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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Sheik, by E. M. Hull
+
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+Title: The Sheik
+       A Novel
+
+Author: E. M. Hull
+
+Release Date: December, 2004 [EBook #7031]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on February 25, 2003]
+
+Edition: 10
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SHEIK ***
+
+
+
+
+This eBook was produced by Suzanne L. Shell, Charles Franks,
+and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team
+
+
+
+
+
+THE SHEIK
+
+A Novel
+
+
+
+
+by E. M. HULL
+
+1921
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+
+"Are you coming in to watch the dancing, Lady Conway?"
+
+"I most decidedly am not. I thoroughly disapprove of the expedition of
+which this dance is the inauguration. I consider that even by
+contemplating such a tour alone into the desert with no chaperon or
+attendant of her own sex, with only native camel drivers and servants,
+Diana Mayo is behaving with a recklessness and impropriety that is
+calculated to cast a slur not only on her own reputation, but also on
+the prestige of her country. I blush to think of it. We English cannot
+be too careful of our behavior abroad. No opportunity is slight enough
+for our continental neighbours to cast stones, and this opportunity is
+very far from being slight. It is the maddest piece of unprincipled
+folly I have ever heard of."
+
+"Oh, come, Lady Conway! It's not quite so bad as all that. It is
+certainly unconventional and--er--probably not quite wise, but remember
+Miss Mayo's unusual upbringing----"
+
+"I am not forgetting her unusual upbringing," interrupted Lady Conway.
+"It has been deplorable. But nothing can excuse this scandalous
+escapade. I knew her mother years ago, and I took it upon myself to
+expostulate both with Diana and her brother, but Sir Aubrey is hedged
+around with an egotistical complacency that would defy a pickaxe to
+penetrate. According to him a Mayo is beyond criticism, and his
+sister's reputation her own to deal with. The girl herself seemed,
+frankly, not to understand the seriousness of her position, and was
+very flippant and not a little rude. I wash my hands of the whole
+affair, and will certainly not countenance to-night's entertainment by
+appearing at it. I have already warned the manager that if the noise is
+kept up beyond a reasonable hour I shall leave the hotel to-morrow."
+And, drawing her wrap around her with a little shudder, Lady Conway
+stalked majestically across the wide verandah of the Biskra Hotel.
+
+The two men left standing by the open French window that led into the
+hotel ballroom looked at each other and smiled.
+
+"Some peroration," said one with a marked American accent. "That's the
+way scandal's made, I guess."
+
+"Scandal be hanged! There's never been a breath of scandal attached to
+Diana Mayo's name. I've known the child since she was a baby. Rum
+little cuss she was, too. Confound that old woman! She would wreck the
+reputation of the Archangel Gabriel if he came down to earth, let alone
+that of a mere human girl."
+
+"Not a very human girl," laughed the American. "She was sure meant for
+a boy and changed at the last moment. She looks like a boy in
+petticoats, a damned pretty boy--and a damned haughty one," he added,
+chuckling. "I overheard her this morning, in the garden, making
+mincemeat of a French officer."
+
+The Englishman laughed.
+
+"Been making love to her, I expect. A thing she does not understand and
+won't tolerate. She's the coldest little fish in the world, without an
+idea in her head beyond sport and travel. Clever, though, and plucky as
+they are made. I don't think she knows the meaning of the word fear."
+
+"There's a queer streak in the family, isn't there? I heard somebody
+yapping about it the other night. Father was mad and blew his brains
+out, so I was told."
+
+The Englishman shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"You can call it mad, if you like," he said slowly. "I live near the
+Mayos' in England, and happen to know the story. Sir John Mayo was
+passionately devoted to his wife; after twenty years of married life
+they were still lovers. Then this girl was born, and the mother died.
+Two hours afterwards her husband shot himself, leaving the baby in the
+sole care of her brother, who was just nineteen, and as lazy and as
+selfish then as he is now. The problem of bringing up a girl child was
+too much trouble to be solved, so he settled the difficulty by treating
+her as if she was a boy. The result is what you see."
+
+They moved nearer to the open window, looking into the brilliantly lit
+ballroom, already filled with gaily chattering people. On a slightly
+raised platform at one end of the room the host and hostess were
+receiving their guests. The brother and sister were singularly unlike.
+Sir Aubrey Mayo was very tall and thin, the pallor of his face
+accentuated by the blackness of his smoothly brushed hair and heavy
+black moustache. His attitude was a mixture of well-bred courtesy and
+languid boredom. He seemed too tired even to keep the single eye-glass
+that he wore in position, for it dropped continually. By contrast the
+girl at his side appeared vividly alive. She was only of medium height
+and very slender, standing erect with the easy, vigorous carriage of an
+athletic boy, her small head poised proudly. Her scornful mouth and
+firm chin showed plainly an obstinate determination, and her deep blue
+eyes were unusually clear and steady. The long, curling black lashes
+that shaded her eyes and the dark eyebrows were a foil to the thick
+crop of loose, red-gold curls that she wore short, clubbed about her
+ears.
+
+"The result is worth seeing," said the American admiringly, referring
+to his companion's last remark.
+
+A third and younger man joined them.
+
+"Hallo, Arbuthnot. You're late. The divinity is ten deep in would-be
+partners already."
+
+A dull red crept into the young man's face, and he jerked his head
+angrily.
+
+"I got waylaid by Lady Conway--poisonous old woman! She had a great
+deal to say on the subject of Miss Mayo and her trip. She ought to be
+gagged. I thought she was going on talking all night, so I fairly
+bolted in the end. All the same, I agree with her on one point. Why
+can't that lazy ass Mayo go with his sister?"
+
+Nobody seemed to be able to give an answer. The band had begun playing,
+and the floor was covered with laughing, talking couples.
+
+Sir Aubrey Mayo had moved away, and his sister was left standing with
+several men, who waited, programme in hand, but she waved them away
+with a little smile and a resolute shake of her head.
+
+"Things seem to be getting a hustle on," said the American.
+
+"Are you going to try your luck?" asked the elder of the two
+Englishmen.
+
+The American bit the end off a cigar with a little smile.
+
+"I sure am not. The haughty young lady turned me down as a dancer very
+early in our acquaintance. I don't blame her," he added, with a rueful
+laugh, "but her extreme candour still rankles. She told me quite
+plainly that she had no use for an American who could neither ride nor
+dance. I did intimate to her, very gently, that there were a few little
+openings in the States for men beside cattle-punching and cabaret
+dancing, but she froze me with a look, and I faded away. No, Sir
+Egotistical Complacency will be having some bridge later on, which will
+suit me much better. He's not a bad chap underneath if you can swallow
+his peculiarities, and he's a sportsman. I like to play with him. He
+doesn't care a durn if he wins or loses."
+
+"It doesn't matter when you have a banking account the size of his,"
+said Arbuthnot. "Personally, I find dancing more amusing and less
+expensive. I shall go and take my chance with our hostess."
+
+His eyes turned rather eagerly towards the end of the room where the
+girl was standing alone, straight and slim, the light from an
+electrolier gilding the thick bright curls framing her beautiful,
+haughty little face. She was staring down at the dancers with an absent
+expression in her eyes, as if her thoughts were far away from the
+crowded ballroom.
+
+The American pushed Arbuthnot forward with a little laugh.
+
+"Run along, foolish moth, and get your poor little wings singed. When
+the cruel fair has done trampling on you I'll come right along and mop
+up the remains. If, on the other hand, your temerity meets with the
+success it deserves, we can celebrate suitably later on." And, linking
+his arm in his friend's, he drew him away to the card-room.
+
+Arbuthnot went through the window and worked slowly round the room,
+hugging the wall, evading dancers, and threading his way through groups
+of chattering men and women of all nationalities. He came at last to
+the raised dais on which Diana Mayo was still standing, and climbed up
+the few steps to her side.
+
+"This is luck, Miss Mayo," he said, with an assurance that he was far
+from feeling. "Am I really fortunate enough to find you without a
+partner?"
+
+She turned to him slowly, with a little crease growing between her
+arched eyebrows, as if his coming were inopportune and she resented the
+interruption to her thoughts, and then she smiled quite frankly.
+
+"I said I would not dance until everybody was started," she said rather
+doubtfully, looking over the crowded floor.
+
+"They are all dancing. You've done your duty nobly. Don't miss this
+ripping tune," he urged persuasively.
+
+She hesitated, tapping her programme-pencil against her teeth.
+
+"I refused a lot of men," she said, with a grimace. Then she laughed
+suddenly. "Come along, then. I am noted for my bad manners. This will
+only be one extra sin."
+
+Arbuthnot danced well, but with the girl in his arms he seemed suddenly
+tongue-tied. They swung round the room several times, then halted
+simultaneously beside an open window and went out into the garden of
+the hotel, sitting down on a wicker seat under a gaudy Japanese hanging
+lantern. The band was still playing, and for the moment the garden was
+empty, lit faintly by coloured lanterns, festooned from the palm trees,
+and twinkling lights outlining the winding paths.
+
+Arbuthnot leaned forward, his hands clasped between his knees.
+
+"I think you are the most perfect dancer I have ever met," he said a
+little breathlessly.
+
+Miss Mayo looked at him seriously, without a trace of
+self-consciousness.
+
+"It is very easy to dance if you have a musical ear, and if you have
+been in the habit of making your body do what you want. So few people
+seem to be trained to make their limbs obey them. Mine have had to do
+as they were told since I was a small child," she answered calmly.
+
+The unexpectedness of the reply acted as a silencer on Arbuthnot for a
+few minutes, and the girl beside him seemed in no hurry to break the
+silence. The dance was over and the empty garden was thronged for a
+little time. Then the dancers drifted back into the hotel as the band
+started again.
+
+"It's rather jolly here in the garden," Arbuthnot said tentatively. His
+heart was pounding with unusual rapidity, and his eyes, that he kept
+fixed on his own clasped hands, had a hungry look growing in them.
+
+"You mean that, you want to sit out this dance with me?" she said with
+a boyish directness that somewhat nonplussed him.
+
+"Yes," he stammered rather foolishly.
+
+She held her programme up to the light of the lantern. "I promised this
+one to Arthur Conway. We quarrel every time we meet. I cannot think why
+he asked me; he disapproves of me even more than his mother does--such
+an interfering old lady. He will be overjoyed to be let off. And I
+don't want to dance to-night. I am looking forward so tremendously to
+to-morrow. I shall stay and talk to you, but you must give me a
+cigarette to keep me in a good temper."
+
+His hand shook a little as he held the match for her. "Are you really
+determined to go through with this tour?"
+
+She stared at him in surprise. "Why not? My arrangements have been made
+some time. Why should I change my mind at the last moment?"
+
+"Why does your brother let you go alone? Why doesn't he go with you?
+Oh, I haven't any right to ask, but I do ask," he broke out vehemently.
+
+She shrugged her shoulders with a little laugh. "We fell out, Aubrey
+and I. He wanted to go to America. I wanted a trip into the desert. We
+quarrelled for two whole days and half one night, and then we
+compromised. I should have my desert tour, and Aubrey should go to New
+York; and to mark his brotherly appreciation of my gracious promise to
+follow him to the States without fail at the end of a month he has
+consented to grace my caravan for the first stage, and dismiss me on my
+way with his blessing. It annoyed him so enormously that he could not
+order me to go with him, this being the first time in our wanderings
+that our inclinations have not jumped in the same direction. I came of
+age a few months ago, and, in future, I can do as I please. Not that I
+have ever done anything else," she conceded, with another laugh,
+"because Aubrey's ways have been my ways until now."
+
+"But for the sake of one month! What difference could it make to him?"
+he asked in astonishment.
+
+"That's Aubrey," replied Miss Mayo drily.
+
+"It isn't safe," persisted Arbuthnot.
+
+She flicked the ash from her cigarette carelessly. "I don't agree with
+you. I don't know why everybody is making such a fuss about it. Plenty
+of other women have travelled in much wilder country than this desert."
+
+He looked at her curiously. She seemed to be totally unaware that it
+was her youth and her beauty that made all the danger of the
+expedition. He fell back on the easier excuse.
+
+"There seems to be unrest amongst some of the tribes. There have been a
+lot of rumours lately," he said seriously.
+
+She made a little movement of impatience. "Oh, that's what they always
+tell you when they want to put obstacles in your way. The authorities
+have already dangled that bogey in front of me. I asked for facts and
+they only gave me generalities. I asked definitely if they had any
+power to stop me. They said they had not, but strongly advised me not
+to make the attempt. I said I should go, unless the French Government
+arrested me.... Why not? I am not afraid. I don't admit that there is
+anything to be afraid of. I don't believe a word about the tribes being
+restless. Arabs are always moving about, aren't they? I have an
+excellent caravan leader, whom even the authorities vouch for, and I
+shall be armed. I am perfectly able to take care of myself. I can shoot
+straight and I am used to camping. Besides, I have given my word to
+Aubrey to be in Oran in a month, and I can't get very far away in that
+time."
+
+There was an obstinate ring in her voice, and when she stopped speaking
+he sat silent, consumed with anxiety, obsessed with the loveliness of
+her, and tormented with the desire to tell her so. Then he turned to
+her suddenly, and his face was very white. "Miss Mayo--Diana--put off
+this trip only for a little, and give me the right to go with you. I
+love you. I want you for my wife more than anything on earth. I shan't
+always be a penniless subaltern. One of these days I shall be able to
+give you a position that is worthy of you; no, nothing could be that,
+but one at least that I am not ashamed to offer to you. We've been very
+good friends; you know all about me. I'll give my whole life to make
+you happy. The world has been a different place to me since you came
+into it. I can't get away from you. You are in my thoughts night and
+day. I love you; I want you. My God, Diana! Beauty like yours drives a
+man mad!"
+
+"Is beauty all that a man wants in his wife?" she asked, with a kind of
+cold wonder in her voice. "Brains and a sound body seem much more
+sensible requirements to me."
+
+"But when a woman has all three, as you have, Diana," he whispered
+ardently, his hands closing over the slim ones lying in her lap.
+
+But with a strength that seemed impossible for their smallness she
+disengaged them from his grasp. "Please stop. I am sorry. We have been
+good friends, and it has never occurred to me that there could be
+anything beyond that. I never thought that you might love me. I never
+thought of you in that way at all, I don't understand it. When God made
+me He omitted to give me a heart. I have never loved any one in my
+life. My brother and I have tolerated each other, but there has never
+been any affection between us. Would it be likely? Put yourself in
+Aubrey's place. Imagine a young man of nineteen, with a cold, reserved
+nature, being burdened with the care of a baby sister, thrust into his
+hands unwanted and unexpected. Was it likely that he would have any
+affection for me? I never wanted it. I was born with the same cold
+nature as his. I was brought up as a boy, my training was hard. Emotion
+and affection have been barred out of my life. I simply don't know what
+they mean. I don't want to know. I am very content with my life as it
+is. Marriage for a woman means the end of independence, that is,
+marriage with a man who is a man, in spite of all that the most modern
+woman may say. I have never obeyed any one in my life; I do not wish to
+try the experiment. I am very sorry to have hurt you. You've been a
+splendid pal, but that side of life does not exist for me. If I had
+thought for one moment that my friendship was going to hurt you I need
+not have let you become so intimate, but I did not think, because it is
+a subject that I never think of. A man to me is just a companion with
+whom I ride or shoot or fish; a pal, a comrade, and that's just all
+there is to it. God made me a woman. Why, only He knows."
+
+Her quiet, even voice stopped. There had been a tone of cold sincerity
+in it that Arbuthnot could not help but recognise. She meant everything
+that she said. She said no more than the truth. Her reputation for
+complete indifference to admiration and her unvarying attitude towards
+men were as well known as her dauntless courage and obstinate
+determination. With Sir Aubrey Mayo she behaved like a younger brother,
+and as such entertained his friends. She was popular with everybody,
+even with the mothers of marriageable daughters, for, in spite of her
+wealth and beauty, her notorious peculiarities made her negligible as a
+rival to plainer and less well-dowered girls.
+
+Arbuthnot sat in silence. It was hardly likely, he thought bitterly,
+that he should succeed where other and better men had failed. He had
+been a fool to succumb to the temptation that had been too hard for him
+to resist. He knew her well enough to know beforehand what her answer
+would be. The very real fear for her safety that the thought of the
+coming expedition gave him, her nearness in the mystery of the Eastern
+night, the lights, the music, had all combined to rush to his lips
+words that in a saner moment would never have passed them. He loved
+her, he would love her always, but he knew that his love was as
+hopeless as it was undying. But it was men who were men whom she wanted
+for her friends, so he must take his medicine like a man.
+
+"May I still be the pal, Diana?" he said quietly.
+
+She looked at him a moment, but in the dim light of the hanging
+lanterns his eyes were steady under hers, and she held out her hand
+frankly. "Gladly," she said candidly. "I have hosts of acquaintances,
+but very few friends. We are always travelling, Aubrey and I, and we
+never seem to have time to make friends. We rarely stay as long in one
+place as we have stayed in Biskra. In England they call us very bad
+neighbours, we are so seldom there. We generally go home for three
+months in the winter for the hunting, but the rest of the year we
+wander on the face of the globe."
+
+He held her slender fingers gripped in his for a moment, smothering an
+insane desire to press them to his lips, which he knew would be fatal
+to the newly accorded friendship, and then let them go. Miss Mayo
+continued sitting quietly beside him. She was in no way disturbed by
+what had happened. She had taken him literally at his word, and was
+treating him as the pal he had asked to be. It no more occurred to her
+that she might relieve him of her society than it occurred to her that
+her continued presence might be distressing to him. She was totally
+unembarrassed and completely un-self-conscious. And as they sat silent,
+her thoughts far away in the desert, and his full of vain longings and
+regrets, a man's low voice rose in the stillness of the night. "_Pale
+hands I loved beside the Shalimar. Where are you now? Who lies beneath
+your spell_?" he sang in a passionate, vibrating baritone. He was
+singing in English, and yet the almost indefinite slurring from note to
+note was strangely un-English. Diana Mayo leaned forward, her head
+raised, listening intently, with shining eyes. The voice seemed to come
+from the dark shadows at the end of the garden, or it might have been
+further away out in the road beyond the cactus hedge. The singer sang
+slowly, his voice lingering caressingly on the words; the last verse
+dying away softly and clearly, almost imperceptibly fading into
+silence.
+
+For a moment there was utter stillness, then Diana lay back with a
+little sigh. "The Kashmiri Song. It makes me think of India. I heard a
+man sing it in Kashmere last year, but not like that. What a wonderful
+voice! I wonder who it is?"
+
+Arbuthnot looked at her curiously, surprised at the sudden ring of
+interest in her tone, and the sudden animation of her face.
+
+"You say you have no emotion in your nature, and yet that unknown man's
+singing has stirred you deeply. How do you reconcile the two?" he
+asked, almost angrily.
+
+"Is an appreciation of the beautiful emotion?" she challenged, with
+uplifted eyes. "Surely not. Music, art, nature, everything beautiful
+appeals to me. But there is nothing emotional in that. It is only that
+I prefer beautiful things to ugly ones. For that reason even pretty
+clothes appeal to me," she added, laughing.
+
+"You are the best-dressed woman in Biskra," he acceded. "But is not
+that a concession to the womanly feelings that you despise?"
+
+"Not at all. To take an interest in one's clothes is not an exclusively
+feminine vice. I like pretty dresses. I admit to spending some time in
+thinking of colour schemes to go with my horrible hair, but I assure
+you that my dressmaker has an easier life than Aubrey's tailor."
+
+She sat silent, hoping that the singer might not have gone, but there
+was no sound except a cicada chirping near her. She swung round in her
+chair, looking in the direction from which it came. "Listen to him.
+Jolly little chap! They are the first things I listen for when I get to
+Port Said. They mean the East to me."
+
+"Maddening little beasts!" said Arbuthnot irritably.
+
+"They are going to be very friendly little beasts to me during the next
+four weeks.... You don't know what this trip means to me. I like wild
+places. The happiest times of my life have been spent camping in
+America and India, and I have always wanted the desert more than either
+of them. It is going to be a month of pure joy. I am going to be
+enormously happy."
+
+She stood up with a little laugh of intense pleasure, and half turned,
+waiting for Arbuthnot. He got up reluctantly and stood silent beside
+her for a few moments. "Diana, I wish you'd let me kiss you, just
+once," he broke out miserably.
+
+She looked up swiftly with a glint of anger in her eyes, and shook her
+head. "No. That's not in the compact. I have never been kissed in my
+life. It is one of the things that I do not understand." Her voice was
+almost fierce.
+
+She moved leisurely towards the hotel, and he paced beside her
+wondering if he had forfeited her friendship by his outburst, but on
+the verandah she halted and spoke in the frank tone of camaraderie in
+which she had always addressed him. "Shall I see you in the morning?"
+
+He understood. There was to be no more reference to what had passed
+between them. The offer of friendship held, but only on her own terms.
+He pulled himself together.
+
+"Yes. We have arranged an escort of about a dozen of us to ride the
+first few miles with you, to give you a proper send-off."
+
+She made a laughing gesture of protest. "It will certainly need four
+weeks of solitude to counteract the conceit I shall acquire," she said
+lightly, as she passed into the ballroom.
+
+A few hours later Diana came into her bedroom, and, switching on the
+electric lights, tossed her gloves and programme into a chair. The room
+was empty, for her maid had had a _vertige_ at the suggestion that
+she should accompany her mistress into the desert, and had been sent
+back to Paris to await Diana's return. She had left during the day, to
+take most of the heavy luggage with her.
+
+Diana stood in the middle of the room and looked at the preparations
+for the early start next morning with a little smile of satisfaction.
+Everything was _en train_; the final arrangements had all been
+concluded some days before. The camel caravan with the camp equipment
+was due to leave Biskra a few hours before the time fixed for the Mayos
+to start with Mustafa Ali, the reputable guide whom the French
+authorities had reluctantly recommended. The two big suit-cases that
+Diana was taking with her stood open, ready packed, waiting only for
+the last few necessaries, and by them the steamer trunk that Sir Aubrey
+would take charge of and leave in Paris as he passed through. On a
+chaise-longue was laid out her riding kit ready for the morning. Her
+smile broadened as she looked at the smart-cut breeches and high brown
+boots. They were the clothes in which most of her life had been spent,
+and in which she was far more at home than in the pretty dresses over
+which she had laughed with Arbuthnot.
+
+She was glad the dance was over; it was not a form of exercise that
+appealed to her particularly. She was thinking only of the coming tour.
+She stretched her arms out with a little happy laugh.
+
+"It's the life of lives, and it's going to begin all over again
+to-morrow morning." She crossed over to the dressing-table, and,
+propping her elbows on it, looked at herself in the glass, with a
+little friendly smile at the reflection. In default of any other
+confidant she had always talked to herself, with no thought for the
+beauty of the face staring back at her from the glass. The only comment
+she ever made to herself on her own appearance was sometimes to wish
+that her hair was not such a tiresome shade. She looked at herself now
+with a tinge of curiosity. "I wonder why I'm so especially happy
+to-night. It must be because we have been so long in Biskra. It's been
+very jolly, but I was beginning to get very bored." She laughed again
+and picked up her watch to wind. It was one of her peculiarities that
+she would wear no jewellery of any kind. Even the gold repeater in her
+hand was on a plain leather strap. She undressed slowly and each moment
+felt more wide-awake. Slipping a thin wrap over her pyjamas and
+lighting a cigarette she went out on to the broad balcony on to which
+her bedroom gave. The room was on the first floor, and opposite her
+window rose one of the ornately carved and bracketed pillars that
+supported the balcony, stretching up to the second story above her
+head. She looked down into the gardens below. It was an easy climb, she
+thought, with a boyish grin--far easier than many she had achieved
+successfully when the need of a solitary ramble became imperative. But
+the East was inconvenient for solitary ramble; native servants had a
+disconcerting habit of lying down to sleep wherever drowsiness overcame
+them, and it was not very long since she had slid down from her balcony
+and landed plumb on a slumbering bundle of humanity who had roused half
+the hotel with his howls. She leant far over the rail, trying to see
+into the verandah below, and she thought she caught a glimpse of white
+drapery. She looked again, and this time there was nothing, but she
+shook her head with a little grimace, and swung herself up on to the
+broad ledge of the railing. Settling herself comfortably with her back
+against the column she looked out over the hotel gardens into the
+night, humming softly the Kashmiri song she had heard earlier in the
+evening.
+
+The risen moon was full, and its cold, brilliant light filled the
+garden with strong black shadows. She watched some that seemed even to
+move, as if the garden were alive with creeping, hurrying figures, and
+amused herself tracking them until she traced them to the palm tree or
+cactus bush that caused them. One in particular gave her a long hunt
+till she finally ran it to its lair, and it proved to be the shadow of
+a grotesque lead statue half hidden by a flowering shrub. Forgetting
+the hour and the open windows all around her, she burst into a rippling
+peal of laughter, which was interrupted by the appearance of a figure,
+imperfectly seen through the lattice-work which divided her balcony
+from the next one, and the sound of an irritable voice.
+
+"For Heaven's sake, Diana, let other people sleep if you can't."
+
+"Which, being interpreted, is let Sir Aubrey Mayo sleep," she retorted,
+with a chuckle. "My dear boy, sleep if you want to, but I don't know
+how you can on a night like this. Did you ever see such a gorgeous
+moon?"
+
+"Oh, damn the moon!"
+
+"Oh, very well. Don't get cross about it. Go back to bed and put your
+head under the clothes, and then you won't see it. But I'm going to sit
+here."
+
+"Diana, don't be an idiot! You'll go to sleep and fall into the garden
+and break your neck."
+
+"_Tant pis pour moi. Tant mieux pour toi,_" she said flippantly.
+"I have left you all that I have in the world, dear brother. Could
+devotion go further?"
+
+She paid no heed to his exclamation of annoyance, and looked back into
+the garden. It was a wonderful night, silent except for the cicadas'
+monotonous chirping, mysterious with the inexplicable mystery that
+hangs always in the Oriental night. The smells of the East rose up all
+around her; here, as at home, they seemed more perceptible by night
+than by day. Often at home she had stood on the little stone balcony
+outside her room, drinking in the smells of the night--the pungent,
+earthy smell after rain, the aromatic smell of pine trees near the
+house. It was the intoxicating smells of the night that had first
+driven her, as a very small child, to clamber down from her balcony,
+clinging to the thick ivy roots, to wander with the delightful sense of
+wrong-doing through the moonlit park and even into the adjoining gloomy
+woods. She had always been utterly fearless.
+
+Her childhood had been a strange one. There had been no near relatives
+to interest themselves in the motherless girl left to the tender
+mercies of a brother nearly twenty years her senior, who was frankly
+and undisguisedly horrified at the charge that had been thrust upon
+him. Wrapped up in himself, and free to indulge in the wander hunger
+that gripped him, the baby sister was an intolerable burden, and he had
+shifted responsibility in the easiest way possible. For the first few
+years of her life she was left undisturbed to nurses and servants who
+spoiled her indiscriminately. Then, when she was still quite a tiny
+child, Sir Aubrey Mayo came home from a long tour, and, settling down
+for a couple of years, fixed on his sister's future training, modelled
+rigidly on his own upbringing. Dressed as a boy, treated as a boy, she
+learned to ride and to shoot and to fish--not as amusements, but
+seriously, to enable her to take her place later on as a companion to
+the man whose only interests they were. His air of weariness was a
+mannerism. In reality he was as hard as nails, and it was his intention
+that Diana should grow up as hard. With that end in view her upbringing
+had been Spartan, no allowances were made for sex or temperament and
+nothing was spared to gain the desired result. And from the first Diana
+had responded gallantly, throwing herself heart and soul into the
+arduous, strenuous life mapped out for her. The only drawback to a
+perfect enjoyment of life were the necessary lessons that had to be
+gone through, though even these might have been worse. Every morning
+she rode across the park to the rectory for a couple of hours' tuition
+with the rector, whose heart was more in his stable than in his parish,
+and whose reputation was greater across country than it was in the
+pulpit. His methods were rough and ready, but she had brains, and
+acquired an astonishing amount of diverse knowledge. But her education
+was stopped with abrupt suddenness when she was fifteen by the arrival
+at the rectory of an overgrown young cub who had been sent by a
+despairing parent, as a last resource, to the muscular rector, and who
+quickly discovered what those amongst whom she had grown up had hardly
+realised, that Diana Mayo, with the clothes and manners of a boy, was
+really an uncommonly beautiful young woman. With the assurance
+belonging to his type, he had taken the earliest opportunity of telling
+her so, following it with an attempt to secure the kiss that up to now
+his own good looks had always secured for him. But in this case he had
+to deal with a girl who was a girl by accident of birth only, who was
+quicker with her hands and far finer trained than he was, and whose
+natural strength was increased by furious rage. She had blacked his
+eyes before he properly understood what was happening, and was dancing
+around him like an infuriated young gamecock when the rector had burst
+in upon them, attracted by the noise.
+
+What she left he had finished, and then, breathless and angry, had
+ridden back across the park with her and had briefly announced to Sir
+Aubrey, who happened to be at home upon one of his rare visits, that
+his pupil was both too old and too pretty to continue her studies at
+the rectory, and had taken himself off as hurriedly as he had come,
+leaving Sir Aubrey to settle for himself the new problem of Diana. And,
+as before, it was settled in the easiest possible way. Physically she
+was perfectly able to take up the role for which he had always intended
+her; mentally he presumed that she knew as much as it was necessary for
+her to know, and, in any case, travelling itself was an education, and
+a far finer one than could be learned from books. So Diana grew up in a
+day, and in a fortnight the old life was behind her and she had started
+out on the ceaseless travels with her brother that had continued for
+the last six years--years of perpetual change, of excitements and
+dangers.
+
+She thought of it all, sitting on the broad rail of the balcony, her
+head slanted against the column on which she leaned. "It's been a
+splendid life," she murmured, "and to-morrow--to-day begins the most
+perfect part of it." She yawned and realised suddenly that she was
+desperately sleepy. She turned back into her room, leaving the windows
+wide, and, flinging off her wrap, tumbled into bed and slept almost
+before her head was on the pillow.
+
+It must have been about an hour later when she awoke, suddenly wide
+awake. She lay quite still, looking cautiously under her thick lashes.
+The room was flooded with moonlight, there was nothing to be seen, but
+she had the positive feeling that there was another presence in the
+room beside her own; she had had a half-conscious vision in the moment
+of waking of a shadowy something that had seemed to fade away by the
+window. As the actual reality of this thought pierced through the sleep
+that dulled her brain and became a concrete suggestion, she sprang out
+of the bed and ran on to the balcony. It was empty. She leaned over the
+railing, listening intently, but she could see nothing and hear
+nothing. Puzzled, she went back into her room and turned on the lights.
+Nothing seemed to be missing: her watch lay where she had left it on
+the dressing table; and the suit-cases had apparently not been tampered
+with. By the bedside the ivory-mounted revolver that she always carried
+was lying as she had placed it. She looked around the room again,
+frowning. "It must have been a dream," she said doubtfully, "but it
+seemed very real. It looked tall and white and solid, and I _felt_
+it there." She waited a moment or two, then shrugged her shoulders,
+turned out the lights, and got into bed. Her nerves were admirable, and
+in five minutes she was asleep again.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+
+The promised send-off had been enthusiastic. The arrangements for the
+trip had been perfect; there had been no hitch anywhere. The guide,
+Mustafa Ali, appeared capable and efficient, effacing himself when not
+wanted and replying with courteous dignity when spoken to. The day had
+been full of interest, and the long, hot ride had for Diana been the
+height of physical enjoyment. They had reached the oasis where the
+first night was to be passed an hour before, and found the camp already
+established, tents pitched, and everything so ordered that Sir Aubrey
+could find nothing to criticise; even Stephens, his servant, who had
+travelled with him since Diana was a baby, and who was as critical as
+his master on the subject of camps, had no fault to find.
+
+Diana glanced about her little travelling tent with complete content.
+It was much smaller than the ones to which she had always been
+accustomed, ridiculously so compared with the large one she had had in
+India the previous year, with its separate bath--and dressing-rooms.
+Servants, too, had swarmed in India. Here service promised to be
+inadequate, but it had been her whim on this tour to dispense with the
+elaborate arrangements that Sir Aubrey cultivated and to try
+comparative roughing it. The narrow camp cot, the tin bath, the little
+folding table and her two suit-cases seemed to take up all the
+available space. But she laughed at the inconvenience, though she had
+drenched her bed with splashing, and the soap had found its way into
+the toe of one of her long boots. She had changed from her riding
+clothes into a dress of clinging jade-green silk, swinging short above
+her slender ankles, the neck cut low, revealing the gleaming white of
+her soft, girlish bosom. She came out of the tent and stood a moment
+exchanging an amused smile with Stephens, who was hovering near
+dubiously, one eye on her and the other on his master. She was late,
+and Sir Aubrey liked his meals punctually. The baronet was lounging in
+one deck-chair with his feet on another.
+
+Diana wagged an admonishing forefinger. "Fly, Stephens, and fetch the
+soup! If it is cold there will be a riot." She walked to the edge of
+the canvas cloth that had been thrown down in front of the tents and
+stood revelling in the scene around her, her eyes dancing with
+excitement as they glanced slowly around the camp spread out over the
+oasis--the clustering palm trees, the desert itself stretching away
+before her in undulating sweeps, but seemingly level in the evening
+light, far off to the distant hills lying like a dark smudge against
+the horizon. She drew a long breath. It was the desert at last, the
+desert that she felt she had been longing for all her life. She had
+never known until this moment how intense the longing had been. She
+felt strangely at home, as if the great, silent emptiness had been
+waiting for her as she had been waiting for it, and now that she had
+come it was welcoming her softly with the faint rustle of the
+whispering sand, the mysterious charm of its billowy, shifting surface
+that seemed beckoning to her to penetrate further and further into its
+unknown obscurities.
+
+Her brother's voice behind her brought her down to earth suddenly.
+"You've been a confounded long time."
+
+She turned to the table with a faint smile. "Don't be a bear, Aubrey.
+It's all very well for you. You have Stephens to lather your chin and
+to wash your hands, but thanks to that idiot Marie, I have to look
+after myself."
+
+Sir Aubrey took his heels down leisurely from the second chair, pitched
+away his cigar, and, screwing his eyeglass into his eye with more than
+usual truculence, looked at her with disapproval. "Are you going to rig
+yourself out like that every evening for the benefit of Mustafa Ali and
+the camel-drivers?"
+
+"I do not propose to invite the worthy Mustafa to meals, and I am not
+in the habit of 'rigging myself out,' as you so charmingly put it, for
+any one's benefit. If you think I dress in camp to please you, my dear
+Aubrey, you flatter yourself. I do it entirely to please myself. That
+explorer woman we met in London that first year I began travelling with
+you explained to me the real moral and physical value of changing into
+comfortable, pretty clothes after a hard day in breeches and boots. You
+change yourself. What's the difference?"
+
+"All the difference," he snapped. "There is no need for you to make
+yourself more attractive than you are already."
+
+"Since when has it occurred to you that I am attractive? You must have
+a touch of the sun, Aubrey," she replied, with uplifted eyebrows,
+drumming impatiently with her fingers on the table.
+
+"Don't quibble. You know perfectly well that you are good-looking--too
+good-looking to carry through this preposterous affair."
+
+"Will you please tell me what you are driving at?" she asked quietly.
+But the dark blue eyes fixed on her brother's face were growing darker
+as she looked at him.
+
+"I've been doing some hard thinking to-day, Diana. This tour you
+propose is impossible."
+
+"Isn't it rather late in the day to find that out?" she interrupted
+sarcastically; but he ignored the interruption.
+
+"You must see for yourself, now that you are face to face with the
+thing, that it is impossible. It's quite unthinkable that you can
+wander for the next month all alone in the desert with those damned
+niggers. Though my legal guardianship over you terminated last
+September I still have some moral obligations towards you. Though it
+has been convenient to me to bring you up as a boy and to regard you in
+the light of a younger brother instead of a sister, we cannot get away
+from the fact that you are a woman, and a very young woman. There are
+certain things a young woman cannot do. If you had been the boy I
+always wished you were it would have been a different matter, but you
+are not a boy, and the whole thing is impossible--utterly impossible."
+There was a fretful impatience in his voice.
+
+Diana lit a cigarette slowly, and swung round on her chair with a hard
+laugh. "If I had not lived with you all my life, Aubrey, I should
+really be impressed with your brotherly solicitude; I should think you
+really meant it. But knowing you as I do, I know that it is not anxiety
+on my behalf that is prompting you, but the disinclination that you
+have to travel alone without me. You have come to depend on me to save
+you certain annoyances and inconveniences that always occur in
+travelling. You were more honest in Biskra when you only objected to my
+trip without giving reasons. Why have you waited until to-night to give
+me those reasons?"
+
+"Because I thought that here, at least, you would have sense enough to
+see them. In Biskra it was impossible to argue with you. You made your
+own arrangements against my wishes. I left it, feeling convinced that
+the impossibility of it would be brought home to you here, and that you
+would see for yourself that it was out of the question. Diana, give up
+this insane trip."
+
+"I will not."
+
+"I've a thundering good mind to make you."
+
+"You can't. I'm my own mistress. You have no right over me at all. You
+have no claim on me. You haven't even that of ordinary brotherly
+affection, for you have never given me any, so you cannot expect it
+from me. We needn't make any pretence about it, I am not going to argue
+any more. I will not go back to Biskra."
+
+"If you are afraid of being laughed at----" he sneered; but she took him
+up swiftly.
+
+"I am not afraid of being laughed at. Only cowards are afraid of that,
+and I am not a coward."
+
+"Diana, listen to reason!"
+
+"Aubrey! I have said my last word. Nothing will alter my determination
+to go on this trip. Your arguments do not convince me, who know you. It
+is your own considerations and not mine that are at the bottom of your
+remonstrances. You do not deny it, because you can't, because it is
+true."
+
+They were facing each other across the little table. An angry flush
+rose in Sir Aubrey's face, and his eyeglass fell with a little sharp
+tinkle against a waistcoat button.
+
+"You're a damned obstinate little devil!" he said furiously.
+
+She looked at him steadily, her scornful mouth firm as his own. "I am
+what you have made me," she said slowly. "Why quarrel with the result?
+You have brought me up to ignore the restrictions attached to my sex;
+you now round on me and throw them in my face. All my life you have set
+me an example of selfishness and obstinacy. Can you wonder that I have
+profited by it? You have made me as hard as yourself, and you now
+profess surprise at the determination your training has forced upon me.
+You are illogical. It is your fault, not mine. There was bound to be a
+clash some day. It has come sooner than I expected, that's all. Up till
+now my inclinations have gone with yours, but this seems to be the
+parting of the ways. As I reminded you before, I am my own mistress,
+and I will submit to no interference with my actions. Please understand
+that clearly, Aubrey. I don't want to wrangle any more. I will join you
+in New York as I promised. I am not in the habit of breaking my
+promises, but my life is my own to deal with, and I will deal with it
+exactly as I wish and not as any one else wishes. I will do what I
+choose when and how I choose, and I will _never_ obey any will but
+my own."
+
+Sir Aubrey's eyes narrowed suddenly. "Then I hope to Heaven that one
+day you will fall into the hands of a man who will make you obey," he
+cried wrathfully.
+
+Her scornful mouth curled still more scornfully. "Then Heaven help
+him!" she retorted scathingly, and turned away to her tent.
+
+But, alone, her anger gave way to amusement. It had been something,
+after all, to rouse the lazy Aubrey to wrath. She knew exactly the
+grievance he had been nursing against her during the last few weeks in
+Biskra. Though he travelled perpetually and often in remote and
+desolate places, he travelled with the acme of comfort and the minimum
+of inconveniences. He put himself out for nothing, and the inevitable
+difficulties that accrued fell on Diana's younger and less blase
+shoulders. She had always known the uses he put her to and the
+convenience she was to him. He might have some latent feelings with
+regard to the inadvisability of her behavior, he might even have some
+prickings of conscience on the subject of his upbringing of her, but it
+was thoughts of his own comfort that were troubling him most. That she
+knew, and the knowledge was not conducive to any kinder feeling towards
+him. He always had been and always would be supremely selfish. The
+whole of their life together had been conducted to suit his
+conveniences and not hers. She knew, too, why her company was
+particularly desired on his visit to America. It was a hunting trip,
+but not the kind that they were usually accustomed to: it was a wife
+and not big game that was taking Sir Aubrey across the ocean on this
+occasion. It had been in his mind for some time as an inevitable and
+somewhat unpleasant necessity. Women bored him, and the idea of
+marriage was distasteful, but a son to succeed him was imperative--a
+Mayo must be followed by a Mayo. An heir was essential for the big
+property that the family had held for hundreds of years. No woman had
+ever attracted him, but of all women he had met American women were
+less actively irritating to him, and so it was to America that he
+turned in search of a wife. He proposed to take a house in New York for
+a few months and later on in Newport, and it was for that that Diana's
+company was considered indispensable. She would save him endless
+trouble, as all arrangements could be left in her hands and Stephens'.
+Having made up his mind to go through with a proceeding that he
+regarded in the light of a sacrifice on the family altar, his wish was
+to get it over and done with as soon as possible, and Diana's
+interference in his plans had exasperated him. It was the first time
+that their wills had crossed, and she shrugged her shoulders
+impatiently, with a grimace at the recollection. A little more and it
+would have degenerated into a vulgar quarrel. She banished Aubrey and
+his selfishness resolutely from her mind. It was very hot, and she lay
+very still in the narrow cot, wishing she had not been so rigid in the
+matter of its width, and wondering if a sudden movement in the night
+would precipitate her into the bath that stood alongside. She thought
+regretfully of a punkah, and then smiled derisively at herself.
+
+"Sybarite!" she murmured sleepily. "You need a few discomforts."
+
+She was almost aggressively cheerful next morning at breakfast and for
+the time that they lingered at the oasis after the baggage camels had
+started. Sir Aubrey was morose and silent, and she exchanged most of
+her badinage with Stephens, who was superintending the packing of the
+tiffin basket that would accompany her in charge of the man who had
+been selected as her personal servant, and who was waiting, with
+Mustafa Ali and about ten men, to ride with her.
+
+The time for starting came. Stephens was fussing about the horse that
+Diana was to ride.
+
+"Everything all right, Stephens? Up to your standard? Don't look so
+glum. I wish you were coming to look after me, but it couldn't be done.
+Sir Aubrey would be lost without you."
+
+The idea of a tour without Stephens in the background seemed suddenly
+momentous, and the smile she gave him was more serious than she meant
+it to be. She went back to her brother, who was pulling his moustache
+savagely. "I don't think there's any use waiting any longer. You won't
+want to hurry yourself too much, and you will want to be in Biskra in
+time for dinner," she said as casually as she could.
+
+He swung towards her. "Diana, it's still not too late to change your
+mind. For Heaven's sake give up this folly. It's tempting Providence."
+For the first time there was a genuine ring in his voice, and for a
+moment Diana wavered, but only for a moment. Then she looked at him
+with a slow smile.
+
+"Do I fall on your neck and say, 'Take me back, dear Guardian; I will
+be good,' or do I prostrate myself at your feet and knock my head on
+your boots, and whine, in the language of the country, 'Hearing is
+obeying'? Don't be ridiculous, Aubrey. You can't expect me to change my
+mind at the eleventh hour. It's perfectly safe. Mustafa Ali will take
+care that everything goes smoothly. He has his reputation in Biskra to
+think of. You know the character the authorities gave him. He is not
+likely to throw that away. In any case I can take care of myself,
+thanks to your training. I don't mind owning to being conceited about
+my shooting. Even you admit that I am a credit to your teaching."
+
+With a gay little laugh she whipped out the ivory-mounted revolver, and
+aiming at a low flat rock, some distance away, fired. She was an
+unusually good revolver shot, but this time she seemed to have missed.
+There was no mark on the stone. Diana stared at it stupidly, a frown of
+perplexity creasing her forehead. Then she looked at her brother, and
+back to the revolver in her hand.
+
+Sir Aubrey swore. "Diana! What a senseless piece of bravado!" he cried
+angrily.
+
+She took no notice of him. She was still staring at the smooth rock
+fate. "I don't understand it. How could I miss? It's as big as a
+house," she murmured thoughtfully, and raised the revolver again.
+
+But Sir Aubrey caught her wrist. "For God's sake don't make a fool of
+yourself a second time. You have lowered your prestige quite enough
+already," he said in a low voice, with a glance at the group of
+watching Arabs.
+
+Diana jerked the little weapon back into its place reluctantly. "I
+don't understand it," she said again. "It must be the light." She
+mounted and wheeled her horse alongside of Sir Aubrey's, and held out
+her hand. "Good-bye, Aubrey. Expect me a month after you arrive. I will
+cable to you from Cherbourg. Good luck! I shall roll up in time to be
+best man," she added, laughing, and with a nod to Mustafa Ali she
+turned her horse's head southwards.
+
+For a long time she rode in silence. The quarrel with Aubrey had left a
+nasty taste in her mouth. She knew that what she was doing was
+considered unconventional, but she had been brought up to be
+unconventional. She had never even thought, when she planned her tour,
+of possible criticism; it would have made no difference to her if she
+had thought, and she had been amazed and amused at the sensation that
+her proposed trip had caused. The publicity to which it had given rise
+had annoyed her intensely; she had been scornful that people could not
+occupy themselves with their own affairs and leave her to deal with
+hers. But that Aubrey should join in the general criticism and present
+such a complete _volte-face_ to the opinions he had always held
+was beyond her comprehension. She was angry with him, and contempt was
+mingled with her anger. It was inconsistent with the whole of his
+lifelong attitude toward her, and the discovery of his altered ideas
+left her rather breathless and more than ever determined to adhere to
+her own deeply-rooted convictions. Aubrey was responsible for them, he
+had instilled them, and if he chose now to abandon them that was his
+look-out. For her own part she saw no reason to change principles she
+had been brought up in. If Aubrey really thought there was danger in
+this expedition he could have sacrificed himself for once and come with
+her. As Jim Arbuthnot had said, it was only a month, a negligible
+length of time, but Aubrey's selfishness would not allow him to make
+that concession any more than her own obstinacy would allow her to give
+way. It was too much to expect. And this was the desert! It was the
+expedition that she had dreamed of and planned for years. She could not
+give it up. The idea of danger brought a little laugh to her lips. How
+could anything in the desert hurt her? It had been calling to her
+always. There was nothing strange about the scene that lay all around
+her. Her surroundings seemed oddly familiar. The burning sun overhead
+in the cloudless sky, the shimmering haze rising from the hot, dry
+ground, the feathery outline of some clustering palm trees in a tiny
+distant oasis were like remembrances that she watched again with a
+feeling of gladness that was fuller and deeper than anything that she
+had been conscious of before. She was radiantly happy--happy in the
+sense of her youth and strength, her perfect physical fitness, happy in
+the capacity of her power of enjoyment, happy with the touch of the
+keen, nervous horse between her knees, exhilarated with her new
+authority. She had looked forward so eagerly, and realisation was
+proving infinitely greater than anticipation. And for a whole month
+this perfect happiness was to be hers. She thought of her promise to
+Aubrey with impatience. To give up the joyous freedom of the desert for
+the commonplace round of American social life seemed preposterous. The
+thought of the weeks in New York were frankly tedious; Newport would be
+a little less bad, for there were alleviations. The only hope was that
+Aubrey would find the wife he was looking for quickly and release her
+from an obligation that was going to be very wearisome. Aubrey was
+counting on her, and it would be unsporting to let him down; she would
+have to keep her promise, but she would be glad when it was over.
+Aubrey married would settle definitely the possibility of any further
+disagreements between them. She wondered vaguely what the future Lady
+Mayo would be like, but she did not expend much pity on her. American
+girls as a rule were well able to care for themselves. She stroked her
+horse with a little smile. Aubrey and his possible wife seemed
+singularly uninteresting beside the vivid interest of the moment. A
+caravan that had been visible for a long time coming towards them drew
+nearer, and Diana reined in to watch the long line of slow, lurching
+camels passing. The great beasts, with their disdainful tread and long,
+swaying necks, never failed to interest her. It was a large caravan;
+the bales on the camels' backs looked heavy, and beside the merchants
+on riding camels and a motley crowd of followers--some on lean little
+donkeys and others on foot--there was an armed guard of mounted men. It
+took some time to pass. One of two of the camels carried huddled
+figures, swathed and shapeless with a multitude of coverings, that
+Diana knew must be women. The contrast between them and herself was
+almost ridiculous. It made her feel stifled even to look at them. She
+wondered what their lives were like, if they ever rebelled against the
+drudgery and restrictions that were imposed upon them, if they ever
+longed for the freedom that she was revelling in, or if custom and
+usage were so strong that they had no thoughts beyond the narrow life
+they led. The thought of those lives filled her with aversion. The idea
+of marriage--even in its highest form, based on mutual consideration
+and mutual forbearance--was repugnant to her. She thought of it with a
+shiver of absolute repulsion. To Aubrey it was distasteful, but to her
+cold, reserved temperament it was a thing of horror and disgust. That
+women could submit to the degrading intimacy and fettered existence of
+married life filled her with scornful wonder. To be bound irrevocably
+to the will and pleasure of a man who would have the right to demand
+obedience in all that constituted marriage and the strength to enforce
+those claims revolted her. For a Western woman it was bad enough, but
+for the women of the East, mere slaves of the passions of the men who
+owned them, unconsidered, disregarded, reduced to the level of animals,
+the bare idea made her quiver and bring her hand down heavily on her
+horse's neck. The nervous creature started sharply and she let him go,
+calling to Mustafa Ali as she cantered past him. He had ridden to meet
+the caravan and was dismounted, deep in conversation with the chief of
+the armed guard. With the thoughts that it had provoked the caravan had
+lost all interest for Diana. She wanted to get away from it, to forget
+it, and she rode on unmindful of her escort, who, like her guide, had
+stopped to speak with the traders. Diana's horse was fleet, and it was
+some time before they caught her up. There was a look of annoyance on
+Mustafa Ali's face as she turned on hearing them behind her and signed
+to him to ride beside her.
+
+"Mademoiselle is not interested in the caravan?" he asked curiously.
+
+"No," she replied shortly, and asked for some details connected with
+her own expedition. The man talked easily and well, in fluent French,
+and after giving the required information, volunteered anecdotes
+relating to various well-known people whom he had guided in the desert.
+Diana watched him interestedly. He seemed a man of about middle age,
+though it was difficult to guess more than approximately, for the
+thick, peaked beard that hid both mouth and chin made him look older
+than he really was. His beard had been his only drawback from Diana's
+point of view, for she judged men by their mouths. Eyes were
+untrustworthy evidences of character in an Oriental, for they usually
+wavered under a European's. Mustafa Ali's were wavering now as she
+looked at him, and it occurred to her that they had not seemed nearly
+so shifty in Biskra when she had engaged him. But she attached no
+importance to the thought, and dismissed it as much less interesting
+than the great difference displayed in their respective modes of
+riding. The Arab's exaggeratedly short stirrup would have given her
+agonies of cramp. She pointed the difference with a laugh of amusement
+and drew the man on to speak of his horses. The one Diana was riding
+was an unusually fine beast, and had been one of the greatest points in
+the guide's favour when he had brought it for her inspection. He was
+enthusiastic in its praise, but volubly vague as to its antecedents,
+which left Diana with the conviction that the animal had either been
+stolen or acquired in some irregular manner and that it would be
+tactless to pursue further inquiries. After all it was no business of
+hers. It was enough that her trip was to be conducted on the back of a
+horse that it was a pleasure to ride and whose vagaries promised to
+give interest to what otherwise might have been monotonous. Some of the
+horses that she had seen in Biskra had been the veriest jades.
