The men soon arrived with a large tin of the fuel-paste. It was placed in the car; Tom made an inspection of the machinery to assure himself that it had suffered no hurt while in the charge of Salaam; then Oliphant joined him. A few moments later, with a mighty whirring sound, the airship rose gallantly into the air, to the great wonderment of the Moors. While they were intently watching the manœuvres of the airship, filling the air with their cries of “Mashallah!” Sir Mark and the rest of the party embarked and pulled out into the bay, two of the men sitting in the stern of the boat with their faces to the shore and their rifles held conspicuously ready. Salaam indulged in a burst of fury at the manner in which he had been outwitted. His followers gathered around him and held excited consultation, some being apparently inclined to fire on the departing boat, others to pursue the airship. But they had made up their minds to neither course by the time the party reached the yacht; and when Captain Bodgers trained on them the two brass guns she carried, they hurriedly broke up and disappeared over the cliffs. “You were just in time, Mr. Greatorex,” said Sir Mark Ingleton as they sat together in the boat. “A messenger came in from the sheikh yesterday afternoon, and I shrewdly suspect that arrangements had been made to transfer us to our old quarters in the kasbah. I say ‘our old quarters,’ forgetting that Mr. Oliphant——” “Oliphant!” interrupted Mr. Greatorex. “_There_ now! What do you think of _this_, Sir Mark?” And he proceeded to delight his guest with a vigorous indictment of M’Cracken, and Byles, and Byles’ sick mother, and Lord Langside for having sent an English gentleman on a mission to such an abominable country, and for having such an outrageously impudent son. CHAPTER XIV—THE TROGLODYTES Meanwhile, how had things been faring with Herr Hildebrand Schwab, the unlucky representative of the Schlagintwert Company of Düsseldorf and the partner of Sir Mark’s captivity? When Abdul pointed out the cave in which it was advisable that they should take shelter, and the means of access to it, Schwab groaned deeply, and declared that nothing on earth should induce a German subject of his weight to attempt so perilous a climb. But on reflection he came to look upon it as the lesser of two evils, and with much travailing of spirit and discomfiture of body he allowed himself to be assisted up the incline so long as progress on foot was possible, and then to be hoisted at the end of the rope. Abdul’s strength alone would not have sufficed to haul so great a mass into safety; but Salathiel ben Ezra, who was by this time thoroughly weary of solitude, and had come to the end of his stock of provisions, lent willing help, with a view, as it proved, of turning the situation to account.