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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/23994-8.txt b/23994-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c41b16c --- /dev/null +++ b/23994-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,19825 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, There was a King in Egypt, by Norma Lorimer + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: There was a King in Egypt + + +Author: Norma Lorimer + + + +Release Date: December 26, 2007 [eBook #23994] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THERE WAS A KING IN EGYPT*** + + +E-text prepared by Al Haines + + + +THERE WAS A KING IN EGYPT + +by + +NORMA LORIMER + +Author of + "Catherine Sterling," + "By the Waters of Germany," + "By the Waters of Sicily," + "The Second Woman," + "The Gods' Carnival," + "A Wife Out of Egypt" + "On Desert Altars," + "On Etna," Etc. Etc. + + + + + + + +London +Stanley Paul & Co +31 Essex Street, Strand, W.C.2 + +First published in 1918 + + + + +PREFACE + +The monarch indicated in _There was a King in Egypt_ is Akhnaton, the +heretic Pharaoh, first brought home to the English reader by the well +known Egyptian archaeologist, Mr. Arthur Weigall. Akhnaton, or +Amenhotep IV., has an interest for the whole world as the first +Messiah. Like Our Lord, he was of Syrian parentage--on the mother's +side. Interest in him is undying, because underlying his Sun-symbolism +we have the first foreshadowings of the altruism of Christianity. + +The book is not directly devoted to Akhnaton. It is about a young +English Egyptologist, who is excavating the tomb of Akhnaton's mother, +in which the Pharaoh's exhumed body found its final repose; his sister; +and an Irish mystic, who copies the tomb-paintings excavated before +their freshness fades. Aton-worship and Mohammedanism have an almost +equal fascination for this Irishman, and the romance is permeated with +their mysticism. The prophecies of a Mohammedan saint who has attained +the light by a life of abstinence and self-discipline, influence the +current of the romance no less than the visions of the Pharaoh Messiah, +whose pure religion threatened his country with disasters like the +Russian revolution. + +For the historical facts I am indebted to the brilliant _Akhnaton, +Pharaoh of Egypt_,[1] of Mr. Weigall, late Chief Inspector of Monuments +in Upper Egypt. The character of the Egyptian Messiah has fascinated +me ever since I began to read Egyptian history, and Mr. Weigall writes +with the grace and colour of a Pierre Loti. I have always used his +translations of Akhnaton's words, and very often his own words in +describing Akhnaton. + +I take this opportunity of thanking Mr. Weigall for his ungrudging +permission to quote from him, and I should like him to know that his +book was the inspiration of _There was a King in Egypt_. + +I must also acknowledge my indebtedness to Mr. Walter Tyndall's fine +volume, _Below the Cataracts_,[2]--he is equally successful as author +and artist--for my description of the tomb of Queen Thiy. + +The teachings of the reformed Mohammedanism scattered through my book +are derived from the propaganda works of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, especially +his _Teachings of Islam_.[3] + +I trust that my readers will find the mysticism of the book not a clog +upon the wheels of the romance of Excavation in Egypt, but Virgil's +"vital breeze." + + +NORMA LORIMER. + 7, PITCULLEN TERRACE, PERTH, SCOTLAND. + + + +[1] Published by Wm. Blackwood & Sons. + +[2] Published by Heinemann. + +[3] Published by Dulau. + + + + +THERE WAS A KING IN EGYPT + + +PART I + +CHAPTER I + +Dawn held the world in stillness. In the vast stretches of barren +hills and soft sands there was nothing living or stirring but the +figure of an Englishman, standing at the door of his tent. + +At the hour of sunrise and sunset the East is its own. Every +suggestion of Western influence and foreign invasion is wiped out. The +going and the coming of the sun throws the land of the Pharaohs, the +kingdom of Ra, the great Sun God, whose cradle was at Heliopolis, back +to the days when Egypt was the world; to the days when the sun governed +the religion of her people; to the days when civilization had barely +touched the Mediterranean and the world knew not Rome; back again to +the days when the Nile, the Mother of Life, bordered by bands of +fertile, food-giving land, had not as yet sheltered the infant Moses in +her reeds. Dawn in Egypt is the dawn of civilization. + +Each dawn saw Michael Amory, wrapped in his thickest coat, standing +outside his tent, watching and waiting for the glory of Egypt, for Ra, +the Sun God, to appear above the horizon of the desert. + +To stand alone, nerve-tense and oppressed by the soundless sands, and +surrounded by the Theban Hills, in whose bosoms lie the eternal remains +of the world's first kings, drew him so strongly that, tired as he +might be with his previous day's work, he seldom slept later than the +hour which links us with the day that is past and the morrow which +holds the magic of the future. + +For that half-hour only his higher self was conscious of existence, and +it was infinitely nearer to God than he was aware of. The silence of +the desert and its simplicity, which to the complex mind of Western man +is so mysterious, banished all material thoughts and even the +consciousness of his own body, and left him a naked soul, alone in the +world, encompassed with Divinity, a world whose hills and rolling sands +had known neither labour nor strife, nor the despotism of kings. + +For the dead Pharaohs, lying in their tombs under the hills, in the +grandest monuments ever wrought by the vanity of man, were forgotten. +His long days of labour in their depths might never have been. Man and +his place in the universe were wiped out. + +The cold was intense. Michael shivered and turned up the collar of his +coat. A faint light had appeared on the horizon, a pale streak like a +silver thread, which widened and widened until it spread into the +higher heavens; with its spreading the indefinite forms of moving +figures appeared--ghostly figures of dawn. + +Michael knew that they would appear; he knew that, just as soon as the +streak of light grew in width from a faint thread to a wider band, he +would see them, dignified, stately figures, like white-robed priests, +walking desertwards from the horizon to his tent. + +Although he had seen the same figures every morning for some months, he +was not tired of watching them. It always gave him pleasure to recall +how vividly they had at first reminded him of the pictures, familiar to +him as a boy, of the Wise Men following the star in the east. But +these were not wise men coming to pay homage or bring presents to the +Galilean Babe who came to be called the Prince of Peace; they were the +Mohammedan workmen who were employed by the Exploration School to which +Michael Amory had attached himself; their labour was confined to the +rougher preliminary digging and the clearing away of the accumulation +of sand and debris on sites which had been selected for excavation. + +As the dawn slipped back and counted itself with the years that are +spent and the first yellow gleam appeared in the sky, Michael saw the +tall figures go down on their knees and press their foreheads to the +sand. It was their third prayer of the day: devout Mohammedans begin +their new day at sunset; their second prayer is at nightfall, when it +is quite dark; their third is at daybreak. + +Michael knew that the moment _el isfirar_, or the first yellow glow, +appeared in the heavens, the white figures would turn to the east and +perform their _subh_, or daybreak devotion. He knew that it would be +finished before the golden globe appeared above the rim of the desert, +for did not the Prophet counsel his people not to pray exactly at +sunrise or sunset or at noon, because they might be confounded with the +infidels who worshipped the sun? Yet it gave him a fresh thrill each +morning to watch these desert worshippers prostrate themselves in +undoubting faith before their omnipotent God. In the untrodden desert, +with its mingling of sky and sand, their perfect trust and faith in +Allah seemed a convincing and evident belief. At such times he forgot +that these same men were the children of Superstition and that one and +all of them were held in the bondage of _genii_. He also forgot that +their performance of five prayers a day, which is the number prescribed +for the devout, did not necessarily make them men of honour. A perfect +trust in Allah gives a bad man a long rope. + +As the figures drew nearer and the golden globe rested for one moment +on the sands of the desert, for that one brief moment before its rays +broke into the amazing splendour which is Egypt's, the world became +less mysterious, more familiar. Things relating to the day's work +forced themselves upon Michael's mind. His bath and breakfast and many +other practical things began to usurp his thoughts, while the barking +of dogs, the movement in the hut of the "boys," brought him back to the +common, everyday life of the excavating camp. + +While he was dressing he remembered that Freddy Lampton's sister was to +arrive that day. For a moment or two his mind was completely usurped +with a vision of what the girl would be like. Subconsciously his +manhood quickened. + +Yet the very idea of a woman intruding herself upon their strange and +exquisitely-intellectual life--a life made healthy by the long hours of +physical labour in the various portions of the excavation--slightly +annoyed him. + +Fleeting pictures of Lampton as a girl rose and faded before his eyes +as he hurriedly shaved himself, slipped into his flannels and adjusted +his necktie as punctiliously as though he were going to a tennis-party +at Mena House Hotel. It is typical of Englishmen in the East that the +young men in the excavating camps, and especially in the one to which +Michael belonged, showed as much regard for their personal appearance +and nicety of dress, even when their day's work was to be done in the +bowels of the earth, down a shaft as deep as a mine, as they did in the +golden days of their life at Oxford or Cambridge. Michael Amory was +perhaps as a rule the least careful of the digging party, because he +was by temperament a dreamer; and his friend, Freddy Lampton, knew that +if he was not careful and on his guard he would become "a slacker." +Freddy, in spite of his acknowledged ability as a scholar and +Egyptologist, was practical and conventional in his methods and mode of +living. Michael Amory had fits of exactness and fits of what he +considered conventionality; he had also his fits of slackness, days in +which Freddy Lampton would let his blue eyes rest on his +carelessly-tied necktie, or on his shoelaces, which were an offence to +his eyes. Freddy's exquisite delicacy of touch and his eyes, which +were trained to a fine pitch of exactitude for minute detail, two +characteristics essential for his work as an excavator, made it painful +for him to be in the company of anyone who offended his sense of +personal nicety. + +But visions of Lampton's sister were to be dismissed. She would be +good-looking, of course, because Freddy's sister could scarcely be +anything else; his blue eyes, clear colouring and sunlit hair would be +beautiful in a girl. But Michael Amory had no desire to encourage any +thoughts which gave woman a place in his mind. The very visualizing of +Lampton as a girl, comical as it had been, had forced before his eyes +another face and another form which he had been striving to forget. +Whenever he was idle, and too often when he was busy over some piece of +work which ought to have engrossed his entire thoughts, her haunting +charm and beauty would suddenly become more real and vivid than the +bright blues and greens and reds of the pigments on the white walls of +the tomb upon which he was at work. With well-practised mind-control +he had learned to pull down a blind on her vision, to blot it out from +his thoughts. On this morning, when he was hurrying through his +dressing so as to be in time for breakfast, always a matter of +difficulty with him, even though he had many hours in which to put on +his few clothes, he shrank from thinking about the arrival of the girl +who was coming to live with her brother in this strange valley, which +had been the underground cemetery for countless centuries of the +tomb-builders of Egypt. + +When he was almost dressed and the sun was high in the heavens and its +power was beginning to warm the night-chilled valley, a stone was flung +into his tent. "Come out, you lazy beggar! The coffee's getting cold." + +It was Lampton's voice and Lampton's nicety of aim. He had not been up +since dawn; his boy had only brought him his cup of early tea half an +hour ago, yet he was bathed and shaved and as neatly dressed as the +most fastidious woman could desire. + +"Right-ho!" Michael shouted back. "Don't wait for me." + +"I should jolly well think I won't! Who'd be such an ass?" There was +the best of human fellowship in Freddy's voice, but he knew his friend +too well to risk the chance of spoiling his coffee by waiting for him. + +After stretching out his arms and opening his lungs to the fresh dry +air of the newborn day, Freddy turned into the dining-room. The +mess-room and common sitting-room of the camp was in a wooden hut. +Lampton's bedroom was at the back of it, as was also the one which had +been set apart for his sister; it by right belonged to the +Overseer-General and Controller of the Excavations and Monuments of +Upper Egypt. Margaret Lampton was to use it and her brother was to +evacuate his room when the overseer announced that he was coming to pay +one of his visits of inspection to the camp. + +Michael Amory lived in a tent, as did one or two other Englishmen who +in busy and prosperous years helped in the work of excavating. At the +present moment they were slack, which meant that funds were low and +there was no fine work to be done which necessitated the individual +spade and pick work of European Egyptologists. A new site was being +cleared, so that the work had consisted for some time of the first +clearing away of sand and stones and the debris which had collected +during the thousands of years that had passed since the tomb which +Freddy hoped to discover had been carved in the bowels of the earth, +and the Pharaoh had been laid to rest in it. At such times there was +little work for experts to do, so the camp shrank and left Lampton, who +was the head of it, and one of England's finest Egyptologists, alone +with his native workmen. + +He had allowed his old Oxford chum, Michael Amory, to join him on +condition that he put in so many hours' work every day in connection +with the excavations. Michael's stipulated work, the work which he had +undertaken to do, was the making of exact copies of the mural paintings +and decorations, such as Lampton required, and to help in the evenings +to clean and sort and arrange the small objects which the workmen found +each day. In the debris they often found amulets and small earthenware +vases and minute pieces of broken pottery, the very smallest of which +suggested theories as regards the period and history of the monument. +The texture of the glaze used, or the nature of the pottery itself, the +small remnant of decoration on them, or the trademark on the broken +base of a vase, all were valuable links in the chain of history which +is unfolding itself to the eager eyes of Egyptian exploration schools. + +When Michael at last appeared, Freddy looked up from his bacon and +eggs. "I say, Margaret comes to-night." + +"Yes, I know." + +Freddy raised his blue eyes and gave Michael one of his quick glances. +"Remembered, did you?" + +"Yes--the fact suddenly came into my head when I was shaving. I say, +what are you going to do with her? Won't she be awfully bored?" + +"Margaret doesn't know what the word bored means. Give her enough +freedom and lots of sunshine--that's all she wants." + +"Sounds the right sort."' + +"One of the best--old Margaret's all right!" + +"Is she like you in appearance?" + +"Good Lord, no!" + +Michael's enthusiasm was damped. He wanted her to be like Freddy, to +have his short, straight nose and his strong rounded chin and beautiful +mouth. For his looks were wasted on a man; Michael wanted to see them +repeated and softened in a girl. As his eyes rested contemplatingly on +his companion's bent head and youthfully-lean figure, he began to +visualize a very plain, dowdy sister. The "Good Lord, no!" probably +meant that although Freddy was not the least vain of his own +extraordinary good looks, he could not help exclaiming at the idea of +his dowdy sister being considered like him. + +Michael had never seen her, because Freddy and Margaret had been left +orphans when they were little children. They had been adopted by +different relatives, so that Michael had never had the opportunity of +meeting his friend's sister while they were together at Oxford or when +he visited Freddy in his uncle's home. + +"Pass the marmalade!" said Freddy. "And I say, old chap, I wish you'd +go and meet Margaret!" + +Their eyes met as Michael handed him the marmalade, which was the one +thing in the world which Lampton said he could not live without. + +"Meet your sister?" Michael said. "I will, if you can't, but +where?--and won't she expect you?" + +"She ought to be on the ferry at five o'clock--I've made all the other +arrangements, but I do wish you would meet her there and bring her up +the valley. I simply can't, and Margaret knows that she is only +allowed to come here on condition that her visit makes no earthly +difference to my work. I daren't leave the men alone to-day--there's +too much lying about. We are getting pretty 'hot' and they know it." + +Michael looked up eagerly. "By Jove, is that so?" + +"Getting hot" was expressive of getting close to a find. It was the +old saying which they had used as children when they played +hide-and-seek. + +"Yes, I think we are on the right track and I want to get ahead, so if +you will go down to the ferry and fetch her up here I'll be awfully +obliged to you." + +"Right you are, old chap. I'll be there at five o'clock, and if she's +not punctual I'll do a bit of sketching. You're sure everything else +will be all right?" + +"I don't think she'll be late, because she is to be in Luxor by eleven +o'clock. She is to rest there until it gets cooler and Abdul is to +bring her over the river from the hotel. The donkeys will be at the +ferry to meet her. Mohammed is very anxious for her to ride his camel" +(Mohammed was the sheikh of the district); "he thinks it more proper +and fitting for my sister to make her entry into his district on a +camel, but I don't feel certain that Margaret would appreciate the +honour. He is keen to 'do her proud.'" + +"Good old Mohammed!" Michael said. "He has a great sense of dignity +and convention." + +"And of hospitality," Lampton said. "He never forgets that as the +sheikh of the district he is its host as well." + +That was all that was said about Margaret's arrival. The two men +lapsed into silence until breakfast was over. If they had been two +women discussing the coming of a man in their midst, there might have +been more to say on the subject. In silence Freddy lit his cigarette +and wandered into Margaret's room. It was as bare and plainly +furnished as a convent cell or a room in a small log-hut in a +frontier-camp in Canada--just the necessary bed and table, a washstand +and one chair. It was scrupulously clean, and the white +mosquito-curtain, which was suspended from the roof and dropped over +the little iron bed like a bride's veil, gave the room a pleasant +virginal atmosphere. + +Freddy came back to the sitting-room, evidently satisfied. His quick +eye had noticed that the "boy" had carried out his orders. + +"Meg's an awful girl for books," he said, as he carried off a bundle of +yellow-paper-bound French novels and one or two volumes of the Temple +Classics to her room. + +"She'd better begin on this," he said, as he returned in search of +still more. "She can't do better"--he lifted up the weighty tome of +Maspero's _Dawn of Civilization_. + +"A bit dry, isn't it, for a beginner?" + +"Not for Meg," Freddy said. "She can tackle pretty stiff stuff. At +college she used to suck the guts out of a book like a weasel sucking +blood from a rabbit." + +"Blue stocking!" Michael said to himself. He abhorred the type of +ardent, eager, studious woman with whom he had come in contact during +his university life. "Able and abominable" he called them. + +In less than ten minutes the two companions had separated; the one, +with his paint-box and camp-stool in his hand, made his way to the tomb +where he was copying with delicate and extraordinary exactitude the +exquisite figures and heads painted on the walls and pillars of the +vast building; the other directed his steps to the site where the band +of native excavators was already at work. + +What a strange sight it presented in the brilliant morning sunshine! +To the untutored eye nothing more or less than a vast rubbish-heap of +sand and stones and broken rocks, with here and there patches of +sparsely-clad natives working away with pickaxes and the tall figure of +a white-robed _gaphir_, standing on a hillock of sand, watching them +with unremitting care. On the sides of the vast ashpits long lines of +"boys," toiling like ants up steep inclines, were carrying rush-baskets +full of rubbish on their shoulders. + +Yet these ignorant _fellahin_ were playing their part, and an +indispensable one, in laying bare to modern eyes the history of the +world's first civilization. This vast rubbish-heap, where men with +pickaxes and boys with baskets, full of the dust and sand of ages, +toiled from dawn until sunset, would in the course of time yield +perhaps to the Egyptologist one of the long-looked-for links in the +lost centuries of Egypt's story, or be transformed into a wonderful +picture-gallery of Egyptian art. + +Nothing could look less inviting, less interesting, as Freddy +approached it, for as yet there was little or nothing for the untutored +eye to see but the debris of familiar desert rubbish. But Freddy +Lampton knew otherwise. Only yesterday the most experienced of the +workmen had struck something hard, something which told him that they +had finished with loose sand and broken rocks and had struck the +ancient handiwork of man. + +The site chosen had been a mere conjecture on Freddy Lampton's part, a +conjecture guided by scientific knowledge and careful research. He +felt convinced that the tomb which they were looking for was close to +the spot where they were working. Indications such as the excavator +looks for had decided him to begin work on the site. The discovery +yesterday had been nothing more or less than the first indication of a +narrow flight of steps, cut in the virgin desert rock, a stairway +probably built by the tomb-builders for the use of the workmen, in +order to carry away baskets of sand and rubbish without slipping. + +The moment that the expert workman had come across this staircase, they +had suspended work until "Effendi" had been sent for and found. Under +his eye and partly by his own pickaxe, the little flight of embryo +steps, with a very steep gradient, had been laid bare. In the vast +expanse which the work covered, it seemed a very small thing, but the +greatest underground temples--for the tombs are veritable temples--of +Egypt, and some of the most wonderful of her monuments, have been +discovered by far fainter clues. The little staircase, about twenty +feet below the surface of the sand, was enough to fill the young +Englishman's heart with hope. He had come upon man's handiwork--no +doubt they would soon come upon more important masonry. + +When all the workmen had saluted the Effendi with respectful salaams +and returned to their common toil, Freddy Lampton addressed the native +overseer. He was enveloped in a white woollen hooded cloak, for the +heat of the day had not yet begun; he also wore a fine turban; while +the _fellahin_ who did the roughest work wore only white skull-caps and +cotton drawers to their knees and full shirts of blue or white cotton, +open from the neck to the waist. A few of the better-paid older men +wore turbans of cheap white muslin, wrapped round brown felt +skull-caps, or fezes. The carriers of rubbish, who received the +smallest pay of any, dispensed with the drawers as well as with the +turban. In the sunlight their one garment, a blue or white shirt, +stood out against the yellow sand as they wound their way in Indian +file from the low level of the excavation to the place in the desert +where they threw down their burdens. + +The _gaphir_ led his master a few steps from where the staircase had +been excavated the day before and then bade him look own. Freddy's +quick eye detected a horizontal line of masonry, the beginning of a +strongly-built wall. The men had earthed it that morning, it was only +a narrow strip, but it would have been against the strictest rules to +have excavated more without informing the "Effendi." + +The _gaphir_, a splendid man and very reliable, adored his enthusiastic +English master, whose good looks and well-bred, unfailing courtesy of +speech alone would have made his personality irresistible to the Arab. +Added to his good looks and to his manner of "one who is born to be +obeyed," Freddy had courage and great ability and--best of all in the +_gaphir's_ eyes--a silent respect for the teachings of the Prophet. + +After an inspection of the various points of excavation and a word of +greeting here and there had been passed with upper workmen, those who +had showed an intelligent interest in their work, Freddy returned to +the exciting spot and with two or three men who had "fingers" and a +"sense" of things, began his morning's picking. + +While he worked away with youthful energy and an almost inspired +intelligence, he could hear the toilers with the rubbish-baskets +singing their monotonous chants. The word "Allah, Allah" came +repeatedly to his ears. He had grown so accustomed to the words of +their chants that he followed them subconsciously; the words "Allah, +Lord of Kindness, Giver of Ease," rang out with monotonous persistence. +Allah was to ease their burdens; Allah was to moisten their dry lips; +the "Lord of the Worlds" was to hasten the time when the poor man might +sit in the shade and smell the sweet scents of paradise and listen to +the sound of running waters. + +They chanted verses from the Koran as Jack Tars sing sea songs. In +Mohammedan lands the song of Allah never dies. + +Only occasionally Freddy heard the quaint words of some popular +love-song, coming from the lips of one of the higher-class Arab +workmen, a song as old as their tales of _The Thousand and One Nights_. +One was drifting to his half-conscious ears at the moment; he was +familiar with every word of it. + +"A lover says to his dove, 'Send me your wings for a day.' The dove +replied, 'The affair is vain.' I said, 'Some other day, that I may +soar through the sky and see the face of the beloved; I shall obtain +love enough for a year and will return, O dove, in a day.' The night! +The night! O those sweet hands! Gather of the dewy peach! Whence +were ye, and whence were we, when ye ensnared us?" + +The Arab who was singing it was considered quite a musician amongst his +fellow-workmen. He had earned his living for some years by singing +love-songs on the small boats which drift up and down the Nile and in +the cafés in Luxor. To English ears his talents as a singer would not +have been recognized; the particular qualities which ensured the +approval of his native audience would have caused much laughter in an +English music-hall. Freddy Lampton, who knew something of Arab music, +was able to recognize the singer's talents, but he was not near enough +to hear the grunts of intense satisfaction and longing which the song +was calling forth from the blue-shirted _fellahin_. + +And so the hours of the morning wore on, until the sun was too powerful +to allow even the natives to work, and Freddy Lampton wandered off to +the tomb in which his friend was painting. The _fellahin_ instantly +untied the bundles which held their simple food and began their midday +meal. Many of them prayed before eating; many of them did not. + +When the meal was eaten, each man sought some vestige of shade, behind +a mound of rock or an ash-heap of debris, or in the excavated channels +of the site; there with full stomach and contented mind he would lay +himself down to sleep, amid the heap of ruins which thousands of years +ago had been the field of vast numbers of toilers, such as were he and +his fellow-toilers, slaving for the glorification of an absolute +monarch, whose kingdom was the civilized world. He cared not one jot +nor tittle for what he had uncovered or what secrets the valley or +hills had hidden from men for countless centuries. Filling baskets +full of rubbish was his work, his method of earning a living, and it +mattered nothing to him whether the rubbish was culled from the golden +sand of the most wonderful valley in the world, or thrown out of the +filthy ashbins in the native city of Cairo. Toil was all one thing to +him; it had no interest, it suggested no varieties. Allah had willed +it. The clear blue sky and the sunlit hills, with their tombs and +tombs and endless tombs stretching further and further into the western +valley, they, too, were Allah's will, as were the dark, evil-smelling +streets of the city, with their noise and the crowding of human and +animal beasts of burden. + +As Freddy approached Michael Amory a look of satisfaction spread over +his face. "Mike," as he called him, was so busily engrossed in his +work that he did not look up. He was making a delicate and +extraordinarily exact reproduction on paper of a figure of an Egyptian +King making offerings to an enthroned Osiris. No other artist had ever +done the same work with his delicacy of touch and exactness of detail. +The picture on his easel looked as if he had cut a square block out of +the polished limestone which held the tinted relief of the King making +the offering to the god, and set it upon his easel. + +Freddy was proud of Michael and not a little surprised at the rapidity +with which he had grasped the nature of his excavation work, which was +not only the opening up of fresh monuments for the pleasure of the +public, but the search after missing links and the verifying of +well-founded conjectures. He knew that Michael had read a fair amount +of Egyptian history, that he had specialized in one period, and that he +had studied, in his own fashion, something of the mythology of ancient +Egypt, but he was quite unprepared for the "sense" of the more serious +part of the work which he had shown. + +Besides which, Freddy knew more than Michael thought he did of the new +distraction which had disturbed his mind. + +About once in ten days Freddy found it almost necessary to go to Assuan +or Luxor and there throw himself heart and soul into the festivities of +the foreign hotel society. For one night and half a day he played +tennis and danced and was young again. These periodical outings and +his private hobbies kept his mind and nerves well balanced. At his age +it was scarcely healthy for a sport-loving, normal Englishman to spend +his days and nights all alone, in the silent valley in the hills, his +only companions the mummies of Pharaohs and the bones unearthed from +subterranean tombs. But Freddy slept as happily and as soundly with +mummies in his room and ancient skulls below his bed as he did in the +modern, conventional bedroom of the big hotel at Assuan. + +Michael had accompanied him to these dances, and Freddy had noticed +that on each occasion he was very much engrossed by the company of an +Englishwoman of whom he had heard a good deal that was ugly and +unpleasant. He had long ago ceased to pay any attention to the +scandals which were related to him each season about the English and +American women who came to Egypt for the sake of the climate and for +its hotel-society--ugly stories, generally greatly exaggerated, but +often with a foundation of unsavoury truth in them. The sands of Egypt +breed scandals as quickly as the climate degenerates the morals of +shallow-minded tourists. But this woman Freddy knew to be as dangerous +as she was charming; and he also knew the enthusiastic nature of +Michael and how it was temperamental with him to place all women on +pedestals and worship them as pure, high beings, far above mere men. +Fallen idols never shattered his belief; they were simply forgotten. + +Since Michael had met the beautiful Mrs. Mervill, Freddy had noticed +that he had fits of abstraction, and that instead of working overtime, +as was his habit, he was now as prompt as the _fellahin_ to "down +tools" at the precise moment. + +Freddy "had no use" for the woman. His practical mind had summed her +up at a glance. But he was afraid that his friend might drift into a +very undesirable friendship with her. She would enjoy his simplicity, +for he seemed to have been born without guile, while his intellectual +fascination was not to be denied. Michael was generous, impetuous and +reckless. + +"I'm not going to disturb you," Freddy said. "We'll meet at lunch." + +"Right-ho!" Michael said. "I've almost finished." + +"Looks as if you'd blown the thing on to the paper this time," Freddy +said. "Gad, it's topping!" + +Michael said nothing, but he glowed inwardly. A word of enthusiastic +praise from Freddy was worth all his morning's toil in the breathless, +stuffy tomb-chamber of the Pharaoh whose embalmed remains it contained. + +Freddy returned to his hut and flung himself down in a cane +lounge-chair in as cool a spot as he could find. He picked up a French +novel and lit a cigarette. + +Lying there, in his white flannels, reading _Marie Claire_, who would +have thought that he was one of the most able Egyptologists of the day, +of the younger school, or that he controlled so important a section of +the English School of Archaeology in Egypt? + +Meanwhile the simple meal was being laid with a neatness and convention +which was a striking contrast to the wooden hut and scarcity of +furniture in the room. The Arab who was setting the table was a +perfect parlourmaid, a product of Freddy's teaching. The only thing +Freddy was proud of was his ability to train and make good servants. +Mohammed Ali's table-waiting really pleased him. He thought Meg would +approve of him. He was an intelligent lad and proud of his English +master, who seemed to think that telling a lie for the sake of being +polite or kind was really a sin. In fact, the Effendi was very rarely +cross, except when Mohammed forgot and told a lie. Sometimes it was +very hard to tell the truth when a lie would, he knew, make his master +happy. While he set the table he felt his master's eyes were on him, +even though he was reading a love story which was so beautiful that he +had seen, or thought he had seen, tears in the eyes of Effendi Amory, +when he was reading it the night before. + +Teddy was not finding the beautiful story of the Frenchwoman go +interesting as Mohammed Ali imagined. He had allowed the days to pass, +with all their engrossing interest, without giving much thought to +Margaret's coming or what she would do with herself, or how her +presence would affect their daily life. + +Now in a few hours she would be with them. This was, in fact, his last +meal alone with Mike. He had never bothered about the matter because +Meg was such a good sort and so jolly well able to amuse and look after +herself. The days had just passed, and now she was coming, Meg, who +was his best friend in the whole world, Meg who in his eyes had the +mind of a boy and the sympathy of a woman. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +At five o'clock Michael Amory, true to his word, was down at the ferry, +awaiting the arrival of Margaret Lampton. The ferry-boat was pulling +across the Nile; he would soon be able to distinguish her. In all +probability no other Englishwoman would be crossing to the western bank +of the river at so late an hour. Tourists who came to visit the +Colossi of Memnon, whose song to the dawn never dies, or to "do" the +ruins of the Hundred-Gated city of Thebes, came much earlier in the day. + +While the boat was drifting slowly across, Michael's eyes rested +lovingly on his surroundings. If the girl was appreciative of Nile +scenery, how greatly it must be impressing her! + +Boats, like white birds with big crossed wings, flew past him on the +pale blue river. Heavy, flat-bottomed barges, coming up from the +pottery factories, laden with jars which were to be used for the +building of native houses, drifted past, with their well-stacked, +squarely-built cargoes piled high like stacks of grain. One barge, +with a wide brown sail, was full of fresh green melons. Across the +river, on the opposite bank, bands of women, enveloped in black and +walking in Indian file on the yellow sands, carrying water-jars on +their heads, were wending their way to their mud villages. The gleam +of their metal anklets caught the sunlight. + +But the ferry-boat was drawing close to the bank; the next minute he +would be able to distinguish Freddy's sister, with Abdul in attendance. +The other passengers, with native politeness, were already making way +for the English Sitt and her servant to go ashore. + +Michael hurried forward to greet her. Margaret's blue veil hid her +features until he was quite close to her. + +"I'm Michael Amory, I live with your brother," Michael said. "I have +come to bring you to his camp. He was too busy, or he would have been +here himself--he asked me to apologize to you." + +Margaret's long firm fingers gave Michael's outstretched hand a +grateful grasp. Michael, whose sensibilities were very near the +surface, lost nothing of the girl's meaning. A feeling of relief +soothed his anxiety. + +"How awfully kind of you to come!" she said. "I knew Freddy would be +busy, digging up something that was once somebody, four thousand years +ago." + +"That's about it," Michael said. "As I could be spared and he +couldn't, he asked me to look to your arrival and bring you to the +camp." + +Abdul had hurried on to see that the donkeys were properly harnessed +and all in good order for the long ride across the plain and through +the immortal valley. + +"Are you excavating too?" Margaret asked. + +"I'm allowed to do a little 'picking' under your brother's eyes, but my +real job is painting. I'm only dabbling in archaeology as yet." + +"Painting in connection with his School of Excavation?" + +"Yes. Sometimes it is necessary to make almost instant copies of the +excavated paintings, while the colours are fresh and the text legible." + +"Isn't it all awfully interesting?" the girl asked. "I feel almost +afraid to come in amongst you, for I know literally nothing about +Egyptology. I've only once been in the Egyptian section of the British +Museum, and that's the sum total of my knowledge." + +"You will have to learn. Your brother put a huge tome of Maspero's +_The Dawn of Civilization_ in your room this morning; he means you to +start right away." + +"Good old Freddy!" Margaret said, and as she smiled, Michael for the +first time saw her likeness to her brother; it had escaped him before, +because Freddy was very fair and Margaret was duskily dark. He could +see that even through her blue veil. When she smiled and showed the +same sharp-looking, well-formed teeth, as white as porcelain, Michael +knew that if the girl had only been fair instead of dark, she would be +almost the exact duplicate of her brother. But the expression of her +grey-brown eyes was different; they were steadfast, calm eyes, which +moved more slowly; they were softer than her brother's. + +This Michael could scarcely see, screened as she was by her veil. But +her firm handshake and the long unflinching gaze of her "How do you +do?" told him why Freddy always spoke of his sister in tones which +implied that she was as reliable as a man and a "topping pal." + +They had reached the spot where the donkeys were waiting for them. +Margaret's was a fine, well-bred animal, called Sappho, with a skin as +smooth as a white suede glove; it stood almost as high as a mule. Her +saddle, too, was a new one, and well-fitting--Freddy had seen to that. +The old Sheikh, who was turbanned and robed after the manner of Moses +or Aaron, was presented to her. His pale grey camel was waiting for +him at a little distance from the donkeys. It looked very dignified, +with its white sheepskin flung over the saddle and its fine assortment +of charms. Little tufts of thick hair had been left on its thighs and +at its knees and neck; the artist who had clipped it had evidently +admired the fancy shaving of some resplendent French poodle. + +Margaret felt oddly important and very shy. Such a cavalcade seemed to +have come to meet her. Her attempt at polite rejoinders to the old +Sheikh's graceful and flattering speeches of welcome had all to be +passed through Abdul, and probably delivered them in a more gracious +form than Margaret was capable of expressing them. Abdul was quite +accustomed to the abrupt and mannerless ways of the foreigners and to +their crude speech; he knew that it meant no offence nor indicated any +lack of gratitude or graciousness. + +The Sheikh expressed his willingness to put his camel at Margaret's +disposal, but as her brother had told him that the honourable Sitt +would probably prefer to ride a donkey, all he could do was to again +assure her that it would bestow honour on him if she would ride it, or +in the future make use of it whenever she felt disposed. That is what +Margaret made out of the endless, elaborate speeches which were +translated to her. + +At last they were all mounted and on their way. Margaret found it very +difficult to keep up any sort of conversation with her companions, for +her boy, anxious to do honour to his mistress's donkey, kept Sappho +well ahead of Michael Amory's mule. She had only been one week in +Egypt, so everything which she passed was still an object of interest +and curiosity, but fortunately almost everything explained itself to +her, like the illustrations of a book of the Old Testament. + +They had turned their backs on the river, with its boats and birds and +beasts and drum-beating and yelling _fellahin_, and were now in the +silence of the green plain, where the blue-shirted _fellahin_ were +working knee-deep in the new crops. The inundation was just over, and +the banks of the Nile were as bright as two long velvet ribbons of +emerald green. + +And now they were off the plain and had passed the Temple of Kurneh and +the little Coptic village, which was the last link with civilization +until their long ride up the valley terminated in the Excavation Camp. + +In the valley they rode side by side, for the donkey-boy's enthusiasm +had distinctly abated. Margaret did not know anything about the +valley, beyond the fact that it was called the Valley of the Tombs of +the Kings. She had not yet "done" any tombs, as she had not come up +the Nile by boat--it was cheaper and quicker for her to do the journey +from Cairo to Luxor by train. So far she had not been in the hands of +Cook. Freddy had told her that the money she would have to spend on +the steamer she could spend better later on, and she would be more able +to appreciate the tombs and temples, which most tourists see when they +know too little about things Egyptian to appreciate them. + +Knowing nothing of the story of the great valley, it was interesting to +Michael to watch the effect it had on the girl--an extraordinary +silence and its atmosphere of profound mystery. Their attempt to talk +to each other soon failed, for Margaret was no good at either banter or +small talk. + +For the time being the valley, with its barren cliffs rising higher and +higher on each side of her, and its world of soft pink light, held her. +The wide cliff-bound road, which wound its way like a white thread +through a maze of light and sun-pink hills, seemed to be leading her +further and further into the heart of Egypt, to the very bosom of her +children's ancient kingdom. + +Margaret was totally ignorant of the fact that the tombs which give the +valley its modern name lay in all their desolate splendour in the +bowels of the earth, under the cliffs on either side of her. Her sense +of the valley was not mental, it was not derived from books or a +knowledge of Egypt's history. + +Why it so affected her she could not imagine. It did not depress her +so much as it awed her. The light on the hills was the light of +happiness, and the blueness of the clear sky banished all idea of +sadness which a valley called the Valley of Tombs might have suggested. +Yet it did affect her so profoundly that she accepted the idea that in +entering this valley of desolation she was entering on a new phase of +her existence. She felt suddenly older and wiser and strangely +apprehensive. + +The Sheikh, on his swaying camel, riding on ahead, the donkey-boys, +with their fleet limbs and blue shirts clinging to them as they ran, +were becoming immortal in her memory. Years would never efface the +picture. Only Michael Amory and herself, in their European clothes, +had no place in it. They were intruders. + +Not a bird crossed their path, not a falcon circled over the tops of +the cliffs. On the Nile thousands of birds had looked black against +the sunlight as they came to the great river to drink. + +"Why does this valley, with its pink sunlight, make talking out of the +question?" Margaret at last said. "Please forgive me if I am a very +poor companion." + +Michael, who had been glad that she had not spoken--he would not have +liked her so well if she had--said, "Please don't feel compelled to +talk. I came to help you if you needed help, not to bother you or +spoil your enjoyment." + +"Thank you," she said. "I simply couldn't talk. Does one enjoy +Egypt?" she asked the question pertinently. + +They rode on in silence again and Michael was pleased that +temperamentally she seemed to "feel" Egypt. There had been no +suggestion of psychic influence in her very evident acceptance of the +power of Egypt--just a simple awe, which was to Michael absolutely +natural. + +Presently she said, "Does my brother live all alone in this valley?" + +"Practically alone, for some months in each year. I am with him just +now, and in the daytime there are the workmen. At night he is alone +with his two Sudanese house-servants; but he is well protected--his +watch-dogs sit round his hut and nothing human would dare venture near +them after dark." + +Margaret tried to laugh. "Dogs!" she said. "Dogs couldn't keep off +this"--she indicated the valley. + +Michael knew what she meant. Not a green blade of grass, not the +smallest patch of herb was visible. To Margaret they seemed to be +floating rather than riding through the pink light of another world. + +"No, not this," Michael said. "But your brother's a marvel. I +couldn't do it. Yet even he has to leave it now and then; sometimes he +spends a night in frivolling in Luxor or Assuan." + +As the vision of Luxor hotels, with their company of +fashionably-clothed and overfed tourists, rose up before the girl, she +laughed more naturally. But in the valley her laughter sounded wrong; +she quickly hushed it. + +"Fancy Luxor hotels after this! It certainly is going to +extremes--personally, their society would bore me, but I should think +that it was good for Freddy." + +"Quite necessary," Michael said. "And he's awfully popular at the +dances. I often wonder what some of his partners would say if they +could see him as I do, pick in hand, down in the bowels of the earth or +under the blazing sun of the desert, for days and days on end! Your +brother's quite wonderful." + +"I'm longing to see him at work," Margaret said. "I think his life +sounds most exciting and interesting." + +"Don't expect too much--it is amazingly interesting, but we don't open +a tomb of Queen Thi every day." + +"What tomb was that? Something very special?" + +"Yes, very." Michael said the words very simply, but it struck him as +odd that Freddy's sister should never have even heard of the tomb of +Queen Thi. "At the present time he has just unearthed a small +staircase in the sand and a bit of a brick wall, which may lead to the +tomb he is looking for, or they may end in nothing, for sometimes the +ancient tomb-builders began to dig and work upon a tomb and eventually +abandoned the site as hopeless--the sand was too soft, which meant the +constant falling of sand before they struck a foundation of rock, or +for some other reason--so after days and days of excavating we find +that the whole thing is a fraud, just the mere beginning of a tomb +which was never finished. Then other times he finds a tomb and after +endless work at it--you can't imagine how much work it entails--he +discovers that it was robbed of every single thing of value, probably +by the sexton who was in charge of it when it was first built--all the +jewels and scarabs and things had been looted; probably they were +stolen only a few weeks after the mummy was laid in it." + +Margaret remained silent. She was thinking and thinking, new and +bewildering thoughts were rushing through her mind Before she could in +the least appreciate this new life what a lot she had to learn! + +"An excavator's life isn't a bed of roses--it doesn't consist picking +up jewels and mummy-beads and beautiful amulets and rare scarabs and +valuable parchments in every tomb which is opened. It's hard, hard +work, with any amount of boring, minute detail and scientific work +attached to it." + +Margaret thought for a moment. To speak at all upon a subject of which +she knew absolutely nothing was not in her nature. + +"Shall we pass any tombs? Where are they?" She had expected to see +some ruins of fallen buildings, or monuments which resembled the tombs +in "The Street of Tombs" at Athens--these were familiar to her from +photographs. Here there was absolutely nothing, nothing to suggest +that great tombs had ever been there. + +"They are below us," Michael said, "and all around us, under these pink +rocks, buried like coal-mines. Where your brother is digging just now +the site is rather different--it is flatter and less beautiful; it is +in a small side valley. They were terribly anxious to hide themselves, +poor things, to get away from robbers." + +"Oh, I'm so glad I came!" Margaret said, irrelevantly, and the deep +sigh she gave terminated their conversation. + +Michael knew quite well the nature of her thoughts and the turbulent +fight for expression which they must be causing her. No creature as +sensitively attuned as he judged her to be could journey for the first +time unmoved through the valley which to him summed up the word Egypt. +He allowed her to ride a few paces ahead, just behind the Sheikh. The +camel's arrogant head, with its supercilious gaze, towered above them. +To Margaret, Michael Amory and herself were still an offence in the +valley. The camel, with the high-seated, turbaned Sheikh, seemed a +part of the whole. The animal, with its prehistoric loneliness of +expression, the Sheikh, with his splendid deportment and benign +loftiness of manner, suited the dignity of their surroundings. The +camel's gaze, as its head reached up higher and higher to view some +object which interested its supercilious mind, made Margaret feel very +small and vulgarly modern. She was glad that she was riding a humble +ass. The way the Sheikh rode his haughty animal provoked her +admiration; it was to her after the manner in which the British +aristocracy treat their powdered and silk-stockinged menservants. + +Margaret felt more at ease on her white donkey, just as she felt more +at ease with pleasant English maidservants than with pompous powdered +footmen. It was a ridiculous simile, but it is the ridiculous which +invades the mind in sublime moments. + +While Margaret was finding pleasure in watching the camel and the +Sheikh, or rather, while they were taking their place in her mind with +the air and the sky and the hills and the valley, Michael was certainly +enjoying himself in a more definite criticism of Freddy's sister. He +remembered his friend's remark, "Oh, Meg's all right," and he knew what +he meant. + +Her long limbs and boyish figure delighted his artistic eye, while the +white topee hat, with the long blue veil, failed to hide the attractive +carriage of her head. He felt impatient to see her unhatted and +unveiled. Certainly she was not dowdy, nor had she any aggressive +cleverness about her. Indeed, there was something which suggested a +man's directness of mind and a simplicity which was quite unusual and +fascinating. He could almost have laughed aloud when he thought of the +picture which he had conjured up to himself of the Meg who could +"tackle pretty stiff stuff and suck the guts out of a book like a +weasel sucking the blood out of a rabbit." + +The dowdy "blue stocking" had vanished, and in her place was a girl as +attractive in her darkness as Freddy was in his fairness. + +And so they rode on and on through the Theban hills, bathed in pink +sunlight. The donkey-boys had fallen behind. Their first enthusiastic +effort to show off before the honourable Sitt had quite subsided. They +were discussing her now, in none too delicate a fashion. The elder of +the two boys, who was the son of a dragoman, and hoped one day to +develop into as resplendent a being as his father, was in his way a +great reader. He had just finished an Arabic translation of a French +novel and he was picturing to his friends Margaret as the heroine of +the obscene romance. Poor Margaret! + +In Egypt the Arabic translations of low-class French romances, rendered +even more unclean by their translation, have a poisonous effect upon +the minds of the youths who devour them. Margaret, who had admired the +boy's brilliant smiles and beautiful features and teeth, which were +even whiter and more attractive than her brother's, little dreamed, as +they tell behind and talked together, of the nature of their +conversation. + +Their blue shirts looked like turquoise in the sunlight, and their +little white crochet skull-caps showed to advantage the fine outline of +their dark heads. They were certainly handsome young rascals, with an +inherited grace of manner. + +How her clean, healthy mind would have abhorred and hated them if she +had understood their ceaseless chatter! It was like the noise of +starlings on a spring morning. In Egypt, where ignorance is bliss, it +is certainly folly to be wise. In the East, the inquiring mind, +especially in domestic matters, is often its own enemy. + +To Margaret, Egypt held for the time being nothing which was unclean or +unlovely, nothing which was bettered by ignorance. She was lost in its +light and mystery. In the Theban valley it seemed as if she would live +on light, that it would supply food for both soul and body. In Egypt +God is made manifest in the sun. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +Margaret had been shown over the "estate"; her modest luggage had been +deposited in her bedroom, in which she was now standing, with her arm +linked in her brother's. + +When she had approved of everything and had told him about her journey, +she gave his arm a little hug. + +"Oh, Freddy, it's good to be with you again! You were a brick to let +me come." + +Freddy slid his arm round her shoulders and pressed her closer to him. + +"It's topping having you, old girl, but you mustn't mind if I leave you +an awful lot alone--I can't help it." + +"I know you can't, and if I stew up a bit, you may find work which I +can do. I'd love to help." + +"Oh, don't fear--I'll find lots for you to do." + +She looked at him eagerly, with a touching humility. "What sort of +work?" + +"Cleaning and sorting out the small finds which the workmen bring in +each night, and you could help Mike to do some copying--it's not +difficult, and sometimes the colours vanish when they are exposed to +the light. He can't get the things done all at one time." + +"I see," Margaret said, but in her mind there was a horrible jumble. + +"Sometimes I want Mike to help me--we're awfully short of hands just +now--I mean, for hands that you can absolutely trust, so if you get +into the thing you could do some of Mike's work and let him off." + +"I'd love to, and you know my capability as well as anyone, so if you +think I could I'll do my best." + +"You'll soon know as much as Mike did when he came here, and your +painting's all right." + +"How nice Mike is!" she said simply. + +"He's one of the best." + +"Is he going to make Egyptology his profession?" + +"I don't know--I don't think so. I'm afraid it's just another bit of +Mike's drifting." + +"What a pity!" Margaret was practical. + +"I tell him it's time lost--at his age he ought to be at the job he +means to succeed in." + +"Isn't he taking this up in earnest? He seems to love the life." + +"He does love the thing, but the detail of the work, with all its +exactitude and rules and regulations, bores him. You'll understand +better later on." Freddy opened a copy of the annual report of the +British School of Archaeology in Egypt and pointed to pages and pages +of written records, outline drawings, measurements and diagrams and +plans of tombs and excavations, even accurate copies of small pieces of +broken vases and plates and jars--almost everything which had been dug +up was carefully recorded; nothing seemed too small or incomplete to be +of value. + +Margaret looked at it wonderingly. What was all the labour for? Some +day would she, too, understand the meaning of it and the use of such +scraps and atoms of ancient pottery? Freddy digging out beautiful +objects for the British Museum, statues and scarabs, wonderful jewels +and necklaces of mummy-beads, was what she had visualized, but of all +this she had never dreamed. + +She put her finger on the outline drawing of a small fragment of +pottery with the tracing of a tiny sprig of some plant on it. Her eyes +said "What good can that be?" + +Freddy read her meaning. "That small piece of pottery may have shown +that foreign vegetation was introduced into the district. It is a new +leaf, not met with before. It was probably sent for identification to +the Botanical Department of University College in London. Sometimes +little things like that give rise to heated discussions and theories. +Some excavators won't draw on their imagination--they will have nothing +but hard facts; others start a theory which sounds far-fetched--often +it comes out correct." + +"Realistic and Imaginative Schools!" + +"That's about it. The middle way is generally the soundest. The +excavator without imagination never gets very far, whereas the man who +is apt to let his imagination run wild gets on the wrong track and it's +hard to get him off; he overlooks things that won't fit in with his +theory." + +"I had no idea archaeology involved all this--you're awfully clever, +old boy." + +"It's unending work and extraordinarily far-reaching, as it's done +to-day. In the early days the horrors that were committed in the way +of excavating were too awful." + +"You work like detectives now, it seems to me, following up the +smallest threads and links." + +"That's it," Freddy said. "We are just a body of intellectual +detectives, running to earth the history of Egypt and the story of the +ancient world. We're really far more interested in finding connecting +links and establishing disputed facts, than in unearthing statues and +figures which please the public. Egyptologists have unearthed the +private lives of Egypt's kings and queens." + +"I suppose your friend Mike only enters into the artistic side of it?" + +"Not altogether--he's awfully keen about Egyptian history and +mythology, but he hates detail too much to give his mind and time to +all the hard grind of the thing--he likes to study the history we +unearth." + +"I'm afraid I shall be like him. I want to enjoy the results without +the dull labour of digging." + +"It's a sort of thing that's born in you, I think." + +"You love it, Freddy?" + +"Rather! I couldn't stick any other work now." + +"You're looking awfully well." + +"Never felt fitter." + +"The skulls and mummies under your bed haven't done you any harm. Poor +aunt Anna, how she dreads them! She always imagines that everything +Egyptian has the most malign powers. She's sure some mummy will take +its revenge on you for disturbing it." + +"Poor old Anna! I suppose she thinks we are the first people who ever +thought of disturbing these tombs! She little knows how rare a thing +it is to come across one which was not robbed thousands of years ago of +all that was worth having. If Egyptian amulets and mummies had such +terrible powers, you may be very sure that the modern Arabs, who are +the most superstitious people in the world, would not touch the work, +and the ancient sextons or guardians of the tombs, who were even more +superstitious, wouldn't have dared to disturb the last slumber of a +lately-buried Pharaoh. They plundered and sacked the tomb just as soon +as ever they could. The tombs were first built up in this valley with +the hopes of hiding them; they were built here to get away from the +wretches who plundered the cemeteries on the plains. I suppose the +Pharaohs who were having their tombs built hadn't discovered that the +other tombs had been robbed by the very guardians who were set to watch +them. It was left for us to discover that." + +"Was that so? It certainly does not look like a valley of tombs." + +"They were hidden with all the cunning which the Eastern mind could +devise, and yet most of them have been robbed." + +They had left the house and were sitting on lounge chairs in the front +of the hut. There was a beautiful moon and a sky full of stars, such +as Margaret had never seen before. + +"Come on, Mike!" Freddy called out. "Don't make yourself scarce. Meg +and I don't want to discuss family secrets. Her first night in the +valley is going to be the real thing--no intrusion of family +skeletons--they can wait." + +"Our family skeletons would feel themselves very out of place here," +Margaret said as Michael Amory appeared. + +Michael sat down beside her and very soon all three were talking about +topics of general interest. Meg gave them the latest London gossip, +which at the time was very dominated by the unrest in Ireland and the +Ulster scandals. + +Michael, who had on one side of his family Irish blood and strong Irish +sentiments, did not voice his opinions. He listened to all that +Margaret had to tell her brother, news principally gathered from +friends living in Ulster and from the violently anti-Nationalist press. +There certainly seemed exciting times in Ireland and Margaret's talk +was unprejudiced and interesting. + +While they were talking Mike was able to enjoy the girl's beauty and +study her individuality. Pretty as she was--and more than pretty--it +was her personality which pleased him--the bigness of her nature, the +evidence of her wide-mindedness and her quick grasp of fresh subjects, +and above all, in her, as in Freddy, there was the ring of +unquestionable honour and clean-mindedness. + +Margaret under the Eastern moonlight was charming. Her brown hair was +so soft and thick that Mike would have liked to put his hand through +it, as he saw her do every now and then. Most women, he knew, were shy +of disturbing their hair, however naturally arranged it might seem. +Margaret, when anything excited her, had a trick of putting her long +fingers through her hair, upwards from her forehead, and letting it +fall down again as it felt inclined. Her nicety of dress, too, pleased +her critical inspector. It was fastidiously simple and fastidiously +worn. In this again she was one with her brother. + +When English news had been discussed, their talk turned again to Egypt. +Margaret greatly desired to study Arabic; but although her brother +could speak it extremely well, she knew that he had no time to teach +her. It amazed her how much he had had to learn and had learned during +his years in Egypt. It was after twelve o'clock when the trio parted +for the night. + +When Meg was alone in her room, a certain reaction set in; she felt +tired and just a little depressed. She wanted to do so much and she +knew so little. Beyond the name Rameses she had not recognized the +name of one of the kings her brother had mentioned during their +conversation that evening--indeed, she had failed to grasp the meaning +of almost everything he had said, and yet she knew that he was talking +down to her level, or thought he was. + +Bewildered with the sense of Egypt, she fell asleep and dreamed of the +valley and her wonderful ride. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +Margaret had lived in the valley for a little over three weeks, +immortal weeks of intense interest and new impressions. She had fitted +herself into the atmosphere with a charm and adaptability which left +Michael and Freddy wondering how they had ever got on without her. A +woman in the hut made all the difference; a feeling of "homeness" now +pervaded the camp. Margaret had found so much to do in the way of +adding obvious touches of comfort and convenience to the hut and to the +tents that she had found little or no time to start upon her studies of +Egyptology. + +The moonlight nights she had spent either in the company of her brother +or Michael, wandering about the valley, or sitting alone outside their +primitive home, absorbing the spirit of the desert. She had not felt +ready for book-learning. + +One evening, after dinner, Michael and she had ridden down the valley +and back again, repeating her first journey, so that she might enjoy it +by moonlight. + +The three weeks had done a great deal to help her to distinguish some +of the periods and terms in connection with her brother's work. The +word Coptic, for instance, had now its proper significance in her mind, +and the terms dynasty and century were no longer jumbled hopelessly +together. She also realized that Egypt had been governed by kings and +queens with strong individualities of their own; they were not all +spoken of by Egyptologists as "Pharaohs," a word which hitherto had +suggested to Margaret the title given to the hosts of nameless and half +legendary monarchs who ruled over a semi-Biblical kingdom. + +Thus far and no further had she gone in the story of the world's first +civilization; but she had gone further in her friendship with Michael +Amory and in her knowledge of things Mohammedan. He had helped her to +unravel the skein of difficulties which Egypt's three distinct and +widely-different civilizations had presented to her--the period of +ancient Egypt, the period which we now call Coptic or Early Christian +and the period of the Arab invasion, with its importation of a +Mohammedan civilization. Traces of all these distinct civilizations +and religions perpetually come to light in the work of excavation. +Nothing puzzled the girl more than the fact that while digging on an +ancient Egyptian site, her brother seemed to find Christian and +Mohammedan relics. But even when he was speaking of interesting events +in comparatively modern Egyptian history, which he took for granted she +would appreciate and understand, Margaret felt disgracefully ignorant. + +So Michael took her in hand and he thoroughly enjoyed the work of +helping her to grasp some of the essential points which would clear her +mind before she started upon her serious reading. She had begun taking +lessons in Arabic with Michael who could speak it fluently but could +neither read nor write it, the written and spoken language being +entirely different. + +Margaret's quickness astonished him. He was ignorant of her record at +college. + +He was now having an example of her capacity for learning which she did +at a pace which rather unnerved him. Margaret learnt a language as she +learned the geography of a city. She would quietly and composedly +study a map until the "sense" of the city was in her brain. In +beginning her study of Arabic she explained to her brother that she +must first of all try to grasp the "sense" of the language. + +"I want a map of it, Freddy--you know what I mean." + +And Freddy did know. The Lampton type of brain was familiar to him, +and his own method of absorbing languages, or any of the subjects which +he had had to study for his examinations, was exactly similar to +Margaret's, so he set Michael and their Arabic master on the right +track. + +As a rule, the Arabic alphabet takes a student about three weeks to +learn. Margaret, with apparently very little trouble, mastered it in +one; it took Michael almost a month. Yet Margaret knew that she was +not grasping things with any ease or quickness; she felt too unsettled +and impatient. She was "dying," as she expressed it, to push on with +Arabic so as to be able to talk to the natives and understand things +Mohammedan, but the very fact that Arabic was not going to help her to +read Egyptian hieroglyphics, or understand anything at all about +ancient Egypt, acted as an irritant to her brain, and retarded her +working powers. + +"And when my brain is annoyed, or it feels impatient," she said, "bang +goes my poor intelligence--it simply won't be hurried; it will only +work in its own deliberate way." + +Michael declared that the way it was working was good enough for +him--rather too good, in fact. + +Under such circumstances, the intimacy between Margaret and her +brother's best friend naturally ripened very quickly. Margaret felt as +though she had known him for months instead of weeks, and more than +once she had wondered what life would be like without him. He was much +more imaginative than Freddy and more intellectually excitable and +curious. He theorized and perhaps romanced where Freddy was apt to +accept only proven facts. Michael's temperament was the exact +stimulant which Margaret's brain required. + +That Michael did his share of hard work Margaret had realized when she +accompanied him one day to the scene of his labours. She had had to +bend almost double and crawl down a steep shaft, of slippery, sliding +debris, to what she thought must be halfway through the world, and pick +her way over the rubbish in a semi-excavated chamber in the vast tomb. +Some of the chambers were full of huge stones, which had fallen in with +the roof. It was in a smaller chamber, where the heat was so great +that she could scarcely breathe, that Michael spent his mornings and +the greater part of his afternoons. + +The heat of Egypt, concentrated for centuries and centuries, seemed to +scorch Margaret's face when she entered it. The building was like a +temple with side chapels. In one side chapel Michael sat himself down +to copy a wide band of gaily-painted decorations, which formed a dado +round its three walls. + + * * * * * * + +On this particular night Margaret had returned from a long walk with +Michael. They had left the low level of the valley and its winding +white road and had climbed up on to the heights of the Sahara. It had +pleased Margaret to feel that her feet were pressing the sands of the +great African desert. She had never dreamed that their valley was +actually a rift in the rocks of the Sahara, that ocean of sand which +travels on and on to infinity. + +They had stood side by side on its high ridge, with their eyes looking +towards the plain below, the historic plain which once held the capital +of the world. The plain of Thebes reached to the river, and across the +river lay gay Luxor, with its lights and the luxuries of modern +civilization. + +Their walk was finished. It had drawn them still closer together. The +solitude of the Sahara, with its sense of Divinity, had established a +new link in their sympathies; it had created a feeling between them +similar to that which is the outcome of two people having been together +through strenuous and trying circumstances. They had, as usual, spoken +very little; yet they were conscious of having enjoyed each other's +society intensely and in the best possible manner, the enjoyment of +complete understanding. + +Earlier in the evening, when Michael asked her to go for a walk, +because Freddy was absorbed in some business letters, he had made the +proposal in his habitual way. + +"May I come and keep silence with you to-night in the great Sahara?" + +And Meg had said, "Yes, do. You know, we really talk to each other all +the time--my mind has so much more the gift of speech than my tongue." + +And so their silence had been as golden as the sand at their feet, +which under Egypt's moon never pales. + +Freddy was only too glad that Michael had "cottoned on to Meg," as he +expressed it--in fact, he was extremely pleased, for Meg would drive +"the other woman" out of his thoughts, and if anything should come of +it--well, Mike was one of the very best; Meg could not have a better +husband. + +But so far no such thought had entered Mike's head, nor yet Margaret's. +She was too interested and busy in her new life to think of love; she +was only conscious of living as she had never lived before, and as she +would have asked to live if she had possessed a wishing-ring. Every +hour and minute of her days were a delight. To be with her best "pal" +Freddy in Egypt seemed too good to be true, and added to that, there +was this unexpected pleasure, the friendship and companionship of the +nicest man she had ever met. His rather "drifting" temperament and +nature appealed to her as it appealed to Freddy, for the very reason, +perhaps, that keenly sensitive as she was and susceptible to her +surroundings, her nature and brains were of a practical order. She was +not imaginative or moody. + +She loved to listen to Michael's vivid, unpractical, Utopian theories +and to follow him to where his flashes of brilliance carried him. His +dream cities and dream people delighted Margaret. He told her stories +as she had never been told stories before, invented as he went along, +stories which kept her one minute fighting against tears and the next +in delicious laughter. + +Margaret never could tell stories, not even to little children; she was +not gifted with a creative brain or ingenuity. + +On the heights of the Sahara they, had not broken the silence; it was +only on their return journey, under a canopy of southern stars, that +Margaret had said: + +"A short story, please." + +And Michael had told her a story about a certain king of Egypt who had +a beautiful slave, who had such power over him that she could make him +do anything she liked. The things she liked were more fantastic than +anything Margaret had ever read in _The Arabian Nights_. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +Now, on her lounge-chair in front of the hut, Margaret was resting +after their walk. Freddy and Michael were both indoors. + +Half an hour or perhaps more might have passed, when suddenly a +luminous figure stood in front of her. She had not seen its approach; +it was simply there before her, just as if it had taken form out of the +desert air. + +She recognized that it was the figure of an Egyptian Pharaoh or a high +priest--she could not tell which. It wore the short kilt-like garment +and the high head-dress, with a serpent's head sticking out from the +front of it (the double crown of North and South Egypt, though Margaret +did not know it at the time) which had become familiar to her in the +pictures of ancient Egyptian kings. She had seen many such figures in +her brother's books and in the mural paintings of the tombs. + +As Margaret looked with amazement--certainly not fear--at the face of +the strange apparition in front of her, she thought that it was the +saddest she had ever seen. In the eyes there was a world of suffering +and sorrow. + +She felt conscious of being awake; the moon and the stars were above +her; they surrounded the luminous figure. Her brain struggled for +intelligence. Was this the spirit of some great king of Egypt, or of a +high priest, or what was it? Was it an optical delusion? If it was a +spirit, why had it come to her? + +"Tell me who you are," she said. "Do you want anything?" She spoke +nervously, not expecting an answer. + +"I once ruled over Egypt, and I return to see what my people are doing, +if the seed I sowed has borne fruit." + +"In this, valley there are no people--it is a valley of the dead." + +"My body was brought to my mother's tomb in this valley." + +The voice was so sad that Margaret said: + +"You are in trouble? You cannot rest? Is that why your spirit has +returned to earth?" + +"My spirit is with Aton, the master of that which is ordained. I have +come to deliver a message; it is for you." + +"For me?" Margaret said. "I know nothing at all about Egypt." + +"That is not necessary. Aton's love is great and large. It filled the +two lands of Egypt; it fills the world to-day." + +"But I am ignorant. You think I understand--I don't. . . . I can do +nothing." + +The sad eyes in the emaciated face, the face of a saint and fanatic, +smiled at her fears so tenderly that Margaret's heart was less troubled. + +"You can tell the one who is to do my work, the one who knows and loves +Aton, Aton--the compassionate, the all-Merciful. Tell him that I bid +him take up my work." + +"Your work?" Margaret said. "You were a king of ancient Egypt. . . . +You speak as if you had worshipped our God . . . there is no one who +can do your work . . ." She paused, and then said nervously, "Egypt is +different now--it cannot go back." + +"Egypt must go on, not back. Nothing is different in the heart of man; +your soul is as my soul. Aton liveth for ever in his children. He +filleth the two lands of Egypt with his love. I was his messenger." + +"But who was Aton?" Margaret said. In her mind she was striving to +recall if she had ever heard any references to the worship of one god +in Egypt, except by the children of Israel. + +"The one who is to do my work will tell you. He has studied my +teachings, he understands the love of Aton, whose rays encompass the +world." + +"Thank you," Margaret said. "I will tell him." She knew instinctively +that it was Michael who "understood." + +"He knows my work and my desire for the people of Egypt. He knows that +my people worship one God, but that they have no love of God in their +hearts." + +As the figure moved, it became less distinct. Margaret said: "Is that +all I am to tell him? Are you going away?" She felt distressed; she +knew not why. + +"I will return. Give him my message." + +"That he is to continue your work in Egypt?" + +"That he is to teach my people the love and the goodness of Aton, that +his mercy is everlasting." + +"Tell me, before you go, who is Aton?" + +"You ask, as people asked of a Messenger of God who followed after me +in my distant kingdom of Syria. Did He not answer them: 'Who are those +that draw us to the Kingdom of Heaven? The fowls of the air, and all +the beasts that are under the earth and upon the earth, and the fishes +in the sea, these are they which draw you, and the Kingdom of Heaven is +within you.'" + +"And will he understand if I tell him your words? I am quite ignorant +of your teachings." + +"He will understand because he has studied my teachings. He knows how +fair of form was the formless Aton, how radiant of colour. He knows +that the Kingdom which is Heaven is within us. In loving the world and +the beauty of the world which is Aton's he knows my commandments." + +As Margaret was about to ask why he had not appeared to Michael +himself, for she had no doubt that it was upon him that the mission was +laid, the vision disappeared and she was left alone, under the clear +skies, gazing out over the valley which lay spread before her, in its +eternal stillness. She could hear the sound of her last words +vibrating in the air. There was not a sign of any living thing near +her; only in the distance she could hear the barking of the jackals, a +desert sound to which she had already grown so accustomed as to +scarcely notice it. + +That she had been wide awake she was convinced; she did not feel as +though she had been asleep. As she tried to visualize the vanished +figure and to repeat to herself the words, which she must either have +imagined or heard, Michael came out and offered her a cigarette. + +"Who were you talking to?" he said. "Freddy and I thought we heard +your voice." + +"Michael," she said eagerly, "what time is it? Have I been asleep? +Have I been here long?" + +She spoke anxiously, impatiently. + +"How can I tell if you have been asleep?" he said, laughingly. "As to +the time, it's about eleven o'clock. Do you often talk in your sleep?" + +"Sit down beside me," she said urgently, "and let me tell you what has +happened. If I have been asleep, I have dreamed it; if I was awake, I +have experienced a very extraordinary thing, the moat extraordinary +thing you can imagine!" + +Michael threw himself down on the ground at her feet. + +"While I was sitting here, and, as I thought, wide awake, thinking over +our walk in the Sahara and about your story and enjoying the moon and +the stars, quite suddenly a figure appeared. I was awfully startled, +and yet not frightened." + +"What sort of a figure? One of the house-boys pretending to be a +spook?" + +"No, no house-boy. If I tell you, don't laugh, for even if it was only +a dream--which, of course, it must have been--it was very beautiful and +solemn." + +Now that Margaret was talking to someone about it, the incredibility of +the incident seemed much stronger. "It was probably a dream," she said +humbly. "All the same, don't make fun of it." + +"I won't laugh," he said. "You know I never laugh at such things. I +believe in visions--if you like to call these visitations visions." + +"But the odd thing is that the figure was exactly like the picture of +an Egyptian Pharaoh--that's why it now seems absurd--only his face was +not like the proud, arrogant faces of the Egyptian kings one sees in +pictures--fighting kings. It was more like the face of a suffering +Christ, the saddest face I ever saw, or ever will see again. Oh, those +eyes!" Margaret shivered, and paused. + +"Please go on," Michael said. His voice encouraged her. + +"I can't remember exactly what he said . . . it's all slipping away. +He spoke of some character of which I never heard; he said beautiful +things--I wish I could recollect the exact words he used." + +"Then he spoke to you?" Michael's voice was low, intense. + +"Yes, he spoke. He gave me a message for you." + +"For me?" Michael said passionately. "For me? How do you know it was +for me?" + +Margaret trembled as she spoke. "How do I know it was for you?" She +paused. "I do know--or, at least, I never doubted while the figure was +here. Now it seems foolish--it must all have been a dream." + +"No, go on. I want to hear everything." + +"He said I was to tell you that you were to carry on his work in the +world, he said that you would understand." She paused. "If it was +you, you will understand, because he said you had read his teachings +and believed in them. Does that convey anything?" + +"Yes, yes. Go on--what else?" Michael's voice trembled with +impatience. + +"There was one word he used which I have forgotten . . . and it meant +everything. I wish I could remember it! It's a name I never heard +before." + +"Think," Michael said, "do try to think--it may come to you." Margaret +noticed that he was trying to hide his excitement; he was more nervous +than she was. + +"He spoke of someone as God, and said beautiful things about Him . . . +this God, of everlasting mercy . . . those were his words. . . . Oh, I +remember the name!" she cried. "It was Aton--it seemed to be the name +of his God. He spoke of Aton as St. Francis spoke of Christ. Aton was +in the birds and fishes and flowers and in the cool streams." + +Michael turned round and grasped Margaret's hand. He was trembling +with excitement; he could hide it no longer. + +"It was Akhnaton! Oh, Meg, how wonderful! Tell me everything . . . +the spirit of Akhnaton!" + +"But who was Akhnaton? I am in the dark. He said he was Aton's +messenger." + +"First tell me all you can remember." + +Margaret tried to recall everything that the Pharaoh had said to her. +His exact words she could not repeat, but their essence she contrived +to convey quite clearly to the listening Michael. + +"Akhnaton," he kept murmuring. "It must be Akhnaton . . . a message to +me through you!" + +One sentence she was able to repeat almost word for word. "Who are +those that draw us to the Kingdom of Heaven? The fowls of the air and +all the beasts that are under the earth and upon the earth, and fishes +in the sea, these are they which draw you, and the Kingdom of Heaven is +within you." + +Michael had unconsciously drawn closer to her as she spoke. She heard +him say, with a sigh of intense satisfaction, "His very teachings, +Christ's own words!" + +"Tell me as exactly as you can what he was like." + +Margaret closed her eyes to bring back a picture of the vision, the +wonderful figure, luminous and bright. + +"His sadness is what I remember most plainly. I had thought that all +the Pharaohs were proud, hard warrior kings, with no pity in their +hearts. This king's face spoke of the suffering of Christ, of a man of +sorrows and acquainted with grief. His sorrow seemed to be for +humanity, for our sins, not the sorrow of a man who had known only +personal unhappiness." + +Michael said nothing; he was too deeply moved. + +"As I told you," Margaret continued, "he had a very strangely-shaped +head, more curiously-shaped than I can describe--very long and sloping +upwards to the back. He wore a high head-dress which seemed too heavy +for his slender neck. Coming from behind it there were bright rays, +just like rays of the sun--I have never seen anything like them in any +picture . . . oh, it must have been a dream! It all sounds quite +absurd." Margaret's trembling voice belied her words. + +"Akhnaton!" Michael cried excitedly. "Now there can be no doubt. Oh, +Meg!" He had unconsciously been using Freddy's pet-name for her, his +hand sought hers sympathetically. + +Margaret prized the word "Meg" as it came affectionately from his lips. + +"Meg, it is all too wonderful!" + +Michael said no more; he had buried his face in his two hands. He +would have given his youth to have seen what Margaret had seen. + +"Then you don't think it was a dream?" + +"How could you have dreamed the very appearance of Akhnaton, or dreamed +his personality, when you have never heard of him?" + +"I suppose I couldn't," she said. "But was Akhnaton unlike any other +Pharaoh of Egypt?" + +"As unlike as St. Francis was to Nero." + +A sudden idea came to Margaret. "But," she said, "he spoke to me in +English, in my own language. If it was really the spirit of Akhnaton, +how could he?" + +"Dear Meg, there are more things in divine philosophy than are dreamed +of by you or me. In what language did Our Saviour speak to St. +Francis, who was an Italian, and to St. Catherine?" + +"That is true," Margaret said, in a changed tone. "Will you tell me +all about this Pharaoh?" + +Michael thought before answering her question, and then he said, "I'd +rather not, not yet." + +"But why?" + +"Because I don't want to put any ideas into your head. All this has +come perfectly naturally, and through a modern who was totally ignorant +of the message she was conveying. If you were to receive another +message, if you ever were to see Akhnaton again, and you knew all about +him, it would not be the same thing." + +"Oh," Margaret said quickly, "I forgot--he said as he disappeared, 'I +will return.'" She gave a deep-drawn sigh and said nervously, "Do you +think he will?" + +"Will you be afraid? Were you afraid?" Michael's arm had slipped +almost round her shoulders. It was a moment when close human contact +came very graciously to the girl. + +"Afraid? No, he was too gentle, too sad--there was absolutely nothing +to be afraid of. I didn't stop to think of the supernaturalness of the +vision--I was much too interested. If it was a ghost, I shall never be +afraid of ghosts again." + +Michael shivered. + +Meg looked at him. She had hurt him; she felt a slight shrinking in +his sympathy. + +"Don't speak of ghosts, Meg--I hate the term, with all its cheapness +and irreverence!" + +"Then you believe in visions? You are convinced that I have not +dreamed all this?" + +"If it had been Freddy who had told me, I should have said that he had +been asleep and dreamed it, because he knows all about Akhnaton. We +are constantly discussing his character, a character I admire much more +than he does. But as it was you who saw him and you who have described +him as accurately as if you had his portrait in front of you, I feel +certain it was not a dream." + +Meg remained silent, while her thoughts worked with a new and amazing +rapidity. In Egypt she felt that anything was possible; the +supernatural might very soon become natural. And certainly the face +which she had seen was so unlike the types of the conventional figures +of the Egyptian kings she would have visualized if she had tried her +best to picture one from imagination, that she began to wonder if +Michael was right in his assumption that she had actually seen and been +in communication with the spirit of Akhnaton. + +"But why should he have chosen me, this great Pharaoh?" she said. +"Modern me, with no knowledge whatsoever of his kingdom or his beliefs!" + +"Ah, why?" Michael said. "Have we ever been told why Mary was chosen +to be the Mother of Jesus, the Divine Man Who taught the world what +Akhnaton tried to teach his people thirteen hundred years before His +coming--that the Kingdom of God is within us? Who can tell the manner +or the means by which God works? Not half, or a quarter, of the +Christian world knows, Meg, how often God speaks to them through +mysterious channels--through spirits, if you like. When people are +inspired to do good works, to lead what the material world calls holy +lives, God has spoken to them, the God Who is within them, the God Who +brought you and me together, Meg, to enjoy this valley. Its emptiness +and stillness is full of God. Don't you feel that its beauty and +solitude are due to His presence?" + +Meg shivered. "I know what you mean." + +"Don't be nervous. It is a great privilege, this sense of the divine, +this beautiful closeness to God, this cutting off of our material +selves, this knowledge of our Kingdom of Heaven within us." + +"I am far more earth-tied than you, Mike. I do feel these things, but +more feebly, less convincingly. I have never thought much about them. +We Lamptons are very practical; all our men have led good, clean, +straightforward lives, and our women have not made bad wives and +mothers, but I don't think we have been idealists, or very religious. +Our sense of honour more than our beliefs has kept us straight." + +"Poor, poor Akhnaton!" Michael said. His thoughts had strayed while +Margaret spoke. + +"Why do you say 'Poor Akhnaton?' Why was he so sad?" + +Michael evaded the question by saying, "We won't speak of this to +anyone, if you don't mind. Let it be just between you and me." + +Margaret hesitated for a moment. There was something stirring and +pleasurable to her emotions in the idea of having a secret with +Michael; it was like possessing a part of him all to herself; yet she +shrank from keeping back anything from Freddy. Even this dream--if it +was only a dream--she would naturally have told to him, because it held +such a wonderful idea; it would have interested him. It was +interesting from the scientific point of view, the fact that she should +have been able to project her unconscious brain into the history which +she was going to study and accurately visualize and create for herself +the personality and teachings of a Pharaoh of whom she had never heard. +If it had been the great Rameses, or any Biblical character who in +later years entered into Egyptian history, it would have meant less, +for already the personality of the great builder-king of Egypt was +known to her, by the frequency with which she had heard the expression +"Rameses the Great." But of the heretic Pharaoh she had never heard. + +"Do you mind not mentioning it even to your brother?" Mike said. "If +he was not in sympathy with my belief that it was not a dream, he might +unconsciously affect you--he would probably tell you much that I would +rather you didn't know until we find out more." + +Margaret gave her promise willingly. Michael's reason seemed to her +such a justifiable one that their secret might be kept even from Freddy. + +Presently Freddy shouted out, "I'm off to bed, Meg--kick Mike out and +go to yours--you've had a long day." + +As Mike said good-night, Margaret noticed how strained and grave he +was. "Don't look so serious!" She tried to speak lightly. "To-morrow +we shall both say that it was all a dream. Fancy an Egyptian Pharaoh +rising out of his tomb below the hills to speak to me! I'm not going +to think of it any more--I'll send myself to sleep by trying to say the +Arabic alphabet backwards." + +Michael did not look any the less grave. "He was brought to the +valley," he said, "to his mother's tomb, and I don't suppose that I am +the first person to receive a message from him--perhaps the first +European, but then, I love his teachings. They have not been known +very long." + +"He said he had come to see what his people were doing. Do you really +think he has given this message to others?" + +"Why not?--in another manner. These holy men in Egypt who feel +compelled to give up their lives to preaching and praying, and who +travel from desert-town to desert-town, calling on the people to +worship the one and only God--who knows what the manner of their call +was, or how God came to them?" + +"Then you think that God came to-night, in this valley, in the form of +Akhnaton, to you through me?" + +"I certainly do. Akhnaton, like Christ, became divine. We could all +be divine if we allowed ourselves to be." + +"Good-night," Meg said, for Freddy was shouting again. "It's late, and +I'm afraid I am too matter-of-fact and far too materialistic to follow +your ideas and beliefs." + +"I wish I followed what I believe," Mike said. "On a night like this +you can't help believing that God is in the yellow sand and in the blue +sky and in the beautiful stillness. He is in you and me and around us. +The hills look very holy, don't they? But to-morrow it will be so easy +to forget, to take everything for granted, or to behave as if chance +had produced God's world." He held her hand for one moment longer than +was necessary. "One is so closely in touch with the beauty of God +here, Meg. In busy Luxor or Cairo, or in any city, material things are +the things that matter. God is forgotten, set aside . . . man's +ingenuity is so much more obvious." + +"I know," Meg said. "Do you wonder at hermits and saints?" She smiled +a beautiful "Good-night." + +When she was alone in her room, she opened Maspero's _Dawn of +Civilization_, which Freddy had placed there for her. She turned over +its pages idly. "I wonder if I should find anything about Akhnaton +here," she said, "or if this is too early history?" + +Suddenly she closed the book. "No, I won't--I will keep my promise. I +won't read anything about him." + +She paused and thought for a few moments: her brain was too active for +sleep, her nerves too much on edge, so instead of reading about +Akhnaton, who is known in history as Amenhotep IV., the heretic +Pharaoh, she knelt down and prayed to his God, beginning with the old +familiar words, "Our Father, which art in heaven," for He is the same +God yesterday, to-day and for ever, the God of whom Akhnaton said, "He +makes the young sheep to dance upon their hind legs, and the birds to +flutter in the marshes," and as a modern writer said of Him, "The God +of the simple pleasures of life, Whose symbol was the sun's disc, just +as it was the symbol of Christianity. There dropped not a sigh from +the lips of a babe that the intangible Aton did not hear; no lamb +bleated for its mother but the remote Aton hastened to soothe it. He +was the living father and mother of all that He had made. He was the +Lord of Love. He was the tender nurse who creates the man-child in +woman, and soothes him that he may not weep." [1] + +This was the God Margaret prayed to, not knowing that it was Aton, the +God whom Akhnaton first taught the world to praise, the God for whom +Akhnaton thought his kingdom well lost. He was Margaret's God, as He +is our God, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob, +the God Who revealed Himself to His chosen people in the form of Jesus +Christ. + +One thousand three hundred years elapsed between the mission of +Akhnaton and the mission of Jesus Christ. Still another one thousand +and nine hundred years were to elapse before the world was to know that +there was a king in Egypt, the land of the crocodile-god and the +cat-god, Egypt, a very Pantheon of animal-headed gods, to whom God +revealed Himself as he revealed Himself to Christ, a God of Love, a God +of Tenderness and of Mercy--"The master of that which is ordained." + + + +[1] Weigall's _Akhnaton_, Pharaoh of Egypt. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +The next day Freddy announced at breakfast, which was a typically +English meal--except for the excellence of the coffee--that there was +to be a very extra-special ball the next night at the Cataract Hotel at +Assuan. + +"Would you like to go to it, Meg?" he asked. "I think you'd enjoy +it--I can guarantee you plenty of partners." + +"Would you go to it if I wasn't here?" Meg asked tentatively. The old +Meg in her thrilled at the idea of dancing on a good floor with good +partners. Freddy had told her of Michael's record as a dancer, so she +knew that she could count on two partners, at least, for Freddy and she +had learnt dancing together, and had enjoyed nothing better than +waltzing with each other. + +"Yes, I thought of going," Freddy said. "I can leave everything all +right here, and it's about time we had a day off." He turned to +Michael. "Carruthers is coming to see me. He wants to stay the night, +so that's all right." Carruthers was a fellow-excavator attached to a +camp at Memphis. + +"Then I'd love to go," Meg said. "I haven't danced for ages, but I +left my 'gay rags' at Luxor." + +"I'll send Abdul for them," Freddy said, "and you can go to Assuan +early to-morrow and get your traps in order. I don't want a fright, +mind--the tourists dress like anything." + +Meg laughed. "I'll do my best, but don't expect too much of travelled +garments." + +While she was speaking quite naturally and with genuine interest about +the ball, a vision was forming itself before her eyes, her visitor of +the night before; the dark sad eyes and the emaciated face of the +heretic Pharaoh became extraordinarily clear. It usurped her mind so +completely that she found it difficult to pay attention to the subject +which she was discussing. + +She tried to banish the influence, but failed. She had forgotten the +name which Michael gave to the God whom the Pharaoh had so greatly +loved. She could not even recollect the words of his message. Only +his luminous form and melancholy eyes were there in the sunlight before +her. + +She began to wonder which vision was the more fantastic and unreal--the +picture which she had visualized of the grand ballroom in the +magnificent hotel at Assuan, filled with men and women in modern +evening dress, or the figure of the ancient Pharaoh, as he had come to +her in this barren valley in the western desert. + +"Wake up, Meg!" Freddy said. "Dreaming seems infectious." + +Meg knew what her brother meant. So did Mike. + +"Don't forget that the practical Lampton mind is a jolly good thing. +That old drifter won't like living in a tent or a caravan, on twopence +a day, when he's sixty!" Freddy lit his cigarette; he had finished +breakfast. "You'll come, of course?" His eyes spoke to Mike. "Gad, +what a topping morning it is?" + +"Rather!" Mike said abstractedly. "Unless you want me to stay here?" + +"Carruthers will be all right here alone--he knows the place as well as +I do." Freddy's voice did not express much eagerness for Michael's +company at the ball, and Michael knew the reason. Freddy was unable to +decide in his own mind whether it was wiser to urge Mike to go and let +him see Meg as Freddy knew he would see her in all her pretty finery, +and let him enjoy the pleasure of her perfect dancing, or allow him to +stay behind and so avoid the risk of meeting the woman whom he knew +would be there. He had seen her name in the visitors' list in the +_Egyptian Gazette_. She was staying at the Cataract Hotel at Assuan. +He was so divided as to the wisdom of Michael's going or staying that +his response had lacked his usual note of sincerity. + +"Then I'll go," Michael said, for into his mind had floated a vision of +Margaret dressed in her ball-finery and dancing as Freddy's sister +would dance--dancing with other men. + +"Then that settles it," Freddy said. "We'll go a buster to-morrow +night and we'll make up for it after. You can begin real work next +week, Meg--sorting and painting, if you care to." + +When Freddy was ready to start off to his work, Meg went with him. It +was too early for the sun to be dangerous and the air was deliciously +fresh and clean. Meg's hands were dug deep down into the pockets of +her white silk jersey, just as her brother's were dug deep down into +the pockets of his white flannel coat. Meg's long limbs looked almost +as clean-cut as her brother's in her closely-fitting white skirt. As +Michael watched them walk off together, he said to himself, "They are +absurdly alike; they are like twins--they see eye to eye and think mind +to mind." + +As he said the words his sense of Meg contradicted his last remark, for +he knew that he could say things to Meg which Freddy would not +understand; he knew that if they had thought mind to mind he would not +have asked her to keep the secret which they now held between them. + +Thoughts full of tender affection for Freddy made him feel happily +contented; to have such a friend and to be allowed to work with him was +a privilege deserving of sincere thanks. For a few moments he stood +lost in gratitude and praise. These dreaming moments, about which he +was so often good-naturedly chaffed, were not entirely wasted; they +gave him the spiritual food his nature demanded. The desert holds many +prayers. + +"Why so abstracted to-day, Meg?" Freddy said, as they reached the site +of excavation. Margaret was no great talker at any time, but there was +something new in her silence this morning and Freddy felt it. + +"Am I abstracted? I didn't know it." + +"A bit off colour? Are you feeling the sun? You'd better go back +before it gets any hotter and rest more to-day, if we're to go to the +dance to-morrow." + +"Oh, I adore the sun," Meg said. "I believe in my former incarnation I +worshipped it." + +"A disciple of Akhnaton? I think we all are, if we only knew it. Poor +Akhnaton!" + +"Oh, Freddy, who was this Akhnaton? No, I forgot--don't tell me." Her +voice, for Meg, was emotional, excited. "I want to spell things out +for myself." + +"What do you know about him?" Freddy said. "I thought you hadn't begun +reading yet? Has Mike been preaching his religion? Mike's dotty on +Akhnaton--his religion's all right, but as a king he was an ass." + +"No, no, Mike hasn't told me anything about him and I really would +rather come to him in his proper place in history. I mustn't dip, +though it's a great temptation, but it spoils serious work." + +They had stopped and were looking down from the height of the desert to +the level of the excavation which was furthest advanced. Things had +developed greatly since Margaret's first visit. Now she was able to +see that they were at work upon a vast building of some description. +The enormous size and the beautiful cutting of the stones and the +exquisite strength of the mortarless masonry indicated noble +proportions. + +"How interesting it's getting!" she said. "I love these blocks of +evenly-hewn stone in the sand--they look so mysterious, and eternal." + +"I want to take the men off this, if we're going to Assuan +to-morrow--it's getting too hot." + +"Why?" + +"Because there were indications yesterday that we had struck a sort of +rubbish-heap of things which had been turned out of the tomb." + +"What kind of things?" + +"I don't know yet . . . all sorts of things. Probably the relatives of +the dead threw them out when they visited the tomb from time to time; +just as we throw away faded wreaths and flowers, they threw away +accumulations of broken vases and offerings." + +"And you don't want the workmen to know?" + +"I want to be on hand when they are cleaning it up, and it can't all be +done in one day. They are quite capable of sneaking back here before +the _gaphir's_ about in the morning, to see what they can pick up, to +sell to the visitors in Luxor. It's a great temptation." + +"I suppose they consider the tiny things they find far more theirs than +ours?" + +"I suppose they do, but, mind you, the Museum in Cairo gets its pick +and the choice of all that's found in Egypt in the various sites of +excavation." + +"Oh!" Margaret said. "I didn't know that." + +"Certainly it does," he said, "and rightly, too, although nothing would +be saved or be in any museum if it wasn't for the various European +schools. The natives would eventually plunder and steal everything, +and if the excavation had all been in the hands of the Egyptian +Government, heaven knows where the treasures would be to-day! As it +is, Cairo has the finest Egyptian museum of antiquities in the world." + +"Akhnaton was buried in this valley?" + +"Yes, in later days in his mother's tomb. His first burial-place was +at Tel-el-Amarna." + +"How odd! That's what he told me last night," Meg said dreamily, +almost unconsciously. She could hear again the sad voice of the +Pharaoh, saying, "I was laid in my mother's tomb in this valley." + +Freddy looked quickly up at her; he had left her to descend to the +workmen's level. "So Mike has told you about him, then? I thought he +would!" + +Margaret blushed to the roots of her hair. "Just one or two +things--nothing really very interesting." + +"I knew he would, sooner or later. He's got Akhnaton on the brain." + +"He really has scarcely mentioned him to me--never until last night." + +"Go back, Meg," Freddy said, as he disappeared down a deep channel in +the excavations. "It's getting too hot for no hat. You must be +careful--you can't afford to play tricks with the sun in Egypt. It's +better to worship it like Akhnaton than to trifle with it." + +"All right, I'll go," Meg said, and as she went she wondered how it +came to pass that Akhnaton was both a sun-worshipper and a devout +believer in the Kingdom of God which is within us. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +The ballroom at Assuan was a wonderful sight. Margaret had never been +to a more brilliant dance. The dresses of the women amazed her; they +were so costly and beautiful. The air of Egypt is so dry that their +delicacy of texture had been uninjured by travel. The gay uniforms of +the English officers, the Orders of the officials, looked their best in +the vast room, whose architecture and decorations were a fine +reproduction of ancient Egyptian art. + +Margaret was radiantly happy; she loved beauty and the dignity of vast +surroundings. In Egypt it seemed to her that everything was done on an +imposing and noble scale, everything except the little mud villages of +the desert, her "dear little brown homes in the East." Happiness made +her appear very lovely--indeed, she was beautiful that night and many +people asked who the charming girl was, who danced so well and who +looked so happy. + +She danced very often with Freddy, so naturally people began to say +that at last Lampton had been "caught." She had danced very often, +too, with Michael, and even Freddy's step had not suited hers so well. +With Michael there was something more than mere perfection of dancing; +there was the added sympathy of mind as well as body. When his arms +encircled her for the first time and Margaret felt him steering her +gently but firmly through the well-filled room, such a perfect sense of +rest pervaded her senses that a sudden desire to cry, just softly and +happily, came to her. Happy Margaret! + +Neither of them cared to speak while they were dancing; they remained +as silent as they had done when they stood together in the vast stretch +of the great Sahara, but they were conscious--and happily so--of each +other's enjoyment. Could two young people be so close to each other, +two people so greatly in sympathy with one another, and not know +something of the thought in each other's minds? + +"Will you let me take you in to supper?" was all that Michael said, at +the end of the last dance which they were to have together. He handed +her reluctantly over to her waiting partner as he spoke. + +Meg nodded her assent and smiled radiantly over her partner's shoulder +as she whirled off. + +Her beautiful white shoulders showed up the duskiness of her hair; her +head was distinguished and arrestive. As Michael was watching her and +waiting for her to come round the room again to where he was standing, +so that their eyes might meet, a gentle, caressing hand was laid on his +own and a voice said: + +"Ah! now I know why you have not looked for me. Who is she?" + +Michael started. The low, tender voice instantly thrilled every nerve +in his body, while at the same moment an overwhelming desire to slip +away and lose himself amongst the dancers came over him. + +"She is a fine-looking creature," the voice went on, "but that type +gets coarse at forty, don't you think?" + +Michael swung round quickly and faced the lovely woman who had spoken +to him. Her figure, in spite of its childish slimness, suggested not +youthful purity but a sensuous grace. In her soft, flesh-tinted gown +of chiffon, which left her arms and neck quite bare, a dress which +merely suggested a veiled covering for her tiny body, she was +temptingly feminine. To most men she would have been irresistible, for +she was as supple and straight as a child of thirteen. + +Her eyes gazed familiarly into Michael's; they were inviting and +exquisitely lovely. Even Mrs. Mervill's bitterest enemies had to admit +the charm of her eyes. Hard and cruel they could be, just like the +uncut amethysts which in colour they resembled--eyes of a deep, bluish +purple. They had looked their cruellest a moment ago, for envy had +crossed her path. Every inch of her tiny person was envious of the +girl who had smiled over her partner's shoulder to Michael Amory. She +was envious because she could see at a glance that Margaret was all +that was fine and clean and noble in womanhood. The girl whom Michael +Amory had been looking at would always get what was best in men, while +she could only get what was worst. + +"My partner has had to leave me," she said to Michael, for he had paid +no attention to her remarks about Margaret. "He had a touch of fever; +it came on quite suddenly. Will you take me out of the ball-room?" + +They had moved off together, Michael unable to help himself; he could +not allow her to go alone. + +"If you aren't dancing, let us go and sit out on the balcony--it's too +lovely to be indoors. Now, isn't it?" she said, as they reached the +wide covered loggia, dotted with palms and basket-chairs and small +tables, which looked over the black rocks of the first cataract on the +Nile, a scene which in all Egypt has no equal, for it is unique and +extraordinary. + +Beyond the river, with its black rocks, which showed in the water like +the indefinite forms of seals or shoals of swirling porpoises, there +was the bright yellow sand of the desert, which led into a world of +primitive silence, while above them and all around them there were the +stars and the night of Egypt. + +Mrs. Mervill had left the ball-room early, because she knew that the +balcony would be almost empty during the first part of the evening. + +"Isn't having this all to ourselves better than dancing in that crowd? +This is Egypt." + +"It's beautiful," Michael said, as he arranged the cushions in her +chair to suit her taste, which was scarcely in keeping with the views +of a dignified woman. When he had finished, Mrs. Mervill let her hand +slip down his coat-sleeve--she had laid it there as she spoke to +him--until it rested on his wrist; her fingers were caressing. + +"Tell me," she said, looking up into his face with a winning and soft +expression, "what have you been doing with yourself since we parted? +You have been much in my thoughts--never out of them, indeed." + +"My usual work in the camp," Michael said. "Its interest always +increases, and although it seems pretty much the same every day to +ordinary people, to us it is full of variety." + +"Lucky man! We poor women have no such distractions. I want to live +in the desert," she said eagerly. "I want to sleep in the open under +these stars." + +Anyone might have made the same remark with no _arričre pensée_ in +their words. Mrs. Mervill could not. Her remark contained an +invitation; Michael knew it. + +"Can you never get away?" she asked. "It would be my expedition, if +you would run it for me." + +Michael moved from her side, with the pretence of drawing a chair to +within speaking distance of her. She had reluctantly to let his wrist +slip from her fingers. + +"Say you will arrange it," she pleaded. "For weeks I have felt the +call of the desert and you know you'd love to come." + +"I can't do it," Michael said, almost sternly. "Please don't tempt me +. . . I have work to do." + +"Oh, but I will tempt you!" She laughed the soft, low laugh of +passion. "By every means in my power. With you it is so difficult to +know what will tempt you most. Am I to appeal to the mystic side of +you, or to the human? I think the human Michael will suit me best, the +Michael who longs to let himself go and enjoy the fullness of Egypt and +the wonders of the desert!" + +"Don't appeal to any part of me," he said quickly. "Leave me to do my +work in the best possible way--try not to act as a disturbing +influence." + +"Then I have been a disturbing influence?" Michael's voice had +betrayed the fact that his work had not been accomplished without +difficulty. + +"Yes," he said, for the spirit of truth was always uppermost in +Michael. "For some days after I left you the last time I found great +difficulty in concentrating my mind on my work. . . . I was +dissatisfied." + +"Then I succeeded!" The amethyst eyes, devoid of all hardness now, +caressed Michael and disturbed his nerves. The woman was very +beautiful, and he was conscious that her mind was set on her desire to +win him. He knew that it was not love; he knew that their intimacy was +not one of wholesome friendship. He was becoming more and more awake +to the fact that this wealthy woman, who looked like a child but for +the expression of her eyes, had taken an unreasoning desire to have him +for her lover. In a measure he could not but feel flattered, for with +her beauty and wealth she could have had the attention of better men +than himself. He was too generous in his judgment of women to +attribute her desire to the lowest motives, the prospect of enjoying +through another the innocence which she had lost herself so long ago. + +"I tried to reach you, Mike. I used every effort of my will-power, or +mind-power, or whatever power you like to call it. I insisted on your +feeling me. I sent myself out of myself to you." + +"Why did you do it?" he said. He had leaned forward and had laid his +hand on the cushions of her chair, at the back of her head. His +distressed voice was less harsh. + +"Why did I do it? Because, dear, I want you." Her voice was low and +wooing; it was one of her charms. + +Michael did not answer. His senses were beginning to throb. The sound +of a native earthen drum, with its sensual thud, thud, thudding, and +the watery note of a key striking a glass bottle, as an accompaniment +to the slow measures of bare feet on the deck of a Nile boat, added an +undefinable touch, of Oriental passion to the scene. + +Michael tried to draw away his hand, but she caught it and pulled his +arm round her neck and held his long fingers imprisoned under her chin. + +He protested. The thud, thud, thud of the _darabukkeh_ below kept time +with the throbbing of his pulses, while the subconscious visualizing of +the body-movements of the Sudanese dancers aided and abetted the woman +in her designs. + +"You know, dear, you are behaving very foolishly. I must never see you +again if you do this sort of thing. It can only lead to terrible +unhappiness for us both." + +She gently kissed his fingers, pressing her teeth against his +knuckles--with all her education and fashionable clothes, a creature as +primitive as any tent-dweller in the desert. + +"Don't say you won't see me again. I won't be foolish, I promise. But +I am very lonely, you don't know how lonely, Michael." + +"Poor little woman!" he said breathlessly; he was genuinely sorry for +her. If her nature craved for love and affection, it was hard for her +to live as she did, without it. + +"It's Egypt," she said, "Egypt and the desert. I want you all alone, +Michael, in the loneliest part of the loneliest desert in the world, +and I want as many kisses as there are stars in the heavens--kisses +that only my love and Egypt can teach you how to give!" + +"I must leave you," Michael said again, "if you will speak like that." + +He got up to go. Mrs. Mervill also rose from her reclining position on +her long deck-chair, and sat upright. + +"I do, I do!" she said, while she held up her beautiful lips to his +face. "There is no one to see, there is no one to care! I want a kiss +for every star there is in the heavens." + +The man could bear it no longer; all Egypt was tempting him. He bent +his head and kissed her lips. + +From the river below came the long cries to Allah of the Moslem boatmen +and the clear music of an _'ood_ or lute; the deep note of the native +drums had been silenced. It had given way to the song of an Arab +tenor. The music of the _'ood_, whose seven double strings, made of +lamb's gut, are played with a slip of a vulture's feather, drifted +through the clear air. The tenor song was an outpouring of a lover's +full heart. The passion of the night had triumphed. + +At their feet lay the black rocks and the swirling waters of Egypt's +Aegean and the buried city of Syene, and in the distance, yet surely +affecting their senses with its tragedy and grace, was Philae, the +fairy sanctuary of the Nile. In the submerged temple of Philae lies +the bridal chamber of the beloved Osiris and his wife Isis. + +None of all this was lost upon Michael, whose nature was ever tuned to +the concert pitch of his surroundings. Assuan affected him as a +gorgeous orchestra affects a lover of Wagner. + +But the sound of the hotel band, bringing a waltz to a close, made Mrs. +Mervill leave her lounge-chair and seat herself circumspectly on a more +upright one. Michael did not sit down; he wandered about, speaking to +her abruptly and unhappily at brief intervals. + +She was answering one of his questions when Margaret Lampton, flushed +and radiant with the excitement of dancing, came upon the scene; her +partner was a little behind her. Mrs. Mervill neither saw her nor +heard her footsteps; Michael had both seen and heard her. Margaret, +thinking that he was alone, walked quickly towards him. Suddenly she +heard a hidden voice say caressingly, + +"I will promise you anything you like, Michael mine, and keep it, too, +if you will try to see me as often as ever you can. Remember how +lonely I am, and that I shall live for your visits." + +Margaret stopped. Egypt had become as cold as the Arctic. She felt +lost. Her intention had been to remind Michael that it was almost +supper-time. Her partner was now by her side. He knew Michael Amory +and spoke to him. + +Mrs. Mervill had risen from her chair and as she came forward, Margaret +hated her, even while she thought that she was the fairest and most +beautiful thing she had ever seen. Michael introduced the two women to +each other, excellent foils as they were in their beauty and type. + +As Margaret gave one of her steadfast honest looks right into the eyes +of the delicately-tinted woman in front of her, she was conscious of an +appalling dislike and fear of her. She was equally conscious of the +woman's antagonism to herself, although her words had been charming and +friendly. + +"If she wasn't beautiful and tiny, I'd like to wring her neck and throw +her to the crocodiles below!" + +This was what might be interpreted as Margaret's true feelings as she +answered Mrs. Mervill's question and succeeded in making some banal +remarks about the view and the magnificence of the hotel. When she had +said all that politeness demanded of her, she turned away, a trifle +disconsolately. + +"Please wait one moment, Miss Lampton," Michael said. "I think this is +the supper-interval. Mrs. Mervill," he said, "can I take you back to +your partner? I am engaged to Miss Lampton for supper." + +"No, thanks," she said, "I didn't engage myself to anyone for supper." +Her eyes plainly expressed the fact that they had hitherto at these +dances always enjoyed the supper-interval together. "Will you be very +kind and send a waiter out here with a glass of champagne and some +sandwiches? That is all I want." + +Michael looked disturbed. "But I don't like leaving you alone." + +"I prefer the company of the stars," she said, "to just anybody--really +I do. I never feel that one comes to Egypt for these hotel dances." +This was meant for Margaret, to make her feel frivolous and vulgar. + +Margaret refused to accept it. "My brother and I have been dancing +every dance and every extra and forgetting all about Egypt. Have you?" +She turned to Mike. + +"No, I have been sitting this last one out with Mrs. Mervill. She +feels tired. And certainly Egypt is very much here." He pointed to +the scene before them. + +"Yes, quite another Egypt," Margaret said. "Egypt has so many souls." + +"And I have to be a little careful," Mrs. Mervill said, "of +over-fatigue." + +"I am sorry," Margaret said, while she inwardly noted the woman's +perfect health. The slender feminine appearance of her rival had +nothing in common with ill-health; a blush-rose bud was not more softly +and evenly tinted. She suggested to Margaret something good to +eat--pink and white ice-creams mingled together in a crystal bowl. + +Healthily devoid as Margaret was of sex-consciousness, it was curious +that this first close inspection of Mrs. Mervill should have told her +what she never dreamed of before, or even thought about--that she loved +Michael Amory. This woman was going to come between herself and +Michael; that there was great intimacy between them she felt certain, +also that Michael, even though he might care for the woman, was not +himself under her influence. She had never seen him look as he looked +now. + +The partner who had brought Margaret out on to the balcony constituted +himself Mrs. Mervill's cavalier. He was immensely struck by her beauty +and was inwardly overjoyed when Michael Amory introduced him to her. +He had not engaged himself for supper because there had been no one +with whom he cared to spend the time, except Margaret, and she was +engaged to Michael. Now that he had obtained an introduction to Mrs. +Mervill, he was delighted to attend to her wants. + +If Michael Amory had seen Millicent Mervill's attitude towards her +companion, he might have felt--and very naturally--a certain amount of +vanity. Born with little or no sense of honour or morals, she was +extremely fastidious. No one could have been more selective. +Ninety-nine per cent. of the men she met bored her not to tears, but to +rudeness; for the hundredth she might feel an unbridled passion. + +Margaret and her companion were seated at a little supper-table in the +immense dining-room of the hotel, a room which been built after the +proportions and decorated in the manner of an Egyptian temple. Their +table was close to a column, which was decorated from pedestal to +capital with the most familiar mythological figures of ancient Egypt. +Tall lotus flowers with their green leaves decorated the lower portion +of it. The whole thing certainly was an amazingly clever reproduction +of one of the ancient columns of the famous hypostyle hall at Karnak. +A gayer scene could hardly be imagined, for the bright colours of the +ancient decorations had been faithfully copied. + +Margaret had been talking rather more than was her wont to Michael, +about things which neither really interested her nor were in sympathy +with their mood. Their former intimate silence had given place to a +banal conversation, which hurt them, one as much as the other, while +they kept it up. + +The nicest part of the evening, for so Meg had thought that it would +be, was proving a failure, a dire and pitiful failure. The only thing +to do was to accept Michael under the new conditions and get what +pleasure she could out of the magnificent scene. The Egyptian +servants, in their long white garments and high red tarbushes, the +Nubians, in their full white drawers and bright green sashes and +turbans, were moving silently about, administering as only native +servants can administer to the wants of the fashionably-gowned women +and brightly-uniformed men who filled the magnificent hall. + +"How absurd that woman looks," Margaret said, "sitting with her back to +that figure of Isis." She knew now at a glance the goddess Isis as she +was most familiarly represented. "I do hope I don't look quite so +grotesque!" + +Michael looked at the woman, whose hair was decorated with an enormous +egrette's crest, in the manner of a Red Indian's head-dress. Margaret +knew quite well that she herself did not in any way look grotesque; +since she had been in Egypt she had conceived a horror of the +eccentricities