times."
+
+Ali removed Ben Akbar's saddle and bridle and the big _dalul_ padded out
+to forage. Intrigued by his host's reference to five camels on the Heely
+River, Ali straightened to ask for more information and found Hud
+Perkins staring at Ben Akbar.
+
+He turned to Ali. "What's wrong with him?"
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"Is he good's a horse or mule?"
+
+"Much better," Ali stated.
+
+The old man shook a puzzled head. "That don't hardly jibe with those
+camels on the Heely. Wasn't nobody payin' them no mind, 'cept some
+heathen Papagoes that was fixin' to eat 'em. I was tempted to ketch one
+an' see how it rode, but a cowboy said they wasn't worth ketchin'. The
+Army fetched 'em from some place in Texas, he said, an' turned 'em loose
+on the Heely on account they was more fuss than worth."
+
+Ali's heart sank at this first news in more than two years of the camels
+left behind at Camp Verde, but he told himself that he should have
+expected nothing else. He drew some comfort from a quick assurance that
+neither Mimico nor Major Wayne could possibly have accompanied any
+expedition that would abandon camels. Whoever had loosed those five in
+the Arizona desert, where they would certainly find conditions to their
+liking, knew nothing of camels and cared less.
+
+Ali said, "Who left those camels did not know what he was doing."
+
+"Might be I ought to have caught me one anyway, eh?"
+
+"You'd have found it worth your while," Ali assured him.
+
+"Well, I didn't an' I don't know as it would of been doin' me or the
+camel any favor if I did. Ridin' anythin' don't set like it used to.
+Come on in, Hi. I'll rouse up some rations."
+
+Ali walked with the old man to his house and sat down on a wooden bench
+while Hud Perkins busied himself preparing fish from the river and
+vegetables from his garden. He queried, "If I might ask, where ye been?"
+
+Ali answered, "For the past two years, I've been here in California."
+
+"_Hmm-ph._ Didn't know they landed any such critters out thisaway."
+
+"They didn't," Ali informed him. "Lieutenant Beale brought twenty-five
+camels with him when he surveyed the wagon road from Fort Defiance."
+
+"_Wagh!_" Hud Perkins ejaculated. "Then 'tis so!"
+
+"What's so?"
+
+"I heard tell of such when I was leavin' Santa Fe to come here," his
+host informed him. "Some fool, 'twas said, was goin' from Fort Defiance
+to Californy, usin' camels to lay out a road. Not many believed it. Of
+them as did, nobody thought the camels would get a pistol shot from Fort
+Defiance."
+
+"It's true," Ali said. "I was with the expedition."
+
+"Well tie that one!" Hud Perkins marveled. "So camels did come to
+Californy! What happened to 'em?"
+
+Ali had no immediate answer, for after reaching California, nothing
+worthwhile had happened. The camels had been shown in various places,
+including Los Angeles, and had attracted the usual onlookers and sparked
+the usual stampedes. A few months after arriving, Lieutenant Beale took
+fourteen of the animals and started back along the surveyed road.
+
+The rest of the herd, with Ali as keeper, had been sent to and was still
+at Fort Tejon, where Army brass amused itself by putting camels through
+the usual meaningless paces. Seeing no opportunity for a change, and
+with all he could stomach of Fort Tejon, Ali had taken Ben Akbar and
+departed.
+
+Ali answered his host, "They're at Fort Tejon."
+
+Hud Perkins snorted. "Don't blame you for leavin', got no use for Army
+posts myself. You goin' east?"
+
+"Not all the way," Ali said. "Too far east is no better than too far
+west. I think I'll go back along the road. I saw a lot of free country
+there."
+
+Hud Perkins was silent for a long while, then he said quietly, "You saw
+it two years ago."
+
+"But--" Ali was startled. "It isn't all taken?"
+
+"I don't know," Hud Perkins spoke as a bewildered old man who no longer
+knew about anything. "Was a time when I figgered the West'd never settle
+an' a man would always find room. But--Anyhow it's two years since I
+come out."
