At nine o"clock they marched under the palms of El Zarb. Abdullah held up his hands; Ali ran to the head of the dun leader; the caravan halted, groaned, and knelt. The first day"s journey was over.
III
The moment that the halt was accomplished, Abdullah went about, loosing the surcingles of his camels. Then he began to pitch his tent. It was of camel-skins, stretched over eight sticks, and fastened at the edges with spikes of locust wood. It was entirely open at the front, and when he had the flaps pinned, he gathered a little pile of camels" dung, struck a match, and began to make his tea. He had no thought for his pa.s.sengers. His thoughts were with his heart, and that was back at the house beyond the bazaar--the house with the green lattices. Before the water boiled, Ali came up, eager, breathless.
"Master," he said, "the pa.s.sengers are cared for, and the mistress wears a flower like--like _that_; the one you showed me;" and he pointed to Abdullah"s bosom. "You are either a faithful servant," said Abdullah, "or you are a great liar. The morrow will tell." And he started toward the pa.s.sengers" tent. He found it closed. Being a woman"s tent, it had front flaps, and they were laced. He walked back and forth before it. He was master of the caravan, more autocratic than the master of a ship. He might have cut the laces, entered, and no one could have questioned. That is the law of the desert. He could more easily have cut his own throat than that slender cord.
He wandered back and forth before the tent. The twilight faded. The shadows turned from saffron to violet, to purple, to cobalt. Out of the secret cavern of the winds came the cool night-breeze of the Sahara.
Still he paced up and down, before the little tent. And as he measured the sands, he measured his life. Born of a camel-driver by a slave; working his way across the desert a score of times before his wages made enough to buy one bale of hides; venturing the earnings of a lifetime on one voyage--making a profit, when a loss would have put him back to the beginning--venturing again, winning again--buying three camels--leasing them--buying three more--starting an express from the Soudan to Biskra one day short of all others;--carrying only dates and gold-dust--insuring his gold-dust, something he learned from the French in Biskra;--buying thirty camels at a plunge--at once the master camel-driver of the Sahara--and here he was, pacing up and down before a laced tent which held behind it--_a woman_.
The night of the desert settled down, and still he paced. The stars came up--the stars by which he laid his course; and, finally, pacing, he came for the hundredth time to the tent"s front and stopped.
"Mistress?" he whispered. There was no answer, "Mistress?" he called, and then, after an interval, the flies of the tent parted--a white hand, and a whiter wrist, appeared, and a red oleander fell on the sands of the desert.
Abdullah was on his knees. He pressed the flower to his lips, to his heart. Kneeling he watched the flaps of the tent. They fluttered; the laces raced through the eyelets; the flaps parted, and a girl, unveiled, stepped out into the firelight. They stood, silent, gazing one at the other.
"You have been long in coming," she said, at length.
There is no love-making in the desert. Thanks to its fervent heat, love there comes ready-made.
"Yes," said Abdullah, "I have tarried, but now that I have come, I stay forever;" and he took her in his arms.
"When did you love me first?" she whispered, half-released.
"When first I saw you, behind the green lattice," gasped Abdullah.
"Ah, that green lattice," whispered the girl; "how small its openings were. And still, my heart flew through them when first you pa.s.sed. How proudly you walked. Walk for me now--here, in the firelight, where I may see you--not so slowly with your eyes turned toward me, but swiftly, smoothly, proudly, your head held high--that"s it--that is the way you pa.s.sed my lattice, and as you pa.s.sed my heart cried out, "There goes my king." Did you not hear it?"
"No," said Abdullah; "my own heart cried so loudly I heard naught else."
"What did it cry? What cries it now?" she said; and she placed her cheek against his bosom, her ear above his heart. "I hear it," she whispered, "but it beats so fast I cannot understand."
"Then," said Abdullah, "I must tell thee with my lips."
"Oh, beloved," she whispered, "the camels will see us."
"What matters," he said; "they belong to me."
"Then they are my brethren," she said, "since I, also, belong to thee,"
and with arms entwined they pa.s.sed out of the fire-light into the purple of the desert.
When they came back, the hobbled camels were snoring, and the unfed fires were smouldering.
"Allah keep thee," said Abdullah, at the door of her tent.
"And thee, my master," said the girl, and the flaps fell.
Abdullah went slowly toward his own tent. He stopped a moment by one of the lame camels. "Thou broughtest her to me," he said, and he eased the beast"s surcingle by a dozen holes.
He reached his tent, paused, faced the western horizon, lifted his arms, breathed in the sweet, cool air of the desert, and entered.
Ali had spread a camel"s hide, had covered a water-skin with a burnoose for a pillow, and had left, near it, a coiled wax-taper and a box of matches. Abdullah untwined his turban, loosened his sash, felt something escape him, fell on his knees, groped, felt a paper, rose, went to the tent"s door, recognized the invoice which the old man had given him, went out, kicked up the embers of the fire, knelt, saw that the paper was unsealed, was fastened merely with a thread, played with the thread, saw it part beneath his fingers, saw the page unfold, stirred up the embers, and read:
"_To Mirza, Mother of the Dancers at Biskra, by the hand of Abdullah. I send thee, as I said, the most beautiful woman in the world. She has been carefully reared. She has no thought of commercialism. Two and two are five to her as well as four. She is unspoiled. She never has had a coin in her fingers, and she never has had a wish ungratified. She knows a little French; the French of courtship merely. Her Arabic is that of Medina. You, doubtless, will exploit her in Biskra. You may have her for two years. By that time she may toss her own handkerchief.
Then she reverts to me. I shall take her to Cairo, where second-rate Englishmen and first-rate Americans abound.
"This is thy receipt for the thirty ounces you sent me._
"ILDERHIM."
When Abdullah had read this invoice of his love, he sat long before the little fire as one dead. Then he rose, felt in his bosom, and drew out two flowers, one withered, the other fresh. He dropped these among the embers, straightened himself; lifted his arms toward heaven, and slowly entered his tent.
The little fires smouldered and died, and the great desert was silent, save for the sighing of the camels and the singing of the shifting sands.
THE MAN WHO KEEPS GOATS
I
The next morning broke as all mornings break in the desert, first yellow, then white, and always silent. The air bore the scent of sage.
The hobbled camels had broken every shrub within their reach, and stunted herbage is, almost always, aromatic.
Abdullah gave no heed to the sun. He who for ten years had been the most energetic man of the desert had overnight become the most nonchalant. Like Achilles, he sulked in his tent.
At five o"clock Ali ventured to bring his master"s coffee. He found Abdullah fully dressed and reading a paper, which he hurriedly thrust into his burnoose when he was interrupted.
"Your coffee, master," said Ali. "We have twelve leagues to make to-day."
"Ali," said Abdullah, "the night before we started I asked you who lived in the house with the green lattices--the next house beyond the mosque--and you promised to tell me in the morning."
"Yes, master," said Ali, "but in the morning you did not ask me."
"I ask you now," said Abdullah.
Ali bowed. "Master," he answered, "the house is occupied by Ilderhim, chief of the tribe of Ouled Nail. He hires it for five years, and he occupies it for the three months, Chaban, Ramadan, and Chaoual, of each year. He has also the gardens and four water-rights. He deals in ivory, gold-dust, and dancing-girls. He formerly lived in Biskra, but the French banished him. They have also banished him from Algiers, and he has been warned from Cairo and Medina. He has a divorced wife in each of those cities. They are the mothers of the dancing-girls. The one in Biskra is Mirza. Every one in Biskra knows Mirza. Doubtless you, master--"
"Yes," said Abdullah, "but the damsel. Who is she?"
"His daughter," replied Ali.