The moment that the halt was accomplished, Abdullah went about, loosing
the surcingles of his camels. Then he began to pitch his tent. It was
of camel-skins, stretched over eight sticks, and fastened at the edges
with spikes of locust wood. It was entirely open at the front, and when
he had the flaps pinned, he gathered a little pile of camels' dung,
struck a match, and began to make his tea. He had no thought for his
passengers. His thoughts were with his heart, and that was back at the
house beyond the bazaar--the house with the green lattices. Before the
water boiled, Ali came up, eager, breathless.
"Master," he said, "the passengers are cared for, and the mistress
wears a flower like--like _that_; the one you showed me;" and he
pointed to Abdullah's bosom. "You are either a faithful servant," said
Abdullah, "or you are a great liar. The morrow will tell." And he
started toward the passengers' tent. He found it closed. Being a
woman's tent, it had front flaps, and they were laced. He walked back
and forth before it. He was master of the caravan, more autocratic than
the master of a ship. He might have cut the laces, entered, and no one
could have questioned. That is the law of the desert. He could more
easily have cut his own throat than that slender cord.
He wandered back and forth before the tent. The twilight faded. The
shadows turned from saffron to violet, to purple, to cobalt. Out of the
secret cavern of the winds came the cool night-breeze of the Sahara.
Still he paced up and down, before the little tent. And as he measured
the sands, he measured his life. Born of a camel-driver by a slave;
working his way across the desert a score of times before his wages
made enough to buy one bale of hides; venturing the earnings of a
lifetime on one voyage--making a profit, when a loss would have put him
back to the beginning--venturing again, winning again--buying three
camels--leasing them--buying three more--starting an express from the
Soudan to Biskra one day short of all others;--carrying only dates and
gold-dust--insuring his gold-dust, something he learned from the French
in Biskra;--buying thirty camels at a plunge--at once the master
camel-driver of the Sahara--and here he was, pacing up and down before
a laced tent which held behind it--_a woman_.
The night of the desert settled down, and still he paced. The stars
came up--the stars by which he laid his course; and, finally, pacing,
he came for the hundredth time to the tent's front and stopped.
"Mistress?" he whispered. There was no answer, "Mistress?" he called,
and then, after an interval, the flies of the tent parted--a white
hand, and a whiter wrist, appeared, and a red oleander fell on the
sands of the desert.
Abdullah was on his knees. He pressed the flower to his lips, to his
heart. Kneeling he watched the flaps of the tent. They fluttered; the
laces raced through the eyelets; the flaps parted, and a girl,
unveiled, stepped out into the firelight. They stood, silent, gazing
one at the other.
"You have been long in coming," she said, at length.
There is no love-making in the desert. Thanks to its fervent heat, love
there comes ready-made.
"Yes," said Abdullah, "I have tarried, but now that I have come, I stay
forever;" and he took her in his arms.
"When did you love me first?" she whispered, half-released.
"When first I saw you, behind the green lattice," gasped Abdullah.
"Ah, that green lattice," whispered the girl; "how small its openings
were. And still, my heart flew through them when first you passed. How
proudly you walked. Walk for me now--here, in the firelight, where I
may see you--not so slowly with your eyes turned toward me, but
swiftly, smoothly, proudly, your head held high--that's it--that is the
way you passed my lattice, and as you passed my heart cried out, 'There
goes my king.' Did you not hear it?"
"No," said Abdullah; "my own heart cried so loudly I heard naught
else."
"What did it cry? What cries it now?" she said; and she placed her
cheek against his bosom, her ear above his heart. "I hear it," she
whispered, "but it beats so fast I cannot understand."
"Then," said Abdullah, "I must tell thee with my lips."
"Oh, beloved," she whispered, "the camels will see us."
"What matters," he said; "they belong to me."
"Then they are my brethren," she said, "since I, also, belong to thee,"
and with arms entwined they passed out of the fire-light into the
purple of the desert.
* * * * *
When they came back, the hobbled camels were snoring, and the unfed
fires were smouldering.
"Allah keep thee," said Abdullah, at the door of her tent.
"And thee, my master," said the girl, and the flaps fell.
Abdullah went slowly toward his own tent. He stopped a moment by one of
the lame camels. "Thou broughtest her to me," he said, and he eased the
beast's surcingle by a dozen holes.
He reached his tent, paused, faced the western horizon, lifted his
arms, breathed in the sweet, cool air of the desert, and entered.
Ali had spread a camel's hide, had covered a water-skin with a burnoose
for a pillow, and had left, near it, a coiled wax-taper and a box of
matches. Abdullah untwined his turban, loosened his sash, felt
something escape him, fell on his knees, groped, felt a paper, rose,
went to the tent's door, recognized the invoice which the old man had
given him, went out, kicked up the embers of the fire, knelt, saw that
the paper was unsealed, was fastened merely with a thread, played with
the thread, saw it part beneath his fingers, saw the page unfold,
stirred up the embers, and read:
"_To Mirza, Mother of the Dancers at Biskra, by the hand of Abdullah. I
send thee, as I said, the most beautiful woman in the world. She has
been carefully reared. She has no thought of commercialism. Two and two
are five to her as well as four. She is unspoiled. She never has had a
coin in her fingers, and she never has had a wish ungratified. She
knows a little French; the French of courtship merely. Her Arabic is
that of Medina. You, doubtless, will exploit her in Biskra. You may
have her for two years. By that time she may toss her own handkerchief.
Then she reverts to me. I shall take her to Cairo, where second-rate
Englishmen and first-rate Americans abound.
"This is thy receipt for the thirty ounces you sent me._
"ILDERHIM."
When Abdullah had read this invoice of his love, he sat long before the
little fire as one dead. Then he rose, felt in his bosom, and drew out
two flowers, one withered, the other fresh. He dropped these among the
embers, straightened himself; lifted his arms toward heaven, and slowly
entered his tent.
The little fires smouldered and died, and the great desert was silent,
save for the sighing of the camels and the singing of the shifting
sands.