+
+Ali asked gravely, "Have there really been so many others?"
+
+His host answered moodily, "I've seen a passel of wagon roads opened up.
+Whenever there was one, people boiled along it like water pours out of a
+busted beaver dam."
+
+The specter Ali had seen lurking behind the wagons at Beale's Crossing
+was again present and again threatened panic.
+
+"Perhaps," he said doubtfully, "I'd better go somewhere else."
+
+"If you can still find such a place," Hud Perkins replied. "Still, like
+I said, it's two years since I come out. I could be wrong. Why not find
+out?"
+
+"How?" Ali asked.
+
+"Ride back along the road," Hud Perkins advised him. "See for yourself
+if it's what you think it is. It's the one way you'll ever know."
+
+Ali said, "I'll do it."
+
+When the leading team of mules swung around the sandy butte, Ali turned
+Ben Akbar away from the road. It was somehow different from the numerous
+times he'd swung to one side or the other, so that wagons might pass
+without the panic that always resulted when livestock met a camel. This
+time there would be no turning back.
+
+Ali and his mount were swallowed up in a pine forest before anyone saw
+them. Except for the leading mule team, that spooked when they smelled
+Ben Akbar's fresh tracks, nobody in the whole train suspected that a
+camel had been here.
+
+Riding due south, Ali did not look around even once. Again he was
+fleeing, but this time he knew why. At one time, the wagon road had
+offered everything he wanted. Now it offered nothing.
+
+The wagons lined up and awaiting their turn on the ferry at Beale's
+Crossing had seemed an overwhelming multitude only because there had
+been no basis for comparison. After nineteen days on the wagon road, Ali
+was able to fit them into their proper niche, one small ripple in a
+surging tide. He still did not know how this had come about, although he
+could not have believed unless he saw it. Two short years after the
+camels had composed the first organized caravan to come this way,
+everybody seemed to be following.
+
+Besides an endless stream of wagons on the road, there were ranches
+beside it. The flocks and herds that were sure to come some time seemed
+to have grown overnight, as though they were mushrooms. There were
+homes, villages, towns, even the cities that, Ali had once thought,
+might arise after several generations.
+
+Swimming Ben Akbar across the Colorado at Hud Perkins' house, Ali
+circled to come back on the road well east of Beale's Crossing--and
+found more people. Unwilling to believe what became increasingly evident
+and hoping to find even one place that was as it had been, he rode east.
+Hope died when he found a village in the very heart of the desert where
+the expedition had been lost. The village's source of water was the same
+water hole from which Ben Akbar had stampeded the Indians. He rode on
+only to find a better place for leaving the road, and now he had left
+it.
+
+When he finally halted Ben Akbar and made camp, Ali knew that he had
+acted wisely. Once again he was at peace, for, even though the old trail
+was closed, nothing was ever lost as long as a new one beckoned. The
+next morning, he resumed his southward journey.
+
+The pine forest was long behind him, the desert all about, when Ben
+Akbar mounted a hill from whose summit Ali finally saw the Gila River.
+He dismounted, standing a bit in front of the big _dalul_ and holding
+the camel's rein lightly as he studied that which he had come so far to
+see.
+
+Here in the desert, the Gila was sluggish, lazy and silt-laden. It had
+nothing in common with the clear and sparkling streams that have
+inspired poet and artist alike, but it belonged in this hot desert, even
+as the others fitted their rugged valleys. Who could not see beauty in
+the Gila, could not see.
+
+For no special reason, Ali glanced at the rein in his hand and a vast
+mortification swept over him. While working for the Army, he had never
+even thought about certain essential needs because Army pay and rations
+provided all he needed. Now he had neither, though food was still no
+problem because everybody in this land was happy to share whatever food
+he might have. But man could not live by bread alone.
