Invasion of the Sea. Jules Verne

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СКАЧАТЬ of Ferkane, a hundred and thirty kilometers to the west. It was a long distance to cover but, to a spahi, weariness and danger mean nothing.

      When the members of the detachment learned how much energy and endurance their leaders expected of them, they could not wait to start out. As Sergeant Nicol put it, “I’ve spoken to my old brother, and he’s ready to do double route marches if need be. And Ace-of-Hearts would like nothing better than to be in the front ranks.”

      Well supplied with provisions, the captain set out with his men, heading southwest. First they had to go through a forest of no fewer than a hundred thousand palm trees, which contained another composed entirely of fruit trees.

      They passed through only one settlement of any size between Gafsa and the Algerian-Tunisian frontier. This was Chebika, where the information they had received about the presence of the Tuareg chieftain was confirmed. He was wreaking havoc among the caravans traveling through the far regions of the province of Constantine, adding new attacks on persons and property to his already long dossier of crimes.

      A few days’ march from there, when the commandant had crossed the border, he made great haste to reach the village of Négrine, on the banks of Wadi Sokhna.

      The day before he arrived, the Tuareg had been spotted a few kilometers to the west, between Négrine and Ferkane, on the banks of Wadi Djerich, which flows toward the large chotts in that region.

      Hadjar, who was accompanied by his mother, was reported to have about a hundred men. Captain Hardigan had only about half that number, but he and his spahis would have attacked without hesitation. African troops are not frightened by odds of two to one, and they had often fought under even less favorable conditions.

      That was exactly what happened when the detachment reached the neighborhood of Ferkane. Hadjar had been forewarned and was not eager to rush into battle. It would be better, he reasoned, to let the squadron advance farther into this harsh region of large chotts, to harass it with continual attacks, and to send out a call to the nomadic Tuareg, who were moving through the country and would certainly not refuse to join Hadjar, since he was well known to all the Tuareg tribes. Moreover, now that Captain Hardigan had picked up their trail, he would not abandon it and would no doubt pursue them as far as necessary.

      In view of this, Hadjar had decided to slip away. If he could cut off the squadron’s retreat after recruiting new partisans, he could probably annihilate the little detachment that had been sent out against him. This would add an even more deplorable catastrophe to the one that had befallen Carl Steinx.

      Hadjar’s plans were frustrated, however, while his band was trying to move up Wadi Sokhna to reach the base of Djebel Cherchar in the north. A platoon led by Sergeant Nicol, who had been alerted by Ace-of-Hearts, cut off their line of advance. Fighting broke out and the rest of the detachment soon joined in as well. Rifle and musket shots rang out, interspersed with revolver fire. Some of the Tuareg were killed and some of the spahis wounded. Half of the Tuareg forced their way out and managed to escape, but their leader was not among them.

      As Hadjar was spurring his horse to its fastest gallop in an attempt to rejoin his comrades, Captain Hardigan was riding in pursuit, also at top speed. Hadjar tried in vain to knock him out of the saddle with a shot from his pistol. The bullet went wide of its mark. Suddenly his horse lunged to the side and Hadjar, slipping from his stirrups, fell to the ground. Before he had time to get up, one of the lieutenants hurled himself upon him. Other spahis hurried to the scene and held him down, despite his desperate efforts to break free.

      Djemma rushed forward and would have reached her son if she had not been grabbed by Sergeant Nicol. But half a dozen Tuareg managed to pull her away from him, and the brave dog’s attempts to attack them as they dashed away with the old woman were in vain.

      “I had the she-wolf,” cried the sergeant, “but she slipped through my fingers. Here, Ace-of-Hearts, come here,” he repeated, calling the animal back. “Anyway, the wolf cub is a good prize.”

      Hadjar was now in close custody. If the Tuareg did not manage to rescue him before he got to Gabès, the Djerid would finally be rid of one of its most dreaded felons.

      The band would undoubtedly have attempted a rescue and Djemma would not have left her son in the hands of the French, if the detachment had not received reinforcements from the military posts at Tozeur and Gafsa.

       The capture of Hadjar

      The expedition then regained the coast. The prisoner was locked up in the fort at Gabès until he could be transported to Tunis and handed over to the military authorities.

      These were the events leading up to the present story. After a short trip to Tunis, Captain Hardigan had just returned, on the very evening when the Chanzy was dropping anchor in the Gulf of Gabès.

      iii

The Escape

      After the two officers, the sergeant, and the spahis had left, Horeb crept along the side of the well to a point where he could see up and down the path.

      When the sound of footsteps had died out in both directions, the Targui motioned to his companions to follow him.

      Djemma, her son, and Ahmet quickly joined him. They went up a narrow, winding street, lined with old, vacant, tumbledown houses, and made their way toward the bordj.

      That part of the oasis was deserted, and the din of the more populous quarters could not be heard. It was pitch dark under the dense ceiling of clouds hanging motionless in the still air. The murmur of the surf on the beach, carried by the last breaths of wind off the sea, could barely be heard.

      It took only a quarter of an hour for Horeb to reach the new rendezvous point, the lower room of a kind of café or cabaret run by a Levantine bazaar merchant who was part of the escape plot. His loyalty had been ensured by the payment of a substantial sum of money, which was to be doubled if the plan succeeded. His cooperation had already been very useful on this occasion.

      Among the Tuareg gathered in the cabaret was Harrig, one of the most devoted and daring of Hadjar’s followers. A few days earlier, after a street brawl in Gabès, he had been arrested and imprisoned in the fort. During his time in the prison courtyard, he had been able to communicate freely with his leader. What could be more natural than that two men of the same race should associate with each other? No one knew that Harrig belonged to Hadjar’s band. He had managed to escape during the battle and fled with Djemma. Now that he was back in Gabès, according to the plan worked out by Sohar and Ahmet, he took advantage of his imprisonment to work out the details of Hadjar’s escape.

       Arab homes in Gabès. (Photo by Soler, Tunis)

      However, it was important that the Tuareg chieftan be set free before the arrival of the cruiser that would carry him away. And that vessel, which had been seen passing Cap Bon, was now about to drop anchor in the Gulf of Gabès. Hence the necessity for Harrig to get out of the bordj in time to coordinate his activities with those of his friends. The escape had to be carried out that very night. Once morning dawned, it would be too late. By sunrise Hadjar would have been taken aboard the Chanzy, and it would no longer be possible to wrest him from the hands of the military authorities.

      This is where the bazaar merchant played his role. He knew the head guard СКАЧАТЬ