of Western fashions, therefore her speech was insincere. + +"Of course you don't," Michael said absently. "You look just awfully +nice." He felt shy and blushed as he spoke, for he knew that he had +severed himself from Margaret by an unspeakable gulf, that he had now +no right to say anything intimate to her. Earlier in the evening he +could have said with frank enthusiasm how beautiful he thought her, if +an occasion like the present had offered itself. + +They were now at the ice-creams, wonderful concoctions with glowing +lights inside them, and their futile conversation had dribbled out, but +the silence which had fallen upon them was constrained; it had nothing +in common with the old happy silence of mental sympathy, the silence of +united minds. + +Margaret had still two dances to give Michael, and she wondered how +they were to get through them. The supper had proved heavy and +dragging. It seemed scarcely possible that they were the two people +who had stood, delighting in each other's companionship, on the high +ridge of the Sahara desert two evenings ago, that it was this man to +whom she had told her wonderful dream. She wondered if he had +forgotten it. + +As she thought of her dream, their eyes met. Michael's dropped +quickly. With Mrs. Mervill's kisses still burning into his soul, he +banished the thought of the divine King. The seed of evil which she +had planted in the garden of his soul many weeks ago had been watered +and nourished to-night. It had sprung forth like the green blades on +the banks of the Nile after the inundation. + +As Michael's eyes dropped, Margaret took her courage in both hands and +said as brightly as she could, "We're not enjoying ourselves +particularly, are we? We seem to have lost each other. Shall we cut +our two dances and try to find ourselves again in the valley? I hate +this sort of thing." + +"If you wish it." Michael's voice was reproachful. + +"Do be honest--you know I'm boring you. You have lots of friends here, +and I can get partners." + +"Things do seem to have taken a wrong turn," he said, "but it was not +of my willing." Inwardly he cursed the hour he had ever come. She +would never believe that it had been to see her in her evening-dress +and to enjoy the rapture of dancing with her. + +"We are neither of us much good at pretending," Margaret said. "But +never mind--better luck next time! And we had some lovely dances in +the early part of the evening." + +Her words, without meaning it, implied that before she had been +introduced to Mrs. Mervill, they had been happy. They had risen at +Margaret's instigation from their table and were wending their way out +of the supper-room. Michael was drifting towards the wide balcony, +towards the fresh cool air of the river. + +"No," Meg said determinedly, "not there." A vision of Mrs. Mervill, +pink and fair and seductive, had risen before her, the rose-leaf +creature with the hard eyes, who had so abruptly broken her sympathy +with Michael. + +Michael, without speaking, quickly turned the other way. He let her +through the big entrance to the front door of the hotel. The view was +ugly and uninteresting, like the surroundings of any huge Western +public offices or government buildings. The glory of the hotel was the +view from the balcony, overlooking the Nile, and its superb interior +decorations. + +"The old trade-route to Nubia lies back there," Michael said, +indicating the desert, which lay out of sight at the back of the hotel. + +"The old route to 'golden-treasured Nubia'?" Margaret said. "Fancy, so +close to this fashionable hotel--who would ever dream it!" + +"The caravan-route to Nubia--the Kush of the Bible--an immortal road. +To me the word Nubia is full of suggestion." + +There was something so distant in the tone of Michael's voice as he +spoke, that Margaret found little pleasure in hearing what he had to +tell her. How delightful he could have been upon such a subject as the +old trade-route to Nubia she knew only too well, so well that she was +not going to let herself be hurt by his aloof way of mentioning it. + +"Egypt to-night," she said, "for me means a big ball and gay dresses. +I have lost the other sense of Egypt." She turned up her eyes to the +heavens. "Except for the heavens," she said, "I really might have been +at the Carlton Hotel in London, at an Egyptian fęte held there, or +something of the kind." + +"As you said, Egypt has so many souls, but its heavens have only one. +The best starlight night at home is a poor, poor affair compared to +this." + +Before he had finished speaking Freddy appeared and claimed Margaret +for a dance. She left Michael almost gladly, yet hating the feeling +that they were still as far apart as they had been when they sat down +to supper. + +What a strange night it had been! The one half pure joy and the other +certainly not happiness. + +Alone in the open space in front of the hotel, Michael stood and cursed +his own weakness. Why had he stooped to those lips? Why had he +allowed himself to be unworthy of his intimacy with Margaret? He was +sorry for Mrs. Mervill, for he believed her stories about her husband's +drunkenness and degrading habits, as he almost believed that she had +for some strange reason fallen in love with himself. He wished with +all his might that women were nicer to one another, so that one of +them, a woman like Margaret, for instance, might have given this +lonely, lovely creature the affection and intimate friendship she +craved for. Women shunned her and so she had to resort to men for the +companionship and also for the affection she needed. + +Michael understood very well the pleasures of sympathetic friendships; +he was conscious that to himself human sympathy meant a very great +deal, and so he felt sincerely sorry for the woman who was denied it. +He liked the quiet places of the untrodden world; cities had no charm +for him. But he needed human sympathy in his solitude to make his +enjoyment complete. He felt sorely annoyed with the fates which made +it impossible for him to give Mrs. Mervill all that she asked of him +and at the same time continue on the footing on which he had been with +Margaret. + +And how was it that he could not? How was it that Margaret had +instantly divined that there was more than an ordinary or desirable +intimacy between Mrs. Mervill and himself? How was it that he had felt +dishonoured and ashamed? + +He had to return to the ball-room to find his partner for the next +dance. As he did so, he passed Mrs. Mervill, who was coming out of it. +She looked at him with laughing eyes, a soft, beautiful creature, of +supple movements, whose perfect lips had told him the promises which +she was capable of fulfilling. If he had not known Margaret, what +would he have done? + +But Margaret held him. He knew that she was worth a thousand Mrs. +Mervills, in spite of the latter's more vivid beauty and her quick wit. +For Mrs. Mervill was clever and could be extremely witty and amusing +when she liked. Her daring tongue stopped at very little, but it had +the gift of suggestion, which always saved her stories or repartees +from indelicacy or vulgarity. + +Margaret, who had offered him nothing but friendship, stood out in his +mind as one of the women with whom it was a privilege for any man to be +on intimate terms. In his thoughts of her, Margaret was high and +strong and pure. When his mind dwelt on her, it soared; when it dwelt +on Mrs. Mervill, it grovelled. He did not wish to grovel; it was not +in his nature to do so; it took a woman such as Mrs. Mervill to bring +his lower self to the surface. He hated himself for even unconsciously +condemning her and he tried always to remember her charming moods, the +hours they had spent together when they first met on the gay +pleasure-boats on the Nile. Those were the days when the clever woman +hid from the man whom she had selected her baser nature. During those +guarded days she had been gay and amusing and apparently as innocent as +a schoolgirl. It was only after a considerable number of meetings and +many exchanges of thought had passed between them, that she began to +show her hand, or dared to convey to him in a hundred insinuating ways +and expressions the real nature of her feelings for him. Very +grudgingly and very reluctantly Michael had to admit to himself that +she had fallen in his estimation, that he would not be sorry if they +were never to meet again. Yet he was not strong enough to cut himself +off from her; her appeal to his pity stood in his way. + +He had never met any woman before in the least like her. Her fearless +audacity had at first, just at first, somewhat amused, as it amazed +him. He had scarcely credited its being genuine. As she owed nothing +to her husband, or so she said, she saw no reason why she should not +live the life of a wealthy bachelor, who enjoyed it to the full. What +was sauce for the gander was sauce for the goose. + +To gain any hold on Michael's affections, she had recognized that she +must go carefully. It was her role to let him think that her passion +for him was a totally new thing in her life, that she had at last found +the man who could help her to be the woman she longed to be. With her +knowledge of man-kind, she knew how to awaken and keep alive in Michael +the only element in his character upon which she could work, the very +element he strove to banish and subdue. + +Later on in the evening she sought him out, because she had discovered +that Margaret Lampton was living in her brother's camp and that she was +in daily companionship with Michael. Freddy had told her this to anger +her. He was proud of his sister's beauty and pleased that Mrs. Mervill +had seen her admired. + +"Michael," Mrs. Mervill said, "that dark girl is in love with you. She +hates me." + +"Don't talk nonsense!" Michael said. "Why will you spoil our +interesting conversation by reverting to a forbidden topic?" + +They had been talking intellectually and seriously for quite half an +hour. Mrs. Mervill was a great reader, and she had determined to place +herself in a position to talk intelligently, if not learnedly, to +Michael about things Egyptian. She had been reading what Ebers had to +say about the tragedy of Isis and Osiris being the foundation of many +latter-day Egyptian romances. It had even found its way into _The +Thousand and One Nights_. + +Mrs. Mervill was much more word-fluent than Margaret. Often her +imagery was charming. + +"Because it fills my heart, Michael. It is the background of +everything. I saw the birth of hatred in her eyes--she has never hated +before." + +"I don't think she knows what hate means," he said, "and I wish you +would leave her alone." + +"I have not spoken about her before." + +"You said she would be fat and coarse at forty." + +Millicent Mervill caught his hands in hers. "You dear silly boy, so +she will, both fat and complacent, but then I shall be thin and +shrewish and shrivelled." + +Michael laughed. "You are a tease!" he said good-naturedly. + +"'The Rogue in Porcelain' used to be my name at school. But tell +me--how long is that dark-haired girl going to stay with her brother?" + +"I don't know," Michael said. "If she doesn't feel the heat, perhaps +until he returns to England and the camp breaks up." + +Mrs. Mervill clenched her pretty teeth. "And you expect me to be good +and quiet and submissive and stay here?" + +"I want you to be reasonable." + +"That's out of the question--I very seldom am, and I am not going to be +to please Miss Lampton, I can tell you!" + +"Then what are you going to do?" He could not be hard on the woman for +loving him; he wished he could help her and induce her to be +reasonable. If she had been free, he would have felt himself bound to +marry her. + +"I will arrange something," she said. "I don't know what." + +"What sort of thing?" he said. "Nothing foolish! Do look at things +dispassionately." + +"I won't!" she said. Her face was upraised to the stars. "I won't +give you up to that dark-haired girl." + +He swung round and spoke roughly. "Don't you know I can't be yours, +and you can't be mine?" + +"And you want me not to be a dog in the manger, while you enjoy the +next best thing that comes along!" + +"I never said so. Your mind jumps at conclusions. I hate such ideas +and conversation. I wish you would stop it." + +"I will be worse than a dog in the manger," she said, "if you make love +to that girl in the desert." + +"Hush!" Michael cried. His grasp of her wrist hurt her. "Hush! You +will make me hate you." + +"No, you won't, Michael," she said, "because you have kissed me. Words +were made to hide our feelings, kisses to reveal them." She suddenly +paused and looked as sad and innocent as a corrected child. "I would +be a saint, if you would let yourself love me, Michael." + +"What would be the good?" he said. "You belong to some one else." + +"A nice sort of belonging!" she said, disconsolately. "He doesn't care +a scrap what becomes of me." + +"Can't you possibly divorce him?" Michael did not mean that he would +marry her if she did; his mind was groping for some solution of the +problem. + +Millicent Mervill remained silent. "I could let him divorce me," she +said at last. + +"Don't!" Michael said intuitively. His voice amused the woman. + +"I don't mean to," she said. "Why should any woman be divorced because +she lives the same life as her husband does when he is apart from her?" + +"You don't, and aren't going to," Michael said earnestly. + +"I would, Michael, with you--only with you." + +"I wish you could have been friends with Miss Lampton instead of hating +her," he said sadly. + +"Pouf!" Millicent Mervill cried. "Thanks for your Miss Lampton--I can +do without her friendship! I prefer hating her." + +"You are so perverse and foolish and . . ." Michael paused ". . . and +difficult." + +"No, loving, you mean, loving, Michael--that's all I'm difficult about." + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +They were back in the valley again and splendid work was going on at +the camp. Another two weeks' hard digging had done wonders, and +Margaret and Michael had found each other again. + +In the dawn, two mornings after the dance, when the mysterious figures, +heralding the light, were abandoning themselves to their God on the +desert sands, Mike had seen Margaret standing at her hut-door, +watching, as he himself so often watched, for the glory which was of +Aton to flood the desert with light. Meg's eyes the day before had +told Michael that she was unhappy; he knew now that she had not slept. + +While the white figures were still bent earthwards and the little +streak of light was scarcely more than visible, Michael went to her and +asked her forgiveness. + +"Forgive me," he said. "I need forgiveness." + +Meg took his hand. "I hate not being friends. Thank you." + +"It made me miserable," he said. + +"Then let's forget. I was stupid. This is all too big and great for +such smallness." She indicated the coming of the unearthly light. + +"Thy dawning, O Aton," Michael said. + +Margaret smiled. "He was very far from us at Assuan." + +"He was there. I stifled my consciousness of him, Meg." + +"Don't," she said. "Let's go forward." + +"I know what you mean," he said. "Regrets are weak, foolish." + +"I don't want to bring the hotel at Assuan into this valley. Let's +just watch the sun transform its infinite mystery into our waking, +working, everyday world--if Egypt can be an everyday world." + +"May I say Akhnaton's beautiful hymn to you? It is about the sunrise. +He must often have seen it just as we are seeing it now." + +"Akhnaton's? Yes, do. How wonderful to think that he wrote hymns!" + +Michael began the famous hymn. "'The world is in darkness, like the +dead. Every lion cometh forth from his den; all serpents sting. +Darkness reigns.'" + +"We might substitute jackals," Margaret said gently. + +"'When thou risest in the horizon . . . the darkness is banished. Then +in all the world they do their work. + +"'All trees and plants flourish, the birds flutter in their marshes, +all sheep dance upon their feet.'" + +"Oh," Margaret said delightedly, "how like it is to the hundred and +fourth Psalm! Do you remember how David said: 'The trees of the Lord +are full of sap. . . . Where the birds make their nests. . . . The +high hills are a refuge for the wild goats'? I think that's how it +goes. I love that Psalm." + +"Yes," Michael said, "verse for verse, the idea is absolutely similar +and the similes are strikingly alike. The next verse is just as much +alike. Listen. . . . I am so glad you like it." + +"First look," Margaret said, "at that light. Yes, now go on--I love +hearing it." + +"'The ships sail up stream and down stream alike. The fish in the +river leap up before Thee and Thy rays are in the midst of the great +sea. How manifold are Thy works. Thou didst create the earth +according to Thy desire, men, all cattle, all that are upon the earth.'" + +"How extraordinarily like!" Margaret said. "How do you account for it? +I suppose it is still allowed that David wrote the Psalms? Did he live +before Akhnaton or after him?" She laughed softly. "Don't scorn my +ignorance. You see, I have kept my promise--I have read nothing at all +on the subject." + +"Akhnaton, you mean? Oh, before David, by about three hundred years. +There are all sorts of theories on the subject. The commonest is that +Akhnaton, having come of Syrian stock, on his mother's side, may have +got his inspiration from some Syrian hymn, as David also may have done. +I reject that theory. The whole of Akhnaton's beliefs and teachings +prove the extraordinary originality of his ideas. He borrowed nothing; +God was his inspiration." + +"You are going to tell me about him, about his work?" + +"Yes, soon, some day. Have you thought about him since?" Michael +referred to the God of Whom Akhnaton was the manifestation, the +interpreter. He always spoke of Akhnaton as a divine messenger. + +His voice betrayed a sense of regret, of unworthiness. Yet in his +heart he knew that, weak as he had been, he had not sinned against the +spirit of Akhnaton, that he realized even more fully his watchword, +"Living in Truth." Akhnaton's love for every created being because of +their creator filled Michael's heart even more fully than it had done +before. He had learned his own moral weakness, his own forgetfulness. +Blame and criticism of even the natives' shortcomings seemed to him +reserved for someone more worthy than himself. They had simply not yet +seen the Light; their evolution was more tardy; they were less +fortunate. Some day all men would be "Living in Truth." Akhnaton's +dream would be realized. How impossible it is for our material selves +to do without the help which is outside ourselves, that help which is +our divine consciousness, Michael had learned over and over again. His +lapses had not affected his beliefs. They were only parts of the +struggle, the oldest struggle known to mankind, the struggle between +Light and Darkness. Just as the Egyptians from the earliest days +believed in the triumph of Osiris over Set, he knew that no thinking +man could doubt the eventual triumph of all those who fight for the +spiritual man. + +"Yes, I have thought about him," Margaret said. "And last night I +dreamed about him--my . . ." she paused ". . . wonderful visitor." + +"What did you dream?" Michael said. "Do tell me." + +The light was breaking over the valley--not the sun's light, the cold +light of dawn. The "heat of Aton" was still withheld. + +A blush which was invisible to Michael tinged Meg's clear skin. Her +dream had been beautiful, vivid. It had illuminated her world again. + +"It was nothing very coherent. I saw no vision, as I did before." Her +words were spoken guardedly. "It was the lesson the dream revealed." + +"I should like to know, Meg." + +"A voice seemed to wake me. It spoke to me of you. I was to help +you . . . you were struggling." + +"You can help me," Mike said. "You have." + +"It spoke of the oldest of all stories, the battle of light against +darkness. It said that Egypt in the early days worshipped light; in +the days which followed light was swallowed up in the worship of false +gods." + +"Osiris and Set--you know the legend--the fundamental ethics of all +religions." + +"I know a little about it," Margaret said. She paused. "Please go +on . . . tell me everything." + +"In dreams we are so vain, so wonderful . . . you know how it always +is! The ego in us has unlimited sway. In my dream I dreamed that my +friendship was to be 'light'; if I withdrew it, you would have +darkness. What glorious vanity!" + +"Oh, Meg, it's quite true! Will you give me back your sympathy? +I . . ." he hesitated, ". . . I am trying to be more worthy of it." + +"We are friends," she said. "I was foolish and conceited, my dream +made me see how foolish. I had no right to . . ." + +He interrupted her. "Yes, you had . . . you weren't foolish. Your +sensibilities told you what was absolutely true. . . . I would explain +more if I could." + +"No, don't explain--things are explained. I thought I should find you +here; I wanted to begin the new day happily. My dream made me see so +very clearly that the world is made up of those who sit in darkness and +those who sit in light, that thoughts are things. My thoughts were +unjust, unkind, so my world was unkind, unjust. I made it." + +"The light which is Aton," Michael said. + +"If we wish to enjoy happiness, we must sit in the light. We must make +our own happiness." + +"In the fullness and glory of Aton." + +"God, I suppose you mean," Margaret said. + +"The one and only God Whom every human being has striven to worship in +his or her odd way ever since the world began. There is God in every +man's heart. It doesn't a bit matter what His symbol may be. Some +races of mankind have evolved higher forms of worship, some lower; +their symbols are appropriate. But they are all striving for the one +and same thing--to render worship to the Divine Creator, to sit in the +Light of Aton." + +"But the sun," Margaret said--she pointed to the fiery ball on the +horizon--"I thought your divine Akhnaton was a sun-worshipper?" + +"He worshipped our God, the Creator of all things of heaven or earth, +even of our precious human sympathy, Meg, for nothing that is could be +without Him, and to Akhnaton His symbol was the sun. The earlier +Egyptians worshipped Ra, the great sun-god; Akhnaton brought divinity +into his worship. He worshipped Aton as the Lord and Giver of Life, +the Bestower of Mercy, the Father of the Fatherless. All His +attributes were symbolized in the sun. Its rising and setting +signified Darkness and Light; its power as the creative force in +nature, Resurrection. It evolved mankind from the lower life and +implanted the spirit of divinity in him through the Creator of all +things created. The sun was God created, His symbol, His +manifestation." + +"Look," Margaret said, "look at it now--it is God, walking in the +desert." + + * * * * * * + +For a little time they stood together, their material forms side by +side. + + * * * * * * + +Michael's house-boy, with a deferential salaam, suddenly informed him +that his bath had been waiting for him and was now cold. + +Before Michael hurried off Margaret said, "Thank you for my first +lesson in Akhnaton's worship." She held out her hands. + +"We all worship as he did, all day long," he said, "when we admire the +sun and the stars and the flowers, when we admire all that is +beautiful, we are seeing God." + +"I adore beauty," Margaret said, "but I forget that beauty is God. +You, like Akhnaton, are conscious of God first, the beauty He has made +afterwards. If there had been the text 'God is Beauty' as there is +'God is Love,' it might have helped us to understand." + +"I forget him," Michael said, "you know how easily." + +"It is far better to know and love, even if you are human and +forget. . . ." she paused ". . . than always to sit in darkness, to sit +outside the door." + +"I don't see how any one can," Michael said. "It is all so exquisitely +evident. The desolation must be so terrifying, like living in this +lonely spot with no watch-dogs to keep off evil-doers. It takes great +courage to live on one's own strength, one's own material self." + +They had parted, Margaret going to her room, Michael to his tent. +Freddy, who was almost dressed, saw two figures approaching, wrapped up +in big coats. + +"That's a good job!" he said. "The sunrise has made them friends +again." He was out in the desert the next moment, hearing the +roll-call of the workmen, who had all ranged themselves up in a line +near the hut. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +One evening, some weeks later, when the trio, Margaret, Freddy and +Michael, were busily engaged in sorting and cleaning the day's finds, +which had been more than usually interesting, Margaret held up for +inspection a tiny alabaster kohl-pot, which she had freed from the +incrustations of thousands of years. It was exactly similar to a +little green glass bottle which she had bought in the bazaar at Assuan, +in which the modern Egyptian, but more especially the Coptic, women +carry the kohl which they use for blacking their eyes and eyebrows. +Margaret showed Freddy the bottle, which led to a discussion about the +similarity of the customs of the modern Egyptians and those in the +pictures in the tombs, whose decorations always reveal the more human +and intimate side of the life of ancient Egypt than the decoration of +the temples. + +"They were as vain and fond of making up as any woman of to-day," +Freddy said. "We find no end of recipes for cosmetics and hair-dyes +and restorers. One popular pomade was made of the hoofs of a donkey, a +dog's pad and some date-kernels, all boiled together in oil. It was +supposed to stop the hair from falling out and restore its brilliancy. +There is another, even more savoury, for hair-dying." + +"Do you suppose they still use that receipt?" Michael said. + +"I shouldn't wonder. Customs never die in Egypt--they have had the +same superstitions and the same customs for thousands of years. The +Copts have clung more jealously to them, of course. The Moslem +invasion did a little to change some of them, but not many." + +Margaret listened while Freddy explained how the Moslems, after the +Arab invasion, behaved with regard to the festivals and superstitions +of the pagans very much in the same way as the Early Christian church +in Rome behaved with regard to the pagan festivities and +superstitions--adapting them, as far as was possible, to the new +religion, grafting on such things as the people would not or could not +renounce. The wisdom of the custom was obvious. The new converts, who +believed in one God Whose Prophet had come to knock down all graven +images in the temples, were still allowed the protection and comfort of +their personal amulets, which were powerful enough to protect them from +every evil imaginable, or to bring them all the blessings their simple +souls desired. Arab workmen, who believe that Allah wills all things, +that whatsoever happens, it is his purpose, will flock round any +soothsayer who professes to see into the future and do the most absurd +things conceivable to keep off the evil eye. The eye of Horus is still +their favourite amulet. + +"Abdul professes to tell fortunes and see into the future. They do +sometimes manage to hit off some wonderfully clever guesses," Freddy +said. "Abdul has been curiously correct in a number of things he has +foretold relating to this bit of work." + +"What did he tell you about this excavation?" + +"He didn't tell me--I overheard the workmen's chatter. He has worked +them up to a pitch of absurd excitement." + +"What sort of things has he foretold? Good or bad? What things have +come true?" + +"I forget the small points now. I really can't tell you. He predicts +all sorts of extravagant things about the inside of the tomb, says he +has seen visions of a wonderful figure of a queen, dressed as if for +her bridal, and the place all glittering with gold and precious +stones--the most superb tomb that has ever been opened." + +"Oh!" Meg said excitedly. "I wonder if it will be?--if there will be +any truth in it?" + +"Tommy-rot!" Freddy said. "But the excitement's spread--the men are +working like mad--never did so much good work before." + +"May I talk to Abdul? I'd love to have my future told!" + +"I'd rather you didn't--at least, I would rather the other workmen +didn't know he had spoken to you. I don't like them to imagine that we +believe in such things." + +"Very well," Meg said. "I see what you mean." + +"You are never wise to let the natives lose their respect for your +disdain of spooks and superstitions. I never scoff at their fears and +beliefs in every sort of imaginable supernatural power, but I like them +to think that my religion places me above such terrors. We pray to our +Christian God to protect us according to His will; they say five +prayers to Allah daily, the one and only God, and at the same time at +every hour of the day they perform countless acts and ceremonies to +propitiate malign spirits and powers. They are a curious people--the +best of them are very devout, but some of the most devout are not the +best by any means." + +"Do you mind if Michael sees the fortune-teller? It would be so +interesting." + +"He knows Abdul." Freddy looked at Mike. "It's different to letting +one of our womenkind meddle in such things." + +"Did the ancients believe in dreams?" Margaret said. Michael's eyes +had spoken; he had seen the man. + +"Don't you remember Joseph's dream?" + +"Oh, of course!" Margaret said. "But Joseph seems a modern in this +valley." + +"The ancients looked upon dreams as 'revelations' from a world quite as +real as that which we see about us when we are awake. They were sent +by the gods and, according to the texts in the tombs, much desired." + +Margaret's and Michael's eyes met. Her dream which had brought them +together again had undoubtedly been sent by God. + +There was an industrious silence for a little time, then Margaret +asked, "Have you ever come across any traces of Akhnaton's religion in +the tombs in this valley?" + +An amused smile hovered round Freddy's mouth. It was obvious that +Margaret had caught something of Mike's enthusiasm for the heretic +Pharaoh. + +"No, nothing of his religion," he said. "It is too far from his scene +of action; his influence was almost local--it was a personal influence +and died at his death. He was a man born before his time; the world +was not ready for his doctrines--they were far above the people's +heads." + +"How do we know?" Mike said eagerly. "Surely God knows best when to +send His messengers, when to reveal Himself?" + +"Anyhow," Freddy said, "you know that when he died his teachings died +too. The people who had professed his beliefs returned to their old +gods. The one and only trace of Akhnaton's influence here is in his +mother's tomb, where every sign of Aton worship has been chopped off +the wall, every trace of his symbols obliterated. Akhnaton had no +doubt introduced them into his mother's tomb; she had shared his +beliefs, which had not, of course, become extreme at the time of her +death." + +"Truth never dies," Mike said. "His beautiful city was abandoned, his +temples neglected and overthrown, his people again became the victims +of the money-making, political priesthood of Amon-Ra. But who can say +that the spirit of Akhnaton is dead to-day? Who can tell that the seed +of his mission bore no fruit? Thought never dies." + +"As you like. Anyhow, even before he was buried--embalming was a +lengthy process--his religion as a state religion, as anything at all +of any influence, or as a power in the land, was doomed." + +"You don't admire him as Mike does," Margaret said. "He seems to have +been almost as perfect as a human being could be--the first living +being to realize the divinity of God." + +"As a religious _dévoué_, he was, as you say, almost a saint. He spent +his life throwing pearls before swine--you might as well try to make a +charity-school class see the beauty of Virgil in the original--and +letting his kingdom go to rack and ruin." + +"Oh," Margaret said, "you didn't tell me that." Her eyes searched +Mike's. "Did he let Egypt go to pieces?" + +"He was anti-war, as I am," Mike said, "as all lovers of God and of +mankind ought to be. He was perhaps foolish in his belief that if the +world could be converted to the great religion of Aton, which meant +perfect love for everything that God had created and absolute reverence +for everything because He created it, then there would be no wars. If +God is love and we believe in God, how can we kill each other? +Akhnaton's idea of the duty of a king was the improvement of mankind. +He tried to give men a new understanding of life and of God. The moral +welfare of the human race was more to him than the aggrandizement of +its emperors." + +"I've no patience with all that," Freddy said. "He inherited a +magnificent kingdom; he let it dwindle almost to ruin. If you could +read some of the letters of Horemheb, the commander-in-chief of his +army, begging him to send reinforcements to Syria, imploring him to +realize the danger that menaced Asia, you would feel as impatient as I +do with his mission work at Tel-el-Amarna, his cult of flowers and his +new-fangled art." + +"A man can't go against his own conscience. He didn't approve of war. +It's an interesting fact that the only one of the old gods he +recognized was Maît--he built a fine new temple to the goddess of truth +at Tel-el-Amarna. He carried his enthusiasm too far," Mike said, "I +grant that, but from his point of view these things were of little +account. If he could have turned the heart of Egypt from the worship +of false gods, if he could have imparted unto the minds of men the +wonder and the love of God, all else, he thought, would follow after." + +"A fanatic!" Freddy said. + +"So were all saints." + +"'For what shall it profit a man,'" Meg said, "'if he gain the whole +world, and lose his own soul?'" Her voice was significant. "In his +day, Christ was as great a fanatic, if you like to look at things from +that point of view. Fancy fasting forty days and forty nights in the +wilderness, calling upon men to leave their work and follow him, +preaching against the rich! How you would have scoffed at him!" + +"If Akhnaton hadn't been a king, if he had merely been a prophet and a +teacher, he'd have been all right. But just you listen, Meg," Freddy +said, "while I read you what a modern writer says about him, and he is +an intense admirer of the character of Akhnaton. This is how he +describes what the messengers must have felt when they hurried back to +Egypt to the new capital of the fanatical king at Tel-el-Amarna, +bearing entreaties from the commander-in-chief of the army in Syria to +send reinforcements to help to deliver his distant kingdom from the +oppression of her enemies." Freddy found the book and opened it. +"Here it is--listen to this: 'The messengers have arrived at the City +of the Horizon,' as Akhnaton called his new capital, 'Their hearts are +full of the agony of Syria. From the beleaguered cities which they had +so lately left, there came to them the bitter cry for succour, and it +was not possible to drown that cry in words of peace, nor in the jangle +of the septrum or the warbling of pipes. Who, thought the waiting +messengers, could resist that piteous call? The city weeps and her +tears are flowing. Who could sit idle in the City of the Horizon, when +the proud empire, won with the blood of the noblest soldiers of the +great Thothmes, was breaking up before their eyes? What mattered all +the philosophies in the world, and all the gods in heaven, when Egypt's +great dominions were being wrested from her? The splendid Lebanon, the +white kingdoms of the sea, Askalon and Ashdod, Tyre and Sidon, Simgra +and Byblos, the hills of Jerusalem, Kadesh and the great Orontes, the +fair Jordan, Turip, Aleppo and distant Euphrates . . . what counted a +creed against these? God, the Truth? The only god was He of the +Battles, who had led Egypt into Syria; the only truth the doctrine of +the sword, which had held her there for so many years.'" + +Freddy turned over the leaves of the book which he had been reading +from, and began again quoting from Weigall's _Life of Akhnaton_. + +"'Love! One stands amazed at the reckless idealism, the beautiful +folly of this Pharaoh who, in an age of turbulence, preached a religion +of peace to seething Syria. Three thousand years later mankind is +still blindly striving after these same ideals in vain.'" + +"How pathetic!" Margaret said. "And yet . . ." she hesitated, ". . . +the God of Battles . . . Akhnaton's was the God of Love, the God of +everlasting Mercy." + +"What right had Egypt ever to go into Syria?" Mike said. "It sounds +fine and one can grow enthusiastic over these beautiful old names and +visualize a million greatnesses that Akhnaton was resigning, but what +right had Egypt in Syria? The right of might, the right of the +stronger against the weaker--Prussia's might against Poland, Spain's +might against Flanders, any large country's might against a weaker, the +right of armies, the right of the greed of monarchs! Akhnaton believed +in God, and to his thinking war could not go hand-in-hand with a love +for all that God had created." + +"Get out, Mike!" Freddy said. "You'll get on to Ireland next--I know +him, Meg!" + +"I agree with him in a way," Meg said. "To give people the love of God +and the proper sense of beauty, the enjoyment of all that God has made +for their good, in the best way, which was surely the way of Akhnaton, +seems better than spending the kingdom's wealth and brains in +maintaining armies to kill human beings and invade new territories." + +"The great question," Freddy said, "is nationality. If you don't care +who wipes you out, or to what country or king you belong, well and +good, live the idealized life. Someone will think quite differently +and gobble you up. If Akhnaton hadn't died, there would soon have been +no Egypt, no Egyptian peoples." + +"They'd have been quite as happy," Mike said, "for in those days the +kings actually owned their empires, they were their own property to do +what they liked with. The people fought for their King, not for their +country. An absolute monarch was an absolute monarch, the kingdom was +his to do as he liked with." + +"How was it saved? Was it ever as great again?" Meg asked. + +"It was saved by his son dying almost directly after he did and +Horemheb, the great commander-in-chief, at last got his way. He +persuaded the reigning Pharaoh, who had married Akhnaton's daughter, to +himself lead an expedition and go into Asia. After that Pharaoh's +death, and the death of the next one, Ay, Akhnaton's father-in-law, who +reigned for a short time--and who, to do him justice, tried to remain +faithful to Akhnaton's ideal Aton worship--the great warrior and +commander-in-chief, Horemheb, was raised to the throne. He brought +Egypt back to its old conditions. Do you care to hear what Weigall +says about him?--how completely he wiped out the 'idealism of the +dreamer'?" Freddy found the passage he wanted. "'The neglected +shrines of the old gods once more echoed with the chants of the priests +through the whole land of Egypt . . . he fashioned a hundred +images. . . . He established for them daily offerings every day. All +the vessels of their temples were wrought of silver and gold. He +equipped them with priests and with ritual priests, and with the +choicest of the army. He transferred to them lands and cattle, +supplied with all necessary equipment. By these gifts to the neglected +gods, Horemheb was striving to bring Egypt back to its natural +condition and with a strong hand he was guiding the country from chaos +to order, from fantastic Utopia to the solid Egypt of the past. He +was, in fact, the preacher of sanity, the chief apostle of the Normal.'" + +"It was in his reign," Michael said, "that Akhnaton's fair city at +Tel-el-Amarna was utterly abandoned; his beautiful decorations, which +were intended to illustrate to the people the beauty of God in Nature, +were ruthlessly destroyed. His body, which had been laid in the +far-away cliffs behind his city, was removed and placed in his mother +Queen Thi's tomb in this valley." + +"What a tragic life!" Margaret said. She was thinking of the sad face +as she had seen it in her vision. Did any one understand him? Freddy +evidently understood Horemheb, the apostle of the Normal, who scorned +the fantastic Utopia of Akhnaton, much better. + +"He was very much beloved and probably as much understood by a few as +most pioneers have been. It was in his father-in-law's tomb that his +beautiful hymn was discovered, for he was one of his devoted followers +in Akhnaton's lifetime." + +Margaret smiled. "The beautiful hymn you said to me that morning at +dawn, Mike?" + +"The same," Michael said. "I have often thought of it in connection +with St. Francis' Canticle to the Sun." + +"It is difficult," Margaret said, "to know how far wars and +empire-building, and everything that makes for worldly-ambition and +encourages the vanity of monarchs, are compatible with the true meaning +of the words 'God is Love,' with the true conception of Christ's +doctrines." + +"Which were Akhnaton's," Michael said. "He did all in his power to +raise the morals of his people. He was the first king to recognize the +higher rights of women, to insist on the reverence of womanhood. He +brought his queen forward on every public occasion, and that had never +been heard of before. He tried to introduce a new ideal of home-life. +He was a model father and husband. He thought of nothing but the moral +welfare of his people and of their happiness. He was willing to lose +his kingdom for the saving of their souls." + +"And yet he was a bad king?" Margaret said. + +"He had none of the qualities of a ruler or an empire-builder," Freddy +said. + +"Damn empire-building!" Mike said. "If people would only stick to +their own natural territory and not go straying into other peoples!" + +"I wonder what you'd do if Germany strayed into ours? Sit down and let +them walk over you?" + +"I'd do what you'd do," Mike said, with a flash of Irish anger in his +eyes--"kill every damned one of them!" + +"There you are!" Freddy said hotly. + +"No, I am not," Michael said, "for, as I said, what we've got, let us +keep--England's possessions no more belong to Germany than my soul +does. But some of our wars--well!" he laughed. "Empires are built up +in rum ways, ways I don't agree with, but we won't do any good by +handing them over now to feed the vanity of the Kaiser. But the +Egyptians had enough land in Africa to expand in, there was no need for +their warrioring in strange lands." + +"Let's chuck the subject," Freddy said good-naturedly, "and stick to +work. I want to get these boxes cleared out to-night and we never do +good work while we argue." + +"I can't help smiling," Margaret said. "It's really too funny to think +that we've got quite cross and snappy over the character of a man who +lived more than three thousand years ago." + +"Oh, we often do that," Michael said. "You should have heard about a +dozen of us quarrelling some time ago over hair-splitting theories on a +much less human subject, one belonging to pre-dynastic times!" + +"I wish Aunt Anna could see us, Freddy, sitting in this funny hut in +this lonely desert valley, cleaning little objects and broken fragments +of things that were buried three thousand years ago and fighting over a +mummy, as she would say!" + +Margaret had been working busily, so her tin cigarette-box, which had +been quite full early in the evening with all sorts of small blue beads +and tiny bits of pottery, was almost empty. She had been able to enjoy +and follow all her brother's remarks about Akhnaton, as Michael had +told her a great deal about him. In the three weeks which had passed +since their visit to Assuan there had been no return of the vision, so +she had insisted upon Michael telling her all that he could about +Akhnaton. She felt anxious to understand something about the king +whose personality interested and influenced him so greatly. + +Michael had by no means banished the vision from his thoughts. He was +convinced that Margaret had been privileged to see a vision of +Akhnaton--indeed, the more he dwelt on his message, the more he felt +sure that it was the beginning of a new phase in his life. + +Over and over again he had repeated to himself the message: "Tell him +to carry on my work." + +Was he doing any work at the present time to help forward mankind? He +was enjoying himself in a delightful way and to a certain extent he was +assisting Freddy; but such assistance as he gave could easily be given +by another; he was not essential. + +There was only one man whom he had a longing to consult and that was +Michael Ireton. Since his marriage with Hadassah Lekejian, a Syrian +girl of great beauty and strength of character, Michael Ireton had +given his time and brains and money to the founding of settlements in +various parts of Egypt for the raising of the moral status of women in +Egypt. He was a practical man of the world, with a charming +personality. His wife was one of the most cultivated and fascinating +women Michael had ever met. + +If he confided to Freddy his growing desire to do the work which he +felt was the work he was called upon to do, Freddy would only look upon +it as a fresh example of his drifting character. + +The subject of Akhnaton had been dropped and perfect good humour was +restored again. Michael's thoughts had soared into what Freddy called +his "Kingdom of Idle Dreams." Freddy's thoughts were very practical, +although they related to the history of a lost civilization and to the +unearthing of objects which the sands of the desert had concealed for +thousands of years. He and the workers knew that the next few days +would be days of intense excitement. + +So far Freddy's surmises had been correct. The chaff and scoffing +which he had so good-naturedly put up with from the fellow-excavators +who had been to visit the camp were likely to be turned the other way. +He had little or no doubt left that he had struck an important tomb, +probably the tomb of the Pharaoh for whom he was looking. + +In a few days the big shaft which led to the mouth of the tomb would be +cleared. Tons upon tons of debris had been thrown out of it; the work +had been stupendous. The two hundred native workers and the other more +experienced diggers had worked unremittingly. Freddy was living in a +high state of nervous tension. The news had spread far and wide that +"Mistrr Lampton" had discovered a new tomb and one which presumably had +never been entered. Freddy knew that this news would spread, would be +carried on the wings of the morning in a manner which no European can +ever discover. Means of transmitting news is one of the secrets which +no native in Africa, North or South, has ever divulged to an European. +There are hundreds of theories on the subject. Do pigeons act as +carriers? Some people suggest this theory. Or is it by some wireless +method which has been known to all primitive races and only lately +discovered by scientific scholars of the West? + +So far no one has fathomed the mystery. But Freddy knew that the news +would be sent far and wide, and that every seeker after "antikas" would +be prowling round the opened site. Directly the tomb was opened, it +would be the Mecca of every tomb-plunderer. He had sent word for a +guard of police to be ready to come when he summoned them. + +When the tomb was opened he would have to prevent anyone from going +into it until a photographer had arrived from Cairo to photograph it +and until after the Supervisor-General of the Monuments of Upper Egypt +had arrived on the spot and inspected it. + +He could feel the excitement of the natives, who have absolutely no +sense of honour where "antikas" are concerned. It has proved almost an +impossible work to convince them that the excavators and the scholars +who are engaged in the work of archaeology in Egypt, or the wealthy man +who has paid for the expenses of a camp, are not one and all "out on +the make." They are convinced that these eager, enthusiastic scholars +are just the same as they are, interested in it from a pecuniary point +of view. The curios and wonders which they dig out of the bowels of +the earth put gold into their pockets. + +Freddy's _Ras_, or native overseer, was a highly intelligent man, who +had a genuine appreciation for antiques--he was a clever hand at faking +them and did a good business with tourists--but at heart even he +doubted the sincerity and single-minded purpose of the British School +of Archaeology in Egypt, and "Mistrr Lampton's" absolute +clean-handedness in the business. + +Freddy had never left the camp for more than half an hour since the +excavation had become "hot." It was a strenuous time. + +Naturally Margaret's thoughts were centred and engrossed in her +brother's work. She could scarcely hold her soul in patience while the +deep shaft was being cleared, a long and tiresome job. But at last +they could count the time by days before the entrance to the tomb would +be reached. + +The little store-room in the hut was packed full of boxes which held +the small finds. Margaret's work for some days past had been to piece +together (Freddy had taught her how) the tiny fragments of a smashed +vase which her brother had found. The pieces were all there, for it +had been discovered in a little hollow in the sand. The conventional +decoration was of an unique type; and on it was traced a branch of a +plant which seemed to Freddy to resemble with extraordinary exactness a +branch of the Indian fig, the prickly pear, so familiar to all +travellers in Southern Italy. As the Indian fig was not introduced +into Egypt until the Middle Ages, or so it had generally been supposed, +for it was not indigenous, Freddy was anxious to find out if the +decoration on the vase was going to prove that after all it was known +to the Egyptians long before it was brought over from America. He also +held that there was something in the theory which has of late become +current that camels may have been known and used in Egypt from very +early times, that their absence in all pictorial art in temples and +tombs may be owing to the fact that the Egyptians divided animals into +two classes, the clean and the unclean; that neither into temples nor +into tombs could the unclean be introduced in any form of art +whatsoever. + +These were the sort of discussions with which Margaret had already +grown familiar. She felt that in piecing together and sketching as +accurately as possible the cactus-like branch of the little plant +engraved on the broken vase, she was actually helping to forge a link +in one of the minute chains of Egyptian archaeology. + +Her brother's memory amazed her and his intelligence stimulated her. +He had been such a boy at home. Egypt had converted him into a strong +serious scholar. His fair head, bent over his work, with the lamplight +shining on it, was so dear to her that impulsively she put her long +strong fingers on the glittering hair; she longed to kiss it. + +"Dear old boy!" she said. "Isn't it all just too exciting? Isn't life +thrilling? Isn't it lovely to be alive?" + +Freddy did not look up. "Some girls," he said, "mightn't think this +being very much alive--the sorting out of bits of broken rubbish, +thrown out of a tomb which has been forgotten for two or three thousand +years. Did you ever think you'd care to know whether a prickly pear +was indigenous to Egypt or was not? Or whether canopic jars had their +origin in family grocers' jars being lent by the head of the house to +hold the intestines of some dear-departed?" + +Meg laughed. "It is all too odd, but being in it, and actually knowing +that we are going to see into that tomb in a few days and discover who +the king was who was buried there, and all about his personal and +family affairs, and be able to touch the jewels he was buried with, +it's too interesting for words, I think!" + +"I hope you won't be disappointed. It may have been robbed." + +"But you don't think so?" + +"No, I don't--not at present. There was a tomb opened at one of the +camps, not long ago, which told a tragic story of the end of robbery +and plunder. The roof had fallen in while the burglar was busy +unwrapping the cloths from the dead mummy. He was evidently trying to +get at the heart-scarab, I suppose, and at the jewels which the +windings held in their place. He had been smothered, taken in the act. +Probably he had left his fellow-plunderers at the entrance; the roof +may have looked unsafe, but he had hoped to collect all the jewels and +scarabs before it gave way. Fate played him a nasty trick. The roof +caved in, and we have secured all the jewels he had collected together +and have learned a lesson of what must have often happened. The +mummy's body was, of course, still perfect. Of the intruder only bones +were visible and some fragments of his clothes. Things keep for ever +in these hermetically-sealed Egyptian tombs, where neither rust nor +moth ever entered in, but where thieves did break through and steal." + +"How thrilling!" Margaret said. "How did you guess that the skeleton +was the skeleton of a robber? I suppose as he never returned, his +friends just went off and left him?" + +"By the scattered jewels and the way the mummy was lying. Why should a +skeleton be inside a royal tomb? Why should the mummy be out of its +coffin and partly unrobed? We have actually found before now plans +which the sextons and the guardians of the tombs had made for +themselves, of all the tombs in the cemetery which was in their care. +They knew how they could be entered one from another. Of course, this +valley is different. The tombs are isolated and carefully hidden. It +was never a public cemetery." + +"Was Akhnaton's tomb intact? Had it been robbed?" + +Freddy laughed. "Back again to the tabooed subject?" + +Meg laughed too. "We shan't fight this time, I promise." + +"His city and palace and tomb were utterly desolated, but his mummy had +been taken away from his own tomb, before it was desolated, and brought +to his mother's." + +"Oh, you told me--I forgot." Into Meg's mind came again the words +spoken by the sad voice, "My earthly body was brought to my mother's +tomb in this valley." + +When the night's work was completed, Meg voted that they should sit for +a few minutes in front of the hut and try to get the "mummy-shell" and +the microbes of Pharaonic diseases out of their nostrils. Freddy had +never allowed them to sleep right out in the open, much as they had +wished it. It was not safe, even with the dogs and his trustworthy +house-boys. He would not hear of it; and he was wise. + +Gladly he agreed to refreshing their lungs with the beautiful night +air. Indeed, they were all three so happy together and there was so +much to talk about and discuss, that bed seemed a bore. Physically +tired as they were, owing to the nervous excitement in the atmosphere +of their day's surroundings, sleep seemed very far off. + +"Just half an hour, Freddy," Margaret said, as she threw herself down +on a long lounge chair, and clasping her hands behind her head, gazed +up to the heavens. "How glorious it is!" she said. "I'm so happy." + +They all three lighted cigarettes and smoked in silence. Freddy was as +happy as Meg; Mike was restless. + +At the end of the half-hour Meg got up and said, "Who'd exchange this +for a city? Freddy, you ought to get to bed--you're dead tired, +really." + +He rose reluctantly. "I suppose I must." His thoughts were on the +morrow's work. If the tomb was going to be a really big thing, it +meant a lot more to him than Meg understood. He was very young; he had +not as yet struck any remarkable find; he had his reputation to make. +His theories had caused much comment. + +"I could never live in a city again," he said. "This life has made it +impossible. And the odd thing is that it has made cities seem to me +the loneliest, most desolate places in the world. I never feel in +touch with anyone. Even the other night at the ball, jolly as it was, +I never once talked to anyone about anything that really interested me. +I never felt that anyone would understand a single thing about all that +is my real life. I suppose everyone feels the same--that their real +selves are lost in crowds." + +Michael and Margaret looked at each other. They had experienced the +feeling; they had lost each other. In the valley they had come back to +the things of Truth. + +"You know I always abhorred town-life," Mike said, "and all its +artificiality and rottenness and needless accumulation of unnecessary +things." + +"Brains congregate in cities, all the same," Freddy said, "if you can +only strike them. We'd get too one-sided here, too lost in the past. +It's never wise to let your hobbies and work exclude all other +interests." + +"I begin to think there is no past," Meg said. "Time lost itself in +Egypt. Three thousand years mean nothing. The people who lived and +ruled before Moses was born are more alive and real to-day for us than +the events of yesterday's evening paper. I think I have learned just a +tiny bit of what infinity means." + +"Or rather, you have learned that you haven't," Mike said. "By the +time you have discovered that three thousand years are just yesterday, +you have grasped the truth of the fact that no mortal mind can conceive +the meaning of the word infinity." + +"Have you ever seen a ghost in Egypt, Freddy?" Margaret said, +irrelevantly. + +"No, never," he said. + +"Did the ancients believe in them?" + +Freddy was locking up the hut. "We never come across any writing or +pictures to show us that they did, so I don't think it's likely. They +have told us most things about themselves and about what they saw and +feared." + +"I wonder?" Margaret said meditatively. "I wonder if they did or +didn't?" + +"Of course they believed," Michael said, "that the soul of a man, the +_anima_, at the death of the body, flew to the gods. It came back at +intervals to comfort the mummy." + +"That's nothing to do with what we call ghosts," Freddy said, "and no +one but the mummy is supposed to have been visited by it. It took the +form of a bird with human hands and head; it was called the _ba_." + +"Oh, my friendly _ba_!" Meg said. "I have just been reading all about +it--in Maspero's book you see pictures of it sitting on the chest of +the mummy." + +"That's it," Freddy said. "You're getting on. But as for real ghosts, +there's no record of them--not that I know of. Good-night," he said, +"I'm off." + +"Good-night," Meg said, "and the best of luck to tomorrow's dig." + +For a moment Michael and Meg stood together. "I know what is in your +heart," she said. "I begin to think that Egypt is making practical me +quite psychic." + +"I feel I ought to be up and doing. I believe there is work I can +do--I believe it is the work I can do best." + +"You only can judge," Meg said. + +"I have always maintained that a man should devote himself to the work +he can do best, no matter how unpractical or how unremunerative it may +seem to others. He must be himself, he must work from the inside." + +"You are doing good work here." + +"Not my work--another's." + +"I can't advise. I know you must judge." + +"It means leaving this valley if I do it." + +"Oh," Meg said, "not yet? Not until the tomb is opened, anyhow?" + +"No," he said, "I'll wait for that. I want to see Ireton--I'm going to +see him to-morrow when I go to Luxor for Freddy." + +"Are you going?" she said. "I didn't know." + +"Yes," he said. "He wants a lot done and he can't leave the dig." + +"No, he can't." Meg paused; in her heart a fear had suddenly leapt up. +The soft, delicately-tinted woman on the balcony at Assuan stood out +before her as plainly as the luminous figure of Akhnaton had done. She +was at Luxor! Two letters had arrived from Luxor for Mike in a woman's +handwriting. + +"I will see Michael Ireton," he repeated. "His work is magnificent; so +is his wife's. His work is amongst the men." + +"In their settlements, you mean?" + +"Yes, amongst the Copts, most particularly." + +"It will be sad to break up our trio," she said. "We are so happy." +She held out her hand. "Good-night. I was to help, not to retard--I +must remember my dream." + +"Good-night." Mike grasped her hand. "You are part of the light. +Keep close to me when I am in Luxor tomorrow." + + + + +CHAPTER X + +Michael not only had to go to Luxor on business for Freddy, but to +Cairo also. He had gone willingly, because he knew that someone had to +go, and it gave him immense gratification to be able to help his friend +in this time of intense anxiety. + +It was absolutely essential that as little time as possible should +elapse between the opening of the tomb and the arrival of the +photographer and the Chief Inspector. Things which have remained +intact for thousands of years in the even, dry temperature of an +Egyptian tomb, crumble and fade away like the fabric of our dreams when +they are exposed to the open air. + +It might be that there would be nothing inside it worth all the trouble +and the arrangements which had to be made; on the other hand, the Arab +seer's vision might be verified. So far, no trace of burglars, either +ancient or modern, had been discovered. Not infrequently the finding +of an Arab copper coin, or some disk made of modern metal, an amulet +similar to those worn by the ancients, but made of a composition +unknown to them, will indicate to an excavator that the tomb has been +visited, and probably violated, by modern thieves. + +Everything when speaking of time in Egypt is comparative. These +intruders may have dropped the metal talisman or coin centuries and +centuries ago, soon after the Arab invasion. + +Michael had done all his business and was well-content to spend the +remainder of his day in mediaeval Cairo. He shunned the European +quarter, with its expensive hotels and hybrid Western civilization. He +preferred the narrow dark streets of the poor natives. In the East +poverty has at least its picturesque side; in the East, as in Italy, +Our Lady of Poverty has her shrines, not her hovels. In London, he +asked himself, could Browning have sung "God's in His heaven--All's +right with the world!"? + +In London so much is wrong with the world that the true meaning of +Christ's words, "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a +needle than for the rich man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven," +seems obvious. To Michael Amory the world was beautiful; its systems +of laws and customs were all wrong. The misunderstanding of countless +human beings, one with another, through their lack of Love, through +their obliviousness of God, made a whirlpool of his reasoning powers. + +Mike had talked matters over with Michael Ireton, who had allowed him +to unburden his full heart. His ideas and plans were quite unformed. +All that he was now certain of was the fact that he would never settle +down to any profession or career which would mean only the furthering +of his own worldly interests. + +"The clear voice prevents me," he said. "And the fact is, I don't care +a rap about my future position--it can look after itself. I want to +work as you are working, even if I prove a failure. I want to get +something of this off my chest." He laughed. "It's all so difficult +to express, and so easy to see, isn't it? Of course, I know that one +man can't set the wrong in the world right, but each man can do what +his right self advises. Our right self is never wrong." + +"Hadassah helped me," Michael Ireton said, "and life has been worth +twice what it was before. I agree with you--we must lead our own lives +according to our own ideals, not according to the world's." + +"Most people think me a fool," Michael said, "simply a rotter and a +drifter, just because I can't settle down to work at a career of my +own, while the world's burden is booming in my ear." + +"Think things well over," Hadassah said. "Don't rush into plans which +may prove a disappointment. Let your ideas materialize. You are never +really idle--you will be sending thought-waves out into the world; they +will bear fruit. Thought never dies; for good or for evil, it is +everlasting." + +"But I have been thinking--or drifting, as Lampton says, just idly +drifting, for what seems to me like ages." + +"Drifting closer to the Light," Hadassah said. "It has all been in +order, it has all been a part of the Guiding Power." + +"Do you think so? I wish I knew. Lampton thinks I've no ambition. I +have, of a sort, but it's not of a money-making kind, it's not going to +make my name or what you could call a career. I want to teach people +how to live, and I don't know how to do it myself." + +"I understand," Ireton said. "There's something out here, in the +simplicity of desert life and the East generally, that lessens our +wants. The fruits of hard labour are not so necessary as in England; +the flesh-pots of Egypt are in the sunshine. If you have just enough +to get along with, here in the East, and have cultivated tastes, life +can be wonderfully beautiful. Poverty need never mean degradation--in +fact, it has its advantages." + +"That's it!" Michael Amory said. "I want to let people know how +wonderfully beautiful life can be, even without wealth and worldly +power, and why it is beautiful. I want them to realize the essence of +things, to let those poor, crowded, degraded wretches in London know +the sweetness of work in God's open spaces. I feel that I must do my +little bit in helping things forward. I want to let in a few chinks of +light. . . ." + +Hadassah, oddly enough, finished his quotation from "Pippa Passes": +"You want to give them eyes to see that + + "'The year's at the Spring, + And day's at the morn; + Morning's at seven; + The hillside's dew-pearled: + The lark's on the wing; + The snail's on the thorn; + God's in His heaven-- + All's right with the world!'" + + +Michael Ireton suggested that he should go off for a time into the +desert and find himself. "There's nothing else so helpful," he said. +"I've tried it." Hadassah's eyes met her husband's. She understood; +she remembered. + +And so Michael Amory left them strengthened and helped, not so much by +their advice as by their understanding. Hadassah had charmed him, as +she charmed everyone who met her. Her happiness as the wife of the +Englishman who had scorned the gossiping tongues of Cairo by marrying +her, and her pride in the young Nicholas, their son, who was just +learning to walk, made Michael Amory a little envious. Michael +Ireton's home and life seemed almost ideal. This wealthy, happy couple +lived in the world and yet not for the world; they had discovered the +true meaning of life. + +Michael's thoughts were brimful of Hadassah and her husband, her beauty +and the romance of their marriage, the details of which were familiar +to him, as he pushed his way through the labyrinth of native streets in +mediaeval Cairo. + +After the silence of the desert, the noise was terrific--the shouts of +the water-carriers, the yells of the native drivers of the swaying +cabs, as they dashed at a reckless pace through the struggling and +idling crowds. It was the most crowded hour of the day; the native +town was wide awake. Camels laden with immense burdens of sugar-canes +brushed the foot passengers almost off the narrow sideway; small boys, +with large black eyes and small white _takiyehs_, darted in and out +with brass trays piled high with little enamelled glass bowls. + +Michael longed to close his ears with his fingers, but had he attempted +to do so, a donkey, carrying terracotta water-jars of an ancient and +unpractical shape, or a portly, high-stomached Turk would assuredly +have robbed him of his balance. + +He drifted on in a semi-conscious state of all that was going on around +him, hating the noise, but enjoying every now and then the feast of +colour which some group of strangely-mixed races presented. More than +once, in the midst of all this noise and clamour, he saw a devout +Moslem alone with his God. Before all the world, he was praying in +absolute solitude. His mind had created perfect silence. + +And so Michael drifted on. Only his subconscious self was leading him +to his destination. He was going to a court of peace, to a strange +friend who had taught him much simple philosophy and beauty, an African +whose acquaintance he had made two years before, when he was in +Gondokoro. Michael had saved the African's life by giving him some +pecuniary assistance and carrying him on his own camel to the nearest +village. He had come across him while he was on his journey which he +performed on foot--from the heart of Africa to the university of +el-Azhar in Cairo. + +Since his youth, this old man had saved up money for the journey. It +had been the ambition and the desire of his life to study in the great +university of el-Azhar, the most important Moslem university in the +world. His money had all been stolen from him, when Michael's servant +found him. When he told his master of the condition the poor creature +was in, a state of semi-starvation, Michael had taken him to the +nearest village and there paid for a doctor to attend to him, and had +supplied him with sufficient money to greatly mitigate the fatigue and +suffering of his long pilgrimage to Cairo. + +The journey had, of course, not been of such a hopeless character as +might be supposed, for in every Moslem village there is a rest-house +with free food for poor travellers; but even so, Michael knew that the +distances between the desert villages are often enormous, and that they +only supplied the food for the period of rest which the pilgrim needed. + +Eight months later, when Michael was in England, he heard through the +_'Ulama_ of the _riwak_ in el-Azhar to which he belonged by +nationality, that the old man had arrived and that he was now living +the life of a mystic and a recluse. In a beautiful imagery of words, +he had begged the _'Ulama_ to send his gratitude and thanks to the +Englishman by whom, God, in His everlasting mercy, had sent him relief. + +On Michael's return to Egypt the next year, almost the first thing +which he had done on reaching Cairo was to go to el-Azhar and inquire +at the ancient abode of peace if he could see his old friend. He had +been admitted and exceptional courtesy had been extended to him. He +was an unbeliever and a despised Christian, yet it had been through his +act of charity that one of Allah's children had been nursed back to +life and enabled to give his last years to the study of the Koran. He +had been allowed to visit the old man from time to time. + +To-day, as he walked through the noisy streets and smelt the obnoxious +smells coming from an infinite variety of Oriental foods and customs, +he longed to be back in the quiet valley, to feel the golden sand once +more under his feet, to see Margaret's eyes smile their welcome. If he +had caught the midday train, he would have been far away from Cairo by +now. Yet something had led him to the heart of Islam, to that strange +and unworldly seat of ancient learning. The very meaning of the word +Islam suggests the atmosphere of the place--resignation, self-surrender. + +When at last he arrived at the gates and was admitted into the +splendour of the spacious court, his heart was lifted up. Its ancient +dignity, its divine sense of calm and, above all, the sonorous sounds +of the Moslems chanting their _suras_ of the Koran, intoxicated his +senses. As St. Augustine was intoxicated with God, so Michael was +intoxicated with the spirit of Islam. + +He knew that at certain times--during Moslem festivals, for +instance--fanaticism often ran so high in this, the greatest of all +Moslem centres, that it would be dangerous for a Christian to set foot +inside the courtyard gate. It made him glow with pleasure that he, by +his little act of love--or charity, as it is less pleasantly +termed--was permitted to enter the courtyard at almost any time. This, +of course, he would not do; the _'Ulama_ had given him permission, but +he would not take advantage of his gracious offer. + +To this richly-endowed university students come from all parts of the +world, merely to study the interpretations of problematical passages in +the Koran--poor students from India and China, wealthy citizens from +Tunis, delicate-featured Malays from the Straits Settlements and +negroes from Central Africa. + +In the courts of el-Azhar these children of Allah become brothers; +their united flag is the green banner of Islam; their nationality is +Islam. This, Michael felt, was what religion ought to do for mankind. +He tiptoed softly along, winding his way through the devout groups of +students, until he reached a deep colonnade, supported by antique +columns of great beauty, columns which had probably come from ancient +Coptic churches, from Christian churches built in Old Cairo long before +Islam was preached in Egypt. The colonnade was dark and almost cool +after the open court, where the sun was blazing down upon the groups of +picturesque worshippers and students, who seemed to be totally +oblivious of its heat. Some elderly men were merely meditating. It +was a wonderful sight, gracious and solemn and mysterious. The +concentration of many of the worshippers on God was so strong that they +seemed to see Him with their eyes; it was written on their faces; they +looked as if they actually belonged to God. + +Filled with the religious spell of the place, Michael wound his way +through the different class-rooms into which the colonnade was divided, +class-rooms which so little resembled the class-rooms of his own school +or Oxford, that unless he had known what was going on, it would not +have dawned on him that the various professors and teachers were +delivering their lectures and instructing their scholars. The +divisions of the class-rooms were merely an unwritten law; there was no +boundary-line. Here and there groups of students, seated on the floor +of the immense colonnade, which was supported on the inner side by +columns of superb proportions, were waiting for their masters. Here +and there a professor had already arrived; he was standing close to a +column with his pupils grouped round him, just as the village-children +surrounded their native teacher in a desert school. + +Out of the eleven thousand pupils who attend the university every year +not one of them would receive any instruction which would enable him to +earn his living, or take his place in the struggle for wealth and power +in the ordinary world of mankind. Devotion to Islam, and a desire to +enter into a fuller understanding of God through the teachings of the +Koran, alone brought them together from far and near. + +Michael knew his way and presently he found himself in the residential +quarter of the university and outside a partition which divided the +small bare room of the man he had come to see from that of his +fellow-students. The room or cell was empty, except for one +praying-mat and a shelf, which was close to the floor. On it was a +copy of the Koran and some religious books bound in paper. In the wall +of this narrow living-room there was an opening which led into another +cell; a tall man would have had to bend almost double to pass under it. +The small recess served as a bedroom. + +Michael gently pulled a bell, whose chain hung against the iron grating +which fronted the humble abode. As it sounded, an emaciated figure +appeared under the arched aperture and a sonorous voice cried out in +Arabic, "Peace be with you." + +Michael, who knew that this Moslem greeting is reserved for all true +believers, for members of the Islamic brotherhood, that it is rarely, +if ever, offered to Christians, thought that the old man had not seen +him, that his gracious salutation was for one of his own faith. He did +not venture to return it in the prescribed Moslem fashion, "On you be +peace and the mercy of God and His Blessing." He merely waited for a +few moments, until the bent figure stood upright, and the dark eyes in +the thin face met his own. + +"It is you, O my son. I have long looked for you." + +Michael's heart warmed with happiness. Then the Moslem greeting had +been for him. He felt that peace was with him. + +"I seek your counsel, O my father." + +"May Allah counsel me and bring you prosperity." A lean arm, a mere +bone covered with a sun-tanned skin, reached for a key which was +hanging from a nail in the wall. Without speaking, he unlocked the +gate. Michael noticed the fleshlessness of the fingers and wrist. + +"Enter, my son, if it so please you to honour my humble abode." + +Michael entered and waited in silence, until the old African had slowly +and carefully locked the door again. + +"To you, O my son, my dwelling-place seems empty and bare; to me it is +filled with the treasures of paradise, the sweet fragrance of white +jasmine." + +"I understand," Michael said. + +"My son," the old man said, "it is because you understand that I am +here, in this little room, glorified by the presence of Allah, made +beautiful by His exceeding great beauty. I see many flowers; I can +hear the singing of birds and the running of cool waters." + +"Your home is an abode of peace. Its beauty is the perfection of +understanding. Your jasmine is the fragrance of love." + +"Our thoughts, my son, are our real riches. In no place are we far +from Allah. What of your work--has it prospered?" + +This was, Michael knew, the usual Moslem greeting to a friend; it did +not refer to any particular form of work or to his worldly affairs. + +"All is well, O my father." + +"I have no bodily refreshment to offer you, my son." He smiled a +queer, grim smile; it stretched the hard skin of his face, which +mid-African suns had tanned. + +"I need no material food, O my father," Michael said, "I have eaten +well and I know your frugal life. I seek better food." + +"That is well, my son. Prayer is better than food. I have prayed for +you." + +Michael knew that at el-Azhar all studies are absolutely free; the +teaching is entirely gratuitous. The poor students even receive their +food from the rich endowments of the various _riwaks_ to which they +belong. This Michael had learned when he saved the old man's life at +Gondokoro. He had discovered the fact that when once he was inside the +gate of this gracious institution, he would be sheltered and fed and +taught by the love of Islam. Wealthy students pay for privileges and +for more luxurious quarters. This visionary and pilgrim asked for +nothing more than food enough to keep him alive. What he desired of +life was the time and means for studying the teachings of the Koran and +the receiving of instruction from learned professors in the refinements +of theology and in the sacred traditions. His life had been spent in a +treadmill of hard labour. In mid-Africa his duty had been, for as long +as he could remember, the guiding of a camel in its unceasing round of +a primitive native well, the drawing up and emptying of buckets. + +His smile was so mystical and ecstatic while he offered his apologies +to Michael for the lack of hospitality, that Michael knew that he was +visualizing and enjoying far greater luxury and affluence than had ever +been the lot of the richest Mameluke of old days. + +They were seated on the floor of the outer cell. + +"You have been much in my thoughts, O my son. Allah has desired it. I +have seen strange happenings for you. I know that the Light has come +nearer." + +Michael bowed his head and murmured a few words inaudibly. + +"The Lord of the Worlds has revealed himself to you, O my son. My +unworthy prayer has been answered." He paused. "Why have you not +come? Since the Great Weeping (the inundation of the Nile) you have +not left the valley?--you have not come?" + +"Yes," Michael said. "I have left the valley. But only work could +bring me to Cairo. I was busy." + +"I have much to tell you, my son, much that Allah has shown me." + +"Please instruct me, O father. I came to you for counsel; in my heart +there is unrest." + +"I have seen you," he went on, regardless of Michael's almost inaudible +remarks, "I have seen you travelling on a long journey. I have seen +many trials and many temptations for you. I have also seen you in the +great Light. For you there is a treasure laid up, not only in heaven, +but on earth, which will help you in the work which the clear voice +counsels." + +"This is strange," Michael said. "O my father, I am already greatly +disturbed; I come to you for help." + +"Do not fear, my son. God responds to and supplies the demands of +human nature. He has willed that you should devote your life to His +teachings." + +"You forget, my father. I am not of your faith. I have not embraced +Islam." + +"I have my message to deliver. I have seen what I have seen. Every +religion which gives a true knowledge of God and directs in the most +excellent way of His worship, is Islam." + +"You have seen me giving my life to all that I feel to be most urgent +in the life of all who know the truth?" + +"I have seen you, by Allah's aid and by His bountiful mercy, +accomplishing work which will bestow great blessing and peace upon your +soul." + +"I have thought much of all this," Michael said, "since we last met. +The idea has never left me, yet I am puzzled. Why should I feel like +this, when better men do not?" + +"God, in His almighty word, has declared a higher aim of man's +existence, O my son." + +"Then why do I not better understand? I feel nothing but +dissatisfaction, unfruitfulness." + +"A man may not always understand. A hundred different motives may hold +him back. But the truth remains, my son, that the grand aim of man's +life consists in knowing and worshipping God and living for His sake." + +"I wish I could decide! Some people see the road so plainly before +them. Mine is broken, and often it is totally lost in the desert +sands." + +"A man has no choice, my son, in fixing the aim of his life." + +"That is your faith, my father." + +"Man does not enter the world or leave it as he desires. He is a +creature, and the Creator Who has brought him into existence has +assigned an object for his existence." + +There was silence for a little time, while the old man meditated and +recited a _sura_ from the Koran. + +"Already, my son, even though you do not know it, you are in the faith. +You have seen the perfect Light. Remember that no one can fight with +God, or frustrate His designs. Not once, but many times, I have seen +you, my son, travelling on this journey. God has sent many prophets to +lead mankind into the knowledge of truth. Moses and Christ, they had +their divine tasks, but the last and the best of the messengers of God +was Mohammed, praised be His holy name. Some day, O my son, He will +perfect your religion, and complete His favours by making Islam your +faith. Before these messengers there were others, for God has never +left the world in desolation. I have seen you surrounded by Light, a +light which comes from one of God's messengers, who is never far from +you. As I see him, always in the midst of a great light, like the +light of the sun, he resembles no mortal I have ever seen on this +earth, or any king I have been shown in my dreams. He has greatly +suffered for mankind, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, as +was the Prophet Christ." + +Michael was greatly disturbed. The old man's eyes were far from him. +His words had their meaning for Michael more than for himself. The +great sunlight was the rays of Aton. The treasure of which he had +spoken--was it the treasure of which the vision in the valley had +spoken to Margaret? + +"Some day I may have more counsel to offer you, my son. To-day I have +but strange visions, strange messages. This treasure you are to seek +lies in the desert; it is a treasure of great value. I see much gold, +but also, my son, much tribulation. This gold . . . it has been lost +to the world . . . for many centuries. . . ." + +"It is all very strange, my father. Your words are full of meaning. +In Egypt there was a King, before the days of Moses, who sacrificed his +kingdom to give his people God. His was the religion of the true God +and His everlasting mercy." + +The old man recited another _sura_ from the Koran. "Go and pray, my +son, open your heart to prayer, for prayer is better than strife; +prayer is greater than miracles. Perseverance in prayer is Islam." + +"Can you tell me nothing more?" Michael said. "Is it not folly to +start out on a journey which has no definite ending, no practical +purpose?" + +"I cannot tell you more, my son, nor can I tell you why these visions +have been revealed to me. All I know is that I cannot doubt their +source." + +"Do you, my father, then absolutely believe in visions?" Michael said. +"I am only a seeker after truth. I am convinced of so little." + +"My son, believe in visions. Is their meaning not written on the leaf +of a water-melon?" (A thing well-known.) + +"We read of them in the Bible." + +"Did I not tell you that I knew of your coming? It was revealed to me +in a vision. I saw you groping and losing your way. I saw you in +thick darkness. I saw you struggling for the Light. Is all that not +true? Have you never lost the Light? Has your path been straight and +easy? Has the flesh not tempted you?" + +Michael bent his head. + +"For many weeks a friend has been very close to you. She is in the way +of truth. Hold fast to her. There are others who I see in darkness." + +"Yes," Michael said. "That is all true. You have seen clearly." + +"You will leave those you care for most, my son, and go on a journey +into a new country across the river. It is all His purpose; it is all +a part of the Guiding Hand, the Ruling Power." + +Michael remained lost in thought. That the old African loved him as a +son he had no doubt. He knew that his ardent desire was that he should +be the means of converting him to the true faith. He knew that the +little help which he had once been able to give him had won his undying +gratitude. This strange creature, who had only entered upon his +university career after his hair had become white and his body worn to +a shadow, had earned Michael's respect and veneration. He was +conscious of the fact that, devout Moslem as the recluse was, he did +not look upon all Christians as heretics and unclean. Long ago Michael +and he had exchanged thoughts on their conceptions of God. The pious +Moslem had come to the conclusion that but for his lack of a proper +understanding of the Koran and of the Prophet's relation to God, +Michael was at heart a Mohammedan. He worshipped the one and only God +Whom the Prophet had come to reveal. Michael believed in Christ just +as he himself believed in Him, as one of God's Messengers, as one of +God's Methods of manifesting Himself to mankind. + +He had no hesitation in speaking to Michael or in reciting passages +from the Holy Book in his presence. Daily he prayed that he might +embrace the faith of Islam. It was his love for him and his gratitude +which made him eager for this happiness to be bestowed upon his +benefactor. + +For a long time Michael remained with his old friend, who was glad to +learn from him many things which could never have reached his ears from +any other source. He lived as a hermit and a recluse inside his little +cell, which was lost in the vast dimensions of the Mosque of el-Azhar. +As he was lost to the world, so was he surrounded by things of the +spirit. + +It was late in the afternoon when at last Michael said good-bye and the +aged student locked himself into his cell. His adieu was lengthy and +beautiful and expressed in the true Moslem fashion. This ardent +Englishman was as dear to him as a son. He had no sons of his own, or +indeed any friends who loved him. There was scarcely a soul in his old +home who remembered his existence. The man who had guided the camel at +the well had ceased to cause even his late master a passing thought. +The native teacher who had instructed him in the Koran in his boyhood, +along with the other village children, and who had first inspired him +with the desire to study the Sacred Book at el-Azhar, had long since +gone to that world where "black faces shall turn white and white faces +shall turn black." + +As Michael retraced his steps circumspectly through the class-rooms of +the university and across the open court, where the afternoon sun +almost blinded him--the darkness of the old man's cell made it seem +even fiercer than it had been in the morning--his mind was filled with +a thousand thoughts. He was much more restless than he had been on his +arrival. Had he done wisely in paying this visit to the visionary? +Was he only adding unrest and bewilderment to his soul? + +The old man's last words had been to counsel him to follow the dictates +of his own conscience, which was God. + +"On this journey, which will lead you into the Light, a child of God +will guide you, a child of God will point out the way." These had been +his last words. + +Michael knew that with Moslems the expression "a child of God" is +generally applied to religious fanatics, and to simples, people who +have not practical sense to enable them to enter into the struggle for +existence, people who have, as the Western world terms it, "a screw +loose." + +"A child of God will lead you. To him has been revealed this ancient +treasure, which the desert sands have guarded for unnumbered years." + +Michael wondered if he was mad or dreaming. To believe a single word +of the mystic's advice seemed rank folly; but here again he was brought +face to face with a fact stranger than fiction. This African had +spoken of a King who had been God's messenger before the days of Moses +and Christ. He was totally without learning, except in the Koran; he +was ignorant of the existence or personality of the great heretic +Pharaoh: of Egyptian history he knew nothing. Yet what he had said and +visualized fitted in with Michael's theory and belief that Akhnaton had +buried a great hoard of gold and jewels near his capital of +Tel-el-Amarna. Nor was Michael alone in his belief in this theory. + +As the gate of the university court was closed behind him, Michael took +a last look at the wonderful scene. + +Groups of woolly-haired Africans, as black as the basalt tablets in the +museum, were seated on the floor of the white marble court. Some were +eating their frugal meal; some were lying on their backs resting; while +others were lost in prayer. Here and there a tall _sheikh_ or a +professor was standing talking to a group of students, seated on the +ground at his feet, his flowing robes and majestic turban proclaiming +the distinction of his calling. Not one of the professors or teachers +received a penny for their services; the most learned men in Egypt +offered their services free. The idea and theory of the institution is +beautiful and elevating. + +Yet Michael knew that to Freddy the whole thing was a waste of time and +an antediluvian affair. In the matter of education, the modern +Egyptian would have been left hopelessly behind in the progress of the +world, but for the Government schools instituted under the British +occupation. These men at el-Azhar were learning nothing which could +ever serve to put one penny into their pockets. + +He could hear Freddy repeating his favourite words of a great modern +writer, "I should always distrust the progress of people who walk on +their heads. I should always beware of people who sacrifice the +interests of their country to those of mankind." + +Freddy had thrown the words at Michael's head hundreds of times when he +had given expression to his Utopian ideas of oiling the world's +creaking hinges, of preventing his predicted world-wide disaster. +Michael always considered that the whole of what was termed the +civilized world was "walking on its head," that only vanity could blind +those who ruled and governed, only arrogance could hide the fact that +the seats of the mighty were tottering. + +Freddy did honestly distrust people "who walked on their heads," yet +Michael thought that he would surely still more distrust the people who +did not walk according to their consciences, people who lived the lives +marked out for them by others, by the conventions of the world. + +This old man, in his dark cell, nursed in the very bowels of Islam, had +achieved his heart's desire. He had fulfilled the purpose of his life, +a purpose which to Freddy seemed useless and wasteful. That was +another question. He had left a life of endless toil under the +tropical sun of primitive Africa for what to Freddy would have seemed a +mad purpose--to walk to Cairo and spend the last few years of his +existence in the silent contemplation of God. + +As he thought of the man's former life, Michael could hear his sonorous +voice chanting the name of Allah in a hundred beautiful forms, as his +bare brown limbs followed in the slow footsteps of a lean white camel +round and round a native well. + +Truly, perseverance can work miracles. Faith had moved mountains, for +God had sent this pauper at the well means whereby he was to achieve +his life-long prayer. Michael had been allowed to cross his path. +This penniless African had never doubted, he had trusted in Allah. +Conflicting doubts and arguments had delayed Michael. He had drifted, +one day urged by the unconquerable voice, the next cut off from his +purpose by the advice and companionship of prosperous friends. He felt +that his faith would move no mountains, his perseverance perform no +miracles. + +Were Mohammedans more zealous than Christians? Was there in theory, in +ideals, any other institution in the world like el-Azhar? These +students were not paupers; this was no charitable institution. In this +court there were men of all social grades and professions, eager +students gathered together for one purpose from every part of the +Mohammedan world. + +And yet Michael thought that, beautiful as it all was in theory, +wonderful as was the indescribable power of Islam, it gave few, if any, +of its children the true conception of God. They learned nothing of +the tender Father, of the beauty of Aton. In Islam there is no +consciousness of God in the song of the thrush to its mate, no +sacredness in the bud of a lily. In spite of all the exquisite names +by which a Moslem addresses his God, His seat is ever in the high +heavens, He still remains to him the Omnipotent God of Israel, the +all-powerful Jehovah. + +Even his old friend, who could visualize the joys of paradise and smell +the perfume of sweet jasmine in his dark cell, did not hear God's voice +in the laughing brook, or see His raiment in the blue of the lotus. + +Of Akhnaton's closer and more human religion they were ignorant. These +students offered obedience and reverence and complete surrender. How +few of them knew even the meaning of love! This court was full of +ardent students, many of whom had given up well-paid posts to study the +word of Allah as revealed by the Prophet, yet scarcely one of them +loved the creatures of this world because they were the things of God, +because they were God. God sang to Akhnaton when spring was in the +year; the birds were His visible form. God smiled to him when the blue +lotus covered the waters of his lake in the garden-city of his ideal +capital. + +To the Moslems God is in the heavens; His immovable seat is there. To +the ecstatic visionaries who live, as his old friend lived, so cut off +from their natural selves as to be unconscious of their physical body, +these are the delights of paradise, seen through the eyes of mystics. + +Michael, who passionately loved the world and all of God that is in it, +wished that they could see that the joys of paradise are everywhere +around us. No visionary's eyes are needed to enjoy their beauty. + +The university was now far behind him; he was retracing his steps to +modern Cairo, where the calm of Islam would seem like a peaceful dream. +The domes of the mosques looked like stationary balloons, made of +delicate lace, floating in the blue sky, the tall minarets like lotus +buds coming up from a vast lake. A soft mist was etherealizing the +bald realities of the native city. Only here and there a vivid patch +of colour--the jade-green dome of a saint's tomb, the clear blue or +orange of an Arab boy's shirt, the brightly-appliqued _portičre_ of a +public bath, or the purple robes of a student of the Khedivial +School--these, in their Eastern setting, studded the scene with +precious gems. + +Thrust back again into the vortex of noise and striving, Michael felt +as "lonely as a wandering cloud." His interview with his old friend +had not soothed him; it had neither helped him to determine him in his +views, or to deter him from them. His thoughts seemed a part of the +surging street. Michael Ireton's counsel was still the only thing +which he could grasp. He would go and find himself in the desert. + +But mingled with this idea came the two other influences--the old man's +vision, in which he had seen him journeying into the desert in search +of some hidden treasure--and now many visionaries in Egypt had not +found treasure, but had lost their lives and their minds on journeys +after imaginary gold?--and Margaret's influence, Margaret, who had been +given a message for him--of that he felt convinced. She, at least, +could be trusted, with her sane, practical Lampton brain. She had made +up no fable. Her vision had not been the result of her imagination. +And then again came Freddy's voice: + +"I should always distrust the progress of people who walk on their +heads." The words kept recurring over and over again. + +Did he, Michael, spend his life "walking on his head"? He wished that +he knew. + +He was passing the wide terrace of Shepheard's Hotel, where tourists +enjoy afternoon-tea. The scene was cosmopolitan and gay. Michael was +walking on the side-path, under the level of the terrace. + +Suddenly he felt something drop lightly on his hat. He looked up, and +as he did so a stephanotis flower fell into the street and his eyes +were met by two of clear azure blue. + +"What a brown study!" a taunting voice said. "Come and have a cup of +tea." + +"No, thanks," Michael said. "I'm not dressed for this sort of thing." +He indicated the gaily-dressed crowd. + +"I insist," Millicent Mervill said, and as she spoke, she stretched out +her hand and nipped out the book Michael had in his coat-pocket. "Now +you'll have to come and get it, and I'll order tea. Fresh tea, for +two, please, Mohammed," she said to the waiter who was standing near +her table. + +Michael turned reluctantly and walked up the flight of steps which took +him on to the hotel-terrace. + +"How nice!" Mrs. Mervill said happily. "Now tell me where you have +been. I heard you were in Cairo. Were you going back without seeing +me?" + +"How did you know I was in Cairo?" + +"Ah, that's telling! First of all you tell me what you have been +doing. You look tired." Her voice was tender. "You are not happy? +And I have been very good!" + +"I am tired," Michael said. "Cairo tires me after the desert. I have +been to el-Azhar." + +"To the university! I want to go there. If we had only gone together! +Why didn't you take me?" + +A strange smile changed Michael's expression. If Millicent Mervill had +been there! He thought of her in that courtyard, in her luxurious +modern clothes. How absurd her becoming hat would have seemed, how +grotesque her daintily slippered feet! How little she divined his +thoughts. + +"What took you there to-day? Tell me." + +"I have an old friend there, a student." + +"A native, do you mean?" + +"Yes, a native from the country south of Gondokoro." + +"Gondokoro? How did you come to know him?" + +Millicent Mervill's curiosity was unlimited. Her persistence resembled +the perseverance which is Islam. + +"It's a long story," Michael said. "I always go to see him when I come +to Cairo. He's a mystic and a religious recluse. I like him. We are +great friends." + +Mohammed had returned with the tea, and Michael, who was more than +ready for it, lapsed into silence while he ate his Huntley and Palmer +biscuits and drank his tea. His thoughts went back to el-Azhar. + +His silence lasted for some time. He was very far from Shepheard's +Hotel. Margaret had not forgotten her promise. She was closer than +Millicent. + +"You are not very polite--I have had to pump you with questions, or you +would not have spoken at all. I have been patient while you drank your +tea; now talk to me." + +"Please forgive me, but you know I did not want to come. I was hungry +and I was going back to tea. I am not good company." + +"You didn't want to come?" She laughed. "Really, your rudeness is +refreshing! The desert has made you worse than ever." + +Michael looked into her beautiful eyes. "I am in no temper for banter. +You know what I mean, you know why I didn't want to have tea with you +or see you. Rudeness between us is out of the question." + +"All this because you're a dear old puritan. Or is it because"--she +hardened her eyes--"because you're afraid of the dark-haired girl? Has +she forgiven you?" In the same breath she said, "When are we going on +our journey? It's my turn soon." + +"What do you mean?" he said. "I wish you wouldn't talk like that. We +are going on no journey." + +"You'll let me give you another cup of tea?--I'm allowed to do that +much. Well, I had my fortune told two days ago by a man at the +Pyramids. He's supposed to be very clever. He said I was going on a +journey into the desert with a man I loved; he spoke of some great +thing that was going to happen on the journey. He described you +accurately. He was really very funny--I wish you could have heard him. +He saw great wealth for you and some misfortunes." + +Michael looked into her mischievous eyes. "They talk a lot of rot." + +"Then you don't believe in that sort of thing? He saw sickness and +gold and love. We were in the desert. He saw gold." + +"Hush," Michael said. "You must forget all that." + +"It was odd, wasn't it? You know how I have urged you to go with me. +I never saw the man before, he has never seen you." + +Again Michael said "Hush." Again Millicent paid no attention to him, +beyond saying that it was funny that he would never allow her to talk +of her love for him, when he had often told her all about his religion +of love. + +Again Michael said, "I refuse absolutely to be drawn into a discussion +upon the subject. You are frivolous. You and I know quite well that +yours is not love." + +"Perhaps not your kind of love, with a big L. But call a rose by +whatsoever name you will, it smells as sweet. I can't quote, but you +know what I mean, and that true love without passion and passion +without love are both worthless. Every fanatic has passion in his or +her love. That is why they enjoy it--the scourging of the flesh, the +self-denial--the body enjoys this form of self-torture for the object +of its adoration. There," she said, "I will behave like the dear +little innocent you first thought I was if you will come and see the +Pyramids at sunset." The swift transition of her thoughts was typical +of her personality. + +Michael's train did not leave the station for Luxor until nine-thirty. +He had nothing to do. + +"If you'll come," she said, "I'll not do or say one thing to hurt you. +I'll be my very nicest--and I can be nice and good now, can't I?" + +"Then come," he said. "I've not been there since the 'Great Weeping.'" +He used the old man's picturesque term for the inundation of the Nile. + +Millicent Mervill was no fool. She meant to keep to her word, and did. +The evening's excursion proved a great success and restored Michael to +a more normal state of mind. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +When Michael got back to the camp there was so much genuine pleasure in +being one of the trio again that he felt that it had been well worth +the trouble of the journey, to be received back again so warmly and to +see unclouded happiness in Margaret's smile. Her character was +transparently sincere. + +How radiant she looked, as Freddy and she hurried to meet him! A glad +picture for tired eyes. + +"Things are 'piping'!" she said eagerly, when he inquired about the +"dig." "Freddy has only been waiting for you to come back before he +clears out the last few days' debris from the shaft. He has been +tidying up the site--it looks much more important." + +Tired as Michael was after his hot journey, instinctively they turned +their steps to the excavation. Things had certainly advanced greatly +during Michael's absence. The deep shaft was almost cleared of +rubbish; the site was tidied up and in spick-and-span order. + +Michael was very soon drawn into the feeling of excitement and +anticipation. Freddy, he thought, looked tired and anxious, which was, +of course, only natural, for Michael knew that on his shoulders rested +the entire responsibility of the "dig" and that anything might happen +during the time they were waiting for the photographer and the Chief +Inspector. + +Michael's imagination was ever too vivid. He could see a hundred +plundering hands stretched out in the darkness to seize the buried +treasure. He could visualize the poisoning of the watch-dogs and the +silent killing of the guards, and Freddy waking up to find that his +"pet tomb" had been burgled and robbed of its ancient treasures. + +A good deal of discussion ensued between Michael and Freddy which was +above Margaret's head. The approximate date of the tomb and a hundred +different suggestions and problems which were still beyond her +knowledge were gone into by the two Egyptologists. The soothsayer's +predictions were not improbable; there were evidences which suggested +that the tomb was one of great importance. + +"Let's get back to dinner," Freddy said. "I scarcely had any lunch--I +couldn't leave the men. I'm ready for some food." + +Instantly they retraced their steps. Margaret was humming softly the +air of some popular song. Both she and Michael were always anxious to +administer to Freddy's wishes. + +"It's topping to be back," Michael said. "The smells in Cairo were +pretty bad. This is glorious!" + +They had almost reached the hut. + +"We have only mummy smells here," Margaret said. "But they get pretty +thick, as the store-room fills up with finds." She looked round. +"Freddy, if I'd a little water, I could make the desert blossom like +the rose." She sighed happily. "As it is, it's 'paradise enow'--I +don't think I want it other than it is." + +While they were at dinner, which, compared to their usual simple fare, +was of the fatted-calf order and one of Margaret's devising, Michael +told them of all that he had done in Luxor and Cairo, not keeping back +even his excursion to the Pyramids or his visit to el-Azhar. Freddy +was greatly entertained by both episodes, the one as a strong antidote +to the other. + +Michael had, of course, given but few details of either experience. +The mystic's counsel was not, he felt, suited for discussion and +certainly he had no wish to annoy Margaret by unnecessary remarks about +Millicent Mervill. + +There was something in Mike's manner which assured Freddy that the +influence of the mystic had triumphed, that the beautiful Millicent had +not exercised her usual powers over his friend. + +During the recital of his doings, Margaret met Mike's eyes frankly. +Hers were without questions or doubts. She felt as Freddy did--that +the woman whom she so much disliked had not again come between them. +After all, the promise which she had given Michael, and which she had +kept, might have availed. + +As Michael had never spoken one word of love to Margaret, she had, of +course, no right to expect him to behave towards her as if they were +engaged; and yet there was that between them which meant far more than +a mere formal proposal and acceptance of marriage. Some influence had +brought them together in a manner which seemed outside themselves. +They had been the closest friends from the very first. Her vision had +united their interests. + +Of marriage as the definite result of their close, yet indefinite +intimacy, Margaret still never thought. Mike and marriage seemed +qualities which separated like oil and water. All she asked of fate at +present was the continuance of their unique friendship and the life +which she found so absorbingly interesting. A year ago she had longed +to come to Egypt, but a year ago she had never dreamed that she would +become so thrilled with the excavating of a tomb which had been made +for a man who probably lived before Moses. The human side of +Egyptology was being revealed to her. She did not feel now as if her +brother was only going to discover a fresh mummy to put away in a +museum somewhere; he was going to break into the secret dwelling-house +of a man who had taken his treasures with him to live for ever in the +bowels of the smiling hills. There are few tombs in Egypt as the +Western world thinks of tombs; there are eternal mansions, gorgeously +decorated and superbly built and equipped. The abiding cities of the +Egyptians were the cities of the dead. + +Margaret was living on the horizon of life. Every breath of desert air +was like delicious food; every dawn and sunset stored her heart with +dreams; each fresh intimacy with Michael placed a new jewel in the +casket of her soul; every hour with Freddy was a privilege and a +reward. In her veins the dance of youth tripped a lightsome measure. +Happiness made every moment vital. + +During Michael's absence she had been down the valley and up the valley +and through its hidden ways; she was familiar now with the native life +in the camp and with the sights and sounds of Egypt. The flight of a +falcon over the Theban hills seemed as familiar to her as the bounding +of a wild rabbit on the Suffolk wolds. The desolation of the valley +had now become the Spirit of Peace, the Voice of Sympathy. Her +jealousy was aroused at the very thought of another woman being +admitted into the privacy of the camp. Being a true woman, it gave her +intense satisfaction to be the only one, to be the chosen companion of +her brother and of Mike. + +They were always eager for her companionship. If Freddy did not want +her, Mike did; if Mike had work to do which demanded perfect solitude, +she felt that Freddy was not sorry. Yet they were all three such good +friends that more often than not they played together delightfully +childish games. It was nevertheless rather a red-letter day for either +of the two men when circumstances so arranged it that Meg had to go off +with one of them alone on some excursion which combined business with +pleasure. + +Margaret, womanlike, loved the nicest of all feelings--"being wanted." +She would have liked her life to go on for ever just as it was, her +society always desired by two of the dearest men in the world and her +days filled with this novel and extraordinary work. + +But even in the desert, things do not stand still. If they did, +temples could not have been buried and cities lost. So after dinner, +when Freddy, like the dear human brother that he was, allowed Michael +and Margaret to spend some considerable time alone, the high gods took +in hand the affairs of these two human lives, lives which had been well +content to rest on their oars and drift with the tide. + +Michael had had no prearranged desire to change the conditions of their +intimacy. It was beautiful. He had given no thought to himself as +Margaret's lover. He had been content to be her partner in that +tip-toe dance of expectation and in that state of undeclared devotion +which is the life and breath of a woman's existence. + +On the evening of his return to the camp he felt a new joy in +Margaret's presence. Catching the sound of her voice in her coming and +going about their small hut was a delicious assurance of the happiness +that was to be his for some days to come. She illuminated the place +and vitalized his energies. Yet this deepened pleasure told him +nothing--nothing, at any rate, of what the gods had up their sleeves. + +They were standing, as they had often stood before, on some high ridge +of the desert cliff which overlooked its desolation and immensity. +Margaret's face was star-lit; her beauty softened. As Michael gazed at +her, he lost himself. + +As unexpectedly to Margaret as to himself, his arms enfolded her. He +told her that he loved her. + +This confession of his feelings for her was so sudden, a thing so far +beyond his self-control and so inevitable, that Margaret made no +attempt to withstand it. The beauty of it humbled her to silence; the +generosity of life and its gift to her bewildered her. Two tears +rolled quickly down her cheeks. Michael saw them and loved her all the +more tenderly. Absurd tears, when her heart could not contain all her +happiness! Meg dived for her handkerchief. Michael captured her +hands; he took his own handkerchief and dried her cheeks, while +laughter, mingled with weeping, prevented her from speaking. + +"I didn't mean to tell you, Meg," he said. "It just came out, as if it +wasn't my own self who was speaking." + +The humour of his words drove the tears from her eyes. Still she did +not speak, but he saw the inference of her smile. + +"I mean," he said, "that this other me has loved you all the time, the +me that couldn't help speaking, the me that recognized the fact ever +since I saw you at the ferry. How I loved the first glimpse of you, +Meg!" + +He drew her more closely to him. "May I love you, dearest?" He bent +his head; their lips were almost touching; he held her closely. "First +tell me that our friendship is love." + +His breath warmed her cheeks; she could feel the tension of his body. +Lost in his strength, Meg was speechless. The greatness of her love +seemed a part of the wide Sahara. The stillness and his arms were +lovelier than all the dreams she had ever dreamed. + +His voice was a low whisper. "Meg, do you love me?" His lips had not +taken their due. + +Meg's fingers encircled her throat. "Love is choking me. . . . I +can't speak." + +Instantly Michael's head bent lower. He kissed her lips, and then, for +the first time, Margaret knew what it was to be dominated by her +senses. Thought fled from her; her lover's lips and his strength, for +he seemed to be holding her up in a great world of impressions in which +she could feel no foundation, were the two things left to her. + +Michael realized that now and for ever there could be no going back. +Their old state of friendship was shattered. His kiss had carried them +at a rate which has no definition. + +Margaret returned his love with a devout and beautiful passion. Eve +had not been more certain that Adam was intended for her by God. + +"Meg," he said, "how do you feel? I feel just a little afraid, I had +no idea that love was like this. Had you? You have suddenly become as +personal and necessary to me as my own arms or legs. You were _you_ +before--now you are a bit of me." + +They were standing apart, facing each other, arms outstretched, hands +in hands. Now and then the bewilderment of things made it very +compelling, this desire to look and look into each other's eyes, to try +to discover new characteristics born of their amazing confession. + +"It's a tremendous thing," Meg said thoughtfully, "a tremendous and +wonderful thing." + +"If we have only lived for this one hour, it's worth it," Mike said. +"To you and me it's certainly a tremendous thing." + +Some lover's questions followed, questions which Margaret had to +answer, the sort of questions every woman knows whom love has not +passed over, questions which Margaret, with all her fine Lampton brains +and common sense, did not think foolish, questions which she answered +more easily and accurately than any ever set to her in college or +university examinations. She answered them, too, with a fine +understanding of human nature. Lampton brains were not to be despised, +even in the matter of "How, when and where did you first love me?" + +She knew quite well what Michael meant when he said that he was a +little afraid. She, too, felt a little afraid, just because things +could never be the same again. Love in Egypt seemed to become Egyptian +in its immensity and power. It was a part of the desert and in the +brightness of each glittering star. She doubted if she could have felt +this tremendousness of love in England. Had something in the power of +Egypt, in the passing of its civilization and religions, affected her +senses? She could not imagine feeling, as she now felt, in Suffolk. +Here, in this valley of sleeping Pharaohs, in this eternal city of a +lost civilization, she had been transformed into another creature. + +These thoughts jumbled themselves together in her mind, as they dawdled +back to the camp, the happy dawdling of lovers. + +Suddenly Michael caught her in his arms and said, "Meg, how on earth am +I going to make you understand how much I love you?" + +Meg read an unhappy meaning in the words. "I shall understand," she +said. "I think something outside myself will help me to understand." + +He turned her face up to the stars. It was bathed in light. + +"You beautiful Meg, the stars adore you!" + +Meg struggled and laughed. "I'm so glad my face is all right, that you +like it, Mike." + +Mike laughed. "I shouldn't mind if you weren't beautiful, you know I +shouldn't, for you'd still be you." + +Meg's practical common sense was not to be drugged by love's ether. +"Dear," she said happily, "don't talk rubbish! As if you, with your +artistic sense and love of beauty, would have fallen in love with me if +I had turned-in-feet and a face half forehead, just because I was me!" + +They both laughed happily. Then Michael said, sadly and abruptly--his +voice had lost its confidence--"Why have I let myself say all this, +Meg? What thrust my feelings into expression, feelings I scarcely was +conscious of possessing until I saw you lit up by the shining stars? I +never, never planned such a thing." + +"I know," Meg said. "We neither of us dreamed of it when we left the +hut, did we?" + +"I had a thousand other things to consult you about, to tell you," he +said. "I have a thousand other things to do. I have a mission to +fulfil before I speak of love. It just came, it suddenly bubbled up +and poured over like water in a too-full bottle." + +"Do you regret it?" Margaret said simply and sympathetically. She was +not hurt; she knew what he meant; she knew that he had more than once +spoken of the single-heartedness of a man's work, the work which Mike +hoped to do, when he had no family ties, no woman's love to bind him, +to nourish and satisfy. + +"Dearest--I don't regret it," he said. "It was inevitable. Something +else would have called it forth if the stars hadn't. All the same, it +is of you I am thinking . . . I had no right to . . ." + +"To what, Mike?" + +"I'm a drifter, Meg, and I'm not ready to be anything else--I can't be." + +"I don't want you to be anything else." Meg's voice and laugh were +Love. Her sincere eyes were happily confident. + +"People who 'walk on their heads' don't make fortunes, beloved." + +"People who think the desert is 'paradise enow' don't need fortunes." + +Michael pressed the palms of her hands to his lips. "Dear strong +hands," he said, "are they willing to work with mine?" + +"Oh, Mike," she said. "I'm so glad, so happy! It doesn't seem +fair--our world's all heaven to-night--I want others to have just a +little of it." + +They listened to the silence. + +Michael's thoughts were of his world-state, his religion of Love, the +closeness of God. + +"Every star in the sky seems to know about our love," Meg said. "And I +think the waiting silence has been expecting this." + +"I know," Michael said. "To me love seems to be crowding the valley +and flying down from the hills and searching the stillness. Life's +become a new kind of thing altogether, Meg, we'll have to help each +other." + +"That's just what I feel. It's alarming to find yourself quite a +different human being in less than an hour, to have suddenly developed +unsuspected elements in your nature." She laughed. "I never thought I +could be such a complete fool, dearest." + +Michael kissed her rapturously. "Let's be big, big fools, beloved, +let's enjoy this thing that's come to us." He paused. Again he looked +troubled and serious. + +"Why trouble?" Meg said. "I know just what's in your heart. You love +me and I love you, and I trust you. You weren't ready for any +engagement--you never thought of marriage. Well, let all that come in +good time if it is meant to be. Let us be content with love for the +present. It's surely big enough." She sighed. "It's tired me, Mike, +it's so enormous." + +"But, dearest, I meant to talk to you about very different things. +Love just caught me. . . . I was taken unawares . . . some look of +yours did it, or some trick of the stars. . . I can't tell which. +Anyhow, it's done." + +"Tell me," she said. "All that you had meant to talk about. It's not +too late. We must be friends as well as lovers now." + +"It was about my visit to el-Azhar in Cairo." + +"Yes?" Meg said. Her breath came more quickly. + +"My old friend told me the most extraordinary things. He had seen +visions." + +Their eyes met. Meg's held a question; they asked: "Had they any +connection with my vision?" + +"Yes," Michael said to her unspoken question. "He saw me on a long +desert journey. I was often surrounded by a wonderful light--a light +which, he said, had come from one of God's messengers, who was never +far from me. He said he saw the messenger of God always in the midst +of a great light, like the light of the sun, that he resembled no +mortal he had ever seen, or any king he had ever been shown in his +dreams." + +Meg drew in her breath nervously. "Had he ever heard of Akhnaton, +Mike?" + +"No, never. He is quite unread, totally unlearned and ignorant of all +except the teachings of the Koran." + +Margaret's quick breathing showed her excitement. Michael, too, became +nervous. + +"He saw me always in the light of this great messenger, a light, he +said, which surrounded his figure with rays like the rays of the sun." + +"Just as I saw him," Meg said. "How strange! How wonderful!" + +"He spoke of trials and temptations and, strangest of all, of much +gold. He saw the treasure very clearly and repeatedly--much fine gold, +he was certain of that." + +"How are you to discover it?" Meg spoke dubiously. Her practical mind +was fighting against the absurdity of the thing. + +"He could not tell me. In the desert I was to be led by a little +child--you know what that means?" + +"Yes, a simple, a child of God." + +They paused. + +"Now the odd thing is," Michael said thoughtfully, "that when I went to +see Michael Ireton, he strongly advised me to go and find myself, as he +expressed it, in the desert. He said, 'Cut yourself off from your +friends, from opposing influences, and think things out. Go where you +are called.'" + +"He meant Freddy's opposing influence?" + +"I suppose so. Freddy's character is stronger than mine, and we have +opposite views." + +"Are you going?" Meg's voice betrayed a new anxiety and sadness. + +"I meant to." His eyes spoke of his new reluctance. "That was why I +had no right to speak--I really wanted to go." + +"This must make no difference--it must help you." + +"But I shall want to be with you--it's hard to go." + +"If you stayed, you would be restless, dissatisfied." + +"I know." He laughed. "I want both to 'walk on my head,' Meg, and +stand firmly on my two legs--my legs are for a home for you." + +"And your head?" + +"Oh," he said, "for anything that is upside down to what it is now, for +the total destruction of obsolete and effete monuments, for exchanging +new principles for those that are worn out with age, for showing that +fundamental truths are not made by empire-builders, that the world is +God's Kingdom, not man's, that God is the only monarch whose throne is +not tottering." + +"Yes," Meg said. "I suppose destruction must come before the building +up, your task of pulling down, of clearing out the corner-stones, of +cleansing the temple." + +"I know," Michael said. "It's the way with 'cranks.' We all of us jaw +about destroying and offer no new plans for reconstruction." He +paused. "But it's rather like the problem of cleaning out a too-full +house--you can't really get rid of the dust unless you first of all +clear the whole thing out, empty it." + +"You want to abolish so much, Mike." + +"All the rubbish," he said. "All the hindrances. I want to let in +light." + +"Beginning with kings," Meg said, tantalizingly. The voice was +Freddy's. + +"I've no rooted objection to kings, as human mortals," he said. "I +suppose half the monarchs in Europe, and certainly our own included, +are very good men, very anxious for their kingdom's prosperity, if not +for their people's development. It's the condition of affairs which +tolerates such an obsolete form of government. If the king is merely a +picturesque figure-head, like the carved heads of Venus on a vessel's +prow, I'd have no objection, but a despotic and vain peacock like the +Kaiser, who turns his subjects into military instruments, in my opinion +wants destroying along with the other rubbish." + +"But to go back," Meg said, "to your old friend in el-Azhar--do tell me +more about him." + +"He's a splendid old warrior," Michael said tenderly. "When you think +of what he's achieved, isn't he wonderful? I wish you could see him." + +"The force of will-power, of concentration," Meg said. "I suppose he +has never thought of anything else all his life, but this one dream of +el-Azhar." + +"That's it," Mike said. "But what gives these Moslems that wonderful +power of mind-control?" Mike paused. "Now, here am I," he said. "I +came out with you to-night meaning to tell you that I was going away." + +"Oh," Meg said. "Not yet--not until the tomb is opened? Surely not?" + +"No, not until the tomb is opened--I had no intention of that." + +She sighed. "That would be too awful." + +Michael kissed her. "How nice of you!" he said. "You really wanted +me?" + +"Of course! I have visualized the opening of the tomb--you and I +crawling down the 'dig,' with Freddy waiting at the foot to show us his +treasures. You couldn't have gone!" + +"No," he said, "I couldn't. But I wanted to tell you that I was going +soon after. I was going for reasons that only my own heart understood. +And then what did I do? I told you that I loved you! I forgot +everything but you, dearest. Before I knew it, I had spoken of what it +might have been wiser to keep hidden away in my heart, with all my +other mad dreams." + +"But why, Mike? I should have been so very unhappy, so wretched. As +it is, I am just bursting with happiness. I wouldn't change anything +for worlds--not one tiny thing!" + +"If you are contented," he said, "and understand, then it may not have +been unwise, untrue to Freddy's trust in me." + +"Oh," Meg said, "you dear, why, Freddy adores the very ground you walk +on! He chaffs you, but he simply thinks no end of you." + +"He doesn't want a drifter for a brother-in-law, if he's any common +sense in his head. I'm the last husband he'd choose for his sister." + +"But, Mike, how can you?" + +"Yes, Meg, there are times when I don't 'walk on my head,' when I see +with Freddy's sane eyes. It's what he'd call damned cheek of me to +speak of love to you." + +"I'd have called it horrid if you hadn't." + +"You delicious Meg, would you really?" + +"Yes, I would, horrid and cruel. I'd have imagined you really cared +for . . ." she paused and then went on tenderly, ". . . no, I won't say +it, Mike." + +"Really cared!" he said. "Why, you have taught me what that word +means. You'll never doubt that?" + +"No," Meg said. "Not now. I know this is new to us both. I won't +doubt anything ever again." + +"She was friendless," he said. "And for some strange reason she +thought herself fond of me." + +"What a very strange thing to feel! I really can't understand it. +Fancy a woman feeling fond of a thing that walks on its head!" + +"Don't laugh, Meg. She does, or thinks she does." + +Meg looked into his eyes. "I'll never doubt you, Mike," she said, "if +you'll tell me, under these dear stars, which have made you confess +your love for me, that there has been no deep feeling on your side, +that there is nothing that matters between you." + +Mike took her two hands. "On my side, there has been nothing but +friendship, I swear it," he said. "I never, never desired anything +else. There has been nothing that matters." + +"I'm so glad," Meg said. "You're so high, Mike, so awfully high in my +love. Your drifting is all a part of it. I love you for all your mad +dreams and dear unworldliness, for your struggling and striving for the +highest. I should hate to have to believe that you were less high than +I imagined." + +"But I kissed her, Meg," he said, abruptly. The truth was drawn from +him, as his confession of love had been, torn from him by some power +outside himself. He hated giving her pain, and it had been scarcely +necessary if Margaret had been other than she was. + +It had not mattered--yet if truth was beauty and beauty was God, and +his religion was that the kingdom of God is within us, how could he +hold it back, this deed which, little as it might seem in the eyes of +most people, had been for him a thing which did matter? + +"You kissed her!" Meg said. Something that was not love was now +bursting her throat. Her voice was uncertain. It hurt Michael like a +thrust from a sharp knife. + +"Yes," he said. "I kissed her, more than once." + +"Her lips?" Meg asked. + +"Yes, Meg, her lips." + +"You kissed her as you have kissed me to-night?" + +"Good heavens, no!" he cried. "Meg, how could you think it?" + +"Life is strange," Meg said, a little wearily. "When everything seems +most beautiful, some ugliness shows its head . . . the light gets so +dim." + +"Dearest," Mike said, "do you remember what you said on that morning +when we found each other again? You said, 'Let's go forward; things +are explained.'" + +"Yes, I remember," she said, and as she spoke happiness shone in her +eyes like a flame relit; "yes, I said regrets were foolish, I said I +understood. But . . ." she hesitated; the thought of Mike's lips +pressed to any other woman's than her own stifled her. She was his so +completely, that any other man's lips pressed to hers, except Freddy's, +would nauseate her. Yet Mike had kissed Millicent. Was it that night +on the terrace, or the evening at the Pyramids? she wondered. + +"We have gone forward, Meg. Millicent"--Meg shivered as he said the +woman's Christian name--"was splendid at the Pyramids, she really was." + +Again Meg shivered. Splendid! How, she wondered, had she been +splendid? Meg hated being an inquisitor, yet she had to know; it was +her right. + +"Then it was not at the Pyramids that you kissed her?" she asked. + +"No, no!" Mike said. "Of course not!" He looked at her in wonder. +"If it had been, I should not have dared to kiss you to-night." + +"It's nice of you to say that, dear. Oh, Mike," she said tenderly, +"you mean the world to me! I shall grow older by years for each moment +that we don't trust one another! I should have known, I should never +have doubted! You've chosen a very jealous woman, Mike." + +"If you'd gone off to the Pyramids with some one whom I disliked as +much as you dislike Millicent, I'd have been furious!" He felt Meg +shiver. He divined the reason; he would not let that hurt her again. +"You hate her, Meg," he said. "Just in the way I'd hate a man +who . . ." he paused. + +"Who what?" Meg said. + +"Don't ask me," he said. "I never forgot you for one moment when I was +with her at the Pyramids. You kept close to me, dearest. And the +other episode is past and forgotten--it was just a little bit of +vulgarity, Meg, nothing more." + +"Since we made friends, there's been nothing between you that would +make your kisses to me a mere vulgarity, Mike?" + +"Nothing," he said. "And so far as I can help it, I will never see +Mrs. Mervill again." + +Meg's eyes spoke her thanks. His avoidance of the woman's Christian +name showed his sensitiveness to her feelings. Speaking of her as +"Mrs. Mervill" put her pleasantly far away. + +"I was weak and insincere--my kisses were really a dishonour to any +woman, and I hated myself." + +While Meg admired her lover for refraining from the excuse which Adam +was not ashamed to offer His Maker, what was human in her longed to +make him denounce the woman she hated. She had tried to provoke a +justification of his own conduct from his lips by telling her what she +felt to be the truth--that the woman had tempted him. + +It was getting late; they turned towards the hut. + +"We must go in," Meg said. "Freddy will be wondering what has become +of us." She turned swiftly and took Michael's hands in hers. "Until +after the tomb is opened, let us remain as we were--I mean, don't let's +give Freddy any more to think about. Isn't he the dearest brother in +the world?" she said. "I love every glittering hair of his head!" + +"Very well, you dearest woman," Mike said. "Besides, we've only +confessed that we love each other--I've asked for no promise, Meg--I've +no right to. Remember, you are free, absolutely free--this old drifter +isn't to count." + +"Absolutely free!" Meg laughed. "Just as if words made us free! Four +walls do not a prison make! You know perfectly well that I am tied +hand and foot and bound all round about with the cords of your love. I +can never be free again, never belong only to myself, as I used to do." + +"And will you remember that whatever happens to me, Meg, it will be +just the same?" + +She knew that he was referring to his mystical journey, his unsettled +future. + +"It would be so heavenly," she said dreamily, "if we could be content +to sit down and be happy and just live for the enjoyment of each +other's love!" + +"You'd despise me if I did." He looked round at the eternal valley, +resting in the stillness of death. + +"I suppose I should," Meg said. "I suppose I want you to take up arms +for what Freddy calls your 'Utopian Rule of Righteousness,' your +world-state." + +"I think we should both feel slackers, just enjoying ourselves +intellectually, dear, when we could, if we chose, let a few others into +the great kingdom of God. You and I don't understand why they don't +all see it as we do, why they don't realize the things Akhnaton knew +three thousand years ago. We wonder why they remain contented with a +religion of limited dogmas and theological forms. They don't see the +obvious in their striving after doctrines. They fail to see that God +is too big for their churches." + +"You see these things," Meg said. "I'm only creeping behind you." + +"You see that if we understand God and give Him His proper place, He'd +rule us, His throne would govern a world-state. His love would be the +law of mankind." + +"I know," Margaret said. "It's beautiful, it's what ought to be, if +poor mortals were not human beings." + +"Mortals are the best things in God's kingdom--it's all been worked up +for their enjoyment and benefit." + +"I know, dear, I know, but you and I are just you and I, and we have +just found love, and it is so wonderful, I want to enjoy it." + +"Doesn't love make it all the more forcible, Meg? The closeness of God +all the more certain? The weaving of the threads of His beautiful +fabric all the more golden?