The Peculiar Exploits of Brigadier Ffellowes (15 page)

             
" 'I don't like this place, S'ayyid,' he finally said. 'No one comes here. It has a bad name among all the people of the Hadhramaut. I wish we were far enough along the shore to signal the English ship.'

             
"I looked about us more carefully, but I couldn't see anything very disturbing. A range of barren, reddish hills rose inland, the ground sloping up rather sharply from the sea coast. Below us, in the light of late afternoon, the camels fed placidly in the marsh, ignoring the clouds of gnats and mosquitoes around them. I couldn't see what was bothering the man, a very tough customer indeed, and I said so, telling him at the same time to calm down a bit. To get him in a better mood, I asked
him to give me a bit more detail about the area and why it was so disliked.

             
" '
Dawut
,
S'ayyid,' he said, staring at me with his red-rimmed eyes. Now
dawut
means a number of things, depending on the context of your speech. His meant magic, magic and sorcery.

             
"I had sense enough to keep from smiling, and I think this reassured him. He fiddled with his big, sickle-shaped Hadhramaut dagger and then went on, clearly speaking with an effort.

             
" 'Not all of the demons were caged by Suleiman bin
Daoud
' (that is, Solomon). All sensible men know this.
Djann
and
Grol
still live in the Rub' al Khali, the greatest of deserts to the north, claimed now by Ibn-Saud. But around here,' and he looked around in the failing light, 'here the cursed ones, the worst of those ancient ones who lived before Adam, the
Beni
(unpronounceable) are said still to hide. That is why no one ever comes here.'

             
"After the word
Beni
,
which means 'sons of,' the next word had been a curious grating hiss, which 1 can't imitate now and which somehow made me rather uncomfortable then.

             
"I was quite intrigued. Moussa was anything but soft, and I'd never heard a superstitious word out of him before. Now all this tosh about magic and devils came boiling out like beer from a shaken bottle. It was all very surprising and mysterious.

             
"There was still light enough to see one another quite well, and some contempt or something must have shown on my face. His mouth shut like a trap and he swung away down the slope. Over his shoulder he called back, 'We have rested long enough and we must keep moving. Otherwise we will miss the English ship.'

             
"I couldn't argue that, so we went down,
unhobbled
the camels and set off over the dunes again. The daylight was now very dim and the blazing stars of the tropics were clearly visible. On our right the Indian Ocean lapped al the pebbles, and aside from the shuffle of our camels and the creak of our leather gear, this was the only sound. We could see well enough to ride if we didn't move too fast, and as the night came on the stars gave us quite decent visibility.

             
"Every so often and with increasing frequency, we came to one of the marshy, ill-smelling
wadis
, or gullies, sloping down from the hills, and I soon noticed that Moussa gave these as wide a berth as possible. I knew that I must always follow him, because he knew the country and I didn't, but when we finally waded the camels out knee-deep into the ocean to avoid one of these little estuaries, I asked him what he thought he was doing.

             
" 'Be silent!' he said in a carrying whisper, whipping around in his saddle. I could see the whites of his eyes clearly. 'If you make any more sound, I will forget my oath and leave you here. We are in deadly danger, and because you are stupid we will die if we are not careful. Now—silence!' He turned and urged his beast on.

             
"This was a new Moussa with a vengeance! No 'S'ayyid' and a threat to leave me flat in addition. I made up my mind to have it out with Master Moussa at a later date, but meanwhile I kept my mouth shut and followed.

             
"Now in the silence that followed, I suddenly became aware of something new. Moussa and most other desert Arabs I ever met could beat me all hollow at seeing things far away. I reckon our civilized noses aren't worth much either, and again he could catch scents I couldn't begin to detect. But his ears were curiously inefficient, compared to mine. I've noticed this before among other various folk who live out of doors, notably in West Africa, and I have no idea why, but it's a fact nonetheless.

             
"I heard something now and I didn't much care for it either. It was a curious padding and scuffling noise, and it seemed to come from our left where the land rose. At first it seemed near, then farther away, then closer again. We were riding at a slow trot over the gentle sea face of the sand dunes, and I finally caught on to just what I was hearing.

             
"
Some thing
, or things, was moving parallel to us along the other side of the line of dunes, and the slight variation in the height of the dunes made for the difference in the sound.

             
"I looked at
Moussa's
back, but even though it appeared tense, I knew somehow he couldn't hear what I could. What should be done, I wondered?

             
"Finally, I urged my camel alongside his to get his attention quietly. As he looked up in surprise, I pointed to my ears and made a motion of someone walking or running with my fingers. Then I pointed to our left, to the crest of the dunes. The starlight was so bright that it was easy for him to see what I was doing.

             
"He caught on at once and his face went all drawn and taut while his mouth opened in an 'o' of surprise. Then he unslung his rifle in one motion and laid it across his saddlebow. He took out his pistol and jammed that in his cartridge belt and motioned to me to do the same. Next, he waved me around him so that I rode on the ocean side, but next to him. All this was done without our camels breaking stride, and I was beginning to get a bit shaken.

