In the Eye of the Storm

30. Hot on their Hoofs

With Ambrose galloping at top speed, it took me only moments to catch up to his human namesake. When Mr Ambrose glanced sideways at me, his face was still a kind of blur, constantly jerking around with the strange gait of the camel beneath him, but the ice in his eyes was clear enough.

'I said follow me, men! In case I wasn't clear enough, that didn't include you!'

My eyes narrowed. 'What do you want me to do? Stay back there?' I jerked my hand at the empty desert behind us.

'Yes. Right by that big rock.' He waved dismissively at a sandstone formation. 'We'll come back when the bandits are dead.'

Blimey. He was actually serious.

'Go to hell!'

'The road to hell, I'm told, is paved with good intentions.' He gave his camel a kick, urging the animal to go faster. 'So it's very unlikely I'll ever find my way there.'

Picking up the speed with a protesting bleat, his camel shot forward. I urged Ambrose on to catch up again.

'Why didn't you tell me we had reinforcements? You could have let me know!'

'Knowledge is power is time is money.'

'So what?'

He gave me a look that clearly said he thought me very daft. 'Meaning that if I shared knowledge, that would be tantamount to sharing power or money.'

'Which you aren't willing to do?'

'Naturally. Especially not with you.'

My mouth dropped open.

'I hate you!'

'Indeed?' Raising his gun, he fired a shot at the closest bandit. More shots sounded from right and left. Without my noticing, the rest of our party, and the reinforcements, had caught up. Somewhere I saw Youssef's proud figure. Then I spotted Karim's turban, towering over the heads of the others. Oh, how many others! The masses of men and camels around us seemed endless, streaming down the hills from three sides, hot on the bandits' trail. I caught the eye of a bandit, looking around to see how close we were. His face paled, and a grin spread over mine. Grim satisfaction rose up in me, dispelling my anger for the moment.

'We're going to flatten those bastards, aren't we?'

'A slightly informal way of putting it. But, on the whole, you are correct.'

Another volley of gunfire went off, and several bandits dropped to the ground.

'Yes!' Not having a gun or a sabre, I thrust my fist into the air! 'Yes! Get the bloody bastards!'

The men behind me gave a cheer, and the next volley went off, felling another six or seven bandits. The remaining bandits pulled out canes and began to beat their camels furiously, forcing them to go even faster.

'Don't lose sight of them!' Mr Ambrose shouted a command. 'We have to know where they're going!'

'Don't worry, Effendi!' Youssef shouted back. 'Those are no racing camels! They cannot keep up that speed for long!'

And he was right. After only a few minutes, some of the bandits' camels began to falter and stumble. They slowed and slowed, no matter how many blows their masters inflicted on their rumps. A cheer went up from our men.

'Get them!' Cries rose up. 'Get them all!' Rifles were raised, and another volley of gunfire thundered over the noise of the running camels. We were so close now, almost a dozen bandits fell to the ground, stricken. Out of all of them, only six were left now. 'Get them!' One of the men behind me shouted again. 'Get them all! Fire!'