--Akhnaton's great 'Lord of Fortune,' the +'Master of Things Ordained,' the 'Chance which gives Life,' the 'Origin +of Fate,' call it what you will--the power which brought us here, you +and I." + +"And if we didn't follow that clear voice, Mike, whose rule is +righteousness, why should He allow it?" + +"Do we ever deliberately do what we know to be wrong and not pay for +it, dearest?" + +"But why does He allow it? It's a mill, dearest--one can go round and +round, and round and round." + +"And in the end," Mike said. "It's just God, His prescribed rule, His +unfightable force." + + * * * * * * + +When the two lovers entered the sitting-room, Freddy was instantly as +conscious of the new aura which surrounded them as he was conscious of +the sweet desert air which clung to their clothes and bodies. It came +like a whiff from a far pure world. + +"How fuggy you are in here," Meg said. "Dear boy, stop working." + +"All right," he said. "I was only waiting for you to come in." Freddy +was not the sort to see anything which he was not meant to see. If the +two lovers had anything to tell him, they would tell him. Until then, +he would mind his own business. + +"You go and have a smoke outside," Meg said. "I'll put away all this." + +"All this" meant the boxes of "finds" and the papers of plans and +figures which they had all been working at earlier in the evening. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +It was the dawn of the morning on which the tomb was to be opened. Meg +could not sleep; the overseer's shrill whistle for the roll-call of the +workmen had banished her last hopes that a little sleep would come to +her before the exciting day began. + +The clear whistle called the straggling figures together. They were +still indefinite objects, moving white columns in the darkness which +heralds the dawn. They were to begin work earlier than usual; Meg +could see no signs of the coming day in the sky. + +She sprang out of bed, glad to begin some practical work to banish the +confusion of thoughts which had made her brain too active for sleep. +Before she had her bath or dressed, she felt that she must breathe the +cool, pure air outside the hut for a moment or two. + +During the night her thoughts had been mastered by a consciousness of +the fact that after the great day, after the tomb was satisfactorily +opened and Michael had accomplished the necessary work in connection +with it which Freddy might demand of him, he would start out on his +desert journey. She could not and would not hold him back. Things too +delicate and indefinite to be described had gathered and accumulated, +strengthening his determination to leave the valley and start out on +his apparently objectless journey. As the accumulation of atoms has +formed continents, so the accumulation of thoughts becomes a thing +which controls our destinies. + +The treasure-trove of gold which had been hidden by Akhnaton the +Dreamer was now as real to Michael as the gold-mines in California were +real to the miners of the '49 rush. He had visualized it over and over +again. He was undaunted by the fact that many visionaries had seen +their King Solomon's mines equally clearly; but how many have reached +them? He was satisfied that, though his journey might prove a complete +failure from Freddy's point of view, until he made it any work he tried +to do would be a more complete one. There are treasures laid up in +heaven far beyond the value of rubies and precious jewels, and the +Kingdom of Heaven which is within us Mike was determined to find. + +Meg had given her abundant sympathy, but advice she had none to offer. +The thing was beyond her, taken out of her hands; it belonged to the +part of Michael which she loved and admired but did not fully +comprehend--the superman. Her practical common sense was her +stumbling-block; it held her with the chains of caution and the doubts +of a scientific trend of mind, which demands practical proofs before it +accepts any theory or idea. Although she was influenced more deeply by +Egypt than she had ever imagined it possible to be influenced by the +unseen, or by atmosphere and surroundings, she still walked firmly on +her two feet. Her momentary standings on her head were passing and +spasmodic. She neither felt convinced nor unconvinced upon the subject +of Akhnaton's vision or upon the truth and reliability of the old man's +words at el-Azhar. Suggestion is so often at the root of what appears +to be the supernatural. Michael might have talked to the old man, as +he had often talked to herself, about the possibility of such a +treasure having been hidden by the King when he, Akhnaton, knew that he +was dying and when he realized that his new capital of Tel-el-Amarna +would not long survive his decease, that the priests of the old +religion would do all in their power to obliterate his memory and +teachings. She knew that Michael was not the only person who held this +view. He was not the originator of the theory. + +Meg had never had anything to do with people who believed in visions +and the power of seeing into the future. The occult had had no +fascination for her. Until she arrived in the valley all such things +had come under the heading of charlatanism. Her thoughts were +different now. She had learned more; she had discovered that her +powers of vision might be limited to the very fine mental qualities of +which her family were so proud; she had found out that the sharpest +brains for practical purposes may be extremely blunt for higher ones. +Freddy and she could play with figures; problems which could be worked +out by practical methods were to them difficulties to be mastered by +hard work, and hard work was pleasure to the Lamptons; it was their +form of enjoyment. They were not imaginative; they were combative; +they enjoyed a fight which usurped their mental energies. + +In Egypt Meg had been given new eyes, new understanding. There were +finer things than mathematical problems, things of the super-intellect, +infinitely more delicate and wonderful, to which neither she nor Freddy +held the key. She felt like a child. She was a child again, an +inquisitive child, crying out for answers which would satisfy her +awakening intelligence. Her fine college education had been confined +to the insides of books. She knew nothing whatever of the finer truths +which were every day being thrust upon her senses. It was just as if +Freddy and she were watching a play from a great distance without +opera-glasses, while Michael had very powerful ones. He could see +things beyond their horizon; he was in touch with people who inhabited +a world to which they could not travel. + +Too often Michael's thoughts were divided from hers by continents of +space. She was often alone. She longed passionately to say to him +that she really believed in all that he believed in. Her beautiful +honesty did not permit it. Her limitations tormented her. It was like +having a cork leg in a race. If she could only get rid of her Lampton, +materialistic, common-sense nature, she would be more able to advise +and counsel her lover. Poor Meg! Thoughts like these had fought for +coherence all night. + +She little knew that her nature was the perfect adjustment which +Michael's needed. He came to her, not only as a lover, but as a tired +traveller in search of rest. Her reasoning mind and cautious nature +gave him balance. When he had been standing on his head for too many +hours together, Meg put him on his feet again. + +This morning Meg needed putting on her own feet. She was hopelessly +tormented with questions which she could not answer. One minute +Michael's whole scheme ought to be discouraged; his belief in the +occult was a thing to be suppressed; it was dangerous and unhealthy. +The next, she found herself with energies vitalized and glowing over +the certainty that there must be truth in the idea, that there must be +some meaning in the repeated messages conveyed either by dreams or by +whatsoever one chose to call them. Thoughts certainly had been +conveyed to him. + +Then the glowing vision of Michael actually discovering the lost +treasure of Akhnaton would vanish and she would see him, just as +clearly, alone and ill in the desert, in lack of funds and abandoned by +his men. She knew his casual methods of making practical arrangements +and his total disregard for his personal health and safety. + +She was watching the coming dawn while her thoughts were creating +misfortunes and calling up unhappy visions of Michael alone in the +desert. The old man at el-Azhar had spoken of temptations and +sickness. If the treasure was a fact, then the sickness and temptation +were facts also. But what were the temptations? Did he allude to the +spiritual or the material man? + +Suddenly her thoughts were obliterated, her self-inflicted suffering +wiped out. She had no thoughts, no consciousness; for her nothing +existed but the luminous and wonderful figure of Akhnaton which had +formed itself in front of her. At first her astonished eyes had seen +it dimly, then clearly and still more clearly. + +Meg remained perfectly still. She was too awestruck, too amazed, to +move or speak. The vision became surrounded by light, by the rays of +Aton. It was months since she had first seen it; now in the dawn, it +seemed as if it had only been the night before. A sense of rest came +to her as she gazed at it. + + "Thy dawning is beautiful in the horizon of heaven, + O living Aton, Beginning of Life! + When thou risest in the eastern horizon of heaven, + Thou fillest every land with thy beauty; + For thou art beautiful, great, glittering, high over the earth, + Thy rays, they encompass the land, even all thou hast made." + + +Meg listened intently to the words. They were part of Akhnaton's Hymn +to the Rising Sun, the hymn which Mike had repeated to her. + +She waited until the words were lost in the silent hour. Every thought +of hers was known to the sad eyes, every longing in her heart to be +given power to speak was understood. It seemed to come naturally to +her, the understanding of the needlessness for her to do aught but +listen. The vision was her over-soul, her higher self, which +understood. + +"You have delivered my message. I have seen, I have approved. The +Lord of Peace, the Living Aton, besides whom there is none other, has +brought Life to his heart. The beauty of Aton is there." + +It was of Michael the vision spoke. Meg never doubted. "His pleasure +is to do thy bidding," she said. The words were the unstudied, simple +truth. + +"I have seen, always I have guided, always I have prayed. I have +revealed to him the Light which is Truth. His work, which is the Love +of Aton, is in his heart. The Lord of Fate has perfected it." + +"I would have him go, and yet, because I am not fully in the Light, I +would have him stay. All that is in my heart is plain to you--my +fears, my joys, my imperfect faith. I ask for help; I am troubled." + +"There is no poverty, no fear, for those who have set Aton in their +hearts; for my servant there is no danger. Hearts have health where +Aton shines." + +"But for me--how can I help him?" + +"By the perfection of Love." + +"But my love is imperfect. It is not divine. I fear for his bodily +welfare. I cannot willingly offer him to the Aton of whom you speak. +I can only understand my own selfish love . . . it is human." + +"You are the mistress of his happiness. In my Kingdom, while it was on +earth, my heart was happy in my Queen and in my children. The great +Lord and Giver of Light is none other than the Loving Father, the +tender husband, the devoted son. There is none other than the living +Aton, whose kingdom is within us. We are Love, we are Aton." + +"Then my love is no hindrance?" + +"God is Love, God is Happiness, God is Beauty." + +There was infinite understanding and tenderness in the words, but Meg's +honesty was persistent. + +"My love is not that sort of love, but it is very dear to me. It is +selfish and human. It is wrapped round with natural desires, my own +personal wants." + +"Is there any love which is not of Aton? Does He expect things other +than He has made?" + +"I am in darkness; I have so many fears." + +"Your soul is not shut off from that which it desires. Your fears can +be turned to understanding; no forces of darkness can hold against the +powers of Light. If you open your heart to the Living Truth, the +powers of darkness are disarmed, Aton is enthroned. He is the sole +creator of all things created." + +The sky was changing from a cold grey to the opalescence of dawn. A +line of light was slowly appearing and widening on the horizon. As it +spread and grew more distinct, the luminous figure became less clear; +the rays of Aton shone less vividly. Akhnaton's spirit had come forth +from the Underworld to see the sun rise on the world he so passionately +loved. This had been one of his most insistent and ardent prayers +while he reigned on earth, that after death his "two eyes might be +opened to see the sun," that "the vision of the sun's fair face might +never be lost to him," that he might "obtain a sight of the beauty of +each recurring sunrise." + +Meg stood in an awed silence, her subliminal self alone conscious of +the grave, sad eyes, which were watching the splendour of the sun as it +came over the edge of the desert. The rapidity of its uprising was +amazing. It had burst the bonds of darkness with a strength and force +which resembled the triumph of a victorious army. At its coming the +darkness was scattered. Its quickly-spreading rays were driving back +the forces of the enemy. With fine generalship it was following up the +victory with renewed attacks. + +The form of the Pharaoh was only dimly visible. Its luminousness had +disappeared. It was a shadow in the light. The prayer of all +Egyptians from time immemorial had been that they might each day "leave +the dim Underworld in order to see the light of the sun upon earth." +Akhnaton had prayed this prayer, which was ancient before his day. + +Meg knew that his prayer had been answered. Akhnaton, the King, the +passionate heretic, the visionary and the prophet, was seeing his +adored Sun rising over his kingdom. His persistent prayers had been +granted, his desire realized. His spirit had come forth to see the +sun's rays. As he gazed at the sun, the years had rolled back. Three +thousand years are but a span in the march of eternity. He was alone +with his God, as alone as the Moslem figures who were prostrating +themselves to the ground. He was enjoying the beauty of Aton in the +silent valley, which his footsteps had so often trod, the valley +overlooking the city which to him, in his manhood, became the city of +abomination and desolation, the city of false gods. + +As the light of day flooded the desert, the figure became invisible to +Meg. It seemed to melt into the golden air. She felt that it might +still be standing there, quite close to her, only she could not see it. +Her powers were limited; the light concealed the figure. Being +luminous, she had been able to see it clearly in the darkness, just as +she was able to see the luminous match-box which she always kept on a +table by her bedside. She knew it was there, always shining, only her +eyes were unable to see its brightness in the daylight. The figure of +Akhnaton might be near her still. How clearly it had stood out in the +darkness, how brightly the rays of the sun had declared the symbol of +Aton! + +Had it all been an optical delusion, born of her nervous condition? Or +was it a dream? Was she still in bed sleeping? How could she prove to +herself that she was awake, that she had come out to see the dawn, that +she was standing in front of her hut and not asleep in bed? In her +dreams, she had often dreamed that she was dreaming; she had often told +herself that her dreams were all dreams; she had often done things in +her dreams to prove to herself that they were not dreams. If she +stooped to pick up some sand to prove that her feet were pressing the +desert, might not that, too, be a part of her dream? What on earth was +there to prove the real from the unreal? + +Now that she knew about Akhnaton and his beautiful religion, which is +the religion of all reasoning mortals to-day, and had read something of +his life and mission, was it not quite probable that she was creating +all that she had seen, that she was deceiving herself? It was still +possible that she was dreaming. + +With nerves unstrung and a beating heart, she saw Michael appear. He +was in his early-morning top-coat. He, too, had been greeting the sun. +He had made a hasty sketch of the first colours in the sky. + +"Mike," Meg cried, in a tone of relief and anxiety. "Mike, I want you, +do come here!" + +The next moment Mike's arms were round her; her head was on his +shoulder. + +"What is the matter, dearest?" + +"The vision, Mike! I have seen it again--it has been even more +wonderful. Oh, Mike!" A stifled sob came from Margaret's full heart; +the tension of her nerves was relaxed by the comfort of human arms, of +human magnetism. + +"And you were afraid, dearest?" He held her closer; his strength +nerved her. Oh, welcome humanity! + +"Afraid? No--oh, no, it wasn't fear." + +"What then, dear one?" + +"I can't explain it. If only you had been with me!" She clung to him. + +"I should not have seen him, Meg, it is not meant that I should. Look, +darling, I have been near you--I was making a sketch of the sunrise." + +Meg looked in wonder at the sketch. There was no figure there; that +was the only point of interest it contained for her at the moment. + +"It is not there," she said disappointedly; her voice expressed +astonishment. "Then you saw nothing?" + +"Nothing of what you saw." + +"Then why does it come to me? I am the very last person to understand, +to desire it." + +"Dearest, the wisdom of God's ways is past our present very limited +understanding. Why did He make the world as He did? Why did He form +the mountains by the drifting of particles into the ocean? Why did He +evolve the spirit of man from a source which has baffled science? Why +does He let us know so much and understand so little?" + +"I loved seeing him, Mike. He talked to me. I wasn't afraid while he +was there. It's the wonder of it now that it's past, the strangeness; +something greater than myself gets into me when the vision is there." + +"Consider the privilege, Meg, the amazing privilege!" + +Mike's brain was working and wondering. Why, oh why, had he not been +privileged? Why had Meg again seen the Living Truth? + +Meg divined his thoughts; her fervent wish was that he also had seen +it. "Nothing further from fear ever possessed me, Mike, and yet now I +feel horribly unnerved. If you hadn't come to me, I don't know what I +should have done. The first time it was different. I wonder why. I +wasn't a bit like this, was I, dearest?" + +"No, I don't know why you feel so differently this time. What +happened? Can you tell me, or would you rather wait?" Mike recognized +her nervous state. + +"I came out to see the sunrise. I hadn't slept--I was thinking about +the opening of the tomb and of all that is to happen afterwards." Mike +kissed her tenderly and understandingly. "I was really feeling very +selfish and worldly; and anything but spiritual. I was wondering if +your plans weren't too utterly silly, dearest, if, after all, we hadn't +got into a rather unreal and unhealthy way of looking at things. I was +almost convinced that you ought to stop standing on your head. Quite +suddenly the luminous figure, with the sunrays behind its head, stood +in front of me. Its eyes were fixed on me with a full and wonderful +understanding of all that was in my heart. I instantly knew that my +fears were understood, and the odd thing, now that I look back upon it, +is that I wasn't afraid. The understanding seemed natural, the +understanding of my higher self. It was only when the vision grew +dimmer and dimmer that I began to feel this silly nerve-exhaustion; it +was only then that I began to wonder and doubt." + +"I'm not surprised, Meg--you're splendid. Any other woman would have +fainted, I suppose." + +"No, Mike, they wouldn't; once you've seen and understood, it is like +being born again, with fresh understanding, with fresh eyes. There's +nothing more to be afraid of than there is in seeing death. I was +terrified of death until I saw Uncle Harry die. This is just the same +thing. Your fear is forgotten, a new understanding possesses you. My +only wonder is why I have never seen anything of the same sort before, +and now why, oh why, is it this strange figure of Akhnaton? Why this +King who lived thirteen hundred years before we begin to count our +centuries? I should so love to see Uncle Harry, and it is such a +little time since he went. Why have I never seen him?" + +"My darling, three thousand years are like the minutes spent in boiling +an egg when you dabble with eternity. There is nothing to choose +between Noah and Napoleon; Moses and Mohammed are twins in point of +years." + +"I know," Meg said. "There is nothing so hard for a human mind to +grasp as the impossibility of grasping the meaning of infinity. It +can't shake off its own limitations. But all the same, if I was to +tell anyone except you, dearest, that I had seen and held a +conversation with the spirit of a Pharaoh who lived before Moses, what +would they think? what would they say?" + +"The very few who stand in the Light would not be astonished. Those +who are still completely earth-tied and glory in their ignorance would +scoff and call you crazy; but would they matter?" + +"There was one thing he told me, Mike, which gives me great happiness. +He called me 'the mistress of your happiness,' he understood about our +love." + +"That was his favourite name for his wife. He was a devoted husband +and lover." + +"Then he really understood?" + +"What does Aton not understand, beloved?" + +"But this was Akhnaton, Mike. He said, 'my heart was happy in my +Queen.' He said 'the great Giver of Light is none other than the +loving father, the tender husband, the devoted son, because there is +none other than the living Aton, whose kingdom is within you. You are +Aton and Aton is you. He is everything which He has made.'" + +"That is exactly it," Mike said. "You saw the figure of Akhnaton just +as people who lived in Syria saw the figure of Christ--God's +manifestation of Himself. Of course He understood our love and our +happiness. His bowels of compassion yearn for His children. He is the +spirit of Aton--of God--as manifested by Akhnaton." + +"You are to go, beloved, there is to be no holding you back. I have +received my commission; it is to buckle on your armour. Oh, dearest, +even if all this should be the fabrication of my own dreams, my brain, +it is not self-created--it has some purpose, some meaning. God has put +it there." + +"Everything has its meaning, Meg, nothing is too small to be +intentional." + +"I am to help you by 'the perfection of my love,' and oh, Mike, it is +so imperfect, so pitifully imperfect, so pitifully human!". + +"Pitifully, darling? Why not beautifully human?" + +"Because it thinks first of my own wants; my love makes me wish to keep +you all to myself, to prevent you going on this journey." + +"The beautiful thing about Akhnaton's teachings, beloved, is the value +of happiness, the beauty of humanity. In this capital he gave his +people wonderful gardens and decorated his public places and temples +with the simple joys of nature; he encouraged music and art and +everything that could give his people happiness. He desired his people +to enjoy the world, he wanted them to see it as he saw it, a wonderful +kingdom, radiating with love. He first taught the world that there +need be no sickness or misery if there was no sin. Light disperses +darkness. His was the purest and highest religion the world was ever +given until the mission of Jesus Christ. The rays of Aton first +symbolized the divinity of God." + +The voice of Mohammed Ali brought the lovers back to the practical +things of the hour--a hot bath and the necessity of dressing and eating +a good breakfast. For the time being, the opening of the tomb had been +forgotten. Indeed, Meg found it very hard to bring herself into touch +with all which had been until this morning the absorbing topic for days +past. + +She had a number of household duties to attend to as soon as breakfast +was over--putting in order the room for the Overseer-General and +devising the menu for the day's food. There were to be extra mouths to +feed--the photographer, the Chief Inspector and a few invited +fellow-Egyptologists who had been asked for the occasion. It was +Freddy's day. + +Before they parted to get ready for breakfast Meg said, "I suppose +Freddy will be quite lost to us until the hour arrives! I wonder when +we shall be permitted to see inside it?" She referred to the tomb. + +"Not to-day," Mike said. "At least, I don't expect so. Perhaps +to-morrow. Anyhow, we shall hear all that Freddy has to tell us +to-night or at lunch-time." + +"Poor old Freddy! I shall be relieved when the thing is over, when he +can settle down to regular work again. There will be lots to do, won't +there?" + +"You look tired," Mike said. Meg's eyes were deeply shadowed. + +"Do you wonder? I've lived three thousand years in half an hour. I've +been born again, so to speak. I really feel only half here. Oh, +Mike," she said, impulsively, "I wish I knew more! I should so like to +quite believe, to understand. I can never be the same again, not my +careless, young, old self." She sighed. + +"Do you regret it?" + +"No, only I feel different, not quite so close to earth, lonely. I +can't explain. I wonder how Lazarus felt? I know I'm alive, dearest, +and here with you, but--don't laugh or think me hysterical--in some +other way, a way I can't speak about, I feel as if I had been dead and +come back. I've seen what no one else has, I've been where neither you +nor Freddy have been." + +"With those whose existence is in 'the hills of the West.'" + +"A cold tub will do me good, dearest." Meg hurried off. + +The sun was pouring its full wonder over the land. The mystery of the +dawn was as if it had never been. Egypt was bathed in light, the +fullest light that ever was on land or sea. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +The great hour had arrived. Margaret and Michael were on their way to +see the inside of the tomb, which had proved to be greater by far in +importance and splendour than even the Arab soothsayer had predicted. +It was, in fact, a tomb of unique interest, a tomb whose history was to +baffle the most expert Egyptologists. Freddy had kept the wonder of it +a secret from Mike and Margaret. He had told them practically nothing. +He wished to give them a surprise. + +It had been inspected and photographed and all the necessary +formalities had been gone through, and now, after an admirably borne +period of waiting, Michael and Margaret were to be allowed to visit it. + +Freddy was to await their arrival on the actual site, either the tomb +itself or outside it. + +As Michael and Margaret hurried through the valley and climbed the +hill, leading down into the side valley which held the tomb, they spoke +very little to each other. Their hearts were full of an intense +excitement. Freddy's silence had prepared them for something unusual. + +The sun was blazing like a furnace in the valley; a hot wind was +blowing from the Sahara. Meg and Michael were too excited to be +conscious of their surroundings. Their feet took them mechanically to +the scene of operations. + +The tomb had been photographed before any modern had set foot in it. + +Very hot and very excited, they at last arrived at its entrance, which +was guarded by two important-looking Egyptian policemen in modern +uniforms. Until Michael and Margaret had satisfactorily proved to them +that they had come to assist Effendi Lampton and that they were members +of his camp, they were not permitted to go near the aperture. + +Their identity being established, they at last began their descent down +the deep shaft into the tomb. The hot air which ascended in puffs from +the depths below scorched their faces. Meg felt stifled. Still hotter +air met them as they continued their descent. + +One of the Arab workmen helped Meg by going on in front and making +himself into a pillar for her to rest against when she lost her +footing. Her feet slipped and stumbled in the soft debris, yet +pluckily she always managed to reach the stately Arab. Each time she +reached him, she would halt and take a little breath, and with renewed +forces she would stumble on a few paces further. It was a very +undignified proceeding and an exhausting one. + +At last they reached the level of the tomb; they could safely raise +their eyes. As they did so, Meg gave a sharp cry of surprise. Never +in all the world had she imagined such a wonderful, wonderful sight. A +glitter of gold and white and the gleam of precious stones and the +brilliant hues of vivid enamels, caught her eyes. Freddy was holding +an electric torch in one hand, while with the other he picked up as +fast as he could from the ground the bits of carnelian and turquoise +and blue _lapis-lazuli_ which lay scattered at his feet. Margaret +could see nothing clearly; after the darkness, things were all blurred. +But she recognized the friendly cigarette-boxes; they were there, and +Freddy was filling them as fast as his one hand would allow him. +Thousands of mummy-beads powdered the floor with bright blue. The +white walls showed a wealth of colour in their paintings. + +Freddy was in his white flannels; his modern athletic figure seemed +oddly incongruous. He looked up as they appeared. + +"Hallo, Meg! Take care--stay where you are--don't move one step +further." + +He instantly stopped his work and came to their assistance. + +"You can't walk too softly or be too careful. All these things are as +brittle as burnt egg-shells--the slightest jar may shatter them to +atoms." His voice was full of eager happiness. + +"Oh, Freddy," Meg said. "It's too wonderful! I never imagined such a +scene. You darling!" She hugged his arm. + +"Wait a bit," Freddy said. "There's better things to come. I say, +Mike, keep your coat close to you--that's right. Now, step like cats." + +All three became silent as they picked their way gingerly; their +advance required a nicety and precision of step which permitted of no +talking or examination of the scene which enthralled them. + +At last they reached an inner chamber, the actual tomb itself. An +exclamation of amazement burst from both Michael and Margaret +simultaneously. It certainly was an extraordinary scene which met +their gaze. + +"Good heavens!" Mike said, while Meg caught hold of Freddy's arm. She +was afraid lest their loud cry might shatter the vision before their +eyes. Would it vanish with the coming of the light as the figure of +Akhnaton had vanished two mornings before? + +A queen, dressed as a bride, in all the magnificence of old Theban +splendour, lay stretched at full length on the floor; her arms were +folded across her breast, her face dignified by the repose of death, +the repose of a Buddha, whose eyes have seen beyond. + +This royal effigy was so magnificent, its colours were so untarnished, +that light seemed to radiate from the still figure. Here the might of +royalty had defied time. + +Meg and Mike saw nothing but the bridal figure; they had eyes for it +alone, its pathos, its dignity. + +Freddy pointed to a coffin which lay near the queen. It was empty; one +side of it had been smashed open. A brown and shrivelled mummy, a +ghastly object, had fallen out. It lay quite close to the brilliant +effigy. Surely this was the skeleton at the feast? + +Meg shrank back. In the hot tomb a chill struck her heart. This poor +brown object was the real queen. Here time had triumphed. + +She looked again, while Freddy held the torch nearer. A vulture with +outstretched wings, the ancient emblem of divine protection, cut out of +flat gold, sat upon the forehead of the mummy. Its left claw had +slipped into the empty eye-socket. A row of long white teeth gaped +threateningly up to the roof. The lips had dried and withered until +they had become as hard as brown leather. Alas for human vanity! +Those lips had once been a lover's, those lips had once responded to +human caresses and desires! + +Meg's flesh shrank. It was horrible. It was wrong to pry upon this +pitiful object which centuries had hidden from man's sight, this +humiliation of royal power. Nothing could have illustrated more +vividly the mockery and the futility of human greatness. The ghastly +cheeks, covered with something which had once been human flesh, the +menacing teeth, the embalmed skull, sickened Meg. + +For relief she turned her eyes once more to the sublime effigy, to the +waiting bride. Her chamber had been furnished with the lavish +indulgence of an ardent bridegroom. + +Michael was standing by Margaret's side. Her hand caught his; human +contact was essential. + +The coffin which had once held the mummy had rested on a beautiful +wooden trestle, which had been covered with a golden canopy. The legs +of the trestle had given way, probably with the weight of the coffin, +for the wood had become as brittle and dry as fine egg-shell. With the +fall the mummied body had rolled out and landed on the ground. + +This, Freddy conjectured, was the explanation of the apparent +desecration of the tomb. + +After they had looked at all that Freddy could show them until more +work had been accomplished, at the two figures which occupied the tomb, +the one so abject and distressing the other so magnificent and +romantic, and at the furniture which appeared to Meg to have been made +only the day before, in spite of Freddy's warning that a breath of cold +air would disperse it before their eyes, he told them that "time was +up." + +Meg's astonishment had increased with the examination of every +object--the carved wooden armchair, which appeared to belong to the +best Empire period; the exquisite wedding-chest, of lacquer, the blues +and greens of its floral decorations still daringly brilliant and +vivid--they were far brighter and more perfect than any decorations +which a faker of antiquities would dare to perpetrate. + +"But, surely," she said at last, when they had come to the end, "this +furniture's just pure Empire? Look at it, Mike." She pointed to the +exquisite armchair, an object too beautiful and rare for mere human +forms to rest in; then she made him examine the couch. A portion of +its fine cane seating had given way. Had a ghostly form sat on it? "I +thought the French copied their Empire furniture from ancient Greek +models?" she said. + +"Well, if they did, here we have it in all its perfection," Freddy +said. "In Egypt you'll find the originals of more than Empire +furniture. The thing is, where did the Egyptians get their models +from? None of the Louis's ever gave their Pompadours, nor Napoleon his +Josephine, anything as beautiful as that." He pointed to the casket. + +"And the very air which keeps us alive will destroy these," said Meg. +"It's odd, the way which things that have existed intact for three +thousand years without air will be killed by it!" + +"Have you any definite ideas about that figure?" Mike referred to the +mummy. "Whose is it?" + +"The whole thing is very bewildering. The tomb obviously hasn't been +plundered, for nothing of any value is missing, and yet, as you can +see, some of the gold wrappings have been torn from the mummy, certain +things have been defaced on the walls--the tomb is not as it was when +the body was first laid here." + +"No," Mike said. "Obviously not. The entrance has been tampered with +and those outer walls built; and look at all that debris in the shaft. +Yet, as you say, the obvious things of intrinsic value have not been +removed." + +Meg pointed to a recess in the wall; it still held the canopic jars. +Their lids were splendidly formed out of head-portraits of the queen. +Meg knew their meaning, their use; they held the intestines of the +dead. The Biblical expression, "bowels of compassion," always came to +her mind when she looked at canopic jars. These jars had their +significance. + +A very good significance, too, she thought, for certainly our bowels +are highly sensitive organs, responding and acting in complete sympathy +with our mental condition. And who can say for certain where our +compassions are seated, our sensibilities and sympathies? Why not, as +the Egyptians thought, in our bowels rather than in our brains? +"Joseph's bowels did yearn upon his brother Benjamin." + +"Then you have no idea who the queen was?" Meg said. + +"Not yet," Freddy said. "But we shall know. No Egyptian could enter +into his future abode without his name. It was always plainly and +repeatedly written on the embalmed mummy. His identification was +absolutely essential." + +"What a help to Egyptologists!" Meg said. + +"Probably her name will be written on these golden wrappings and on the +scarabs, if we find any. Nothing has been done yet. This precaution +of the ancients, in the matter of names, has, as you say, saved us +endless work. If plunderers haven't obliterated the name and stolen +the scarabs and other marks of identification, we generally discover +who it is." + +Meg sighed. "Is it just ordinary desert and daylight still up above, +Freddy? I can't believe it. We seem to be back in the Egypt of the +Pharaohs down here." + +They all looked silently again at the wonderful sight, far more +wonderful than words can suggest--the power of Egypt, the mystery of +death. + +"The soothsayer was quite true," Meg said. "His words were more than +true." + +"Yes," Freddy said, "more than true. And the odd thing is that he said +what I thought was a lot of rot about a 'bridal figure,' its splendour, +its brilliance. He visualized it almost correctly. He said, too, that +there would be great trouble for us in the work; he saw difficulties +and errors and wrong judgments. Nothing was clear, beyond the +brilliance of the figure and the objects. I wonder if he will be right +in that as well?" + +Michael and Margaret looked at each other. Obviously Freddy had been +influenced by the accuracy of the visionary's predictions. His voice +was free from scoffing. He owned that it was extraordinary--the manner +in which the man's words had come true. Neither Meg nor Michael made +any remark; they held their tongues in patience. + +"There is certainly plenty of gold," Freddy said, "and jewels and much +fine apparel. I hope we shan't encounter the great difficulty he +expects, as regards the historical problems and arguments it may open +up. He predicts that the opinions of the learned Egyptologists will be +cast out; their judgments will be at fault. What at first will appear +obvious and clear will not be the lasting truth." + +"How odd!" Mike said. "Was he very pleased to hear of the correctness +of his predictions so far?" + +"I haven't told him." + +"Not told him?" + +"No, it's wiser not. I've done my best to keep the astonishing +richness of the tomb from the ears of the natives. No one has been +inside it but the Chief Inspector and the photographer and you two. No +words have been spoken--you must not talk." + +Meg's heart bounded. It was delightful to be one of the privileged +few, to be trusted and accepted as one of the school. She felt like a +great explorer who had set foot in untravelled country. + +"If we stand here, without moving," she said; "quite, quite still, +mayn't we stay for a little bit longer? I'm so full of wonder and +amazement, Freddy. I can't begin to think intelligently or see things +separately--everything is a blurred mass of white and gold and blue and +priceless objects." + +"No, Meg, I'm sorry--I can't let you stay. You see, I must take this +light with me and get on with picking up those small objects. You'll +see all of them to-night. And with out the light you would be in total +darkness--real Egyptian darkness." + +"That's the thing that beats me. Freddy, how do you solve the +problem?--had they electric torches, or were these tombs only built for +supernatural eyes to enjoy?" + +"They certainly didn't use flares or torches in tombs, as the early +Christians did in the Roman catacombs, for there's no trace on the +walls of dirt or smoke as there is on the low walls of the catacombs. +There is absolutely nothing to tell us how they lighted these vast +buildings up, how they even introduced sufficient light to paint them +by or to build them. Look at the minuteness of these figures." + +"Surely they never built all these wonderful tombs and took the trouble +to paint them with the brightest colours if they were never again to be +seen with mortal eyes? I can't believe it." + +"So far we don't know. Perhaps the _Ka_, the part of a man who lived +for ever in his eternal home, had supernatural powers of sight. The +joys were for him. But how did they paint them in the darkness?" + +"Is that fact ever alluded to?" + +"No, the _Ka_ is treated in a perfectly human and natural manner. All +his pleasures were material ones. It's very odd--but we'll discover +the secret yet." + +"If they had some secret form of wireless telegraphy, they may just as +well have had some secret means of producing light, don't you think? +You've not discovered their wireless code, yet, have you?" + +"No, that's still a secret. And they certainly used no apparatus for +electric light, if they knew of it. There are no wires in the tombs." +He laughed. "You know, there is a lift in the Forum at Rome; it was +used for bringing the beasts up to the arena from underground cages. +It is in use to-day, I believe." + +"We've not discovered one hundredth part of what they had or hadn't," +Meg said. "They probably used radium to cure diseases." + +"The Etruscans had dentists who knew the use of gold for stopping +teeth--we know that." + +"Yes, I've seen a skull with gold-stopped teeth in the Etruscan Museum +at Rome." + +They had reached the beginning of the steep climb which was to take +them up to the open desert. Freddy left them with the assurance that +he would come back to lunch. The two policemen were to be responsible +for the guarding of the tomb. If anything was disturbed, they would be +held to account. + +When Margaret and Michael at last reached the open desert, Meg flung +herself down and gazed up into the sky. It had never seemed so blue +and beautiful before. The clear air rushed into her lungs. Oh, the +sweetness and the dearness of the daylight and the real world! The joy +it was to press her body close, close to the desert! She put her face +down to it. Nothing in all her life had ever been so reassuring and +comforting. + +Michael was seated beside her. The world was so wide and open and +bewildering; he felt giddy, stupefied. Surrounding them was the +ever-wonderful light of the desert, the yellow sands and, in the +distance, the masses of moving figures, working like busy insects at +the clearing away of the tomb-rubbish. Native chants and the noise of +picks and spades shovelling up the debris broke the stillness. Life +was just as it had been for the last two months. The desert was as it +had been before the tribes of Israel followed Moses. Down below them, +under the golden sand, in the dark bowels of the earth, Freddy was +still picking up precious jewels and packing them into the +cigarette-boxes, the effigy of the royal bride still lay in all her +Pharaonic splendour. She was there, underneath them, waiting and +waiting as she had waited for three thousand years for her heavenly +bridegroom. And still by her side lay that shrivelled, withered +corpse, the real queen, for whose pride and honour the vast underground +temple had been built. The brown mummy was the thing which mattered, +the real owner of the costly home. + +Freddy, in his white flannels, with his modern mind, was alone with +these two forms, alone and shut off from the embracing, loving light of +the desert. It was not a quarter of an hour since Meg and he had been +there; now they were as far away from the withered mummy and the +resplendent bride as though they had travelled across the breadth of +the world. + +His mind went back to the time before the excavating of the tomb was +begun, when it had seemed absurd to suppose that all this splendour lay +under their feet. It seemed to him now as though the whole of Egypt +might be honeycombed in this subterranean manner. + +Meg still lay embracing the sun-warmed sand, rejoicing in the dazzling +sunshine. + +"It makes one feel very humble," she said at last. "So utterly, +utterly unimportant. It doesn't seem as if it much matters what +happens, not even to our love, Mike." + +Mike raised his face from his hands. "I know," he said. "It is +absolute devastation, nothing more or less. I'm shattered, Meg." + +"It seems hardly worth while trying to do anything. Tomorrow we'll be +like that. It's so difficult to explain, except that it's just wiped +out my eagerness, it's made our own precious happiness seem absurd and +hollow, human beings ridiculous." + +"Dearest, I understand, I feel the same," Mike said. "All that down +there"--he stuck his stick into the sand--"illustrates a bit too +plainly the things we want to forget." + +"It shows us the absurdity of what we think are the things that matter. +It's really destructive to anything like worldly fame and ambition. +Those poor shrunken cheeks, those poor leathery lips, those poor, poor +diadems and jewels!" + +Mike let her ramble on. It was good for her to give utterance to her +incoherent thoughts. + +"They are so different when you see them in a museum," she said. +"They're impersonal there. They don't hurt one's self-importance." + +"In Cairo they belong to a number and a glass case," Mike said. "They +lose their individuality." + +"Here they are a part of Egypt, that ancient, undying Egypt! You and +I, like those dogs, Mike, won't have even bones to record us after +three thousand years. Our bowels of tenderness will not lie intact in +alabaster jars! Oh, Mike, take me in your arms! I want humanity, I +want the things of to-day, I want all which that mummy has ridiculed! +I hated it, Mike! I love life and your love! I want to forget that we +are here to-day and gone to-morrow, mere human gnats." + +Mike held her close to his heart. Meg could hear it beating. Oh, +beloved humanity! Oh, dear human flesh and blood! + +"That's lovely, Mike--that's you and me! That's our certain human +love, our happiness! It is worth while, and it's not going to be like +the running out of an hour-glass while an egg is boiling! It's going +to last for ages and ages, isn't it? Say it is, Mike!" + +"Yes, beloved." Mike kissed her hands. + +She drew them away. "Don't kiss them, Mike. I feel as if they will be +dried skeletons by to-morrow, and as if your lips, dearest, will have +shrunk and shrunk right back until your teeth gape out of your hideous +brown skull up to the blue above. Do you wonder that Akhnaton prayed +so ardently that his spirit might come out and see the sun?" + +Meg's head was buried in her hands. She was visualizing again the +wonderful scene, which had taught her the mockery of all things which +had formerly appeared so precious and important. It seemed to her at +the moment that to sit down in the desert under the blue sky, and there +wait for death, was the only thing to do. Nothing really mattered. +Eternity enthralled her. Her happiness with Mike was but the swift +hurrying of a white cloud across a summer sky, the work of the +Exploration School a mere illustration of worldly vanity. In the great +chaos which possessed her soul there was no light to comfort her. In +looking into the past she had unexpectedly seen into the future. She +had beheld the scorn and callousness of eternity. + +Oddly enough, it was Michael who helped her to pull herself together +and turn her thoughts to practical things, to the needs of the day. +His more mystical nature, his familiarity with the mythology of Egypt +and other occult subjects, had in a measure prepared his mind for the +things which had burst suddenly upon Meg's practical nature. He had +been subconsciously prepared for the tomb to be one of unusual +importance. The soothsayer's prediction had not been mere charlatanry +to him. His secret thoughts were so constantly focussed on what is +termed the superhuman, that Meg's wonder and horror formed only a minor +part of his emotions. + +A thousand thoughts had flashed through his mind when he first saw the +amazing display of jewels and faience and gold, the resplendent queen, +whose royal magnificence had mocked at time. The inexhaustible wealth +of buried Egypt forced before his eyes the treasure of gold of which +Akhnaton had spoken, that imperial wealth which he had buried behind +the hills of his fair capital. He felt convinced that it was there; he +felt convinced that his friend in el-Azhar had seen it, just as the +Arab soothsayer had seen the royal effigy dressed as a bride. + +Mike had little conversation even for Meg. His mind was harassed and +absorbed. The fresh impetus which he had received was pounding like a +sledge-hammer at his natural and supernatural forces. His natural self +was the devil's advocate, and a very able one. It argued against the +super-instincts which led him to the treasure. It made him practical. +It made him, as Freddy would have declared, "sanely critical of the +insane." It admitted the apparent folly of the thing into which he was +drifting. + +He pulled Meg up from her seat on the sand. He realized that her +domestic duties were what her nerves needed; they had lately been +greatly taxed, first by her vision of Akhnaton and now by the +excitement of their entry into the tomb.[1] + +A lover's kisses and strong human arms had done much for Meg. She had +a horror of hysterical females. She pulled herself together and +determined to be practical. Only a few moments before she had felt an +almost uncontrollable desire to burst into tears. How thankful she was +that Mike had saved her from the humiliation! + +But how in the world was she going to bring herself back to the paltry +things of every day? How was she ever again going to feel that life +was real and actual? + +She entered the hut with unwilling feet and troubled mind; for some +unaccountable reason its atmosphere depressed her; she wished to avoid +it--she felt a curious apprehension of bad news or of coming evil. At +the same time, practical work would be beneficial. + +As they came in together, Mohammed Ali greeted Michael with the news +that "One lady and one gentleman has come, very long time they wait. +Lady she stays inside, gentleman he go up the valley." + +Instantly life was real again, and Meg a living, angry woman. "She" +who stayed inside could only mean Mrs. Mervill. The tomb was +forgotten, as was the royal bride. They belonged to the past; the +present was all-engrossing. + +The present hour was the living reality and Michael, her lover, and her +own love were the things that mattered, the woman in the hut the one +brilliant vision. Life was vital, urgent. A gnat's life would be long +enough if it was to be passed with the woman whom she knew, in the +coming struggle, would fight with tools which she, Meg, would not dare +or deign to touch. As vivid as her vision of the tomb was her memory +of Millicent Mervill's beauty. She could see it illuminating their +desert hut; she could feel it eclipsing her own less vivid colouring as +the sun had eclipsed the rays of Akhnaton. + +Mike looked at her. Meg's cheeks were pale, her eyes deeply shadowed. +He hated the woman inside the tent. What had she come for? + +A silent kiss separated them. With the kiss Meg's heart took courage. +It left no room for fear. + + + +[1] The description of the interior of this tomb is taken from various +reliable accounts of the interior of the tomb of Thiy. As Queen Thiy +was the mother of Akhnaton, her tomb must have been discovered before +the events described in this story, otherwise they could not have known +that Akhnaton's mummy had been found in his mother's tomb. + +When the tomb was first examined, the mummy which had fallen out of the +coffin was supposed to be that of Queen Thiy. The light of +after-events and of scientific research have proved that the mummy was +that of a young man of about twenty-five years of age. The conclusion +is that Akhnaton's body was brought from his original burying-place +near his "City of the Horizon," and placed in his mother's tomb in the +Western Hills. + +The name of Akhnaton had been erased from the coffin, but it was still +readable on the gold ribbons which encircled the body. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +When Michael entered the sitting-room of the hut, Millicent Mervill was +reading one of Freddy's French novels. There had been plenty of time +for her to powder herself and cool down and settle to her liking her +dainty person. She looked as fresh and cool and pink as a bough of +apple-blossom. + +She greeted Michael with a charming mixture of friendliness and +discretion. She had brought a friend up the valley, to see all that +tourists had to see. He had been put into her hands by a letter of +introduction from friends in America. They had seen all that her +health would allow her to see, on such a hot day. She had noticed +their camp in passing up the valley and could not resist visiting it on +her way back. Might she ask for an hour's rest from the sun? Her +friend was going to call back for her on the return journey. + +"I knew you wouldn't mind," she said. "And I'm not going to stop your +work, or bother you." + +"I'm not busy," Michael said--"at least, not for the moment." His eyes +avoided Millicent's, which seemed to him bluer than usual; but his +voice was less cold. His first greeting had been curt and almost +impatient. Millicent was evidently wiser and less difficult; she was +the same Millicent who had behaved so delightfully at the Pyramids. +When she was like that he was glad to be nice to her; he was almost +pleased to see her. + +As their conversation continued--it was mostly about the tomb and its +great importance--a subconscious thought that she had come to the hut +for some reason which she was not divulging forced itself more and more +strongly on Michael. He became convinced of it; she seemed so +unusually contented and satisfied with the plan of confining her visit +to a short rest in the hut and their conversation to "the things of +Egyptology," that even Michael was suspicious. She was "_douce comme +un lupin blanc_," as she expressed it to herself later on. Her usual +insistence had vanished. She treated Michael as a friend, with the +proper touch of intimacy. This was when they were alone. + +When Margaret came into the room, she hardened. Naturally Margaret +invited her to stay for lunch. She was Michael's friend. + +"It is always a very light meal with us," she said. "But such as it +is, you are welcome to share it." + +"Freddy likes his proper meal at night," Michael said. + +"Thanks ever so much," Millicent said; she had noticed the coldness of +Margaret's voice. "I'd love to stay--that's to say, if it won't really +be giving you any trouble--you're looking fagged." She turned to +Michael. "What have you been doing with her?" Millicent spoke as if +she really cared. "You're too young for such tired eyes, for these +lines," she touched Meg's eyes and pulled open the corners. Meg's +shrinking gave her satisfaction. "Don't let Egypt ruin your looks, my +dear--a woman is only half a woman when her beauty fades; she's only a +woman in the eyes of one half of mankind while it lasts." + +"Do you think so?" Meg said. "I dare say you're right, but when one is +quite young one never stops to consider these things. As you get +older, I suppose you do." + +The hit went home; the girl had claws. + +"We are only as young as we look, are we not? These few weeks have +ragged you to pieces." + +"I don't mind," said Meg. "It's been well worth it. You may as well +get ten years into ten weeks as ten weeks into ten years. I've been +gobbling up life, years and years of new experiences and sensations in +these last few weeks." Meg meant no more than her words would have +conveyed to any sweet-minded woman, but Millicent Mervill put her own +interpretation on them. Margaret was no mean fencer; she could hit +back as well as parry strokes. + +"You've certainly said good-bye to conventions, my dear. I admire you +for taking your life into your own hands." The blue eyes searched +Margaret's; they spoke of a hundred things which made Margaret long to +throw the tumbler which she was placing on the table at her golden +head. Margaret was neither ignorant nor a fool; Millicent's eyes +explained her meaning. + +"One has to say good-bye to conventions in the desert--nothing can be +too simple here. That's why Western fashions look so grotesque, our +ideas of becoming garments so ludicrous." + +Meg had ignored the innuendoes. Her eyes rested on Millicent's absurd +shoes and fashionably-cut white serge coat and skirt--a charming suit, +but out of place in the hut. + +"Is your brother still here?" Millicent asked the question with a +beautiful insouciance. She was perfectly well aware that he was +personally superintending the excavation of the tomb. Her words were +meant to annoy. + +"Here?" Meg said. "In the hut at this moment, do you mean? No--he is +busy." Meg's eyes flashed with anger. + +Michael was silently enjoying the battle of words and eyes which was +taking place between the two women. The very atmosphere was charged +with antagonism. He was delighted to find that Margaret held her own. + +"No--I meant, is he still in the valley, or are you two alone here? +How deliciously romantic!" Millicent sighed. The sigh was more +suggestive than her words. + +"My brother is in the tomb at this moment," Meg said. "You seem to +have very extraordinary ideas of the ways of excavators"--she had +flushed to the roots of her hair--"of the behaviour of ordinary English +people." + +"What was the desert made for, but freedom, my dear? If one can't live +in this valley as one wants to, where can one, I should like to know?" + +"We are living as we like," Meg said. "Your ideas of freedom may not +be mine. Our interests lie apart--our ideas of enjoyment are, as far +as I can understand, poles apart." + +"A foolish waste of time, my dear, that's all I can say. May I smoke?" + +Michael handed her a box of cigarettes; he noticed the exquisite +refinement of her hands as she picked out a cigarette, her +brightly-polished nails. "Thanks, dear," she said, as she lit the +cigarette from the match which he held out to her--the "dear" was for +Meg's benefit; for as their eyes met hers were full of genuine fun and +mischief. + +"I must tease her," she said, in a low whisper; Meg had gone to the end +of the room. "I love shocking those dark eyes--I enjoy making her hate +me. It's only fun." + +Meg's heart was beating. How dared she call Michael "dear"? How dared +she intrude herself uninvited upon their simple life? Her beauty, her +foolish feminine clothes, angered her. She hated Millicent's fine +skin, which was, even in the desert heat, as poreless as a baby's. It +was a wonderful skin for a grown person, let alone for a woman of +Millicent Mervill's age. Meg thought of the dried mummy's lips. One +day that pure soft flesh, which held the tints of a field daisy, would +be more revolting to look at if it were unearthed than the skin of the +three-thousand-year-old queen. If Meg had possessed a wishing-ring, it +would not have taken long to effect the inevitable change. + +The impudence of the woman maddened her. She knew that she could not, +even if she had wished to, behave as she did. Millicent did exactly as +she liked, as the impulse of the minute suggested. + +Meg wondered how she had passed the time while they were at the tomb. +Had she examined any private object in the hut? Had she interviewed +the servants? She was quite capable of doing it. + +She heard her whisper to Mike. Her own sensitiveness now drove her out +of the hut; if they wished to speak in whispers, let them speak. She +stood sullenly outside the door. + +Why did not some strong man strangle women like Millicent Mervill? Why +had not she herself the courage to tell her what she thought of her? +Probably Millicent would only smile and show her perfect teeth--they +always made Meg furious, because they were even better than her own, +and hers were, so she thought, her strongest asset--and say, "Poor +girl! You are a little overtired"; or she would say, "You have so much +to make you happy, dear, and I have so little. Don't be unkind--I only +long for sympathy." + +Millicent's moments of self-pity were mean and contemptible and yet +they were effective. + +The only thing to do was to leave the two alone, to trust Michael and +go about her business. + +Presently she heard Michael say: "Well, I'll leave you to rest until +lunch-time--I can't idle while Freddy is working like a nigger. You'll +be all right, I know, with your book and a cigarette." + +Margaret slipped round to the back of the hut; she did not want to +speak to Michael; she was thankful that he had left Mrs. Mervill, but +his voice had been too kind, too nice. Meg did not know what she would +have liked him to do, what he could have done otherwise. She only knew +that the niceness of his voice annoyed her. + +When the overseer's whistle for the workmen to "down picks and spades" +sounded and the time was ripe for Freddy to appear, Margaret sauntered +off to meet him. When she saw him coming she hurried towards him. How +she loved him! + +When they met she said, "That cat Mrs. Mervill is here. Oh, Freddy, I +hate her!" + +Freddy laughed. Millicent Mervill, with her extreme modernity and +virile passions, was so far removed from the thought of the tomb, from +the brown mummy, whose golden ribbons he had been examining; his +sister's annoyance was so utterly unlike her mood of the earlier +morning! He had never seen Meg so moved as she had been in the tomb. +He felt a little relieved that a very human and irritating influence +had suddenly thrust itself across her path. Meg was getting too +enthralled in Egypt. These thoughts flashed through his mind. + +"Good old Meg," he said tenderly. "The fighting Lampton's roused, is +it?" + +"Yes," Meg said. "I am roused. She's so insolent, Freddy." + +"What?" he said, stopping her before she got further. "Insolent? to +whom?" + +"To . . ." Meg hesitated. "To life," she said abruptly. "She says +things that I could hit her for saying. Freddy, do squash her!--she +suggests something nasty with every word she utters." + +"I'll try and flirt with her--won't that do?" + +"No, don't, Freddy!" Fear clutched at Meg's heart; the woman in her +trembled for her brother. Millicent was so fair, so tempting; Freddy +was young and, Meg thought, ignorant of the wiles of women. + +"You'd rather I did than Mike?" Freddy's eyes laughed as he watched +the blush rise to his sister's cheeks. It made her extraordinarily +attractive--indeed, fighting seemed to suit Meg. He pinched her arm; +they were close pals, tried chums. "I know your secret, Meg--I've had +eyes for other things than the tomb!" + +"Do you mind, Freddy?" Meg slipped her arm through her brother's; her +eyes shone with happiness. + +Freddy pressed her arm close to his side. Meg loved him for it. "If +I'd minded I shouldn't have let things go so far, should I? I could +have packed you off home." + +"You've been a darling, Freddy, and I'm so happy! I never knew +anything could be so perfect. I sound silly, don't I?" + +"No. Mike's one of the very best, Meg. But you'll have to look after +him a bit." Freddy's voice was graver. + +"How do you mean, Freddy?" Meg at once thought of Mrs. Mervill. +Freddy read her thoughts in her voice. + +"I don't mean in that way--rather not! He's as straight as a die. I +mean, you'll have to help him to walk on his two legs, Meg--stop him +standing on his head, make him practical." + +"I love him for it, Freddy." + +"But it doesn't pay. We're of this world and we've got to live in this +world. Mike's always trying to get beyond it, to get into touch with +the other side. It's no good meddling with that sort of thing, it +always has a disastrous effect on the human mind and human happiness, +which proves to me that we're not intended to know or to get in touch +with those who have left us. It's unwise to give up one's thoughts to +the supernatural." + +"Perhaps it is," Meg said, "but why should we be contented to stand +still about all that sort of thing, while we leap ahead in science and +material progress and everything else? Mike thinks the true +understanding is coming, the darkness we have lived in is passing away." + +"He may be right," Freddy said. "But for your happiness, Meg, I wish +he'd chuck it. The 'sublime truth of spiritualism' he talks about, and +the 'God-ruled world-state'--the one's dangerous to his bodily welfare, +the other's the Utopian dream of failures. I don't want you to marry a +failure, old girl. I want you to have the sort of life you're fitted +for." + +"People must be what they are, Freddy, and failure isn't a failure if +it's done its bit. Rome wasn't built in a day, or the union of Italy +achieved without broken hearts--modern Italy had its failures, its +Utopian dreamers, long before Garibaldi's triumphant thousand marched +into Rome." + +"That's true, only one never wants a failure to be a member of one's +own family. I don't want a dreamer for a brother-in-law, Meg--not for +your husband." + +"The Lamptons always want to come in with the victorious legions," Meg +said. They were nearing the hut. "It seems as if the real victors in +life were what we call the failures, the pioneers of truth." + +"I'm awfully glad, anyway, Meg. Mike's a lucky chap and you're a lucky +girl. You know, I think the world of Mike!" + +"We aren't engaged, Freddy." + +"Oh, aren't you?" He looked at her with laughing eyes. "What do you +call it, then? An understanding? Or are you just 'walking out' like +'Arry and 'Arriet?" + +Meg laughed happily. "We love each other--we've not got beyond that +yet. I suppose we're just 'walking out.'" + +"You've told each other about the loving?" Freddy's kindness was +bringing something like tears to Margaret's eyes. + +"Yes. Michael didn't mean to--it . . ." she paused. + +"Oh, I know! The usual thing. Things seem to be going on all right." +He laughed. "It mustn't run too smoothly." + +"Don't laugh, Freddy. Michael thought you would think it cheek--he +won't allow me to consider myself bound to him." She laughed +deliriously. "The dear boy wants me to feel free to change my mind, +because he's 'a drifter,' because he thinks he isn't a good enough +match for your sister. Your sister, Freddy, comes right above mere +Meg." + +"I see," Freddy said. "Then I'm not to speak about it yet, am I? Just +tell me what you want and I'll do it." + +"Not yet, Freddy--not while that odious woman is here, at any rate." + +"All right, I'll wait. Only I'd rather like to see her face when I +congratulated Mike." + +"Ought you to congratulate Mike? I'm your sister--isn't it the other +way on? Shouldn't you congratulate me?" + +They were close to the door of the hut; Meg lingered. + +"He's the luckiest man I know. I wish he had a sister just like you. +Of course he's to be congratulated! And now I must go and make myself +beautiful." His eyes smiled their brightest. "I bet you I could cut +Mike out with the fair Millicent if I set my mind to it." + +In the sunlight Freddy looked irresistible, with his violet eyes, +shaded by his thick lashes, his crisp hair, as sunny and fair as a +boy's. Meg knew that he was a much better-looking man than +Mike--indeed, he would have been too good-looking if his figure had not +been all that it was, if there had been the slightest touch of the +feminine about him. There was not. Yet in spite of his good looks and +astonishing colouring, Meg was right in her consciousness that for +women there was more magnetic attraction in Mike's mobile plainness, in +his sensitive, irregular features. When the two men were talking +together, the senses and eyes of women would be drawn to the plain man. + +During lunch Millicent Mervill was very good. She was interested in +hearing about the tomb and, Freddy thought, wonderfully intelligent +upon the subject. She was, as he expressed it, as clever as a monkey. +What little knowledge she had she used to the utmost advantage, to its +extreme limit. All her intellectual goods she displayed in her shop +window. She had a telling way of saying, "I am completely ignorant +upon this or that subject," suggestive of the fact that she really did +know a great deal about many other things. She seldom "gave herself +away." + +Freddy came to the conclusion that she was so quick that it was quite +impossible to discover what she really did or did not know or grasp, +and, as he said to Mike afterwards, "What she did not know, she will +set about knowing when she gets home. That brain won't rest still +under ignorance, or let Meg know what it doesn't know." + +The description of the fine effigy of the queen thrilled her; her +appetite for details was insatiable. There was plenty to talk about, +so conversation did not flag and personal topics were avoided. + +Freddy thought that she was nicer than she had ever been before and +even prettier. He enjoyed his lunch; it certainly was a change to have +a beautiful woman, who was not his sister, and who did her best to make +herself attractive, lunching with them in their desert home. After his +tremendous efforts of the last three or four days her presence was +pleasing. Even the modern clothes and aggressively-manicured +finger-nails gave him healthy sensations. His manhood enjoyed her +super-femininity. + +The little room palpitated with life, the antagonism of the two women +was a thing he could feel. He felt it as surely as he had felt the hot +air of the tomb. Freddy enjoyed looking at his sister; her combative +mood vitalized her. + +Her dark hair, so soft and abundant, looked tempting to touch, after +the dragged and matted "something" which clung to the skull of the +mummy. + +Nothing in the room was intrinsically worth a couple of shillings. The +seat on which Michael was sitting had been made out of empty boxes; +they had been converted into a very presentable armchair by the +ingenuity of Mohammed Ali. Yet the atmosphere of the hut was human and +domesticated, the two women sweet and fragrant. + +And so it was not difficult for Freddy to respond to his fair guest's +pleasant chatter. She made him laugh heartily more than once, and he +was ready for a good laugh. He was braced by her quick wit and +humorous way of looking at things. + +Meg was doing her best to appear happy; she was really getting angrier +and angrier every minute with the woman who was so thoroughly enjoying +herself; angry because Freddy, like all other men, was being deceived +by her, because he was obviously thinking her very excellent +company--which she was. He was no doubt already wondering why she, +Meg, hated her so whole-heartedly. Freddy had seldom mentioned +Millicent to his sister; he had kept his own counsel. The Lamptons +were silent men, whose appreciation of women like Millicent never led +them astray in the choosing of their wives. + +Michael had given Millicent his first vivid impressions of the tomb in +a very "Mik-ish" manner. He described Freddy, strikingly +distinguishable in his white flannels, greedily picking up jewels and +gold and bits of blue faience and stowing them away into boxes by the +light of an electric torch. + +"A tomb burglar if ever you saw one! I shall never forget the sight." + +"There's lots of work for you, Meg, to-night," Freddy said. "There's +an awful lot of things to sort and clean--beautiful things." + +"How exciting!" Millicent said. "Can you keep any of the small things? +They'd stick to my fingers, I feel sure." + +"No," Freddy said. "Not unless you are a thief. They aren't ours--I'm +only entrusted with the finding of them." + +Millicent made a face of dissatisfaction, as she felt for something +which she wore fastened to the long gold chain which was hanging from +her neck. + +"I wonder if you will pronounce this genuine or a fake? Do you +remember, Mike, our buying it?" She ran her fingers along the chain. +The genuine antique or fake was not on it; it was missing. She felt +again. No; there was nothing on the chain. + +"Oh, I've lost it!" she said. "My precious eye of Horus, Mike. I +wouldn't have lost it for the world!" Her tone conveyed his +understanding of the personal value which she attached to the amulet. + +"What was it?" Freddy said. "Can't we get another? If you bought it, +it was probably a fake." + +"A new one would never be the same--Mike gave me the one I've +lost"--she purposely used Michael's intimate name--"while we were +staying at Luxor. It has been my 'heaven-sent gift'"--(the ancients' +name for the amulet, which represented the right eye of Horus). + +They all looked to see if the amulet had been dropped in the room, if +it was under the table. But it was nowhere to be found; the eye of +Horus was concealing itself. + +"It was probably only a fake," Freddy said, "if you bought it in Luxor. +I'll try and get a genuine one for you--for ages and ages they were the +commonest of all amulets, judging by the number we find. Almost every +ancient Egyptian must have worn one. It was the all-seeing eye, the +protecting light." + +"The moon was the left eye of Horus and the sun was the right--isn't +that so?" Millicent asked. + +"Roughly speaking, but the eye of Horus is a complicated subject. It's +not just the evil or good eye of Italy, by any means. The eye of Horus +is the eye of Heaven, Shakespeare's 'Heaven's eye,' but it's when it +gets identified with Ra that the complication comes in. The _sacred_ +eye is the eye of Heaven, or Ra. Poets, ancient and modern, have sung +of it, from the time of Job to the days of Shakespeare. But there was +also the evil eye, the one we hear so much about in Southern Italy." + +"Tell me about that. I always like the naughty stories. I've never +grown up in that respect. The evil eye is more interesting to me than +the eye of Heaven. I knew a woman in Italy who was selling lace; she +let a friend of mine buy all she wanted from her at the most absurdly +cheap prices you can imagine. When the lady of the house we were +staying in, who had allowed the woman to call and bring her lace, asked +her why she had sold the lace to a stranger at a price for which she +had refused to part with it to her, she simply threw up her eyes and +said, '_Ma_, Signora, what could I do? She had the evil eye--if I had +not given it to her, what terrible misfortunes she could have brought +to me!'" + +"I remember seeing a crowded tramcar in Rome empty itself in a moment +when a well-known Prince, who was supposed to have the evil eye, got +into it," Michael said. + +"A common expression for a woman in ancient Egypt was _stav-ar-ban_, +which meant 'she who turns away the evil eye,'" Freddy said. + +"Then the Egyptians believed in the evil eye, as apart from the sacred +eye of Ra?" Millicent said. "What a universal belief it seems to have +been! One meets with it all over the world." + +"Wasn't there a book found in the ancient library of the temple of +Dendereh which told all about the turning away of the evil eye?" Mike +asked. + +"I believe so," Freddy said. "But I've never seen it." + +Millicent was still fingering her empty chain. "I feel lost without my +eye," she said to Mike, who had answered her persistent gaze. "You +bought it for me after that long, long day we spent together in the +desert behind Karnak. Do you remember that Coptic convent"--she made a +face of disgust--"and the amusement of the nuns at my blue eyes, and +all the dreadful dogs? You bought the eye from the old man who looked +as if he had lived inside a pyramid all his life." She turned to +Margaret. "It was a wonderful day, and we behaved like children in the +desert, didn't we, Mike?" + +Meg managed to hide her annoyance, but something hurt inside +her--probably her bowels of wrath. + +"It was a lovely day, I remember. The Coptic convent looked like a +collection of beehives huddled together in the desert. You wouldn't go +inside it because you were afraid of the fleas, and I wasn't allowed to +go in because I was a man." + +"I'd had enough of Coptic churches. Have you ever been in the early +Christian churches in Cairo?" she asked Margaret. + +"No, but I've heard about them." + +"Well, I have, and all I can say is that if the early Christians in +Rome were as dirty as the survivors of the Church of St. Mark are in +Cairo, I don't wonder at the pagans. I wasn't going to risk the +monastery after the appalling filth of their churches, dirty pigs!" + +At that precise moment Mohammed Ali brought in the coffee. It was +served in the native fashion, in small enamelled brass bowls, on a +brass tray. When he handed the tray to Mrs. Mervill he pointed to a +small object lying beside her cup. + +"Lady, I find _antika_ all safe." + +Millicent's heart beat more quickly; a little deeper rose warmed her +cheeks. She picked up the eye of blue faience from the brass tray with +well-assumed delight. Margaret's dark eyes were resting on her. She +felt them. + +"Thank you," she said to Mohammed Ali. "I'm so glad." Her hand shook +a little as she lifted her cup. "Heaven's eye is not withdrawn," she +said gaily to Michael. + +"Where did you find it, Mohammed?" Michael asked the question +innocently. + +Mohammed Ali's eyes met Mrs. Mervill's. In them he saw the promise of +a handsome _baksheesh_. + +"When lady get off donkey, chain it catch on the saddle." + +A slight sigh escaped from Millicent's lips; Mohammed was worthy of his +race. + +"Oh, yes! How stupid of me not to remember! I quite forgot that my +chain caught as I dismounted. I never thought of looking to see if I +had lost anything." + +Meg knew that Millicent Mervill was lying and she knew that Mohammed +knew that she was lying. She also knew Mohammed well enough to know +that if she chose, she could buy him back again from Millicent. +Mohammed handled the truth very carelessly; it was still his unshakable +policy to secure as much money as he could and give as much pleasure as +he could to the person who gave him the most. His Eastern knowledge of +human nature told him that Margaret would not be likely to seek to buy +his secret. He might, perhaps, tell her the truth when Mrs. Mervill +had gone away, because he sincerely liked her, but as far as bribery or +corruption was concerned, he must rest content with what Mrs. Mervill +thought a sufficient reward for his intelligence and silence. + +Margaret had felt pretty certain that Millicent's curiosity had not +remained contented with the inspection of the public sitting-room. As +she watched her trembling hand and noted the blush on her cheeks, she +felt that her suspicions were not unjust. Instinctively her mind flew +to her diary; it was lying on a table in her room. She had kept it +very faithfully over since her arrival in the valley. It was an +intensely intimate, human document. It was a record of all her +impressions and of her life in the valley, and of every incident which +had happened in relation to her friendship with Michael. If Millicent +had read any of it, she must have seen into her very soul. Margaret's +whole being writhed at the thought of the thing. She had taken the +precaution to write it in French so that she could leave the book +unlocked in her bedroom. None of the house "boys" could read French; +Millicent, of course, both spoke and read it fluently. + +As Meg thought of this, the cruel laying bare of her inner woman to the +woman she hated, a hot blush dyed her cheeks; she felt giddy. + +Millicent noticed the blush. Her eyes rested upon Meg's until Meg was +compelled to raise hers. Then the two women looked into each other's +souls. Their unspoken thoughts were plainly read by each other. + +It was Millicent who triumphed. No shame made her eyes drop; no fear +weakened their challenge. They boldly said, "You see, I know, I have +learnt. You are not all that you look. I have discovered the other +woman." + +With extraordinary clearness Margaret visualized Millicent's delicate +fingers turning over the pages of her diary. She could see her eyes +gloating over its secret passages. She could feel Millicent's +beautiful presence filling her plain little bedroom, which would never +be the same again. Her delicate fragrance, which was no stronger than +the subtle perfume of English wild flowers, was probably lingering in +it still. Meg felt herself clumsily big and masculine beside her, for +Millicent never allowed you to forget that, above all things, she was a +woman, that in her companionship with men she was not of the same sex. + +When the eye of Horus was once more, with Freddy's assistance, securely +fastened on to the gold chain, and the coffee had been drunk and +cigarettes were being indulged in, Mrs. Mervill's American friend +appeared at the hut. + +He was a very agreeable and cultured man. His chief interest in things +Egyptian was centred in the subject of ancient festivals. When he was +smoking with the party, a really interesting discussion took place +between the three men. Mr. Harben, the newcomer, had been particularly +interested in the "intoxication festivals" held in honour of the +goddess Hathor at Dendereh. + +Michael naturally had read more upon the subject of the festival of +Isis. At her festival the "Songs of Isis" were sung in the temples of +Osiris by two virgins. These festivals were held for five days at the +sowing season every year. These "songs of Isis," of course, related to +the destruction of Osiris by Set and the eventual reconstruction of his +body by his wife Isis and her sister goddess Nephthys. In other words, +it was the festival of the triumph of light over darkness, the power of +righteousness over evil, the oldest of all battles. + +During the discussion Millicent Mervill was at her best. She was +intellectually curious and excitable. The festival of Isis bored her; +she did not care for or believe in the inevitable triumph of light over +darkness. With her evil flourished like a green bay-tree, while +righteousness was its own reward--and a very dull one. She was +religious, after the conventional fashion of the people with whom she +consorted; she enjoyed going to a church where there was good music or +an audacious preacher to be heard. But she never wanted to be better +than she was; her wants were for the further satisfaction of her +material enjoyments on this earth. + +But the Bacchanalian festivals of Hathor had interested her and aroused +her curiosity, from the very first time that she had seen the figures +of the dancing-girls, so realistically carved on the walls of the +temple of Dendereh. She had read all that she could lay her hands on +relating to the subject, which consisted only of such portions of the +papyrus as the translators have seen fit to give to the general public. +Her American friend had gone further. He was not only interested in +the Bacchanalian dances, but in Egyptian festivals generally. + +Both Margaret and Millicent became silent as the discussion proceeded +and for the time being their animosity was forgotten; they found +themselves for once sympathetic listeners and good companions. Michael +was pleased. + +As the discussion gradually soared above their understanding, they +talked of things between themselves. + +Time flew pleasantly, so much so that Margaret felt a little regret +when at last Millicent and her friend said good-bye. She had almost +forgotten her ugly suspicions about Millicent, who had been very +charming and simple. She wished that she had not spoken so hastily to +Freddy about her. Her conscience pricked her. + +Later on, as the trio, Michael, Freddy, and Margaret, watched their two +guests depart, very different thoughts filled their minds. Michael was +hoping that a new phase in the acquaintance between the two women had +begun, that Meg would now hold out a helping hand of sympathy to +Millicent. Meg was wondering if Freddy thought that she had been +unjust and horrid, just because Millicent was beautiful and a cleverer +woman than herself. Freddy had obviously enjoyed her unexpected visit. + +"Your fair friend paid us this honour, Mike, for some reason best known +to herself," he said. "Some reason she has not divulged, I wonder what +it was? There is always a hidden reason in what she does." + +"Curiosity," said Michael, carelessly. "She wanted to see how +excavators live and to find out for herself what we were doing." + +"I guess so!" Freddy said, significantly. "Find out for herself--that +was just it." He laughed. "I wonder how much she did find out?" +Freddy clapped his hand on Mike's shoulder as he spoke. "I didn't give +you away, old chap!" + +Michael faced him squarely. So Freddy knew! + +"Has Meg told you?" His voice was anxious. + +"Told me? Do you suppose I'm blind?" Freddy spoke with such frank +sympathy and pleasure that from his voice more than his words Michael +took heart. + +"It's awful cheek on my part." + +"Yes, 'awful cheek,'" Freddy said. "Considering Meg's just the one and +only Meg in the world." He took Meg's brown hand in his--such a +different hand from Millicent's!--and placed it on the top of Michael's +and held it there. "Bless you, my children!" he said. "I feel like a +heavy father. And I've nothing more to say, except that I'm jolly +glad, and I congratulate you both." + +Meg's eyes were shining. Freddy was so boyish and yet so much her +elder brother. How she loved him! + +"Thanks, old chap," Michael said. "I suppose Meg's told you all about +it?--I mean, how I'm not going to let her bind herself to me? We love +each other, and I forgot and told her I did." + +Freddy laughed. "If something better than you, you old drifter, turns +up, she's to be free to take him. Of course, something will!" + +"Yes," Michael said. "Or if . . ." he paused. + +"If you prove too unpractical for a husband, you old humbug, I'm to +cancel the engagement!" + +Meg linked her arm in her brother's. "I'm quite practical, enough for +us both," she said. "The Lampton common sense wants leavening. We +never rise to heights, Freddy--we're solid dough." + +"We manage to get down into the bowels of the earth, which helps a bit, +if we can't soar very high." + +All three laughed. Freddy meant the tomb, of course. + +Freddy was smoking a cigarette. His eyes were following the two +donkeys which were taking Millicent and her friend down the valley. +They looked like white insects in the distance; they had travelled +rapidly, as donkeys will travel on their homeward journey. + +"The fair Millicent!--and, by Jove, she is fair!"--Freddy said, +meditatively, "didn't come here to find out your engagement--don't +imagine so. She managed to carry away some information more difficult +to obtain than that." He laughed and quoted the old saying, "Love, +like light, cannot be hid. What a pity she isn't all as nice as the +nice parts of her, or as nice as she is pretty!" + +"I always think she looks so nice to eat," Margaret said. + +"I think she looks so nice to kiss," Freddy said laughingly. "If that +American hadn't been there, I'd have taken her off for a walk, and then +I could have told you, Mike, what it was like." + +Meg blushed to the roots of her hair. Her brother's words recalled the +ball at Assuan. She knew that Michael knew what it was like. + +Freddy saw Meg's blush and wondered what it meant. He turned and left +the lovers to enjoy a few moments' uninterrupted bliss and to discuss +the day's events. + +Their bliss consisted in standing together, silently watching the two +figures on the white donkeys disappear into the valley below. When the +last trace of them had vanished and the desert and the sky composed +their world, Meg gave a sigh of relief. Perfect content was expressed +in her attitude and silence, a long silence, too sacred to be broken +rashly. The sun was brilliant, the distance before them immense, +compelling. + +As Meg gazed and gazed, her heart became more and more full of +happiness. The world was a wonderful mother; she had only to trust, to +believe, to love, to have happiness showered upon her. + +"In a book I was reading the other day, Mike," she said, "the heroine +remarked that looking into a great distance always made her long to be +better than she was. How true it is--at least, with me. I knew what +she meant, instantly. I feel it now, don't you?" + +"That's why town-life is so bad for us," he said. "Our vision never +gets beyond the traffic, beyond the progress of commerce. I've often +thought the same thing. Distances are sublime." + +"The distances in the desert make me feel far more like that than any +other distances. The desert has taught me so much--it is a wonderful +mother." + +Michael's eyes answered her. + +"Looking at that distance makes me wish I hadn't been so wicked in my +heart about Mrs. Mervill. I was bursting with hate of her, Mike--I +longed to hurt her as she always hurts me!" + +"You behaved splendidly! I knew it was an awful trial to you. You +knew I understood, Meg?" + +"It was a trial," Meg said, "but why am I so little when I am put to +the test, and why do I feel so big, so far above such contemptible +things, when I look at a distance like that?" + +"Because you're a darling, human woman, Meg." Michael's arms went +round her. "Because there would be no merit in our victories if the +battles were quite easy." + +"I suppose not, but for your belief in me, Mike, I want to be as big as +the biggest thoughts I've got, and I'm only as small as my meanest." + +"You are the mistress of my happiness, Meg." + +Meg's eyes shone with understanding, while his words called up the +figure and the bright rays of Akhnaton. + +"Freddy said that I am to act as a curb on your unpractical tendencies, +Mike. I felt very deceitful. He doesn't know how much I've aided and +abetted them." + +"He never imagined that he'd a practical mystic for a sister, did he?" + +"Never," Meg said. + +"But that's what you are, dearest--a practical mystic. You are a woman +with two sides to your nature--the intensely practical and the +subconsciously mystic. Egypt has developed the mystic half--your +Lampton forbears are responsible for the other." + +"The Lampton half of me keeps my two feet firmly planted on the earth, +Mike." + +"The mystic half loves this silly drifter." He pressed her to him. + +"The practical half says, come back to the hut and help Freddy." + +And so they went. + + + + +PART II + + +CHAPTER I + +Michael's travels in the Eastern desert had barely extended over a three +days' journey by camel and some hours spent on the Egyptian State +Railway, which runs by the banks of the Nile. + +The town of Luxor lies on the right or east bank of the Nile, four +hundred and fifty miles to the south of Cairo. Tel-el-Amarna, or "The +City of the Horizon," Akhnaton's capital, lies about a hundred and sixty +miles south of Cairo. Michael could very easily have gone almost all the +way to the modern station of Tel-el-Amarna, or Haggi Kandil, by boat or +by train from Luxor, which faces the Theban Hills, in whose bowels lies +the great Theban necropolis, the Valley of the Tombs of the Kings, which +had been his home for some months. But that was not his idea; he wished +to spend all his days in the solitude of the desert, so he started his +journey at a point half-way between Luxor and Tel-el-Amarna. + +This was not his first pilgrimage to the eastern desert. + +Luxor and Assuan both lie on the east bank of the Nile; the great Arabian +Desert in Egypt stretches from the Suez Canal to Assuan; after Assuan it +is called the Nubian Desert. The Libyan Desert stretches from Cairo to +Assuan, but on the western bank of the Nile. Michael's desire was for +the uninterrupted ocean of sand which stretches from the shores of the +Atlantic to the cliffs which give the Nile its sunsets. Its infinity of +space drew him to it. + +In the desert, where a traveller begins his day at dawn and ends it at +sundown, where the slow tread of his camel is only interrupted by a short +halt for the midday meal, and the days roll on and into each other as the +sand-dunes roll on and into succeeding sand-dunes, the sense of hours and +days becomes lost. With nothing in front of the eye but an infinity of +sky and distance and nothing active in that distance but dazzling heat, +moving over the desert, the mind becomes a part of the intense solitude. +The traveller's ego is comatized; he takes his place with the elements. + +When the traveller's long day's march is done, the wonder of the starlit +nights makes his past life seem still more unreal. It has been truly +said that the solitary contemplation of the desert stars either for ever +convinces a doubter of the certainty of a God, or confirms his opinions +as an Atheist. When Michael was alone with the stars, the Sweet Singer +of Israel's words ever rang in his ears: + +"When I consider Thy heavens, the work of Thy fingers, the moon and the +stars, which Thou hast ordained; + +"What is man, that Thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that Thou +visitest him?" + + +During the three days spent on camel-back in the desert nothing had +happened which the world calls happening. Michael's small equipment was +proving itself entirely satisfactory and sufficient for his needs. His +guide and his servants were both agreeable and obedient. His head-man or +guide was none other than the soothsayer who had predicted the +astonishing wealth of the tomb which Freddy had discovered. He had +travelled far and wide in the great Arabian Desert and he had also helped +at the excavations at Tel-el-Amarna. + +Although apparently nothing had happened, no events which would bear +recording in the diary of a practical explorer, yet much had happened +which evaded the limitations of words. The things which had happened +were the great things which mattered to Michael's mind. They had +produced an extraordinary sense of repose; they had settled his nerves +and allowed his convictions to steadily develop, to emerge from shadowy +dreams. If he thought less constantly of Margaret as the days wore on, +it was with more satisfaction and confidence. He ceased to blame himself +for confessing his love; he accepted that also as an act of the guiding +Hand. + +On the desert march Michael generally went at the head of his cavalcade. +He liked the wide sweep for the eye, the great expanse, undisturbed, even +by such picturesque figures as the natives on their camels. Over and +over again he rode for hours in a beautiful dream; he gave himself up to +the intoxication of immensity. At such times the thought would come to +him that if he turned the universe upside-down, nothing would happen. +The high heavens would be made of golden sand and the limitless earth of +bright blue--that would be all the difference; nothing would tumble +about, for there was nothing to tumble; nothing would be standing on its +head, for there was nothing which had a head to stand on. God's world +was as it had been before the creation of man. + +Since his _Hijrah_, as Freddy called his flight from the valley, he had +ceased to think about his own standing on his head. He had accepted the +fact that a man must work out his own life as truly as he must work out +his own salvation. To be a weak copy of Freddy would be contemptible; it +would be better to be an out-and-out failure and drifter for the rest of +his days. As a failure he would at least be living the life he best +understood, the life which to him seemed fuller than the lives lived by +successful materialists. + +For the whole three days in the desert he had scarcely passed a living +creature; it was the most desolate journey he had ever taken. Some +portions of the great desert are much more barren than others, more +extraordinarily desolate. The whole thing, of course, depends upon the +all-important water. One writer's words explain the matter +concisely--"there are two kinds of desert in Egypt, the desert of sand, +which is only desert because it is left without water, and the desert +which is desert because nothing profitable will grow there." + +Probably the country over which Michael had travelled belonged to the +last type of desert. There had been wonderful effects of light and shade +and strange changes in the colour of the sand and rocks, owing to +geological reasons. Sometimes such strange effects that he found it hard +to believe, from a distance, that there were not bright carpets or gay +flowers spread on the sands. + +To the uninitiated it sounds as if such a journey could become +dangerously monotonous and boring, and so it would to the eye or mind +which has not the true desert instinct. Michael's had it. He loved its +passionate intensity of sky and space as a true sailor loves the ocean. +He loved his "ship of the desert," which bore him silently over the +rolling waves of sand, as a Jack Tar loves his ship. He loved the +stories of the desert which his guide told him at night under the +southern stars, as an English Jack Tar loves his fo'c's'e yarns. + +Although nothing ever happened, there was for Michael something happening +every minute, some fresh beauty which revealed a new phase of Nature, +some geological surprise which changed the colour and atmospheric effect +of his surroundings. At one time mirage after mirage appeared and +disappeared like delicate, subtle dreams; fair cities sprang up on the +horizon with white-winged sailing-boats drifting on their waters; tall +palm-trees, black against the light, stood up and refreshed the eye, only +to become fainter and fainter until they were no more. + +These fair Jerusalems, God's help to tired travellers, with eyes grown +weary of emptiness and space, made beautiful interludes in the day's +march. Since their first day's march they had seen no real desert +villages, with their much-treasured palm-trees and picturesque +inhabitants, for they had made for the open desert. Where palm-trees +grow, there are also human habitations and Government taxes. Anything +green in the desert which is of lasting duration is the result of +artificial irrigation. But if the sand brings forth no food for man or +beast, its emptiness holds a world of prayers and desires. + + * * * * * * + +It was about noon of the fourth day of Michael's journey when he saw in +the distance a cavalcade of camels riding towards him. It had emerged +out of nothing; suddenly it became clearer and clearer. Was it mirage? +It was still so distant that it might yet prove an optical delusion. + +He stopped his camel. Abdul, seeing that his master evidently wanted +something, rode forward quickly. + +"Look, Abdul," Michael said, "can you see some camels coming towards us?" + +Abdul had no need to look. His eyes could see much further than +Michael's. He had already noticed the cavalcade. + +"_Aiwah, Effendi_, they are camels carrying real human beings." His +master's words had implied that he wondered if he was looking at a +mirage. Michael had never seen a mirage of anything but scenery, +villages with minarets and rivers with boats--reflections, in fact, of +distant towns. + +Abdul assured his master that the camels were real camels and that he was +almost certain that it was an European outfit; it did not belong to +desert natives. + +Michael again rode on ahead for a few moments. He wondered where the +travellers were coming from, and whither they were bound. This fourth +morning's journey had certainly brought them slightly nearer again to the +border of civilization. He knew that they were skirting an ancient +oasis. Perhaps the travellers had come from it. He was still some +distance from Tel-el-Amarna--not the modern Tel-el-Amarna or Haggi +Kandil, which lies about five miles back from the banks of the river, +where passengers travelling by railway alight when they come from Cairo +to visit the ruins of the ancient city--but the ruins of Akhnaton's +capital. At the point on the Nile where Akhnaton chose to build his +city, the limestone cliffs go back from the river about three miles, +returning to it some six miles further on. + +Michael's objective was not the ruins of Akhnaton's city, but the desert +and the hills which lie beyond it. The boundaries of the "City of the +Horizon," Akhnaton's new capital, the seat of the heretic King, were so +carefully laid down and defined by him that there has been no mistaking +its exact size and circumference. + +Michael was going to the original tomb of Akhnaton, cut out of the hills +which formed a half-crescent round the city, like a bay, reaching back +from the river. In these encircling hills the King's body was buried; +the hills were his chosen resting-place. + +"Here Akhnaton elected to be buried, where hyenas prowled and jackals +wandered, and where the desolate cry of the night-owls echoed over the +rocks. In winter the wind sweeps up the valley and howls round the +rocks; in summer the sun makes it a veritable furnace, unendurable to +man. There is nothing here to remind one of the God Who watches over +him, and the tender Aton of the Pharaoh's conception would seem to have +abandoned this place to the spirits of evil. There are no flowers where +Akhnaton cut his sepulchre, and no birds sing; for the King believed that +his soul, caught up into the noon of Paradise, would need no more +delights on earth. + +"The tomb consisted of a passage descending into the hill and leading to +a rock-cut hall, the roof of which was supported by four columns. Here +stood the sarcophagus of pink granite in which the Pharaoh's mummy would +lie. The walls of this hall were covered with scenes carved in plaster, +representing various phases in the Aton worship. From the passage there +led another small chamber, beyond which a further passage was cut, +perhaps to lead to the second hall in which the Queen should be buried, +but the work was never finished." [1] + +Later on, for political and religious reasons, his mummy was disentombed, +taken up the river to the western desert and placed in his mother's +splendid tomb in the Valley of the Tombs of the Kings. It was in these +same hills that Michael believed the King to have concealed his treasure. + +The treasure was Michael's practical objective. To others the idea might +seem absurd and unpractical; to him it was quite possible and practical. +He could not have been more businesslike in his marching and halts if he +had been a general taking his troops across the desert to relieve a +beleaguered city. It was a part of his nature to be practical about the +unpractical. The words of his old friend in el-Azhar often came back to +him as his camel bore him through a spell of light, or as he listened to +the thundering silence of the Arabian desert. He recalled his counsel, +to journey undoubtingly, to follow in the steps of a "child of God," who +would lead him to the treasure which no eyes had seen for countless +centuries. + +So far no child of God had crossed his path. From dawn until dusk he had +seen nothing living or moving but one pale lizard, almost colourless as +the rocks from which it had come; it had scurried across his path, the +sole inhabitant of the untrodden sands, alarmed at the invasion of its +kingdom. + +These thoughts were passing through his mind as his camel bore him nearer +and nearer to the cavalcade which was coming towards him. The unexpected +sight of travellers had raised a whirlwind of new doubts in his brain and +called up undesired visions before his eyes. For the last three days +nothing had disturbed the divine calm of his desert surroundings. He had +contentedly become a part of his camel; its somnolent tread had lulled +his senses like the gentle movement of an ocean steamer on the high seas. + +As the two cavalcades drew nearer to each other, Abdul pressed forward to +his master's side. His long sight, well used to desert distances, had +clearly discerned what to Michael was still indistinct, blurred by the +sun. + +"One lady in party, Effendi." + +Michael showed surprise. It was an extremely unlikely place to meet a +lady on camel-back; there were no tourists in that part of the desert, so +far back from the Nile; it was not a likely place to meet an European +pleasure-party. Michael knew that Abdul had meant an European lady when +he spoke of "one lady" being in the party; he would not have mentioned +the fact if it had been only a Bedouin Arab woman moving her home to some +more desirable spot. Perhaps it was some excavation-party. A number of +European women, he knew, were now engaged on archaeological work in Egypt. + +As the distance shortened, he began to count the number of the camels. +It was not a large equipment. + +Quite suddenly the two leading camels of the approaching party strode +forward, almost at a gallop, the curious gallop of fast-travelling desert +camels. The next minute a clear voice called out: + +"Hallo, good morning! Have you used Pears' Soap?" + +Michael's heart stopped beating. It was Millicent's voice. For the sake +of appearances he returned her greeting gaily, although his heart was +filled with anger. + +"No," he cried back. "But I've used desert sand, which the Prophet said +does as well." + +Millicent had tricked him, cheated him. She had discovered his plans; +she had laid hers very cleverly so as to meet him on the most desolate +part of his journey. A vision of Margaret's anger, had she seen her +riding towards him, rose before his eyes. The tone of Michael's voice +expressed something of his feelings; it made Millicent all the more +daring. + +"I arranged a surprise for you--wasn't I clever?" + +"It is certainly a surprise," Michael said. "Where are you going?" + +"Whither thou goest, I will go," she said laughingly. "Where do you +suppose I am going?" + +"This is absurd, Millicent!" Michael lowered his voice. + +"Why absurd? The desert's big enough for us both, isn't it?" + +"I should have thought it sufficiently big to have made our meeting +unnecessary." + +"Now, Mike, don't be an ungracious pig! Here I am and here I mean to +stay. I won't bother you, so just be nice." + +The mules and camels of both parties had met. The men had joined forces +and much talking was going on amongst the natives. + +"Have you come alone?" Michael asked. + +"My dragoman is with me." + +"Of course," Mike said. "I know that. But are you by yourself, without +any other European?" + +"Quite," Millicent said. "I didn't want anyone. Hassan's a reliable +dragoman. I came to meet you." + +"Do you think it was nice of you?" + +"Well, no," she said. "Perhaps not, but it is nice for me, Mike, and it +will be nice for you, too, if you will only be sensible and accept the +situation." + +"What do you mean by being sensible?" he asked. + +"Just allowing me to come, and being pleasant and happy and enjoying +yourself. I've everything I need--I won't ask you for a single thing but +happiness." + +"I shan't be happy--I wished to be alone. You knew it." + +"What harm shall I do you? I'll halt when you halt, I'll go on when you +go on. I'll be _douce comme un lapin blanc_--I really can be, Mike." +Her eyes asked him if in that respect she was not speaking the truth. + +"Yes," he said. "You can be anything you want to be." He sighed. "I +wish you oftener wanted to be good, Millicent; I wish you oftener wanted +to please me and not always only yourself." + +"I'd get nothing if I did, Mike. I stole this march on you, half for fun +and half because it's no use trusting to you. I never see you--you are +afraid of yourself." + +"I told you it was useless." He moved his camel further from hers. "I +must see what is to be done. You must turn back. Your very presence +disturbs all my ideas." + +"The natives think this is a prearranged plan, of course. They give you +the benefit of being more human than you are." + +Michael looked at her in annoyance. He knew that she was right; he knew +that even Abdul, the visionary, would not believe him if he told him +otherwise; he knew that already he had formed his own opinion of +Michael's surprise. + +Millicent's veil almost completely hid her face. She flung it up over +her sun-hat. As Abdul came to his master's side, Michael saw his eyes +linger on the Englishwoman's beauty. He knew that to the Eastern, +mixture of mystic and fanatic as he was, her freshness and fairness were +like the scent of white jasmine to his nostrils. + +This woman, who loved his master--for already Millicent's dragoman had +confided her secret to him--was very rarely beautiful, and in his eyes +very desirable; but she was false. His eyes had instantly seen beyond. +Because she was false she interested him. She was not like other +Englishwomen; she was not like the girl who was the sister of Effendi +Lampton. This wealthy Englishwoman, whose body was as sweet as a branch +of scented almond-blossom, had thoughts in her heart like the thoughts of +his own countrywomen. In his Eastern mind, Englishwomen retained their +virgin minds and ideas even when they were married women with families; +to their end they retained the hearts and minds of innocent children. +This slender creature, a sweet bundle for a man's arms, thought as his +countrywomen thought. He saw into her mind as he had seen into the +unopened tomb. + +He was amazed at the Effendi, not because of this meeting with his +mistress--it was not an unheard-of thing in the desert; he was not +unaccustomed to the ways of men and women of all nations when their +passions control their actions--he was amazed at his own false impression +of Effendi Amory's character and mind. He had never for one moment +contemplated such a contretemps; he would never have imagined that he +could be false to Effendi Lampton's sister. The meeting, however, lent a +double interest to their journey. + +"The Effendi has been fortunate in meeting his friend," he said +respectfully. Michael had turned to address him. + +"Yes," Michael said. "We have been fortunate." He saw no other way of +settling the question. For the present he must quietly accept the +inevitable. Millicent had insisted that she had a perfect right to +follow him, even if he refused to allow her to join his party. + +"We will go on, Effendi? The _Sitt_ will accompany us?" Abdul's voice +was expressionless, deferential. + +"For to-day, at least," Michael said, "the _Sitt_ will travel with us." +He knew that equivocation was useless. + +Abdul searched his master's eyes. There was no love in them, no passion +for the woman he had taken all this trouble and secrecy to meet. +Englishmen were strange beings. Time would prove which way the wind of +desire blew. Was it from the woman to the man or from the man to the +woman? Had Michael the qualities of Orientals for dissembling his +feelings? It was rare amongst Europeans. + +The cavalcade moved on. A fresh element had been introduced into it. +The at-all-times low talk of the natives soon became more obscene than it +is possible for Western minds to imagine. Its influence affected the +sublime silence of the desert. God no longer shadowed the distance. + +Michael knew the native mind. He had heard the workmen at the excavation +camp, and even the girls and women in the desert villages, discussing +subjects freely and openly which to the Western mind are impossible. He +had heard children and boys using language and ejaculations which would +disgrace the lips of the most degraded Western. + +Before Millicent's appearance his men had no doubt talked together in a +way which would have shocked a stranger to the East if he could have +understood what they were saying, but there had been an absence of any +special topic; their talk had been impersonal. Now their interests were +awakened, their lowest instincts were on the alert, their passion for +intrigue whetted. Suggestion, like perseverance, can work miracles. +With Millicent riding by his side and with the whole company of servants +discussing their affairs, the desert had lost its purity, its healing +powers. In its sands the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil seemed to +need no water. + +Michael clung to the thought of Margaret. For some few moments they rode +in silence. Michael was inarticulate; his thoughts were like a flaming +bush. In half an hour's time they would halt for lunch; until that time +Millicent held her soul in patience. + +Nothing was to be gained by a broken conversation on camel-back. A +delicious excitement exalted her; her plans had succeeded; the very devil +of insolence danced in her veins. She had trapped Michael and +successfully outwitted Margaret Lampton. She was going to thoroughly +enjoy herself. Michael, of course, would become quite docile in her +hands later on; one of her gentle spells would reconcile him. + +"How long have you been in the desert?" Michael asked. + +"We've camped for two nights," she said. "It's been perfectly beautiful! +We have had no difficulties, no adventures and we've scarcely met a +living soul. This eastern desert is awfully desolate, Mike--you're alone +with your thoughts if you can't speak to your dragoman." + +"It's very desolate," Mike said. "And it's quite different from the +Valley in colour and in feeling--at least it is to me." + +"I think so, too. This morning we met a strange creature--the only human +we've struck--one of those desert fanatics, 'a child of God,' as my +dragoman called him." + +Michael's heart beat faster; he forgot his annoyance. "Where did you +meet him?" he asked. + +Millicent noticed the change in his voice. "Not long before we sighted +you. He was travelling this way--we shall probably pass him. Our camels +were travelling at a good pace." + +"Did you speak to him?" + +"No, I couldn't, but Hassan did. I asked him about him. He told me that +what we call an idiot or a village simple is really a man whose reasoning +powers are in heaven. We see the material part of him, the part that +mixes with ordinary mortals. To the Mohammedans such people are +considered sacred, special favourites of God." + +"Yes, I know," Michael said, "and the worst of it is that advantage is +taken of that charming idea and dreadful things are done by rogues who +pretend to be religious fanatics or holy men. Some of them are awful +creatures, absolute impostors, but as a rule they frequent towns and +cities. The genuine holy man, a 'child of God,' lives apart from his +fellows in the desert." + +"This poor creature wore a long cloak made out of all sorts of bits, a +weird Joseph's coat of many colours. His tall staff was hanging with +tattered rags and his poor turban was in the last stages of decay." +Millicent's voice betokened genuine pity. "He looked terribly thin and +tired. I ought to have given him some food--he wouldn't accept money. I +don't think he grasped its meaning." + +Michael's thoughts were busy. "A little child will lead you, do not +despise the favoured of God--their wealth is laid up for them in heaven." + +And so they journeyed on, Millicent pleased at the result of her +conversation, it had set Michael dreaming. + +"They have lots of beautiful ideas," she said. She meant Moslems +generally, not only the simples or religious fanatics. + +"Yes," Michael said. "No religion has more lofty or beautiful ideas and +ideals." + +"You don't think their ideas are often put into practice?" + +"I don't know," Michael said. "It isn't fair to judge--the Western mind +can't. Their ideas are beautiful and in obeying the laws laid down by +the Koran they do beautiful and kindly acts; at the same time, their +minds to us seem terribly polluted. Their religion doesn't appear to +elevate their general aims or thoughts of life." + +"But isn't it the same with the greater portion of Christians, with many +of what we call religious people?" Millicent laughed. "I know it is +with myself, Mike. I go to church and say my prayers and I think I +believe in all the tenets of the Church and in the Bible--at least, I'd +be frightened to not believe--and yet it doesn't make me feel a bit +better. I don't really want to be good. I want to eat my cake on this +earth and have it in heaven as well. All the nicest plums with you, +Mike!" + +Michael laughed. Millicent was always so frank upon the subject of her +own worthlessness. + +"We don't know what these people would be like if they had no Koran to +curb them," Millicent said. "It may do more than you think. It's a +strong bearing-rein." + +"That's true. The Egyptians are, I suppose, about the most sensual of +all Easterns--the women are considered so, at any rate, by Lane, and he +knew them intimately." + +Millicent laughed. "I'm sure they are, speaking generally--that's to +say, I suppose you meet exceptions here and there, as in all other +countries." + +"The Prophet had his work cut out," Michael said. "And the world doesn't +give him half the credit he deserves. The rules he laid down in the +Koran are the only laws a Moslem really observes or reverences. His own +soul teaches him nothing; it has been buried far too long by the laws +imposed upon it; his superman is non-existent. The natural man blindly +obeys the Prophet's teachings in the hope of the material rewards which +will be his when he dies. The future life has always meant a great deal +to the Egyptian peoples; their existence on earth has since time +immemorial only been looked upon as an apprenticeship for the fuller +existence. The very fact that their earthly homes, even the Pharaoh's +palaces, were only built of sun-baked bricks made of mud, shows that they +carried out in practice the saying in the Bible about having no abiding +cities here. Their tombs were their lasting cities and _they_ were built +to endure throughout all eternity." + +"Anyhow, they are delightfully picturesque people in their devotions," +Millicent said. "I feel almost as pious when I watch a Moslem praying +before sunset as I do when a boy's voice is reaching up to heaven in one +of our Gothic cathedrals at home. I think I'm at my best then, Mike, +only no one is ever present to test me." + +Michael knew exactly what Millicent meant. The emotional side of +religion excited her senses. She imagined, when she was listening to a +boy's treble soaring up into the lofty heights of an English minster, +that her soul was soaring with it, that she was deriving spiritual +benefit from the service. He could picture her kneeling with folded +hands, the polished nails conspicuously bright, and eyes upraised, +listening to the boy's clear, pure voice, her whole being in a satisfied +sensuous ecstasy. + +He knew that this state of ecstasy was about as far as Millicent's +religion ever carried her. She was afraid to give up the flesh-pots of +this world in case she found life without them too dull to be +supportable. She enjoyed her state of being so thoroughly that she had +no wish to change it. Her religion and church-going were, she +considered, sufficient to ensure her a place in heaven. It was her way +of paying her future-life insurance policy, as were her many liberal +gifts to charities. + +When the halt for lunch came, Michael and Millicent were to all outward +appearance good friends. Michael had been considering within himself +what attitude he ought to adopt towards her amazing adventure, what face +he should try to put upon their meeting. His knowledge of the East told +him that it was probably best to leave things alone, for whatever he said +Hassan and Abdul would put their own construction on the affair. During +their conversation, which had been carried on without the slightest +regard for Michael's annoyance at her appearance, his thoughts had been +very busy. Their serious talk must come later on, when they halted for +lunch. + +Among the many things which troubled him, Michael tried to solve the +riddle of how Millicent had gained her knowledge of his movements. +Freddy's words had come back to him--that the fair Millicent had not come +to their camp to learn of his engagement to Margaret! She had come to +find out something which was more difficult to discover. Had she seen +the servants in the hut and questioned them when she was alone there? +Had she bribed Mohammed Ali? How otherwise had she found out all that +she wanted to know? + +When lunch-time came, Millicent's splendid basket, exquisitely furnished +and equipped with everything that could be desired for an appetizing and +original lunch, was opened, instead of Michael's, which contained the +simple necessities of a desert outfit. They chose their halting place +under the shadow of a mighty rock--they were reaching hilly ground. +Millicent's outfit included a sun-shelter, which was quickly raised and +in incredible shortness of time they were comfortably seated under it, on +camp chairs at a camp table. Michael could not help showing his pleasure +and admiring the dainty equipment. His child's heart was very easily +touched and pleased. Nothing was left undone which could be done to give +freshness and daintiness to the scene. A luscious fruit salad looked +cool and tempting in a glass bowl, while iced drinks, which had been +carried in ingenious Eastern water-coolers, appealed to his parched lips. +The galantine of chicken and the selection of _hors d'oeuvre_ would not +have disgraced the table of the Cataract Hotel at Assuan. Here, indeed, +were the flesh-pots of Egypt--_la tentation de Saint Antoine_. + +Millicent noticed Michael's pleasure. It was expressive of his simple, +open nature. In such moments he was very lovable. + +"Now, isn't this nicer," she said, "than pigging it alone?" + +"It's beautiful," he said. "What a wonderful outfit! How clever of +you--I feel as if you had a magic wand." + +"Hassan's a good man--I left everything to him." + +"He's done it A1," Michael said, more coldly. Suddenly he felt annoyed, +vexed with himself, for yielding so easily to the pleasures which +Millicent had provided, anticipating the enjoyment he would derive from +eating all the good things. + +After three days' hard travelling in the desert and some days spent in +economical living in Luxor, while his arrangements were being made, he +was readier than he imagined for a good and delicately-appointed meal. +Even at the hut he had never sat down to a lunch such as this. The +renaissance of the old Adam astonished him. + +The servants had betaken themselves to a sheltered spot; discretion being +nine-tenths of a good dragoman's training, Hassan and Abdul saw to it +that their master and mistress should not be disturbed, while they +themselves remained out of sight, but within call. + +"Let's sit down," Millicent said. "I'm starving--the desert turns me +into an absolute primitive." + +They sat down and while Millicent rid herself of her gloves; and sun-hat +and veil, Michael remained lost in thought. How nice it was! As nice as +anything could be, if . . . the "if" was subconscious . . . if he had +only come on this journey into the desert to enjoy himself, if there was +no Margaret. But there was a Margaret, and he adored Margaret, whose +dear dark head and trustful eyes were ever present with him they were as +present in the shelter as the golden head and the inviting, provoking +eyes opposite to him. There never again would be for him a world which +held no Margaret, nor could he endure it if there was. And yet her very +existence robbed this desert feast of its flavour. He knew that to be +loyal and true to Margaret he ought not to be accepting and appreciating +the dainty lunch laid before him. He ought not to be eating it with the +woman Meg detested. + +What if Margaret knew? What if his practical mystic had already had a +vision of their meeting? Had some native carried Millicent's plans to +meet him to the Valley? Had the birds of the air brought the news to +Freddy's ears? Was Margaret now tortured by a vision of this sumptuous +desert picnic? Could she see him sitting alone with Millicent in her +tent? He knew how mysteriously news travels in the desert, how quickly +it journeys. A wave of anger flushed his face as he pictured to himself +what Freddy would think of the situation. + +His hands trembled as he took Millicent's dust-cloak and hat. She looked +extremely pretty in her white muslin dress, which the cloak had hidden. +Millicent mistook the meaning of his trembling hands. She had seen men's +hands tremble many times. + +"Our little home," she said, as she sat down at the table. "My desert +dream realized. I'm so happy!" + +"Why did you do it?" Michael cried passionately. + +Millicent still mistook the nature of his emotion. She leaned across the +table. "Don't ask, dearest--just rest and be content. Hand me the +sardines, like a dear man." + +Michael handed her the sardines. How could he just rest and be content? +If he did, he would allow himself to drift into the woman's mood, he +would be enjoying himself at the cost of his loyalty to Margaret. He +would be drowning "the clear voice" with Moselle cup and smothering it +with galantine of chicken and pigeon-pie. + +"I want you to promise me," Millicent said, "just to eat this one meal +happily with me, eat and forget. For half an hour or more don't ask me +any questions and don't scold!" She handed Michael an olive in her +fingers. "Open," she said. "They're so good." + +Michael opened his mouth, but he took the olive from her fingers into his +own. + +"Will you do what I ask?" she said. "If you will, I'll promise to listen +to you afterwards. Your conscience is an awful bore, Michael." + +"I'm an awful bore apart from my conscience. It's simply your impish +persistence that makes you desire my society. It can't be anything else." + +"Perhaps it is," Millicent said. "All the same, will you promise?" + +"Very well," Michael said. "That's a bargain. I promise." + +"For this one meal you'll be like you used to be?" + +"What was that?" he asked. Her words annoyed him. + +"Mine," she said. "Mine and not Margaret Lampton's." + +Michael put down his knife and fork and looked straight into the eyes of +the woman opposite him. + +"I am Margaret Lampton's," he said, "and you'd better know it. I'm +Margaret Lampton's, body and soul." He flung her hand away. + +Millicent gave a suggestive whistle. "Wh-o-o!" she said, with a low +laugh. "So that's it?" + +"What do you mean?" he said. + +"Nothing--I didn't say anything, did I? Oh, don't let's quarrel--let's +enjoy our lunch." + +"Very well," he said. "Let's, for time's flying. But it's best for you +to know that I'm Margaret's." + +"Never mind--lend yourself to me for a few days. Surely she won't mind +if we amuse ourselves in the desert?" + +"I'm not going to lend myself to you," he said. "What nonsense you talk! +You're going back the way you came. You can play with someone else." + +"You dear silly, you can't make me!" Millicent laughed at the idea. +"Besides, you know you want me all the time, and you've just promised to +enjoy this jolly little meal and to lecture me afterwards. I'm not going +to be unhappy because you belong to Margaret Lampton." + +"So long as you know I do," he said, "I feel I can eat your excellent +lunch." + +"And if Margaret doesn't know, what can it matter?" + +"Oh, Millicent!" + +"You know, Mike, it's what's found out that matters. If you enjoy +yourself and make me happy for two or three days in the desert and +Margaret never knows, what harm could it do?" + +"If you can't see the harm for yourself," he said, "I can't show it to +you." + +"Well, I can't," she said. "But let's talk of something else. Margaret +is taboo--she's spoilt half our lunch." + +"First tell me how you got here, how you knew of my movements. I spoke +of them to no one." + +"No, no, that also is taboo--until after lunch." + +"What can we talk about?" + +Millicent looked at him. Her eyes suggested another topic--themselves. +"Is that taboo as well!" she said, as Michael's eyes dropped under hers. + +"Absolutely," he said. + +"Happy idea!" she cried. "The tomb! If we mayn't talk of Margaret or of +our two selves or of how I got here, or of whence I came or whither you +are going, surely a tomb is a safe topic?" + +"Yes," Michael said, "if any topic is safe with you." + +"Ah," Millicent said. "That's the nicest thing you've said." + +"I didn't mean to be nice. What's nice in that?" + +"But you were nice, awfully nice. If there are so many danger-zones to +be avoided between us, you don't feel very safe, very sure of yourself. +That's triumph number one for Millicent; Margaret's lost one point +already." + +"I thought Margaret was taboo?" + +"Oh, so she was--I beg her pardon!" She sighed. "'One word is too often +profaned for me to profane it,' etc." She put her elbows on the table. +"Oh, Mike, aren't you an odd darling? I do love teasing you. If you +weren't so easily ragged, I wouldn't." + +"Do go on with your lunch," he said. "And don't chatter so much. We +only have a certain amount of time for lunch and digestion. This pie's +delicious." + +"Where are we going? When do we go on?" Millicent was not oblivious of +the fact that he spoke of their going on as an accepted fact. + +"So you don't know? You haven't found out everything?" + +"No, I knew enough to bring me to you. That was all I wanted. You can +tell me the rest." + +Michael was silent. + +"My dear man, you needn't tell me if you don't want to, but remember that +no secrets are hid from the hand that hath _baksheesh_. I found out what +I wanted to know; I can find out more." + +"I'd rather you found out," he said, "than I told you." + +"Right ho! Funny man!" + +"Do you want to hear about the tomb, or don't you?" + +"Oh, yes, rather!" Millicent's teeth were busy picking the leg of a +pigeon. "Tell me everything." + +Michael told her everything he could remember, the things which he knew +would interest her, the most personal facts relating to the minute +examination of the tomb. It was proving a great puzzle to Egyptologists. +There were many conflicting theories about it--whether the mummy which +was found on the floor beside the effigy of the dead queen was the +mummified body of the queen or not. It had been sent away to be +carefully examined by experts; the report of the examination had not yet +been made known. If it was the body of the queen, why had they +endeavoured to cut off the golden wrappings which had been rolled round +her body? Why had her name been roughly cut out of the inside of the +coffin? Why had this queen, who had been buried with such royal +magnificence, been "debarred from all benefits of the earthly prayers of +her descendants? Why had she become a nameless outcast, a wanderer +unrecognized and unpitied in the vast underworld?" [2] + +These questions had not yet been solved. Millicent was excited and +interested and Michael enjoyed telling her about it. She was inquisitive +and insistent. She wanted to know all about the doings in the camp since +her visit to the Valley, and Michael thoroughly enjoyed talking to a +sympathetic, intelligent listener. Like all Celts, he had the gift of +words. + +He was so engrossed that Hassan appeared with their coffee long before he +was ready for it or expected it. Noticing his surprise, the man +instantly took his cue. He salaamed respectfully in front of Millicent. + +"_Ta, Sitt_," he said, "will it please you to wait for another hour? The +camels are not yet rested, the day is still young." + +Millicent looked at Michael. Time really did not matter to him one +scrap, yet she dared not hint so. He could just as well look for this +phantom treasure a year from now. It was all a mystic's mirage to her, a +delightful excuse for a sojourn in the outer desert. + +"I'm ready if you are," she said, addressing Mike. Her woman's tact told +her the wisdom of putting no hindrance in his way. + +"If the Effendi will graciously consent, it would be wiser to remain here +for one hour more," Hassan said. "The men are tired, also." + +Michael assented. If the beasts and the men were tired, they would wait. +The excuse was not unwelcome. The good meal had relaxed his energies. +Hassan thanked him and silently disappeared. + +Michael sipped his coffee; it was perfect. He lit a cigarette, after +they had turned their chairs to the open front of the shelter. Presently +Millicent slipped down from her chair and sat on the sand in front of the +tent; there was more air. Soon Michael did the same. + +They had lunched well and were friends. A certain delicious apathy stole +over Michael, which kept him from referring to any unpleasant topics. He +left alone the subject as to why Millicent had trapped him and forced her +company upon him. For the time being she was good and gentle, the reason +being that she also was relaxed and inert--the result of a good meal +after a strenuous morning on camel-back. + +Michael had been riding since dawn. The temptation to let things alone +was an unconscious one; he submitted to it. + +A great expanse of the desert was before them. Millicent lay curled up, +like a golden tortoise-shell cat, in the sun; Michael, with his legs +doubled up to his chin, rested his head on his knees. He would have been +asleep in a few minutes if Millicent had not spoken; suddenly she said: + +"Look! Surely that's my holy man, whose reasoning powers are in heaven? +There, look--far away, over there!" + +Michael raised himself and looked to where she pointed. There was +nothing to indicate any particular spot in the stretch of sand before +them. + +"I can just see the tattered rags of his staff. I'm sure it's the same +man. Can't you see him?" + +Michael looked again. "I can only distinguish something moving in the +distance. I can't say what it is, or if it is coming this way." + +"Can't you see a thing like a flag fluttering in the air? I can--there, +can't you see him now?" + +"Yes, now I can," Michael said. He got up from his low seat, his +energies fully alert, his drowsiness gone. He held himself in check. It +was absurd to appear so interested in a desert-fanatic--or an +idiot--coming across their path. They were both common enough +occurrences in the East. + +Millicent watched his face. Why was he so thrilled, why so interested? +Michael's first impulse was to go and meet the man. He was afraid that +he would not notice their encampment. He was afraid that he would not +come their way. At the same time, he was conscious that if there was any +truth in the old man's words, their meeting would come about naturally +and not by his seeking. The "child of God" would find him out. + +They waited for some time and nothing happened. Michael's hopes abated. +The figure with the fluttering rags disappeared. It seemed as if it had +vanished into the sands. Michael felt disappointed. + +The shelter was taken down and packed up, the lunch-basket refilled and +the camels harnessed. Hassan appeared. + +"_Ya, Sitt_, all is ready." + +Nothing had been said about Millicent's plans; nothing had been said +about how she had contrived to meet Michael; no lecture had been +delivered. The subject had been forgotten, forgotten by Michael at +least, whose interest had been absorbed in the talk about the tomb and in +the glimpse he had of the distant figure. Millicent had not forgotten +the promised lecture, but it had been her object to make Michael forget +it. She had gladly let the matter rest. Why wake sleeping dogs? She +let them lie so undisturbed that not one bark had been heard. They slept +so soundly that her heart was full of triumph and amusement when, seated +on her camel, she took her place in Michael's cavalcade. + +She had managed to get through the starting without his feeling any +annoyance at her presence. He had simply forgotten his objection to her +accompanying him. + + + +[1] Weigall's _Akhnaton, Pharaoh of Egypt_. + +[2] Weigall's _Akhnaton, Pharaoh of Egypt_. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +It was not until their rest at sundown that anything of unusual +interest happened to the travellers. Their short halt while they drank +their tea had passed without incident--in fact, Millicent had drunk +hers alone on camel-back, for it had been carried in thermos flasks, +their Amon-Ra, as Hassan called the magic bottles whose contents +retained the heat with no obvious aid. + +Michael had spent the time, while he drank his refreshing cup, in +consulting Abdul about their route. The camels were not unsaddled. +About this Millicent made no demur. She saw no earthly reason why they +should not have rested for as long as they felt inclined, but she did +not say so. If this treasure which Michael sought had lain in its safe +hiding-place, out of sight of man, for more than two thousand years, +why should it not wait there in safety for another couple or so of +hours? This she kept to herself; it was her wise policy to remain +_douce comme un lapin blanc_, which she did. The night might still see +her an accepted part of Michael's cavalcade. The adventure thrilled +her with excitement. + +They had finished their evening meal, which Millicent had supplied--a +very satisfying and delicate dinner. They had eaten it in the open +desert during the cool hours which precede sundown. Michael had +thoroughly enjoyed it. The evening light transformed the desert; a +heavenly Jerusalem seemed very near. Even Millicent was obedient to +the unseen. + +As the sun sank lower and lower in the heavens, their conversation +drifted towards the subject of Akhnaton's Aton worship. The kneeling +figures of the Arabs, praying in the desert before sundown, had +introduced the topic. + +They sat on until the globe of gold dropped behind the horizon--a +wonderful sight in the desert. For a minute or two its sudden and +complete disappearance leaves the world chill and desolate; a cold hand +clutches at the human heart; a loneliness enters the soul. God has +abandoned the world; the warmth of His love becomes a memory. + + * * * * * * + +The afterglow was at its most flamboyant; its orange and yellow, +streaked with black, suddenly became vermilion. Lights from the +underworld struck across the desert like swords of fire; arms of flame +broke the vermilion, soaring to heaven like the fires from hell's +furnace let loose. The anger and beauty and recklessness was +appalling. Then with magic swiftness, during the flickering of an eye, +the horizon became one vast lake of sacrificial blood. + +The transition was so unexpected, so devastating to the human mind, +that fear filled Millicent's heart. Instinctively she had drawn a +little closer to Michael. She craved for arms to guard her, to protect +her from the terror of the heavens. + + * * * * * * + +Like a black silhouette against the lake of blood, a human figure rose +up out of the desert, a John the Baptist, "a burning and shining +light," a voice calling in the wilderness. + +As the sonorous words of the Koran were borne to them, Millicent said, +"Oh, Mike, it's my holy man! How mysterious he looks against that +wonderful sky!" + +Subconsciously Michael had been so grateful to Millicent for her +silence during the stupendous glory of the sunset that his heart was +full of gentleness towards her. + +"Yes," he said. "I see him." Something had told him that the figure +which she had described to him during luncheon would appear again; he +was not surprised when he distinguished the staff, with its tattered +rags waving against the crimson light. + +"Isn't it all wonderful, Mike!" Her voice was reverent; the awfulness +of the heavens had humbled her. "I was almost afraid--it seemed like +the end of the world, the sky seemed all on fire. The destruction of +the world had begun." + +"'Thy setting is beautiful, O living Aton, who guidest all countries +that they may make laudation at thy dawning and at thy setting.'" + +"Are those Akhnaton's words?" + +"Yes, and his constant song was, 'O Lord, how manifold are Thy works.' +Most surely he would have said so to-night." Michael's thoughts flew +to the morning at whose dawn he had first recited to Margaret +Akhnaton's hymn to the rising sun. + +Millicent did not guess that Margaret was present while they stood +together in silence, watching the blood tones grow fainter and fainter. + +As they stood looking towards the horizon until all violence had left +the heavens, the desert figure drew nearer. Millicent knew him by his +long, unkempt hair. Even at a distance his fine white teeth gleamed +against his tanned skin. + +"He's a mere skeleton," Millicent said. "Look at him! He's all eyes +and hair and teeth!" + +"Poor creature!" Michael said. "_He_ has certainly no flesh left to +subdue." + +As they spoke, the fanatic suddenly tottered, strode forward and fell, +face downwards, on the sand of the desert. Instinctively Michael +hurried forward to his assistance. There was little doubt but that he +was famished and exhausted for want of food; the distances between +desert villages are immense. + +"Don't go!" Millicent cried. "Don't, Mike! He's probably filthy and +crawling with vermin; he looked awful this morning. I'll send two of +my men to him and I'll tell Hassan to prepare some food for him. +Hassan! Hassan!" Her voice was clear and far-reaching. + +Abdul instantly appeared. Hassan was busy giving orders to the men for +pitching the tents. So quickly did Abdul come that he might have +sprung up out of the desert at her very feet. This immediate response +to her call always made Millicent suspicious of eavesdropping. + +"Abdul," she said, "the holy man we met this morning is ill. Tell the +bearers to go to him--don't let the Effendi touch him, Hassan." + +"_Aiwah, Sitt_, I will attend." With the same breath Abdul screamed +for two of the men to come and help the saint. They came with flying +leaps towards him. + +"Mike, oh Mike!" Millicent cried. "Please, please come back! You are +so rash. Abdul, don't let the Effendi touch that man. He's filthy. I +saw him this morning--he's a dreadful creature." + +Abdul looked at the Effendi Amory's mistress, the Christian harlot. +Such a woman dared to speak in this manner of one who was favoured of +God, a blessed saint, of one to whom the devout women of his country +would willingly give themselves as an act of grace! This child of God, +beloved of Islam, was filthy in her vile eyes! + +It was in this manner that Millicent unconsciously earned the vengeance +of Abdul. Nothing of his hatred or scorn was noticeable. Millicent +was under the impression that all Easterns are sensualists and slaves +to beauty; she was ignorant of their profound contempt for all women; +that their vilest thoughts are for Christians. With an outward +approval of her anxiety that Michael should run no risks by touching +the sick man, Abdul left her and hurried after the Effendi. + +But Michael had already reached him; the fleshless figure lay bathed in +the dying light of the afterglow. Hanging round his neck, a neck which +looked like the neck of the dried mummy in Freddy's wonderful tomb, +there were many strings of cheap beads, and suspended from a bright +green cord--the Prophet's green--was one white cowrie shell. Half +covered by his garment of many colours, and jealously enclosed in a +small black cloth bag, was the most precious article of his scanty +possessions. Michael knew that this pouch contained nothing less +valuable than a few grains of sand from the Prophet's tomb at Mecca. + +At Michael's approach the fanatic raised himself and recited in +half-delirious tones the _Fat'hah_, or the opening chapter of the Koran: + +"In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Gracious. Praise be unto God, +the Lord of the worlds, the Merciful, the Gracious, the Ruler of the +day of judgment. Thee do we worship, and of Thee do we beg assistance. +Direct us in the right way, in the way of those to whom Thou hast been +gracious, upon whom there is no wrath, and who have not erred." + +When the _sura_ was finished the man fell back; his strength failed +him. Michael knelt down beside him in the desert. He raised his head; +his wild eyes and emaciated face touched his heart. He knew something +of the zeal of these religious Moslems, these desert sons of Allah. +This man had obviously wasted himself to a skeleton. Truly, his +reasoning powers were in heaven; his religious ecstasies had well-nigh +bereft him of his senses. + +Michael asked him if he was ill or if he was only faint from want of +food. The saint did not know; physical exhaustion overpowered him. At +intervals he called loudly upon the name of Allah, in almost the same +phraseology as the ancient Egyptians called upon Amon-Ra, the Lord of +all worlds, whose seat was in the heavens. In the unchanging East, +expressions never die. Akhnaton taught his disciples to pray to "Our +Father, which art in Heaven." + +As Michael listened to his appeals to Allah, he felt totally at a loss +to know what to do for the material benefit of the zealot. He was +afraid that he would die from exhaustion. He was relieved when Abdul +and the bearers came to his assistance. Abdul soon persuaded the man +to drink some of the water which he had brought in a cup. As he did +so, he noticed with satisfaction that the saint's head was resting on +Michael's arm, that his master was totally self-forgetful in his act of +charity. Christian though he was, he was sincerely obeying the +teaching of the Prophet Jesus, the one sinless Prophet of Islam, the +Prophet Who, next to Mohammed, is best beloved of the faithful. +Mohammed considered Jesus sinless; to his own unrighteousness he often +alluded. In this act of grace, at least, the Effendi had not failed +Him. + +When Michael offered the man another cooling drink, he swallowed it +eagerly. It was like the waters of paradise to his parched throat. +His flaming eyes tried to express his gratitude to his deliverer. Who +was this heretic whose fingers had the gift of healing, from whose +heart flowed the divine waters of charity? + +Michael understood. Inspired by the love in his heart for all +suffering humanity, with something akin to the graceful imagery of +words which comes naturally to the humblest native's lips, he spoke to +the man in a suitable manner. Rendered into English it would sound +absurd. + +The servants appeared with some food which was sustaining and +appetizing, but the effort necessary for swallowing anything solid +proved too much for the exhausted pilgrim. + +"Bring him to the camp, Abdul," Michael said. "I will give him some +brandy. As a medicine it is not forbidden?" + +"No, Effendi, it is not forbidden." + +The total absence of the sun had made the desert seem inhospitable and +dreary. The saint was too weak to protest and so he was carried to the +camp. Millicent watched the slow procession with anger and amazement. +She knew that Michael was rash and impetuous, but she had not given him +credit for being such a fool. + +While he was being put to bed in a tent, and carefully attended to, +Michael tried to discover if the saint was really ill, if he was +suffering from some specific malady, or if he was merely worn out with +fatigue. He administered a drug to him which he hoped would soothe his +nerves and allow him to sleep. + +In a dog-like manner the man's tragic eyes eloquently expressed both +his astonishment and gratitude. It was long since he had slept in a +comfortable bed, under sheets and blankets. He rarely spoke, except to +mutter or loudly chant in a half-delirious manner _suras_ from the +Koran. + +When Michael had attended to his simple wants and seen to it that his +servants were not only willing but eager to nurse him, he left him to +their care and immediately hurried off to his own tent to change his +clothes and disinfect himself as thoroughly as possible--a necessary +precaution, although the man had not been as dirty as Millicent had +depicted. His _dilk_, or Joseph's coat, was indeed tattered and his +turban in the last stages of decay, but they were clean. His person +was not offensive. A pathetic figure, fleshless and worn and neurotic; +yet in the sands of the desert he had performed his ablutions before +prayer, as prescribed by the Prophet in the Holy Book. The untrodden +sands of the desert are as cleansing and purifying as the waters of +Jordan. + +When Michael at last returned to Millicent, she said quite gently, +although her inward woman burned with anger, "Mike, are you mad or a +saint? How could you touch him?" + +"I'm far from being a saint!" he said. + +"You are as much one as that wretched creature, who has pretended he is +one for so long that he now believes he is." + +"Or his Moslem brethren do, perhaps you mean!" + +"Well, he acts up to their superstitious ideas." + +"I can't tell. He is too ill to speak. He is probably as sincere a +Moslem as St. Jerome was a Christian--why not?" + +"What's the matter with him?" A little fear clutched at Millicent's +heart. + +"I don't know--Abdul couldn't discover. The man is too exhausted to +talk. I'll speak to him in the morning and find out." + +"I hope it's nothing infectious--you were very rash, Mike!" + +"It's probably only physical exhaustion. He couldn't eat anything, but +he drank the water I gave him. I poured a little brandy in it--he +wouldn't have touched it if he had known." + +"Oh, wouldn't he?" Millicent's voice expressed her disbelief. + +"The Koran forbids the drinking of spirits." + +Millicent laughed. "You wouldn't think so when you pass the native +cafés in Cairo! I thought you said they lived up to the letter of +their religion, and missed the spiritual essence of it?" + +"There are Moslems and Moslems. Do we all live up to the spirit of +Christ's teachings? Have you always seen Christ-like Christians?" + +Millicent shrugged her shoulders. "Well, I don't pretend to live up to +the spirit of my religion. There's the comforting reflection of a +death-bed repentance for all Christians--it's never to late to mend, +Mike!" + +"What about battle and murder and sudden death?" + +"I take that risk. But, honestly, dear, are you going to adopt that +fanatic, take him on with you?" + +"I'm going to look after him until he's better," Michael said, "if +that's what you mean." + +"You've got one _protégé_ in el-Azhar. I wonder where this one will +find his home?" + +"He will be all right in the morning. Some food and sleep will set him +on his way again." Michael's eyes expressed the fact that his thoughts +had travelled to Millicent's own position in his camp. She had wished +to avoid this; she had tried to obliterate her own personality. Her +desire was to let Mike get pleasantly accustomed to her companionship, +to her place in his camp, to her harmless presence. She felt certain +that if she could manage it for a day or two, he would let things +slide. It was his nature to drift. + +The evening was almost at its close; night was drawing near. The +evening star, with its one clear call, had appeared in the pale sky, +guarded by the soft pure crescent of a new moon. The single star in +the vast heavens made a tender appeal to the hearts of both Millicent +and Michael. It intensified their solitude. It touched their senses +with longing. If Margaret had been with Michael, his arms would have +encircled her. + +Millicent owed her self-restraint to her calculating common sense. To +have had a lover on such a night as this would have been a splendid +reward for all her trouble. In her heart she called the man at her +side a fool, a pitiful fool, and herself an idiot for loving him. + +"It was a beautiful idea for Mohammed's banner," Michael said at +length. He had driven the thought even of Margaret from his mind. +Suggestion is too potent a drug. + +"Was that what he took it from?" Millicent said. "I never thought of +it before--of course, it must have been." + +"He must often have watched the evening star as we are watching it now, +when he was a boy living in the desert. Later on, when he became the +warrior prophet, he must have visualized the heavens as the background +of his banner, and taken the evening star and the crescent moon as his +symbols--the star and the crescent of Islam." Michael paused. "In the +same way, the full rays of the sun became the symbol of Aton, +Akhnaton's god and loving father." + +"Your friend?" Millicent said eagerly; it pleased her that Michael +should speak of the things nearest his heart. He was allowing her to +approach him. + +Michael laughed. "And yours, too, I hope?" + +"Why?" Millicent's heart quickened. + +"Because Akhnaton was the first man to preach simplicity, honesty, +frankness and sincerity, and he preached it from a throne. He was the +first Pharaoh to be a humanitarian, the first man in whose heart there +was no trace of barbarism." [1] + +"Really?" Millicent said. Michael's earnestness forbade levity. "How +interesting! Do tell me more about him." + +"He was the first human being to understand rightly the meaning of +divinity." + +"But what he taught didn't last. We owe nothing to his doctrines, do +we? Did it ever spread beyond his own kingdom?" + +"Like other great teachers, he sacrificed all to his principles. Yet +there can be no question that his ideals will hold good 'till the swan +turns black and the crow turns white, till the hills rise up and travel +and the deeps rush into the rivers.' That's how Weigall ends up the +life he has written of the great reformer. How can you say that we owe +nothing to him? You might as well say that we owe nothing to any of +the great men of whom we have never heard, and yet you know that +thought affects the whole world. Akhnaton made himself immortal by his +prophecies--they were the eternal truths revealed to him by God." + +"By a prophet, do you mean that he was a prophet like Moses, Jeremiah, +Isaiah and so on?" + +"I mean that prophets were the seers to whom God communicated +knowledge. Prophets were the people to whom He made revelations; he +enlightened their minds; He certainly revealed Himself to Akhnaton, or +how else could he, in that age of darkness, have evolved for himself an +almost perfect conception of divinity? Weigall says 'he evolved a +monotheist's religion second only to Christianity itself in its purity +of tone.' If God had not revealed Himself to Akhnaton as He did later +on to Moses and Abraham, and as I believe He still does to our true +reformers, how could he, as Weigall says, have evolved his beautiful +religion 'in an age of superstition, and in a land where the grossest +polytheism reigned absolutely supreme'?" + +"And are you now on your way to visit his tomb, Mike? How thrilling!" + +"Yes," Michael said. He answered her simply, forgetful of the fact +that she could only have obtained her information on this point in an +underhand manner. + +"You know where it is?" + +"He was buried in the hills which lie beyond his city." + +"Tel-el-Amarna?" + +"Yes, the City of the Horizon, the capital he built when he found it +necessary for the progress of his new religion to get away from Thebes, +from the priests of Amon-Ra." + +Michael's thoughts became absorbed. They travelled to the mid-African +in el-Azhar and then became mixed up with this meeting with the +desert-saint. Could this poor, emaciated figure, so shrunken and worn +with tropical fevers and famished for want of food, have any knowledge +of the hidden treasure which the seer had visualized? + +Millicent allowed his thoughts to wander. She knew the force of silent +companionship. She knew that, although he was apparently far from her, +he was conscious of her presence. She would have liked to ask him a +thousand questions, to have talked rather than held her peace; but her +instinct as a woman forbade it. Something told her that during their +talk Michael was one half saint, one half man, and the man-power was +stronger than he knew. + +Many stars had appeared in the sky, which had deepened. It was now the +violet-blue of a desert night. The passion of the heavens was +beginning. Could man and woman remain outside it? + +In the distance an occasional roar from one of the camels interrupted +the silence. Surely it was a night for love, the love that needs no +telling? + +Millicent and Michael were seated on the sand, gazing into the +deepening heavens. Michael was sorely disturbed. + +"Could anything be more Eastern?" Millicent said dreamily. In speech +she had to walk very carefully. Her mystic baffled her. + +"Nothing," Michael said. "Isn't it sad to think what city-dwellers +miss?" + +"I love even the roar of the camels, don't you?" Her eyes were looking +at the animals, as they knelt at rest in the distance, their long day's +journey done. What stored-up revenge their roars suggest! They always +seem to say, "My day will come, if it is yours to-day." + +"Let's think of the most English thing we can, Mike," she said +suddenly, "just by way of contrast." + +They thought for a moment or two in silence. The arid desert was +softened by the absence of the sun, its desolation was made more +manifest. At night even more than by day, you could feel the immensity +of its distance, its silent rolling from ocean to ocean. Nothing +speaks to man's heart more eloquently than the voice of perfect silence. + +For the sake of prudence Michael was consenting to Millicent's +suggestion to think of the most English scene he could. Was it a +village public-house, full of hearty English yokels, drinking their +evening tankards of beer? This was about the time they would assemble. +He had not yet formed his picture into words, Millicent had not spoken, +when suddenly Abdul appeared and begged permission to speak to his +master. + +The sick man was better; he had eaten some food and was conscious. +Abdul had evidently some information which was for his master's ear +alone. He politely inferred that he could not say it before the +honourable lady. + +Michael rose from his seat beside Millicent, who, being wise in her +generation, said: "Then I will say good-night and go to bed. I am very +tired." + +"Good-night," Michael said brightly, while a sudden sense of relief +came to his heart. "I think you are very wise. You must be quite +tired out." + +"So far, so good," Millicent said when she was alone. "What a weird +mystic I've attached myself to!" She alluded to Michael, not to the +Moslem saint. + +Her camp-outfit was so complete that in her desert bedroom there was +scarcely an item missing which could ensure her comfort. She +contemplated going to bed with enjoyment. Where money is, there also +are the fleshpots of Egypt, even if it is in the waterless tracts of +the Arabian desert. + +Material comforts meant very much to Millicent. She enjoyed using all +the little accessories belonging to a fastidious woman's toilet; she +enjoyed, too, the occupation of expending care on her person. Her +rising up and lying down were ceremonies which she performed with +unremitting attention. In her tent in the desert her perfumes and +cosmetics and bath-salts afforded her a curious satisfaction. They +told her that her management had been perfect; they appealed to her +barbaric love of contrasts. It fed her pride very pleasantly to know +that she could command these luxuries; to know that by her own wealth +she could bring the trivialities of civilization into the elemental +life of the desert excited her senses. + +Her natural beauty could have triumphed over the ravages made by the +sun and the dry desert air. She was one of those fortunate women who +needed few, if any, of the absurdities which she carried about with her +wheresoever she went. To have done without them would have been to +deprive herself of a very genuine pleasure, to have starved one of her +eager appetites. Margaret's rapid tub, the swift brushing and combing +and plaiting of her dark hair, generally while she read some passage +from a book which interested her, and her total disregard for +cosmetics, would have horrified Millicent if she had known of her +habits. The height of civilization to Millicent was expressed in a +luxuriously-appointed dressing-table and in an excessive care of her +body. Progress touched its high-water mark in the perfection of her +creature comforts. Taken from this standpoint, progress could scarcely +go any further, or so Michael would have thought if he had watched her +ritual of going to bed. + +She dawdled pleasantly through it, enjoying every moment of the time, +appreciating the handling of artistically-designed silver objects, +performing with care the washing of her face with oatmeal and the +dusting of her fair skin with the latest luxury in powder. She liked +to take the same care of her person as a young mother takes of her +first baby, and--as she expressed it--to smell like one when the +ceremony was finished. + +Her love of contrasts appealed to her, when she stood, all ready for +bed in her foolish nightgown--a mere veil of chiffon--becomingly +guarded by a Japanese kimono of the softest silk. She visualized the +timeless desert outside her tent, the trackless ocean of silence, the +uninhabited primitive world. She felt like a queen, travelling in +state through a waterless, foodless world. + +She held up her empty arms. Some other night! Some other night! Her +heart assured her. With a sigh of content she lay down to sleep, well +satisfied with her own diplomacy and cunning. Her last conscious +thoughts were of Margaret Lampton. What was she doing to-night? What +were her thoughts? + + * * * * * * + +Late that night, as Abdul passed the Englishwoman's tent, he spat at +her door. + + + +[1] Weigall's _Akhnaton, Pharaoh of Egypt_. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +What was Margaret doing that night? + +Many days had passed since she had heard from Michael, but there was +nothing in that to cause her anxiety. She did not expect to hear from +him after his desert journey had begun, except by happy chance. If he +passed a desert mail-carrier, he would give him a letter to be posted +when he arrived at the nearest town. + +A desert mail-carrier is a weird object to Western eyes or to the eyes +of a city-dweller. Almost naked, he travels across the desert on swift +camels, carrying a long sword for the protection of the royal mails. + +So far Margaret had received no desert letter. Her days had passed +smoothly and swiftly, for Freddy had kept her hard at work. Each day +her interest in his work intensified; the more she learned of +Egyptology and of archaeology generally, the more wholly absorbing it +became. She had developed into a very essential member of the camp. + +With splendid common sense and determination, she had succeeded in +throwing herself body and soul into the work which filled her days. +She had made up her mind when she parted with Michael that not even by +thought would she retard his work and mission. When she allowed her +mind to travel to him, it was to convey currents of stimulating love +and encouragement. If thoughts are things, as he always told her, then +the things her thoughts were to give him must be happiness and +confidence. Keeping this steadily before her, she had spent healthy, +happy days with her brother. In their sympathies and interests they +had drawn even closer together. Strangers might well have taken them +for lovers, so eagerly did they look forward each morning to their long +evening to be spent together. There was very little time for play; +their days were made up of hard, exacting work. + +Experts were busy forming their opinions and writing their official +reports upon the contested subjects connected with the tomb. The +mythological and archaeological finds in it were of exceptional +interest. + +On this night, when Millicent in the eastern desert had held up her +arms to the heavens and questioned the unseen, Margaret had gone early +to bed. For some reason--perhaps owing to the great heat of the day +and to the airlessness of the chamber of the tomb where she had been +painting, she had felt a bit "nervy," as she had expressed her state of +being to Freddy. She had tried to read, but had failed. Her thoughts +had wandered; her memory had retained nothing of what she had read; at +the end of a paragraph she knew as little of what it had been about as +though she had never read it. Concentration was beyond her power. + +"I'm only wasting time, Freddy," she said after a last desperate effort +to concentrate her thoughts on her book. "I'm going to bed. If I +talked, I'd probably grouse--that's how I feel." + +"Right you are, old girl. I'll soon be off, too. How'd you like to go +to Luxor for a few days?" + +"Oh, no, Freddy!" Meg's whole being rejected the idea. + +"All right--only don't get the jumps." + +"A good sleep will put me right," she bent her head as she passed her +brother and lightly kissed his glittering hair. He was busy with a +plan, of extraordinarily minute details. "You're such a dear, Freddy." + +"Rot!" + +"You are, a thumping old dear." + +"Don't you worry, old girl. Mike's all right. Bad news travels on +bat's wings, so they say. You'd have heard long before this if +anything was wrong." + +It was just like Freddy to understand. Meg felt cheered. She sat +herself down beside him, quite close to his elbow, and watched him for +some moments. They were perfectly silent. Freddy's practical, +healthy, buoyant personality soothed her. Her big love for him brought +a sudden lump to her throat. Happy tears dimmed her sight. Hungrily +she pressed his arm close to hers and rubbed her cheek against his +coat. The next moment she had left the room. + +Freddy's eyes followed her. "Not the life for a girl, somehow," he +said, a line of worry puckering his forehead, and for a few moments his +thoughts deserted his work. It became faulty; he had to use his +india-rubber over and over again. It was Meg's vision of Akhnaton that +had intruded itself upon his work; he must drag his thoughts back again. + +Meg had told him about her vision. Before the tomb had been opened, +Freddy would have completely pooh-poohed the whole thing. He gave no +real credence to it now; still, there was a subtle difference in his +attitude towards the whole subject of the supernatural. His mind did +not so completely reject it as he thought. The extraordinary exactness +of the seer's vision of the inside of the tomb had not been without its +effect. He also knew how constantly and ardently Akhnaton had prayed +that his spirit might "go forth to see the sun's rays," that his "two +eyes might be opened to see the sun," that he might "obtain a sight of +the beauty of each recurring sunrise." + + * * * * * * + +When Meg went to bed, she slept soundly, very soundly. She must have +been asleep for some hours when suddenly she awoke with unusual +alertness. The intensity of her dream had wakened her. She had heard +Michael's voice crying, as though it were vainly trying to reach her. +It was as clear as the overseer's whistle each morning; it had wakened +her just as suddenly. The anguish of his soul came to her out of the +silence. Three times he had called her distinctly. + +She started up, with the words "Yes, Mike, I'm coming." They were said +before she realized that she was separated from him by the Valley and +the river and the eastern desert. + +Sitting up in bed she listened. Everything was still. She jumped out +of bed and looked out of the window. The stars in the sky shone down +on the hills which covered the sleeping Pharaohs as they had shone when +Michael had told her that he loved her, as they had shone before the +Valley became a city of the dead. + +Margaret slipped on her dressing-gown and opened the door. She went +quietly out and stood in front of the hut, with eyes raised to the +heavens. She felt as if her heart was bursting with the prayers that +filled it. What could she do? Nothing--nothing but give herself up to +God, open her heart and reveal its burden to the Lord of all worlds, +trust her inarticulate prayers to His everlasting mercy. Very softly +she whispered, almost ashamed of her own impotence, "I want to go to +Michael. Allow my spirit to console him." + +Her hands were clenched. An imploring agony held her unconscious of +all else but her desire to get outside herself and appear to her lover. +She had no more words; speech was needless. Her wants were as +infinitely beyond the limits of speech, as infinity is beyond our +conception of space or time. + +For a few minutes she stood lost in the one thought. And who shall say +in what name her prayer was answered by the divine mercy? + +Gradually a subtle untightening of her muscles relaxed her hands even +while they remained folded. Something had gone out of her. Was it +virtue? Unconscious of her material self, for her thoughts had not yet +returned from their mission of healing, she remained standing in the +same attitude of appeal. + +Suddenly her imagination folded her in her lover's arms. She heard him +say, "My beautiful Meg, the stars adore you!" + +And she answered, "I am with you, Mike, just as I was on that night +when your love made a new world for me. You called to me and so I +came. Your arms are round me. . . . I can hear your voice." + +Margaret sighed. Consciousness of her material surroundings was +returning. She heard a step behind her; someone was present. It was +Freddy. + +"What are you doing, Meg?" he said anxiously. + +She turned swiftly to him. "Oh, Freddy, Michael wanted me. My dream +was too real not to have some meaning. I couldn't bear it--I had to +try to help him!" + +"You were dreaming? You were in bed?" + +"Yes, and sound asleep. Suddenly he called me. It was extraordinarily +real." Meg put her hands up to her head as though it was tired. + +"But you can't help him by standing out here. It's too chilly." + +Meg shivered. "It is cold," she said wearily. "And I'm awfully tired." + +Freddy linked his arm through his sister's. "Let's sit and talk +together indoors, for a bit. Have a cigarette?" + +Meg thanked him with tired eyes. Freddy put his hands on her shoulders +as she sank into a deck-chair, and looked into her eyes. "No more +visions, old girl?" + +"No, Freddy, oh no, no vision." Meg spoke dreamily, absently, and with +an exhaustion which worried her brother. + +"Then why so tired?" + +"I don't know. I suppose it was my dream. I feel as if I'd travelled +for days and days!" + +"Look here, you're going to have some of this." Freddy poured out a +small portion of brandy into a glass and made her swallow it. "The +desert plays the dickens with the strongest nerves. Don't be so rash +again, Meg." + +"I promise." Meg swallowed the brandy and Freddy lit her cigarette. +With a tact she little dreamed of he contrived to divert her thoughts +into a channel far removed from the eastern desert and personal matters. + +The news from home for the last few weeks had been far from +satisfactory. English politics seemed to revolve round the atrocious +acts of the suffragettes who believed in the militant policy and the +disturbances in Ireland. Freddy's sympathies, of course, were with +Ulster; the Nationalists and Sinn Feiners belonged to the unemployable +unemployed class of agitators who "walk on their heads." + +When at last the brother and sister parted, Meg was restored both in +mind and body to her normal healthy condition. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +When Michael entered the sick man's tent, he was surprised to find how +much better he seemed. He had regained a little strength and partial +consciousness. But he was still weak and suffering from the effects of +malarial fever, or so Michael imagined, though he was articulate and +his mind seemed to be clearing. + +The more Michael saw of him the more sure he was that he was neither an +idiot nor a lunatic, nor one of the class in the East whose flagrant +acts of immorality do not affect their fame for sanctity. Certainly +his thoughts and reasoning powers appeared still to be in heaven, but +that was because he was a religious zealot. Of the genuineness of his +piety there could be no doubt. The impostors and charlatans who bring +discredit upon the term "holy man," who trade upon the credulity of the +natives, do not seek the wastes of the arid eastern desert. The +neighbourhood of hospitable villages and cities suits their profession +and tastes better. + +The saint had requested of Abdul that he might thank the Effendi for +his charity. Before sunrise he wished to leave the tent. + +As Michael approached him, he called out in a weak but sonorous voice a +_sura_ from the Koran: + + +"'Verily those who do deeds of real kindness shall drink of a cup +tempered with camphor.'" + + +The word camphor (_kafier_), which is derived from the word _kafr_, +means to "suppress or cover." Michael understood. The quaffing of +camphor, as spoken of in the Koran, is supposed to subdue unlawful +passions; it cleanses the heart; it rids man's mind of all material +desires. + +"I thank you, O my father." Michael used the ordinary form of a Moslem +in addressing one of a higher spiritual station than himself. In Egypt +even the native Christians reverence Moslem saints or holy men. They +pay frequent visits to them to ask for counsel and to hear their +prophecies, to beg a hair of them in memory, "and dying, mention it +within their wills, bequeathing it as a rich legacy unto their issue." +Any relic of a venerated saint is worn as a protection from evil. + +Quite apart from Michael's feeling on the subject as to whether this +desert fanatic would prove of any real assistance to him on his +journey, he had no inclination to scoff at his religious zeal. Were +there not St. Jeromes, who lived in the desert and trusted to the +ravens of the air to feed them? Were passions in the desert not known +before the days of Mohammed? Why should saints no longer exist? + +It seemed to him very wonderful that this semi-conscious Arab should +have chosen a text from the Koran so singularly appropriate to his +condition. There were hundreds of _suras_ familiar to Michael, +relating to the benefits to be received by the faithful who performed +disinterested acts of charity. "Do good to the creatures of God, for +God loves those who do good." These words came to his mind as more +suitable, as referring only to his hospitality to the fainting +wayfarer. Or again, "The truly righteous are those who, in order to +please God, assist their kindred out of their wealth, and support the +orphans and take care of the needy, and give alms to the wayfarer." + +In the moral conditions of the Koran, there are many _suras_ relating +to charity, the love which covers a multitude of sins. Yet he had told +Michael that because of his love for one of God's creatures he would +"drink of a cup tempered with camphor." Had the sick man a seer's +vision? Had he read the secrets of his, Michael's, heart? + +Or might it have been that already Abdul had confided to him the gossip +of the camp? Had his seer's eyes told him who lay in the white tent, +the white tent whose open door so persistently invited him to turn in? + +He rejected the idea that the saint's apt choice of a text could have +been mere accident. To Michael there was no such thing as chance. +Nothing is unessential, nothing unforeseen by the All-seeing. + +He spoke to the saint seriously and sympathetically of his condition +and tried to persuade him that he was too weak to travel. He must rest +for one whole day, and after that he must allow Michael to see him on +his journey. To Michael's offer of hospitality and help on his +pilgrimage, he again answered by quoting the Koran: + +"'Verily to the "favoured of God" no fear shall come, nor shall they +grieve.'" + + +His eyes, lit with spiritual fire, expressed his complete confidence in +divine protection. + +Michael expressed his belief that God did look after those who were +specially favoured of Him, but he asked if it might not be that it was +by God's guidance that he, Michael, had been permitted to offer one +specially beloved of Allah the rest he so greatly needed? If it was +not also decreed by Allah that the saint should remain in his tent +until he was stronger? + +"Whither are you going, O my son? If Allah wills it we shall not part." + +Michael described his geographical destination; he did not mention the +real mission of his journey. + +"What seek you there, O my son?" + +"The tomb of a holy man." + +"An infidel or a child of Allah?" + +"Of a prophet, O my father, a prophet to whom God revealed himself even +before the days of Moses, a prophet born in Egypt, who lost his distant +kingdoms to gain his own soul." + +"Your heart is full of charity, O my son. In the name of the Lord, the +Compassionate, the Merciful, may the divine light surround you." + +"If I acknowledge but one God, O my father, and truly love Him, I must +love all things that He has created, for without Him was not anything +made that is in heaven or on earth." + +"Truly said, O my son. And praise be to Allah! you are no infidel. +You worship but the one God Who is the Lord of the worlds. The +ignorant infidels--Allah have mercy on their souls!--give the Prophet +Jesus equal glory with the God Almighty, they divide the honours which +belong to God alone." + +"There are many seekers after the truth, O my father. Are there not +many roads to heaven?" + +"To all who do truly seek the light, God will be revealed to them. He +will cover them with His mercy, He will join them to the companionship +on high. God's mercy extends to every sinner, He provides for even +those who deny Him." + +The fanatic fell back on his pillow exhausted. Michael waited for a +moment, until his religious excitement had abated. Feebly words came +from his parched lips. + +"Great is Thy Name, great is Thy Greatness. There is no God but Thee." + +Michael poured a little moisture down his throat. He swallowed it +eagerly; his thirst was pathetic. After waiting for a few minutes +beside the silent figure, Michael rose to go. One of the servants must +come and look after him and watch by him during the night; he was too +ill to be left alone. + +Suddenly the saint called to him. "_Henâ_ (here)." He wished Michael +to bend his head nearer to his lips; his voice was weak. His splendid +eyes glowed with the fire of spiritual triumph. Michael watched him +raise his hand up to his head. It was for some reason, for it was not +without effort that he guided his first finger to his fine, +delicately-shaped ear, the concha of which was very large. There +seemed to be something hidden in it which he was endeavouring to take +out. + +Michael tried to help him. Had he stowed away some relic of +exceptional value in the opening of his ear, or was it giving him pain? +The saint did not answer. Michael stood in silence until the thing was +extracted. It was a little pellet of tissue-paper. + +The saint put his finger to his lips, to caution Michael to be silent. +With trembling fingers he unwrapped the tiny packet. It was so small +that probably it contained an atom of hair reputed to have been cut +from the Prophet's beard. + +When the object was unrolled, the saint said, "_Henâ_," and tried to +reach Michael's hand. Michael placed his right hand in the two +emaciated ones of the fanatic. Something hard was pressed into his +palm, and his fingers were jealously folded over a tiny object. When +it was safely in his keeping, the saint fell back on his pillow, +muttering a _sura_ from the Koran. + +"'Give your kindred what they require in time of need and also to the +poor and the traveller, but waste not your substance wastefully.'" + + +Michael opened his hand and looked at what the zealot had placed in it. +He was thrilled with curiosity to see what the precious relic could be. +He recognized the greatness of the honour which had been bestowed upon +him. + +When he saw what it was, he was too astonished to speak. Wonder robbed +him of words. A crimson amethyst, uncut and of ancient smoothness, lay +like a large drop of blood in his hand. With half-believing eyes he +gazed at it. Still in silence and with doubting senses, he turned it +over with the fingers of his left hand. Had the holy man performed a +miracle? How could he have become possessed of an ancient gem of such +rare beauty and size? Michael had often seen conjurers raise up +palm-trees and flowers on the deck of a steamer, out of a pot full of +sand; a wave of their magic wand had transformed the deck of the +steamer into a flowery garden. But this poor sick wanderer was no +trickster. + +Michael held up the amethyst to a lamp. It seemed to him a stone of +great value. As it was uncut, he could only judge by its colour. +There might be some flaw which he could not see. He tried to put it +back into the sick man's hands. + +"Keep it, my son, it is safer with you. I could not use it for the +benefit of mankind, for the wayfarer and the needy, and for myself I +have no wants which Allah in His mercy does not supply. His children +suffer no greater privations than they can bear." + +Michael still pressed the jewel back into his hand. He could not and +would not accept it. At his refusal the fanatic became excited and +distressed. + +"It is easy for me, my son, to find many more such jewels, and also +much fine gold, the pure gold of Ethiopia. Allah has had hidden +treasures laid up in the desert for such of His favoured children as +require them." + +The words came curiously to Michael's ears, for he had in his +subconscious mind anticipated them. Yet his material mind regarded +them as fantastic imagination due to the man's abnormal condition. The +unpolished jewel had probably been given to him by a devout Moslem, who +imagined that he had derived some benefit from a visit which he had +paid to the saint. His subconscious mind pressed the question: + +Had this poor creature, dressed in rags, whose famished body had fallen +in the sands, exhausted by his perpetual mortification of the flesh, +found Akhnaton's buried treasure? Had he resisted the gold and +precious jewels which he had found there? Had he only carried away +this one crimson amethyst to prove to Michael that his theory was +correct? Was it a beautiful link in the long chain of ordained events, +an act of the divine law? + +The idea seemed incredible. Yet the saint had spoken simply and +sincerely, as if he never doubted but that Allah, in His all-seeing +mercy, had provided this mine of wealth for the use of His favoured. + +Was this gem which the saint had carried in his ear an actual and +tangible proof of the treasure he was seeking? Had the saint actually +seen and touched the wealth of gold and the jewels which Akhnaton's +hands had hidden in the hills near his tomb? Others besides Michael, +students of Egyptology, had treasured the idea that the heretic King, +knowing that his days were numbered, and that when he was dead +everything in his fair city would be stolen and desecrated, taken to +Thebes and there turned into wealth for the gods of Amon, had hid from +his enemies his private hoard of jewels and gold. + +A glorious excitement overwhelmed Michael. His thoughts travelled on +the wings of light. But he must be practical; he must determine how it +was best to question the saint, to gather from him the most helpful +information on the subject. It would be no easy matter, for it would +be unwise to express any marked curiosity about the hidden treasure or +to show his personal desire to find it. + +With great self-control he concealed his intense interest and +excitement. For the present it was best to let the saint's words about +the treasure pass unquestioned. Very tactfully and with gentleness he +persuaded him to keep the amethyst until they parted. In the morning, +if he was really strong enough to go on his way and if he still wished +him to accept the gem, he would do so. + +With this the fanatic was contented. He wrapped up the gem which had +once belonged to the heretic Pharaoh, whose one and only God was Aton, +and replaced it in its strange jewel-case. + + * * * * * * + +When Michael left the tent where the saint lay, he turned his back on +the encampment. He wished to be alone. His thoughts were bewildering. +He turned his back upon the encampment because the crouching man in him +knew that in the camp was the white tent of the woman. If he passed +it, would the primitive man in him spring up and force him to turn in? + +"Turn in, turn in, my lord, and he did turn in." How the words had +kept ringing in his ears. + +Alone in the desert he must drink of the cup tempered with camphor. +Henceforth his one thought and object must be the finding of the +treasure he had journeyed thus far to discover. The saint's news had +so excited him that he wished that he could waken all the sleeping +servants and order Abdul to begin their journey. Action would drive +the white tent and its persistent call out of his mind. The sky was so +light that they could easily see to travel. + +His nerves chafed at the unnecessary delay. And yet he must not hurry, +for his mind foresaw great difficulty, even in the matter of persuading +the holy man to travel with them. + +The seer at el-Azhar had promised him that a "child of God" would lead +him. If he waited and trusted and just let things take their course, +all things would come right. Haste comes of the devil--a true Eastern +proverb, a warning far too little regarded by the Western children of +speed. But his conscience rebuked him. Had he verily been one of +those who do deeds of real kindness? Was he worthy to drink of the cup +tempered with camphor? Had his deed been sincerely inspired by +disinterested love towards his fellow-beings? Had it not been so +mingled and mixed up with his anxiety to find the hidden treasure that +he had gladly seized the opportunity of offering help to the wayfarer, +hoping that he might prove to be the very child of God who was to guide +him to the secret spot? + +Yet surely, in doing this deed of kindness, even though it was affected +by self-interest, he had already drunk of the cup tempered with +camphor? The desires of his frail human flesh, desires which had had +their renaissance since Millicent's appearance, were they quite +banished? Had the woman in her white tent meant nothing to him? As if +in contradiction to his words, he flung himself on the sand. A voice +cried within him. + +What was he to do with the woman? Oh, God, what was he to do with her? +Spiritually he emptied his arms of her and flung her far from him on +the sands. All day her presence had been too near him--oh, God, far +too near! She was there in her tent, a beautiful vision. Her eyes, as +violet as the night sky, invited him. Her voice, soft with love, wooed +him. It cried again and again: "Turn in, my lord, turn in!" + +His knowledge of the East told him that the whole camp expected him to +visit the white tent that night. He was no St. Anthony in their eyes, +resisting his temptation. + +For one moment his mind enjoyed the satisfaction of her beauty. The +cup tempered with camphor was rudely dashed from his lips. Some unseen +hand had offered him instead the deep red wine of passion. With the +sudden violence of a southern wind gathering swiftly over the desert, +his emotions were tossed and driven. As the sands lift and rise from +the flatness of the desert into one obliterating column before the +traveller's eyes, so had his vision of the woman obliterated every +other thought from his mind. In the limitless desert there was nothing +but the one white tent of the woman. + +In his vision he saw the crimson amethyst hanging from a chain round +her neck. On her white breast it lay like a full drop of pigeon's +blood. Where had this idea come from? Unsought, undesired, what had +forced it with merciless vividness before his eyes? What part of him +responded to her caresses of thanks? What had Akhnaton's jewel to do +with his profane vision? + +St. Anthony had never deserved his temptation less. With the distant +glimpse of the white tent which he had caught on his way from the sick +man, desire had stormed the citadel of his soul. Its hidden forces had +surprised and overwhelmed the unsuspecting Michael. It held him in its +grip. + +In his agony of spirit he cried aloud. "Margaret! Margaret! +Margaret, if you love me, come to me!" + +He pressed his body more closely to the desert sand. Let the great +Mother Earth enfold him. + +With all the stars in the heavens shining down upon him, and the clear +sky purifying a world of desolation, Michael lay purging his mind, +cleansing his heart. The white tent became very distant, a mere speck +on his mental horizon. + +Suddenly his senses became alert; he felt a presence very close to him. +No footfall on the sand had warned him that he was no longer alone; he +was simply conscious that some one was standing by his side. He jumped +up, anxious to see who it was; he had been lying face downwards on the +sand. No one was there. He listened. Surely he had not been +mistaken? Someone had touched him gently with their hands, some +presence had come quite close to him. He was conscious that a feeling +of peace had come to him, as if virtue had passed into him from those +unseen hands. Then suddenly he knew that Margaret was beside him; they +were standing together as they had stood together on the night when +they plighted their troth. He could hear her saying, "I have come to +you, Mike. You called me and so I came." He could feel the divine +beauty of her passion, the exquisite wonder of her love. Her presence +was as real and helpful to him as though his arms encircled her +material body. + +In the midst of his happiness a sense of shame overwhelmed him. +Margaret had come to him because she understood; his sense of shame +evoked her sympathy. He heard her say, "But Mike, I shall understand. +I think something outside myself will help me to understand." + +He could see her starlit face. He remembered how he had turned it up +to the heavens and said, "You beautiful Meg, the stars adore you!" His +own words rang in his ears. + +She had come to help him to make his love for her still more complete. +She was with him still. He enfolded her in his arms and wept out his +passion on her breast. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +"Let's begin where we left off yesterday, Mike," Millicent said. + +They had finished their lunch and were sitting in the desert watching +the "common or garden" day's idleness of the inhabitants of a Bedouin +camp. The tents were huddled together under the shade of some +feathery-leaved palm-trees, a typical desert homestead. + +They had made a short excursion from the site of their own camp, for +the sick man's condition had necessitated their halting for at least +one whole day. + +Subtly conscious of the fact that Satan finds some mischief even in the +desert for idle hands to do, Michael had suggested a picnic to a small +oasis which lay to the west of their route. Millicent and her dragoman +and her servants still formed a part of his camp; her splendid supply +of food and medicines was so valuable for the saint that Michael's +silent consent to her presence had been given. Again he was drifting. + +"Let us return to where we left off yesterday," referred to her +suggestion of the evening before that they should tell each other of +the most English thing they could imagine, things seen in England as in +comparison to things seen in Egypt. + +It was a typically Eastern scene which lay before them--the yellow +sands of the Arabian desert, the dark palm-trees and the picturesque +Bedouins idling under the shelter of the palms. Not one of the group +was occupied. Some goats and a great number of naked children were +lying about on the sand. The purple shadows of the palm-trees +intensified the bareness of the sunny desert. + +One little figure, with a very protruding stomach, and a very large +white metal disc on her dark chest for her only article of attire, +suddenly appeared in front of them. Silently she had risen up out of +the hot sand at their feet. Her big eyes stared at the two strange +beings whom she had been brave enough to approach. When Millicent +spoke to her she screamed and flew back to her mother's side. The +woman looked like a man, clean-limbed and as tanned as leather. Her +tent was supported by two sticks; to enter it she had to bend almost +double. + +The naked child had appeared so suddenly and it had run away so +swiftly, that Millicent laughed like a child. It really was a +delicious bit of nature. The metal disc shone like a small sun. + +"What a 'tummy'!" she said. Her laughter was contagious. "Just like a +baby blackbird's before it has got its feathers. And that big silver +disc!--like the family plate on the family chest." + +"It's protection from all evil, poor wee mite." + +"What a filthy-looking hovel," Millicent said. "Worse than a +gipsy-tent in England." + +"And yet it's a home," Michael said. "And there are no more passionate +lovers of home than these tent-women, or more hospitable people." + +"Do these date-trees bear fruit?" Millicent asked the practical +question irrelevantly. Her mind was charged with new interests, while +her eyes looked at the soaring trees. The tent-dwellers interested +her. She would like to have questioned them about all sorts of +intimate subjects. + +"Rather! These people pay taxes, too." + +"Really? Isn't there any spot on the globe where people can just live +as they like, where they can get away from income-tax and authorities?" + +"I don't know if the Bedouins pay any tent-taxes, but I suppose that if +they didn't aspire to owning date-palms, they could live in the arid +desert without paying anybody anything. It's the old, old, unchanging +subject--water." + +Millicent lapsed into silence. Her chin was resting on her hands; she +was lying face downwards on the sand. Michael was resting beside her. +Hassan and the few servants they had taken with them to attend to their +picnic-lunch were fast asleep. The camels and mules made a picturesque +note in the distance. On Millicent's camel a pale blue sheepskin rug +covered the fine saddle; it looked like a patch of the heavens dropped +down to earth. + +"I know what is the most English thing I can think of," she said, "the +most English thing compared to all this Easternness--how I adore it, +Mike!" + +"The English thing you've thought of, or the Easternness?" + +"Oh, the Easternness. England's placid and fat and bountiful, but all +this throbbing emptiness----!" + +"Tell me your English scene," he said. Something in Millicent's eyes +drove him into speech. He, too, knew the throbbing silence, the +solitude that thunders, the emptiness that is full of passion. + +"Well, first look at that tent and at those lazy, straight, +brown-limbed women--they are just a bit of nature. Summer and winter, +autumn and spring, will never change the scene. Look at that ocean of +sand, and the moving heat, passing like a wave over the desert. Take +off your blue glasses, Mike, and dare to look at the sun. Face your +great God Aton--look Him in the face." + +Michael was silent, but he took off his blue glasses. He was no eagle; +his eyes shrank from the world of blinding, unlimited light. + +"Now visualize a wee robin 'flirting,' as Wells says, across a green +English lawn." + +The suggestion called up a thousand memories. A cloud of home-sickness +dimmed the brightness of the sun. Michael could see a green, green +lawn and the figure of his mother busy at her flower-beds; the robin's +flirting was growing bolder; it was peeping up into her very face! The +smell of moisture came to his nostrils. + +"Nothing is more English than an English robin, Mike! In the autumn, +when it comes near the house, what a darling it is--so well-turned-out, +so fearless of humans!" + +"Nothing," Mike said, "unless it's my mother herself, in her gardening +gloves, cutting off the dead heads from the rose-beds." + +"But she's Irish!" + +"Well, I meant British. When you said things seen in England I +visualized _my_ robin in Ireland, juicy, green, luscious Ireland!" + +"Tell me about Ireland," Millicent said lightly. As she spoke, she +made a hole in the sand; she pushed her hand and wrist into it--her +gloves were off. She drove it in still further, until her elbow only +was above the sand; her arm was buried in the desert. + +"Take care of sand-flies," Michael said. Millicent's sleeve was rolled +up. + +"Are there any here? I've not been troubled with them." + +"No, probably not--they are the plague of Upper Egypt." + +"They were awful at Assuan. It's awfully hot, Michael!" Millicent +referred to the sand. She withdrew her arm. "Give me your hand--just +feel it." She pulled up his sleeve and took his hand. She held it in +her own and thrust it into the hot, soft sand. With her free hand she +pulled up her own sleeve and Michael's so as to allow their arms to +sink still further into the sand; they were bare to the elbow. Her +wrist and the palm of her hand were pressed close to Michael's. +Suddenly her hand ceased boring; she remained still, her soft fingers +embracing Michael's. Her eyes sought his. He read their invitation. + +"It's only our hands, Michael--let them rest." Her fingers tightened +round his as she spoke; her eyes challenged him. At the challenge his +pulses leapt, his hand ceased to resist. For two days he had been +playing with fire. In the wilderness that surrounded them what waters +would quench its leaping flames? + +Millicent's soft arm lay with his; it was human and caressing. Then a +fear came to him, born of a sudden intense hatred. She was such a +little thing. He could strangle her, crush her to atoms. That was the +way to put an end to it all. + +The next moment Millicent was alarmed, terribly frightened. She was in +Michael's arms. He was crushing her, crushing her to atoms. It was +not a lover's embrace; it was the mad fury of a roused mystic. Would +he crush her until he killed her? + +"Don't, Mike, you'll choke me! You are choking me now. Do you want to +kill me?" + +"I could," he said. "And I'd like to!" He flung her from him on the +soft sand. "Go away," he said. "Leave me and my camp for good and +all!" His words were broken, mere breathless ejaculations. His eyes +made a coward of the reckless woman, but she collected her quick wits. + +She lay where he had flung her. She was not hurt or even stunned, but +she knew that if she lay there in the position in which he had flung +her, presently he would come to her and ask her if he had been too +brutal. She traded on his tenderness to women, his horror of +inflicting pain. + +She lay motionless, the blue sky above her, the yellow sands stretching +to the far-off horizon. She had tempted him willingly, deliberately. +Something had compelled her to test her power. Her annoyance at his +apparent indifference to her presence had become too poignant to hide +any longer. Anger was exhausting her nerves. She was conscious that +she had burnt her boats, that her tactics were at fault. + +Michael did not look at her. He was conscious of nothing in the world +but an unbearable contempt for his own manhood. Why had he not driven +her away long before this? Why had he silently acquiesced to her +companionship? + +Despising her as he did, why was she able to lower him in his own eyes? +Why did he tolerate her? Why had she any qualities which appealed to +him? Why, oh why was she just what she was? He hated her at the +moment, but he hated himself still more. When they got back to the +camp he would tell Hassan that their ways must lie apart. And now, at +this very instant, he would go and tell her that she must leave; he +must have it out with her. + +He went to her and stooped over her. "Millicent," he said, "I want to +speak to you." + +"Yes, Mike." + +"Get up and look at me. I want you to listen." + +Still Millicent lay perfectly motionless. "I am listening." + +He knelt down beside her. "Have I hurt you?" + +A little groan was all her answer. Michael turned her face to his. +His hands were on her shoulders. She winced. + +"Have I hurt you? I am sorry. I was too rough." + +Millicent raised herself to her knees. Her face was tense, agonized. +She put her hands up to her head and held it. + +Michael thought he heard a sob. Shame or pain convulsed her body; she +rocked herself backwards and forwards. + +"I am sorry I was so brutal," he said. "But you deserved it. I had to +do it. I always have to be unkind--you are so foolish." + +Still Millicent wept. She removed her hands and gazed at him with wet, +mournful eyes. Michael put his arm round her and tried to raise her. + +"You were very naughty--why were you so naughty?" + +One of his arms was supporting her as she struggled to her feet. The +next instant Millicent swung herself nimbly round and flung herself on +his breast. He was helpless. Her hands were clasped behind his head. + +"You wanted to kill me, Mike." Her fingers slipped round his throat. +"And now I should like to kill you, yes, kill you! Strangle you and +leave your austere, ascetic body for the vultures to enjoy!" + +Mike tried to shake her off, to unclasp her hands. She was as strong +as a young leopard. + +"I would," she said. "For I hate you and despise you! + +"Then leave me," he said. "I wish to God you would!" + +"Ah, but I won't!" The cry came from Millicent savagely. "I won't +leave you, not until my will has subjected yours! Before I leave your +camp you will have been my lover--mystic, aesthetic, dreamer, drifter!" + +"Never!" Michael said. "Never, never that!" + +Still Millicent clung to him. Her angry words blew her hot breath over +his cheeks. + +"You are not altogether the ascetic or the saint you appear to be. You +have scorned my love. I will break your will. I will humble you in +your own fine estimation of yourself. When I take it into my head to +do a thing, I generally accomplish it." + +Michael disengaged her hands with a tremendous wrench. If he hurt her +thumbs he could not help it. He held her from him at arm's length and +shook her, shook her as though she was a naughty child in a paroxysm of +passion which had to be subdued by extreme severity. + +"You little devil!" he said. "You'll leave my camp at once, this very +day! I've had more than enough of you!" + +Millicent's eyes, as unflinching as Michael's, laughed triumphantly. + +"What about my food and medicine for your sick man, your valuable guide +to the hidden treasure? You can't afford to let him slip through your +hands!" + +Michael's eyes dropped. He had allowed Millicent to remain +unquestioned, even willingly, as a member of his expedition, since the +sick man was in need of the delicate food and medicine her equipment +contained. + +As his eyes dropped, he asked her what she knew about the hidden +treasure. He had only told her about the tomb of Akhnaton; he had +particularly refrained from mentioning the Pharaoh's hidden store. + +"How did I get to know all I wanted to know?" She glanced at him +tauntingly. "It wasn't quite all my love for you, dear man! Perhaps +I, too, wished to pick up some of the jewels in King Solomon's Mines!" + +"I never mentioned them to you--what do you know about them?" + +"What about the precious jewel in the saint's ear--the oriental +amethyst, the ninth jewel in the high priest's breast-plate, as +mentioned in Exodus, 'and the third row a ligure, an agate, and an +amethyst'?" Millicent trilled off the text laughingly. + +"You have stooped to spying," he said. "You have an eavesdropper in +your camp?" + +"'Verily those who do deeds of real goodness shall drink of a cup +tempered with camphor'! Well, is it tempered enough, Michael?" She +laughed mockingly, derisively. "Was the deed pure goodness? Was this +fanatic not the 'favoured of God' who was to lead you to Akhnaton's +treasure?" + +"Go!" he cried. "I have heard enough!" + +"And take all my provisions and medicines with me!" + +"We must do the best we can for him without your luxuries, if you have +no mercy, no heart for the suffering." + +"And how are you going to get rid of me?" + +"You are going. I don't know how, but you're going." + +"What if I refuse to go?" + +"You won't." + +Millicent laughed. + +"You won't," he repeated. "You must go. You can't stay." + +"And why?" + +"Because. . . ." Michael hesitated. "Because . . . you know . . . you +know why . . . you know, what you have just said." + +"Because you are afraid you will end by being my lover?" + +"No. Because I wish to be free of spies and hindrances." + +"Then I do hinder? You know my spying has not hurt you!" Her eyes +glowed. + +Michael gazed sternly into them. He never lied. With him the truth +was instinctive, masterful; it was the keynote of his religion. "Yes," +he said. "You are a spiritual hindrance. I am a human man--you are a +sensual woman. You have determined to do everything in your power to +keep me ever mindful of the fact. Because I love Margaret Lampton and +I do not love you, you have determined to make me unworthy of her, you +have trapped me and tricked me and followed me into the wilderness." + +"You must admit I managed that part of the job very neatly." +Millicent's words were brave, but a little fear had crept into her +heart. Michael was in no mood for trifling. Her game was lost. + +"How did you do it?" he said. His hands tightened; they held her +shoulders. The gentle aesthete was a furious Celt. He wished that it +was a man with whom he was dealing. + +Still Millicent was brave, her voice scornful. "_Baksheesh_--the +moving finger in the East." + +"You contemptible creature!" he said. "Who did you pay?" + +"That would be telling." + +"I know it would," he said. "And you are going to tell me." He held +her with painful firmness. + +Millicent's courage gave way. Michael's eyes alarmed her. Something +in them warned her that, once roused, he was a dangerous man to trifle +with. There is not an immeasurable distance between the mystic and the +madman. The pressure of his fingers on her shoulders warned her of his +strength; his thumb was like a turnscrew. + +"Who did you pay?" he asked. "Tell me, or you will regret it." His +grasp became an agony. + +"Mohammed Ali," Millicent murmured. "He showed me Margaret's diary." + +Michael groaned. "You little beast!" he cried. "You mean little +beast!" + +Millicent burst into a flood of weeping. She knew that it was her only +chance, a woman's deadliest weapon with such a man. "I loved you so! +Oh, Mike, I loved you so! Can't you understand? Is there no humanity +in you? Is your nature so devoid of passion, of human love, that you +can't understand the mad heights and the depths it can lead you to? I +have never been given the chance of rising to the heights." + +Mike heard her sobs. He saw her beautiful body convulsed with anguish. +The real woman was there at his feet, a weak creature, whose love for +himself had driven her to do these deeds he despised. He felt that he +was in a manner to blame; for him she had sunk to this degradation. + +"I am so ashamed, Mike, but for days my shame has been drowned in +anger. I followed you and trapped you and spied upon you." She looked +up pleadingly. "And I'd do it all over again, even worse, Mike, I know +I would, even though I am despicable in my own eyes." + +"Don't!" he said. "It has become a madness with you, an obsession." + +"Love is a madness," she said. "It is an obsession. It is devouring +me. No one can judge of its power until they have felt it." + +He sat down beside her. "Millicent," he said gently, "have you ever +thought of praying, of asking for help?" He paused. "You poor, poor +soul, have you ever in your life tried to reach your higher self, to +get away from all this?" + +"No, never." The words came frankly. "First let me enjoy this human +love, Michael." Her eyes pleaded. "Then I may try to be as you are, +but not till then." + +"It would be no enjoyment," he said. "Only a hideous mockery, a wilful +lowering of your better self." + +"Not of my better self, Mike--not really. I might rise to higher +things afterwards, with that one beautiful memory to help me, an Eden +in the desert." Her voice was humble; her eyes swam with tears--a +beautiful Magdalen. + +"Poor little soul!" he said. "Poor little Millicent!" + +"Yes, Mike, poor little soul, poor lonely soul!" + +"I wish I could do something to help you, show you that there is a +higher, stronger support than any poor love of mine." + +"But I don't want it--at least, not now. It doesn't appeal to me. I +don't want it, for if I tried to be better, I'd have to try to kill my +desire for you, and even if it gives me no happiness, I'd rather have +it than kill it. I couldn't relinquish it. It would be giving up the +only thing I have of you--my poor, unwanted wanting of you." + +"What can I say? What can I do?" Michael was in despair. "How can I +help you?" + +This humble, tearful Millicent made him wretched. He felt guilty and +unkind. He was the innocent cause of her unhappiness. It was not +possible to be human and remain untouched by her passion for himself. +Yet he knew that he must not allow her to know that, or how his heart +ached for her. Her spiritual loneliness horrified him. She had +absolutely nothing to turn to, nothing to rely upon. Her religious +observances were mere conventional occupations. And yet mixed up in +the woman there was a mental quality very rare and sympathetic, a +strange fitful brilliance, extremely pleasing. Once or twice on their +journey she had expressed the peculiar quality of the scenery in words +which were not far off prose poems. It had puzzled him to know how her +intellectual refinement could dwell in the same temple as her low +characteristics. + +"I don't know, Mike." Her voice was very gentle. "I don't see how you +can help me." + +"I can pray," he said. "I will pray. Perhaps that is where I have +been to blame. I have left you out of my prayers." + +Millicent looked at him. Her eyes questioned. + +"I have thought only of myself, my own safety, the keeping of my +thoughts pure and true to Meg, my fight for self-control." + +"Oh, Mike!" Millicent's voice was crushed, envious. + +"I should have tried to help you as well. We can all help each other +by prayers and thoughts and beliefs, belief in the kingdom of God which +is in us. I behaved as if you were not divine, Millicent." + +"I'm not. How can I be divine? I am absolutely worldly--I've no wish +for your divine love!" + +"Divinity is in you," he said. "It is yours, you cannot get away from +it." He paused. "You were ashamed just now--that was the light which +cannot be put out. Now, every day, I will try to be less selfish, I +will pray for you. Prayer will help to bring you into the light. Soon +you will begin to peep into the kingdom of God which is in you. You +will see how wonderful it is. Love will hold out its arms to you from +every passing cloud, from every comer of the wilderness. I am to +blame, for I only tried to banish you, instead of helping you. I must +begin to-day. We must all help each other by our thoughts as well as +by our actions. Do you understand? I, who ought to have known better, +have failed." + +Millicent took his hand and raised it to her lips. "Why should God +have so blessed Margaret Lampton?" she said. "She is your 'guarded +lady,' as Hassan would say." + +"When you know her better, you will see that it is not Meg, but I, who +have been blessed, I who have reason to be thankful. Margaret's +thoughts constantly reach me; they have helped me over and over again." + +"Will you forgive me, Mike?" + +"Of course I will," he said. "Else how could I help you?" + +"It's your very goodness I love, Michael. I realize that. And yet how +horribly I have tried to spoil it!" + +"We are going to start afresh, we understand each other." He looked at +her with sincere eyes. "Isn't that so? Do you want me for your +friend, Millicent?" + +"More than anything in the world . . . except . . ." she paused. +". . . except . . ." + +His eyes held hers; they became stern. "We have settled all that. You +know now that it can never be, and if I am to be your friend, you must +forget all that you have ever said." + +"Yes, yes--the crumbs, Mike, they are sweeter than nothing." + +"My help," he said, "and sympathy--that is what I can give you." + +"And may I remain in your camp for a little time?" + +"No." His voice was firm. "We must part. But that will make no +difference. I will help you, I promise. I can help you as Margaret +helps me." + +Millicent made no demur. It was useless. "Will the saint be well +enough to travel to-morrow, do you think?" + +"I don't know. His headache was better this morning. If he can retain +some food, he may soon pick up." + +"And you will go on to Akhnaton's tomb?" Millicent did not refer to +the buried treasure. + +"Whenever he is better." Michael looked at his watch. "We had better +be going back," he said. "I want to make preparations." + +"And I am to return to civilization!" + +Michael did not answer. He called Hassan. "We are ready, Hassan," he +said. + +In a short time they were off. + +Before mounting her camel Millicent said: "Thank you, Michael. I don't +deserve your kindness." + +On their homeward journey Michael's heart held many a prayer. He was +no longer merely to turn this woman out of his thoughts, to thrust her +behind him, a thing of Satan. He was to help her. He was to help her +until such a time as she could help herself. He was to bring her mind +to the consciousness of the truth. He was to reveal to her, by his +prayers, what Akhnaton taught his people--that God is happiness, God is +beauty, God is Love. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +It was close upon sundown when Michael and Millicent got back to the +camp. Abdul had come a little way to meet them. To an observant eye, +the calm of his Eastern countenance showed some anxiety. Millicent did +not see it. Michael was riding on ahead when Abdul met him. Abdul +turned his mule and rode by his master's side. + +"You have something to tell me, Abdul?" + +"_Aiwah_, Effendi, I have something to tell you." + +They increased the space between themselves and the camels which were +following them in Indian file. Abdul spoke in Arabic, as he always did +to his master. When he had confided his secret to Michael he lapsed +into silence. The Effendi looked very grave. The news was far from +pleasant. + +"You need not tell Madam," Michael said. "Not until you are quite +sure, Abdul. It will only alarm her." + +"_Aiwah_, Effendi, I gave it to your ears alone." + +"How is he?" Michael referred to the saint. + +"His temperature has fallen--head no longer aches. That is always the +case." + +"You have done all that is necessary?" + +"All I could do, Effendi. Madam has good medicines, praise be to +Allah! We can be hopeful." + +They rode on to the camp in silence. Michael's thoughts were busy. +What would Millicent say? Would she be afraid? The idea was not +pleasant. + +When they had dismounted Michael went at once to see the saint and +Millicent hurried off to her tent to change her dusty garments for +daintier ones. She was still penitent and half-ashamed. Who knows but +that Michael's efforts to help her were already beginning to bear +fruit? If thoughts can purify, Millicent's heart should have been as +fair as a white lotus flower whose roots are in the mud. Michael's +thoughts had baptized it. + +When she had tidied up and was beautifully fresh in her snow-white +muslin frock, she went outside and waited for the dinner-gong to sound. +Even that item of civilization had not been forgotten--it is true it +was only a drum, an earthen _darabukkeh_, but it filled its purpose +well. Its dull thud, thud, had scarcely ceased vibrating the air when +Michael appeared. As he came towards her, Millicent went to meet him. +He had not yet changed his day clothes. + +"Don't come near me!" he called out. "Not any further." + +"Why not?" Millicent said. "What's the matter? Are you stricken with +the plague?" She spoke laughingly. + +Michael stopped within a few feet of her. "Perhaps I am stricken with +the smallpox," he said. "The saint has got it--it may be of a very +malignant order. We don't know." + +Every vestige of colour left Millicent's face. She felt sick. "And +you have been to him? You touched him!" + +"Of course. I wished to judge for myself. There is no doubt about it." + +"M-i-c-h-a-e-l!" The word was a long-drawn-out expression of horror. +A wave of inexpressible terror and disgust overwhelmed Millicent; she +could scarcely speak or move. "You knew, and yet you went to him. How +could you, oh, how could you?" + +He scarcely heard her. "These natives who have never been vaccinated +take it very badly. Smallpox is a scourge with all Africans, from the +north to the south." + +Millicent's mind was now working furiously. She did not wish to let +Michael see how terrified she was, or how angry. + +"Go and change," she said. "Go at once. Get Abdul to disinfect you--I +brought any amount of stuffs." + +"Oh, I'm all right--I'm not afraid. I was with him for a long time +last night. If I'm going to take it, the mischief's done." + +Millicent's quick mind travelled. Michael had been with this sick +saint the night before. He, Michael, might be a carrier of the +disease, even if he were immune from it himself. And she had been fool +enough to throw herself into his arms! Oh, what a fool! She might +even now be incubating the horrible, loathsome disease. She was +soul-sick. Her fear and rage were inseparable. But she must, of +course, make a good show. + +"Never mind, Mike, about last night. Probably the disease was not at +such an infectious stage as it is now--you may not have contracted it. +Take what precautions you can--go quickly and disinfect yourself. Are +you really sure it's smallpox?" She said the last words with a +shudder. "Ugh! it's horrible!" + +"Yes," Michael said. "The spots have appeared on his wrists and at the +back of his neck. Abdul knows the beastly disease only too well--the +vomiting and the headaches and the fall in the temperature. It appears +that he told Abdul that he had been very, very sick for some days +before we met him. But malaria might have accounted for the +sickness--and the headaches. No one could have diagnosed it until the +spots appeared. Abdul's not to blame." + +"What are you going to do?" Millicent said. "Stick to him? I suppose +you will!" she shivered. + +"I will isolate his tent. I can't go on and leave him here, if you +mean that." + +"Oh, you're crazy! Think of Margaret, if you won't think of yourself!" + +"She wouldn't have me do it." + +"Leave one or two of the men behind with him. It's absurd, running +such a risk. He will probably die, in any case." + +"When I needed his help I meant to stick to him. When he now needs +mine, am I to desert him? You said my goodness was not disinterested. +It was not, but I can't stoop to that." + +"If these Moslems really think he's a saint, they'll nurse him +faithfully. I'll pay them what they ask--anything." + +"Money isn't everything, Millicent--surely you know that?" + +"It can do a great deal. If you hadn't met him, he'd have died." + +"But I have met him. Doesn't that show that I am entrusted with his +welfare?" + +"A chance meeting." + +"That absurd word! By chance you mean such a big thing that your mind +can't imagine it! You choose to call a link in the Divine Chain +chance! the Chance which gives life, the Master of that which is +ordained, you mean!" + +"You can't nurse him, you can't do anything more for him than see that +he has all that he wants. 'The faithful' will carry out your +instructions. Do be practical, reasonable." + +"It's no use, Millicent, I can't leave him. I won't." Michael +shivered. "It's chilly. Let's go and eat our dinner." + +"You must change first--I insist. It's only right to others." + +"Then don't wait for me." + +"Oh yes, I will. Only be quick." Millicent knew that she was too sick +with fear to eat and enjoy the excellent dinner which had been prepared +for them. As she waited for Michael, she cursed her own folly, her own +abominable bad luck. If Michael was a carrier, she had no chance, +unless she was one of those rare people who are immune from the +disease. She did not think she was, because when she was last +vaccinated, when she was fifteen, she had been very, very ill and sick. +She felt physically tired, for her brain was quick. It was imagining +horrible things. She was visualizing her own beauty spoilt, her fair +skin deeply pitted with pock-marks, her colour all gone. The disease +would take the glitter from her hair, the glow from her personality. +She knew the result of smallpox. She saw herself, a little, +washed-out, yellow-skinned woman, with weak eyes and drab-coloured hair. + +Oh, why had she ever called Michael's attention to the saint? If he +had not gone to his rescue, he would have died where he fell, bathed in +the blood-red light of the afterglow. Why had Michael been such a fool +as to touch him and nurse him? Had she not warned him that the fanatic +was filthy and probably infectious? And, to make matters still worse, +to leave no room for chance, she had of her own will flung herself into +Michael's arms! Her determination to subject his will to hers, to +triumph over Margaret, had brought her to this! Michael was further +from her than ever. She had disgusted him; his only thought for her +now was his desire to make her as religious as himself. She had to +admit her defeat. + +And this was how it had ended! Michael, the mystic, the quixotic +idiot, had taken into his camp a creature sick with smallpox, and she, +Millicent, had probably contracted it by her act of rashness! The +desert seemed scarcely large enough to hold her anger. It stifled and +exhausted her. + +During dinner very little was spoken between the two, for Millicent was +devastated by her own terrors and Michael was making plans for the sick +man's isolation. His tent must remain where it was, while Michael's +own, and all the servants', except those inhabited by the men who +wished to nurse the saint, must be moved to a safe distance. +Millicent's going was driven from his mind. + +Millicent was thankful that Michael did not notice how little she ate +at dinner. The servant did; nothing passes a native's eye. He knew +the woman's terror. + +Soon after their coffee was served they separated, Millicent going to +her own tent and Michael to consult with Abdul. When Millicent reached +her tent and had managed to compose her mind, she sent for Hassan. +Half an hour later he left her. He had much to do. The _Sitt's_ +orders were comprehensive. + + * * * * * * + +Michael went early to bed. He was very tired. At about two o'clock in +the morning he stirred in his sleep. Was he hearing the distant sound +of camels roaring, or was he dreaming? He was too lazy to find out. +If there were jackals prowling about, the night-guards would see to +them. Undoubtedly something had disturbed him, for as a rule he slept +without moving the long night through. + +Conscious of feeling deliciously sleepy and totally indifferent to +anything but his own comfort, he soon fell asleep again. In his dreams +he heard again the liquid sound of bells--mule bells and camel +bells--growing fainter and fainter as the animals travelled into the +distance. + + * * * * * * + +In the morning, when he awoke, it was with a new lightness of spirit +and refreshed vitality. A sense of freedom exalted him, a subconscious +freedom, which had been absent for some days. The glory of the desert +called to him. He felt spiritually and physically vitalized. + +Even the recollection of the nature of the saint's illness did not damp +his spirits. He would recover with careful nursing, and when he was +better they would go on their way rejoicing. The Promised Land seemed +nearer. + +It was scarcely time for his early cup of tea, yet he saw Abdul +bringing it. Perhaps the joy of life had waked him, too, perhaps he +also was eager to get up and greet the morn. What a wonderful morning +it was! All pure, cool, clear sunlight. Michael's heart, a throbbing +organ of praise, sent forth a paean to the pagan skies. + +"Is the Effendi awake? May his servant enter?" + +"Yes, Abdul, come in." + +Abdul entered with the noiseless movements of his race. As he stood by +his master's bed, Michael saw that the unemotional native was +attempting to hide his anger. Something had greatly upset him. + +"What is it, Abdul? Has anyone been unkind to the saint?" + +"_Aiwah_, Effendi, it is not that." Abdul spoke lengthily and in the +correct Arabic fashion. He must not approach the subject too quickly. + +"Tell me," Michael said. "What troubles you, Abdul?" + +"_Aiwah_, Effendi, the honourable _Sitt_ has left you. She has +gone--there is no trace of her camp." + +"What?" Michael jumped out of bed. "The _Sitt_ has gone? No sign of +her camp?" + +"_Aiwah_, Effendi, that is so. Your servant offers his apologies for +bringing you bad news." + +To Abdul's eternal amazement, Michael burst into a roar of laughter, +hearty, unsuppressed enjoyment of a good joke. + +"Gone?" he repeated. "The _Sitt_ has gone, made a moonlight flitting? +The little devil!" + +Abdul's mystification was so complete that he could only salaam. + +"The little coward!" Michael said. "The miserable little coward!" + +He spoke so rapidly, and in English, that Abdul could not fully +understand. Indeed, he was totally at a loss to comprehend anything of +the situation. It baffled him. His master actually seemed pleased and +highly amused at the cowardly conduct of his mistress! + +"When did the _Sitt_ leave the camp, Abdul?" + +"At about two o'clock this morning, Effendi. She has taken everything +with her," he threw up his hands. "Her medicines, her delicate food, +everything we need for the saint." + +"Curse her!" Michael said. "What a dirty trick!" + +"The _Sitt_ was very much afraid, Effendi." + +"Well, perhaps that was quite natural, Abdul. But to take everything +away! What shall we do without her tins of milk, her medicine-chest?" + +"_Insha Allah_, we will save the 'favoured of God,' Effendi. There in +the Bedouin camp they will give us milk--they have goats." + +"How is he this morning?" + +"The Answerer of Prayer has heard the cry of His children. He has +again bestowed upon us His everlasting mercy, His compassion is +infinite." + +"The saint is better?" + +"The malady is running its course. _Insha Allah_, it will do so +without any complications. The pox now appears on his back and body. +The condition of the saint's general health is not such as to cause any +undue anxiety to the Effendi." + +"Is he conscious?" + +"His thoughts are in heaven, but his mind is clearer, praise be to +Allah." + +"And the _Sitt_?" Michael said. "How did she get away?" + +"She gave minute instructions to Hassan early in the evening." Abdul +salaamed. "_Aiwah_, honourable Effendi, you will be relieved of a +double anxiety--the _Sitt_ was greatly afraid." + +"Yes, Abdul, I'm thankful, very thankful." Michael stretched out his +arms and breathed a deep breath of freedom. Thank God she had gone, +gone of her own free will! This, then, was the meaning of his sense of +liberation. The white tent was there no longer. It had vanished. + +Then he remembered having stirred in his sleep. The bells he had heard +were the bells on the animals which were carrying the frightened +Millicent. Her _hijrah_ had not been achieved without affecting his +subconscious mind. + +Meanwhile, Abdul was studying his master's mind. He was reading his +thoughts as one reads a story from the illustrations of a book. He saw +relief and freedom--and, above all, thankfulness. His master's +besetting sin was his dislike of scenes, his hypersensitiveness in the +matter of causing pain to others, the desire to surround himself with +happiness. + +"_Gehenna_ to the harlot!" he said to himself. "_Insha Allah_, she +will regret last night's work, even though it may benefit the Effendi!" + +"You will be lonely, Effendi," he said. "But without the honourable +_Sitt_ your work will progress. Women are a hindrance to men's minds, +an anxiety." + +"I am well pleased, Abdul. We were not lonely before Madam came." + +"_Aiwah_, Effendi, there was the prospect of the meeting with the +honourable _Sitt_. Now there is desolation." + +"I did not seek the meeting, Abdul. All is well." + +"_Insha Allah_, things will progress more favourably." + +Abdul left his master. He had learned all that he wanted to know. The +Effendi did not love the harlot. He knew now that the woman had +followed Michael, and that she had got wind of the hidden treasure. + +When he was alone, he gazed at the shrunken encampment. The white tent +was there no longer; the place was rid of the woman and her luxuries. +Had she decamped with two ends in view--to get away from the infected +spot and to anticipate the Effendi in his search? + +"_Gehenna!_" he said again. "I did not tell the honourable Effendi +that the linen sheets in which the saint slept last night belonged to +the _Sitt_--that they are packed with her clothes which she will wear +again! She has made her own bed--let her sleep in it. Hassan will see +to that." + +The distance of the flat desert had obliterated Millicent's cavalcade. +Was it journeying towards civilization, hurrying from the plague-spot +in the desert, or was it going to the hills behind Akhnaton's city? + +When Michael had hurried to the saint the night before and had shown +himself totally fearless and unmindful of his own welfare, the saint +had implored him to leave him. He knew the danger and the awfulness of +smallpox; he knew the risk the Englishman was running. + +When Michael made him understand that he had no intention of leaving +him, that he was going to wait for him until he was better, the sick +man was overwhelmed with gratitude. He told Michael that he would show +him, if Allah permitted, the place in the hills where the hidden +treasure lay. But in case it should please the Giver of Death to allow +His servant to look upon the beauty of His face (which was the sick +man's way of saying in case he should die), he would beg of the Effendi +to listen to what he had to tell him. + +"While my memory is clear, while the All-Merciful permits me to speak +to the Effendi, I will instruct him, the treasure shall be his." + +Had the saint's instructions been passed on to Millicent's ears? Were +her fast-moving camels bearing her to the crocks of fine gold and the +wealth of jewels which the hermit of el-Azhar had visualized? + +The fate of every man hangs round his neck. If Allah had willed it? + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +The saint was dead. At dawn his soul had passed into _Barzakh_, or the +second world, the intermediate state between the present life and the +resurrection. + +While administering to him, Abdul's anxious ears heard the ominous +rattle in the dying man's throat, he turned his face Mecca-wards and +reverently closed his eyes. At the same moment the faithful who had +gathered round him--among whom were some of the inhabitants of the +Bedouin village, for the presence of the hermit-saint in the +foreigner's camp was known--in one voice acclaimed ecstatically: + +"Allah! Allah! There is no strength nor power but in God. To God we +belong, to Him we must return! God have mercy on him. _La ilaha +illallah_." + +His death had taken place one hour before sunrise; it was now one hour +before sunset and Michael was sitting on a little knoll in the desert, +watching the mourners return from the funeral of the holy man. It was +a very simple affair, far different from the splendid ceremony which +would have been accorded him if he had died near a city or of a less +contagious malady. There were no hired mourners, no fine trappings on +the bier, no wild women whose quavering "joy-cries" (_zaghareet_) rent +the air with their shrill voices. + +The little procession which followed the emaciated corpse to its last +resting-place in God's wide acre of sand and sky was composed of +sincere mourners. The corpse had been wrapped in white muslin and +enclosed in a white linen bag. When devout pilgrims or pious Moslems +go on a lengthy journey, they usually carry their grave-cloths with +them. The saint had not provided himself with even his shroud. As a +favoured of God, the clothes in which he would be buried would be +forthcoming; he took no thought for the morrow. All his life, by +Allah's guidance, men had provided for his simple wants. A +hermit-saint is never without his devotees. As a _welee_ he was worthy +of a costly funeral, but the nature of his death demanded immediate +burial. His fame would follow after. Michael knew that probably some +day a white tomb, like a miniature mosque, would mark the spot where +his bones had been laid to rest. And to that tomb, a conspicuous +object in the flat desert, with its white dome silhouetted against the +deep blue sky, devout pilgrims would travel, for many generations. + +Michael had not attended the funeral. He had consulted Abdul and they +had come to the conclusion that it would be wiser for him, as a +professing Christian, not to be present at the actual religious +ceremony. From a raised spot in the desert he had seen all that had +taken place. In accordance with Moslem superstition, the funeral had +been before sunset. All Moslems dislike a dead body remaining in the +house overnight; it is always, when circumstances permit, buried in the +evening of the day on which death has taken place. + +Abdul had told Michael that the dead man would, in all probability, +guide the bearers to the exact spot where they were to bury him; if +they were going in the wrong direction he would impel them to stop. +Michael had watched with interest to see if this would take place, if +the bearers halted or altered their course. Evidently the saint was +pleased with the spot they had selected, for they journeyed on +unhaltingly until they were lost to sight. + +And now the little procession was returning, in the fading sunlight. +The holy man's emaciated frame, enclosed in its white bag, lay under +the golden sand of the eastern desert. + +This desert burial seemed to Michael a very simple and beautiful method +of disposing of the dead. The dull chanting of the mourners had lent +an emotional note to the scene. It was a sad little incident, but one +totally free from the ordinary melancholy which attends a Western +burial. For a Moslem, death has little horror. A pilgrim in the +desert, when he knows that his death is approaching, either from +fatigue or exhaustion or some disease, will dig his own grave and lay +himself down in it, covering his body up to his neck with sand. There +he will quietly, with Eastern philosophy, await his end. He knows that +the four winds will bring drifting sand to the spot where his body +lies; it will gather and gather, as it does against any excrescence, +until his body is well covered. In the desert many are the ships that +pass in the night. + +The saint had been in Michael's camp for a fortnight and during that +time no other member of the party had developed smallpox. Michael was +in blissful ignorance of the fact that the servant whom he had sent +back to Freddy Lampton's hut in the Valley of the Tombs of the Kings, +bearing a letter to Margaret, in which he had told her everything that +had happened--not omitting Millicent's visit and her sudden +departure--had never even reached Luxor. He had fallen sick by the way +and had died of smallpox in a desert village. He alone of the whole +party had contracted the disease. The letter which he carried was +burned by the _sheikh_ of the village, a wise and cautious man, who had +been called in to give his advice as to the treatment of the infectious +traveller. A _sheikh's_ duties are many and varied; he is indeed the +father of his village. The traveller had, of course, gone to the +hostel or rest-house for travellers in the village, where he was +entitled to one night's rest and food. + +It was during the long, anxious days when the saint hovered between +life and death that the true hospitality of the Bedouin camp was put to +the test. And it was not wanting; whatever was theirs to give they +gave with a beautiful hospitality. It was to them a pleasure and +satisfaction; Allah be praised that they were able to render any +service to the holy man and to help the stranger who had shown him so +great an act of charity. Eggs and milk and the flesh of young kids +they had in abundance, and these offerings they sent to the camp in +such quantities that Michael felt embarrassed and overwhelmed. Michael +knew that they are not a devout people, but in this instance their +instinctive hospitality, stimulated by their superstitions, served in +place of blind obedience to the teachings of the Koran, in which the +rules set forth on the subject of charity are splendid and far-reaching. + +The little figure with the silver disc and the protruding "tummy" had +become quite a familiar sight in his camp; it came and went with the +nervous agility of an antelope. + +On this evening, as Michael watched the party of mourners drawing +nearer and nearer to the camp, he tried to understand their thoughts. +He knew that each one of them believed exactly the same thing; their +spiritual ideas never strayed one letter from the Koran; their minds +had never thought for themselves--it would have been rank heresy so to +do. They were as certain now as though they had seen it there that the +saint's soul was in Barzakh. It had left this, the first world, the +world of earning and of the "first creation," the world where man earns +his reward for the good or bad deeds which he has done. In Barzakh the +saint would have a bright and luminous body, for such is the reward of +the pious. + +Was not this in keeping with the luminous appearance of Meg's vision? +Abdul had often told Michael that he himself had seen in this, the +"first world," the spirits of both evil and right doers, and that the +spirits of the evildoers were black and smoky, whereas the spirits of +the pious were luminous as a full moon. + +Michael envied the completeness of their belief, even while he pitied +them. They had evolved nothing for themselves; their salvation was +merely a matter of obeying the teachings of the Koran unquestioningly. +Obedience and surrender were their watchwords. How much better were +Akhnaton's "Love and the Companionship of God"! To walk and talk with +God, how much more enjoyable, how much more edifying to man's higher +self, than the mere obeying of His laws! Even though they prayed, +these simple Moslems, five times a day, they never recognized God's +voice in the song of the birds: they did not know that it was He Who +was singing--the birds were His mediums. In the winds of the desert, +heaven's wireless messengers, they caught no messages. What the Koran +did not specify did not enter into their religion or spiritual +understanding. + +Abdul approached his master. The saint was buried and the procession +of the faithful had gone to perform their various tasks; it was now +time to return to practical matters. Michael was amazed at his +cheerful expression. Abdul asked his master if it would suit him to +continue their journey the next day. Would he give instructions? + +Michael assented. A little of his ardour had vanished. "Yes, Abdul," +he said. "I suppose we must be going on our way. It is sad to leave +this camp, where we have witnessed such a wonderful example of humility +and singleness of purpose. Don't you shrink from leaving him to such +utter desolation?" + +"_Aiwah_, Effendi, but you know there is joy for us all, not sadness. +The beloved ones of God do not die with their physical death, for they +have their means of sustenance with them." + +"In the second world, Abdul, is your saint already tasting the joys of +paradise?" + +"_Aiwah_, Effendi. Punishments and rewards are bestowed immediately +after death, and those whose proper place is hell are brought to hell, +while those who deserve paradise are brought to paradise." + +"Then in the third world, what greater rewards are there than the +pleasures of paradise? Surely that is infinite happiness?" + +"The manifestation of the highest glory of God--that is the supreme +reward, Effendi, the meeting of God face to face." + +"Then in paradise, in the second world, the saint will not yet see God?" + +"_La_, Effendi. The day of resurrection is the day of the complete +manifestation of God's glory, when everyone shall become perfectly +aware of the existence of God. On that day every person shall have a +complete and open reward for his actions. He shall actually see God." + +Michael's thoughts flew to the vision of Akhnaton. If the luminous +state was significant of Barzakh, or the second world, perhaps it was +only during that period that the spirits were able to return to earth. +He was never forgetful of the fact that in Eternity time cannot be +measured, yet three thousand years spent in the second world seemed to +his human mind a long time of waiting! + +They were walking together towards the camp. + +"_Aiwah_, Effendi," Abdul said, "to-morrow we depart at dawn?