And so it was now as she sat under the African moon, whilst little
rings and puffs of smoke helped to irritate the insects ensconced in
the leaves of the creeper. She seemed to be standing on the other side
of a wall, watching the outcome of the tossing of a silver coin.
"I've had a perfectly awful day," she announced with a ripple of
genuine amusement in her voice as she proceeded quite unconcernedly to
recount the doings of the last few hours.
"So naturally I was followed from the restaurant," she went on after a
moment's pause, "and my bag was so heavy, and I was absolutely lost,
and only just managed to give the man the slip by hiding behind a
half-open door, painted bright blue of all colours."
"Allah!" murmured Hahmed. "An English girl hiding in a house with a
blue door!"
"But," she went on, having for some unknown reason omitted the dance
episode from her narrative, "that wasn't the worst part"--and
continued, quite unconcernedly, to give a detailed account of the
night's happenings. Whilst she was speaking the Arab moved nearer
until he stood over her, there was neither shadow nor frown upon the
fine face, or movement of lip or hand, but the air seemed to throb with
the intensity of the white-hot rage within him.
"By Allah!" he said quite gently, as he took the emerald ring Jill held
out. "I do not need this, for behold for many years I have known of
the doings of this thing of whom you speak. And yet so great has been
his cunning, that until to-night I have never been able to lay hands
upon him in his guilt. But to-morrow will dawn a brighter day for
Egypt, in that she will be rid of one of her greatest evils. And were
you not afraid?"
Jill smiled up into the eyes fixed with love, plus worship, plus
reverence, upon her. "I? Oh! no! Why should I be when I am supposed
to be one of the finest shots in Europe? Are you going to kill him?"
"He will be dead ere the sun rises, and I beg you to forgive me if I
leave you for a while, for I must go to give orders as to his death."
Jill's thoughts can be most aptly described as tumultuous, but her
smile was a festival of youth as she watched the Arab, in whom she had
put her trust, walk up the long avenue, stop, and clap his hands.
She could hear no word of the orders given to the servant, who ran from
out a clump of trees to kneel at his master's feet, but she guessed
that it was the engraven emerald ring which passed from one to the
other to be hidden in the servant's turban; and she felt a wave of
absolute satisfaction sweep through her whole being at the thought of
the man's death before the dawn.
At which sensation she mentally shook herself, feeling that the young
tree of her experience, unrestrainedly shooting out in all directions
within the space of a few hours, would require the sharp edge of the
pruning knife if it was to be kept to the merest outline of the shape
common to the ordinary life she had led up to now.
"It is well! He dies before the dawn!" announced the Arab prosaically,
as he came towards this woman who, on the edge of a new life which
might, for all she knew, bring ruin, despair, or even death in its
wake, could so tranquilly talk of the risks she had already encountered
in the course of the first few steps she had taken upon the path she
had chosen to follow.
"And tell me, O! woman, whose courage causes me to marvel, how once
happily escaped from the house of few windows and but one apparent
door, did you find your way to these gates?"
"Oh! that!" said Jill, as she sat with her hands about her knee and her
face upturned to the moon, which, throwing a deep shadow from the hat
brim across the upper part of her face, made of the deep eyes a
mystery, and a delirious invitation of the red mouth. "Amongst other
till now useless accomplishments, I have learned to guide myself by the
stars, though I'm positive they move over here. I had noticed that big
one there, which we haven't got in England, that very big sparkling
one, hung over the quarter in which the waiting-maid told me lay your
house."
"Yes!" replied the man who, though he knew the West so well, was
secretly wondering at the trait in a character which allowed a _woman_,
on the edge of something unknown, fraught, perhaps, with every kind of
danger, to talk unconcernedly of hotels, face creams, blue doors, and
stars. "That is the Star of Happiness, it hangs also right in the
middle of my oasis, right over my desert dwelling," and the string of
beads hanging from the waist slipped through the long fingers as words
of prayer fell softly on the perfumed air.
The girl got up and walked over to the camels.
