"Oh, oh . . .! Who _are_ you . . .?"
For the man she summoned came, but came too swiftly. Moving with uncertain gait, he yet came rapidly--terribly, somehow, and with violence. Instantaneously, it seemed, he covered the intervening s.p.a.ce.
In the calm, sweet moonlight, beneath the blaze of the steady stars, he suddenly was--there, upon that patch of ancient desert sand. He looked half unearthly. The big hands he held outspread before him glistened a little in the shimmer of the moon. Yet they were dark, and they seemed menacing. They threatened--as with some power he meant to use, because it was his right. But the gleam upon them was not of swarthy skin alone.
The gleam, the darkness, were of blood. . . . There was a cry again--a sound of anguish almost intolerable. . . .
And the same instant Tom felt the clasp of his cousin"s hand upon his own, and heard his jolly voice with easy, natural laughter in it: "But, Tom, old chap, how ripping! You"re really back! This _is_ a grand surprise!
It"s splendid!"
There was nothing that called upon either his courage or control.
They were overjoyed to see him, the surprise he provided proved indeed the success of the evening.
"I thought at first you were Mohammed with the kettle," exclaimed Madame Jaretzka, coming close to make quite sure, and murmuring quickly-- nervously as well, he thought--"Oh, Tom, I _am_ so glad," beneath her breath. "You"re just in time--we all wanted you so."
Explanations followed; Tony"s friends had postponed the Cairo trip at the last moment; the picnic had been planned as a rehearsal for the real one that was to follow later. Tom"s adroitness in finding them was praised; he became the unwilling hero of the piece, and as such had to make the fire a success and prove himself generally the _clou_ of the party that hitherto was missing. He became at once the life and centre of the little group, gay and in the highest spirits, the emotion acc.u.mulated in him discharging itself in the entirely unexpected direction of hilarious fun and gaiety.
The sense of tragedy he had gathered on his journey, if it muttered at all, muttered out of sight. He looked back upon his feelings of an hour before with amazement, dismay, distress--then utterly forgot them.
The picture itself--the vision--was as though it had not been at all.
What, in the name of common sense, had possessed him that he could ever have admitted such preposterous uneasiness? He thought of Mrs.
Haughstone"s absurd warnings with a sharp contempt, and felt his spirits only rise higher than before. She was meanly suspicious about nothing.
Of course he would give Lettice a hint: why not, indeed? He would give it then and there before them all and hear them laugh about it till they cried. And he would have done so, doubtless, but that he realised the woman"s jealousy was a sordid topic to introduce into so gay a party.
"You arrived in the nick of time, Tom," Lettice told him. "We were beginning to feel the solemnity of these surroundings, the awful Tombs of the Kings and Priests and people. Those cliffs are too oppressive for a picnic."
"A fact," cried Tony. "It feels like sacrilege. They resent us being here." He glanced at Madame Jaretzka as he said it. "If you hadn"t come, Tom, I"m sure there"d have been a disaster somewhere. Anyhow, one must feel superst.i.tious to enjoy a place like this. It"s the proper atmosphere!"
Lettice looked up at Tom, and added, "You"ve really saved us. The least we can do is to worship the sun the moment he gets up. We"ll adore old Amon-Ra. It"s obvious. We must!"
They made themselves merry over a rather sandy meal. She arranged a place for him close beside her, and her genuine pleasure at his unexpected return filled him with a joy that crowded out even the memory of other emotions. The mixture called Tom Kelverdon a.s.serted itself: he felt ashamed; he heartily despised his moods, wondering whence they came so strangely. Tony himself was quiet and affectionate. If anything was lacking, Tom"s high spirits carried him too boisterously to notice it.
Otherwise he might possibly have thought that she spoke a little sharply once or twice to Tony, neglecting him in a way that was not quite her normal way, and that to himself, even before the others, she was unusually--almost too emphatically--dear and tender. Indeed, she seemed so pleased he had come that a cynical observer, cursed with an acute, experienced mind, might almost have thought she showed something not far from positive relief. But Tom, too happy to be sensitive to shades of feminine conduct, was aware chiefly, if not solely, of his own joy and welcome.
"You didn"t get my letter, then, before you left?" she asked him once; and he replied, "The answer, as in Parliament, is in the negative. But it will be forwarded all right." He would get it the following night.
"Ah, but you mustn"t read it _now_," she said. "You must tear it up unread," and made him promise faithfully he would obey. "_I_ wrote to you too," mentioned Tony, as though determined to be left out of nothing.
"You"ll get it at the same time. But you mustn"t tear mine up, remember.
It"s full of advice and wisdom you badly need." And Tom promised that faithfully as well. The reply was in the affirmative.
The bivouac was a complete success; all looked back upon it as an unforgettable experience. They declared, of course, they had not slept a wink, yet all had snored quite audibly beneath the wheeling stars.
They were fresh and lively enough, certainly, when the sun poured his delicious warmth across the cloudless sky, while Tom and Tony made the fire and set the coffee on for breakfast.
Of the marvellous beauty that preceded the actual sunrise no one spoke; it left them breathless rather; they watched the sky beyond the hills change colour; great shafts of gold transfixed the violet heavens; the Nile shone faintly; then, with a sudden drive, the stars rushed backwards in a shower, and the amazing sun came up as with a shout. Perfumes that have no name rose from the desert and the fields along the distant river banks. The silence deepened, for no birds sang. Light took the world-- and it was morning.
