It was not until their rest at sundown that anything of unusual
interest happened to the travellers. Their short halt while they drank
their tea had passed without incident--in fact, Millicent had drunk
hers alone on camel-back, for it had been carried in thermos flasks,
their Amon-Ra, as Hassan called the magic bottles whose contents
retained the heat with no obvious aid.
Michael had spent the time, while he drank his refreshing cup, in
consulting Abdul about their route. The camels were not unsaddled.
About this Millicent made no demur. She saw no earthly reason why they
should not have rested for as long as they felt inclined, but she did
not say so. If this treasure which Michael sought had lain in its safe
hiding-place, out of sight of man, for more than two thousand years,
why should it not wait there in safety for another couple or so of
hours? This she kept to herself; it was her wise policy to remain
_douce comme un lapin blanc_, which she did. The night might still see
her an accepted part of Michael's cavalcade. The adventure thrilled
her with excitement.
They had finished their evening meal, which Millicent had supplied--a
very satisfying and delicate dinner. They had eaten it in the open
desert during the cool hours which precede sundown. Michael had
thoroughly enjoyed it. The evening light transformed the desert; a
heavenly Jerusalem seemed very near. Even Millicent was obedient to
the unseen.
As the sun sank lower and lower in the heavens, their conversation
drifted towards the subject of Akhnaton's Aton worship. The kneeling
figures of the Arabs, praying in the desert before sundown, had
introduced the topic.
They sat on until the globe of gold dropped behind the horizon--a
wonderful sight in the desert. For a minute or two its sudden and
complete disappearance leaves the world chill and desolate; a cold hand
clutches at the human heart; a loneliness enters the soul. God has
abandoned the world; the warmth of His love becomes a memory.
* * * * * *
The afterglow was at its most flamboyant; its orange and yellow,
streaked with black, suddenly became vermilion. Lights from the
underworld struck across the desert like swords of fire; arms of flame
broke the vermilion, soaring to heaven like the fires from hell's
furnace let loose. The anger and beauty and recklessness was
appalling. Then with magic swiftness, during the flickering of an eye,
the horizon became one vast lake of sacrificial blood.
The transition was so unexpected, so devastating to the human mind,
that fear filled Millicent's heart. Instinctively she had drawn a
little closer to Michael. She craved for arms to guard her, to protect
her from the terror of the heavens.
* * * * * *
Like a black silhouette against the lake of blood, a human figure rose
up out of the desert, a John the Baptist, "a burning and shining
light," a voice calling in the wilderness.
As the sonorous words of the Koran were borne to them, Millicent said,
"Oh, Mike, it's my holy man! How mysterious he looks against that
wonderful sky!"
Subconsciously Michael had been so grateful to Millicent for her
silence during the stupendous glory of the sunset that his heart was
full of gentleness towards her.
"Yes," he said. "I see him." Something had told him that the figure
which she had described to him during luncheon would appear again; he
was not surprised when he distinguished the staff, with its tattered
rags waving against the crimson light.
"Isn't it all wonderful, Mike!" Her voice was reverent; the awfulness
of the heavens had humbled her. "I was almost afraid--it seemed like
the end of the world, the sky seemed all on fire. The destruction of
the world had begun."
"'Thy setting is beautiful, O living Aton, who guidest all countries
that they may make laudation at thy dawning and at thy setting.'"
"Are those Akhnaton's words?"
"Yes, and his constant song was, 'O Lord, how manifold are Thy works.'
Most surely he would have said so to-night." Michael's thoughts flew
to the morning at whose dawn he had first recited to Margaret
Akhnaton's hymn to the rising sun.
Millicent did not guess that Margaret was present while they stood
together in silence, watching the blood tones grow fainter and fainter.
As they stood looking towards the horizon until all violence had left
the heavens, the desert figure drew nearer. Millicent knew him by his
long, unkempt hair. Even at a distance his fine white teeth gleamed
against his tanned skin.
"He's a mere skeleton," Millicent said. "Look at him! He's all eyes
and hair and teeth!"
"Poor creature!" Michael said. "_He_ has certainly no flesh left to
subdue."
As they spoke, the fanatic suddenly tottered, strode forward and fell,
face downwards, on the sand of the desert. Instinctively Michael
hurried forward to his assistance. There was little doubt but that he
was famished and exhausted for want of food; the distances between
desert villages are immense.