+
+She asked Mustafa Ali about the country through which they were
+passing, but he did not seem to have much information that was really
+of interest, or what seemed important to him appeared trivial to her,
+and he constantly brought the conversation back to Biskra, of which she
+was tired, or to Oran, of which she knew nothing. The arrival at a
+little oasis where the guide suggested that the midday halt might be
+made was opportune. Diana swung to the ground, and, tossing down her
+gloves, gave herself a shake. It was hot work riding in the burning sun
+and the rest would be delightful. She had a thoroughly healthy
+appetite, and superintended the laying out of her lunch with interest.
+It was the last time that it would be as daintily packed. Stephens was
+an artist with a picnic basket. She was going to miss Stephens. She
+finished her lunch quickly, and then, with her back propped against a
+palm tree, a cigarette in her mouth, her arms clasped round her knees,
+she settled down happily, overlooking the desert. The noontime hush
+seemed over everything. Not a breath of wind stirred the tops of the
+palms; a lizard on a rock near her was the only living thing she could
+see. She glanced over her shoulder. The men, with their big cloaks
+drawn over their heads, were lying asleep, or at any rate appeared to
+be so; only Mustafa Ali was on foot, standing at the edge of the oasis,
+staring fixedly in the direction in which they would ride later.
+
+Diana threw the end of her cigarette at the lizard and laughed at its
+precipitant flight. She had no desire to follow the example of her
+escort and sleep. She was much too happy to lose a minute of her
+enjoyment by wasting it in rest that she did not require. She was
+perfectly content and satisfied with herself and her outlook. She had
+not a care or a thought in the world. There was not a thing that she
+would have changed or altered. Her life had always been happy; she had
+extracted the last ounce of pleasure out of every moment of it. That
+her happiness was due to the wealth that had enabled her to indulge in
+the sports and constant travel that made up the sum total of her
+desires never occurred to her. That what composed her pleasure in life
+was possible only because she was rich enough to buy the means of
+gratifying it did not enter her head. She thought of her wealth no more
+than of her beauty. The business connected with her coming of age, when
+the big fortune left to her by her father passed unreservedly into her
+own hands, was a wearisome necessity that had been got through as
+expeditiously as possible, with as little attention to detail as the
+old family lawyer had allowed, and an absence of interest that was
+evidenced in the careless scrawl she attached to each document that was
+given her to sign. The mere money in itself was nothing; it was only a
+means to an end. She had never even realised how much was expended on
+the continuous and luxurious expeditions that she had made with Sir
+Aubrey; her own individual tastes were simple, and apart from the
+expensive equipment that was indispensable for their hunting trips, and
+which was Aubrey's choosing, not hers, she was not extravagant. The
+long list of figures that had been so boring during the tedious hours
+that she had spent with the lawyer, grudging every second of the
+glorious September morning that she had had to waste in the library
+when she was longing to be out of doors, had conveyed nothing to her
+beyond the fact that in future when she wanted anything she would be
+put to the trouble of writing out an absurd piece of paper herself,
+instead of leaving the matter in Aubrey's hands, as she had done
+hitherto.
+
+She had hardly understood and had been much embarrassed by the formal
+and pedantic congratulations with which the lawyer had concluded his
+business statement. She was not aware that she was an object of
+congratulation. It all seemed very stupid and uninteresting. Of real
+life she knew nothing and of the ordinary ties and attachments of
+family life less than nothing. Aubrey's cold, loveless training had
+debarred her from all affection; she had grown up oblivious of it. Love
+did not exist for her; from even the thought of passion she shrank
+instinctively with the same fastidiousness as she did from actual
+physical uncleanliness.
+
+That she had awakened an emotion that she did not understand herself in
+certain men had been an annoyance that had become more intolerable with
+repetition. She had hated them and herself impartially, and she had
+scorned them fiercely. She had never been so gentle and so human with
+any one as she had been with Jim Arbuthnot, and that only because she
+was so radiantly happy that night that not even the distasteful
+reminder that she was a woman whom a man coveted was able to disturb
+her happiness. But here there was no need to dwell on annoyances or
+distasteful reminders.
+
+Diana dug her heels into the soft ground with a little wriggle of
+content; here she would be free from anything that could mar her
+perfect enjoyment of life as it appeared to her. Here there was nothing
+to spoil her pleasure. Her head had drooped during her thoughts, and
+for the last few minutes her eyes had been fixed on the dusty tips of
+her riding-boots. But she raised them now and looked up with a great
+content in them. It was the happiest day of her life. She had forgotten
+the quarrel with Aubrey. She had put from her the chain of ideas
+suggested by the passing caravan. There was nothing discordant to
+disturb the perfect harmony of her mind.
+
+A shade beside her made her turn her head. Mustafa Ali salaamed
+obsequiously. "It is time to start, Mademoiselle."
+
+Diana looked up in surprise and then back over her shoulder at the
+escort. The men were already mounted. The smile faded from her eyes.
+Mustafa Ali was guide, but she was head of this expedition; if her
+guide had not realised this he would have to do so now. She glanced at
+the watch on her wrist.
+
+"There is plenty of time," she said coolly.
+
+Mustafa Ali salaamed again. "It is a long ride to reach the oasis where
+we must camp to-night," he insisted hurriedly.
+
+Diana crossed one brown boot over the other, and scooping up some sand
+in the palm of her hand trickled it through her fingers slowly. "Then
+we can ride faster," she replied quietly, looking at the shining
+particles glistening in the sun.
+
+Mustafa Ali made a movement of impatience and persisted doggedly.
+"Mademoiselle would do well to start."
+
+Diana looked up swiftly with angry eyes. Under the man's suave manner
+and simple words a peremptory tone had crept into his voice. She sat
+quite still, her fingers raking the warm sand, and under her haughty
+stare the guide's eyes wavered and turned away. "We will start when I
+choose, Mustafa Ali," she said brusquely. "You may give orders to your
+men, but you will take your orders from me. I will tell you when I am
+ready. You may go."
+
+Still he hesitated, swaying irresolutely backwards and forwards on his
+heels.
+
+Diana snapped her fingers over her shoulder, a trick she had learned
+from a French officer in Biskra. "I said go!" she repeated sharply. She
+took no notice of his going and did not look back to see what orders he
+gave the men. She glanced at her watch again. Perhaps it was growing
+late, perhaps the camp was a longer ride than she had thought; but
+Mustafa Ali must learn his lesson if they rode till midnight to reach
+the oasis. She pushed her obstinate chin out further and then smiled
+again suddenly. She hoped that the night would fall before they reached
+their destination. There had been one or two moonlight riding picnics
+out from Biskra, and the glamour of the desert nights had gone to
+Diana's head. This riding into the unknown away from the noisy,
+chattering crowd who had spoiled the perfect stillness of the night
+would be infinitely more perfect. She gave a little sigh of regret as
+she thought of it. It was not really practical. Though she would wait
+nearly another hour to allow the fact of her authority to sink into
+Mustafa Ali's brain she would have to hasten afterwards to arrive at
+the camp before darkness set in. The men were unused to her ways and
+she to theirs. She would not have Stephens' help to-night; she would
+have to depend on herself to order everything as she wished it, and it
+was easier done in daylight. One hour would not make much difference.
+The horses had more in them than had been taken out of them this
+morning; they could be pushed along a bit faster with no harm happening
+to them. She eyed her watch from time to time with a grin of amusement,
+but suppressed the temptation to look and see how Mustafa Ali was
+taking it, for her action might be seen and misconstrued.
+
+When the time she had set herself was up she rose and walked slowly
+towards the group of Arabs. The guide's face was sullen, but she took
+no notice, and, when they started, motioned him to her side again with
+a reference to Biskra that provoked a flow of words. It was the last
+place she wanted to hear of, but it was one of which he spoke the
+readiest, and she knew it was not wise to allow him to remain silent to
+sulk. His ill-temper would evaporate with the sound of his own voice.
+She rode forward steadily, silent herself, busy with her own thoughts,
+heedless of the voice beside her, and unconscious of the fact when it
+became silent.
+
+She had been quite right about the capabilities of the horses. They
+responded without any apparent effort to the further demand made of
+them. The one in particular that Diana was riding moved in a swift,
+easy gallop that was the perfection of motion.
+
+They had been riding for some hours when they came to the first oasis
+that had been sighted since leaving the one where the midday halt was
+made. Diana pulled up her horse to look at it, for it was unusually
+beautiful in the luxuriousness and arrangement of its group of palms
+and leafy bushes. Some pigeons were cooing softly, hidden from sight
+amongst the trees, with a plaintive melancholy that somehow seemed in
+keeping with the deserted spot. Beside the well, forming a triangle,
+stood what had been three particularly fine palm trees, but the tops
+had been broken off about twenty feet up from the ground, and the
+mutilated trunks reared themselves bare and desolate-looking. Diana
+took off her heavy helmet and tossed it to the man behind her, and sat
+looking at the oasis, while the faint breeze that had sprung up stirred
+her thick, short hair, and cooled her hot head. The sad notes of the
+pigeons and the broken palms, that with their unusualness vaguely
+suggested a tragedy, lent an air of mystery to the place that pleased
+her.
+
+She turned eagerly to Mustafa Ali. "Why did you not arrange for the
+camp to be here? It would have been a long enough ride."
+
+The man fidgeted in his saddle, fingering his beard uneasily, his eyes
+wandering past Diana's and looking at the broken trees. "No man rests
+here, Mademoiselle. It is the place of devils. The curse of Allah is
+upon it," he muttered, touching his horse with his heel, and making it
+sidle restlessly--an obvious hint that Diana ignored.
+
+"I like it," she persisted obstinately.
+
+He made a quick gesture with his fingers. "It is accursed. Death lurks
+beside those broken palm trees," he said, looking at her curiously.
+
+She jerked her head with a sudden smile. "For you, perhaps, but not for
+me. Allah's curse rests only upon those who fear it. But since you are
+afraid, Mustafa Ali, let us go on." She gave a little light laugh, and
+Mustafa Ali kicked his horse savagely as he followed.
+
+The distance before her spread out cleanly with the sharp distinctness
+that precedes the setting sun. She rode on until she began to wonder if
+it would indeed be night-fall before she reached her destination. They
+had ridden longer and faster than had ever been intended. It seemed odd
+that they had not overtaken the baggage camels. She looked at her watch
+with a frown. "Where is your caravan, Mustafa Ali?" she called. "I see
+no sign of an oasis, and the darkness will come."
+
+"If Mademoiselle had started earlier----" he said sullenly.
+
+"If I had started earlier it would still have been too far. To-morrow
+we will arrange it otherwise," she said firmly.
+
+"To-morrow----" he growled indistinctly.
+
+Diana looked at him keenly. "What did you say?" she asked haughtily.
+
+His hand went to his forehead mechanically. "To-morrow is with Allah!"
+he murmured with unctuous piety.
+
+A retort trembled on Diana's lips, but her attention was distracted
+from her annoying guide to a collection of black specks far off across
+the desert. They were too far away for her to see clearly, but she
+pointed to them, peering at them intently. "See!" she cried. "Is that
+the caravan?"
+
+"As Allah wills!" he replied more piously than before, and Diana
+wished, with a sudden feeling of irritation, that he would stop
+relegating his responsibilities to the Deity and take a little more
+active personal interest in his missing camel train.
+
+The black specks were moving fast across the level plain. Very soon
+Diana saw that it was not the slow, leisurely camels that they were
+overtaking, but a band of mounted men who were moving swiftly towards
+them. They had seen nobody since the traders' caravan had passed them
+in the morning. For Diana the Arabs that were approaching were even
+more interesting than the caravan had been. She had seen plenty of
+caravans arriving and departing from Biskra, but, though she had seen
+small parties of tribesmen constantly in the vicinity of the town, she
+had never seen so large a body of mounted men before, nor had she seen
+them as they were here, one with the wild picturesqueness of their
+surroundings. It was impossible to count how many there were, for they
+were riding in close formation, the wind filling their, great white
+cloaks, making each man look gigantic. Diana's interest flamed up
+excitedly. It was like passing another ship upon a hitherto empty sea.
+They seemed to add a desired touch to the grim loneliness of the scene
+that had begun to be a little awe-inspiring. Perhaps she was hungry,
+perhaps she was tired, or perhaps she was only annoyed by the bad
+arrangements of her guide, but before the advent of the mounted Arabs
+Diana had been conscious of a feeling of oppression, as if the silent
+desolation of the desert was weighing heavily upon her, but the body of
+swiftly moving men and horses had changed the aspect utterly. An
+atmosphere of life and purpose seemed to have taken the place of the
+quiet stagnation that had been before their coming.
+
+The distance between the two parties decreased rapidly. Diana, intent
+on the quickly advancing horsemen, spurred ahead of her guide with
+sparkling eyes. They were near enough now to see that the horses were
+beautiful creatures and that each man rode magnificently. They were
+armed too, their rifles being held in front of them, not slung on their
+backs as she had seen in Biskra. They passed quite close to her, only a
+few yards away--a solid square, the orderly ranks suggesting training
+and discipline that she had not looked for. Not a head turned in her
+direction as they went by and the pace was not slackened. Fretted by
+the proximity of the galloping horses, her own horse reared
+impatiently, but Diana pulled him in, turning in her saddle to watch
+the Arabs pass, her breath coming quick with excitement.
+
+"What are they?" she called out to Mustafa Ali, who had dropped some
+way behind her. But he, too, was looking back at the horsemen, and did
+not seem to hear her question. Her escort had lagged still further
+behind her guide and were some distance away. Diana watched the rapidly
+moving, compact square eagerly with appreciatory eyes--it was a
+beautiful sight. Then she gave a little gasp. The galloping horses had
+drawn level with the last stragglers of her own party, and just beyond
+they stopped suddenly. Diana would not have believed it possible that
+they could have stopped so suddenly and in such close formation while
+travelling at such a pace. The tremendous strain on the bridles flung
+the horses far back on their haunches. But there was no time to dwell
+on the wonderful horsemanship or training of the men. Events moved too
+rapidly. The solid square split up and lengthened out into a long line
+of two men riding abreast. Wheeling behind the last of Mustafa's men
+they came back even faster than they had passed, and circled widely
+round Diana and her attendants. Bewildered by this manoeuvre she
+watched them with a puzzled frown, striving to soothe her horse, who
+was nearly frantic with excitement. Twice they galloped round her
+little band, their long cloaks fluttering, their rifles tossing in
+their hands. Diana was growing impatient. It was very fine to watch,
+but time and the light were both going. She would have been glad if the
+demonstration had occurred earlier in the day, when there would have
+been more time to enjoy it. She turned again to Mustafa Ali to suggest
+that they had better try to move on, but he had gone further from her,
+back towards his own. She wrestled with her nervous mount, trying to
+turn him to join her guide, when a sudden burst of rifle shots made her
+start and her horse bound violently. Then she laughed. That would be
+the end of the demonstration, a parting salute, the _decharge de
+mousqueterie_ beloved of the Arab. She turned her head from her
+refractory horse to look at them ride off, and the laugh died away on
+her lips. It was not a farewell salute. The rifles that the Arabs were
+firing were not pointing up into the heavens, but aiming straight at
+her and her escort. And as she stared with suddenly startled eyes,
+unable to do anything with her plunging horse, Mustafa Ali's men were
+blotted out from her sight, cut off by a band of Arabs who rode between
+her and them. Mustafa Ali himself was lying forward on the neck of his
+horse, who was standing quiet amidst the general confusion. Then there
+came another volley, and the guide slid slowly out of his saddle on to
+the ground, and at the same time Diana's horse went off with a wild
+leap that nearly unseated her.
+
+Until they started shooting the thought that the Arabs could be hostile
+had not crossed her mind. She imagined that they were merely showing
+off with the childish love of display which she knew was
+characteristic. The French authorities had been right after all.
+Diana's first feeling was one of contempt for an administration that
+made possible such an attempt so near civilisation. Her second a
+fleeting amusement at the thought of how Aubrey would jeer. But her
+amusement passed as the real seriousness of the attack came home to
+her. For the first time it occurred to her that her guide's descent
+from his saddle was due to a wound and not to the fear that she had at
+first disgustedly attributed to him. But nobody had seemed to put up
+any kind of a fight, she thought wrathfully. She tugged angrily at her
+horse's mouth, but the bit was between his teeth and he tore on
+frantically. Her own position made her furious. Her guide was wounded,
+his men surrounded, and she was ignominiously being run away with by a
+bolting horse. If she could only turn the wretched animal. It would
+only be a question of ransom, of that she was positive. She must get
+back somehow to the others and arrange terms. It was an annoyance, of
+course, but after all it added a certain piquancy to her trip, it would
+be an experience. It was only a "hold-up." She did not suppose the
+Arabs had even really meant to hurt any one, but they were excited and
+some one's shot, aimed wide, had found an unexpected billet. It could
+only be that. It was too near Biskra for any real danger, she argued
+with herself, still straining on the reins. She would not admit that
+there was any danger, though her heart was beating in a way that it had
+never done before. Then as she hauled ineffectually at the bridle with
+all her strength there came from behind her the sound of a long, shrill
+whistle. Her horse pricked up his ears and she was conscious that his
+pace sensibly lessened. Instinctively she looked behind. A solitary
+Arab was riding after her and as she looked she realised that his horse
+was gaining on hers. The thought drove every idea of stopping her
+runaway from her and made her dig her spurs into him instead. There was
+a sinister air of deliberation in the way in which the Arab was
+following her; he was riding her down.
+
+Diana's mouth closed firmly and a new keenness came into her steady
+eyes. It was one thing to go back voluntarily to make terms with the
+men who had attacked her party; it was quite another thing to be
+deliberately chased across the desert by an Arab freebooter. Her
+obstinate chin was almost square. Then the shadow of a laugh flickered
+in her eyes and curved her mouth. New experiences were crowding in upon
+her to-day. She had often wondered what the feelings of a hunted
+creature were. She seemed in a fair way of finding out. She had always
+stoutly maintained that the fox enjoyed the run as much as the hounds;
+that remained to be proved, but, in any case, she would give this hound
+a run for his money. She could ride, and there seemed plenty yet in the
+frightened animal under her. She bent down, lying low against his neck
+with a little, reckless laugh, coaxing him with all her knowledge and
+spurring him alternately. But soon her mood changed. She frowned
+anxiously as she looked at the last rays of the setting sun. It would
+be dark very soon. She could not go chasing through the night with this
+tiresome Arab at her heels. The humour seemed to have died out of the
+situation and Diana began to get angry. In the level country that
+surrounded her there were no natural features that could afford cover
+or aid in any way; there seemed nothing for it but to own herself
+defeated and pull up--if she could. An idea of trying to dodge him and
+of returning of her own free will was dismissed at once as hopeless.
+She had seen enough in her short glimpse of the Arabs' tactics when
+they had passed her to know that she was dealing with a finished
+horseman on a perfectly trained horse, and that her idea could never
+succeed. But, perversely, she felt that to that particular Arab
+following her she would never give in. She would ride till she dropped,
+or the horse did, before that.
+
+The whistle came again, and again, in spite of her relentless spurring,
+her horse checked his pace. A sudden inspiration came to her. Perhaps
+it was the horse she was riding that was the cause of all the trouble.
+It was certainly the Arab's whistle that had made it moderate its
+speed; it was responding clearly to a signal that it knew. Her guide's
+reluctance to give any particulars of his acquisition of the horse came
+back to her. There could not be much doubt about it. The animal had
+unquestionably been stolen, and either belonged to or was known to the
+party of Arabs who had met them.
+
+The _naivete_ that paraded a stolen horse through the desert at
+the risk of meeting its former owner made her smile in spite of her
+annoyance, but it was not a pleasant smile, as her thoughts turned from
+the horse to its present owner. The sum of Mustafa Ali's delinquencies
+was mounting up fast. But it was his affair, not hers. In the meantime
+she had paid for the horse to ride through the desert, not to be
+waylaid by Arab bandits. Her temper was going fast.
+
+She urged the horse on with all her power, but perceptibly he was
+slowing up. She flashed another backward look. The Arab was close
+behind her--closer than she had been aware. She had a momentary glimpse
+of a big white figure, dark piercing eyes, and white gleaming teeth,
+and passionate rage filled her. With no thought of what the
+consequences or retaliation might be, with no thought at all beyond a
+wild desire to rid herself of her pursuer, driven by a sudden madness
+which seemed to rise up in her and which she could not control, she
+clutched her revolver and fired twice, full in the face of the man who
+was following her. He did not even flinch and a low laugh of amusement
+came from him. And at the sound of his laugh Diana's mouth parched
+suddenly, and a cold shiver rippled across her spine. A strange feeling
+that she had never experienced before went through her. She had missed
+again as she had missed this morning. How, she did not know; it was
+inexplicable, but it was a fact, and a fact that left her with a
+feeling of powerlessness. She dropped the useless revolver, trying
+vainly to force her horse's pace, but inch by inch the fiery chestnut
+that the Arab was riding crept up nearer alongside. She would not turn
+to look again, but glancing sideways she could see its small,
+wicked-looking head, with flat laid ears and vicious, bloodshot eyes,
+level with her elbow. For a moment or two it remained there, then with
+a sudden spurt the chestnut forged ahead, and as it shot past it
+swerved close in beside her, and the man, rising in his stirrups and
+leaning towards her, flung a pair of powerful arms around her, and,
+with a jerk, swung her clear of the saddle and on to his own horse in
+front of him. His movement had been so quick she was unprepared and
+unable to resist. For a moment she was stunned, then her senses came
+back to her and she struggled wildly, but, stifled in the thick folds
+of the Arab's robes, against which her face was crushed, and held in a
+grip that seemed to be slowly suffocating her, her struggles were
+futile. The hard, muscular arm round her hurt her acutely, her ribs
+seemed to be almost breaking under its weight and strength, it was
+nearly impossible to breathe with the close contact of his body. She
+was unusually strong for a girl, but against this steely strength that
+held her she was helpless. And for a time the sense of her helplessness
+and the pain that any resistance to the arm wrapped round her gave her
+made her lie quiet. She felt the Arab check his horse, felt the
+chestnut wheel, spinning high on his hind legs, and then bound forward
+again.
+
+Her feelings were indescribable. She did not know what to think. Her
+mind felt jarred. She was unable to frame any thoughts coherently. What
+had happened was so unexpected, so preposterous, that no conclusion
+seemed adequate. Only rage filled her--blind, passionate rage against
+the man who had dared to touch her, who had dared to lay his hands on
+her, and those hands the hands of a native. A shiver of revulsion ran
+through her. She was choking with fury, with anger and with disgust.
+The ignominy of her plight hurt her pride badly. She had been
+outridden, swept from her saddle as if she were a puppet, and compelled
+to bear the proximity of the man's own hateful body and the restraint
+of his arms. No one had ever dared to touch her before. No one had ever
+dared to handle her as she was being handled now. How was it going to
+end? Where were they going? With her face hidden she had lost all sense
+of direction. She had no idea to what point the horse had turned when
+he had wheeled so suddenly. He was galloping swiftly with continual
+disconcerting bounds that indicated either temper or nerves, but the
+man riding him seemed in no way disturbed by his horse's behavior. She
+could feel him swaying easily in the saddle, and even the wildest leaps
+did not cause any slackening of the arm around her.
+
+But by degrees as she continued to lie still the pressure on her body
+was relieved slightly, and she was able to turn her head a little
+towards the air for which she was almost fainting, but not enough to
+enable her to see what was passing around her. She drank in the cool
+air eagerly. Though she could not see she knew that the night had come,
+the night that she had hoped would fall before she reached her
+destination, but which now seemed horrible. The fresh strength that the
+air gave her fanned the courage that still remained with her.
+Collecting all her force she made a sudden desperate spring, trying to
+leap clear of the arm that now lay almost loosely about her, her
+spurred heels tearing the chestnut's flank until he reared
+perpendicularly, snorting and trembling. But with a quick sweep of his
+long arm the Arab gathered her back into his hold, still struggling
+fiercely. His arms were both round her; he was controlling the maddened
+horse only with the pressure of his knees.
+
+"Doucement, doucement." She heard the slow, soft voice indistinctly,
+for he was pressing her head again closely to him, and she did not know
+if the words were applied to herself or to the horse. She fought to
+lift her head, to escape the grip that held her, straining, striving
+until he spoke again.
+
+"Lie still, you little fool!" he snarled with sudden vehemence, and
+with brutal hands he forced her to obey him, until she wondered if he
+would leave a single bone unbroken in her body, till further resistance
+was impossible. Gasping for breath she yielded to the strength that
+overpowered her, and ceased to struggle. The man seemed to know
+intuitively that she was beaten, and turned his undivided attention to
+his horse with the same low laugh of amusement that had sent the
+strange feeling through her when her shots had missed him. It had
+puzzled her then, but it grew now with a horrible intensity, until she
+knew that it was fear that had come to her for the first time in her
+life--a strange fear that she fought against desperately, but which was
+gaining on her with a force that was sapping her strength from her and
+making her head reel. She did not faint, but her whole body seemed to
+grow nerveless with the sudden realisation of the horror of her
+position.
+
+After that Diana lost all sense of time, as she had already lost all
+sense of direction. She did not know if it was minutes or hours that
+passed as they still galloped swiftly through the night. She did not
+know if they were alone or if the band of Arabs to which this man
+belonged were riding with them, noiseless over the soft ground. What
+had happened to her guide and his men? Had they been butchered and left
+where they fell, or were they, too, being hurried unwillingly into some
+obscure region of the desert? But for the moment the fate of Mustafa
+Ali and his companions did not trouble her very much; they had not
+played a very valiant part in the short encounter, and her own
+situation swamped her mind to the exclusion of everything else.
+
+The sense of fear was growing on her. She scorned and derided it. She
+tried to convince herself it did not exist, but it did exist, torturing
+her with its strangeness and with the thoughts that it engendered. She
+had anticipated nothing like this. She had never thought of a
+contingency that would end so, that would induce a situation before
+which her courage was shuddering into pieces with the horror that was
+opening up before her--a thing that had always seemed a remote
+impossibility that could never touch her, from even the knowledge of
+which her life with Aubrey had almost shielded her, but which now
+loomed near her, forcing its reality upon her till she trembled and
+great drops of moisture gathered on her forehead.
+
+The Arab moved her position once, roughly, but she was glad of the
+change for it freed her head from the stifling folds of his robes. He
+did not speak again--only once when the chestnut shied violently he
+muttered something under his breath. But her satisfaction was
+short-lived. A few minutes afterwards his arm tightened round her once
+more and he twined a fold of his long cloak round her head, blinding
+her. And then she understood. The galloping horse was pulled in with
+almost the same suddenness that had amazed her when she had first seen
+the Arabs. She felt him draw her close into his arms and slip down on
+to the ground; there were voices around her--confused, unintelligible;
+then they died away as she felt him carry her a few paces. He set her
+down and unwound the covering from her face. The light that shone
+around her seemed by contrast dazzling with the darkness that had gone
+before. Confused, she clasped her hands over her eyes for a moment and
+then looked up slowly. She was in a big, lofty tent, brightly lit by
+two hanging lamps. But she took no heed of her surroundings; her eyes
+were fixed on the man who had brought her there. He had flung aside the
+heavy cloak that enveloped him from head to foot and was standing
+before her, tall and broad-shouldered, dressed in white flowing robes,
+a waistcloth embroidered in black and silver wound several times about
+him, and from the top of which showed a revolver that was thrust into
+the folds.
+
+Diana's eyes passed over him slowly till they rested on his brown,
+clean-shaven face, surmounted by crisp, close-cut brown hair. It was
+the handsomest and cruellest face that she had ever seen. Her gaze was
+drawn instinctively to his. He was looking at her with fierce burning
+eyes that swept her until she felt that the boyish clothes that covered
+her slender limbs were stripped from her, leaving the beautiful white
+body bare under his passionate stare.
+
+She shrank back, quivering, dragging the lapels of her riding jacket
+together over her breast with clutching hands, obeying an impulse that
+she hardly understood.
+
+"Who are you?" she gasped hoarsely.
+
+"I am the Sheik Ahmed Ben Hassan."
+
+The name conveyed nothing. She had never heard it before. She had
+spoken without thinking in French, and in French he replied to her.
+
+"Why have you brought me here?" she asked, fighting down the fear that
+was growing more terrible every moment.
+
+He repeated her words with a slow smile. "Why have I brought you here?
+Bon Dieu! Are you not woman enough to know?"
+
+She shrank back further, a wave of colour rushing into her face that
+receded immediately, leaving her whiter than she had been before. Her
+eyes fell under the kindling flame in his. "I don't know what you
+mean," she whispered faintly, with shaking lips.
+
+"I think you do." He laughed softly, and his laugh frightened her more
+than anything he had said. He came towards her, and although she was
+swaying on her feet, desperately she tried to evade him, but with a
+quick movement he caught her in his arms.
+
+Terror, agonising, soul-shaking terror such as she had never imagined,
+took hold of her. The flaming light of desire burning in his eyes
+turned her sick and faint. Her body throbbed with the consciousness of
+a knowledge that appalled her. She understood his purpose with a horror
+that made each separate nerve in her system shrink against the
+understanding that had come to her under the consuming fire of his
+ardent gaze, and in the fierce embrace that was drawing her shaking
+limbs closer and closer against the man's own pulsating body. She
+writhed in his arms as he crushed her to him in a sudden access of
+possessive passion. His head bent slowly down to her, his eyes burned
+deeper, and, held immovable, she endured the first kiss she had ever
+received. And the touch of his scorching lips, the clasp of his arms,
+the close union with his warm, strong body robbed her of all strength,
+of all power of resistance.
+
+With a great sob her eyes closed wearily, the hot mouth pressed on hers
+was like a narcotic, drugging her almost into insensibility. Numbly she
+felt him gather her high up into his arms, his lips still clinging
+closely, and carry her across the tent through curtains into an
+adjoining room. He laid her down on soft cushions. "Do not make me wait
+too long," he whispered, and left her.
+
+And the whispered words sent a shock through her that seemed to wrench
+her deadened nerves apart, galvanising her into sudden strength. She
+sprang up with wild, despairing eyes, and hands clenched frantically
+across her heaving breast; then, with a bitter cry, she dropped on to
+the floor, her arms flung out across the wide, luxurious bed. It was
+not true! It was not true! It could not be--this awful thing that had
+happened to her--not to her, Diana Mayo! It was a dream, a ghastly
+dream that would pass and free her from this agony. Shuddering, she
+raised her head. The strange room swam before her eyes. Oh, God! It was
+not a dream. It was real, it was an actual fact from which there was no
+escape. She was trapped, powerless, defenceless, and behind the heavy
+curtains near her was the man waiting to claim what he had taken. Any
+moment he might come; the thought sent her shivering closer to the
+ground with limbs that trembled uncontrollably. Her courage, that had
+faced dangers and even death without flinching, broke down before the
+horror that awaited her. It was inevitable; there was no help to be
+expected, no mercy to be hoped for. She had felt the crushing strength
+against which she was helpless. She would struggle, but it would be
+useless; she would fight, but it would make no difference. Within the
+tent she was alone, ready to his hand like a snared animal; without,
+the place was swarming with the man's followers. There was nowhere she
+could turn, there was no one she could turn to. The certainty of the
+accomplishment of what she dreaded crushed her with its surety. All
+power of action was gone. She could only wait and suffer in the
+complete moral collapse that overwhelmed her, and that was rendered
+greater by her peculiar temperament. Her body was aching with the grip
+of his powerful arms, her mouth was bruised with his savage kisses. She
+clenched her hands in anguish. "Oh, God!" she sobbed, with scalding
+tears that scorched her cheeks. "Curse him! Curse him!"
+
+And with the words on her lips he came, silent, noiseless, to her side.
+With his hands on her shoulders he forced her to her feet. His eyes
+were fierce, his stern mouth parted in a cruel smile, his deep, slow
+voice half angry, half impatiently amused. "Must I be valet, as well as
+lover?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+
+The warm sunshine was flooding the tent when Diana awoke from the deep
+sleep of exhaustion that had been almost insensibility, awoke to
+immediate and complete remembrance. One quick, fearful glance around
+the big room assured her that she was alone. She sat up slowly, her
+eyes shadowy with pain, looking listlessly at the luxurious
+appointments of the tent. She looked dry-eyed, she had no tears left.
+They had all been expended when she had grovelled at his feet imploring
+the mercy he had not accorded her. She had fought until the unequal
+struggle had left her exhausted and helpless in his arms, until her
+whole body was one agonised ache from the brutal hands that forced her
+to compliance, until her courageous spirit was crushed by the
+realisation of her own powerlessness, and by the strange fear that the
+man himself had awakened in her, which had driven her at last moaning
+to her knees. And the recollection of her abject prayers and weeping
+supplications filled her with a burning shame. She loathed herself with
+bitter contempt. Her courage had broken down; even her pride had failed
+her.
+
+She wound her arms about her knees and hid her face against them.
+"Coward! Coward!" she whispered fiercely. Why had she not scorned him?
+Or why had she not suffered all that he had done to her in silence? It
+would have pleased him less than the frenzied entreaties that had only
+provoked the soft laugh that made her shiver each time she heard it.
+She shivered now. "I thought I was brave," she murmured brokenly. "I am
+only a coward, a craven."
+
+She lifted her head at last and looked around her. The room was a
+curious mixture of Oriental luxury and European comfort. The lavish
+sumptuousness of the furnishings suggested subtly an unrestrained
+indulgence, the whole atmosphere was voluptuous, and Diana shrank from
+the impression it conveyed without exactly understanding the reason.
+There was nothing that jarred artistically, the rich hangings all
+harmonised, there were no glaring incongruities such as she had seen in
+native palaces in India. And everything on which her eyes rested drove
+home relentlessly the hideous fact of her position. His things were
+everywhere. On a low, brass-topped table by the bed was the half-smoked
+cigarette he had had between his lips when he came to her. The pillow
+beside her still bore the impress of his head. She looked at it with a
+growing horror in her eyes until an uncontrollable shuddering seized
+her and she cowered down, smothering the cry that burst from her in the
+soft pillows and dragging the silken coverings up around her as if
+their thin shelter were a protection. She lived again through every
+moment of the past night until thought was unendurable, until she felt
+that she would go mad, until at last, worn out, she fell asleep.
+
+It was midday when she awoke again. This time she was not alone. A
+young Arab girl was sitting on the rug beside her looking at her with
+soft brown eyes of absorbed interest As Diana sat up she rose to her
+feet, salaaming, with a timid smile.
+
+"I am Zilah, to wait on Madame," she said shyly in stumbling French,
+holding out a wrap that Diana recognised with wonder as her own. She
+looked behind her. Her suit-cases were lying near her, open, partially
+unpacked. The missing baggage camels had been captured first, then. She
+was at least to be allowed the use of her own belongings. A gleam of
+anger shot into her tired eyes and she swung round with a sharp
+question; but the Arab girl shook her head uncomprehendingly, drawing
+back with frightened eyes; and to all further questions she remained
+silent, with down-drooping mouth like a scared child. She was little
+more. She evidently only half understood what was said to her and could
+give no answer to what she did understand, and turned away with obvious
+relief when Diana stopped speaking. She went across the tent and pulled
+aside a curtain leading into a bathroom that was as big and far better
+equipped than the one that Diana had had in the Indian tent, and which,
+up to now, had seemed the last word in comfort and luxury. Though the
+girl's knowledge of French was limited her hands were deft enough, but
+her ignorance of the intricacies of a European woman's toilette was
+very apparent, and constantly provoked in her a girlish giggle that
+changed hurriedly to a startled gravity when Diana looked at her.
+Laughter was very far from Diana, but she could not help smiling now
+and again at her funny mistakes.
+
+The girl, with her big, wondering eyes, her shy, hesitating French and
+childish curiosity, in some indefinable way gave back to Diana the
+self-control that had slipped from her. Her pride reasserted itself,
+rigidly suppressing any sign of feeling or emotion that could be
+noticed by the gentle, inquisitive eyes fixed on her.
+
+The hot bath that took the soreness out of her limbs brought back the
+colour to her face and lips. She even tubbed her head, rubbing the
+glistening curls dry with fierce vigour, striving to rid herself of the
+contamination that seemed to have saturated her. Yet the robes against
+which they had been pressed were spotless, and the hands that had held
+her were fastidiously clean, even to the well-kept nails.
+
+She came back into the bedroom to find Zilah on her knees poring over
+her scanty but diverse wardrobe with bewilderment, fingering the
+evening dresses with shy hands, and finally submitting tentatively to
+Diana the tweed skirt that had been packed with her other things for
+the journey when Oran should be reached. But Diana put it aside, and
+pointed to the riding clothes she had worn the previous day. In them
+she felt more able to face what might be before her, the associations
+connected with them seemed to give her moral strength, in them she
+would feel herself again--Diana the boy, not the shivering piece of
+womanhood that had been born with tears and agony last night. She bit
+her lip as she stamped her foot down into the long boot.
+
+She sent the girl away at last, and noticed that she avoided passing
+into the adjoining room, but vanished instead through the curtains
+leading into the bathroom. Did that mean that in the outer room the
+Arab Sheik was waiting? The thought banished the self-control she had
+regained and sent her weakly on to the side of the bed with her face
+hidden in her hands. Was he there? Her questions to the little
+waiting-girl had only been concerned with the whereabouts of the camp
+to which she had been brought and also of the fate of the caravan; of
+the man himself she had not been able to bring herself to speak. The
+strange fear that he had inspired in her filled her with rage and
+humiliation. The thought of seeing him again brought a shame that was
+unspeakable. But she conquered the agitation that threatened to grow
+beyond restraint, pride helping her again. It was better to face the
+inevitable of her own free will than be fetched whether she would or
+not. For she knew now the strength of the man who had abducted her,
+knew that physically she was helpless against him. She raised her head
+and listened. It was very silent in the next room. Perhaps she was to
+be allowed a further respite. She jerked her head impatiently at her
+own hesitation. "Coward!" she whispered again contemptuously, and flung
+across the room. But at the curtains she halted for a moment, then with
+set face drew them aside and went through.
+
+The respite had been granted, the room appeared to be empty. But as she
+crossed the thick rugs her heart leapt suddenly into her throat, for
+she became aware of a man standing in the open doorway. His back was
+turned to her, but in a moment she saw that the short, slim figure in
+white linen European clothes bore no resemblance to the tall Arab she
+had expected to see. She thought her footsteps were noiseless, but he
+turned with a little quick bow. A typical Frenchman with narrow, alert,
+clean-shaven face, sleek black hair and dark restless eyes. His legs
+were slightly bowed and he stooped a little; his appearance was that of
+a jockey with the manners of a well-trained servant. Diana coloured
+hotly under his glance, but his eyes were lowered instantly.
+
+"Madame is doubtless ready for lunch." He spoke rapidly, but his voice
+was low and pleasant. His movements were as quick and as quiet as his
+voice, and in a dream Diana found herself in a few moments before a
+lunch that was perfectly cooked and daintily served. The man hovered
+about her solicitously, attending to her wants with dexterous hands and
+watchful eyes that anticipated every need. She was bewildered, faint
+from want of food, everything seemed unreal. For the moment she could
+just sit still and be waited on by the soft-footed, soft-spoken
+manservant who seemed such a curious adjunct to the household of an
+Arab chief.
+
+"Monseigneur begs that you will excuse him until this evening. He will
+return in time for dinner," he murmured as he handed her a cous-cous.
+
+Diana looked up blankly. "Monseigneur?"
+
+"My master. The Sheik."
+
+She flushed scarlet and her face hardened. Hypocritical, Oriental beast
+who "begged to be excused"! She refused the last dish curtly, and as
+the servant carried it away she propped her elbows on the table and
+rested her aching head on her hands. A headache was among the new
+experiences that had overwhelmed her since the day before. Suffering in
+any form was new to her, and her hatred of the man who had made her
+suffer grew with every breath she drew.
+
+The Frenchman came back with coffee and cigarettes. He held a match for
+her, coaxing the reluctant flame with patience that denoted long
+experience with inferior sulphur.
+
+"Monseigneur dines at eight. At what hour will Madame have tea?" he
+asked, as he cleared away and folded up the table.
+
+Diana choked back the sarcastic retort that sprang to her lips. The
+man's quiet, deferential manner, that refused to see anything
+extraordinary in her presence in his master's camp, was almost harder
+to bear than flagrant impertinence would have been. That she could have
+dealt with; this left her tingling with a feeling of impotence, as if a
+net were gradually closing round her in whose entangling meshes her
+vaunted liberty was not only threatened, but which seemed destined even
+to stifle her very existence. She pulled her racing thoughts up with a
+jerk. She must not think if she was going to keep any hold over herself
+at all. She gave him an answer indifferently and turned her back on
+him. When she looked again he was gone, and she heaved a sigh of
+relief. She had chafed under his watchful eyes until the feeling of
+restraint had grown unbearable.
+
+She breathed more freely now that he was gone, flinging up her head and
+jerking her shoulders back with an angry determination to conquer the
+fear that made her ashamed. Natural curiosity had been struggling with
+her other emotions, and she gave way to it now to try and turn the
+channel of her thoughts from the fixed direction in which they tended,
+and wandered round the big room. The night before she had taken in
+nothing of her surroundings, her eyes had been held only by the man who
+had dominated everything. Here, also, were the same luxurious
+appointments as in the sleeping-room. She had knowledge enough to
+appreciate that the rugs and hangings were exquisite, the former were
+Persian and the latter of a thick black material, heavily embroidered
+in silver. The main feature of the room was a big black divan heaped
+with huge cushions covered with dull black silk. Beside the divan,
+spread over the Persian rugs, were two unusually large black bearskins,
+the mounted heads converging. At one end of the tent was a small
+doorway, a little portable writing-table. There were one or two Moorish
+stools heaped with a motley collection of ivories and gold and silver
+cigarette cases and knick-knacks, and against the partition that
+separated the two rooms stood a quaintly carved old wooden chest.
+Though the furniture was scanty and made the tent seem even more
+spacious than it really was, the whole room had an air of barbaric
+splendour. The somber hangings gleaming with thick silver threads
+seemed to Diana like a studied theatrical effect, a setting against
+which the Arab's own white robes should contrast more vividly; she
+remembered the black and silver waistcloth she had seen swathed round
+him, with curling scornful lip. There was a strain of vanity in all
+natives, she generalised contemptuously. Doubtless it pleased this
+native's conceit to carry out the colour scheme of his tent even in his
+clothes, and pose among the sable cushions of the luxurious divan to
+the admiration of his retainers. She made a little exclamation of
+disgust, and turned from the soft seductiveness of the big couch with
+disdain.
+
+She crossed the tent to the little bookcase and knelt beside it
+curiously. What did a Francophile-Arab read? Novels, probably, that
+would harmonise with the atmosphere that she dimly sensed in her
+surroundings. But it was not novels that filled the bookcase. They were
+books of sport and travel with several volumes on veterinary surgery.
+They were all in French, and had all been frequently handled, many of
+them had pencilled notes in the margins written in Arabic. One shelf
+was filled entirely with the works of one man, a certain Vicomte Raoul
+de Saint Hubert. With the exception of one novel, which Diana only
+glanced at hastily; they were all books of travel. From the few
+scribbled words in the front of each Diana could see that they had all
+been sent to the Arab by the author himself--one even was dedicated to
+"My friend, Ahmed Ben Hassan, Sheik of the Desert." She put the books
+back with a puzzled frown. She wished, with a feeling that she could
+not fathom, that they had been rather what she had imagined. The
+evidence of education and unlooked-for tastes in the man they belonged
+to troubled her. It was an unexpected glimpse into the personality of
+the Arab that had captured her was vaguely disquieting, for it
+suggested possibilities that would not have existed in a raw native, or
+one only superficially coated with a veneer of civilisation. He seemed
+to become infinitely more sinister, infinitely more horrible. She
+looked at her watch with sudden apprehension. The day was wearing away
+quickly. Soon he would come. Her breath came quick and short and the
+tears welled up in her eyes.
+
+"I mustn't! I mustn't!" she whispered in a kind of desperation. "If I
+cry again I shall go mad." She forced them back, and crossing to the
+big black divan that she had scorned before dropped down among the soft
+cushions. She was so tired, and her head throbbed persistently.
+
+She was asleep when the servant brought tea, but she started up as he
+put the tray on a stool beside her.
+
+"It is Madame's own tea. If she will be good enough to say if it is
+made to her taste," he said anxiously, as if his whole happiness was
+contained in the tiny teapot at which he was frowning deprecatingly.
+
+His assiduity jarred on Diana's new-found jangling nerves. She
+recognised that he was sincere in his efforts to please her, but just
+now they only seemed an added humiliation. She longed to shout "Go
+away!" like an angry schoolboy, but she managed to give him the
+information he wanted, and putting cigarettes and matches by her he
+went out with a little smile of satisfaction. The longing for fresh air
+and the desire to see what place she had been brought to grew
+irresistible as the evening came nearer. She went to the open doorway.
+A big awning stretched before it, supported on lances. She stepped out
+from under its shade and looked about her wonderingly. It was a big
+oasis--bigger than any she had seen. In front of the tent there was an
+open space with a thick belt of palm trees beyond. The rest of the camp
+lay behind the Chief's tent. The place was alive with men and horses.
+There were some camels in the distance, but it was the horses that
+struck Diana principally. They were everywhere, some tethered; some
+wandering loose, some exercising in the hands of grooms. Mounted Arabs
+on the outskirts of the oasis crossed her view occasionally. There were
+groups of men engaged on various duties all around her. Those who went
+by near her salaamed as they passed, but took no further notice of her.
+A strange look came into Diana's eyes. This was the desert indeed, the
+desert as she had never expected to see it, the desert as few could
+expect to see it. But the cost! She shuddered, then turned at a sudden
+noise near her. A biting, screaming chestnut fury was coming past close
+to the tent, taking complete charge of the two men who clung, yelling,
+to his head. He was stripped, but Diana recognised him at once. The one
+brief view she had had of his small, vicious head as he shot past her
+elbow the evening before was written on her brain for all time. He came
+to a halt opposite Diana, refusing to move, his ears laid close to his
+head, quivering all over, snatching continually at his grooms, who
+seemed unable to cope with him. Once he swung up on his hind legs and
+his cruel teeth flashed almost into the face of one of the men, who was
+taken off his guard, and who dropped on to the ground, rolling out of
+the way with a howl that provoked a shout of laughter from a knot of
+Arabs who had gathered to watch the usual evening eccentricities of the
+chestnut. The French servant, coming from behind the tent, stopped to
+speak to the man as he picked himself up and made a grab at the horse's
+head, and then turned to Diana with his pleasant smile.
+
+"He is rightly named Shaitan, Madame, for he is assuredly possessed of
+a devil," he said, indicating the chestnut, who, at that moment, with a
+violent plunge, broke away from the men who were holding him and headed
+for the edge of the oasis with the Arabs streaming after him. "The
+mounted men will catch him," he added with a little laugh, in response
+to Diana's exclamation.
+
+"Is he amusing himself, or is it really vice?" she asked.
+
+"Pure vice, Madame. He has killed three men."
+
+Diana looked at him incredulously, for his tone was casual and his
+manner did not indicate any undue feeling.
+
+"He ought to be shot," she said indignantly.
+
+The man shrugged. "Monseigneur is fond of him," he said quietly.
+
+And so because Monseigneur was fond of him the vicious animal was
+surrounded with every care that his master's pleasure might not be
+interfered with. Evidently the lives of his wretched people were of
+less value to him than that of a favourite horse. It sounded compatible
+with the mercilessness she had herself experienced. What she would not
+have believed yesterday to-day seemed terribly credible. The courage
+that the relief of his absence brought back was sinking fast, as fast
+as the red ball glowing in the heavens was sinking down towards the
+horizon. She turned from her own fearful thoughts to look at some more
+horses that were being led away to the lines on the other side of the
+camp.
+
+"The horses are magnificent, but they are bigger than any Arabs I have
+seen before."
+
+"They are a special breed, Madame," replied the Frenchman. "The tribe
+has been famous for them for generations. Monseigneur's horses are
+known through all the Barbary States, and as far as France," he added,
+with a little accent of pride creeping into his voice.
+
+Diana looked at him speculatively. There was an inflection in his voice
+each time he mentioned his master that indicated a devotion that she
+was unable to accredit to the brute for whose treatment she was still
+suffering. But her thoughts were broken into abruptly.
+
+"There is Monseigneur," said the servant suddenly. He spoke as if she,
+too, must be glad of his coming. Did the valet imagine for one moment
+that she was here of her own free will? Or was it all a part of the
+hypocrisy in which she seemed to be enveloped? She flashed one glance
+at the horseman riding through the belt of trees that fringed the oasis
+and an icy perspiration chilled her from head to foot. She shrank back
+under the awning and into the coolness of the tent, raging against the
+mastering fear that she could not overcome. But just inside the open
+doorway she stood firm; even her fear could make her go no further. She
+would meet him here, not cowering into the inner room like a trembling
+creature skulking in the furthest corner of its cage. That much pride
+at least was left.
+
+From the shelter of the tent she watched the troop arrive at the open
+space before her. The horse the Sheik was riding was jet black, and
+Diana looked from the beautiful creature's satiny coat to the man's
+white robes with angry contempt.
+
+"Black and white! Black and white! Mountebank!" she muttered through
+her clenched teeth. Then as he swung to the ground every thought fell
+from her but the terror he inspired. She waited, breathless, the swift
+racing of her heart an actual physical pain.
+
+He lingered, fondling the great black horse, and even after it had been
+led away he stood looking after it, talking to a tall young Arab who
+had ridden in with him. At last he turned and came leisurely towards
+the tent. He paused at the door to speak to the Frenchman, a
+picturesque, barbaric figure, with flowing robes and great white cloak,
+the profile of his lean face clean cut against the evening sky, the
+haughty poise of his head emphasised by the attitude in which he was
+standing, arrogant, dominating. He moved his hands when he spoke with
+quick, expressive gestures, but his voice was slow and soft, pitched in
+a deep musical key, but with all its softness unmistakably
+authoritative. He pointed with outstretched, steady hand to something
+beyond her line of vision, and as he turned to enter the tent he
+laughed softly, and she shivered involuntarily. Then he swept in, and
+she drew back from him with lowered eyes. She would not look at him;
+she would not meet his look. His presence was an offence, she was
+scorched with shame. Every fibre of her being cried out in protest at
+his proximity. She wished with passionate fierceness that she could
+die. She shook feverishly and caught her quivering lip between her
+teeth to keep it still, and the red-gold curls lay wet against her
+forehead. Her breast heaved stormily with the rapid beating of her
+heart, but she held herself proudly erect. He crossed the tent with a
+long noiseless stride.
+
+"I hope that Gaston took care of you properly and gave you everything
+that you wanted?" he said easily, stooping to a little table to light a
+cigarette. The coolness of his words and manner were like a dash of
+cold water. She had been prepared for anything but this calm
+nonchalance in a situation that was intolerable. His tone conveyed the
+perfunctory regret of a host for an unavoidable absence. Her fear gave
+way to rage, her body stiffened, her hands clenched.
+
+"Is it not time that this ended? Haven't you done enough?" she burst
+out passionately. "Why have you committed this outrage?"
+
+A thin thread of smoke drifted towards her, as if the hand holding the
+cigarette had moved in her direction in one of the gestures that she
+had noticed outside, but there was no answer. His silence infuriated
+her and she grew utterly reckless.
+
+"Do you think that you can keep me here, you fool? That I can vanish
+into the desert and no notice be taken of my disappearance--that no
+inquiries will be made?"
+
+"There will be no inquiries," he answered calmly.
+
+She ground the heel of her boot into the soft carpet. "There
+_will_ be inquiries," she choked furiously. "I am not such a
+nonentity that nothing will be done when I am missed. The English
+authorities will make the French Government find out who is
+responsible, and you will have to pay for what you have done."
+
+He laughed--the little amused laugh that sent the same cold feeling of
+dread through her that she had felt the day before.
+
+"The French Government has no jurisdiction over me. I am not subject to
+it. I am an independent chief, my own master. I recognise no
+government. My tribe obey me and only me."
