The camp fire was dying in the gloomy hour before the dawn. In the
Great Desert the light comes early from the far-off Holy City, golden as
the Prophet's glory, to light our footsteps in those trackless waterless
wastes which are shunned by man and forgotten by Allah. My tribesmen of
the Azjar, still wrapped in their black veils, were sleeping soundly
prior to the long march of the coming day, and all was quiet save the
howling of a desert fox, and the shuffling tread of the sentries as they
traversed the camp from end to end, silent and weird in their long black
burnouses and veils. Alone, I was sitting gazing into the dying embers,
deep in thought. I had been unable to sleep, for a strange premonition
of danger oppressed me. We were in the country of the Taitok, a tribe
of pure Arabs, fierce in battle, who when united with the Kel-Rhela,
their neighbours, were among our most formidable opponents. The Sheikhs
of both tribes had made treaty with the French, and placed their country
beneath the protection of the tricolour of the Infidels, therefore in
our expedition, against their town of Azal, we knew that we must meet
with considerable opposition.
We had exercised every caution in our advance, travelling by various
ancient dried-up watercourses known only to us, "The Breath of the
Wind," approaching in secret the town we intended to loot and burn as a
reprisal for an attack made upon us a month before. But the report of a
spy, who had gone forward to Azal, was exceedingly discouraging. The
French had occupied the Kasbah, the red-burnoused Spahis were swaggering
about the streets and market-places, while the tricolour floated over
the city gate, and the fierce fighting men of the Taitok were now
fearless of any invader. It was this report which caused me
considerable uneasiness, and I was calmly reflecting whether to turn off
to the east into the barren Ahaggar, or to push forward and measure our
strength with our enemies, the Infidels, when suddenly my eyes,
sharpened by a lifetime of desert wandering, detected a dark crouching
figure moving in the gloom at a little distance from me. In an instant
I snatched up my rifle and covered it. Unconscious of how near death
was, the mysterious stranger still moved slowly across, lying upon his
stomach and dragging himself along the sand in the direction of my tent.
As I looked, a slight flash caught my eye. It was the gleam of the
flickering flame upon burnished steel. The man held a knife, and at the
door of my tent raised himself before entering, then disappeared within.
Quick as thought I jumped up, drew my keen double-edged _jambiyah_ from
my girdle, and noiselessly sped towards my tent, drawing aside the flap,
and dashing in to capture the intruder.
The dark figure was bending over a portfolio wherein I keep certain
writings belonging to the tribe, the compacts of friends and the threats
of foes.
"Thou art my prisoner!" I cried fiercely, halting inside, casting aside
my knife and raising my rifle.
The figure turned quickly with a slight scream, and by the feeble light
of my hanging-lamp I was amazed to detect the features of a woman,
young, beautiful, with a face almost as white as those of the Roumi
women who sit at cafes in Algiers.
"Mercy, O Ahamadou!" she implored, next second casting herself upon her
knees before me. "True, I have fallen prisoner into thine hands, but
the Book of Everlasting Will declares that thou shalt neither hold in
slavery nor kill those who art thy friends. I crave thy mercy, for
indeed I am thy friend."
"Yet thou seekest my life with that knife in thine hand!" I cried in
anger. "Whence comest thou?" I demanded, for her Arabic was a dialect
entirely strange to me.
"From a country afar--a region which no man knoweth," she answered.
"The country of the Azjar is the whole of the Great Desert," I answered,
with pride. "Every rock and every wady is known unto them."
"Not every wady," she replied, smiling mysteriously. "They know not the
Land of Akkar, nor the City of the Golden Tombs."
"The Land of Akkar!" I gasped, for Akkar was a region which only
existed in the legendary lore of the Bedouins, and was supposed to be a
fabulous country, wherein lived a mysterious race of white people, and
where was concealed the enormous treasure captured during the Mussulman
Conquest. "Knowest thou actually the position of the wondrous Land of
Akkar?"
"It is my home," she answered in soft sibillation, as stretching forth
my hand I motioned her to rise. I saw that her beauty and grace were
perfect. She wore no veil, but her dark robe was dusty and stained by
long travel, while her striking beauty was enhanced by a string of cut
emeralds of great size and lustre across her brow, in place of the
sequins with which our women decorate themselves. She wore no other
jewels, save a single diamond upon the index-finger of the right hand, a
stone of wondrous size and brilliancy. It seemed to gleam like some
monster eye as she sank upon the divan near, a slight sigh of fatigue
escaping her.
