"Won"t you wait until after Mr. Caird has come, and you can tell about the little boy?" Victoria suggested.
"He mayn"t arrive till very late, and--I promised Captain Sabine that he should hear to-night."
"But think how quickly a pigeon flies! Surely it can go in less than half the time we would take, riding up and down among the dunes."
"Oh, much less than half! Captain Sabine said that from the bordj of Toudja the pigeon would come to him in an hour and a half, or two at most."
"Then wait a little longer. Somehow I feel you"ll be glad if you do."
Saidee looked quickly at the girl. "You make me superst.i.tious," she said.
"Why?"
"With your "feelings" about things. They"re almost always right. I"m afraid of them. I shouldn"t dare send the pigeon now, for fear----"
"For fear of what?"
"I hardly know. I told you that you made me superst.i.tious."
Stephen stood between the open gates of the bordj, looking north, whence Nevill should come. The desert was empty, a great, waving stretch of gold, but a caravan might be engulfed among the dunes. Any moment horses or camels might come in sight; and he was not anxious about Nevill or the boy. It was impossible that they could have been cut off by an attacking party from the Zaoua. Captain Sabine and he, Stephen, had kept too keen a watch for that to happen, for the Zaoua lay south of Oued Tolga the city.
Others besides himself were searching the sea of sand. One of his own guides was standing outside the gates, talking with two of the marabout"s men, and looking into the distance. But rather oddly, it seemed to him, their faces were turned southward, until the guide said something to the others. Then, slowly, they faced towards the north.
Stephen remembered how he had told himself to neglect no sign. Had he just seen a sign?
For some moments he did not look at the Arabs. Then, glancing quickly at the group, he saw that the head man sent by the marabout was talking emphatically to the guide from Oued Tolga, the city. Again, their eyes flashed to the Roumi, before he had time to turn away, and without hesitation the head man from the Zaoua came a few steps towards him.
"Sidi, we see horses," he said, in broken French. "The caravan thou dost expect is there," and he pointed.
Stephen had very good eyesight, but he saw nothing, and said so.
"We Arabs are used to looking across great distances," the man answered.
"Keep thy gaze steadily upon the spot where I point, and presently thou wilt see."
It was as he prophesied. Out of a blot of shadow among the tawny dunes crawled some dark specks, which might have been particles of the shadow itself. They moved, and gradually increased in size. By and by Stephen could count seven separate specks. It must be Nevill and the boy, and Stephen wondered if he had added two more Arabs to the pair who had gone back with him from Oued Tolga, towards Touggourt.
"Hurrah for Lady MacGregor!" the watcher said under his breath. "She wired on my telegram, and caught him before he"d pa.s.sed the last station. I might have known she would, the glorious old darling!" He hurried inside the bordj to knock at the ladies" door, and tell the news. "They"re in sight!" he cried. "Would you like to come outside the gate and look?"
Instantly the door opened, and the sisters appeared. Victoria looked flushed and happy, but Saidee was pale, almost haggard in comparison with the younger girl. Both were in Arab dress still, having nothing else, even if they had wished to change; and as she came out, Saidee mechanically drew the long blue folds of her veil closely over her face.
Custom had made this a habit which it would be hard to break.
All three went out together, and the Arabs, standing in a group, turned at the sound of their voices. Again they had been looking southward.
Stephen looked also, but the dazzle of the declining sun was in his eyes.
"Don"t seem to notice anything," said Saidee in a low voice.
"What is there to notice?" he asked in the same tone.
"A big caravan coming from the south. Can"t you see it?"
"No. I see nothing."
"You haven"t stared at the desert for eight years, as I have. There must be eighteen or twenty men."
"Do you think they"re from the Zaoua?" asked Victoria.
"Who can tell? We can"t know till they"re very close, and then----"
"Nevill Caird will get here first," Stephen said, half to himself. "You can see five horses and two camels plainly now. They"re travelling fast."
"Those Arabs have seen the others," Saidee murmured. "But they don"t want us to know they"re thinking about them."
"Even if men are coming from the Zaoua," said Stephen, "it may easily be that they"ve only been sent as an extra escort for the boy, owing to his father"s anxiety."
"Yes, it may be only that," Saidee admitted. "Still, I"m glad----" She did not finish her sentence. But she was thinking about the carrier pigeon, and Victoria"s advice.
