Was this gem which the saint had carried in his ear an actual and tangible proof of the treasure he was seeking? Had the saint actually seen and touched the wealth of gold and the jewels which Akhnaton"s hands had hidden in the hills near his tomb? Others besides Michael, students of Egyptology, had treasured the idea that the heretic King, knowing that his days were numbered, and that when he was dead everything in his fair city would be stolen and desecrated, taken to Thebes and there turned into wealth for the G.o.ds of Amon, had hid from his enemies his private h.o.a.rd of jewels and gold.
A glorious excitement overwhelmed Michael. His thoughts travelled on the wings of light. But he must be practical; he must determine how it was best to question the saint, to gather from him the most helpful information on the subject. It would be no easy matter, for it would be unwise to express any marked curiosity about the hidden treasure or to show his personal desire to find it.
With great self-control he concealed his intense interest and excitement. For the present it was best to let the saint"s words about the treasure pa.s.s unquestioned. Very tactfully and with gentleness he persuaded him to keep the amethyst until they parted. In the morning, if he was really strong enough to go on his way and if he still wished him to accept the gem, he would do so.
With this the fanatic was contented. He wrapped up the gem which had once belonged to the heretic Pharaoh, whose one and only G.o.d was Aton, and replaced it in its strange jewel-case.
When Michael left the tent where the saint lay, he turned his back on the encampment. He wished to be alone. His thoughts were bewildering.
He turned his back upon the encampment because the crouching man in him knew that in the camp was the white tent of the woman. If he pa.s.sed it, would the primitive man in him spring up and force him to turn in?
"Turn in, turn in, my lord, and he did turn in." How the words had kept ringing in his ears.
Alone in the desert he must drink of the cup tempered with camphor.
Henceforth his one thought and object must be the finding of the treasure he had journeyed thus far to discover. The saint"s news had so excited him that he wished that he could waken all the sleeping servants and order Abdul to begin their journey. Action would drive the white tent and its persistent call out of his mind. The sky was so light that they could easily see to travel.
His nerves chafed at the unnecessary delay. And yet he must not hurry, for his mind foresaw great difficulty, even in the matter of persuading the holy man to travel with them.
The seer at el-Azhar had promised him that a "child of G.o.d" would lead him. If he waited and trusted and just let things take their course, all things would come right. Haste comes of the devil--a true Eastern proverb, a warning far too little regarded by the Western children of speed. But his conscience rebuked him. Had he verily been one of those who do deeds of real kindness? Was he worthy to drink of the cup tempered with camphor? Had his deed been sincerely inspired by disinterested love towards his fellow-beings? Had it not been so mingled and mixed up with his anxiety to find the hidden treasure that he had gladly seized the opportunity of offering help to the wayfarer, hoping that he might prove to be the very child of G.o.d who was to guide him to the secret spot?
Yet surely, in doing this deed of kindness, even though it was affected by self-interest, he had already drunk of the cup tempered with camphor? The desires of his frail human flesh, desires which had had their renaissance since Millicent"s appearance, were they quite banished? Had the woman in her white tent meant nothing to him? As if in contradiction to his words, he flung himself on the sand. A voice cried within him.
What was he to do with the woman? Oh, G.o.d, what was he to do with her?
Spiritually he emptied his arms of her and flung her far from him on the sands. All day her presence had been too near him--oh, G.o.d, far too near! She was there in her tent, a beautiful vision. Her eyes, as violet as the night sky, invited him. Her voice, soft with love, wooed him. It cried again and again: "Turn in, my lord, turn in!"
His knowledge of the East told him that the whole camp expected him to visit the white tent that night. He was no St. Anthony in their eyes, resisting his temptation.
For one moment his mind enjoyed the satisfaction of her beauty. The cup tempered with camphor was rudely dashed from his lips. Some unseen hand had offered him instead the deep red wine of pa.s.sion. With the sudden violence of a southern wind gathering swiftly over the desert, his emotions were tossed and driven. As the sands lift and rise from the flatness of the desert into one obliterating column before the traveller"s eyes, so had his vision of the woman obliterated every other thought from his mind. In the limitless desert there was nothing but the one white tent of the woman.
In his vision he saw the crimson amethyst hanging from a chain round her neck. On her white breast it lay like a full drop of pigeon"s blood. Where had this idea come from? Unsought, undesired, what had forced it with merciless vividness before his eyes? What part of him responded to her caresses of thanks? What had Akhnaton"s jewel to do with his profane vision?
St. Anthony had never deserved his temptation less. With the distant glimpse of the white tent which he had caught on his way from the sick man, desire had stormed the citadel of his soul. Its hidden forces had surprised and overwhelmed the unsuspecting Michael. It held him in its grip.
In his agony of spirit he cried aloud. "Margaret! Margaret!
Margaret, if you love me, come to me!"
He pressed his body more closely to the desert sand. Let the great Mother Earth enfold him.
