"Why is it that he lets me go, without even trying to make me swear never to tell what I know?" Saidee asked Victoria, while all in haste and in confusion they put together a few things for the long journey.
Saidee packed the little volumes of her diary, with trembling fingers, and looked a frightened question at her sister.
"I"m thankful that he doesn"t ask us," Victoria answered, "for we couldn"t promise not to tell, unless he would vow never to do the dreadful things you say he plans--lead a great rising, and ma.s.sacre the French. Even to escape, one couldn"t make a promise which might cost thousands of lives."
"We could perhaps evade a promise, yet seem to do what he asked," said Saidee, who had learned subtle ways in a school of subtlety. "I"m terrified that he _doesn"t_ ask. Why isn"t he afraid to let us go, without any a.s.surances?"
"He knows that because you"ve been his wife, we wouldn"t betray him unless we were forced to, in order to prevent ma.s.sacres," Victoria tried to rea.s.sure her sister. "And perhaps for the sake of getting his boy back, he"s willing to renounce all his horrible plans."
"Perhaps--since he worships the child," Saidee half agreed. "Yet--it doesn"t seem like Ca.s.sim to be so easily cowed, and to give up the whole ambition of his life, with scarcely a struggle, even for his child."
"You said, when you told me how you had written to Mr. Knight, that Ca.s.sim would be forced to yield, if they took the boy, and so the end would justify the means."
"Yes. It was a great card to play. But--but I expected him to make me take a solemn oath never to tell what I know."
"Don"t let"s think of it," said Victoria. "Let"s just be thankful that we"re going, and get ready as quickly as we can, lest he should change his mind at the last moment."
"Or lest Maeddine should find out," Saidee added. "But, if Ca.s.sim really means us to go, he won"t let Maeddine find out. He will thank Allah and the Prophet for sending the fever that keeps Maeddine in his bedroom."
"Poor Maeddine!" Victoria half whispered. In her heart lurked kindness for the man who had so desperately loved her, even though love had driven him to the verge of treachery. "I hope he"ll forget all about me and be happy," she said. And then, because she was happy herself, and the future seemed bright, she forgot Maeddine, and thought only of another.
XLVIII
"That must be the bordj of Toudja, at last," Victoria said, looking out between the curtains of her ba.s.sour. "Aren"t you thankful, Saidee?
You"ll feel happier and freer, when Ca.s.sim"s men have gone back to the Zaoua, and our ransom has been paid by the return of the little boy.
That volume of your life will be closed for ever and ever, and you can begin the next."
Saidee was silent. She did not want to think that the volume was closed for ever, because in it there was one chapter which, unless it could be added to the new volume, would leave the rest of the book without interest for her. Half involuntarily she touched the basket which Honore Sabine had given her when they parted in the desert city of Oued Tolga early that morning. In the basket were two carrier pigeons. She had promised to send one from the Bordj of Toudja, and another at the end of the next day"s journey. After that she would be within reach of the telegraph. Her reason told her it was well that Sabine was not with her now, yet she wished for him, and could not be glad of his absence.
Perhaps she would never see him again. Who could tell? It would have been unwise for Sabine, as an officer and as a man, to leave his duty to travel with her: she could see that, yet she was secretly angry with Victoria, because Victoria, happy herself, seemed to have little sympathy with her sister"s hopes. The girl did not like to talk about Sabine, or discuss any connection he might possibly have with Saidee"s future; and because Victoria was silent on that subject, Saidee revenged herself by being reticent on others. Victoria guessed the reason, and her heart yearned over Saidee; but this was something of which they could not talk. Some day, perhaps, Saidee would understand, and they would be drawn together again more closely than before.
"There"s Toudja," Stephen said, as the girl looked out again from the ba.s.sour. Whenever he saw her face, framed thus by the dark red curtains, his heart beat, as if her beauty were new to him, seen that instant for the first time. This was the flood-tide of his life, now when they travelled through the desert together, he and she, and she depended upon his help and protection. For to-day, and the few more days until the desert journey should come to an end at Biskra, the tide would be at flood: then it would ebb, never to rise again, because at Algiers they must part, she to go her way, he to go his; and his way would lead him to Margot Lorenzi. After Algiers there would be no more happiness for him, and he did not hope for it; but, right or wrong, he was living pa.s.sionately in every moment now.
Victoria smiled down from the high ba.s.sour at the dark, sunburnt face of the rider. How different it was from the dark face of another rider who had looked up at her, between her curtains, when she had pa.s.sed that way before! There was only one point of resemblance between the two: the light of love in the eyes. Victoria could not help recognizing that likeness. She could not help being sure that Stephen loved her, and the thought made her feel safe, as well as happy. There had been a sense of danger in the knowledge of Maeddine"s love.