"And thy name?" I enquired.
"Nara, daughter of Kiagor," she answered. "And thou art the great
Ahamadou, whom all men fear from Lake Tsad, even unto the confines of
Algeria, the leader of the dreaded Breath of the Wind. In our secret
land reports of thy prowess and ferocity in the fight, of thy leniency
towards the women and children of thine enemies, have already reached
us, therefore I travelled alone to seek thee."
And she looked up into my face, her full red lips parted in a smile.
"Why?" I enquired, puzzled.
"Because I crave the protection of thine host of black-veiled warriors,"
she answered. "Our land of Akkar is threatened by an invasion of the
Infidel English, who have sent two spies northward from the Niger. May
Allah burn their vitals! They succeeded in penetrating into our
mountain fastness, and were captured by our scouts. One was killed, but
the other escaped. He has, undoubtedly, gone back to his own people;
and they will advance upon us, for they are a nation the most powerful
and most fearless in all the world."
"Of a verity thy lips utter truth," I observed, "for we once fought in
the Dervish ranks against the English on the Nile bank, and were cut
down like sun-dried grass before the scythe. But who hath sent thee as
messenger to me?"
"I come on my own behalf," she responded. "I am ruler of the Akkar."
It was strange, sitting there in conversation with the ruler of a
mysterious region, the existence of which every Arab in the Soudan and
the Sahara firmly believed, yet no man had ever set foot in the
legendary country, the fabulous wealth and strange sights of which were
related by every story-teller from Khartoum even unto Timbuktu. And yet
Nara, the Queen of Akkar, was a guest within my camp, and had fallen
upon her knees before me in supplication. Ambition was fired within me
to visit her wondrous land of the silent dead, and I announced my
readiness to effect a treaty with her, first accompanying her alone to
see the wonders of her mystic realm. As I spoke, however, a curious
change appeared to come over her. Her face flushed slightly, her eyes
gleamed with a fiery glance, and there was a hardness about her mouth,
which, for one brief moment, caused me suspicion.
"Thou art welcome, O Ahamadou!" she answered, smiling bewitchingly, next
instant. "We will start even now, if thou wilt, for no time must be
lost ere thine armed men unite with the guards of my kingdom to resist
the accursed English, that white-faced tribe whom Eblis hath marked as
his own. Let us speed on the wings of haste, and within a week thou
mayest be back here within thine own camp."
And she rose in readiness to go forth.
"My _meheri_ is tethered behind yon rock," she continued, pointing out
beyond the camp where a great dark rock loomed forth against the
fast-clearing sky. "Join me there, and I will guide thy footsteps unto
my City of the Golden Tombs."
Whilst she went forth secretly I called Malela, son of Tamahu, and
imparted to him the circumstances, telling him of my intention to go
secretly to Akkar, and giving him instructions how to preserve from the
tribe the fact that I was absent. Malela was one of the fiercest of
desert-pirates, as valiant a man as ever drew a _jambiyah_ against an
enemy; but when I mentioned my intended visit to the silent legendary
land, the wealth and terrors of which he had heard hundreds of times
from the lips of the story-tellers and marabouts, his face paled beneath
its bronze.
"May the One of Praise envelope thee with the cloak of His protection,"
he ejaculated with heartfelt fervency. "Have we not heard of the awful
tortures of those in the mute land--the mysterious region which the
Moors have declared to be the veritable dwelling-place of Eblis, the
region inhabited by those who have served the Devil and refused both the
blessings of Allah and the intercessions of his Prophet?"
"Are not the Azjar without fear, and is not Ahamadou their leader?" I
asked proudly, reflecting upon Nara's marvellous beauty, and feeling an
intense curiosity to visit the country wherein no man had hitherto set
foot. Again, had not the Queen of Akkar singled out the Veiled Men of
the Azjar as her allies against the eaters of unclean meat, the Infidels
whose bodies Allah will burn with his all-consuming fire.