--the +weather grows hotter." + +"Yes, Abdul, at dawn. I will be ready--never fear." + +"Has the Effendi ever allowed himself to think that the honourable +_Sitt_ who left him two weeks ago may have journeyed to the hidden +treasure?" + +Michael stared. "No, Abdul, no, I have never thought of such a thing." + +"The Effendi has a beautiful mind. The beloved saint, whom Allah has +seen fit to remove from our sight, had a heart no more free from evil." + +"But, Abdul. . . ." Michael stopped. His mind was suddenly filled +with new thoughts. Abdul's suggestion had opened up a deep chasm of +ugly suspicions; his whole being seemed to have fallen into it. Abdul +waited. + +"Madam was terrified--she was flying from the danger of smallpox. She +would think of nothing but of getting safely back to civilization, I +feel certain." + +"_Aiwah_, Effendi, but the honourable _Sitt_ has a woman's soul, and a +woman's soul has often been sold for gold and jewels and much fine +raiment." + +"That is true, Abdul." + +Had not Millicent stooped to the lowest means of trapping him and of +obtaining the information she desired? If she could do the one deed, +why not the other? + +But the idea was absurd. She was so totally ignorant of the geography +of the desert. She had had no more idea of where she was going than a +blind kitten. He reminded Abdul of the fact. + +"_Aiwah_, Effendi, but the honourable _Sitt_ had a spy in her camp. I +have seen him at his work." + +"What could he have discovered? You, I know, never discuss my +affairs--we have never even talked of them together." + +Abdul salaamed. "My master's secrets are his servant's." + +"Then how could he find out?" + +"Tents have ears, Effendi. The saint's voice was weak, but not too +weak for the super-ears of a spy. When the saint told the Effendi, +very secretly and minutely, how to find the hidden treasure, on that +night when he knew that Allah had decreed his death, Abdul was also +playing the part of a spy. He saw the servant of the honourable +_Sitt_, he saw his ear, and how it was placed at a little aperture in +the sick man's tent." + +Michael was silent for a few seconds. + +"_Ma lesh_! The Effendi need not trouble too much. I did not tell +him--there was nothing to be gained by causing my master unhappiness." + +"I am not troubling, Abdul. If it has been so willed that I am to +discover Akhnaton's treasure, even the spy of the cleverest woman on +earth will not prevent it. I am fatalist enough for that, Abdul!" + +"The Effendi is wise. Avarice destroys what the avaricious gathers. +Allah will reward the spy according to his merits." + +Michael smiled. "I'm afraid it is more my nature than my piety which +makes it easy for me to resign myself to the inevitable." + +"_Ma lesh_! The Effendi understates his obedience to God's will--there +is much good in patiently tolerating what you dislike." + +"There's another way of expressing the same thing, Abdul--Effendi +Lampton calls it 'drifting.' I am too like the desert sands, he +thinks. I am without ambition, I too easily accept what seems to me +the deciding finger of fate." + +"Content is prosperity, Effendi." + +"And we say that God helps those who help themselves." + +"_Aiwah_." Abdul smiled. "Our rendering of the proverb is more +beautiful--'God helps us so long as we help each other.' The Effendi +showed much charity--he helps others rather than himself." + +"My help was unworthy of mention, the merest human sympathy for the +helpless and suffering. Who could have done less?" + +"We consider sympathy the next best thing to a proper belief in God, +sympathy for others." Abdul bowed. "The Effendi has much sympathy--he +himself is not aware of how much." + +"Thank you, Abdul, but I do believe in God. I believe in Him so fully +and unreservedly that I often wonder why I am not a good man. +Sometimes I am not so bad, or I think I am not, for I am very conscious +of Him, He is very near to me. At other times the world is a +wilderness and God is very far." + +"We are never far from God, Effendi. We cannot be. He is closer to us +than the hairs of our head, there is nothing nearer than God." + +"I know that, Abdul, I know it, but yet these lapses come. I feel +alone, abandoned, useless, my life purposeless, wasted." + +"A man has no choice, Effendi, in settling the aims of his life. He +does not enter the world or leave it as he desires. The true aim of +his life consists in the knowing and worshipping of God and living for +His sake. Our Holy Book says, 'Verily the religion which gives a true +knowledge of God and directs in the most excellent way of His worship +is Islam. Islam responds to and supplies the demands of human nature, +and God has created man after the model of Islam and for Islam. He has +willed it that man should devote his faculties to the love, obedience +and worship of God, for it is for this reason that Almighty God has +granted him faculties which are suited to Islam.'" + +Michael listened with reverent attention. He knew that Abdul was +conferring a special favour on him in that he was actually quoting the +very words of the Holy Koran to a Christian. As a matter of fact, +Abdul had ceased to think of Michael as a Christian--from his Moslem +point of view, as an enemy of Islam. He rather considered his +condition as that of one who was searching for the Light and would +eventually enjoy the perfection of Islam. He knew that Michael did not +divide the honours of the one and only God; he believed, as Moslems +believe, that the Effendi Jesus was not the Son of God, but a prophet +to whom God had revealed Himself. + +When they parted for the night, Abdul was again the practical servant, +the excellent dragoman. By dawn the camp would be on its way to its +objective, the hills beyond the outline of the lost "City of the +Horizon." Abdul, the visionary and the pious Moslem, was as keen about +reaching Akhnaton's treasure as Pizarro was obsessed with the reports +of the wealth of Peru. + +For half of that short night Michael tried unsuccessfully to sleep. He +needed rest, for it had been a trying and eventful day, beginning with +the saint's death and ending with his solemn and picturesque burial. + +Sleep was indeed very far from him. His brain was too excited; his +nerves were beginning to feel the strain of the dry desert air. The +moment he closed his eyes he could see the emaciated frame of the dying +saint as he had last seen him, a few hours before his death. He could +hear with extraordinary persistence the cries of "Allah! Allah! There +is no strength nor power but in God. To God we belong, to Him we must +return." The words had never left the desert stillness; the air held +them and repeated them time after time. + +He could see Abdul reverently pull the eyelids over the death-glazed +eyes; he could see the weeping mourners perform the last ceremonies for +the dead saint. + +Then the scene would change to the one he had watched in the +evening--the white figures, with blue scarves of mourning wound round +their heads, bearing the saint reverently across the golden sands. + +How tender it had all been, how vivid the clear, open light of +uninterrupted space and cloudless sky! + +And now it was all over. He had met the holy man who was to lead him +to the secret spot where the treasure lay; he had heard from his lips +the account of how he had accidentally come across the crocks of gold, +when he had made for himself a dwelling-place in a cave in the heart of +the hills. The crocks were full of blocks of Nubian gold; the jewels +were in caskets which had fallen to pieces, even before his eyes, when +the winds of the desert had reached them. + +Was it all a wonderful dream? Had he really in his possession the +crimson amethyst, of Oriental beauty, which the saint had carried in +his ear? Was it locked in the belt-purse which he wore under his +clothes by day and laid under his pillow by night? He put his hand +below his pillow and opened the purse; no doubt his fingers would feel +the jewel. But what was there to tell him that it was really there, +that he was not the victim of some strange hallucination? Thoughts +were things. Had he thought about this treasure until it had become to +him an actual reality? + +Then vision after vision was forced upon his sight--Millicent in her +varying moods, the saint's ecstasies, the now familiar figures of the +Bedouin, bearing their offerings to the sick man, their polite and +beautiful expressions as they laid the eggs and milk at his feet. He +got so tired of the visualizing and recitation of all that he had seen +and heard during the days which he had spent in anxious uncertainty +that he could endure it no longer. + +He got up and lit his candle; things would seem more real in the light. +He stretched out his hand for the book which always lay near his bed. +The Open Road, his Bible and this little volume of selected verse +constituted his desert library. He wanted a poem which would +completely transfer his thoughts from the throbbing present, which +would change the arid desert and limitless space into green England, +with its enclosing hedges and leafy woods. His nerves were jaded; they +needed the relaxation of moderation. Knowing almost every poem in the +volume, he quickly found Bliss Carman's "Ode to the Daisies." His mind +recited it even before his eyes saw the words: + + "Over the shoulders and slopes to the dune + I saw the white daisies go down to the sea, + A host in the sunshine, an army in June, + The people God sends us to set our hearts free." + + +He read the next verse and then turned to Wordsworth's immortal lines: + + "I wandered lonely as a cloud . . ." + + +He read the poem through, although he knew each dear, familiar word of +it. Reading it helped his powers of concentration. It was amazing how +quickly the suggestion of the words soothed him. As clearly as he had +seen all the events of the day repeating themselves, he now saw the +host of golden daffodils, + + "Beside the lake, beneath the trees." + + +They obliterated the desert, with its immortal voices, its passionate +appeals. He was no longer wandering lonely as a cloud. He was happy, +he was one with the dancing daffodils, as he watched them + + "Tossing their heads in sprightly dance." + + +To how many weary minds has the poem brought the same solace, the same +spiritual refreshment? + + "Beside the lake, beneath the trees, + Fluttering and dancing in the breeze." + + +His fingers relaxed their hold on the book. It dropped from his hand. +Margaret stood among the daffodils, Margaret, with her steadfast eyes +and dark-brown head, Margaret calling to him in the breeze. + + * * * * * * + +At dawn, when Abdul came to wake his master, he found the candle still +burning. It was a little bit of wick floating in melted grease, like a +light in a saint's tomb. The book which the Effendi had been reading +had fallen to the floor. + +Abdul looked at his master anxiously. He must have been reading very +late. Why had he not been asleep? He ought to have refreshed himself +for his long journey. For many days past he had looked tired and +anxious. + +Abdul folded his hands while he looked at the sleeping Michael. + +"_Al hamdu lillah_ (thank God)," he said. "The Effendi has been in +pleasant company." + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +The camp had moved on. Two days had passed since the saint had been +laid to rest. They were now making for a rock-village, which would +take them slightly out of their direct route, but from Abdul's account +of the place Michael thought that the delay would be well worth while. +A short extension of their journey could make but little difference to +the finding of the treasure. + +The village was a subterranean one; its streets and dwelling-houses +were cut out of the desert-rock. It had been inhabited by desert +people since immemorial times. Obviously its origin had been for +secrecy and security. Fugitives had probably made it and lived in it +just as the early Christians, during their period of persecution, lived +in the catacombs in Rome. + +Michael had been far from well for some days past. Abdul was anxious +about his health. There had been no fresh cases of smallpox in the +camp and Michael's present condition indicated a touch of fever rather +than any contagious malady. He often felt sick; he was easily tired +and his excellent powers of sleeping had deserted him. + +He was troubled about Margaret. He had neither heard from her nor was +he certain that she had received any of his letters. During the +saint's illness he had written her two letters, which his friends at +the Bedouin camp had promised to deliver to the next desert +mail-carrier who passed their hamlet. He had sent a runner to the +village to which he had told Margaret that she was to write. The +runner returned, bearing no letter. + +It was consistent with native etiquette that he should pay a visit to +the _omdeh_ of the subterranean village, which he wished to pass +through. Abdul had a slight acquaintance with him and, being more than +a little anxious about his master's health, he thought that Michael's +visit to him might prove of value should any serious illness overtake +him. + +It was about three o'clock in the afternoon when they arrived at the +entrance of the village, an uninviting underground labyrinth, where the +sun never penetrated and where men, women and children lived in homes +cut out of the virgin rock. It was, of course, necessary to leave +their camels and go through the village on foot. Abdul told the +servants that he alone would go with his master; they were to meet them +in the desert at the other entrance to the village. + +As Michael followed the tall figure of Abdul through the narrow +streets, which were as dark as railway tunnels, he felt horribly sick. +He was well accustomed to the torment of Egyptian flies, but these +particular flies belonged to the order of things whose deeds, being +evil, loved darkness. They covered his face and hands the very moment +after he had shaken them off. Do what he would, he could not keep them +away from the corners of his mouth or from going up his nostrils. + +"Abdul," he said, "this gives one a new vision of hell. Look at those +disgusting children!" He pointed to the groups of pale mites, with +yellow skins and frail bodies, who were paying like puppies in the +garbage of the narrow pathway; their faces were covered with large +black house-flies--they hung in clusters from their eyes and ears and +from the corners of their mouths. + +"_Aiwah_, Effendi, but these people will live in no other surroundings. +They prefer this darkness, this unwholesome atmosphere." + +"And these awful flies?" + +"_Aiwah_, Effendi. They seldom go up to see the sky; perhaps they have +never sung to the moon." + +"To every bird his nest is home, Abdul." + +"_Aiwah_, Effendi. But I will take you to the _Omdeh's_ house--we +shall soon be out of this." + +"Is his house amongst these hovels?" Michael pointed to one +particularly dark cavern. Unlike the ordinary desert peoples, the +women were veiled; only their dark eyes were visible to the stranger +whom they flocked to see. They showed great surprise when Michael +spoke to one of the men in fluent Arabic. + +At Michael's suggestion that the _Omdeh's_ house would be like one of +the cave-houses, Abdul had flung back his head. His smile was +scornful; a little annoyance was perceptible in his voice. + +"_La_, Effendi. The _Omdeh's_ house is like a bower in paradise. The +Effendi will enjoy a cup of caravan-tea and a long rest in the cool +orchard, where water flows and caged birds sing." + +"He has an orchard in a cavern like this!" Michael steadied himself by +catching hold of Abdul's staff; he had almost fallen over a baby. + +"_Aiwah_, Effendi. The _Omdeh_ does not live in the rocks, like the +bats. His house is just outside the village. He is very rich--he owns +many camels and much cotton and he has a date-farm. He is entitled to +three wives." + +"Very well, Abdul. I put myself in your hands." Michael sighed. +"This village makes me feel rather sick--the whole thing is too +horrible, too sad--God's blue sky just up above, and His sweet, clean +desert sand, and down here this living death, these idle, dirty women, +these sickly, fly-covered babies." + +"_Aiwah_, Effendi, it is custom." Abdul shrugged his shoulders. "Did +the Effendi not say that to every bird his nest is home? These women +were born here, their children will grow up here, they will have their +children here. It is their home." + +"We must get out of it, Abdul. I can't stand it any longer!" Michael +tried to walk faster. "If I had only a fly-switch! I can't keep the +beasts out of my mouth--it's disgusting!" + +"_Aiwah_, Effendi, I told you it was not a wholesome village. I +assured the Effendi it would be wiser for him only to pay his respects +to the _Omdeh_ and not to pass through his village." Abdul darted into +one of the houses, whose open front was flush with the rock-wall of the +street, which was simply a tunnel in a vast rock; he returned with a +palm-leaf fan; a half-piastre had purchased it. He fanned his master +with it until he saw the colour return to his cheeks. "The Effendi is +better?" + +"Thank you, Abdul, I am all right. It was only this stifling +atmosphere, and I've been feeling a bit off colour for the last few +days--my usual powers of sleep have deserted me." + +"The Effendi has some trouble on his mind?" + +"That is true, Abdul, but the trouble would not be there if I was +feeling quite my usual self--I could banish it." + +"The Effendi's heart must not be distracted." + +"I have received no letters from the Valley, Abdul. What do you think +has happened?" + +"The Effendi must not ask for things impossible." + +"I suppose not, Abdul. When I left the Valley I agreed that I should +not expect to receive letters--they were not to write unless there were +things taking place which I ought to know, yet my heart is troubled--I +have written so often." + +"May the Effendi's servant know the cause of his master's unrest? Will +he permit two hearts to bear the burden?" + +"I should feel at rest if I was certain that the Effendi Lampton had +received my letter, if I knew that scandal had not been carried to the +hut." Michael paused. "I wished to be the first to tell him that +Madam was a member of our camp, that I met her unexpectedly, that fear +sent her away. My happiness depended upon his answer, upon his +absolute belief in my explanation." + +"_Aiwah_, Effendi, Abdul understands. The situation has +complications--ill news travels apace." + +"I should not like the _Sitt_ to hear from other sources that Madam was +with us." + +"But your letter should have reached the hut by this time, Effendi." + +"Has there been time to get an answer? Do you believe my letter +reached Effendi Lampton, Abdul?" Michael asked the question +interestedly. Had this seer any second knowledge on the subject? Had +he the conviction that in the Valley of the Tombs of the Kings there +was no misgiving, no fear, that Margaret's heart was undisturbed? + +Abdul knew what his master meant, but with his native dislike of giving +an unpleasant answer when a pleasant one would serve, he parried the +question. + +"The honourable _Sitt_ has a noble nature, a clean heart. She is not +like Madam. The Effendi's thoughts make his own unhappiness, they are +not the thoughts of the gracious lady. The thoughts that come from her +travel on angel's wings; they gave the Effendi dreams last night." + +"You are right, Abdul. Ah, thank goodness!" Michael gave an +exclamation of pleasure; he had caught a glint of sunshine, had felt a +breath of desert air. The Living Aton was penetrating the rat-pit. + +"_Aiwah_, Effendi, that is the exit of the village. The _Omdeh's_ +house is not far off--in less than five minutes the Effendi will be +reposing in his cool _selamlik_, his throat refreshed with caravan tea." + +In a native house the _selamlik_ is a spacious room or summerhouse, set +apart for the receiving of guests. To Michael the _Omdeh's selamlik_ +seemed like a foretaste of paradise. The _Omdeh_ was a courteous old +gentleman, who played the part of host and government official with a +simple dignity and friendly hospitality. + +The open front of the _selamlik_ faced a beautiful orange orchard; low +seats, comfortably cushioned, ran round its three walls. The _Omdeh_ +sat on his feet on his _mastaba_. His splendid turban and flowing +white robes gave him the appearance of a _Kadi_ dispensing justice from +his throne. Abdul and Michael reclined on the seat which faced him. +They had both been presented with an elaborate fly-switch, whose +handles were decorated with bright beads. + +The old man was astonished and delighted to find that Michael could +speak Arabic. He was an intelligent, well-read man and something of a +politician, an ardent supporter of the British rule in Egypt. He was +greatly interested in all that Michael could tell him relating to the +news from the outer world. + +In his turn, he expressed his regret that more trouble was not taken to +suppress the secret, seditious, and anti-English propaganda which was +being taught and preached in the desert schools and mosques. + +"Where they started, no man knows," he said. "Nevertheless, Effendi, +their headquarters is 'somewhere.'" He smiled the peculiar smile of +the Eastern, so baffling to the Western mind. "The English are without +suspicion, Effendi; they trust everyone." + +Michael expressed his ignorance as to what he alluded to. Was he +referring to the Nationalist Party in Egypt? + +"They do not know their worst enemies, Effendi. They tolerate the +presence of mischief-makers, who seduce the ignorant. And these +strangers are clever, Effendi, they spare no trouble. In the mosques +and the schools they are teaching, or causing to be taught, strange and +new ideas. No village is too far off for this propaganda to reach. It +is well to believe in others as we would be believed in ourselves, +Effendi, but England is like the ostrich which buries its head in the +sand. I grieve to tell the Effendi these truths." + +To Michael the man's words rang with the truth of conviction. They +suggested a new danger to British rule in Egypt. And yet he had heard +nothing of the unrest to which he alluded while he was in Luxor or in +Cairo; it seemed to flourish in the desert. When he questioned the old +man, he became as secret as an oyster; what he definitely knew he did +not mean to present to every passing stranger. + +While they had been talking, Michael had enjoyed countless small cups +of tea. It was so good and fragrant that he realized that for the +first time he had drunk tea as it was meant to be drunk. He understood +how greatly it deteriorates by crossing the ocean; this tea had +journeyed all the way to the _Omdeh's_ house by caravan; it had been +brought overland by the old trade-route. + +When Michael had rested he began the lengthy preliminaries of saying +good-bye. The _Omdeh_ would not hear of his going; he invited him to +visit his orchard, a beautiful Eden of fruits and exotic flowers, +abundantly irrigated by rivulets of clear water. The contrast between +this emerald patch, where golden globes of fruit were still hanging +from some of the orange-trees, struck Michael as flagrantly cruel. The +_Omdeh_, because of his wealth and social position, was living in a +cool, well-built house, surrounded by all that was fresh and fair, an +ideal home; yet, not a stone's throw from his secluded orchard and cool +_selamlik_, were the narrow streets, littered over with filthy +children, encrusted with scabs and black with flies! An overwhelming +pity for the ignorant, subterranean people, who were content to live +like rats in their holes, filled his soul. How could the _Omdeh_ +permit it? He seemed kind and he knew that he was intelligent. +Probably when the poor were in trouble they instinctively came to him; +he administered the affairs of the village, no doubt, with scrupulous +impartiality. In this ancient and conservative land it was simply a +part of his inherited belief and tradition that such extremes would +always exist, that the condition of these people was the condition of +which they were worthy, that it was no man's business but their own. +They were in Allah's hands. If He willed it, He would help them to +rise above it. Our wants make us poor--these men and women had no +wants; they were not poor. + +It was with much difficulty that Michael at last bade his host adieu, +an adieu of abounding phraseology and grace of speech. The _Omdeh_, +with native hospitality, had tried to persuade his guest to remain with +him for some days, or if he could not do that, to at least do honour to +his humble house by spending one night in it. If the honourable +Effendi would only remain, he would tell his servant to kill a sheep +and have it roasted; he would send for a noted dancer, to beguile the +later hours of the evening; he would have his four gazelles brought to +the _selamlik_ and Michael should see how beautifully they ran and +jumped--they were of a very rare species, much admired by all who could +appreciate their points. + +To all these inducements Michael turned a deaf ear, even to the last, a +blind musician, whose _'ood_ playing was greatly celebrated. It was +not easy to refuse these pressing inducements, which were all put +before Michael with the elaborate charm of Arabic speech. It was he +who was to confer the pleasure by remaining; it was he who was to be +unselfish and bestow so unexpected and great a pleasure on his humble +host. + +Determined to get on his way that same afternoon, Michael hardened his +heart. He told the _Omdeh_ that Abdul had arranged that they were to +travel to within one day's journey of their destination that same day; +their camp would be in readiness. On the following day Abdul and he +were to leave the servants in charge of the camp and start out on the +last portion of their journey. They were now but one day and a half +from the Promised Land. + +Michael had agreed with Abdul that their secret must not be divulged, +that the servants must remain in ignorance of the real purpose of their +tour. They imagined that it was to visit the ancient Pharaoh's tomb. + +Just as they were leaving the orchard the _Omdeh_ said: "There have +been strange rumours afloat, Effendi. Men say that a wealth of buried +treasure has been discovered in the hills to which you are travelling. +Is it known to you?" + +"Indeed?" Michael said evasively. "What sort of treasure? Do the +authorities know of it? Who has discovered it?" He managed to speak +calmly and without emotion. + +The _Omdeh_ threw back his head. "It is not worth a wise man's breath +inquiring. It is but one of the many foolish fables which travel with +the winds." He shrugged his shoulders. + +"What started the rumour? Where did it originate? There is generally +some fire where there's smoke." + +"Where do such things have their birth? It is no easier to discover +than the birthchamber of the anti-British propaganda in Egypt, Effendi." + +"You do not attach any belief to the rumour?" + +"_La_, Effendi. Who would believe that men are standing knee-deep in +jewels and precious stones, and that there is enough gold to build +three mosques in these hills, so near the village?" + +Michael laughed. He remembered the reports which had been spread +abroad about the wealth of Freddy's find. One Englishman had heard +that Freddy had been wading ankle-deep in priceless scarabs and jewels +and gold collars and necklaces. + +"You may well laugh, Effendi. The poor and ignorant will believe +anything. I must see the jewels first." + +Michael wondered what he would say if he showed him the crimson +amethyst which had had its second hiding-place in the saint's ear. + +"But who is reported to have found this King Solomon's mine?" + +"Some poor man, whom no one has seen or spoken to--every man who tells +you the fairy-tale has heard it from his trusted friend, from a +reliable source. I never believe in these trusted friends, or any +reliable source but my own eyes. And even then, with the wise, seeing +isn't always believing." + +Michael stole an unseen glance at Abdul. His face was as +expressionless as a death-mask. The report appeared to him to be +beneath contempt. He politely warned his master that the sun was not +so high in the heavens; they had many hours to travel. + +When they were out of hearing and all the polite good-byes had been +spoken--a proceeding which is always a trying one to the impatient +traveller--Michael and Abdul talked together in low accents and in +English. What had the _Omdeh's_ news really meant? + +In Abdul's heart there was little doubt as to who had found it, if +there was any truth in the rumour. Even if they divided the wealth of +the treasure by a hundred, and made all due allowances for native +exaggeration, it still seemed as though the treasure was one of unusual +importance. + +"Then you believe there is truth in the report that the treasure has +been found, Abdul?" + +"Who but the spy of Madam could have known of it, Effendi? and +certainly this rumour is disturbing." + +"Some natives might have hit upon it by accident. Such things have +happened before." + +"_Aiwah_, Effendi." Abdul smiled his unbelieving, unpleasant smile. +"Just at this particular time, after all these thousands of years, the +coincidence would indeed be strange." + +"Then you believe, Abdul, that Madam has anticipated us? that she has +secured the treasure?" + +"_Aiwah_, Effendi, I do, if there is any truth in the story. And if +there is not, it is very strange that such a rumour should have been +started at this moment." + +"I agree," Michael said. "And yet something in my heart tells me that +Madam has not done the deed." + +"The little voice, Effendi, it is always true, it knows. If the little +voice counsels, always obey it." + +"It tells me, Abdul, that in this one instance Madam is innocent. I +agree with you that if the treasure has been found, it is passing +strange and points only to one thing. And yet, if I was to lay my hand +on the Holy Book and swear my belief, it would not be that she was +guilty of this piece of treachery." + +"If Madam has not anticipated the Effendi, then the treasure is intact! +The rumour is false. It is strange what wonderful treasures have +melted into thin air before this, Effendi. I have known of dealers in +_antikas_ travelling for days without end, only to find . . .!" Abdul +threw back his head. + +"A mare's nest," Michael said. "That is what we call it, Abdul." + +"A good expression, Effendi." In Abdul's heart there was anger and +chagrin. Had the harlot outwitted them? Was she even now in +possession of the jewels and gold which the saint had discovered, which +he himself had clearly visualized? + +A beatific smile lit up his face. If the woman had lain in the sheets +which had made the sick man's bed, not all the jewels of the Orient or +the gold of Ophir would now make her hideous face pleasing in the sight +of men! What would her emeralds and topazes and cornelians be worth? +They would only mock her pox-pitted face! + +In Abdul's Moslem heart there was no pity. His eyes visualized and +rejoiced in the sight of the treacherous woman's spoilt beauty. She +had earned his hatred, and she had had it ever since the moment when +she had spoken scornfully of the saint, a hatred which had grown and +flourished like the Biblical bay-tree. To despise a Christian--and +more especially a Christian woman--was in keeping with his Oriental +mind and Moslem training; he despised Millicent not only as a woman and +a Christian, but as a harlot. No evil which he could do to her would +inflict the least shame upon his own soul. The contemplation of what +her misery would be when she discovered that she was sickening for the +smallpox afforded him a gratifying pleasure. He had drunk deeply of +the cup of hate; it was not tempered with camphor. + + * * * * * * + +When they pitched their camp that night, Michael felt weary and +depressed. A physical lassitude, which he had found it increasingly +difficult to fight against for the last two days, overwhelmed him. He +was glad to go to bed and try to sleep. His efforts met with little +success; he felt horribly wide awake and acutely conscious of the +smallest sound. + +When at last sleep came to him, it did little to give him the rest he +required, or to restore peace to his nerves, for his dreams were a +vivid repetition, horribly exaggerated, of his journey through the +subterranean village. He had lost his way; he was wandering through +the airless arteries of the village. His body was covered with +house-flies; his nose and ears tickled with them; they crawled into the +corners of his mouth; scabs had broken out on his face and body. No +little child in the street was a more hideous and loathsome object than +he felt himself to be. + + * * * * * * + +No child was ever more pleased to see its mother than Michael was to +see Abdul, when he came to wake him and remind him that that same +evening they ought to reach the hills, and prove that the _Omdeh's_ +rumour about the treasure was either false or true. Never for one +instant had Abdul doubted the vision; he had never considered the fact +that there might never have been any treasure at all. His second +sight--his truer sight--had seen it. That was sufficient. + +Michael felt strangely disinclined to exert himself to get up and ride +from sunrise until sundown. It seemed to him a task which he could +never fulfil. But Abdul was obviously full of suppressed excitement. +He was eager for his master to bestir himself and show something of his +usual enthusiasm and vitality. The _Omdeh's_ story had sorely +disturbed him. + +"I will be ready, Abdul," Michael said. "Make me some strong coffee." + +"_Aiwah_, Effendi." + +"Very strong, Abdul!" + +"_Aiwah_, Effendi, very strong." + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +In the Valley where the Pharaohs sleep, below the smiling hills, the +heat and the power of the sun were becoming an actual danger. The best +working hours were those which began at dawn and terminated at eleven +o'clock. + +In the early summer, for Egypt knows no spring, as it knows no +twilight, the heat compels even the natives to abandon work during the +hottest hours of the day. The sun is at its most dangerous point in +the sky at three o'clock in the afternoon; at that hour, as the season +advances, little exposed work can be done. + +One particularly hot afternoon Margaret was waiting for her brother to +come to tea. She had always contrived to keep their sitting-room fresh +and cool by closing its windows and drawing down wet blinds before the +sun got a chance of entering it. The windows were kept open all night. +She had tried almost every possible device--and had been very +successful--for excluding "the brightness of Aton" from their home. + +If the windows were left open after sunrise, an army of flies too great +to combat would invade the room, and ten minutes of sunshine would warm +the room for the whole day. If the sun never penetrated it and the +windows were kept open during the chilly hours of the night, it was +always an agreeable and refreshing place to enter after a long spell in +the blinding sunlight. It was so essential for Freddy's health that he +should have a cool, dark room to rest in, that Margaret gave the +subject her best care and unremitting attention. + +The dryness of the air in Upper Egypt can hardly be imagined by those +who have not experienced it. + +Margaret had heard the overseer's whistle; she knew that work was +suspended for some hours. A beautiful sense of order and neatness had +been developed out of the mess of debris and broken rocks which had +disfigured the site of the tomb, and some new chambers had been cleared +and examined. + +When Freddy appeared, Margaret asked him a few questions about his +work. Had he heard from the experts who were examining the skull and +bones of the mummy? Freddy answered her absently and half-heartedly. + +"No, not yet--no report has come. Let's have some tea, first, before +we talk--my throat's bone dry." + +Meg was conscious of some constraint, some anxiety in his manner. +Freddy's silence could be very eloquent. She gave him his tea and +administered to his wants. For some days he had had a little touch of +diarrhoea, the result of a slight cold caught during one of the quick +falls of temperature which take place in Upper Egypt. Margaret knew +that in Egypt diarrhoea must never be neglected, for it too often leads +to dysentery. She had made her brother take the proper remedies, a +gentle aperient followed by concentrated tincture of camphor, and she +had been very careful not to allow him to eat any fatty food or fruit +or meat. + +Freddy did not take kindly to a diet of arrowroot or rice boiled in +milk, adulterated with water. This afternoon he looked tired and out +of spirits. Meg wondered if the tiresome complaint had been troubling +him again. + +As she handed him the bread and butter she said, "Should you eat +butter, Freddy! Tell me the truth--are you not feeling so well to-day? +Has there been any return of the trouble?" + +Freddy looked at her in astonishment. His thoughts were so far removed +from his own health. If abstaining from the flesh of animals and the +eating of fruit would ease his anxiety, he felt that for the rest of +his life, he would never ask for any other food than watery arrowroot. + +"I'm perfectly all right. That trouble's quite gone--your care has +done the trick. Thanks awfully." + +"Then what is it, Freddy?" Meg laid her hand on his arm, her eyes held +his. If he attempted to deny the fact that there was something on his +mind, she knew that he knew that his eyes could not hide it from her. + +"I am bothered about something, Meg. There's an ugly report going +about--I've made up my mind to tell you." + +"Report about whom? You?" Meg's eyes showed battle. The Lampton +fighting instinct was roused. + +"No, I wish it was about me--I'd soon settle it!" Freddy's eyes were +still searched by his sister's. + +"It's about Michael," she said. She rose from her seat. "I have +expected it. I knew it was coming." + +"What?" Freddy looked at her in amazement. "You expected it?" + +"I felt there was some trouble. I don't know what--I can't even +guess--but I felt it was coming." She stood in front of her brother. +"Out with it, old boy! Tell me the worst at once. Is he dying? Has +he been murdered? I can bear anything except suspense." + +"It's something uglier than death, Meg." + +"Treachery?" + +"Yes, treachery." Freddy thought that Meg meant treachery on her +lover's part. She had thought of treachery from enemies. Had some one +forestalled Michael with the treasure? + +He paused. What could he tell her next? + +"Oh, go on!" Meg cried. "For heaven's sake, don't spare me! A woman +can stand almost anything, Freddy, anything but uncertainty." + +"Can she stand unfaithfulness, Meg, dishonour?" Freddy's eyes dropped. +He could not inflict upon himself the pain which Meg's trusting eyes +would cause him. + +A cry rang through the room. "No, not that, not that! Go on, go +on--what more?" As she spoke, she threw up her head. "It's a lie, +Freddy, a hideous lie!" + +"I'm afraid there must be some truth in the story, Meg." Freddy's voice +was terrible. It conveyed his reluctant, yet absolute, belief that her +lover was guilty. Before he had finished speaking, another cry rang +through the room. It startled Freddy with its intensity, its rage and +independence. + +"I tell you it's a lie! It's not true! And what's more, until I hear +it from his own lips, I will never believe a word of the scandal." + +"Poor old chum!" Freddy tried to comfort her with the assurance of his +sympathy. + +Meg flashed round upon him. "Don't pity me! Don't dare to pity me! +It's all the basest treachery. I'll have no pity. I don't need it!" + +Freddy was silent. It was like Meg not to cry or collapse, as most +girls would have done. She was fighting splendidly for her man, whose +honour was dearer to her than his life. He wished that Michael could +have been there to see her, unworthy though he apparently was of such +unwavering loyalty. + +"What is this report?" she asked. Her cheeks were as white as a +blanched almond; her eyes splendidly alight. The excitement of battle +vitalized her. Margaret was beautiful in her wrath. + +"I have heard it from several sources that Millicent Mervill joined +Michael in the desert, that she now forms part of his camp, that she +is, in fact, your lover's mistress. I can't have it, chum." + +"It's a lie! How can you believe it? A hideous, abominable lie! It's +contemptible of you to listen to it, to give it a moment's +consideration." She shivered. "Oh, these filthy native tongues!" + +"I wish I could think so, Meg." + +Meg swung round on him and for a moment he thought she was going to +strike him. + +"Damn you!" She flashed out the words just as he himself would have +said them. "How dare you say so? He is your friend, he has been +closer to you than a brother! He has no one to defend his name! You +know that he would kill any man who attempted to slander you behind +your back!" + +Freddy did not resent her attack. She had done just what he would have +done to any man who had reported any slander against her fair name. + +"I know it's awfully hard for you to believe it." + +"I don't believe it, Freddy, nor do you!" + +"I told you I wished I didn't. The evidence is too clear." + +"You haven't told me that you believe it is true. You can't get beyond +the fact that there's ugly gossip going round and that I'm in love with +him. If you thought this was your dying oath, that heaven depended +upon the truth of your statement, can you say that in your soul you +believe that Michael has taken this woman with him, that he is utterly +treacherous and faithless? Does your unconquerable voice condemn him?" + +Freddy thought for a moment. "It looks very black, Meg. The evidence +is very convincing." + +"Confound the evidence!" she said. "That is not an answer. I asked +you, does your inner self, your super-man, believe absolutely in his +guilt?" Meg was staring at him with hard, questioning eyes; all trace +of her love for him had been driven out. + +"Well no, if you put it like that, perhaps not. But I can't have your +name connected with these stories." + +"My name?" she cried. "What do you mean?" + +"I mean that our women have married straight, clean, honourable men." + +"The Lamptons again!" she said. "Am I never to be free from tradition? +Just because I'm a Lampton, I am to behave in a mean, disloyal manner +to the man I swore to trust? Do you suppose I'm going to? If you do, +you're much mistaken. In my own heart I've been Michael's wife for +weeks and weeks, so you needn't imagine I'm going to divorce him." + +"But I do, Meg." Freddy rose from the table. "Now, look here," he +said, "try to speak dispassionately. How can I, as your sole male +guardian, countenance an engagement between you and Michael while there +is only too much ground for belief that this story is true? I've not +only heard it from the natives." + +"You're wholly without reason. You just said you didn't believe it!" +The words flashed from Meg's lips like the fire from a gun. + +"I find it hard to believe. One always wants to hear two sides of a +story. If Michael can swear that it is not true----" + +"There is only one side to this story--that it is a lie." + +"Then why has this report been spread about? There is always some fire +where there is smoke, even in Egypt." + +"I don't know, Freddy." Meg's voice broke; something suddenly choked +her. + +"The story goes that they met as if by accident in the open desert. +Millicent had taken a splendid travelling equipment with her. She has +made no secret of her love for Michael in the camp." + +Meg was silent. A furious rage was gnawing at her bowels; it was going +to her brain. + +"Michael made a fine show of surprise," Freddy continued. "But it did +not deceive the natives. She doesn't seem to be very popular with +them." + +Meg was thinking and thinking. Was this the explanation why over and +over again she had had presentiments that Michael was in trouble, that +he needed her? She had so often tried to reach him. Suddenly a light +broke on her darkness, her whirlwind of anger abated. + +"Freddy," she said, more gently. "If Millicent was in the camp, their +meeting in the desert _was_ unexpected by Michael. She trapped him, +she planned it all. Don't you remember, that night when you found me +on the balcony? I told you I had heard Michael calling to me. I can +hear his voice now." She paused. "He woke me as surely as Mohammed +Ali wakes me every morning. He wouldn't have wanted my help if he had +been happy with Millicent, if he had arranged the meeting." Meg +laughed, but there were tears in her voice. "That's the explanation, +as clear as daylight. It's been sent to me, this light, to lighten my +darkness." + +"What is as clear as daylight, Meg? You put far too much faith in +dreams and visions. I want to get you out of this. I wish you were +more like your old practical self. What has this wonderful light made +clear?" + +"That Millicent tricked and trapped Michael, that she followed him." + +"Do you mean that you think that she met Michael against his wish?" +Freddy's soul wondered at the faith of women. + +"I do. I don't think she ever mentioned her plans to him. I can see +it all as clear as a pikestaff." A sudden sob broke Meg's voice. Her +thankfulness at the unexpected revelation of the mystery caused it. +"Of course, that's it. Millicent tempted Michael, after she had once +met him. He thought he was proof against her woman's wiles, but while +we're on earth we're only human, Freddy, and he was afraid of his own +weakness. He called to me. We arranged to help each other--we were +always to try our best to reach each other when we felt troubled. Love +is not such a simple thing as it seems. I used to think that when once +one was engaged to the man one loved, one would just be at anchor in a +divine calm." + +"You believe in dreams and all that sort of thing too much. Michael's +led you off--he's to blame." + +"There are some things one must believe in, Freddy. Our development is +in other hands." + +"What are they? Mere old wives' tales and charlatans' prophecies." + +"Oh, Freddy!" + +"Well, Michael's religion's got so mixed, he doesn't know what he is or +what he believes in and doesn't believe in. He has a fine scorn for +the old order of things. The beliefs of our forefathers have kept the +Lampton men pretty straight and made splendid wives and mothers of +their women, and I think that's good enough for this everyday, +practical world!" + +"Has it been their belief that has done it, Freddy, or their family +traditions? I think we Lamptons are as true ancestor-worshippers as +any Shintoists in Japan. I was never taught anything about my higher +self as a child, or made to see that religion was a vital part of our +existence. It was the shades of our ancestors, nothing more or +less--what would Uncle John have thought, or what would Aunt Anna +think? It was never what would your own soul think--was it now? It +was pure Shinto. Our god-shelf bore the family-portraits." + +"A jolly good worship, too. You can't do anything very far wrong if +you never disgrace the honour of your ancestors. I think it's as good +a principle, and far more practical and restraining than Michael's +mixture of Akhnaton's Aton worship and I don't know what else. I get +lost when he expounds his idea of God." + +"It annoys you that his God is too big for any church. The Lamptons +have always been ardent upholders of the Established Church of England." + +"Let him enlarge his church, build his God a bigger one." + +"That's just what he has done, that's just what he says the Protestant +church has failed to do. Their church has never expanded. People's +minds have grown, while the Church of England--and, in fact, all +churches--have stood still." + +"Michael can't do things in moderation--he's just an enthusiast about +his religion, as he has been about all his phases." + +"The best of all things! What were your Luthers, your Cromwells, and +St. Francis?" Meg paused. Her voice fell. "And Our Lord? Weren't +they enthusiasts? Did they take things moderately? Does moderation +ever achieve anything? Napoleon said no country was ever conquered by +half methods." + +"Mike's enthusiasm is only theoretical. If he has done this thing, his +new religion allows him too much latitude. He'd much better have stuck +to our plain ancestor-worship." + +"But he hasn't done it! You know he hasn't. Don't go over it again. +That detestable woman met him and trapped him." + +"And tempted him? The old, old story--the world's first romance--'the +woman tempted me and I fell.'" + +Meg's tears had dried very quickly. She was strong again. "I don't +see how you can speak like that. You told me that Michael was straight +as a die--you know you did." + +"But I said he was weak--I told you that, too, didn't I?" + +"If being human is weak, then I suppose he is. I never met a man who +was a saint. And if believing that we are all more good than bad is +weak, then I admit his lack of strength. It is his humility that makes +it impossible for him to think evil of anyone. I have often proved it. +Almost any man is a better man than himself in his own eyes." + +"Bosh!" Freddy said. "I do wish he was more ordinary, less of a crank +about these things! How can he think he isn't as good a man as that +fair-tongued, lying Mohammed Ali, for instance, or any of these lying +sensualists? It's the ugliest of all prides, the one that apes +humility, Meg. Lots of religious enthusiasts have it." + +"No, not with Michael. He thinks he is less good than they are because +he is perfectly conscious of God, as he expresses it. He enjoys all +the privileges of a close connection with God; he doesn't only pray to +Him, as we do. He lives with him; Mike is never alone. And yet, with +all that sense of God, he is full of faults and failings. These men +and women, who to us appear so bad, are simply further back in their +evolution. They can't be bad, if it is not their fault. They have not +had the same privileges, they are only gradually evolving. Spiritually +they are like the dwellers in the slums as compared with the inmates of +the beautifully-appointed hygienic house in the country. Michael is in +the light; these poor souls are in darkness. It is all a part of the +Great Law." + +Freddy had finished his tea. It had afforded him little pleasure. He +must come to some definite understanding with Meg. His thoughts had +been all centred on the plan of sending her home, getting her away from +the atmosphere which had so strong a hold over her imagination. +Perhaps if she was back in England, she might be able to put Michael +and his ideas out of her thoughts. He had no wish to be disloyal to +his friend, or to give him no chance to defend himself; but he had to +admit that he was very thankful that it was Michael himself who had +insisted that there was to be no recognized engagement between them. +Had he at the time had any motive for insisting on the fact? That was +an idea; it had not occurred to him before. + +He turned to Meg and said abruptly. "What about going home, Meg? It's +getting too hot for this sort of thing--the Valley is stifling." + +"What do you mean?" + +"It's too hot--the year's advancing." + +Meg tried to speak calmly. + +"Don't treat me like a naughty child, Freddy. If it gets hotter than +the Inferno I won't leave the place until I hear from Michael." She +was not going to be a Lampton in one respect and not in another. A +horse with the staggers was not in it with a mulish Lampton. + +"If you hear from him, or find undeniable proofs that the story is +true, will you go then?" + +"Yes, when Michael tells me with his own lips, or I see it in his own +handwriting, or I myself am convinced that Millicent was with him, I +will meekly obey you. You can rely upon the Lampton pride. It won't +fail me." + +"Right you are, old girl! That's all I'll ask." Freddy bent down and +pressed her head to his breast. "I hope to God that will never be, old +lady, you know that." + +Freddy's little touch of tenderness was the last straw. It was too +much for Meg. She turned round and hid her face against his shoulder. +A very fountain of weeping welled up. + +"You dear, blessed old thing! I've been a brute, a perfect brute, but +I love him awfully! Oh, Freddy, you don't know how much I can love, +and you hurt me dreadfully!" She had sobbed out the words. The fiery +Lampton was now a sorrowing, heartsick girl, hungering for her lover's +caresses. Freddy's gentleness had called up a thousand wants. + +Freddy knew that affection was what she needed, but he was a bad hand +at any show of brotherly emotion. The Lampton men were fine lovers; no +woman had ever found them wanting in the art. But it was part of their +tradition to suppress all outward signs of family affection. Instinct +told him that some caresses and a petting were what his sister longed +for. For weeks she had been robbed of a lover's devotion, a very fine +lover, who had filled her days with romance and her heart with song. + +"You weren't a bit a brute, Meg. You were just as usual, a bit more +like a man than a girl. I'd have done and said just as you did if +anyone had said things about the woman I loved--or, I hope I should." + +Meg only hugged her brother. Words were beyond her. She knew by the +way he was speaking that he was quite glad to help her, now that he had +got over the disagreeable business of telling her and warning her, that +his efforts would be turned now towards the finding of Michael's +whereabouts and dotting to the bottom of the gossip. She looked up +with cheerful eyes. + +"Do you remember that day, Freddy, when Millicent Mervill lunched here?" + +"Rather!" + +"And you said she came for some object which she took care not to +reveal?" + +"Yes, I remember." + +"Well, I never told you, because I thought you had good reason for +thinking that I was too hard on her, that I was jealous of her, to the +exclusion of all reason. . . ." + +"You are pretty good at hating, Meg." + +"Well, Mohammed Ali has since told me where he found her eye of Horus. +Guess where it was." + +Freddy laughed. "I'm sure I couldn't." + +"She read my diary all the time she was here alone. He says she asked +if she might rest and tidy up in my room. He found the eye of Horus +just beside the table where she had been reading it. He thinks that it +must have caught in the key of the drawer in the table. Probably she +thought we were coming and moved quickly away--the ring was easily +wrenched open." + +"The little cad!" Freddy said slowly. "The venomous little toad!" + +"In my diary, Freddy, I referred to Michael's strange journey, his +journey to King Solomon's Mines, as we always called it." + +Freddy freed himself from his sister's arms and lit a cigarette. + +"What a mean little brute! Mohammed Ali was probably in her pay; he +told her he had found the eye at the spot where she dismounted." + +"He said he told that lie because Madam made a face at him. He +confesses to that." + +Freddy thought for a moment while he smoked, then he said slowly and +deliberately: "If she got that information from your diary, she could +easily get more. _Baksheesh_ will make the dead give up their secrets. +That is why Bismarck said to his generals, never tell your own shirt +what you want kept a secret. Diaries are dangerous things, Meg." + +"I wrote it in French," Meg said. "I thought only the servants would +stoop to reading it and they can't read French." + +"Next time, try invisible ink. In Egypt, once a thing is written or +told, it is public property." + +"I scarcely write anything now," she said. "I feel as if some spy will +see it, and the dry bones of a diary never interest me." + +As Freddy was leaving the sitting-room--he was going to bed for a +couple of hours before he began work again--Margaret said to him: + +"Just tell me before you go, where you first heard the report about +Michael, and from whom you heard it." + +"One or two days ago," he said. "I heard a smouldering gossip about it +going on amongst the workmen. They'd got wind of it somehow. No one +ever knows how these things begin. Then I met young King from +Professor L----'s camp, and he told me the whole story. He knew +Millicent very well. He said she's not what you could call an immoral +woman so much as a woman without morals. He confesses he never met +anyone in the least like her before, and he rather prides himself on +his knowledge of the world--he would have us believe that he has seen a +devil of a lot. He wondered at a man of Michael's refined temperament +taking her into the desert in the way he has done." + +"He never took her," Meg said. "Isn't it hateful, Freddy, hearing +people make these assertions about our Mike?" + +"That's what I meant," Freddy said, "when I told you that I hated your +name being mixed up with his." + +"Oh, that's not what troubles me. No one knows me out here, or my +affairs. I meant that it's such a wicked libel on Michael, who's not +here to defend himself." + +"But if she's there with him, what can you expect the world to say, to +believe?" + +"If she followed him and joined him, it wouldn't be very easy to shake +her off, would it?" + +Freddy smiled. "You're right there--the fair Millicent wouldn't go +because she wasn't wanted!" + +"I often ask myself why and how we tolerated her." + +"Did we?" Freddy laughed. + +"Well, yes, we did. Even I found myself liking her that day after +lunch. I began to wonder if I had always been too hard on her, if I +had had my judgment perverted by my jealousy." + +"Surely you're not really jealous of Millicent?" Freddy paused. "That +is, if you are confident that Michael is not with her at the present +moment?" + +"I am confident, Freddy. All the same, I have lots to be jealous of. +Her beauty amazes me every time I look at her and, after all, beauty is +a rare and wonderful thing. Lots of women are good to look at and +attractive, but Millicent is beautiful. You have often said how rare +real beauty is and how carelessly we use the expression. Millicent +deserves it." + +"You needn't be jealous of mere beauty, Meg. Even when she's on her +best behaviour, she never could impress a stranger as being anything +but what she is, a soulless little minx." + +"Yet you thoroughly enjoyed her company, Freddy." + +"I know I did. She's amusing, her personality is stimulating. But I +shouldn't like to have too much of it." + +"Yet you'd have kissed her if you'd been alone with her--you said you'd +try!" + +Freddy did not deny the accusation. + +"Men are queer things," Meg said; "but you must get off to bed, you +look awfully tired." + +She hated to have to send him away, for it was only on very rare +occasions, and quite unexpectedly, that Freddy expressed his opinions. +He belonged to the silent order of mankind; to strangers he never +revealed himself; he rarely said anything in their presence which +suggested that he had opinions at all, or that he was really an +exceedingly thoughtful person. Meg knew that he had ideas and +thoughts--very sound, clear ideas, too. She knew that Freddy thought +while other men talked. All the same, his opinions and thoughts, apart +from his profession, were apt to be strangled and suffocated by +tradition. Tradition was a mighty force in the Lampton family. It +almost, as Meg said, amounted to ancestor-worship. Freddy's choice of +a profession had been his one act of emancipation. He had, according +to family tradition, been destined for either the navy or the army, and +it had taken no little strength of character to cut the first link in +the chain. + +When Freddy had gone to lie down and the little hut was left to its +midday silence--the tropical breathless silence of Upper Egypt, when +the sun is so hot that even a lizard would not venture from its +shelter--Meg sat down on a chair close to the table, and laid her head +on her arms. + +She was tired, tired, tired. She must forget things for a little time, +before she even tried to review the situation, or think out what was +best to be done. If only she could will herself into absolute +unconsciousness for a little time, how sweet it would be! If she let +herself sleep--even though sleep seemed very far from her--she might +dream of Millicent, and that would be worse than wakefulness and +remembrance. To trust herself to the lordship of dreams was to seek +refuge in the unknown, and that was dangerous. It was total +unconsciousness which she desired, the restful unconsciousness of a +blank mind. She remained perfectly still for a little time, asking for +rest, asking for the power not to think. She concentrated her thoughts +on this one desire; she opened her being for the reception of peace. + +Suddenly the voice which heals spoke. It suggested a respite for her +troubles. "No mind can remain a blank," it said. "Try instead to +think of your vision, fill your whole being with its beauty, repeat to +yourself all that happened during that wonderful revelation." + +Unconsciously and swiftly Meg's painful thoughts drifted away. The +picture of Millicent amusing and tempting her lover, which had danced +before her eyes, was no longer there--or, at all events, it was not +dominating her mind, and Freddy's words no longer rang in her ears. +Her misery, made by her own thoughts, left her, as a headache leaves a +sufferer when a sedative has been administered. The gentle voice, the +divine attendant, achieved its work. Meg had asked for rest and for +forgetfulness. Her prayer was being answered. It repeated to her the +tender words of Akhnaton; it told her in Michael's own dear way the +true explanation of her vision. With tightly-closed eyes and her head +bowed, she saw again the whole scene. It was unnaturally vivid--the +luminous figure, with the pitying, sorrowful eyes. As she gazed at it, +to her spirit came the same quiet comfort as had come to her on that +night when the vision had visited her. So clearly could she see the +rays of Aton behind the high crown of Upper and Lower Egypt, that she +lifted up her head. Perhaps He was there, in the sitting-room, +standing just in front of her? Had the luminous body penetrated the +darkness of her tightly-closed eyes? + +Meg blinked her eyes to rid them of their confusion; her fingers had +been tightly pressed against them. She looked fixedly into the space +in front of her. Nothing was there; the room was just as it had been +when she closed her eyes. The disordered table, the cigarette-ash in +the two saucers, the crumbs from a Huntley and Palmer's cake on the +table-cloth--these homely things struck her as incongruous. She had +expected a vision of Akhnaton; she had hoped for it. + +She put her head down on her arms again; her thoughts had been very +sweet; with closed eyes they might come back again. How absurd it was +to think of such material things as the silver paper round the imported +cake, and to remember that Freddy had said he was sick of tinned +apricot jam! + +These domestic thoughts had taken but a second. She was going back to +her vision and to the happiness it had given her. + +And so it came to pass that just as Michael had found solace for heart +and mind in the dancing of the daffodils which he had visualized in the +eastern desert, so Meg's bruised heart lost its sense of fear in her +visualizing of the world's first reformer. + + * * * * * * + +When Freddy returned to the sitting-room, refreshed and invigorated, he +woke his sister by his noisy entrance. He was extremely angry with +himself, and showed his sorrow very tenderly. + +Meg looked at him with half-awakened senses. Where was she? What was +she doing? What hour of the day was it? + +"Never mind, Freddy, I've slept long enough." She smiled, and looked +as though the thoughts from which she drew her happiness were far away. + +Freddy put his two hands on her shoulders and looked into her eyes. +"Were your dreams very nice, old girl? You look as if you'd been +playing on the Elysian plain, or had been re-born!" + +Meg pulled-her brother's face down to the level of her own and +whispered, "Heavenly, Freddy, heavenly!" + + + + +CHAPTER X + +"Does my master feel refreshed?" + +It was Abdul who spoke, as he wakened Michael after his midday siesta +on the day which had brought them within sight of the Promised Land. + +It had been a morning of intense heat; the desert held not one breath +of air. The spell of Egypt, which is its light, had vanished; the vast +emptiness was as colourless as Scotland in an east wind. Piled up on +his camel, Michael had ridden under a raised shelter, such as is used +by caravan travellers on long journeys. It was made of bamboos, bent +into half-hoops and covered with a light canvas. Abdul had been afraid +of exposing his master, in his uncertain state of health, to the full +force of the desert sun. Michael had been very grateful, for during +the last two days it had made him feel sick and his head had ached +perpetually. + +"A touch of the sun," was Abdul's expressive description of his +condition. He knew the symptoms only too well, and fortunately he also +knew how to treat them. + +In answer to Abdul's question, Michael yawned and stretched out his +arms. "Yes, greatly refreshed, Abdul. How long have I slept? What +time is it? I feel very much better." + +"The Effendi's words give happiness to his servant," Abdul said. "With +care my master will enjoy good health in a day or two." + +"I'm all right now, Abdul. That last compress has done me a world of +good. My headache has lifted." It was characteristic of Michael's +temperament that when he was down, he was very, very down, and when he +was up, he bounded and became scornful of all care and precautions. + +"Everything is in readiness when my master is ready," Abdul said. +"There are still three hours before sunset." + +Michael rose from the impromptu couch which Abdul had made for him +under the shadow of a mighty rock. The desert was no longer a +shoreless sea of golden sand; they were reaching the reef of hills +which was their objective. + +When Michael found himself on his feet and ready to mount his +camel--that undignified proceeding, which always made him realize his +own helplessness and evoked from the camel ugly roars of justifiable +resentment--he found himself scarcely as fit as he had thought; he was +giddy and still distressingly tired. It was very annoying, not feeling +up to his best form, now that they were drawing so close to the +exciting spot. He had imagined that he would feel like a gold-miner +hurrying to peg out his claim, instead of which he was conscious of but +one feeling, physical and nervous exhaustion. + +He braced himself up. The air was cooler; a little breeze was lifting +the sand and carrying its invisible atoms across the surface of the +desert. How many times on his journey he had seen this noiseless +drifting of the sand! Now, as he watched it from his high seat, it +made him think of the saint's grave. Even in this short time much sand +would have collected on the mound which covered his bones. + +This ceaseless drifting of the sand was an object-lesson which +illustrated very practically the complete obliteration of Egypt's +ancient cities and lost civilizations. Michael knew that on such a day +as this he had only to lay some small object down in the desert, and +very soon an accumulation of sand would gather round it. After a +little time the object would be completely lost to sight, and in its +place there would be a little mound, which would grow and grow as the +years rolled on, until it became a feature in the landscape. In such a +way were the neglected temples of the gods saved from the ravages of +fanatics. + +To Michael this provision of Nature, this preserving of the world's +earliest treasures and story, was very beautiful. It meant a great +deal more than the mere accumulation of wind-blown sands; it meant that +the Creating Hand is never still, that the making of the world is +eternal. In Michael's opinion there was no doubt but that Egypt's +priceless treasures had been designedly hidden, that the Author of +Nature had preserved them until such a time as mankind was capable of +appreciating them and guarding them. The drifting sands--ever at the +caprice of the four winds to those who have eyes to see and see +not--have saved Egypt's history, which is written in stone. + +Reflecting, as was his wont, on these side-issues of the world's +evolution, he journeyed on. The breeze was stiffening, a cool, +invigorating breeze, which had cleared the sky and brought some white +clouds into it. In the Valley of the Tombs of the Kings the heavens +rarely held a cloud; in the eastern desert his travels had carried him +northwards, where the dews are heavier and the sudden changes in the +temperature less noticeable. + +With the cooler atmosphere his spirits rose, his vitality quickened. +Wonderful pictures danced before his eyes, pictures which he had seen +over and over again, his first visualizing of the treasure. The vision +had never been far from his mind. He could see himself inspecting the +bars of gold which Akhnaton had hidden in the hills, and fingering the +ancient jewels while he thought once more of the story he had been told +by a member of an excavating camp in Egypt. The story reassured him: +Some native workmen, belonging to the camp, had come across a number of +terra-cotta crocks hidden under a flight of steps. They were full to +the brim of bars of pure gold. The gold had obviously been thrust into +the jars very hurriedly. The theory they suggested to experts was that +the citizens, suddenly becoming alarmed by the approach of a besieging +army, had thrust the wealth of the public treasury into the jars and +hidden them in the hollow behind the steps of a staircase in some +public building. If the Romans ever besieged the city, they had +overlooked the jars and so the gold had remained in its simple +hiding-place until the enthusiasm of modern Egyptologists discovered +it. In the jars there was sufficient gold to pay for a year's +excavation on the historical site. + +Michael knew that such things were possible in Egypt, where tales as +wonderful as any in _A Thousand and One Nights_ are still being +enacted. Egypt's buried treasures are infinite. In that land of +amazing discoveries there has been nothing more amazing than the means +of their discovery. + +High up in the blue, on his swaying seat on the camel's back, he felt +like a man in a cinematograph-theatre, gazing upon film after film as +it came into view and dissolved away. + +The desert was the stage, his thoughts were the films. At one moment +the picture presented was his old friend in el-Azhar, rejoicing in the +knowledge that Michael's journey was accomplished, the treasure +realized. He could see the African's eyes glowing like living fire; he +could hear his sonorous chanting. His next vision was of Margaret and +her triumphant happiness; the next his own troubles and embarrassments, +the troubles of too great wealth. What was he to do with the treasure +now that he had discovered it? There were new laws and stringent +regulations and restrictions which must be adhered to; the Government +had become more grasping. + +But these troubles he put aside. "Sufficient for the day was the +finding thereof," the proving to scoffers that visionaries had legs to +stand upon as well as heads. He could hear Freddy's boyish laugh, a +laugh of sheer incredulity and amazement, and while Freddy laughed he +could see and feel Margaret's eyes shining with victory. It made him +very nervous and excited to think that soon he would be able to +actually touch and examine the treasure and sacred writings of the +world's first divinely-inspired prophet. The doubts of his material +mind would be forever silenced when his fingers had held the jewels and +his eyes had seen the gold. + +Again he felt convinced that the spirit of Akhnaton had selected him to +do this work. Freddy had been chosen to bestow upon mankind the +contents of the royal tomb, which held such a mass of confounding +matter. We are all the chosen workers in the Perfect Law, units in the +Divine State. + +As he rode on and on, he wondered what Abdul was thinking about, what +his feelings were. Was he anticipating disappointment or success? +What had his eyes seen? + +They were approaching the spot indicated by the saint. It would, of +course, take them some time to discover the chamber which held the +hidden treasure, but it was sufficiently thrilling to be drawing nearer +and nearer to the hills. The canvas had been removed from his +sun-shelter; only the framework remained. It looked like the +skeleton-ribs of an animal against the blue of the sky. + +Suddenly Abdul came riding forward. He had something to say; he never +disturbed Michael's meditations unnecessarily. + +"Does the Effendi see anything in the distance?" + +"No, Abdul, nothing. What do you see?" + +Abdul's calm voice had betrayed a little emotion. + +"Look once more, Effendi--over there, to the left, close to the hills." + +Michael looked, and while he looked he was conscious of an ominous +atmosphere in the silence. + +"Can the Effendi see nothing?" + +"No, Abdul, absolutely nothing. Yet I thought my eyes had improved, my +seeing-powers developed. I was vain enough to think they were pretty +good." + +"For Western eyes they do see far, Effendi. You must allow some few +privileges for those who are deprived of the benefits of civilization." + +They rode on in silence. + +"You can see something now, Effendi?" Abdul's voice trembled as it +broke the stillness. "It is very clear now, O my master." + +"Is it a mirage, or what, Abdul? What am I to see?" + +"No mirage, Effendi--I wish it were one." + +"Then out with it!" Michael said impatiently. He had not the vaguest +idea what Abdul was hinting at; his mind had no room for side issues. +"What desert monster lies in waiting for us? Don't make such a mystery +out of nothing!" + +"It is the Khedivial flag, O Effendi. I see it fluttering in the +breeze." + +"The Khedivial flag?" The words conveyed no meaning to Michael; the +reason for its being there did not penetrate his brain. "What is there +to trouble us about the Khedivial flag, Abdul?'" + +"_Aiwah_, Effendi, do not feel anger in your heart for your servant +when he tells you what it means." + +"We ate the salt of our covenant together, Abdul, on the night when you +brought the saint in your arms to my camp. I can never forget that you +are more than my servant. You are my friend and companion." + +"Our faith is a gift of God, Effendi, and all the good works we perform +are the effects of a principle implanted and kept alive within us by +the Spirit of God." + +"Granting that is so, Abdul, which I do, nevertheless, the covenant of +our friendship is sacred. Tell me, why does the flag trouble you?" + +"Can my master see it now? Can he not distinguish any other objects?" + +Michael looked again. They had travelled quickly. As he looked his +heart stopped beating; his brain became confused; he felt like a +drunken man. Clearly his eye had seen! + +"My God!" he said inaudibly. "It can't be that, it can't be that!" + +To his naked eye the crescent and the star on the waving flag were +still invisible, but he could see its vivid red, and he could see other +objects--white patches, like a collection of saints' tombs. + +"Abdul," he said--his voice was miserably broken and spent--"what are +those white things?" + +"Tents, Effendi." + +"Government tents?" + +"_Aiwah_, Effendi." + +"What are they doing near the hills?" + +"Must Abdul speak the words which will cause his master pain? Will the +Effendi not wait until we draw nearer? It is not wise to anticipate +evil." + +A horrible suspicion devastated Michael's brain. He could brook no +uncertainty. Abdul's lengthy manner of getting to the point irritated +him as it had never done before. + +"Out with it, Abdul! Having said so much, you must say more." Michael +was compelling his servant to give utterance to the suspicion which had +become almost a certainty in his mind. + +"_Aiwah_, Effendi. The treasure has already been discovered." + +"Good God! Do you think it is that, Abdul?" + +"_Aiwah_, Effendi." Abdul's voice was contrite. + +Michael felt as if all movement in the world had suddenly been +arrested. Then his mind began scrambling amid the ruins of his dreams +for some lucid thought, for some reason which would explain why he was +seated high up on a camel's back in the eastern desert. + +He had never dreamed of such an ending to his dreams. In his most +despondent moods he had contemplated no greater misfortune than the +stealing of the jewels and the gold, the looting of its portable +treasures by native _antika_ hunters. His super-man had never +seriously contemplated even that misfortune; his faith was unshaken, +his optimism complete. + +The shock he had received affected his physical as well as his mental +condition. An overwhelming desire came to him to get off his high seat +and throw himself down on the sand and go to sleep for ever and ever. +That hateful flag, those smiling tents! whose whiteness had brought a +vision of Millicent's tent floating before his eyes. + +"There are three tents, Effendi. Shall we journey towards them?" +Abdul's voice sounded far away. What was he talking about? Michael +tried to concentrate his thoughts. + +"Oh yes, of course!" His voice was listless. "We must go on. You may +be wrong." He struggled for mind-control. + +He urged his camel to a quicker pace. They rode on in silence. Abdul +was now convinced that the harlot--or, in other words, Mohammed Ali's +"golden lady"--had wreaked her vengeance on his master. He had taken +into his camp the fever-stricken saint; she had slipped away in the +night and discovered the treasure. With a comprehensiveness which +would have astounded the impurest of Western ears, he cursed Millicent +and her vile offspring into the third and fourth generations. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +As Michael got off his kneeling camel, a young Englishman left a tent, +the outer one of the three which formed the excavation-camp, the white +tents which Michael had seen from his high seat, and came quickly +forward. It was obvious that strangers might come thus far and no +further. In a voice of official authority, yet by no means +ungraciously, he said to Michael: + +"Can I do anything for you? What do you want? I'm afraid you can't +come any nearer." + +Michael looked blankly into the thin, intelligent face, a sunburnt +face, which any woman would have described as attractively ugly. For a +moment or two neither man spoke. There was an unpleasant silence. It +was significant of the atmosphere of the meeting. It expressed to the +excavator strain, rather than shyness, on the traveller's part. He had +told Michael that he might come no further; he had asked him if he +wanted anything. + +At both remarks Michael almost laughed hysterically. He was not +allowed to come any closer to his own treasure, to the gift of +Akhnaton, to the legacy of the Pharaoh, which had been divinely +revealed to him! This interloper had asked him if he wanted anything! + +Quicker than light these thoughts flashed through his bewildered brain, +while between himself and this representative of the Government the +figure of the world's first divinely-inspired man, with the rays of +Aton shining brilliantly from behind his head, became clearer and +clearer. It obliterated the figure of the excavator. + +"What are these tents doing here?" He managed to ask the question by +sheer force of will power; he felt relieved that the words had come. +"And that flag?"--he pointed to the Khedivial banner. + +His companion hesitated for a moment. Who was this dazed questioner, +who had suddenly appeared out of the sands of the desert? He looked +almost as worn and physically exhausted as a desert fanatic. + +"This is an excavation camp which has just been sanctioned by the +Minister of Public Works. We are engaged in making temporary +researches. The time-limit is one month." + +Without being in the least discourteous, his words conveyed the +impression that in so short a time there was more to be done than talk +to curious travellers. + +"How long has the camp been here?" Michael asked. "I hope you won't +think my questions impertinent. I have a very particular reason for +wishing to know." + +The blue eyes in the thin face became more alert. They searched +Michael's face with the same scrutiny as they searched the debris of +the ruins. + +"About four days," he said coldly. + +"Has the Government claimed the site?" Michael's voice trembled as he +asked the question; it was so hard to keep cool. + +"The Government is entitled to expropriate any land containing +antiquities on paying a valuation and ten per cent. over, but this, of +course, was not private property. It belongs to the Government." + +"Yes, of course. I know something about these new rules--I have been +working with Lampton in the Valley." + +"Oh!" The stranger's voice at once became cordial and intimate. "I +didn't know that I was speaking to a fellow-digger. How's Lampton?" + +"I wasn't actually digging--I was doing some painting for him, and +inking the pottery drawings. His latest discovery has developed +amazing theories." + +"So I've heard. But you look a bit done up. Come inside and have a +drink." Before entering the tent, the stranger looked round. "Who's +your man? Is he all right?" + +"He's one of Lampton's men--absolutely trustworthy. He's been more +than a servant to me for some weeks now." Michael paused, and then +said abruptly, "Who told the Government of this site? What do you +expect to find?" + +"Will you first tell me where you got your information? Did you know +we were here?" + +"The _Omdeh_ in the subterranean village spoke of it. He told me that +the natives had discovered a hidden treasure, a sort of King Solomon's +Mine, and that they were wading knee-deep in jewels and falling over +crocks stuffed with Nubian gold--a desert fairytale, I suppose?" + +"Absolutely! If there ever was any gold, it was not here when we +arrived, and as for the jewels. . . !" He laughed. "Hallo! Are you +feeling queer?" + +Michael had managed to get inside the tent, but it was the limit of +what his legs and head were fit for. He collapsed on to a lounge, made +of wooden boxes covered with some rugs. + +The stranger unfastened the padlock of a similar box to one of those +upon which he was sitting with a key which hung from a chain at his +side. He raised the lid; it had been converted into a wine-cellar. + +"Hold hard," he said, in a kindly voice. "I'll give you a drink." + +Michael was not fainting; he was merely in a state of physical +collapse. He gladly accepted the proffered hospitality. + +When he had swallowed the whisky, he said: "I'm sorry, but I've been +feeling a bit queer lately. For some days past I've had a touch of the +sun." He could not tell this stranger of his bitter disappointment. + +"Have you ridden far to-day?" + +"Yes. I've been in the desert for some time now. We started this +morning at dawn." He put the glass down on the rough trestle-table. +"Thanks most awfully. I feel a lot better. You said there was no +truth in the report about the gold and the jewels--what are you +expecting?" + +"We have seen no trace of gold so far, but you must remember that it +was a native who brought the information. Any discoverer is bound to +inform the Government, and any portable object accidentally found must +be given up within six days." + +"But the finder receives half its value?" + +"Yes, but if there was this treasure-trove of gold and jewels, it's +doubtful if natives would hand that over. It would have been a +different thing if it had been monumental objects, or even antiques, as +they always run the risk of being caught trafficking in them. They +would be inclined to think that half their value is better than none, +with the added risk of the heavy penalty. The new rules are very +stringent." + +"But the jewels? Is there no trace of any precious stones? Don't you +think there's a little fire for all that smoke?" + +"We heard all these wonderful reports, but we have found no trace of +any treasure. What the native reported was that he, along with some +other _fellahin_, had accidentally come across some traces of ancient +masonry, not far from Akhnaton's tomb. After digging for a few days, +they discovered an underground passage, which led into a chamber; in it +we came upon some papyri." + +"You have found papyri?" Michael said. His tired eyes suddenly glowed; +his excitement was obvious. + +"Yes, we have found papyri. They promise to be of exceptional +interest." + +"Of what dynasty?" Michael could scarcely speak, or hide his anxiety +while he waited for an answer to his question. To be able to assume an +outward appearance of calmness, he was putting a great strain on his +self-control. He held himself so well in hand that the stranger little +guessed how much his answer meant to the exhausted traveller. + +"Amenhotep IV." + +A cry rang through the room. "Akhnaton! did you say? Then it is +true!" Margaret, the old man in el-Azhar, and the saint, they had all +seen and spoken the truth. For a moment the stranger was forgotten. +It was Margaret who was looking at him with glad triumphant eyes. +Happy Meg! + +"Yes, the heretic Pharaoh," the stranger said, as he gazed fixedly at +Michael. Was this man more than a little touched with the sun? He +felt nervous of how to proceed. Why was he so excited and pleased? +"These hills, you know, were the boundary of his capital. You appear +interested in him? He certainly was a wonderful character." + +The more conventional and colder tones of his voice made Michael +guarded. Kind as he was, he was just the type of man who would laugh +to scorn anything he might have told him. Freddy's friendly laughter +never troubled Michael; the scorn of a stranger was a different thing. + +"Have they deciphered any of the papyri?" + +"No, we haven't had the time. We've only gone into them sufficiently +to discover their date. This is, of course, a temporary search. We +can only do in a month what is absolutely necessary. If regular +excavations are to be made, which I presume there will be, we shall, of +course, have to wait for a bit, while the final regulations are gone +through, and until the necessary money is forthcoming. These last new +rules and restrictions are putting a stop to any private enterprise. +There is nothing left to pay the cost of the dig." + +"On the whole, I suppose, they do good?" + +"They don't do what they were meant to do--and that is, stop the +stealing and the selling of valuable antiques which the Government, +rightly enough, does not wish to leave the country, and desires to have +the disposal of." + +"I had hoped the new restrictions would stop that." + +"You see, the penalties only apply to the natives and the Turks, with +the result that the native dealer simply puts an Italian or a Greek +name over his door. To the foreigner, the native is only the agent, +officially--the dealer is the Greek or Italian whose name is over the +door." + +"They'd be sure to get out of the difficulty somehow," Michael said. +"About antiques they have no conscience, and they are awfully clever." + +"An inspector may now raid their premises at any time of the day or +night, and nothing is allowed to be sold outside authorized and +licensed shops. Every dealer has to keep a day-book, with an entry of +each object in his shop over five pounds in value, the purchaser's name +must be filled in, and every page of the register sealed by the +Inspector of Antiquities." + +Michael laughed. "Trust the native mind to find a way to circumvent +all these fine restrictions!" + +His thoughts had flown to Millicent. If she had, as Abdul believed, +discovered the jewels and the gold, where were they now? It was very +odd that, even with this damning evidence that she had anticipated his +find before his eyes--for she and she alone could have known of it--his +finer senses refused to believe that she had cheated and tricked him. +He had no argument to put forward to justify his belief; it was one of +those beliefs which are rooted in something finer and truer than +circumstantial evidence. His only argument in her favour was that he +had never found her mercenary, but, as Abdul had answered him, a woman +will sell her soul for jewels. + +He felt woefully sick and dejected, far too physically exhausted to run +the risk of exposing himself to the scorn and laughter of the +excavator, who was speaking to him in a manner which unconsciously +betrayed to the hypersensitive Michael that he considered the traveller +rather too odd to waste much valuable time over. Michael wondered, in +a slow, broken sort of way, what the cold eyes would look like if he +suddenly produced the uncut crimson amethyst from the purse in his +waistbelt. He would probably have said that it was a clever part of +the native fable; he would probably say that the ancient stone might +have come from any royal tomb in Egypt, that it proved nothing. + +As a lengthy silence had elapsed, Michael felt that it was incumbent on +him to be getting on his way. He must pretend to the excavator that he +was now well enough to resume his journey. As he rose, rather inertly, +from his low seat, he said: + +"You say the native who brought the information of the find said +nothing at all about the jewels and the gold?" + +"Not a word! We have heard all that since. As you know, news travels +in the desert in the most amazing fashion, once the natives get ear of +it." + +"Won't you try and follow up the track of the story--find out how it +originated? Are you content to take it for granted that it is all +moonshine?" + +"We are doing something about it--but it's very difficult." The +stranger spoke guardedly. "The only way is to set a thief to catch a +thief. Gold can be melted, ancient stones can be cut, a hundred +dealers will be eager to run any risk to get them." + +A flood of anger coloured Michael's face; it brought out beads of +perspiration on his forehead. He could scarcely contain himself; his +rage tore at his bowels. His long journey, all that he had gone +through--was this the end of it? Could anything be more fiat, more +stale, more unprofitable? What a sudden tumble from the blue to brown +earth! Above all, how maddening to have to hold his tongue, because no +man would believe the story he could tell them, to have meekly to +submit to the conventional etiquette of the moment! He felt anything +but conventional. His anger had driven all finer feelings from his +mind. If he could only find the native who had desecrated the +treasure-trove, he would hang and quarter him without mercy! + +"I'm afraid I must be getting back to my work," the excavator said. +"But you needn't hurry. Rest here for as long as you like, only don't +think me inhospitable if I leave you. Time's too precious to waste one +moment." + +"Thanks very much," Michael said. "But I'm quite fit. You've been +awfully kind. It's time I was on my way." + +"Where are you going to?" + +"Back to my camp." + +"Back to your camp? where did you leave it?" + +Michael told him. + +"Then did you come on here on purpose to visit this dig? Had you heard +of it before you saw the _Omdeh_ in the underground village?" + +"I'd rather not answer your question at present, if you don't mind. +All that I know about it, Lampton also knows. . . . Some day, I hope, +if we meet again, I will tell you the whole thing. It's an odd story, +even for Egypt." + +The man looked annoyed. "You can't tell me anything more? Have you +any information that could help us? We have our suspicions that things +aren't straight. If the natives weren't wading knee-deep in jewels, +there was probably, as you say, some truth in the report that there +were valuable antiques." + +"I've nothing reliable to go upon," Michael said. "Nothing that a man +in his normal senses would pay any attention to--that was Lampton's +verdict." + +Again the stranger looked at Michael with calm, searching eyes. + +"Yet you believe in what you heard? You believed enough to bring you +across the desert to find it?" + +"If you ask Lampton, he'll tell you that I'm not quite in my normal +senses--that I frequently walk on my head." + +"Lampton's a sound man." + +"Well, that's his opinion." + +"You're a rum chap," the stranger said, as he noticed that a glint of +humour had for the moment driven the expression of exhaustion from +Michael's eyes. "Anyhow, I hope you'll not feel too knocked up when +you arrive in camp, and that we'll meet again." + +"I feel as if I could sleep for a year." + +"Have another whisky before you go?" + +"No thanks. I think one has been more than enough--it's made me +confoundedly tired." + +They were standing at the open front of the tent. + +"Good-bye," Michael said. "And thanks most awfully for your +hospitality. I suppose you won't settle on the work here until next +season?" + +"No, it will be hot enough at the end of three weeks, though it's +cooler here than with Lampton in the Valley. If the money is +forthcoming, we shall take up work again next October." + +They parted abruptly, as Englishmen do. Two _fellahin_, mere hewers of +wood and drawers of water, would have gone through a set formula of +graceful words before they separated. They are ever mindful of the +teachings of the Koran, which says: + +"If you are greeted with a greeting, then greet ye with a better +greeting. God taketh account of all things." + +Michael had turned his back on the stranger and the waving flag. +Mechanically he put his hand to his belt-pouch. Yes, the crimson +amethyst was still there. He felt for it as though he were in a dream. +The bright light made him giddy. The stone was his link with and his +tangible assurance that the life which he had led for the past weeks +was a reality; it was his sacred token that the vision of Akhnaton was +no mere phantom of an over-imaginative brain. Yet, even as he felt its +hard substance between his thumb and forefinger, he wondered if it was +really there. He knew that imagination can create strange things; +phantom tumours have been produced by imagination, tumours which are +visible to a physician's eye while the patient is conscious and his +mind obsessed with the conviction that it is there; he knew that such +swellings disappear when the patient is asleep. He felt dazed, and as +if he himself were unreal; his feet refused to tread firmly on the +earth; they never managed to reach it. When he looked for Abdul and +the camels, they were floating in the heavens above the horizon, miles +and miles away; there was a belt of sky between them and the desert +sand. If his legs had been paralysed, they could not have felt heavier +or more useless. + +He struggled on, but very soon the desert and the sky became one; the +world in front of him rose suddenly up and stood on end. It was quite +impossible to reach Abdul--he was receding as the horizon recedes when +a clear atmosphere foreshortens the distance. In his brain there was a +confused jumble; it was full of things which had no meaning or +cohesion. Millicent was the centre of the absurd medley, Millicent, +naked and unashamed, her slender figure as thickly covered with uncut +jewels of huge dimensions as the statues of Diana of Ephesus are +covered with breasts. The jewelled vision of Millicent dominated every +other picture in his brain. It was clearer than the village of flies, +or the African's cell in far-off el-Azhar, or the procession of white +figures returning from the burial of the desert saint. It moved along +in the clear air in front of him. He had no reasoning powers left, or +he would have asked himself why his subconscious brain had fashioned +this vision of Millicent wearing the sacred jewels when he still +believed in her innocence. The clear voice, man's divine messenger, +had kept him assured of the truth of his conviction. + +Everything was dreadfully confused. He wished that the horizon would +not come right forward and almost throw him off his balance. He seemed +to be constantly hitting up against it. And Abdul, why was he floating +further and further away? The harder he tried to get to him, the +further he went. And yet he could actually hear him reciting his +prayers. He was telling his rosary. Why did he tantalize him by +coming so near and then floating off again? Sometimes he came so near +that he could see his fine fingers automatically pulling the beads +along the string; a tassel of red silk hung from the end of it. There +were ninety-nine small red beads and one large one. He had reached the +fifty-ninth. Michael could tell that, because the words "O Giver of +Life" came to him sonorously across the desert stillness. The next one +would be "O Giver of Death," but Abdul had floated away again. Now he +had come back; he had said "O Living One," "O Enduring," "O Source of +Discovery." + +That was the sixty-third bead. Why had Abdul stopped at that one? Why +did he keep on repeating the words "O Source of Discovery," "O Source +of Discovery"? He ought to pass on to the next--"O Worthy of All +Honour," and after that the sixty-fifth, "O Thou Only One." No one +ever stopped at the sixty-third bead; all the attributes of Allah had +to be recited. But Abdul was still saying it over and over again. "O +Source of Discovery," "O Source of Discovery." The words danced before +Michael's eyes in letters of gold, like the advertisement of Bovril +which he had watched so often from the Thames Embankment, as it +appeared and disappeared in the sky across the river. + +And then again the letters were obliterated by the nude figure of +Millicent, with her hanging breasts of jewels. How delicate her limbs +were, how white her skin! The sun would blister it; if he could only +reach her, he would give her his coat. Like himself, she was walking +in the clear air and not on the firm earth. She was walking as St. +Peter had walked on the waves of the sea. + +Then something happened. He stumbled and would have fallen, but for a +great strength which gathered him up and sheltered him under the shadow +of Everlasting Arms. + + * * * * * * + +Abdul, with Eastern philosophy, had sat himself down to wait while his +master interviewed the director of the "dig." His soul was vexed and +his mind was ill at ease. His master's health was the principal cause +of his anxiety. His anger at the harlot, and his disappointment, +mingled with this anxiety, made him unusually despondent. + +He seated himself on a knoll where his master could easily see him when +he left the excavator's tent. It was not yet time for the performance +of his maghrib, or sunset prayer, which had to be said a few minutes +after the sun had set. He began to recite his rosary, telling an +attribute of God to each bead. When he had got about half-way through +the long list of names which form the Mohammedan rosary and by which +the Moslem addresses his Creator, he saw Michael leave the tent and +walk out into the sunlight. + +For a moment or two he seemed to be walking quite steadily and to be +coming towards him. Then suddenly he began to stagger and lurch like a +drunken man. + +Abdul rose from his seat and hurried towards him. What had seemed such +a long way to Michael had only been a few yards. His visions and fears +and the constant repetition of the sixty-third attribute of Allah had +been concentrated into the last few seconds before he stumbled and +fell, just as our dreams are enacted in the last moments before we +wake. Abdul had scarcely said the words "O Source of Discovery" for +the first time when he rose from his seat and hurried to his master, +who had stumbled and fallen. In his Moslem arms was God's Everlasting +Mercy. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +The heat in the Valley had become intense. The work in the +excavation-camp was at a standstill; nothing more could be done on the +actual site until the late autumn. + +Margaret and Freddy were soon to say good-bye to the little hut which +had been their home for many months. + +No direct news had come to them of Michael. Freddy had heard many +accounts and varying reports from unreliable sources of his travels in +the eastern desert. He was almost convinced that Michael's silence was +due to the fact that there was some foundation for the scandal, which +was persistent, that Millicent was one of his party. The report had +drifted to him from so many sources that he could scarcely doubt it. +It had sprung up and flourished like seed blown over light soil. He +was loath to believe that his friend, even if it had not been by his +own willing or desire, should have permitted the woman to stay with him +when he was Margaret's acknowledged lover. He despised him for being +such a weak fool. If Freddy could have left his work, he would have +started off without delay to look for Michael, or at least he would +have contrived to discover the reason for his silence and what degree +of truth there was in the story of Millicent's being with him. +Situated as he was, it was impossible for him to desert his post. He +had purposely avoided opening up the subject again with Margaret; it +was better to wait until a sufficient length of time had elapsed and +then, if no word came from Michael, he would speak to her again and +hold her to her promise to return home and try to drive the whole +affair from her mind. + +Even as he said the words to himself, he knew that they were absurd, +that such a thing was hopeless. Meg was not the sort of woman to trust +and love a man and then forget him. There could be no driving him from +her mind. Freddy knew that she had enough strength of character to do +whatever she thought was right. If circumstances compelled her to give +Michael up, she would do it, but in so doing her youth would be killed, +her heart broken. Her life would have to be re-made. A love like +Margaret's was a serious thing; Freddy realized that. He must go to +work carefully and judiciously. + +It hurt him more than Meg ever knew, to watch her suffering and +ever-growing anxiety. She made no complaint and very seldom alluded to +her lover's silence or to his absence. When she spoke of him, it was +generally to recall some happy incident which had happened in their +secluded life, little things culled from the store-closet of her +precious memories. + +It was to the stars and to the wide heavens that her heart relieved +itself. They heard the full story of her trust and loyalty and the +confessions of her jealous woman's heart; they bore her cry to the +understanding ear. + +It was impossible for Margaret to believe any wrong of her lover. If +she had short waves of doubt and agonizing moments of uncertainty and +indecision, they were always dispelled by the sudden inflow of +beautiful thoughts, which came like divine visions to her, as direct +assurances of Mike's loyalty and steadfastness. + +It was Freddy who caused her the cruellest suffering. It was so +dreadful to think that he, of all people, doubted, distrusted Mike! If +she had not cared for him so greatly it would not have mattered, but +apart from Michael he was the being she loved and respected most on +earth. His eyes haunted her; the doubt in them never left her mind; it +argued against her finer judgment. That her dear chum should be +working against her higher voice, her super-self, troubled her. It +seemed to set up a barrier between them, which was the cruellest part +of the whole affair. If he would only let her alone, she would go to +some cooler spot and there wait and wait until Michael came to her, for +she knew that he would come back to her, bringing her the same +beautiful love as he had carried away. She knew perfectly well that in +spite of her foolish fits of depression and distrust, he was wholly and +absolutely hers while he was alive on this earth. + +Freddy bore the expression of one who was waiting to deliver judgment. +Meg could see his annoyance kindling day by day. She could feel him +looking at her when he thought that she was not noticing. The deeper +circles under her eyes told Freddy their tale; the sagging of her +clothes, as they hung from her boyish limbs, the pitiful flattening of +her young breasts. This new and delicate-looking Margaret was very +beautiful. Our Lady of Sorrows had laid her hand upon her with a +softening grace; the new Meg had acquired what boyish Meg had never +possessed. Under her eyes, on her clear skin there were dark shadows, +which looked as if they had been made by the impress of carboned thumbs +which had pressed tired eyes to sleep. Meg's steadfast, honest eyes +now expressed things of a deeper meaning than mere comradeship and +brains; their beauty was quickened by the soul of suffering. Even in +Freddy's eyes she was much more attractive than she had been six months +ago. She was now a great deal more than merely pretty. As he watched +her bearing her anxiety and what appeared to him her humiliation with +so much calm dignity and braveness, he said to himself over and over +again, "She's a thousand times too good for a man who could behave like +a weak fool, if indeed Mike isn't worse!" + +He was looking at her now, as she lay in a deck-chair, her eyes closed +and her hands folded across her book. They had both been reading, +after a hard day's work. Meg had not turned many pages of her book; +her thoughts had wandered. As she felt her brother's eyes upon hers, +she raised her eyelids and looked at him steadily as she said: + +"Freddy, I'm going to see Hadassah Ireton." + +Freddy sat bolt upright. He, too, had been lying stretched out on a +lounge-chair. + +"Going to see Mrs. Ireton? But you don't know her!" + +He did not ask Meg why she was going; he knew. + +"That doesn't matter--I know all about her. My heart and mind know +her, and, after all, that's the important thing--it's the only thing +that matters." + +"But, Meg----" + +"Chum, no 'buts'--'buts' belong to small things. This is my life. We +must do something. You can't leave your work; I am no longer needed." + +"But what can Hadassah Ireton do?" + +"I don't know--she'll know, I feel she'll know. That's why I'm going." +She paused. "I've been told to go." + +"Oh, nonsense! How's this going to clear things up?" Freddy paused. + +"I don't know. If I did, I shouldn't go to the Iretons'. It's because +I don't know, and nothing's being done, that I mean to go to her and +consult her." + +"But why on earth trouble a stranger? I dislike the idea." + +"There are some human beings who are never strangers. Suffering unites +people. Hadassah Ireton has suffered." + +Freddy knocked the ash from his cigarette. A lump had risen up in his +throat. + +"What are you going to ask her to do?" Meg did not know the pain her +words had given him; he spoke huskily. + +"She's going to advise me what to do." Meg raised herself from her +reclining position. "She will help me, if Michael's ill, Freddy." + +"I don't suppose he is--I think we'd have heard." + +"I think that's why we haven't heard," Margaret said quickly. + +Freddy remained silent. He thought otherwise. He had a man's +knowledge of men. If Millicent Mervill was with him, he did not for +one moment believe that even Mike would be proof against such +temptation. + +"If he is ill," Meg said, "the Iretons will find out. They are in such +close touch with native life. Anyhow, they understood Mike and I want +to see them." + +Meg's last words were a little cry. Freddy could only feel pity for +her, although her words stung him. She must actually go from him to +strangers for the sympathy she needed. + +"Well, I won't stop you, but I think it's a pity. Whatever made you +think of such a thing?" + +"The thing that you call inspiration, chum--I know another name for it +now." + +Freddy looked amazed; Meg had absorbed so many of Mike's strange ideas. +"I don't know Ireton," he said. His voice had grown colder. + +"He married a Syrian--you wouldn't. The Lamptons don't do that sort of +thing." + +Freddy kept his temper, and the moment after Meg had said the words she +felt ashamed, disgraced. + +"I'm sorry, chum." She spoke gently. "It's my tongue that says these +hateful things, not my heart. Forgive me, like a dear." + +"All right, old girl." Freddy had never told his sister that he had +refused the hospitality and cut himself off from the friendship of more +than two English families, residents in Cairo, because they had taken a +prominent part in the outcasting of Michael Ireton from English society +when he had married Hadassah Lekejian. He knew that Margaret had +spoken the words hastily and unthinkingly. When Meg's nerves were on +edge was the only time she was ever cross and out of temper. "The +Iretons are delightful people. If I'd known Ireton when he was a +bachelor, I should have visited them after his marriage, but I didn't, +and I haven't much time for paying society calls. Besides, it might +have looked like patronizing them. The way they were treated by some +of the English out here was so abominable that one had to be jolly +careful. Ireton never minded a scrap--he's too big to care for the +social rot that goes on out here, but all the same, I didn't like to +make a point of calling. I'm a digger, Meg, not a resident with a +house to invite people to." + +"From what Mike told me, they must be the most delightful people. I +can't imagine Hadassah snubbing me if I went to see her, can you?" + +"I don't suppose she would. What will you say to her? It's a rum +idea." Freddy became meditative. + +"I don't know, but whatever one arranges to say on such occasions is +just the thing one doesn't say. The atmosphere will suggest the +words--it always does with me. I've never yet said the things I +planned to say. Have you?" + +"Scarcely ever, but it might be well to think things out." Freddy +disliked the idea of confiding family secrets to strangers. "When do +you think of going?" + +"When you leave here, I can go straight to Cairo. It will be cooler +there. I don't know Cairo--don't forget, I've never seen even the +Pyramids." + +"And when do you mean to go home? The season's getting on." + +"I don't know. It all depends on what news I can gather, or if a +letter comes. I can easily stay in Cairo until I hear. You won't +object to that?" + +"No. It's beastly hot here, by Jove!" Freddy poured himself out a +lemon-squash and drank it off. "I'm not sorry it's time to go home." + +"I don't feel the heat very much--the nights keep pretty cool." + +"You're looking fagged, all the same." + +"Oh, I'm all right--it's anxiety that kills. If only I was certain +that he wasn't ill, Freddy!" + +"I don't see why you should think Mike's ill. He's leading an awfully +healthy life. He's well accustomed to the desert. It's cooler with +him than it is here." + +"I know, but it's a very strained life. I have a conviction that he's +ill. Whenever I think intently of him, I see him ill and suffering. +These things must have their meaning." + +"I think we should have heard if he was ill. We got the other news +quick enough, didn't we!" + +Meg frowned. + +"It will be cooler in Cairo, but give me your word that you personally +won't do anything foolish in the way of looking for Michael, or going +off alone into the desert." + +"No, I won't do anything foolish. That's not in my line, is it now? I +have some Lampton common sense." + +"Not about some things." + +Meg laughed. "Wait till you know what it is like, chum." + +"Well, you'll not forget your other promise?" + +Meg thought for a moment before answering and then she said +emphatically, "No, I won't forget my promise. I'm not in the least +afraid that I shall be tempted to break it." + +"You have promised to go back to England if you find undeniable proof +that Michael and Millicent were together in the desert." + +"Yes, I promise. I will go back to the old life, which seems like a +dream." Meg gave a little shiver as she visualized her old-world +Suffolk home and the narrowness of her life there. "Any old place +would do, chum, to bury myself in if my heart was broken." + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +Through a labyrinth of narrow streets, echoing with native cries and +Oriental traffic, a wonderful sight and sensation to strangers +unfamiliar with Cairene commercial life, Margaret Lampton found her way +to "the home of enchantment," as she afterwards called the Iretons' +ancient mansion. It was a native house, typical and expressive of the +most resplendent years of the Mameluke rule in Egypt. + +A licensed guide, with a brass-lettered number on his arm, in a blue +cotton jebba and a scarlet fez, had volunteered to show her the way; it +would have been impossible for a stranger to find it alone. The +Cairene licensed guides, although they are pests, have their uses. + +As Margaret passed under the lintel of the outer door, which led into a +quiet courtyard, of Hadassah Ireton's house, a Nubian servant rose from +the stone _mastaba_--the guards' seat--upon which he had been lying +half asleep; he conducted her with the silence of a shadow to the gate +of the inner or women's courtyard. This courtyard was overlooked by +the women's quarters of the house only. + +Margaret rather timidly entered the second courtyard. She scarcely +knew what to expect. She was certainly not prepared for the vision of +beauty which she saw directly the door was opened. She had heard +nothing at all of the fantastic beauty of the superb old Mameluke +palaces in Cairo; she did not know that the Iretons lived in one. + +A fat servant, also a Nubian, but more amply clad the guard at the +outer door, rose from a wooden seat, grown grey with age. With the +same silence and mystery he conducted Margaret across the courtyard. + +Margaret could, of course, only glance at the bewildering beauty of her +mediaeval surroundings as she followed the servant, but brief as her +vision of it was, it left a never-to-be-forgotten picture in her mind. +A vision of coolness and peace, of oriel windows--chamber-windows for +unreal people, jealously screened with weather-bleached _meshrahiyeh_ +work--and one high balcony, the special feature of the courtyard, a +dream of romantic beauty, shaded by the dark leaves of an ancient +lebbek tree. It was a vision as dignified as it was touching. It was +like a lost piece of a world which had passed away, a lonely cloud +which had detached itself from a world of romance and had hidden itself +in the heart of a seething city of ugliness and sin. + +Surprise temporarily drove from Margaret's mind the object of her +visit; it was not until she was seated in the spacious room which +overlooked the courtyard, and whose front wall consisted of the +_meshrahiyeh_ balcony--it was now Hadassah Ireton's drawing-room--that +she was brought face to face with the unusualness of her visit. + +The room was beautifully cool, screened as it was by the delicate +lace-work. _Meshrabiyeh_ was invented to fill two wants--to screen the +windows through which women could look out, without being seen +themselves, and to admit fresh air while it excluded the sun. It is a +substitute for glass in a warm climate. + +Margaret would have liked to have sat for a little time longer to +collect her thoughts and to take in the beauty of the room; but that +was not to be; the door opened and her hostess entered. + +Of all the beautiful pictures which she had seen since she entered the +inner courtyard of this mediaeval home, Hadassah Ireton was the most +beautiful. She had brought her baby-boy with her; he was just learning +to toddle. A sob rose in Margaret's throat, as she saw the fair-haired +child beside the tall young mother. + +Hadassah had greeted her with the conventional "How do you do?" +Margaret answered it as conventionally. + +Hadassah lifted her boy up and held him out to Margaret. "This is my +son," she said. "I know he wants to welcome you." + +The boy held up his face to be kissed. As he did so, Margaret took him +in her arms and held him close to her breast. Hadassah, who had +brought him to administer to that very want--a woman's empty arms--went +to the balcony and made a pretence of letting in some fresh air and +excluding the shaft of sunlight which was coming from one of the small +oriels that had been left unclosed. + +When she turned to her guest, she saw something very like tears in +Margaret's eyes. The child, who did not know the meaning of the word +fear or shyness, was speaking to Margaret as if he had known her all +his short life. + +"He has taken you into his elastic heart," Hadassah said. "Because, if +you don't mind me saying so, I think we are rather like one another." + +"Oh, no!" Margaret said impulsively, while she blushed. "I'm not like +you!" + +Her words were expressive of admiration. Hadassah did not pretend to +misunderstand them; she was well accustomed to admiration. + +"The boy sees the resemblance, I'm sure." + +"We have both dark heads and we are both tall," Margaret said +laughingly. "But there the likeness ends." She looked at Hadassah's +eyes as she spoke and wished that she could believe that she was in the +least like her. She had never seen such a beautiful expression in any +woman's eyes before. Was she really the Syrian girl whom Michael +Ireton had dared to marry? + +"Let us sit down," Hadassah said. "But before we begin our talk, I +must send Michael to the nursery. I am really so foolish about him--I +wanted you to see him." She rang the bell and a pretty Coptic girl in +native dress came into the room; the boy went on with her without +demur. The girl had looked at Margaret with big brown eyes; they +carried her mind back to the portraits of Egyptian women painted in +Roman times on the walls of tombs. + +"What a good little chap!" Margaret said. "I'm sure he wanted to stay +with you. How marked the Coptic type is!--they are the true +descendants of the ancient Egyptians, aren't they? He looked so fair +beside her." + +"Dear little son! He will be perfectly happy with her. He loves +everybody and everything. I sometimes wonder if it means a lack of +character. He rarely cries, and he sings baby-songs to himself all day +long." + +"What a darling!" Margaret said. "And how fair!" + +"Yes," Hadassah said, "quite English." The words were spoken without +malice, but they brought the colour to Margaret's cheeks. Hadassah saw +it, and said laughingly, "I was granted my wish--I wanted to have a boy +as like my husband as possible. He wanted a girl, I think." + +Margaret laid her hand on Hadassah's arm. "Did you mind me writing?" +she said. "I hope you didn't think it very odd?" Her voice broke. "I +wanted your advice. I knew you and your husband could help me." + +"Dear Miss Lampton," Hadassah said, "I'm so glad you wrote, and of +course I understood. It's worth while to have suffered oneself, so as +to be able to understand and help others in their suffering." + +Margaret knew all that the words implied, but with her habitual +reserve, she answered as though Hadassah had referred to her cousin's +death. The Nationalist plot in which he was implicated had added to +the horror which British society in Cairo had openly expressed at +Michael Ireton's marriage with a Syrian, who was a cousin of the +ill-advised youth. + +"Michael told me something of the tragedy," Margaret said. "You must +have felt his death terribly." + +Margaret's words were conventional, but Hadassah did not miss the +sympathy and feeling which lay underneath them. + +"I did," Hadassah said. "But the boy would never have been happy--he +was one of the pitiful instances you meet in Egypt; of misguided +idealists. Girgis had a fine character, but he was fastened upon +because of his wealth by the wrong set of the Nationalist party, who +misled him and then turned on him and killed him because he wouldn't go +as far as they wanted him to go in their horrible outrages. It was a +pitiful story, greatly distorted and misinterpreted by the press." + +"His death was splendid," Margaret said. "It wiped out all the +rest--it proved his real worth." + +"Yes," Hadassah said. "Poor Girgis died a hero's death. He was as +brave as a lion. But come," she said, "let me hear your news. These +things we are talking about are ancient history to everybody but +myself, and I never think of them if I can help it. It is better not." +She sighed reflectively. "Dear Girgis knows that I can never forget +him. He gave me all his fierce young love at a time when it was very +precious." + +"Ignorance was at the bottom of it all," Margaret said. She was +alluding to the behaviour of the British residents in Cairo in respect +to Hadassah's marriage. Hadassah understood. + +"I have learned to know and realize that," she said. "And, after all, +one must pity ignorance. I have got so far that I can actually feel +sorry for such narrow minds. As for Michael, he never gave it a +thought. If our characters are widened through suffering, I have +gained--they have lost. Something fine always leaves our natures when +we do or think unkind things--nothing is truer or surer than that." + +"Michael always says the same thing," Margaret said eagerly. "He +thinks unkind thoughts and uncharitable acts--want of love, in +fact--the unpardonable sins." + +"Both our men have the same name." Hadassah's eyes smiled. "I like +your man so much, if I may say so. He is worth a great deal. We can't +expect big things to come to us in a small, mediocre way, can we?" + +"I am so glad you like him," Margaret said. "And you believe in him? +Your husband believes in him, in his . . ." she hesitated ". . . +unpractical mind?" Hadassah's understanding and gentleness made her +feel childishly weak. It would have been a relief to give way to +weeping. Her nerves were at the point when any rebuke would have +braced her sympathy was undoing. + +"Why, of course!" + +"May I tell you why I came?" + +"Will you have some tea first? You are tired!" + +"No thanks, really. I had numerous cups of coffee on my way here." + +"Then let me hear all you want to tell me. Even if I can't help you, I +know how nice it is to talk over one's troubles with another woman. +You have lived very much cut off from women's society all these months. +Where is Mr. Amory? Did he go into the desert? We haven't heard of +him or from him since he spoke to my husband about going off on a long +journey. He had a great scheme in his head. He's an odd creature." +She laughed. "You and I both like individualities, I think." + +"He went into the eastern desert soon after you saw him. I haven't +heard from him since he went. His letters may have gone astray. But +in the meantime a report has been spread abroad that he has taken a +woman with him, a Mrs. Mervill. Have you heard of her?" + +"Millicent Mervill? I know her!" + +"Well, she is in love with him. You know how beautiful she is. . . ." +Margaret's voice lost its steadiness. + +"Yes, and also I know how thoroughly lacking in morals. She is very +well-known by this time. Last season she was the fashion; she +entertained lavishly. This year she has thrown caution to the winds." + +"She certainly has, for she has positively hunted Michael to earth." + +"Michael Amory, of all men!" Hadassah's laugh encouraged Margaret; it +was so expressive of what she herself felt. + +"Yes, I think she is annoyed because. . . ." Margaret paused ". . . +well, I can't express what I mean, but Michael isn't that sort. He +would be her friend if she would let him, but friendship isn't enough." + +"I know what you mean. He certainly isn't that sort, there can be no +mistaking that." + +Margaret smiled happily. "Then you believe he isn't?" + +"Of course! Who doesn't?" + +"My brother objects to my name being mixed up in the scandal." Margaret +had evaded answering Hadassah's question. + +"But what scandal?" + +"The reports that are going about that Mrs. Mervill is with him in the +desert, that that is why I haven't heard from Mike. Everyone is saying +it." Meg's words conveyed an apology for her brother. + +"Your brother really believes this, and yet he knows Mr. Amory?" + +"Yes. But you mustn't blame him. He has tried not to believe it; he +is really awfully good about it all. And I must admit that it looks as +if the story was true, but I just know it isn't." + +"Of course it isn't!" Hadassah said, almost sharply. "Who spread the +report?" + +"First it came from the native diggers in the valley, and then my +brother heard it from Mr. King. Now lots of people are talking about +it, and my brother wants me to go home. . . . I've promised to go +if . . ." Margaret paused. "That's why I came to you. I want your +advice. If we could only hear from Michael, I know the whole thing +would be explained. My brother would do anything he could to help me, +but his business ties him and . . ." again she paused and then said +hurriedly, "You know what men are--he hates my name being bandied +about." + +"I'll get my husband to comb out the truth from all these lies." +Hadassah put her hand on Margaret's. "You'll laugh at your fears one +day." + +"If you only knew how thoughtless Michael is about the opinion of the +world! If he isn't doing wrong, he never stops to think what +construction the world may be putting on his action, nor does he care." + +"Personally I think it's the malicious talk of some enemy, or of Mrs. +Mervill herself. Can she have intercepted his letters, and spread the +report so as to separate you?" + +"She may have followed him. If she is with him, she is self-invited." + +Hadassah Ireton interrupted her. "Even Mrs. Mervill could scarcely do +that!" + +"My brother says that I may wait in Cairo until we can find definite +proofs one way or another. A letter may come from Michael at any +moment. I know it will come if he is all right, but I'm so afraid he +is ill--that is really what I came to ask you about." + +"You want us to try to find out if he is ill?" + +"Yes, if you will, if it is not asking too much. Something keeps on +telling me that he is ill, that he is in need of help." Margaret was +speaking more earnestly and with less restraint. "I have had queer +visions and many presentiments since I lived in the Valley. I seem to +be able to see beyond . . . if you know what I mean. They have come +true in many instances--it is not mere imagination. But perhaps you +have as little belief as I once had in these things?" + +"Where ought Mr. Amory to be just now--have you any idea?" Hadassah's +voice conveyed the idea to Margaret that the subject was too serious to +be spoken of hastily or decisively. + +"He ought to have reached his destination, the hills beyond the ruins +of Tel-el-Amarna. Did you know the object of his journey?" Margaret +spoke nervously, shyly; she shrank from speaking of her lover's belief +in the treasure of Akhnaton. + +"Yes. He told my husband the twofold reason of his wish to make the +journey. He believes in the theory that there is a buried treasure in +the hills beyond Tel-el-Amarna, where Akhnaton was buried, and I think +he also wanted . . . what shall I say? . . . to find himself--I suppose +I must use that hackneyed phrase for want of a better--to find himself +in the desert. Wasn't that it?" + +"Yes. He is a born wanderer." Margaret said the words dreamily; her +thoughts had flown, to the luminous figure of Akhnaton. In this superb +mansion, fashioned by Oriental genius and Eastern wealth and +imagination, her vision took its place, not unnaturally, in the strange +list of things which her eyes had seen or her mind had received during +her life in Egypt. + +"Will you enjoy a wandering life? Don't you think women like a home?" + +"With an intellectual companion any place is home; with a stupid one a +palace becomes a wilderness. I have learnt that in the desert, if I +have learnt nothing else, I think. Michael could make a real home out +of a bathing-machine and a box of books." She laughed. "He is never +dull, he doesn't know the meaning of the word bored. His only trouble +is that no day is long enough. He'd forget the dimensions of the +bathing-machine--it would become to him a beautiful house like this." + +"What a wonderful thing love is!" Hadassah said to herself, as she +watched Margaret's eyes glow and shine. Her thoughts had transformed +her. "A wonderful and beautiful thing! Whatever would the world be +without it? And yet there are some people who go through life without +the faintest idea of what it really means!" + +"What we three have got to do," she said aloud, "is to discover where +the wanderer is. The sooner he is found the sooner he can start life +in a bathing-box. I agree with you so far that I think it's more than +likely that he is ill--not necessarily seriously ill, but ill enough to +have been delayed on his journey. Still, that is not the only solution +of the problem. His letters may be lying in some native post-office. +I've known letters remain for weeks on end in out-of-the-way village +post-offices. The official can't read the address; he puts the letter +aside until someone comes along who can. It may be sooner, it may be +later; they eventually reach their destination." + +Margaret smiled. "Michael's writing is not too clear--that may be the +cause of the delay." + +"My husband has received letters which have been months on a journey +which should have taken days. Time means nothing to desert peoples, as +you know." + +"You have made me feel much happier," Margaret said brightly. She +could have kissed the beautiful woman by her side out of sheer +gratitude. + +For some time longer they discussed the subject more fully and laid +their plans. + +Suddenly Hadassah said, "Where are you staying in Cairo?" + +When Margaret told her the name of her hotel, she said, "You must come +to us. We have lots of spare room in this big house, and if you are +here we can work together so much better. The hotel is too public. It +would really give us great pleasure if you will. I feel sure it would +be wiser." + +"How kind of you to ask me!" Margaret said. "I am quite a stranger to +you! I'd love to come. Michael has told me something about your work +among the Copts--indeed, everyone speaks of it, of your new educational +scheme and the progress you have made in so short a time. I should +like to understand more about it, if I may." + +"Perhaps our minds have met many times before, for I think we are +scarcely strangers," Hadassah said. "I hope you don't feel towards me +as one?" + +Margaret looked pleased. "I have heard so much about you, about your +work." + +"It is very uphill work. You can only hope for very slow results +amongst a people who have been scorned and persecuted and rejected for +generations and generations. I, as a Syrian, know what social +persecution means, so it is my highest ambition to do what little I +can, with my husband's help and my father's wealth, to elevate the +ideals and the moral standard of the young Coptic girls. You can do +nothing, or next to nothing, with the older women. Their characters +are formed, their prejudices too deeply-rooted." + +"I suppose so. It is the same in India--the women there are the +bitterest opponents to the reforms for women. They cling to the +suffering and oppression they endure." + +"These Copts have absorbed so many of the worst features of the +Mohammedan civilization--their superstitions, their domestic customs +as regards the women, and a great many of their least desirable +religious ceremonies. It is hard, for instance, for a stranger to +distinguish between a Christian native's marriage or funeral and a +Moslem's--indeed, it is often not easy even if you have a lifelong +knowledge of the country. The finest qualities of Islam--and they +are many--they have rejected, and for so doing they have suffered +unthinkable hardships and persecutions. Bad as things are to-day, they +were far, far worse in the days before the British Occupation, when the +Christians were at the mercy of the fanatical Moslems." + +"It is such a pity that the native Christian population is the one +which no one trusts in this country. The Mohammedans are respected, +the Copts are despised. I find that, even in connection with my +brother's work. The brains and industry of the country seem to belong +to the Copts; the honour and reliability to the Moslems." + +"I know," Hadassah said. "And that's what my husband and I are +fighting against. He wants to prove that the people of any country and +of any religion, even the English," Hadassah's eyes twinkled, "will +become degraded and untrustworthy in time, if they are persecuted and +oppressed. With the Christian element in Egypt, it has been a case of +every man for himself and the devil take the hindmost. If we were to +take some Coptic children and Mohammedan children, of the same social +grade out here, and had them educated in England as Christians, you +would soon see that it is not the Copts who ought to be despised, but +their intolerant oppressors and persecutors." Hadassah smiled. "You +know, Miss Lampton, how easy it is to be good and strong when one is +trusted and loved. Love makes finer, better women of us." + +Margaret rose from her seat. "You have done me so much good," she +said. "I feel as if my world had been re-made." + +"That's splendid!" Hadassah said. "I always try to remember that it is +a privilege to suffer. It is one of the divine fires which tests us; +suffering links us to the great brotherhood. You wouldn't choose to be +outside it. The older we grow the more we realize that it is +suffering, not happiness, which makes the whole world kin." + +Margaret's silence, which often was more eloquent than other women's +speech, told Hadassah that she agreed. Suffering was teaching her its +lessons. + +"When may we expect you?" Hadassah said. "The sooner the better, don't +you think?" + +"May I come in a day or two? I have some business to do for my +brother--I have promised to see one or two people for him; he is going +home very soon." She looked round the hall through which they were +passing. "I can't imagine myself ever really living here. It looks as +if it had all been created by the wand of some magician for a princess +in a fairytale. What a contrast to our hut in the Valley!" + +"You like it better than a new house in the European settlement? You +think I chose wisely?" + +"Of course I do. Who wouldn't?" + +"This house costs us no more than a good flat would in the European +part of the city, but you have to come through the native quarters to +get to it, remember. Many people would object to that." + +"I hate the European quarter of Cairo," Margaret said. "It seems to me +so vulgar and degenerate. The native quarter is just what it sets out +to be, no better and no worse." + +"Well, you must come and stay with us--my husband will enjoy showing +you the hidden beauties of Cairo. He is devoted to it." + +Margaret's ears caught the sound of water. It was coming from a tall +fountain which was playing in the centre of the outer hall. Above it +was a pendentive roof, richly carved and coloured. A suggestion of +turquoise-blue and the gleam of iridescent tiles showed through the +clear water in the octagonal basin set in the floor. The jets of water +came from a large ball of blue faience resting on the top of a slender +spiral column. The fountain was only one of the beautiful features of +that Eastern mansion which Margaret noticed as her hostess conducted +her to the inner courtyard. + +"How enchanting it all is!" Margaret said. "I feel much too prosaic to +imagine spending my everyday working hours in it." Her life in the hut +seemed better suited to her practical nature. + +"I love it," Hadassah said. "And I like its emptiness. That is the +native idea. We have tried not to make it look like a mediaeval +museum, not to stuff it up with things. It's a great temptation." + +"Its sense of space is its greatest charm. There is everything you can +possibly want in it, and yet it has none of the absurd knick-knacks and +useless lumber of Western houses. My brother and I have learned to do +without so much that I don't think we shall ever fall into the sin of +overcrowding our rooms again." + +Hadassah laughed. "Will you have the courage to burn family +relics?