And now to return to Michael. During the weary weeks of anxiety and
suffering which Margaret spent in Egypt before she sailed for England,
Michael lay hovering between life and death in the _Omdeh's_ house near
the subterranean village in the Libyan Desert.
Abdul had taken him there when he gathered him up in his strong arms on
the eventful evening when he left the excavation-tent in the hills. A
violent attack of fever, made more serious and difficult to throw off
by the overwrought condition of his nerves, kept Michael a helpless
exile in the hands of the hospitable but somewhat ignorant _Omdeh_ and
the devoted Abdul.
When the fever was at its height, Michael was very often delirious; in
his ramblings he let the discreet Abdul see deep down into the secret
hiding-places of his heart. Sometimes he spoke in English, and
sometimes in Arabic. Abdul could understand a great deal more English
than he could speak, and as Michael often repeated the same things in
Arabic--when he thought he was addressing Abdul--he soon found the key
to much which, without the Arabic translation and constant reiteration,
might have escaped his understanding. Arabs learn a language with
extraordinary rapidity; it is no unusual thing to meet a dragoman who
can understand three or four languages, and speak a fair smattering of
each; the same man is probably unable to read or write in any one of
the four. From the deep waters of affliction came strange and terrible
revelations, of desires and temptations which the conscious man had not
allowed himself to recognize. In his helplessness they leapt forth and
proclaimed themselves unmistakably. He innocently betrayed the nature
of the woman who had earned Abdul's hatred.
At other times he called upon Margaret and implored her forgiveness,
denouncing the woman who had followed him. He cursed her in horrible
words. Even Abdul was surprised at their impiety. Once, when Abdul
laid his fine fingers on his burning forehead, Michael took his hand
eagerly and tried to kiss it. The next instant he rejected it and with
the strength of delirium threw it from him and tried to get out of bed.
"That's not Margaret's hand?" he said angrily. "And I want no other
woman than Margaret. I have told you that before--I belong to
Margaret, I am Margaret's body and soul. I told you that the first
time we ate our meal together, even before your white tent went up."
When Abdul managed to subdue his master's fears, he laughed wildly and
idiotically. "Of course it is only you, Abdul. I had forgotten. I
seem to forget everything . . . I thought that . . ." here his words
became incoherent. "I was so tired, Abdul, and you were sitting up in
the sky above the horizon . . . so very tired."
Abdul fanned his babbling master and offered him a cooling drink.
Michael swallowed it eagerly; his bright eyes gazed pitifully into
Abdul's after the last drain was swallowed.
"Don't let the other woman come near me," he pleaded. "She is wearing
all Akhnaton's precious stones--they are hung round her neck, her
breasts are covered with them. But her skin is so white and tender,
the sun is burning it--I must lend her my coat." He laughed horribly.
"Mean little beast, Abdul, how frightened she was! The saint gave me
the amethyst--it's for Margaret."
Abdul listened to these strange outpourings with the philosophy and
trust of a devout Moslem. If Allah willed it, He would let his master
recover. He had put the Effendi in his care, and no trouble was
anything but a pleasure to him if it brought some sense of ease and
comfort to the delirious Michael.
The _Omdeh_ was the very soul of hospitality. He observed the
teachings of the Koran in the spirit as well as in the letter. He
spoke no English, so he was ignorant of all that Michael's delirious
words conveyed to Abdul. On his master's concerns, Abdul was a well of
secrecy.
By night and by day he heard him go over the same ground again and
again. His life in Egypt for the last few months was expressed in
broken sentences and vivid declarations, uttered sometimes with
astonishing gravity and lucidity. At times Abdul was deceived into
thinking that he was conscious, that his reasoning powers had returned,
that he was quite sensible. But he was soon undeceived by a sudden
breaking-off in the continuity of the words, or a return to confused,
half-meaningless sentences. It was only by the constant repetition
that Abdul learned the whole truth. A bit out of one raving fitted
into another, and things hard to explain were made clear.
Once he said very gravely, "Hadassah Ireton will help Margaret, the
beautiful Hadassah. She is more beautiful than Margaret, Abdul, much
more beautiful, but Margaret is the mistress of my happiness."
Abdul answered by saying, "_Aiwah_, Effendi, she is your guarded lady,
she will be the mother of your sons."
"She who sends me to rest with a sweet voice, and with her beautiful
hands bearing two sistrums."