And when the donkey-boys arrived at eight o"clock, the party were slow in starting: it was so pleasant to lie and bask in the sumptuous bath of heat and light that drenched them. The night had been chilly enough.
They were a tired party. Once home again, all retired with one accord to sleep, remaining invisible until the sun was slanting over Persia and the Indian Ocean, gilding the horizon probably above the starry skies of far Cathay.
But as Tom dozed off behind the shuttered windows in the hotel towards eleven o"clock, having bathed and breakfasted a second time, he thought vaguely of what Mrs. Haughstone had said to him a few hours before.
It seemed days ago already. He was too drowsy to hold the thought more than a moment in his mind, much less to reflect upon it. "It may be just as well to give a hint," occurred to him. "Tony _is_ a bit too fond of her--too fond for his happiness, perhaps." Nothing had happened at the picnic to revive the notion; it just struck him as he fell asleep, then vanished; it was a moment"s instinct. The vision--it had been an instantaneous flash after all and nothing more--had left his mind completely for the time.
But Tom looked back afterwards upon the all-night bivouac as an occasion marked specially in memory"s calendar, yet for a reason that was unlike the reasons his companions knew. He remembered it with mingled joy and pain, also with a wonder that he could have been so blind--the last night of happiness in his brief Egyptian winter.
CHAPTER XX
He slept through the hot hours of the afternoon. In the cool of the evening, as he strolled along the river bank, he read the few lines Lettice had written to him at a.s.souan. For the porter had handed him half-a-dozen letters as he left the hotel. Tony"s he put for the moment aside; the one from Lettice was all he cared about, quite forgetting he had promised to tear it up unread. It was short but tender--anxious about his comfort and well-being in a strange hotel "when I am not there to take care of you." It ended on a complaint that she was "tired rather and spending my time at full length on a deck-chair in the garden."
She promised to write "at greater length to-morrow."
"Instead of which," thought Tom with a boy"s delight, "I surprised her and we talked face to face." But for the Arab touts who ran beside him, offering gla.s.s beads made in Birmingham, he could have kissed the letter there and then.
The resplendent gold on the river blinded him, he was glad to enter the darker street and shake off the children who pestered him for bakshish.
Pa.s.sing the Savoy Hotel, he hesitated a moment, then went on. "No, I won"t call in for Tony; I"ll find her alone, and we"ll have a cosy little talk together before the others come." He quickened his pace, entered the shady garden, discovered her instantly, and threw himself down upon the cushions beside her deck-chair. "Just what I hoped," he said, with pleasure and admiration in his eyes, "alone at last. That is good luck-- isn"t it, Lettice?"
"Of course," she agreed, and smiled lazily, though some might have thought indifferently, as she watched him arranging the cushions.
He flung himself back and gazed at her. She wore a dress of palest yellow, and the broad-brimmed hat with the little roses. She seemed part of the flaming sunset and the tawny desert.
"Well," he grumbled playfully, "it is true, isn"t it? Our not being alone often, I mean?" He watched her without knowing that he did so.
"In a way--yes," she said. "But we can"t have everything at once, can we, Tom?" Her voice was colourless perhaps. A tiny frown settled for an instant between her eyes, then vanished. Tom did not notice it.
She sighed. "You baby, Tom. I spoil you dreadfully, and you know I do."
He liked her in this quiet, teasing mood; it was often the prelude to more delightful spoiling. He was in high spirits. "You look as fresh as a girl of sixteen, Lettice," he declared. "I believe you"re only this instant out of your bath and bed. D"you know, I slept like a baby too-- the whole afternoon----"
He interrupted himself, for at that moment a cigarette-case on the sand beside him caught his eye. He picked it up--he recognised it. "Yes--I wish you"d smoke," she said the same instant, brushing a fly quickly from her cheek.
"Tony"s," he exclaimed, examining the case.
He noticed at the same time several burnt matches between his cushions and her chair.
"But he"d love you to smoke them: I"ll take the responsibility."
She laughed quietly. "I"m sure they"re good--better than yours; he"s wickedly extravagant." She watched him as he took one out, examining the label critically, then lighting it slowly and inhaling the smoke to taste it. There was a faint perfume that clung to the case and its contents.
"Ambra," said Lettice, a kind of watchful amus.e.m.e.nt in her eyes.
"You don"t like it!"
Tom looked up sharply.
"Is that it? I didn"t know."
She nodded. "It"s Tony"s smell; haven"t you noticed it? He always has it about him. No, no," she laughed, noticing his expression of disapproval, "he doesn"t use it. It"s just in his atmosphere, I mean."
"Oh, is it?" said Tom.
"I rather like it," she went on idly, "but I never can make out where it comes from. We call it ambra--the fragrance that hangs about the bazaars: I believe they used it for the mummies; but the desert perfume is in it too. It"s rather wonderful--it suits him--don"t you think? Penetrating, and so delicate."
What a lot she had to say about it! He made no reply. He was looking down to see what caused him that sudden, inexplicable pain--and discovered that the lighted match had burned his fingers. The next minute he looked up again--straight into her eyes.
But, somehow, he did not say exactly what he meant to say. He said, in fact, something that occurred to him on the spur of the moment. His mind was simple, possibly, yet imps occasionally made use of it. An imp just then reminded him: "Her letter made no mention of the picnic, of Tony"s sudden change of plan, yet it was written yesterday morning when both were being arranged."