human
Superstition festers in their very bones! The giant bird, they believed, would ruin their date crops; and, besides, they thirsted for the blood of the Franks. As a matter of fact, my Captain, these people do sometimes drink a little of the blood of a slaughtered enemy.
gpt
Impossible!
human
True, I tell you! They destroyed our plane with fire and sword, reviled us as pigs and brothers of pigs, and named poor Lebon 'kalb ibn kalb,' or 'dog and son of a dog.' Then they separated into two bands. One band departed toward Wady Tawarik, taking Lebon. They informed me that on the morrow they would crucify him on a cross of palm-wood, head downward.
gpt
And they executed Lebon?
human
I suppose so, he answered with great bitterness.
gpt
I have never seen or heard of him since. As for me, they reserved me for some festivities at Makam Jibrail. During the next night, a column of Spanish troops from Rio de Oro rushed their camp, killed sixty or seventy of the brown demons, and rescued me. Since then I have lusted revenge on the Beni Harb!
human
No wonder, put in the chief, once more looking at the beach, where now the war-party was plainly visible to the naked eye in some detail. The waving of their arms could be distinguished; and plainly glittered the blood-crimson sunset light on rifle-barrels, swords, and javelins. The Master loosened his revolver in its holster.
gpt
About twenty minutes from now, at this rate, he added,
human
Yes, and may Jehannum take them all! exclaimed the Frenchman, passionately. His eyes glowered with hate as he peered across the narrowing strip of waves and surf.
gpt
Jehannum, where every time their skins are burned off, as the Koran says, new ones will grow to be burned off again! Where 'they shall have garments of fire fitted upon them and boiling water poured upon their heads, and they shall be beaten with maces of iron--
human
And their tormentors shall say unto them: 'Taste ye the pain of burning!' the Master concluded the familiar quotation with a smile.
gpt
Waste no time in wishing the Beni Harb future pain, my dear Lieutenant. Jehannum may indeed reserve the fruit of the tree Al Zakkum, for these dogs, but our work is to give them a foretaste of it, today. Kismet seems to have willed it that you and the Beni Harb shall meet again. Is it not a fortunate circumstance, for you?
human
Fortunate, yes, the Frenchman answered, his eyes glowing as they estimated the strength of the war-party, now densely massed along the shining sands,
gpt
But, thank God, there are no women in this party! That would mean that one of us would have to kill a woman--for God help a woman of Feringistan caught by these _jinnee_, these devils of the waste!
human
Certainly more than three hundred of these 'abusers of the salt,' my Captain. And we are hardly thirty. Even if we reach land, we must soon sink to earth. Without food, water, anything--_ce n'est pas gai, hein?_
gpt
No, it is not gay, the chief answered.
human
But with machine-guns--
gpt
Machine-guns cannot fight against the African sun, against famine, thirst, delirium, madness. Well--'blessed be certainty,' as the Arabs say.
human
You mean death?
gpt
Yes, I mean death. We always have that in our grasp, at any rate--after having taken full toll of these devils. I should not mind, so much, defeat at the hands of the nobler breed of the Arabian Peninsula. There, in the _Ruba el Khali_[1] itself, I know a chivalric race dwells that any soldier might be proud to fight or to rule over. But these Shiah heretic swine--ah, see now, they are taking cover already? They will not stand and fight, like men!