Abdul was ignorant of the fact that his master was quoting the words of
Akhnaton, as written in the tomb of Ay in reference to his queen. He
thought they were his master's own words, and so thinking, his heart
was cheered, for Michael's voice was gentle and reasonable. But the
hope was suddenly wiped out.
"Are the camels ready, Abdul? We must get away, get away from the
woman. It's the only way. And you thought I cared, you came in sorrow
to tell me that the little beast had slipped away, just while Margaret
was standing among the daffodils. I heard her calling, calling in the
breeze. I was in England with Margaret."
Abdul saw that he had been mistaken. His master had never been
sensible; he was declaiming again, in his high-pitched, unnatural voice.
"I was a Christian--they wouldn't allow me to see the holy man buried.
But he gave me the jewel, the gem precious beyond all rubies. Abdul
covered his poor body with quick-lime; he said it would prevent
infection. Freddy won't believe it, Margaret, so we won't tell him--he
would only laugh. 'A child of God shall lead you'--that is what the
old African said. But I never told Freddy; he thinks I stand on my
head . . . Abdul! Abdul!" Michael's cry was ringing forlorn. "Do
you see the Government flag? It's all up, Abdul, it's all moonshine!
We're too late, too late. Freddy will say that Millicent detained me!
Is it the fluttering flag of the saint? It was Millicent who saw it in
the sunlight."
In despair Abdul recited a _sura_ from the Koran. "The God Who gives a
good reward for the good deeds of His creatures, and does not waste
anyone's labour."
Michael took up the last words of Abdul's prayer, in the way in which a
delirious mind will often carry on a sentence which drifts to the brain.
"Nothing is ever wasted, Freddy--I've told you that over and over
again. You say I waste my time. You won't say so, when you see the
jewels. The saint kept it in his ear, Abdul--wasn't that clever for a
child of God? Look, look, Abdul!" Michael stared into the distance;
his eyes became transfixed; he was excited, strong physically.
"Millicent's small breasts are so white, so white and fair. Her two
breasts are like two fawns that are twins of a roe, that feed among the
lilies. They are covered with jewels, they catch the sunlight. How
beautiful she is! Do you see her, Abdul? She is walking in the air in
front of me, all the way, Mohammed Ali's 'golden lady.'"
Abdul applied a wet towel to his master's burning temples. He sank
back on his pillow exhausted; his voice became low and feeble.
"The little white tent, it is always calling, calling, its open door is
always inviting me. Why does it say, all day long, 'Turn in, my lord,
turn in'? But Margaret came to me, she saved me. Listen--can you hear
the bells, Abdul? I heard them in the night, they sounded like the
bubbling of water. Then peace came, peace, when the woman had sneaked
away. Freddy always said I walked on my head, Abdul; he always
declared that the whole affair was moonshine, no one in their senses
would believe it. I always believe in people who have no sense, for
God gives finer _senses_ to people who have no sense. Sense never sees
beyond, Abdul."
Often he became very wild; broken sentences would pour from his lips,
the foolish, unmeaning ravings of a fevered brain.
After these wild outbursts intervals of exhaustion would set in, in
which he would lie in a semi-conscious state of stillness. On one such
occasion the stillness was suddenly broken by the solemn recitation, in
exactly Abdul's devout tones, of the Mohammedan rosary. When he
reached the sixty-third attribute of God, he repeated it with great
unction. Then his pious tones suddenly changed to a querulous cry.
"Abdul, why do you go on saying 'O Source of Discovery'? You know that
we've discovered nothing, nothing at all. It's all mere moonshine. I
wish Abdul would stop--he's sitting in the sky above the horizon,
repeating those same silly words over and over again! If I could only
get at him . . . but the horizon never gets any nearer." He laughed
vulgarly and hoarsely, and then lost the trend of his thoughts. "It
was a crimson amethyst--he always kept it in his ear. They buried me,
Meg, beside the saint. The sand drifts very quickly, it runs and runs
along the surface of the desert, so quickly and silently, like oozing
water over a dry river-bed." He gazed wildly at Abdul. "Will you tell
my old friend at el-Azhar that I have been dead for a long time? Tell
him that the sands drift very quickly. Margaret mustn't cry. The wind
is the desert grave-digger. Take your wicked hands away!" Abdul had
touched his wrist. "You'll never, never tempt me any more, because I'm
dead, I tell you. I was go tired, I got off my camel, and lay down,
and you ran away, you little coward. And the sands covered me, and I'm
dead, thank God!"
