The Valley of the Kings Part 9

Then, as they continued their rough game with him, he screamed out:

"Are you Christian men or devils thus to maltreat me on account of a few oranges for which I paid the guardian?"

"Nay, O beloved! Allah witness, it is not the oranges we begrudge thee, but the honour thou didst take unto thyself feloniously."

"Aha, thou art the owner of this place, and we thy servants!"

"Oranges! Let him have his fill of them!"

A woman s.n.a.t.c.hed an orange from the nearest tree, and flung it full in his face. He opened his mouth to remonstrate, but another orange stopped it on the instant. With a fearful oath he gave up the argument, and ran for his life, amid a roar of laughter.

Then Iskender came out upon the pathway, and walked along it till he reached the sakieh. As prearranged with Mitri, he feigned great surprise at sight of the Emir, exclaiming:

"I thought you said the garden of Elias. This is the garden of Aziz abu Suleyman."

"Something queer has happened," said his patron, showing great uneasiness. "These people have been trying to explain to me, but I can't understand them."

Iskender looked to the priest for elucidation. After a short conference apart with him, he was in a position to inform his lord, who, learning the deception put on him, was very angry. His Honour was for leaving the place at once; but Mitri and the brother of Aziz would not let him depart as if in dudgeon.

The little crowd of men, women, and children, having finished with Elias, now drew near, and sat or lay in a half circle at a respectful distance from the group upon the carpet. The brother of Aziz flung oranges to them; and both he and Mitri asked for tidings of the boaster, which Iskender was called upon to translate for the Frank's behoof. The downfall of Elias seemed complete. But the victor could not take much joy in it, for the face of his Emir still showed nothing but annoyance.

If only Mitri and the rest would now retire, he thought impatiently, he might throw himself at the feet of his dear lord. As it was, he was forced to make his pet.i.tion lamely, calmly, shorn of all that outward self-abas.e.m.e.nt which the case demanded. It was something, however, to be sure of privacy, to know himself alone with his Emir in knowledge of the English tongue.

"Oh, sir," he faltered, "forgif me, do, or I shall die of grief. You 'f neffer been the same to me since goin' to the Mission. I luf you, sir, enough to gif my life. I thought you would hate me if you knew my mother was a washin'-woman! It break my heart ef'ry time you gif me money; I luf to gif you things, not take things from you. If the missionaries tell you contrary, they're dam' liars. Elias thinks of money; but not me, because I luf you truly. I'll be a slafe to you.

Do blease belief me!"

His lord was deeply moved. He said, "That's all right," and gave his hand to Iskender, who all at once beheld the beauty of the trees and sky, the wealth of crimson flowers above the sakieh. But when the suppliant pressed it to his lips, the Frank seemed angry, cried, "Don't be idiotic!" and glanced round him nervously.

"I luf you, sir!" pursued Iskender pa.s.sionately. "By G.o.d, I neffer tell you lies again. You trust me, sir, and just be kind to me. It kills me when you luf that false Elias."

"Oh, that's all right," was the impatient answer. "I shall trust you for the future. Can't you talk of something else?"

Then it dawned upon Iskender that his Honour did not like this talk of love. At a loss, he changed his tone, but not the subject, giving his patron the true history of his difference with the missionaries, which arose from his boyish pa.s.sion for the Sitt Hilda.

"Is that the young one? Not a bad-looking girl, if she dressed properly!" threw in the Emir; and again Iskender was at a loss, for he could not conceive how dress could do otherwise than hide a woman's beauty. He returned to his own case.

"I luf you, sir, and neffer, neffer will deceif you more."

"Oh, shut up, can't you?" said the Frank disgustedly; but presently, when they had taken leave of Mitri and the brother of Aziz, he grasped Iskender's arm in friendly wise. As they strolled together down a sandy path among the gardens, whose dark rich green encroached upon a sky of living blue, the scent of orange-flowers pervading the still air, and the murmur of innumerable bees enforcing languor, Iskender walked in heaven.

"You trust me now, dear sir?"

"Yes, yes, I trust you. I shall never forgive Elias for that dirty trick."

"It is only just what I did always tell you. He is an imbudent fellow, and a most horrible liar," returned Iskender lightly, grudging Elias even his lord's anger.