--Aunt Maria's uncomfortable ottoman, Aunt Elizabeth's +escritoire, which is too small to write at, and Aunt Anne's firescreen +with strawberries worked in bead-work?" + +"Oh, I know them all," Margaret said. "Just compare them to these +beautiful things!" + +"Don't forget," Hadassah said, "that you are comparing the things of +England's worst period to the things of the finest period in Cairo. If +you saw some of the native houses, furnished from the European store in +the Ezbekiyeh, you would think Queen Victoria's private apartments at +Osborne beautiful," Hadassah's voice expressed her meaning. + +"Good-bye," Margaret said laughingly. "It is hard to believe that, but +I take your word for it." + +As Margaret walked through the outer courtyard, she kept saying to +herself, "So that is the Syrian's daughter, the girl whom the English +people rejected and would have none of!" + +Freddy had often corrected his sister for her careless use of the word +"beautiful." He maintained that few people had ever seen a really +beautiful human being. The Greeks idealized their models in their +types of Venus and Apollo. Margaret felt that at last she could +truthfully tell him that she had seen a beautiful woman, and that that +woman was a Syrian, Michael Ireton's "wife out of Egypt." + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +When Margaret reached her hotel she was more than astonished to hear +that in her absence her brother had called to see her. He had left a +message to say that he would return in half an hour. + +"How long ago was that?" Margaret asked. + +The very grand servant, in his elaborately-embroidered and gold laced +native dress, said, "About twenty minutes ago, my lady. The gentleman +said that it was important that he should see you." + +"I will wait for him on the terrace," Margaret said. "Bring him to me +directly he arrives." + +She was so taken back by this inexplicable piece of news that she heard +nothing more of what the man said. Why on earth had Freddy come to +Cairo? Margaret knew that he had business which was to have kept him +four more days at least in Luxor. Her first thought was that he had +heard something about Michael, but she doubted if even that would have +made him neglectful of his duty. With Freddy his work and the +responsibility it entailed came before every other consideration. +Margaret had ever been mindful of the fact that her presence in the +camp was not to interfere with his work. She knew him so well, or she +fancied that she did. His coming must be in some way connected with +his work. Perhaps he wished to stop her carrying out the instructions +which he had given her; he might have learned something in Luxor which +had upset his plans. + +A few minutes before the half-hour was up, Margaret saw her brother +walking quickly towards the hotel. The moment she caught sight of him, +she left the terrace and hurried down the street to meet him. There +was no one else within sight. He was walking with his head bent and as +though he was deeply immersed in thought. + +When she got within speaking distance, she called out, "Oh, Freddy, +what is it? Why have you come?" + +His expression had convinced her that something was wrong, that +something very serious had brought him to Cairo. + +Freddy linked his arm in his sister's and took a deep breath before he +spoke. "Chum dear," he said, "I've brought bad news for you." + +"Michael's dead!" Meg stood still and dropped her brother's arm. It +was a pitiful face, that paled to the lips as her eyes gazed into +Freddy's. + +"No, Meg, Mike's not dead." + +"Then he's dying, and you're afraid to tell me!" Margaret strode +forward, as if she was then and there starting off to find her dying +lover. Freddy laid his hand on her arm. "Freddy, let me go!" she said +impatiently. "Take me to him quickly. Wild horses won't detain me!" +She shook off his hand. + +"Steady, old girl. Let me tell you all about it. Mike's quite well, +so far as I know. I've heard nothing about any illness." + +"Then what's the matter? More lies? Hadassah Ireton doesn't believe a +word of them! She is an angel--she is going to help me." Meg's head +dropped; her chest rose and fell with suppressed emotion. + +"Don't walk so quickly, Meg. I can't tell you while you dash on like +that. Have some pity on me--I hate my job." + +Meg fell back. "Well, tell me--out with it!" + +"The Government has got wind of the 'site.' Michael's discovery has +been anticipated. Experimentary digging has begun." + +"And where is Mike?" Meg's eyes blazed. + +"That is just it! He ought to have reached the hills two weeks ago, at +least. While he has been idling, someone has played him +false--betrayed him--informed the Government for the sake of the +reward." + +Meg gave a little cry. It lashed Freddy to fury against Michael; it +was the cry of a crucified soul. + +"It's just his casual drifting again!" + +"But you didn't believe in the treasure!" Meg's loyalty was up in arms +against Freddy's voice of accusation. + +"I know I didn't, and it's yet got to be proved that it is there. But +the fact remains that I heard from the Director of Public Works that a +temporary camp has been pitched on the very site Mike was going for. +The whole story is a complication of truth and fiction." + +Meg spoke with difficulty. The agony at her heart was choking her. +"Why have they suddenly sent excavators to that particular spot, if +there is nothing there?" + +"On the strength of the information given by a native." + +"And what had the native found? Isn't it just too diabolical and +wicked?" + +"It's jolly hard lines, but if Mike had gone there straight and as +quickly as he could, if he hadn't played the idiot, he'd have been +there before the native who has betrayed him." + +While Freddy was speaking, thoughts came to Meg of her vision of +Akhnaton, of the strange and occult incidents connected with the story +of the hidden treasure. + +"What do you mean by playing the fool?" she said. "Have you heard from +Michael? Have you any reliable ground for supposing that he played the +fool?" Meg's voice was beautifully scornful. + +"I've heard again, that Millicent was with him. The facts are +undeniable. The whole thing makes me furious. Why couldn't he have +written to me and told me, if she followed him, as you suggested? His +silence condemns him." + +"It makes me more than furious." Meg's voice was horrible in Freddy's +ears; it was older, shriller, cruelly defiant. "It makes me furious to +think how easily evil is believed of the absent, who can't defend +themselves." + +They strode along. Both were walking blindly forward. + +"It makes me sick, sick, sick!" She flung the words out and then broke +into a little cry. "Oh, Freddy, have you no faith? no trust? Is that +your friendship?" + +"What can I do?" he said. "I'm not blinded with love as you are. I +see things dispassionately. I want to do what is best for you. Why +hasn't he written? I'm quite willing to believe what Michael tells +me--I don't doubt his word--but he has said nothing. This is another +example of his weakness." + +"Do you believe that Millicent is still with him?" + +"Her dragoman who took her into the desert has returned to Luxor. I +haven't seen him--he could tell us everything we want to know." + +"The news came from him?" Meg's voice was a stinging reproach. + +"Yes. He only remained in Luxor a few hours; he was going to his home +in Assiut, but he spread the story." + +There was a pause. + +"He took Millicent to Michael?" + +"He took her into the desert; they met." + +"And because we have had no word from Michael, no explanation, you are +ready to condemn him?" Meg's words were loyal, while her heart was +torn with jealousy. + +"Meg," said Freddy gently, "will you go home to England?" + +"No." The word came sharply, abruptly. + +"You promised, old girl." + +"I never promised to accept the words of a dragoman against my own +knowledge of Michael, against my conscience. I have another promise to +keep, my promise of absolute trust." + +"The dragoman can have no object in lying, and added to his report, +there is the fact that if Michael had not dallied for some reason or +another, he would have reached the hills long before this. He has +allowed the Government to anticipate him." + +"Freddy, I believe in God, and He has told me that Michael is as true +to me as I am to him." + +"Poor old girl!" Freddy said tenderly. "You're such a loyal old thing." + +But Meg rounded on him; she was a truer Lampton than she ever +suspected. "Oh, don't 'poor' me, Freddy! I can't bear it. It sounds +as if I were half an imbecile, or as if Michael was a villain! I've +got my wits all right--and Egypt has given me super-wits. It has shown +me things beyond. If there is such a thing as conscience, then I +should be sinning against mine if I doubted my lover for one instant." + +"But didn't you say that the Lampton pride would not be wanting when +you really discovered that Mike had taken Millicent with him?" + +"And it won't be wanting, if either Mike or Millicent tell me with +their own lips that they have been together on this journey. I'll +start off home by the next boat." + +"Oh, do be reasonable, Meg! You won't see either of them. If this +thing has happened, they'll keep out of the way. That's why they are +keeping silence." + +"You are asking me to accept circumstantial evidence of what I call the +lowest order--dragomans' gossip. Well, I simply say I won't do it." + +"What about the time he has taken to reach the hills?" + +"I don't pretend to understand. Mike will explain when he gets a +chance. I only know that he wouldn't believe a word of the story if he +heard that I had been away with six good-looking men who admired me." + +Freddy gave a mirthless laugh. "There is safety in numbers, Meg. If +he had the evidence you have, I wonder what he'd feel?" + +"Just what I feel. I have seen Hadassah Ireton. Her husband will help +me. He knew Mike; they planned this journey together." + +"I wish you'd leave things alone. I asked you to." + +"I can't. Michael may be ill." + +"It doesn't sound like it. Bad news travels quickly." + +"Look here, Freddy," Margaret said, "you haven't the slightest idea of +what it feels like to be in love. When you do, you will understand. +What a lot you have still to learn! You won't believe any old lie that +comes along about the girl you have vowed to trust and whom you believe +in as you believe in your God. As lovers we Lamptons don't deal in +half measures." + +"Then are you going to remain in Cairo indefinitely, waiting and +waiting for Michael to come back to you, when he is away fooling with +another woman?" + +"Don't kill me, Freddy! I can't stand much more." A sob burst from +Meg's lips. "All that's best in me trusts in Michael and all that is +bad doubts and distrusts. It's the bad that is killing me. Do you +understand? For pity's sake, if you care for me, don't add to the +evil, don't give it the upper hand. Freddy, I need you, I need some +trust to add to mine!" + +"I'd kill myself if it would help you, you know I would!" + +"Yes, I know it, of course I know it. I just go mad when you doubt +him, Freddy, I see red. I could kill you. It's because your doubts +feed my evil thoughts. I can't explain, but I know what I mean myself." + +"I want to save you further pain, Meg." + +"Hadassah Ireton said, which is quite true, that it is sometimes a +privilege to suffer. If only you, Freddy, won't doubt Mike, I can +endure almost anything. You're just a bit of myself. I can't bear you +to doubt. It's like myself doubting and forgetting, forgetting the +most beautiful thing in my life." + +They had wandered on until they had come to the Nile Bridge. The sight +of the tall masts of the native boats, silhouetted against the crimson +of the evening sky, reminded Freddy that already they had gone too far. +He stopped abruptly. + +"We must drive back, Meg, as quickly as we can. I've my train to +catch. We shall only just do it." + +"Did you come to Cairo on purpose to see me?" + +Freddy had signalled to a cab--an open landau, of ancient and decayed +splendour, driven by two white horses. They came dashing up at a wild +gallop. The native driver, in his red fez and white cotton jacket, +barely gave Freddy time to jump into the carriage after Meg was seated +when, with a noisy cracking of his whip, he urged the horses to a still +more reckless speed. + +"I had to come. I was afraid you might get the news in some horrible +way. You've been a brick, but you can't think how I dreaded telling +you." + +"I've not been a brick. I've been horrid. I am always horrid +nowadays." Meg's voice was contrite and humble. + +"I like you for it. We understand each other." + +"You're the dearest and best brother on earth, Freddy, and you know I +think so, and yet I speak as if I hated you!" + +"We're chums," he said, as he put his hand on the top of Margaret's. +After that conversation became impossible. The horses were going at a +mad pace, through crowded, noisy streets. Margaret was a little +nervous, but she realized that there was only just time for Freddy to +catch his train, if he allowed the coachman to take his own way, to +drive in the arrogant native style. Every other minute she felt sure +that they would run over a child or dog, or knock down a foot +passenger. It seemed to be the privilege of anyone who could afford to +pay for a cab to drive over pedestrians if they got in the way; the +humble poor were of less account than the dust beneath the horses' +feet. The coachman's absurd cries to "clear the way" pierced +Margaret's ears without amusing her, while the cracking of the whip +almost drove her to despair. The noise and crowd of idle human beings +was bewildering to her nerves after the silence of the desert. + +At last they reached the station, where they had to say good-bye +hurriedly and regretfully. + +"I'll let you know," Margaret said, "what Michael Ireton advises. +Remember, I'm all right. Don't worry. You've been a dear. It was +awfully good of you to come." + +"Good-bye, old girl," he said. "Take care of yourself." + +As Meg walked back to her hotel, she comforted herself with the +assurance that Michael Ireton would find some way to help her. She +visualized to herself repeatedly the personality of Hadassah and her +expression of absolute confidence in Michael's Amory's loyalty and +honour. Her finer senses told her that it was natures like Hadassah's, +natures keenly sensitive to purity and uprightness, which could judge +people like Mike justly. The magnet of righteousness draws kindred +souls together. If Hadassah had doubted, then indeed she might have +listened to Freddy's counsel. Freddy was just and splendid in his way, +but Margaret did not blind herself to the fact that his knowledge of +human nature, even though it was singularly correct in most instances, +was derived from a more material source of evidence. His judgment was +governed by his practical common sense rather than by his super-senses. +Hadassah's nature was tuned to the inner consciousness of human beings, +as a musician's ear is tuned to the harmonies and discords of music, +even to the hundredth part of a tone. + +If a woman like Hadassah had doubted Michael, or given a moment's +thought to the gossip of the dragoman, Margaret's faith might have been +troubled. But as matters stood at present, she knew that she herself +had a finer understanding of Michael than Freddy possessed, in spite of +his years, as compared to her own months of friendship. She tried to +strengthen herself against the invasion of unhappy thoughts by thinking +over in her mind all the various objects of beauty she had seen in the +Iretons' house. The picture of the cool courtyard, with the +dark-leaved lebbek-tree reaching up to the romantic balcony, brought a +smile to her lips. It was such an ideal setting for an Eastern Romeo +and Juliet. Busy as she knew the Iretons' life to be, their mediaeval +home suggested the repose and the charm and the romance of Love in +Idleness! + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +To assure herself of her complete confidence in the arguments which she +had used to Freddy and of her own heart's happiness, as a thing widely +apart from her anxiety, Margaret dressed herself in her most becoming +frock that same evening for her first appearance at the hotel _table +d'hôte_. She sat at a little table by herself, in the enormous +dining-room. The season was far advanced; the tourists in Egypt had +all returned to Cairo, there to disperse to their various countries. + +There were many fair and attractive women in the room, of widely varied +types--Americans, Austrians and English: that was how they took their +place in the scale of beauty in Margaret's opinion. Amongst them all +there was perhaps no one who was more commented upon and admired than +herself. Sitting by herself, for one thing, provoked curiosity, while +for another her claim to good looks had the high quality of +distinguished individuality; in an assembly of well-dressed women of +the world, Margaret, like Hadassah, could never be overlooked. + +She had been out of the world of fashion and frivolity for so long that +the gay scene interested her and made it easy for her to temporarily +put aside her troubles. She had lived in the Valley, studying the +lives and customs of lost civilizations until they had become a part of +her own life. Now she found it amusing to be back again amongst the +men and women of to-day, people who were, as she reminded herself, in +their own little way creating history. They were as typical of the +world's evolution in the twentieth century as the Pharaohs in their +tombs and the painted figures of men and women and dancing girls on the +temple and tomb-walls were typical of the world's evolution three +thousand years ago. + +After dinner she drank her coffee in the fine lounge of the hotel, +under tall palm-trees, while a Hungarian band played music which +stirred her blood and pulses. It made her feel very much alone and a +little desolate. She had been happier before the music began; it made +calls upon her heart, it gave re-birth to a thousand wants. Her sense +of loneliness increased as she watched more than one pair of lovers +gradually drift off and settle themselves down somewhere out of sight. +She heard one radiant couple making arrangements for going to see the +Pyramids by moonlight. + +She had never seen the Pyramids or the Sphinx. Perhaps when she was +staying with the Iretons, they would take her to see them. She had +certainly no desire to make the excursion alone. + +As she thought of the Pyramids, and Mike's association with them, a +wave of hate and rage spread over Margaret like a blush. She wondered +if any of the curious eyes of the tourists had noticed it; she had been +conscious of being freely criticized all the evening. She looked about +her quickly. The place had become almost devoid of young people; only +some elderly men and women were left, reclining in big chairs. With +the absence of youth, Margaret's spirits sank very low; it was not +bracing to her strained nerves and lonely condition to sit with the +elderly invalids and watch them passing the time away in a semi-dozing +condition until it was the recognized hour for going to bed. + +To be true to Michael she must not allow herself to grow despondent. +Hadassah Ireton had gone through far greater trials and suffering than +she was facing, and what had been her reward? Margaret visualized her +married life, her expression of happiness as she greeted her, her pride +in the small son who was toddling at her side. It was a condition of +life well worth suffering and waiting for. + +When the clock struck ten, Margaret rose from her retired seat. She +felt justified in going early to bed after such a long and trying day. +There was nothing better to do. As she entered the lift which was to +take her up to her floor, she suddenly found herself face to face with +Millicent Mervill. + +She was so wholly unprepared for the meeting that she never afterwards +was able to understand why she did not lose her presence of mind. It +is on such occasions that the metal we are made of is put to the test. + +The two women faced each other in silence. The next moment the lift +went swiftly up, and as it went, Margaret had but one clear +thought--that she would stop at the first floor and get out; she could +walk up the remaining flight of stairs. The next second she realized +that that would be a foolish and weak thing to do. It was her duty to +speak to Millicent and learn the cause of the scandal from her own +lips. She owed it to Michael. She must do the one thing which she +could to clear his name of the dishonour of which Freddy accused him. + +Millicent was getting out at the first landing. The lift shot up so +quickly that the silence between them had been of the briefest. +Margaret left the lift at the same moment and again the two women stood +facing one another, as the gate closed behind them and the lift began +its downward journey. + +"Good evening," Millicent said gaily. "I never expected to have the +pleasure of seeing you in Cairo." A smile which might have hidden any +meaning lit up her eyes and showed the perfection of her mouth and +teeth. But even at that critical moment, Margaret was conscious that +her beauty had lost something of its radiance. Had her youth, which +had seemed eternal, vanished at last? Had it left her as rats leave a +sinking ship? Had the gods recalled what had already tarried too long? + +"Good-evening," was all that Margaret managed to say. Her heart was +floundering in a sea of anger; her mind was struggling for wise words, +words which would drag the truth from the pretty lips, playing over +still prettier teeth. She was determined not to let the opportunity +slip. + +But Millicent was too quick. She left Margaret no chance to take the +lead in the conversation; she seized and kept it to the end. Margaret +should know just as much as she, Millicent, wished her to know, and no +more. She meant to enjoy herself; the devout Margaret was going to +receive some nasty knocks. + +"How is our mystic?" she asked lightly. + +The word "our" instantly deprived Meg of her resolution to speak +tactfully and even hypocritically, if it was necessary. Millicent did +not wait for her tardy answer. Meg's expression had flamed the devil's +fire of mischief in her callous heart. + +"Have you heard from him since I left him?" + +Here Margaret's pride helped her. She threw up her chin; a trick with +her when her fighting spirit was roused. + +"I really don't know. I forget how long ago it is since you saw him." + +"I left him almost within sight of his promised land, of his King +Solomon's mine. Has he found it? Were the jewels very wonderful?" + +The woman's audacity amazed Margaret, while it infuriated her, but +thanks to the blood of her ancestors, a fight always braced her nerves +and quickened her wits; it was tenderness which brought tears. She was +not going to allow the brazen little beast to know or see what her +words meant to her; she was not going to tell her of Michael's +disappointment. If she had betrayed him and robbed him of Akhnaton's +treasure, she was not going to let her batten on the suffering she had +caused, so she said: + +"My brother has just heard that information of the discovery has come +to the Minister of Public Works. The Government has sent out some men +to make the preliminary excavations, so I suppose it is all right." + +Millicent's eyes gleamed. Something like sympathy pleasure beautified +them; for a moment her desire to wound the girl who had robbed her of +the lover she desired was forgotten; it was lost in surprise. + +"Then Mike was right? He has really discovered his precious treasure, +his legacy of Akhnaton? I'm so glad!" She paused. "I never really +believed he would, did you? It seemed to me mere moonshine, a +delightful excuse for a desert romance." + +Margaret was still more amazed. What an actress the woman was! If she +had not known her true character, she would have believed that she was +innocent of the base treachery of which she was guilty. + +"Yes, it would appear so," she said coldly. "But we know very +little--we have only had the official news of the discovery. His +letters will tell us more. Does the news surprise you?" + +Millicent looked at Margaret keenly. Their eyes met as bitter +antagonists. Millicent supposed that Margaret thought that Michael +would have written to her and told her the news; she answered +accordingly. + +"His breathless letters--you know how he writes--are probably resting +in some desert village. They'll come along all right. But I'm awfully +glad the dear man hasn't found a mare's nest, aren't you?" She spoke +again quickly, before Margaret had time to answer. "What does your +brother say about it? Isn't he surprised? He thought it was all +tommy-rot, didn't he? How different they are!" + +"It is always difficult to tell what Freddy thinks," Margaret said. +"He is a very reserved person. If the whole thing turns out as Michael +expected, he will be delighted and interested." + +"If there is anything there at all," Millicent said, "that ought to be +sufficient proof of the seer's powers--I mean, things of Akhnaton's +period. The portable treasure might have been stolen--it probably was. +If the saint had discovered it, why not others?" + +"I have had no particulars," Meg said coldly. She felt certain that +Millicent was pumping her for her own pleasure. + +"Your brother never mentioned the King Solomon's mine of gold and the +jewels," Millicent said laughingly; "yet even my men were talking about +it quite openly on my homeward journey. Mike and I were so careful--we +never mentioned a word about it. To all outward appearances we were +merely journeying in the desert for pleasure; our objective was to be +the tomb where Akhnaton's body was buried. They must have learned all +about it from the holy man--tents have ears. You have heard all about +our meeting with the 'child of God,' of course?" She searched +Margaret's eyes as she spoke and then added lightly: "I should like to +have seen Mike in his strange counting-house, counting out his money, +shouldn't you?" + +Margaret very nearly said, "You little liar, get out of my sight!" The +sudden temptation to shake her was almost past enduring; it was all she +could do to keep her hands off her and remain silent. She had heard +from the woman's own lips what she had told Freddy she never would +hear; her promise to him flashed through her mind. Her doom was +sealed. The psychological and archaeological interest of what +Millicent had told her did not penetrate her brain; even her reference +to their meeting with a "child of God" fell on deaf ears. Millicent +had asked her if she had shared Michael's beliefs in the occult and +mystic interpretation of the discovery, in tones which implied that she +did not expect Margaret to understand or sympathize with that side of +Michael Amory's character. + +Margaret managed to keep her wits about her. The agony which she was +enduring must at all costs be hidden from her enemy. + +With a calm that surprised her own ears, she said. "Did you enjoy your +time in the desert? Why did you return before the eventful discovery? +If you had waited, you would have seen Mr. Amory wading in the historic +jewels." + +Millicent was very quick. She had arranged in her own mind how much +and how little she was going to tell Margaret. It was to be enough to +ruin her happiness and trust in her lover, enough to rob Michael of the +woman who had robbed her of him; but not enough to let her know why +she, Millicent, had flown from the camp. + +"Oh, we both loved it!" she said. "We had some unique and strange +experiences, things we shall never forget. But I had to come back, my +time was up. I am leaving for England on the twenty-eighth--I have so +much to pack and collect." + +"It is getting very warm," Margaret said. "The tourists are all going +back." + +"Oh, I never mind the heat--I like it--but unfortunately I have to go +home--money matters. I've been rather lucky, in a manner--a rich +relation in Australia died a few months ago and I have just heard that +he has left me a nice little bit." + +Millicent's words instantly confirmed Margaret's suspicions. The +unscrupulous woman had secured at least a part of the buried gold. +Margaret wondered if it would be wise to attack her on the subject. +She refrained; instinct cautioned her. With Margaret it was always a +case of--When in doubt, hold your tongue. + +"What a fortunate coincidence!" she said coldly. "How very odd!" + +Millicent looked at her sharply. What did her words mean? What was +she driving at? Margaret never spoke unthinkingly. + +"I don't understand what coincidence you refer to, but certainly I've +been lucky as regards legacies and money. I've always been fortunate +about money, but there is a saying that money goes where money is, and +that if you get one legacy you will get three. I really could have +done without the last windfall. I have enough of this world's goods +for a lone woman--if I had some babies it would be different." + +There was a note of sadness in Millicent's words which would have +appealed to Margaret if she had not known what a perfect actress the +woman was. How was she to believe anything she said after what she had +done? + +"You needn't let it be a burden to you." Margaret pretended to laugh. +"There are other people's babies who have none. There are plenty of +ways of disposing of super-wealth. Why not pay for the costs of some +of the Egyptian exploration work next autumn? It would interest you +and . . ." Margaret paused. ". . . it would be a suitable way of +spending the gold. It would repay Mr. Amory." + +In saying these words, Margaret felt that she was going as near to the +point as she dared. As she said them, Millicent's eyes hardened. She +had spoken with sincerity when she said that she could have done +without her uncle's fortune, for there were moments when she deceived +herself into believing that if her grand passion for Michael had been +returned, that if she had ever been loved as greatly as she felt that +she herself could love, or if she had had any children, she would have +been a good and noble woman. No chance of goodness had ever come her +way, and she had never stepped aside to look for it. + +"I don't know about repaying Mike," she said coldly. "There are some +things which can never be repaid or bought." + +Meg certainly got as good as she had given. "I never meant to suggest +that I had so much wealth that it would be a burden to me. I think I +shall find some way of spending it enjoyably." She turned to the left +wing of the corridor; her bedroom lay there. "Now I must say +good-night," she said, still more coolly. "I have a great deal to do." +She looked down at her dress. "My luggage has never come on from +Luxor--it's such a nuisance. I had to wear a 'dug-out' to-night, a +blouse and skirt I wore in the desert. They have lain packed all that +time--I never thought I should have to wear them again." As she spoke, +she visualized her last evening in the camp, when she had given Hassan +her instructions for their flitting. She had worn the blouse that same +evening. + +"It looks very nice," Margaret said carelessly. + +"Oh, it's terrible! I didn't venture to come down to _table d'hôte_ in +it--I dined in my room. Good-night." + +"You still wear your eye of Horus?" Margaret said; she had noticed the +amulet the moment she saw Millicent in the lift. + +"Of course! It is my most treasured possession." + +Margaret longed to tell her that she knew where the bit of blue faience +had been found on the day when it was lost in the hut. She burned to +say, "You little prying cat, you read my diary!" instead of which she +said, quite calmly: + +"The Divine Eye ought to have known better than to be the cause of +Mohammed Ali's telling one of his finest lies." + +"What do you mean?" Millicent asked. But even as she spoke, her face +paled a little. "Your language has become quite cryptic--the result, I +suppose, of your work in the tombs!" + +"Probably," Margaret said. "Life in the Valley has taught me many +things--but first and foremost, above all others, it has shown me the +power and the danger of _baksheesh_. Good-night," she added quickly. +"I've been keeping you." + +Millicent looked at her with steely eyes. Meg's words were not too +cryptic for her comprehension. "Good-night," she said. "When I hear +from Mike, I'll let you know." + +When Margaret reached her room, she flung off her self-restraint. +Catching up a sofa-cushion, she flung it at an imaginary Millicent; two +more went flying in the same direction. + +"Oh, you beast, you hateful little beast!" she cried. "I believe you +have won, after all! I wanted to find out if Michael was to blame, I +wanted to make you confess that you trapped and followed him into the +desert! And all I succeeded in doing was to hear from your own lips +what all the hateful tongues in Egypt have been screaming and shouting +in my ears for weeks past!" She sank down on the low sofa. "My pride +spoilt everything. I wouldn't let you know that I cared, that I didn't +know a word about anything, that I have never heard a line from +Michael." Her mind stood at attention; a new thought held it. The +holy man! Millicent had spoken of the holy man. Was he the "child of +God" who was to lead Mike to the hidden treasure? She groaned. Oh, +why had she not questioned her, why had she not controlled her own +anger and her pride, and learnt from Millicent a thousand things she +longed to know? She had not even asked her at what definite place in +the desert she had left Michael! She had asked her absolutely nothing +which would help her to find him. She had only gleaned from her the +one fact, the fact which made it absolutely imperative for her to +return at once to England. Her pride was so cruelly injured that she +accepted that fact as absolute. Even if Michael was entirely innocent +of any dishonour to herself, it was impossible not to feel wounded and +hurt to the quick by his silence. She had sworn to trust him, but was +he not asking too much of human nature? Might he not have given a +thought to the fact that Freddy and all the world would condemn him? + +Of Michael's health Millicent had told her nothing. She had spoken in +a manner which suggested that she had left him in the enjoyment of +perfect health. Her excuses for him to Freddy had melted into thin +air. How was she to tell Hadassah Ireton? Hadassah, whose complete +trust had made her ashamed of Freddy. + + * * * * * * + +She had gone to her room early, but it was far into the night before +she began to undress and get ready for bed. She was tired and unhappy +and for once she allowed herself to accuse Michael. She began by +saying that he had been thoughtless and neglectful, that he ought to +have managed somehow to get a letter through to her as soon as +Millicent appeared on the scene. She felt convinced that she would +have contrived to let him hear under similar circumstances it . . . +well, if she had wanted him to hear, if she had had a satisfactory +explanation to offer. It was the horrible "if" which kept Margaret +awake. That mustard-seed of suspicion grew and grew until its flowers +of evil covered her whole world. Thought can make our heaven or our +hell. Margaret's thoughts that night created no divine vision, no fair +City of the Horizon. + +If Millicent had come back to Cairo, because of business, surely +Michael could have sent a letter by her servants, even if he had not +cared to entrust it into her own hands. That was the thought which +triumphed--it shed its darkness over the things of light. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +The next morning Margaret rose early. During her long and sleepless +night she had reviewed her position over and over again; there seemed +to be no way out of it. She must and would keep her promise to Freddy. + +It is impossible to give a lucid interpretation of her tortured +feelings. In her practical, reasoning mind her thoughts were black and +suspicious; her heart was full of doubts, anger, wounded pride; while +in the background, still shining like the dim light on the horizon at +the approach of dawn, was her unconquerable belief in her lover's +honour. + +She felt compelled to act up to her practical judgment, to her promise +that she would go home to England if she heard from either Michael's or +Millicent's own lips that they had been together in the desert. But it +was the horizon-light which helped her and made her able to bear the +shock of Millicent's brutal announcement. + +For one whole night she had faced the certain fact that Millicent had +camped in the desert with Michael. Anyone who has considered the +ceaseless workings of the human brain will understand what no pen could +describe--the countless arguments for and against her lover's honour +which came and went in an endless rotation in Margaret's mind. + +She was glad when daylight flooded the room and she could get up and +take the definite steps which would settle her doom. There is nothing +so unendurable as lying in bed, a victim to miserable thoughts. + +As soon as she was dressed she wrote a brief letter to Freddy. She +felt like a criminal writing a warrant for her own arrest, but as the +thing had to be done, it was best to get it over soon as possible. + + +"DEAR CHUM, + +"Last night I saw Millicent Mervill and what she told me leaves me no +choice. I will keep my promise and go back to England. A boat goes +next Tuesday; if I can book a passage I shall go by it. Until then I +will stay with Hadassah Ireton. I like her most awfully. + +"Please don't think that by keeping my promise to you I am condemning +Mike or that I have given up hope that one day he will be able to +explain everything satisfactorily. Don't worry about me, dear old +thing. I'm all right and I will take every care of myself, so keep +your mind easy on that point. I'm not nearly so wretched as I should +be if I believed everything that this letter implies. + +"Yours ever, + + "MEG. + +"P.S.--Millicent pretended not to know anything about the information +which the Government has received. She told me, with an air of +beautiful innocence, that an uncle in Australia had left her a nice +legacy. Funny isn't it? I think I managed to behave pretty well--the +shades of our ancestors guarded me, I suppose." + + +When the letter was posted, and could not be retrieved, Meg went into +the coffee-room and tried to soothe her soul with material comforts. +An excellent cup of coffee made a good beginning. The letter settling +her fate was in the post-office; she was going home to England in a few +days. She was trying to swallow the hard facts with each mouthful +which she drank. + +What a contrast her leaving Egypt would be to her arrival in the +country! How flattened out and disillusioned she would feel! What an +ordinary, everyday ending to her vivid romance in the Valley! When she +thought of the little hut, almost hidden in one of the many wrinkles of +the hills, she smiled. Her senses glowed; she visualized the arid +scene, suddenly transformed into an Eden with Love's passion-flowers. +No garden in paradise could suggest to a Moslem mind diviner voices or +greater radiance. Cairo, with its confusion of sounds and its medley +of human races, was empty and meaningless; it was wiped out. She was +once more in the Valley, where life was vital and human. + +After a little time of happy dreaming, the bitter fact came back to +her, like a cold wind disturbing a summer's heat, that she had actually +written to her brother promising him that she would go home. What +would Hadassah think? What did her own conscience say? + +Yet only one hour ago she had felt convinced that she was doing her +duty, that her honour and womanly pride demanded that she should keep +her promise. She had nerved herself against a thousand inner voices to +obey her brother. She blushed for shame. In writing the letter she +had practically admitted Michael's unfaithfulness as a lover. How +could she have allowed herself to be so devastated by jealousy, have +allowed her mind to be so concentrated on the unlovely side of the +story? Even Hadassah Ireton had scorned it, while she, "the mistress +of Mike's happiness," had doubted and despaired! + +Poor Margaret! If she had been less human, her Valley of Eden had held +no flowers. The desert had been a wilderness indeed. + + * * * * * * + +The psychic and devotional side of her lover's nature engrossed her +thoughts. She recalled to her mind all that he had taught and +explained to her about the views and religion of the tragic Pharaoh, +the world's first conscientious objector. + +Since she had heard of the scandal, she had scarcely thought of the +occult and psychic side of the journey. Her attitude had been +self-engrossed and materialistic. + +She sighed. How difficult it was to drive self out of one's thoughts, +for was there anything as interesting in the whole of the wonderful +world as one's self, one's miserably unworthy, puny self? + +Hadassah had truly said, "We have two selves . . . what armed enemies +they are!" Surely she, Margaret, had more than two selves? It seemed +to her that she had a hundred, for every hour of the day and year. + +Long ago, in her untroubled college days, she had been one woman, with +one mind and one purpose--her intellectual work. Egypt had changed +her. The great mother of the world-civilization had revealed to her +some of the amazing secrets hidden in the human heart; from her +immortal treasury of things good and evil she had bestowed upon her +child the jewel of suffering, the pearl of passion. As a devout pupil +Margaret had knelt at her knee. + +In her very modern surroundings she felt quite another being from the +Margaret who had seen the vision of Akhnaton in the Valley. She had +allowed herself to forget that she had been instrumental in developing +the psychic side of Michael's nature. The thought of it now seemed +absurd; it was probable that her surroundings and her work had been +accountable for the visions. Her imagination had unconsciously +pictured them. + +And yet there was a sound argument against this common-sense, practical +view of the thing, for she had visualized almost exactly the type and +individuality of a character in history of whom she was totally +ignorant. Even in the modern hotel, in her everyday surroundings, she +could see with extraordinary clearness the rays of light which had +surrounded that head. Nothing could ever obliterate the picture of the +suffering Pharaoh from her memory. + +She had left the breakfast-room, and as she waited for the lift to +descend, she was almost afraid that it would bring Millicent down with +it from the floor above. But it did not. There was a grain of +disappointment in the elements which made up Margaret's feelings as she +saw that it was empty. The Lampton combative instinct demanded a fight +to the finish, and an open, broad-daylight attack. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +Margaret kept her promise to Freddy. During the three days which she +spent with the Iretons nothing transpired to make it possible for her +to break it. No word, either by letter or by native word of mouth, had +arrived from Michael. + +Even to Hadassah's generous mind, Michael Amory's conduct seemed +strange and inexplicable. His silence, in a manner, condemned him as +casual, even if he was not guilty. She began to wonder if he had been +carried off his feet by Millicent, if he had been weak and forgetful of +Margaret for a little time. Millicent would certainly have done her +best to deprive him of his higher instincts and ideals. If he had been +faithless to Margaret, he was the type of man who would exaggerate the +sin. + +When she reviewed the situation calmly, she found that there was much +to be said from Freddy Lampton's standpoint, and Margaret herself was +growing more and more wounded by her lover's conduct--not so much by +the fact that Millicent had been in the desert with him, for she knew +the woman's persistence, but by the lack of effort which he had made to +explain the situation to her. Even if he had allowed himself to be +carried away by Millicent's wiles, she would have forgiven him, for +Margaret was very human, and she was no fool. Never had she imagined +that her lover was a saint. What she felt it harder and harder every +day to forgive was his silence, his want of courage, his lack of trust. + +During those three days Margaret's beautiful world and life seemed to +have crumbled into dust, just as she had seen the unearthed objects in +Egyptian tombs crumble into atoms when the first breath of air from the +desert reached them. Her contact with the world of to-day had melted +her romance of the desert into thin air. It was a beautiful vision +which her strange life had created; it had flourished during her short +stay in the Valley. It was not suited for the practical everyday world. + +While she was with the Iretons, she tried to interest herself in +Hadassah's work as much as possible. She contrived very bravely to put +aside her wretchedness and at least appear interested and eager. + +Her dignity and self-control added greatly to Michael Ireton's +admiration for her. He, too, had been struck by her resemblance to +Hadassah, so her beauty appealed to him very strongly. + +Hadassah and her husband allowed her to go home to England without +protest. Cairo was becoming very hot for an English girl, and they +both agreed that it might do Michael Amory good to learn, when he did +turn up, that his conduct had hurt Margaret's pride, that she was +seriously wounded. As Millicent had spoken to Margaret of Michael as +being in robust health, they had banished the idea that his silence was +due to illness. + +Outwardly Margaret behaved as though the whole episode of her +love-affair with Michael Amory was at an end. A woman's life is +dog-eared by her love-affairs; this was the first in Margaret's book of +life. To the Iretons she was always very insistent that there had been +no formal engagement between them, that Michael had not allowed her to +think of herself as bound to him in any way--for only one reason he had +not considered himself justified in asking her to become his wife or to +wait for him. This to the Iretons meant nothing. He had made Margaret +love him--that was the essential point--and his sensibilities must have +told him that with such a girl love was no light thing. He must have +realized that Margaret had given him the one perfect gift in her +possession, an unselfish love. + +Margaret was very loyal to her lover. It was easy to be that, for in +her super-senses she was convinced of his great love for her, as a +thing apart from anything else. She found it wise to discuss the +mystery of his silence less and less; for she knew that no one but God +knows what is in our hearts, or what He has put there for our +consolation, and that to all outward appearances things looked very +black for Michael. + +And so it came to pass that she sailed for England in the same boat as +Freddy. He had hurried through his business and had managed to secure +a passage, so as to look after her and be a companion to her on her +disconsolate voyage. + +On the journey to Marseilles, Margaret discovered qualities in Freddy's +character which, even with all her love for him, she had never +imagined. For her sake he contrived to hide his anger at Michael for +his treatment of her, and thus express a sympathetic understanding of +the temptations which had beset him. If Margaret had not suffered, he +would have ignored the affair altogether, as a matter which did not +concern him. Freddy was very far-seeing. Margaret had kept her +promise; she had shown that in spite of her romantic love for Michael +her womanly pride had not been wanting. Any opposition or harsh +denouncement of her lover would have brought out the obstinacy in her +Lampton character. Persecution inflames the ardour of both love and +religion. Margaret had confided to Freddy the true state of her +feelings--her love was perhaps even greater than ever for the tardy +Michael; jealousy had invigorated and reinforced it: but her pride and +her love were wounded, and until Michael wrote to her or came to her, +with a full and absolute apology and a good reason for his silence, she +was determined not to play the part of a woman whose love would submit +to any sort of casual treatment. + +Freddy was well content. Time would settle things; Margaret was very +young; she was scarcely aware yet of the possibilities that were in her +own nature, of the things which can make life worth living, as apart +from love and its passions. Love had buried her under an avalanche of +its mystery and revelations. + +Their journey home was as uneventful as it was surprising, for summer +on the Mediterranean, where there is no spring, opened Margaret's eyes +to a new phase of Nature's beauty. There was so much to see, and +Freddy was such an excellent companion, that the time passed far more +quickly and happily than Margaret could have believed possible. Did +she know that it was the guarded light, which dispersed her brooding +thoughts, thoughts which tried to spoil the beauty of the fairest +scenes she had ever seen? + +It was a voyage of solace and healing. As they sat together, the +brother and sister, idly watching the spell of light resting on an +archipelago of dreaming islands, or sailed out of the Bay of Naples on +a morning of tender unreality, they little dreamed that in her womb the +world was breeding a hellish massacre of God's highest creatures, a +wholesale slaughter of His children; that that same summer's sun was to +fall on fields of crimson, dyed with the blood of civilized nations, +precious blood drawn from the veins of patriots and heroes by the lies +and lust of a war-mad king. + +Ischia, lost in its ancient sleep, cradled in the beauty of the world's +fairest waters, was to be waked with the bugles of war. From her +mountain heights and her seagirt fields she was to send forth her sons, +to fight until they became drunk with the smell of blood. + +How little did either Margaret or Freddy dream that they were gazing +for the last time together upon a land of dreams, upon a world of +peace! As they sat and marvelled at a world which under a summer sun +seemed as fair as heaven and as pure as an angel's dream, they little +realized that Europe nursed and flattered a people more steeped in +iniquity and eager for licentious cruelty than any nation recorded in +the world's darkest story. The primitive barbarities of uncivilized +races, and the war-atrocities of ancient Egypt and Assyria, which were +familiar to Margaret, and against which Akhnaton had come to preach his +mission of peace, were as nothing compared to the acts which were to be +committed by a nation which had preached the mission of Jesus for a +thousand years, and had carried His doctrines into the farthest corners +of the earth. + +In the years to come that journey from Alexandria to Marseilles was to +be one of the greatest consolations of Margaret's life. + +In the days to come, when Margaret, knowing all things and enduring all +things, looked back upon the journey, it comforted her to think of how +much Freddy had enjoyed his well-earned rest and how eagerly he had +looked forward to his holiday in Scotland. + + * * * * * * + +The war, which has set a date in England from which every event of +importance counts and will be counted by her people for generations to +come, had not been whispered or dreamed of by ordinary people. Like +Ischia, England was still dreaming and trusting. Her ideals of honour +forbade that she should doubt the honour of a sister-nation, bound to +her by the closest ties of blood and sympathy. + +When Freddy and Margaret landed in England they went their separate +ways. + +Margaret, at the outbreak of the war, at once offered her services as a +V.A.D. Three months later she was working as a pantry-maid in a +private hospital. Her work was very hard and deadly dull, but she had +been promised that after working for a time as pantry-maid, she should +be allowed to help in the wards. When Freddy left for the Front she +was able to say good-bye during her "two hours off." + +Fresh air and sunshine, after the dark basement-pantry in which she +worked, seemed to her sufficient enjoyment and all the pleasure she +wanted. She seldom did anything in these hours but sit on a bench in +the garden-square near her hospital and rest her tired feet. For the +first month they were so swollen that she could not get on her walking +shoes. By four o'clock she was back in her pantry again, setting out +cups and saucers on little trays and laying the tea for the staff. Her +work was lonely and unrecognized. + +After she had washed up and put away the cups which had been used for +afternoon tea and also the cups which had been used for the last meal +of the day, which was served at seven o'clock in the wards, she went +home to her quiet room, in a house on the other side of the square. It +was an old house, which had known better days. The locality always +carried Margaret's mind back to the gay world into whose society Becky +Sharp so persistently pushed her way. + +If Margaret was not happy, she was far too busy to be unhappy. She +had, except for those two afternoon hours of rest, no time to think; +and as thoughts make our heaven or our hell, Margaret lived in an +intermediate state, for she had none. Her physical tiredness dominated +all other sensations. + +The war dominated her life; it drilled her, and drove her, and exacted +the last fraction of her endurance and courage. It chased personal +things away into the dim background of her life. When she thought of +the Valley and her experiences there, it was as if she was visualizing, +not her own past life, but some story which she had read and remembered +with the sharp, clear memory, which never leaves us, of our childhood's +days. + +With Margaret, as with most people, the war opened up a completely new +phase of mental as well as physical experiences. Nor could her +thoughts ever be the same again. Margaret's phase resembled the state +of a patient gradually recovering from a serious illness, an illness in +which she has faced the true proportions of the things belonging to +this life, and the triviality of human tragedies as they had existed +before the war. Her life had begun all over again. The war was +remaking it. After a serious illness or a shattered love-affair no +woman can take up life at exactly the same standpoint as before. + +Margaret found it impossible to imagine personal ambitions and personal +amusements ever forming a part of her life again. Happiness brought +scorn with the very mention of it. The excitement and the +daily-accumulating list of horrors which shocked the unsuspecting +people of England during the first few months of the war, must be +vividly in the reader's thoughts while he pictures Margaret in her life +as a pantry-maid, a physically-weary pantry-maid, in a vast house in +London which had been converted into a hospital. She was only one of +the many girls in London in the various homes and hospitals who were +drudging with aching limbs and loyal hearts from morning until night. + +She preferred being pantry-maid to lift-maid, which was the only other +post in the house which she had been offered. Taking visitors up and +down in a lift all day long seemed to her more monotonous than washing +up cups and saucers which the wounded drank out of, and scrubbing +boards and washing out cupboards. Margaret was only doing her humble +bit, a bit which required few brains and little education; a bit which +necessitated a good deal of sturdy grit and devotion. Not a soul in +the house knew nor cared anything about the life which she had led +before the war, and her college record was of less account than the +fact that she looked practical and strong. She had been given the post +on the strength of her physical perfection rather than her proficiency +as a V.A.D. + +During the first three months she heard fairly often from Freddy, who +was cheerfully enduring what thousands of young Englishmen endured +during the early days of training. + +If this is a war of second-lieutenants, Freddy was an excellent +specimen of the men who have won renown. His physique laughed at +hardship; his practical mind adored the order and method which is +essentially a part of military efficiency. His work in Egypt, far as +it seems removed from modern warfare, served a good purpose when +trench-digging and planning became a part of his training. + +October had come and still no news had reached him of Michael, nor had +Margaret had any word of her lover through the Iretons. Freddy was +comforting himself with the assurance that the war had satisfactorily +driven him out of Margaret's mind. She seldom mentioned his name in +her letters, which were as brief and matter-of-fact as his own. + +Sometimes in the busy London streets, and in crowded omnibuses, a +vision of the Valley and the smiling Theban hills would rise before her +eyes, but it would fade away and become as unreal as the Bible story of +the world's creation. + +Physical exhaustion made it possible for her to see these visions of +the Valley, and the stars in the Southern heavens, with no throbbing in +her veins or sense of Michael's lips pressed on her own. Physical +labour leaves little expression for fine sentiment and imagination. + + * * * * * * + +On the morning of the day when Margaret was to see Freddy off to the +Front, she experienced a curious re-birth of personal existence; she +was a partner in the world's agony. Since her work had begun she had +lived like a machine; she was outside the great multitude of the elect; +she had no one belonging to her in immediate danger. She had almost +envied the personal anxiety of those who had their dearest at the Front. + +Having no right to indulge in personal troubles which were entirely +outside the subject of the war and the world's welfare, she had ceased +to have any existence at all outside her dull duties as pantry-maid. +But on the day of Freddy's departure she had a curious fluttering in +her pulses, and a breathless excitement was in the background of all +that she did. She found her hands trembling when she placed the cups +in their saucers, or poured milk into the jugs. + +Freddy's going was to link her to the great brotherhood. The +consciousness of his danger would be like the weight of an unborn child +under her heart. He was husband and father and lover to her now; he +seemed to be taking with him to France the last remnant of her girlhood. + +At Charing Cross she found the khaki-clad figure. He was waiting for +her below the clock. His men, and hundreds of others, were sitting +about at rest, on the few seats which had been provided for soldiers +going to the Front, or on the floor. Most of the men were accompanied +by proud and tearful relatives or lovers. It was an affecting and +typical scene--a peaceful country suddenly torn and driven by the +throes and novelty of war. + +Margaret had already witnessed such scenes several times. It always +left her wondering how any order or method came out of such a +bewildering mass of hastily-organized effort. + +Freddy looked so handsome in his uniform that Margaret's heart felt +bursting with tragic pride. Nothing was too good to die for England, +but surely, surely Freddy was too beautiful to be blinded or disfigured +by all the hellish contrivances which the brutalized enemy had proved +themselves past masters in devising? Even in Egypt he had not been +more sunburned, and never had his hair looked so adorably bright and +youthful. Margaret could think of nothing but his beauty; it seemed to +burst upon her suddenly and unexpectedly. + +Freddy was conscious of her pride and admiration, but being true +Lamptons, their greeting of one another was characteristically brief. +It was the first time that Freddy had seen his sister in her V.A.D. +uniform; his eyes took in all her points with one quick glance. She +looked clean and slight and attractive, and conspicuously well-bred. +Her abundant hair showed to advantage under her blue hat, while her +teeth and her eyes seemed to Freddy remarkably beautiful. A V.A.D. +uniform is not becoming, but if a girl is striking-looking, it +accentuates her good points; frumps and mediocrities it extinguishes +altogether. + +"Come and have some tea," Freddy said. "I'm frightfully thirsty." + +Margaret walked off with him proudly. He was her own brother, the +Freddy she had worked with so long and so intimately in the little hut +in Egypt, this alert, dignified soldier. The war was in its infancy; +women were still thrilled by khaki, and extraordinarily proud of their +men who wore it. Margaret felt so proud of Freddy that she was a +little awed by him. In her heart she was kneeling at his feet, while +in her subconscious mind there was a prayer, that his beauty and youth +might not be spoilt, that his splendid manhood might be given back to +England--it had other work to do. + +Her tea, which Freddy had ordered in the large tea-room at Charing +Cross Station, proved very difficult to swallow. Something filled her +throat; it almost choked her, something which was a strange mixture of +pride and tears and happiness. She had no desire to eat or drink; she +was quite content to sit still. All she wanted to do was just to be +near Freddy and look at him. + +In this last half-hour, perhaps the last she would ever spend with him, +there seemed to be nothing important enough to say. She certainly +could not speak of the things which were in her heart. When people +realize that they are together for perhaps the last time on earth, is +there anything which is more eloquent than silence? + +It was Freddy who came to the rescue; he talked to save Margaret's +dignity. With his keen eye and appreciation of her character, he knew +the fight she was making for self-control. His talk was of his men and +of his life as an officer in the Army, and of the politics of the day. +When he spoke of Ireland and of the satisfactory way in which she was +behaving, their eyes met. + +The question in Margaret's eyes was answered by a shake of his head and +an immediate change of topic. + +"Are you liking your work?" he said quickly. + +"It's not thrilling, but it's doing my bit." + +"Splendid!" he said, and Margaret knew that he understood. + +A little silence followed, and then Freddy said, in rather a shamed +voice, "Look here, Meg, we'd better be practical. I've left all my +things in order--if I don't come back, you won't have any difficulty. +Of course, all I've got will be yours. There are a few things I know +you'll always look after, things I specially value." + +Meg's throat was bursting and her lips began to quiver, but she choked +back her emotions and regained her self-control. It came to her quite +suddenly, just after speech had seemed hopeless. + +"I understand--the Egyptian things. You can trust them to me." + +"I know I can," he said. "And do take care of yourself. . . . We'd +better be making a move, I suppose." + +They both got up and shook their uniforms free of crumbs. + +"I'm jolly thankful I managed to get the work in the Valley pretty well +settled before this happened." + +"It was a bit of luck," Margaret said. "Doesn't it seem a shame that +all that wonderful work and all intellectual life must come to a +standstill, everything must be put aside for the one job that +counts--the killing of human beings? That is now the one and only +thing that matters; the most effectual way of killing masses of men is +the problem which scientific minds have set before them!" + +Freddy looked keenly at her for a moment. Was Meg still imbued with +Michael's anti-war views? England was at that moment tuned to such a +pitch of war-enthusiasm that there was but one popular feeling and +belief--that this war was sent to cleanse and purify the world, that it +was a blessing in disguise, that but for this war England would have +gone to the dogs. Anyone who dared to express an opinion contrary to +this myth was condemned as pro-German or unpatriotic. + +Meg felt her brother's eyes questioning her. "Never fear," she said. +"If I don't think that the war was necessary as the chosen means of +arresting England in her downward course, I know that it has got to be +fought to the finish, I know that the Allies have to prove that they +will not submit to Prussian militarism dominating Europe. I never +believed in the rottenness of England, and surely the spirits of our +young men who are fighting ought to prove that it isn't? England +decadent, indeed!" + +"You're right," Freddy said. "England wasn't a bit rotten--or, at +least, no rottener than she ever was, only the rottenness was all +dragged into the limelight. Things are discussed in papers and from +pulpits to-day which were never even spoken of between fathers and sons +or husbands and wives in days gone by. If the war will stop all the +absurd talk about England going to the dickens, it won't be fought for +nothing. We've decried our country long enough." + +They had only four minutes before they had to part. Margaret was +beginning to feel numb and speechless. Were these four minutes to be +the last she would ever spend with Freddy, and were they to go on +talking as if he was only going back to Oxford after the long vacation? + +Two more minutes passed and they had said nothing that mattered. Truly +words were given to hide our thoughts! + +As Margaret looked up at the clock, Freddy put his arms round her and +held her closely to him. This was Meg's first tender embrace since her +farewell with Michael. It was very nearly her undoing. + +"Good-bye, old girl," was all that Freddy said; it was all he could say. + +Meg clung to him and kissed him silently. Freddy felt her agony. It +was greater than his own, for he had many responsibilities on his mind, +and the excitement of actually going to take part in the "real thing." +He kissed her with a tenderness which was almost a lover's. + +Meg was still silent. She dared not attempt to speak; she knew that +Freddy would hate tears. The next moment, after a closer hug, he put +her decisively from him. + +"Time's up, old girl! I must look after my men. We are very much +alone, we two. I wish I could have left you in someone's care." + +"I'm so glad," Meg said, a little brokenly, "so glad it's just we two. +I've never had to share you with anyone--you've always been my very +own." + +Margaret knew that Freddy had made a covert allusion to the fact that +if Michael had not failed her, she would, in the event of his death, +have had a lover to comfort her. She chose to ignore his meaning, to +speak as if Michael had no place in her thoughts. Freddy was not to be +worried by things which were past and over. The war had made her +independent. + +Freddy understood perfectly. They had reached the barrier; his men +were filing through the open gateway to the platform. + +"Good-bye," he said again, hurriedly. "Don't wait in this awful +crowd--I shan't be able to speak to you any more." His eyes looked +into hers tenderly. "God bless you, Meg! I hate leaving you all +alone." + +"Good-bye, Freddy." + +Margaret's lips said the words bravely. In her heart they expressed +their old and grander meaning. + +She had turned her back on the khaki-clad men who were filing on to the +departure-platform. Her silent prayer mingled with hundreds of others, +travelling from proud, torn hearts, to the listening ear of the Master +of that which is ordained. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +The news of Freddy's death reached Margaret only a fortnight later; it +came to her from the War Office in the ordinary official way. He had +not died, as he would have wished to have died, in action, in a great +offensive against the enemy; he had been sniped, shot through the head +when he raised its brightness for half a minute above the parapet of +his trench. His courage and ability had never been put to the test; he +had fallen like a first year's bird hit by a deadly shot. + +His youth and brains and beauty were the offerings which he had laid on +the altar of Liberty. Fame had been denied him. + +As England's blackest days passed, and Margaret read in the papers the +horrible accounts of the poisonous gas which was blinding and +suffocating our men at the front, and when hospital nurses told her of +the pitiful "gas" cases which they had seen, Freddy's painless death +became almost a thing to be thankful for. + +Pessimism was running its course. Germany's triumphs were magnified, +the Allies' work belittled. She had come to think that it could only +have been a case of time before he would either have been permanently +injured or killed; the death-rate of officers was terrible. Freddy had +died as he had lived, an almost perfect example of England's manhood--a +striking proof that her decadence was an ugly scandal, whose birthplace +was Berlin. It was one of Germany's many clever forms of propaganda, +intended to undermine England's prestige in the eyes of neutrals when +the "great day" came. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +A few weeks after Freddy's death a curious thing happened to Margaret, +a thing which shook her nerves and disturbed the automatic calm into +which she had drilled her thoughts. + +She was still a hard-working pantry-maid, doing the same daily round of +apparently unwarlike work. She was thankful that she had got it to do, +and considered herself lucky, for the waiting lists of able and eager +V.A.D.'s, whose names were down at hospitals and convalescent homes, +ran into many figures, girls who were longing to be given any sort of +occupation, however humble, which would place them amongst the women of +England who were really in touch with the agony of the world. Margaret +had still the promise before her of promotion, the hope that eventually +she would reach the wards. Time would make its demands on the long +lists of V.A.D.'s who were unemployed and eager for work. It would not +be long before they would all be required. Someone else would step +into her humble post when she was promoted. It was merely a case of +patience and pluck; the voluntary hospitals were dependent on voluntary +aid. She gave hers gladly. + +It was a very lonely, self-contained Margaret who wandered about London +during her "off-hours." Two hours gave her very little time for making +expeditions or seeing the sights of London, which were all unknown to +her, so she spent the greater part of her time in the secluded +garden-square close to her lodgings. It always reminded her of a small +public garden in Paris, in the old-fashioned quarter of the city, in +which she had lived for a year with a French family while she was +perfecting her French. The odd mixture of people who frequented it, +and monopolized the seats in it for hours at a time, interested her. +The work which they brought with them was as diverse as it was +peculiar. Not a few of the regular habitués made a home of it, even on +wet days, only returning to their shelter to sleep. Youth and elegance +seldom entered it, except, it might be, when a pair of lovers, of +non-British birth, drifted into it, seeking refuge from the madding +crowd. + +A London church, as black and white with smoke and the wearing winds of +time as the marble churches of Lombardy, raised its belfry, of +unnamable architecture, picturesquely above the square on one side, +while a portion of its graveyard, which had been incorporated in the +garden-square, and which seemed to Margaret in its shabby condition +much older and more pathetically forlorn than the temple-tombs under +the Theban hills, attracted the aged and the melancholy. + +Margaret was the only lady who ever patronized the bench-seats in this +secluded city oasis. Her V.A.D. uniform, and perhaps her air of +unconscious dignity, defended her from any unpleasantness. She had +never met with disrespect or lack of courtesy. + +One of her chosen companions, an elderly, haggard woman, with a keen +sense of humour and traces of lost beauty, who always brought a bundle +of old rags and clothes to pick down, had made friends with her almost +immediately. She proved a source of great amusement to Margaret. The +woman's occupation had caused her much speculation. + +She soon discovered, for the woman was not at all reticent, that she +had been a low comedian and a dancer at Drury Lane Theatre, and like +most comedians, high tragedy was her passion, and had been her ambition. + +Margaret's off-hours flew on wings while she listened to the woman's +accounts of her dramatic experiences. She had seen her days of +prosperity and undoubtedly enjoyed much admiration. She was no +grumbler and still retained an appetite for life. The sparrows and the +fat pigeons which waited for the crumbs which fell from the pockets of +the clothes she unpicked were her friends; her dreams of the past were +her recreations. + +When Margaret discovered that her desire for theatre-going was still +unabated and unsatisfied, and that she considered that there was no +pleasure on earth which wealth could bring her to be compared to the +excitement of a "first night," as viewed from the gallery, she +determined to give her a treat. She had not been to the theatre for +many years; the necessary shilling for the gallery was never +forthcoming; picking down old uniforms was not a lucrative occupation. + +Margaret contrived to put the necessary shilling in her way by leaving +it lying on the seat when she got up. + +When she appeared in the garden-square the next day, the aged comedian +told her about her "find," and asked her anxiously if she had lost a +shilling. Margaret lied nobly; yet her lie was only half a lie, for +she certainly had not lost it. She had vividly realized the finding of +it. + +Margaret never laid out a shilling to better account. It was returned +to her fourfold as she listened to the glowing descriptions and the +good criticisms of the first performance of one of the most popular +war-plays which had been played in London. + +And so the days passed and ran into each other, impersonal and +unselfish days. The story of Margaret's individual life was marking +time; but if her romance was arrested, her sympathies were expanding. +It was impossible for her to be dull, and she did not allow herself to +be sad. Freddy's example forbade self-pity or repining. + +Of society in London she knew nothing and cared less. The war had put +"society" out of fashion. If she could count amongst her friends many +strange and questionable characters, they helped and cheered her as +nothing else could have done. More than one poor home in which there +was little food and much courage looked forward to the visits of the +tall, dark girl, whom they called by no other name than "Our V.A.D." + +It was her intimate acquaintance with the inner life of some of +London's poor, and the example they unconsciously set her by their +cheerful acceptance of their pitiful circumstances and hideous +surroundings, which made Margaret see how contemptible it would be to +indulge in self-pity or repining. They expected so little, while she +wanted so much--perfect happiness as well as worldly prosperity. They +contrived to get enjoyment out of life even when it seemed to her that +they would be better dead. She had a thousand things in life which had +been denied to them. How could she expect to be given everything? +There she was face to face with crowds of human beings who exaggerated +their joys and rose above their afflictions. The unconquerable courage +of the poor--that was what life in London was teaching Margaret. + + * * * * * * + +It was one wet afternoon when she was seated in a Lyons' tea-shop, in a +crowded part of a West End shopping district, waiting for a cup of +coffee to be brought to her, that the strange incident happened. To +make use of her time, she had taken out a small writing-tablet which +she carried in a bag with her knitting, and was beginning to write a +letter to her Aunt Anna. She had written the first words, "Dear Aunt +Anna," and had paused before writing further. Her pencil was close to +her tablet; her mind was thinking of what she was going to say. +Suddenly her hand began writing very fast, automatically, something +after the manner in which an actor writes on the stage. Margaret let +it write swiftly and uninterruptedly, without either considering it +strange that it should be doing so, or wondering, at the time, what she +was writing. Her thoughts had, in a curious way, become subservient to +her actions. Afterwards, when she tried to remember what she had felt, +she could recollect no impression. + +When the quick movement of her hand stopped and the automatic writing +ceased, her powers of thought seemed suddenly to reassert themselves. +Probably what she had been writing was mere unintelligible scribble. + +Margaret had never heard of the writing of the "unseen hand." She was +more nervous than she was aware of; there was a heavy beating at her +heart, a wonder in her mind. She looked with apprehension at the sheet +of paper on the tablet. Her hand had certainly written something, but +the writing was not her own. It was untidy and broken. She tried to +read it, but the first words made her so nervous that she could not go +any further. They brought the colour flying to her face, but it +quickly left it; she became wide-eyed; her hands trembled. It was +horrible to think that some outside influence had taken possession of +her actions. She fought for self-control, and managed to read the +message. + +"The rays of Aton, which encompass all lands, will protect him, the +enemy will fear him because of them. The living Aton, beside Whom +there is no other, this hath He ordained. The Light of Aton will +scatter the enemy and turn his hand from victory. When the chicken +crieth in the egg-shell, He giveth it life, delighting that it should +chirp with all its might. The same Aton, Who liveth for ever, Who +slumbers not, neither does He sleep, knows the wishes of your heart. +The Lord of Peace will not tolerate the victory of those who delight in +strife. His rays, bright, great, gleaming, high above all earth. . . ." + +There the writing became almost indecipherable; many words were quite +meaningless; only the end of the last line was distinct: + +"To the mistress of his happiness, Aton, the Loving Father, giveth +counsel." + +When Margaret had finished reading the amazing thing that her hand had +written, she was faint and frightened. What had come over her? How +could she account for the mysterious thing which had happened? + +The state of her nerves prevented her thinking connectedly or sensibly. +The meaning of the message scarcely formed any part of her +bewilderment; it was the automatic writing itself which disturbed her. +It made her very unhappy. She had never heard of anything like it +happening to anyone else. She wished that she had only dreamed it; but +there the words were, lying on the tablet before her. If she was real, +they were real. + +It was so long since she had read anything about Akhnaton's +Aton-worship that she could not have composed the sentences in exactly +the manner of the Pharaoh's writing if she had set herself down in a +retired place and tried very hard to remember his style and his +language. Here, in this modern and vulgar tea-room, filled with men +and youths in khaki and shop-girls in cheap and showy finery, she had +suddenly and unconsciously written a thing which had absolutely nothing +to do with her thoughts or surroundings. + +The girl who brought her coffee and was standing waiting to make out +her bill, looked at her sympathically and asked her if she felt ill. + +At the sound of her voice, Margaret dragged her thoughts back to the +fact that she had been waiting for a cup of coffee. + +"No," she said, jerkily. "I am not ill, only a little tired, thank +you." + +"You're working hard, I suppose? One coffee, threepence," she jotted +down. "Are you in a hospital? I wish I was nursing, instead of doing +this." + +Margaret looked at her blankly for a moment. She wished that she would +not talk to her; she felt afraid of her own answers. + +"No, I'm not nursing--I'm a pantry-maid in a private convalescent +hospital." + +"Well, I never!" the girl said; she was not ignorant of Margaret's good +breeding. "Do you like the work?" + +"It's very like your work, I suppose. I never stop to think about +whether I like it or not. Someone has to do it, and I've been given +it--every little helps." + +"Isn't that splendid?" the girl said. "And I don't suppose you ever +worked before?" + +"Not in that way," Margaret said. She smiled a queer sort of smile, as +her thoughts flew back to her work in the hut, the cleaning and sorting +of delicate fragments and amulets which had been made and treasured by +a people of whom the girl had probably never even heard, the mascots +and art-treasures of a forgotten civilization, which had lasted for +thousands of years. + +Margaret paid for her coffee, and looked at the clock. She had only a +few minutes in which to drink it. She poured in all the cream which +she had ordered to cool it, but still it was too hot to drink. While +she waited she wondered whether her hand would write anything else if +she left it lying on her writing pad. Nervously she took up her pencil +and while she tried to sip her coffee, she left her right hand lying on +the pad just as it had been before. + +Nothing happened. Her hand never moved; she was extremely conscious of +her own feelings and expectations. + +She looked at the writing on the tablet once more. Yes, it was totally +and absolutely unlike her own. She tore off the sheet on which it was +written and folded it up and put it safely in her note-case. If she +was to drink her coffee, there was no more time for thought. + +Hurriedly she left the crowded tea-rooms and started off in the +direction of her hospital. + +It was well for her that she had to hurry, and that her thoughts for +the next few hours had to be given to the carrying-out of everyday +things. With practised mind-control she put the incident of the +"unseen hand" away from her as far as she could. When it came creeping +back again, like leaking water, into the foreground of her thoughts, +she fought it splendidly. + +Freddy had so extremely disliked her dabbling, as he called it, in +occult matters, that for his sake, for his memory, she must not allow +herself to be mastered by it. She had scarcely ever allowed herself to +think even about her vision in the Valley for this very reason, and had +refused to be drawn into the wave of fortune-telling by palmistry and +by crystal-gazing and psychic sciences which the war had given birth to +in London. The nurses and the staff generally at the hospital spent a +great deal of time and money on palmists. + +Margaret could honestly say to herself that no one had sought those +strange experiences less than she had, no one had been less interested +in Spiritualism and black magic, as it used to be called, than she had +been--and, indeed, still was. Michael had called her his practical +mystic, yet she had never felt herself to be one. + +For Freddy's sake she would not encourage this new phase of the +super-mind which had suddenly come to her. He had considered +spiritualism a dangerous and undesirable study. With only his memory +to cling to, she would do nothing which would cause him any trouble. +Here again was the Lampton ancestor-worship developing to its fullest. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +When Margaret got back to her hospital, she found no time for psychic +reflections, for news had come that a fresh consignment of patients was +to arrive at the hospital the next morning, and as the number was +considerably more than they had expected, or the wards had beds for, it +meant that the staff, from the humblest to the highest in command, had +plenty of extra work to do. + +She did a hundred and one odd jobs which kept her busy until nine +o'clock. A V.A.D. whose duty it was to run the lift was ill; she had had +to go home, so Margaret took her place until a girl-scout appeared, who +was a sister of one of the staff-nurses. The proud girl-scout became +lift-boy in her after-school-hours and kept the post until the V.A.D. was +well enough to resume her work. During the day the V.A.D.s filled the +post between them, taking it in turn. + +It was not until all her work was done, and Margaret was alone in her +bedroom, with its air of ghostly fashion, that she found it increasingly +difficult to drive the incident of the automatic writing from her mind. +She did not wish to think of it because of her promise to Freddy. While +she had been busy it had never entered her head. Certainly Satan finds +some mischief for idle thoughts as well as for idle hands to do. But was +it Satan who had sent these thoughts? Was she dabbling in black or in +white magic? + +She wondered whether, if she looked at the writing once more, and thought +over every incident of the strange occurrence which had happened to her, +very clearly and thoroughly, it would help her to drive it from her mind, +in the same way as saying some haunting lines of a poem over and over +again will often drown their insistence in our ears. Certainly she must +make an effort to free herself from the obsession of the incident. It +was unnerving her. + +She took the sheet of paper out of her note-case and read the writing on +it aloud, very distinctly and slowly. She said the words thoughtfully, +so as to get their precise value. As she read them, she tried her utmost +to subdue the increasing nervousness which they produced, a nervousness +which she certainly had not in any way experienced when her hand had +hurriedly written down the words. + +As she read them aloud, she realized with a sudden and astounding +clearness their true meaning, which had either escaped her intelligence, +or she had been too astonished and interested in her own action to +appreciate before. Her first feeling had been one of amazement and +interest; now she felt quite convinced that the message had been sent to +her to tell her that Michael was at the Front, that she was not to +trouble or be afraid, for his safety was in divine hands. + +How much or how little her super-senses had understood this fact she +could not be certain. Her over-self was an independent factor. Her +natural consciousness had certainly not appreciated the news. She had +never said the fact to herself, or derived any comfort from it, or +questioned it. She had been too overwhelmed by the practical evidence +that she was once more in touch with her vision to grasp the real purpose +of the message. Its value had been lost upon her, even though it had +told her that Michael was fighting, that he was in the war. But was he? +That was the question which her natural mind forced upon her. She must +take it on faith or reject the whole thing as a fabrication of her own +brain. + +The writing had told her that the Light of Aton would guard him, that the +rays of Aton, which were God's symbol on earth, would encompass him and +confound his enemies. To the reasoning, practical Margaret it seemed +incredible nonsense, and yet Egypt had taught her that nothing is +incredible. She had thought of many solutions of the problem of +Michael's disappearance, many answers to her riddle of the sands, but she +had, to her conscious knowledge, never once imagined that he would be +taking part in this most horrible of all wars. Knowing his views upon +the subject of war, the possibility had never entered her mind that he +might have volunteered to fight in it. He had said over and over again +that Germany's desire for war was a myth, a mere mania which obsessed a +certain class of mind; that if such a thing happened it would be the +death-blow to the spread of Christianity, and rightly so, for a religion +which had done no more for the most scientifically-advanced race in the +world was not likely to be adopted by non-Christian races. + +And yet the hand had written words which could have no other meaning. +She had no friends or relations at the Front. Her first cousins were all +too young, and their fathers too old, to fight. Freddy had represented +her personal and intimate interest in the army at the Front. + +She read the words over and over again, until she knew them by heart, +until the strange handwriting which her own pencil had formed had become +familiar to her. She knew that she could never have written the words +except by some outside power. But what was that power? Had anyone else +ever experienced it? Was it known to Spiritualists? + +As she asked herself the question, a picture formed itself in her mind of +Daniel interpreting "the writing on the wall" to the guests at the feast +of Belshazzar. She saw the hand write the three words: _Numbered, +weighed, divided_. She saw the wonder of the King and the curiosity of +his friends. God only, who sent the omen, explained it, and all which +Daniel under His direction uttered, explaining it, was fulfilled. + +Egypt had reconstructed in Margaret's mind the proper proportion of time +as applied to the history and evolution of the world's civilization. The +deeds and the victories of Cyrus, the grandson of Nebuchadnezzar, were +not mythical deeds because they belonged to a mythical and lost age. In +Egypt they had seemed to her legends of a comparatively late date. +Darius, the Mede, to whom Biblical authority awards the succession of the +kingdom of the vanquished and slain Belshazzar, was removed by almost a +thousand years from the world which had known the gentle King, the +youthful Pharaoh, who loved not war, and whose God was the Prince of +Peace. + +As compared to Michael's beloved Akhnaton Belshazzar was a mere modern. +Almost one thousand years before the impious King had reigned over +Babylon Akhnaton had told the Egyptian people of the unspeakable goodness +and loving-kindness of God, he had preached a religion which was to +abolish all wars, which was to unite all nations under the banner of +universal brotherhood. + +The Biblical handwriting on the wall had come into her thoughts for a +good purpose. The vision of it had been sent to prove to her that such +things had happened in the world before, and that there was no reason to +believe that they had not often happened since. God works in a +mysterious way, His wonders to perform. + +Her fight against her desire to believe had been solely on Freddy's +account. He had so intensely disliked her interest in occultism that for +his sake she had struggled faithfully to subdue it. Now she knew that +she could no longer ignore the influence which had entered into her life +in this strange manner, not understood by her material self. She +possessed powers and qualities which with all her heart she wished that +she did not possess. She dreaded this last evidence of the mysterious +power which had made her very actions subservient to its will. + +Yet even as she said the words she was ashamed. If the message had any +connection with the figure in her vision, how could she hate it? +Instantly the tragic eyes, glowing with the light of divine love, were +before her; their reproach and pity made her blush, for in denying her +belief in things spiritual, she was surely denying the power of the Holy +Spirit in just the same way as Peter had denied and mocked at Jesus for +His assumption of divinity. + +Believing, with the intuition of her higher self, with her divine mind, +whose reasoning powers were in heaven, like the desert child of God--for +so the everyday world would say of her if they had known--in the +spiritual source of the amazing message, she ceased to question the why +or the wherefore of it. She could not treat it as the mere creation of +her own overwrought imagination, and yet she would be true to Freddy in +the sense that she would do absolutely nothing to get into closer touch +with the world behind the veil. She would make no effort to develop her +powers. + +On that point her conscience was absolutely clear. She had been loyal +and true to Freddy; she had left all occultism and mysticism severely +alone. And surely never in the world had her mind been farther separated +from things Egyptian or occult than on this afternoon, when she had +suddenly felt her hand begin to write of its own free will? Of all +people in the world, her Aunt Anna was the last who would call up any +suggestion of her vision in the Valley, and Freddy would agree that a +Lyons' tea-room was amazingly unsuited for such an experience. + +She puzzled her brain to find out any reason why this message should have +been sent to her at this particular time, why Michael had been thrust so +vividly into her life again. Her pride had driven him from her mind +until he had at last actually lost his place in her daily thoughts. It +would be impossible now not to think of him; she was thinking of him with +a beautiful rebirth of her first romantic love. + + * * * * * * + +Was he, with all his horror of bloodshed and war, in the trenches while +she was snug and sleeping in her bed at night? were some mangled and +unrecognizable fragments of his body lying on the battle-fields of +Flanders? Or, sadder than all, had he, like Freddy, never been in +action? Had his life also been a useless sacrifice? + +As she asked herself the question, the bright rays of Aton shone round a +figure in khaki; she saw Michael clearly and beautifully. He was +illuminated by a bright and shining light. Margaret remained motionless +and spell-bound. Her visualizing was more than a mere mental +reproduction of an imaginary scene. The bright light which surrounded +Michael revealed to her how instantly his enemies would quail before him, +how terrified and amazed they would be! + +In an ecstasy of wonder and surprise Margaret called to him. Her voice +broke the spell; her eyes saw nothing, nothing but the shadows and the +half-lights shed by her inadequate gas-jet in the large room. + +She fell on her knees beside her bed. She must get closer to God, she +must feel Him, for there was no human being in whom she could confide. +She was terribly alone; her body hungered for arms of sympathy, her mind +for understanding ears. The lonely and love-starved will know how she +craved to be gathered up and comforted; how she longed to throw off her +self-reliance, to let it be lost in a strength which would make her feel +like a little child in a giant's arms. As only God knows what is in our +hearts, only God understood her unspoken prayer. He was not shocked by +its pitiful humanity. That night He permitted the tired V.A.D. to sleep +in the strength of His everlasting arms. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +Some few days later a letter arrived for Margaret from Hadassah Ireton. +It contained interesting and surprising news. Michael Ireton had been +thrown in close contact with one of the excavators who had formed the +camp in the hills behind Tel-el-Amarna--they were now both employed in +the same Government office in Assiut. + +From the excavator Michael Ireton had learned that the secret police +had traced the movements of the native who had given the Government the +information about the chambers in the hills, and had discovered him. +But, as bad luck would have it, he was ill with smallpox and incapable +of giving any information. The man had died without recovering +consciousness. The excavators had become more and more convinced that +he had stolen the treasure, and that it was now resting in its second +hiding-place, awaiting, it was to be hoped, its final discovery. + +If the man had recovered, his information could no doubt have been +bought. To an Eastern a guinea in the hand is worth twenty in the bank. + +The reason, Hadassah explained, for the excavators' belief that there +had been a hidden treasure, of jewels if not of gold, was the fact that +half a mile or more beyond the site of the excavation three uncut +jewels of considerable value had been found in the open desert. They +had been covered and hidden from sight by the drifting sand, and there +they would have lain perhaps for ever but for the stumbling of a tired +donkey, which was carrying a native and a huge load of forage to a +subterranean village, not very far from the site of the excavation. +The disturbing of the sand had exposed the jewels, which caught the +sunlight and the sharp eyes of the desert traveller. + +He was an old man, exceedingly honest, uncontaminated with the ways of +city dwellers, so he took the jewels to the _Omdeh's_ house and asked +him if he thought that they were valuable, and if they were, what he +should do with them. + +The _Omdeh_ (it was the same _Omdeh_ who had so little credited the +story of the hidden treasure when he had spoken of it to Michael) was +as surprised as he was suspicious. His interest was aroused. Could +these fine jewels have been dropped by the thief who had burgled the +tomb? These were his thoughts, although Hadassah did not know it. + +He at once carried them off to the Government camp in the hills. The +excavators pronounced them to be ancient stones of great value. + +The other reason for their belief that the treasure had been stolen was +the fact that the inner chamber, in which they had found absolutely +nothing, had obviously been built with a view to holding objects of +great value. It had all the qualities of a royal treasury. The +inscription on the wall spoke of it as "the treasure-house of Aton." +That no ancient plunderer had entered this chamber, which the heretic +King had cut out of the rook under the hills behind his city, was +obvious. There had been practically no excavating to be done, in the +sense in which Margaret thought of excavating, because the chambers +were all in a state of perfect preservation; none of them were blocked +up with rubbish. Once the entrance had been opened up--and this had +been done by the native who had discovered the site--they met with +little difficulty. + +The entrance had been so skilfully hidden, that the excavators wondered +how it had happened that the ignorant native who gave the information +had discovered it (this Hadassah considered extremely interesting and +convincing from Michael's point of view) and what had put him on the +track of the hidden treasure. + +These questions, Hadassah said, her husband had refrained from +answering. He considered that the treasure, in its second +hiding-place, belonged to Michael, that it must remain there until he +found it. Michael Ireton had listened to all that the excavator had to +tell and had held his tongue on the subject of Mr. Amory's expedition; +the psychical part of it would probably have called forth much derision +and scoffing. + +Hadassah ended her letter by congratulating Margaret on the fact that +the treasure, whether it was great or small, did exist, that it was an +actual fact. The finding of the jewels proved that Michael's theories +and occult beliefs were justified. "And after the war you will be able +to go with him on his second pilgrimage, for certainly the spirit of +Akhnaton has saved the treasure for him. What the world calls chance +has preserved the King's legacy from profane hands." + + * * * * * * + +The letter was written from the Fayyum, where Hadassah was staying with +her boy. Her constant visits to this beautiful oasis had wrought great +changes in the house in which her cousin Girgis had spent the greater +part of his life. Her aunt and cousin had, with native quickness, +learned to speak English quite fluently, and Hadassah had, by her tact +and sympathy, helped to develop their lives and intellects. The +household was scarcely recognizable as the one in which, only a few +years ago, she and Nancy had endured a terrible half-hour at +afternoon-tea. + +Hadassah often wished that Girgis could have seen the development and +change which the widening influence of Western ideas had brought about +in his old semi-native, semi-European home. + +In all things relating to the war it was an ardently pro-English +household, which, ever since its outbreak, had become a veritable +institution for Coptic war-workers. Veiled figures hurried to it, +carrying their knitting, proud and pleased to be imitating the efforts +of the European ladies in Egypt, and knit they did from morning until +night, with the patience and endurance of the uncomplaining East. + +Hadassah's letter greatly disturbed Margaret. If it had only come +before Freddy was killed, how she would have gloried in it, how +delightful it would have been to tell him that even a scientific body +of excavators had come to the conclusion that a treasure had been laid +up by the religious fanatic--for that was Freddy's summing-up of +Akhnaton--that the seer's vision had again proved true! + +But now she had no one to rejoice with. Freddy had been taken from +her, and Michael was lost, and there was not a creature in all her +world who would care one brass farthing about the strange materializing +of Michael's spiritualistic theories. All that she cared most about +she had to subdue and crush back. Probably Freddy, in his new life, +was understanding and sympathizing, for she knew now with a nervous +certainty that the veil is very thin. + +Hadassah had said in her letter, when referring to the death of the +native, "This sounds as if Millicent's servants had played her false. +The police report that she never reached the hills, so whether her +dragoman deliberately took her off the track, and allowed one of her +servants to go to the hills and secure the treasure, remains a mystery +which may never be solved. But one thing is pretty clear--that her +cavalcade was never seen in that part of the desert, for, as you know, +the drifting sand in Egypt carries information; it conceals and reveals +many things undreamed of in our Western philosophy." + +As Margaret read these lines she cursed her own stupidity with a bitter +curse. If she had used a little more tact and shown less jealous rage, +she could have learnt from Millicent all which now so baffled them. +She could easily have discovered if she had ever reached the hills. + +Margaret was rereading the letter in her off-hours. Her first reading +of it had been very hurried, for it had arrived by the first post, and +she had only found time to devour it with eager eyes, eyes which +searched its pages for one precious item of news. She was scarcely +conscious of her desire for news of Michael's whereabouts. There was +always the hope, unexpressed even to herself, that he had written to +the Iretons. If he really was at the Front, surely he would have told +them? But the letter contained no such information. + +Her disappointment was, however, drowned in surprise and pride. With +one fell swoop the letter had obliterated the passion and obsession of +war which had held her in its clutches. It made her forget, for a +little time, at least, that such a country as Germany existed. Her +mind was again vivified with visions of the desert and the various +scenes which Hadassah's letter suggested. Flashing before her eyes was +the open desert, the unbroken light, and the stumbling donkey, +heavily-laden and meekly submissive, with the gleaming gems, betrayed +by the rays of Aton. She could visualize the astonished native +fingering them and holding them up to the light; the sunlight, +Akhnaton's symbol of divinity, was to bear testimony to the fact that +the bright objects which had caught the Arab's eyes were beautiful and +rich-hued gems, that they were indeed a portion of the treasure which +he had hidden from the avarice of the priests of Amon, who set up +graven images and worshipped false gods. + +For the first time since she had been doing the work of a pantry-maid, +Margaret set out the tea-trays and washed up the cups in an automatic, +aloof manner. Her material body was busy in the hospital-pantry, while +spiritually she was far away. Visions rose and faded before her eyes +in rapid succession, but the one which she saw oftenest was the look of +surprise and smiling incredulity on Freddy's face. The cry in her +heart was for his sympathy, for his knowing, for his congratulations on +the wonderful piece of news. Why could he not have been allowed to +know it while he was still alive on this earth and able to talk to her? +She wanted to be personally and materially close to him while he read +the letter. + +She longed for that more ardently and whole-heartedly than anything +else; she hungered for it even more fiercely than the coming back of +Michael, whose return into her life she was convinced would eventually +happen. Whether it would be for her happiness or otherwise she was +ignorant. + +When she thought of his coming and of her first meeting with him, her +pride rose up in arms, her mind was devastated with embarrassment. The +meeting would open up old wounds, which she had imagined were healed. +There she had been mistaken; they were like the wounds of a patient +which appear to be healed while he lies at rest in the hospital, but +which break out again when he resumes his normal life. The war had +drugged Margaret's senses. + +She had curiously little fear for Michael as a soldier, for whenever +she thought of him as one, as fighting at the Front, she saw the bright +light surrounding him, and disarming his amazed opponents. + +During the short time which Freddy was at the Front, how different her +thoughts had been! His beauty and ability seemed to say to her, as she +watched him on that memorable afternoon at the station, "Whom the gods +love die young." He seemed to typify to her England's brave and +beautiful young whom the war chose for its victims. The wages of the +war were England's youth and devotion. She knew that much as Freddy +loved his work and enjoyed his life, he would be the last to grudge his +death. It was she herself who so ardently wished that he had died in +action; that his brains and ability had been given a chance; that he +could have done as he would have wished to do, taken a life for a life; +that he could avenge in honest warfare the hideous death of his +comrades. + +This letter from Hadassah made Margaret realize the awful fact that +Freddy was dead as nothing else had done, that his death meant that she +could never, never again consult him, or speak to him, or hope to hear +from him. It was not only a case of patience and the distance of half +the world between them; it was a case of never, never again on this +earth. She had scarcely known the meaning of death until this +starvation for his sympathy revealed itself to her. The awful +difference between mere distance and death had escaped her. Hundreds +of men were dying, but death was talked of unconvincingly, +superficially. + +Now, by some strange means, she suddenly saw the years of doing without +Freddy stretching out before her. The Valley where his work lay would +never see him again. His brains and extraordinary energy were lost to +the world; his archaeological work would be taken over by others. + +The pent-up tears which Margaret had not shed when she received the +news of his death, or during all the busy days which followed it, +mingled themselves with the unrestrained weeping which Nature sent to +save her overwrought system. She cried uninterruptedly, until the +urgency of tears subsided. She dried her eyes and braced herself up. +Her weeping had stopped suddenly; it had exhausted itself. + +It seemed to her that she could almost hear a voice repeating to her a +sentence out of Hadassah's letter. It was strikingly like Hadassah's +own voice. "Try to remember that your wonderful brother is still doing +his bit. He is working hard, wherever he is--be sure of this, for it +is what he would wish." + + * * * * * * + +Margaret carried this thought in her mind as she returned to her +pantry. Hadassah was right. Freddy was working; wherever he was, he +was busy, for he could not be happy if he was not working and helping +on the cause of the Allies. Freddy had been one of the few enthusiasts +in the early days of the war who had never pretended, even to himself, +that England's primary object in declaring war against Germany was to +avenge the devastation of Belgium. He knew that England had to enter +it to save herself and France from a similar devastation. + +When she was busy at work again, Margaret said to herself, "Of all the +strange things which have happened during the last six months, perhaps +the strangest of all is the fact that in all the wide world, the only +human being to whom I should dream of applying for help or for sympathy +in the things that matter is Hadassah Ireton, Hadassah the Syrian, +whose marriage with an Englishman of good family would have so shocked +and horrified me not so very long ago!" + +A smile of amusement changed the expression of her face. She was +thinking of Hadassah as she really was, and of the outcast Hadassah as +she would have pictured her. The smile lost itself in the shame with +which the memory of her ignorance and prejudice filled her. How well +Hadassah and her husband could afford to forget the narrow-mindedness +and the conceit of it all! + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +And now to return to Michael. During the weary weeks of anxiety and +suffering which Margaret spent in Egypt before she sailed for England, +Michael lay hovering between life and death in the _Omdeh's_ house near +the subterranean village in the Libyan Desert. + +Abdul had taken him there when he gathered him up in his strong arms on +the eventful evening when he left the excavation-tent in the hills. A +violent attack of fever, made more serious and difficult to throw off +by the overwrought condition of his nerves, kept Michael a helpless +exile in the hands of the hospitable but somewhat ignorant _Omdeh_ and +the devoted Abdul. + +When the fever was at its height, Michael was very often delirious; in +his ramblings he let the discreet Abdul see deep down into the secret +hiding-places of his heart. Sometimes he spoke in English, and +sometimes in Arabic. Abdul could understand a great deal more English +than he could speak, and as Michael often repeated the same things in +Arabic--when he thought he was addressing Abdul--he soon found the key +to much which, without the Arabic translation and constant reiteration, +might have escaped his understanding. Arabs learn a language with +extraordinary rapidity; it is no unusual thing to meet a dragoman who +can understand three or four languages, and speak a fair smattering of +each; the same man is probably unable to read or write in any one of +the four. From the deep waters of affliction came strange and terrible +revelations, of desires and temptations which the conscious man had not +allowed himself to recognize. In his helplessness they leapt forth and +proclaimed themselves unmistakably. He innocently betrayed the nature +of the woman who had earned Abdul's hatred. + +At other times he called upon Margaret and implored her forgiveness, +denouncing the woman who had followed him. He cursed her in horrible +words. Even Abdul was surprised at their impiety. Once, when Abdul +laid his fine fingers on his burning forehead, Michael took his hand +eagerly and tried to kiss it. The next instant he rejected it and with +the strength of delirium threw it from him and tried to get out of bed. + +"That's not Margaret's hand?" he said angrily. "And I want no other +woman than Margaret. I have told you that before--I belong to +Margaret, I am Margaret's body and soul. I told you that the first +time we ate our meal together, even before your white tent went up." + +When Abdul managed to subdue his master's fears, he laughed wildly and +idiotically. "Of course it is only you, Abdul. I had forgotten. I +seem to forget everything . . . I thought that . . ." here his words +became incoherent. "I was so tired, Abdul, and you were sitting up in +the sky above the horizon . . . so very tired." + +Abdul fanned his babbling master and offered him a cooling drink. +Michael swallowed it eagerly; his bright eyes gazed pitifully into +Abdul's after the last drain was swallowed. + +"Don't let the other woman come near me," he pleaded. "She is wearing +all Akhnaton's precious stones--they are hung round her neck, her +breasts are covered with them. But her skin is so white and tender, +the sun is burning it--I must lend her my coat." He laughed horribly. +"Mean little beast, Abdul, how frightened she was! The saint gave me +the amethyst--it's for Margaret." + +Abdul listened to these strange outpourings with the philosophy and +trust of a devout Moslem. If Allah willed it, He would let his master +recover. He had put the Effendi in his care, and no trouble was +anything but a pleasure to him if it brought some sense of ease and +comfort to the delirious Michael. + +The _Omdeh_ was the very soul of hospitality. He observed the +teachings of the Koran in the spirit as well as in the letter. He +spoke no English, so he was ignorant of all that Michael's delirious +words conveyed to Abdul. On his master's concerns, Abdul was a well of +secrecy. + +By night and by day he heard him go over the same ground again and +again. His life in Egypt for the last few months was expressed in +broken sentences and vivid declarations, uttered sometimes with +astonishing gravity and lucidity. At times Abdul was deceived into +thinking that he was conscious, that his reasoning powers had returned, +that he was quite sensible. But he was soon undeceived by a sudden +breaking-off in the continuity of the words, or a return to confused, +half-meaningless sentences. It was only by the constant repetition +that Abdul learned the whole truth. A bit out of one raving fitted +into another, and things hard to explain were made clear. + +Once he said very gravely, "Hadassah Ireton will help Margaret, the +beautiful Hadassah. She is more beautiful than Margaret, Abdul, much +more beautiful, but Margaret is the mistress of my happiness." + +Abdul answered by saying, "_Aiwah_, Effendi, she is your guarded lady, +she will be the mother of your sons." + +"She who sends me to rest with a sweet voice, and with her beautiful +hands bearing two sistrums." + +Abdul was ignorant of the fact that his master was quoting the words of +Akhnaton, as written in the tomb of Ay in reference to his queen. He +thought they were his master's own words, and so thinking, his heart +was cheered, for Michael's voice was gentle and reasonable. But the +hope was suddenly wiped out. + +"Are the camels ready, Abdul? We must get away, get away from the +woman. It's the only way. And you thought I cared, you came in sorrow +to tell me that the little beast had slipped away, just while Margaret +was standing among the daffodils. I heard her calling, calling in the +breeze. I was in England with Margaret." + +Abdul saw that he had been mistaken. His master had never been +sensible; he was declaiming again, in his high-pitched, unnatural voice. + +"I was a Christian--they wouldn't allow me to see the holy man buried. +But he gave me the jewel, the gem precious beyond all rubies. Abdul +covered his poor body with quick-lime; he said it would prevent +infection. Freddy won't believe it, Margaret, so we won't tell him--he +would only laugh. 