Burning Sands Part 18

He was aroused from his reverie by the sound of horses' hoofs, and, looking up, he saw a man and two women approaching him at a fast trot.

Behind them were the Pyramids, and in the far distance the minarets and domes of the great city rose into the splendour of the sunlight from above the opalescent mist of the morning, backed by the shadows of the eastern hills. The air now in the first days of December was cool and sharp; and there was a sparkle in the sunshine which only this time of day enjoys.

The picture was exquisite, and for a moment his eyes rested upon it entranced. Then he turned his attention to the three figures coming towards him, and, with sudden excitement, he recognized the foremost of the three as Lady Muriel.

She reined in her horse and waved her hand. "I guessed it was you," she cried.

Without waiting for his camel to kneel, Daniel slid from the high saddle and dropped to the ground.

"Why, what are you doing out here at this time of day?" he asked her, as, leading his camel behind him, he hastened to her side and grasped her hand. "I'm mighty glad to see you."

She turned to her companions, Mr. and Mrs. Benifett Bindane, and introduced them to Daniel. She had been spending the night at Mena House Hotel, she explained, where the Bindanes were staying, and the fresh morning air having aroused her before sunrise, she had had an early breakfast and had come out for a canter over the desert.

"I spotted you a long way off," she said. "I knew you by your hat, if it is a hat." Somehow she did not feel so shy of him as at their meeting at the Residency.

"I guess I'm going to shock you all in Cairo with that hat," he laughed.

"It's an old friend, and old friends are best."

"Am I an old friend?" she asked.

"Pretty old," he answered. "I've known you for four years, you must remember."

She told him that her father was not expecting his arrival for some days, and that she feared no room had yet been prepared for him.

"But I'm not going to stay in the house," he answered quickly. "You didn't think I'd come and live in the town, did you?"

Muriel felt somewhat relieved. Even if the feelings of ease in his society which at the moment she was experiencing were to last, she had no particular wish to have him always about the house, nor present at every meal.

"Well, where are you going to live?" she asked.

He glanced around him. They were standing upon a level area of hard sand, in the shadow of a spur of rock which formed the head of a low ridge. The broken surface of the desert was spread out to their gaze to north, east and west; but the rocks shut off the view towards the south.

The caravan had strayed considerably from the beaten track; and the sand hereabouts was smooth and unmarked, except by their own footprints and by those of the desert larks which were now singing high overhead.

"Where am I going to live?" he repeated, suddenly coming to a decision, in his impulsive way. "Why right here where we stand. It shall be my home: just where I shook hands with you."

Muriel glanced at him, wondering whether his words contained any deep significance; but, by his smiling face, she judged that they did not.

He looked about him with interest. "It couldn't be bettered," he exclaimed. "It's a good mile-and-a-half back from the Pyramids, and well out of the way of people. I'll ride in to Mena House on my camel every morning, and take the tram into Cairo from there."

Mr. Bindane stared at him open-mouthed.

"Rather far away, isn't it?" he commented. "A bit lonely at nights."

Daniel laughed. "I suppose there's something wrong with me," he answered. "I'm always happiest alone."

Kate Bindane picked up her reins. "I think that's the bird, Benifett, my love," she remarked, "in fact the screeching peac.o.c.k."

Her husband looked blankly at her.

"'The bird'," Kate explained; "a theatrical term indicating peremptory dismissal."

By this time the train of camels was within fifty yards of them; and Daniel called out to his men to halt. His servant Hussein came forward, and took charge of his camel.

"I'll pitch my camp at once," he said to Muriel. "Then I can go and announce myself to your father this afternoon."

Acting on an impulse, a desire to establish friendly relations at the outset, Muriel dismounted from her horse. "Do let me stay and help you,"

she suggested.

"Sure," said Daniel. He called to one of his men to hold her horse.

Muriel turned and explained the situation to her friend Kate.

"The man's practically going to live with us," she whispered: "I'd better make friends."

"Oh, rot!" said Kate. "He's a picturesque lunatic, and you're a bit mad yourself, and it's a lovely day, and you've got nothing to do, and you know you look a dream in that riding kit." She turned to her husband.

"Come along, Benifett; her ladyship's going to spend the day with the gent from the Wild West."

Muriel laughed. "I'll ride back to the hotel soon," she said.

"No hurry, old sport," replied Kate; and, after a few polite remarks to Daniel, she and her pliant husband trotted away.

Muriel at once began to survey the surroundings. She clambered up the sand drift to the top of the spur of rock, and there, in the fresh morning breeze, she stood with her hand shading her eyes, gazing over the undulating s.p.a.ces of the desert. She felt like a child beginning a holiday at the seaside and investigating the possibilities of the sands.

The brisk morning air, the brilliant sunshine, the blue sky in which a few little puffs of white cloud were floating, the golden desert with its patches of strongly contrasted shadow, the distant green of the Nile valley, the far-away minarets of the city, the singing of the larks, the excited barkings of the three dogs, and the shouts of the camel-men: these sights and sounds seemed to be full of vivid life.

The shadow of her recent sorrow was quite removed from her mind; and though her furious attempts at gaiety of late had been sadly unsuccessful, this morning she felt that the world still contained wonderful possibilities of adventure, and it must be admitted that her fidelity to the memory of Rupert Helsingham was already indeterminate.

She turned and watched Daniel as he helped in the work of unloading the camels. He had taken off his coat, and his shirt sleeves were rolled back from his mighty arms. He was wearing a shabby old pair of riding breeches and gaiters; and the b.u.t.t of his heavy revolver protruded from his hip pocket. His wide-brimmed hat was pulled over his bronzed face, and his pipe was in his mouth. He appeared to be lifting enormous loads with incredible ease; and just now he had set all his Bedouin laughing by walking off unceremoniously with a huge bundle of tenting, in the ropes of which one of the natives had become entangled, thereby dragging the astonished man across the sand as a puppy might be dragged at the end of a string.

Presently he came towards her, beckoning to her; and she slid down the sandy slope to meet him.

"Look here," he said, "this'll be a long job. I wish you'd let me send your horse away: I'll be wanting the man who's holding him soon."

Muriel felt abashed, and something of her old hostility returned to her.

"I'd better go," she said. "I'm in your way."

"No," he answered quickly "I don't want you to go. I like you to be here-very much indeed."

His obvious sincerity appeased her. He fetched a notebook and pencil from the pocket of his coat, and handed them to her.

"I'll send your horse back to the hotel," he said. "Please write a note to your friends."

"What d'you want me to say?" she asked, taking the writing materials from him, her eyes curiously wide open, and having in them that characteristic expression of a.s.sumed and mischievous innocence.

"Say this," he replied, and, with mock obedience, she wrote at his dictation: "Mr. Lane insists on my working. Please 'phone to my father that he has arrived, and that I will bring him to the Residency for tea.

I'll look in at the hotel in the early afternoon."

"Anything else?" she asked with a laugh. "Won't you send a few directions to my maid to pack my things, and order a car to take us into Cairo?"