+
+True, not a great deal more was necessary and Ali attached little
+importance to his own threadbare clothing and battered shoes. But his
+very soul revolted when he looked at Ben Akbar's worn rein, a sorry
+thing, unfitted for even the poorest baggage camel. Ali must somehow
+contrive to earn some money. But the peace that had come to him when he
+finally turned from the wagon road did not desert him when he remounted.
+He had come to the Gila with a plan. He would find and catch the
+abandoned camels and hire out as packer--and surely packers were
+needed. All would be well.
+
+Two days later, in a delightful little haven where the Gila periodically
+overflowed its banks and ample water brought luxurious growth, Ali found
+the camels. He smiled with happiness when he noted Amir, an old friend
+from Camp Verde, and two more old acquaintances in a pair of the young
+Camp Verde females. The herd numbered seven and not five, as Hud Perkins
+had told him, but Ali remembered that the old man had come this way two
+years ago. All five camels he'd seen must have been from Camp Verde. Two
+had been killed by something or other--Hud had mentioned Indians--and
+the four were Amir's daughters and son.
+
+They watched nervously--and probably would have run if approached by
+anyone else. Ali, who knew how to converse with camels, advanced slowly,
+talking as he did so.
+
+Amir himself finally trotted forward to renew old friendship.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Riding Ben Akbar and trailed by his string of camels, there were eleven
+now, Ali did not look back. The eleven would follow, just as they always
+followed him. Nor were they at fault because their sorry rewards had
+never equalled their unswerving devotion and loyalty.
+
+Maybe nothing was really at fault, but the mine owners to whom Ali had
+offered his services and that of his camels were either too poor to hire
+any packer; or so rich that they might hire what they chose, and they
+chose mules. There was no use in going even near the ranches, camels
+terrified cattle, too. Finally, reduced to packing water, Ali found that
+those whose need was most desperate were almost never able to pay.
+Unable to go on because of maximum expense and minimum income, Ali must
+now do the best he could for his baggage animals.
+
+When he came to the meadow on the Gila where he had found the original
+seven, he led his herd far into it. Then, still not looking behind, he
+whirled Ben Akbar and was off at top speed. Though they would still try
+to follow, the baggage camels could not match Ben Akbar's speed for very
+long and must soon fall behind.
+
+There must be another journey along a new trail. Ben Akbar's rein was no
+longer even a rein, but a piece of rope found at a water hole. His
+saddle was falling apart and Ali must do something, but this time he
+would.
+
+He had heard of much gold in the northern desert.
+
+
+
+
+13. Reunion
+
+
+The village of Quartzite was never calculated to overwhelm with
+metropolitan sweep or impress with architectural grandeur. Completely
+surrounded by the Arizona desert, sometimes it was oddly like a captive
+village, a prisoner of the desert. But in a very real sense Quartzite
+was a true monument, a tribute to the human beings who first had the
+courage to trespass in such a forbidding land and then dared build homes
+and live there.
+
+The men gathered at a Quartzite inn varied in various ways, but all bore
+the stamp of the desert. Tiny wrinkles etched the eyes of each man, and,
+though none were aware of it, even here in the cool and shaded inn,
+they squinted. That was something they learned in the desert, where they
+faced a blazing sun for hours on end and squinted to shield their eyes,
+until the habit became so ingrained that they never forgot to practice
+it. The door opened and another man entered. One of those present
+greeted him with, "Welcome, stranger!"
+
+The newcomer grinned. "Thought I'd best have me a look at civilization,
+been away so long that the other day I found myself talkin' with a pack
+rat. Saw the darndest thing when I walked in."
+
+"What?"
+
+"A camel." At once the newcomer was the center of interest. "A big red
+camel."
+
+"Go on!" his friend exclaimed.
+
+"It's true," the newcomer insisted. "He's right where Boney Wash crosses
+Skull Canyon. Layin' down, he is, like he might be sick or hurt. But
+he's there."
+
+The only man present who did not gather around the speaker had been
+sitting alone and unnoticed. He rose. An old man with snow-white hair
+and beard, there was that about him which spoke of many burdens carried,
+and yet he bore the weight of his years with a certain assurance. When
+he walked to and opened the door and slipped into the overcast early
+spring afternoon, his absence went as unnoticed as his presence had
+been.