"So I followed my star and suddenly found myself at the gates! Is this
my ship of the desert--and what a beautiful coat, the dear thing,"
starting back as the dear thing turned its bead suddenly, bared its
teeth and snarled.
"Don't be afraid, she is always nervous with strangers, also is she a
little spoilt, being the fastest and most perfect Bactrian camel in the
whole of Egypt and Arabia. Her pedigree, on parchment embossed with
gold, goes back almost to Ismael, and is kept in a Millwell safe in my
oasis, which shows that East does meet West occasionally. She has, up
to to-night, known no rider but me, and is used only for short journeys
of about seven days; you see these two-humped beasts can only go three
days with comfort without a drink, but their pace is so smooth that it
almost induces one to sleep. Also Taffadaln, which means welcome, a
name given to her after her mother had foaled three he-camels, has a
special guard both day and night, for there are many who covet her, for
she is the queen of camels, with her blood and breeding enhanced by
many years of training and special treatment. But alas! though her
coat is as silk, the cushions of her feet without fault, and her teeth
unblemished ivory, her manners are as ill-bred, and her indifference to
those who love her as great as that of the lowest of her species which
pollute the streets of Cairo." And leaning down he patted the beast's
head, speaking to her in the native tongue, whereupon she made juicy,
gurgling sounds in her long throat, and nuzzled the flowing sleeve,
which might have meant affection in any other animal but a camel.
"More extremes," he added, as a long, soft blast of a motor-horn
sounded just outside the walls. "Will you not sit down whilst I
explain things for the last time," unwinding, as he spoke, the soft
black cloak from about him, and folding it to make a cushion for the
stone, standing silhouetted against the shadow of the walls, whilst the
slight breeze blowing the snow-white raiment outlined the tremendous
width of shoulder, the slimness of the waist, and the muscular leanness
of the whole body.
And Jill sat down with a suddenness surprising in so controlled a
person, and to hide a sudden rush of rosy colour which swept
uncontrollably from chin to brow, extracted another cigarette from the
Russian case.
"'Simon Artz,' I am sure! May I not offer you one of mine? They are
all made especially and only for me. And do you prize the case? No!"
As the girl shook her head he took the wooden trifle from her, closed
his hand gently, and, crushing it to matchwood, dropped it soundlessly
on to the sand.
And when Hahmed, the Arab, had finished speaking, Jill Carden, the
English girl, understood that with her only rested the decision, that
even now, at the eleventh hour, she was still absolutely free to go.
Outside the gates waited the man's car, ready to take her wherever she
listed on her way home! At her feet lay the camels, ready to take her
to all the possibilities of the unknown!
There was absolute silence as she sat motionless, looking into the
future. In the West she saw boats, trains, hotels, inner cabins,
middle seats, back bedrooms; felt women, mothers, and wives clutching
their mankind so as to keep them from the pariah, the penniless, pretty
companion; heard the clink of the five or ten shillings a week paid
monthly in silver, and all this to be repeated over and over again
until she died, unless she married a man she did not love and "settled
down" for ever and ever and ever; though even this possibility seemed
to have receded into the remote distance with the receding of her
fortune.
Then she looked up to the stars, and down to the sand, and out to the
East, seeing her freedom if she dared grasp it, if she dared venture
out on the many days' journey which, to her astonishment, she had
learned stretched between Ismailiah and the oasis.
She scrutinised the man before her--this Arab with the impassive face,
the camels at his feet, her life in his hands if she went with him.
His what? Wife! to settle down for ever and ever and ever.
His plaything? This was not the man to play or be played with, for had
he not said:
"If you come with me, fear not that you will be a prisoner. The oasis,
the house, my servants, houses, camels, all will be yours, and there
will be nothing to prevent your leaving it all--nothing except the
desert, the miles of pitiless sand, trackless, pathless, strewn with
the white bones of those who have essayed to escape from Fate, the
never-changing, ever-different ocean which beats about my dwelling."
Then once again she looked into the dark eyes which were reading every
passing emotion on the mobile face, and putting out her hands made one
step towards the camel, whilst the soul of the desert laughed with her
scarlet mouth.