Abdul waited and watched and trusted in Allah. His devotion was
complete; he surrendered himself to his master in his material life as
completely as he surrendered himself spiritually to his God. And he
had his reward, for gradually Michael's youth and splendid constitution
asserted themselves; the fever abated--natives have their own wise
methods of treating it. There were days when he seemed almost well,
far on the way to recovery, but they were often followed by hours of
reaction and high delirium. These reactions were familiar to Abdul;
they did not depress him. Nevertheless they required time and
patience. It was Michael's first attack of fever, and therefore he was
able to throw it off more completely than if his system had been
undermined by it.
To Abdul his convalescent stage was a time of perfect content. As is
often the case with Orientals, he loved his European master with a
sentiment and romance which finds no equivalent in Western natures.
This sentiment and romance had increased intensely during Michael's
illness. Abdul now looked upon him as a personal possession; he had
nursed him back to life and health; he was a gift which Allah had
placed in his hands. He had no sons of his own, so his master filled
the unforgettable void. His conversion to Islam was Abdul's most
earnest prayer.
The only cloud in his blue sky was the knowledge that Michael was
disappointed and distressed by the fact that he had not, in some manner
or other, let the Effendi Lampton know that he was seriously ill.
Abdul could not have written himself, for he could neither read nor
write English; he always spoke to Michael in Arabic. It was therefore
impossible for him to write to the Effendi Lampton, and to the native
mind time was of so little account that one day was as good as another.
Besides, deep down in his heart there was a pool of jealousy; he wished
to nurse his beloved master back to life and health with his own hands.
If the Effendi Lampton knew that he was ill, he would come to him or
send someone to wait upon him who would rob him of his sweet work. And
to do Abdul justice, he did not know if his master would like any
stranger, or even the Effendi Lampton himself, to know all the secrets
of his heart which his ravings revealed. Michael had so often
expressed the wish to Abdul that it should be from his own lips, or
from his own letters, that the Effendi Lampton should hear that the
harlot had been with them in the desert, and the whole story of their
desert journey.
Abdul was quite convinced that his master's letters had not yet been
delivered at the hut in the Valley. It did not seem to him a very long
time for a letter to take to travel across the desert and the Nile.
The carrying of news was a different matter; he had a native's
knowledge of how that can be transmitted with great rapidity. A letter
belonged to a widely-different means of communication. And so he let
the matter rest.
To the hospitable _Omdeh_ he confided nothing. The old man was pleased
and delighted to have Michael as his guest. During the patient's rapid
recovery, after his first weeks of intermittent convalescence, he was
as pleased as a child to be allowed to entertain Michael with all the
delights which he had held out before his eyes when he had invited him
to spend two or three days with him, before he journeyed to the camp in
the hills.
During that time Michael became learned in the points of well-bred
gazelles. He saw some native dancers, both male and female, who
charmed him with their beauty and their art. And he listened so many
times to celebrated _A'laleeyeh_ (professional musicians) that, with
the help of the _Omdeh_, be became familiar with the remarkable
peculiarity in the Arab system of music--its division of tones into
thirds. Egyptian musicians consider that the European system of music
is deficient in sounds. This small and delicate gradation of sound
gives a peculiar softness to the performance of good Arab musicians.
At first Michael was unable to appreciate the excellence of the music
he listened to, for the finer and more delicate gradations of tone are
difficult to discriminate with exactness; they are seldom heard in the
vocal and instrumental music of people who have not made a regular
study of the art. But as his ear became more habituated to the style,
the more it delighted him. He had seen the rapture on Abdul's face and
had heard the exclamations of "God approve thee!" "God preserve thee!"
from the _Omdeh_, many times before the knowledge came to him. He knew
that it was his own ignorance, and not the musicians' lack of skill,
which was to blame. Until now he had only been familiar with the music
of the Nile boatmen and the popular music of the people.
It was delicious, or so Abdul thought, to sit with his master and the
_Omdeh_ in the cool garden, under the shade of a fantastic arbour,
darkened by the leaves of oleanders and other semi-tropical trees, and
there listen to the songs of famous Arab singers, or to the music of
the _'ood_, or the _nay_, a picturesque native flute, made out of a
reed about half a yard in length, pierced with holes.