+
+Ali closed the door behind him. Safe from prying eyes, he quivered with
+excitement.
+
+The last arrival was a prospector, one of many original optimists who
+constantly roamed the desert, engaged in prodigious labors that were
+seldom granted the smallest reward and never once doubted that they had
+only to keep on and all the desert's dazzling riches would be yielded up
+to them. Recently, he'd been working in hills to the north, and his best
+way to Quartzite would be down Skull Canyon.
+
+A red camel, the man had said, lay at the junction of Skull Canyon and
+Boney Wash. Ali couldn't remember how many times his own prospecting
+trips had taken him up Skull Canyon. He left the village and started to
+run, but his legs were no longer capable of running far, so he dropped
+back to a walk. The increasingly cooler evening wind, one of various
+reasons why Ali had finally turned his back on the desert to live with
+generous friends at Quartzite, he scarcely noticed.
+
+He had gone to live at Quartzite six years ago, three years before the
+turn of the century and a few days before his seventieth birthday. Ben
+Akbar was old too, but even if he'd been welcome in Quartzite, he
+wouldn't have been happy there. Ali's last trip into the desert had been
+for the sole purpose of taking Ben Akbar to the most isolated spot he
+knew--and no man knew more than Ali about the wildest and most
+inaccessible areas--and leaving him there.
+
+Escorting camels into the desert and turning them loose was nothing new.
+Twenty times in years gone by Ali had thus disposed of beasts he was no
+longer able to support. Invariably, however, he either went and got them
+again or found some new herd for some new venture. Though not one other
+person in the entire Southwest shared his conviction that camels would
+eventually triumph--Ali's faith never flickered.
+
+He'd loosed all the camels in the best places he knew. Ben Akbar,
+however, was a special case.
+
+Though camels thrived in the desert and might have multiplied, as far as
+anyone knew, only camel ghosts had come to the water holes in recent
+years. Finding them gentle and easy to approach, Indians and white men
+alike killed them for food, and sometimes merely for killing's sake.
+Many had been captured and were with various circuses or zoos. Ben Akbar
+was both the last to have been in any active and useful service and the
+last American camel not in confinement.
+
+There were still rumors of desert-roaming camels, but all such were born
+in somebody's imagination and there were no reliable reports. Nor had
+there been since Ali loosed Ben Akbar, which might mean that Ali had
+succeeded in taking him so far away that nobody had yet found him. Or it
+might mean that he was no longer to be found; passing years had
+probably not spared the camel any more than the master.
+
+Just before nightfall, the wind lulled and then died down. A bright moon
+rode high, lighting the path but softening harsh angles and shadowing
+into gentle harmlessness all that was seen as hard and harsh under the
+sun's pitiless glare. Presently, every cactus was bedecked in a sparkle
+of rare jewels as moonlight glanced from frosty branches. Ali's thoughts
+went to a snug cave he knew, plenty big enough for a camel who was no
+longer as restless as he once had been.
+
+Ali walked on, resentful of both his necessarily slow pace and a growing
+skepticism that came over him as he drew farther from the town and
+deeper into the desert. A red camel, the prospector had said, but there
+had been several red camels with the herd and there was still seventy
+miles of desert to cross before reaching the place where Ben Akbar was
+freed. Though there had been a time when seventy miles would have meant
+no more than a pleasant jaunt, could an aging Ben Akbar walk so far?
+
+Then Ali came to the junction of Skull Canyon and Boney Wash. He
+stopped--and instantly he knew!
+
+At this point, Skull Canyon was about fifty yards from the base of one
+rocky wall to the foot of another. Boney Wash had been born when
+torrential rains crumbled a rift in the east wall. The flood that had
+poured through then had ripped a ragged ditch in the canyon floor.
+Above the ditch, the canyon was level, for the most part pebble-strewn,
+but here and there was a boulder or copse of cactus. Under the gentle
+moonlight, the canyon became gentle.
