Burning Sands Part 31

She laughed. "Oh, I knew he was a man a bonne fortunes. He had many girls; but in love all women are like the Orientals, is it not?-and I was content to have my day, like the new one in the harim of the Egyptian pasha here...."

Daniel suddenly clenched the fingers of his hand which rested upon the table. Muriel's words came into his mind: "You can put me in your harim if you want to." They rang in his ears again, and his heart seemed to stand still in fear.

The murmur of Lizette's voice continued, and he listened in terror now as she told of her second love.

"Then one night," she was saying, "we walked together on the road by the sea, the Chemin de la Corniche, you know; and the beautiful stars were in the sky, and there were little lights across the water on the islands of Ratonneau and Pomegne. And I was so tired, and I sat down on the rocks by the sea, and we were all alone...."

Daniel stopped her with a sudden movement of his hand. "I know, I know,"

he said. "Don't tell me!"

"O, I soon forgot my love," she laughed, thinking that the intensity with which he spoke denoted his concern for her sorrows. "A few months, a few weeks, perhaps, and it was finish. Then some one else, and some one else, and some one else...."

He rose from the table, sick at heart. "I must be going," he said. "If you will accept my offer, write to me at the Residency, and I'll send you the money for you to go to your brother."

She looked at his troubled face with a question in her eyes. "I think you not like me," she sighed. "I think you have the disgust."

He shook his head. "No," he answered, "I think you were not much different from other women at first."

"And afterwards?"

"I suppose one's feelings soon get blunted," he replied; "and you had need of money."

She a.s.sumed an expression, an att.i.tude, not far removed from dignity.

"Thank you for being-how you say? _fair_ to me," she said.

He paid his bill, and walked out of the cafe into the blaze of the afternoon sun; but between him and its brilliance the shadow of doubt had descended. "I am not the first of Muriel's lovers," he groaned in his heart. "How do I know that I am the last?"

He walked through the city, seeing nothing, hearing nothing, by reason of the clamour in his mind; but as he came down to the river, he raised his eyes and stared out into the west, where the sun was descending towards the far-off hills of the wilderness.

He stood stock still, and his lips moved. "Oh, peace of mind!" he was whispering. "Will you never come down to me here in the valley? Must I go up into the desert to find you once more?"

CHAPTER XX-PRIVATE INTERESTS

When Benifett Bindane found himself writing "February 1st" upon his letters, he suddenly became the victim of a violent fit of energy. Time was pa.s.sing, and not much progress had been made with his great scheme for the floating of the Egyptian Oases Development Company. By nature he was indolent, and he had thoroughly enjoyed his three months basking in the Egyptian sun. It was always a great pleasure to him to sit in the warmest corner of a veranda, to glance at the _Financial News_, and then to stare in front of him with an empty countenance and a mind full of wonderful commercial schemes.

He had the habit of thinking in millions; and his brain, in many ways so deficient, was capable of visualizing an extraordinarily prolonged repet.i.tion of the figure "o" at the end of any sum in pounds sterling.

He had quickly made himself master of all the available information in regard to the territory in question, but there were a great many points on which he desired enlightenment before he made his projected grand tour through the Oases at the end of this month. He wished to go there fully primed, so that he should not fail to take note of all those matters on which personal observation might prove to be of value; but now the calendar had awakened him to the fact of the days' rapid pa.s.sage, and he was obliged to make a serious effort to put some stiffening into the loose fabric of his bones and brain.

In the secret council-chamber of his mind he had decided that Daniel Lane was the one man really essential to the project, and it was his main object now to enlist his services. He wondered what was the lowest high salary that would tempt him; and he thought out many very fantastic schemes for getting him away from the Residency. Lady Muriel was the real obstacle; for Kate had kept him informed as to the progress of her friend's love affair, and he realized that as matters now stood there would be the utmost difficulty in persuading Daniel to abandon his present post. Steps, however, in the desired direction ought to be taken; and at any rate there would be no harm in ascertaining the possibilities of the matter.

He therefore telephoned to Lord Blair asking for an immediate interview; and as the clock struck noon he was being ushered into the Great Man's presence.