Sometimes story-tellers would arrive. One would begin his romance
early in the evening and it would not be nearly finished by bed-time,
which came late in the hot summer nights. The reciting of it was
broken by pleasant intervals for discussions, or for the sipping of
sweet syrups and cool native drinks. The romance always left off at a
thrilling point; sometimes it took three evenings to finish it.
Abdul lived in a condition of satisfaction only to be expressed by a
Moslem mind. As for Michael, he had never imagined that he could feel
himself so much at home and so closely in sympathy with purely native
life. He began it at the point in his convalescence when nothing
mattered; the path of least resistance was the only one which he could
take. He continued in it when he no longer desired to resist.
He had received no word from the Valley or from the outer world. He
felt that he was cut off and abandoned. Millicent had no doubt taken
pains to let Margaret know that she had been with him in the desert,
and what could he expect but that Freddy would be justly indignant?
But he was getting better every day. He had had no return of the fever
for some time. Whenever he felt fit to travel, he would go to the
Valley and see if he could discover anything of Freddy's whereabouts.
Of course, he could not stay there during the hot weather, but the
guards in charge of the excavation-site might be able to tell him where
he was to be found.
It was no difficult matter for Michael to let things drift, and easier
for him under the circumstances than it might otherwise have been.
It was only after his complete recovery, and at the end of his long
journey with the faithful Abdul back to the Valley, that he realized
the utter desolation which faced him.
He had said good-bye with regret and gratitude to the Omdeh, who was
every day becoming more concerned about the secret propaganda which was
being preached in the desert mosques, and had travelled as quickly as
he could, more by train than by camel, back to Luxor. On an afternoon
of blistering heat he had crossed the Nile and ridden over the plain of
Thebes. He had to rest for a little time under the cliffs which
shelter the great temple of Hatshepsu at Der-el-Bahari, before he
continued his journey up the Valley of the Tombs of the Kings, to the
hut in the wrinkles of the hills.
As he rode through the Valley, his thoughts were full of his first
meeting with Margaret. He remembered how at a certain point of the
desolate track, which winds like a dry river-bed through the Theban
hills, she had said, "Does Freddy live here all alone?" and how, when
he had assured her that Freddy was well guarded by watch-dogs at night,
she had said. "But dogs couldn't keep off this!" For Margaret they
had not kept off "this," the spirit of Egypt; nothing can keep off
Egypt; its power and mystery defy both time and science.
He remembered her almost childish eagerness, when she first listened to
his explanation of Akhnaton's beliefs and teachings. Then her vision
of the suffering Pharaoh came back to him, and all her arguments
against her super-sense, which told her that she had seen the spirit of
the first divinely-inspired man. He visualized her honest eyes and
their expression of interest when he had argued with her that God had
revealed Himself to mankind in many individuals and in many countries.
Surely she could not believe that God had left a single nation without
some revelation of Himself, that he had not sent upon all nations the
gift of His Spirit by some redeemer?
Margaret had said. "You mean, don't you, that Christ revealed Himself
to all nations?"
Michael had rejected her correction, for Christ was but one of God's
manifestations of Himself upon earth. There have been others--Buddha
was one, so was Mohammed; all great reformers, and those who are
inspired with the spirit of truth, and seek to reveal its beauty to
mankind, were to Michael God's revelations of Himself upon earth. He
gave to China, Confucius, to India, Krishna, and so on. To Palestine
he gave Jesus, Whose teachings have lightened the darkness of the
Western world.
"You may call them all Christ or Jesus, if you like," he had said.
"For they are all imbued with the same Spirit, which is of God. Jesus
has become our ideal and example, He it is Whom God chose to teach a
doctrine suited to Western minds."
In the heat and stillness of the Valley Michael pondered in his heart
over all the arguments and discussions which he had had with Margaret
under the star-lit heavens, or in an expanse of blinding sunlight,
which left not a shadow as big as a man's hand on the golden sands of
the Sahara.
He was living again in the days which preceded his adventures in the
Libyan Desert. Abdul was conscious of his master's total absorption in
the thoughts which his return to the Valley had called up. For many
weeks the heat of the summer sun had made the Valley like a furnace;
even now, though the hottest hours of the day were past, it was
stifling and almost unendurable. The air scorched Michael's face like
the hot air which comes from an oven when its door is opened.
