g, they might
soon awaken. It was necessary to act at once. The taking of the
cartridge boxes did not present any difficulties as they lay close by.
A more difficult matter was to get the rifle, which Chamis had placed
at his further side. Stas hoped that he would succeed in purloining it,
but he decided to draw it out of the case and put the stock and the
barrels together when he should be about fifty paces from the cave, as
he feared that the clank of the iron against iron would wake the
sleepers.

The moment arrived. The boy bent like an arch over Chamis and, seizing
the case by the handle, began to transfer it to his side. His heart and
pulse beat heavily, his eyes grew dim, his breathing became rapid, but
he shut his teeth and tried to control his emotions. Nevertheless when
the straps of the case creaked lightly, drops of cold perspiration
stood on his forehead. That second seemed to him an age. But Chamis did
not even stir. The case described an arch over him and rested silently
beside the box with cartridges.

Stas breathed freely. One-half of the work was done. Now it was
necessary to slip out of the cave noiselessly and run about fifty
paces; afterwards to hide in a fissure, open the case, put the rifle
together, load it, and fill his pockets with cartridges. The caravan
then would be actually at his mercy.

Stas' black silhouette was outlined on the brighter background of the
cave's entrance. A second more and he would be on the outside, and
would hide in the rocky fissure. And then, even though one of the
outlaws should wake, before he realized what had happened and before he
aroused the others it would be too late. The boy, from fear of knocking
down some stone, of which a large number lay at the threshold of the
niche, shoved out one foot and began to seek firm ground with his step.

And already his head leaned out of the opening and he was about to slip
out wholly when suddenly something happened which turned the blood in
his veins to ice.

Amid the profound stillness pealed like a thunderbolt the joyous bark
of Saba; it filled the whole ravine and awoke the echoes reposing in
it. The Arabs as one man were startled from their sleep, and the first
object which struck their eyes was the sight of Stas with the case in
one hand and the cartridge box in the other.

Ah, Saba! what have you done?

X

With cries of horror, all in a moment rushed at Stas; in the twinkling
of an eye they wrested the