+
+Her shaking fingers found the handkerchief for which they were groping,
+and she wiped the moisture that had gathered on the palms of her hands.
+
+"When I am missed----" she began desperately, trying to keep a bold
+front, but her assurance was leaving her.
+
+"You will not be missed for so long that it will be too late," he
+replied drily.
+
+"Too late! What do you mean?" she gasped.
+
+"Your own plans will stop any possibility of inquiry for some time to
+come." He paused, and behind her, Diana heard him strike another match.
+The banal little incident nearly snapped her nerves that were stretched
+to breaking-point. She put her hands to her head to try and stop the
+throbbing in her temples.
+
+"You engaged a caravan in charge of Mustafa Ali," he went on evenly,
+"to travel in the desert for a month. You set out from Biskra, but your
+intention was at the end of the time to travel northward to Oran and
+there dismiss the caravan. From there you were to cross to Marseilles,
+then to Cherbourg, where you would embark for America to follow your
+brother, who has already started."
+
+She listened breathlessly with an ever-increasing fear growing in her
+eyes. The slow, casual voice detailing her itinerary with the quiet
+certainty of perfect knowledge filled her with a terror that made her
+want to scream. She swayed a little as she stood, her eyes fixed on the
+endless strip of desert and gold-flecked sky visible through the
+opening of the tent, but she saw nothing of the undulating sand, nor
+the red glory of the setting sun.
+
+"How do you know--all--this?" she whispered with dry lips that
+trembled.
+
+"I wished to know. It was quite simple." The answer was given
+carelessly, and again the thin thread of smoke drifted across her face.
+
+Her anger flamed up again. "Is it money that you want? Are you holding
+me for ransom?" But her scornful voice faltered and died away on the
+last word, and it did not need his silence to convince her that it was
+no question of ransom. She had only spoken to try and stifle the inner
+conviction that grew despite her efforts to crush it. Her hands were
+locked together tightly, her eyes still staring out unseeing at the
+wonderful sunset. She felt dazed, hopeless, like a fugitive who has
+turned into a cul-de-sac, hemmed in on every side; there seemed no way
+out, no loophole of escape. She wrung her hands convulsively and a
+great shudder shook her. Then in her despair a faint ray of hope came.
+
+"Mustafa Ali, or one of the caravan men may have given the alarm
+already in Biskra--if you have not--murdered them all," she whispered
+jerkily.
+
+"I have not murdered them all," he rejoined shortly, "but Mustafa Ali
+will not give any alarm in Biskra."
+
+"Why?" She tried to keep silent, but the question was forced from her,
+and she waited tense for his answer. Tales of ruthless Arab cruelty
+surged through her mind. What had been the fate of the unfortunate
+caravan leader? Her eyes closed and her throat grew dry.
+
+"There was no need for any murder," he continued sarcastically. "When
+you come to know me better you will realise that I do not leave too
+much to chance. 'All things are with Allah, blessed be his name.' Good!
+But it is well to remember that Allah does not always concern himself
+with the affairs of men, and arrange accordingly. If I had left this
+affair to chance there might very easily have been, as you suggest,
+murder done--though we do not call it murder in the desert. It was very
+simple. _Voyons_! You paid Mustafa Ali well to guide you in the
+desert. I paid him better to lead you to me. I paid him well enough to
+make him content to remove himself from Biskra, where awkward questions
+might be asked, to another sphere of usefulness where he is not known,
+and where he can build up for himself a new reputation as a caravan
+leader."
+
+There was another silence and her hands went groping to her throat. It
+had been no chance affair then--no accidental meeting that the Arab
+chief had turned to his own account, but an organised outrage that had
+been carefully planned from the beginning. From the very outset she had
+been a dupe. She ground her teeth with rage. Her suave, subservient
+guide had been leading her the whole time, not in the direction that
+had been mapped out in Biskra, but towards the man who had bought him
+to betray his trust. Mustafa Ali's shifting eyes, his desire to hurry
+her from the oasis where they had rested at mid-day, his tone were all
+explained. He had acted well. The last touch--the imaginary wound that
+had toppled him slowly out of his saddle had been a masterpiece, she
+reflected bitterly. Nothing had been omitted to make the attempt a
+success. The horse that had been given her to ride was the Sheik's
+beyond all doubt, trained to his whistle. Even her revolver had been
+tampered with. She had not missed, as she had thought. She remembered
+the noise, the fleeting vision she had had in the hotel at Biskra. It
+had been some one in her room, Mustafa Ali himself, or one of his men,
+who had stolen in and substituted the blank cartridges. The possibility
+of Aubrey changing his mind and accompanying her must also have been
+thought of, for the Sheik had provided against the resistance that
+would certainly have then been made by the number of followers he had
+brought with him--a large enough force to frustrate easily any
+attempted opposition to the attack.
+
+The net that she had felt closing round her earlier in the afternoon
+seemed wrapped round her now inextricably, drawing tighter and tighter,
+smothering her. She gasped for breath. The sinking sun seemed suddenly
+to leap up wildly into the heavens; then she pulled herself together
+with a tremendous effort. "Why have you done this?" she murmured
+faintly.
+
+Then for a moment her heart stood still, her eyes dilating. He had come
+close behind her, and she waited in an agony, until he caught her to
+him, crushing her against him, forcing her head back on his arm.
+
+"Because I wanted you. Because one day in Biskra, four weeks ago, I saw
+you for a few moments, long enough to know that I wanted you. And what
+I want I take. You played into my hands. You arranged a tour in the
+desert. The rest was easy."
+
+Her eyes were shut, the long dark lashes quivering on her pale cheeks
+so that she could not see his face, but she felt him draw her closer to
+him and then his fierce kisses on her mouth. She struggled frantically,
+but she was helpless, and he laughed softly as he kissed her lips, her
+hair, her eyes passionately. He stood quite still, but she felt the
+heavy beating of his heart under her cheek, and understood dimly the
+passion that she had aroused in him. She had experienced his tremendous
+strength. She realised from what he had told her that he recognised no
+law beyond his own wishes, and was prepared to go to any lengths to
+fulfil them. She knew that her life was in his hands, that he could
+break her with his lean brown fingers like a toy is broken, and all at
+once she felt pitifully weak and frightened. She was utterly in his
+power and at his mercy--the mercy of an Arab who was merciless.
+
+She gave in suddenly, lying quiet in his arms. She had touched the
+lowest depths of degradation; he could do nothing more to her than he
+had done. For the moment she could fight no further, she was worn out
+and utterly weary. A numb feeling of despair came over her and with it
+a sense of unreality, as if it were a hideous nightmare from which she
+would wake, for the truth seemed too impossible, the setting too
+theatrical. The man himself was a mystery. She could not reconcile him
+and the barbaric display in which he lived with the evidences of
+refinement and education that the well-worn books in the tent evinced.
+The fastidious ordering of his appointments puzzled her; it was strange
+to find in such a place. A dozen incongruities that she had noticed
+during the day crowded into her recollection until her head reeled. She
+turned from them wearily; she was too tired to think, too spent in mind
+and body. And with the despair a kind of indifference stole over her.
+She had suffered so much that nothing more mattered.
+
+The strong arms around her tightened slowly. "Look at me," he said in
+the soft slow voice that seemed habitual to him, and which contrasted
+oddly with the neat, clipping French that he spoke. She shivered and
+her dark lashes flickered for a moment. "Look at me." His voice was
+just as slow, just as soft, but into it had crept an inflection that
+was unmistakable.
+
+Twenty-four hours ago Diana Mayo had not known the meaning of the word
+fear, and had never in all her life obeyed any one against her
+inclination, but in twenty-four hours she had lived through years of
+emotions. For the first time she had pitted her will against a will
+that was stronger than her own, for the first time she had met an
+arrogance that was greater and a determination that was firmer than
+hers. For the first time she had met a man who had failed to bow to her
+wishes, whom a look had been powerless to transform into a willing
+slave. In a few hours that had elapsed she had learned fear, a terrible
+fear that left her sick with apprehension, and she was learning
+obedience. Obedient now, she forced herself to lift her eyes to his,
+and the shamed blood surged slowly into her cheeks. His dark,
+passionate eyes burnt into her like a hot flame. His encircling arms
+were like bands of fire, scorching her. His touch was torture.
+Helpless, like a trapped wild thing, she lay against him, panting,
+trembling, her wide eyes fixed on him, held against their will.
+Fascinated she could not turn them away, and the image of the brown,
+handsome face with its flashing eyes, straight, cruel mouth and strong
+chin seemed searing into her brain. The faint indefinite scent of an
+uncommon Turkish tobacco clung about him, enveloping her. She had been
+conscious of the same scent the previous day when he had held her in
+his arms during the wild ride across the desert.
+
+He smiled down at her suddenly. "_Bon Dieu_! Do you know how
+beautiful you are?" he murmured. But the sound of his voice seemed to
+break a spell that had kept her dumb. She struggled again to free
+herself.
+
+"Let me go!" she cried piteously, and it was her complete immunity from
+him that she prayed for, but he chose wilfully to misunderstand her.
+The passion faded from his eyes, giving place to a gleam of mockery.
+
+"There is plenty of time. Gaston is the most discreet servant. We shall
+hear him when he comes," he said with a low laugh.
+
+But she persisted with the courage of desperation. "When will you let
+me go?"
+
+With an exclamation of impatience he put her from him roughly, and
+going to the divan flung himself down on the cushions, lit another
+cigarette and picked up a magazine that was lying on an inlaid stool
+beside him.
+
+She bit her lips to keep back the hysterical sobs that rose in her
+throat, nerving herself with clenched hands, and followed him. "You
+_must_ tell me. I _must_ know. When will you let me go?"
+
+He turned a page with deliberation, and flicked the ash from his
+cigarette before looking up. A heavy scowl gathered on his face, and
+his eyes swept her from head to foot with a slow scrutiny that made her
+shrink. "When I am tired of you," he said coldly.
+
+She shuddered violently and turned away with a little moan, stumbling
+blindly towards the inner room, but as she reached the curtains his
+voice arrested her. He had thrown aside the magazine and was lying back
+on the divan, his long limbs stretched out indolently, his hands
+clasped behind his head.
+
+"You make a very charming boy," he said lightly, with a faint smile,
+"but it was not a boy that I saw in Biskra. You understand?"
+
+Beyond the curtains she stood a moment, shaking all over, her face
+hidden in her hands, able to relax a little the hold she was keeping on
+herself. Yes! She understood, plainly enough. The understanding had
+already been forced upon her. It was an order from one who was prepared
+to compel his commands, to make herself more attractive with all that
+it implied in the eyes of the man who held her in his power and who
+looked at her as no other man had ever dared to look, with appraising
+criticism that made her acutely conscious of her sex, that made her
+feel like a slave exposed for sale in a public market.
+
+She must take off the boyish clothes that somehow seemed to lend her
+courage and substitute, to gratify the whim of the savage in the next
+room, the womanly dress that revealed more intimately the slender lines
+of her figure and intensified the uncommon beauty of her face.
+
+She went to the dressing table with lagging feet and stared resentfully
+at the white face and haggard eyes that looked back at her from the
+mirror. It was like the face of a stranger. Aubrey's words came back to
+her with an irony that was horrible. To-night she did not dress to
+please herself. Her face was set, her eyes almost black with rage, but
+behind the rage there was lurking apprehension. She started at every
+sound that came from the adjoining room. Her fingers, wet with
+perspiration, seemed almost unable to fulfil their task. She hated him,
+she hated herself, she hated her beauty that had brought this horror
+upon her. She would have rebelled if she had dared, but instinctively
+she hurried--fear had already driven her so far. But when she was ready
+she did not move from the table beside which she stood. Fear had forced
+her to haste, but her still struggling pride would not permit her to
+obey her fear any further. She raised her eyes to the glass again,
+glowering angrily at the pale reflection, and the old obstinacy mingled
+with the new pain that filled them. Must she endure his mocking glance
+with chalk-like cheeks and eyes like a beaten hound? Had she not even
+courage enough left to hide the fear that filled her with
+self-contempt? The wave of anger that went through her rushed the
+colour into her face and she leaned nearer the glass with a little
+murmur of satisfaction that stopped abruptly as her fingers gripped the
+edge of the table, and she continued staring into the mirror not at her
+own face, but at the white robes that appeared behind her head,
+blotting out the limited view she had had of the room.
+
+The Sheik was standing behind her. He had come with the peculiar
+noiseless tread that she had noticed before. He swung her round to look
+at her and she writhed under his eyes of admiration, straining from him
+as far as his grip allowed. Holding her with one hand he took her chin
+in the other and tilted her face up to his with a little smile. "Don't
+look so frightened. I don't want anything more deadly than some soap
+and water. Surely even an Arab may be allowed to wash his hands?"
+
+His mocking voice and his taunt of fear stung her, but she would not
+answer and, with a laugh and a shrug, he lot her go, picking up a razor
+from the table and lounging into the bathroom.
+
+With crimson cheeks Diana fled into the outer room, His manner could
+not have been more casual if she had been his wife a dozen years. She
+waited for him in a tumult of emotions, but with the advent of Gaston
+and dinner he returned to the attitude of dispassionate, courteous host
+that he had assumed when he first came in. He was a few minutes late,
+and apologised gravely as he sat down opposite her. He maintained the
+attitude throughout dinner, and conscious of the watching manservant
+Diana made herself reply to his easy conversation.
+
+He talked mainly of the desert and the sport that it offered, as if he
+had studied her tastes and chosen the topic to please her. He spoke
+well; what he said was interesting, and showed complete knowledge of
+the subject, and at any other time Diana would have listened fascinated
+and absorbed, but now the soft, slow, cultured voice only seemed to add
+to the incongruity of the situation. The role of willing guest that he
+was forcing upon her was almost more than she could play, and the
+necessity of sitting still and responding was taxing her endurance to
+the utmost. And all the time she was aware acutely of his constant
+surveillance. Reluctantly her own furtive glance was drawn frequently
+to his face, and always his dark fierce eyes were watching her with a
+steadiness that racked her nerves, till she was reminded irresistibly
+of an exhibition that she had seen in a circus in Vienna, where a lion
+tamer had concluded an unusually daring performance by dining in the
+lions' cage, surrounded by savage snarling brutes very different from
+the sleepy half-drugged creatures ordinarily shown. Interested in the
+animals, she had gone behind with Aubrey after the performance, and
+while fondling some tiny lion cubs that had been brought for her to see
+had chatted with the tamer, a girl little older than herself. She had
+been somewhat unapproachable until she had realised from Diana's
+friendly manner that her questions were prompted by real interest and
+not mere curiosity, and had unbent with surprising swiftness, accepting
+Diana's proffered cigarettes and taking her to see her special lions,
+who were boxed for the night. Diana had wandered up and down before the
+narrow cages, looking at the big brutes still restless from the show,
+rubbing her cheek on the soft little round head of the cub she was
+holding in her arms, smiling at its sleepy rasping purr.
+
+"Are you ever afraid?" she had asked suddenly--"not of the ordinary
+performance, but of that last act, when you dine all alone with them?"
+
+The girl shrugged her shoulders, blowing a little cloud of smoke into
+the cub's face, and her eyes had met Diana's slowly over his little
+yellow body. "One does not taste very much," she had said drily.
+
+And it was so with Diana. She had eaten mechanically everything that
+had been put before her, but she had tasted nothing. She had one
+thought in her mind that excluded everything else--to hide from the
+probing eyes that watched her ceaselessly the overmastering fear that
+augmented every moment. One thing she had noticed during the meal. For
+her only the servant poured out the light French wine that he had
+brought. Her eyes wandered to the Sheik's empty glass, and meeting her
+glance he smiled, with a little inclination.
+
+"Excuse me. I do not drink wine. It is my only virtue," he added, with
+a sudden gleam leaping into his eyes that drove the blood into her
+cheeks and her own eyes on to her plate.
+
+She had forgotten that he was an Arab.
+
+The dinner seemed interminable, and yet she wished that it would never
+end. While the servant was in the room she was safe; the thought of his
+going sent a cold shudder through her. With the coffee came a huge
+Persian hound, almost upsetting the Frenchman in the entrance in his
+frantic endeavour to precede him through the doorway. He flung his long
+grey body across the Sheik's knees with a whine of pleasure and then
+turned his head to growl at Diana. But the growl died away quickly, and
+he lumbered down and came to her side curiously, eyeing her for a
+moment and then thrusting his big head against her.
+
+The Sheik laughed. "You are honoured. Kopec makes few friends."
+
+She did not answer. The natural reply was almost certain to provoke a
+retort that she did not desire, so she remained silent, smoothing the
+hound's rough coat. With her heart turning slowly to lead she lingered
+over her coffee until there was no further possible pretext for
+remaining at the table, then rose with a short, sharp sigh.
+
+For some minutes the Sheik had sat silent, his own coffee long since
+finished. He made no comment when she got up, and went himself to the
+big divan, followed by the hound, who had gone back to him as soon as
+he moved.
+
+Diana turned to the little bookcase, snatching at the opportunity it
+offered for further silence, and took a book at random. She did not
+know what she was looking at, she did not care. She only prayed
+fervently that she might be left alone, that the sudden silent fit that
+had come over him might continue.
+
+Near her Gaston was clearing away the table and as he finished he
+paused to speak to his master. Diana heard the words "le petit Sheik,"
+but the rest was in Arabic and unintelligible to her. The Sheik frowned
+with a gesture of annoyance, then nodded, and the servant left the
+tent.
+
+A few moments after a voice that she had not heard before made her look
+up.
+
+The young Arab who had ridden in with the Sheik was standing beside the
+divan. The fierce eyes that were watching her every movement met hers,
+and his cigarette was waved towards the young man. "My lieutenant,
+Yusef, a son of the desert with the soul of a _flaneur._ His body
+is here with me, but his heart is on the _trottoirs_ of Algiers."
+
+The tall lad laughed and salaamed profoundly, then straightened
+himself, posing magnificently until a curt word from the Sheik recalled
+him to his errand and his swagger changed swiftly to a deference of
+which the significance was not lost on Diana. The Arab might unbend to
+his people if it so pleased him, but he kept them well in hand. She
+looked at the lieutenant as he stood before his chief. He was tall and
+slender as a girl, with an air of languid indolence that was obviously
+a pose, for it was slipping from him now fast as he talked. His face
+was strikingly handsome, only saved from effeminacy by a firm chin. He
+was patently aware of his good looks. But he was also patently in awe
+of his chief, and the news that he brought was apparently not welcome.
+
+Through her thick lashes Diana watched them intently. The younger man
+voluble, gesticulating, at times almost cringing. The Sheik silent,
+except for an occasional word, the heavy scowl back on his face,
+growing blacker every moment. At last with a shrug of impatience he got
+up and they went out together, the hound following them. Diana subsided
+on to the thick rug beside the bookcase. For a moment again she was
+alone, free of the watching eyes that seemed to be burning into her all
+the time, free of the hated proximity. She dropped her head on her
+knees with a little whimper of weariness. For a moment she need not
+check the tide of misery that rushed over her. She was tired in mind
+and body, exhausted with the emotion that had shaken her until she knew
+that no matter what happened in the future the Diana of yesterday was
+dead, and her new self was strange and unfamiliar. She did not trust
+it; she feared its capacity for maintaining the struggle she had
+resolved upon. The old courageous self had never failed her, this new
+shrinking fearful personality filled her with distrust. Her confidence
+in herself was gone. Her contempt of herself was unutterable. The
+strength that remained was not sufficient to conquer the fear that had
+taken so strong a hold upon her. She could only hope to hide it, to
+deny him at least that much satisfaction. She had grovelled at his feet
+once and it had amused him. He had laughed! She would die rather than
+afford him a similar amusement. She could never wipe out the
+recollection of her cowardice; he would remember always, and so would
+she; but she could atone for it if her strength held. And she prayed
+that it might hold, until a sob broke from her and her hands cramped
+around her knees. She pushed her hair off her forehead with a heavy
+sigh, and she looked back over her shoulder at the empty room. It had
+changed since this morning in the indefinable way a strange room does
+change after a few hours' association. If she could leave it now and
+never see it again in all her life no single detail of it would ever be
+forgotten. Its characteristics had been stamped upon her as familiarly
+as if the hours passed in it had been years. And yesterday was years
+ago, when the poor silly fool that had been Diana Mayo had ridden
+blindly into the trap from which her boasted independence had not been
+able to save her. She had paid heavily for the determination to ignore
+the restrictions of her sex laid upon her and the payment was not yet
+over. Her tired body shrank from the struggle that must recommence so
+soon. If he would only spare her until this numbing weariness that made
+her so powerless should lessen. She heard his voice at the door and her
+icy fingers grasped at the book that had slipped to the ground. The
+thick rugs deadened the sound of his movements, but she knew
+instinctively that he had come in and gone back to the divan where he
+had been sitting before. She knew that he was looking at her. She could
+feel his eyes fixed on her and she quivered with the consciousness of
+his stare. She waited, shivering, for him to speak or move. His methods
+of torture were diverse, she thought with dreary bitterness. Behind the
+tent in the men's lines a tom-tom was beating, and the irregular rhythm
+seemed hammering inside her own head. She could have shrieked with the
+agony of it.
+
+"Come here--Diane."
+
+She started, for a moment hardly recognising the Gallic rendering of
+her name, and then flushed angrily without answering or moving. It was
+a very little thing to stir her after all that had been done, but the
+use of her name flamed the anger that had been almost swamped in fear.
+The proprietory tone in his voice roused all her inherent obstinacy.
+She was not his to go at his call. What he wanted he must take--she
+would never give voluntarily. She sat with her hands gripped tightly in
+her lap, breathing rapidly, her eyes dark with apprehension.
+
+"Come here," he repeated sharply.
+
+Still she took no notice, but the face that he could not see was
+growing very white.
+
+"I am not accustomed to having my orders disobeyed," he said at last,
+very slowly.
+
+"And I am not accustomed to obeying orders," she retorted fiercely,
+though her lips were trembling.
+
+"You will learn." The sinister accent of his voice almost shattered her
+remaining courage.
+
+She crouched, gasping, on the ground, the same horrible terror that had
+come to her last night stealing over her irresistibly, paralysing her.
+Waiting, listening, agonising, the tom-tom growing louder and
+louder--or was it only the throbbing in her own head? With a choking
+cry she leaped to her feet suddenly and fled from him, back till the
+side of the tent stopped her and she stood, with wide-flung arms,
+gripping the black and silver hangings until he reached her.
+
+Stooping he disengaged her clinging fingers from the heavy drapery and
+drew her hands slowly together up to his breast with a little smile.
+"Come," he whispered, his passionate eyes devouring her.
+
+She fought against the fascination with which they dominated her,
+resisting him dumbly with tight-locked lips till he held her
+palpitating in his arms.
+
+"Little fool," he said with a deepening smile. "Better me than my men."
+
+The gibe broke her silence.
+
+"Oh, you brute! You brute!" she wailed, until his kisses silenced her.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+
+"A month! Thirty-one days! Oh, God! Only thirty-one days. It seems a
+lifetime. Only a month since I left Biskra. A month! A month!"
+
+Diana flung herself on to her face, burying her head deeply into the
+cushions of the divan, shutting out from her sight the barbaric luxury
+of her surroundings, shuddering convulsively. She did not cry. The
+complete breakdown of the first night had never been repeated. Tears of
+shame and anger had risen in her eyes often, but she would not let them
+fall. She would not give her captor the satisfaction of knowing that he
+could make her weep. Her pride was dying hard. Her mind travelled back
+slowly over the days and nights of anguished revolt, the perpetual
+clash of will against will, the enforced obedience that had made up
+this month of horror. A month of experience of such bitterness that she
+wondered dully how she still had the courage to rebel. For the first
+time in her life she had had to obey. For the first time in her life
+she was of no account. For the first time she had been made conscious
+of the inferiority of her sex. The training of years had broken down
+under the experience. The hypothetical status in which she had stood
+with regard to Aubrey and his friends was not tolerated here, where
+every moment she was made to feel acutely that she was a woman, forced
+to submit to everything to which her womanhood exposed her, forced to
+endure everything that he might put upon her--a chattel, a slave to do
+his bidding, to bear his pleasure and his displeasure, shaken to the
+very foundation of her being with the upheaval of her convictions and
+the ruthless violence done to her cold, sexless temperament. The
+humiliation of it seared her proud heart. He was pitiless in his
+arrogance, pitiless in his Oriental disregard of the woman subjugated.
+He was an Arab, to whom the feelings of a woman were non-existent. He
+had taken her to please himself and he kept her to please himself, to
+amuse him in his moments of relaxation.
+
+To Diana before she had come to Africa the life of an Arab Sheik in his
+native desert had been a very visionary affair. The term sheik itself
+was elastic. She had been shown Sheiks in Biskra who drove hard
+bargains to hire out mangy camels and sore-covered donkeys for trips
+into the interior. Her own faithless caravan-leader had called himself
+"Sheik." But she had heard also of other and different Sheiks who lived
+far away across the shimmering sand, powerful chiefs with large
+followings, who seemed more like the Arabs of her imaginings, and of
+whose lives she had the haziest idea. When not engaged in killing their
+neighbours she visualized them drowsing away whole days under the
+influence of narcotics, lethargic with sensual indulgence. The pictures
+she had seen had been mostly of fat old men sitting cross-legged in the
+entrance of their tents, waited on by hordes of retainers, and looking
+languidly, with an air of utter boredom, at some miserable slave being
+beaten to death.
+
+She had not been prepared for the ceaseless activity of the man whose
+prisoner she was. His life was hard, strenuous and occupied. His days
+were full, partly with the magnificent horses that he bred, and partly
+with tribal affairs that took him from the camp for hours at a time.
+Upon one or two occasions he had been away for the whole night and had
+come back at daybreak with all the evidences of hard riding. Some days
+she rode with him, but when he had not the time or the inclination, the
+French valet went with her. A beautiful grey thoroughbred called Silver
+Star was kept for her use, and sometimes on his back she was able to
+forget for a little time. So the moments of relaxation were less
+frequent than they might have been, and it was only in the evenings
+when Gaston had come and gone for the last time and she was alone with
+the Sheik that an icy hand seemed to close down over her heart. And,
+according to his mood, he noticed or ignored her. He demanded implicit
+obedience to his lightest whim with the unconscious tyranny of one who
+had always been accustomed to command. He ruled his unruly followers
+despotically, and it was obvious that while they loved him they feared
+him equally. She had even seen Yusef, his lieutenant, cringe from the
+heavy scowl that she had, herself, learned to dread.
+
+"You treat them like dogs," she said to him once. "Are you not afraid
+that one day they will rise against you and murder you?"
+
+And he had only shrugged his shoulders and laughed, the same low laugh
+of amusement that never failed to make her shiver.
+
+The only person whose devotion seemed untinged by any conflicting
+sentiment was the French valet, Gaston.
+
+It was the Sheik's complete indifference to everything beyond his own
+will, his Oriental egoism, that stung her most. He treated her
+supplications and invectives with a like unconcern. The paroxysms of
+wild rage that filled her periodically made no impression on him. He
+accorded them a shrug of ennui or watched her with cold curiosity, his
+lips parted in a little cruel smile, as if the dissection of her
+lacerated feelings amused him, until his patience was exhausted, and
+then, with one of the lithe, quick movements that she could never
+evade, his hands would grip and hold her and he would look at her. Only
+that, but in the grasp of his lean, brown fingers and under the stare
+of his dark, fierce eyes her own would drop, and the frantic words die
+from her lips. She was physically afraid of him, and she hated him and
+loathed herself for the fear he inspired. And her fear was legitimate.
+His strength was abnormal, and behind it was the lawlessness and
+absolutism that allowed free rein to his savage impulses. He held life
+and death in his hand.
+
+A few days after he had taken her she had seen him chastise a servant.
+She did not know what the man's fault had been, but the punishment
+seemed out of all proportion to anything that could be imagined, and
+she had watched fascinated with horror, until he had tossed away the
+murderous whip, and without a second glance at the limp, blood-stained
+heap that huddled on the ground with suggestive stillness had strolled
+back unconcerned to the tent. The sight had sickened her and haunted
+her perpetually. His callousness horrified her even more than his
+cruelty. She hated him with all the strength of her proud, passionate
+nature. His personal beauty even was an additional cause of offence.
+She hated him the more for his handsome face and graceful, muscular
+body. His only redeeming virtue in her eyes was his total lack of
+vanity, which she grudgingly admitted. He was as unconscious of himself
+as was the wild animal with which she compared him.
+
+"He is like a tiger," she murmured deep into the cushions, with a
+shiver, "a graceful, cruel, merciless beast." She remembered a tiger
+she had shot the previous winter in India. After hours of weary,
+cramped waiting in the machan the beautiful creature had slipped
+noiselessly through the undergrowth and emerged into the clearing. He
+had advanced midway towards the tree where she was perched and had
+stopped to listen, and the long, free stride, the haughty poise of the
+thrown-back head, the cruel curl of the lips and the glint in the
+ferocious eyes flashing in the moonlight, were identical with the
+expression and carriage of the man who was her master. Then it had been
+admiration without fear, and she had hesitated at wantonly destroying
+so perfect a thing, until the quick pressure of her shikari's fingers
+on her arm brought her back to facts and reminded her that the "perfect
+thing" was reported to have eaten a woman the previous week. And now it
+was fear with a reluctant admiration that she despised herself for
+according.
+
+A hand on her shoulder made her start up with a cry. Usually her nerves
+were in better control, but the thick rugs deadened every sound, and
+she had not expected him so soon. He had been out since dawn and had
+come in much past his usual time, and had been having a belated siesta
+in the adjoining room.
+
+Angry with herself she bit her lip and pushed the tumbled hair off her
+forehead. He dropped on to the divan beside her and lit the inevitable
+cigarette; he smoked continuously every moment he was not in the
+saddle. She glanced at him covertly. He was lying with his head thrown
+back against the cushions, idly blowing smoke-rings and watching them
+drift towards the open door-way. And as she looked he yawned and turned
+to her.
+
+"Zilah is careless. Insist that she puts away your boots, and does not
+leave your clothes lying on the floor. There was a scorpion in the
+bathroom to-day," he said lazily, stretching out his long legs.
+
+She flushed hotly, as she always did when he made any casual reference
+to the intimacy of their life. It was his casualness that frightened
+her, the carelessly implied continuance of a state that scorched her
+with shame. His attitude invariably suggested a duration of their
+relations that left her numb with a kind of helpless despair. He was so
+sure of himself, so sure of his possession of her.
+
+She felt the warm blood pouring over her face now, up to the roots of
+her bright hair and dyeing her slender neck, and she put her hands up
+to her head, her fingers thrust through her loose curls, to shield her
+face from his eyes.
+
+She gave a sigh of relief when Gaston came in bringing a little tray
+with two filigree-cased cups of coffee.
+
+"I have brought coffee; Madame's tea is finished," he murmured in tones
+of deepest distress, and with a gesture that conveyed a national
+calamity.
+
+There had been just enough tea taken on the tour to last a month. It
+was another pin-prick, another reminder. She set her teeth, moving her
+head angrily, and found herself looking into a pair of mocking eyes,
+and, as always, her own dropped.
+
+Gaston said a few words in Arabic to his master, and the Sheik
+swallowed the boiling coffee and went out hastily. The valet moved
+about the tent with his usual deft noiselessness, gathering up
+cigarette ends and spent matches, and tidying the room with an
+assiduous orderliness that was peculiarly his own. Diana watched him
+almost peevishly. Was it the influence of the desert that made all
+these men cat-like in their movements, or was the servant consciously
+or unconsciously copying his master? With a sudden fit of childish
+irritability she longed to smash something, and, with an impetuous
+hand, sent the little inlaid table with the tray and coffee-cups
+flying. She was ashamed of the impulse even before the crash came, and
+looked at Gaston clearing up the debris with anxious eyes. What was the
+matter with her? The even temper on which she prided herself and the
+nerves that had been her boast had vanished, gone by the board in the
+last month. If her nerve failed her utterly what would become of her?
+What would she do?
+
+Gaston had gone, and she looked around the tent with a hunted
+expression. There seemed no escape possible from the misery that was
+almost more than she could bear.
+
+There was a way out that had been in her mind often, and she had
+searched frequently in the hope that she might find the means. But the
+Sheik had also thought and had taken precautions. One day it seemed as
+if her desperate wish might be fulfilled, and she had had only a
+moment's hesitation as she stretched out her hand to take the revolver
+that had been left lying on a table, but as her fingers closed on the
+butt a muscular hand closed over hers. He had come in with his usual
+silent step and was close to her without her knowing. He had taken the
+weapon from her quietly, holding her eyes with his own, and had jerked
+it open, showing the empty magazine. "Do you think that I am quite a
+fool?" he had asked without a trace of expression in his voice.
+
+And since then she had been under a ceaseless, unobtrusive surveillance
+that had left her no chance of carrying out her terrible resolve. She
+buried her face in her hands. "Oh, my God! Is it never going to end? Am
+I never going to get away from him?"
+
+She sprang to her feet and walked restlessly round the tent, her hands
+clasped behind her back, her head thrown up, and her lips pressed close
+together. She panted as if she had been running, and her eyes had a
+far-away, unseeing look. Gradually she got command of herself again and
+the nervous excitement died down, leaving her weary and very desolate.
+The solitude seemed suddenly horrible. Anything would be better than
+the silent emptiness of the great tent. A noise outside attracted her,
+and she wandered to the doorway and out under the awning. Near her the
+Sheik with Gaston and Yusef stood watching a mad, ramping colt that was
+being held with difficulty by two or three men, who clung to him
+tenaciously in spite of his efforts to break away, and beyond was a
+semi-circle of Arabs, some mounted and some on foot, leaving a wide,
+open space between them and the tent. They were intensely excited,
+talking and gesticulating, the mounted men riding round the outer ring
+that they formed. Diana leaned against one of the lances that supported
+the awning and watched the scene with growing interest. This camp was
+many miles to the south of the one to which she had first been brought,
+and which had been broken up a few days after her capture. The setting
+was wonderful, the far-off hills dusky in the afternoon light, the
+clustering palms behind the tents, the crowd of barbaric figures in
+picturesque, white robes, the horsemen moving continuously up and down,
+and in the midst of everything the beautiful, wild creature, frenzied
+by the noise, kicking and biting at the men holding him. After a moment
+the Sheik held up his hand, and a man detached himself from the
+chattering crowd and came to him salaaming. The Sheik said a few words,
+and with another salaam and a gleam of white teeth, the man turned and
+approached the struggling group in the centre of the ring.
+
+Diana straightened up with interest. The frantic colt was going to be
+broken. It was already saddled. Several additional men ran forward, and
+between them the horse was forcibly held for a moment--only for a
+moment, but it was long enough for the man who leaped like a flash on
+to his back. The others fell away, racing from the reach of the
+terrible lashing heels. Amazed for the moment at the sudden
+unaccustomed weight, the colt paused, and then reared straight up, till
+it seemed to Diana that he must fall backward and crush the man who was
+clinging to him. But he came down at last, and for a few moments it was
+almost impossible to follow his spasmodic movements as he strove to rid
+himself of his rider. The end came quickly. With a twisting heave of
+his whole body he shot the Arab over his head, who landed with a dull
+thud and lay still, while the men who had been holding the colt dashed
+in and secured him before he was aware of his liberty. Diana looked
+towards the fallen man; a little crowd were gathered around him, and
+her heart beat faster as she thought that he was dead. Dead so quickly,
+and only a moment before he had been so full of life and strength.
+Death meant nothing to these savages, she thought bitterly, as she
+watched the limp body being carried away by three or four men, who
+argued violently over their burden. She glanced at the Sheik. He seemed
+perfectly unconcerned and did not even look in the direction of the man
+who had fallen. On the contrary, he laughed, and, turning to Yusef, put
+his hand en his shoulder and nodded towards the colt. Diana gave a
+gasp. He spared no one. He was going to make the young man take his
+chance as the rough-rider had taken his. She knew that the lieutenant
+rode well, as did all Ahmed Ben Hassan's followers, and that his
+languid manner was only a pose, but he looked so young and boyish, and
+the risk seemed enormous. She had seen colts broken before many times,
+but never a colt so madly savage as this one. But to Yusef the chance
+was evidently welcome. With an answering laugh, he swaggered out into
+the arena, where the men greeted him with shouts. There was the same
+procedure as before, and Yusef bounded up lightly into the saddle. This
+time, instead of rearing, the frightened beast dashed forward in a wild
+effort to escape, but the mounted men, closing up, headed him into the
+middle of the ring again, and he went back to his first tactics with a
+rapidity that was too much for the handsome lad on his back, and in a
+few moments he was thrown heavily. With a shrill scream the colt turned
+on him open-mouthed, and Yusef flung up one arm to save his face. But
+the men reached him in time, dragging the colt from him by main force.
+He rose to his feet unsteadily and limped to the tents behind. Diana
+could not see him easily for the throng around him.
+
+Again she looked at the Sheik and ground her teeth. He was stooping to
+light a cigarette from a match that Gaston was holding, and then they
+walked together nearer to the colt. The animal was now thoroughly
+maddened, and it was increasingly difficult to hold him. They went up
+close to the struggling, yelling grooms, and the next minute Diana saw
+Gaston sitting firmly in the empty saddle. The little man rode
+magnificently, and put up a longer fight than the others had done, but
+at last his turn came, and he went flying over the colt's head. He came
+down lightly on his hands and knees, and scrambled to his feet in an
+instant amidst a storm of shouts and laughter. Laughing himself he came
+back to the Sheik with a shrug of the shoulders and outspread, eloquent
+hands. They spoke together for a moment, too low for Diana to hear, and
+then Ahmed Ben Hassan went again into the middle of the ring. Diana's
+breath came more quickly. She guessed his intention before he reached
+the colt, and she moved forward from under the awning and joined
+Gaston, who was wrapping his handkerchief round a torn hand.
+
+"Monseigneur will try?" she asked a little breathlessly.
+
+Gaston looked at her quickly. "Try, Madame?" he repeated in a queer
+voice. "Yes, he will try."
+
+Again the empty saddle was filled, and a curious hush came over the
+watching crowd. Diana looked on with bright, hard eyes, her heart
+beating heavily. She longed passionately that the colt might kill him,
+and, at the same time, illogically, she wanted to see him master the
+infuriated animal. The sporting instinct in her acknowledged and
+responded to the fight that was going on before her eyes. She hated him
+and she hoped that he might die, but she was forced to admire the
+wonderful horsemanship that she was watching. The Sheik sat like a
+rock, and every effort made to unseat him was unsuccessful. The colt
+plunged wildly, making furious blind dashes backward and forward,
+stopping dead in the hope of dislodging his rider, twirling round
+suddenly until it seemed impossible that he could keep his feet. Then
+he started rearing, straight up, his forelegs beating the air, higher
+and higher, and then down, to commence again without a moment's
+breathing-space.
+
+Diana heard Gaston's breath whistle through his teeth. "Look, Madame!"
+he cried sharply, and Diana saw the Sheik give a quick glance behind
+him, and, as the colt shot up again, almost perpendicular, with a jerk
+he pulled him deliberately over backwards, leaping clear with a
+tremendous effort as the horse crashed to the ground. He was in the
+saddle again almost before the dazed creature had struggled to its
+feet. And then began a scene that Diana never forgot. It was the final
+struggle that was to end in defeat for either man or horse, and the
+Sheik had decided that it was not to be for the man. It was a
+punishment of which the untamed animal was never to lose remembrance.
+The savagery and determination of the man against the mad determination
+of the horse. It was a hideous exhibition of brute strength and
+merciless cruelty. Diana was almost sick with horror from the
+beginning; she longed to turn away, but her eyes clung fascinated to
+the battle that was going on. The hush that had fallen on the crowd had
+given way to roars of excitement, and the men pressed forward eagerly,
+to give back precipitately when the still-fighting animal's heels
+flashed too near.
+
+Diana was shaking all over and her hands were clenching and unclenching
+as she stared at the man, who seemed a part of the horse he was sitting
+so closely. Would it never end? She did not care now which killed the
+other so that it would only stop. The man's endurance seemed mere
+bravado. She clutched Gaston's arms with a hand that was wringing wet.
+"It is horrible," she gasped with an accent of loathing.
+
+"It is necessary," he replied quietly.
+
+"Nothing can justify that," she cried passionately.
+
+"Your pardon, Madame. He must learn. He killed a man this morning,
+threw him, and what you call in English 'savaged' him."
+
+Diana hid her face in her hands. "I can't bear it," she said pitifully.
+
+A few minutes later Gaston clicked his tongue against his teeth. "See,
+Madame. It is over," he said gently.
+
+She looked up fearfully. The Sheik was standing on the ground beside
+the colt, who was swaying slowly from side to side with heaving sides
+and head held low to the earth, dripping blood and foam. And as she
+looked he tottered and collapsed exhausted. There was a rush from all
+sides, and Gaston went towards his master, who towered above the crowd
+around him.
+
+Diana turned away with an exclamation of disgust. It was enough to have
+seen a display of such brutality; it was too much to stand by while his
+fellow-savages acclaimed him for his cruelty.
+
+She went slowly back into the tent, shaken with what she had seen, and
+stood in undecided hesitation beside the divan. The helpless feeling
+that she so often experienced swept over her with renewed force. There
+was nowhere that she could get away from him, no privacy, no respite.
+Day and night she must endure his presence with no hope of escape. She
+closed her eyes in a sudden agony, and then stiffened at the sound of
+his voice outside.
+
+He came in laughing, a cigarette dangling from one blood-stained hand,
+while with the other he wiped the perspiration from his forehead,
+leaving a dull red smear. She shrank from him, looking at him with
+blazing eyes. "You are a brute, a beast, a devil! I hate you!" she
+choked furiously.
+
+For a moment an ugly look crossed his face, and then he laughed again.
+"Hate me by all means, _ma belle_, but let your hatred be
+thorough. I detest mediocrity," he said lightly, as he passed on into
+the other room.
+
+She sank down on to the couch. She had never felt so desperate, so
+powerless. She stared straight before her, shivering, as she went over
+the scene she had just witnessed, her fingers picking nervously at the
+jade-green silk of her dress. She longed for some power that would
+deaden her feelings and blunt her capacity for suffering. She looked at
+Gaston with hard eyes when he came in. He had approved of what the
+Sheik had done, would have done it himself if he had been able. They
+were all alike.
+
+"The man who was hurt first," she asked abruptly, with a touch of her
+old hauteur in her voice, "is he dead?"
+
+"Oh no, Madame. He has concussion but he will be all right. They have
+hard heads, these Arabs."
+
+"And Yusef?"
+
+Gaston grinned. "_Le petit_ Sheik has a broken collar-bone. It is
+nothing. A few days' holiday to be petted in his harem, _et
+voila_!"
+
+"His harem?" echoed Diana in surprise. "Is he married?"
+
+"_Mais oui_, Madame. He has two wives."
+
+At Diana's exclamation he shrugged deprecatingly. "_Que
+voulez-vous?_ It is the custom of the country," he said tolerantly,
+with the air of conceding a melancholy fact with the best grace
+possible.
+
+The customs of the country was dangerous ground, and Diana changed the
+subject hastily. "Where did you learn to ride, Gaston?"
+
+"In a racing-stable at Auteuil, Madame, when I was a boy. Then I was
+five years in the French cavalry. After that I came to Monseigneur."
+
+"And you have been with him--how long?"
+
+"Fifteen years, Madame."
+
+"Fifteen years," she repeated wonderingly. "Fifteen years here, in the
+desert?"
+
+"Here and elsewhere, Madame," he answered rather more shortly than
+usual, and with a murmur of excuse left the tent.
+
+Diana leaned back against the cushions with a little sigh. Gaston need
+not have been afraid that she was trying to learn his master's secrets
+from him. She had not fallen as low as that. The mystery of the man
+whose path had crossed hers so terribly seemed to augment instead of
+lessen as the time went on. What was the power in him that compelled
+the devotion of his wild followers and the little French ex-cavalryman?
+She knit her forehead in perplexity and was still puzzling over it when
+he came back. Immaculate and well-groomed he was very different from
+the dishevelled, bloodstained savage of half-an-hour before. She shot a
+nervous glance at him, remembering her outburst, but he was not angry.
+He looked grave, but his gravity seemed centred in himself as he passed
+his lean fingers tenderly over his smooth chin. She had seen Aubrey do
+similarly hundreds of times. Occidental or Oriental, men seemed very
+alike. She waited for him to speak and waited vainly. One of the
+taciturn fits to which she had grown accustomed had come over
+him--hours sometimes in which he simply ignored her altogether. The
+evening meal was silent. He spoke once to Gaston, but he spoke in
+Arabic, and the servant replied only with a nod of compliance. And
+after Gaston was gone he did not speak for a long time, but sat on the
+divan, apparently absorbed in his thoughts.
+
+Restless, Diana moved about the tent, listlessly examining objects that
+she knew by heart, and flirting over the pages of the French magazines
+she had read a dozen times. Usually she was thankful for his silent
+moods. To-night with a woman's perversity she wanted him to speak. She
+was unstrung, and the utter silence oppressed her. She glanced over her
+shoulder at him once or twice, but his back looked unapproachable. Yet
+when he called her, with a swift revulsion of feeling, she wished he
+had kept silent. She went to him slowly. She was too unnerved to-night
+to struggle against him. What would be the use? she thought wearily; it
+would only end in defeat as it always did. He pulled her down on the
+divan beside him, and before she realised what he was doing slipped a
+long jade necklace over her head. For a moment she looked stupidly at
+the wonderful thing, almost unique in the purity of its colour and the
+marvellous carving on the uniform square pieces of which it was
+composed, and then with a low cry she tore it off and flung it on the
+ground.
+
+"How dare you?" she gasped.
+
+"You don't like it?" he asked in his low, unruffled voice, his eyebrows
+raised in real or assumed surprise. "Yet it matches your dress," and
+lightly his long fingers touched the folds of green silk swathed across
+the youthful curve of her breast. He glanced at an open box filled with
+shimmering stones on a low stool beside him.
+
+"Pearls are too cold and diamonds too banal for you," he said slowly.
+"You should wear nothing but jade. It is the colour of the evening sky
+against the sunset of your hair."
+
+He had never spoken like that to her before, or used that tone of
+voice. His methods had been more fierce than tender. She glanced up
+swiftly at his face, but it baffled her. There was no love in his eyes
+or even desire, nothing but an unusual gentleness. "Perhaps you would
+prefer the diamonds and the pearls," he went on, pointing disdainfully
+at the box.
+
+"No, no. I hate them! I hate them all! I will not wear your jewels. You
+have no right to think that I am that kind of woman," she cried
+hysterically.
+
+"You do not like them? _Bon Dieu!_ None of the other women ever
+refused them. On the contrary, they could never get enough," he said
+with a laugh.
+
+Diana looked up with a startled glance, a look of horror dawning in her
+eyes. "Other women?" she repeated blankly.
+
+"You didn't suppose you were the first, did you?" he asked with brutal
+candour. "Don't look at me like that. They were not like you, they came
+to me willingly enough--too willingly. Allah! How they bored me! I
+tired of them before they tired of me."
+
+She flung her arm across her eyes with a dry sob, straining away from
+him. She had never thought of that. In the purity of her mind it had
+never occurred to her. She was only one of many, one of a succession of
+mistresses, taken and discarded at his whim. She writhed with the shame
+that filled her. "Oh, you hurt me!" she whispered very low, and then
+anger killed all other feeling. He had loosened his arm about her and
+she wrenched herself free and sprang to her feet. "I hate you, do you
+understand? I hate you! I hate you!"
+
+He lit a cigarette leisurely before answering and moved into a more
+comfortable position on the divan. "So you have already told me this
+afternoon," he said at length coolly, "and with reiteration your remark
+becomes less convincing, _ma cherie_."
+
+Her anger ebbed away. She was too tired to be angry. She was humiliated
+and hurt, and the man before her had it in his power to hurt her more,
+but she was at his mercy and to-night she could not fight. She pushed
+the hair off her forehead with a heavy sigh and looked at the Sheik's
+long length stretched out on the couch, the steely strength of his
+limbs patent even in the indolent attitude in which he was lying, at
+his brown handsome face, inscrutable as it always was to her, and the
+feeling of helplessness came back with renewed force and with it the
+sense of her own pitiful weakness against his force, compelling her to
+speak. "Have you never felt pity for a thing that was weaker than
+yourself? Have you never spared anything or any one in all your life?
+Have you nothing in your nature but cruelty? Are all Arabs hard like
+you?" she said shakily. "Has love never even made you merciful?"
+
+He glanced up at her with a harsh laugh, and shook his head. "Love?
+_Connais pas!_ Yes, I do," he added with swift mockery, "I love my
+horses."
+
+"When you don't kill them," she retorted.
+
+"I am corrected. When I don't kill them."
+
+There was something in his voice that made her reckless, that made her
+want to hurt him. "If you give no love to the--the women whom you bring
+here, do you give love to the women of your harem? You have a harem, I
+suppose, somewhere?" she braved him with curling lip and scornful
+voice, but as she spoke she knew that she had only hurt herself and her
+voice faltered.
+
+His hand reached out suddenly and he dragged her down into his arms
+again with a laugh. "And if I have, are you jealous? What if the nights
+I spent away from you were passed in my harem--what then?"
+
+"Then may Allah put it into the heart of one of your wives to poison
+you so that you never come back," she said fiercely.
+
+"Allah! So beautiful and so bloodthirsty," he said in bantering
+reproof. Then he turned her face up to his, smiling into her angry eyes
+with amusement. "I have no harem and, thanks be to Allah, no wives,
+_cherie._ Does that please you?"
+
+"Why should I care? It is nothing to me," she replied sharply, with a
+vivid blush.
+
+He held her closer, looking deeply into her eyes, holding them as he
+could when he liked, in spite of her efforts to turn them away--a
+mesmerism she could not resist.
+
+"Shall I make you care? Shall I make you love me? I can make women love
+me when I choose."
+
+She went very white and her eyes flickered. She knew that he was only
+amusing himself, that he was utterly indifferent to her feelings, that
+he did not care if she hated or loved him, but it was a new form of
+torture that was more detestable than anything that had gone before it.
+It infuriated her that he could even suggest that she could come to
+care for him, that she could ever look on him as anything but a brutal
+savage who had committed a hideous outrage, that she could ever have
+any feeling for him except hatred and loathing. That he should class
+her with the other women he spoke of revolted her, she felt degraded,
+soiled as she had never done before, and she had thought that she had
+felt the utmost humiliation of her position.
+
+The colour rushed back into her face. "I would rather you killed me,"
+she cried passionately.
+
+"So would I," he said drily, "for if you loved me you would bore me and
+I should have to let you go. While as it is"--he laughed softly--"as it
+is I do not regret the chance that took me into Biskra that day."
+
+He let her go and got up with a yawn, watching her approvingly as she
+crossed the tent. The easy swing of her boyish figure and the defiant
+carriage of her head reminded him of one of his own thoroughbred
+horses. She was as beautiful and as wild as they were. And as he broke
+them so would he break her. She was nearly tamed now, but not quite,
+and by Allah! it should be quite! As he turned his foot struck against
+the jade necklace lying on the rug where she had thrown it. He picked
+it up and called her back. She came reluctantly, slowly, with mutinous
+eyes.
+
+He held out the necklace silently, and silently she stared not at it
+but at him. Her heart began to beat faster, and the colour slowly left
+her face. "Take it. I wish it," he said quietly.
+
+"No." It was little more than a gasp.
+
+"You will wear it to please me," he went on in the same soft voice, and
+the old hateful mockery crept into his eyes, "to please my artistic
+soul. I have an artistic soul even though I am only an Arab."
+
+"I will not!"
+
+The mockery was wiped out of his eyes in a flash, giving place to the
+usual ferocity, and his forehead knit in the dreaded heavy scowl.
+"Diane, obey me!"