As they drew near to the hut which had once been his home, the
loneliness and desolation became more intense. It hurt Michael
indescribably; the contrast between the present and the past was
horrible. What he had looked upon as his home, and what had meant for
him so much activity of mind and body, was now a mere wilderness. It
was an inferno of heat and sandhills; even lizards and scorpions sought
the shade. Nothing but the dead Pharaohs under the hills remained to
tell him that this had been his Eden, where passion-flowers bloomed.
The wooden hut was bolted and barred and closely shuttered.
"Certainly the family are not at home," he said to Abdul, with grim
humour. "There's no good looking for Mohammed Ali--he won't greet us
with his white teeth and smiling eyes."
They halted. Not a movement or sound disturbed the Pharaonic
stillness; not a sign of even insect life caught their searching eyes.
Abdul drew a native whistle from his pocket and put it to his lips; its
sound travelled and echoed round the hills.
Instantly a white turban appeared and the tall figure of a _gaphir_
came forward, with his signal of office, a long staff carried in the
Biblical manner, in his hand. Tall and bearded, in his flowing white
robes, he might have been Moses praying apart in the wilderness,
pleading for the children of Israel until the anger of the Lord was
turned away.
With inimitable dignity he came towards the two riders, who had so
suddenly appeared in the Valley. He was the trusted servant of the
Excavation Society; his duty it was to patrol the district which
surrounded the freshly-opened tomb, the one which Freddy had
discovered; his duty it was also to see that no harm came to the hut,
to which the Effendi Lampton would return in the autumn.
When Michael asked him for information about the Effendi Lampton, he
threw back his head. He had heard nothing from him, or about him,
since he had left the Valley and that was in the second week in May.
He had gone away in a great hurry, and had left some of the settling of
his papers and the packing of his _antikas_ which were in the hut, in
charge of the Effendi King. When Michael questioned him if the _Sitt_,
his sister, had remained with him until he left the Valley, the
_gaphir_ appeared uncertain; he, personally, had not seen the _Sitt_,
but then he had only come to take up his job the day before Mistrr
Lampton had gone away; the _Sitt_ might have been there--he did not
know.
As the dignified personage seemed to be disinclined to volunteer any
information, and he was unable to give Michael a satisfactory answer to
the questions he asked him, there was nothing else to do but to let him
return to his meditations. Michael supposed that there were native
mounted police in the Valley, whom the man could call to his assistance
if any trouble arose; they would appear from some sheltered fold in the
hills in answer to his signal.
Down the Valley of Death, in which the flames of the inferno seemed to
have licked and scorched the dry air ever since the world was created,
Michael rode with Abdul at his side. He had turned his back on the
hut, for the place thereof knew him no more. Freddy and Margaret had
left it; it was as though their presence there had never been. He knew
that he had been foolish to hope to find either Freddy or Margaret in
the Valley; it was far too late in the season and too hot for any
excavating work in Egypt. This he had been conscious of, but in his
heart he felt the urging necessity of going to the Valley and proving
the fact with his own eyes. Perhaps there was hidden in the back of
his mind a hope that some message had been left there for him, that
Freddy would have known that even if it was midsummer before his
journey was accomplished, he would return there as soon as he could;
something would draw him to the scene of their united labour and
happiness.
But Freddy's practical mind had not thought of any such folly; he had
left the Valley to the sun by day and the stars by night, and had gone
like the swallows to a cooler and greener land.
* * * * * *
Michael was compelled to spend that night at Luxor. His urgent desire
was to reach Cairo as quickly as possible and discover if the Iretons
knew anything of Freddy and Margaret. They were now his one hope. In
Luxor the fine European hotels were closed, so he found accommodation
in the house of one of Abdul's friends, a clean, well-managed native
inn. Luxor in May was without one blot or blemish of foreign life.
The next day he travelled by train to Cairo. The new moon was just
appearing in the evening sky when he found himself nearing the Iretons'
ancient Mameluke mansion. With the absence of all tourists and
European life, the mediaeval city seemed to Michael so Biblical that he
would not have been astonished if he had come across the city
magistrates, sitting apart in conclave to hear the witnesses of the new
moon's appearance and settle the time. He could picture the scientific
men in their midst, making their astronomical calculations, and judging
whether the testimonies agreed with their calculations. If they did,
the president of the assembly proclaimed the new moon by the sound of a
trumpet, and set open the gate of Nicanor, the great eastern brazen
gate of the temple.