"Don't go!" Millicent cried. "Don't, Mike! He's probably filthy and
crawling with vermin; he looked awful this morning. I'll send two of
my men to him and I'll tell Hassan to prepare some food for him.
Hassan! Hassan!" Her voice was clear and far-reaching.
Abdul instantly appeared. Hassan was busy giving orders to the men for
pitching the tents. So quickly did Abdul come that he might have
sprung up out of the desert at her very feet. This immediate response
to her call always made Millicent suspicious of eavesdropping.
"Abdul," she said, "the holy man we met this morning is ill. Tell the
bearers to go to him--don't let the Effendi touch him, Hassan."
"_Aiwah, Sitt_, I will attend." With the same breath Abdul screamed
for two of the men to come and help the saint. They came with flying
leaps towards him.
"Mike, oh Mike!" Millicent cried. "Please, please come back! You are
so rash. Abdul, don't let the Effendi touch that man. He's filthy. I
saw him this morning--he's a dreadful creature."
Abdul looked at the Effendi Amory's mistress, the Christian harlot.
Such a woman dared to speak in this manner of one who was favoured of
God, a blessed saint, of one to whom the devout women of his country
would willingly give themselves as an act of grace! This child of God,
beloved of Islam, was filthy in her vile eyes!
It was in this manner that Millicent unconsciously earned the vengeance
of Abdul. Nothing of his hatred or scorn was noticeable. Millicent
was under the impression that all Easterns are sensualists and slaves
to beauty; she was ignorant of their profound contempt for all women;
that their vilest thoughts are for Christians. With an outward
approval of her anxiety that Michael should run no risks by touching
the sick man, Abdul left her and hurried after the Effendi.
But Michael had already reached him; the fleshless figure lay bathed in
the dying light of the afterglow. Hanging round his neck, a neck which
looked like the neck of the dried mummy in Freddy's wonderful tomb,
there were many strings of cheap beads, and suspended from a bright
green cord--the Prophet's green--was one white cowrie shell. Half
covered by his garment of many colours, and jealously enclosed in a
small black cloth bag, was the most precious article of his scanty
possessions. Michael knew that this pouch contained nothing less
valuable than a few grains of sand from the Prophet's tomb at Mecca.
At Michael's approach the fanatic raised himself and recited in
half-delirious tones the _Fat'hah_, or the opening chapter of the Koran:
"In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Gracious. Praise be unto God,
the Lord of the worlds, the Merciful, the Gracious, the Ruler of the
day of judgment. Thee do we worship, and of Thee do we beg assistance.
Direct us in the right way, in the way of those to whom Thou hast been
gracious, upon whom there is no wrath, and who have not erred."
When the _sura_ was finished the man fell back; his strength failed
him. Michael knelt down beside him in the desert. He raised his head;
his wild eyes and emaciated face touched his heart. He knew something
of the zeal of these religious Moslems, these desert sons of Allah.
This man had obviously wasted himself to a skeleton. Truly, his
reasoning powers were in heaven; his religious ecstasies had well-nigh
bereft him of his senses.
Michael asked him if he was ill or if he was only faint from want of
food. The saint did not know; physical exhaustion overpowered him. At
intervals he called loudly upon the name of Allah, in almost the same
phraseology as the ancient Egyptians called upon Amon-Ra, the Lord of
all worlds, whose seat was in the heavens. In the unchanging East,
expressions never die. Akhnaton taught his disciples to pray to "Our
Father, which art in Heaven."
As Michael listened to his appeals to Allah, he felt totally at a loss
to know what to do for the material benefit of the zealot. He was
afraid that he would die from exhaustion. He was relieved when Abdul
and the bearers came to his assistance. Abdul soon persuaded the man
to drink some of the water which he had brought in a cup. As he did
so, he noticed with satisfaction that the saint's head was resting on
Michael's arm, that his master was totally self-forgetful in his act of
charity. Christian though he was, he was sincerely obeying the
teaching of the Prophet Jesus, the one sinless Prophet of Islam, the
Prophet Who, next to Mohammed, is best beloved of the faithful.
Mohammed considered Jesus sinless; to his own unrighteousness he often
alluded. In this act of grace, at least, the Effendi had not failed
Him.
When Michael offered the man another cooling drink, he swallowed it
eagerly. It was like the waters of paradise to his parched throat.
His flaming eyes tried to express his gratitude to his deliverer. Who
was this heretic whose fingers had the gift of healing, from whose
heart flowed the divine waters of charity?