Again Malela uttered a prayer to the One, as he stood facing the Holy
Ca'aba, and I, too, murmured a _sura_ as I thrust some cartridges into
my pouch, drew tighter my belt with its amulets sewn within, and buckled
on my sword with the wondrous jewel in the hilt--the mark of
chieftainship--for I was to be guest of the Queen of an unknown land.
Then, with a whispered farewell to Tamahu's son, I stole forth, treading
softly among my sleeping tribesmen, and carefully avoiding the sentries
until I came to my own swift camel, I mounted it, and a few minutes
later joined my handsome guide. She had already mounted, and had
twisted a white haick about her face until only her eyes and the row of
emeralds across her brow remained visible.
It is needless to recount the long breathless days we spent together in
journeying westward, resting by day and travelling ever in the track of
the blood-red afterglow, until we came upon a range of giant
snow-crested mountains, as great as the monster Atlas that loom as a
barrier between ourselves and the so-called civilisation of the Franks.
"Yonder," she said, pointing to them, when first their grandeur burst
upon our view in the pale rose of dawn. "Yonder is our land which none
can enter, save those who know the secret way. There are but two
entrances--one here and the other far south, the way through which the
English have unfortunately discovered."
"Then on all sides but one thy kingdom is impregnable," I observed,
gazing with amazement at the serrated barrier, which seemed to rise
until it reached the misty cloud-land.
"On all but one," she answered. "Those who know not the secret must
meet with death, because of the dangers by which Akkar is surrounded as
safeguards against her enemies."
Throughout two days we travelled, slowly approaching the snowy range,
and one night we halted beside a narrow lake, beyond which was
practically an impassable barrier of rugged cliffs and towering
mountains. The night was moonless, and as I laid down to sleep, only
the rippling of the water lapping the pebbles broke the appalling
stillness. At last, however, I dropped off into a heavy slumber, and
was only awakened by a strange roar in my ears like the thunder of a
cataract.
I put forth my hand and tried to open my eyes, but both efforts were
alike useless. To my amazement I found my hands secured behind me, and
my eyes blindfolded.
Then, in an instant, it occurred to me that I had been entrapped. I
struggled and fought to free myself, for the air was hot and stifling,
and I felt myself being asphyxiated with a deadening roar in my ears,
and a close indescribable odour in my nostrils. In my attempt to tear
the irritating bandage from my eyes, my head came suddenly into contact
with something soft. I placed my cheek against it, and found to my
amazement that I was lying on some kind of silken divan, my head
supported by an embroidered cushion of the kind usual in our harems.
But the odour about me was not the intoxicating fragrance of burning
pastilles, but a damp mouldy smell, as of a chamber long closed.
How long my mental torture and sense of utter helplessness continued I
know not. All I recollect is that, of a sudden, the air seemed fresher
and cooler, the thunder of the waters died away instantly, and the smell
of the charnel-house gave place to a delicate perfume of fresh flowers.
There was a genial warmth upon my cheeks, and I awakened to the fact
that the sun was shining upon me, when I felt a hand unloosen the
bandage tied behind my head, and heard the voice of Nara say--
"Lo, the danger is past. Thou art in Akkar," and she drew away the
piece of black folded silk that had held me without vision.
In abject amazement I looked around stupefied. We were together in a
kind of boat shaped like an inverted funnel, which opened only at the
top and could be closed at will by a complicated arrangement of levers
and wire ropes, a subaquatic vessel fitted with comfortable lounges,
having a lighted lamp hanging in the centre. Everything--seats, tables,
and all the fittings--swung in rings, therefore, whichever way the boat
rolled, even though it might turn complete somersaults, those riding in
it could remain seated without inconvenience. On looking back I saw
that the narrow stream we were navigating was fed by a mighty torrent
that rushed from the mountain-side, a roaring, boiling flood which sent
up a great column of spray, reflecting in the sunlight all the colours
of the spectrum; and I also observed that we had entered the Land of
Akkar by means of that strangely-shaped boat of bolted iron plates as
strong as the war-ships of the Infidels, and were now in a deep and
fertile valley, having descended from the lake by an unknown
subterranean watercourse through the very heart of the giant mountain.