+
+All four legs curled beneath him and head cushioned against his flank,
+apparently Ben Akbar had been on his way down the canyon and had lain
+down to rest when forbidding Boney Wash gaped before him. Ali's eyes
+softened, for it seemed no accident that on this night the moon should
+glow in such a fashion. The Ben Akbar Ali had last seen had shown the
+sunken cheeks, shriveled neck, worn teeth and stiffened joints of the
+aging. Under the magic moon, the Ben Akbar he met might have been the
+proud young _dalul_ he had rescued from the Druse and who, in turn, had
+rescued him. Even the many hairs that were no longer red, but white,
+could have been sparkling with frost.
+
+Ali went a step nearer and crooned, "I greet thee, oh prince among
+_dalul_."
+
+There was a ripple along flanks and ribs, but only after a marked
+interval was Ben Akbar able to raise his head. Ali dropped beside him
+and eased the proud head into his lap. He stroked it gently.
+
+"We meet again, oh, brother," he murmured. "It is well."
+
+He continued to caress Ben Akbar, and, under the soft moon, a thoughtful
+expression came over his face. There had been a very long time and a
+very long journey since he had boarded the _Supply_. Now he sat in the
+desert, comforting the last remaining camel of all that were brought to
+America. How could such an auspicious beginning lead to this end?
+
+The failure could not be charged to the camels. Lieutenant Beale himself
+had declared that any one of them was worth any six mules. Then who, or
+what, was to blame? Ali considered various explanations that had been
+advanced.
+
+Some declared that the entire experiment was fore-doomed by anonymous
+but invincible forces interested in perpetuating large profits derived
+from horse and mule trading. Their combined strength overwhelmed the
+advocates of camel transport. These reports were partly right, Ali
+conceded, but not entirely so. He could not imagine Major Wayne or
+Lieutenant Beale yielding to the combined power of anything. Anyhow, it
+went without saying that these forces had done all they could to prevent
+the importation of camels in the first place. They had not succeeded.
+
+It was true that neither Major Wayne nor Lieutenant Beale had been
+active in the Camel Corps for years, and Jefferson Davis no longer
+mattered after the Confederacy he headed lost the War between the
+States. But adverse influence alone had never defeated the camels.
+
+Many contended that the War itself was responsible. Nobody had time for
+camels while the battles raged and nobody was interested when peace
+came. Another part truth, Ali decided, but by no means a whole truth. To
+say that the War between the States doomed camels was as absurd as
+declaring it doomed railroads.
+
+Even the popular refusal to accept camels--that sometimes mounted to
+flaring resentment against them--was not to blame for their downfall.
+That which has practical worth cannot forever remain unnoticed and
+camels had proved themselves superior to any other beast of burden.
+
+Ali bent his head and crooned softly in Ben Akbar's ear. The big _dalul_
+sighed softly and pressed his chin hard against his friend's knee. Ali
+resumed caressing the camel.
+
+What ill wind, he wondered, had blown the day these camels were finally
+aboard and the _Supply_ set sail? They had come and they had proven
+themselves, but far from any conquest they had found only oblivion. Why?
+
+Ali straightened unconsciously as he thought of the day Lieutenant
+Beale's expedition had left Fort Defiance and started west. His mind
+became a screen upon which appeared a complete review of every single
+day that had followed. Ali lived again, as he had before, the whole
+exciting caravan into unknown wilderness.
+
+Then, skipping his two years in California, Ali rode Ben Akbar back to
+the Colorado and the massed wagons awaiting ferry transport. There
+followed, in complete detail, his return ride over the road. Again he
+saw the burgeoning civilization that had overrun a virgin wilderness.
+Finally, he knew the right answer, and knowing, must question no more.