+
+She clenched her teeth on her lower lip until a rim of blood stained
+their whiteness. If he would only shout or bluster like the average
+angry man she felt that she could brave him longer, but the cold quiet
+rage that characterised him always was infinitely more sinister, and
+paralysed her with its silent force. She had never heard him raise his
+voice in anger or quicken his usual slow, soft tone, but there was an
+inflection that came into his voice and a look that came into his eyes
+that was more terrible than any outburst. She had seen his men shrink
+when, standing near him, she had barely been able to hear what he had
+said. She had seen a look from him silence a clamorous quarrel that had
+broken out among his followers too close to his own tent for his
+pleasure. And that inflection was in his voice and that look was in his
+eyes now. It was no longer use to resist. The fear of him was an agony.
+She would have to obey, as in the end he always forced her to obey. She
+wrenched her eyes away from his compelling stare, her bosom heaving
+under the soft silk, her chin quivering, and reached out blindly and
+took it from him. But the sudden chill of it against her bare breast
+seemed to revive the courage that was not yet dead in her. She flung up
+her head, the transient colour flaming into her cheeks, and her lips
+sprang open, but he drew her to him swiftly, and laid his hand over her
+mouth. "I know, I know," he said coldly. "I am a brute and a beast and
+a devil. You need not tell me again. It commences to grow tedious." His
+hand slipped to her shoulder, his fingers gripping the delicate,
+rounded arm. "How much longer are you going to fight? Would it not be
+wiser after what you have seen to-day to recognise that I am master?"
+
+"You mean that you will treat me as you treated the colt this
+afternoon?" she whispered, her eyes drawn back irresistibly to his in
+spite of all her efforts.
+
+"I mean that you must realise that my will is law."
+
+"And if I do not?" He guessed rather than heard the words.
+
+"Then I will teach you, and I think that you will learn--soon."
+
+She quivered in his hands. It was a threat, but how much of it he meant
+to be taken literally she did not know. Again every ghastly detail of
+the afternoon passed with lightning speed through her mind. When he
+punished he punished mercilessly. To what lengths would he go? The Arab
+standards were not those of the men amongst whom she had lived. The
+position of a woman in the desert was a very precarious one. There were
+times when she forgot altogether that he was an Arab until some chance,
+as now, drove the hard fact home indisputably. He was an Arab, and as a
+woman she need expect no mercy at his hands. His hands! She looked down
+for a second sideways at the fingers gripping her shoulder and she saw
+them again stained with blood, saw them clenched round the dripping
+thong. She knew already by bitter experience the iron grip of his lean
+fingers and the compelling strength of his arms. Her quick imagination
+leaped ahead. What she had already suffered would be nothing compared
+with what would be. The remembrance of the stained, huddled figure of
+the servant he had chastised rose before her. And as she battled with
+herself, still torn in her passionate desire to make her strong will
+and courageous spirit triumph over her coward woman's body that shrank
+instinctively from physical torture, his arm tightened around her and
+she felt the hard muscles pressing against her shoulders and soft, bare
+neck, a suggestion of the force lying dormant beside her. She looked up
+at him slowly.
+
+His expression was unchanged, his forehead was still drawn together in
+the heavy frown and there was no softening in his eyes. The cruel lines
+about his mouth were accentuated and the tiger-look in his face was
+more marked than ever. He was not threatening idly; he meant what he
+said.
+
+"You had better kill me," she said drearily.
+
+"That would be to admit my own defeat," he replied coolly. "I do not
+kill a horse until I have proved beyond all possible doubt that I
+cannot tame it. With you I have no such proof. I can tame you and I
+will. But it is for you to choose and to choose to-night if you will
+obey me willingly or if I must make you. I have been very patient--for
+me," he added, with an odd smile flitting across his face, "but my
+patience is exhausted. Choose quickly." Insensibly he drew her closer
+to him till his arm felt like an inflexible steel band about her, and
+she thought with a shudder of the coils of a great serpent closing
+round its victim. She made a final effort to conquer herself, but
+between her and the broad chest so close to her she seemed to see a
+horse's head held low in agony, blood and foam dripping from his
+lacerated mouth, and a horse's flanks heaving piteously, torn with the
+cruel punishment he had undergone. A sudden nausea came over her,
+everything seemed to swim before her eyes, and she swayed against the
+man who was holding her. Her bodily fear overruled her mind. She could
+not bear any more.
+
+"I will obey you," she whispered heavily.
+
+He took her chin in his fingers and jerked her head up sharply, staring
+at her intently until she felt he was looking into her very soul. The
+heavy scowl smoothed away but the fierceness lingered in his eyes.
+"Good!" he said at length briefly. "You are wise," he added
+significantly. He tilted her head further back, bending his own down
+until his lips were nearly touching hers. She shivered involuntarily,
+an anguished appeal leaping into her eyes. He smiled ironically. "Do
+you hate them so much, my kisses?"
+
+She swallowed convulsively.
+
+"You are at least candid if you are not complimentary;" and with that
+he released her and turned away.
+
+She reached the curtain that divided the two rooms, her heart beating
+wildly, giddy with the strain that she had gone through. She paused a
+moment and looked back at him, amazed at her own temerity. He had
+unbuttoned the flap of the tent and was standing in the entrance
+looking out into the night. The scent of the peculiar tobacco he used
+drifted to her with the draught from the open door. Her eyes grew
+puzzled. Would she ever understand him? To-night he had given her a
+choice instead of simply enforcing his will, he had made her choose to
+save herself, he had proved his determination and his mastery over her.
+And with his last words the unexpected gentleness had come into his
+voice again and the cruel lines about his mouth had relaxed in a smile
+of amusement. It was the swift transition from ferocity to gentleness
+that she could never fathom. His complex nature was beyond her
+understanding. She would not try to understand him; she could never
+know the depths of his baffling personality. She only knew that for
+some reason of his own he had spared her, and she feared him more than
+ever.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+
+Under the awning of the tent Diana was waiting for Gaston and the
+horses, pulling on her thick riding-gloves nervously. She was wrought
+up to the utmost pitch of excitement. Ahmed Ben Hassan had been away
+since the previous day and it was uncertain if he would return that
+night or the next. He had been vague as to how long he would be
+absent. There had been a constant coming and going amongst his
+followers--messengers arriving on exhausted horses at all hours of the
+day and night, and the Sheik himself had seemed unusually preoccupied.
+He had not condescended to give any reason for the special activity of
+his people and she had not asked him.
+
+In the four weeks that had elapsed since she had promised him her
+obedience she had been very silent. The fear and hatred of him grew
+daily. She had learned to stifle the wild fits of rage and the angry
+words that leaped to her lips. She had learned to obey--a reluctant
+obedience given with compressed lips and defiant eyes, but given, and
+with a silence that surprised even herself. Day after day she had
+followed the usual routine, dumb unless he spoke to her; and with his
+own attention occupied with matters beyond the four walls of his tent
+he had not noticed or did not trouble to heed her silence. Lately he
+had left her very much alone; she had ridden with him almost daily
+until the last week, when he had announced curtly that in the meantime
+the length of her rides must be curtailed and that Gaston would
+accompany her. He had not offered any explanation, and she had not
+sought one. She had chosen to see in it merely another act of tyranny
+imposed on her by the man whose arbitrary exercise of power over her
+and whose tacit possession of her galled her continually. And under the
+sullen submission a wild fury of revolt was raging. She searched
+feverishly for means of flight, and now the Sheik's absence seemed to
+have given her the chance she had been waiting for. In the solitude of
+the previous night she had tossed impatiently from side to side of the
+big couch, vainly trying to find some means of taking advantage of her
+comparative freedom to effect her escape. Surely she could find some
+way of avoiding Gaston's vigilance. Excitement had kept her awake half
+the night, and in the morning she had had hard work to keep her
+agitation hidden and to appear as usual. She had even been afraid to
+order the horses any earlier in her nervous terror lest the valet
+should suspect there was any reason behind the simple request. After
+her _petit dejeuner_ she had paced the tent, unable to sit still,
+dreading lest any moment might bring the return of the Sheik and
+frustrate her hopes. She looked back into the room with a shudder as
+her eyes travelled over the luxurious appointments and different
+objects that had become so curiously familiar in the last two months.
+The unexpected equipments and the man's own baffling personality would
+remain in her recollection always as an enigma that she would never be
+able to solve. So much had been so inexplicable in himself and in his
+mode of life. She drew a long breath and went out hastily into the
+sunshine.
+
+The horses were waiting, and Gaston was standing ready to hold her
+stirrup. She fondled the beautiful grey horse's soft nose and patted
+his satiny neck with a hand that trembled a little. She loved the horse
+and to-day he should be the means of saving her. He responded to her
+caresses, gentling her with slobbering mouth and whinnying softly. With
+one last look at the big double tent and the rest of the camp behind it
+she mounted and rode away without another backward glance. She had to
+exercise a rigid control over herself. She longed to put Silver Star
+into a hand gallop at once and shake off Gaston, but she was still too
+near the camp. She must be patient and put a certain number of miles
+between herself and the possibility of pursuit before she attempted
+anything. Too early an endeavour would only bring the whole horde in
+wild chase at her heels. The thought of the promise she had given to
+the man from whom she was flying came back to her. She had promised
+obedience, but she had not promised that she would not try to escape,
+and, if she had, no promise wrung from her by fear was valid in her
+opinion.
+
+She rode steadily forward at a slow, swinging canter, instinctively
+saving her horse, plan after plan passing through her brain to be
+rejected as impracticable. Silver Star fretted continually at the
+moderate pace, tossing his head and catching at his bit. She took no
+heed of the time beyond the fact that it was passing quickly, and that
+if anything was to be done it must be done as soon as possible. But
+Gaston, riding a few paces behind her, was very much alive to the hour
+and had looked several times at his watch. He ranged alongside of her
+now with a murmured apology. "Pardon, Madame. It grows late," and
+submitted his wrist watch for her inspection.
+
+Diana glanced mechanically at her own wrist and then remembered that
+she had broken her watch the day before. She pulled up, and tilting her
+helmet back mopped her hot forehead, and, as she did so, a sharp breeze
+sprang up, the curious wind that comes and goes so rapidly in the
+desert. An idea flashed into her mind. It was a poor chance, but it
+might succeed. She shot a glance at Gaston. He was looking in the
+opposite direction, and, raising her hand, she fluttered her
+handkerchief a moment in the breeze and then let it go. The wind
+carried it some distance away. She gave a little cry and caught at the
+bridle of the valet's horse.
+
+"Oh, Gaston, my handkerchief!" and pointed to where the morsel of
+cambric lay white against a rock. With a comical exclamation of dismay
+he slipped to the ground and started to run across the sand.
+
+She waited until he had got well on his way, sitting tense with shining
+eyes and thumping heart, then, snatching off her helmet, she brought it
+down with a resounding smack on the hindquarters of the servant's
+horse, stampeding it in the direction of the camp, and, wheeling Silver
+Star, headed for the north, deaf to Gaston's cries.
+
+Wild with excitement and free to go his own pace at last her mount
+galloped swiftly and the wind whistled past Diana's ears. To the
+possible fate of the little Frenchman left on foot so far from the
+encampment she gave no heed. For the moment she did not even think of
+him, she had no thought for anybody but herself. Her ruse by its very
+simplicity had succeeded. She was free and she did not care about
+anything else. She had no plans or ideas what she should do or where
+she should go beyond the fact that she would keep riding northward. She
+had vague hopes that she might fall in with friendly Arabs who, for a
+promised reward, would guide her to civilisation. Most of them could
+speak a little French, and for the rest her small stock of Arabic must
+do. She knew that she was mad to attempt to ride across the desert
+alone, but she did not mind. She was free. She was too excited to think
+coherently. She laughed and shouted like a mad thing and her madness
+communicated itself to the grey, who was going at racing speed. Diana
+knew that he was out of control, that she could not stop him if she
+tried, but she did not want to try, the faster the better. In time he
+would tire himself, but until then let him go as he pleased. She was
+fast putting miles between herself and the camp that had been a prison,
+between herself and the brute who had dared to do what he had done. At
+the thought of the Sheik a sick feeling of fear ran through her. If
+anything should happen? If he should catch her again? She shuddered,
+and a cry burst from her lips, but she gripped herself at once. She was
+idiotic, contemptible; it was impossible. It would be hours, perhaps
+even the next day, before the alarm was given; he would not know in
+what direction she had gone. She would have miles of start on one of
+the fleetest of his horses. She tried to put him out of her mind. She
+had escaped from him and his cruelty, it was a nightmare that was over.
+The effects would remain with her always, nothing would ever be the
+same again, but the daily dread, the daily contamination would be gone,
+the helpless tortured feeling, the shame of submission that had filled
+her with an acute self-loathing that was as intense as her passionate
+hatred of the man who had forced her to endure his will. The memory of
+it would live with her for ever. He had made her a vile thing. Her
+cheeks scorched with the thought and she shivered at the remembrance of
+all that she had gone through. She had been down into the depths and
+she would carry the scars all her life. The girl who had started out so
+triumphantly from Biskra had become a woman through bitter knowledge
+and humiliating experience.
+
+The pace was less killing now. Silver Star had settled down into the
+steady tireless gallop for which Ahmed Ben Hassan's horses were famous.
+The little breeze had died away as quickly as it had sprung up, and it
+was very hot. Diana looked about her with glowing eyes. Everything
+seemed different. From the first she had loved the desert, but back of
+everything and mingled with everything had been the feeling of fear,
+the continual restraint, the perpetual subservience to the whims of her
+captor which had dominated everything. But now the whole aspect was
+changed. She loved the endless, undulating expanse stretching out
+before her, and as the grey topped each rise her interest grew keener.
+What might not be behind the next one? For an hour or more the ground
+rose and fell in monotonous succession, and then the desert grew level
+again and quite suddenly she could see for miles. About two miles away
+a few palm trees showed clustering together, and Diana turned in their
+direction. They probably meant a well, and it was time she rested her
+horse and herself. It was the tiniest little oasis, and she drew rein
+and dismounted with fears for the well she had hoped to find. But there
+was one, very much silted up, and she set to work to clear it as well
+as she could to procure enough for herself and Silver Star, who was
+frantically trying to get to the water. It was exhausting work, but she
+managed to satisfy the grey, and, having unloosed his girths, she flung
+herself down on the ground in a small patch of shade. She lit a
+cigarette and lay flat on her back with her helmet over her eyes.
+
+For the first time since she had shaken off Gaston she began to think
+seriously. What she had done was madness. She had no food for herself
+or her horse, no water, and Heaven alone knew where the next well might
+be. She was alone in an uncivilised country among a savage people with
+no protection of any kind. She might fall in with friendly Arabs or she
+might not. She might come across an encampment, or she might wander for
+days and see no one, in which case death from hunger and thirst stared
+her in the face. What would she do when night came? With a sharp cry
+she leaped to her feet. What was she to do? She looked all around the
+little oasis with startled eyes, at the few palm trees and clumps of
+camel thorn, the broken well and the grey horse still snuffing about
+its mouth. She felt frightened for the first time; she was alone and
+about her was unending space, and she felt an atom, insignificant, the
+least of all things. She looked up into the clear sky and the blue
+vastness appalled her.
+
+Then the sudden panic to which she had given way subsided and her
+courage rose with a bound. It was only midday, anything might happen
+between then and nightfall. Of one thing only she was sure, she did not
+repent of what she had done. Behind her was Ahmed Ben Hassan and before
+her was possibly death, and death was preferable. She was quite calm
+again and lay down in the patch of shade once more with a resolute
+determination to mind. Time to think of them when they came. For the
+next hour or two she must rest and escape the intense heat. She rolled
+over on her face with her head in her arms and tried to sleep, but she
+was too excited, and soon gave up the attempt. And in any case, she
+argued with herself, she might sleep too long and lose precious time.
+She stretched luxuriously on the soft ground, thankful for the shade
+from the burning sun. The grey, tired of nosing round the well and
+blowing disdainfully at the thorn bushes, wandered over to her side and
+nuzzled her gently. She caught at his velvety nose and drew it down
+beside her face. He was a very affectionate beast and gentler than most
+of the other horses, and he pressed close up to her, whinnying softly
+and looking at her with large expressive eyes. "I haven't anything to
+give you, poor old boy," she said regretfully, kissing his muzzle and
+then pushing him away from her. She looked up again into the sky, a
+dark speck sailed overhead, the slow heavy flight of a vulture. In a
+few hours he might be picking her bones! Merciful Heavens! Why did such
+thoughts come into her head? Had she nothing left of the courage that
+had once been second nature? If she let her nerves get the upper hand
+she might as well make no further effort, but lie down and die at once.
+With shaking fingers she took another cigarette; smoking would soothe
+her. Yet she hesitated before she lit it; there were only a few left
+and her need might still be greater. But with a reckless laugh she
+snapped the thin case to, and carefully scraped the evil-smelling
+sulphur match torn from a flat wood strip. She settled herself
+comfortably again full length. All around her were the innumerable tiny
+noises of the desert, the hum of countless insect life, the rustling of
+the sand and the occasional dry crackle of the camel thorns made by the
+slipping of a twig or the displacing of a branch, sounds that would
+have been incomprehensible some weeks before. For a few minutes a sand
+spider attracted her attention and she watched his hurried painstaking
+operations with wondering interest. Gradually a drowsy feeling stole
+over her and she realised suddenly that the air was impregnated with
+the scent of the tobacco that was always associated with the Sheik. It
+was one of his cigarettes that she was smoking. She had always been
+powerfully affected by the influence of smell, which induced
+recollection with her to an extraordinary degree, and now the uncommon
+penetrating odour of the Arab's cigarettes brought back all that she
+had been trying to put out of her mind. With a groan she flung it away
+and buried her face in her arms. The past rose up, and rushed,
+uncontrolled, through her brain. Incidents crowded into her
+recollection, memories of headlong gallops across the desert riding
+beside the man who, while she hated him, compelled her admiration,
+memories of him schooling the horses that he loved, sitting them like a
+centaur, memories of him amongst his men, memories more intimately
+connected with herself, of his varying moods, his swift changes from
+savage cruelty to amazing gentleness, from brutal intolerance to sudden
+consideration. There had even been times when he had interested her
+despite herself, and she had forgotten the relationship in which they
+stood towards each other in listening to his deep, slow voice, till a
+word or a gesture brought back the fact vividly. Memories of moments
+when she had struggled against his caresses, and he had mocked her
+helplessness with his great strength, when she had lain in his arms
+panting and exhausted, cold with fear and shrinking from his fierce
+kisses. She had feared him as she had never believed it possible to
+fear. His face rose before her clearly with all the expressions she had
+learned to know and dread. She tried to banish it, striving with all
+her might to put him from her mind, twisting this way and that,
+writhing on the soft sand as she struggled with the obsession that held
+her. She saw him all the time plainly, as though he were there before
+her. Would he pursue her always, phantom-like? Would the recollection
+of the handsome brown face haunt her for ever with its fierce eyes and
+cruel mouth? She buried her head deeper in her arms, but the vision
+persisted until with a scream she started up with heaving chest and
+wild eyes, standing rigid, staring towards the south with a desperate
+fixedness that made her eyeballs ache. The sense of his presence had
+been terribly real. She dropped on to the ground again with an
+hysterical laugh, and pushed the thick hair off her forehead wearily.
+Silver Star laying his muzzle suddenly on her shoulder made her start
+again violently with heavy, beating heart. A frightened look went
+across her face. "I'm nervous," she muttered, looking round with a
+little shiver. "I shall go mad if I stay here much longer." The little
+oasis that she had hailed so joyfully had become utterly repugnant and
+she was impatient to get away from it. She climbed eagerly into the
+saddle, and, with the rapid motion, she regained her calm and her
+spirits rose quickly.
+
+She shook off the feeling of apprehension that had taken hold of her
+and her nervous fears died away. A reckless feeling, like the
+excitement of the morning, came over her, and she urged the grey on
+with coaxing words, and responding to her voice, and hardly feeling her
+light weight, he raced on untiringly. All around was silence and a
+solitude that was stupendous. The vast emptiness was awe-inspiring. The
+afternoon was wearing away; already it was growing cooler. Diana had
+seen no sign of human life since she had left Gaston hours before and a
+little feeling of anxiety stirred faintly deep down in her heart.
+Traces of caravans she passed several times, and from the whitening
+bones of dead camels she turned her head in aversion--they were too
+intimately suggestive. She had seen a few jackals, and once a hyena
+lumbered away clumsily among some rocks as she passed. She had got away
+from the level desert, and was threading her way in and out of some low
+hills, which she felt were taking her out of her right course. She was
+steering by the setting sun, which had turned the sky into a glory of
+golden crimson, but the intricate turnings amongst the rocky hills were
+bewildering. The low, narrow defile seemed hemming her in, menacing her
+on all sides, and she was beginning to despair of finding her way out
+of the labyrinth, when, on rounding a particularly sharp turn, the
+rocks fell away suddenly and she rode out into open country. She
+breathed a sigh of relief and called out cheerily to the grey, but, as
+she looked ahead, her voice died away, and she reined him in sharply
+with a quickening heart-beat. Across the desert about a mile away she
+saw a party of Arabs coming towards her. There were about fifty of
+them, the leader riding a big, black horse some little distance in
+front of his followers. In the clear atmosphere they seemed nearer than
+they were. It was not what she wished. She had hoped for an encampment,
+where there would be women or a caravan of traders whose constant
+communication with the towns would make them realise the importance of
+guiding her to civilisation unharmed. This band of fighting men, for
+she could see their rifles clearly, and their close and orderly
+formation was anything but peaceful, filled her with the greatest
+misgivings. Only the worst might be expected from the wild, lawless
+tribesmen towards a woman alone amongst them. She had fled from one
+hideousness to another which would be ten times more horrible. Her face
+blanched and she set her teeth in desperation. The human beings she had
+prayed for were now a deadly menace, and she prayed as fervently that
+they might pass on and not notice her. Perhaps it was not too late,
+perhaps they had not yet seen her and she might still slip away and
+hide in the twisting turnings of the defile. She backed Silver Star
+further into the shadow of the rock, but as she did so she saw that she
+had been seen. The leader turned in his saddle and raised his hand high
+above his head, and with a wild shout and a great cloud of dust and
+sand his men checked their horses, dragging them back on to their
+haunches, while he galloped towards her alone. And at the same moment
+an icy hand clutched at Diana's heart and a moan burst from her lips.
+There was no mistaking him or the big black horse he rode. For a moment
+she reeled with a sudden faintness, and then with a tremendous effort
+she pulled herself together, dragging her horse's head round and urged
+him back along the track which she had just left, and behind her raced
+Ahmed Ben Hassan, spurring the great, black stallion as he had never
+done before. With ashy face and wild, hunted eyes Diana crouched
+forward on the grey's neck, saving him all she could and riding as she
+had never ridden in her life. Utterly reckless, she urged the horse to
+his utmost pace, regardless of the rough, dangerous track. Perhaps she
+could still shake off her pursuer among the tortuous paths of the
+hills. Nothing mattered but that. Better even an ugly toss and a broken
+neck than that he should take her again. Panic-stricken she wanted to
+shriek and clenched her teeth on her lips to keep back the scream that
+rose in her throat. She dared not look behind, but straight ahead
+before her, riding with all her skill, hauling the grey round perilous
+corners and bending lower and lower in the saddle to aid him. In her
+terror she had forgotten what a little distance the hills stretched
+from where she had entered them, and blindly she turned into the track
+by which she had come, leaving the main hills on her right hand and
+emerging on to the open desert on the south side of the range. There
+was nothing now but the sheer speed of her horse to save her, and how
+long could she count on it? Then with a little glimmer of hope she
+remembered that the Sheik was riding The Hawk, own brother to the grey,
+and she knew that neither had ever outpaced the other. She had ridden
+hard all day, but it was probable that Ahmed Ben Hassan had ridden
+harder; he never spared his horses, and his weight was considerably
+greater than hers. Would it not be possible for Silver Star, carrying
+the lighter burden, to outdistance The Hawk? It was a chance. She would
+take it, but she would never give in. The perspiration was rolling down
+her face and her breath was coming laboriously. Suddenly, a few minutes
+after she had left the hills behind, the Sheik's deep voice came
+clearly across the space between them.
+
+"If you do not stop I will shoot your horse. I give you one minute."
+
+She swayed a little in the saddle, clutching the grey's neck to steady
+herself and for a moment she closed her eyes, but she did not falter
+for an instant. She would not stop; nothing on earth should make her
+stop now. Only, because she knew the man, she kicked her feet clear of
+the stirrups. He had said he would shoot and he would shoot, and if the
+grey shied or swerved a hair's breadth she would probably receive the
+bullet that was meant for him. Better that! Yes, even better that!
+
+Silver Star tore on headlong and the minute seemed a lifetime. Then
+before even she heard the report he bounded in the air and fell with a
+crash. Diana was flung far forward and landed on some soft sand. For a
+moment she was stunned by the fall, then she staggered dizzily to her
+feet and stumbled back to the prostrate horse. He was lashing out
+wildly with his heels, making desperate efforts to rise. And as she
+reached him the black horse dashed up alongside, stopping suddenly, and
+rearing straight up. The Sheik leaped to the ground and ran towards
+her. He caught her wrist and flung her out of his way, and she lay
+where she had fallen, every nerve in her body quivering. She was beaten
+and with the extinguishing of her last hope all her courage failed her.
+She gave way to sheer, overwhelming terror, utterly cowed. Every
+faculty was suspended, swallowed up in the one dominating force, the
+dread of his voice and the dread of the touch of his hands. She heard a
+second report and knew that he had put Silver Star out of his misery,
+and then, in a few seconds, his voice beside her. She got up
+unsteadily, shrinking from him.
+
+"Why are you here, and where is Gaston?"
+
+In a stifled voice she told him everything. What did it matter? If she
+tried to be silent he would force her to speak.
+
+He made no comment, and bringing The Hawk nearer tossed her up roughly
+into the saddle and swung up behind her, the black breaking at once
+into the usual headlong gallop. She made no kind of resistance, a
+complete apathy seemed to have come over her. She did not look at the
+body of Silver Star, she looked at nothing, clinging to the front of
+the saddle, and staring ahead of her unseeingly. She had dropped her
+helmet when she fell and she had left it, thankful to be relieved of
+the pressure on her aching head. Her mental collapse had affected her
+physically, and it needed a real effort of will-power to enable her to
+sit up right. Very soon they would join the horsemen, who were waiting
+for them, and for her pride's sake she must concentrate all her energy
+to avoid betraying her weakness.
+
+Ahmed Ben Hassan did not go back through the defile, he turned into a
+little path that Diana had overlooked and which skirted the hills. In
+about half-an-hour the troop met them, riding slowly from the opposite
+direction. She did not raise her eyes as they approached, but she heard
+Yusef's clear tenor voice calling out to the Sheik, who answered
+shortly as the men fell in behind him. Back over the ground that she
+had traversed so differently. She knew that it had been madness from
+the first. She should have known that it could never succeed, that she
+could never reach civilisation alone. She had been a fool ever to
+imagine that she could win through. The chance that had thrown her
+again into the Sheik's power might just as easily have thrown her into
+the hands of any other Arab. Luck had helped Ahmed Ben Hassan even as
+she herself had unknowingly played into his hands when he had captured
+her first. Fate was with him. It was useless to try and struggle
+against him any more. Her brain was a confused medley of thoughts that
+she was too tired to unravel, strange, conflicting ideas chasing wildly
+through her mind. She did not understand them, she did not try. The
+effort of thinking made her head ache agonisingly. She was conscious of
+a great unrest, a dull aching in her heart and a terrible depression
+that was altogether apart from the fear she felt of the Sheik. She gave
+up trying to think; she was concerned only with trying to keep her
+balance.
+
+She lifted her head for the first time and looked at the magnificent
+sky. The sun had almost set, going down in a ball of molten fire, and
+the heavens on either side were a riot of gold and crimson and palest
+green, shading off into vivid blue that grew blacker and blacker as the
+glory of the sunset died away. The scattered palm trees and the far-off
+hills stood out in strong relief. It was a country of marvellous
+beauty, and Diana's heart gave a sudden throb as she realised that she
+was going back to it all. She was drooping wearily, unable to sit
+upright any longer, and once or twice she jolted heavily against the
+man who rode behind her. His nearness had ceased to revolt her; she
+thought of it with a dull feeling of wonder. She had even a sense of
+relief at the thought of the strength so close to her. Her eyes rested
+on his hands, showing brown and muscular under the folds of his white
+robes. She knew the power of the long, lean fingers that could, when he
+liked, be gentle enough. Her eyes filled with sudden tears, but she
+blinked them back before they fell. She wanted desperately to cry. A
+wave of terrible loneliness went over her, a feeling of desolation, and
+a strange, incomprehensible yearning for what she did not know. As the
+sunset faded and it grew rapidly dusk a chill wind sprang up and she
+shivered from time to time, drooping more and more with fatigue, at
+times only half conscious. She had drifted into complete oblivion, when
+she was awakened with a jerk that threw her back violently against the
+Sheik, but she was too tired to more than barely understand that they
+had stopped for something, and that there were palm trees near her. She
+felt herself lifted down and a cloak wrapped round her, and then she
+remembered nothing more. She awoke slowly, shaking off a persistent
+drowsiness by degrees. She was still tired, but the desperate weariness
+was gone, and she was conscious of a feeling of well-being and
+security. The cool, night air blew in her face, dissipating her
+sleepiness. She became aware that night had fallen, and that they were
+still steadily galloping southward. In a few moments she was wide
+awake, and found that she was lying across the saddle in front of the
+Sheik, and that he was holding her in the crook of his arm. Her head
+was resting just over his heart, and she could feel the regular beat
+beneath her cheek. Wrapped warmly in the cloak and held securely by his
+strong arm at first she was content to give way only to the sensation
+of bodily rest. It was enough for the moment to lie with relaxed
+muscles, to have to make no effort of any kind, to feel the soothing
+rush of the wind against her face, and the swift, easy gallop of The
+Hawk as he carried them on through the night. Them! With a start of
+recollection she realised fully whose arm was round her, and whose
+breast her head was resting on. Her heart beat with sudden violence.
+What was the matter with her? Why did she not shrink from the pressure
+of his arm and the contact of his warm, strong body? What had happened
+to her? Quite suddenly she knew--knew that she loved him, that she had
+loved him for a long time, even when she thought she hated him and when
+she had fled from him. She knew now why his face had haunted her in the
+little oasis at midday--that it was love calling to her subconsciously.
+All the confusion of mind that had assailed her when they started on
+the homeward journey, the conflicting thoughts and contrary emotions,
+were explained. But she knew herself at last and knew the love that
+filled her, an overwhelming, passionate love that almost frightened her
+with its immensity and with the sudden hold it had laid upon her. Love
+had come to her at last who had scorned it so fiercely. The men who had
+loved her had not had the power to touch her, she had given love to no
+one, she had thought that she could not love, that she was devoid of
+all natural affection and that she would never know what love meant.
+But she knew now--a love of such complete surrender that she had never
+conceived. Her heart was given for all time to the fierce desert man
+who was so different from all other men whom she had met, a lawless
+savage who had taken her to satisfy a passing fancy and who had treated
+her with merciless cruelty. He was a brute, but she loved him, loved
+him for his very brutality and superb animal strength. And he was an
+Arab! A man of different race and colour, a native; Aubrey would
+indiscriminately class him as a "damned nigger." She did not care. It
+made no difference. A year ago, a few weeks even, she would have
+shuddered with repulsion at the bare idea, the thought that a native
+could even touch her had been revolting, but all that was swept away
+and was nothing in the face of the love that filled her heart so
+completely. She did not care if he was an Arab, she did not care what
+he was, he was the man she loved. She was deliriously, insanely happy.
+She was lying against his heart, and the clasp of his arm was joy
+unspeakable. She was utterly content; for the moment all life narrowed
+down to the immediate surroundings, and she wished childishly that they
+could ride so for ever through eternity. The night was brilliant. The
+stars blazed against the inky blackness of the sky, and the light of
+the full moon was startlingly clear and white. The discordant yelling
+of a pack of hunting jackals came from a little distance, breaking the
+perfect stillness. The men were riding in unusual silence, though a low
+exclamation or the subdued jingle of accoutrements was heard
+occasionally, once some one fired at a night creature that bounded out
+from almost under his horse's feet. But the Sheik flung a word of
+savage command over his shoulder and there were no more shots. Diana
+stirred slightly, moving her head so that she could see his face
+showing clearly in the bright moonlight, which threw some features into
+high relief and left the rest in dark shadow. She looked at him with
+quickening breath. He was peering intently ahead, his eyes flashing in
+the cold light, his brows drawn together in the characteristic heavy
+scowl, and the firm chin, so near her face, was pushed out more
+doggedly than usual.
+
+He felt her move and glanced down. For a moment she looked straight
+into his eyes, and then with a low, inarticulate murmur she hid her
+face against him. He did not speak, but he shifted her weight a little,
+drawing her closer into the curve of his arm.
+
+It was very late when they reached the camp. Lights flashed up in the
+big tent and on all sides, and they were surrounded by a crowd of
+excited tribesmen and servants. In spite of the hard day's work The
+Hawk started plunging and rearing, his invariable habit on stopping,
+which nothing could break, and at a word from the Sheik two men leaped
+to his head while he transferred Diana to Yusef's outstretched arms.
+She was stiff and giddy, and the young man helped her to the door of
+the tent, and then vanished again into the throng of men and horses.
+
+Diana sank wearily on to the divan and covered her face with her hands.
+She was trembling with fatigue and apprehension. What would he do to
+her? She asked herself the question over and over again, with shaking,
+soundless lips, praying for courage, nerving herself to meet him. At
+last she heard his voice and, looking up, saw him standing in the
+doorway. His back was turned, and he was giving orders to a number of
+men who stood near him, for she could hear their several voices; and
+shortly afterwards half-a-dozen small bands of men rode quickly away in
+different directions. For a few moments he stood talking to Yusef and
+then came in. At the sight of him Diana shrank back among the soft
+cushions, but he took no notice of her, and, lighting a cigarette,
+began walking up and down the tent. She dared not speak to him, the
+expression on his face was terrible.
+
+Two soft-footed Arab servants brought a hastily prepared supper. It was
+a ghastly meal. He never spoke or showed in any way that he was
+conscious of her presence. She had had nothing to eat all day, but the
+food nearly choked her and she could hardly swallow it, but she forced
+herself to eat a little. It seemed interminable until the servants
+finally withdrew, after bringing two little gold-cased cups of native
+coffee. She gulped it down with difficulty. The Sheik had resumed his
+restless pacing, smoking cigarette after cigarette in endless
+succession. The monotonous tramp to and fro worked on Diana's nerves
+until she winced each time he passed her, and, huddled on the divan,
+she watched him continually, fascinated, fearful.
+
+He never looked at her. From time to time he glanced at the watch on
+his wrist and each time his face grew blacker. If he would only speak!
+His silence was worse than anything he could say. What was he going to
+do? He was capable of doing anything. The suspense was torture. Her
+hands grew clammy and she wrenched at the soft open collar of her
+riding-shirt with a feeling of suffocation.
+
+Twice Yusef came to report, and the second time the Sheik came back
+slowly from the door where he had been speaking to him and stopped in
+front of Diana, looking at her strangely.
+
+She flung out her hands instinctively, shrinking further back among the
+cushions, her eyes wavering under his. "What are you going to do to
+me?" she whispered involuntarily, with dry lips.
+
+He looked at her without answering for a while, as if to prolong the
+torture she was enduring, and a cruel look crept into his eyes. "That
+depends on what happens to Gaston," he said at length slowly.
+
+"Gaston?" she repeated stupidly. She had forgotten the valet, in all
+that had occurred since the morning she had forgotten his very
+existence.
+
+"Yes--Gaston," he said sternly. "You do not seem to have thought of
+what might happen to him."
+
+She sat up slowly, a puzzled look coming into her face. "What could
+happen to him?" she asked wonderingly.
+
+He dragged back the flap of the tent and pointed out into the darkness.
+"Over there in the south-west, there is an old Sheik whose name is
+Ibraheim Omair. His tribe and mine have been at feud for generations.
+Lately I have learned that he has been venturing nearer than he has
+ever before dared. He hates me. To capture my personal servant would be
+more luck than he could have hoped for."
+
+He dropped the flap and began walking up and down again. There was a
+sinister tone in his voice that made Diana suddenly comprehend the
+little Frenchman's peril. Ahmed Ben Hassan was not the man to be easily
+alarmed on any one's behalf. That he was anxious about Gaston was
+apparent, and with her knowledge of him she understood his anxiety
+argued a very real danger. She had heard tales before she left Biskra,
+and since then she had been living in an Arab camp, and she knew
+something of the fiendish cruelty and callous indifference to suffering
+of the Arabs. Ghastly mental pictures with appalling details crowded
+now into her mind. She shuddered.
+
+"What would they do to him?" she asked shakily, with a look of horror.
+
+The Sheik paused beside her. He looked at her curiously and the cruelty
+deepened in his eyes. "Shall I tell you what they would do to him?" he
+said meaningly, with a terrible smile.
+
+She gave a cry and flung her arms over her head, hiding her face. "Oh,
+do not! Do not!" she wailed.
+
+He jerked the ash from his cigarette. "Bah!" he said contemptuously.
+"You are squeamish."
+
+She felt sick with the realisation of what could result to Gaston from
+her action. She had had no personal feeling with regard to him. On the
+contrary, she liked him--she had not thought of him, the man, when she
+had stampeded his horse and left him on foot so far from camp. She had
+looked upon him only as a jailer, his master's deputy.
+
+The near presence of this hostile Sheik explained many things she had
+not understood: Gaston's evident desire daring their ride not to go
+beyond a certain distance, the special activity that had prevailed of
+late amongst the Sheik's immediate followers, and the speed and silence
+that had been maintained during the headlong gallop across the desert
+that evening. She had known all along the Arab's obvious affection for
+his French servant, and it was confirmed now by the anxiety that he did
+not take the trouble to conceal--so unlike his usual complete
+indifference to suffering or danger.
+
+She looked at him thoughtfully. There were still depths that she had
+not fathomed in his strange character. Would she ever arrive at even a
+distant understanding of his complex nature? There was a misty yearning
+in her eyes as they followed his tall figure up and down the tent. His
+feet made no sound on the thick rugs, and he moved with the long,
+graceful stride that always reminded her of the walk of a wild animal.
+Her new-found love longed for expression as she watched him. If she
+could only tell him! If she had only the right to go to him and in his
+arms to kiss away the cruel lines from his mouth! But she had not. She
+must wait until she was called, until he should choose to notice the
+woman whom he had taken for his pleasure, until the baser part of him
+had need of her again. He was an Arab, and to him a woman was a slave,
+and as a slave she must give everything and ask for nothing.
+
+And when he did turn to her again the joy she would feel in his embrace
+would be an agony for the love that was not there. His careless kisses
+would scorch her and the strength of his arms would be a mockery. But
+would he ever turn to her again? If anything happened to Gaston--if
+what he had suggested became a fact and the servant fell a victim to
+the blood feud between the two tribes? She knew he would be terribly
+avenged, and what would her part be? She wondered dully if he would
+kill her, and how. If the long, brown fingers with their steely
+strength would choke the life out of her. Her hands went up to her
+throat mechanically. He stopped near her to light a fresh cigarette,
+and she was trying to summon up courage to speak to him of Gaston when
+the covering of the doorway was flung open and Gaston himself stood in
+the entrance.
+
+"Monseigneur--" he stammered, and with his two hands outstretched, palm
+uppermost, he made an appealing gesture.
+
+The Sheik's hand shot out and gripped the man's shoulder. "Gaston!
+_Enfin, mon ami!_" he said slowly, but there was a ring in his low
+voice that Diana had never heard before.
+
+For a moment the two men stared at each other, and then Ahmed Ben
+Hassan gave a little laugh of great relief. "Praise be to Allah, the
+Merciful, the Compassionate," he murmured.
+
+"To his name praise!" rejoined Gaston softly, then his eyes roved
+around the tent towards Diana, and there was no resentment in them, but
+only anxiety.
+
+"Madame is----" he hesitated, but the Sheik cut him short.
+
+"Madame is quite safe," he said dryly, and pushed him gently towards
+the door with a few words in rapid Arabic. He stood some time after
+Gaston had gone to his own quarters looking out into the night, and
+when he came in, lingered unusually over closing the flap. Diana stood
+hesitating. She was worn out and her long riding-boots felt like lead.
+She was afraid to go and afraid to stay. He seemed purposely ignoring
+her. The relief of Gaston's return was enormous, but she had still to
+reckon with him for her attempted flight. That he said no word about it
+at the moment meant nothing; she knew him too well for that. And there
+was Silver Star, the finest of all his magnificent horses--she had yet
+to pay for his death. The strain that she had gone through since the
+morning was tremendous, she could not bear much more. His silence
+aggravated her breaking nerves until she felt that her nerves would go.
+He had moved over to the writing-table and was tearing the wrapping off
+a box of cartridges preparatory to refilling the magazine of his
+revolver. The little operation seemed to take centuries. She started at
+each separate click. She gripped her hands and passed her tongue over
+her dry lips. If he would not speak she must, she could endure it no
+longer.
+
+"I am sorry about Silver Star," she faltered, and even to herself her
+voice sounded hoarse and strange. He did not answer, but only shrugged
+his shoulders as he dropped the last cartridge into its place.
+
+The gesture and his uncompromising attitude exasperated her. "You had
+better have shot me," she said bitterly.
+
+"Perhaps. You would have been easier replaced. There are plenty of
+women, but Silver Star was almost unique," he retorted quickly, and she
+winced at the cold brutality of his tone.
+
+A little sad smile curved her lips. "Yet you shot your horse to get me
+back," she said in a barely audible voice.
+
+He flung round with an oath. "You little fool! Do you know so little of
+me yet? Do you think that I will let anything stand between me and what
+I want? Do you think that by running away from me you will make me want
+you less? By Allah! I would have found you if you had got as far as
+France. What I have I keep, until I tire of it--and I have not tired of
+you yet." He jerked her to him, staring down at her passionately, and
+for a moment his face was the face of a devil. "How shall I punish
+you?" He felt the shudder he expected go through her and laughed as she
+shrank in his arms and hid her face. He forced her head up with
+merciless fingers. "What do you hate most?--my kisses?" and with
+another mocking laugh he crushed his mouth to hers in a long
+suffocating embrace.
+
+Then he let her go suddenly, and, blind and dizzy, she reeled from him
+and staggered. He caught her as she swayed and swept her into his arms.
+Her head fell back against his shoulder and his face changed at the
+sight of her quivering features. He carried her into the adjoining room
+and laid her on the couch, his hands lingering as he drew them from
+her. For a moment he stood looking down with smouldering eyes on the
+slight, boyish figure lying on the bed, the ferocity dying out of his
+face. "Take care you do not wake the devil in me again, _ma
+belle,"_ he said sombrely.
+
+Alone Diana turned her face into the pillows with a moan of anguish.
+Back in the desert a few hours ago, under the shining stars, when the
+truth had first come to her, she had thought that she was happy, but
+she knew now that without his love she would never be happy. She had
+tasted the bitterness of his loveless kisses and she knew that a worse
+bitterness was to come, and she writhed at the thought of what her life
+with him would be.
+
+"I love him! I love him! And I want his love more than anything in
+Heaven and earth."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+
+Diana was sitting on the divan in the living-room of the tent lingering
+over her _petit dejeuner_, a cup of coffee poised in one hand and
+her bright head bent over a magazine on her knee. It was a French
+periodical of fairly recent date, left a few days before by a Dutchman
+who was touring through the desert, and who had asked a night's
+hospitality. Diana had not seen him, and it was not until the traveller
+had been served with dinner in his own tent that the Sheik had sent the
+usual flowery message conveying what, though wrapped in honeyed words,
+amounted practically to a command that he should come to drink coffee
+and let himself be seen. Only native servants had been in attendance,
+and it was an Arab untinged by any Western influence who had received
+him, talking only Arabic, which the Dutchman spoke fluently, and
+placing at his disposal himself, his servants and all his belongings
+with the perfunctory Oriental insincerity which the traveller knew
+meant nothing and accepted at its own value, returning to the usual set
+phrases the customary answers that were expected of him. Once or twice
+as they talked a woman's subdued voice had reached the Dutchman's ears
+from behind the thick curtains, but he knew too much to let any
+expression betray him, and he smiled grimly to himself at the thought
+of the change that an indiscreet question would bring to the stern face
+of his grave and impassive host. He was an elderly man with a tender
+heart, and he wondered speculatively what the girl in the next room
+would have to pay for her own indiscretion in allowing her voice to be
+heard. He left the next morning early without seeing the Sheik again,
+escorted for some little distance by Yusef and a few men.
+
+Diana read eagerly. Anything fresh to read was precious. She looked
+like a slender boy in the soft riding-shirt and smart-cut breeches, one
+slim foot in a long brown boot drawn up under her, and the other
+swinging idly against the side of the divan. She finished her coffee
+hastily, and, lighting a cigarette, leaned back with a sigh of content
+over the magazine.
+
+Two months had slipped away since her mad flight, since her dash for
+freedom that had ended in tragedy for the beautiful Silver Star and so
+unexpectedly for herself. Weeks of vivid happiness that had been mixed
+with poignant suffering, for the perfect joy of being with him was
+marred by the passionate longing for his love. Even her surroundings
+had taken on a new aspect, her happiness coloured everything. The
+Eastern luxury of the tent and its appointments no longer seemed
+theatrical, but the natural setting of the magnificent specimen of
+manhood who surrounded himself by all the display dear to the heart of
+the native. How much was for his own pleasure and how much was for the
+sake of his followers she had never been able to determine. The
+beauties and attractions of the desert had multiplied a hundred times.
+The wild tribesmen, with their primitive ways and savagery, had ceased
+to disgust her, and the free life with its constant exercise and simple
+routine was becoming indefinitely dear to her. The camp had been moved
+several times--always towards the south--and each change had been a
+source of greater interest.
+
+And since the night that he had carried her back in triumph he had been
+kind to her--kind beyond anything that she had expected. He had never
+made any reference to her fight or to the death of the horse that he
+had valued so highly; in that he had been generous. The episode over,
+he wished no further allusion to it. But there was nothing beyond
+kindness. The passion that smouldered in his dark eyes often was not
+the love she craved, it was only the desire that her uncommon type and
+her utter dissimilarity from all the other women who had passed through
+his hands had awakened in him. The perpetual remembrance of those other
+woman brought her a constant burning shame that grew stronger every
+day, a shame that was only less strong than her ardent love, and a wild
+jealousy that tortured her with doubts and fears, an ever-present demon
+of suggestion reminding her of the past when it was not she who lay in
+his arms, nor her lips that received his kisses. The knowledge that the
+embraces she panted for had been shared by _les autres_ was an
+open wound that would not heal. She tried to shut her mind to the past.
+She knew that she was a fool to expect the abstinence of a monk in the
+strong, virile desert man. And she was afraid for the future. She
+wanted him for herself alone, wanted his undivided love, and that he
+was an Arab with Oriental instincts filled her with continual dread,
+dread of the real future about which she never dared to think, dread of
+the passing of his transient desire. She loved him so passionately, so
+completely, that beyond him was nothing. He was all the world. She gave
+herself to him gladly, triumphantly, as she would give her life for him
+if need be. But she had schooled herself to hide her love, to yield
+apathetically to his caresses, and to conceal the longing that
+possessed her. She was afraid that the knowledge that she loved him
+would bring about the disaster she dreaded. The words that he had once
+used remained continually in her mind: "If you loved me you would bore
+me, and I should have to let you go." And she hid her love closely in
+her heart. It was difficult, and it hurt her to hide it from him and to
+assume indifference. It was difficult to remember that she must make a
+show of reluctance when she was longing to give unreservedly. She
+dropped the end of the cigarette hissing into the dregs of the coffee
+and turned a page, and, as she did so, she looked up suddenly, the
+magazine dropping unheeded on the floor. Close outside the tent the
+same low, vibrating baritone was singing the Kashmiri love song that
+she had heard last the night before she left Biskra. She sat tense, her
+eyes growing puzzled.
+
+_"Pale hands I loved beside the Shalimar. Where are you now? Who lies
+beneath your spell?"_
+
+The voice came nearer and he swept in, still singing, and came to her.
+_"Pale hands, pink tipped,"_ he sang, stopping in front of her and
+catching her fingers in his up to his lips, but she tore them away
+before he kissed them.
+
+"You do know English?" she cried sharply, her eyes searching his.
+
+He flung himself on the divan beside her with a laugh. "Because I sing
+an English song?" he replied in French. "_La! la!_ I heard a
+Spanish boy singing in 'Carmen' once in Paris who did not know a word
+of French beside the score. He learned it parrot-like, as I learn your
+English songs," he added, smiling.
+
+She watched him light a cigarette, and her forehead wrinkled
+thoughtfully. "It was you who sang outside the hotel in Biskra that
+night?" she asked at last, more statement than question.
+
+"One is mad sometimes, especially when the moon is high," he replied
+teasingly.
+
+"And was it you who came into my bedroom and put the blank cartridges
+in my revolver?"
+
+His arm stole round her, drawing her to him, and he lifted her head up
+so that he could look into her eyes. "Do you think that--I would have
+allowed anybody else to go to your room at night?--I, an Arab, when I
+meant you for myself?"
+
+"You were so sure?"
+
+He laughed softly, as if the suggestion that any plan of his could be
+liable to miscarriage amused him infinitely, and the smouldering
+passion flamed up in his dark eyes. He strained her to him hungrily, as
+if her slim body lying against his had awakened the sleeping fires
+within him. She struggled against the pressure of his arm, averting her
+head.
+
+"Always cold?" he chided. "Kiss me, little piece of ice."
+
+She longed to, and it almost broke her heart to persevere in her
+efforts to repulse him. A wild desire seized her to tell him that she
+loved him, to make an end once and for all of the misery of doubt and
+fear that was sapping her strength from her, and abide by the issue.
+But the spark of hope that lived in her heart gave her courage, and she
+fought down the burning words that sought utterance, forcing
+indifference into her eyes and a mutinous pout to her lips.
+
+His black brows drew together slowly. "Still disobedient? You said you
+would obey me. I loathe the English, but I thought their word----"
+
+She interrupted him with a quick gesture, and, turning her face to his,
+for the first time kissed him voluntarily, brushing his tanned cheek
+with swift, cold lips.
+
+He laughed disdainfully. "_Bon Dieu_! Has the hot sun of the
+desert taught you no better than that? Have you learned so little from
+me? Has the vile climate of your detestable country frozen you so
+thoroughly that nothing can melt you? Or is there some man in England
+who has the power to turn you from a statue to a woman?" he added, with
+an angry snarl.
+
+She clenched her hands with the pain of his words. "There is no one,"
+she muttered, "but I--I don't feel like that."
+
+"You had better learn," he said thickly. "I am tired of holding an
+icicle in my arms," and sweeping her completely into his masterful
+grasp he covered her face with fierce, burning kisses.
+
+And for the first time she surrendered to him wholly, clinging to him
+passionately, and giving him kiss for kiss with an absolute abandon of
+all resistance. At last he let her go, panting and breathless, and
+leaped up, drawing his hand across his eyes.
+
+"You go to my head, Diane," he said, with a laugh that was half anger,
+and shrugging his shoulders moved across the tent to the chest where
+the spare arms were kept, and unlocking it took out a revolver and
+began to clean it.
+
+She looked at him bewildered. What had he meant? How could she
+reconcile what he said with the advice that he had given her before?
+Was he totally inconsistent? Did he, after all, want the satisfaction
+of knowing that he had made her love him--of flattering himself on the
+power he exercised over her? Did he care that he was able to torture
+her heart with a refinement of cruelty that took all and gave nothing?