Lord Blair received him in a very businesslike manner. A large map of the Oases was spread upon the writing-table, entirely covering the chronic litter of papers heaped thereon, and, indeed, covering the greater part of his lordship himself as he sat in his desk-chair; while upon a side-table there were numerous chorographic memoranda, and a variety of type-written reports made upon the subject the last few years.

Lord Blair opened the proceedings by describing to his visitor the arrangements which had already been made for the forthcoming tour.

"The camels and camping-equipment are bespoken," he said; "perhaps you would like to see the list of articles to be supplied."

He lifted the map, and dived his head under it in search of the doc.u.ment, while Benifett Bindane stared vacantly at the folds of the large sheet which rose and fell, like pantomime waves, as Lord Blair moved about under it.

At length the long type-written inventory was found, and for some minutes Mr. Bindane stared at it with dull, watery eyes. He might have been thought to have gone off into a trance; and Lord Blair had begun to fidget when at last the list was handed back.

"Please add 'one tea-tray' and 'one toasting-fork,'" said Mr. Bindane.

"That's all that is omitted, I think."

Lord Blair was profoundly impressed; but his rising enthusiasm was somewhat damped when presently his visitor broached the subject which was uppermost in his mind.

"There are certain points about which I wish to be informed," said Mr.

Bindane, "before I go out to the Oases." He drew a piece of paper from his pocketbook. "Here they are. Do you think it would be possible for Mr. Lane to give me his help?"

"Mr. Lane?" queried Lord Blair. "Why?"

"Because I think Mr. Lane's advice is essential to the scheme," replied Mr. Bindane.

Lord Blair spread out his hands. "Oh, but I don't think he can be spared just now," he protested.

"I thought I understood you to tell me," said the other, "that the political situation was extremely quiet just at present. I was hoping you might let Mr. Lane turn his attention now to the Oases."

"My dear sir," Lord Blair replied, leaning back in his chair, "the quiet times that we are having, that we are enjoying, are very largely due to Daniel Lane. His influence with the natives is extraordinary, quite phenomenal."

"Yes, I know," Mr. Bindane replied, his face devoid of expression. "That is why I want him for the scheme."

Lord Blair leaned forward. "I don't quite follow. Do I understand you to mean that you want him to be a.s.sociated definitely with the enterprise?"

Benifett Bindane's mouth fell open more loosely than usual, and for a second or two he stared vacantly before him. "Yes," he answered, at length. "I want him to be our General Manager."

Lord Blair started. "Tut, tut!" he e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed, "By the time the company is floated I expect Daniel Lane will have made himself altogether indispensable to his Majesty's Government here at the Residency."

There was an uncomfortable silence. "I was counting on his support,"

said Mr. Bindane, presently. "Without it I don't know whether I would be inclined to find the necessary capital."

Lord Blair instantly accepted the challenge. "Then the project will have to be shelved," he replied, sharply: and when he spoke sharply there was no doubt about his being the "Great Man."

Benifett Bindane, however, appeared to be entirely unmoved. "I don't think Mr. Lane is as happy now as he was when he lived in the desert,"

he mused.

Lord Blair rose to his feet. "Please regard his services as unavailable, quite unavailable, for this project," he said deliberately, "except in an occasional advisory capacity."

Mr. Bindane had also risen, and now the two stood facing one another.

Outwardly the trim, eager little man and the tall, lifeless figure before him might have appeared to the eye to be friendly enough; but a reader of hearts would have detected in them two opposing forces arrayed for battle, the one having in mind the extension of the prestige of England, the other the increase of his private fortune.

Meanwhile, in the library, another of life's little plays was being enacted.

Lord Barthampton had come to the Residency to invite Lady Muriel to a picnic on the following day, and she had just disappointed him by saying that she was already engaged. He had arrived with such a flourish, spanking up to the door in his high dogcart, his little "tiger" leaping to the cob's head as he pulled up, and the morning sunshine sparkling on the harness and the varnished woodwork; and now, after waiting a very long time in the rather severe library, Lady Muriel had come in and had told him that every moment of her time was booked up apparently for weeks to come.