But instead of the trumpet proclaiming the new moon, Michael heard the
sonorous cries of the _mueddin_, calling out the hour of Moslem prayer
from the galleries round the tall minarets, which rose from the city
like the lotus-headed columns of ancient Egypt. All the large mosques
in Cairo are open from daybreak until two hours after sunset. The
great university-mosque of el-Azhar would, Michael knew, remain open
all night, all but one small portion, the principal place of prayer.
When he reached the Iretons' house, he rang the bell at the door of the
outer courtyard. The Nubian who was stretched out on the mastaba
behind it did not trouble to rouse himself. Let the fool ring--surely
everyone knew that his master and mistress were not living in the city
in this weather, when they had a beautiful mansion in the cool oasis to
go to?
Michael rang again, but even as he rang his heart was beginning to
sink; he knew that no servant would have kept a guest waiting behind
the big door if his master was at home; it was his one and only duty to
guard it and admit visitors. The second time he rang, he did it so
emphatically that the noise vibrated through the courtyard.
A moment later Michael heard a movement. The bar was lifted from its
iron hooks, the door was grudgingly opened, and a black face, with
thick lips and goggle eyes, was thrust out. In a great many more words
than were necessary the Nubian told the anxious Michael that his master
and mistress were away from home; they were in the country; the house
was closed and would not be opened until October.
When Michael urged him for more particulars, as to the precise address
of his master, the effusive Nubian became as close as a sphinx. His
duty to his master forbade him giving any information to strangers at
the gate; he only retained the post because he could be trusted.
As Michael looked into the deserted courtyard, its sense of romantic
isolation was as affecting as the desolation of the Valley had been.
It seemed to him as if all his friends were dead, as if he was the sole
survivor of his generation and civilization. The native city, bathed
in the mystery of the falling night and the secrets of its great age,
lay behind him. It, too, was a world which had outlived its
civilization, a relic of the Middle Ages, as lonely as his own soul.
Mechanically he bade the Nubian good-night; the half-piastre which he
dropped into the pink palm of his black hand brought down blessings on
his unbelieving head.
He wandered aimlessly on. He was very tired and absolutely friendless;
he had no place or part in the city, whose arteries were throbbing with
the prayers and praise of an infinite variety of Oriental peoples,
peoples whose countries were separated by oceans and continents, joined
in one vast brotherhood in Islam. He felt miserably alone, a homeless
and friendless alien.
At the hour which follows sundown Egypt has always new secrets to
reveal. On this night of the new moon, the late afterglow of the
summer sun spread an opal haze, flame-tinted and milky, over the
sin-soiled city of the Caliphs. It descended from the heavens like a
veil of righteousness.
Michael had no desire to return to his hotel. He did not know what to
do; the absence of the Iretons from Cairo had shattered his last hope.
Surely it was ordained? He was to realize that he was reaping the
punishment he deserved for his weakness and folly. It was obvious to
his tired nerves and hypercritical senses that Margaret had purposely
returned to England without leaving any indication of her destination.
He would go to Cook's post-office the next morning; that was his last
forlorn hope. If there was no letter awaiting him there, he would take
his dismissal as final. It had been he himself who had insisted that
Margaret should consider herself free.
He knew Freddy's English address, but dared he write to him? He had
ignored all his letters and had gone back to England without making any
effort to communicate with him. This was certainly his dismissal. And
if Margaret had gone also without leaving one word of comfort for him,
he must draw the same conclusion from her silence.
Tired out with walking through the narrow streets, he stood on the
steps of a small mosque, whose doors were closed. He must think over
what he ought to do. As his eyes rested on the Eastern scene before
him, a sudden vision of his old friend at el-Azhar came to him. The
university-mosque would not be closed, its gate would open and receive
him into the Perfection of Peace.
For a few moments the desire to throw himself into the arms of Islam
overwhelmed him; it was the way of peace, the way of forgetfulness, the
way of self-surrender.
He remembered Abdul's teachings, and how he had often said, "A sort of
death comes over the first life, and this state is signified by the
word Islam, for Islam brings about death of the passions of the flesh
and gives new life to us. This is the true regeneration, and the word
of God must be revealed to the person who reaches this stage. This
stage is termed 'the meeting of God.'"
Michael imagined that he would find that stage if he went to his old
friend at el-Azhar, if he went humbly and asked him to lead him into
the way of peace, if he went that very night and confessed to him his
own failure to reach the stage which is enjoyed by all devout Moslems.
