Invasion of the Sea. Jules Verne
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Название: Invasion of the Sea
Автор: Jules Verne
Издательство: Ingram
Жанр: Историческая фантастика
Серия: Early Classics of Science Fiction
isbn: 9780819574602
isbn:
However, they needed to be very cautious. Sohar and Harrig waited a few moments, then seized Hadjar by the shoulders, gradually pulled him free, and lowered him into the boat with them.
A strong pull on the oars propelled the boat seaward. Wisely, they decided not to row along the walls of the bordj or along the beach, but rather to proceed up the gulf as far as the marabout. In doing so, they could avoid the little boats that were moving in and out of the port, for the calm night made for good fishing. As they passed the Chanzy on their beam, Hadjar stood up, crossed his arms, and stared for a long time at the cruiser, his eyes full of hatred. Then, without saying a word, he sat down again in the stern of the boat.
Half an hour later they disembarked on the sand and pulled the boat onto dry land. The Tuareg chieftain and his two comrades headed for the marabout, and reached it without incident.
Djemma came to meet her son, took him in her arms, and spoke only one word: “Come!”
Rounding the corner of the marabout, she rejoined Ahmet and Horeb. Three horses were waiting, ready to dash off into the night with their riders. Hadjar quickly swung up into his saddle, and Harrig and Horeb did as well.
“Come,” Djemma had said when she saw her son. Now, with her hand pointing toward the shadowy regions of the Djerid, she again spoke a single word: “Go!”
A moment later, Hadjar, Horeb, and Harrig disappeared into the darkness.2
The old Tuareg woman stayed in the marabout with Sohar until morning. She had ordered Ahmet to return to Gabès. Had her son’s escape been discovered? Was the news already spreading through the oasis? Had the authorities sent out detachments in pursuit of the fugitive? In what direction across the Djerid would they go looking for him? And would the campaign against the Tuareg chieftain and his followers, which had earlier led to his capture, now be resumed?
“Go!” said Djemma.
That was what Djemma desperately wanted to know before starting out toward the chotts region. But Ahmet could learn nothing as he prowled around the outskirts of Gabès. He even went within sight of the bordj, stopping at the bazaar merchant’s house to tell him that the rescue had succeeded—that Hadjar was free at last and was now fleeing across the solitary wastes of the desert.
The merchant had heard no gossip of the escape and, if there had been any, he would certainly have been one of the first to know.
But the first glimmers of dawn would soon light up the eastern horizon of the gulf, and Ahmet did not wish to tarry any longer. It was important for the old woman to leave the marabout before daybreak. She was well known to the authorities and, next to that of her son, her own capture was of highest priority. While it was still dark, Ahmet returned to her and guided her onto the road to the dunes.
The next day, the cruiser sent a launch to the port to pick up the prisoner and take him back to the ship.
When the prison guard opened the door to Hadjar’s cell, all he could report was that the Tuareg chieftain had disappeared. A glance down the drain, from which the grating had been removed, made it only too obvious how the escape had been carried out. Had Hadjar tried to swim to safety? If so, had the current dragged him out into the gulf? Or, rather, did he have accomplices who might have taken him somewhere along the shore in a boat?
There was no way to know for certain. A search of the area near the oasis brought no results. Not a trace of the fugitive, living or dead, was to be found—either on the plains of the Djerid or in the waters of the Gulf of Gabès.
iv
Mr. de Schaller extended a warm welcome to everyone who had accepted his invitation and thanked the officers, the French and Tunisian officials, and the leading citizens of Gabès who had honored the meeting with their presence.
“There is no denying, gentlemen,” he began, “that the progress of science has made it more and more impossible to confuse history and legend. In the final analysis, they are mutually exclusive. Legend belongs to the poets, history to the scientists, and each has its own special following. Although I fully recognize the merits of legend, today I am obliged to relegate it to the realm of the imagination and come back to realities proven by scientific observation.”
The new hall in the Gabès casino could hardly have found an audience more willing to follow the lecturer in his interesting demonstrations. Since the project that would be the topic of his lecture already had their full support, his words were greeted from the very beginning by a flattering murmur. A few of the natives in the crowd were the only ones who seemed to maintain a cautious reserve, and that was because the project Mr. de Schaller was preparing to review had been looked on with disfavor for half a century by the sedentary and nomadic tribes of the Djerid.
“We will readily admit,” continued the speaker, “that the people of the ancient world had vivid imaginations, and that historians skillfully catered to their tastes by repeating as history what was in fact only tradition. The inspiration for these tales was purely mythological.
“Bear in mind, gentlemen, what Herodotus, Pomponius Melas, and Ptolemy have to say. In his History of Peoples, Herodotus tells of a land that extends as far as the River Triton, which empties into the bay of the same name. He recounts an episode in the journey of the Argonauts, when Jason’s ship, driven by a storm onto the coast of Libya, was cast back westward as far as the Bay of Triton, whose western shore could not be seen. From this account it must be concluded that the bay in question was at that time connected to the sea. That is, in fact, what Scylax, in his Journey around the Mediterranean, says about a large lake whose shores were inhabited by various Libyan peoples. It must have covered the present-day region of the sebkha and chotts, and at that time was connected with the Gulf of Gabès by a narrow canal.
Mr. de Schaller
“After Herodotus came Pomponius Melas, near the beginning of the Christian era, who noted the existence of a large lake named Triton (also known as Lake Pallas),1 whose connection with the Gulf of Petite-Syrte, the present-day Gulf of Gabès, had disappeared as a result of a drop in the water level due to evaporation.
“Finally, according to Ptolemy, as the water level continued to fall, the lake separated into four depressions—Lake Triton, Lake Pallas, Lake Libya, and Turtle Lake—known today as Chott Melrir and Chott Rharsa in Algeria and Chott Djerid and Chott Fedjedj in Tunisia. The latter two are often referred to collectively as the sebkha, or salt marsh, of Faraoun.
“As for these ancient legends, gentlemen, which have nothing to do with precision and modern science, we can take them or leave them—and it is better to leave them. No, Jason’s ship was not driven across this inland sea, which was never connected with the Gulf of Petite-Syrte, and he could never have crossed the coastal ridge unless he had been equipped with the powerful wings of Icarus, the venturesome son of Dedalus. Observations taken at the end of the nineteenth century show conclusively that there could never have been a Sahara Sea covering the whole region of chotts and sebkha, since at some points these depressions, especially those nearest the coast, rise fifteen or twenty meters above the level of the Gulf of Gabès. That sea could never, at least during the period of recorded history, have been a hundred leagues in width, as some СКАЧАТЬ