+Did he wish her to crawl abjectly to his feet to give him the pleasure
+of spurning her contemptuously, or was it only that he wanted her
+senses merely to respond to his ardent, Eastern temperament? Her face
+grew hot and shamed. She knew the fiery nature that was hidden under
+his impassive exterior and knew the control he exercised over himself,
+knew, too, that the strain he put upon himself was liable to be broken
+with unexpected suddenness. It was an easy thing to rule his wild
+followers, and she guessed that the relaxation that he looked for in
+the privacy of his own tent meant more to him than he would ever have
+admitted, than perhaps he even know. The hatred and defiance with which
+she had repelled him had provoked and amused him, but it had also at
+times angered him.
+
+He was very human, and there must have been moments when he wanted a
+willing mate rather than a rebellious prisoner. She gave a quick sigh
+as she looked at him. He was so strong, so vigorous, so intensely
+alive. It was going to be very difficult to anticipate his moods and be
+subservient to his temper. She sighed again wearily. If she could but
+make him and keep him happy. She ruffled her loose curls, tugging them
+with a puzzled frown, a trick that was a survival of her nursery days,
+when she clutched frantically at her red-gold mop to help her settle
+any childish difficulty.
+
+She knelt up suddenly on the cushions of the divan. "Why do you hate
+the English so bitterly, Monseigneur?" She had dropped almost
+unconsciously into Gaston's mode of address for some time; it was often
+awkward to give him no name, and she shrank from using his own; and the
+title fitted him.
+
+He looked up from his work, and, gathering the materials together,
+brought them over to the divan. "Light me a cigarette, _cherie_,
+my hands are busy," he replied irrelevantly.
+
+She complied with a little laugh. "You haven't answered my question."
+
+He polished the gleaming little weapon in his hand for some time
+without speaking. "_Ma petite_ Diane, your lips are of an adorable
+redness and your voice is music in my ears, but--I detest questions.
+They bore me to a point of exasperation," he said at last lightly, and
+started humming the Kashmiri song again.
+
+She knew him well enough to know that all questions did not bore him,
+but that she must have touched some point connected with the past of
+which she was ignorant that affected him, and to prove her knowledge
+she asked another question. "Why do you sing? You have never sung
+before."
+
+He looked at her with a smile of amusement at her pertinacity.
+"Inquisitive one! I sing because I am glad. Because my friend is
+coming."
+
+"Your friend?"
+
+"Yes, by Allah! The best friend a man ever had. Raoul de Saint Hubert."
+
+She flashed a look at the bookcase with a jerk of her head, and he
+nodded. "Coming here?" she queried, and the dismay she felt sounded in
+her voice.
+
+He frowned in quick annoyance at her tone. "Why not?" he said
+haughtily.
+
+"No reason," she murmured, sinking down among the cushions again and
+picking up the magazine from the floor. The advent of a stranger--a
+European--was a shock, but she felt that the Sheik's eyes were on her
+and she determined to show no feeling in his presence. "What time will
+you be ready to ride?" she asked indifferently, with a simulated yawn,
+flirting over the pages.
+
+"I can't ride with you to-day. I am going to meet Saint Hubert. His
+courier only came an hour ago. It is two years since I have seen him."
+
+Diana slipped off the couch and went to the open doorway. A detachment
+of men were already waiting for him, and, close by the tent, Shaitan of
+the ugly temper was biting and fidgeting in the hands of the grooms.
+She scowled at the beautiful, wicked creature's flat-laid ears and
+rolling eyes. She would have backed him fearlessly herself if the Sheik
+had let her, but she was nervous for him every time he rode the vicious
+beast. No one but the Sheik could manage him, and though she knew that
+he had perfect mastery over the horse, she never lost the feeling of
+nervousness, a sensation the old Diana had never, never experienced,
+and she wished to-day that it had been any other horse but Shaitan
+waiting for him.
+
+She went back to him slowly. "It makes my head ache, to stay in all
+day. May Gaston not ride with me?" she asked diffidently, her eyes
+anywhere but on his face. He had not allowed her to ride with any one
+except himself since her attempted escape, and to her tentative
+suggestions that the rides with the valet might be resumed he had given
+a prompt refusal. He hesitated now, and she was afraid he was going to
+refuse again, and she looked up wistfully. "Please, Monseigneur," she
+whispered humbly.
+
+He looked at her for a moment with his chin squarer than usual. "Are
+you going to run away again?" he asked bluntly.
+
+Her eyes filled slowly with tears, and she turned her head away to hide
+them. "No, I am not going to run away again," she said very low.
+
+"Very well, I will tell him. He will be delighted, _le bon_
+Gaston. He is your very willing slave in spite of the trick you played
+him. He has a beautiful nature, _le pauvre diable_. He is not an
+Arab, eh, little Diane?" The mocking smile was back in his eyes as he
+turned her face up to his in the usual peremptory way. Then he held out
+the revolver he had been cleaning with sudden seriousness. "I want you
+to carry this always now when you ride. Ibraheim Omair is still in the
+neighbourhood."
+
+She looked at it blankly.
+
+"But----" she stammered.
+
+He knew what was in her mind, and he stooped and kissed her lightly. "I
+trust you," he said quietly, and went out.
+
+She followed him to the door, the revolver dangling from her hand, and
+watched him mount and ride away. His horsemanship was superb and her
+eyes glowed as they followed him. She went back into the tent and
+slipped the revolver into the holster he had left lying on a stool,
+and, tucking it and Saint Hubert's novel, which she took from the
+bookcase, under her arm, went into the bed-room and, calling to Zilah
+to pull off her riding-boots, threw herself on the bed to laze away the
+morning, and to try and picture the author from the book he had
+written.
+
+She hated him in advance; she was jealous of him and of his coming. The
+Sheik's sudden new tenderness had given rise to a hope she hardly dared
+allow herself to dwell upon. Might not the power that she had exercised
+over other men be still extended to him in spite of the months that he
+had been indifferent to anything except the mere physical attraction
+she had for him? Was it not possible that out of that attraction might
+develop something finer and better than the primitive desire she had
+aroused? Oriental though he was, might he not be capable of a deep and
+lasting affection? He might have loved her if no outside influence had
+come to interrupt the routine that had become so intimately a part of
+his life. Those other episodes to which he had referred so lightly had
+been a matter of days or weeks, not months, as in her case. He might
+have cared but for the coming of this Frenchman. She hurled Saint
+Hubert's book across the room in a fit of girlish rage and buried her
+head in her arms. He would be odious--a smirking, conceited egotist!
+She had met several French writers and she visualised him
+contemptuously. His books were undoubtedly clever. So much the worse;
+he would be correspondingly inflated. His novel revealed a passionate,
+emotional temperament that promised to complicate the situation if he
+should be pleased to cast an eye of favour on her. She writhed at the
+very thought. And that he was to see her was evident; the Sheik had
+left no orders to the contrary. It was not to be the case of the Dutch
+traveller, when the fact that she belonged to an Arab had been brought
+home to her effectually by Ahmed Ben Hassan's peremptory commands, and
+she had experienced for the first time the sensation of a woman kept in
+seclusion.
+
+The emotions of the morning and the disappointment of the intended
+ride, together with the dismay produced by the unexpected visitor, all
+combined to agitate her powerfully, and she worked herself up into a
+fever of self-torture and unhappiness. She ended by falling asleep and
+slept heavily for some hours. Zilah waked her with a shy hand on her
+arm and a soft announcement of lunch, and Diana sat up, rubbing her
+eyes, flushed and drowsy. She stared uncomprehendingly for a moment at
+the Arab girl, and then waved her away imperiously and buried her head
+in the pillows again. Lunch, when her heart was breaking!
+
+Mindful of her lord's deputy, who was waiting in the next room, and
+whom she regarded with awe, Zilah held her ground with a timid
+insistence until Diana started up wrathfully and bade her go in tones
+that she had never used before to the little waiting-girl. Zilah fled
+precipitately, and, thoroughly awakened, Diana swung her heels to the
+ground and with her elbows on her knees rested her hot head in her
+hands. She felt giddy, her head ached and her mouth was parched and
+dry. She got up languidly, and going to the table studied her face in
+the mirror intently. She frowned at the reflection. She had never been
+proud of her own beauty; she had lived with it always and it had seemed
+to her a thing of no consequence, and now that it had failed to arouse
+the love she wanted in Ahmed Ben Hassan she almost hated it.
+
+"Are you going to have fever or are you merely bad-tempered?" she asked
+out loud, and the sound of her own voice made her laugh in spite of her
+heavy heart. She went into the bathroom and soused her head in cold
+water. When she came back a frightened Zilah was putting a small tray
+on the brass-topped table by the bed.
+
+"M'seiur Gaston," she stammered, almost crying.
+
+Diana looked at the tray, arranged with all the dainty neatness dear to
+the valet's heart, and then at the travelling clock on the table beside
+it, and realised that it was an hour past her usual lunch-time and that
+she was extremely hungry, after all. A little piece of paper on the
+tray caught her eye, and, picking it up, she read in Gaston's clear
+though minute handwriting, "At what hour does Madame desire to ride?"
+
+The servant clearly had no intention of giving up the programme for the
+afternoon without a struggle. She smiled as she added a figure to the
+end of the note, and went to the curtains that divided the rooms.
+"Gaston!"
+
+"Madame!"
+
+She passed the paper silently through the curtains and went back to her
+lunch. When she sent Zilah away with the empty tray she rescued the
+Vicomte de Saint Hubert's book from the floor where she had thrown it
+and tried to read it dispassionately. She turned to the title-page and
+studied the pencilled scrawl "Souvenir de Raoul" closely. It did not
+look like the handwriting of a small-minded man, but handwriting was
+nothing to go by, she argued obstinately. Aubrey, who was the essence
+of selfishness, wrote beautifully, and had once been told by an expert
+that his writing denoted a generous love of his fellow-men, which
+deduction had aroused no enthusiasm in the baronet, and had given his
+sister over to helpless mirth. She turned the pages, dipping here and
+there, finally forgetting the author altogether in the book. It was a
+wonderful story of a man's love and faithfulness, and Diana pushed it
+aside at last with a very bitter sigh. Things happened so in books. In
+real life they happened very differently. She looked round the room
+with pain-filled eyes, at the medley of her own and the Sheik's
+belongings, her ivory toilet appointments jostling indiscriminately
+among his brushes and his razors on the dressing-table, and then at the
+pillow beside her where his head rested every night. She stooped and
+kissed it with a little quivering breath. "Ahmed. Oh, Monseigneur!" she
+murmured longingly. Then, with an impatient jerk of the head, she
+sprang up and dragged on her boots. She pulled a soft felt hat down
+over her eyes and picked up the revolver the Sheik had given her. She
+paused a moment, looking at it with an odd smile before buckling it
+round her slim waist. Gaston's face lit up with genuine pleasure when
+she came out to the horses. She had felt a momentary embarrassment
+before she left the tent, thinking of the last time he had ridden with
+her, but she had known from the moment he came back that night that he
+bore no malice, and the look on his face and his stammered words to the
+Sheik had indicated that the fear he felt for her was not for what
+might have happened in the desert, but for what might yet happen to her
+at the hands of his master and hers.
+
+The horse that she rode always now was pure white, not so fast as
+Silver Star and very tricky, called The Dancer, from a nervous habit of
+dancing on his hind-legs at starting and stopping, like a circus-horse.
+He was difficult to mount, and edged away shyly as Diana tried to get
+her foot into the stirrup. But she swung up at last, and by the time
+The Dancer had finished his display of _haute ecole_ Gaston was
+mounted. "After riding The Dancer I feel confident to enter for the
+_Concours Hippique_," she laughed over her shoulder, and touched
+the horse with her heel.
+
+She wanted exercise primarily, hard physical exercise that would tire
+her out and keep her mind occupied and prevent her from thinking, and
+the horse she rode supplied both needs. He required watching all the
+time. She let him out to his full pace for his own sake and hers, and
+the air and the movement banished her headache, and a kind of
+exhilaration came over her, making her almost happy. After a while she
+reined in her horse and waved to Gaston to come alongside. "Tell me of
+this Vicomte de Saint Hubert who is coming. You know him, I suppose, as
+you have been so long with Monseigneur?"
+
+Gaston smiled. "I knew him before Monseigneur did. I was born on the
+estate of Monsieur le Comte de Saint Hubert, the father of Monsieur le
+Vicomte. I and my twin brother Henri. We both went into Monsieur's le
+Comte's training stables, and then after our time in the Cavalry Henri
+became valet to Monsieur le Vicomte, and I came to Monseigneur."
+
+Diana took off her hat and rubbed her forehead thoughtfully. Fifteen
+years ago Ahmed must have been about twenty. Why should an Arab chief
+of that age, or any age, indulge in such an anomaly as a French valet,
+or for that matter why should a French valet attach himself to an Arab
+Sheik and exile himself in the wilds of the desert? Whichever way she
+turned, the mystery of the man she loved seemed to crop up. She started
+arguing with herself in a circle--why should the Sheik have a European
+servant or why should he not, until she gave it up in hopeless
+confusion.
+
+She turned to Gaston with the intention of asking further of the coming
+visitor, and, keeping The Dancer as still as she could, sat looking at
+the valet with great, questioning eyes, fanning her hot face with her
+hat. Gaston, whose own horse stood like a rock, was frankly mopping his
+forehead. Dianna decided against any more questions. Gaston would
+naturally be hopelessly biased, having been born and brought up in the
+shadow of the family, and after all she would rather judge for herself.
+One inquiry only she permitted herself: "The family of Saint Hubert,
+are they of the old or the new _noblesse?"_
+
+"Of the old, Madame," replied Gaston quickly.
+
+Diana coaxed her nervous mount close beside his steadier companion,
+and, thrusting his bridle and her hat into Gaston's hands, slipped to
+the ground and walked away a little distance to the top of a small
+mound. She sat down on the summit with her back to the horses and her
+arms clasped round her knees. All that the coming of this strange man
+meant to her rushed suddenly over her. He was a man, obviously, who
+moved in the world, her world, since he apparently travelled
+extensively and his father was wealthy enough to run a racing stable as
+a hobby and was a member of the dwindling class of _ancienne
+noblesse_. It was characteristic of her that she put first what she
+did. How could she bear to meet one of her own order in the position in
+which she was? She who had been proud Diana Mayo and now--the mistress
+of an Arab Sheik? She laid her face on her knees with a shudder. The
+ordeal before her cut like a knife into her heart. The pride that Ahmed
+Ben Hassan had not yet killed flamed up and racked her with humiliation
+and shame, the shame that still seared her soul like a hot iron, so
+that there were moments she could not bear even the presence of the man
+who had made her what she was, in spite of the love she bore him, and,
+pleading fever, prayed to be alone. Not that he ever granted her
+prayer, for he knew fever when he saw it, but would pull her down
+beside him with a mocking laugh that still had the power to hurt so
+much. The thought of what it would be to her to meet his friend had
+presumably never entered his mind, or if it had it had made no
+impression and been dismissed as negligible. It was the point of view,
+she supposed drearily; the standpoint from which he looked at things
+was fundamentally different from her own--racially and temperamentally
+they were poles apart. To him she was only the woman held in bondage, a
+thing of no account. She sat very still for a while with her face
+hidden, until a discreet cough from Gaston warned her that time was
+flying. She went back to the horses slowly with white face and
+compressed lips. There was the usual trouble in mounting, and her
+strained nerves made her impatient of The Dancer's idiosyncrasies, and
+she checked him sharply, making him rear dangerously.
+
+"Careful, Madame," cried Gaston warningly.
+
+"For whom--me or Monseigneur's horse?" she retorted bitterly, and
+ignoring her hat, which Gaston held out to her with reproachful eyes,
+she spurred the horse viciously, making him break into a headlong
+gallop. It had got to be gone through, so get it over as soon as
+possible. And behind her, Gaston, for the first time in all his long
+service, cursed the master he would cheerfully have died for.
+
+The horse's nerves, like her own, were on edge, and he pulled badly,
+his smooth satiny neck growing dark and seamed with sweat; Diana needed
+all her knowledge to control him, and she began to wonder if when they
+came to the camp she would be able to stop him. She topped an
+undulation that was some little distance from the tents with
+misgivings, and wrapped the reins round her hands to prevent them
+slipping through her fingers. As they neared she saw the Sheik standing
+outside his tent, with a tall, thin man beside him. She had only a
+glimpse of dark, unruly hair and a close-cut beard as she shot past,
+unable to pull up The Dancer. But just beyond the tent, with the reins
+cutting into her hands, she managed to haul him round and bring him
+back. A couple of grooms jumped to his head, but, owing to his peculiar
+tactics, landed short, and he pranced to his own satisfaction and
+Diana's rage, until the amusement of it passed and he let himself be
+caught. Diana had done nothing to stop him once she had managed to turn
+him. If the horse chose to behave like a fool she was not going to be
+made to look foolish by fighting him when she knew that it was useless.
+In the hands of the men he sidled and snorted, and, dropping the reins,
+Diana pulled off her gloves and sat for a moment rubbing her sore
+hands. Then the Sheik came forward and she slid down. Before looking at
+him she turned and, catching at The Dancer's head, struck him angrily
+over the nose with her thick riding-gloves and watched him led away,
+plunging and protesting, pulling the gloves through her fingers
+nervously, until Ahmed Ben Hassan's voice made her turn.
+
+"Diane, the Vicomte de Saint Hubert waits to be presented to you."
+
+She drew herself up and the colour that had come into her face drained
+out of it again. Slowly she glanced up at the man standing before her,
+and looked straight into the most sympathetic eyes that her own sad,
+defiant ones had ever seen. Only for a moment, then he bowed with a
+conventional murmur that was barely audible.
+
+His lack of words gave her courage. "Monsieur," she said coldly in
+response to his greeting, then turned to the Sheik without looking at
+him. "The Dancer has behaved abominably. Gaston, my hat, please!
+Thanks." And vanished into the tent without a further look at any one.
+
+It was late, but she lingered over her bath and changed with slow
+reluctance into the green dress that the Sheik preferred--a concession
+that she despised herself for making. She had taken up the jade
+necklace when he joined her.
+
+He turned her to him roughly, with his hands on her shoulders, and the
+merciless pressure of his fingers was indication enough without the
+black scowl on his face that he was angry. "You are not very cordial to
+my guest."
+
+"Is it required of a slave to be cordial towards her master's friends?"
+she replied in a stifled voice.
+
+"What is required is obedience to my wishes," he said harshly.
+
+"And is it your wish that I should please this Frenchman?"
+
+"It is my wish."
+
+"If I were a woman of your own race----" she began bitterly, but he
+interrupted her.
+
+"If you were a woman of my own race there would be no question of it,"
+he said coldly. "You would be for the eyes of no other man than me. But
+since you are not----" He broke off with an enigmatical jerk of the
+head.
+
+"Since I am not you are less merciful than if I was," she cried
+miserably. "I could wish that I was an Arab woman."
+
+"I doubt it," he said grimly. "The life of an Arab woman would hardly
+be to your taste. We teach our women obedience with a whip."
+
+"Why have you changed so since this morning," she whispered, "when you
+told me that you trusted no one to climb to my balcony in the hotel but
+yourself? Are you not an Arab now as then? Have I become of so little
+value to you that you are not even jealous any more?"
+
+"I can trust my friend, and--I do not propose to share you with him,"
+he said brutally.
+
+She winced as if he had struck her, and hid her face in her hands with
+a low cry.
+
+His fingers gripped her shoulder cruelly. "You will do as I wish?" The
+words were a question, but the intonation was a command.
+
+"I have no choice," she murmured faintly.
+
+His hands dropped to his sides and he turned to leave the room, but she
+caught his arm. "Monseigneur! Have you no pity? Will you not spare me
+this ordeal?"
+
+He made a gesture of refusal. "You exaggerate," he said impatiently,
+brushing her hand from his arm.
+
+"If you will be merciful this once----." she pleaded breathlessly, but
+he cut her short with a fierce oath. "If?" he echoed. "Do you make
+bargains with me? Have you so much yet to learn?"
+
+She looked at him with a little weary sigh. The changing mood that she
+had set herself to watch for had come upon him suddenly and found her
+unprepared. The gentleness of the morning had vanished and he had
+reverted to the tyrannical, arbitrary despot of two months ago. She
+knew that it was her own fault. She knew him well enough to know that
+he was intolerant of any interference with his wishes. She had learned
+the futility of setting her determination against his. There was one
+master in his camp, whose orders, however difficult, must be obeyed.
+
+His attention had concentrated on a broken fingernail, and he turned to
+the dressing-table for a knife. She followed him with her eyes and
+watched him carefully trimming the nail. She had often, amongst the
+many things that puzzled her, wondered at the fastidious care he took
+of his well-manicured hands. The light of the lamp fell full on his
+face, and there was a dull ache in her heart as she looked at him. He
+demanded implicit obedience, and only a few hours before she had made
+up her mind to unreserved submission, and she had broken down at the
+first test. The proof of her obedience was a hard one, from which she
+shrank, but it was harder far to see the look of anger she had provoked
+on the face of the man she loved. For two months of wild happiness it
+had been absent, the black scowl she had learned to dread had not been
+directed at her, and the fierce eyes had looked at her with only
+kindness or amusement shining in their dark depths. Anything could be
+borne but a continuance of his displeasure. No sacrifice was too great
+to gain his forgiveness. She could not bear his anger. She longed so
+desperately for happiness, and she loved him so passionately, so
+utterly, that she was content to give up everything to his will. If she
+could only get back the man of the last few weeks, if she had not
+angered him too far. She was at his feet, tamed thoroughly at last, all
+her proud, angry self-will swamped in the love that was consuming her
+with an intensity that was an agony. Love was a bitter pain, a torment
+that was almost unendurable, a happiness that mocked her with its
+hollowness, a misery that tortured her with visions of what might have
+been. She went to him slowly, and he turned to her abruptly.
+
+"Well?" His voice was hard and uncompromising, and the flash of his
+eyes was like the tiger's in the Indian jungle.
+
+She set her teeth to keep down the old paralysing fear.
+
+"I will do what you want. I will do anything you want, only be kind to
+me, Ahmed," she whispered unsteadily. She had never called him by his
+name before; she did not even know that she had done so now, but at the
+sound of it a curious look crossed his face, and he drew her into his
+arms with hands that were as gentle as they had been cruel before. She
+let him lift her face to his, and met his searching gaze bravely.
+Holding her look with the mesmerism that he could exert when he chose,
+he read in her face her final surrender, and knew that while it pleased
+him to keep her he had broken her utterly to his hand. A strange
+expression grew in his eyes as they travelled slowly over her. She was
+like a fragile reed in his strong grasp that he could crush without an
+effort, and yet for four months she had fought him, matching his
+determination with a courage that had won his admiration even while it
+had exasperated him. He knew she feared him, he had seen terror leap
+into her flickering eyes when she had defied him most. Her defiance and
+her hatred, which had piqued him by contrast with the fawning adulation
+to which he had been accustomed and which had wearied him infinitely,
+had provoked in him a fixed resolve to master her. Before he tired of
+her she must yield her will to him absolutely. And to-night he knew
+that the last struggle had been made, that she would never oppose him
+again, that she was clay in his hands to do with as he would. And the
+knowledge that he had won gave him no feeling of exultation, instead a
+vague, indefinite sense of irritation swept over him and made him swear
+softly under his breath. The satisfaction he had expected in his
+triumph was lacking and the unaccountable dissatisfaction that filled
+him seemed inexplicable. He did not understand himself, and he looked
+down at her again with a touch of impatience. She was very lovely, he
+thought, with a strange new appreciation of the beauty he had
+appropriated, and very womanly in the soft, clinging green dress. The
+slim, boyish figure that rode with him had a charm all its own, but it
+was the woman in her that sent the hot blood racing through his veins
+and made his heart beat as it was beating now. His eyes lingered a
+moment on her bright curls, on her dark-fringed, pleading eyes and on
+her bare neck, startlingly white against the jade green of her gown,
+then he put her from him.
+
+"_Va_," he said gently, "_depeche-toi_."
+
+She looked after him as he went through the curtains with a long,
+sobbing sigh. She was paying a heavy price for her happiness, but she
+would have paid a heavier one willingly. Nothing mattered now that he
+was not angry any more. She knew what her total submission meant: it
+was an end to all individualism, a complete self-abnegation, an
+absolute surrender to his wishes, his moods and his temper. And she was
+content that it should be so, her love was prepared to endure whatever
+he might put upon her. Nothing that he could do could alter that, and
+nothing should make her own her love. She had hidden it from him, and
+she would hide it from him--cost what it might. Though he did not love
+her he wanted her still; she had read that in his eyes five minutes
+ago, and she was happy even for that.
+
+She turned to the glass suddenly and wrenched the silk folds off her
+shoulder. She looked at the marks of his fingers on the delicate skin
+with a twist of the lips, then shut her eyes with a little gasp and hid
+her bruised arm hastily, her mouth quivering. But she did not blame
+him, she had brought it on herself; she knew his mood, and he did not
+know his own strength.
+
+"If he killed me he could not kill my love," she murmured, with a
+little pitiful smile.
+
+The men were waiting for her, and with a murmured apology for her
+lateness she took her place. The Sheik and his guest resumed the
+conversation that her entrance had interrupted. Diana's thoughts were
+in confusion. She felt as if she were in some wild, improbable dream.
+An Arab Sheik, a French explorer, and herself playing the conventional
+hostess in the midst of lawless unconventionalism. She looked around
+the tent that had become so familiar, so dear. It seemed different
+to-night, as if the advent of the stranger had introduced a foreign
+atmosphere. She had grown so accustomed to the routine that had been
+imposed upon her that even the Vicomte's servant standing behind his
+master seemed strange. The man's likeness to his twin brother was
+striking, the only difference being that while Gaston's face was
+clean-shaven, Henri's upper lip was hidden by a neat, dark moustache.
+The service was, as always, perfect, silent and quick.
+
+She glanced at the Sheik covertly. There was a look on his face that
+she had never seen and a ring in his voice that was different even from
+the tone she had heard when Gaston had come back on the night of her
+flight. That had been relief and the affection of a man for a valued
+servant, this was the deep affection of a man for the one chosen
+friend, the love passing the love of women. And the jealousy she had
+felt in the morning welled up uncontrollably. She looked from the Sheik
+to the man who was absorbing all his attention, but in his pale, clever
+face, half hidden by the close beard, she saw no trace of the
+conceited, smirking egotist she had imagined, and his voice, as low as
+the Sheik's, but more animated, was not the voice of a man unduly
+elated or conscious of himself. And as she looked her eyes met his. A
+smile that was extraordinarily sweet and half-sad lit up his face.
+
+"Is it permitted to admire Madame's horsemanship?" he asked, with a
+little bow.
+
+Diana coloured faintly and twisted the jade necklace round her fingers
+nervously. "It is nothing," she said, with a shy smile that his
+sympathetic personality evoked in spite of herself. "With The Dancer it
+is all foolishness and not vice. One has to hold on very tightly. It
+would have been humiliating to precipitate myself at the feet of a
+stranger. Monseigneur would not have approved of the concession to The
+Dancer's peculiarities. It is an education to ride his horses,
+Monsieur."
+
+"It is a strain to the nerves to ride _beside_ some of them,"
+replied the Vicomte pointedly.
+
+Diana laughed with pure amusement. The man whose coming she had loathed
+was making the dreadful ordeal very easy for her. "I sympathise,
+Monsieur. Was Shaitan very vile?"
+
+"If Monsieur de Saint Hubert is trying to suggest to you that he
+suffers from nerves, Diane," broke in the Sheik, with a laugh,
+"disabuse yourself at once. He has none."
+
+Saint Hubert turned to him with a quick smile. _"Et toi,_ Ahmed,
+eh? Do you remember----?" and he plunged into a flood of reminiscences
+that lasted until the end of dinner.
+
+The Vicomte had brought with him a pile of newspapers and magazines,
+and Diana curled up on the divan with an armful, hungry for news, but,
+somehow, as she dipped into the batch of papers her interest waned.
+After four months of complete isolation it was difficult to pick up the
+threads of current events, allusions were incomprehensible, and
+controversies seemed pointless. The happenings of the world appeared
+tame beside the great adventure that was carrying her on irresistibly
+and whose end she could not see and dared not think of. She pushed them
+aside carelessly and kept only on her knee a magazine that served as a
+pretext for her silence.
+
+When Gaston brought coffee the Vicomte hailed him with a gay laugh.
+"_Enfin,_ Gaston, after two years the nectar of the gods again!
+There is a new machine for you amongst my things, _mon ami,_
+providing it has survived Henri's packing."
+
+He brought a cup to Diana and set it on a stool beside her. "Ahmed
+flatters himself I come to see him, Madame. I do not. I come to drink
+Gaston's coffee. It has become proverbial, the coffee of Gaston. I
+propitiate him every time I come with a new apparatus for making it.
+The last is a marvel of ingenuity. Excuse me, I go to drink it with the
+reverence it inspires. It is a rite, Madame, not a gastronomic
+indulgence."
+
+Once more the sympathetic eyes looked straight into hers, and the quick
+blood rushed into her face as she bent her head again hurriedly over
+the magazine. She knew instinctively that he was trying to help her,
+talking nonsense with a tact that ignored her equivocal position. She
+was grateful to him, but even his chivalry hurt. She watched him under
+her thick lashes as he went back to the Sheik and sat down beside him,
+refusing his host's proffered cigarettes with a wry face of disgust and
+a laughing reference to a "perverted palate," as he searched for his
+own. The hatred she had been prepared to give him had died away during
+dinner--only the jealousy remained, and even that had changed from its
+first intensity to an envy that brought a sob into her throat. She
+envied him the light that shone in the Arab's dark eyes, she envied him
+the intonation of the soft slow voice she loved. Her eyes turned to the
+Sheik. He was leaning back with his hands clasped behind his head,
+talking with a cigarette between his teeth. His attitude towards his
+European friend was that of an equal, the haughty, peremptory accent
+that was noticeable when he spoke to his followers was gone, and a flat
+contradiction from Saint Hubert provoked only a laugh and a gesture of
+acceptance.
+
+As they sat talking the contrast between the two men was strongly
+marked. Beside the Frenchman's thin, spare frame and pale face, which
+gave him an air of delicacy, the Sheik looked like a magnificent animal
+in superb condition, and his quiet repose accentuated the Vicomte's
+quick, nervous manner. Under the screen of her thick lashes Diana
+watched them unheeded. Their voices rose and fell continuously; they
+seemed to have a great deal to say to each other, and they talked
+indiscriminately French and Arabic so that much that they said was
+incomprehensible to her. She was glad that it should be so, she did not
+want to know what they were saying. It seemed as if they had forgotten
+her presence with the accumulated conversation of two years. She was
+thankful to be left alone, happy for the rare chance of studying the
+beloved face unnoticed. It was seldom she had the opportunity, for when
+they were alone she was afraid to look at him much lest her secret
+should be betrayed in her eyes. But she looked at him now unobserved,
+with passionate longing. She was so intent that she did not notice
+Gaston come in until he seemed suddenly to appear from nowhere beside
+his master. He murmured something softly and the Sheik got up. He
+turned to Saint Hubert.
+
+"Trouble with one of the horses. Will you come? It may interest you."
+
+They went out together, leaving her alone, and she slipped away to the
+inner room. In half-an-hour they came back, and for a few minutes
+longer stayed chatting, then the Vicomte yawned and held out his watch
+with a laugh. The Sheik went with him to his tent and sat down on the
+side of his guest's camp-bed. Saint Hubert dismissed the waiting Henri
+with a nod and started to undress silently. The flow of talk and ready
+laugh seemed to have deserted him, and he frowned as he wrenched his
+things off with nervous irritability.
+
+The Sheik watched him for a while, and then took the cigarette out of
+his mouth with a faint smile. "_Eh, bien!_ Raoul, say it," he said
+quietly.
+
+Saint Hubert swung round. "You might have spared her," he cried.
+
+"What?"
+
+"What? Good God, man! Me!"
+
+The Sheik flicked the ash from his cigarette with a gesture of
+indifference. "Your courier was delayed, he only came this morning. It
+was too late then to make other arrangements."
+
+Saint Hubert took a hasty turn up and down the tent and stopped in
+front of the Sheik with his hands thrust deep in his pockets and his
+shoulders hunched up about his ears. "It is abominable," he burst out.
+"You go too far, Ahmed."
+
+The Sheik laughed cynically. "What do you expect of a savage? When an
+Arab sees a woman that he wants he takes her. I only follow the customs
+of my people."
+
+Saint Hubert clicked his tongue impatiently. "Your people!--which
+people?" he asked in a low voice.
+
+The Sheik sprang to his feet with flashing eyes, his hand dropping
+heavily on Saint Hubert's shoulder.
+
+"Stop, Raoul! Not even from you----!" he cried passionately, and then
+broke off abruptly, and the anger died out of his face. He sat down
+again quietly, with a little amused laugh. "Why this sudden access of
+morality, _mon ami?_ You know me and the life I lead. You have
+seen women in my camp before now."
+
+Saint Hubert dismissed the remark with a contemptuous wave of the hand.
+"There is to comparison. You know it as well as I," he said succinctly.
+He moved over slowly to the camp table, where his toilet things had
+been laid out, and began removing the links from the cuffs of his
+shirt. "She is English, surely that is reason enough," he flung over
+his shoulder.
+
+"You ask me, _me_ to spare a woman because she is English? My good
+Raoul, you amuse me," replied the Sheik, with an ugly sneer.
+
+"Where did you see her?" asked Saint Hubert curiously.
+
+"In the streets of Biskra, for five minutes, four months ago."
+
+The Vicomte turned quickly. "You love her?" he shot out, with all the
+suddenness of an American third degree.
+
+The Sheik exhaled a long, thin cloud of blue smoke and watched it
+eddying towards the top of the tent. "Have I ever loved a woman? And
+this woman is English," he said in a voice as hard as steel.
+
+"If you loved her you would not care for her nationality."
+
+The Sheik spat the end of his cigarette on to the floor contemptuously.
+"By Allah! Her cursed race sticks in my throat. But for that----" He
+shrugged his shoulders impatiently and got up from the bed on which he
+was sitting.
+
+"Let her go then," said Saint Hubert quickly. "I can take her back to
+Biskra."
+
+The Sheik turned to him slowly, a sudden flame of fierce jealousy
+leaping into his eyes. "Has she bewitched you, too? Do you want her for
+yourself, Raoul?" His voice was as low as ever, but there was a
+dangerous ring in it.
+
+Saint Hubert flung his hands out in a gesture of despair. "Ahmed! Are
+you mad? Are you going to quarrel with me after all these years on such
+a pretext? _Bon Dieu!_ What do you take me for? There has been too
+much in our lives together ever to let a woman come between us. What is
+a woman or any one to me where you are concerned? It is for quite a
+different reason that I ask you, that I beg you to let this girl go."
+
+"Forgive me, Raoul. You know my devilish temper," muttered the Sheik,
+and for a moment his hand rested on Saint Hubert's arm.
+
+"You have not answered me, Ahmed."
+
+The Sheik turned away. "She is content," he said evasively.
+
+"She has courage," amended the Vicomte significantly.
+
+"As you say, she has courage," agreed the Sheik, without a particle of
+expression in his voice.
+
+_"Bon sang----"_ quoted Saint Hubert softly.
+
+The Sheik swung round quickly. "How do you know she has good blood in
+her?"
+
+"It is very evident," replied Saint Hubert drily.
+
+"That is not what you mean. What do you know?"
+
+The Vicomte shrugged his shoulders, and, going to his suit-case, took
+from it an English illustrated paper, and opening it at the central
+page handed it to the Sheik silently.
+
+Ahmed Ben Hassan moved closer to the hanging lamp so that the light
+fell directly on the paper in his hands. There were two large
+full-length photographs of Diana, one in evening dress and the other as
+the Vicomte had first seen her, in riding breeches and short jacket,
+her hat and whip lying at her feet, and the bridle of the horse that
+was standing beside her over her arm.
+
+Under the photographs was written: "Miss Diana Mayo, whose protracted
+journey in the desert is causing anxiety to a large circle of friends.
+Miss Mayo left Biskra under the guidance of a reputable caravan-leader
+four months ago, with the intention of journeying for four weeks in the
+desert and returning to Oran. Since the first camp nothing has been
+heard of Miss Mayo or her caravan. Further anxiety is occasioned by the
+fact that considerable unrest is reported amongst the tribes in the
+locality towards which Miss Mayo was travelling. Her brother, Sir
+Aubrey Mayo, who is detained in America as the result of an accident,
+is in constant cable communication with the French authorities. Miss
+Mayo is a well-known sports-woman and has travelled widely."
+
+For a long time the Sheik studied the photographs silently, then with
+slow deliberation he tore the page out of the paper and rolled it up.
+"With your permission," he said coolly, and held it over the flame of
+the little lamp by the bedside. He held it until the burning paper
+charred to nothing in his hand and then flicked the ashes from his long
+fingers. "Henri has seen this?"
+
+"Unquestionably. Henri reads all my papers," replied Saint Hubert, with
+a touch of impatience.
+
+"Then Henri can hold his tongue," said the Sheik nonchalantly,
+searching in the folds of his waist-cloth for his case and lighting
+another cigarette with elaborate carelessness.
+
+"What are you going to do?" asked Saint Hubert pointedly.
+
+"I? Nothing! The French authorities have too many affairs on hand and
+too high an appreciation of Ahmed Ben Hassan's horses to prosecute
+inquiries in my direction. Besides, they are not responsible.
+Mademoiselle Mayo was warned of the risks she ran before she left
+Biskra. She chose to take the risks, _et voila!"_
+
+"Will nothing make you change your mind?"
+
+"I am not given to changing my mind. You know that. And, besides, why
+should I? As I told you before, she is content."
+
+Saint Hubert looked him full in the face. "Content! Cowed is the better
+word, Ahmed."
+
+The Sheik laughed softly. "You flatter me, Raoul. Do not let us speak
+any more about it. It is an unfortunate contretemps, and I regret that
+it distresses you," he said lightly; then with a sudden change of
+manner he laid his hands on the Vicomte's shoulders. "But this can make
+no difference to our friendship, _mon ami;_ that is too big a
+thing to break down over a difference of opinion. You are a French
+nobleman, and I----!" He gave a little bitter laugh. "I am an
+uncivilised Arab. We cannot see things in the same way."
+
+"You could, but you will not, Ahmed," replied the Vicomte, with an
+accent of regret. "It is not worthy of you." He paused and then looked
+up again with a little crooked smile and a shrug of defeat. "Nothing
+can ever make any difference with us, Ahmed. I can disagree with you,
+but I can't wipe out the recollection of the last twenty years."
+
+A few minutes later the Sheik left him and went out into the night. He
+traversed the short distance between the tents slowly, stopping to
+speak to a sentry, and then pausing outside his own tent to look up at
+the stars. The Persian hound that always slept across the entrance
+uncurled himself and got up, thrusting a wet nose into his hand. The
+Sheik fondled the huge creature absently, stroking the dog's shaggy
+head mechanically, hardly conscious of what he was doing. A great
+restlessness that was utterly foreign to his nature had taken
+possession of him. He had been aware of it growing within him for some
+time, becoming stronger daily, and now the coming of Raoul de Saint
+Hubert seemed to have put the crowning touch to a state of mind that he
+was unable to understand. He had never been given to thinking of
+himself, or criticising or analysing his passing whims and fancies. All
+his life he had taken what he wanted; nothing on which he had ever laid
+eyes of desire had been denied him. His wealth had brought him
+everything he had ever wished. His passionate temper had been
+characteristic even when he was a child, but these strange fits of
+unreasonable irritability were new, and he searched for a cause vainly.
+His keen eyes looked through the darkness towards the south. Was it the
+nearness of his hereditary enemy, who had presumed to come closer than
+he had ever done before to the border of the country that Ahmed Ben
+Hassan regarded as his own, that was causing this great unrest? He
+laughed contemptuously. Nothing would give him greater pleasure than
+coming into actual collision with the man whom he had been trained from
+boyhood to hate. As long as Ibraheim Omair remained within his own
+territory Ahmed Ben Hassan held his hand and kept in check his fierce
+followers, whose eyes were turned longingly towards the debatable land,
+but once let the robber Sheik step an inch over the border, and it was
+war, and war until one or both of the chiefs were dead. And if he died
+who had no son to succeed him; the huge tribe would split up in
+numerous little families for want of a leader to keep them together,
+and it would be left to the French Government to take over, if they
+could, the vast district that he had governed despotically. And at the
+thought he laughed again. No, it was not Ibraheim Omair who was
+troubling him. He pushed the hound aside and went into the tent. The
+divan where Diana had been sitting was strewn with magazines and
+papers, the imprint of her slender body still showed in the soft,
+heaped-up cushions, and a tiny, lace-edged handkerchief peeped out
+under one of them. He picked it up and looked at it curiously, and his
+forehead contracted slowly in the heavy black scowl. He turned his
+burning eyes toward the curtains that divided the rooms. Saint Hubert's
+words rang in his ears. "English!" he muttered with a terrible oath.
+"And I have made her suffer as I swore any of that damned race should
+if they fell into my hands. Merciful Allah! Why does it give me so
+little pleasure?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+
+Diana came into the living-room one morning about a week after the
+arrival of the Vicomte de Saint Hubert. She had expected to find the
+room empty, for the Sheik had risen at dawn and ridden away on one of
+the distant expeditions that had become so frequent, and she thought
+his friend had accompanied him, but as she parted the curtains between
+the two rooms she saw the Frenchman sitting at the little writing-table
+surrounded by papers and writing quickly, loose sheets of manuscript
+littering the floor around him. It was the first time that they had
+chanced to be alone, and she hesitated with a sudden shyness. But Saint
+Hubert had heard the rustle of the curtain, and he sprang to his feet
+with the courteous bow that proclaimed his nationality.
+
+"Your pardon, Madame. Do I disturb you? Tell me if I am in the way. I
+am afraid I have been very untidy," he added, laughing apologetically,
+and looking at the heap of closely-written sheets strewing the rug.
+
+Diana came forward slowly, a faint colour rising in her face. "I
+thought you had gone with Monseigneur."
+
+"I had some work to do--some notes that I wanted to transcribe before I
+forgot myself what they meant; I write vilely. I have had a hard week,
+too, so I begged a day off. I may stay? You are sure I do not disturb
+you?"
+
+His sympathetic eyes and the deference in his voice brought an
+unexpected lump into her throat. She signed to him to resume his work
+and passed out under the awning. Behind the tent the usual camp hubbub
+filled the air. A knot of Arabs at a little distance were watching one
+of the rough-riders schooling a young horse, noisily critical and
+offering advice freely, undeterred by the indifference with which it
+was received. Others lounged past engaged on the various duties
+connected with the camp, with the Eastern disregard for time that
+relegated till to-morrow everything that could possibly be neglected
+to-day. Near her one of the older men, more rigid in his observances
+than the generality of Ahmed Ben Hassan's followers, was placidly
+absorbed in his devotions, prostrating himself and fulfilling his
+ritual with the sublime lack of self-consciousness of the Mohammedan
+devotee.
+
+Outside his own tent the valet and Henri were sitting in the sun,
+Gaston on an upturned bucket, cleaning a rifle, and his brother
+stretched full length on the ground, idly flapping at the flies with
+the duster with which he had been polishing the Vicomte's riding-boots.
+Both men were talking rapidly with frequent little bursts of gay
+laughter. The Persian hound was lying at their feet. He raised his head
+as Diana appeared, and, rising, went to her slowly, rearing up against
+her with a paw on each shoulder, making clumsy efforts to lick her
+face, and she pushed him down with difficulty, stooping to kiss his
+shaggy head.
+
+She looked away across the desert beyond the last palms of the oasis. A
+haze hung round about, shimmering in the heat and blurring the outline
+of the distant hills. A tiny breeze brought the acrid smell of camels
+closer to her, and the creaking whine of the tackling over the well
+sounded not very far away. Diana gave a little sigh. It had all grown
+so familiar. She seemed to have lived no other life beside this nomad
+existence. The years that had gone before faded into a kind of dim
+remembrance, the time when she had travelled ceaselessly round the
+world with her brother seemed very remote. She had existed then,
+filling her life with sport, unconscious of the something that was
+lacking in her nature, and now she was alive at last, and the heart
+whose existence she had doubted was burning and throbbing with a
+passion that was consuming her. Her eyes swept lingeringly around the
+camp with a very tender light in them. Everything she saw was connected
+with and bound up in the man who was lord of it all. She was very proud
+of him, proud of his magnificent physical abilities, proud of his hold
+over his wild turbulent followers, proud with the pride of primeval
+woman in the dominant man ruling his fellow-men by force and fear.
+
+The old Arab had finished his prayers and rose leisurely from his
+knees, salaaming with a broad smile. All the tribesmen smiled on her,
+and would go out of their way to win a nod of recognition from her. She
+faltered a few words in stumbling Arabic in reply to his long, flowery
+speech, and with a little laugh beat a hasty retreat into the tent.
+
+She paused beside the Vicomte. "Is it another novel?" she asked shyly,
+indicating the steadily increasing pile of manuscript.
+
+He turned on his chair, resting his arms on the rail, twirling a
+fountain pen between his fingers, and smiled at her as she curled up on
+the divan with Kopec, who had followed her into the tent. "No, Madame,
+Something more serious this time. It is a history of this very curious
+tribe of Ahmed's. They are different in so many ways from ordinary
+Arabs. They have been a race apart for generations. They have beliefs
+and customs peculiarly their own. You may, for instance, have noticed
+the singular absence among them of the strict religious practices that
+hold among other Mohammedans. Ahmed Ben Hassan's tribe worship first
+and foremost their Sheik, then the famous horses for which they are
+renowned, and then and then only--Allah."
+
+"Is Monseigneur a Mohammedan?"
+
+Saint Hubert shrugged. "He believes in a God," he said evasively,
+turning back to his writing.
+
+Diana studied him curiously as he bent over his work. She smiled
+when she thought of the mental picture she had drawn of Saint Hubert
+before he came, and contrasted it with the real man under her eyes.
+During the week that he had been in the camp he had forced her
+liking and compelled her confidence by the sympathetic charm of his
+manner. He had carried off a difficult position with a delicacy and
+_savoir-faire_ that had earned him her gratitude. He had saved her
+a hundred humiliations with a tact that had been as spontaneous as it
+had been unobtrusive. And they had the bond between them of the common
+love they had for this strange leader of a strange tribe. What had been
+the origin of the friendship between these utterly dissimilar men--a
+friendship that seemed to go back to the days of their boyhood? The
+question intrigued her and she pondered over it, lying quietly on the
+divan, smoothing the hound's huge head resting on her knee.
+
+The Vicomte wrote rapidly for some time and then flung down his pen
+with an exclamation of relief, gathered up the loose sheets from the
+floor and, stacking them in an orderly heap on the table, swung round
+on his chair again. He looked at the girl's slender little figure lying
+with the unconsciously graceful attitude of a child against the
+heaped-up cushions, her face bent over the dog's rough, grey head, and
+he felt an unwonted emotion stirring in him. The quick sympathy that
+she had aroused from the first moment of seeing her had given place to
+a deeper feeling that moved him profoundly, and with it a chivalrous
+desire to protect, a longing to stand between her and the irremediable
+disaster that loomed inevitably ahead of her.
+
+She felt his concentrated gaze and looked up. "You have done your
+work?"
+
+"All I can do at the moment. Henri must unravel the rest; he has a
+passion for hieroglyphics. He is an invaluable person; I could never
+get on without him. He bullied me when we were boys together--at least
+that is what I called it. He called it 'amusing Monsieur le Vicomte,'
+and for the last fifteen years he has tyrannised over me
+wholeheartedly." He laughed and snapped his fingers at Kopec, who
+whined and rolled his eyes in his direction, but did not lift his head
+from Diana's knee.
+
+There was a pause, and Diana continued fondling the hound absently. "I
+have read your books, Monsieur--all that Monseigneur has here," she
+said at last, looking up gravely.
+
+He gave a little bow with a few murmured words that she did not catch.
+
+"Your novel interested me," she went on, still stroking the hound, as
+if the nearness of the great beast helped her.
+
+"As a rule novels bore me, the subjects they deal with have been of no
+interest to me, but this one gripped me. It is unusual, it is
+wonderful, but--is it real?" She had spoken dispassionately with the
+boyish candour that was characteristic, not complimenting an author on
+a masterpiece, but stating a fact simply, as it appeared to her.
+
+Saint Hubert leaned forward over the back of his chair. "In what
+way--real?" he asked.
+
+She looked at him squarely. "Do you think there really exists such a
+man as you have drawn--a man who could be as tender, as unselfish, as
+faithful as your hero?"
+
+Saint Hubert looked away, and, picking up his pen, stabbed idly at the
+blotting-pad, drawing meaningless circles and dots, with a slow shrug.
+The scorn in her voice and the sudden pain in her eyes hurt him.
+
+"Do you know such a man, Monsieur, or is he wholly a creature of your
+imagination?" she persisted.
+
+He completed a complicated diagram on the sheet of blotting-paper
+before answering. "I do know a man who, given certain circumstances,
+has the ability to develop into such a character," he said eventually
+in a low voice.
+
+She laughed bitterly. "Then you are luckier than I. I am not very old,
+but during the last five years I have met many men of many
+nationalities, and I have never known one who in any degree resembles
+the _preux chevalier_ of your book. The men who have most
+intimately touched my life have not known the meaning of the word
+tenderness, and have never had a thought for any one beyond themselves.
+You have been more fortunate in your acquaintances, Monsieur."
+
+A dull red crept into the Vicomte's face, and he continued looking at
+the pen in his fingers. "Beautiful women, Madame," he said slowly,
+"unfortunately provoke in some men all that is basest and vilest in
+their natures. No man knows to what depths of infamy he may stoop under
+the stress of a sudden temptation."
+
+"And the woman pays," cried Diana vehemently. "Pays for the beauty God
+curses her with--the beauty she may hate herself; pays until the beauty
+fades. How much----" She pulled herself up short, biting her lips.
+Moved by the sense of the sympathy that had unconsciously been
+influencing her during the past week and which had shaken the
+self-suppression that she had imposed upon herself, her tongue had run
+away with her. She was afraid of the confidence that his manner was
+almost demanding of her. Her pride restrained her from the compassion
+that her loneliness had nearly yielded to.
+
+"Excuse me," she said coldly, "my ideas cannot possibly interest you."
+
+"On the contrary, you interest me profoundly," he corrected quickly.
+
+She noticed the slight difference in his words and laughed more
+bitterly than before. "As what?--a subject for vivisection? Get on your
+operating coat and bring your instruments without delay. The victim is
+all ready for you. It will be 'copy' for your next book!"
+
+"Madame!"
+
+He had sprung to his feet, and she looked up at him miserably, her hand
+held out in swift contrition. "Oh, forgive me! I shouldn't have said
+that. You haven't deserved it. You have been--kind. I am grateful.
+Forgive me and my rudeness. It must be the heat, it makes one very
+irritable, don't you think?"
+
+He ignored her pitiful little subterfuge and raised her outstretched,
+quivering fingers to his lips. "If you will honour me with your
+friendship," he said, with a touch of the old-world chivalry that was
+often noticeable in him, "my life is at your service."
+
+But as he spoke his voice changed. The touch of her cold fingers sent a
+rush of feeling through him that for an instant overpowered him.
+
+She let her hand lie in his, and for a few moments she avoided his eyes
+and looked down at the rough head in her lap. Then she met his gaze
+frankly. "Your offer is too rare a thing to put on one side. If you
+will be my friend, as you are Monseigneur's friend----" she faltered,
+turning her head away, and her fingers lying in his trembled slightly.
+
+He started and crushed the hand he was holding unknowingly, as the
+thought was forced on him. Monseigneur's friend! He realized that in
+the last few moments he had forgotten the Sheik, had forgotten
+everything, swept off his feet by an intense emotion that staggered him
+with its unexpectedness, except the loveliness and helplessness of the
+girl beside him. His head was reeling; his calmness, his loyalty, his
+earlier feelings of dispassionate pity had given way to an extreme
+agitation that was rushing him headlong and threatening to overwhelm
+him. His heart beat furiously and he clenched his teeth, fighting to
+regain his usual _sang-froid_. The emotional temperament that
+Diana had divined from his novel had sprung uppermost with a bound,
+overthrowing the rigid repression of years. The blood beat in his ears
+as he strove to master himself, to crush the madness that had come upon
+him.
