“Are you sure?” asked Kyle, as he slackened speed.

“Dead sure,” was the answer. “What happened that night was burned into my memory so that I can’t forget it.”

At that moment, the car in front stopped, and the captain and Alam climbed out.

“Alam tells me that this is where the raid on Mr. Allison’s caravan took place,” said Captain Kane.

“Just what Brick was telling me this very minute!” exclaimed Kyle.

“If both agree, they must be right,” remarked the captain. “We’re in the enemy’s country now, and what happened to Teddy’s party may happen to us. But I’m glad that the trail is getting warm. In what direction did the raiders go after the fight was over?” he went on, turning to Alam.

The latter pointed in a direction a little south of west. It was a precipitous region with peaks rising high toward the skies, one of them being fully eight thousand feet above the level of the sea.

“Doesn’t look much like a place for cars,” was Kyle’s comment.

“We’ll go as far as we can, and then, for the rest, we’ll have to be guided by circumstances,” replied Captain Kane.

They resumed their journey, changing their direction so as to conform to the information given by Alam. The going was slow and arduous, and in places their path was bordered by precipices that made the boys shudder as they cast glances into the yawning depths beneath.

Teddy was in a fever of excitement, now that he felt he was approaching the fastnesses where his father might be held in captivity. Torturing doubts beset him at times as to whether his father might not long since have passed from the land of the living. But he dismissed these, as far as he was able, and clung desperately to hope. And in this he was seconded by Kyle.

“You’re better off than I am,” affirmed Kyle, with deep sadness in his tone. “There’s a good chance that you’ll find your father alive and soon, while as for me—”

His voice choked, and he turned away to conceal his emotion. Was his life to be forever shadowed by the grief of separation from those who were dearer to him than life?

The day was sweltering, one of the hottest they had yet encountered in the desert. The sun beat down with terrific force. The breaths they drew in seemed as if they would scorch their lungs. They were drenched through and through with perspiration, and their clothes clung to them almost as closely as though part of their bodies.

Because of this, they welcomed the coming of the night as they never had before when at last a halt was called on a shelving rock platform in a mountain pass. On one side was a high cliff, and on the other side of the path, which was about twenty feet wide, was a deep ravine.

They would have preferred a wider space for their encampment, and for the last hour had been looking for one as they went along. But nothing better offered, and they chose the best at hand.

Alam usually went to sleep as soon as the evening meal was finished, but that night he seemed unusually restless. He had frequent conferences with Abdullah, who seemed to share his uneasiness.

“What’s the matter, Alam?” asked Kyle, who for some time past had been observing him curiously.

“Your uncle’s servant thinks a storm is coming,” was the reply. “He feels it in the air.”

“Well, if that’s so, I’m glad we’re up so high in the hills,” replied the boy. “A sandstorm can’t bother us badly up here.”

“It is not a sandstorm that is coming,” explained Alam. “It is rain.”

There was an instant commotion among the members of the party.

“Glory hallelujah!” cried Kyle. “Rain in this desert! I almost forgot there was such a word. I’ll be gladder to see that storm than I ever was before in my life.”

“It can’t come too soon for me,” said Brick. “I’d like to sit out in it all night. It’ll be the finest kind of a shower bath.”

The captain and the professor, though less exuberant in their demonstrations, seemed to welcome the prospect with as much satisfaction as the boys. But the Arabs showed no trace of exultation.

“What’s the matter with you two?” Kyle demanded. “I should think you’d be delighted, and you look as glum as though you were going to a funeral.”

“Yes, what is it, Alam?” asked Professor Bruce.

“Has the master ever seen a rainstorm in the desert?” Alam asked respectfully.

“No, but I’m glad I’m going to,” was the answer. “I suppose it is much like a rainstorm anywhere else.”

“The desert is terrible in everything it does,” was the rather cryptic remark of the Arab.

“I notice it doesn’t do anything by halves,” put in Teddy. “Sandstorms, for instance.”