All three looked northward, watching the seven figures on horseback, in the far distance; but now and then, when they could hope to do so without being noticed by the Arabs, they stole a hasty glance in the other direction. "The caravan has stopped," Saidee declared at last. "In the shadow of a big dune."
"I see, now," said Stephen.
"And I," added Victoria.
"Perhaps after all, it"s just an ordinary caravan," Saidee said more hopefully. "Many nomads come north at this time of year. They may be making their camp now. Anyway, its certain they haven"t moved for some time."
And still they had not moved, when Nevill Caird was close enough to the bordj for a shout of greeting to be heard.
"There are two of the strangest-looking creatures with him!" cried Saidee. "What can they be--on camels!"
"Why," exclaimed Victoria, "it"s those men in kilts, who waited on the table at Mr. Caird"s house!"
"Hurrah for Lady MacGregor again!" laughed Stephen. "It"s the twins, Angus and Hamish." He pulled off his panama hat and waved it, shouting to his friend in joy. "We"re a regiment!" he exclaimed gaily.
XLIX
The boy Mohammed was proud and very happy. He had not been in a motor-car, for he had not got to Touggourt; but it was glorious to have travelled far north, almost out of the dunes, and not only to have seen giant women in short skirts with bare legs, but not to be afraid of them, as the grown-up Arabs were. The giant women were Hamish and Angus, and it was a great thing to know them, and to be able to explain them to his father"s men from the Zaoua.
He was a handsome little fellow, with a face no darker than old ivory, and heavily lashed, expressive eyes, like those which looked over the marabout"s mask. His dress was that of a miniature man; a white silk burnous, embroidered with gold, over a pale blue vest, st.i.tched in many colours; a splendid red cloak, whose embroidery of stiff gold stood out like a bas-relief; a turban and chechia of thin white muslin; and red-legged boots finer than those of the Spahis. Though he was but eleven years old, and had travelled hard for days, he sat his horse with a princely air, worthy the son of a desert potentate; and like a prince he received the homage of the marabout"s men who rushed to him with guttural cries, kissing the toes of his boots, in their short stirrups, and fighting for an end of his cloak to touch with their lips. He did not know that he had been "kidnapped." His impression was that he had deigned to favour a rather agreeable Roumi with his company. Now he was returning to his own people, and would bid his Roumi friend good-bye with the cordiality of one gentleman to another, though with a certain royal condescension fitted to the difference in their positions.
Nevill was in wild spirits, though pale with heat and fatigue. He had nothing to say of himself, but much of his aunt and of the boy Mohammed.
"Ripping little chap," he exclaimed, when Saidee had gone indoors. "You never saw such pluck. He"d die sooner than admit he was tired. I shall be quite sorry to part from him. He was jolly good company, a sort of living book of Arab history. And what do you say to our surprise,--the twins? My aunt sent them off at the same time with the telegram, but of course they put in an appearance much later. They caught me up this morning, riding like devils on racing camels, with one guide. No horses could be got big enough for them. They"ve frightened every Arab they"ve met--but they"re used to that and vain of it. They"ve got rifles--and bagpipes too, for all I know. They"re capable of them."
"I can"t tell you how glad I am to see you, Wings," said Stephen, "and only a little less glad to see those big fellows with their brave faces." Then he mentioned to Nevill the apparition of that mysterious caravan which had appeared, and vanished. Also he described the behaviour of the Zaoua men when they had looked south, instead of north.
"Oh, that"s all right, I"ll bet," exclaimed Nevill, exuberant with the joy of success, and in the hope of coolness, food and rest. "Might have been any old caravan, on its own business--nothing to do with us. That"s the most likely thing. But if the marabout"s mixed up with it, I should say it"s only because he couldn"t bear to stop at home and wait in suspense, and I don"t blame him, now I"ve made acquaintance with the kid. He"d be too proud to parade his anxiety under our noses, but would lurk in the distance, out of our sight, he probably flatters himself, to welcome his son, and take him back to Oued Tolga. Not unnatural--and in spite of all, I can"t help being a little sorry for the man. We"ve humiliated and got the better of him, because we happen to have his secret. It"s a bit like draining a chap"s blood, and then challenging him to fight. He"s got all he can expect now, in receiving the child back and if I can judge him by myself, he"ll be so happy, that he"ll be only too thankful to see our backs for the last time."
"He might feel safer to stick a knife in them."