Atlantida - Page 45/145

"That was rather my view of it," I said, "But I must admit my

astonishment to find that, with such a sceptical opinion of the goal,

you still do not hesitate to take risks which may be quite

considerable."

Morhange smiled wanly.

"I do not interpret, my friend; I collect. From what I will take back

to him, Dom Granger has the ability to draw conclusions which are

beyond my slight knowledge. I was amusing myself a little. Pardon me."

Just then the girth of one of the baggage camels, evidently not well

fastened, came loose. Part of the load slipped and fell to the ground.

Eg-Anteouen descended instantly from his beast and helped Bou-Djema

repair the damage.

When they had finished, I made my mehari walk beside Bou-Djema's.

"It will be better to resaddle the camels at the next stop. They will

have to climb the mountain."

The guide looked at me with amazement. Up to that time I had thought

it unnecessary to acquaint him with our new projects. But I supposed

Eg-Anteouen would have told him.

"Lieutenant, the road across the white plain to Shikh-Salah is not

mountainous," said the Chaamba.

"We are not keeping to the road across the white plain. We are going

south, by Ahaggar."

"By Ahaggar," he murmured. "But...."

"But what?"

"I do not know the road."

"Eg-Anteouen is going to guide us."

"Eg-Anteouen!"

I watched Bou-Djema as he made this suppressed ejaculation. His eyes

were fixed on the Targa with a mixture of stupor and fright.

Eg-Anteouen's camel was a dozen yards ahead of us, side by side with

Morhange's. The two men were talking. I realized that Morhange must be

conversing with Eg-Anteouen about the famous inscriptions. But we were

not so far behind that they could not have overheard our words.

Again I looked at my guide. I saw that he was pale.

"What is it, Bou-Djema?" I asked in a low voice.

"Not here, Lieutenant, not here," he muttered.

His teeth chattered. He added in a whisper: "Not here. This evening, when we stop, when he turns to the East to

pray, when the sun goes down. Then, call me to you. I will tell

you.... But not here. He is talking, but he is listening. Go ahead.

Join the Captain."

"What next?" I murmured, pressing my camel's neck with my foot so as

to make him overtake Morhange.

* * * * *

It was about five o'clock when Eg-Anteouen who was leading the way,

came to a stop.

"Here it is," he said, getting down from his camel.

It was a beautiful and sinister place. To our left a fantastic wall of

granite outlined its gray ribs against the sky. This wall was pierced,

from top to bottom, by a winding corridor about a thousand feet high

and scarcely wide enough in places to allow three camels to walk

abreast.