+
+He had closed his eyes with the shock of self-revelation, he opened
+them now and looked down at her hesitatingly, almost fearfully,
+clasping her hand closer in his and leaning nearer to her, drawn
+irresistibly by the intoxication of her nearness. He saw her through a
+mist that cleared gradually, saw that she was ignorant of the emotion
+she had awakened in him, and, conscious only of his sympathy, had left
+her hand in his as she would have left it in her brother's. She was
+bent low over the hound, her face almost touching his big head, and as
+Saint Hubert looked a glistening tear dropped on Kopec's rough, grey
+neck. She had forgotten him, forgotten even that he was standing beside
+her, in the one predominant thought that filled her mind. With an
+immense effort he got command of himself. Somehow he must conquer this
+sudden insanity. The loyalty that had hung trembling in the balance
+reasserted itself and a self-disgust seized him. He had been within an
+ace of betraying the man who had been for twenty years nearer to him
+than a brother. She belonged to his friend, and now he had not even the
+right to question the ethics of the Sheik's possession of her. The calm
+that he had lost came back to him. The wound would heal though it might
+always throb, but he was strong enough to hide its existence even from
+the jealous eyes that had watched him ceaselessly since his outburst on
+the night of his arrival. He had been conscious of them daily. Even
+this morning the Sheik had made every effort short of a direct command
+to induce him to go with him on the expedition that had taken him away
+so early. Sure of himself now, he lifted her fingers to his lips again
+reverently with a kind of renunciation in his kiss, and laid her hand
+down gently. He turned away with a smothered sigh and a little pang at
+her complete absorption, and, as he did so, Henri came in quickly.
+
+"Monsieur le Vicomte! Will you come? There has been an accident."
+
+With a cry that Saint Hubert never forgot Diana leaped to her feet, her
+face colourless, and her lips framed the word "Ahmed," though no sound
+came from them. She was shaking all over, and the Vicomte put his arm
+round her instinctively. She clung to him, and he knew with a bitter
+certainty that the support of a table or a chair would have meant no
+less to her.
+
+"What is it, Henri?" he said sharply, with a slight movement that
+interposed himself between Diana and his servant.
+
+"One of the men, Monsieur le Vicomte. His gun burst, and his hand is
+shattered."
+
+Saint Hubert nodded curtly towards the door and turned his attention to
+Diana. She sank down on the divan and, gathering the hound's head in
+her arm, buried her face in his neck. "Forgive me," she murmured, her
+voice muffled in the rough, grey hair. "It is stupid of me, but he is
+riding that brute Shaitan to-day. I am always nervous. Please go. I
+will come in a minute."
+
+He went without a word. "I am always nervous." The tales he had heard
+of Diana Mayo as he passed through Biskra did not include nerves. His
+face was set as he ran hurriedly across the camp.
+
+Diana sat quite still after he had gone until the nervous shuddering
+ceased, until Kopec twisted his head free of her arms and licked her
+face with an uneasy whine. She brushed her hand across her eyes with a
+gasp of relief, and went out into the bright sunlight with the hound at
+her heels.
+
+The noisy clamour of excited voices guided her to the scene of the
+accident, and the surrounding crowd opened to let her pass through. The
+wounded man was sitting holding up his hand stoically for Saint
+Hubert's ministrations with a look of mild interest on his face. In
+response to Diana's smile and cheery word he grinned sheepishly with a
+roll of his fine eyes. Saint Hubert looked up quickly. "It is not a
+pleasant sight," he said doubtfully.
+
+"I don't mind. Let me hold that," she said quietly, rolling up her
+sleeves and taking a crimson-spattered basin from Henri. Saint Hubert
+flashed another look at her, marvelling at her steady voice and even
+colour when he thought of the white-faced girl who had clung trembling
+to him ten minutes earlier. Outside of Ahmed Ben Hassan she still
+retained the fearless courage that she had always had; it was only when
+anything touched him nearly that the new Diana, with the coward anxiety
+of love, rose paramount.
+
+She watched the Vicomte's skilful treatment of the maimed hand with
+interest. There was a precision in his movement and a deft touch that
+indicated both knowledge and practise. "You are a doctor?"
+
+"Yes," he said, without looking up from his work, "I studied when I was
+a young man and passed all the necessary examinations. It is
+indispensable when one travels as I do. I have found it invaluable."
+
+He took up some dressing that Henri held ready for him, and Diana
+handed the now unwanted bowl to Gaston. She looked again at the Arab,
+whose impassive face showed no sign of any feeling. "Does he feel it
+very much, do you think?" she asked the valet.
+
+He laughed and shrugged his shoulders. "Less than I should, Madame.
+What is really troubling him is the thought of what Monseigneur will
+say when he hears that Selim was fool enough to buy a worthless gun
+from one of the servants of the Dutchman who passed here last week,"
+and he added a few teasing words in Arabic which made Selim look up
+with a grimace.
+
+Saint Hubert finished adjusting the bandages and stood up, wiping the
+perspiration from his forehead.
+
+"Will he do all right now?" asked Diana anxiously.
+
+"I think so. The thumb is gone, as you saw, but I think I can save the
+rest of the hand. I will watch him carefully, but these men of Ahmed's
+are in such excellent condition that I do not think there will be any
+trouble."
+
+"I am going to ride," said Diana, turning away. "It is rather late, but
+there is just time. Will you come?"
+
+It was a temptation and he hesitated, gathering together the
+instruments he had been using, but prudence prevailed.
+
+"I should like to, but I ought to keep an eye on Selim," he said
+quietly, snatching at the plausible excuse that offered. He found her
+later before the big tent as she was ready to start, and waited while
+she mounted.
+
+"If I am late don't wait for me. Tell Henri to give you your lunch,"
+she called out between The Dancer's idiotic prancings.
+
+He watched her ride away, with Gaston a few paces behind and followed
+by the escort of six men that the Sheik had lately insisted upon. The
+continual presence of these six men riding at her heels irked her
+considerably. The wild, free gallops that she had loved became quite
+different with the thought of the armed guard behind her. They seemed
+to hamper her and put a period to her enjoyment. The loneliness of her
+rides had been to her half their charm; she had grown accustomed to and
+oblivious of Gaston, but she was acutely conscious of the six pairs of
+eyes watching her every movement. She did not see the necessity for
+them. She had never been aware of anything any time when she was riding
+that seemed to justify the Sheik's order. The oasis was not on a
+caravan route, and if she ever saw Arabs at any distance from the camp
+they always proved to be Ahmed Ben Hassan's own men. She had thought of
+remonstrating with him, but her courage had failed her. His mood, since
+the coming of Saint Hubert, had been of the coldest--almost repellant.
+The weeks of happiness that had gone before had developed the intimacy
+between them almost into a feeling of camaraderie. He had been more
+humane, more Western, more considerate than he had ever been, and the
+fear that she had of him had lain quiescent. She could have asked him
+then. But since the morning of Raoul's arrival, when the unexpected
+fervour of his embrace had given new birth to the hope that had almost
+died within her, he had changed completely into a cold reserve that
+chilled her. His caresses had been careless and infrequent, and his
+indifference so great that she had wondered miserably if the flame of
+his passion for her was burning out and if this was the end. And yet
+throughout his indifference she had been conscious, like Saint Hubert,
+of the surveillance of constant jealous eyes that watched them both
+with a fierce scrutiny that was felt rather than actually seen. But the
+spark of hope that the knowledge of this jealousy still fanned was not
+great enough to overcome the barrier that his new mood had raised
+between them. She dared ask no favour of him now. Her heart tightened
+at the thought of his indifference. It hurt so. This morning he had
+left her without a word when he had gone out into the early dawn, and
+she was hungry for the kisses he withheld. She was used to his taciturn
+fits, but her starved heart ached perpetually for tangible recognition.
+Love, the capacity for which she had so long denied, had become a force
+that, predominating everything, held her irresistibly. The accumulated
+affection that, for want of an outlet, had been stemmed within her, had
+burst all restraint, and the love that she gave to the man to whom she
+had surrendered her proud heart was immeasurable--a love of infinite
+tenderness and complete unselfishness, a love that had made her
+strangely humble. She had yielded up everything to him, he dominated
+her wholly. Her imperious will had bent before his greater
+determination, and his mastery over her had provoked a love that craved
+for recompense. She only lived for him and for the hope of his love,
+engulfed in the passion that enthralled her. Her surrender had been no
+common one. The feminine weakness that she had despised and fought
+against had triumphed over her unexpectedly without humiliating
+thoroughness. Sex had supervened to overthrow all her preconceived
+notions. The womanly instincts that under Aubrey's training had been
+suppressed and undeveloped had, in contact with the Sheik's vivid
+masculinity and compelling personality, risen to the surface with
+startling completeness.
+
+To-day she was almost desperate. His callousness of the morning had
+wounded her deeply, and a wave of rebellion welled up in her. She would
+not be thrown aside without making any effort to fight for his love.
+She would use every art that her beauty and her woman's instinct gave
+her. Her cheek burned as she thought of the role she was setting
+herself. She would be no better than "those others" whose remembrance
+still made her shiver. But she crushed down the repugnant feeling
+resolutely, flinging up her head with the old haughty gesture and
+drawing herself straighter in the saddle with compressed lips. She had
+endured so much already that she could even bear this further outrage
+to her feelings. At no matter what cost she must make him care for her.
+Though she loathed the means she would make him love her. But even as
+she planned the doubt of her ability to succeed crept into her mind,
+torturing her with insidious recollections.
+
+Ahmed Ben Hassan was no ordinary man to succumb to the fascinations of
+a woman. She had experienced his obstinacy, and knew the inflexibility
+of his nature. His determination was a rock against which she had been
+broken too many times not to know its strength. For a moment she
+despaired, then courage came to her again, thrusting away the doubts
+that crowded in upon her and leaving the hope that still lingered in
+her heart. A faint tremulous smile curved her lips, and she looked up,
+forcing her thoughts back to the present with an effort.
+
+At the beginning of the ride they had passed several vedettes sitting
+motionless on their impatient horses. The men had swung their rifles
+high in the air in salute as she passed, and once or twice Gaston had
+shouted a question as he galloped after her. But for the last hour they
+had seen no one. The desert was undulating here, rising and falling in
+short, sharp declivities that made a wide outlook impossible.
+
+Gaston spurred to Diana's side. "Will Madame please to turn?" he said
+respectfully. "It is late, and it is not safe riding amongst these
+slopes. One cannot see what is coming and I am afraid."
+
+"Afraid, Gaston?" she rallied laughingly.
+
+"For you, Madame," he answered gravely.
+
+She reined in The Dancer as she spoke; but it was too late. Even as she
+turned her horse's head innumerable Arabs seemed to spring up on all
+sides of them. Before she realised what was happening her escort
+flashed past and wheeled in behind her, shooting steadily at the horde
+of men who poured in upon them, and, with a groan, Gaston seized her
+bridle and urged the horses back in the direction from which they had
+come. The noise was deafening, the raucous shouting of the Arabs and
+the continuous sharp crack of the rifles. Bullets began to whizz past
+her.
+
+Gaston tucked his reins under his knee, and with one hand grasping The
+Dancer's bridle and his revolver in the other, rode looking back over
+his shoulder. Diana, too, glanced behind her, and mechanically her
+fingers closed over the shining little weapon that the Sheik had given
+her the previous week. She saw with a sudden sickening the six men who
+had formed her escort beaten back by the superior numbers that enclosed
+them on every side. Already two were down and the rest were on foot,
+and, as she watched, they were swallowed up in the mass of men that
+poured over them, and, at the same time, a party of about twenty
+horsemen detached themselves from the main body and galloped towards
+her and Gaston.
+
+She seized his arm. "Can't we do something? Can't we help them? We
+can't leave them like that," she gasped, wrenching the revolver from
+the holster at her waist.
+
+"No, no, Madame, it is impossible. It is a hundred to six. You must
+think of yourself. Go on, Madame. For God's sake, ride on. We may have
+a chance." He loosed her bridle and dropped behind her, interposing
+himself between her and the pursuing Arabs. A fierce yelling and a hail
+of bullets that went wide made Diana turn her head as she crouched low
+in the saddle. She realised the meaning of Gaston's tactics and checked
+her horse deliberately.
+
+"I won't go first. You must ride with me," she cried, wincing as a
+bullet went close by her.
+
+"_Mon Dieu!_ What are you stopping for? Do you think I can face
+Monseigneur if anything happens to you, Madame?" replied Gaston
+fiercely. "Do as I tell you. Go on!" Deference was gone in the fear
+that roughened his voice.
+
+He looked back and his face grew grey. For himself he had no fear, but
+for the girl beside him he dared not even think. They were Ibraheim
+Omair's men who had trapped them, and he cursed his folly in allowing
+Diana to come so far. Yet it had seemed safe enough. The scout's
+reports had lately proved that the robber Sheik had up to now respected
+the boundary line between the two territories. This must be a sudden
+tentative raid which had met with unlooked-for success. The bait would
+be too tempting to allow of any slackening on the part of the raiders.
+The white woman, who was Ahmed Ben Hassan's latest toy, and his
+servant, whom he was known to value so highly, would be a prize that
+would not be lightly let go. For himself it would be probably torture,
+certainly death, and for her----! He set his teeth as he looked at her
+and the perspiration poured down his face. He would kill her himself
+before it came to that. And as he looked she turned her head, and met
+his agonised eyes for a moment, smiling bravely. He had refrained up
+till now from shooting, trying to reserve his ammunition for a last
+resource, but he saw that he must delay no longer. He fired slowly and
+steadily, picking his men with careful precision. It was a forlorn
+hope, but by checking the leaders even for a few moments he might gain
+time. The accuracy of his aim, that every time proved effectual, might
+keep back the onrush until they got clear of the undulating country,
+until they got out into the open where the sounds of the firing might
+reach some of the outpost sentinels, until they got too near to the
+Sheik's camp for pursuit to be possible. The bullets pattered
+continuously round them, but the men who fired them were not Ahmed Ben
+Hassan's carefully trained marksmen. But still Gaston knew that their
+position was almost hopeless. Any moment a bullet might reach one of
+them.
+
+Their pursuers, too, seemed to guess his thoughts and opened out into
+an irregular, extended line, swerving and manoeuvring continually,
+making accurate shooting impossible, while they urged their horses to a
+terrific pace trying to outflank them. Diana was shooting now. The
+thought of her escort's annihilation and her own and Gaston's peril had
+overcome the reluctance she had had at first, and she had even a moment
+to wonder at her coolness. She did not feel afraid, the death of
+Ahmed's men had made her angry, a fierce revengeful anger that made her
+see red and filled her with a desire to retaliate in kind. She fired
+rapidly, emptying her revolver, and she had just reloaded with steady
+fingers when The Dancer stumbled, recovering himself for a few steps,
+and then lurched slowly over on to his side, blood pouring from his
+mouth. Diana sprang clear, and in a moment Gaston was beside her,
+thrusting her behind him, shielding her with his own body, and firing
+steadily at the oncoming Arabs.
+
+The same feeling of unreality that she had experienced once before the
+first day in the Sheik's camp came over her. The intense stillness--for
+the Arabs had ceased shouting--the hot, dry sand with the shimmering
+heat haze rising like mist from its whispering surface, the cloudless
+deep blue sky overhead, the band of menacing horsemen circling nearer
+and nearer, the dead Dancer, with Gaston's horse standing quietly
+beside his prostrate companion, and lastly, the man beside her, brave
+and devoted to the end, all seemed fantastic and unreal. She viewed it
+dispassionately, as if she were a spectator rather than a participant
+in the scene. But for a moment only, then the reality of the situation
+came clearly to her again. Any minute might mean death for one or other
+or both of them, and with an instinctive movement she pressed closer to
+Gaston. They were both silent, there seemed nothing to say. The valet's
+left hand clenched over hers at the involuntary appeal for
+companionship that she made, and she felt it contract as a bullet
+gashed his forehead, blinding him for a moment with the blood that
+dripped into his eyes. He let go her hand to brush his arm across his
+face, and as he did so the Arabs with suddenly renewed shouting bore
+down upon them.
+
+Gaston turned sharply and Diana read his purpose in the horror in his
+eyes. She held up her head with a little nod and the same brave smile
+on her white lips. "Please," she whispered, "quickly!" A spasm crossed
+his face, "Turn your head," he muttered desperately. "I cannot do it if
+you----"
+
+There was a rattle of shots, and with a gasp he crumpled up against
+her. For a moment it was pandemonium. Standing over Gaston's body she
+fired her last shot and flung the empty revolver in the face of a man
+who sprang forward to seize her. She turned with a desperate hope of
+reaching Gaston's horse, but she was hemmed in, and for a second she
+stood at bay, hands clenched and teeth set, braving the wild faces that
+surrounded her, and were closing in upon her, with flashing defiant
+eyes. Then she was conscious of a crashing blow on her head, the ground
+heaved up under her feet, everything went black before her eyes, and
+without a sound she fell senseless.
+
+Late in the afternoon Saint Hubert was still writing in the big tent.
+Henri had deciphered the notes that had baffled his master in the
+morning, and the Vicomte had taken advantage of the solitude to do some
+long-neglected work. He had forgotten the time, forgotten to be
+surprised at Diana's continued absence, immersed in the interesting
+subject he was dealing with, and not realising the significance of her
+delayed return. Ahmed had spoken of the proximity of his hereditary
+enemy, but Saint Hubert had not grasped how near the robber Sheik had
+ventured.
+
+He was too engrossed to notice the usual noise in the camp that
+heralded the Sheik's arrival, and he looked up with a start when Ahmed
+Ben Hassan swept in. The Sheik's dark eyes glanced sombrely around the
+tent and without a word he went through into the inner room. In a
+moment he came hack.
+
+"Where is Diane?"
+
+Saint Hubert got up, puzzled at his tone. He looked at his watch. "She
+went for a ride this morning. _Dieu!_ I had no idea it was so
+late."
+
+"This morning!--and not back yet?" repeated the Sheik slowly. "What
+time this morning?"
+
+"About ten, I think," replied Saint Hubert uneasily. "I'm not sure. I
+didn't look. There was an accident, and she delayed to watch me tie up
+one of your foolish children who had been playing with a worthless
+gun."
+
+The Sheik moved over to the doorway. "She had an escort?" he asked
+curtly.
+
+"Yes."
+
+Ahmed Ben Hassan's face hardened and the heavy scowl contracted his
+black brows. Had she all these weeks been tricking him--feigning a
+content she did not feel, lulling his suspicions to enable her to seize
+another opportunity to attempt to get away? For a moment his face grew
+dark, then he put the thought from him. He trusted her. Only a week
+before she had given him her word, and he knew she would not lie to
+him. And, besides, the thing was impossible. Gaston would never be
+caught napping a second time, and there were also the six men who
+formed her guard. She would never be able to escape the vigilance of
+seven men. But it was the trust he had in her that weighed most with
+him. He had never trusted a woman before, but this woman had been
+different. The others who had come and gone so lightly had not even
+left a recollection behind them; they had faded into one concrete cause
+of utter boredom. There had never been any reason to trust or mistrust
+them, or to care if they came or went. Satiety had come with possession
+and with it indifference. But the emotion that this girl's uncommon
+beauty and slender boyishness had aroused in him had not diminished
+during the months she had been living in his camp. Her varying moods,
+her antagonism, her fits of furious rage, and, lastly, her unexpected
+surrender, had kept his interest alive. He had grown accustomed to her.
+He had come to looking forward with a vague, indefinite pleasure, on
+returning from his long expeditions, to seeing the dainty little figure
+curled up among the cushions on the big divan. Her presence seemed to
+pervade the atmosphere of the whole tent, changing it utterly. She had
+become necessary to him as he had never believed it possible that a
+woman could be. And with the change that she had made in his camp there
+had come a change in himself also.
+
+For the first time a shadow had risen between him and the man whose
+friendship had meant everything to him since, as a lad of fifteen, he
+had come under the influence of the young Frenchman, who was three
+years his senior. He realized that since the night of Raoul's arrival
+he had been seething with insensate jealousy. He had relied on the
+Western tendencies that prompted him to carry off the difficult
+situation, but his ingrained Orientalism had broken through the
+superficial veneer. He was jealous of every word, every look she gave
+Saint Hubert. Pride had prevented an open rupture with the Vicomte this
+morning, but he had ridden away filled with a cold rage that had
+augmented every hour and finally driven him back earlier than he had
+intended, riding with a recklessness that had been apparent even to his
+men. The sight of Raoul sitting alone absorbed in his work had in part
+allayed his suspicions, and he had gone on into the other room with a
+feeling of new expectancy that had changed to a sudden chill at its
+emptiness. The vacant room had brought home to him abruptly all that
+the girl meant to him. A latent anxiety crept into his eyes.
+
+He went out under the awning and clapped his hands, and a servant
+answered the summons almost immediately. He gave an order and waited,
+his hands thrust into the folds of his waist-cloth and his teeth
+clenched on a cigarette that he had forgotten to light.
+
+Saint Hubert joined him. "What do you think?" he asked, with a touch of
+diffidence.
+
+"I don't know what to think," replied the Sheik shortly.
+
+"But is there any real danger?"
+
+"There is always danger in the desert, particularly when that devil is
+abroad." He motioned to the south with an impatient jerk of his head.
+
+Saint Hubert's breath whistled sharply through his teeth. "My God! You
+don't imagine----"
+
+But the Sheik only shrugged his shoulders and turned to Yusef, who had
+come up with half-a-dozen men. There was a rapid interchange of
+questions and answers, some brief orders, and the men hurried away in
+different directions, while Ahmed Ben Hassan turned again to Saint
+Hubert.
+
+"They were seen by three of the southern patrols this morning, but of
+course it was nobody's business to find out if they had come back or
+not. I will start at once--in about ten minutes. You will come with me?
+Good! I have sent for reinforcements, who are to follow us if we are
+not back in twelve hours." His voice was expressionless, and only Raoul
+de Saint Hubert, who had known him since boyhood, could and did
+appreciate the significance of a fleeting look that crossed his face as
+he went back into the tent.
+
+For a moment the Vicomte hesitated, but he knew that not even he was
+wanted inside that empty tent, and a half-bitter, half-sad feeling that
+the perfect friendship and confidence that had existed between them for
+twenty years would never again be the same came to them, the regretful
+sense of inevitable change, the consciousness of personal relegation.
+Then fear for Diana drove out every other consideration, and he went to
+his own quarters with a heavy heart.
+
+When he came back in a few minutes with Henri following him the camp
+had undergone a transformation. With the promptness of perfect
+discipline the hundred men who had been chosen to go on the expedition
+were already waiting, each man standing by his horse, and the Sheik,
+quiet and impassive as usual, was superintending the distribution of
+extra ammunition. A groom was walking The Hawk slowly up and down, and
+Yusef, whose gloomy eyes had been fixed reproachfully on his chief,
+chafing against the order to remain behind to take command of the
+reinforcements should they be needed, went to him and took the horse's
+bridle from him and brought him to the Sheik. Even as he held the
+stirrup Saint Hubert could see that he was expostulating with an
+unusual insistence, begging for permission to accompany them. But the
+Sheik shook his head, and the young man stood sullenly aside to avoid
+The Hawk's hoofs as he reared impatiently.
+
+Ahmed Ben Hassan motioned Saint Hubert to his side and in silence the
+cavalcade started at the usual swift gallop. The silence impressed
+Raoul, who was accustomed to the Arab's usual clamour. It affected his
+sensitive temperaments, filling him with a sinister foreboding. The
+silent band of stern-faced horsemen riding in close and orderly
+formation behind them suggested something more than a mere relief
+party. The tradition of reckless courage and organised fighting
+efficiency that had made the tribe known and feared for generations had
+been always maintained, and under the leadership of the last two
+holders of the hereditary name to so high a degree that the respect in
+which it was held was such that no other tribe had ventured to dispute
+its supremacy, and for many years its serious fighting capacities had
+not been tested.
+
+Even Ibraheim Omair had inherited a feud that was largely traditional.
+Only once during the lifetime of the last Ahmed Ben Hassan had he dared
+to come into open conflict, and the memory of it had lasted until now.
+Skirmishes there had been and would always be inevitably sufficient to
+keep the tribesmen in a state of perpetual expectancy, and for this
+Ahmed Ben Hassan preserved the rigid discipline that prevailed in his
+tribe, insisting on the high standard that had kept them famous. The
+life-work that his predecessor had taken over from his father the
+present Ahmed Ben Hassan had carried on and developed with autocratic
+perseverance. The inborn love of fighting had been carefully fostered
+in the tribe, the weapons with which they were armed were of the newest
+pattern. Raoul knew with perfect certainty that to the picked men
+following them this hasty expedition meant only one thing--war, the war
+that they had looked forward to all their lives, precipitated now by an
+accident that gave to a handful of them the chance that hundreds of
+their fellow-tribesmen were longing for, a chance that sent them
+joyfully behind their chief, careless whether the reinforcements that
+had been sent for arrived in time or not. The smallness of their
+numbers was a source of pleasure rather than otherwise; if they won
+through to them would be the glory of victory; if they were annihilated
+with them would rest the honour of dying with the leader whom they
+worshipped, for not one of them doubted that Ahmed Ben Hassan would not
+survive his bodyguard, the flower of his tribe, the carefully chosen
+men from whose ranks his personal escort was always drawn. With them he
+would crush his hereditary enemy or with them he would die.
+
+The short twilight had gone and a brilliant moon shone high in the
+heavens, illuminating the surrounding country with a clear white light.
+At any other time the beauty of the scene, the glamour of the Eastern
+night, the head-long gallop in company with this band of fierce
+fighting men would have stirred Saint Hubert profoundly. His artistic
+temperament and his own absolute fearlessness and love of adventure
+would have combined to make the expedition an exciting experience that
+he would not willingly have foregone. But the reason for it all, the
+peril of the girl whom he loved so unexpectedly, changed the whole
+colour of the affair, tinging it with a gravity and a suspense that
+left a cold fear in his heart. And if to him, what then to the man
+beside him? The question that Ahmed Ben Hassan had negatived so
+scornfully a week before had been answered differently in the swift
+look that had crossed his face this evening. He had not spoken since
+they started, and Saint Hubert had not felt able to break the silence.
+They had left the level country and were in amongst the long,
+successive ranges of undulating ground, the summits standing out silver
+white in the gleaming moonlight, the hollows filled with dark shadow,
+like black pools of deep, still water. And at the bottom of one of the
+slopes the Sheik pulled up suddenly with a low, hissing exclamation. A
+white shape was lying face downwards, spread-eagled on the sand, almost
+under The Hawk's feet, and at their approach two lean, slinking forms
+cantered away into the night. The Sheik and Henri reached the still
+figure simultaneously and Saint Hubert almost as quickly. He made a
+hurried examination. The bullet that had stunned Gaston had glanced
+off, leaving an ugly cut, and others that had hit him at the same time
+had ploughed through his shoulder, breaking the bone and causing
+besides wounds that had bled freely. He had staggered more than a mile
+before he had fainted again from loss of blood. He came to under Saint
+Hubert's handling, and lifted his heavy eyes to the Sheik, who was
+kneeling beside him.
+
+"Monseigneur--Madame--Ibraheim Omair," he whispered weakly, and
+relapsed into unconsciousness.
+
+For a moment the Sheik's eyes met Raoul's across his body, and then
+Ahmed Ben Hassan rose to his feet. "Be as quick as you can," he said,
+and went back to his horse. He leaned against The Hawk, his fingers
+mechanically searching for and lighting a cigarette, his eyes fixed
+unseeingly on the group around Gaston. The valet's broken words had
+confirmed the fear that he had striven to crush since he discovered
+Diana's absence.
+
+He had only seen Ibraheim Omair once when, ten years before, he had
+gone with the elder Ahmed Ben Hassan to a meeting of the more powerful
+chiefs at Algiers, arranged under the auspices of the French
+Government, to confer on a complicated boundary question that had
+threatened an upheaval amongst the tribes which the nominal protectors
+of the country were afraid would be prejudicial to their own prestige,
+as it would have been beyond their power to quell. He had chafed at
+having to meet his hereditary enemy on equal terms, and only the
+restraining influence of the old Sheik, who exacted an unquestioning
+obedience that extended even to his heir, had prevented a catastrophe
+that might have nullified the meeting and caused infinitely more
+complications than the original boundary dispute. But the memory of the
+robber Sheik remained with him always, and the recollection of his
+bloated, vicious face and gross, unwieldy body rose clearly before him
+now.
+
+Ibraheim Omair and the slender daintiness that he had prized so
+lightly. Diane! His teeth met through the cigarette in his mouth. His
+senseless jealousy and the rage provoked by Raoul's outspoken criticism
+had recoiled on the innocent cause. She, not Saint Hubert, had felt the
+brunt of his anger. In the innate cruelty of his nature it had given
+him a subtle pleasure to watch the bewilderment, alternating with
+flickering fear, that had come back into the deep blue eyes that for
+two months had looked into his with frank confidence. He had made her
+acutely conscious of his displeasure. Only last night, when his lack of
+consideration and his unwonted irritability had made her wince several
+times during the evening and after Saint Hubert had gone to his own
+tent, he, had looked up to find her eyes fixed on him with an
+expression that, in his dangerous mood, had excited all the brutality
+of which he was capable, and had filled him with a desire to torture
+her. The dumb reproach in her eyes had exasperated him, rousing the
+fiendish temper that had been hardly kept in check all the previous
+week. And yet, when he held her helpless in his arms, quivering and
+shrinking from the embrace that was no caress, but merely the medium of
+his anger, and the reproach in her wavering eyes changed to mute
+entreaty, the pleasure he had anticipated in her fear had failed him as
+it had before, and had irritated him further. The wild beating of her
+heart, the sobbing intake of her breath, the knowledge of his power
+over her, gave him no gratification, and he had flung her from him
+cursing her savagely, till she had fled into the other room with her
+hands over her ears to shut out the sound of his slow, deliberate
+voice. And this morning he had left her without a sign of any kind, no
+word or gesture that might have effaced the memory of the previous
+night. He had not meant to, he had intended to go back to her before he
+finally rode away, but Saint Hubert's refusal to accompany him had
+killed the softer feelings that prompted him, and his rage had flamed
+up again.
+
+And now? The longing to hold her in his arms, to kiss the tears from
+her eyes and the colour into her pale lips, was almost unbearable. He
+would give his life to keep even a shadow from her path, and she was in
+the hands of Ibraheim Omair! The thought and all that it implied was
+torture, but no sign escaped him of the hell he was enduring. The
+unavoidable delay seemed interminable, and he swung into the saddle,
+hoping that the waiting would seem less with The Hawk's restless,
+nervous body gripped between his knees, for though the horse would
+stand quietly with his master beside him, he fretted continually at
+waiting once the Sheik was mounted, and the necessity for soothing him
+was preferable to complete inaction.
+
+Saint Hubert rose to his feet at last, and, leaving behind Henri and
+two Arabs, who were detailed to take the wounded man back to the camp,
+the swift gallop southward was resumed. On, over the rising and falling
+ground along which Gaston had stumbled, blind and faint with loss of
+blood and the pain of his wounds, past the dead body of The Dancer,
+ghostly white in the moonlight, lying a little apart from the
+semicircle of Arabs that proved the efficiency of Gaston's shooting
+where Diana and he had made their last stand. The Sheik made no sign
+and did not check the headlong gallop, but continued on, The Hawk
+taking the fallen bodies that lay in his path in his stride, with only
+a quiver of repugnance and a snort of disgust. Still on, past the
+huddled bundles of tumbled draperies that marked the way significantly,
+avoiding them where the moonlight illuminated brightly, and riding over
+them in the deep hollows, where once Raoul's horse stumbled badly and
+nearly fell, recovering himself with a wild scramble, and the Vicomte
+heard the dead man's skull crack under the horse's slipping hoof.
+
+The distant howling of jackals came closer and closer until, topping
+one long rise and descending into a hollow that was long enough and
+wide enough to be fully lit by the moon, they came to the place where
+the ambush had been laid. Instinctively Ahmed Ben Hassan knew that
+amongst the jostling heaps of corpses and dead horses lay the bodies of
+his own men. Perhaps amongst the still forms from which the jackals,
+whose hideous yelling they had heard, had slunk away, there might be
+one left with life enough to give some news. One of his own men who
+would speak willingly, or one of Ibraheim Omair's who would be made to
+speak. His lips curled back from his white teeth in a grin of pure
+cruelty.
+
+The silence that had prevailed amongst his men broke suddenly as they
+searched quickly among the dead. The Sheik waited impassively, silent
+amidst the muttered imprecations and threats of vengeance of his
+followers as they laid beside him the six remains of what had been
+Diana's escort, slashed and mutilated almost beyond recognition. But it
+was he who noticed that the last terrible figure stirred slightly as it
+was laid down, and it was into his face, grown suddenly strangely
+gentle, that the dying Arab looked with fast-filming eyes. The man
+smiled, the happy smile of a child that had obtained an unexpected
+reward, and raised his hand painfully in salute, then pointed mutely to
+the south.
+
+The Sheik caught his follower's nerveless fingers as they fell in his
+own strong grasp, and with a last effort the Arab drew his chief's hand
+to his forehead and fell back dead.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+
+Slowly and painfully, through waves of deadly nausea and with the
+surging of deep waters in her ears, Diana struggled back to
+consciousness. The agony in her head was excruciating, and her limbs
+felt cramped and bruised. Recollection was dulled in bodily pain, and,
+at first, thought was merged in physical suffering. But gradually the
+fog cleared from her brain and memory supervened hesitatingly. She
+remembered fragmentary incidents of what had gone before the oblivion
+from which she had just emerged. Gaston, and the horror and resolution
+in his eyes, the convulsive working of his mouth as he faced her at the
+last moment. Her own dread--not of the death that was imminent, but
+lest the mercy it offered should be snatched from her. Then before the
+valet could effect his supreme devotion had come the hail of bullets,
+and he had fallen against her, the blood that poured from his wounds
+saturating her linen coat, and rolled over across her feet. She
+remembered vaguely the wild figures hemming her in, but nothing more.
+
+Her eyes were still shut; a leaden weight seemed fixed on them, and the
+effort to open them was beyond her strength. "Gaston," she whispered
+feebly, and stretched out her hand. But instead of his body or the dry
+hot sand her fingers had expected to encounter they closed over soft
+cushions, and with the shock she sat up with a jerk, her eyes staring
+wide, but, sick and faint, she fell back again, her arm flung across
+her face, shielding the light that pierced like daggers through her
+throbbing eye-balls. For a while she lay still, fighting against the
+weakness that overpowered her, and by degrees the horrible nausea
+passed and the agony in her head abated, leaving only a dull ache. The
+desire to know where she was and what had happened made her forget her
+bruised body. She moved her arm slightly from before her eyes so that
+she could see, and looked cautiously from under thick lashes, screened
+by the sleeve of her coat. She was lying on a pile of cushions in one
+corner of a small-tented apartment which was otherwise bare, except for
+the rug that covered the floor. In the opposite corner of the tent an
+Arab woman crouched over a little brazier, and the smell of native
+coffee was heavy in the air. She closed her eyes again with a shudder.
+The attempted devotion of Gaston had been useless. This must be the
+camp of the robber Sheik, Ibraheim Omair.
+
+She lay still, pressing closely down amongst the cushions, and
+clenching the sleeve of her jacket between her teeth to stifle the
+groan that rose to her lips. A lump came into her throat as she thought
+of Gaston. In those last moments all inequality of rank had been swept
+away in their common peril--they had been only a white man and a white
+woman together in their extremity. She remembered how, when she had
+pressed close to him, his hand had sought and gripped hers, conveying
+courage and sympathy. All that he could do he had done, he had shielded
+her body with his own, it must have been over his lifeless body that
+they had taken her. He had proved his faithfulness, sacrificing his
+life for his master's play-thing. Gaston was in all probability dead,
+but she was alive, and she must husband her strength for her own needs.
+She forced the threatening emotion down, and, with an effort,
+controlled the violent shivering in her limbs, and sat up slowly,
+looking at the Arab woman, who, hearing her move, turned to gaze at
+her. Instantly Diana realised that there was no help or compassion to
+be expected from her. She was a handsome woman, who must have been
+pretty as a girl, but there was no sign of softness in her sullen face
+and vindictive eyes. Instinctively Diana felt that the glowing menace
+of the woman's expression was inspired by personal hatred, and that her
+presence in the lent was objectionable to her. And the feeling gave a
+necessary spur to the courage that was fast coming back to her. She
+stared with all the haughtiness she could summon to her aid; she had
+learned her own power among the natives of India the previous year, and
+here in the desert there was only one Arab whose eyes did not fall
+beneath hers, and presently with a muttered word the woman turned back
+to her coffee-making.
+
+Diana's muscles relaxed and she sat back easily on the cushions, the
+little passage of wills had restored her confidence in herself. She
+moved her hand and it brushed against her jacket, coming away stained
+and sticky, and she noticed for the first time that all one side and
+sleeve were soaked with blood. She ripped it off with a shudder and
+flung it from her, rubbing the red smear from her hands with a kind of
+horror.
+
+The little tent was intensely hot, and there was a close, pungent smell
+that was eminently _native_ that she never experienced in the cool
+airiness and scrupulous cleanliness of Ahmed Ben Hassan's tents. Her
+sensitive lip curled with disgust, all her innate fastidiousness in
+revolt. The heat aggravated a burning thirst that was parching her
+throat. She got up on to her feet slowly, and with infinite caution, to
+prevent any jar that might start again the throbbing in her head; but
+the effects of the blow were wearing off, and, though her head
+continued to ache, it did no more than that, and the sick, giddy
+feeling had gone completely. She crossed the tent to the side of the
+Arab woman.
+
+"Give me some water," she said in French, but the woman shook her head
+without looking up. Diana repeated the request in Arabic, one of the
+few sentences she knew without stumbling. This time the woman rose up
+hastily and held out a cup of the coffee she had been making.
+
+Diana hated the sweet, thick stuff, but it would do until she could get
+the water she wanted, and she put out her hand to take the little cup.
+But her eyes met the other's fixed on her, and something in their
+malignant stare made her pause. A sudden suspicion shot through her
+mind. The coffee was drugged. What beyond the woman's expression made
+her think so she did not know, but she was sure of it. She put the cup
+aside impatiently.
+
+"No. Not coffee. Water," she said firmly.
+
+Before she realised what was happening the woman thrust a strong arm
+round her and forced the cup to her lips. That confirmed Diana's
+suspicions and rage lent her additional strength. The woman was strong,
+but Diana was stronger, younger and more active. She dashed the cup to
+the floor, spilling its contents, and, with an effort, tore the
+clinging hands from her and sent the woman crashing on to the ground,
+rolling against the brazier, oversetting it, and scattering brass pots
+and cups over the rug. The woman scrambled to her knees and beat out
+the glowing embers, uttering scream after scream in a shrill, piercing
+voice. And, in answer to her cries, a curtain at the side of the tent,
+that Diana had not noticed, slid aside and a gigantic Nubian came in.
+With outstretched hand shaking with rage, pointing at Diana, she burst
+into voluble abuse, punctuating every few words with the shrieks that
+had brought the negro.
+
+Diana could understand nothing of what she said, but her expressive
+gestures told the story of the struggle plainly enough. The Nubian
+listened with white teeth flashing in a broad grin, and shook his head
+in response to some request urged with denunciatory fist. He picked up
+the last remaining embers that had scattered on the rug, rubbing the
+smouldering patches till they were extinguished, and then turned to
+leave the room. But Diana called him back. She went a step forward, her
+head high, and looked him straight in the face.
+
+"Fetch me water!" she said imperiously. He pointed to the coffee that
+the woman had recommenced to make, her back turned to them, but Diana
+stamped her foot. "Water! Bring me water!" she said again, more
+imperiously than before. With a wider grin the negro made a gesture of
+acquiescence and went out, returning in a few moments with a
+water-skin.
+
+The thought of its condition made her hesitate for a moment, but only
+for a moment. Her thirst was too great to allow niceties to interfere
+with it. She picked up one of the clean coffee-cups that had rolled to
+her feet, rinsed it several times, and then drank. The water was warm
+and slightly brackish, but she needed it too much to mind. In spite of
+being tepid it relieved the dry, suffocating feeling in her throat and
+refreshed her. The Nubian went away again, leaving the woman still
+crouching over the brazier.
+
+Diana walked back to the cushions and dropped down on to them gladly.
+The events of the last few moments had tried her more than she
+realised, her legs were shaking under her, and she was thankful to sit
+down. But her courage had risen with a bound; the fact that she was
+physically stronger than the woman who had been put to guard her, and
+also that she had gained her point with the burly negro, had a great
+moral effect on her, further restoring her confidence in herself.
+
+Her position was an appalling one, but hope was strong within her. The
+fact that since she had regained consciousness she had seen only the
+woman and the Nubian seemed to argue that Ibraheim Omair must be absent
+from his camp; the thought that he might purposely be delaying the
+moment of inspecting his captive with a view to prolonging her mental
+torture she put from her as improbable. She did not credit him with so
+much acumen. And from his absence her courage gained strength. If it
+could only be prolonged until Ahmed reached her. That the Sheik would
+come she knew, her faith in him was unbounded. If he only came in time!
+Hours had passed since the ambuscade had surprised them. It had been
+early afternoon then. Now the lighted lamp told her it was night. How
+late she did not know. Her watch had been broken some months before,
+and she had no means of even guessing the hour, but it must be well on
+in the evening. By now the absence of herself and Gaston and their
+escort would be discovered. He would know her peril and he would come
+to her. Of that she had no doubt. Although he had changed so strangely
+in the last few days, though the wonderful gentleness of the last two
+months had merged again into indifference and cruelty, still she never
+doubted. Even if desire had passed and indifference had become so great
+that she was no longer necessary to him, still the Oriental jealousy
+with which he was so deeply imbued would never allow him to let her
+pass so lightly from his keeping. He might discard her at his own
+pleasure, but no one would take her from him with impunity. Her woman's
+intuition had sensed the jealousy that had actuated him during the
+unhappy days since Saint Hubert had come. An inconsistent jealousy that
+had been unprovoked and unjustified, but for which she had suffered.
+She had known last night, when she winced under his sarcastic tongue,
+and later, when Saint Hubert had left them and his temper had suddenly
+boiled over, that she was paying for the unaccustomed strain that he
+was putting on his own feelings. His curses had eaten into her heart,
+and she had fled from him to stifle the coward instinct that urged her
+to confess her love and beg his mercy. She had lain awake with
+shivering apprehension waiting for him, but when, after nearly two
+hours, he had sauntered in, the usual cigarette between his lips,
+indifference had taken the place of rage, and he had ignored her, as
+she had grown used to being ignored. And long after she knew from his
+even breathing that he was asleep she had lain wide-eyed beside him,
+grasping at what happiness she could, living for the moment as she had
+schooled herself to live, trying to be content with just the fact of
+his nearness. And the indifference of the night had been maintained
+when he had left her at dawn, his persistent silence pointing the
+continuance of his displeasure. But he would come, if for no other
+reason than the same jealousy which held him in its inexorable grip. He
+would come! He would come! She whispered it over to herself as if
+merely the sound of the words gave her courage. He would not let
+anything happen to her. Every moment that Ibraheim Omair stayed away
+was so much gained, every moment he would be coming nearer. The
+reversal of the role he played in her life brought a quivering smile to
+her lips. For the advent of the man who a few weeks before she had
+loathed for his brutal abduction of herself she now prayed with the
+desperation of despair. He represented safety, salvation, everything
+that made life worth living.
+
+A sudden noise and men's voices in the adjoining room sent her to her
+feet with heaving breast and clenched hands. But the sharp, guttural
+voice predominating over the other voices killed the wild hope that had
+sprung up in her by its utter dissimilarity to the soft low tones for
+which she longed. Ibraheim Omair! He had come first! She set her teeth
+with a long, shuddering breath, bracing herself to meet what was
+coming.
+
+The Arab woman turned to look at her again with a sneering smile that
+was full of significance, but beyond a fleeting glance of disdain Diana
+paid no attention to her. She stood rigid, one foot beating nervously
+into the soft rug. She noticed irrelevantly at the moment that both her
+spurs and the empty holster had been removed whilst she was
+unconscious, and with the odd detachment that transfers a train of
+thought from the centre of importance even at a supreme moment, she
+wondered, with an annoyance that seemed curiously futile, why it had
+been done.
+
+The voices in the next room continued, until Diana almost prayed for
+the moment she was waiting for would come; suspense was worse than the
+ordeal for which she was nerving herself, It came at last. The curtain
+slid aside again, and the same huge negro she had seen before entered.
+He came towards her, and her breath hissed in suddenly between her set
+teeth, but before he reached her the Arab woman intercepted him,
+blocking his way, and with wild eyes and passionate gestures poured out
+a stream of low, frenzied words. The Nubian turned on her impatiently
+and thrust her roughly out of his way, and, coming to Diana, put out
+his hand as if to grasp her arm, but she stepped back with flashing
+eyes and a gesture that he obeyed.
+
+Her heart was pounding, but she had herself under control. Only her
+hands twitched, her long fingers curling and uncurling spasmodically,
+and she buried them deep in her breeches' pockets to hide them. She
+walked slowly to the curtain and nodded to the Nubian to draw it aside,
+and slower still she passed into the other room. Only a little larger
+than the one she had left, almost as bare, but her mind took in these
+things uncomprehendingly, for all her attention was focussed on the
+central figure in the room.
+
+Ibraheim Omair, the robber Sheik, lolling his great bulk on a pile of
+cushions, a little inlaid stool with coffee beside him, and behind him,
+standing motionless as if formed of bronze, two other negroes, so like
+the one that had summoned her that they seemed like statues that had
+been cast from one mould.
+
+Diana paused for a moment framed in the entrance, then, with head
+thrown back and swaggering, boyish stride, she moved across the thick
+rugs leisurely and halted in front of the chief, looking straight at
+him with haughty, curling lips and insolent, half-closed eyes. The hold
+she was exercising over herself was tremendous, her body was rigid with
+the effort, and her hands deep down in her pockets clenched till the
+nails bit into the palms. Every instinct was rebelling against the calm
+she forced upon herself. She longed to scream and make a dash for the
+opening that she guessed was behind her, and to take her chance in the
+darkness outside. But she knew that such a chance was impossible; if
+she ever reached the open air she would never be allowed to get more
+than a few steps from the tent. Her only course lay in the bravado that
+alone kept her from collapse. She must convey the impression of
+fearlessness, though cold terror was knocking at her heart. Masked with
+indifference her veiled eyes were watching the robber chief closely.
+This was, indeed, the Arab of her imaginings, this gross, unwieldy
+figure lying among the tawdry cushions, his swollen, ferocious face
+seamed and lined with every mark of vice, his full, sensual lips parted
+and showing broken, blackened teeth, his deep-set, bloodshot eyes with
+a look in them that it took all her resolution to sustain, a look of
+such bestial evilness that the horror of it bathed her in perspiration.
+His appearance was slovenly, his robes, originally rich, were stained
+and tumbled, the fat hands lying spread out on his knees were engrained
+with dirt, showing even against his dark skin. His heavy face lit up
+with a gleam of malicious satisfaction as Diana came towards him, his
+loose mouth broadened in a wicked smile. He leaned forward a little,
+weighing heavily on the hands that were on his knees, his eyes roving
+slowly over her till they rested on her face again.
+
+"So! the white woman of my brother Ahmed Ben Hassan," he said slowly,
+in villainous French, with a sudden, snarling intonation as he uttered
+his enemy's name. "Ahmed Ben Hassan! May Allah burn his soul in hell!"
+he added with relish, and spat contemptuously.
+
+He leaned back on the cushions with a grunt, and drank some coffee
+noisily.
+
+Diana kept her eyes fixed on him, and under their unwavering stare he
+seemed to be uneasy, his own inflamed eyes wandering ceaselessly over
+her, one hand fumbling at the curved hilt of a knife stuck in his belt,
+and at last he grew exasperated, hitching himself forward once more and
+beckoning her to come nearer to him. She hesitated, and as she paused
+uncertainly, there was a flutter of draperies behind her, and the Arab
+woman from the inner room, evading the negro who stepped forward to
+stop her, flung herself at the feet of Ibraheim Omair, clinging to his
+knees with a low wailing cry. In a flash Diana realised the meaning of
+the hatred that had gleamed in the woman's eyes earlier in the evening.
+To her she was a rival, whose coming to share the favours of her lord
+had aroused all the jealousy of the reigning favourite. A wave of
+disgust mingled with the fear that was torturing her. She jerked her
+head angrily, fighting against the terror that was growing on her, and
+for a moment her lashes drooped and hid her eyes. When she looked up
+again the woman was still crouched at the old Arab's feet, imploring
+and distraught.
+
+Ibraheim Omair looked down on her curiously, his lips drawn back from
+his blackened teeth in an evil grin, and then shook her off violently
+with a swift blow in the mouth, but the woman clung closer, with
+upturned, desperate face, a thin trickle of blood oozing from her lips,
+and with a hoarse growl that was like the dull roar of a savage beast
+the robber chief caught her by the throat and held her for a moment,
+her frantic, clutching hands powerless against his strong grasp, then
+slowly drew the long knife from the ample folds of his waist-cloth, and
+as slowly drove it home into the strangling woman's breast. With savage
+callousness, before he released his hold of her, he wiped the stained
+knife carefully on her clothing and replaced it, and then flung the
+dead body from him. It rolled over on the rug midway between him and
+Diana.
+
+There was a momentary silence in the room, and Diana became conscious
+of a muffled, rhythmical beat near her, like the ticking of a great
+clock, and realised with dull wonder that it was her own heart beating.
+She seemed turned to stone, petrified with the horror of the last few
+moments. Her eyes were glued to the still figure on the rug before her
+with the gaping wound in the breast, from which the blood was welling,
+staining the dark draperies of the woman's clothes, and creeping slowly
+down to the rug on which the body lay. She was dazed, and odd thoughts
+flitted through her mind. It was a pity, she thought stupidly, that the
+blood should spoil the rug. It was a lovely rug. She wondered what it
+would have cost in Biskra--less, probably, than it would in London.
+Then she forgot the rug as her eyes travelled upward to the woman's
+face. The mouth was open and the streak of blood was drying, but it was
+the eyes, protruding, agonised, that brought Diana abruptly to herself.
+She seemed to wake suddenly to the full realisation of what had
+happened and to her own peril. She felt physically sick for a moment,
+but she fought it down. Very slowly she raised her head, and, meeting
+Ibraheim Omair's eyes fixed on her, she looked full at him across the
+dead woman's body and laughed! It was that or shriek. The curls were
+clinging drenched on her forehead, and she wondered if her clenched
+hands would ever unclose. She must make no sign, she must not scream or
+faint, she must keep her nerve until Ahmed came. Oh, dear God, send him
+quickly! The laugh wavered hysterically, and she caught her lip between
+her teeth. She must do something to distract her attention from that
+awful still shape at her feet. Almost unconsciously she grasped the
+cigarette case in her pocket and took it out, dragging her eyes from
+the horrible sight on which they were fixed, and chose and lit a
+cigarette with slow care, flicking the still-burning match on to the
+carpet between the feet of the negro who stood near her. He had not
+moved since he had failed to stop the woman's entrance, and the two
+stationed behind the pile of cushions had stood motionless, their eyes
+hardly following the tragedy enacted before them. At a nod from the
+chief they came now and carried away the body of the woman. One
+returned in a moment, bringing fresh coffee, and then vanished
+noiselessly.