Michael understood. Inspired by the love in his heart for all
suffering humanity, with something akin to the graceful imagery of
words which comes naturally to the humblest native's lips, he spoke to
the man in a suitable manner. Rendered into English it would sound
absurd.
The servants appeared with some food which was sustaining and
appetizing, but the effort necessary for swallowing anything solid
proved too much for the exhausted pilgrim.
"Bring him to the camp, Abdul," Michael said. "I will give him some
brandy. As a medicine it is not forbidden?"
"No, Effendi, it is not forbidden."
The total absence of the sun had made the desert seem inhospitable and
dreary. The saint was too weak to protest and so he was carried to the
camp. Millicent watched the slow procession with anger and amazement.
She knew that Michael was rash and impetuous, but she had not given him
credit for being such a fool.
While he was being put to bed in a tent, and carefully attended to,
Michael tried to discover if the saint was really ill, if he was
suffering from some specific malady, or if he was merely worn out with
fatigue. He administered a drug to him which he hoped would soothe his
nerves and allow him to sleep.
In a dog-like manner the man's tragic eyes eloquently expressed both
his astonishment and gratitude. It was long since he had slept in a
comfortable bed, under sheets and blankets. He rarely spoke, except to
mutter or loudly chant in a half-delirious manner _suras_ from the
Koran.
When Michael had attended to his simple wants and seen to it that his
servants were not only willing but eager to nurse him, he left him to
their care and immediately hurried off to his own tent to change his
clothes and disinfect himself as thoroughly as possible--a necessary
precaution, although the man had not been as dirty as Millicent had
depicted. His _dilk_, or Joseph's coat, was indeed tattered and his
turban in the last stages of decay, but they were clean. His person
was not offensive. A pathetic figure, fleshless and worn and neurotic;
yet in the sands of the desert he had performed his ablutions before
prayer, as prescribed by the Prophet in the Holy Book. The untrodden
sands of the desert are as cleansing and purifying as the waters of
Jordan.
When Michael at last returned to Millicent, she said quite gently,
although her inward woman burned with anger, "Mike, are you mad or a
saint? How could you touch him?"
"I'm far from being a saint!" he said.
"You are as much one as that wretched creature, who has pretended he is
one for so long that he now believes he is."
"Or his Moslem brethren do, perhaps you mean!"
"Well, he acts up to their superstitious ideas."
"I can't tell. He is too ill to speak. He is probably as sincere a
Moslem as St. Jerome was a Christian--why not?"
"What's the matter with him?" A little fear clutched at Millicent's
heart.
"I don't know--Abdul couldn't discover. The man is too exhausted to
talk. I'll speak to him in the morning and find out."
"I hope it's nothing infectious--you were very rash, Mike!"
"It's probably only physical exhaustion. He couldn't eat anything, but
he drank the water I gave him. I poured a little brandy in it--he
wouldn't have touched it if he had known."
"Oh, wouldn't he?" Millicent's voice expressed her disbelief.
"The Koran forbids the drinking of spirits."
Millicent laughed. "You wouldn't think so when you pass the native
cafés in Cairo! I thought you said they lived up to the letter of
their religion, and missed the spiritual essence of it?"
"There are Moslems and Moslems. Do we all live up to the spirit of
Christ's teachings? Have you always seen Christ-like Christians?"
Millicent shrugged her shoulders. "Well, I don't pretend to live up to
the spirit of my religion. There's the comforting reflection of a
death-bed repentance for all Christians--it's never to late to mend,
Mike!"
"What about battle and murder and sudden death?"
"I take that risk. But, honestly, dear, are you going to adopt that
fanatic, take him on with you?"
"I'm going to look after him until he's better," Michael said, "if
that's what you mean."
"You've got one _protégé_ in el-Azhar. I wonder where this one will
find his home?"
"He will be all right in the morning. Some food and sleep will set him
on his way again." Michael's eyes expressed the fact that his thoughts
had travelled to Millicent's own position in his camp. She had wished
to avoid this; she had tried to obliterate her own personality. Her
desire was to let Mike get pleasantly accustomed to her companionship,
to her place in his camp, to her harmless presence. She felt certain
that if she could manage it for a day or two, he would let things
slide. It was his nature to drift.
The evening was almost at its close; night was drawing near. The
evening star, with its one clear call, had appeared in the pale sky,
guarded by the soft pure crescent of a new moon. The single star in
the vast heavens made a tender appeal to the hearts of both Millicent
and Michael. It intensified their solitude. It touched their senses
with longing. If Margaret had been with Michael, his arms would have
encircled her.