+
+The camels had not yielded to any petty thing, but had bowed to a force
+so powerful that nothing could stand against it. All the armies of all
+the world could bring human progress to no more than a temporary halt,
+and not even the swiftest _dalul_ could hope to keep pace with the
+breathtaking march of civilization as America knew it. If the camels had
+been imported fifty years sooner, or if America had been satisfied to
+wait fifty years longer to develop her wilderness, then indeed would all
+Americans know the true worth of camels.
+
+As the course was run, most Americans would know camels only as
+legendary ships of the desert or exotic imports whose proper abode was
+the circus or zoo. Those few who did learn about the Camel Corps, might
+hear of it as a glaring example of the hare-brained schemes that may be
+dreamed up by scatter-brained people. Nevertheless, Ali was suddenly
+happy and again knew a complete peace.
+
+He and Ben Akbar were reunited never to be parted again, and he, at
+least, knew the true story of the Camel Corps. Nothing anyone might say
+or do could change in the smallest detail what had already been done.
+The people who spilled over Lieutenant Beale's wagon road might never
+know that the pillars of their churches, the foundations of their
+schools, their homes, their very way of life, were anchored on
+long-forgotten camel tracks. But they would not be there if camels had
+not led the way.
+
+Given only one real opportunity, the camels had contributed more than
+their full share. Ali knew finally that, if he might return over the
+years and once more look at camels being taken aboard the _Supply_, and
+if he might also look ahead and see all the future, he would again do as
+he had done and come to America.
+
+The journey had not been in vain. What had seemed to be heartbreaking
+failure showed its true colors under the correct light. Triumph was
+complete.
+
+Ali stood up. "Rise," he said.
+
+Slowly, Ben Akbar rose to his feet and the two started along the silvery
+path together.
+
+
+
+
+JIM KJELGAARD
+
+
+was born in New York City. Happily enough, he was still in the
+pre-school age when his father decided to move the family to the
+Pennsylvania mountains. There young Jim grew up among some of the best
+hunting and fishing in the United States. He says: "If I had pursued my
+scholastic duties as diligently as I did deer, trout, grouse, squirrels,
+etc., I might have had better report cards!"
+
+Jim Kjelgaard has worked at various jobs--trapper, teamster, guide,
+surveyor, factory worker and laborer. When he was in the late twenties
+he decided to become a full-time writer. He has succeeded in his wish.
+He has published several hundred short stories and articles and quite a
+few books for young people.
+
+His hobbies are hunting, fishing, dogs, and questing for new stories. He
+tells us: "Story hunts have led me from the Atlantic to the Pacific and
+from the Arctic Circle to Mexico City. Stories, like gold, are where you
+find them. You may discover one three thousand miles from home, as in
+_Rescue Dog of the High Pass_, or, as in _The Spell of the White
+Sturgeon_, right on your own door step." And he adds: "I am married to a
+very beautiful girl and have a teen-age daughter. Both of them order me
+around in a shameful fashion, but I can still boss the dog! We live in
+Phoenix, Arizona."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Books by Jim Kjelgaard
+
+
+    _Big Red_
+    _Rebel Siege_
+    _Forest Patrol_
+    _Buckskin Brigade_
+    _Chip, the Dam Builder_
+    _Fire Hunter_
+    _Irish Red_
+    _Kalak of the Ice_
+    _A Nose for Trouble_
+    _Snow Dog_
+    _The Story of Geronimo_
+    _Stormy_
+    _Cochise, Chief of Warriors_
+    _Trailing Trouble_
+    _Wild Trek_
+    _The Explorations of Pere Marquette_
+    _The Spell of the White Sturgeon_
+    _Outlaw Red_
+    _The Coming of the Mormons_
+    _Cracker Barrel Trouble Shooter_
+    _The Lost Wagon_
+    _Lion Hound_
+    _Trading Jeff and His Dog_
+    _Desert Dog_
+    _Haunt Fox_
+    _The Oklahoma Land Run_
+    _Double Challenge_
+    _Swamp Cat_
+    _Rescue Dog of the High Pass_
+    _Hi Jolly!_
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Hi Jolly!, by James Arthur Kjelgaard
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 41700 ***