Desert Love Part 6

Three times she had been in actual danger of death: once when her horse bolted, making straight for the cliffs a short way ahead; another time when the receding tide had caught her, pulling her slowly out to sea, and never a boat in sight; and again when taking a pre-breakfast stroll on the Col di Tenda, she had encountered a fugitive of the law desperately making for the frontier, who, half crazed with fear, sleeplessness, and hunger, literally at the point of an exceedingly sharp knife had demanded money, or bracelet, in fact anything which could be transformed into a mattress, and coffee, polenta, cigarette or succulent frittata.

After each of the preceding incidents she had tried to a.n.a.lyse her utter want of feeling, her inability to recognise danger, her almost placid confidence in an ultimate happy ending.

"It doesn't seem to be me, Dads," she had once explained, or tried to explain, to her father, who, in the depths of an armchair and the _Sporting News_, had no more idea of what she was talking about than the man in the moon. "I seem to be standing outside myself looking at myself. A sort of something seems to come right down, shutting the danger right away from me. I know I'm in it and have to get out of it, but though I pulled Arabia for all I knew, and swam for all I was worth to reach Rock Point, and bluffed that poor devil out of taking Mumsie's bracelet, I kind of did it mechanically, not with any intention of putting things right, for I knew I was not going to die that time, because I'm sure that I shall _know_ when I've got to die . . .

understand, Dads?"

To which Dads had replied:

"Quite so, my dear, quite so! Personally I don't see how it could be otherwise. I agree with every word you say!" patting his red setter's head, which in the firelight he fondly believed to be his daughter's.

CHAPTER XII

And so it was now as she sat under the African moon, whilst little rings and puffs of smoke helped to irritate the insects ensconced in the leaves of the creeper. She seemed to be standing on the other side of a wall, watching the outcome of the tossing of a silver coin.

"I've had a perfectly awful day," she announced with a ripple of genuine amus.e.m.e.nt in her voice as she proceeded quite unconcernedly to recount the doings of the last few hours.

"So naturally I was followed from the restaurant," she went on after a moment's pause, "and my bag was so heavy, and I was absolutely lost, and only just managed to give the man the slip by hiding behind a half-open door, painted bright blue of all colours."

"Allah!" murmured Hahmed. "An English girl hiding in a house with a blue door!"

"But," she went on, having for some unknown reason omitted the dance episode from her narrative, "that wasn't the worst part"--and continued, quite unconcernedly, to give a detailed account of the night's happenings. Whilst she was speaking the Arab moved nearer until he stood over her, there was neither shadow nor frown upon the fine face, or movement of lip or hand, but the air seemed to throb with the intensity of the white-hot rage within him.

"By Allah!" he said quite gently, as he took the emerald ring Jill held out. "I do not need this, for behold for many years I have known of the doings of this thing of whom you speak. And yet so great has been his cunning, that until to-night I have never been able to lay hands upon him in his guilt. But to-morrow will dawn a brighter day for Egypt, in that she will be rid of one of her greatest evils. And were you not afraid?"

Jill smiled up into the eyes fixed with love, plus worship, plus reverence, upon her. "I? Oh! no! Why should I be when I am supposed to be one of the finest shots in Europe? Are you going to kill him?"

"He will be dead ere the sun rises, and I beg you to forgive me if I leave you for a while, for I must go to give orders as to his death."

Jill's thoughts can be most aptly described as tumultuous, but her smile was a festival of youth as she watched the Arab, in whom she had put her trust, walk up the long avenue, stop, and clap his hands.

She could hear no word of the orders given to the servant, who ran from out a clump of trees to kneel at his master's feet, but she guessed that it was the engraven emerald ring which pa.s.sed from one to the other to be hidden in the servant's turban; and she felt a wave of absolute satisfaction sweep through her whole being at the thought of the man's death before the dawn.

At which sensation she mentally shook herself, feeling that the young tree of her experience, unrestrainedly shooting out in all directions within the s.p.a.ce of a few hours, would require the sharp edge of the pruning knife if it was to be kept to the merest outline of the shape common to the ordinary life she had led up to now.

"It is well! He dies before the dawn!" announced the Arab prosaically, as he came towards this woman who, on the edge of a new life which might, for all she knew, bring ruin, despair, or even death in its wake, could so tranquilly talk of the risks she had already encountered in the course of the first few steps she had taken upon the path she had chosen to follow.

"And tell me, O! woman, whose courage causes me to marvel, how once happily escaped from the house of few windows and but one apparent door, did you find your way to these gates?"

"Oh! that!" said Jill, as she sat with her hands about her knee and her face upturned to the moon, which, throwing a deep shadow from the hat brim across the upper part of her face, made of the deep eyes a mystery, and a delirious invitation of the red mouth. "Amongst other till now useless accomplishments, I have learned to guide myself by the stars, though I'm positive they move over here. I had noticed that big one there, which we haven't got in England, that very big sparkling one, hung over the quarter in which the waiting-maid told me lay your house."

"Yes!" replied the man who, though he knew the West so well, was secretly wondering at the trait in a character which allowed a _woman_, on the edge of something unknown, fraught, perhaps, with every kind of danger, to talk unconcernedly of hotels, face creams, blue doors, and stars. "That is the Star of Happiness, it hangs also right in the middle of my oasis, right over my desert dwelling," and the string of beads hanging from the waist slipped through the long fingers as words of prayer fell softly on the perfumed air.