“What are you trying to get at, Alam? Do you think there is any danger?” asked Kyle.

“Not if we were out on the sand plains,” said Alam. “But up in these mountains there is danger. The wind will come with the rain, and its force is greater than the might of man. The rain will come down like the ocean. It will be as though the sky had broken.”

By this time the jubilation of the Americans had departed. They knew that when Alam spoke he spoke soberly. He was no breeder of panic.

“What do you think we would better do?” asked the captain anxiously. “Perhaps we would better spend the night in the shelter of the cars.”

“No,” replied Alam. “Not in the cars. There will be more danger there than anywhere else. They may be washed away. We must secure them as well as we can, and we ourselves must seek refuge in the rocks.”

A thrill of alarm ran through the party. If the cars were lost, they themselves were doomed. To be left stranded in this desert meant almost certain death. They could not carry enough water and supplies to meet their needs. Never before had they realized how closely their own safety was bound up with that of the automobiles.

For a moment all sat as though stunned, and then at the sharp and quick direction of the captain, they sprang to action. The cars were drawn as close to the side of the cliff as possible. Then the heaviest boulders to be found were rolled on the further side of the cars, so as to keep them from being blown toward the precipice beyond. In addition, the ropes that had been brought along to draw water from the wells were wound around and around the cars, and the ends tied to what projecting spurs of the cliff could be found.

It seemed, when all was finished, that no power of the elements, however tremendous, could tear the cars from their fastenings. But the Americans would have felt better if they could have seen that Alam and Abdullah shared their confidence.

“Don’t you think that will hold them all right, Alam?” asked Kyle, as he finished tying the last knot.

“We are in the hands of Allah,” was the noncommittal reply.

The wind was rising rapidly, and it swept down the gorge with a howl like that of a wild beast.

“To the rocks!” directed Alam. “We must hasten! The time is short!”

He led the way to a mass of huge rocks that lay at some distance, heaped in confusion as though by some convulsion of nature. There were many crevices here that offered secure hiding places, and the travelers settled themselves under cover and waited for the storm to break.

They had not long to wait. With a roar and a rush, the gale swept down the mountain passes. Against its terrific power it seemed as though nothing could stand. Had they been in the open, they would have been blown away like so many leaves.

Then came the rain, came in torrents, came as though, in the picturesque phrase of Alam, the sky had indeed broken. Its roar among the rocks about them sounded like thunder. In a moment, despite their protection, they were deluged with the waters that sought out every crack and crevice.

The flood surged down the defile in which the cars had been left like the waters from a broken dam. From the cliffs above the cars, they could hear it falling like a cataract. Would the ropes hold? Could the boulders they had wedged against the sides of the cars withstand that rushing flood?

At first they tried to encourage each other, but their voices could not be heard in that terrible pandemonium. Kyle reached out and clasped Teddy’s hand, and the contact brought comfort to both of them.

The rain continued with unabated fury. All cowered there in the darkness, each one busy with his own gloomy thoughts. Perhaps the cars were already at the bottom of the chasm, having carried with them all their hopes of safety. If this had happened—they did not dare let their thoughts rest on what that would mean to them.

The others in the party envied Alam and Abdullah. They, no doubt, wrapped in their fatalism, had long since ceased to worry. They were in the hands of Allah. If Allah decreed that they should live, it was well. If Allah decreed that they should die, it was well. The hour of their death had been fixed long before. Nothing could hasten it, nothing retard it. Why then fret their souls about it?

But the Americans had not been nurtured on that philosophy, comforting and soothing as it sometimes was. Their instinct was to struggle, to defy death, to fight till the last gasp. And their hearts were torn with anxiety and apprehension, as the war of the elements continued.

Suddenly, close at hand, there came a tremendous crash.

“It’s the cars!” cried Teddy. “They’ve gone over the cliffs!”

[Chapter 17 Maze: Help Kyle Escape]