With all the stars in the heavens shining down upon him, and the clear sky purifying a world of desolation, Michael lay purging his mind, cleansing his heart. The white tent became very distant, a mere speck on his mental horizon.
Suddenly his senses became alert; he felt a presence very close to him.
No footfall on the sand had warned him that he was no longer alone; he was simply conscious that some one was standing by his side. He jumped up, anxious to see who it was; he had been lying face downwards on the sand. No one was there. He listened. Surely he had not been mistaken? Someone had touched him gently with their hands, some presence had come quite close to him. He was conscious that a feeling of peace had come to him, as if virtue had pa.s.sed into him from those unseen hands. Then suddenly he knew that Margaret was beside him; they were standing together as they had stood together on the night when they plighted their troth. He could hear her saying, "I have come to you, Mike. You called me and so I came." He could feel the divine beauty of her pa.s.sion, the exquisite wonder of her love. Her presence was as real and helpful to him as though his arms encircled her material body.
In the midst of his happiness a sense of shame overwhelmed him.
Margaret had come to him because she understood; his sense of shame evoked her sympathy. He heard her say, "But Mike, I shall understand.
I think something outside myself will help me to understand."
He could see her starlit face. He remembered how he had turned it up to the heavens and said, "You beautiful Meg, the stars adore you!" His own words rang in his ears.
She had come to help him to make his love for her still more complete.
She was with him still. He enfolded her in his arms and wept out his pa.s.sion on her breast.
CHAPTER V
"Let"s begin where we left off yesterday, Mike," Millicent said.
They had finished their lunch and were sitting in the desert watching the "common or garden" day"s idleness of the inhabitants of a Bedouin camp. The tents were huddled together under the shade of some feathery-leaved palm-trees, a typical desert homestead.
They had made a short excursion from the site of their own camp, for the sick man"s condition had necessitated their halting for at least one whole day.
Subtly conscious of the fact that Satan finds some mischief even in the desert for idle hands to do, Michael had suggested a picnic to a small oasis which lay to the west of their route. Millicent and her dragoman and her servants still formed a part of his camp; her splendid supply of food and medicines was so valuable for the saint that Michael"s silent consent to her presence had been given. Again he was drifting.
"Let us return to where we left off yesterday," referred to her suggestion of the evening before that they should tell each other of the most English thing they could imagine, things seen in England as in comparison to things seen in Egypt.
It was a typically Eastern scene which lay before them--the yellow sands of the Arabian desert, the dark palm-trees and the picturesque Bedouins idling under the shelter of the palms. Not one of the group was occupied. Some goats and a great number of naked children were lying about on the sand. The purple shadows of the palm-trees intensified the bareness of the sunny desert.
One little figure, with a very protruding stomach, and a very large white metal disc on her dark chest for her only article of attire, suddenly appeared in front of them. Silently she had risen up out of the hot sand at their feet. Her big eyes stared at the two strange beings whom she had been brave enough to approach. When Millicent spoke to her she screamed and flew back to her mother"s side. The woman looked like a man, clean-limbed and as tanned as leather. Her tent was supported by two sticks; to enter it she had to bend almost double.
The naked child had appeared so suddenly and it had run away so swiftly, that Millicent laughed like a child. It really was a delicious bit of nature. The metal disc shone like a small sun.
"What a "tummy"!" she said. Her laughter was contagious. "Just like a baby blackbird"s before it has got its feathers. And that big silver disc!--like the family plate on the family chest."
"It"s protection from all evil, poor wee mite."
"What a filthy-looking hovel," Millicent said. "Worse than a gipsy-tent in England."
"And yet it"s a home," Michael said. "And there are no more pa.s.sionate lovers of home than these tent-women, or more hospitable people."
"Do these date-trees bear fruit?" Millicent asked the practical question irrelevantly. Her mind was charged with new interests, while her eyes looked at the soaring trees. The tent-dwellers interested her. She would like to have questioned them about all sorts of intimate subjects.
"Rather! These people pay taxes, too."
"Really? Isn"t there any spot on the globe where people can just live as they like, where they can get away from income-tax and authorities?"
"I don"t know if the Bedouins pay any tent-taxes, but I suppose that if they didn"t aspire to owning date-palms, they could live in the arid desert without paying anybody anything. It"s the old, old, unchanging subject--water."
Millicent lapsed into silence. Her chin was resting on her hands; she was lying face downwards on the sand. Michael was resting beside her.
Ha.s.san and the few servants they had taken with them to attend to their picnic-lunch were fast asleep. The camels and mules made a picturesque note in the distance. On Millicent"s camel a pale blue sheepskin rug covered the fine saddle; it looked like a patch of the heavens dropped down to earth.
"I know what is the most English thing I can think of," she said, "the most English thing compared to all this Easternness--how I adore it, Mike!"
"The English thing you"ve thought of, or the Easternness?"
"Oh, the Easternness. England"s placid and fat and bountiful, but all this throbbing emptiness----!"