"The tower in the bordj is ruined," she said, looking across the waving sea of dunes to a tall black object like the crooked finger of a giant pointing up out of the gold into the blue. "It wasn"t so when I pa.s.sed before."
"No," Stephen answered, welcoming any excuse for talk with her. "But it was when we came from Touggourt. Sabine told me there"d been a tremendous storm in the south just before we left Algiers, and the heliograph tower at Toudja was struck by lightning. They"ll build it up again soon, for all these heliograph stations are supposed to be kept in order, in case of any revolt; for the first thing a rebellious tribe does is to cut the telegraph wires. If that happened, the only way of communication would be by heliograph; and Sabine says that from Touggourt to Tombouctou this chain of towers has been arranged always on elevations, so that signals can be seen across great stretches of desert; and inside the walls of a bordj whenever possible, for defence.
But the South is so contented and peaceful now, I don"t suppose the Government will get out of breath in its hurry to restore the damage here."
At the sound of Sabine"s name Saidee had instantly roused to attention, and as Stephen spoke calmly of the peace and content in the South, she smiled. Then suddenly her face grew eager.
"Did the marabout appoint Toudja as the place to make the exchange, or was it you?" she asked, over Victoria"s shoulder.
"The marabout," said Stephen. "I fell in with the idea because I"d already made objections to several, and I could see none to Toudja. It"s a day"s journey farther north than the Zaoua, and I remembered the bordj being kept by two Frenchmen, who would be of use if----" He checked himself, not wishing to hint that it might be necessary to guard against treason. "If we had to stop for the night," he amended, "no doubt the bordj would be better kept than some others. And we shall have to stop, you know, because my friend, Caird, can"t arrive from Touggourt with the boy till late, at best."
"Did--the marabout seem bent on making this bordj the rendezvous?"
Saidee asked.
Stephen"s eyes met hers in a quick, involuntary glance, then turned to the ruined tower. He saw it against the northern sky as they came from the south, and, blackened by the lightning, it accentuated the desolation of the dunes. In itself, it looked sinister as a broken gibbet. "If the marabout had a strong preference for the place, he didn"t betray it," was the only answer he could make. "Have you a special reason for asking?"
"No," Saidee echoed. "No special reason."
But Stephen and Victoria both guessed what was in her mind. As they looked at the tower all three thought of the Arabs who formed their caravan. There were six, sent out from the Zaoua to take back the little Mohammed. They belonged body and soul to the marabout. At the town of Oued Tolga, Stephen had added a third to his escort of two; but though they were good guides, brave, upstanding fellows, he knew they would turn from him if there were any question between Roumis and men of their own religion. If an accident had happened to the child on the way back from Touggourt, or if any other difficulty arose, in which their interest clashed with his, he would have nine Arabs against him. He and Caird, with the two Highlanders, if they came, would be alone, no matter how large might be Nevill"s Arab escort. Stephen hardly knew why these thoughts pressed upon him suddenly, with new insistence, as he saw the tower rise dark against the sky, jagged as if it had been hacked with a huge, dull knife. He had known from the first what risks they ran.
Nevill and he and Sabine had talked them all over, and decided that, on the whole, there was no great danger of treachery from the marabout, who stood to lose too much, to gain too little, by breaking faith. As for Maeddine, he was ill with fever, so the sisters said, and Saidee and Victoria believed that he had been kept in ignorance of the marabout"s bargain. Altogether, circ.u.mstances seemed to have combined in their favour. Ben Halim"s wife was naturally suspicious and fearful, after her long martyrdom, but there was no new reason for uneasiness. Only, Stephen reminded himself, he must not neglect the slightest wavering of the weather-vane. And in every shadow he must look for a sign.
They had not made a hurried march from the desert city, for Stephen and Sabine had calculated the hour at which Nevill might have received the summons, and the time he would take on the return journey. It was possible, Lady MacGregor being what she was, that she might have rewired the telegram to a certain bordj, the only telegraph station between Touggourt and Oued Tolga. If she had done this, and the message had caught Nevill, many hours would be saved. Instead of getting to the bordj about midnight, tired out with a long, quick march, he might be expected before dark. Even so, Stephen would be well ahead, for, as the caravan came to the gate of the bordj, it was only six o"clock, blazing afternoon still, and hot as midday, with the fierce, golden heat of the desert towards the end of May.
The big iron gates were wide open, and nothing stirred in the quadrangle inside; but as Stephen rode in, one of the Frenchmen he remembered slouched out of a room where the wooden shutters of the window were closed for coolness. His face was red, and he yawned as he came forward, rubbing his eyes as if he had been asleep. But he welcomed Stephen politely, and seeing that a good profit might be expected from so large a party, he roused himself to look pleased.