Millicent owed her self-restraint to her calculating common sense. To
have had a lover on such a night as this would have been a splendid
reward for all her trouble. In her heart she called the man at her
side a fool, a pitiful fool, and herself an idiot for loving him.
"It was a beautiful idea for Mohammed's banner," Michael said at
length. He had driven the thought even of Margaret from his mind.
Suggestion is too potent a drug.
"Was that what he took it from?" Millicent said. "I never thought of
it before--of course, it must have been."
"He must often have watched the evening star as we are watching it now,
when he was a boy living in the desert. Later on, when he became the
warrior prophet, he must have visualized the heavens as the background
of his banner, and taken the evening star and the crescent moon as his
symbols--the star and the crescent of Islam." Michael paused. "In the
same way, the full rays of the sun became the symbol of Aton,
Akhnaton's god and loving father."
"Your friend?" Millicent said eagerly; it pleased her that Michael
should speak of the things nearest his heart. He was allowing her to
approach him.
Michael laughed. "And yours, too, I hope?"
"Why?" Millicent's heart quickened.
"Because Akhnaton was the first man to preach simplicity, honesty,
frankness and sincerity, and he preached it from a throne. He was the
first Pharaoh to be a humanitarian, the first man in whose heart there
was no trace of barbarism." [1]
"Really?" Millicent said. Michael's earnestness forbade levity. "How
interesting! Do tell me more about him."
"He was the first human being to understand rightly the meaning of
divinity."
"But what he taught didn't last. We owe nothing to his doctrines, do
we? Did it ever spread beyond his own kingdom?"
"Like other great teachers, he sacrificed all to his principles. Yet
there can be no question that his ideals will hold good 'till the swan
turns black and the crow turns white, till the hills rise up and travel
and the deeps rush into the rivers.' That's how Weigall ends up the
life he has written of the great reformer. How can you say that we owe
nothing to him? You might as well say that we owe nothing to any of
the great men of whom we have never heard, and yet you know that
thought affects the whole world. Akhnaton made himself immortal by his
prophecies--they were the eternal truths revealed to him by God."
"By a prophet, do you mean that he was a prophet like Moses, Jeremiah,
Isaiah and so on?"
"I mean that prophets were the seers to whom God communicated
knowledge. Prophets were the people to whom He made revelations; he
enlightened their minds; He certainly revealed Himself to Akhnaton, or
how else could he, in that age of darkness, have evolved for himself an
almost perfect conception of divinity? Weigall says 'he evolved a
monotheist's religion second only to Christianity itself in its purity
of tone.' If God had not revealed Himself to Akhnaton as He did later
on to Moses and Abraham, and as I believe He still does to our true
reformers, how could he, as Weigall says, have evolved his beautiful
religion 'in an age of superstition, and in a land where the grossest
polytheism reigned absolutely supreme'?"
"And are you now on your way to visit his tomb, Mike? How thrilling!"
"Yes," Michael said. He answered her simply, forgetful of the fact
that she could only have obtained her information on this point in an
underhand manner.
"You know where it is?"
"He was buried in the hills which lie beyond his city."
"Tel-el-Amarna?"
"Yes, the City of the Horizon, the capital he built when he found it
necessary for the progress of his new religion to get away from Thebes,
from the priests of Amon-Ra."
Michael's thoughts became absorbed. They travelled to the mid-African
in el-Azhar and then became mixed up with this meeting with the
desert-saint. Could this poor, emaciated figure, so shrunken and worn
with tropical fevers and famished for want of food, have any knowledge
of the hidden treasure which the seer had visualized?
Millicent allowed his thoughts to wander. She knew the force of silent
companionship. She knew that, although he was apparently far from her,
he was conscious of her presence. She would have liked to ask him a
thousand questions, to have talked rather than held her peace; but her
instinct as a woman forbade it. Something told her that during their
talk Michael was one half saint, one half man, and the man-power was
stronger than he knew.
Many stars had appeared in the sky, which had deepened. It was now the
violet-blue of a desert night. The passion of the heavens was
beginning. Could man and woman remain outside it?
In the distance an occasional roar from one of the camels interrupted
the silence. Surely it was a night for love, the love that needs no
telling?
Millicent and Michael were seated on the sand, gazing into the
deepening heavens. Michael was sorely disturbed.