The burning fire which is Islam, the fire which consumes all low
desires and gives to men that love for God which knows no bounds, would
that be his state, if he surrendered himself intellectually and
spiritually to the laws and the teachings of the Koran?
There was nothing in the ethics or the moral code of the Prophet with
which he disagreed; the excellence of his teachings as laid down in the
Koran was extraordinarily far-reaching and comprehensive. Michael's
whole being for the moment was filled with the devotion and abandonment
of Islam. Mohammed's mission was to turn the hearts of his people to
the worship of the one and only God; his desire, like Akhnaton's, was
to throw down the false gods from the altars, and reinstate the simple
and undivided worship of the Creator in men's hearts and minds. To
Michael, his teachings had always been the teachings of a great and
inspired reformer. At that moment, when the spell of Islam was
baptizing him, he forgot that Mohammed's God was not the Sweet Singer
in the spring-time, or the bright eye of the daisy in June, or the
laughter of the babbling brooks. The beauty of God, to the Moslem,
consists in His unity, His majesty, His grandeur and His lofty
attributes. Michael overlooked the difference. He loved to walk with
God in the cornfields, to speak to Him when he visited the
lotus-gardens on the Nile. The Moslem succeeds in abandoning himself
to God's will, but he fails to enjoy Him in the scent of the hawthorn,
or hear His voice in the whisper of the pines.
The Moslem city was pouring into his veins the beauty of its spiritual
calm; the hour was kind to its imperfections, its hidden sores were
forgotten.
His feet mechanically descended the flights of stone steps which had
raised him above the level of the street and had placed him under the
shadow of the ancient doorway of the mosque. Without asking himself
where he was going, or what he intended to do, he walked in the
direction of el-Azhar.
As he threaded his way through the narrow streets, darkness was quickly
obliterating the dirt and unsightliness which was visible in the
noonday. His mind was vexed with a thousand questions. Why did a
Western civilization and the Protestant religion make human beings
restless and questioning? Why were they for ever desiring the things
which are withheld? Why had his life and his interests suddenly
tottered to the ground? Surely it was because he had not learned to
put the things of the spirit above things material? If he resigned his
will to Islam, would he in return be granted the calm philosophy of a
Moslem, who accepts his condition and his disappointments as the
unquestionable and far-seeing decree of the Cause of all causes?
Drifting and dreaming, Michael wandered on, the summer heavens above
him, the mediaeval city surrounding him. The hot day's work was over;
men and women were enjoying in their Oriental fashion the cooler and
sweeter air of the late evening. Portly figures of elderly men were
descending the high steps which raise the mosque-doors from the level
of the street; narrow, two-wheeled carts, of immense length, packed
full of black bundles--Egyptian women closely veiled--were taking tired
workers back to their homes in the suburbs. Darkness, which falls so
quickly and early in the East, even in mid-summer, was bringing relief
to sun-tired eyes.
Reaction was affecting Michael very strongly. It had only set in when
the absence of the Iretons from Cairo had suddenly opened up a chasm of
distrust and doubt before his feet. In his desolate wandering through
the city, Margaret seemed very far away. Indeed, he had never felt any
assurance of her sympathy and presence since he had recovered from his
illness. He had nerved and braced himself to make the supreme effort
which he knew would be demanded of him if he was to reach the Valley;
he had made it wholly unaided by any subconscious sense of her
spiritual presence. His assurance of her unchanged confidence in his
devotion had left him. It was to his material, not spiritual,
will-power and determination that he owed his victory over the physical
exhaustion which he had experienced.
He scarcely thought of Margaret as he wandered on; in his mood of
self-pity he felt abandoned. Every minute he was drawing nearer and
nearer to the gates of el-Azhar. Unconsciously he desired that when he
reached the gate which led into the Court of the Perfection of Peace,
it would open, and strong arms would gather him up as they had gathered
him up in the Libyan Desert, and drown his restlessness and doubts in
their strength; that he might spend his future at rest under the shadow
of the Everlasting Arms--The God of Akhnaton, the God of Jesus, the God
of Mohammed, His Arms encompass and enfold the world.
At the gates of el-Azhar Michael paused and listened. The praises of
Allah, and man's love for Him, went up from a hundred devout voices.