             
"He angled our line of march down off the dunes onto the pebbly strand itself and even further, so that the camels were running almost in the calm water itself. They had speeded up, by the way, and we were now moving at a pretty fair clip. They were well-trained camels and the hour's rest had done them good.

             
"I could hear nothing now, because the splash of their feet in the water made too much noise, but I felt sure we were not out of danger. Soon I saw the reason why. Up ahead, the dunes suddenly got very low and then for a space vanished. This flat lasted about half a mile, and then the dunes resumed again. A wave of fetid odor told me we were coming to yet another tidal marsh where still another
wadi
led to the sea.

             
"The camels were running ankle-deep now, and any deeper would have slowed them badly. We were in the best possible position to meet whatever was pacing us, and as the last dune halted abruptly, I got my first sight of it, or rather, them.

             
"A line of lean dark figures, perhaps a score or more, erupted over the crest of the white
dune and poured down the face of it in our direction. In a second, they were out on the flat and coming after us like race horses. And they were men! The starlight showed their long legs clearly as they ran, in tremendous, leaping strides. By heavens, I had no idea men could run like that, and, mind you, I'd seen
Masai
and
Shilluk
warriors, both supposed to be tops in that field. They came on in utter silence, what's more, and Arabs would have been yelling like the devil by now. Also, desert Arabs don't like fighting at night, and won't if they can help it.

             
"Moussa beat his camel and mine, too, with his goad, and we went on at a fine pace over the sea's edge, but behind us those dark figures got more and more distinct in the starlight.

             
"In a pinch, you couldn't find better than Moussa. Not all Arabs can shoot, but a lot can, and he was one. He spun on his saddle and began snapping his Enfield off like a veteran. I saw one runner go down, but the rest came on. Then he hit another, who veered off into the water and fell with a mighty splash, and they seemed to check for a moment. By this time, Ed made up my mind whatever they were, they certainly were no Arabs for they were naked or almost so, and I really could see no clothes of any sort at all.

             
"Moussa reloaded in the saddle and we thundered on. The dunes had reappeared again, but our enemies weren't taking cover, but coming on right behind us once more, and once more they were gaining. Such running I simply could not believe.

             
" 'S'ayyid,' yelled Moussa, 'the camels can't last at this speed. How far to the ship-meeting place?'

             
"Now Ed been devoting a lot of thought to just that, and I felt sure it wasn't much farther. Ed been checking a pedometer at intervals, and it works on camel-back, you know; and with that and a certain landmark, a small island now visible off the coast, I knew we were only about two miles or so away. Of course, if the boat wasn't there...!

             
"Actually, it was
quite
a narrow squeak, what with one thing and another. Ed hauled out my big torch from the saddlebag and started blinking it like mad in an SOS aimed out to sea. Moussa was shooting again, really browning the lot, I suppose, but I couldn't see, being busy with the light. What a chase! And still not one bloody sound out of those beggars. If it hadn't been for the rifle, it all could have been a bad dream.

             
"My camel gave way suddenly with no warning at all. The poor brute had done its best, and it collapsed kicking and threw me over its head into the shallows. As I flew through the air, I kept thinking to myself, don't let the pistol go, and I managed to hold it as I hit in about three feet of water. It was a big 'broom handle'
Mauser
automatic, and as I staggered erect, three of them were on me, coming through the shallows like Olympic sprinters.

             
"I blinked the salt out of my eyes, flipped the change lever to full auto and sprayed all three until the magazine was empty.

             
"I downed them all, but one got his hand on my arm and pulled me under with him. I pulled free of the body as the grip relaxed and there was Moussa and his camel beside me.

             
" 'Get up behind me quick,' he called, and believe me, I did. He was still shooting over my head, but then his shots stopped as I mounted, and by the time I'd hauled myself up, the night was quiet again. As we sat in the shallow water, watching and listening, I could hear the
MTB's
engines as it swept in to meet us, and in another minute a searchlight beam had picked us out. We shot
Moussa's
camel, nothing else to do, and left the area in a great hurry. I wasn't sorry to see the last of it.

             
"You see, the flash of my pistol had lit up my attackers all too clearly. They were about seven feet tall, stark naked, hairless and covered with minute blackish scales. In addition, their mouths were full of needle-like fangs, and they only had two holes where a nose ought to be. Their hands had long, sharp claws on the fingers, which I can demonstrate."

             
No one said a word as Ffellowes removed first his coat and his left cuff link and finally rolled up his sleeve. There on his inner elbow were four savage white wheals, obviously done a long time ago.

             
"Yes," he went on, "if anyone wants to look for Pleistocene man in California, good luck to him. I rather fancy I've seen Paleozoic Man, and that's quite enough of a leftover for me, thank you. Someone else can find the others."

             
Even Williams could think of nothing to say.

-

             
The evening talk in the club library had reached (or descended to
—
it's all in the point of view) the subject of women. Not sex. Older men are perfectly capable of discussing sex of course, but
women
are far more interesting to an experienced, intelligent man. Here we are, sharing the planet with what is another species really, and yet we still don't know how they think! Incredible!