ik's escape was singular enough. Still tenaciously
holding on to the hump, from which the young Irishman was using every
effort to detach him, he saw that his only chance of safety lay in
retreating from the spot, and, by this means, separating the antagonist
who clutched him from the two others that threatened upon the ground
below.

A signal shout to the maherry was sufficient to effect his purpose. On
hearing it the well-trained quadruped wheeled, as upon a pivot, and in a
shambling, but quick pace, started back towards the ravine, whence it
had late issued.

To their consternation, Colin and Harry beheld this unexpected movement;
and before either of them could lay hold of the halter, now trailing
along the sand, the maherry was going at a rate of speed which they
vainly endeavoured to surpass. They could only follow in its wake, as
they did so, shouting to Terence to let go his hold of the sheik, and
take his chance of a tumble to the ground.

Their admonitions appeared not to be heeded. They were not needed, at
least after a short interval had elapsed.

At first the young Irishman had been so intent on his endeavours to
dismount his adversary that he did not notice the signal given to the
maherry, nor the retrograde movement it had inaugurated. Not until the
camel was re-entering the ravine, and the steep sides of the sand-dunes
cast their dark shadows before him, did he observe that he was being
carried away from his companions.

Up to this time he had been vainly striving to detach the sheik from his
hold upon the hump. On perceiving the danger, however, he desisted from
this design, and at once entered upon a struggle of a very different
kind, to detach himself.

In all probability this would have proved equally difficult: for
struggle as he might, the tough old Arab, no longer troubling himself
about the control of his camel, had twisted his sinewy fingers under the
midshipman's dirk-belt, and held the latter in juxtaposition to his own
body, supported by the hump of the maherry, as if his very life depended
on not letting go.

A lucky circumstance, and this only, hindered the young Irishman from
being carried to the Arab encampment: a circumstance very similar to
that which on the preceding night had led to the capture of that same
camel.

Its halter was again trailing.

Its owner, occupied with the "double" which it had so unexpectedly been
called upon to carry, was conducting it only by hi