Far down in the Desert of Sahara is the little oasis of El Merb. It is
so small that our crude atlases miss it. It has but one well, and the
fertile land is not more than forty rods in diameter. It has a mosque,
a bazaar, a slave-market, and a café. It is called by the traders of
Biskra "The Key of the Desert." It is called by the Mohammedan priests
of Biskra "The Treasury of the Desert." It is called by the French
commandant at Biskra "A place to be watched." The only communication
between El Merb and Biskra is by camels, and Abdullah was once the
chief caravan-master.
* * * * *
Abdullah, having felt the humps of his camels, turned to his driver.
"We start to-morrow, Ali," he said; "the beasts are fit."
Ali bowed and showed his white teeth.
"To-morrow," continued Abdullah, "since it is Friday; and immediately
after the middle prayer. I hear in the bazaar that the well at Okba is
choked. Can we make forty-two miles in one day, so as to cut Okba out?"
"We can," said Ali, "during the first three days, when the beasts do
not drink; after that--no."
"Good," said Abdullah; "I will make a route."
Some one plucked at his sleeve and he turned.
"Sir," said a man with a white beard and eager eyes, "I learn that you
start for Biskra to-morrow."
"If Allah wills," said Abdullah.
"In crossing the desert," said the old man, "I am told there are many
dangers."
"Friend," said Abdullah, "in sitting at home there are many dangers."
"True," said the old man; and, after an interval, he added, "I think I
may trust you."
Abdullah shrugged his shoulders and rolled a cigarette.
"Would it please you," said the old man, "to take a passenger for
Biskra?"
"At a price," replied Abdullah, striking a match.
"What is the price?" asked the old man.
"Do you pay in dates, hides, ivory, or gold-dust?"
"In dust," replied the old man.
Abdullah threw away his cigarette. "I will carry you to Biskra," said
he, "for eight ounces, and will furnish you with dates. If you desire
other food, you must provide it. You shall have water, if I do."
"It is not for myself that I seek passage," said the old man, "but for
my daughter."
"In that event," said Abdullah, "the price will be nine ounces. Women
cast responsibility upon me."
"And her maid-servant?" asked the old man.
"Eight ounces," replied Abdullah.
"It is all I have," said the old man, "but I will give it."
"If you have no more," said Abdullah, "Allah forbid that I should strip
you. I will carry the two for sixteen ounces."
"Allah will make it up to you," said the old man. "If you will deign to
accompany me to the bazaar, I will pay you immediately."
They went to the arcades about the square and entered the shop of
Hassan, the money-changer.
The old man pulled at his girdle and produced, after many contortions,
a purse of gazelle skin.
"Friend Hassan," he said, "I wish to pay to this, my son, sixteen
ounces. Kindly weigh them for me."
Hassan produced his scales. They consisted of two metal disks,
suspended by silk threads from the ends of a fern stem. He balanced
this stem upon the edge of a knife, fixed above his table. In one of
the pans he placed a weight, stamped with Arabic characters. The pan
fell to the table. Hassan produced a horn spoon, which he blew upon and
then carefully wiped with the hem of his burnoose. He handed the spoon
to the old man, who felt of the bowl.
"It is dry," he said; "nothing will stick to it."
Hassan plunged the spoon into the bag and brought it out, filled with
gold-dust, which he poured into the empty pan. The scales rose, fell,
trembled, and then settled even.
"I nearly always can judge an ounce," said Hassan; "a grain is another
matter."
He weighed out sixteen ounces. The last ounce he left in the pan. Then
he turned and, with a sweep of his arm, caught a fly from off the wall.
He handled it with the greatest care until he held it in the tips of
his fingers; then he put it into his mouth and closed his lips. In a
moment he took it out. The fly was moist and dejected. He placed it
upon the gold-dust in the pan. The fly began to beat its wings and work
its legs. In a moment its color changed from blue-black to yellow. It
was coated with gold-dust. Hassan lifted it with a pair of tweezers,
and popped it into an inlaid box.
"My commission," he said. "Good-by. Allah be with you."
The old man tied up his bag, which seemed to be as heavy as ever.
"I thought," said Abdullah, glancing at the purse, "that seventeen
ounces was all you had."
"What remains," said the old man, and there was a twinkle in his eye,
"belongs to Allah's poor, of whom I am one."
"I regret," said Abdullah, with some heat, "that I did not treble my
usual price. I merely doubled it for you."
The old man's face clouded, but only for an instant.
"My son," he said, "I am glad that I have intrusted my daughter to you.
You will bring her to Biskra in safety. At what hour do you start?"
"Immediately after the noon prayer," answered Abdullah, "and I wait for
no one."
"Good," said the old man, "we shall be there; _slama_."
"_Slama_," said Abdullah, and they parted.
Abdullah went back to his camels. He found Ali asleep between the black
racer and the dun leader. He kicked him gently, as though he were a
dog, and Ali sat up smiling and pleased to be kicked, when he saw his
master.
"We take two women with us," said Abdullah.
"Allah help us," said Ali.
"He has already," said Abdullah; "I have sixteen ounces in my girdle."
"It seems, then," said Ali, grinning, "that not only Allah has helped
you, but you have helped yourself."
"Peace," said Abdullah, "you know nothing of commerce."
"I know, however," said Ali, "that the Englishwoman whom we carried two
years ago, and who made us stop two days at the wells of Okba, because
her dog was ailing, gave me a bad piece of silver that I could not
spend in Biskra. 'T was she of the prominent teeth and the big feet. I
used to see her feet when she mounted her camel, and I used to see her
teeth when I saw nothing else."
"Peace," said Abdullah. "Allah who made us made also the English."
"Perhaps," said Ali, "but one cannot help wondering why He did it."
"If we carry these two women," said Abdullah, "we must leave the cargo
of two beasts behind. Leave four bales of hides; I took them
conditioned upon no better freight offering; and put the women on the
two lame camels. In this way we profit most, since we sacrifice least
merchandise. The porters will be here at sunrise to help you load. See
that they are careful. You remember what happened last time, when our
cargoes kept shifting. All seems well to-night, except you have loaded
that red camel yonder too high on the right side. How can a camel rest
if, when he kneels, his load does not touch the ground? He must support
the weight himself."
"I intended to alter that in the morning," said Ali.
"The morning may never dawn," said Abdullah, "and meanwhile you rob the
beast of one night's rest. Attend to it at once. The speed of a caravan
is the speed of its slowest camel."
"Who should know that better than I?" exclaimed Ali. "Have I not
crossed the desert nine times with you? Oh, master, bear with me, I am
growing old."
"What is your age?" asked Abdullah.
"One-and-thirty," replied Ali.
"My friend," said Abdullah, "you are good for another voyage; and know
this, when you fail me, I quit the desert, and turn householder, with a
wife or two, and children, if Allah wills it. I myself am
six-and-twenty. I have earned a rest. _Slama_." And he turned on his
heel to go, but he turned again.
"Ali," he said, "who lives in the first house beyond the mosque, on the
left--the house with the green lattices?"
"I do not know, my master," replied Ali, "but I shall tell you in the
morning."
"Good," said Abdullah; "and there is a damsel who sits behind the
lattice, and always wears a flower in her hair, a red flower, a flower
like this," and he put his hand into the folds of his burnoose and
brought out a faded, crumpled, red oleander. "Who is she?"
"Tomorrow," said Ali.
"Good," said Abdullah, and he went away.
"_Slama_" said Ali, and then he added, to himself, "There goes a
masterful man, and a just one, but love has caught him."
And he hurriedly eased the red camel of her load.