"Could anything be more Eastern?" Millicent said dreamily. In speech
she had to walk very carefully. Her mystic baffled her.
"Nothing," Michael said. "Isn't it sad to think what city-dwellers
miss?"
"I love even the roar of the camels, don't you?" Her eyes were looking
at the animals, as they knelt at rest in the distance, their long day's
journey done. What stored-up revenge their roars suggest! They always
seem to say, "My day will come, if it is yours to-day."
"Let's think of the most English thing we can, Mike," she said
suddenly, "just by way of contrast."
They thought for a moment or two in silence. The arid desert was
softened by the absence of the sun, its desolation was made more
manifest. At night even more than by day, you could feel the immensity
of its distance, its silent rolling from ocean to ocean. Nothing
speaks to man's heart more eloquently than the voice of perfect silence.
For the sake of prudence Michael was consenting to Millicent's
suggestion to think of the most English scene he could. Was it a
village public-house, full of hearty English yokels, drinking their
evening tankards of beer? This was about the time they would assemble.
He had not yet formed his picture into words, Millicent had not spoken,
when suddenly Abdul appeared and begged permission to speak to his
master.
The sick man was better; he had eaten some food and was conscious.
Abdul had evidently some information which was for his master's ear
alone. He politely inferred that he could not say it before the
honourable lady.
Michael rose from his seat beside Millicent, who, being wise in her
generation, said: "Then I will say good-night and go to bed. I am very
tired."
"Good-night," Michael said brightly, while a sudden sense of relief
came to his heart. "I think you are very wise. You must be quite
tired out."
"So far, so good," Millicent said when she was alone. "What a weird
mystic I've attached myself to!" She alluded to Michael, not to the
Moslem saint.
Her camp-outfit was so complete that in her desert bedroom there was
scarcely an item missing which could ensure her comfort. She
contemplated going to bed with enjoyment. Where money is, there also
are the fleshpots of Egypt, even if it is in the waterless tracts of
the Arabian desert.
Material comforts meant very much to Millicent. She enjoyed using all
the little accessories belonging to a fastidious woman's toilet; she
enjoyed, too, the occupation of expending care on her person. Her
rising up and lying down were ceremonies which she performed with
unremitting attention. In her tent in the desert her perfumes and
cosmetics and bath-salts afforded her a curious satisfaction. They
told her that her management had been perfect; they appealed to her
barbaric love of contrasts. It fed her pride very pleasantly to know
that she could command these luxuries; to know that by her own wealth
she could bring the trivialities of civilization into the elemental
life of the desert excited her senses.
Her natural beauty could have triumphed over the ravages made by the
sun and the dry desert air. She was one of those fortunate women who
needed few, if any, of the absurdities which she carried about with her
wheresoever she went. To have done without them would have been to
deprive herself of a very genuine pleasure, to have starved one of her
eager appetites. Margaret's rapid tub, the swift brushing and combing
and plaiting of her dark hair, generally while she read some passage
from a book which interested her, and her total disregard for
cosmetics, would have horrified Millicent if she had known of her
habits. The height of civilization to Millicent was expressed in a
luxuriously-appointed dressing-table and in an excessive care of her
body. Progress touched its high-water mark in the perfection of her
creature comforts. Taken from this standpoint, progress could scarcely
go any further, or so Michael would have thought if he had watched her
ritual of going to bed.
She dawdled pleasantly through it, enjoying every moment of the time,
appreciating the handling of artistically-designed silver objects,
performing with care the washing of her face with oatmeal and the
dusting of her fair skin with the latest luxury in powder. She liked
to take the same care of her person as a young mother takes of her
first baby, and--as she expressed it--to smell like one when the
ceremony was finished.
Her love of contrasts appealed to her, when she stood, all ready for
bed in her foolish nightgown--a mere veil of chiffon--becomingly
guarded by a Japanese kimono of the softest silk. She visualized the
timeless desert outside her tent, the trackless ocean of silence, the
uninhabited primitive world. She felt like a queen, travelling in
state through a waterless, foodless world.
She held up her empty arms. Some other night! Some other night! Her
heart assured her. With a sigh of content she lay down to sleep, well
satisfied with her own diplomacy and cunning. Her last conscious
thoughts were of Margaret Lampton. What was she doing to-night? What
were her thoughts?
* * * * * *
Late that night, as Abdul passed the Englishwoman's tent, he spat at
her door.
[1] Weigall's _Akhnaton, Pharaoh of Egypt_.