The pillared courtyard looked vast and solemn; the soft air of the
summer night vibrated with the sonorous chanting of students and
professors. The peace of God which passeth all understanding
beautified the mediaeval building, which has been for long centuries
the centre of culture and learning for the scattered Moslem world. It
baptized Michael's fevered soul as the waters of Jordan baptized those
who were converts of the forerunner of Jesus. Centuries of meditation
and player have left their divine influence on the place.
All sacred enclosures hold the gift of healing. Michael had felt it in
the temples of Egypt, in the temples of the Greeks, in the mosques.
The things of the spirit remain in them, the thoughts which have been
born by communion with the soul.
Impulsively Michael lifted the iron handle of the bell; it hung from a
long chain which lay against a square column, one of the two posts at
the outer gate. Here was the rest he was seeking, the beauty of divine
meditation.
As he lifted the handle and his palm pressed it with the tightening
grasp necessary for pulling it, he let it drop. Something made him
drop it. He had ardently desired to ring it; it was not the lateness
of the hour, or the nervousness which he might well have felt at taking
a step which would lead him into fresh perplexity and doubt, which had
made him pause. He had dropped it because he was compelled to, and as
he dropped it, he knew that he would never again ring it for the same
purpose. His super-self had triumphed; it had dominated his actions.
Suddenly the overwhelming significance of the step which he had been
about to take so rashly made him tremble and feel apprehensive. He
turned round quickly, as if he expected to see the hand which had
stayed him. No one was there.
He stood tense, perfectly still, listening. Only the prayers from the
courts of Islam came to his ears. Mingled with their solemnity, came
with vivid clearness the picture of himself, seated on the marble floor
of the courtyard, pretending that he was one in heart and soul with the
others. He could see their devotion, their bridled intellects, their
impersonal minds, strange peoples of every Oriental nation--black
Nubians, pale Arabs, flat-featured Mongolians--all sincere and honest
in this one thing at least, their absolute belief in, and surrender to
Islam. He saw himself, a Western, with a Western mind; ha saw himself
a hypocrite and charlatan. He saw the deadly monotony of the life
which only a moment before had seemed the Way of Perfect Peace. His
old friend, who had given him such wonderful counsel, would have read
into his heart: he would have seen there the vast difference which lay
between Michael's sincere beliefs and the beliefs which he was
professing.
Resolutely he turned his back on the university-mosque. He would visit
his friend at a more suitable hour, and ask him to explain to him some
of the things that had happened. He would ask him if he was aware that
his desert journey had, in a material sense at least, ended in failure,
if his seer's vision had enabled him to discover what had happened to
the treasure.
On his way back to the European quarter of Cairo he rested for a short
time by the roadside, in a strange little cemetery of poor Moslem
tombs. It lay exposed to the turmoil and dust of a rough road, a
sun-baked spot in the daytime; at night it was grimly mysterious. The
memorial stones--the humbler for the women, of course, the grander
ones, with turbans cut in the grey stone, for the men--had sunk into
the ground until they stood at strange angles. The rough white stones
had become grey with age, and many of them were sadly broken.
A donkey-boy, who had perchance taken some portly Turkish merchant back
to his home in the country after his day's work in the city, came
hurrying down the hill. It was steep, and loose stones covered the
path. When he reached the dilapidated cemetery he pulled up his
suffering animal. Michael, from his hidden corner, watched the boy
fling himself from the donkey's back; the animal remained motionless,
while its rider, in his one garment--a short white shirt, which only
reached to the knees of his tanned legs--stepped in amongst the
gravestones. Finding the one he sought, he said a short prayer beside
it in devout tones, then hastened back to his donkey. When he started
down the hill and the tired beast stumbled, he belaboured it with a
heavy stick and cursed it. His foul language rang out into the
stillness; it echoed among the stones under which lay the bones of his
ancestor--or was it, perhaps, the bones of some humble saint, whose
favour he was inciting?
The little incident was as illustrative of the effects of Islam as the
peace within the courts of el-Azhar.
Michael sat in the cemetery, which had seemed to him to be of no more
consequence than a heap of stones by the wayside, awaiting the
roadmender's hammer. Yet, with the strange inconsequence of Orientals,
it was evidently a sacred spot. It had its pilgrims and its uses.
This city cemetery brought to his mind the drifting sand of the open
desert, and the ever-increasing mound which Nature was piling up over
the bones of the holy man, which lay in an ocean of sweet silence and
expanse.