A pause ensued. Iskender had no more to say, yet dreaded silence, recalling his uncle's advice to him to keep the Frank amused--advice which he had so lately seen confirmed in the case of Elias, the amusing talker. He knew that his patron's mind, unless engaged, was sure to revert to the adventure of the orange-garden, and recall his rival, of whom he wished to obliterate the very thought.

Then, of a sudden, while he racked his brain, he was seized with recollection of his vision of the night before. It returned to him from without, by no effort of his own; and was first announced to his consciousness by the sensation of a sudden flush from head to foot.

Here was a subject able to engross the Emir's whole interest, to the exclusion of Elias from his thoughts for ever.

"Sir," he said, "I wish to sbeak to you."

CHAPTER XII

The solemnity of Iskender's voice claimed grave attention. The Emir recalled his gaze from far-off things, and fixed it upon the speaker with some awe.

Both stood stock still.

"If you blease, sir, I think I tell you better sittin' down."

Iskender had espied a Muslin tomb among the leaves ahead, a small white cube, with egg-shaped dome atop of it, having in its shade a place for the repose of wayfarers. Thither he conducted the Emir, and both sat down. Iskender toyed with his fingers in the crevices of its rough pavement. He wished to enjoy his love alone as long as possible; and the walk from thence to the hotel was but a short one. From a garden-hedge before them, two cypress-trees stood sharply out against the jewel sky.

"I wish to sbeak to you, sir, about something which I neffer told to anybody. My mother knows, but no one else. Will you bromise, blease, to keeb it secret, what I'm goin' to tell you?"

"Yes, rather! Fire away," said the Emir.

"Well, sir, I know of a blace where gold is found more blenty than the oranges in that garden we now come from."

"You don't? You're joking!" The Emir stared at him.

"I do, sir. You know, there's lots of country neffer been exblored away there to the south and east, behind the Jordan. No one effer goes there. My father went there once--he was a muleteer and traffeled all about in those days--and in the desert, far away from any houses, he found a blace where bits of gold were lyin' on the ground quite thick like bebbles in a mountain wady."

"But your father was not rich," the Frank objected.

"No, sir; and just because he was not rich, he could not go again and fetch the gold. It wants horses and camels, and many men and arms to make afraid the Bedouins. My father saw that blace with his own eyes, and before he died he wrote a baber teach me how to get there. He told me he got a big biece of gold, enough to make him rich, but had to drob it after a bit, it was so heffy."

"How far is the place from here?"

"Nine days or ten, I think. When I get home I look in the baber which my father left and see for certain."

"But perhaps your father was mistaken, and the stuff he found was not gold at all."

"That might be." Iskender grasped his chin reflectively, admitting that he had not thought of that contingency. "But father was a knowing man," he added; "he looked close at things. Though he was only a boor common man, he had traffeled a great deal, and I think he'd know gold when he saw it."

"I must say I should like to go and see," exclaimed the Emir, now warming to the subject.

"You'd better not, sir, till you make sure of brotection. The desert beeble don't like strangers hangin' round. And the Guffernment would stob you, if they got to know. I thought I'd tell you, sir, because you're kindest friend I effer had. Then by-and-by you get some friends to join you, and go with a strong barty; and then, when you've got much gold, you think: Iskender made me a nice bresent. I hobe you think so.

I know I am only a boor common man, like dirt to you. But I luff you truly, sir, and wish to gif you something."

"Don't talk such rubbish," said the Emir impatiently. "Of course we should share alike, and go together, if at all. By Jove, it would be fun!" and he began to shadow forth the expedition, Iskender helping him with tempting details. To Iskender the vision of riding for days together alone with his beloved seemed all glorious. Sitting there beside the Muslim tomb, with the Emir talking to him like a brother in the excitement of their common dream, he lost the thought of time, and was surprised to see the fires of evening in the sky, and the shadows of the two tall cypress-trees extending right across the sandy road.

"We must find out more about that place," said the Emir with a great yawn as he rose and stretched himself. "We must make inquiries. Other people must at least have heard of it.

"Oh, sir, I beg you not!" the son of Yacub cried in sudden terror.

"You bromised faithfully to keeb my secret!"