+
+Then Ibraheim Omair leaned forward with a horrible leer and beckoned to
+Diana, patting the cushions beside him. Mastering the loathing that
+filled her she sat down with all the unconcern she could assume. The
+proximity of the man nauseated her. He reeked of sweat and grease and
+ill-kept horses, the pungent stench of the native. Her thoughts went
+back to the other Arab, of whose habits she had been forced into such
+an intimate knowledge. Remembering all that she had heard of the desert
+people she had been surprised at the fastidious care he took of
+himself, the frequent bathing, the spotless cleanliness of his robes,
+the fresh wholesomeness that clung about him, the faint, clean smell of
+shaving-soap mingling with the perfume of the Turkish tobacco that was
+always associated with him.
+
+The contrast was hideous.
+
+She refused the coffee he offered her with a shake of her head, paying
+no attention to his growl of protest, not even understanding it, for he
+spoke in Arabic. As she laid down the end of her cigarette with almost
+the feeling of letting go a sheet anchor--for it had at least kept her
+lips from trembling--his fat hand closed about her wrist and he jerked
+her towards him.
+
+"How many rifles did the Frenchman bring to that son of darkness?" he
+said harshly.
+
+She turned her head, surprised at the question, and met his bloodshot
+eyes fixed on hers, half-menacing, half-admiring, and looked away again
+hastily. "I do not know."
+
+His fingers tightened on her wrist. "How many men had Ahmed Ben Hassan
+in the camp in which he kept you?"
+
+"I do not know."
+
+"I do not know! I do not know!" he echoed with a sudden savage laugh.
+"You will know when I have done with you." He crushed her wrist until
+she winced with pain, and turned her head away further that she might
+not see his face. Question after question relating to the Sheik and his
+tribe followed in rapid succession, but to all of them Diana remained
+silent, with averted head and compressed lips. He should not learn
+anything from her that might injure the man she loved, though he
+tortured her, though her life paid the price of her silence, as it
+probably would. She shivered involuntarily. "Shall I tell you what they
+would do to him?" She could hear the Sheik's voice plainly as on the
+night when she had asked him what Gaston's fate would be at the hands
+of Ibraheim Omair. She could hear the horrible meaning he had put into
+the words, she could see the terrible smile that had accompanied them.
+Her breath came faster, but her courage still held. She clung
+desperately to the hope that was sustaining her. Ahmed must come in
+time. She forced down the torturing doubts that whispered that he might
+never find her, that he might come too late, that when he came she
+might be beyond a man's desire.
+
+Ibraheim Omair ceased his questioning. "Later you will speak," he said
+significantly, and drank more coffee. And his words revived the
+agonising thoughts she had crushed down. Her vivid imagination conjured
+up the same ghastly mental pictures that had appalled her when she had
+applied them to Gaston, but now it was herself who was the central
+figure in all the horrors she imagined, until the shuddering she tried
+to suppress shook her from head to foot, and she clenched her teeth to
+stop them chattering.
+
+Ibraheim Omair kept his hold upon her, and presently, with a horrible
+loathing, she felt his hand passing over her arm, her neck, and down
+the soft curves of her slim young body, then with a muttered
+ejaculation he forced her to face him.
+
+"What are you listening for? You think that Ahmed Ben Hassan will come?
+Little fool! He has forgotten you already. There are plenty more white
+women in Algiers and Oran that he can buy with his gold and his devil
+face. The loves of Ahmed Ben Hassan are as the stars in number. They
+come and go like the swift wind in the desert, a hot breath--and it's
+finished. He will not come, and if he does, he will not find you, for
+in an hour we shall be gone."
+
+Diana writhed in his grasp. The hateful words in the guttural voice,
+pronounced in vile French, the leering, vicious face with the light of
+admiration growing in the bloodshot eyes, were all a ghastly nightmare.
+With a sudden desperate wrench she freed herself and fled across the
+tent--panic-stricken at last. But in her blind rush she tripped, and
+with a swiftness that seemed incompatible with his unwieldiness
+Ibraheim Omair followed her and caught her in his arms. Struggling he
+carried her to the divan. For a moment he paused, and instinctively
+Diana lay still, reserving her strength for the final struggle.
+
+"One hour, my little gazelle, one hour----" he said hoarsely, and bent
+his face to hers.
+
+With a cry Diana flung her head aside and strained away from him,
+fighting with the strength of madness. She fought like a boy with a
+swift thought of gratitude for Aubrey's training, and twisting and
+writhing she managed to slip through his grasp until her feet rested on
+the ground. But his grip on her never relaxed; he dragged her back to
+him, resisting fiercely, ripping the thin shirt from her shoulders,
+baring her white, heaving bosom. Gasping, she struggled, until, little
+by little, his arms closed round her again. She braced her hands
+against his chest, fending him from her till she felt the muscles in
+her arms must crack, but the crushing force of his whole weight was
+bearing her steadily backwards, and downwards on to the soft cushions
+beside them. His hot breath was on her face, the sickening reek of his
+clothes was in her nostrils. She felt her resistance growing weaker,
+her heart was labouring, beating with wild bounds that suffocated her,
+the strength was going from her arms, only a moment more and her force
+would be exhausted. Her brain was growing numbed, as it had been when
+the man who held her had murdered the woman before her eyes. If he
+would only kill her now. Death would be easy compared with this. The
+faint hope that still lingered was almost extinguished. Ahmed had not
+come, and in her agony the thought of him was a further torture. The
+sneering words of Ibraheim Omair had not shaken her faith. He would
+come, but he would come too late. He would never know now that she
+loved him. Oh, God! How she loved him! Ahmed! Ahmed! And with the
+soundless cry the last remnant of her strength went all at once, and
+she fell weakly against the chief. He forced her to her knees, and,
+with his hand twined brutally in her curls, thrust her head back. There
+was a mad light in his eyes and a foam on his lips as he dragged the
+knife from his waistbelt and laid the keen edge against her throat. She
+did not flinch, and after a moment he dropped it with a horrible laugh.
+
+"No, afterwards," he said, and picked her up unresistingly. He flung
+her on the cushions and for one awful moment she felt his hands on her.
+Then from outside came a sudden uproar and the sharp crack of rifles.
+Then in a lull in the firing the Sheik's powerful voice: "Diane!
+Diane!"
+
+His voice and the knowledge of his nearness gave her new strength. She
+leaped up in spite of Ibraheim Omair's gripping hands. "Ahmed!" she
+screamed once, then the chief's hand dashed against her mouth, but,
+frantic, she caught it in her teeth, biting it to the bone, and as he
+wrenched it away, shrieked again, "Ahmed! Ahmed!"
+
+But it seemed impossible that her voice could be heard above the
+demoniacal noise outside the tent, and she could not call again, for,
+with a snarl of rage, the chief caught her by the throat as he had
+caught the Arab woman. And like the Arab woman her hands tore at his
+gripping fingers vainly. Choking, stifling with the agony in her
+throat, her lungs seemed bursting, the blood was beating in her ears
+like the deafening roar of waves, and the room was darkening with the
+film that was creeping over her eyes. Her hands fell powerless to her
+sides and her knees gave way limply. He was holding her upright only by
+the clutch on her throat. The drumming in her ears grew louder, the
+tent was fading away into blackness. Dimly, with no kind of emotion,
+she realised that he was squeezing the life out of her and she heard
+his voice coming, as it were, from a great distance: "You will not
+languish long in Hawiyat without your lover. I will send him quickly to
+you."
+
+She was almost unconscious, but she heard the sneering voice break
+suddenly and the deadly pressure on her throat relaxed as the chief's
+hands rapidly transferred their grip to her aching shoulders, swinging
+her away from him and in front of him. To lift her head was agony, and
+the effort brought back the black mist that had lessened with the
+slackening of Ibraheim Omair's fingers round her neck, but it cleared
+again sufficiently for her to see, through a blurring haze, the outline
+of the tall figure that was facing her, standing by the ripped-back
+doorway.
+
+There was a pause, a silence that contrasted oddly with the tumult
+outside, and Diana wondered numbly why the Sheik did nothing, why he
+did not use the revolver that was clenched in his hand Then slowly she
+understood that he dared not fire, that the chief was holding her, a
+living shield, before him, sheltering himself behind the only thing
+that would deter Ahmed Ben Hassan's unerring shots. Cautiously Ibraheim
+Omair moved backward, still holding her before him, hoping to gain the
+inner room. But in the shock of his enemy's sudden appearance he
+miscalculated the position of the divan and stumbled against it, losing
+his balance for only a moment, but long enough to give the man whose
+revolver covered him the chance he wanted. With the cold ring of steel
+pressing against his forehead the robber chief's hands dropped from
+Diana, and she slid weak and trembling on to the rug, clasping her
+pulsating throat, moaning with the effort that it was to breathe.
+
+For a moment the two men looked into each other's eyes and the
+knowledge of death leaped into Ibraheim Omair's. With the fatalism of
+his creed he made no resistance, as, with a slow, terrible smile, the
+Sheik's left hand reached out and fastened on his throat. It would be
+quicker to shoot, but as Diana had suffered so should her torturer die.
+All the savagery in his nature rose uppermost. Beside the pitiful,
+gasping little figure on the rug at his feet there was the memory of
+six mutilated bodies, his faithful followers, men of his own age who
+had grown to manhood with him, picked men of his personal bodyguard who
+had been intimately connected with him all his life, and who had served
+him with devotion and unwavering obedience. They and others who had
+from time to time fallen victims to Ibraheim Omair's hatred of his more
+powerful enemy. The man who was responsible for their deaths was in his
+power at last, the man whose existence was a menace and whose life was
+an offence, of whose subtleties he had been trained from a boy to
+beware by the elder Ahmed Ben Hassan, who had bequeathed to him the
+tribal hatred of the race of whom Ibraheim Omair was head, and whose
+dying words had been the wish that his successor might himself
+exterminate the hereditary enemy. But far beyond the feelings inspired
+by tribal hatred or the remembrance of the vow made five years ago
+beside the old Sheik's deathbed, or even the death of his own
+followers, was the desire to kill, with his bare hands, the man who had
+tortured the woman he loved. The knowledge of her peril, that had
+driven him headlong through the night to her aid, the sight of her
+helpless, agonised, in the robber chief's hands, had filled him with a
+madness that only the fierce joy of killing would cure. Before he could
+listen to the clamouring of the new love in his heart, before he could
+gather up into his arms the beloved little body that he was yearning
+for, he had to destroy the man whose murders were countless and who had
+at last fallen into his hands.
+
+The smile on his face deepened and his fingers tightened slowly on
+their hold. But with the strangling clasp of Ahmed Ben Hassan's hands
+upon him the love of life waked again in Ibraheim Omair and he
+struggled fiercely. Crouched on the floor Diana watched the two big
+figures swaying in mortal combat with wide, fearful eyes, her hands
+still holding her aching throat. Ibraheim Omair wrestled for his life,
+conscious of his own strength, but conscious also of the greater
+strength that was opposed to him. The Sheik let go the hold upon his
+throat and with both arms locked about him manoeuvred to get the
+position he required, back to the divan. Then, with a wrestler's trick,
+he swept Ibraheim's feet from under him and sent his huge body
+sprawling on to the cushions, his knee on his enemy's chest, his hands
+on his throat. With all his weight crushing into the chief's breast,
+with the terrible smile always on his lips, he choked him slowly to
+death, till the dying man's body arched and writhed in his last agony,
+till the blood burst from his nose and mouth, pouring over the hands
+that held him like a vice.
+
+Diana's eyes never left the Sheik's face, she felt the old paralysing
+fear of him rushing over her, irresistibly drowning for the moment even
+the love she had for him. She had seen him in cruel, even savage moods,
+but nothing that had ever approached the look of horrible pleasure that
+was on his face now. It was a revelation of the real man with the thin
+layer of civilisation stripped from him, leaving only the primitive
+savage drunk with the lust of blood. And she was afraid, with a
+shuddering horror, of the merciless, crimson-stained hands that would
+touch her, of the smiling, cruel mouth that would be pressed on hers,
+and of the murderous light shining in his fierce eyes. But for the
+dying wretch expiating his crimes so hideously she felt no pity, he was
+beyond all sympathy. She had seen him murder wantonly, and she knew
+what her own fate would have been if Ahmed Ben Hassan had not come. And
+the retribution was swift. The Sheik was being more merciful to him
+than the robber chief had been to many, a few moments of agony instead
+of hours of lingering torture.
+
+The noise outside the tent was growing louder as the fighting rolled
+back in its direction, and once or twice a bullet ripped through the
+hangings. One that came closer than the others made Diana turn her head
+and she saw what Ahmed Ben Hassan, absorbed in the fulfilment of his
+horrible task, had not even thought of--the three big negroes and a
+dozen Arabs who had stolen in silently from the inner room. For once,
+in the intoxication of the moment, the Sheik was careless and caught
+off his guard. Agony leaped into her eyes. The fear of him was wiped
+out in the fear for him. She tried to warn him, but no sound would come
+from her throbbing throat, and she crawled nearer to him and touched
+him. He dropped the dead chief back into the tumbled cushions and
+looked up swiftly, and at the same moment Ibraheim Omair's men made a
+rush. Without a word he thrust her behind the divan and turned to meet
+them. Before his revolver they gave way for a moment, but the burly
+Nubians behind swept the Arabs forward. Three times he fired and one of
+the negroes and two Arabs fell, but the rest hurled themselves on him,
+and Diana saw him surrounded. His strength was abnormal, and for some
+minutes the struggling mass of men strained and heaved about him. Diana
+was on her feet, swaying giddily, powerless to help him, cold with
+dread. Then above the clamour that was raging inside and out she heard
+Saint Hubert's voice shouting, and with a shriek that seemed to rip her
+tortured throat she called to him. The Sheik, too, heard, and with a
+desperate effort for a moment won clear, but one of the Nubians was
+behind him, and, as Saint Hubert and a crowd of the Sheik's own men
+poured in through the opening, he brought down a heavy club with
+crashing force on Ahmed Ben Hassan's head, and as he fell another drove
+a broad knife deep into his back. For a few minutes more the tramping
+feet surged backward and forward over the Sheik's prostrate body. Diana
+tried to get to him, faint and stumbling, flung here and there by the
+fighting, struggling men, until a strong hand caught her and drew her
+aside. She strained against the detaining arm, but it was one of
+Ahmed's men, and she gave in as a growing faintness came over her.
+Mistily she saw Saint Hubert clear a way to his friend's side, and then
+she fainted, but only for a few moments. Saint Hubert was still on his
+knees beside the Sheik when she opened her eyes, and the tent was quite
+quiet, filled with tribesmen waiting in stoical silence. The camp of
+Ibraheim Omair had been wiped out, but Ahmed Ben Hassan's men looked
+only at the unconscious figure of their leader.
+
+Saint Hubert glanced up hastily as Diana came to his side. "You are all
+right?" he asked anxiously, but she did not answer. What did it matter
+about her?
+
+"Is he going to die?" she said huskily, for speaking still hurt
+horribly.
+
+"I don't know--but we must get away from here. I need more appliances
+than I have with me, and we are too few to stay and risk a possible
+attack if there are others of Ibraheim Omair's men in the
+neighbourhood."
+
+Diana looked down on the wounded man fearfully. "But the ride--the
+jolting," she gasped.
+
+"It has got to be risked," replied Saint Hubert abruptly.
+
+Of the long, terrible journey back to Ahmed Ben Hassan's camp Diana
+never remembered very much. It was an agony of dread and apprehension,
+of momentary waiting for some word or exclamation from the powerful
+Arab who was holding him, or from Saint Hubert, who was riding beside
+him, that would mean his death, and of momentary respites from fear and
+faint glimmerings of hope as the minutes dragged past and the word she
+was dreading did not come. Once a sudden halt seemed to stop her heart
+beating, but it was only to give a moment's rest to the Arab whose
+strength was taxed to the uttermost with the Sheik's inert weight, but
+who refused to surrender his privilege to any other. Moments of
+semi-unconsciousness, when she swayed against the arm of the watchful
+tribesman riding beside her, and his muttered ejaculation of "Allah!
+Allah!" sent a whispered supplication to her own lips to the God they
+both worshipped so differently. He must not die. God would not be so
+cruel.
+
+From time to time Saint Hubert spoke to her, and the quiet courage of
+his voice steadied her breaking nerves. As they passed the scene of the
+ambuscade he told her of Gaston. It was there that the first band of
+waiting men met them, warned already of their coming by a couple of
+Arabs whom the Vicomte had sent on in advance with the news.
+
+The dawn was breaking when they reached the camp. Diana had a glimpse
+of rows of unusually silent men grouped beside the tent, but all her
+mind was concentrated on the long, limp figure that was being carefully
+lifted down from the sweating horse. They carried him into the tent and
+laid him on the divan, beside which Henri had already put out all the
+implements that his master would need.
+
+While Saint Hubert, with difficulty, cleared the tent of the Sheik's
+men Diana stood beside the divan and looked at him. He was soaked in
+blood that had burst through the temporary bandages, and his whole body
+bore evidence of the terrible struggle that had gone before the blow
+that had felled him. One blood-covered hand hung down almost touching
+the rug. Diana lifted it in her own, and the touch of the nerveless
+fingers sent a sob into her throat. She caught her lip between her
+teeth to stop it trembling as she laid his hand down on the cushions.
+Saint Hubert came to her, rolling up his shirt-sleeves significantly.
+
+"Diane, you have been through enough," he said gently. "Go and rest
+while I do what I can for Ahmed. I will come and tell you as soon as I
+am finished."
+
+She looked up fiercely. "It's no good telling me to go away, because I
+won't. I must help you. I can help you. I shall go mad if you don't let
+me do something. See! My hands are quite steady." She held them out as
+she spoke, and Saint Hubert gave in without opposition.
+
+The weakness that had sent her trembling into his arms the day before
+had been the fear of danger to the man she loved, but in the face of
+actual need the courage that was so much a part of her nature did not
+fail her. He made no more remonstrances, but set about his work
+quickly. And all through the horrible time that followed she did not
+falter. Her face was deadly pale, and dark lines showed below her eyes,
+but her hands did not shake, and her voice was low and even. She
+suffered horribly. The terrible wound that the Nubian's knife had made
+was like a wound in her own heart. She winced as if the hurt had been
+her own when Saint Hubert's gentle, dexterous fingers touched the
+Sheik's bruised head. And when it was over and Raoul had turned aside
+to wash his hands, she slipped on to her knees beside him. Would he
+live? The courage that had kept her up so far had not extended to
+asking Saint Hubert again, and a few muttered words from Henri, to
+which the Vicomte had responded with only a shrug, had killed the words
+that were hovering on her lips. She looked at him with anguished eyes.
+
+Only a few hours before he had come to her in all the magnificence of
+his strength. She looked at the long limbs lying now so still, so
+terribly, suggestively still, and her lips trembled again, but her
+pain-filled eyes were dry. She could not cry, only her throat ached and
+throbbed perpetually. She leaned over him whispering his name, and a
+sudden hunger came to her to touch him, to convince herself that he was
+not dead. She glanced back over her shoulder at Saint Hubert, but he
+had gone to the open doorway to speak to Yusef, and was standing out
+under the awning. She bent lower over the unconscious man; his lips
+were parted slightly, and the usual sternness of his mouth was relaxed.
+
+"Ahmed, oh, my dear!" she whispered unsteadily, and kissed him with
+lips that quivered against the stillness of his. Then for a moment she
+dropped her bright head beside the bandaged one on the pillow, but when
+the Vicomte came back she was kneeling where he had left her, her hands
+clasped over one of the Sheik's and her face hidden against the
+cushions.
+
+Saint Hubert put his hand on her shoulder. "Diane, you are torturing
+yourself unnecessarily. We cannot know for some time how it will go
+with him. Try and get some sleep for a few hours. You can do no good by
+staying here. Henri and I will watch. I will call you if there is any
+change, my word of honour."
+
+She shook her head without looking up. "I can't go. I couldn't sleep."
+
+Saint Hubert did not press it. "Very well," he said quietly, "but if
+you are going to stay you must take off your riding-boots and put on
+something more comfortable than those clothes."
+
+She realised the sense of what he was saying, and obeyed him without a
+word. She even had to admit to herself a certain sensation of relief
+after she had bathed her aching head and throat, and substituted a
+thin, silk wrap for the torn, stained riding-suit.
+
+Henri was pouring out coffee when she came back, and Saint Hubert
+turned to her with a cup in his outstretched hand. "Please take it. It
+will do you good," he said, with a little smile that was not reflected
+in his anxious eyes.
+
+She took it unheeding, and, swallowing it hastily, went to the side of
+the divan again. She slid down on to the rug where she had knelt
+before. The Sheik was lying as she had left him. For a few moments she
+looked at him, then drowsily her eyes closed and her head fell forward
+on the cushions, and with a half-sad smile of satisfaction Saint Hubert
+gathered her up into his arms.
+
+He carried her into the bedroom, hesitating beside the couch before he
+put her down. Surely one moment out of a lifetime might be granted to
+him. He would never have the torturing happiness of holding her in his
+arms again, would never again clasp her against the heart that was
+crying out for her with the same mad passion that had swept over him
+yesterday. He looked down longingly on the pale face lying against his
+arm, and his features contracted at the sight of the cruel marks
+marring the whiteness of her delicate throat. The love that all his
+life he had longed for, that he had sought vainly through many
+countries, had come to him at last, and it had come too late. The
+helpless loveliness lying in his arms was not for him. It was Ahmed
+whom she loved, Ahmed who had waked to such a tardy recognition of the
+priceless gift that she had given him, Ahmed whom he must wrest from
+the grim spectre that was hovering near him lest the light that shone
+in her violet eyes should go out in the blackness of despair. And yet
+as he looked at her with eyes filled with hopeless misery a demon of
+suggestion whispered within him, tempting him. He knew his friend as no
+one else did. What chance of happiness had any woman with a man like
+Ahmed Ben Hassan, at the mercy of his savage nature and passionate
+changeable moods? What reason to suppose that the love that had flamed
+up so suddenly at the thought that he had lost her would survive the
+knowledge of repossession? To him, all his life, a thing desired had
+upon possession become valueless. With the fulfilment of acquisition
+had come always disinterest. The pleasure of pursuit faded with
+ownership. Would this hapless girl who had poured out such a wealth of
+love at the feet of the man who had treated her brutally fare any
+better at his hands? Her chance was slight, if any. Ahmed in the full
+power of his strength again would be the man he had always been,
+implacable, cruel, merciless. Saint Hubert's own longing, his
+passionate, Gallic temperament, were driving him as they had driven him
+the day before. The longing to save her from misery was acute, that,
+and his own love, prompted by the urging of the desire within him. Then
+he trembled, and a great fear of himself came over him. Ahmed was his
+friend. Who was he that he should judge him? He could at least be
+honest with himself, he could own the truth. He coveted what was not
+his, and masked his envy with a hypocrisy that now appeared
+contemptible. The clasp of his arms around her seemed suddenly a
+profanation, and he laid her down very gently on the low couch, drawing
+the thin coverlet over her, and went back slowly to the other room.
+
+He sent Henri away and sat down beside the divan to watch with a
+feeling of weariness that was not bodily. The great tent was very
+still, a pregnant silence seemed to hang in the air, a brooding hush
+that strained Saint Hubert's already overstrained nerves. He had need
+of all his calm, and he gripped himself resolutely. For a time Ahmed
+Ben Hassan lay motionless, and then, as the day crept on and the early
+rays of the warm sun filled the tent, he moved uneasily, and began to
+mutter feverishly in confused Arabic and French. At first the words
+that came were almost unintelligible, pouring out with rapid
+indistinctness, then by degrees his voice slowed, and hesitating,
+interrupted sentences came clearly from his lips. And beside him, with
+his face buried in his hands, Raoul de Saint Hubert thanked God
+fervently that he had saved Diana the added torture of listening to the
+revelations of the past four months.
+
+The first words were in Arabic, then the slow, soft voice lapsed into
+French, pure as the Vicomte's own.
+
+"Two hours south of the oasis with the three broken palm trees by the
+well.... Lie still, you little fool, it is useless to struggle. You
+cannot get away, I shall not let you go.... Why have I brought you
+here? You ask me why? _Mon Dieu!_ Are you not woman enough to
+know? No! I will not spare you. Give me what I want willingly and I
+will be kind to you, but fight me, and by Allah! you shall pay the
+cost!... I know you hate me, you have told me so already. Shall I make
+you love me?... Still disobedient? When will you learn that I am
+master?... I have not tired of you yet, you lovely little wild
+thing, _garcon manque...._ You say she is cowed; I say she is
+content--content to give me everything I ask of her.... For four months
+she has fought me. Why does it give me no pleasure to have broken her
+at last? Why do I want her still? She is English and I have made her
+pay for my hatred of her cursed race. I have tortured her to keep my
+vow, and still I want her.... Diane, Diane, how beautiful you are!...
+What devil makes me hate Raoul after twenty years? Last night she only
+spoke to him, and when he went I cursed her till I saw the terror in
+her eyes. She fears me. Why should I care if she loves him.... I knew
+she was not asleep when I went to her. I felt her quivering beside
+me.... I wanted to kill Raoul when he would not come with me, but for
+that I would have gone back to her.... Allah! how long the day has
+been.... Has it been long to her? Will she smile or tremble when I
+come?... Where is Diane?... Diane, Diane, how could I know how much you
+meant to me? How could I know that I should love you?... Diane, Diane,
+my sunshine. The tent is cold and dark without you.... Ibraheim Omair!
+That devil and Diane! Oh, Allah! Grant me time to get to her.... How
+the jackals are howling.... See, Raoul, there are the tents.... Diane,
+where are you?... Grand Dieu! He has been torturing her!... You knew
+that I would come, _ma bien aimee_, only a few moments while I
+kill him, then I can hold you in my arms. _Dieu!_ If you knew how
+much I loved you.... Diane, Diane, it is all black. I cannot see you,
+Diane, Diane...."
+
+And hour after hour with weary hopelessness the tired voice went
+on--"Diane, Diane...."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+
+It was evening when Diana opened drowsy and heavy eyes, a bitter taste
+in her mouth from the effects of the drug that Saint Hubert had given
+her. Everything had been laid out in readiness for her waking with the
+little touches that were characteristic of Zilah's handiwork, but the
+Arab girl herself was not visible. The lamp was lighted, and Diana
+turned her head languidly, still half confused, to look at the clock
+beside her. The tiny chime sounded seven times, and with a rush of
+recollection she leaped up. More than twelve hours since she had knelt
+beside him after drinking the coffee that Raoul had given her. She
+guessed what he had done and tried to be grateful, but the thought of
+what might have happened during the twelve hours she had lain like a
+log was horrible. She dressed with feverish haste and went into the
+outer room. It was filled with Arabs, many of whom she did not
+recognise, and she knew that they must belong to the reinforcements
+that Ahmed Ben Hassan had sent for. Two, who seemed from their
+appearance to be petty chiefs, were talking in low tones to Saint
+Hubert, who looked worn and tired. The rest were grouped silently about
+the divan, looking at the still-unconscious Sheik. The restlessness and
+delirium of the morning had passed and been succeeded by a death-like
+stupor. Nearest to him stood Yusef, his usual swaggering self-assurance
+changed into an attitude of deepest dejection, and his eyes, that were
+fixed on Ahmed Ben Hassan's face, were like those of a whipped dog.
+
+Gradually the tent emptied until only Yusef was left, and at last,
+reluctantly, he too went, stopping at the entrance to speak to Saint
+Hubert, who had just taken leave of the two headmen.
+
+The Vicomte came back, bringing a chair for Diana, and put her into it
+with gentle masterfulness. "Sit down," he said almost gruffly. "You
+look like a ghost."
+
+She looked up at him reproachfully. "You drugged that coffee, Raoul. If
+he had died to-day while I was asleep I don't think I could ever have
+forgiven you."
+
+"My dear child," he said gravely, "you don't know how near you were to
+collapse. If I had not made you sleep I should have had three patients
+on my hands instead of two."
+
+"I am very ungrateful," she murmured, with a tremulous little smile.
+
+Saint Hubert brought a chair for himself and dropped into it wearily.
+He felt very tired, the strain of the past twenty-four hours had been
+tremendous. He had a very real fear that was fast growing into a
+conviction that his skill was going to prove unequal to save his
+friend's life, and beside that anxiety and his physical fatigue he had
+fought a bitter fight with himself all day, tearing out of his heart
+the envy and jealousy that filled it, and locking away his love as a
+secret treasure to be hidden for always. His devotion to Ahmed Ben
+Hassan had survived the greatest test that could be imposed upon it,
+and had emerged from the trial strengthened and refined, with every
+trace of self obliterated. It had been the hardest struggle of his
+life, but it was over now, and all the bitterness had passed, leaving
+only a passionate desire for Diana's happiness that outweighed every
+other thought. One spark of comfort remained. He would not be quite
+useless. His help and sympathy would be necessary to her, and even for
+that he was grateful.
+
+He looked across the divan at her, and the change that the last few
+hours had made in her struck him painfully. The alert, vigorous
+boyishness that had been so characteristic was gone. Her slim figure
+drooping listlessly in the big chair, her white face with the new marks
+of suffering on it, and her wide eyes burning with dumb misery, were
+all purely womanly. And yet though he resented the change he wished it
+could have gone further. The restraint she was putting on herself was
+unnatural. She asked no questions and she shed no tears. He could have
+borne them both easier than the silent anguish of her face. He feared
+the results of the emotion she was repressing so rigidly.
+
+There was a long silence.
+
+Henri came in once and Diana roused herself to ask for Gaston, and then
+relapsed into silent watchfulness again. She sighed once, a long
+quivering sigh that nearly broke Saint Hubert's heart. He rose and bent
+over the Sheik with his fingers on his wrist, and as he laid the
+nerveless hand down again she leaned nearer and covered it with her
+own.
+
+"His hand is so big for an Arab's," she said softly, like a thought
+spoken aloud unconsciously.
+
+"He is not an Arab," replied Saint Hubert with sudden, impatient
+vehemence. "He is English."
+
+Diana looked up at him swiftly with utter bewilderment in her startled
+eyes. "I don't understand," she faltered. "He hates the English."
+
+"_Quand-meme_, he is the son of one of your English peers. His
+mother was a Spanish lady; many of the old noble Spanish families have
+Moorish blood in their veins, the characteristics crop up even after
+centuries. It is so with Ahmed, and his life in the desert has
+accentuated it. Has he never told you anything about himself?"
+
+She shook her head. "Sometimes I have wondered----" she said
+reflectively. "He seemed different from the others, and there has been
+so much that I could never understand. But then again there were times
+when he seemed pure Arab," she added in a lower voice and with an
+involuntary shiver.
+
+"You ought to know," said Saint Hubert. "Yes!" he went on firmly, as
+she tried to interrupt him. "It is due to you. It will explain so many
+things. I will take the responsibility. His father is the Earl of
+Glencaryll."
+
+"But I know him," said Diana wonderingly. "He was a friend of my
+father. I saw him only a few months ago when Aubrey and I passed
+through Paris. He is such a magnificent-looking old man, so fierce and
+sad. Oh, now I know why that awful frown of Ahmed's has always seemed
+so familiar. Lord Glencaryll frowns like that. It is the famous Caryll
+scowl. But I still don't understand." She looked from Saint Hubert to
+the unconscious man on the divan and back to Saint Hubert with a new
+trouble growing in her eyes.
+
+"I had better tell you the whole story," said Raoul, dropping back into
+his chair.
+
+"Thirty-six years ago my father, who was as great a wanderer as I am,
+was staying here in the desert with his friend the Sheik Ahmed Ben
+Hassan. A chance acquaintance some years before over the purchase of
+some horses had ripened into a very intimate friendship that was
+unusual between a Frenchman and an Arab. The Sheik was a wonderful man,
+very enlightened, with strong European tendencies. As a matter of pure
+fact he was not too much in sympathy with the French form of
+administration as carried on in Algeria, but he was not affected
+sufficiently by it to make any real difficulty. The territory that he
+regarded as his own lay too much to the south, and he kept his large
+and scattered tribe in too good order for any interference to be
+possible. He was unmarried, and the women of his own race seemed to
+have no attraction for him. He was wrapped up in his tribe and his
+horses. My father had come for a stay of some months. My mother had
+recently died and he wanted to get away from everything that reminded
+him of her. One evening, shortly after his arrival at the camp, a party
+of the Sheik's men who had been absent for some days in the north on
+the chief's affairs arrived, bringing with them a woman whom they had
+found wandering in the desert. How she had got there, or from what
+direction she had come, they did not know. They were nearer
+civilisation than Ahmed Ben Hassan's camp at the time, but with true
+native tendency to avoid responsibility they thought that the disposal
+of her was a matter more for their Sheik than themselves. She could
+give no account of herself, as, owing to the effects of the sun or
+other causes, she was temporarily out of her mind. Arabs are very
+gentle with any one who is mad--'Allah has touched them!' She was taken
+to the tent of one of the headmen, whose wife looked after her. For
+some days it was doubtful whether she would recover, and her condition
+was aggravated by the fact that she was shortly to become a mother. She
+did regain her senses after a time, however, but nothing could make her
+say anything about herself, and questions reduced her to terrible fits
+of hysterical crying which were prejudicial in her state of health. She
+seemed calmest when she was left quite alone, but even then she started
+at the slightest sound, and the headman's wife reported that she would
+lie for hours on her bed crying quietly to herself. She was quite
+young--seemingly not more than nineteen or twenty. From her accents my
+father decided that she was Spanish, but she would admit nothing, not
+even her nationality. In due course of time the child was born, a boy."
+
+Saint Hubert paused a moment and nodded towards the Sheik. "Even after
+the child's birth she refused to give any account of herself. In that
+she was as firm as a rock; in everything else she was the frailest,
+gentlest little creature imaginable. She was very small and slender,
+with quantities of soft dark hair and beautiful great dark eyes that
+looked like a frightened fawn's. I have heard my father describe her
+many times, and I have seen the water-colour sketch he made of her--he
+was quite an amateur. Ahmed has it locked away somewhere. She nearly
+died when the baby was born, and she never recovered her strength. She
+made no complaint and never spoke of herself, and seemed quite content
+as long as the child was with her. She was a child herself in a great
+number of ways. It never seemed to occur to her that there was anything
+odd in her continued residence in the Sheik's camp. She had a tent and
+servants of her own, and the headman's wife was devoted to her. So were
+the rest of the camp for that matter. There was an element of the
+mysterious in her advent that had taken hold of the superstitious
+Arabs, and the baby was looked upon as something more than human and
+was adored by all the tribe. The Sheik himself, who had never looked
+twice at a woman before in his life, became passionately attached to
+her. My father says that he has never seen a man so madly in love as
+Ahmed Ben Hassan was with the strange white girl who had come so oddly
+into his life. He repeatedly implored her to marry him, and even my
+father, who has a horror of mixed marriages, was impelled to admit that
+any woman might have been happy with Ahmed Ben Hassan. She would not
+consent, though she would give no reason for her refusal, and the
+mystery that surrounded her remained as insolvable during the two years
+that she lived after the baby's birth as it had been on the day of her
+arrival. And her refusal made no difference with the Sheik. His
+devotion was wonderful. When she died my father was again visiting the
+camp. She knew that she was dying, and a few days before the end she
+told them her pitiful little history. She was the only daughter of one
+of the oldest noble houses in Spain, as poor as they were noble, and
+she had been married when she was seventeen to Lord Glencaryll, who had
+seen her with her parents in Nice. She had been married without any
+regard to her own wishes, and though she grew to love her husband she
+was always afraid of him. He had a terrible temper that was very easily
+roused, and, in those days, he also periodically drank a great deal
+more than was good for him, and when under the influence of drink
+behaved more like a devil than a man. She was very young and
+_gauche_, failing often to do what was required of her from mere
+nervousness. He was exigent and made no allowance for her youth and
+inexperience, and her life was one long torture. And yet in spite of it
+all she loved him. Even in speaking of it she insisted that the fault
+was hers, that the trouble was due to her stupidity, glossing over his
+brutality; in fact, it was not from her, but from inquiries that he
+made after her death, that my father learned most of what her life had
+been. It seems that Lord Glencaryll had taken her to Algiers and had
+wished to make a trip into the desert. He had been drinking heavily,
+and she did not dare to upset his plans by refusing to go with him or
+even by telling him how soon her child was going to be born. So she
+went with him, and one night something happened--what she would not
+say, but my father says he has never seen such a look of terror on any
+woman's face as she hurried over that part of her story. Whatever it
+was she waited until the camp was asleep and then slipped out into the
+desert, mad with fear, with no thought beyond a blind instinct of
+flight that drove her panic-stricken to face any danger rather than
+remain and undergo the misery she was flying from. She remembered
+hurrying onward, terrified by every sound and every shadow, frightened
+even by the blazing stars that seemed to be watching her and pointing
+out the way she had taken, until her mind was numb from utter weariness
+and she remembered nothing more until she awoke in the headman's tent.
+She had been afraid to say who she was lest she should be sent back to
+her husband. And with the birth of the child she became more than ever
+determined to preserve her secret. The boy should be spared the
+suffering she had herself endured, he should not be allowed to fall
+into the hands of his father to be at his mercy when the periodical
+drinking fits made him a very fiend of cruelty. She made my father and
+the Sheik swear that not until the boy grew to manhood should Lord
+Glencaryll be told of his existence. She wrote a letter for her husband
+which she gave into my father's keeping, together with her wedding
+ring, which had an inscription inside of it, and a miniature of
+Glencaryll which she had worn always hidden away from sight. She was
+very contrite with the Sheik, begging his forgiveness for the sorrow
+she had caused him and for keeping from his knowledge the fact that she
+was not free. She loved her husband loyally to the end, but the last
+few days that she lived the Sheik's devotion seemed to wake an
+answering tenderness in her heart. She was happiest when he was with
+her, and she died in his arms with his kisses on her lips. She left her
+boy in his keeping, and Ahmed Ben Hassan adopted him formally and made
+him his heir, giving him his own name--the hereditary name that the
+Sheik of the tribe has borne for generations. His word was law amongst
+his people, and there was no thought of any opposition to his wishes;
+further, the child was considered lucky, and his choice of successor
+was received with unanimous delight. All the passionate love that the
+Sheik had for the mother was transferred to the son. He idolised him,
+and the boy grew up believing that Ahmed Ben Hassan was his own father.
+With the traits he had inherited from his mother's people and with his
+desert upbringing he looked, as he does now, pure Arab. When he was
+fifteen my father induced the Sheik to send him to Paris to be
+educated. With his own European tendencies the Sheik had wished it
+also, but he could not bring himself to part with the boy before, and
+it was a tremendous wrench to let him go when he did. It was then that
+I first saw him. I was eighteen at the time, and had just begun my
+military training, but as my regiment was stationed in Paris I was able
+to be at home a good deal. He was such a handsome, high-spirited lad.
+Men mature very young in the desert and in many ways he was a great
+deal older than I was, in spite of my three years' seniority. But, of
+course, in other ways he was a perfect child. He had a fiendish temper
+and resented any check on his natural lawless inclinations. He loathed
+the restrictions that had to be put upon him and he hated the restraint
+of town life. He had been accustomed to having his own way in nearly
+everything, and to the constant adulation of the tribesmen, and he was
+not prepared to give to anybody else the obedience that he gave
+willingly to the Sheik. There were some very stormy times, and I never
+admired my father in anything so much as his handling of that young
+savage. His escapades were nerve-racking and his _beaux yeux_ led
+him into endless scrapes. The only threat that reduced him to order was
+that of sending him home to the Sheik in disgrace. He would promise
+amendment and take himself off to the Bois to work off his superfluous
+energy on my father's horses--until he broke out again. But in spite of
+his temper and his _diableries_ he was very lovable and everybody
+liked him.
+
+"After a year with us in Paris my father, always mindful of his real
+nationality, sent him for two years to a tutor in England, where I had
+myself been. The tutor was an exceptional man, used to dealing with
+exceptional boys, and Ahmed did very well with him. I don't mean that
+he did much work--that he evaded skilfully and spent most of his time
+hunting and shooting. The only thing that he studied at all seriously
+was veterinary surgery, which he knew would be useful to him with his
+own horses, and in which his tutor was level-headed enough to encourage
+him. Then at the end of two years he came back to us for another year.
+He had gone to the desert every summer for his holidays, and on each
+occasion the Sheik let him return with greater reluctance. He was
+always afraid that the call of civilisation would be too much for his
+adopted son, especially as he grew older, but although Ahmed had
+changed very much from the wild desert lad who had first come to us,
+and had developed into a polished man of the world, speaking French and
+English as fluently as Arabic, with plenty of means to amuse himself in
+any way that he wished--for the Sheik was very rich and kept him
+lavishly supplied with money--and though in that last year he was with
+us he was courted and feted in a way that would have turned most
+people's heads, he was always secretly longing for the time when
+he would go back to the desert. It was the desert, not civilisation
+that called loudest to him. He loved the life and he adored the man
+whom he thought was his father. To be the son and heir of Ahmed Ben
+Hassan seemed to him to be the highest pinnacle that any man's ambition
+could reach. He was perfectly indifferent to the flattery and attention
+that his money and his good looks brought him. My father entertained
+very largely and Ahmed became the fashion--'_Le bel Arabe_' he
+was called, and he enjoyed a _succes fou_ which bored him to
+extinction--and at the end of the year, having written to the Sheik for
+permission to go home, he shook the dust of Paris off his feet and went
+back to the desert. I went with him. It was my first visit and the
+first time that I had experienced Ahmed _en prince_. I had never
+seen him in anything but European clothes, and I got quite a shock when
+I came up on deck the morning that we arrived at Oran and found an Arab
+of the Arabs waiting for me. The robes and a complete change of
+carriage and expression that seemed to go with them altered him
+curiously and I hardly recognised him. Some of his men were waiting for
+him on the quay and their excitement was extraordinary. I realised from
+the deference and attention that the French officials paid to Ahmed the
+position that the old Sheik had made for himself and the high esteem in
+which he was held. We spent the rest of the day in arranging for the
+considerable baggage that he had brought with him to be forwarded by
+the camel caravan that had been sent for the purpose, and also in
+business for the Sheik in Oran. We spent the night in a villa on the
+outskirts of the town belonging to an old Arab who entertained us
+lavishly, and who spent the evening congratulating Ahmed heartily on
+having escaped from the clutches of the odious French, by no means
+abashed when Ahmed pointed out that there was an odious Frenchman
+present, for he dismissed me with a gesture that conveyed that my
+nationality was my misfortune and not my fault, and in impressing on
+him the necessity of immediately acquiring a wife or two and settling
+down for the good of the tribe--all this in the intervals of drinking
+coffee, listening to the most monotonous native music and watching
+barbaric dances. There was one particularly well-made dancing girl that
+the old man tried to induce Ahmed to buy, and he made a show of
+bargaining for her--not from any real interest he took in her, but
+merely to see the effect that it would have on me. But I refused to be
+drawn, and as my head was reeling with the atmosphere I escaped to bed
+and left him still bargaining. We started early next morning, and were
+joined a few miles out of the town by a big detachment of followers.
+The excitement of the day before was repeated on a very much larger
+scale. It was a novel experience for me, and I can hardly describe my
+feelings in the midst of that yelling horde of men, galloping wildly
+round us and firing their rifles until it seemed hardly possible that
+some accident would not happen. It was Ahmed's attitude that impressed
+me most. He took it all quietly as his due, and when he had had enough
+of it stopped it with a peremptory authority that was instantly obeyed,
+and apologised for the exuberant behaviour of his children. It was a
+new Ahmed to me; the boy I had known for four years seemed suddenly
+transformed into a man who made me feel very young. In France I had
+naturally always rather played elder brother, but here Ahmed was on his
+own ground and the roles seemed likely to be reversed. The arrival at
+the Sheik's camp was everything that the most lavish scenic producer
+could have wished. Though I had heard of it both from my father and
+Ahmed I was not quite prepared for the splendour with which the Sheik
+surrounded himself. With Eastern luxury was mingled many European
+adjuncts that added much to the comfort of camp life. The meeting
+between the Sheik and Ahmed was most touching. I had a very happy time
+and left with regret. The charm of the desert took hold of me then and
+has never left me since. But I had to return to my medical studies. I
+left Ahmed absorbed in his life and happier than I had ever seen him in
+Paris. He was nineteen then, and when he was twenty-one my father had
+the unpleasant task of carrying out Lady Glencaryll's dying wishes. He
+wrote to Lord Glencaryll asking him to come to Paris on business
+connected with his late wife, and, during the course of a very painful
+interview, put the whole facts before him. With the letter that the
+poor girl had written to her husband, with the wedding-ring and the
+locket, together with the sketch that my father had made of her, the
+proofs of the genuineness of the whole affair were conclusive.
+Glencaryll broke down completely. He admitted that his wife had every
+justification for leaving him, he spared himself nothing. He referred
+quite frankly to the curse of which he had been the slave and which had
+made him irresponsible for his actions when he was under its influence.
+He had never known himself what had happened that terrible night, but
+the tragedy of his wife's disappearance had cured him. He had made
+every effort to find her and it was many years before he gave up all
+hope. He mourned her bitterly, and worshipped her memory. It was
+impossible not to pity him, for he had expiated his fault with agony
+that few men can have experienced. The thought that he had a son and
+that son her child almost overwhelmed him. He had ardently desired an
+heir, and, thinking himself childless, the fact that his title and his
+old name, of which he was very proud, would die with him had been a
+great grief. His happiness in the knowledge of Ahmed's existence was
+pathetic, he was consumed with impatience for his son's arrival.
+Nothing had been said to Ahmed in case Lord Glencaryll should prove
+difficult to convince and thereby complicate matters, but his ready
+acceptance of the affair and his eagerness to see his son made further
+delay unnecessary, and my father sent for Ahmed. The old Sheik let him
+go in ignorance of what was coming. He had always dreaded the time when
+his adopted son would have to be told of his real parentage, fearful of
+losing him, jealous of sharing his affection and resenting anybody's
+claim to him over his own. And so, with the only instance he ever gave
+of want of moral courage, he sent Ahmed to Paris with no explanation,
+and left to my father the task of breaking to him the news. I shall
+never forget that day. It had been arranged that Ahmed should be told
+first and that afterwards father and son should meet. Ahmed arrived in
+the morning in time for _dejeuner_, and afterwards we went to my
+father's study, and there he told him the whole story as gently and as
+carefully as he could. Ahmed was standing by the window. He never said
+a word the whole time my father was speaking, and when he finished he
+stood quite still for a few moments, his face almost grey under the
+deep tan, his eyes fixed passionately on my father's--and then his
+fiendish temper broke out suddenly. It was a terrible scene. He cursed
+his father in a steady stream of mingled Arabic and French blasphemy
+that made one's blood run cold. He cursed all English people
+impartially. He cursed my father because he had dared to send him to
+England. He cursed me because I had been a party to the affair. The
+only person whom he spared was the Sheik; who after all was as much
+implicated as we were, but he never once mentioned him. He refused to
+see his father, refused to recognise that he was his father, and he
+left the house that afternoon and Paris that night, going straight back
+to the desert, taking with him Gaston, who had arranged some time
+before to enter his service as soon as his time in the cavalry was up.
+A letter that Lord Glencaryll wrote to him, addressed to Viscount
+Caryll, which is, of course, his courtesy title, begging for at least
+an interview, and which he gave to us to forward, was returned
+unopened, and scrawled across the envelope: _'Inconnu._ Ahmed Ben
+Hassan.' And since that day his hatred of the English had been a
+monomania, and he has never spoken a word of English. Later on, when we
+used to travel together, his obvious avoidance of English people was at
+times both awkward and embarrassing, and I have often had to go through
+the farce of translating into French or Arabic remarks made to him by
+English fellow-travellers, that is, when he condescended to notice the
+remarks, which was not often. From the day he learned the truth about
+himself for two years we saw nothing of him. Then the old Sheik asked
+us to visit him. We went with some misgivings as to what Ahmed's
+reception of us would be, but he met us as if nothing had happened. He
+ignored the whole episode and has never referred to it. It is a closed
+incident. The Sheik warned us that Ahmed had told him that any
+reference to it would mean the breaking off of all relations with us.
+But Ahmed himself had changed indescribably. All the lovable qualities
+that had made him so popular in Paris were gone, and he had become the
+cruel, merciless man he has been ever since. The only love left in him
+was given to his adopted father, whom he worshipped. Later I was
+allowed back on the old footing, and he has always been good to Gaston,
+but with those three exceptions he has spared nobody and nothing. He is
+my friend, I love him, and I am not telling you more than you know
+already."
+
+Saint Hubert broke off and looked anxiously at Diana, but she did not
+move or meet his gaze. She was sitting with her hand still clasped over
+the Sheik's and the other one shading her face, and the Vicomte went on
+speaking: "It is so easy to judge, so difficult to understand another
+person's temptations. Ahmed's position has always been a curious one.
+He has had unique temptations with always the means of gratifying
+them."
+
+There was a longer pause, but still Diana did not move or speak.
+
+"The curse of Ishmael had taken hold of me by then and I wandered
+continually. Sometimes Ahmed came with me; we have shot big game
+together in most parts of the globe. A few times he stayed with us in
+Paris, but never for long; he always wearied to get back to the desert.
+Five years ago the old Sheik died; he was an exceptionally strong man,
+and should have lived for years but for an accident which crippled him
+hopelessly and from which he died a few months afterwards. Ahmed's
+devotion during his illness was wonderful. He never left him, and since
+he succeeded to the leadership of the tribe he has lived continuously
+amongst his people, absorbed in them and his horses, carrying on the
+traditions handed down to him by his predecessor and devoting his life
+to the tribe. They are like children, excitable, passionate and
+headstrong, and he has never dared to risk leaving them alone too long,
+particularly with the menace of Ibraheim Omair always in the
+background. He has never been able to seek relaxation further afield
+than Algiers or Oran----" Saint Hubert stopped abruptly, cursing himself
+for a tactless fool. She could not fail to realise the significance of
+those visits to the gay, vicious little towns. The inference was
+obvious. His thoughtless words would only add to her misery. Her
+sensitive mind would shrink from the contamination they implied. If
+Ahmed was going to die, she would be desolate enough without forcing on
+her knowledge the unworthiness of the man she loved. He pushed his
+chair back impatiently and went to the open doorway. He felt that she
+wanted to be alone. She watched him go, then slipped to her knees
+beside the couch.
+
+She had realised the meaning of Raoul's carelessly uttered words and
+they had hurt her poignantly, but it was no new sorrow. He had told her
+himself months ago, callously, brutally, sparing her nothing,
+extenuating nothing. She pressed her cheek against the hand she was
+holding. She did not blame him, she could only love him, no matter what
+his life had been. It was Ahmed as he was she loved, his faults, his
+vices were as much a part of him as his superb physique and the
+alternating moods that had been so hard to meet. She had never known
+him otherwise. He seemed to stand alone, outside the prescribed
+conventions that applied to ordinary men. The standards of common usage
+did not appear compatible with the wild desert man who was his own law
+and followed only his own precedent, defiant of social essentials and
+scornful of criticism. The proud, fierce nature and passionate temper
+that he had inherited, the position of despotic leadership in which he
+had been reared, the adulation of his followers and the savage life in
+the desert, free from all restraint, had combined to produce the
+haughty unconventionalism that would not submit to the ordinary rules
+of life. She could not think of him as an Englishman. The mere accident
+of his parentage was a factor that weighed nothing. He was and always
+would be an Arab of the wilderness. If he lived! He _must_ live!
+He could not go out like that, his magnificent strength and fearless
+courage extinguished by a treacherous blow that had not dared to meet
+him face to face--in spite of the overwhelming numbers--but had struck
+him down from behind, a coward stroke. He must live, even if his life
+meant death to her hopes of happiness; that was nothing compared with
+his life. She loved him well enough to sacrifice anything for him. If
+he only lived she could bear even to be put out of his life. It was
+only he that mattered, his life was everything. He was so young, so
+strong, so made to live. He had so much to live for. He was essential
+to his people. They needed him. If she could only die for him. In the
+days when the world was young the gods were kind, they listened to the
+prayers of hapless lovers and accepted the life that was offered in
+place of the beloved whose life was claimed. If God would but listen to
+her now. If He would but accept her life in exchange for his. If----!