"I must have a room for two ladies," said Stephen, "and I am expecting a friend with a small caravan, to arrive from the north. However, six of my Arabs will go back when he comes. You must do the best you can for us, but nothing is of any importance compared to the ladies" comfort."
"Certainly, I will do my best," the keeper of the bordj a.s.sured him.
"But as you see, our accommodation is humble. It is strained when we have four or five officers for the night, and though I and my brother have been in this G.o.d-forsaken place--worse luck!--for nine years, we have never yet had to put up ladies. Unfortunately, too, my brother is away, gone to Touggourt to buy stores, and I have only one Arab to help me. Still, though I have forgotten many useful things in this banishment, I have not forgotten how to cook, as more than one French officer could tell you."
"One has told me," said Stephen. "Captain Sabine, of the Cha.s.seurs d"Afrique."
"Ah, ce beau sabreur! He stopped with me on his way to Oued Tolga, for the well-making. If he has recommended me, I shall be on my mettle, Monsieur."
The heavy face brightened; but there were bags under the bloodshot eyes, and the man"s breath reeked of alcohol. Stephen was sorry the brother was away. He had been the more alert and prepossessing of the two.
As they talked, the quadrangle of the bordj--which was but an inferior caravanserai--had waked to animation. The landlord"s one Arab servant had appeared, like a rat out of a hole, to help the new arrivals with their horses and camels. The caravans had filed in, and the marabout"s men and Stephen"s guides had dismounted.
None of these had seen the place since the visitation of the storm, and one or two from the Zaoua had perhaps never been so far north before, yet they looked at the broken tower with grave interest rather than curiosity. Stephen wondered whether they had been primed with knowledge before starting, or if their lack of emotion were but Arab stoicism.
As usual in a caravanserai or large bordj, all round the square courtyard were series of rooms: a few along one wall for the accommodation of French officers and rich Arabs, furnished with elementary European comforts; opposite, a dining-room and kitchen; to the left, the quarters of the two landlords and their servants; along the fourth wall, on either side of the great iron gate, sheds for animals, untidily littered with straw and refuse, infested with flies.
Further disorder was added by the debris from the broken heliograph-tower which had been only partially cleared away since the storm. Other towers there were, also; three of them, all very low and squat, jutting out from each corner of the high, flat-topped wall, and loopholed as usual, so that men stationed inside could defend against an escalade. These small towers were intact, though the roof of one was covered with rubbish from the ruined sh.e.l.l rising above; and looking up at this, Stephen saw that much had fallen away since he pa.s.sed with Nevill, going to Oued Tolga. One entire wall had been sliced off, leaving the inside of the tower, with the upper chamber, visible from below. It was like looking into a half-dissected body, and the effect was depressing.
"If we should be raided by Arabs now," said the landlord, laughing, as he saw Stephen glance at the tower, "we should have to pray for help: there would be no other means of getting it."
"You don"t seem to worry much," replied Stephen.
"No, for the Arabs in these parts are sheep nowadays," said the Frenchman. "Like sheep, they might follow a leader; but where is the leader? It is different among the Touaregs, where I spent some time before I came here. They are warriors by nature, but even they are quiet of late."
"Do you ever see any here?" Stephen asked.
"A few occasionally, going to Touggourt, but seldom. They are formidable-looking fellows, in their indigo-coloured masks, which stain their skin blue, but they are tractable enough if one does not offend them."
There was only one room which could be made pa.s.sably habitable for Saidee and Victoria, and they went into it, out of the hot sun, as soon as it could be prepared. The little luggage they had brought went with them, and the basket containing the two carrier pigeons. Saidee fed the birds, and scribbled a few words on a sc.r.a.p of paper, to tell Sabine that they had arrived safely at Toudja. On second thoughts, she added a postscript, while Victoria unpacked what they needed for the night.
"_He_ chose the rendezvous," Saidee wrote. "I suppose I"m too superst.i.tious, but I can"t help wondering if his choice had anything to do with the ruined tower? Don"t be anxious, though. You will probably receive another line to-morrow night, to say that we"ve reached the next stage, and all"s well."
"I suppose you think I"m doing wrong to write to him?" she said to Victoria, as she took one of the pigeons out of its basket.
"No," the girl answered. "Why shouldn"t you write to say you"re safe?
He"s your friend, and you"re going far away."
Saidee almost wished that Victoria had scolded her. Without speaking again, she began to fasten her letter under the bird"s wing, but gave a little cry, for there was blood on her fingers. "Oh, he"s hurt himself somehow!" she exclaimed. "He won"t be able to fly, I"m afraid. What shall I do? I must send the other one. And yet--if I do, there"ll be nothing for to-morrow."