I gazed about me in blank amazement, for even as my conductress spoke,
she deftly stretched forth a pole and arrested the progress of the boat
at a flight of well-worn steps, while above, my wondering eyes fell upon
the great white facade of a palace with an enormous gilded dome.
"Yonder is my dwelling-place," she explained with a wave of the hand,
and as we stepped upon the bank a crowd of fierce-looking armed warriors
appeared, raising their spears high in salutation.
"This is Ahamadou," she explained, "the dreaded Sheikh of the Azjar, who
hath come to make brotherhood with us. He is guest of Nara, thy Ruler."
"Welcome, O Ahamadou!" they cried, with one voice. "Of a verity thou
art the lion of the desert, for the leader of the Breath of the Wind
knoweth not fear."
"I am thy friend, O friends," I answered, as by Nara's side I strode
onward to the wondrous palace, so magnificent, yet of such delicate
architecture that one marvelled how human hands could have fashioned it.
The country I had entered was red with flowers and green with many
leaves; a fruitful, peaceful region, the spires and domes of the great
City of the Golden Tombs rising in the distance far down the valley,
white and clear-cut as cameos against the liquid gold of the sunset.
Together we ascended the long flight of marble steps which led to the
great colonnade, and gave entrance to a palace of similar design to
those of the ancient palaces of Egypt in those forgotten days long
before the Prophet. As our feet touched the last step, the air was rent
by a fanfare of a hundred trumpets, causing the valley to re-echo. Then
a file of armed men, headed by the blood-red banner of Akkar, lined our
route, bowing low as we passed on into a hall, high vaulted and of
enormous proportions, in the centre of which stood a wonderful throne of
gold, covered with hundreds upon hundreds of eyes of every variety and
size, wrought in gems to imitate those of human beings and of animals.
As I gazed upon it I suddenly recollected what I had heard from the
story-tellers about this wondrous seat of Akkar's Queen. It was the
ancient throne whereon, for nearly two thousand years, the rulers of the
City of the Golden Tombs had sat, and was known in legendary lore as the
Throne of the Thousand Eyes, each eye recording a battle, and being
formed of the greatest gem taken in the loot on that occasion. As I
approached I saw that some were of diamonds, others of rubies, of
emeralds, of jade, of jacinth, of jasper, of pearl, and of sapphires,
each perfectly formed, but some kindly-looking, while on others the
expression was that of terror, of hatred, or of agony, truly the
strangest and weirdest seat of royalty in all the world.
Around me the excitement rose to fever-heat as the people assembled, and
Nara seated herself upon the throne after casting aside the
travel-stained haick she had worn on the journey. I saw everywhere
evidences of unbounded riches. The silken robes of the courtiers were
sewn with jewels, and as their queen sank among her soft cushions, and
her women put upon her necklaces and anklets of enormous worth, the
great chamber became filled with the clank of arms and the murmur of
many voices, while I was closely scrutinised and my appearance commented
upon. Suddenly, the great Queen rose, lifting her arms, and with an
expression of uncontrollable anger upon her white face, said--
"Lo, my people, hear this my word! I have travelled afar into the
country of our enemies, and have brought hither the person of Ahamadou,
their chief."
"I am not thine enemy, O Queen!" I hastened to assure her. "Thine
ally, if thou wilt."
"I have brought hither this man," she cried, "I have brought him hither
in fulfilment of my oath in order that punishment shall be meted out to
him."
"Punishment!" I gasped, wondering if I had taken leave of my senses.
"Remember, that this man is Ahamadou, chief of the pirates, who have
captured so many of our caravans, and who slew my son Kourra, heir to
this my throne, six moons ago!" she cried, in a paroxysm of rage,
lifting her thin bare arms, her face growing hideous in her fearful
ebullition of anger. I saw that I had fallen helplessly into the hands
of my enemies, and bit my lip without uttering a single word. To escape
from that unexplored rock-bound kingdom was hopeless. I could only show
them that fear dwelleth not in the heart of an Azjar, even though
thousands lifted their hands against him.
"I have," she cried, "sought out this man, alone and unaided, according
to the oath I took before the sacred scarabaeus upon this the Throne of
the Thousand Eyes, and conducted him hither in order that ye may pass
judgment upon him. Speak, say what torture shall he undergo?"