+if----!
+
+Her fingers crept up lightly across his breast, fearful lest even their
+tender touch should injure his battered body, and she looked long and
+earnestly at him. His crisp brown hair was hidden by the bandages that,
+dead white against his tanned face, swathed his bruised head. His
+closed eyes with the thick dark lashes curling on his cheek, hiding the
+usual fierce expression that gleamed in them, and the relaxation of the
+hard lines of his face made him look singularly young. That youthful
+look had been noticeable often when he was asleep, and she had watched
+it wondering what Ahmed the boy had been like before he grew into the
+merciless man at whose hands she had suffered so much.
+
+And now the knowledge of his boyhood seemed to make him even dearer
+than he had been before. What sort of man would he have been if the
+little dark-eyed mother had lived to sway him with her gentleness? Poor
+little mother, helpless and fragile!--yet strong enough to save her boy
+from the danger that she feared for him, but paying the price of that
+strength with her life, content that her child was safe.
+
+Diana thought of her own mother dying in the arms of a husband who
+adored her, and then of the little Spanish girl slipping away from
+life, a stranger in a strange land, her heart crying out for the
+husband whom she still loved, turning in ignorance of his love for
+consolation in the agony of death to the lover she had denied, and
+seeking comfort in his arms. A sudden jealousy of the two dead women
+shook her. They had been loved. Why could not she be loved? Wherein did
+she fail that he would not love her? Other men had loved her, and his
+love was all she longed for in the world. To feel his arms around her
+only once with love in their touch, to see his passionate eyes kindle
+only once with the light she prayed for. She drew a long sobbing
+breath. "Ahmed, _mon bel Arabe_," she murmured yearningly.
+
+She rose to her feet. She was afraid of breaking down, of giving way to
+the fear and anxiety that racked her. She turned instinctively to the
+help and sympathy that offered and went to Saint Hubert, joining him
+under the awning. Usually at night the vicinity of the Sheik's tent was
+avoided by the tribesmen, even the sentry on guard was posted at some
+little distance. Kopec curled up outside the doorway kept ample watch.
+But to-night the open space was swarming with men, some squatting on
+the ground in circles, others clustered together in earnest
+conversation, and far off through the palm trees she caught an
+occasional glimpse of mounted men. Yusef and the headmen acting under
+him were taking no risks, there was to be no chance of a surprise
+attack.
+
+"You must be very tired, Raoul," she said, slipping her hand through
+his arm, for her need was almost as much for physical as mental
+support. The frank touch of her hand sent a quiver through him, but he
+suppressed it, and laid his own hand over her cold fingers.
+
+"I must not think of that yet. Later on, perhaps, I can rest a little.
+Henri can watch; he is almost as good a doctor as I am, the
+incomparable Henri! Ahmed and I have always quarrelled over the
+respective merits of our servants."
+
+He felt her hand tighten on his arm at the mention of the Sheik's name
+and heard the smothered sigh that she choked back. They stood in
+silence for a while watching the shifting groups of tribesmen. A little
+knot of low-voiced men near them opened up, and one of their number
+came to Saint Hubert with an inquiry.
+
+"The men are restless." Raoul said when the Arab had gone back to his
+fellows with all the consolation the Vicomte could give him. "Their
+devotion is very strong. Ahmed is a god to them. Their anxiety takes
+them in a variety of ways. Yusef, who has been occupied with his duties
+most of the day, has turned to religion for the first time in his life,
+he has gone to say his prayers with the pious Abdul, as he thinks that
+Allah is more likely to listen if his petitions go heavenward in
+company with the holy man's."
+
+Diana's thoughts strayed back to the story that Saint Hubert had told
+her. "Does Lord Glencaryll know that you see Ahmed?" she asked.
+
+"Oh yes. He and my father became great friends. He often stays with us
+in Paris. We are a link between him and Ahmed. He is always hungry for
+any news of him, and still clings to the hope that one day he will
+relent. He has never made any further effort to open up relations with
+him because he knows it would be useless. If there is to be any
+_rapprochement_ between them it must come from Ahmed. They have
+almost met accidentally once or twice, and Glencaryll has once seen
+him. It was at the opera. He was staying in Paris for some months and
+had a box. I had gone across from our own box on the other side of the
+house to speak to him. There were several people with him. I was
+standing beside him, talking. Ahmed had just come into our box opposite
+and was standing right in the front looking over the theatre. Something
+had annoyed him and he was scowling. The likeness was unmistakable.
+Glencaryll gave a kind of groan and staggered back against me. 'Good
+God! Who is that?' he said, and I don't think he knew he was speaking
+out loud.
+
+"A man next him looked in the direction he was looking and laughed.
+'That's the Saint Huberts' wild man of the desert. Looks fierce,
+doesn't he? The women call him "_le bel Arabe_." He certainly
+wears European clothes with better grace than most natives. He is said
+to have a peculiar hatred of the English, so you'd better give him a
+wide berth, Glencaryll, if you don't want to be bow-stringed or have
+your throat cut, or whatever fancy form of death the fellow cultivates
+in his native habitat. Raoul can tell you all about him.'
+
+"There was not any need for me to tell him. Fortunately the opera began
+and the lights went down, and I persuaded him to go away before the
+thing was over."
+
+Diana gave a little shiver. She felt a great sympathy coming over her
+for the lonely old man, hoping against hope for the impossible, that
+she had not felt earlier in the evening. He, too, was wearing his heart
+out against the inflexible will of Ahmed Ben Hassan.
+
+She shivered again and turned back into the tent with Saint Hubert.
+They halted by the couch and stood for a long time in silence. Then
+Diana slowly raised her head and looked up into Raoul's face, and he
+read the agonised question in her eyes.
+
+"I don't know," he said gently. "All things are with Allah."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+
+The night grew hotter and the atmosphere more oppressive. Wrapped in a
+thin silk kimono Diana lay very still on the outside of the wide couch
+in the inner room, propped high with pillows that the shaded light of
+the little reading-lamp beside her might fall on the book she held, but
+she was not reading.
+
+It was Raoul's latest book, that he had brought with him, but she could
+not concentrate her mind on it, and it lay idle on her knee--while her
+thoughts were far away. It was three months since the night that Saint
+Hubert had almost given up hope of being able to save the Sheik's
+life--a night that had been followed by days of suspense that had
+reduced Diana to a weary-eyed shadow of her former vigorous self, and
+had left marks on Raoul that would never be effaced. But thanks to his
+great strength and splendid constitution the Sheik had rallied and
+after the first few weeks convalescence had been rapid. When the
+terrible fear that he might die was past it had been a wonderful
+happiness to wait on him. With the determination to live for the
+moment, to which she had forced herself, she had banished everything
+from her mind but the joy of being near him and of being necessary to
+him. It had been a very silent service, for he would lie for hours with
+closed eyes without speaking, and something that she could not master
+kept her tongue-tied in his presence when they were alone. Only once he
+had referred to the raid. As she bent over him to do some small office
+his fingers closed feebly round her wrist and his eyes, with a
+searching apprehension in them, looked into hers for the first time
+since the night when she had fled from his curses.
+
+"Was it--in time?" he whispered slowly, and as she nodded with crimson
+cheeks and lowered eyes he turned his head away without another word,
+but a shudder that he was too weak to control shook him.
+
+But the happiness of ministering to him passed very swiftly. As he grew
+stronger he managed so that she was rarely alone with him, and he
+insisted on her riding twice every day, sometimes with Saint Hubert,
+sometimes with Henri, coolly avowing a preference for his own society
+or that of Gaston, who was beginning to get about again. Later, too, he
+was much occupied with headmen who came in from the different camps,
+and as the days passed she found herself more and more excluded from
+the intimacy that had been so precious. She was thrown much into the
+society of Raoul de Saint Hubert. All that they had gone through
+together had drawn them very closely to each other, and Diana often
+wondered what her girlhood would have been like if it had been spent
+under his guardianship instead of that of Sir Aubrey Mayo. The sisterly
+affection she had never given her own brother she gave to him, and,
+with the firm hold over himself that he had never again slackened, the
+Vicomte accepted the role of elder brother which she unconsciously
+imposed on him.
+
+It was hard work sometimes, and there were days when he dreaded the
+daily rides, when the strain seemed almost more than he could bear, and
+he began to make tentative suggestions about resuming his wanderings,
+but always the Sheik pressed him to stay.
+
+Ahmed Ben Hassan's final recovery was quick, and the camp soon settled
+down into normal conditions. The reinforcements were gone back to the
+different camps from which they had been drawn. There was no further
+need of them. Ibraheim Omair's tribe, with their leader dead, had
+broken up and scattered far to the south; there was no chief to keep
+them together and no headman strong enough to draw them round a new
+chieftain, for Ibraheim had allowed no member of his tribe to attain
+any degree of wealth or power that might prove him a rival; so they had
+split up into numerous small bands lacking cohesion. In fulfilling the
+vow made to his predecessor Ahmed Ben Hassan had cleared the desert of
+a menace that had hung over it for many years.
+
+The relations between the Sheik and Saint Hubert had gone back to what
+they had been the night of Raoul's arrival, before his candid criticism
+had roused the Sheik's temper and fired his jealousy. The recollection
+of the miserable week that had preceded the raid had been wiped out in
+all that had followed it. No shadow could ever come between them again
+since Raoul had voluntarily stood on one side and sacrificed his own
+chance of happiness for his friend's.
+
+And with the Sheik's complete recovery his attitude towards Diana had
+reverted to the cold reserve that had chilled her before--a reserve
+that was as courteous as it was indifferent. He had avoided her as much
+as had been possible, and the continual presence of Saint Hubert had
+been a barrier between them. Unostensibly but effectually he had
+contrived that Raoul should never leave them alone. Though he included
+her in the general conversation he rarely spoke to her directly, and
+often she found him looking at her with his fierce eyes filled with an
+expression that baffled her, and as each time the quick blood rushed
+into her face his forehead drew together in the heavy frown that was so
+characteristic. During meals it was Raoul that kept the conversation
+from lapsing with ready tact and an eloquent flow of words, ranging
+over many subjects. In the evening the men became immersed in the
+projection of Saint Hubert's new book, for details of which he was
+drawing on the Sheik's knowledge, and long after Diana left them she
+could hear the two voices, both deep and musical, but Raoul's quicker
+and more emphatic, continuously rising and falling, till at last Raoul
+would go to his own tent and Gaston would come--noiseless and
+soft-toned as his master. Ordinarily the Sheik dispensed with him at
+night, but since his wound, the valet, as soon as he had himself
+recovered, had always been in attendance. Some nights he lingered
+talking, and others the Sheik dismissed him in a few minutes with only
+a curt word or two, and then there would be silence, and Diana would
+bury her face in her pillow and writhe in her desperate loneliness,
+sick with longing for the strong arms she had once dreaded and the
+kisses she had once loathed. He had slept in the outer room since his
+illness, and tossing feverishly on the soft cushions of the big empty
+bed in which she lay alone Diana had suffered the greatest humiliation
+she had yet experienced. He had never loved her, but now he did not
+even want her. She was useless to him. She was less than nothing to
+him. He had no need of her. She would lie awake listening wearily to
+the tiny chimes of the little clock with the bitter sense of her
+needlessness crushing her. She was humbled to the very dust by his
+indifference. The hours of loneliness in the room that was redolent
+with associations of him were filled with memories that tortured her.
+In her fitful sleep her dreams were agonies from which she awakened
+with shaking limbs and shuddering breath, and waking, her hand would
+stretch out groping to him till remembrance came with cruel vividness.
+
+In the daytime, too, she had been much alone, for as soon as the Sheik
+was strong enough to sit in the saddle the two men had ridden far
+afield every day, visiting the outlying camps and drawing into Ahmed
+Ben Hassan's own hands again the affairs that had had to be relegated
+to the headmen.
+
+At last Raoul had announced that his visit could be protracted no
+longer and that he must resume his journey to Morocco. He was going up
+to Oran and from there to Tangier by coasting steamer, collecting at
+Tangier a caravan for his expedition through Morocco. His decision once
+made he had speeded every means of getting away with a despatch that
+had almost suggested flight.
+
+To Diana his going meant the hastening of a crisis that could not be
+put off much longer. The situation was becoming impossible. She had
+said good-bye to him the night before. She had never guessed the love
+she had inspired in him, and she wondered at the sadness in his eyes
+and his unaccustomed lack of words. He had wanted to say so much and he
+had said so little. She must never guess and Ahmed must never guess, so
+he played the game to the end. Only that night after she had left them
+the voices sounded in the adjoining room for a very short time. And
+this morning he and Ahmed Ben Hassan had ridden away at daybreak. She
+had not been asleep; she had heard them go, and almost she wished Raoul
+back, for with his presence the vague fear that assailed her seemed
+further away. The camp had seemed very lonely and the day very long.
+
+She had ridden with Gaston, and hurried over her solitary dinner, and
+since then she had been waiting for the Sheik to come back. In what
+mood would he come? Since Raoul's announcement of his departure he had
+been more than usually taciturn and reserved. The book she held slipped
+at length on to the floor, and she let it he unheeded. The usual
+stillness of the desert seemed to-night unusually still-sinister
+even--and the silence was so intense that the sudden squeal of a
+stallion a little distance away made her start with madly racing heart
+Earlier in the evening a tom-tom had been going persistently in the
+men's lines, and later a native pipe had shrilled thinly in monotonous
+cadence; but she had grown accustomed to these sounds; they were of
+nightly occurrence and they soothed rather than irritated her, and when
+they stopped the quiet had become intensified to such a degree that she
+would have welcomed any sound. To-night her nerves were on edge. She was
+restless and excited, and her thoughts were chaos.
+
+She was alone again at his mercy. What would his attitude be? Her hands
+clenched on her knees. At times she lay almost without breathing,
+straining to hear the faintest sound that would mean his return, and
+then again lest she should hear what she listened for. She longed for
+him passionately, and at the same time she was afraid, He had changed
+so much that there were moments when she had the curious feeling that
+it was a stranger who was coming back to her, and she both dreaded his
+coming and yearned for it with a singular combination of emotions. She
+looked round the room where she had at once suffered so much and been
+so happy with troubled eyes. She had never been nervous before, but
+to-night her imagination ran riot. There was electricity in the air
+which acted on her overstrung nerves. The little shaded lamp threw a
+circle of light round the bed, but left the rest of the room dim, and
+the dusky corners seemed full of odd new shadows that came and went
+illusively. Hangings and objects that were commonly familiar to her
+took on fantastic shapes that she watched nervously, till at last she
+brushed her hand across her eyes with a laugh of angry impatience. Was
+the love that had changed her so completely also making her a coward?
+Had even her common-sense been lost in the one great emotion that held
+her? She understood perfectly the change that had taken place in her.
+She had never had any illusions about herself, and had never attempted
+to curb the obstinate self-will and haughty pride that had
+characterized her. She thought of it curiously, her mind going back
+over the last few months that had changed her whole life. The last mad
+freak for which she had paid so dearly had been the outcome of an
+arrogant determination to have her own way in the face of all protests
+and advice. And with a greater arrogance and a determination stronger
+than her own Ahmed Ben Hassan had tamed her as he tamed the magnificent
+horses that he rode. He had been brutal and merciless, using no half
+measures, forcing her to obedience by sheer strength of will and
+compelling a complete submission. She thought of how she had feared and
+hated him with passionate intensity, until the hatred had been swamped
+by love as passionate and as intense. She did not know why she loved
+him, she had never been able to analyse the passion that held her so
+strongly, but she knew deep down in her heart that it went now far past
+his mere physical beauty and superb animal strength. She loved him
+blindly with a love that had killed her pride and brought her to his
+feet humbly obedient. All the love that had lain dormant in her heart
+for years was given to him. Body and soul she belonged to him. And the
+change within her was patent in her face, the haughty expression in her
+eyes had turned to a tender wistfulness, with a curious gleam of
+expectancy that flickered in them perpetually; the little mutinous
+mouth had lost the scornful curve. And with the complete change in her
+expression she was far more beautiful now than she had ever been. But
+with her love was the fear of him that she had learned during the first
+hours of her captivity, the physical fear that she had never lost, even
+during the happy weeks that had preceded the coming of Saint Hubert,
+and the greater fear that was with her always, and that at times drove
+her, with wide-stricken eyes, wildly to pace the tent as if to escape
+the shadow that hung over her--the fear of the time when he should tire
+of her. The thought racked her, and now, as always, she tried to put it
+from her, but it continued, persistently haunting her like a grim
+spectre. Always the same thought tortured her--he had not taken her for
+love. No higher motive than a passing fancy had stirred him. He had
+seen her, had wished for her and had taken her, and once in his power
+it had amused him to break her to his hand. She realised all that. And
+he had been honest, he had never pretended to love her. Often when the
+humour took him he could be gentle, as in those last few weeks, but
+gentleness was not love, and she had never seen the light that she
+longed for kindle in his eyes. His caresses had been passionate or
+careless with his mood. She did not know that he loved her. She had not
+been with him during the long hours of his delirium and she had not
+heard what Raoul de Saint Hubert had heard. And since his recovery his
+attitude of aloofness had augmented her fear. There seemed only one
+construction to put on his silence, and his studied and obvious
+avoidance of her. The passing fancy had passed. It was as if the
+fleeting passion he had had for her had been drained from him with the
+blood that flowed from the terrible wound he had received. He was tired
+of her and seeking for a means to disembarrass himself of her. Vaguely
+she felt that she had known this for weeks, but to-night was the first
+time that she had had courage to be frank with herself. It must be so.
+Everything pointed to it; the curious expression she had seen in his
+eyes and his constant heavy frown all confirmed it. She flung her arm
+across her eyes with a little moan. He was tired of her and the bottom
+had fallen out of her world. The instinct to fight for his love that
+had been so strong in her the day that Ibraheim Omair had captured her
+had died with the death of all her hopes. Her spirit was broken. She
+knew that her will was helpless against his, and with a fatalism that
+she had learned in the desert she accepted the inevitable with a
+crushed feeling of hopelessness.
+
+She wondered numbly what would become of her. It did not seem to matter
+much. Nothing mattered now that he did not want her any more. The old
+life was far away, in another world. She could never go back to it. She
+did not care. It was nothing to her. It was only here in the desert, in
+Ahmed Ben Hassan's arms, that she had become alive, that she had
+learned what life really meant, that she had waked both to happiness
+and sorrow.
+
+The future stretched out blank and menacing before her, but she turned
+from it with a great sob of despair. It was on him that her thoughts
+were fixed. How would life be endurable without him? Dully she wondered
+why she did not hate him for having done to her what he had done, for
+having made her what she was. But nothing that he could do could kill
+the love now that he had inspired. And she would never regret. She
+would always have the memory of the fleeting happiness that had been
+hers--in after years that memory would be all that she would have to
+live for. Even in her heart she did not reproach him, there was no
+bitterness in her misery. She had always known that it would come,
+though she had fenced with it, shutting it out of her mind resolutely.
+He had never led her to expect anything else. There was no link to
+bring them closer together, no bond between them. If she could have had
+the promise of a child. Alone though she was the sensitive colour
+flamed into her cheeks, and she hid her face in the pillows with a
+quivering sob. A child that would be his and hers, a child--a boy with
+the same passionate dark eyes, the same crisp brown hair, the same
+graceful body, who would grow up as tall and strong, as brave and
+fearless as his father. Surely he must love her then. Surely the memory
+of his own mother's tragic history would make him merciful to the
+mother of his son. But she had no hope of that mercy. She lay shaking
+with passionate yearning and the storm of bitter tears that swept over
+her, hungry for the clasp of his arms, faint with longing. The pent-up
+misery of weeks that she had crushed down surged over. There was nobody
+to hear the agonising sobs that shook her from head to foot. She could
+relax the control that she had put upon herself and which had seemed to
+be slowly turning her to stone. She could give way to the emotion that,
+suppressed, had welled up choking in her throat and gripped her
+forehead like red-hot bands eating into her brain. Tears were not easy
+to her. She had not wept since that first night when, with the fear of
+worse than death, she had grovelled at his feet, moaning for mercy. She
+had not wept during the terrible hours she was in the power of Ibraheim
+Omair, nor during the days that Raoul de Saint Hubert had fought for
+his friend's life. But to-night the tears that all her life she had
+despised would not be denied. Tortured with conflicting emotions,
+unsatisfied love, fear and uncertainty, utterly unnerved, she gave
+herself up at last to the feelings she could no longer restrain. Prone
+on the wide bed, her face buried in the pillows, her hands clutching
+convulsively at the silken coverings, she wept until she had no more
+tears, until the anguished, sobs died away into silence and she lay
+quiet, exhausted.
+
+She wrestled with herself. The weakness that she had given way to must
+be conquered. She knew that, without any possibility of doubt, his
+coming would seal her fate--whatever it was to be. She must wait until
+then. A long, shuddering sigh ran through her. "Ahmed! Ahmed Ben
+Hassan," she murmured slowly, lingering with wistful tenderness on the
+words. She pressed her face closer into the cushions, clasping her
+hands over her head, and for a long time lay very still. The heat was
+intense and every moment the tent seemed to grow more airless. The room
+was stifling, and, with a little groan, Diana sat up, pushing the heavy
+hair oft her damp forehead, and covered her flushed face with her
+hands. A cicada began its shrill note close by, chirping with maddening
+persistency. Quite suddenly her mind was filled with thoughts of her
+own people, the old home in England, the family for whose honour her
+ancestors had been so proudly jealous. Even Aubrey, lazy and
+self-indulgent as he was, prized the family honour as he prized nothing
+else on earth; and now she, proud Diana Mayo, who had the history of
+her race at her fingers' ends, who had gloried in the long line of
+upright men and chaste women, had no thankfulness in her heart that in
+her degradation she had been spared a crowning shame. Beside her love
+everything dwindled into nothingness. He was her life, he filled her
+horizon. Honour itself was lost in the absorbing passion of her love.
+He had stripped it from her and she was content that it should lie at
+his feet. He had made her nothing, she was his toy, his plaything,
+waiting to be thrown aside. She shuddered again and looked around the
+tent that she had shared with him with a bitter smile and sad, hunted
+eyes.... After her--who? The cruel thought persisted. She was torn with
+a mad, primitive jealousy, a longing to kill the unknown woman who
+would inevitably succeed her, a desire that grew until a horror of her
+own feelings seized her, and she shrank down, clasping her hands over
+her ears to shut out the insidious voice that seemed actually
+whispering beside her. The Persian hound in the next room had whined
+uneasily from time to time, and now he pushed his way past the curtain
+and stalked across the thick rugs. He nuzzled his shaggy head against
+her knee, whimpering unhappily, looking up into her face. And when she
+noticed him he reared up and flung his long body across her lap,
+thrusting his wet nose into her face. She caught his head in her hands
+and rubbed her cheek against his rough hair, crooning over him softly.
+Even the dog was comfort in her loneliness, and they both waited for
+their master.
+
+She pushed him down at length, and with her hand on his collar went
+into the other room. A solitary lamp burned dimly. She crossed to the
+doorway and pulled aside the flap, and a small, white-clad figure rose
+up before her.
+
+"Is that you, Gaston?" she asked involuntarily, though she knew that
+the question was unnecessary, for he always slept across the entrance
+to the tent when the Sheik was away.
+
+"_A votre service, Madame_."
+
+For a few minutes she did not speak, and Gaston stood silent beside
+her. She might have remembered that he was there. He never stirred far
+beyond the sound of her voice whenever she was alone in the camp. He
+was always waiting, unobtrusive, quick to carry out her requests, even
+to anticipate them. With him standing beside her she thought of the
+time when they had fought side by side--all difference in rank eclipsed
+in their common danger. The servant had been merged into the man, and a
+man who had the courage to do what he had attempted when he had faced
+her at what had seemed the last moment with his revolver clenched in a
+hand that had not shaken, a man at whose side and by whose hand she
+would have been proud to die. They were men, these desert dwellers,
+master and servants alike; men who endured, men who did things, inured
+to hardships, imbued with magnificent courage, splendid healthy
+animals. There was nothing effete or decadent about the men with whom
+Ahmed Ben Hassan surrounded himself.
+
+Diana had always liked Gaston; she had been touched by his unvarying
+respectful attitude that had never by a single word or look conveyed
+the impression that he was aware of her real position in his master's
+camp. He treated her as if she were indeed what from the bottom of her
+heart she wished she was. He was solicitous without being officious,
+familiar with no trace of impertinence, He was Diana's first experience
+of a class of servant that still lingers in France, a survival of
+pre-Revolution days, who identify themselves entirely with the family
+they serve, and in Gaston's case this interest in his master had been
+strengthened by experiences shared and dangers faced which had bound
+them together with a tie that could never be broken and had raised
+their relations on to a higher plane than that of mere master and man.
+Those relations had at first been a source of perpetual wonder to
+Diana, brought up in the rigid atmosphere of her brother's
+establishment, where Aubrey's egoism gave no opportunity for anything
+but conventional service, and in their wanderings, where personal
+servants had to be often changed. Even Stephens was, in Aubrey's eyes,
+a mere machine.
+
+Very soon after she had been brought to Ahmed Ben Hassan's camp she had
+realised that Gaston's devotion to the Sheik had been extended to
+herself, but since the night of the raid he had frankly worshipped her.
+
+It was very airless even out-of-doors. She peered into the darkness,
+but there was little light from the tiny crescent moon, and she could
+see nothing. She moved a few steps forward from under the awning to
+look up at the brilliant stars twinkling overhead. She had watched them
+so often from Ahmed Ben Hassan's arms; they had become an integral part
+of the passionate Oriental nights. He loved them, and when the mood was
+on him, watched them untiringly, teaching her to recognise them, and
+telling her countless Arab legends connected with them, sitting under
+the awning far info the night, till gradually his voice faded away from
+her ears, and long after she was asleep he would sit on motionless,
+staring up into the heavens, smoking endless cigarettes. Would it be
+given to her ever to watch them again sparkling against the
+blue-blackness of the sky, with the curve of his arm round her and the
+steady beat of his heart under her cheek? A stab of pain went: through
+her. Would anything ever be the same again? Everything had changed
+since the coming of Raoul de Saint Hubert. A weary sigh broke from her
+lips.
+
+"Madam is tired?" a respectful voice murmured at her ear.
+
+Diana started. She had forgotten the valet. "It is so hot. The tent was
+stifling," she said evasively.
+
+Gaston's devotion was of a kind that sought practical demonstration.
+"_Madame veut du cafe?_" he suggested tentatively. It was his
+universal panacea, but at the moment it sounded almost grotesque.
+
+Diana felt an hysterical desire to laugh which nearly turned into
+tears, but she checked herself. "No, it is too late."
+
+"In one little moment I will bring it," Gaston urged persuasively,
+unwilling to give up his own gratification in serving her.
+
+"No, Gaston. It makes me nervous," she said gently.
+
+Gaston heaved quite a tragic sigh. His own nerves were steel and his
+capacity for imbibing large quantities of black coffee at any hour of
+the day or night unlimited.
+
+"_Une limonade_?" he persisted hopefully.
+
+She let him bring the cool drink more for his pleasure than for her
+own. "Monseigneur is late," she said slowly, straining her eyes again
+into the darkness.
+
+"He will come," replied Gaston confidently. "Kopec is restless, he is
+always so when Monseigneur is coming."
+
+She looked down for a moment thoughtfully at the dim shape of the hound
+lying at the man's feet, and then with a last upward glance at the
+bright stars turned back into the tent. All her nervous fears had
+vanished in speaking to Gaston, who was the embodiment of practical
+common sense; earlier, when unreasoning terror had taken such a hold on
+her, she had forgotten that he was within call, faithful and devoted.
+She picked up the fallen book, and lying down again forced herself to
+read, but though her eyes followed the lines mechanically she did not
+sense what she was reading, and all the time her ears were strained to
+catch the earliest sound of his coming.
+
+At last it came. Only a suggestion at first--a wave of thought caught
+by her waiting brain, an instinctive intuition, and she started up
+tense with expectancy, her lips parted, her eyes wide, hardly
+breathing, listening intently. And when he came it was with unexpected
+suddenness, for, in the darkness, the little band of horsemen were
+invisible until they were right on the camp, and the horses' hoofs made
+no sound. The stir caused by his arrival died away quickly. For a
+moment there was a confusion of voices, a jingle of accoutrements, one
+of the horses whinnied, and then in the ensuing silence she heard him
+come into the tent. Her heart raced suffocatingly. There was a murmur
+of conversation, the Sheik's low voice and Gaston's quick animated
+tones answering him, and then the servant hurried out. Acutely
+conscious of every sound, she waited motionless, her hands gripping the
+soft mattress until her fingers cramped, breathing in long, painful
+gasps as she tried to stop the laboured beating of her heart. In spite
+of the heat a sudden coldness crept over her, and she shivered
+violently from time to time. Her face was quite white, even her lips
+were colourless and her eyes, fixed on the curtain which divided the
+two rooms, glittered feverishly. With her intimate knowledge every
+movement in the adjoining room was as perceptible as if she had seen
+it. He was pacing up and down as he had paced on the night when
+Gaston's fate was hanging in the balance, as he always paced when he
+was deliberating anything, and the scent of his cigarette filled her
+room. Once he paused near the communicating curtain and her heart gave
+a wild leap, but after a moment he moved away. He stopped again at the
+far end of the tent, and she knew from the faint metallic click that he
+was loading his revolver. She heard him lay it down on the little
+writing-table, and then the steady tramping began once more. His
+restlessness made her uneasy. He had been in the saddle since early
+dawn. Saint Hubert had advised him to be careful for some weeks yet. It
+was imprudent not to rest when opportunity offered. He was so careless
+of himself. She gave a quick, impatient sigh, and the tender light in
+her eyes deepened into an anxiety that was half maternal. In spite of
+his renewed strength and his laughing protests at Raoul's warnings,
+coupled with a physical demonstration on his less muscular friend that
+had been very conclusive, she could never forget that she had seen him
+lying helpless as a child, too weak even to raise his hand. Nothing
+could ever take the remembrance from her, and nothing could ever alter
+the fact that in his weakness he had been dependent on her. She had
+been necessary to him then. She had a moment's fierce pleasure in the
+thought, but it faded as suddenly as it had come. It had been an
+ephemeral happiness.
+
+At last she heard the divan creak under his weight, but not until
+Gaston came back bringing his supper. As he ate he spoke, and his first
+words provoked an exclamation of dismay from the Frenchman, which was
+hastily smothered with a murmured apology, and then Diana became aware
+that others had come into the room. He spoke to each in turn, and she
+recognised Yusef's clear, rather high-pitched voice arguing with the
+taciturn head camelman, whose surly intonations and behaviour matched
+the bad-tempered animals to whom he was devoted, until a word from
+Ahmed Ben Hassan silenced them both. There were two more who received
+their orders with only a grunt of acquiescence.
+
+Presently they went out, but Yusef lingered, talking volubly, half in
+Arabic, half in French, but lapsing more and more into the vernacular
+as he grew excited. Even in the midst of her trouble the thought of him
+sent a little smile to Diana's lips. She could picture him squatting
+before the Sheik, scented and immaculate, his fine eyes rolling, his
+slim hands waving continually, his handsome face alight with boyish
+enthusiasm and worship. At last he, too, went, and only Gaston
+remained, busy with the _cafetiere_ that was his latest toy. The
+aroma of the boiling coffee filled the tent. She could imagine the
+servant's deft fingers manipulating the fragile glass and silver
+appliance. She could hear the tinkle of the spoon as he moved the cup,
+the splash of the coffee as he poured it out, the faint sound of the
+cup being placed on the inlaid table. Why was Ahmed drinking French
+coffee when he always complained it kept him awake? At night he was in
+the habit of taking the native preparation. Surely to-night he had need
+of sleep. It was the hardest day he had had since his illness. For a
+few moments longer Gaston moved about the outer room, and from the
+sound Diana guessed that he was collecting on to a tray the various
+things that had to be removed. Then his voice, louder than he had
+spoken before:
+
+_"Monseigneur desir d'autre chose?"_
+
+The Sheik must have signed in the negative, for there was no audible
+answer.
+
+_"Bon soir, Monseigneur."_
+
+_"Bon soir, Gaston."_
+
+Diana drew a quick breath. While the man was still in the adjoining
+room the moment for which she was waiting seemed interminable. And now
+she wished he had not gone. He stood between her and--what? For the
+first time since the coming of Saint Hubert she was alone with him,
+really alone. Only a curtain separated them, a curtain that she could
+not pass. She longed to go to him, but she did not dare. She was pulled
+between love and fear, and for the moment fear was in the ascendant.
+She shivered, and a sob rose in her throat as the memory came to her of
+another night during those two months of happiness, that were fast
+becoming like a wonderful dream, when he had ridden in late. After
+Gaston left she had gone to him, flushed and bright-eyed with sleep,
+and he had pulled her down on to his knee, and made her share the
+native coffee she detested, laughing boyishly at her face of disgust.
+And, holding her in his arms with her head on his shoulder, he had told
+her all the incidents of the day's visit to one of the other camps, and
+from his men and his horses drifted almost insensibly into details
+connected with his own plans for the future, which were really the
+intimate confidences of a husband to a wife who is also a comrade. The
+mingled pain and pleasure of the thought had made her shiver, and he
+had started up, declaring that she was cold, and, lifting her till his
+cheek was resting on hers, carried her back into the other room.
+
+But what she had done then was impossible now. He seemed so utterly
+strange, so different from the man whom she thought she had grown to
+understand. She was all at sea. She was desperately tired, her head
+aching and confused with the terrible problems of the future. She dared
+not think any more. She only wanted to lie in his arms and sob her
+heart out against his. She was starving for the touch of his hands,
+suffering horribly.
+
+She slid down on to her knees, burying her face in the couch.
+
+"Oh, God! Give me his love!" she kept whispering in agonised entreaty,
+until the recollection of the night, months before, when in the same
+posture she had prayed that God's curse might fall on him, sent a
+shudder through her.
+
+"I didn't mean if," she moaned. "Oh, clear God! I didn't mean it. I
+didn't know.... Take it back. I didn't mean it."
+
+She choked down the sobs that rose, pressing her face closer into the
+silken coverings.
+
+There was silence in the next room except for the striking of a match
+that came with monotonous regularity. And always the peculiar scent of
+his tobacco drifting in through the heavy curtains, forcing a hundred
+recollections with the association of its perfume. Why didn't he come
+to her? Did he know how he was torturing her? Was he so utterly
+indifferent that he did not care what she suffered? Did he even think
+of her, to wonder if she suffered or not? The fear of the future rushed
+on her again with overwhelming force. The uncertainty was killing her.
+She raised her head and looked at the travelling clock beside the
+reading-lamp. It was an hour since Gaston had left him. Another hour of
+waiting would drive her mad. She must know what he was going to do. She
+could bear anything but this suspense. She had reached the limit of her
+endurance. She struggled to her feet, drawing the thin wrap closer
+around her. But even then she stood irresolute, dreading the fulfilling
+of her fears; she had not the courage voluntarily to precipitate her
+fate. She clung to her fool's paradise. Her eyes were fixed on the
+clock, watching the hands drag slowly round the dial. A quarter of an
+hour crept past. It seemed the quarter of a lifetime, and Diana brushed
+her hand across her eyes to clear away the dazzling reflection of the
+staring white china face with its long black minute hand. No sound of
+any kind came now from the other room. The silence was driving her
+frantic. She was desperate; she must know, nothing could be worse than
+the agony she was enduring.
+
+She set her teeth and, crossing the room, slipped noiselessly between
+the curtains. Then she shrank back suddenly with her hands over her
+mouth. He was leaning forward on the divan, his elbows on his knees,
+his face hidden in his hands. And it was as a stranger that he had come
+back to her, divested of the flowing robes that had seemed essentially
+a part of him; an unfamiliar figure in silk shirt, riding breeches and
+high brown boots, still dust-covered from the long ride. A thin tweed
+coat lay in a heap on the carpet--he must have flung it off after
+Gaston went, for the valet, with his innate tidiness, would never have
+left it lying on the floor.
+
+She looked at him hungrily, her eyes ranging slowly over the long
+length of him and lingering on his bent head. The light from the
+hanging lamp shone on his thick brown hair burnishing it like bronze.
+She was shaking with a sudden new shyness, but love gave her courage
+and she went to him, her bare feet noiseless on the rugs.
+
+"Ahmed!" she whispered.
+
+He lifted his head slowly and looked at her, and the sight of his face
+sent her on to her knees beside him, her hands clutching the breast of
+his soft shirt.
+
+"Ahmed! What is it?... You are hurt--your wound----?" she cried, her
+voice sharp with anxiety.
+
+He caught her groping hands, and rising, pulled her gently to her feet,
+his fingers clenched round hers, looking down at her strangely. Then he
+turned from her without a word, and wrenching open the flap of the
+tent, flung it back and stood in the open doorway staring out into the
+right. He looked oddly slender and tall silhouetted against the
+darkness. A gleam of perplexity crept into her frightened eyes, and one
+hand went up to her throat.
+
+"What is it?" she whispered again breathlessly.
+
+"It is that we start for Oran to-morrow," he replied. His voice sounded
+dull and curiously unlike, and with a little start Diana realised that
+he was speaking in English. Her eyes closed and she swayed dizzily.
+
+"You are sending me away?" she gasped slowly.
+
+There was a pause before he answered.
+
+"Yes."
+
+The curt monosyllable lashed her like a whip. She reeled under it,
+panting and wild-eyed. "Why?"
+
+He did not answer and the colour flamed suddenly into her face. She
+went closer to him, her breast heaving, trying to speak, but her throat
+was parched and her lips shaking so that no words would come.
+
+"It is because you are tired of me?" she muttered at last hoarsely,
+"--as you told me you would tire, as you tired of--those other women?"
+Her voice died away with an accent of horror in it.
+
+Again he did not answer, but he winced, and his hands that were hanging
+at his sides clenched slowly.
+
+Diana flung one arm across her face to shut him out from her sight. Her
+heart was breaking, and she longed with a feeling of sick misery to
+crawl to his feet, but a remnant of pride kept her back.
+
+He spoke at length in the same level, toneless voice. "I will take you
+to the first desert station outside of Oran, where you can join the
+train. For your own sake I must not be seen with you in Oran, as I am
+known there. If you should by any chance be recognised or your identity
+should leak out, you can say that for reasons of your own you extended
+your trip, that your messages miscarried, anything that occurs to you.
+But it is not at all likely to happen. There are many travellers
+passing through Oran. Gaston can do all business and make all
+arrangements for you. He will take you to Marseilles, and if you need
+him he will go with you to Paris, Cherbourg, or London--whichever you
+wish. As you know, you can trust him absolutely. When you do not need
+him any longer, he will come back to me. I--I will not trouble you any
+more. You need never be afraid that I will come into your life again.
+You can forget these months in the desert and the uncivilised Arab who
+crossed your path. To keep out of your way is the only amends I can
+make."
+
+She flung up her head. Quick, suspicious jealousy and love and pride
+contending nearly choked her. "Why don't you speak the truth?" she
+cried wildly. "Why don't you say what you really mean?--that you have
+no further use for me, that it amused you to take me and torture me to
+satisfy your whim, but the whim is passed. It does not amuse you any
+longer. You are tired of me and so you get rid of me with all
+precautions. Do you think the truth can hurt me? Nothing that you can
+do can hurt me now. You made me the vile thing I am for your pleasure,
+and now for your pleasure you throw me on one side.... How many times a
+year does Gaston take your discarded mistresses back to France?" Her
+voice broke into a terrible laugh.
+
+He swung round swiftly and flung his arms about her, crushing her to
+him savagely, forgetting his strength, his eyes blazing. "God! Do you
+think it is easy to let you go, that you are taunting me like this? Do
+you think I haven't suffered, that I'm not suffering now? Don't you
+know that it is tearing my heart out by the roots to send you away? My
+life will be hell without you. Do you think I haven't realised what an
+infinitely damned brute I've been? I didn't love you when I took you, I
+only wanted you to satisfy the beast in me. And I was glad that you
+were English that I could make you suffer as an Englishman made my
+mother suffer, I so loathed the whole race. I have been mad all my
+life, I think--up till now. I thought I didn't care until the night I
+heard that Ibraheim Omair had got you, and then I knew that if anything
+happened to you the light of my life was out, and that I would only
+wait to kill Ibraheim before I killed myself."
+
+His arms were like a vice hurting her, but they felt like heaven, and
+she clung to him speechless, her heart throbbing wildly. He looked down
+long and deeply into her eyes, and the light in his--the light that she
+had longed for--made her tremble. His brown head bent lower and lower,
+and his lips had almost touched her when he drew back, and the love in
+his eyes faded into misery.
+
+"I mustn't kiss you," he said huskily, as he put her from him gently.
+"I don't think I should have the courage to let you go if I did. I
+didn't mean to touch you."
+
+He turned from her with a little gesture of weariness.
+
+Fear fled back into her eyes. "I don't want to go," she whispered
+faintly.
+
+He paused by the writing-table and took up the revolver he had loaded
+earlier, breaking it absently, spinning the magazine between his finger
+and thumb, and replaced it before answering.
+
+"You don't understand. There is no other way," he said dully.
+
+"If you really loved me you would not let me go," she cried, with a
+miserable sob.
+
+"_If_ I loved you?" he echoed, with a hard laugh. "_If_ I
+loved you! It is because I love you so much that I am able to do it. If
+I loved you a little less I would let you stay and take your chance."
+
+She flung out her hands appealingly. "I want to stay, Ahmed! I love
+you!" she panted, desperate--for she knew his obstinate determination,
+and she saw her chance of happiness slipping away.
+
+He did not move or look at her, and his brows drew together in the
+dreaded heavy frown. "You don't know what you are saying. You don't
+know what it would mean," he replied in a voice from which he had
+forced all expression. "If you married me you would have to live always
+here in the desert. I cannot leave my people, and I am--too much of an
+Arab to let you go alone. It would be no life for you. You think you
+love me now, though God knows how you can after what I have done to
+you, but a time would come when you would find that your love for me
+did not compensate for your life here. And marriage with me is
+unthinkable. You know what I am and what I have been. You know that I
+am not fit to live with, not fit to be near any decent woman. You know
+what sort of a damnable life I have led; the memory of it would always
+come between us--you would never forget, you would never trust me. And
+if you could, of your charity, both forgive and forget, you know that I
+am not easy to live with. You know my devilish temper--it has not
+spared you in the past, it might not spare you in the future. Do you
+think that I could bear to see you year after year growing to hate me
+more? You think that I am cruel now, but I am thinking what is best for
+you afterwards. Some day you will think of me a little kindly because I
+had the strength to let you go. You are so young, your life is only just
+beginning. You are strong enough to put the memory of these last months
+out of your mind--to forget the past and live only for the future. No
+one need ever know. There can be no fear for your--reputation. Things
+are forgotten in the silence of the desert. Mustafa Ali is many hundreds
+of miles away, but not so far that he would dare to talk. My own men
+need not be considered, they speak or are silent as I wish. There is
+only Raoul, and there is no question of him. He has not spared me his
+opinion. You must go back to your own country, to your own people, to
+your own life, in which I have no place or part, and soon all this will
+seem only like an ugly dream."
+
+The sweat was standing out on his forehead and his hands were clenched
+with the effort he was making, but her head was buried in her hands,
+and she did not see the torture in his face, she only heard his soft,
+low voice inexorably decreeing her fate and shutting her out from
+happiness in quiet almost indifferent tones.
+
+She shuddered convulsively. "Ahmed! I go!" she wailed.
+
+He looked up sharply, his face livid, and tore her hands from her face.
+"Good God! You don't mean--I haven't--You aren't----" he gasped hoarsely,
+looking down at her with a great fear in his eyes.
+
+She guessed what he meant and the color rushed into her face. The
+temptation to lie to him and let the consequences rest with the future
+was almost more than she could resist. One little word and she would be
+in his arms ... but afterwards----? It was the fear of the afterwards
+that kept her silent. The colour slowly drained from her face and she
+shook her head mutely.
+
+He let go her wrists with a quick sigh of relief and wiped the
+perspiration from his face. Then he laid his hand on her shoulder and
+pushed her gently towards the inner room. For a moment she resisted,
+her wide, desperate eyes searching his, but he would not meet her look,
+and his mouth was set in the hard straight line she knew so well, and
+with a cry she flung herself on his breast, her face hidden against
+him, her hands clinging round his neck. "Ahmed! Ahmed! You are killing
+me. I cannot live without you. I love you and I want you--only you. I
+am not afraid of the loneliness of the desert, it is the loneliness of
+the world outside the shelter of your arms that I am afraid of. I am
+not afraid of what you are or what you have been. I am not afraid of
+what you might do to me. I never lived until you taught me what life
+was, here in the desert. I can't go back to the old life, Ahmed. Have
+pity on me. Don't shut me out from my only chance of happiness, don't
+send me away. I know you love me--I know! I know! And because I know I
+am not ashamed to beg you to be merciful. I haven't any shame or pride
+left. Ahmed! Speak to me! I can't bear your silence.... Oh! You are
+cruel, cruel!"
+
+A spasm crossed his face, but his mouth set firmer and he disengaged
+her clinging hands with relentless fingers. "I have never been anything
+else," he said bitterly, "but I am willing that you should think me a
+brute now rather than you should live to curse the day you ever saw me.
+I still think that your greater chance of happiness lies away from me
+rather than with me, and for your ultimate happiness I am content to
+sacrifice everything."
+
+He dropped her hands and turned abruptly, going back to the doorway,
+looking out into the darkness. "It is very late. We must start early.
+Go and lie down," he said gently, but it was an order in spite of the
+gentleness of his voice.
+
+She shrank back trembling, with piteous, stricken face and eyes filled
+with a great despair. She knew him and she knew it was the end. Nothing
+would break his resolution. She looked at him with quivering lips
+through a mist of tears, looked at him with a desperate fixedness that
+sought to memorise indelibly his beloved image in her heart. The dear
+head so proudly poised on the broad shoulders, the long strong limbs,
+the slender, graceful body. He was all good to look upon. A man of men.
+Monseigneur! Monseigneur! _Mon maitre et seigneur._ No! It would
+never be that any more. A rush of tears blinded her and she stepped
+back uncertainly and stumbled against the little writing-table. She
+caught at it behind her to steady herself, and her fingers touched the
+revolver he had laid down. The contact of the cold metal sent a chill
+that seemed to strike her heart. She stood rigid, with startled eyes
+fixed on the motionless figure in the doorway--one hand gripping the
+weapon tightly and the other clutching the silken wrap across her
+breast. Her mind raced forward feverishly, there were only a few hours
+left before the morning, before the bitter moment when she must leave
+behind her for ever the surroundings that had become so dear, that had
+been her home as the old castle in England had never been. She thought
+of the long journey northward, the agonised protraction of her misery
+riding beside him, the nightly camps when she would lie alone in the
+little travelling tent, and then the final parting at the wayside
+station, when she would have to watch him wheel at the head of his men
+and ride out of her life, and she would strain her eyes through the
+dust and sand to catch the last glimpse of the upright figure on the
+spirited black horse. It would be The Hawk, she thought suddenly. He
+had ridden Shaitan to-day, and he always used one or other of the two
+for long journeys. It was The Hawk he had ridden the day she had made
+her bid for freedom and who had carried the double burden on the return
+journey when she had found her happiness. The contrast between that
+ride, when she had lain content in the curve of his strong arm, and the
+ride that she would take the next day was poignant. She closed her
+teeth on her trembling lip, her fingers tightened on the stock of the
+revolver, and a wild light came into her sad eyes. She could never go
+through with it. To what end would be the hideous torture? What was
+life without him?--Nothing and less than nothing. She could never give
+herself to another man. She was necessary to no one. Aubrey had no real
+need of her; his selfishness wrapped him around with a complacency that
+abundantly satisfied him. One day, for the sake of the family he would
+marry--perhaps was already married if he had been able to find a woman
+in America who would accept his egoism along with his old name and
+possessions. Her life was her own to deal with. Nobody would be injured
+by its termination. Aubrey, indeed, would benefit considerably. And
+he----? His figure was blurred through the tears that filled her eyes.
+
+Slowly she lifted the weapon clear of the table with steady fingers and
+brought her hand stealthily from behind her. She looked at it for a
+moment dispassionately. She was not afraid. She was conscious only of
+an overwhelming weariness, a longing for rest that should still the
+gnawing pain in her breast and the throbbing in her head.... A flash
+and it would be over, and all her sorrow would melt away.... But would
+it? A doubting fear of the hereafter rushed over her. What if suffering
+lived beyond the border-line? But the fear went as suddenly as it had
+come, for with it came remembrance that in that shadowy world she would
+find one who would understand--her own father, who had shot himself,
+mad with heartbroken despair, when her mother died in giving her birth.
+
+She lifted the revolver to her temple resolutely.
+
+There had been no sound to betray what was passing behind him, but the
+extra sense, the consciousness of imminent danger that was strong in
+the desert-bred man, sprang into active force within the Sheik. He
+turned like a flash and leaped across the space that separated them,
+catching her hand as she pressed the trigger, and the bullet sped
+harmlessly an inch above her head. With his face gone suddenly ghastly
+he wrenched the weapon from her and flung it far into the night.
+
+For a moment they stared into each other's eyes in silence, then, with
+a moan, she slipped from his grasp and fell at his feet in an agony of
+terrible weeping. With a low exclamation he stooped and swept her up
+into his arms, holding her slender, shaking figure with tender
+strength, pressing her head against him, his cheek on her red-gold
+curls.
+
+"My God! child, don't cry so. I can bear anything but that," he cried
+brokenly.
+
+But the terrible sobs went on, and fearfully he caught her closer,
+straining her to him convulsively, raining kisses on her shining hair.
+"_Diane, Diane,_" he whispered imploringly, falling back into the
+soft French that seemed so much more natural. "_Mon amour, ma
+bien-aimee. Ne pleures pas, je t'en prie. Je t'aime, je t'adore. Tu
+resteras pres de moi, tout a moi._"
+
+She seemed only half-conscious, unable to check the emotion that,
+unloosed, overwhelmed her. She lay inert against him, racked with the
+long shuddering sobs that shook her. His firm mouth quivered as he
+looked down at his work. Gathering her up to his heart he carried her
+to the divan, and the weight of her soft slim body sent the blood
+racing madly through his veins. He laid her down, and dropped on his
+knees beside her, his arm wrapped round her, whispering words of
+passionate love.
+
+Gradually the terrible shuddering passed and the gasping sobs died
+away, and she lay still, so still and white that he was afraid. He
+tried to rise to fetch some restorative, but at the first movement she
+clung to him, pressing closer to him. "I don't want anything but you,"
+she murmured almost inaudibly.
+
+His arm tightened round her and he turned her face up to his. Her eyes
+were closed and the wet lashes lay black against her pale cheek. His
+lips touched them pitifully.
+
+"Diane, will you never look at me again?" His voice was almost humble.
+
+Her eyes quivered a moment and them opened slowly, looking up into his
+with a still-lingering fear in them. "You won't send me away?" she
+whispered pleadingly, like a terrified child.
+
+A hard sob broke from him and he kissed her trembling lips fiercely.
+"Never!" he said sternly. "I will never let you go now. My God! If you
+knew how I wanted you. If you knew what it cost me to send you away.
+Pray God I keep you happy. You know the worst of me, poor child--you
+will have a devil for a husband."
+
+The colour stole back slowly into her face and a little tremulous smile
+curved her lips. She slid her arm up and round his neck, drawing his
+head down. "I am not afraid," she murmured slowly. "I am not afraid of
+anything with your arms round me, my desert lover. Ahmed! Monseigneur!"
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Sheik, by E. M. Hull
+
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