The girl got up and walked over to the camels.

"So I followed my star and suddenly found myself at the gates! Is this my ship of the desert--and what a beautiful coat, the dear thing,"

starting back as the dear thing turned its bead suddenly, bared its teeth and snarled.

"Don't be afraid, she is always nervous with strangers, also is she a little spoilt, being the fastest and most perfect Bactrian camel in the whole of Egypt and Arabia. Her pedigree, on parchment embossed with gold, goes back almost to Ismael, and is kept in a Millwell safe in my oasis, which shows that East does meet West occasionally. She has, up to to-night, known no rider but me, and is used only for short journeys of about seven days; you see these two-humped beasts can only go three days with comfort without a drink, but their pace is so smooth that it almost induces one to sleep. Also Taffadaln, which means welcome, a name given to her after her mother had foaled three he-camels, has a special guard both day and night, for there are many who covet her, for she is the queen of camels, with her blood and breeding enhanced by many years of training and special treatment. But alas! though her coat is as silk, the cushions of her feet without fault, and her teeth unblemished ivory, her manners are as ill-bred, and her indifference to those who love her as great as that of the lowest of her species which pollute the streets of Cairo." And leaning down he patted the beast's head, speaking to her in the native tongue, whereupon she made juicy, gurgling sounds in her long throat, and nuzzled the flowing sleeve, which might have meant affection in any other animal but a camel.

"More extremes," he added, as a long, soft blast of a motor-horn sounded just outside the walls. "Will you not sit down whilst I explain things for the last time," unwinding, as he spoke, the soft black cloak from about him, and folding it to make a cushion for the stone, standing silhouetted against the shadow of the walls, whilst the slight breeze blowing the snow-white raiment outlined the tremendous width of shoulder, the slimness of the waist, and the muscular leanness of the whole body.

And Jill sat down with a suddenness surprising in so controlled a person, and to hide a sudden rush of rosy colour which swept uncontrollably from chin to brow, extracted another cigarette from the Russian case.

"'Simon Artz,' I am sure! May I not offer you one of mine? They are all made especially and only for me. And do you prize the case? No!"

As the girl shook her head he took the wooden trifle from her, closed his hand gently, and, crushing it to matchwood, dropped it soundlessly on to the sand.

And when Hahmed, the Arab, had finished speaking, Jill Carden, the English girl, understood that with her only rested the decision, that even now, at the eleventh hour, she was still absolutely free to go.

Outside the gates waited the man's car, ready to take her wherever she listed on her way home! At her feet lay the camels, ready to take her to all the possibilities of the unknown!

There was absolute silence as she sat motionless, looking into the future. In the West she saw boats, trains, hotels, inner cabins, middle seats, back bedrooms; felt women, mothers, and wives clutching their mankind so as to keep them from the pariah, the penniless, pretty companion; heard the clink of the five or ten shillings a week paid monthly in silver, and all this to be repeated over and over again until she died, unless she married a man she did not love and "settled down" for ever and ever and ever; though even this possibility seemed to have receded into the remote distance with the receding of her fortune.

Then she looked up to the stars, and down to the sand, and out to the East, seeing her freedom if she dared grasp it, if she dared venture out on the many days' journey which, to her astonishment, she had learned stretched between Ismailiah and the oasis.

She scrutinised the man before her--this Arab with the impa.s.sive face, the camels at his feet, her life in his hands if she went with him.

His what? Wife! to settle down for ever and ever and ever.

His plaything? This was not the man to play or be played with, for had he not said:

"If you come with me, fear not that you will be a prisoner. The oasis, the house, my servants, houses, camels, all will be yours, and there will be nothing to prevent your leaving it all--nothing except the desert, the miles of pitiless sand, trackless, pathless, strewn with the white bones of those who have essayed to escape from Fate, the never-changing, ever-different ocean which beats about my dwelling."

Then once again she looked into the dark eyes which were reading every pa.s.sing emotion on the mobile face, and putting out her hands made one step towards the camel, whilst the soul of the desert laughed with her scarlet mouth.

CHAPTER XIII

A sharp word of command and the pack-camel rose, moved a few paces on its noiseless feet, swaying from side to side as though to readjust its load, whisked its miserable tail, and stretching out its long neck began to nibble the leaves of a flowering shrub.

Jill followed the beast, stroked its silky coat, and prodded one of the water skins filled to bursting.

"Will that be enough to last us all the way? And what happens when we want to rest? And do we do all the cooking and washing-up ourselves, just like a picnic? What fun!" Which shows that Jill had no idea of what unlimited money can do to mitigate the discomfort of desert travelling by providing every possible comfort, even luxury.

"My servants have gone ahead with a caravan containing all that I think will be necessary for your comfort. The journey takes many nights of travelling when the cool wind has tempered the scorching sands. At sunrise we shall find our tents pitched, and you shall rest from then, an hour after dawn, until just before sunset, for it is unwise to be asleep at sunset in the desert. When we halt your bath will be ready, your meals as you desire, your bed as soft and spotless as your own."

"Really!" said Jill, who had imagined herself camping out under the stars with scorpions and spiders as bedfellows. "But if the men have to go on ahead of us, we shall have to get up early so as to let them pack and give them a start."

The Arab gravely shook his head, with never a glimmer of a smile rear the mouth or eyes.

"Ah! no! you need not worry, a caravan of many persons has preceded us."

"Many _people_!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Jill. "What a lot of servants for two!"