'A child of God shall lead you'--that is what the +old African said. But I never told Freddy; he thinks I stand on my +head . . . Abdul! Abdul!" Michael's cry was ringing forlorn. "Do +you see the Government flag? It's all up, Abdul, it's all moonshine! +We're too late, too late. Freddy will say that Millicent detained me! +Is it the fluttering flag of the saint? It was Millicent who saw it in +the sunlight." + +In despair Abdul recited a _sura_ from the Koran. "The God Who gives a +good reward for the good deeds of His creatures, and does not waste +anyone's labour." + +Michael took up the last words of Abdul's prayer, in the way in which a +delirious mind will often carry on a sentence which drifts to the brain. + +"Nothing is ever wasted, Freddy--I've told you that over and over +again. You say I waste my time. You won't say so, when you see the +jewels. The saint kept it in his ear, Abdul--wasn't that clever for a +child of God? Look, look, Abdul!" Michael stared into the distance; +his eyes became transfixed; he was excited, strong physically. +"Millicent's small breasts are so white, so white and fair. Her two +breasts are like two fawns that are twins of a roe, that feed among the +lilies. They are covered with jewels, they catch the sunlight. How +beautiful she is! Do you see her, Abdul? She is walking in the air in +front of me, all the way, Mohammed Ali's 'golden lady.'" + +Abdul applied a wet towel to his master's burning temples. He sank +back on his pillow exhausted; his voice became low and feeble. + +"The little white tent, it is always calling, calling, its open door is +always inviting me. Why does it say, all day long, 'Turn in, my lord, +turn in'? But Margaret came to me, she saved me. Listen--can you hear +the bells, Abdul? I heard them in the night, they sounded like the +bubbling of water. Then peace came, peace, when the woman had sneaked +away. Freddy always said I walked on my head, Abdul; he always +declared that the whole affair was moonshine, no one in their senses +would believe it. I always believe in people who have no sense, for +God gives finer _senses_ to people who have no sense. Sense never sees +beyond, Abdul." + +Often he became very wild; broken sentences would pour from his lips, +the foolish, unmeaning ravings of a fevered brain. + +After these wild outbursts intervals of exhaustion would set in, in +which he would lie in a semi-conscious state of stillness. On one such +occasion the stillness was suddenly broken by the solemn recitation, in +exactly Abdul's devout tones, of the Mohammedan rosary. When he +reached the sixty-third attribute of God, he repeated it with great +unction. Then his pious tones suddenly changed to a querulous cry. + +"Abdul, why do you go on saying 'O Source of Discovery'? You know that +we've discovered nothing, nothing at all. It's all mere moonshine. I +wish Abdul would stop--he's sitting in the sky above the horizon, +repeating those same silly words over and over again! If I could only +get at him . . . but the horizon never gets any nearer." He laughed +vulgarly and hoarsely, and then lost the trend of his thoughts. "It +was a crimson amethyst--he always kept it in his ear. They buried me, +Meg, beside the saint. The sand drifts very quickly, it runs and runs +along the surface of the desert, so quickly and silently, like oozing +water over a dry river-bed." He gazed wildly at Abdul. "Will you tell +my old friend at el-Azhar that I have been dead for a long time? Tell +him that the sands drift very quickly. Margaret mustn't cry. The wind +is the desert grave-digger. Take your wicked hands away!" Abdul had +touched his wrist. "You'll never, never tempt me any more, because I'm +dead, I tell you. I was go tired, I got off my camel, and lay down, +and you ran away, you little coward. And the sands covered me, and I'm +dead, thank God!" + +Abdul waited and watched and trusted in Allah. His devotion was +complete; he surrendered himself to his master in his material life as +completely as he surrendered himself spiritually to his God. And he +had his reward, for gradually Michael's youth and splendid constitution +asserted themselves; the fever abated--natives have their own wise +methods of treating it. There were days when he seemed almost well, +far on the way to recovery, but they were often followed by hours of +reaction and high delirium. These reactions were familiar to Abdul; +they did not depress him. Nevertheless they required time and +patience. It was Michael's first attack of fever, and therefore he was +able to throw it off more completely than if his system had been +undermined by it. + +To Abdul his convalescent stage was a time of perfect content. As is +often the case with Orientals, he loved his European master with a +sentiment and romance which finds no equivalent in Western natures. +This sentiment and romance had increased intensely during Michael's +illness. Abdul now looked upon him as a personal possession; he had +nursed him back to life and health; he was a gift which Allah had +placed in his hands. He had no sons of his own, so his master filled +the unforgettable void. His conversion to Islam was Abdul's most +earnest prayer. + +The only cloud in his blue sky was the knowledge that Michael was +disappointed and distressed by the fact that he had not, in some manner +or other, let the Effendi Lampton know that he was seriously ill. +Abdul could not have written himself, for he could neither read nor +write English; he always spoke to Michael in Arabic. It was therefore +impossible for him to write to the Effendi Lampton, and to the native +mind time was of so little account that one day was as good as another. +Besides, deep down in his heart there was a pool of jealousy; he wished +to nurse his beloved master back to life and health with his own hands. +If the Effendi Lampton knew that he was ill, he would come to him or +send someone to wait upon him who would rob him of his sweet work. And +to do Abdul justice, he did not know if his master would like any +stranger, or even the Effendi Lampton himself, to know all the secrets +of his heart which his ravings revealed. Michael had so often +expressed the wish to Abdul that it should be from his own lips, or +from his own letters, that the Effendi Lampton should hear that the +harlot had been with them in the desert, and the whole story of their +desert journey. + +Abdul was quite convinced that his master's letters had not yet been +delivered at the hut in the Valley. It did not seem to him a very long +time for a letter to take to travel across the desert and the Nile. +The carrying of news was a different matter; he had a native's +knowledge of how that can be transmitted with great rapidity. A letter +belonged to a widely-different means of communication. And so he let +the matter rest. + +To the hospitable _Omdeh_ he confided nothing. The old man was pleased +and delighted to have Michael as his guest. During the patient's rapid +recovery, after his first weeks of intermittent convalescence, he was +as pleased as a child to be allowed to entertain Michael with all the +delights which he had held out before his eyes when he had invited him +to spend two or three days with him, before he journeyed to the camp in +the hills. + +During that time Michael became learned in the points of well-bred +gazelles. He saw some native dancers, both male and female, who +charmed him with their beauty and their art. And he listened so many +times to celebrated _A'laleeyeh_ (professional musicians) that, with +the help of the _Omdeh_, be became familiar with the remarkable +peculiarity in the Arab system of music--its division of tones into +thirds. Egyptian musicians consider that the European system of music +is deficient in sounds. This small and delicate gradation of sound +gives a peculiar softness to the performance of good Arab musicians. + +At first Michael was unable to appreciate the excellence of the music +he listened to, for the finer and more delicate gradations of tone are +difficult to discriminate with exactness; they are seldom heard in the +vocal and instrumental music of people who have not made a regular +study of the art. But as his ear became more habituated to the style, +the more it delighted him. He had seen the rapture on Abdul's face and +had heard the exclamations of "God approve thee!" "God preserve thee!" +from the _Omdeh_, many times before the knowledge came to him. He knew +that it was his own ignorance, and not the musicians' lack of skill, +which was to blame. Until now he had only been familiar with the music +of the Nile boatmen and the popular music of the people. + +It was delicious, or so Abdul thought, to sit with his master and the +_Omdeh_ in the cool garden, under the shade of a fantastic arbour, +darkened by the leaves of oleanders and other semi-tropical trees, and +there listen to the songs of famous Arab singers, or to the music of +the _'ood_, or the _nay_, a picturesque native flute, made out of a +reed about half a yard in length, pierced with holes. + +Sometimes story-tellers would arrive. One would begin his romance +early in the evening and it would not be nearly finished by bed-time, +which came late in the hot summer nights. The reciting of it was +broken by pleasant intervals for discussions, or for the sipping of +sweet syrups and cool native drinks. The romance always left off at a +thrilling point; sometimes it took three evenings to finish it. + +Abdul lived in a condition of satisfaction only to be expressed by a +Moslem mind. As for Michael, he had never imagined that he could feel +himself so much at home and so closely in sympathy with purely native +life. He began it at the point in his convalescence when nothing +mattered; the path of least resistance was the only one which he could +take. He continued in it when he no longer desired to resist. + +He had received no word from the Valley or from the outer world. He +felt that he was cut off and abandoned. Millicent had no doubt taken +pains to let Margaret know that she had been with him in the desert, +and what could he expect but that Freddy would be justly indignant? + +But he was getting better every day. He had had no return of the fever +for some time. Whenever he felt fit to travel, he would go to the +Valley and see if he could discover anything of Freddy's whereabouts. +Of course, he could not stay there during the hot weather, but the +guards in charge of the excavation-site might be able to tell him where +he was to be found. + +It was no difficult matter for Michael to let things drift, and easier +for him under the circumstances than it might otherwise have been. + +It was only after his complete recovery, and at the end of his long +journey with the faithful Abdul back to the Valley, that he realized +the utter desolation which faced him. + +He had said good-bye with regret and gratitude to the Omdeh, who was +every day becoming more concerned about the secret propaganda which was +being preached in the desert mosques, and had travelled as quickly as +he could, more by train than by camel, back to Luxor. On an afternoon +of blistering heat he had crossed the Nile and ridden over the plain of +Thebes. He had to rest for a little time under the cliffs which +shelter the great temple of Hatshepsu at Der-el-Bahari, before he +continued his journey up the Valley of the Tombs of the Kings, to the +hut in the wrinkles of the hills. + +As he rode through the Valley, his thoughts were full of his first +meeting with Margaret. He remembered how at a certain point of the +desolate track, which winds like a dry river-bed through the Theban +hills, she had said, "Does Freddy live here all alone?" and how, when +he had assured her that Freddy was well guarded by watch-dogs at night, +she had said. "But dogs couldn't keep off this!" For Margaret they +had not kept off "this," the spirit of Egypt; nothing can keep off +Egypt; its power and mystery defy both time and science. + +He remembered her almost childish eagerness, when she first listened to +his explanation of Akhnaton's beliefs and teachings. Then her vision +of the suffering Pharaoh came back to him, and all her arguments +against her super-sense, which told her that she had seen the spirit of +the first divinely-inspired man. He visualized her honest eyes and +their expression of interest when he had argued with her that God had +revealed Himself to mankind in many individuals and in many countries. +Surely she could not believe that God had left a single nation without +some revelation of Himself, that he had not sent upon all nations the +gift of His Spirit by some redeemer? + +Margaret had said. "You mean, don't you, that Christ revealed Himself +to all nations?" + +Michael had rejected her correction, for Christ was but one of God's +manifestations of Himself upon earth. There have been others--Buddha +was one, so was Mohammed; all great reformers, and those who are +inspired with the spirit of truth, and seek to reveal its beauty to +mankind, were to Michael God's revelations of Himself upon earth. He +gave to China, Confucius, to India, Krishna, and so on. To Palestine +he gave Jesus, Whose teachings have lightened the darkness of the +Western world. + +"You may call them all Christ or Jesus, if you like," he had said. +"For they are all imbued with the same Spirit, which is of God. Jesus +has become our ideal and example, He it is Whom God chose to teach a +doctrine suited to Western minds." + + +In the heat and stillness of the Valley Michael pondered in his heart +over all the arguments and discussions which he had had with Margaret +under the star-lit heavens, or in an expanse of blinding sunlight, +which left not a shadow as big as a man's hand on the golden sands of +the Sahara. + +He was living again in the days which preceded his adventures in the +Libyan Desert. Abdul was conscious of his master's total absorption in +the thoughts which his return to the Valley had called up. For many +weeks the heat of the summer sun had made the Valley like a furnace; +even now, though the hottest hours of the day were past, it was +stifling and almost unendurable. The air scorched Michael's face like +the hot air which comes from an oven when its door is opened. + +As they drew near to the hut which had once been his home, the +loneliness and desolation became more intense. It hurt Michael +indescribably; the contrast between the present and the past was +horrible. What he had looked upon as his home, and what had meant for +him so much activity of mind and body, was now a mere wilderness. It +was an inferno of heat and sandhills; even lizards and scorpions sought +the shade. Nothing but the dead Pharaohs under the hills remained to +tell him that this had been his Eden, where passion-flowers bloomed. + +The wooden hut was bolted and barred and closely shuttered. + +"Certainly the family are not at home," he said to Abdul, with grim +humour. "There's no good looking for Mohammed Ali--he won't greet us +with his white teeth and smiling eyes." + +They halted. Not a movement or sound disturbed the Pharaonic +stillness; not a sign of even insect life caught their searching eyes. +Abdul drew a native whistle from his pocket and put it to his lips; its +sound travelled and echoed round the hills. + +Instantly a white turban appeared and the tall figure of a _gaphir_ +came forward, with his signal of office, a long staff carried in the +Biblical manner, in his hand. Tall and bearded, in his flowing white +robes, he might have been Moses praying apart in the wilderness, +pleading for the children of Israel until the anger of the Lord was +turned away. + +With inimitable dignity he came towards the two riders, who had so +suddenly appeared in the Valley. He was the trusted servant of the +Excavation Society; his duty it was to patrol the district which +surrounded the freshly-opened tomb, the one which Freddy had +discovered; his duty it was also to see that no harm came to the hut, +to which the Effendi Lampton would return in the autumn. + +When Michael asked him for information about the Effendi Lampton, he +threw back his head. He had heard nothing from him, or about him, +since he had left the Valley and that was in the second week in May. +He had gone away in a great hurry, and had left some of the settling of +his papers and the packing of his _antikas_ which were in the hut, in +charge of the Effendi King. When Michael questioned him if the _Sitt_, +his sister, had remained with him until he left the Valley, the +_gaphir_ appeared uncertain; he, personally, had not seen the _Sitt_, +but then he had only come to take up his job the day before Mistrr +Lampton had gone away; the _Sitt_ might have been there--he did not +know. + +As the dignified personage seemed to be disinclined to volunteer any +information, and he was unable to give Michael a satisfactory answer to +the questions he asked him, there was nothing else to do but to let him +return to his meditations. Michael supposed that there were native +mounted police in the Valley, whom the man could call to his assistance +if any trouble arose; they would appear from some sheltered fold in the +hills in answer to his signal. + +Down the Valley of Death, in which the flames of the inferno seemed to +have licked and scorched the dry air ever since the world was created, +Michael rode with Abdul at his side. He had turned his back on the +hut, for the place thereof knew him no more. Freddy and Margaret had +left it; it was as though their presence there had never been. He knew +that he had been foolish to hope to find either Freddy or Margaret in +the Valley; it was far too late in the season and too hot for any +excavating work in Egypt. This he had been conscious of, but in his +heart he felt the urging necessity of going to the Valley and proving +the fact with his own eyes. Perhaps there was hidden in the back of +his mind a hope that some message had been left there for him, that +Freddy would have known that even if it was midsummer before his +journey was accomplished, he would return there as soon as he could; +something would draw him to the scene of their united labour and +happiness. + +But Freddy's practical mind had not thought of any such folly; he had +left the Valley to the sun by day and the stars by night, and had gone +like the swallows to a cooler and greener land. + + * * * * * * + +Michael was compelled to spend that night at Luxor. His urgent desire +was to reach Cairo as quickly as possible and discover if the Iretons +knew anything of Freddy and Margaret. They were now his one hope. In +Luxor the fine European hotels were closed, so he found accommodation +in the house of one of Abdul's friends, a clean, well-managed native +inn. Luxor in May was without one blot or blemish of foreign life. + +The next day he travelled by train to Cairo. The new moon was just +appearing in the evening sky when he found himself nearing the Iretons' +ancient Mameluke mansion. With the absence of all tourists and +European life, the mediaeval city seemed to Michael so Biblical that he +would not have been astonished if he had come across the city +magistrates, sitting apart in conclave to hear the witnesses of the new +moon's appearance and settle the time. He could picture the scientific +men in their midst, making their astronomical calculations, and judging +whether the testimonies agreed with their calculations. If they did, +the president of the assembly proclaimed the new moon by the sound of a +trumpet, and set open the gate of Nicanor, the great eastern brazen +gate of the temple. + +But instead of the trumpet proclaiming the new moon, Michael heard the +sonorous cries of the _mueddin_, calling out the hour of Moslem prayer +from the galleries round the tall minarets, which rose from the city +like the lotus-headed columns of ancient Egypt. All the large mosques +in Cairo are open from daybreak until two hours after sunset. The +great university-mosque of el-Azhar would, Michael knew, remain open +all night, all but one small portion, the principal place of prayer. + +When he reached the Iretons' house, he rang the bell at the door of the +outer courtyard. The Nubian who was stretched out on the mastaba +behind it did not trouble to rouse himself. Let the fool ring--surely +everyone knew that his master and mistress were not living in the city +in this weather, when they had a beautiful mansion in the cool oasis to +go to? + +Michael rang again, but even as he rang his heart was beginning to +sink; he knew that no servant would have kept a guest waiting behind +the big door if his master was at home; it was his one and only duty to +guard it and admit visitors. The second time he rang, he did it so +emphatically that the noise vibrated through the courtyard. + +A moment later Michael heard a movement. The bar was lifted from its +iron hooks, the door was grudgingly opened, and a black face, with +thick lips and goggle eyes, was thrust out. In a great many more words +than were necessary the Nubian told the anxious Michael that his master +and mistress were away from home; they were in the country; the house +was closed and would not be opened until October. + +When Michael urged him for more particulars, as to the precise address +of his master, the effusive Nubian became as close as a sphinx. His +duty to his master forbade him giving any information to strangers at +the gate; he only retained the post because he could be trusted. + +As Michael looked into the deserted courtyard, its sense of romantic +isolation was as affecting as the desolation of the Valley had been. +It seemed to him as if all his friends were dead, as if he was the sole +survivor of his generation and civilization. The native city, bathed +in the mystery of the falling night and the secrets of its great age, +lay behind him. It, too, was a world which had outlived its +civilization, a relic of the Middle Ages, as lonely as his own soul. + +Mechanically he bade the Nubian good-night; the half-piastre which he +dropped into the pink palm of his black hand brought down blessings on +his unbelieving head. + +He wandered aimlessly on. He was very tired and absolutely friendless; +he had no place or part in the city, whose arteries were throbbing with +the prayers and praise of an infinite variety of Oriental peoples, +peoples whose countries were separated by oceans and continents, joined +in one vast brotherhood in Islam. He felt miserably alone, a homeless +and friendless alien. + +At the hour which follows sundown Egypt has always new secrets to +reveal. On this night of the new moon, the late afterglow of the +summer sun spread an opal haze, flame-tinted and milky, over the +sin-soiled city of the Caliphs. It descended from the heavens like a +veil of righteousness. + +Michael had no desire to return to his hotel. He did not know what to +do; the absence of the Iretons from Cairo had shattered his last hope. +Surely it was ordained? He was to realize that he was reaping the +punishment he deserved for his weakness and folly. It was obvious to +his tired nerves and hypercritical senses that Margaret had purposely +returned to England without leaving any indication of her destination. +He would go to Cook's post-office the next morning; that was his last +forlorn hope. If there was no letter awaiting him there, he would take +his dismissal as final. It had been he himself who had insisted that +Margaret should consider herself free. + +He knew Freddy's English address, but dared he write to him? He had +ignored all his letters and had gone back to England without making any +effort to communicate with him. This was certainly his dismissal. And +if Margaret had gone also without leaving one word of comfort for him, +he must draw the same conclusion from her silence. + +Tired out with walking through the narrow streets, he stood on the +steps of a small mosque, whose doors were closed. He must think over +what he ought to do. As his eyes rested on the Eastern scene before +him, a sudden vision of his old friend at el-Azhar came to him. The +university-mosque would not be closed, its gate would open and receive +him into the Perfection of Peace. + +For a few moments the desire to throw himself into the arms of Islam +overwhelmed him; it was the way of peace, the way of forgetfulness, the +way of self-surrender. + +He remembered Abdul's teachings, and how he had often said, "A sort of +death comes over the first life, and this state is signified by the +word Islam, for Islam brings about death of the passions of the flesh +and gives new life to us. This is the true regeneration, and the word +of God must be revealed to the person who reaches this stage. This +stage is termed 'the meeting of God.'" + +Michael imagined that he would find that stage if he went to his old +friend at el-Azhar, if he went humbly and asked him to lead him into +the way of peace, if he went that very night and confessed to him his +own failure to reach the stage which is enjoyed by all devout Moslems. +The burning fire which is Islam, the fire which consumes all low +desires and gives to men that love for God which knows no bounds, would +that be his state, if he surrendered himself intellectually and +spiritually to the laws and the teachings of the Koran? + +There was nothing in the ethics or the moral code of the Prophet with +which he disagreed; the excellence of his teachings as laid down in the +Koran was extraordinarily far-reaching and comprehensive. Michael's +whole being for the moment was filled with the devotion and abandonment +of Islam. Mohammed's mission was to turn the hearts of his people to +the worship of the one and only God; his desire, like Akhnaton's, was +to throw down the false gods from the altars, and reinstate the simple +and undivided worship of the Creator in men's hearts and minds. To +Michael, his teachings had always been the teachings of a great and +inspired reformer. At that moment, when the spell of Islam was +baptizing him, he forgot that Mohammed's God was not the Sweet Singer +in the spring-time, or the bright eye of the daisy in June, or the +laughter of the babbling brooks. The beauty of God, to the Moslem, +consists in His unity, His majesty, His grandeur and His lofty +attributes. Michael overlooked the difference. He loved to walk with +God in the cornfields, to speak to Him when he visited the +lotus-gardens on the Nile. The Moslem succeeds in abandoning himself +to God's will, but he fails to enjoy Him in the scent of the hawthorn, +or hear His voice in the whisper of the pines. + +The Moslem city was pouring into his veins the beauty of its spiritual +calm; the hour was kind to its imperfections, its hidden sores were +forgotten. + +His feet mechanically descended the flights of stone steps which had +raised him above the level of the street and had placed him under the +shadow of the ancient doorway of the mosque. Without asking himself +where he was going, or what he intended to do, he walked in the +direction of el-Azhar. + +As he threaded his way through the narrow streets, darkness was quickly +obliterating the dirt and unsightliness which was visible in the +noonday. His mind was vexed with a thousand questions. Why did a +Western civilization and the Protestant religion make human beings +restless and questioning? Why were they for ever desiring the things +which are withheld? Why had his life and his interests suddenly +tottered to the ground? Surely it was because he had not learned to +put the things of the spirit above things material? If he resigned his +will to Islam, would he in return be granted the calm philosophy of a +Moslem, who accepts his condition and his disappointments as the +unquestionable and far-seeing decree of the Cause of all causes? + +Drifting and dreaming, Michael wandered on, the summer heavens above +him, the mediaeval city surrounding him. The hot day's work was over; +men and women were enjoying in their Oriental fashion the cooler and +sweeter air of the late evening. Portly figures of elderly men were +descending the high steps which raise the mosque-doors from the level +of the street; narrow, two-wheeled carts, of immense length, packed +full of black bundles--Egyptian women closely veiled--were taking tired +workers back to their homes in the suburbs. Darkness, which falls so +quickly and early in the East, even in mid-summer, was bringing relief +to sun-tired eyes. + +Reaction was affecting Michael very strongly. It had only set in when +the absence of the Iretons from Cairo had suddenly opened up a chasm of +distrust and doubt before his feet. In his desolate wandering through +the city, Margaret seemed very far away. Indeed, he had never felt any +assurance of her sympathy and presence since he had recovered from his +illness. He had nerved and braced himself to make the supreme effort +which he knew would be demanded of him if he was to reach the Valley; +he had made it wholly unaided by any subconscious sense of her +spiritual presence. His assurance of her unchanged confidence in his +devotion had left him. It was to his material, not spiritual, +will-power and determination that he owed his victory over the physical +exhaustion which he had experienced. + +He scarcely thought of Margaret as he wandered on; in his mood of +self-pity he felt abandoned. Every minute he was drawing nearer and +nearer to the gates of el-Azhar. Unconsciously he desired that when he +reached the gate which led into the Court of the Perfection of Peace, +it would open, and strong arms would gather him up as they had gathered +him up in the Libyan Desert, and drown his restlessness and doubts in +their strength; that he might spend his future at rest under the shadow +of the Everlasting Arms--The God of Akhnaton, the God of Jesus, the God +of Mohammed, His Arms encompass and enfold the world. + +At the gates of el-Azhar Michael paused and listened. The praises of +Allah, and man's love for Him, went up from a hundred devout voices. +The pillared courtyard looked vast and solemn; the soft air of the +summer night vibrated with the sonorous chanting of students and +professors. The peace of God which passeth all understanding +beautified the mediaeval building, which has been for long centuries +the centre of culture and learning for the scattered Moslem world. It +baptized Michael's fevered soul as the waters of Jordan baptized those +who were converts of the forerunner of Jesus. Centuries of meditation +and player have left their divine influence on the place. + +All sacred enclosures hold the gift of healing. Michael had felt it in +the temples of Egypt, in the temples of the Greeks, in the mosques. +The things of the spirit remain in them, the thoughts which have been +born by communion with the soul. + +Impulsively Michael lifted the iron handle of the bell; it hung from a +long chain which lay against a square column, one of the two posts at +the outer gate. Here was the rest he was seeking, the beauty of divine +meditation. + +As he lifted the handle and his palm pressed it with the tightening +grasp necessary for pulling it, he let it drop. Something made him +drop it. He had ardently desired to ring it; it was not the lateness +of the hour, or the nervousness which he might well have felt at taking +a step which would lead him into fresh perplexity and doubt, which had +made him pause. He had dropped it because he was compelled to, and as +he dropped it, he knew that he would never again ring it for the same +purpose. His super-self had triumphed; it had dominated his actions. + +Suddenly the overwhelming significance of the step which he had been +about to take so rashly made him tremble and feel apprehensive. He +turned round quickly, as if he expected to see the hand which had +stayed him. No one was there. + +He stood tense, perfectly still, listening. Only the prayers from the +courts of Islam came to his ears. Mingled with their solemnity, came +with vivid clearness the picture of himself, seated on the marble floor +of the courtyard, pretending that he was one in heart and soul with the +others. He could see their devotion, their bridled intellects, their +impersonal minds, strange peoples of every Oriental nation--black +Nubians, pale Arabs, flat-featured Mongolians--all sincere and honest +in this one thing at least, their absolute belief in, and surrender to +Islam. He saw himself, a Western, with a Western mind; ha saw himself +a hypocrite and charlatan. He saw the deadly monotony of the life +which only a moment before had seemed the Way of Perfect Peace. His +old friend, who had given him such wonderful counsel, would have read +into his heart: he would have seen there the vast difference which lay +between Michael's sincere beliefs and the beliefs which he was +professing. + +Resolutely he turned his back on the university-mosque. He would visit +his friend at a more suitable hour, and ask him to explain to him some +of the things that had happened. He would ask him if he was aware that +his desert journey had, in a material sense at least, ended in failure, +if his seer's vision had enabled him to discover what had happened to +the treasure. + +On his way back to the European quarter of Cairo he rested for a short +time by the roadside, in a strange little cemetery of poor Moslem +tombs. It lay exposed to the turmoil and dust of a rough road, a +sun-baked spot in the daytime; at night it was grimly mysterious. The +memorial stones--the humbler for the women, of course, the grander +ones, with turbans cut in the grey stone, for the men--had sunk into +the ground until they stood at strange angles. The rough white stones +had become grey with age, and many of them were sadly broken. + +A donkey-boy, who had perchance taken some portly Turkish merchant back +to his home in the country after his day's work in the city, came +hurrying down the hill. It was steep, and loose stones covered the +path. When he reached the dilapidated cemetery he pulled up his +suffering animal. Michael, from his hidden corner, watched the boy +fling himself from the donkey's back; the animal remained motionless, +while its rider, in his one garment--a short white shirt, which only +reached to the knees of his tanned legs--stepped in amongst the +gravestones. Finding the one he sought, he said a short prayer beside +it in devout tones, then hastened back to his donkey. When he started +down the hill and the tired beast stumbled, he belaboured it with a +heavy stick and cursed it. His foul language rang out into the +stillness; it echoed among the stones under which lay the bones of his +ancestor--or was it, perhaps, the bones of some humble saint, whose +favour he was inciting? + +The little incident was as illustrative of the effects of Islam as the +peace within the courts of el-Azhar. + +Michael sat in the cemetery, which had seemed to him to be of no more +consequence than a heap of stones by the wayside, awaiting the +roadmender's hammer. Yet, with the strange inconsequence of Orientals, +it was evidently a sacred spot. It had its pilgrims and its uses. +This city cemetery brought to his mind the drifting sand of the open +desert, and the ever-increasing mound which Nature was piling up over +the bones of the holy man, which lay in an ocean of sweet silence and +expanse. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +Early the next morning Michael again stood at the gate of the +university-mosque, but it was a different Michael to the Michael of the +night before. The unseen hand which had stopped him when he was about +to ring the bell did not have to interfere a second time. He rang it +resolutely, thinking calm thoughts, and despising himself for his +foolish mood of the night before. + +When the gate was opened to him, he passed in and hurried across the +blinding brightness of the open courtyard. He made haste to reach the +shelter of the colonnade; he was in no drifting humour; he was again +asserting his capacity for being practical about the unpractical. He +did not even allow himself to dwell on the memories which the scene +recalled of the day when he had visited his friend, before he +determined to leave the Valley and go into the Libyan Desert. + +When he reached the portion of the building where the old African +student lived, his steps slackened. What if he was dead? He was an +old man for a mid-African, and his physique had been greatly exhausted +by continued chastening of the flesh. + +When he was well within sight of his cell he saw the lean, gaunt figure +of the hermit-student standing inside the iron-barred gate; he was +straining his eyes into the distance; he was looking for someone. + +When Michael was near enough to address him, which he did in tones of +pleasure and respect, the African opened the gate slowly and not +without difficulty, his trembling hands thinner and more bloodless even +than they had been when Michael had visited him before. + +After the proper greetings were exchanged, the African invited Michael +to enter, and asked him if he would lend a patient ear to what he had +to tell him. + +"I am an old man," he said. "I can see the end of this existence--it +is not far off. It is well that you have come." + +When Michael expressed his sorrow, the tired eyes flashed. + +"Do not grieve, my son. When the righteous servant of God sees death +face to face, he does not contend with his God--that is to oppose His +will, that is not in accordance with total resignation." + +Michael said that his grief was for himself, not for his friend; his +words were an apology. The old man had seated himself in a humble +attitude on the floor in front of Michael; with the never-failing +courtesy of an Oriental, he was not forgetful of the etiquette which +prescribes for the seating of oneself in the presence of a superior. +There is always a position of honour in a native room, and this, even +in his cell, the zealot of Islam reserved for his professors and for +his honoured guests, if they were his social superiors. + +When they were seated and the tired old man had rested for a few +moments, he said, in the lengthy and flowery style of Orientals: + +"I looked for you, my son; your coming was foretold. I have long and +eagerly awaited it." + +"Were you watching for me?" Michael asked. "I saw you at the door of +your cell. I am glad I came." + +"Even as you came, I looked for you. The Lord of Kindness knows the +desires of our hearts; He grants all those which in His mercy He deems +fit." + +"You desired to see me, O my father?" + +"_Aiwah_, for long I have desired it." + +A rosary was in his hands; he pulled the beads slowly along the string. +Michael had learned to banish impatience in the presence of natives. + +"I have been in great tribulation," he said. "Did you know that? I am +even yet sorely troubled." + +The African answered with his eyes. + +"O Lord, give us in our affliction the contentment of mind which may +give us patience." + +"My peace of mind has gone, O my father. I feel that my feet have +strayed far from the way of peace. I came to hear your counsel." + +The old man's eyes flamed with the fire of righteousness. "My son," he +said, "the Lord has revealed to His dying servant the things which as +yet you know not. You speak of peace where there is no peace, for I +have seen the Armageddon of God's enemies; I have seen the world washed +in the blood of those who know not Islam; I have seen the heathen +nations of the earth blind with rage. Why do these nations of the +earth so furiously rage together? I tell you, O my son it is because +they have not the love of God in their hearts." + +Michael was silent. The old man's words conveyed very little to him, +for as yet there was no rumour of the war which was breeding in Europe. +The internal troubles in Ireland, distressing as they were, were not of +a nature to be spoken of with such appalling gravity. The old man's +anxiety and sincerity were unmistakable, but what did he mean? While +he sat in silence, wondering what the seer had in his mind, Michael saw +that his dark eyes were far away. His attitude was that of one who had +detached himself from his surroundings; his spirit was immeasurably +removed from his material body. Suddenly he spoke. + +"Take heed, my son, for everywhere, even unto the ends of the earth I +can see bloodshed and suffering, and an agony of evil such as the world +has never seen. I can see nations rising against nations, and the +blood of kindred spilt by each other's swords, for they know not God." + +Michael, not without a feeling of mental irritation, listened to the +African's foretelling. It seemed to him the imaginings of a zealot's +weakening brain. This war which he foretold was to Michael an +impossible thing amongst civilized nations, but he listened patiently +to all that he had to say. Blood which was to pour like a river over +the Western world, was to be spilt for the cause of Truth; it was to be +the punishment and final agony of the unbelievers; war was to spread +over the world like a deadly plague. God in His wisdom had willed it, +for it was to be a proof that the infidels, who had flourished like the +green bay-tree, were at last to suffer the vengeance of God. This war, +which he saw as clearly as astrologers see the stars and the moon in +the heavens through their scientific instruments, was ordained by +Allah, it was the work of His hand, it was His terrible revelation to +mankind of the falseness of the doctrines preached by those who called +themselves the followers of Christ. For nearly two thousand years they +had fed the nations on lies and set up images which were abhorrent to +the one and only God. They had, to suit their own doctrines and +dogmas, perverted the meaning of the words of Jesus; they had made the +name of Christ a byword to all true believers. The sin of hate and the +lust for blood, which was to fill the hearts of all Christian +countries, was to be a token to all true believers that the teachings +of Christians had been vain and fruitless. They had lived without God +in their hearts; now even the example of the Prophet Jesus they laughed +to scorn. + +"God is alone in His personal attributes, He has no partner, He is +neither a Son nor a Father, for there is none of His kind." + +Knowing the religious fervour of devout Moslems, Michael listened to +his warning, but without the interest which he would have felt if he +had had the slightest inkling of the agony which was so soon to +convulse Europe. He thought that as the African's end was not far off, +he was becoming more troubled and desirous for the conversion of the +world to Islam. He said to himself, "If he knows nothing about my +experience in the desert and my failure to find the treasure, I will +give no second thought to this imaginary war of nations." While he +listened to his strange and fervent warnings, he determined to find out +if he knew what had happened. When the African paused, he said: + +"Pray tell me, O my father, if it was known to you the things that +befell me in the desert. If not, I have much to tell you." + +The African was far away; only his emaciated body was in the cell when +Michael spoke; when he drew back his mind to his material presence, he +met Michael's questioning eyes; his own were tragic and stricken. + +"These things are past, my son, in this new world of despair and +suffering there is no place for them. Very often I saw you, very often +you were in great trouble, trouble as the world understood trouble in +the days of peace. But because of the avarice of ungodly rulers there +is sorrow and mourning coming to the world, which will teach men that +they knew not the meaning of anguish. In the Armageddon they will +understand the suffering of the Prophet Jesus, the Man of Sorrows Who +was acquainted with grief." + +Michael, convinced that the seer's mind was obsessed with this one +idea, accepted the fact philosophically; he shrank from asking him the +more personal questions he wished answered. Nevertheless, he was +extremely curious to learn if he was ignorant of the result of his +expedition. + +"Tell me, my father, did you see me securing the great treasure of gold +and jewels which I went into the desert to find? Did you know how +greatly I have reaped my reward?" + +"My son, speak to me of the truth which is in thy heart, not of lies." +His angry eyes rebuked Michael. "Stand fast to truth and justice. The +men of truth shall find a rich reward--they do not sit in the company +of liars." + +"I ask your forgiveness, O my father. Truly I spoke not after the +fashion of those who have understanding." + +"My son, I have seen what I have seen. Your deeds of charity are known +to God, His power extends over all things; not a chicken cheeps in the +egg-shell but He has created. Your trials and losses are known to Him, +they are His ordaining. Because of your weakness and the carnal +thoughts and desires which were in your heart, God saw fit to remove +the treasure from your sight. Again in the days of peace you must seek +it, in the bowels of the earth it is laid up for you." + +Michael's heart stood still. Verily the old man had seen, for in his +words there were truth and meaning. + +"My son, listen to the teachings of the Prophet, God bless his holy +name. 'Believing men should restrain their eyes from looking upon +strange women, whose sight may excite their carnal passions. Draw not +near unto fornication. The word of God restrains the carnal desires of +man even from smouldering in secret.'" + +"You know, O my father, that I sought not the presence of the strange +woman in my camp?" + +"My son, through the grace of Allah I have seen. Your temptation was +great, your charity was acceptable in God's sight. He knows that many +unbelievers look towards Him, but do not see Him." + +"And what now is thy counsel, O my father?" + +The African shook his head. "Prayer, my son, that is my counsel. The +world has much need of prayer. Pray that through Allah's guidance all +nations of the earth may learn how to live peacefully one with another. +I can see nothing further; that is my counsel: Work and pray. I can +give you no assurance, but Allah granting, I will pray without ceasing. +You must humbly submit to the will of Allah. This I give you as my +counsel. You took the great journey; your heart is still filled with +the eagerness of youth, with the vanity of earthly ambition. But all +these things will be purged from your heart, your bowels of compassion +will yearn for the mothers of sons, who weep for their sons because +they are not. Your journey was not in vain. If your fingers have not +yet touched the treasure which you sought, if your desires have strayed +from the path of righteousness, if you have not always stood in the +Light, there is a new treasure laid up in your heart, my son, the +treasure of meekness. Meekness is one of the moral conditions of the +Koran, and the servants of the All-Merciful are those who walk meekly +upon earth. This treasure has been revealed to you, you have learned +many strange and wonderful things, a spiritual treasure has been +bestowed upon you which is of greater richness than the gold and the +jewels which you sought. You dreamed not of man's weakness, O my son, +you relied upon your own strength. Allah has chosen His own method of +revealing to you the manner of man's carnal nature." + +Michael remained lost in thought while the old man finished his counsel +by reciting a beautiful _sura_ from the Koran. In his mind there had +been gathering the conviction that there was more truth than he had at +first imagined in his daring prophecy, in his foretelling of the +calamity which was to befall all Christian countries. He had been +perfectly accurate on the subject of his own journey, that it had not +been successful in regard to the treasure of Akhnaton. He had seen +with extraordinary clearness all which had happened, even to the +reading of his heart. It was unnecessary for Michael to tell him in +words all that he had gone through, for the African was tired, and his +eyes had seen. There was just one thing he had been craving to ask him +about; it had been glowing at the back of his mind like a light from a +sacred lamp. That precious thing was Margaret. Had this mid-African, +whose feet were bending to the open grave, any seer's knowledge which +would assist him? + +"I would ask you yet one more question, O my father. Of my dear +friends, whom I left in Upper Egypt when I journeyed into the +desert--have you counsel regarding them which will ease the anxiety I +feel?" + +The old man's eyes flashed brightly. He had forgotten; his voice was +expressive of human sympathy. "Your guarded lady, _insha Allah_, the +future mother of your sons, she was never far from you, she it was who +many times comforted you. Often have I seen her spiritual presence +very close to you." + +"Your words are the truth, O my father. When the weakness of man's +nature overwhelmed me, she came to me in the desert." + +"Spiritually you embraced her, my son; Allah, in His perfect +understanding, granted you this great comfort." + +"I have not heard from her, my father, nor has her spiritual presence +been close to me for many weeks. My heart is desolate." + +"Pray for fortitude, my son, that moral condition which enables us to +meet danger and endure pain with calmness." As he said the last words, +his eyes looked into the future; his expression became agonized. +"Fortitude," he repeated the word slowly and deliberately, +"fortitude--you must pray for it without ceasing, for without it you +cannot face the future." + +"You do not explain, O my father, why I do not see or hear anything +from those who love me." + +Michael had seen by the visionary's expression that his thoughts were +again obsessed with the Armageddon he had visualized. + +The African shook his head. "Some things I may not see, O my son, +Allah withholds them from my imperfect human understanding. It is only +by His ordaining that I can see what I see. If your heart is clean and +worthy, my son, doubt not the faithfulness and steadfastness of the +woman to whom you are spiritually united. She raises not her eyes to +strange men; if by your own weakness you have lost your spiritual +connection with her, then hasten to act worthily of her. The world +will have need of all those who have the love of God in their hearts, +of all those who have the moral quality of forgiveness and sympathy. +It is an easy matter to forgive those whom we love. Go you forth into +battle and learn to forgive those whom you hate. Never have your +opportunities been greater." + +As his last words were uttered, with extreme earnestness, through the +colonnade and courtyard of the ancient building came the midday call to +prayer; it was sonorous and prolonged. + +Michael rose hastily from his low seat. The aged student did not +detain him. Their farewell was comparatively brief, owing to the +_mueddin's_ harmonious and sonorous chanting of the _adan_. + +"I will return," Michael said. "I will not leave Egypt without saying +farewell to you, O my father, and asking for thy blessing." + +"_Insha Allah_ (if God wills), my son. Very soon God will permit His +servant to enjoy the blessings of paradise." + +"It will not be many days before I go to England." + +"_Aiwah_, the time draws near when each man will return to the land +which gave him birth. The Lord of Battles has decreed it, the Lord of +Battles will send forth His summons. From the uttermost ends of the +earth all those who have denied Him, all those who have denied that He +is God beside Whom there is none other to be worshipped, they will +answer to the call: with pride in their hearts they will slaughter +those who should be their brethren. The voice of the slain will travel +even as the wind travels to the world's end. Woe unto those nations +who have taught false doctrines, who have stretched out their hands to +oppress the widows and the helpless, for the anger of the God of +Battles is turned against them. He knows everything, and nothing lies +hidden from His sight." + +Michael made no answer. His mind was groping after the true +understanding of all that the African said. + +"If Allah had so willed it, my son, great would have been my happiness, +my rejoicing, to see the final triumph of Islam, to see the nations +upon the earth loving each other, all borders and barriers broken down, +to see the love of God ruling all men and all countries. When men live +with the image of the true God in their hearts, there will be no +dividing barriers. True patriots will be the obedient children of God, +the banner of Islam the universal banner of mankind. Farewell, my son, +God be with you." + +His gate was shut behind Michael; the lean figure hastened to obey the +call to prayer. + +As Michael hurried to the outer gate and crossed the thronged courts of +el-Azhar, he meditated on the old man's words. What did they mean? +What had his eyes seen? Locked away in his obscure cell in the centre +of the Moslem university-mosque, how could he know what was going to +happen in the great countries of Europe? He would find it difficult, +no doubt, to assign to England her correct position on the map. And +yet his warnings were strangely intense. Had they any connection with +the tales of political sedition of which the _Omdeh_ had so often +spoken? Nothing belonging to the present seemed to matter to him now; +his thoughts and visualizing were riveted on the agony of the world +which he foretold. His prayers were for this new agony and world-wide +disaster which had been revealed to him. + +It was strangely perplexing. Michael felt great pity for him, that his +last few weeks on earth should be so saddened; even though he was +convinced that this agony was to be for the final triumph of Islam, it +was tearing at his bowels of compassion. His gentle nature was +suffering for the children whom Allah now saw fit to punish. + + + + +PART III + + +CHAPTER I + +The war was six months old and Margaret was still a pantry-maid in the +private hospital in St. Alphege's Square. She was to be promoted to +the wards in a few weeks' time, to fill the place of a V.A.D. who was +going out to France. Before taking up her more interesting work, she +had been granted a fortnight's leave; the exacting matron realized that +the willing horse which works its hardest is one which will eventually +collapse under its burden. + +Margaret was now visiting an aunt in a northern town, drinking in the +keen air of the winter hills and the resin of the pine-woods. She was +conscientiously building up her tired system, fitting herself for fresh +endeavours; she considered that her brief holiday had been given her +for this purpose. Her health and capacity for work were the two assets +which she could give to the war; it was as much a matter of duty to +nurse that capital and increase it as it was the duty of the engineers +on a ship to keep the driving power of the vessel in perfect order. + +During her holiday the only form of war-work which she allowed herself +to do, except the mechanical one of knitting, was to help at a +railway-station canteen, which supplied free meals to all the soldiers +and sailors who passed through. The aunt whom she was visiting had the +entire responsibility for the free-refreshment-room for one of the +shifts for two nights in the week; her shift began at six and ended at +nine o'clock. Punctually at nine o'clock another member of the +canteen, or "barrow-fund," as it was called, took the responsibility +off her hands and kept it until two-thirty a.m. Margaret's aunt asked +her to take the place of a helper who had suddenly been telegraphed for +to see a wounded brother; who had just arrived at a hospital in +Edinburgh. + +At the large station, a very important junction, the third-class +ladies' waiting-room had been given over to this energetic body of +women war-workers, who had converted it into an attractive +refreshment-room. Margaret was established behind the buffet in her +V.A.D.'s uniform. The wide counter in front of her was covered with +cups and plates, piled high with tempting sandwiches and bread and +butter, cakes and scones; immense urns, full to the brim with steaming +coffee and tea, gleamed brightly on a wide shelf behind her. +Everything was in readiness, and there were a few minutes to spare +before the first train was due, which would bring a bevy of hungry men +into the hospitable room. Margaret used those few minutes to make a +tour of inspection; she had to see that plenty of post-cards and +writing materials were in evidence on the centre table, that the +illustrated papers were conspicuously displayed. The barrow, or the +moving refreshment buffet, was already out on the platform; it served +the men who had no time to leave their carriages. It was winter, so +flowers were scarce, but hardly a night passed but there was a fresh +bouquet on the counter and table. The owners of large country-houses +saw to that. The dominoes and draught-boards had been forgotten; +Margaret put them on the table in the centre of the room. And then, +satisfied that all was right, she took up her position again behind the +counter. She was to be responsible for the serving of the tea and +coffee; the men helped themselves to the contents of the plates. Her +aunt attended to the tea and coffee urns, keeping them replenished and +their contents in good condition. Margaret's was distinctly the +pleasanter work of the two. + +The sharp air of the north had brought back the glow to Margaret's eyes +and a freshness to her rather London-bleached cheeks. She looked a +deliciously fresh and pleasing waitress in her crisp indoor V.A.D. +uniform. The red cross on the front of her apron was as becoming to +her as a bunch of scarlet geraniums. It was too hot, standing so near +the steaming urns, for hats and coats, so she had the advantage of +showing her rippling hair. The cosy atmosphere of the room made her +forgetful of the severity of the wintry atmosphere outside. Margaret's +pretty figure and dark head appearing above the buffet-counter were +certainly great assets to the free-refreshment-room. Her aunt, who was +a conscientiously undemonstrative woman, felt proud of her niece. She +more than once that evening thought to herself what pleasure the girl's +beauty would give to the men. It was unfortunately against her +principles to allow Margaret to even guess how much she both approved +of her and admired her. + +Her aunt's thoughts were correct. Margaret's pretty head and her dark +eyes were remembered by many an aching heart that night; from her hands +the tea and coffee they drank had more flavour than that which was so +casually dispensed to them in the army canteens. + +"Here they come, Margaret!" her aunt called out, as the door opened and +a crowd of khaki-clad figures poured into the room. Most of their +faces brightened as they saw the inviting buffet. + +They had only twenty minutes in which to enjoy their refreshment and +change trains; most of them were going to London. This was only one of +the many train-loads of men which would visit the room that night. +There were about forty men, pushing and elbowing their way to the +counter. + +With a sharp-spouted, blue-enamelled tin jug in her hand, Margaret +began her work, quickly filling the empty cups on the counter. As fast +as her active movements would allow her she filled and refilled the +saucerless cups. What seemed a never-ending stream of men pushed +forward and tried to get closer to the counter. + +"Help yourselves, please, to sandwiches and cakes," came from +Margaret's lips every few minutes, for some of the men were shy--she +had to keep on repeating the invitation. She had scarcely time to +glance at them, or raise her eyes from the cups which she was filling. +As there were no saucers, it required a steady hand to prevent the tea +from splashing on the counter. Such a large majority of the men took +tea that she had to tell them that there was coffee. "Tea or coffee?" +she would ask, with quickly raised eyes. "We have both." + +There was on these occasions no opportunity for any conversation with +the men. Their time was too limited for speech, and she was too busy +to distinguish one khaki-clad figure from another. It was only a pair +of eyes which she met now and then, when it was possible to raise hers +from the extended cup she was refilling. More than once her +blue-enamelled jug ran dry, and impatient men had to wait while she +replenished it from one of the big urns which were steaming on the +shelf behind her. When the jug was quite full, it was so heavy to hold +extended, that she had to exercise care not to spill some of its +contents on the sandwiches and cake. It was exceptionally difficult +not to spill any of it when cups were held high up to be refilled. + +One tall man, a late-comer, had with difficulty pushed his way forward; +he was waiting to be served. He held up his cup, thinking that it +would make it easier for Margaret to reach it. Before filling it, she +recollected to say, "Would you rather have some coffee?" + +She raised her eyes as she spoke. Some curious sense of the man's more +refined personality had made her think that coffee might appeal to him. +As she did so, Michael's Irish-blue eyes gazed back into hers. + +For a moment the world stood still for Margaret. Her poor heart beat +so quickly that her hand gave a spasmodic shake, with the result that a +considerable quantity of the tea from the enamelled jug splashed over +the brim and drenched a plate of scones. + +Michael had not spoken, nor could Margaret. What she had waited so +long to ask him could not be called out over a dozen eager heads. + +A kilted Scot, broad-faced and broad-kneed, had pushed himself in front +of Michael, who recognized that it was his duty to step back from the +counter now that his cup was full, and allow the man just behind him to +get his chance. + +Margaret had to go on filling white cups with tea. She dared not even +raise her eyes to see if she could catch sight of Michael above the +crowd of khaki figures. It was hopeless now, for another train had +brought in a fresh batch of weary, cold, homesick men, all eager for a +hot cup of tea. Most of the first-comers had already disappeared; one +or two of them were hastily addressing with pen and ink the pencilled +postcards which they had written in the train. The writing of many +post-cards seemed to afford them great comfort. While Margaret was +filling cups as fast as she could, she was often interrupted by men who +would hold out a penny and ask if she kept postage-stamps. Stamps were +the only things which were not given away in the free refreshment-room; +a copper always went into the little red box when a stamp was taken +out. The men were eager to get them. + +Another voice would ask for a time-table, and another would inquire if +she sold pipes; he had lost his in the train and he dreaded the twelve +hours' journey which lay before him without the comfort of even his +pipe. + +All these demands had to be attended to quickly and sympathetically. +The twenty minutes which the first batch of men had to spend in the +station was almost up. On record nights the canteen had served three +hundred men in half an hour. Margaret felt rather than knew that +Michael was still in the room, that he was standing behind the first +line of men, looking at her. Her heart was throbbing and her mind +distracted. How could she reach him? How could she learn where he was +going to? + +His eyes had told her nothing; they had simply gazed into hers as +though he had seen a vision. Of the surprise and relief which hers had +afforded him she knew nothing. In the midst of the hurly-burly of +hungry, tired soldiers she had met his eyes--that was all. She had +scarcely seen his figure. + +The place was emptying. Michael, having stayed to the very last +second, turned and quickly left the room. Soon there would be a lull, +but Margaret could not wait for it. She put down her can as Michael +disappeared and moved down the counter to its exit, a little door which +opened inwards and allowed her to pass into the room. To reach it she +had to brush past her aunt. As she did so, she said as calmly as she +could: + +"I must fly out to the platform for a few minutes, aunt, even if these +men go without their tea--I really must go and speak to a soldier I +know." + +Her aunt looked at her in astonishment. This new emotional Margaret +was so very unlike the reliable V.A.D., whose dignity was one of her +individual charms. + +"Very well, my dear, I can manage. Go along." + +There was no time for more words--indeed, Margaret did not wait to be +allowed. She darted out of the refreshment-room like an arrow freed +from the bow. She had but one idea, to follow Michael. When the door +closed behind her, she gazed up the wide expanse of platform. She +caught sight of him, but he was well ahead, and he was walking very +quickly. Even if she ran, she doubted if she could catch him. After +the heat of the room, the air was bitingly cold. Margaret did not feel +it; her eyes were trying to keep Michael's khaki-clad figure in sight. + +She tried, but failed, for soon he was lost in the crowd of men who +were boarding the train. Bevies of women and girls and children had +gathered on the platform to see their relatives leave for the Front. +Before Margaret's flying feet could overtake Michael he had jumped into +a carriage and was as completely lost to sight as a needle in a stack +of hay. He was a common Tommy, as heavily-laden, Margaret thought, as +an Arab-porter, with his accoutrements of war. All the window seats in +the train had been taken up long before he entered it, so it was quite +impossible for her to distinguish him amongst the late-comers who were +struggling to find even standing-room. + +Margaret stood for a moment or two in breathless despair. What could +she do? He was there somewhere, in that very train. She was standing +beside it, and yet she could not even see him. She was only wasting +time; her sense of duty urged her to return to the hungry men in the +refreshment-room. Had she forgotten how eager and longing everyone of +them was for something to drink? + +Her conscience might urge her, but for this once she was a human, +love-hungry girl, as eager to speak to her man as the men were to +swallow big mouthfuls of tea. With tear-blinded eyes she saw the train +leave the platform; she had allowed herself that extension of time. +After all, if the soldiers' throats were starved for moisture, had not +the whole of her being suffered a far more acute starvation for many, +many months? Her womanhood was crying out for its rights. + +As the end of the train was lost to sight, she turned away. She was +just the girl he had left behind him, forlorn and desolate. A +soldier's wife, who was crying healthily, almost tripped Margaret up as +she swung quickly round. Her baby, a tired little fractious creature, +was in her arms. + +As Margaret apologized to her, the idea came to her to ask the woman +where the men in the train were going to. + +"Most of them to the Front," the woman said. "I lost my only brother +two months ago, and now my man's gone. Oh, this is a cruel war!" Her +sobs became heavier. "When my brother went to France, I thought it was +a grand thing--I was awfully proud. It's a different thing now." She +looked at Margaret keenly. "Has someone you care for gone to the +Front? Is he in yon train?" She indicated the vanishing train. + +Margaret's eyes answered. The woman saw that she was making an effort +to keep calm. + +"But he's not leaving his little ones behind him--ye'll no be married? +I've got two at home to keep." + +"You have his children--I have nothing," Margaret said enviously. + +The woman burst into fresh weeping. Margaret envied her abandonment. + +"They are a comfort," she said, "in a way. But they're a deal of +trouble and anxiety--ye're well off without them." + +The woman looked poor and clean. Half a crown left Margaret's purse +and took its place beside the coppers which lay in the woman's. It +seemed to her horribly vulgar and insulting to offer the woman money as +a form of comfort, but her knowledge of the very poor told her that on +a cold northern night, the feeling that an extra half-crown had been +added to her income would help. It would "keep the home-fire burning" +for a week or so, at least. + +With quick feet Margaret retraced her steps to the free +refreshment-room. Her selfish absence from her post pricked her +conscience. When she entered it she saw that it was almost empty. One +man was lying stretched out at full length on a seat; a pillow was +under his head and he was fast asleep. He had lost his "connection" +and would not be able to get a train until after midnight. He was safe +from temptation in the hospitable room. Another man was writing +letters at the big table; he had already addressed half a dozen +postcards. + +Margaret knew that in this quiet interval her aunt would be busy +washing up and drying the dirty cups at the wash-basin in the inner +ladies' room. She hurried to join her. + +"Have I been very long?" she said. "I do feel so selfish." + +"No, no, my dear," her aunt said quickly. "I managed quite well--the +rush had ceased." She looked at her niece questioningly. "I suppose +you recognized a friend?" + +"I saw a man, aunt, amongst the soldiers, whom I knew very well in +Egypt. He was Freddy's best friend. I haven't seen him since. I +wonder if he knows that Freddy is dead? I wanted to speak to him if I +could." + +"And did you?" + +"No." Margaret's voice trembled. "He had got into the train. The men +were packed like sardines, and I couldn't find him. It left punctually +to the minute--I hadn't much time to look." + +Her aunt noticed the emotion in Margaret's voice. The woman in her +longed to put a motherly arm round the girl as she stood beside her, +but her training and national reserve prevented it. So instead of +letting her niece see how generous her sympathy was, she said, in +rather a strident voice, the result of her suppressed feeling: + +"There is a good cup of coffee waiting for you in the small brown pot, +and you'll find some egg-sandwiches on a plate on the high shelf above +the tumbler-cupboard. Go and eat them at once, before a fresh lot of +men come in." + +"Oh, I don't want anything," Margaret said pleadingly. "Let me help +you wash all these cups, please do, aunt. I really don't want anything +to eat." + +"Whether you want it or not, I insist upon your eating it. Go now, at +once, don't waste time." + +Her niece obeyed meekly. When her aunt talked like that, and brought +those tones into her voice, Margaret instantly lapsed back into her +childhood. She was once more the little black sheep of Kingdom-come, +the little black sheep who, at the death of her parents, had very +quickly learned to fear rather than to love the various paternal +relatives who had considered it their duty to bring her up in the way a +Lampton should go. + +If Margaret's aunt could only have brought herself to speak to her +niece as she many times spoke to strangers of her, how different things +might have been between them! But this God-fearing woman never did. +She was too God-fearing and too little God-loving. She still clung +tenaciously to the old order of things, to the method of rearing girls +and responding to human nature which had been considered wise in her +young days. + +While she dried the tea-cups, with a genuine feeling of sympathy for +Margaret in her heart, for she was convinced that this man's going to +the Front had upset her pretty niece, and while Margaret ate her +sandwiches and drank her coffee because she had been bidden to do so, +Michael's train was carrying him through the dark night. He was +sitting in the corridor, on the top of his kit, lost in thought. He +had missed his chance of getting a seat in any of the overcrowded +carriages by his delay in the free-refreshment-room. But what did it +matter? He was accustomed to discomfort, to unutterable hardships. + +As he sat there, he heard and saw nothing of his surroundings, for +Margaret's eyes and beauty had given him a delicious new world of his +own. They had told him that she had always trusted him. They had +obliterated the war, and the fact that he was journeying towards it. +They had made his pulses throb again with the wine of passion and gay +romance. He was an individual once more, enjoying the sweetness of the +woman whose love had been so devoutly his. + +It seemed so odd that the fresh, clean, proud-looking girl, with the +dark hair and the crimson cross on her breast, behind the food counter, +was actually the woman who had trembled in his arms under the desert +stars, for her very fear of her love for him. She had once been very, +very near to him; she had seemed an indispensable part of his life. +To-night, standing behind the buffet, although she was materially quite +close, she was hopelessly far away. His only privilege had been to +take a cup of tea from her hands. A world of fresh experience and +emotion had separated them. + +For a long time he sat motionless on his kit, dreaming only of +Margaret. Now it was of the wonderful things which her eyes had told +him; now it was of the distance and circumstances which separated them. +Later on he roused himself out of his reverie, for the men in the +carriage at whose open door he was sitting were singing, "It's a long, +long way to Tipperary"--the song had not yet been depopularized by +"Keep the home-fires burning"; it was still sung by soldiers and +civilians and gramophones. The lusty, cheery voices brought Michael's +mind back to the stern reality of war. He peeped out into the night, +lifting up the blind from the window-pane and putting his head under it. + +The cold, bleak day had given place to a starlit night, with a +high-sailing moon. The snowcapped mountains and distant forests of +solemn pine-trees looked serenely indifferent to the material affairs +of mankind. Their purity and indifference wounded Michael. How could +Nature remain so callously superior, so selfishly peaceful, while he +was hurrying to France, to witness cruelties which it had taken the +world all its great age to invent and put into action? These cold +mountains, rushing streams and hidden glens would just go on smiling in +the sunshine by day and sleeping peacefully under the moonlight, while +golden youth was sacrificing itself on the altar of Liberty. + +As the train rushed on through the darkness, emitting sparks which +showed her pace, Michael's thoughts drifted to the old African in +el-Azhar and all that he had visualized. As his eyes peered out from +the jealously-covered windows and rested on the long line of mountains, +high in their snowy whiteness, he repeated the old man's words: + +"Why do the heathen so furiously rage together and the people imagine +vain things in their hearts? I tell you, my son, it is because they +have not the love of God in their hearts." + +Yes, why, oh why, did they do it? The world he looked out upon was +surely meant for grander and better things? It had nothing to do with +bloodshed. And yet, even as he said it, words and voice answered back: + +"Pray for fortitude, my son, that moral condition which enables us to +meet danger and endure pain with calmness. I tell you to pray for +fortitude, for without it you cannot face the future." + +As his thoughts were lost in this prayer, he got back his assurance +that this war of wars had to be fought in the cause of freedom. He +knew that it had to be won by the Allies, to ensure the triumph of +right over might. This was the war which was to terminate all wars; +the victory of the Allies was to bring about the disarmament of all +powerful nations. It was the forerunner of a higher civilization. + +He put his head between his hands and rested it on his knees. He knew +that his words were true. And yet, had not his old friend in el-Azhar +been as sincerely convinced that this war which he had visualized was +to be fought for the triumph of Islam? Was he not certain that Allah +had ordained it to prove to all countries upon the earth that the +Christian nations had shown that their religion was hideous in Allah's +sight, that it was a failure, that it had not redeemed mankind? + +And Germany! What of Germany? Michael saw, with his vivid imagination +and unprejudiced mind, German mothers and fathers praying for their +sons who were fighting for the cause of the beloved Fatherland, the +cause which they believed was the cause of righteousness. Did they +also not pray earnestly and sincerely? Did they, too, not believe that +God would be on the side of righteousness? + +Why were these agonized parents and brave soldiers to be made to suffer +if it was all to be in vain, if their cause was not the just cause? +Had they not obeyed the cult of their land and the teachings of their +spiritual pastors and masters? He remembered the African's words: "The +time draws near when each man will return to the land that gave him +birth." + +In this war which was raging, all the soldiers who suffered, and the +parents who gave up their only-begotten sons to save their countries +from extermination--all of them were the victims of circumstance. They +were all heroes answering to the call which demanded of them life's +highest sacrifice. They were victims of militarism, which must be +wiped out of civilization. + +Michael became agonized with the hopelessness of answering the +questions which stormed his brain. Over and over again he said to +himself the words, "Why do the heathen so furiously rage together and +the people imagine vain things in their hearts?" And over and over +again the answer came, "I tell you, my son, it is because they have not +the love of God in their hearts." + +He repeated the words almost mechanically until they indefinitely +became a sort of refrain which kept time to the thud, thud of the +engine, and the rushing noise of the train. + +At last, tired out both mentally and physically, he fell asleep. In +his dreams Margaret was very near to him. It was the old Margaret, +radiant with the new wonder of love, fragrant with the night-air of the +Sahara which surrounded them. + +The war and its demands were wiped out; the world was back again to the +fair free days which knew neither hate nor fear. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +Nearly four months had passed and Margaret was still a pantry-maid in +the same private hospital. The V.A.D. who was to have gone to France +had suffered as great a disappointment as Margaret, for at the very +last moment word had been sent to her--it had been unavoidably +delayed--that her services in France would not yet be required. +Margaret, with her bigness of nature, had insisted upon the girl +retaining the post in the wards and letting things go on as they were. +Her "bit" was very, very dull, but it was her "bit," and nothing she +did, she knew, could in any way compare in dullness to the lives of the +boys in the trenches. So she worked and endured, and found the +necessary change of scene in the mixed company of her garden-square +society. + +The days fled past. It was a dull life for a young girl, but since the +war began all girls worthy of their country had said good-bye to the +pleasures of youth. Youth had no time to be young; old age had +forgotten that it was old. The renaissance of patriotism had +transformed England. The war recognized neither old age nor youth; it +opened its hungry jaws and took everyone in. + +Margaret had neither seen nor heard anything of Michael since the +eventful winter night when she had handed him a cup of coffee in the +free-refreshment-room at the large northern station. She did not even +know what regiment he was in. That, of course, was owing to her own +stupidity; it was a matter of constant regret to her that she had not +at the time had the forethought to ask the weeping woman on the +platform what regiment her husband was in. Knowing nothing more than +that Michael was at the Front, all she could do was to keep an eye on +each day's casualty list in _The Times_ newspaper. But even as her +eyes hastily scanned the long columns of small print, she said to +herself, "I need not look--his name will not be there. I have had my +assurance of his safety." + +She was certain now that the mystic message, which lay locked away in +the dispatch-box which held her most important papers, had been sent to +her to help her. It had been given to her to lessen her loneliness and +to ease her anxiety. + +Of course, this state of certainty had its feebler moments, and many, +many times as she did her day's work she became affected by the waves +of pessimism which spread at intervals over the British Isles. At +these times she went about the pantry chalk-faced and tragic-eyed; but +generally, when her suffering was becoming more than she could endure, +from visualizing Michael blind, or limbless, or, still worse, an +imbecile through shell-shock, a clear voice would speak to her, her +super-self would repeat the contents of her treasured message. + +The fact that her hand had written the message before and not after +Michael's going to the Front established her confidence in it. If it +had been after, her sound judgment told her that suggestion might have +had something to do with the automatic writing. + +It was early spring, and Margaret's country-loving nature cried out for +the smell of damp fields, for the scents and the sounds of untrodden +paths. The long twilight evenings seemed the loneliest hours to her in +London. Their beauty was wasted. But the real country was denied her, +for what distance could her two-hours-off take her from London? +Scarcely beyond soot-blackened trees and the prim avenues of suburban +respectability. But she had one great pleasure to look forward to--the +Iretons were to be in London for the season, or, rather, what used to +be termed the season in London. + +They were to arrive in Clarges Street that very night. They were +coming to England to help in the arrangements for the better equipping +of native military hospitals in Egypt. Hadassah's knowledge of the +native's likes and dislikes was considerable. + +Margaret was now on her way to a tube railway-station. The afternoon +was so glorious that she was going to make an excursion to Kew. She +would just have time to look at the maythorns and hurry back. The one +brave laburnum which gave brightness and fragrance to her garden-square +told her that in the larger open spaces the flowering shrubs would be +at their best. + +As she ran down the steps of the tube station, she saw that a train +which would take her to Hammersmith, where she would have to change for +Kew Gardens, was drawn up at the platform; the passengers who were +leaving it were trying to ascend the stairs. With youthful tightness +she leapt down the last two or three steps and sprang across the +platform. She only just had time to step into the train before the +iron gates closed behind her. + +A little breathless with excitement and greatly pleased that she had +succeeded in catching the train, she obeyed the order of the officious +guard to "Step along--don't block the gangway!" + +The carriage was not full, but there were not many empty seats in it, +so Margaret hastily sank into the one which was nearest to her and +close to the door. It happened to be near to one on which a soldier +was seated. His kit was lying at his feet in front of him. As she sat +down, a voice said quietly: + +"I'd advise you to sit a little further on--I'm not very nice." + +Margaret never grasped the meaning of the words; the voice was all she +heard. It made her heart bound, and her senses reel; her bewilderment +was overwhelming. + +Some instinct made the soldier swing right round; he had been sitting +with his broad back turned to the vacant seat, which Margaret still +occupied. They faced each other; the soldier was Michael. + +Under his ardent gaze Margaret paled pitifully and made a valiant +effort to speak, to collect her thoughts. All that came from her +trembling lips were the prosaic words, rather timidly spoken: + +"Is it you, Michael?" + +They seemed to content Michael and tell him a thousand things which +dazed and intoxicated him. His surprise was even greater than +Margaret's. + +"Yes, it is me, Meg," he said. "Thank God we've met!" + +For Margaret, in one moment all the long months of doubt and pride were +wiped out. Michael's eyes had banished them. Her characteristic +courage and her self-possession returned. She put her hand on the top +of Michael's, the one which held his rifle. Her touch thrilled the +soldier home from the Front; it travelled through his veins like an +electric current. Margaret's eyes had dropped; now they met her +lover's again. + +The train in its narrow channel under the city was making such a noise +that it was impossible to hear even a loud voice above its hideous +rattle. There are few noises more devastating to conversation than the +awful roar of a London tube-railway. But Love speaks with an eloquence +which no noise can drown; its sympathy and passion carry it far above +the din and noise of battle. Margaret and Michael knew it well. If +Love depended upon words, what a poor cold thing it would be! No +quarrels would ever be settled, no journeys end in lovers' meetings. + +Michael moved the hand which Margaret clasped. It was hard to do it, +but he felt compelled to. + +"I'm horribly verminous," he said, apologetically. "I'm just back from +the trenches--you ought to keep further off." + +Margaret's eyes dropped; a flame of love's shyness spread over her +glowing face. It heightened her beauty and bewildered Michael. He +longed to take her in his arms and kiss her--even before the whole +carriage-full of people. Perhaps in the early days of the war the +scene would only have brought tears and tender smiles to worldly eyes. + +Margaret tried to say something, she scarcely knew what--just anything +to break the passion of their silence, but the roaring of the train +drowned her trembling question. How she hated the swaying and groaning +and the rattling of the tube train as it dashed through its confined +way! Never before had it seemed so awful, so maddening. + +Michael, too, was tongue-tied. How could he offer Margaret any +explanation, or ask if she had understood, while the train drowned the +loudest voices? What a hideous place for a lovers' meeting, after +months of weary longing! + +When the train drew up at Knightsbridge Margaret rose from her seat. +Her desire to see Kew had fled. It mattered little now where she went; +she was only conscious of the fact that she must put an end to the +present strain. If Michael was as anxious to speak to her as she was +to speak to him, he would follow her. He was obviously home on leave. +He was a free man. + +As she rose from her seat, Michael hurriedly gathered his kit together +and rose also, and pushed his way through the crowd of passengers who +were disgorging from the train. Whatever happened, he must keep her in +sight; her obviously unpremeditated leaving of the train left him in +doubt as to her feelings towards him. + +He was on leave, he was in "Blighty," and Margaret was only a few steps +ahead. He would risk anything rather than let her disappear and be +lost once more. + +When Margaret reached the platform, she turned round. She wondered if +Michael had left the train. He was standing by her side. She laughed +delightedly, a girl's healthy laugh, and gave a breathless gasp. + +"May I?" he said. "I have risked annoying you." + +"Annoying me!" Margaret's eyes banished the idea; they carried him off +his feet. He was a soldier, home from the war; she was a girl, fresh +and sweet. She laid her hand on his arm. "I'm not angry, Michael--I +never was angry. Besides, you're . . . you're . . ." she hesitated. +"You're a Tommy," she said, "and I love every one of them." + +Michael knew that her shyness made her link him with the men who were +fighting for their country. Even with the fondest lovers, there is a +nervous shyness between them for the first moments of meeting after a +prolonged separation. Margaret had moved closer to his side. His +passion drew her to him; it was like the current of a magnet. + +"You mustn't stand so close," he said, laughingly. "I'm horribly +verminous--really I am!" + +"As if I cared, Mike!" Margaret's words poured from her lips. +Ordinary as they were, they were a love-lyric to his ears. + +"May I come with you?" he asked. "Where were you going to? I've so +much to say, so much to ask you!" + +"I was going to Kew," she said, blushingly. "But I changed my mind." + +Their eyes laughed as they met; he knew why she had changed her plans. + +As they went up the station steps together, they were separated by a +number of people who were hurrying to catch the next train. When they +reached the open street, Michael made a signal to the driver of a +taxi-cab who was touting for passengers. He instantly drew up, jumped +from his seat and opened the door. Michael stood beside him, while +Margaret, obeying his eyes, stepped into the cab. She asked herself no +questions; she was only conscious of Michael's air of protection and +possession. After her lonely life in London, it almost made her cry. +It was the most delicious feeling she had ever experienced. She gave +herself up to it. + +In Michael's presence her pride and dignity and wounded womanhood were +swept away. Even Freddy, in his soldier's grave, was forgotten. Her +whole life and world was Michael; he began it and ended it. This +verminous and roughly-dressed Tommy, who was gazing at her with eyes +which bewildered and humbled her, was the dearest thing on earth. + +She was comfortably seated; Michael had shut the door, and they were +side by side, waiting for the taxi to go on. The next moment the +driver popped his head in at the window. + +"Where to, sir?" he said, politely. Michael's worn, weatherbeaten face +had called up his sentiment for the men at the front. + +"Where to?" Michael repeated foolishly. He paused. "Oh, anywhere! +Anywhere will do--it doesn't matter." He smiled. "I'm back in old +Blighty--that's all that matters--anywhere is good enough for me." + +"Right you are, sir! I'll take you somewhere pleasant." + +Margaret smiled. She was, indeed, all smiles and heart-beats and +nervous anticipation. + +The moment the taxi had swung away from the station, it entered a quiet +street, bordered with high houses on either side. Michael lost no +time; he folded her in his arms and kissed her again and again, and +held her to him. + +"This is heaven, just heaven, darling!" he said ardently. "I could eat +you all up, you're so fresh and sweet and delicious!" + +Meg was unresisting. Her yielding told her lover more than hours of +explanation could have done. All she said was: + +"But what if I don't think it's heaven?" + +"What indeed?" he said, happily. "But don't you?" He had released her +to read her answer in her eyes. + +She said nothing; words seemed for lighter moments. + +"Say something nice," he pleaded. + +"I love you, Mike," she said shyly. "Is that enough?" + +"It's all I want," he said, while Meg wound her arms round his neck and +drew his face nearer hers to receive her kiss. As she nestled against +him, he said tenderly, "Remember, I'm verminous; I'm not fit to touch, +dearest." + +"I don't care! I don't mind if I get covered with them," she laughed. +"And I don't care if all the world sees me kissing you! I just love +you, Mike, and you're here--nothing in all the world matters except +that!" + +She unclasped her hands. Her weeping face was pressed to his rough +uniform; horrible as it was, she was kissing it tenderly, almost +devoutly, stroking it with her fingers. It gave her a sense of pride +and assurance that he was there beside her. + +In the beautiful way known to love and youth, the foolish things they +said and left unsaid told them whispers of the wonderful things which +were to be. Michael was too exacting in his demands to allow of +sustained conversation; sentences lost themselves in "one more kiss," +or in one more bewildering meeting of happy eyes. + +At last Michael said--not without a feeling of nervousness, for he had +asked few questions, and the scraps of information which Margaret had +volunteered he had so often interrupted by his own impetuous demands, +that she had accepted the fact that all explanations and questioning +must wait until the excitement of their meeting had abated--"Why did +Freddy not answer my letters? Why did you leave Egypt without one +word?" + +His voice expressed the fact that his letters had contained the full +explanation of his conduct. It also said, "Why this forgiveness, if +you were so unkind?" + +It brought a strange revelation to Margaret of the ravages of war, of +the changes which it had made in their lives. She remained lost in +thought. + +"Will Freddy consent? Will he understand, as you do?" + +Margaret shivered. Her hand left Michael's; her fingers touched the +band of crępe which she was wearing on her uniform coat-sleeve. + +"No, no, Meg!" he cried. "Not Freddy! Anybody but Freddy!" His words +were a cry of horror, of anguish. In the surprise and excitement of +their meeting, he had forgotten to ask for Freddy. Even though he was +in his soldier's uniform, his happiness had obliterated the war. He +had the true soldier's temperament--a fighter while fighting had to be +done, a lover of pleasure in peace-time. + +"Yes," she said, "Freddy. He was only in Flanders a few weeks." + +Michael put his arms round her tenderly, protectingly. "You poor +little girl, you brave little woman!" + +Margaret loved his anguish, his complete understanding of the fact that +of all people it was Freddy who should have been spared. + +"If you had only seen him, Mike! He was so young, so fair. And he +never had a chance." + +Michael's eyes questioned her words. + +"He was just sniped at the very beginning. That was the hardest part +of it--to know that all his talents and intellect had been wasted!" + +Michael held her closer. "Not wasted, dearest, don't say that." + +"I didn't exactly mean wasted. But he could have done such great +things for the world; he could surely have been given work more worthy +of his abilities!" + +"He is doing wonderful things now, Meg, he's hard at work. Freddy just +got his promotion--look at it that way." He kissed her trembling lips; +tears were flooding her glorious eyes. + +"That's what Hadassah says." + +"Hadassah?" + +"Yes, Hadassah." Margaret sighed. "Oh, Michael, we have so much to +talk about--whatever shall we do?" She laughed tearfully. Telling +Michael about Freddy's death had brought back the anguish of the year +which had separated them. "You can't imagine how kind and sweet she +has been to me, and how hard they both tried to find you!" She paused. +"Freddy tried, too--he was the best and dearest brother, Mike." + +"I know it," he said; his words were a groan. He was trying to grasp +the truth of Margaret's news. Nothing which he had seen in the war +brought its waste and sacrifice more vividly before his eyes than the +fact that Freddy was dead, the living, vital Freddy, the energetic, +brilliant Freddy, whom he always visualized picking up the gleaming +gems in the vast Egyptian tomb; he saw the scene with painful clearness. + +There was a little silence. Margaret's hands were clasped tightly in +the sunburnt hands of her "Tommy." Freddy was in both their minds, and +the life they had shared with him in the Valley--the sense of order and +method and ardour for work which he had instilled into their days. + +Margaret was resting against Michael, as open about her love for him as +any 'Arriet. She could think of Freddy without any feeling of guilt or +even doubt of his approval. The things which come from within cannot +be explained by forces from without. It was not what Michael had done +or had said which had banished her pride and told her of his +faithfulness. It was the consciousness which came from within, the +consciousness which had always fought back the forces from without. +She had not felt one qualm of conscience, for Freddy was understanding +and approving. He would know that any doubt she had ever had had been +banished the moment Michael had taken her in his arms. Freddy, who had +only blamed him for his weakness, would realize that even in that he +had misjudged him. If Michael had had any guilt on his conscience, he +would never have behaved as he had done. He had read in her eyes that +her love for himself was unchanged, and knowing himself to be worthy of +her love, he had not stopped to consider smaller things. She was so +thankful that he had taken the bull by the horns. + + * * * * * * + +And now they were thinking of less bewildering things than their own +love for each other. Michael was tenderly dreaming of Freddy. +Margaret was reviewing Freddy's true attitude towards Michael in her +mind. It was true that he had said that until he gave some +satisfactory explanation of his behaviour, she was not to treat him as +her lover. Well, her finer senses told her that Michael had given her +a satisfactory explanation, and she was certain that Freddy also knew +it. He had, by his taking her in his arms without one word of pleading +or explanation, given her the fairest and most perfect assurance of his +faithfulness to her and of his right to ask for her love. + +These thoughts passed rapidly through her mind, while she silently +enjoyed the delight of feeling Michael's close presence by her side. +Never, even in Egypt, under the high-sailing moon in the great Sahara, +had she loved him as romantically as she did at this moment. As a +weather-stained, wind-tanned Tommy he was dearer to her than ever he +had been in the days when, as a painter and an Egyptologist, he had +opened her eyes to a new world of intellectual enjoyment. + +Michael's mind was obsessed by Freddy's death. He had never for one +moment imagined that such a thing was in the least likely to happen. +He did not know that Freddy was at the Front; he had imagined to +himself that such exceptional brains and unusual qualities would have +been given other work to do, than to stand all day long knee-deep in +mud in the trenches of Flanders. His heart ached for Margaret. Her +devotion to Freddy was exceptional; her pride in him had been the +keynote of her existence. He spoke abruptly, while his hands clasped +hers hungrily and tightly. + +"Would Freddy mind?" he said. "I can't be disloyal to him!" + +"Mind?" Meg said questioningly. "Mind my loving you? He knew my love +could never change--it was born in unchanging Egypt." + +"Yes, mind if you married me while I'm on leave?--I've got a whole +fortnight, and my commission." + +"Oh!" Meg said breathlessly. "You go at such a pace!" + +Michael laughed boyishly at her astonishment. Her woman's mind had not +thought of marriage; it was satisfied with the present conditions. + +"I don't think Freddy would mind--not now. But"--her laugh joined +Michael's--"you see, you haven't asked if I'd mind. We aren't even +engaged--you wouldn't be. Do you remember?" + +Michael pulled round her head with his hands, and kissed her lips. "I +don't care if the whole world sees," he said, quoting her words. +"Don't pull away your head--I'm just 'a bloomin' Tommy' back in Blighty +with his girl." + +Meg resigned herself to his kisses. "All London's doing it," she said +breathlessly. "You'll see fathers and sons, and mothers and sons, and +lovers walking arm in arm, in the West End even. Their time together +is too short and precious to think of stupid conventions. The national +reserve of the English nation is swept away." + +While Margaret was speaking, she was thinking and thinking. Could she +marry him before he returned to the Front? It was all so sudden. But +why not? War had taught women to take what happiness they could get in +their two hands, not to let it slip. Michael made her thoughts more +definite. + +"Did Freddy trust me?" he asked. + +Meg's eyes dropped; her heart beat painfully. + +"He didn't," Michael said. "Don't pain yourself, dearest, by +answering. He'll understand better now--everything will be made clear." + +"Don't blame him, Mike!" + +"I'm not blaming him--I'd have done the same. It sounded beastly, the +whole story. Hang Millicent Mervill!" + +Margaret proceeded to tell him in broken sentences that she had seen +Millicent in Cairo, and related something of what she had told her and +how, after that, she had kept the promise which she had made to Freddy, +to go back to England if she heard from either Michael himself or from +Millicent that they had been together in the desert. + +"And you heard that she was in my camp?" + +"Yes--Millicent took care that I heard that, and . . ." she paused. + +Michael looked into her eyes. "And you went back England?" + +"Yes, I kept my promise." Her eyes told him that she had kept it +because her honour demanded it, not because she believed all that +Millicent had told her. + +"And, knowing her story, you didn't condemn me, you still believed in +me and loved me?" His eyes thanked her. + +Margaret returned his steadfast gaze. "Yes, it was not hard to trust +you, Mike. I remembered our promise to help and trust one another. +What are promises and vows made for if they are not to be kept when +they are put to the test? We did not make ours lightly--I told you I +should understand." + +"Dearest, how beautiful your love is! To-day you welcomed me without +one shadow of reproach! Had I not read in your eyes all that I did, I +should not have dared to follow you when you left the train." + +"Would you have taken me in your arms if you had been guilty, if +Millicent had told the truth?" The words conveyed a world of meaning +to Michael. "I have often grumbled, Mike--I have thought that you +might have let me hear the story from your own lips, or by letter. I +know that in his heart Freddy always thought you were only to be blamed +for allowing her to stay in your camp--I know he never really believed +that you had arranged the meeting, or that you were her lover." + +Michael grasped her two hands in his, tightly. "I never was, Meg, I +never was! I hated her for coming, I tried to get rid of her." + +"I knew it, Mike--deep, deep down I knew it. But it hurt." She leaned +against him. "Oh, how it hurt, dearest! And you never wrote or +explained--that was what I found hardest to bear. I suppose you were +so certain that I trusted you that you never thought about what others +might say; but love makes us exacting, jealous, and you might have +written, dearest! Then Freddy would have known. How could I make him +understand all that my heart knew? How can one make others see the +things which come from within?" + +Michael put his arms round her. "My darling," he said, "I did write, I +wrote often. I wrote directly Millicent appeared in the desert; I +wrote again before I was ill. You know how many letters go astray--you +know how many were intercepted by German spies before the war broke +out." + +"You were ill?" Meg started. "I knew you were, I told Freddy you were +ill. But Millicent spoke as if you were in such perfect health that I +had to abandon the conviction." + +Her voice was an apology. + +"I was so ill with fever," Michael said, "that I wasn't able to write, +and the faithful Abdul couldn't. Like many Arabs, he can speak a +smattering, and a very fair one, of three or four languages, but he +can't write a line in any one of them. As soon as I was strong enough +to travel I went back to the Valley." + +"Oh, did you?" He felt Margaret tremble as she said the words. + +"I went back to find our Eden a barren desert, Meg, no sign of either +Freddy or you in it. It was horrible. I started off to Cairo in hopes +of learning from the Iretons where you had gone to, to discover what +you had heard of Millicent." His pressure of Meg's hands explained the +full meaning of his words. "But they had left Cairo--it was very +hot--so I returned to England by way of Italy. In Naples I had a +slight relapse--I had to wait there for some time, until I was able to +continue my journey. I only arrived in London the day before war was +declared. Of course I volunteered at once--I was glad to do it. Life +seemed empty of all its former sweetness. I don't think I cared what +happened to me; and I did care what happened to England and Belgium. I +was at last going to fight in the great fight against absolute monarchy +and militarism!" + +When Michael had finished his short account of his doings, which merely +touched on essentials, they realized that they were in Hyde Park. +Margaret's eyes had caught sight of a clock over the gateway as they +entered; she had noticed how her two hours were flying, even while her +conscious self was enthralled with her lover's story. Spring was in +the year; it was in the hearts of the united lovers. Love smiled to +them from the budding shrubs and from the daffodils swaying in the +breeze. + +To Michael "Blighty" was the most beautiful land in the world. His +heart was so burdened with happiness that Margaret had to laugh at his +high spirits and absurd remarks. He was the old enthusiastic Mike, +delighting in life and embracing it rapturously. + +In the midst of this intoxication of happiness, Margaret's sense of +duty and responsibility, her Lampton characteristics, urged her. The +clock over the archway had subconsciously reminded her that she was, +after all, a pantry-maid in a hospital full of wounded soldiers; that +the soldier by her side was a part and portion of the great war; that +war, not love, ruled the world; this interlude had been stolen from the +God of Battles. + +"Time's flying, dearest," she said. "I've less than one more hour. +Let's drive to a little garden-square close to my hospital--we can +dismiss the taxi there and talk until I have to go in--that's to say, +if you are free to come." + +"Are you nursing?" he said. His eyes looked questioningly at her blue +uniform. + +"No, not yet--I'm a pantry-maid." + +"A what?" he said, laughingly. "You're a darling!"' + +"I wash up tea-cups and saucers which Tommies drink from, and lay out +trays with tea-cups and saucers all day long." She paused. "That's as +near as I've got to the war." + +"With your brains, Meg--is that all they could find for you to do?" +His encircling arm hugged her closely. Each moment she was becoming +more desirable and beautiful in his eyes; each moment life in the +trenches seemed further and further away. + +"Freddy was sniped," Margaret said, "before he even killed a German. +Washing up dirty cups makes me mind it less." + +"You dear darling," Michael said. "I understand and Freddy knows." + +"I'll tell the man where to drive to," Margaret said bravely. "Then we +can be together until I have to begin work." She raised the +speaking-tube to her lips and told the driver where to go, explaining +the most direct way to the secluded square, When she dropped the tube +and sank back into her seat Michael's arm was round her; she had felt +his eyes and their passion, gazing at her while she instructed the +driver. + +"Will you marry me the day after to-morrow?" he said. "I'll get a +special licence. Let's start this little time of perfect happiness at +once, Meg--it may never come again." + +Meg laughed nervously, but there was gladness in the sound of her +voice. "But, Mike, it's so sudden--the day after to-morrow!" + +"So was our love, darling--don't you remember?" He paused. "Am I +asking too much? You might be my wife for less than two weeks, +beloved, remember that." + +They looked into each other's eyes. Meg knew the meaning of his words; +he was a Tommy on leave. + +"I can't go on having hairbreadth escapes to the end of the war," he +said. "Up to now I'm the mascot amongst the boys; I've had prodigious +luck." + +Meg remained silent. Her heart was beating. His hair-breadth +escapes--what were they due to? She saw her vision of him in her +London bedroom, surrounded by the rays of Aton. She nursed the +knowledge of it in her heart--she dared not tell him. + +"Over and over again, Meg, the most extraordinary things have happened. +I can't tell you them all now--they would sound like exaggerations, but +I'm almost beginning to agree with the boys that I've a charmed life." + +Meg longed to confide her secret to him, but something held her back; +something said to her that he was not meant to know it, that if he knew +he might be tempted to do still more foolhardy deeds, he would feel +compelled to put her mystical message to the test. She remained +silent; her mind was working too quickly for speech. She had forgotten +that Michael wanted her answer. Her heart had given it so willingly +that words were scarcely needed, but he pressed her for her consent. +There are some words which lovers like to hear spoken by beautiful lips. + +"You are the mistress of my happiness," he urged. "And if our +happiness in this world is to be condensed into twelve days, surely it +would be worth while seizing it and being thankful for it? In this +world of agony and death, twelve days of life at its fullest is of more +account than a long lifetime of unrecognized benefits and indefinite +happiness." + +Meg agreed that the war had taught people to be thankful for what +seemed to her pitifully small mercies; people married for ten days or +for a fortnight at the longest, knowing that for that little time of +forgetfulness their husbands were among the quick; at the end of it +they might be among the dead. + +"Then, if I can get a special licence to-morrow, will you marry me the +day after? If I may go back to the Front as your husband, Meg, I think +I can win the war. My life will be more charmed than ever." He +laughed gaily. "What will the boys say? I'm the only one in the +trench who doesn't write to about six girls every day, telling each one +that she is the only girl he loves." + +Margaret's answer was in her laugh, which was all love, and in the lips +she held up to meet Michael's kiss. "And it's proud I'll be to be Mrs. +Amory!" she said. "And ye can tell the boys that, if you like." She +broke off suddenly from her mock Irish tones, and said more gravely, +"Isn't it wonderful? Only an hour ago I was alone in London, so lonely +that the very flowers hurt me! I hated the spring in the year--it +laughed at my dull room and humdrum existence. And now----" + +"And now," he said, "you are going to be a soldier's wife, you are +going to marry a verminous Tommy in two days' time, you darling!" + +Meg looked at her own dark uniform. "I don't see even one," she said, +"but I'll have to be careful. I'll change when I go in. Are you +really as bad as that?" + +"I tried to clean myself up a bit," he said. "But I have been awful. +That's the thing I hate most about the whole business. I've got used +to all the other discomforts long ago, and to everything else." + +"Even to the killing of human beings, Mike?" + +"Yes," he said. "Even to the killing of brave men. I know what you're +saying to yourself--I thought that too, I thought it would send me mad, +I longed to kill myself to get out of it. But, in an attack, when +you've seen your own jolly pals, who have lived in the trenches with +you, bleeding and tattered, spatchcocked against barbed wire, and had +to leave them sticking to it, their eyes haunt you, your blood gets up, +you long for a hundred hands to shoot with, instead of only two. When +you've seen the result of Prussian militarism on decent German +soldiers, you know that it's your duty to destroy it, to give the +German people, as well as the rest of the world, their freedom and +rights." + +"If only we could get at the Prussian military power, and spare the +wretched soldiers--they are all sons and husbands, and somebody's +darlings," Meg said pathetically. + +"But we can't. It's their punishment, perhaps, poor devils, for having +submitted to such an arrogant, absolute monarchy. To get at the rulers +we have to slaughter the innocent. It sounds all wrong, but I know +it's the only way." + +"I suppose so," Margaret said. "But it does seem hard, just because +they have been law-abiding, industrious, obedient subjects, they are to +be slaughtered like sheep and made to do all sorts of cruel acts which +will brand them for ever as barbarians in the eyes of the world. There +must be thousands and thousands of them who are decent men." + +"There is a saying that every country has the Government it deserves. +They have got theirs. A German Liberal has written these words to-day, +or something like them. He says, 'Peace and war are, after all, not so +much the result of foreign policy (strange though it may appear) as the +inevitable consequences of the inward constitution of the State. +"International anarchy" is not a thing apart, but only the natural +consequence of feudal military institutions. Hence away with these +institutions.'" + +"But will they ever away with them in Germany?" + +"Not unless we, the Allies, crush the feudal military constitution; not +until the people realize that their submission has brought this war +upon themselves." + +"But surely up to now we have admired law-abiding, uncomplaining +peoples?" + +"I haven't," Michael laughed. "You know I haven't." + +"Oh no, you haven't! But then you're a firebrand, always 'agin the +Government.'" + +"I always walked on my head." He hugged her as he spoke. "I'm doing +it to-day, darling." + +"Poor old Freddy!" Margaret said. "If he could only hear us now, he'd +think I was anti-war, and you were pro-war." She sighed. "If he could +only see you in a Tommy's uniform, defending the morality of taking +human lives!" + +"_Qui sait_, Meg? He probably sees far more of it than you or I do. +Don't you make any mistake about that. He knows that I'm fighting in +the war because I'm anti-war, with a vengeance. If this war isn't won +by the Allies, Meg, there will be no end to war. It will never cease; +it will burst out at intervals until the Kaiser's Alexandrian and +Napoleonic dream is accomplished. If he wins this war, he'll turn his +eyes in other directions, for new worlds to conquer. With Europe +subdued, there is Egypt, India, America. Lamartine said, 'It is not +the country, but liberty, that is most imperilled by war.'" + +"What did he mean?" Margaret asked. + +"'That every victorious war means for the victorious nation a loss of +political liberty, whilst for the vanquished it is a foundation of +inspiration and democratic progress.'" [1] + +"Oh, Mike, and if we win? I mean, when we win?" + +"As our cause is the cause of right over might, ours is not a war of +aggression or annexation. He was speaking of an aggressive war." + +"Who was speaking?" + +"Well, I was voicing Hermann Fernau, the brave Liberal who is exiled +from the Fatherland. I can't give you his exact words, but he says +something like this in his wonderful book, _Germany and Democracy_: +'For what would happen if we Germans emerged victorious from this war? +Our victory would only mean a strengthening of the dynastic principle +of arbitrary power all along the line. Those of us who bewail the +political backwardness of our Fatherland must realize that a German +victory would prolong this backward condition for centuries. And not +only Germany, but the whole of Europe, would have to suffer the +consequences.'" + +"Fancy a German saying that!" + +"There are some sane Germans left, darling. Fernau belongs to the +small band of German Liberals who have been driven from their country." + +The taxi had reached the garden-square. They got out and Michael +prodigally overpaid the driver. The man took the money. + +"I'd have driven you for nothing, sir," he said delightedly, "if the +car was my own. I was young once, and so was the missus." He saluted +respectfully. + +As they turned into the quiet little garden, Michael said happily, +"Why, Meg, what a dear little bit of France! How did you discover it?" + +"My hospital's just across the square, and so is my bedroom. This is +my sitting-room." + +They found a quiet seat amongst the tombstones and sat down, a typical +resort for a Tommy and his sweetheart. When they had been seated for a +few moments, Michael said: + +"It's a far cry to the Valley, and the little wooden hut, and the tombs +of the Pharaohs, Meg." + +Meg's eyes swept the garden-square; the laburnum-tree was shedding +flakes of gold from its long tassels; they were falling like yellow +rain in the spring breeze. + +"Very, very far," she said as her eyes pointed to the smoke-begrimed +tombstones. "Here the homes of the dead seem so forsaken, so humble. +Death has triumphed. In the Valley the dead were the eternal citizens, +their homes were immortal. The dead have no abiding cities here, and +even the palaces of the living will be crumbled into powder before +Egypt's tombs show any signs of wear and decay." + +Their thoughts having turned to Egypt, beautiful memories were +recalled. Often broken sentences spoke volumes. Their time was very +short, so short that Love devised a sort of shorthand conversation, +which saved a thousand words. + +And so for the rest of Margaret's precious hour they talked and dreamed +and loved. There was so much to explain and so much to tell on both +sides that, as Margaret laughingly said, they would both still be +trying to get through their "bit" when Michael would have to leave for +the Front. + +Margaret just left herself time to hurry upstairs and change her +uniform in her lodgings before she returned to the hospital. Michael +waited for her in the square. + +Before they left it, Margaret said, "I want you to shake hands with an +old friend of mine. We'll have to pass her seat; she is always here. +She's a great character, an old actress--such a good sort." + +As they passed the shabby little woman, picking down old uniforms, Meg +stopped. The woman looked up; her eyes brightened. The V.A.D. had a +soldier with her--her lover, she could see that at a glance. He had +brought an atmosphere of romance and passion into the laburnum-lit +garden. + +Margaret introduced Michael, who was perfectly at his ease on such an +occasion. + +"My friend has arrived from the Front," she said. "We are going to be +married the day after to-morrow . . ." she paused, ". . . that is to +say, if I can get leave from my hospital for a week." + +The woman looked up at the handsome couple. "Well, what a surprise!" +she said, as she stared hard at Michael. "Who would ever have thought +that you were going to be married so soon? You never even told me you +were engaged! You were very sly." She smiled happily. + +Margaret laughed at her astonished expression. "I mustn't stop to tell +you about it now," she said. "My time is up--I ought to be back in ten +minutes to my cups and saucers. I just wanted you to shake hands with +the man I'm going to marry." + +The woman rose from her seat. As she did so, the old scarlet coat +which she had been unpicking fell to her feet. She glanced at her +hands, as much as to say, "They aren't very clean." Michael held out +his, ignoring her hesitation, and gave her slender, artist's fingers a +hearty shake and warm grasp. + +The old actress's emotions were kindled; poverty had not dimmed the +romance of her world. + +"You'll do, sir," she said. "You'll do--you'll do for the sweetest and +truest lady that lives in London town." + +"We have your blessing, then?" he said gaily. "And you'll look after +her when I'm at the Front--promise me that?" + +"That I will, sir. But it's she who looks after me, and more than me." +She cast her eyes round the strange neighbourhood. "Looks after us and +helps us in a hundred different ways." But she was speaking to +Michael's retreating figure, for Margaret and her lover had left her. +As she watched his swinging strides, she murmured to herself, "He'll +do for her--there's no mistaking his kind. He'll do for her." Her +thoughts flew to familiar scenes. "There was something in his voice +which reminded me of . . ." she recalled a celebrated actor. "He would +make a fine Hamlet, a heavenborn Hamlet." + +As they left the gardens Margaret said, "I have a feeling, Mike, that +someone has been watching us ever since we came into the gardens--have +you?" + +"No," Michael said. "I hadn't any eyes or ears for anything but you." + +Margaret smiled. "I felt it," she said, "rather than saw it. But, +just this minute, didn't you see that dark figure?" + +"No. Anyhow, let them watch--I don't care. Everybody's doing it." +His arm was round her. + +Meg laughed, but not so whole-heartedly, and when she was saying +good-bye to him at the hospital, she said, nervously and anxiously, +"There's that black figure again--she's just passed us. I saw her +yesterday--she watched me go in after my hours on." + +In spite of that fact, Margaret kissed her Tommy quite openly and +flagrantly and in the broad daylight. She had promised to walk with +him again on the next afternoon during her hours off, and to marry him +the day after, if he got the licence and she got her leave. + +When they had parted she said to herself, "Ours will be a war-wedding +with a vengeance! When I went out for my two hours this afternoon I +was absolutely free, not even engaged. Now," she blushed beautifully, +"I am the bride-elect of a Tommy home on leave for a fortnight!" + +After her day's work was done, she tried to find the busy matron. When +she found her, she went straight to the point--it was Margaret's way. + +"I want to get married the day after to-morrow," she said. "Could you +get someone to take my place? Can you let me go?" + +"For good, do you mean?" The matron was scarcely surprised. These +sudden marriages were all a part of her day's work, the flower and the +passion of war. + +Margaret's eyes brightened. "If you could get a temporary V.A.D., I +think I'd like to come back when he's gone." + +The older woman looked at her. "I think you'd better take a rest. +You've been at this dull job for a long time now. Don't you think you +would be better for it?" + +"Perhaps you are right," Margaret said. "I really haven't had time to +consider details--I'd only got as far as wanting the week while he is +at home, to get married in." + +"Take it, by all means," the matron said. "I've a good long +waiting-list on my books of voluntary helpers to choose from." She +paused. "I don't mean that it will be easy to replace you, Miss +Lampton--I wish all my workers gave me as little trouble as you have +done." + +"Oh, but it's been such ordinary work! Anyone could have done it as +well." + +"I've not been a hospital nurse for twenty years, Miss Lampton, for +nothing. You can comfort yourself with the fact that a good worker +always makes herself felt in whatever capacity she is in. No sentiment +or romance finds its way into an area-pantry, though there's plenty of +it in the wards." She smiled. "But in spite of that, your romance +seems to have progressed. I wish you every happiness and the best of +luck." + +Luck nowadays, Margaret knew, meant but one thing--the life of her +husband. "Thank you," she said. "I've loved being of use. I've +really been grateful for the work--it's been what I needed." + +"I think I can get a V.A.D. to take your place to-morrow morning--you +will want all your time. If you will look in at your usual hour, you +will hear if we have got one. But take my advice, Miss Lampton," the +matron said, as she turned to leave the astonished Margaret, "if you +are going to nurse, go in for a thorough hospital training. You'd make +a good nurse . . ." she paused, ". . . that is to say, if you are free +to do it when your husband is at the Front. Anyhow, think it over. It +seems to me a pity that you should be content to remain a V.A.D. when +you may be wanted for much more serious work later on." + +When she had said good-bye, Margaret fled to the telephone. She had so +much to do and arrange that she had to go from one thing to another as +fast as she could. She rang up the rooms in Clarges Street where she +knew that Hadassah Ireton was going to stay. She ought to have arrived +that afternoon. When at last she got on to the right number, she was +answered by the husband of the landlady, an ex-butler, and an admirable +_maître de cuisine_. + +"Has Mrs. Ireton arrived yet?" Margaret asked. + +"Yes, she arrived at five o'clock. Who shall I say speaking?" + +"Ask her if she can speak to Miss Lampton, please, for a few minutes. +Will you tell her that it is very urgent?" + +The next minute Margaret heard Hadassah's voice. + +"Hallo! Miss Lampton, is that you?" + +"Yes," Margaret said. "But, please, not Miss Lampton!" + +"Well, Margaret--I always think of you as Margaret. How nice of you to +ring me up and welcome me to London!" + +"Hadassah," Margaret said breathlessly; her heart was beating with her +news; she spoke rather loudly, "I rang you up to tell you that I'm +going to be married the day after tomorrow!" + +Hadassah heard Margaret sigh even through the telephone. It was a sigh +of pent-up emotion, an expression of relief. + +Margaret waited. She knew that she had taken Hadassah so completely by +surprise that she had no answer ready. + +"Margaret!" she said at last, in amazement, "who to?" + +Margaret detected, or fancied she did, a little coldness in her +question. There was certainly not the pleased ring of congratulation +which she had expected in her words. + +"Why, to Michael Amory, of course! Who else could it be?" Margaret's +happy laugh crackled in Hadassah's ears. + +"Oh, my dear, I'm so glad! What a wonderful surprise! Is he in +London? When did he turn up?" + +"He has been to the Front--as a Tommy, but he's got his commission in +the same regiment. I only met him to-day--he's just got back. I feel +too bewildered to think; I scarcely know what I am saying." + +"Is this the first time that you've seen him since you parted in +Egypt?" Hadassah's voice expressed both amusement and eager curiosity. + +"Yes, to speak to. We met in the train. Some months ago I saw him at +a railway-station in the North. He was passing through, and I was +there, but we had no opportunity of speaking to each other." In the +same breathless voice she said, "Freddy would approve. I know what you +are thinking, but it's all right--he's as keen as Freddy about the war, +and there never was anything wrong." + +"I'm so awfully glad. You know I never doubted him." + +"He arrived in England the day before war was declared by us. He tried +to find me, but he couldn't, and so he just gave himself up to the war. +He lost himself in it--you know his way! He thought that Freddy and I +would approve. He was always worthy of me, Hadassah, but now I'm so +proud of him. He would have joined up in any case, but he thought that +in doing his bit he would atone for his weakness about Millicent. It +was only his old method of letting things slide--he couldn't get rid of +her, but he was absolutely loyal to me." + +"I understand," Hadassah said. "But I admit that it was difficult for +Freddy to look at it in that light." + +"It's so hard to explain over the 'phone," Margaret said. "And indeed, +it isn't what he has told me so much--it's just what he makes me feel." + +"I know, dear. I feel it's all right--I always felt it was." + +"He has been absolutely true, Hadassah. Freddy must know that now. +And you know, I can afford to marry." Her voice lost its buoyancy. + +"Yes, I know, dear. I saw your brother's will." + +"And you approve, Hadassah? It seems a shame not to grasp this little +bit of happiness." She paused, for above her practical words came the +assurance of Michael's safety; the words of the message almost came to +her lips. + +"I quite approve. In these awful days, even a fortnight of happiness +is a wonderful thing. Use your own judgment, Margaret--it's been +unerring so far. Take this joy right to your heart." + +"Will you and your husband witness our marriage? I want to telegraph +to Aunt Anna--may I say that I am being married from your house? We +won't bother you--is it awful cheek asking you?" + +"Why, my dear, of course you can come here to-morrow, as early as ever +you like, and we'll go into all the details, and fix up everything +quite nicely. With telephones and money and London at our backs, you +will be astonished at what a nice little _déjeuner_ we shall have ready +for you." Hadassah laughed. "Money has its uses, my dear, in spite of +all your Mike's oblivion of the fact." + +"Oh, you are too kind! Won't it be nice--a little _déjeuner ŕ quatre_ +in your rooms? Your husband is with you? I forgot to ask." + +"Yes, he's here. He'll stand by your Michael. Now, all you've got to +do is to look after your own concerns--get your things together and +send them here. I'll have them packed for you and do all the rest." + +"You angel!" Margaret said. "Oh, don't cut us off!" she cried to the +girl at the exchange, for a buzzing sound filled her ears. "Are you +there? Can you hear? I won't take much on my honeymoon," she said, +but her words did not reach Hadassah; no answer came back to her. They +had been cut off. She quickly put the receiver back on its hook and +hurried off to do the next thing which suggested itself as being the +most important--writing a short list of the things which she would have +to buy the next day, and sending a telegram to her Aunt Anna. + + + +[1] Hermann Fernau: _The Coming Democracy_. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +The next day, when Margaret met Michael in the garden square, she was +not in her V.A.D.'s uniform. She told him that she was now her own +mistress, so much so that she had that morning almost completed the +purchase of her trousseau, and that she was free to stay out as long as +she liked. + +"But I want you," she said, "to return with me now to Clarges Street, +to the Iretons. They are in town, and Hadassah says we can be married +from their rooms to-morrow." + +"They are the kindest people in the world," he said. "I felt sure you +were making friends with Hadassah while I was in the desert. I often +comforted myself with the fact that she would understand the whole +situation and help you." + +"She's a brick!" Margaret said. "She has been your ardent champion all +the time." + +They signalled to a taxi-cab to drive them to Clarges Street. It was +necessary to do everything as quickly as they could; there was no time +for leisurely walking or discussion. + +Suddenly Margaret said, "Look! Quick, Mike, there! I saw that black +figure again. She was sitting in the gardens when I arrived. She +never used to be here--I feel convinced that she is following us. I +believe one of these taxies is waiting for her." Her eyes indicated +two taxis, which were waiting outside the gardens. + +"Why do you think so?" Michael said. "What can any human being want +with us? Why should our movements be interesting to any one but our +two selves?" He laughed. "By Jove, they are interesting to us, +though, aren't they?" + +His eyes spoke of the morrow. + +Margaret laughed, too. Michael's high spirits allowed her no time for +reflection. He was carrying her off her feet in his old magnetic way. +If he had only beckoned, she would have followed him to the ends of the +earth; wings would have carried her, the air would have borne her. The +dull realities of her life in London had vanished as if they had never +been. The black figure, which had stepped into a cab and followed +them, was forgotten. + + * * * * * * + +For something like half an hour Michael sat talking with Hadassah and +Margaret. He had so much to tell them that he succeeded in telling +them nothing connectedly or completely. He began a hundred different +things and left most of them halfway through, to plunge headlong into +another and entirely different subject. The things he wanted to say +were tumbling over each other in his mind. The bewildering idea that +he was going to be married the next day sent all his thoughts reeling. + +Margaret was not the sort of girl to worry over a lot of superficial +clothes for a ten days' honeymoon. What she needed she had got +together in a couple of hours at Harrod's and one or two good shops in +the West End. + +They had made up their minds to spend their brief period of married +life together at Glastonbury. It was not too far from London and +Michael had once stayed in the historical old inn in that quiet city of +Arthurian romance. In Egypt he had inspired Margaret with a desire to +see Glastonbury in the spring time, when the maythorns were in bloom +and the luscious meadows gay with flowers. + +Like all soldiers, Michael was very silent upon the subject of his own +personal experiences at the Front, although at intervals he would +suddenly burst out with some dramatic incident in which he had taken +part. + +When Hadassah congratulated him on being offered a commission, he +laughingly said, "Oh, I must accept it. It isn't fair to shirk it, +though I'd rather remain as I am." + +Margaret's heart stood still. She knew what he meant; she was not +ignorant of the appalling death-rate of officers. + +"You mean," Hadassah said, "that----" + +She got no further, for Michael interrupted her. "I mean that if I'm +capable of leading the men I ought to do it, but I dread the +responsibility. That's why I never tried for a commission--I. didn't +feel confident. But as the deaths amongst the officers are much +greater than among the men, I can't remain a Tommy, can I?" He pulled +his notebook out of his pocket. "Read that," he said. "That's the +sort of thing that proves whether a man can lead or not." + +Margaret and Hadassah read the newspaper cutting. It had been quoted +from the _Petit Journal_. + +"The British High Command relies more and more on the value of the +individual soldier, and in this we see one of the main factors which +will mean German defeat. Take the case of the heroism of a sergeant +who, seeing his officer seriously wounded, himself assumed command of +his company and led them victoriously to the third line. There he fell +in his turn, but one of the men immediately took his place and +completed the conquest of the objective. It is thanks to such acts +that . . . has been seized, crossed and left behind." + +When Hadassah and Margaret looked up, they met Michael's eyes. They +were looking into the things beyond, things very far from Clarges +Street. + +"That was my sergeant," he said, "the finest fellow that ever wore +shoe-leather!" + +"And the Tommy," Hadassah said, "has he been promoted?" + +Michael's eyes dropped; his tanned skin flushed slightly. + +"Of course he'll have to take a commission if it's offered to him. He +can't very well refuse. He has proved his ability to lead, poor chap! +I expect he'd rather remain as he was. I know I would--it's a terrible +responsibility, inspiring your men as well as teaching them, but one +can't shelter oneself while others face greater risks." + +Hadassah's quick brain read the truth, while Margaret merely lost +herself in visualizing the dangers which Michael would so soon have to +face. The twelve days would be gone so soon that they were scarcely +worth counting. + +From the war their sketchy talk returned again to Michael's experiences +in the desert. He told them briefly about the saint, omitting the +nature of his illness. He spoke so naturally and unguardedly about +Millicent, and of his annoyance at her appearance and at her +persistence in remaining, that if there had been any lingering doubt in +Hadassah's mind upon the subject of his absolute loyalty to Margaret, +it was completely dispersed. + +When he was hurriedly telling them about the meeting of the saint and +all about his knowledge of the hidden treasure, and how completely it +tallied with the African's prophecies, he produced a tiny parcel from +his pocket-book. He handed it to Margaret, who felt as if she had been +listening to the last chapter of a long story from _The Arabian Nights_. + +The little packet was made up of many folds of tissue-paper. With +nervous fingers Margaret unwrapped it. + +When the last piece was discarded and she saw that uncut jewel lying +against the palm of her hand, she gave a cry of delight mixed with +apprehension. Its beauty was unique, its colour as indescribable as +the crimson of an afterglow in the Valley. + +She looked almost pitifully at Michael. She wished that the world was +a little less strange; some of the humdrum of her pantry-maid's +existence would be almost welcome. + +"The saint carried it in his ear," he said. "He took it from +Akhnaton's treasure." + +"Have you had it with you at the Front all this time?" Hadassah said. +Margaret's emotion touched her. + +"Yes. But now it is for you, Meg. I will have it made into anything +you like, so that you can always wear it. It will be my +wedding-present, a jewel of Akhnaton." + +"No, no!" Margaret said quickly. "You must take it, it belongs to you. +You must always carry it about with you, Mike--it is your talisman." +She stopped, for Michael had closed her fingers over the stone. + +"But I want you to have it," he said. "Let it be my +wedding-gift--there is no time for the buying of presents." + +"No," Margaret said. "Don't urge me, Mike. I shan't like it. +Hadassah, don't you agree with me?--he must never part with it!" She +smiled. "I should be terribly afraid if you did, I should think your +luck had deserted you. Dearest, do take it--I believe Akhnaton meant +you to keep it." + +While she spoke she was longing to tell him of the hand which had +written, of her message. The words almost passed her lips, but again +she refrained, she obeyed her super-senses. She was convinced that +Michael, when his blood was up, ran terrible risks, that he was +reckless to the verge of folly. She had heard a letter read in the +hospital which had been written to a mother about her son. His Colonel +had said, "There are some men who will storm hell, there are others who +will follow, and there are some who will lag behind. Your son belongs +to the first of the three. What he needs to learn is caution and the +value in this war of officers as able as himself." Margaret knew that +Michael's rash nature needed no encouragement. + +Hadassah championed Margaret. "I think you should keep it," she said +to Michael, "and give it to Margaret after the war." + +They all laughed, not unmirthfully, and yet not happily. "After the +war!" they echoed in one voice. "Oh, that wonderful 'after'!" + +"That promised land," Michael said. "Never mind--it's coming. The +labour and travail of the war will bring forth Liberty. The pains of +childbirth are soon forgotten--mothers know how soon, when the infant +is at their breast." + +Hadassah and Margaret looked at one another. Their eyes said many +things; Margaret's were full of pride because Hadassah was hearing from +his own lips that Michael was as whole-heartedly in the war as even +Freddy could have desired. + +She was still fingering and gazing at the wonderful stone. It seemed +scarcely more strange to her that it had actually once belonged to the +first king who had abhorred war, had once formed a part of his great +royal treasury, than the fact that it had played its part in the +mystical drama of her life in Egypt. As Michael talked, she questioned +herself dreamily. Which was real--her humdrum pantry-maid existence in +London, with her dreary walks through darkened streets, with now and +then a Zeppelin scare to make her lonely bedroom seem more lonely? Or +her life in the Valley, surrounded by the unearthly light of the Theban +hills, her life of intellectual excitement and strange intimacy with +things and people which the world had forgotten for thousands of years? + +Michael felt her abstraction. He put his hand on the top of hers, +which held the jewel, and pressed it. + +"Come back," he said, laughing. "We're in Clarges Street, and we're +going to be married to-morrow." + +Meg looked up with startled eyes. "Are we?" she said. + +"My dear, practical mystic, we are." He caught her round the waist and +looked at Hadassah as he spoke. "You'll get her ready, won't you?" + +She laughed. "Well, if you really mean it, I think we must all be up +and doing." + +"If!" Michael cried. "With this in my pocket, I should rather think I +do mean it!" He brandished the special licence in the air. "Do you +know what this means, Meg? It's your death-warrant. Are you resigned? +Have you anything to confess? You've not been married to anyone else +while I was away?" + +Margaret shook her head. He had brought laughter back to her eyes. +Just at that moment the ex-butler entered the room. As they all turned +to look at him, he said: + +"A person has called to see Miss Lampton." + +"Who is it?" Margaret said. Her thoughts flew to her dressmaker, who +was hurriedly making a light frock, bought ready-made, the proper +length for her; in all other respects it fitted her. + +"I don't know, miss. She has a box in her arms." + +"Oh, I'll go," Margaret said. "I won't be long." + +"Then, while you're gone, I'll make use of my time," Michael said as he +rose to his feet. "I'll be back in ten minutes." He looked into +Margaret's eyes. "Don't waste any time on dressmakers, Meg! Wear any +old things,--you always look delightful." + +"Catch me wasting time!" Margaret said. Her eyes assured him of her +words. "Come upstairs for me in ten minutes--I'll be ready." + + * * * * * * + +A minute or two later Margaret returned to the sitting-room. Michael +had left it. She was glad. + +"Hadassah," she said, "listen. The most extraordinary thing has +happened. Millicent Mervill is up in the drawing-room." Margaret was +trembling with anger and nervousness. + +"What? That woman here? How has she found you, how dare she come to +see you?" Hadassah's voice was indignant, furious; her eyes flashed. + +Margaret hurriedly explained to her how for the last two days she had +felt that someone was following her, a dark figure, indistinctly +dressed in black. + +"She watched me in the square this morning. With her old cunning, she +managed to get in by bringing some corset-boxes with her. Smith +thought she had come to try something on. Isn't it like her?" + +"Have you seen her?" + +"No, not yet. She gave this note to Smith to give to me; he thought it +was just a list of the things she had brought. I knew her handwriting +the moment I saw it. Please read it." + +Hadassah read the letter. It was very short. + + +"Dear Miss Lampton, + +"If you will let me see you, I will tell you something which you ought +to know. Please don't refuse. What I know may greatly help Mr. Amory. + +"I only heard the other day that he never discovered the treasure. It +is about that I want to see you. + +"Yours, + + "MILLICENT MERVILL." + + +When Hadassah had finished reading the note, she raised her eyes; they +met Margaret's. + +"You had better see her." Hadassah spoke quickly. + +"Yes, I must, I suppose. I only wanted to know if you would mind--it +is your house. I think it's such impertinence." + +"Of course not. But what can she have to tell you?" + +"I don't know, but whatever it is, I do wish she hadn't come." +Margaret sighed. "We were all so happy, and she is associated with +everything that is hateful." + +"Would you like me to come with you?" + +"No, no." Margaret shook her head. "I am always best alone, but I +dread the interview." + +She paused for a moment or two before leaving the room. She was +building up her courage, trying to subdue her nervousness. As she went +out, Hadassah's eyes followed her. + +"Poor girl!" she said to herself. "She has gone through so much. I +thought she was in for a little time of peace and happiness. Poor +Margaret!" She sighed. "And what is there still before her?" +Hadassah's eyes looked into the future, "with this cruel, cruel war +only beginning, for we are really just getting into it!" + +She had been preparing to write some letters relating to Margaret's +affairs, but for a moment or two she did not take up her pen. A little +of the truth of what did actually happen to Michael on the battlefields +of Flanders swam before her eyes; it was just the things which were +happening and have happened to England's brave boys and men during +these three wonderful years. The war was still in its infancy, but +even then the vices of Germany were as old as her race and as terrible. + +She pictured the truth--Michael's charmed life, his reckless courage, +his magnetic power over his men. She foresaw it all. His temperament +foretold it, his absolute belief in the triumph of righteousness. + +While Hadassah was thinking these things, and thanking God in her heart +that her husband, by reason of his special qualifications, had at once +been placed in a post of great responsibility and one far removed from +the danger-zone, Margaret had reached the drawing-room. She paused for +a moment outside the door; she needed all her self-control. + +As she entered the room, and before she had closed the door behind her, +a slight figure, so shapelessly enveloped in black and closely-veiled +that she could not distinguish any individuality, turned from the +window, which opened into a small glass recess full of ferns and +flowers. + +Margaret did not hold out her hand; she could not. Nor did Millicent +Mervill; she stood before Margaret, her head bent and her hands clasped +in front of her, a slight bundle of drooping black, as mysterious as +any veiled Egyptian woman. + +"You have something to tell me?" Margaret said. In spite of her anger, +the humility of the fragile figure brought a suggestion of pity into +her voice. The radiant beauty whom she had steeled her nerves to meet +had given place to this meek, formless penitent. "Please put up your +veil--I can't see you." She knew that she could not trust the woman's +words; she wished to watch her eyes while she spoke. + +"I am wearing it," Millicent said, "because I can't bear you to look at +me, to see how changed I am. Please let me keep it down, while I tell +you all I know about Mr. Amory and the treasure." + +"What has happened?" Margaret said. Millicent's voice was agonized. + +"I had smallpox in Alexandria--it has left me hideous. Soon after I +last saw you I sickened with it. I was very, very ill." + +"Smallpox!" There was genuine sympathy in Margaret's voice. "Are you +really disfigured? How dreadful that nowadays you should be!" + +"Yes," Millicent said, lifelessly. "I have nothing left to live for +now. My looks are gone. I was very ignorantly nursed; they were kind +people, but hopelessly ignorant." + +"Perhaps your looks will come back--give yourself time." Even as +Margaret spoke, she wondered how she found it possible to talk to the +woman in the way she was doing. Only five minutes ago she had hated +her, hated her so intensely that she had had to exercise great control +over her passions so that she should not lose her temper in her +presence. Now she felt a sincere pity for her, the poor creature. +Margaret's subconscious womanhood knew the reason. It was because she +could afford, to be sorry for her, now that all rivalry between them +was dead. + +"I didn't come to tell you about myself," Millicent said. "It is +nothing to you--you must be glad." She wrung her hands more tightly. +"You are saying in your heart at this moment that I deserve it. So I +do. I see things clearly now--I do deserve it. I brought it all on +myself, everything. But I have suffered, you don't know how I have +suffered." + +"Sit down," Margaret said quietly, "and tell me all about it." + +"No, no. You are only speaking like this because you feel you ought +to, because I am now a thing to pity. You really hate me. I came to +tell you that I never reached the hills, I never saw the hidden +treasure, I never tried to find it." She paused. "And that your lover +was never mine. He never desired any woman but you--he scorned me, +ignored my advances." + +"I know that," Margaret said hotly. A fire had kindled her calm eyes; +it quickened her spirit. + +"But it is none the less my duty to tell you. Your lover is too fine, +too loyal--he won't stoop to tell you how I tempted him. He wouldn't +blacken even _my_ name. He has too much respect for womanhood." + +"Then why tell me?" Margaret said. "I don't want to hear it. All that +is past. We are going to be married tomorrow--Michael is home from the +Front. We are perfectly happy--don't recall it all." + +A cry rang through the room. Its tone of envy and passion convinced +Margaret that even in the worst human beings there is the divine spark. +It actually hurt her that her own joy should mean this agony to another +woman. + +"You are going to be married," Millicent said, "to the finest lover and +the truest gentleman I have ever known, or ever shall know, the finest +in the world, I think." + +"Yes," Margaret said. "He is all that, and more--at least, to me." + +"Much more," Millicent said, "much more. And will you tell him that I +never reached the hills, that I am not guilty of that one meanness?" + +"Then who did?" Margaret said quickly. + +"Oh, then you thought I did? You thought I robbed him of his +discovery? Does he think so, too?" Her voice shook. Her curious +sense of honour scorned the idea. + +"No, no," Margaret said. Her love of truth made her speak frankly. +"He wouldn't believe it. He is still convinced that you never went to +the hills, that you are innocent." + +"But you believed it?" + +"Yes," Margaret's voice was stern. "Yes, I believed it for a time." + +"I have nothing worth lying for now," Millicent said bitterly; "so what +I tell you is perfectly true. I never reached the hills; I was too +great a coward. I fled away in the night, as fast as I could, back to +civilization." + +"Then who anticipated Michael's discovery? It's absurd to assume that +someone who knew nothing of his theory should have discovered it at the +very same time, almost. Do you expect me to believe that?" + +"My dragoman told me that one of my men absconded. He left me on the +same night as I left Michael's camp. He must have discovered it; he +must have heard the saint telling Michael all about it." She paused. +"You know the whole story, don't you? All about the saint, and how his +illness turned out to be smallpox?" She shuddered at the very mention +of the saint. + +"No," Margaret said. "I haven't heard about the smallpox. Was that +how you got it?" + +"Indirectly, yes, but it was my own fault. When I heard that he had +got it, I stole away in the night, I left Michael to face it alone." +She paused. + +Margaret held her tongue. There was something so horrible about +smallpox that, in spite of the woman's cowardly behaviour, she felt +some sympathy for her. + +"He had begged me to go before the saint turned up. I wouldn't. When +the saint appeared he forgot almost everything else, and so for one +whole day I remained confident in the belief that he had taken my +presence for granted. And then," she shuddered, "he came to tell me +that the holy man had smallpox." + +"And you forgot your love?" Margaret said. + +"It was swallowed up in fear, in anger. I was so furious at Michael's +rash generosity. I had warned him that the man might be suffering from +some contagious malady, but I never dreamed of smallpox." + +"It was horrible!" Margaret said. "And Michael has never said a word +about it." + +"His charity is divine," Millicent said. "It is Christ-like, if you +like." + +"It is true charity, for it is love, love for everything which God has +created." + +"He is so happy that he can afford to love almost everything and +everyone." + +"He is happy because he loves them." + +"I don't believe he has ever heard of hell," Millicent said. "His +religion's all heaven and beauty and love." + +"Hell!" exclaimed Margaret. "But surely," she paused, "surely we're +not primitives, we don't need the fear of such impossible cruelties to +keep us from doing wrong? His great saint, or reformer, Akhnaton, had +no hell in his religion, and he lived, as you know, centuries before +David. Even Akhnaton realized that human beings create their own +hells. The other hell, of fire and brimstone, which terrorized the +ignorant people into obedience and order, belongs to the same category +as the crocodile god and the wicked cat-goddess Pasht, of Egypt. It +was necessary in its day." + +"You and Michael live on such a high plane!" + +"Oh no, we don't. You know Michael is very human--that is why he is so +understanding, so forgiving." + +"He will never forgive me--that would be expecting too much. But I had +to come and tell you all that I know about his treasure. I have only +just heard--I saw it in the Egyptian monthly Archaeological +Report--that Michael never had the glory of discovering the Akhnaton +chambers in the hills." + +"You didn't know that when I saw you in Cairo?" + +"No, I never dreamed of it. If you had only told me that he hadn't, I +should have explained, I should have told you about the man who +absconded." + +Margaret looked at her searchingly, but she could learn nothing more +than the voice told her, for Millicent's veil was still covering her +disfigured face. + +"I never wished to rob him of the honour of the discovery. If I had +known when I saw you, I should have cleared my name, at least, of that +contemptible deed." + +Margaret blushed. "I couldn't tell you," she said. "I was too +unhappy, too angry. I didn't want you to know of our disappointment. +I pretended that I had heard from Michael." + +"You led me to suppose that he had discovered it." + +"I know," Margaret said. "I didn't wish to add to your satisfaction by +telling you of his disappointment. I was convinced that you knew, and +that you had slipped off to the hills." She paused. "We were bluffing +each other." + +"I was incubating smallpox. I was wearing a blouse and skirt which had +been packed with the clothes I wore in the desert. Probably it had +come in touch with some infected thing." + +"Were you very bad?" Margaret said. "Where have you been all this +time?" + +Millicent shivered. "I was just going to sail for England, but I was +too ill when I reached Alexandria to go on board the boat--I had to +stay behind. I have been hiding myself from the world ever since. +Yes, I was dreadfully ill, and now. . . ." Her voice broke. "You +don't know what I feel when I look at myself--my own face makes me +sick." + +"I am so sorry," Margaret said. "You were so beautiful, such a +wonderful colour!" + +"How kind of you to say so!" Millicent's voice left no doubt of her +feeling of shame, although Margaret's nobility was beyond her +understanding; it humbled her. "I came to you because I wanted to do +what I can to undo what I have done. If Michael had known that my +servant anticipated his discovery, it might have given him a clue as to +where the treasure has gone. You do believe now that I never saw the +jewels? I never dreamed of robbing him!" She paused. "In my poor way +I loved him. I couldn't have done that--not that." + +"And yet you were so horribly cruel! You knew a great deal about men. +Michael is only human, and he is so ready to believe the best of +everyone." + +"Yes, I know. But I suppose I was born bad, born with feelings you +don't understand. Michael did his best to help me; he tried to awaken +something higher in me. I suppose you won't believe it, but he has--he +has helped me; I am not quite what I was. While I was ill, when I +thought I was dying, all that he had ever said to me came back to me +with a new meaning. I determined that if I got well I would tell you +everything--how wonderful his love for you is, how strong he can +be--and it is not the strength of a man who does not feel." + +"Oh, I know it," Margaret said. Her voice was resentful. + +"But please let me tell you, even if you do know it. It is only right +to Michael--I must exonerate him, even if you resent hearing me speak +of his love for you. Let me make a clean breast of it, show you how +ignorant he was of my plans for meeting him. He never was more +surprised in his life." + +"I didn't mean to resent it, but there are some things we never need +telling, things which are better left unsaid. Michael needs no telling +that you never stole the jewels, for instance, that you never tried to +reach the hills." + +"Stole the jewels! No, I never stole them. You thought that?" Horror +was in Millicent's voice. "You thought I stole them for my personal +use? To wear them?" + +"It would not have been so cruel as to steal my lover, would it?" + +"It would have been less difficult." + +"You tried--oh, how you tried to steal him! How could--you?" A +revulsion of feeling hardened Margaret. Her eyes showed it. She was +visualizing Millicent in all her former beauty. Even without beauty, +she knew how strongly her vitality would appeal to men. Despondent, in +her drooping black shawls, Millicent was keenly alive still. Margaret +had always felt her vitality; she knew that men felt it. It stirred +them to conquest; it invited contest. + +Millicent answered her truthfully. "Because I am bad, not good, and I +loved him with the only kind of love I know. It swept aside all +scruples. You can't judge--try to believe that--you can't begin to +judge. I lived for conquest and men's admiration, and now I have lost +both." + +Margaret felt humbled to the dust. Her judgment had been so crude, so +narrow. She realized that the woman before her left her far behind in +the matter of vitality, passion and self-criticism. Her energy and +vitality demanded an outlet, an object. + +"Don't feel like that," she said gently. "Your looks will come back. +Do let me see your face. It is early days yet--the marks will +disappear, grow fainter. It is only one year--give it time, forget all +about it in hard work, and while you are working. Nature will be +working too." + +"No, no!" Millicent cried. "Never! I am going to fly from my +friends--I am going to hide myself." + +Margaret had attempted to raise her thick veil, but Millicent refused +to let her. Instead, she threw another thickness of it over her face. +Her pride could not stand even Margaret's pity and comforting words. + +"I am humbled enough as it is," she said. "Don't do that." + +"I didn't want to humble you," Margaret said. "I only thought, and I +do still think, that you are exaggerating the change in your +appearance. One sees every little thing about oneself so clearly. I +know how a wee spot seems like a Vesuvius when it is on one's nose. +With smallpox the marks do get more and more invisible." + +"No, my looks will never come back," Millicent said miserably. "And +for a woman like me, when her looks are gone, what is there left?" + +"Work," Margaret said. "The war will make you forget all about +personal things--it will, really. Life is different now. If you will +only take up some war-work--and I know you will, for every able-bodied +woman in England is working at something; every superfluous woman has +become a thing of value--life will be completely changed. There is +only one idea, one aim for us all--to win the war. You must do your +bit. It is just our 'bit' that keeps us sane, for without it we should +have time to think. We women must not think, we must work." + +"But what could I do?" + +"Almost anything," Margaret said. "You know you could--you are so +clever." + +"Don't flatter, please," Millicent said. "How can you be so forgiving?" + +"I suppose because I'm so happy. As soon as ever you can," Margaret +said, "take up some work which necessitates using all your brain, all +your energy. You will become so interested in what you are doing that +you will forget your troubles. I had no time to grieve over mine when +I was working in the hospital. At night I was so tired out that I went +to sleep as soon as my head was on the pillow. The atmosphere of work, +the awfulness of this war, makes personal things seem very trivial--one +grows ashamed of them." + +"You are trying to give me hope," Millicent said. "It is so big and +kind of you, but honestly, I only came here to tell you about your +lover, not to talk about my hideous self. What does it matter what I +do? You were always a worker--I was not." + +"Well, you have told me about Michael, and now I can at least try to +help you. I have seen the effect of almost a year of the war on the +idle women of England. It is wonderful! And we used to be called +superfluous!" Margaret laughed proudly. + +"You believe me? You know that I am not lying? that I never reached +the hills? that I never knew that Michael had not discovered the +treasure?" Millicent had gone back to the original object of her +visit. What Margaret had advised seemed to her impossible. + +As she said the last words, the door opened and Michael entered the +room. He had heard Millicent's voice. His eyes were fixed on +Margaret. The tableau created by his unexpected entrance was tense, +painful. + +Millicent turned her head away and hid her face in her hands. Her +first thought was that he must not see her face. She flung herself +down on the sofa. + +Margaret became deadly pale, but remained motionless. Michael looked +from her to Millicent with an expression of horrified surprise on his +face. He had expected to see her in all her perfection of toilet and +looks, her shining head, the "golden lady," instead of which a bundle +of crępe, a mere armful, something soft and black, lay face downwards +on the sofa before him. + +"What are you doing here?" he said sternly. "Haven't we seen the last +of you yet?" + +Margaret put up her hands as if to ward off his words. Her own +happiness had made her feel more pity than anger for the miserable +woman, who for probably the first time in her life was trying to act +honourably and courageously. The security of love made her wondrous +kind. + +"What has she come for?" Michael demanded. But for his sunburn, his +face would have been as white as Margaret's own. The sight of +Millicent's cowering figure brought back to him, with the quickness of +light, the evening in the desert when he had flung her from him in his +agony of temptation. + +"She came to give us some information, Mike. Tell him, Millicent, why +you have come." + +Millicent took no notice of Margaret's words. She was crouching on the +sofa, her face still buried in her hands. + +"No, no," she moaned, when Margaret again urged her to speak. "I only +wanted to tell you. Ask him to go away--do, please, beg him to go. If +he wants you I will disappear and never come back again. I have said +all I have to say." + +"I am going to stay here," Michael said, "until I hear what you came to +say. Was it necessary to come?" He looked to Margaret for his answer. + +"It was better," Margaret said. "She never reached the hills, she +never saw the treasure." + +Michael started. "Go on," he said. "That is not all--she need not +have come to tell us that. I never accused her; I never believed it. +I thought that after all she did do, she would have had shame enough to +stay away." + +Millicent's body quivered. His words lashed her. + +"One of her servants ran away--he left her the same night as she left +your camp," Margaret said. Again Michael saw the black figure shiver +as Margaret spoke of her cowardly act. The very mention of it brought +to both their eyes a vivid picture of the surroundings which had +witnessed their last meeting. Millicent knew that Michael was seeing +it as clearly as though they had been standing together under the +golden stars, the tents dotted about on the pale night sands. She +could hear the sick man reciting _suras_ from the Koran in sonorous +tones. + +"And she thinks he found the treasure?" Michael said the words +absently, as though his mind was occupied with distant visions. + +"Yes--he was a likely character to do the deed." + +"Does she know anything about him--where he went to?" + +"No, Mike, but I do." Margaret spoke gently. "Millicent has been very +ill. She only heard yesterday that the Government had anticipated your +discovery. She came to try and help you. She is in trouble." +Margaret's voice told Michael more than her words. + +"She scarcely deserves your pity," he said. "Only her own heart knows +how she has tricked us both . . . there are some things one cannot +forgive . . . Millicent knows." + +The black figure slipped from the couch to the floor. "Look, I will +kneel at your Margaret's feet," she said in tones of abject shame. +"Tell her everything. Tell her what a beast she has been kind to. She +ought to know." She raised her head. "I think I shall enjoy the +agony--anything but this living death." + +She pressed her hands on Margaret's feet. "I am far worse than you +knew! You are not made like me, you won't even understand if he tells +you the things I did." + +"I don't wish to speak of it to Margaret," Michael said. "Get up. I +have seen your penitence once too often to believe in it now--get up." + +"Oh," Millicent moaned, "I know, I know! You think this is just +another bit of the old Millicent. It isn't--it is true." + +"Get up," Margaret said kindly. "I was only trying to be kind because +. . . well, perhaps it is because I am so happy myself that I can +afford to forgive you. Don't kneel like that . . . I hate to see you. +Michael knows how little I deserve it . . . I have hated you with all +my heart and soul, I have longed for my revenge." + +"My God!" Michael said quickly, "I hate to see the little coward near +you! How dared you come? Get up!" he said again. "And clear out! I +thought we had finished with you for ever!" + +Millicent dragged herself to her feet. She stood before him, a +slender, nun-like figure; one of the black shawls which enveloped her +had fallen to the floor. + +"Go on, say all you feel--I deserve it, every word of it! I left you +to your fate when you were in danger, I fled from the camp with but one +idea in my head--my own safety, my desire to get as far as I could from +the infection of smallpox. I carried the hateful disease with me; I am +so disfigured that you must never see me. Never!" Her words ended in +a low cry of self-pity. + +"My God!" Michael said. "Are you speaking the truth! Did you get +smallpox?" He knew that the blame was partly his. + +"Yes, but don't look at me. I can't bear it. Anything but that, oh +not that!" Michael had stooped to raise her a veil. + +His eyes met Margaret's. "Poor soul!" he said. "Poor little soul!" + +"Yes, fate has punished me," Millicent said. "You can do no more." + +Michael groaned. "We have not talked of it all yet, Margaret," he said +miserably, "the horror of the smallpox." + +"Millicent has told me about it, Michael." She tried to smile. "It is +a thing of the past. What good will talking do? We are happy again." + +Millicent turned to Michael. "I have told her a very little," she +said. "And now I have something which I must tell you. When I saw her +in Cairo I told her that I had been with you, I told her that you would +write to me, I inferred that you and I were lovers." + +Michael bent his head. He was innocent of any deed of unfaithfulness, +but what of his desires? What of the night when Margaret's presence +had saved him? He wondered if she was conscious of the part she had +played in his renunciation. + +"And you still trusted me?" Michael's words were so full of gratitude +and wonder that Margaret's veins were flooded with happiness. How +greatly he had been tempted! + +"I remembered my promise. More than once it seemed to me that I +succeeded in being very near you." + +Her eyes questioned him. He understood; his eyes answered her. + +"I told her that I had been with you," Millicent said, "but not for how +long. She never dreamed that my coming was quite unknown to you, that +I was with you for so short a time, that you hated my presence in the +camp. How well she knew you!" + +Margaret turned to Michael. "Yes, I knew him," she said. "Thank God, +I knew him! We learnt to know each other in the Valley, and I think I +realized the situation better than you thought I did." + +"But I must tell you, I must show you even more than you dream of how +true and loyal he has been." + +"No, no, please don't," Margaret said. "Michael has told me all I want +to know." She was sorry for Michael's embarrassment; he writhed under +the whole thing. + +Millicent paid no attention to her words. She repeated the story for +Margaret's benefit. Michael turned away impatiently. He had meant to +tell Margaret all the details of his life in the desert when they were +married and alone together. + +"As I told you," Millicent said, "I met him in the desert. I had found +out where he was going to. He was furiously angry . . . he wanted me +to go back. I stayed against his wishes. The saint turning up the +same day as I did made him forget me. I often tried to win him from +you . . . and I thought I was succeeding. The only reason he didn't +turn me out of the camp was because of my equipment and food--they were +good for the holy man, who was ill. He was sickening with the +smallpox, only we didn't know it. Michael took him into his camp. I +told you about that. We didn't know what was the matter with him, but +Michael behaved like an angel to the lunatic. When he discovered that +he had smallpox, I implored him to leave him. When he wouldn't, I +fled. That very night I left him alone, even though I had told him +that I loved him--I had offered myself to him. I took all my luxuries +with me. I was mad . . . furiously angry. He had taken the sick man +in against all my entreaties; he had scorned my love. The next morning +Hassan told me that one of my men had deserted, left our camp at dawn." + +"Stop, that's enough!" Michael cried. "Stop it!" Every word had +lashed his nerves and brought back to his memory his own struggles, his +own weakness. + +"I fled," Millicent went on, not heeding his interruption. "I spent +some weeks in Upper Egypt. I thought I had escaped the horrible +disease. . . . I thought Hassan had taken every precaution. He sent +some of my boxes straight on to Cairo; I opened them the night I saw +you. They must have carried the infection--that is how I got smallpox. +It lay in wait for me." She paused, breathless, and then went on +excitedly: "I know nothing about the treasure. I am absolutely +innocent in that one respect. I can tell you nothing more, nothing." + +As Millicent ceased speaking, Michael took up her story. + +"Margaret," he said, "some days after she left us the saint died. When +he was buried, we moved on." As he spoke, he visualized the desert +burial. "We journeyed to the hills. On our way we passed through a +subterranean village--a terrible place, of flies and filth! The +_Omdeh_ of the village, a fine old gentleman, told us of the growing +unrest among the desert tribes--German work, of course; we are seeing +the fruit of it now. I paid no heed to him; I felt too ill, too tired. +I only cared about reaching the hills. When we did reach them, we +found that a camp was already established. Information had been given +to the Government." He heaved a deep sigh. "The thing was out of my +hands. I suppose the shock finished me for the time being, for when I +left the excavation-camp I became ill, so ill that Abdul had to take me +as quickly as he could to the _Omdeh's_ house near the subterranean +village. I stayed there until late on in May." He stopped abruptly. + +"The rest won't bear speaking about. What made things so much worse, +Meg, was thinking about what you would be suffering, what Freddy would +be saying." His eyes sought Margaret's. "It is best to forget, it is +wiser to think of tomorrow." + +"Yes, let us forget all about it," Margaret said. Michael's expression +frightened her. As a soldier he had enough to bear without raking up +what was past. + +"Abdul became as dear to me as a brother," Michael said quietly. "His +devotion was wonderful! We are not of the same faith"--he was speaking +to himself--"but our God is the same God, our love for Him the same. +Abdul knew that." + +"And your illness?" Millicent said. "Was it smallpox?" + +"No, no--none of my camp caught it. It was enteric fever. I suppose I +was worn out, both mentally and physically. The disappointment about +the treasure was the last straw, it was so cruel. I am able to accept +it now, it doesn't hurt me any longer. The war has done that; the war +is like concentrated time--it obliterates and wipes out, and even +heals." + +"But you discovered it, Michael! You were the real discoverer. If it +hadn't been for you, and for your special knowledge, the man who stole +it, who gave the information, would never have found it. And, after +all, as Michael Ireton says, that is the main point of interest." +Margaret's eyes glowed with pride. "And haven't you heard the sequel +to that tragedy?--the finding of some ancient jewels which the thief +must have dropped in the desert, not so very far from the +hill-chambers?" + +As Michael had not heard that the gems had been found, Margaret told +him the story which Hadassah had written to her. + +"They prove, Mike, what after all is to us the most important fact in +the whole affair--that you were right, that all the information given +you by the seer was correct." + +Margaret did not include her vision of Akhnaton in Millicent's +presence; it was always a sacred subject between them. + +"That is what Abdul said, and I know it is true. But who can prove it? +To the disbelieving no one can prove that there was any treasure, any +gold or great wealth of jewels." He looked into Margaret's eyes. He +said plainly, "Freddy died unconvinced on that point." + +Margaret understood. She had so often wished that Freddy could have +known all that had transpired since his death. + +"I will spend all my money and wits on finding the wretch," Millicent +said humbly. "I will hunt this treasure to earth. If there were +jewels, they shall be found. I will never stop until I have traced +them, never! That will give me some interest in life--if you will let +me do it, that is to say." + +"The jewels will all be cut by this time, the gold will be melted. No +one will be able to recognize them." + +"You can't find the thief," Margaret said. "He died of smallpox--Mr. +Ireton heard that from the Government authorities. They set detectives +on his track, and discovered his whereabouts, but he was unconscious. +They think that he buried the treasure, that it is again lost to the +world. It is still waiting for you, Mike." + +"I know that there were many more jewels where the crimson amethyst +came from," Michael said, "whether they are ever found again or not." +He was thinking of the words of his old friend in el-Azhar. If he came +out of the war alive, he might again hope to discover them. + +"I can do something else," Millicent spoke pleadingly. "Say you will +let me! I am rich--my money is no good to me." + +Michael looked at her for an explanation. His eyes were cold. + +"I can spend some of my money in paying the expenses of the digging, +for excavating on the site. The war will put a stop to all excavating +work in Egypt and the Holy Land so far as England is concerned, but if +I give sufficient money, you can employ the best Egyptologists in +America, so that the work can go on this autumn. You will not have to +wait until the war is over before you find out all there is to be known +on the subject." + +"The papyri will prove a great deal," Michael said; "they found +papyri." Millicent's words scarcely penetrated to his brain. He was +obsessed with the idea that the Egyptologists suspected that the +treasure was again buried. If it was, how exactly it all tallied with +the African's vision! + +"I believe that there is very little excavating work to be done," +Margaret said. "I have had so little time with Hadassah that I have +not even referred to the subject." She smiled, surprised at the fact +when it was brought before her. "But in a letter she told me that the +chambers were singularly perfect. They are cut in the virgin rock; +they are not extensive, but nothing had been destroyed. One of the +chambers was evidently intended for a royal treasury." + +"In Flanders," Michael said, "life is very real." He turned to the +window as he spoke; Margaret's news had troubled him. "Germany has +made all our lives horribly real. What you have told me seems to +belong to another state of our existence." His eyes were far away from +either Margaret or Millicent; they were with his comrades in the +trenches. "When I was knee-deep in mud in the trenches I often thought +that our hut-home in the silent Valley was a dream, a beautiful dream, +one of those dreams we can never forget, however long we live, but only +a dream." + +He drew himself up. "We have been brought back to firm earth. Our +apprenticeship on this side isn't finished, Meg. We aren't ready to +fully understand the things beyond. While we are on this earth, I +believe it is wiser to rest content with the things that are here." He +smiled. "Perhaps Freddy is right--it is wiser to walk on our two feet." + +"Perhaps it is," Margaret said wistfully. "But thank God I trusted to +the progress of one person who occasionally walks on his head." + +While Michael's back was turned to the door, and Margaret was looking +at him with eyes of sympathy, and with the knowledge in her heart that +he was living over again scenes and actions in Flanders which left her +far behind him, Millicent had slipped from the room. With her white +corset-boxes in her arms she fled downstairs and silently opened the +front door. As silently it shut behind her. + +For a moment she paused, before descending the steps. London was there +in front of her, London with its luxuries and its sins, which not even +the strength of Germany or the sacrifice of young lives could +obliterate. The spring made no call to her; the sunshine mocked her +because of her empty world. + + * * * * * * + +When Michael and Margaret discovered that she was gone, they stood for +a little while locked in each other's arms. As Margaret raised her +head from Michael's breast, he bent his head and kissed her lips. + +"Dearest," he said, "you and I can afford to forgive her, poor lonely +little soul!" + +"I can forgive anybody anything, Mike." + +"Even the Kaiser, beloved woman?" + +Margaret shivered. "Don't let's think of him--not for eleven days, at +least." + +"We shall be able to be sorry for even him some day," he said. His +confident tones delighted her, for his mention of the war had brought +the angel with the flaming sword into her Eden. + +"You really think so, Mike? Your inner self feels it? Sometimes I +almost despair--they are so strong, so clever." + +"I do believe it," he said. "You foolish woman, of course I believe +it. The day may be a long way off, but it is coming, just the same. +The triumph of light over darkness, Meg, the old, old fight--we shall +see the resurrection of Osiris and the defeat of Set all over again. +The sun of righteousness will stream over the world when the devil of +militarism is crushed for ever." + +He kissed her again rapturously. Their time together was so short; it +left them little opportunity for lengthy talks on any subject. The way +in which Michael broke off in the middle of his sentences to make love +to her, and question her eagerly and impetuously, suggested the hosts +that disturbed his mind. He wanted to tell her all about the old +African's idea of the meaning of the war, and about his visualizing of +the treasure for the second time; but he wanted still more her lips and +her own exquisite assurances of her love for him, the eternal subject, +which neither age nor war can affect. The one important fact which +could not wait was that tomorrow she was to be his wife, and if he did +not let her return to her preparations, there was the possibility that +some hitch a might occur. So they went back to Hadassah and told her +all that had happened. + +For everyone concerned the rest of that day flew on wings. Each hour +passed like a flash. Bed-time came, and Margaret scarcely seemed to +have achieved half or quarter of the things she had meant to do. + +A telegram had arrived, in answer to hers, from the aunt with whom she +had lived as a child and young girl. The bride-elect had felt just a +little worried about her aunt; she had written her a letter which she +would receive on her wedding morning. In it Margaret had told her all +about her friendship with Michael while she was living with Freddy in +Egypt, and of Freddy's friendship with him, which was of a much longer +duration. Also, she took pains to assure her aunt that, as far as +pedigree was concerned, he had the blood of Irish kings in his veins. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +Their wedding-day was the sort of day which made Browning, when he +lived in Florence, sing: + + "Oh, to be in England + Now that April's there. . . . + * * * * + "And after April, when May follows, + And the whitethroat builds, and all the swallows . . ." + + +Margaret said the words to herself as the day greeted her when she +pulled up her blind in the morning. + +London, even in war time, was inviting and charming for such as drove +about the West End in taxis, for they had not yet disappeared from the +highways and byways. The day was clean and fresh and sweet-smelling. +The promise of brilliant sunshine in the midday hours made the +fashionable streets near the Iretons' rooms very busy and gay. +Khaki-clad figures were everywhere; some were accompanied by +daintily-clad girls, proud of their soldier lovers; others were walking +with portly old gentlemen, their generous grandfathers or godfathers, +most probably; while many of them had given themselves over to their +mothers for the morning. Nor were they, as they would have been in the +days of peace, embarrassed by their affectionate grasp of their arms +and the unconcealed adoration and love. + + * * * * * * + +Things had happened with such bewildering rapidity that Margaret drove +through the streets to the church in which they were to be married in a +sort of open-eyed dream. She saw with extraordinary vividness all that +was going on around her, even to the faces of the boys and girls who +passed them in taxis; but she was incapable of concentrated thought. +The hurry and excitement in which she had lived for the last two days +left her breathless and vague. + +She was driving with Michael Ireton, who was amazed at her outward +calm. He little knew that the bride whom he was to give away was +physically and nervously almost exhausted. The sudden end to the +strain which she had endured so long had produced a dreamlike phase of +almost semi-consciousness. + +Margaret knew that Michael was ahead of her, in another taxi with +Hadassah. She also knew that they were driving to the church with the +outside pulpit which stands a little way back from the road in +Piccadilly. She had always felt a special attraction for the quiet +courtyard, right in the hurly-burly of one of the main arteries of +London. She knew that she would have to say her responses in the +marriage-service. Yet somehow she felt more like another person +looking on from a great distance at the doings of someone else. One +would feel the same remoteness if one was saying to oneself, "At this +very moment Margaret will be getting married, she will be on her way to +the church." + +"Here we are," Michael Ireton said abruptly. + +The taxi had stopped at the iron gate in the centre of the railings +which guarded the precincts of the church. He jumped out quickly and +Margaret followed him. In the porch of the church they stopped for a +moment, to make sure of the fact that Michael was waiting to receive +Margaret at the chancel steps. Then, still in a dream-state, Margaret +walked up the aisle of the church on Michael Ireton's arm. She was not +nervous; things were too unreal for her to be conscious of being +nervous. + +A few idle Londoners, seeing that there was going to be a wedding, had +strayed into the church; otherwise it was empty. Michael thought it +rather dark and solemn. + +Margaret was daintily dressed in white, a frock suitable for +travelling. Michael was still in his Tommy's uniform. + +Nothing could have been simpler than the service which made them man +and wife, or more unlike what Margaret's aunts would have considered +suitable for their niece. It was a wedding after Michael's and +Margaret's own hearts, a solemn sacrament of two people, not a society +gathering of critical guests. + +It was not until Michael took Margaret's hand in his, and pressed it +eagerly and firmly, with an air of happy possession, that Margaret came +to her full consciousness and to the significance of what she was +doing. She had repeated her vows after the clergyman clearly and +correctly; she had even said "I will" because her subconscious mind had +impelled her to say it. The importance of the words had escaped her. +It had been only her material body which stood by her lover's side. + +Michael felt her air of aloofness, her distance. Her eyes had not met +his when he had sought them, eager to welcome her. She had walked up +the aisle and taken her place by his side like a spirit-woman, who was +a stranger to him. + +When at last his strong hand clasped hers, she looked up. Their eyes +met. A long sigh travelled from Margaret's wakening heart to her lips. +Michael felt her emotion. He held her hand more possessingly, as he +said, very clearly: + +"I, Michael Amory, take thee, Margaret Lampton, to be my wedded wife." + +He tightened his grasp on her hand. Its dearness and magnetism +affected her. Her feeling of somnolence vanished. Things became real, +tremendously real and wonderful. + +Michael was saying the words, "to love and to cherish, until death us +do part." + +At the word "death" Margaret's throat tightened. Something seemed to +almost choke her. The words made her visualize the blood-soaked fields +of Flanders. Weak tears filled her eyes; the loudness of her heart's +beating made Michael's next vow, "according to God's holy ordinance," +almost inaudible. The din of battle thundered in her brain. Death was +going to part them almost directly; it was standing behind them now; it +had been coming nearer and nearer for the last four months; it was only +waiting until Michael had left her, until she was no longer near him. +Like an avalanche crushing down upon her from a great height, the +terror of death swept over her. Just as a shot from a rifle, or the +vibration of a body of men marching under a precipice of loosened snow, +will bring it down and cover them, the words "until death us do part" +had overwhelmed Margaret. + +Then a strange thing happened. As Michael said proudly and distinctly, +"And thereto I give thee my troth," Margaret saw that he was surrounded +by a brilliant light. He stood in the centre of long shafts of +sunshine; they played round his head like the rays of Aton. Her terror +of death vanished as swiftly as it had come. This was the light which +guarded Michael in battle. A super-elation dispersed the thought of +the brief married life which might be hers, that she might be stepping +into widowhood even while she repeated her vows. + +Bewilderment made her forget her part in the ceremony. She felt, but +did not see the clergyman take her hand from Michael's. He separated +them for a moment and then put her hand on the top of Michael's. He +whispered something to her. Then she remembered her part, and said +slowly and clearly after him the same words which Michael had repeated. +The words "until death us do part" were said as she might have said +them in pre-war days. + +After that she was free from all nervousness and all sense of +unreality. She saw Michael take the ring from the clergyman's fingers +and hold it in his own hand. She smiled to him happily, as she saw his +expression of relief and tenderness. In one moment more they would be +man and wife; no distance or grief could change that. + +When they knelt together for the first time as man and wife, and +listened to the words of the beautiful prayer that they might "ever +remain in perfect love and peace together," Margaret's happiness made +her prayer a song of praise. If it was ordained that Michael was to be +spared to her, how simple and natural a thing it would be for ever to +remain in perfect love and peace together! Loving each other as they +did, that would not be one of their difficulties. It was so restful to +kneel side by side with Michael, listening to the gentle and solemn +words, that she would have liked the prayer to go on for a long time. +Her nervous condition made her apprehensive. Here, in the quiet +church, which lay right in the heart-beat of the city, there was a +divine sense of security. + +Their heads were bent together; their arms were almost touching; their +heart-beats were in unison; their minds were one. + +But the prayer was finished. Michael's hand had clasped hers again; he +was far more conscious of his part in the ceremony than she was of +hers. He held her hand as if it was his world, the kingdom he had come +into, while his eyes expressed his emotion and gratitude. + +As the words "Those whom God hath joined together let no man put +asunder," and "I pronounce you man and wife," echoed through the +chancel, Michael Ireton and Hadassah gave a pent-up sigh of relief. + +When the clergyman turned to the altar and read aloud the sixty-seventh +Psalm--Michael had requested it in preference to the hundred and +twenty-eighth, which is perhaps the more usual--Hadassah saw the bride +and bridegroom smile happily to each other. They smiled, because +Michael had often read the Psalm to Margaret and remarked on its +similarity to the prayers of Akhnaton. + + +"God be merciful unto us, and bless us: and show us the light of His +countenance, and be merciful unto us; + +"That Thy way may be known upon earth: Thy saving health among all +nations. + +"Let the people praise Thee, O God: yea, let all the people praise Thee. + +"O let the nations rejoice and be glad: for Thou shalt judge the folk +righteously, and govern the nations upon earth. + +"Let the people praise Thee, O God: yea, let all the people praise +Thee." + + +"Thou shalt govern the nations upon earth." That had been Akhnaton's +mission, to preach these words, to tell the people that God, and man's +understanding of His Love, must rule the world. + + +"Then shall the earth bring forth her increase: and God, even our own +God, shall give us His blessing." + + +Akhnaton had sung his Hymn of Praise in his temples and in the +pleasure-courts of his city in almost the very same words. + +Confident that righteousness would triumph, that God's world-kingdom +had come, he suffered the wrath of his military commanders, who were +watching the breaking-up of his kingdom in far-off Syria. + + * * * * * * + +Two hours later the bride and the bridegroom, the two happiest people +in London, drove away from the Iretons' rooms in Clarges Street. +Hadassah and Michael Ireton watched them until the taxi was out of +sight. As they turned into the hall, with something very like tears in +their eyes--for even in the happiest marriages there is the quality of +tears--Michael put his arms round his wife and drew her to him. As she +looked up into his rugged face, his eyes more than his words said: + +"We know how they feel, dearest! God bless them! Such happiness makes +one weep in these days." + +Hadassah pressed her dark head against his coat-sleeve. He held her +closely; each day she was more precious in his sight. + +"They are worthy of each other." His voice broke. "Really, when one +sees such happiness, one says to oneself, even if they have only a +fortnight together, it is a great deal, a wonderful thing." + +Hadassah looked at her husband searchingly. "Somehow I've no fear for +Michael--have you?" + +Michael Ireton thought before he answered. "No, I don't think I have." + +"There is a certain something about some people that makes one either +afraid or not afraid for them--the men going to the Front, I mean. For +Michael Amory I haven't any fear. I can't explain why--it's not that +he will save himself by caution." She laughed. + +"I know," her husband said. "Michael seems extraordinarily lucky. He +told me a few things last night, of the escapes which he daren't tell +Margaret, ghastly adventures. I'm afraid he's awfully rash. Like all +Irishmen, when his blood's up, he hasn't any conception of the danger +he's facing. He has the super-bravery of the Celt, and all his +recklessness." + +"I just hope that as a married man he will keep that supernatural +nerve. A wife often destroys it." + +"I know," Michael Ireton said. "One sees it so often--No wife, no +danger--a wife at home, more caution, less nerve." + +Hadassah was silent. Her husband's arms were still round her. He +kissed her passionately. + +"I feel like a bridegroom myself! Seeing Michael standing there +waiting for Margaret brought our wedding-day back to me." His eyes +caressed her. + +"Did you notice the wonderful light that suddenly surrounded them just +as Michael took Margaret's hand in his when he said, 'And thereto I +give thee my troth'? The church had been rather dark and dreary up to +then; all at once the sun streamed right down on them. It was really +quite extraordinary, just as if an unseen hand had turned on the +limelight. It was almost uncanny." + +"I noticed it," Michael said. + +"The effect was startling. I wondered if Margaret noticed it--it +surely was a happy omen?" + +Her husband smiled into her eyes. "I feel sure that Michael's +subconscious self would be saying the grand words of his beloved +Akhnaton: + + "'Thou bindest them by Thy love. + Though Thou art afar, Thy rays are upon earth; + Though Thou art on high, Thy footprints are the day.'" + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THERE WAS A KING IN EGYPT*** + + +******* This file should be named 23994-8.txt or 23994-8.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/3/9/9/23994 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: There was a King in Egypt + + +Author: Norma Lorimer + + + +Release Date: December 26, 2007 [eBook #23994] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THERE WAS A KING IN EGYPT*** + + +E-text prepared by Al Haines + + + +THERE WAS A KING IN EGYPT + +by + +NORMA LORIMER + +Author of + "Catherine Sterling," + "By the Waters of Germany," + "By the Waters of Sicily," + "The Second Woman," + "The Gods' Carnival," + "A Wife Out of Egypt" + "On Desert Altars," + "On Etna," Etc. Etc. + + + + + + + +London +Stanley Paul & Co +31 Essex Street, Strand, W.C.2 + +First published in 1918 + + + + +PREFACE + +The monarch indicated in _There was a King in Egypt_ is Akhnaton, the +heretic Pharaoh, first brought home to the English reader by the well +known Egyptian archaeologist, Mr. Arthur Weigall. Akhnaton, or +Amenhotep IV., has an interest for the whole world as the first +Messiah. Like Our Lord, he was of Syrian parentage--on the mother's +side. Interest in him is undying, because underlying his Sun-symbolism +we have the first foreshadowings of the altruism of Christianity. + +The book is not directly devoted to Akhnaton. It is about a young +English Egyptologist, who is excavating the tomb of Akhnaton's mother, +in which the Pharaoh's exhumed body found its final repose; his sister; +and an Irish mystic, who copies the tomb-paintings excavated before +their freshness fades. Aton-worship and Mohammedanism have an almost +equal fascination for this Irishman, and the romance is permeated with +their mysticism. The prophecies of a Mohammedan saint who has attained +the light by a life of abstinence and self-discipline, influence the +current of the romance no less than the visions of the Pharaoh Messiah, +whose pure religion threatened his country with disasters like the +Russian revolution. + +For the historical facts I am indebted to the brilliant _Akhnaton, +Pharaoh of Egypt_,[1] of Mr. Weigall, late Chief Inspector of Monuments +in Upper Egypt. The character of the Egyptian Messiah has fascinated +me ever since I began to read Egyptian history, and Mr. Weigall writes +with the grace and colour of a Pierre Loti. I have always used his +translations of Akhnaton's words, and very often his own words in +describing Akhnaton. + +I take this opportunity of thanking Mr. Weigall for his ungrudging +permission to quote from him, and I should like him to know that his +book was the inspiration of _There was a King in Egypt_. + +I must also acknowledge my indebtedness to Mr. Walter Tyndall's fine +volume, _Below the Cataracts_,[2]--he is equally successful as author +and artist--for my description of the tomb of Queen Thiy. + +The teachings of the reformed Mohammedanism scattered through my book +are derived from the propaganda works of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, especially +his _Teachings of Islam_.[3] + +I trust that my readers will find the mysticism of the book not a clog +upon the wheels of the romance of Excavation in Egypt, but Virgil's +"vital breeze." + + +NORMA LORIMER. + 7, PITCULLEN TERRACE, PERTH, SCOTLAND. + + + +[1] Published by Wm. Blackwood & Sons. + +[2] Published by Heinemann. + +[3] Published by Dulau. + + + + +THERE WAS A KING IN EGYPT + + +PART I + +CHAPTER I + +Dawn held the world in stillness. In the vast stretches of barren +hills and soft sands there was nothing living or stirring but the +figure of an Englishman, standing at the door of his tent. + +At the hour of sunrise and sunset the East is its own. Every +suggestion of Western influence and foreign invasion is wiped out. The +going and the coming of the sun throws the land of the Pharaohs, the +kingdom of Ra, the great Sun God, whose cradle was at Heliopolis, back +to the days when Egypt was the world; to the days when the sun governed +the religion of her people; to the days when civilization had barely +touched the Mediterranean and the world knew not Rome; back again to +the days when the Nile, the Mother of Life, bordered by bands of +fertile, food-giving land, had not as yet sheltered the infant Moses in +her reeds. Dawn in Egypt is the dawn of civilization. + +Each dawn saw Michael Amory, wrapped in his thickest coat, standing +outside his tent, watching and waiting for the glory of Egypt, for Ra, +the Sun God, to appear above the horizon of the desert. + +To stand alone, nerve-tense and oppressed by the soundless sands, and +surrounded by the Theban Hills, in whose bosoms lie the eternal remains +of the world's first kings, drew him so strongly that, tired as he +might be with his previous day's work, he seldom slept later than the +hour which links us with the day that is past and the morrow which +holds the magic of the future. + +For that half-hour only his higher self was conscious of existence, and +it was infinitely nearer to God than he was aware of. The silence of +the desert and its simplicity, which to the complex mind of Western man +is so mysterious, banished all material thoughts and even the +consciousness of his own body, and left him a naked soul, alone in the +world, encompassed with Divinity, a world whose hills and rolling sands +had known neither labour nor strife, nor the despotism of kings. + +For the dead Pharaohs, lying in their tombs under the hills, in the +grandest monuments ever wrought by the vanity of man, were forgotten. +His long days of labour in their depths might never have been. Man and +his place in the universe were wiped out. + +The cold was intense. Michael shivered and turned up the collar of his +coat. A faint light had appeared on the horizon, a pale streak like a +silver thread, which widened and widened until it spread into the +higher heavens; with its spreading the indefinite forms of moving +figures appeared--ghostly figures of dawn. + +Michael knew that they would appear; he knew that, just as soon as the +streak of light grew in width from a faint thread to a wider band, he +would see them, dignified, stately figures, like white-robed priests, +walking desertwards from the horizon to his tent. + +Although he had seen the same figures every morning for some months, he +was not tired of watching them. It always gave him pleasure to recall +how vividly they had at first reminded him of the pictures, familiar to +him as a boy, of the Wise Men following the star in the east. But +these were not wise men coming to pay homage or bring presents to the +Galilean Babe who came to be called the Prince of Peace; they were the +Mohammedan workmen who were employed by the Exploration School to which +Michael Amory had attached himself; their labour was confined to the +rougher preliminary digging and the clearing away of the accumulation +of sand and debris on sites which had been selected for excavation. + +As the dawn slipped back and counted itself with the years that are +spent and the first yellow gleam appeared in the sky, Michael saw the +tall figures go down on their knees and press their foreheads to the +sand. It was their third prayer of the day: devout Mohammedans begin +their new day at sunset; their second prayer is at nightfall, when it +is quite dark; their third is at daybreak. + +Michael knew that the moment _el isfirar_, or the first yellow glow, +appeared in the heavens, the white figures would turn to the east and +perform their _subh_, or daybreak devotion. He knew that it would be +finished before the golden globe appeared above the rim of the desert, +for did not the Prophet counsel his people not to pray exactly at +sunrise or sunset or at noon, because they might be confounded with the +infidels who worshipped the sun? Yet it gave him a fresh thrill each +morning to watch these desert worshippers prostrate themselves in +undoubting faith before their omnipotent God. In the untrodden desert, +with its mingling of sky and sand, their perfect trust and faith in +Allah seemed a convincing and evident belief. At such times he forgot +that these same men were the children of Superstition and that one and +all of them were held in the bondage of _genii_. He also forgot that +their performance of five prayers a day, which is the number prescribed +for the devout, did not necessarily make them men of honour. A perfect +trust in Allah gives a bad man a long rope. + +As the figures drew nearer and the golden globe rested for one moment +on the sands of the desert, for that one brief moment before its rays +broke into the amazing splendour which is Egypt's, the world became +less mysterious, more familiar. Things relating to the day's work +forced themselves upon Michael's mind. His bath and breakfast and many +other practical things began to usurp his thoughts, while the barking +of dogs, the movement in the hut of the "boys," brought him back to the +common, everyday life of the excavating camp. + +While he was dressing he remembered that Freddy Lampton's sister was to +arrive that day. For a moment or two his mind was completely usurped +with a vision of what the girl would be like. Subconsciously his +manhood quickened. + +Yet the very idea of a woman intruding herself upon their strange and +exquisitely-intellectual life--a life made healthy by the long hours of +physical labour in the various portions of the excavation--slightly +annoyed him. + +Fleeting pictures of Lampton as a girl rose and faded before his eyes +as he hurriedly shaved himself, slipped into his flannels and adjusted +his necktie as punctiliously as though he were going to a tennis-party +at Mena House Hotel. It is typical of Englishmen in the East that the +young men in the excavating camps, and especially in the one to which +Michael belonged, showed as much regard for their personal appearance +and nicety of dress, even when their day's work was to be done in the +bowels of the earth, down a shaft as deep as a mine, as they did in the +golden days of their life at Oxford or Cambridge. Michael Amory was +perhaps as a rule the least careful of the digging party, because he +was by temperament a dreamer; and his friend, Freddy Lampton, knew that +if he was not careful and on his guard he would become "a slacker." +Freddy, in spite of his acknowledged ability as a scholar and +Egyptologist, was practical and conventional in his methods and mode of +living. Michael Amory had fits of exactness and fits of what he +considered conventionality; he had also his fits of slackness, days in +which Freddy Lampton would let his blue eyes rest on his +carelessly-tied necktie, or on his shoelaces, which were an offence to +his eyes. Freddy's exquisite delicacy of touch and his eyes, which +were trained to a fine pitch of exactitude for minute detail, two +characteristics essential for his work as an excavator, made it painful +for him to be in the company of anyone who offended his sense of +personal nicety. + +But visions of Lampton's sister were to be dismissed. She would be +good-looking, of course, because Freddy's sister could scarcely be +anything else; his blue eyes, clear colouring and sunlit hair would be +beautiful in a girl. But Michael Amory had no desire to encourage any +thoughts which gave woman a place in his mind. The very visualizing of +Lampton as a girl, comical as it had been, had forced before his eyes +another face and another form which he had been striving to forget. +Whenever he was idle, and too often when he was busy over some piece of +work which ought to have engrossed his entire thoughts, her haunting +charm and beauty would suddenly become more real and vivid than the +bright blues and greens and reds of the pigments on the white walls of +the tomb upon which he was at work. With well-practised mind-control +he had learned to pull down a blind on her vision, to blot it out from +his thoughts. On this morning, when he was hurrying through his +dressing so as to be in time for breakfast, always a matter of +difficulty with him, even though he had many hours in which to put on +his few clothes, he shrank from thinking about the arrival of the girl +who was coming to live with her brother in this strange valley, which +had been the underground cemetery for countless centuries of the +tomb-builders of Egypt. + +When he was almost dressed and the sun was high in the heavens and its +power was beginning to warm the night-chilled valley, a stone was flung +into his tent. "Come out, you lazy beggar! The coffee's getting cold." + +It was Lampton's voice and Lampton's nicety of aim. He had not been up +since dawn; his boy had only brought him his cup of early tea half an +hour ago, yet he was bathed and shaved and as neatly dressed as the +most fastidious woman could desire. + +"Right-ho!" Michael shouted back. "Don't wait for me." + +"I should jolly well think I won't! Who'd be such an ass?" There was +the best of human fellowship in Freddy's voice, but he knew his friend +too well to risk the chance of spoiling his coffee by waiting for him. + +After stretching out his arms and opening his lungs to the fresh dry +air of the newborn day, Freddy turned into the dining-room. The +mess-room and common sitting-room of the camp was in a wooden hut. +Lampton's bedroom was at the back of it, as was also the one which had +been set apart for his sister; it by right belonged to the +Overseer-General and Controller of the Excavations and Monuments of +Upper Egypt. Margaret Lampton was to use it and her brother was to +evacuate his room when the overseer announced that he was coming to pay +one of his visits of inspection to the camp. + +Michael Amory lived in a tent, as did one or two other Englishmen who +in busy and prosperous years helped in the work of excavating. At the +present moment they were slack, which meant that funds were low and +there was no fine work to be done which necessitated the individual +spade and pick work of European Egyptologists. A new site was being +cleared, so that the work had consisted for some time of the first +clearing away of sand and stones and the debris which had collected +during the thousands of years that had passed since the tomb which +Freddy hoped to discover had been carved in the bowels of the earth, +and the Pharaoh had been laid to rest in it. At such times there was +little work for experts to do, so the camp shrank and left Lampton, who +was the head of it, and one of England's finest Egyptologists, alone +with his native workmen. + +He had allowed his old Oxford chum, Michael Amory, to join him on +condition that he put in so many hours' work every day in connection +with the excavations. Michael's stipulated work, the work which he had +undertaken to do, was the making of exact copies of the mural paintings +and decorations, such as Lampton required, and to help in the evenings +to clean and sort and arrange the small objects which the workmen found +each day. In the debris they often found amulets and small earthenware +vases and minute pieces of broken pottery, the very smallest of which +suggested theories as regards the period and history of the monument. +The texture of the glaze used, or the nature of the pottery itself, the +small remnant of decoration on them, or the trademark on the broken +base of a vase, all were valuable links in the chain of history which +is unfolding itself to the eager eyes of Egyptian exploration schools. + +When Michael at last appeared, Freddy looked up from his bacon and +eggs. "I say, Margaret comes to-night." + +"Yes, I know." + +Freddy raised his blue eyes and gave Michael one of his quick glances. +"Remembered, did you?" + +"Yes--the fact suddenly came into my head when I was shaving. I say, +what are you going to do with her? Won't she be awfully bored?" + +"Margaret doesn't know what the word bored means. Give her enough +freedom and lots of sunshine--that's all she wants." + +"Sounds the right sort."' + +"One of the best--old Margaret's all right!" + +"Is she like you in appearance?" + +"Good Lord, no!" + +Michael's enthusiasm was damped. He wanted her to be like Freddy, to +have his short, straight nose and his strong rounded chin and beautiful +mouth. For his looks were wasted on a man; Michael wanted to see them +repeated and softened in a girl. As his eyes rested contemplatingly on +his companion's bent head and youthfully-lean figure, he began to +visualize a very plain, dowdy sister. The "Good Lord, no!" probably +meant that although Freddy was not the least vain of his own +extraordinary good looks, he could not help exclaiming at the idea of +his dowdy sister being considered like him. + +Michael had never seen her, because Freddy and Margaret had been left +orphans when they were little children. They had been adopted by +different relatives, so that Michael had never had the opportunity of +meeting his friend's sister while they were together at Oxford or when +he visited Freddy in his uncle's home. + +"Pass the marmalade!" said Freddy. "And I say, old chap, I wish you'd +go and meet Margaret!" + +Their eyes met as Michael handed him the marmalade, which was the one +thing in the world which Lampton said he could not live without. + +"Meet your sister?" Michael said. "I will, if you can't, but +where?--and won't she expect you?" + +"She ought to be on the ferry at five o'clock--I've made all the other +arrangements, but I do wish you would meet her there and bring her up +the valley. I simply can't, and Margaret knows that she is only +allowed to come here on condition that her visit makes no earthly +difference to my work. I daren't leave the men alone to-day--there's +too much lying about. We are getting pretty 'hot' and they know it." + +Michael looked up eagerly. "By Jove, is that so?" + +"Getting hot" was expressive of getting close to a find. It was the +old saying which they had used as children when they played +hide-and-seek. + +"Yes, I think we are on the right track and I want to get ahead, so if +you will go down to the ferry and fetch her up here I'll be awfully +obliged to you." + +"Right you are, old chap. I'll be there at five o'clock, and if she's +not punctual I'll do a bit of sketching. You're sure everything else +will be all right?" + +"I don't think she'll be late, because she is to be in Luxor by eleven +o'clock. She is to rest there until it gets cooler and Abdul is to +bring her over the river from the hotel. The donkeys will be at the +ferry to meet her. Mohammed is very anxious for her to ride his camel" +(Mohammed was the sheikh of the district); "he thinks it more proper +and fitting for my sister to make her entry into his district on a +camel, but I don't feel certain that Margaret would appreciate the +honour. He is keen to 'do her proud.'" + +"Good old Mohammed!" Michael said. "He has a great sense of dignity +and convention." + +"And of hospitality," Lampton said. "He never forgets that as the +sheikh of the district he is its host as well." + +That was all that was said about Margaret's arrival. The two men +lapsed into silence until breakfast was over. If they had been two +women discussing the coming of a man in their midst, there might have +been more to say on the subject. In silence Freddy lit his cigarette +and wandered into Margaret's room. It was as bare and plainly +furnished as a convent cell or a room in a small log-hut in a +frontier-camp in Canada--just the necessary bed and table, a washstand +and one chair. It was scrupulously clean, and the white +mosquito-curtain, which was suspended from the roof and dropped over +the little iron bed like a bride's veil, gave the room a pleasant +virginal atmosphere. + +Freddy came back to the sitting-room, evidently satisfied. His quick +eye had noticed that the "boy" had carried out his orders. + +"Meg's an awful girl for books," he said, as he carried off a bundle of +yellow-paper-bound French novels and one or two volumes of the Temple +Classics to her room. + +"She'd better begin on this," he said, as he returned in search of +still more. "She can't do better"--he lifted up the weighty tome of +Maspero's _Dawn of Civilization_. + +"A bit dry, isn't it, for a beginner?" + +"Not for Meg," Freddy said. "She can tackle pretty stiff stuff. At +college she used to suck the guts out of a book like a weasel sucking +blood from a rabbit." + +"Blue stocking!" Michael said to himself. He abhorred the type of +ardent, eager, studious woman with whom he had come in contact during +his university life. "Able and abominable" he called them. + +In less than ten minutes the two companions had separated; the one, +with his paint-box and camp-stool in his hand, made his way to the tomb +where he was copying with delicate and extraordinary exactitude the +exquisite figures and heads painted on the walls and pillars of the +vast building; the other directed his steps to the site where the band +of native excavators was already at work. + +What a strange sight it presented in the brilliant morning sunshine! +To the untutored eye nothing more or less than a vast rubbish-heap of +sand and stones and broken rocks, with here and there patches of +sparsely-clad natives working away with pickaxes and the tall figure of +a white-robed _gaphir_, standing on a hillock of sand, watching them +with unremitting care. On the sides of the vast ashpits long lines of +"boys," toiling like ants up steep inclines, were carrying rush-baskets +full of rubbish on their shoulders. + +Yet these ignorant _fellahin_ were playing their part, and an +indispensable one, in laying bare to modern eyes the history of the +world's first civilization. This vast rubbish-heap, where men with +pickaxes and boys with baskets, full of the dust and sand of ages, +toiled from dawn until sunset, would in the course of time yield +perhaps to the Egyptologist one of the long-looked-for links in the +lost centuries of Egypt's story, or be transformed into a wonderful +picture-gallery of Egyptian art. + +Nothing could look less inviting, less interesting, as Freddy +approached it, for as yet there was little or nothing for the untutored +eye to see but the debris of familiar desert rubbish. But Freddy +Lampton knew otherwise. Only yesterday the most experienced of the +workmen had struck something hard, something which told him that they +had finished with loose sand and broken rocks and had struck the +ancient handiwork of man. + +The site chosen had been a mere conjecture on Freddy Lampton's part, a +conjecture guided by scientific knowledge and careful research. He +felt convinced that the tomb which they were looking for was close to +the spot where they were working. Indications such as the excavator +looks for had decided him to begin work on the site. The discovery +yesterday had been nothing more or less than the first indication of a +narrow flight of steps, cut in the virgin desert rock, a stairway +probably built by the tomb-builders for the use of the workmen, in +order to carry away baskets of sand and rubbish without slipping. + +The moment that the expert workman had come across this staircase, they +had suspended work until "Effendi" had been sent for and found. Under +his eye and partly by his own pickaxe, the little flight of embryo +steps, with a very steep gradient, had been laid bare. In the vast +expanse which the work covered, it seemed a very small thing, but the +greatest underground temples--for the tombs are veritable temples--of +Egypt, and some of the most wonderful of her monuments, have been +discovered by far fainter clues. The little staircase, about twenty +feet below the surface of the sand, was enough to fill the young +Englishman's heart with hope. He had come upon man's handiwork--no +doubt they would soon come upon more important masonry. + +When all the workmen had saluted the Effendi with respectful salaams +and returned to their common toil, Freddy Lampton addressed the native +overseer. He was enveloped in a white woollen hooded cloak, for the +heat of the day had not yet begun; he also wore a fine turban; while +the _fellahin_ who did the roughest work wore only white skull-caps and +cotton drawers to their knees and full shirts of blue or white cotton, +open from the neck to the waist. A few of the better-paid older men +wore turbans of cheap white muslin, wrapped round brown felt +skull-caps, or fezes. The carriers of rubbish, who received the +smallest pay of any, dispensed with the drawers as well as with the +turban. In the sunlight their one garment, a blue or white shirt, +stood out against the yellow sand as they wound their way in Indian +file from the low level of the excavation to the place in the desert +where they threw down their burdens. + +The _gaphir_ led his master a few steps from where the staircase had +been excavated the day before and then bade him look own. Freddy's +quick eye detected a horizontal line of masonry, the beginning of a +strongly-built wall. The men had earthed it that morning, it was only +a narrow strip, but it would have been against the strictest rules to +have excavated more without informing the "Effendi." + +The _gaphir_, a splendid man and very reliable, adored his enthusiastic +English master, whose good looks and well-bred, unfailing courtesy of +speech alone would have made his personality irresistible to the Arab. +Added to his good looks and to his manner of "one who is born to be +obeyed," Freddy had courage and great ability and--best of all in the +_gaphir's_ eyes--a silent respect for the teachings of the Prophet. + +After an inspection of the various points of excavation and a word of +greeting here and there had been passed with upper workmen, those who +had showed an intelligent interest in their work, Freddy returned to +the exciting spot and with two or three men who had "fingers" and a +"sense" of things, began his morning's picking. + +While he worked away with youthful energy and an almost inspired +intelligence, he could hear the toilers with the rubbish-baskets +singing their monotonous chants. The word "Allah, Allah" came +repeatedly to his ears. He had grown so accustomed to the words of +their chants that he followed them subconsciously; the words "Allah, +Lord of Kindness, Giver of Ease," rang out with monotonous persistence. +Allah was to ease their burdens; Allah was to moisten their dry lips; +the "Lord of the Worlds" was to hasten the time when the poor man might +sit in the shade and smell the sweet scents of paradise and listen to +the sound of running waters. + +They chanted verses from the Koran as Jack Tars sing sea songs. In +Mohammedan lands the song of Allah never dies. + +Only occasionally Freddy heard the quaint words of some popular +love-song, coming from the lips of one of the higher-class Arab +workmen, a song as old as their tales of _The Thousand and One Nights_. +One was drifting to his half-conscious ears at the moment; he was +familiar with every word of it. + +"A lover says to his dove, 'Send me your wings for a day.' The dove +replied, 'The affair is vain.' I said, 'Some other day, that I may +soar through the sky and see the face of the beloved; I shall obtain +love enough for a year and will return, O dove, in a day.' The night! +The night! O those sweet hands! Gather of the dewy peach! Whence +were ye, and whence were we, when ye ensnared us?" + +The Arab who was singing it was considered quite a musician amongst his +fellow-workmen. He had earned his living for some years by singing +love-songs on the small boats which drift up and down the Nile and in +the cafes in Luxor. To English ears his talents as a singer would not +have been recognized; the particular qualities which ensured the +approval of his native audience would have caused much laughter in an +English music-hall. Freddy Lampton, who knew something of Arab music, +was able to recognize the singer's talents, but he was not near enough +to hear the grunts of intense satisfaction and longing which the song +was calling forth from the blue-shirted _fellahin_. + +And so the hours of the morning wore on, until the sun was too powerful +to allow even the natives to work, and Freddy Lampton wandered off to +the tomb in which his friend was painting. The _fellahin_ instantly +untied the bundles which held their simple food and began their midday +meal. Many of them prayed before eating; many of them did not. + +When the meal was eaten, each man sought some vestige of shade, behind +a mound of rock or an ash-heap of debris, or in the excavated channels +of the site; there with full stomach and contented mind he would lay +himself down to sleep, amid the heap of ruins which thousands of years +ago had been the field of vast numbers of toilers, such as were he and +his fellow-toilers, slaving for the glorification of an absolute +monarch, whose kingdom was the civilized world. He cared not one jot +nor tittle for what he had uncovered or what secrets the valley or +hills had hidden from men for countless centuries. Filling baskets +full of rubbish was his work, his method of earning a living, and it +mattered nothing to him whether the rubbish was culled from the golden +sand of the most wonderful valley in the world, or thrown out of the +filthy ashbins in the native city of Cairo. Toil was all one thing to +him; it had no interest, it suggested no varieties. Allah had willed +it. The clear blue sky and the sunlit hills, with their tombs and +tombs and endless tombs stretching further and further into the western +valley, they, too, were Allah's will, as were the dark, evil-smelling +streets of the city, with their noise and the crowding of human and +animal beasts of burden. + +As Freddy approached Michael Amory a look of satisfaction spread over +his face. "Mike," as he called him, was so busily engrossed in his +work that he did not look up. He was making a delicate and +extraordinarily exact reproduction on paper of a figure of an Egyptian +King making offerings to an enthroned Osiris. No other artist had ever +done the same work with his delicacy of touch and exactness of detail. +The picture on his easel looked as if he had cut a square block out of +the polished limestone which held the tinted relief of the King making +the offering to the god, and set it upon his easel. + +Freddy was proud of Michael and not a little surprised at the rapidity +with which he had grasped the nature of his excavation work, which was +not only the opening up of fresh monuments for the pleasure of the +public, but the search after missing links and the verifying of +well-founded conjectures. He knew that Michael had read a fair amount +of Egyptian history, that he had specialized in one period, and that he +had studied, in his own fashion, something of the mythology of ancient +Egypt, but he was quite unprepared for the "sense" of the more serious +part of the work which he had shown. + +Besides which, Freddy knew more than Michael thought he did of the new +distraction which had disturbed his mind. + +About once in ten days Freddy found it almost necessary to go to Assuan +or Luxor and there throw himself heart and soul into the festivities of +the foreign hotel society. For one night and half a day he played +tennis and danced and was young again. These periodical outings and +his private hobbies kept his mind and nerves well balanced. At his age +it was scarcely healthy for a sport-loving, normal Englishman to spend +his days and nights all alone, in the silent valley in the hills, his +only companions the mummies of Pharaohs and the bones unearthed from +subterranean tombs. But Freddy slept as happily and as soundly with +mummies in his room and ancient skulls below his bed as he did in the +modern, conventional bedroom of the big hotel at Assuan. + +Michael had accompanied him to these dances, and Freddy had noticed +that on each occasion he was very much engrossed by the company of an +Englishwoman of whom he had heard a good deal that was ugly and +unpleasant. He had long ago ceased to pay any attention to the +scandals which were related to him each season about the English and +American women who came to Egypt for the sake of the climate and for +its hotel-society--ugly stories, generally greatly exaggerated, but +often with a foundation of unsavoury truth in them. The sands of Egypt +breed scandals as quickly as the climate degenerates the morals of +shallow-minded tourists. But this woman Freddy knew to be as dangerous +as she was charming; and he also knew the enthusiastic nature of +Michael and how it was temperamental with him to place all women on +pedestals and worship them as pure, high beings, far above mere men. +Fallen idols never shattered his belief; they were simply forgotten. + +Since Michael had met the beautiful Mrs. Mervill, Freddy had noticed +that he had fits of abstraction, and that instead of working overtime, +as was his habit, he was now as prompt as the _fellahin_ to "down +tools" at the precise moment. + +Freddy "had no use" for the woman. His practical mind had summed her +up at a glance. But he was afraid that his friend might drift into a +very undesirable friendship with her. She would enjoy his simplicity, +for he seemed to have been born without guile, while his intellectual +fascination was not to be denied. Michael was generous, impetuous and +reckless. + +"I'm not going to disturb you," Freddy said. "We'll meet at lunch." + +"Right-ho!" Michael said. "I've almost finished." + +"Looks as if you'd blown the thing on to the paper this time," Freddy +said. "Gad, it's topping!" + +Michael said nothing, but he glowed inwardly. A word of enthusiastic +praise from Freddy was worth all his morning's toil in the breathless, +stuffy tomb-chamber of the Pharaoh whose embalmed remains it contained. + +Freddy returned to his hut and flung himself down in a cane +lounge-chair in as cool a spot as he could find. He picked up a French +novel and lit a cigarette. + +Lying there, in his white flannels, reading _Marie Claire_, who would +have thought that he was one of the most able Egyptologists of the day, +of the younger school, or that he controlled so important a section of +the English School of Archaeology in Egypt? + +Meanwhile the simple meal was being laid with a neatness and convention +which was a striking contrast to the wooden hut and scarcity of +furniture in the room. The Arab who was setting the table was a +perfect parlourmaid, a product of Freddy's teaching. The only thing +Freddy was proud of was his ability to train and make good servants. +Mohammed Ali's table-waiting really pleased him. He thought Meg would +approve of him. He was an intelligent lad and proud of his English +master, who seemed to think that telling a lie for the sake of being +polite or kind was really a sin. In fact, the Effendi was very rarely +cross, except when Mohammed forgot and told a lie. Sometimes it was +very hard to tell the truth when a lie would, he knew, make his master +happy. While he set the table he felt his master's eyes were on him, +even though he was reading a love story which was so beautiful that he +had seen, or thought he had seen, tears in the eyes of Effendi Amory, +when he was reading it the night before. + +Teddy was not finding the beautiful story of the Frenchwoman go +interesting as Mohammed Ali imagined. He had allowed the days to pass, +with all their engrossing interest, without giving much thought to +Margaret's coming or what she would do with herself, or how her +presence would affect their daily life. + +Now in a few hours she would be with them. This was, in fact, his last +meal alone with Mike. He had never bothered about the matter because +Meg was such a good sort and so jolly well able to amuse and look after +herself. The days had just passed, and now she was coming, Meg, who +was his best friend in the whole world, Meg who in his eyes had the +mind of a boy and the sympathy of a woman. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +At five o'clock Michael Amory, true to his word, was down at the ferry, +awaiting the arrival of Margaret Lampton. The ferry-boat was pulling +across the Nile; he would soon be able to distinguish her. In all +probability no other Englishwoman would be crossing to the western bank +of the river at so late an hour. Tourists who came to visit the +Colossi of Memnon, whose song to the dawn never dies, or to "do" the +ruins of the Hundred-Gated city of Thebes, came much earlier in the day. + +While the boat was drifting slowly across, Michael's eyes rested +lovingly on his surroundings. If the girl was appreciative of Nile +scenery, how greatly it must be impressing her! + +Boats, like white birds with big crossed wings, flew past him on the +pale blue river. Heavy, flat-bottomed barges, coming up from the +pottery factories, laden with jars which were to be used for the +building of native houses, drifted past, with their well-stacked, +squarely-built cargoes piled high like stacks of grain. One barge, +with a wide brown sail, was full of fresh green melons. Across the +river, on the opposite bank, bands of women, enveloped in black and +walking in Indian file on the yellow sands, carrying water-jars on +their heads, were wending their way to their mud villages. The gleam +of their metal anklets caught the sunlight. + +But the ferry-boat was drawing close to the bank; the next minute he +would be able to distinguish Freddy's sister, with Abdul in attendance. +The other passengers, with native politeness, were already making way +for the English Sitt and her servant to go ashore. + +Michael hurried forward to greet her. Margaret's blue veil hid her +features until he was quite close to her. + +"I'm Michael Amory, I live with your brother," Michael said. "I have +come to bring you to his camp. He was too busy, or he would have been +here himself--he asked me to apologize to you." + +Margaret's long firm fingers gave Michael's outstretched hand a +grateful grasp. Michael, whose sensibilities were very near the +surface, lost nothing of the girl's meaning. A feeling of relief +soothed his anxiety. + +"How awfully kind of you to come!" she said. "I knew Freddy would be +busy, digging up something that was once somebody, four thousand years +ago." + +"That's about it," Michael said. "As I could be spared and he +couldn't, he asked me to look to your arrival and bring you to the +camp." + +Abdul had hurried on to see that the donkeys were properly harnessed +and all in good order for the long ride across the plain and through +the immortal valley. + +"Are you excavating too?" Margaret asked. + +"I'm allowed to do a little 'picking' under your brother's eyes, but my +real job is painting. I'm only dabbling in archaeology as yet." + +"Painting in connection with his School of Excavation?" + +"Yes. Sometimes it is necessary to make almost instant copies of the +excavated paintings, while the colours are fresh and the text legible." + +"Isn't it all awfully interesting?" the girl asked. "I feel almost +afraid to come in amongst you, for I know literally nothing about +Egyptology. I've only once been in the Egyptian section of the British +Museum, and that's the sum total of my knowledge." + +"You will have to learn. Your brother put a huge tome of Maspero's +_The Dawn of Civilization_ in your room this morning; he means you to +start right away." + +"Good old Freddy!" Margaret said, and as she smiled, Michael for the +first time saw her likeness to her brother; it had escaped him before, +because Freddy was very fair and Margaret was duskily dark. He could +see that even through her blue veil. When she smiled and showed the +same sharp-looking, well-formed teeth, as white as porcelain, Michael +knew that if the girl had only been fair instead of dark, she would be +almost the exact duplicate of her brother. But the expression of her +grey-brown eyes was different; they were steadfast, calm eyes, which +moved more slowly; they were softer than her brother's. + +This Michael could scarcely see, screened as she was by her veil. But +her firm handshake and the long unflinching gaze of her "How do you +do?" told him why Freddy always spoke of his sister in tones which +implied that she was as reliable as a man and a "topping pal." + +They had reached the spot where the donkeys were waiting for them. +Margaret's was a fine, well-bred animal, called Sappho, with a skin as +smooth as a white suede glove; it stood almost as high as a mule. Her +saddle, too, was a new one, and well-fitting--Freddy had seen to that. +The old Sheikh, who was turbanned and robed after the manner of Moses +or Aaron, was presented to her. His pale grey camel was waiting for +him at a little distance from the donkeys. It looked very dignified, +with its white sheepskin flung over the saddle and its fine assortment +of charms. Little tufts of thick hair had been left on its thighs and +at its knees and neck; the artist who had clipped it had evidently +admired the fancy shaving of some resplendent French poodle. + +Margaret felt oddly important and very shy. Such a cavalcade seemed to +have come to meet her. Her attempt at polite rejoinders to the old +Sheikh's graceful and flattering speeches of welcome had all to be +passed through Abdul, and probably delivered them in a more gracious +form than Margaret was capable of expressing them. Abdul was quite +accustomed to the abrupt and mannerless ways of the foreigners and to +their crude speech; he knew that it meant no offence nor indicated any +lack of gratitude or graciousness. + +The Sheikh expressed his willingness to put his camel at Margaret's +disposal, but as her brother had told him that the honourable Sitt +would probably prefer to ride a donkey, all he could do was to again +assure her that it would bestow honour on him if she would ride it, or +in the future make use of it whenever she felt disposed. That is what +Margaret made out of the endless, elaborate speeches which were +translated to her. + +At last they were all mounted and on their way. Margaret found it very +difficult to keep up any sort of conversation with her companions, for +her boy, anxious to do honour to his mistress's donkey, kept Sappho +well ahead of Michael Amory's mule. She had only been one week in +Egypt, so everything which she passed was still an object of interest +and curiosity, but fortunately almost everything explained itself to +her, like the illustrations of a book of the Old Testament. + +They had turned their backs on the river, with its boats and birds and +beasts and drum-beating and yelling _fellahin_, and were now in the +silence of the green plain, where the blue-shirted _fellahin_ were +working knee-deep in the new crops. The inundation was just over, and +the banks of the Nile were as bright as two long velvet ribbons of +emerald green. + +And now they were off the plain and had passed the Temple of Kurneh and +the little Coptic village, which was the last link with civilization +until their long ride up the valley terminated in the Excavation Camp. + +In the valley they rode side by side, for the donkey-boy's enthusiasm +had distinctly abated. Margaret did not know anything about the +valley, beyond the fact that it was called the Valley of the Tombs of +the Kings. She had not yet "done" any tombs, as she had not come up +the Nile by boat--it was cheaper and quicker for her to do the journey +from Cairo to Luxor by train. So far she had not been in the hands of +Cook. Freddy had told her that the money she would have to spend on +the steamer she could spend better later on, and she would be more able +to appreciate the tombs and temples, which most tourists see when they +know too little about things Egyptian to appreciate them. + +Knowing nothing of the story of the great valley, it was interesting to +Michael to watch the effect it had on the girl--an extraordinary +silence and its atmosphere of profound mystery. Their attempt to talk +to each other soon failed, for Margaret was no good at either banter or +small talk. + +For the time being the valley, with its barren cliffs rising higher and +higher on each side of her, and its world of soft pink light, held her. +The wide cliff-bound road, which wound its way like a white thread +through a maze of light and sun-pink hills, seemed to be leading her +further and further into the heart of Egypt, to the very bosom of her +children's ancient kingdom. + +Margaret was totally ignorant of the fact that the tombs which give the +valley its modern name lay in all their desolate splendour in the +bowels of the earth, under the cliffs on either side of her. Her sense +of the valley was not mental, it was not derived from books or a +knowledge of Egypt's history. + +Why it so affected her she could not imagine. It did not depress her +so much as it awed her. The light on the hills was the light of +happiness, and the blueness of the clear sky banished all idea of +sadness which a valley called the Valley of Tombs might have suggested. +Yet it did affect her so profoundly that she accepted the idea that in +entering this valley of desolation she was entering on a new phase of +her existence. She felt suddenly older and wiser and strangely +apprehensive. + +The Sheikh, on his swaying camel, riding on ahead, the donkey-boys, +with their fleet limbs and blue shirts clinging to them as they ran, +were becoming immortal in her memory. Years would never efface the +picture. Only Michael Amory and herself, in their European clothes, +had no place in it. They were intruders. + +Not a bird crossed their path, not a falcon circled over the tops of +the cliffs. On the Nile thousands of birds had looked black against +the sunlight as they came to the great river to drink. + +"Why does this valley, with its pink sunlight, make talking out of the +question?" Margaret at last said. "Please forgive me if I am a very +poor companion." + +Michael, who had been glad that she had not spoken--he would not have +liked her so well if she had--said, "Please don't feel compelled to +talk. I came to help you if you needed help, not to bother you or +spoil your enjoyment." + +"Thank you," she said. "I simply couldn't talk. Does one enjoy +Egypt?" she asked the question pertinently. + +They rode on in silence again and Michael was pleased that +temperamentally she seemed to "feel" Egypt. There had been no +suggestion of psychic influence in her very evident acceptance of the +power of Egypt--just a simple awe, which was to Michael absolutely +natural. + +Presently she said, "Does my brother live all alone in this valley?" + +"Practically alone, for some months in each year. I am with him just +now, and in the daytime there are the workmen. At night he is alone +with his two Sudanese house-servants; but he is well protected--his +watch-dogs sit round his hut and nothing human would dare venture near +them after dark." + +Margaret tried to laugh. "Dogs!" she said. "Dogs couldn't keep off +this"--she indicated the valley. + +Michael knew what she meant. Not a green blade of grass, not the +smallest patch of herb was visible. To Margaret they seemed to be +floating rather than riding through the pink light of another world. + +"No, not this," Michael said. "But your brother's a marvel. I +couldn't do it. Yet even he has to leave it now and then; sometimes he +spends a night in frivolling in Luxor or Assuan." + +As the vision of Luxor hotels, with their company of +fashionably-clothed and overfed tourists, rose up before the girl, she +laughed more naturally. But in the valley her laughter sounded wrong; +she quickly hushed it. + +"Fancy Luxor hotels after this! It certainly is going to +extremes--personally, their society would bore me, but I should think +that it was good for Freddy." + +"Quite necessary," Michael said. "And he's awfully popular at the +dances. I often wonder what some of his partners would say if they +could see him as I do, pick in hand, down in the bowels of the earth or +under the blazing sun of the desert, for days and days on end! Your +brother's quite wonderful." + +"I'm longing to see him at work," Margaret said. "I think his life +sounds most exciting and interesting." + +"Don't expect too much--it is amazingly interesting, but we don't open +a tomb of Queen Thi every day." + +"What tomb was that? Something very special?" + +"Yes, very." Michael said the words very simply, but it struck him as +odd that Freddy's sister should never have even heard of the tomb of +Queen Thi. "At the present time he has just unearthed a small +staircase in the sand and a bit of a brick wall, which may lead to the +tomb he is looking for, or they may end in nothing, for sometimes the +ancient tomb-builders began to dig and work upon a tomb and eventually +abandoned the site as hopeless--the sand was too soft, which meant the +constant falling of sand before they struck a foundation of rock, or +for some other reason--so after days and days of excavating we find +that the whole thing is a fraud, just the mere beginning of a tomb +which was never finished. Then other times he finds a tomb and after +endless work at it--you can't imagine how much work it entails--he +discovers that it was robbed of every single thing of value, probably +by the sexton who was in charge of it when it was first built--all the +jewels and scarabs and things had been looted; probably they were +stolen only a few weeks after the mummy was laid in it." + +Margaret remained silent. She was thinking and thinking, new and +bewildering thoughts were rushing through her mind Before she could in +the least appreciate this new life what a lot she had to learn! + +"An excavator's life isn't a bed of roses--it doesn't consist picking +up jewels and mummy-beads and beautiful amulets and rare scarabs and +valuable parchments in every tomb which is opened. It's hard, hard +work, with any amount of boring, minute detail and scientific work +attached to it." + +Margaret thought for a moment. To speak at all upon a subject of which +she knew absolutely nothing was not in her nature. + +"Shall we pass any tombs? Where are they?" She had expected to see +some ruins of fallen buildings, or monuments which resembled the tombs +in "The Street of Tombs" at Athens--these were familiar to her from +photographs. Here there was absolutely nothing, nothing to suggest +that great tombs had ever been there. + +"They are below us," Michael said, "and all around us, under these pink +rocks, buried like coal-mines. Where your brother is digging just now +the site is rather different--it is flatter and less beautiful; it is +in a small side valley. They were terribly anxious to hide themselves, +poor things, to get away from robbers." + +"Oh, I'm so glad I came!" Margaret said, irrelevantly, and the deep +sigh she gave terminated their conversation. + +Michael knew quite well the nature of her thoughts and the turbulent +fight for expression which they must be causing her. No creature as +sensitively attuned as he judged her to be could journey for the first +time unmoved through the valley which to him summed up the word Egypt. +He allowed her to ride a few paces ahead, just behind the Sheikh. The +camel's arrogant head, with its supercilious gaze, towered above them. +To Margaret, Michael Amory and herself were still an offence in the +valley. The camel, with the high-seated, turbaned Sheikh, seemed a +part of the whole. The animal, with its prehistoric loneliness of +expression, the Sheikh, with his splendid deportment and benign +loftiness of manner, suited the dignity of their surroundings. The +camel's gaze, as its head reached up higher and higher to view some +object which interested its supercilious mind, made Margaret feel very +small and vulgarly modern. She was glad that she was riding a humble +ass. The way the Sheikh rode his haughty animal provoked her +admiration; it was to her after the manner in which the British +aristocracy treat their powdered and silk-stockinged menservants. + +Margaret felt more at ease on her white donkey, just as she felt more +at ease with pleasant English maidservants than with pompous powdered +footmen. It was a ridiculous simile, but it is the ridiculous which +invades the mind in sublime moments. + +While Margaret was finding pleasure in watching the camel and the +Sheikh, or rather, while they were taking their place in her mind with +the air and the sky and the hills and the valley, Michael was certainly +enjoying himself in a more definite criticism of Freddy's sister. He +remembered his friend's remark, "Oh, Meg's all right," and he knew what +he meant. + +Her long limbs and boyish figure delighted his artistic eye, while the +white topee hat, with the long blue veil, failed to hide the attractive +carriage of her head. He felt impatient to see her unhatted and +unveiled. Certainly she was not dowdy, nor had she any aggressive +cleverness about her. Indeed, there was something which suggested a +man's directness of mind and a simplicity which was quite unusual and +fascinating. He could almost have laughed aloud when he thought of the +picture which he had conjured up to himself of the Meg who could +"tackle pretty stiff stuff and suck the guts out of a book like a +weasel sucking the blood out of a rabbit." + +The dowdy "blue stocking" had vanished, and in her place was a girl as +attractive in her darkness as Freddy was in his fairness. + +And so they rode on and on through the Theban hills, bathed in pink +sunlight. The donkey-boys had fallen behind. Their first enthusiastic +effort to show off before the honourable Sitt had quite subsided. They +were discussing her now, in none too delicate a fashion. The elder of +the two boys, who was the son of a dragoman, and hoped one day to +develop into as resplendent a being as his father, was in his way a +great reader. He had just finished an Arabic translation of a French +novel and he was picturing to his friends Margaret as the heroine of +the obscene romance. Poor Margaret! + +In Egypt the Arabic translations of low-class French romances, rendered +even more unclean by their translation, have a poisonous effect upon +the minds of the youths who devour them. Margaret, who had admired the +boy's brilliant smiles and beautiful features and teeth, which were +even whiter and more attractive than her brother's, little dreamed, as +they tell behind and talked together, of the nature of their +conversation. + +Their blue shirts looked like turquoise in the sunlight, and their +little white crochet skull-caps showed to advantage the fine outline of +their dark heads. They were certainly handsome young rascals, with an +inherited grace of manner. + +How her clean, healthy mind would have abhorred and hated them if she +had understood their ceaseless chatter! It was like the noise of +starlings on a spring morning. In Egypt, where ignorance is bliss, it +is certainly folly to be wise. In the East, the inquiring mind, +especially in domestic matters, is often its own enemy. + +To Margaret, Egypt held for the time being nothing which was unclean or +unlovely, nothing which was bettered by ignorance. She was lost in its +light and mystery. In the Theban valley it seemed as if she would live +on light, that it would supply food for both soul and body. In Egypt +God is made manifest in the sun. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +Margaret had been shown over the "estate"; her modest luggage had been +deposited in her bedroom, in which she was now standing, with her arm +linked in her brother's. + +When she had approved of everything and had told him about her journey, +she gave his arm a little hug. + +"Oh, Freddy, it's good to be with you again! You were a brick to let +me come." + +Freddy slid his arm round her shoulders and pressed her closer to him. + +"It's topping having you, old girl, but you mustn't mind if I leave you +an awful lot alone--I can't help it." + +"I know you can't, and if I stew up a bit, you may find work which I +can do. I'd love to help." + +"Oh, don't fear--I'll find lots for you to do." + +She looked at him eagerly, with a touching humility. "What sort of +work?" + +"Cleaning and sorting out the small finds which the workmen bring in +each night, and you could help Mike to do some copying--it's not +difficult, and sometimes the colours vanish when they are exposed to +the light. He can't get the things done all at one time." + +"I see," Margaret said, but in her mind there was a horrible jumble. + +"Sometimes I want Mike to help me--we're awfully short of hands just +now--I mean, for hands that you can absolutely trust, so if you get +into the thing you could do some of Mike's work and let him off." + +"I'd love to, and you know my capability as well as anyone, so if you +think I could I'll do my best." + +"You'll soon know as much as Mike did when he came here, and your +painting's all right." + +"How nice Mike is!" she said simply. + +"He's one of the best." + +"Is he going to make Egyptology his profession?" + +"I don't know--I don't think so. I'm afraid it's just another bit of +Mike's drifting." + +"What a pity!" Margaret was practical. + +"I tell him it's time lost--at his age he ought to be at the job he +means to succeed in." + +"Isn't he taking this up in earnest? He seems to love the life." + +"He does love the thing, but the detail of the work, with all its +exactitude and rules and regulations, bores him. You'll understand +better later on." Freddy opened a copy of the annual report of the +British School of Archaeology in Egypt and pointed to pages and pages +of written records, outline drawings, measurements and diagrams and +plans of tombs and excavations, even accurate copies of small pieces of +broken vases and plates and jars--almost everything which had been dug +up was carefully recorded; nothing seemed too small or incomplete to be +of value. + +Margaret looked at it wonderingly. What was all the labour for? Some +day would she, too, understand the meaning of it and the use of such +scraps and atoms of ancient pottery? Freddy digging out beautiful +objects for the British Museum, statues and scarabs, wonderful jewels +and necklaces of mummy-beads, was what she had visualized, but of all +this she had never dreamed. + +She put her finger on the outline drawing of a small fragment of +pottery with the tracing of a tiny sprig of some plant on it. Her eyes +said "What good can that be?" + +Freddy read her meaning. "That small piece of pottery may have shown +that foreign vegetation was introduced into the district. It is a new +leaf, not met with before. It was probably sent for identification to +the Botanical Department of University College in London. Sometimes +little things like that give rise to heated discussions and theories. +Some excavators won't draw on their imagination--they will have nothing +but hard facts; others start a theory which sounds far-fetched--often +it comes out correct." + +"Realistic and Imaginative Schools!" + +"That's about it. The middle way is generally the soundest. The +excavator without imagination never gets very far, whereas the man who +is apt to let his imagination run wild gets on the wrong track and it's +hard to get him off; he overlooks things that won't fit in with his +theory." + +"I had no idea archaeology involved all this--you're awfully clever, +old boy." + +"It's unending work and extraordinarily far-reaching, as it's done +to-day. In the early days the horrors that were committed in the way +of excavating were too awful." + +"You work like detectives now, it seems to me, following up the +smallest threads and links." + +"That's it," Freddy said. "We are just a body of intellectual +detectives, running to earth the history of Egypt and the story of the +ancient world. We're really far more interested in finding connecting +links and establishing disputed facts, than in unearthing statues and +figures which please the public. Egyptologists have unearthed the +private lives of Egypt's kings and queens." + +"I suppose your friend Mike only enters into the artistic side of it?" + +"Not altogether--he's awfully keen about Egyptian history and +mythology, but he hates detail too much to give his mind and time to +all the hard grind of the thing--he likes to study the history we +unearth." + +"I'm afraid I shall be like him. I want to enjoy the results without +the dull labour of digging." + +"It's a sort of thing that's born in you, I think." + +"You love it, Freddy?" + +"Rather! I couldn't stick any other work now." + +"You're looking awfully well." + +"Never felt fitter." + +"The skulls and mummies under your bed haven't done you any harm. Poor +aunt Anna, how she dreads them! She always imagines that everything +Egyptian has the most malign powers. She's sure some mummy will take +its revenge on you for disturbing it." + +"Poor old Anna! I suppose she thinks we are the first people who ever +thought of disturbing these tombs! She little knows how rare a thing +it is to come across one which was not robbed thousands of years ago of +all that was worth having. If Egyptian amulets and mummies had such +terrible powers, you may be very sure that the modern Arabs, who are +the most superstitious people in the world, would not touch the work, +and the ancient sextons or guardians of the tombs, who were even more +superstitious, wouldn't have dared to disturb the last slumber of a +lately-buried Pharaoh. They plundered and sacked the tomb just as soon +as ever they could. The tombs were first built up in this valley with +the hopes of hiding them; they were built here to get away from the +wretches who plundered the cemeteries on the plains. I suppose the +Pharaohs who were having their tombs built hadn't discovered that the +other tombs had been robbed by the very guardians who were set to watch +them. It was left for us to discover that." + +"Was that so? It certainly does not look like a valley of tombs." + +"They were hidden with all the cunning which the Eastern mind could +devise, and yet most of them have been robbed." + +They had left the house and were sitting on lounge chairs in the front +of the hut. There was a beautiful moon and a sky full of stars, such +as Margaret had never seen before. + +"Come on, Mike!" Freddy called out. "Don't make yourself scarce. Meg +and I don't want to discuss family secrets. Her first night in the +valley is going to be the real thing--no intrusion of family +skeletons--they can wait." + +"Our family skeletons would feel themselves very out of place here," +Margaret said as Michael Amory appeared. + +Michael sat down beside her and very soon all three were talking about +topics of general interest. Meg gave them the latest London gossip, +which at the time was very dominated by the unrest in Ireland and the +Ulster scandals. + +Michael, who had on one side of his family Irish blood and strong Irish +sentiments, did not voice his opinions. He listened to all that +Margaret had to tell her brother, news principally gathered from +friends living in Ulster and from the violently anti-Nationalist press. +There certainly seemed exciting times in Ireland and Margaret's talk +was unprejudiced and interesting. + +While they were talking Mike was able to enjoy the girl's beauty and +study her individuality. Pretty as she was--and more than pretty--it +was her personality which pleased him--the bigness of her nature, the +evidence of her wide-mindedness and her quick grasp of fresh subjects, +and above all, in her, as in Freddy, there was the ring of +unquestionable honour and clean-mindedness. + +Margaret under the Eastern moonlight was charming. Her brown hair was +so soft and thick that Mike would have liked to put his hand through +it, as he saw her do every now and then. Most women, he knew, were shy +of disturbing their hair, however naturally arranged it might seem. +Margaret, when anything excited her, had a trick of putting her long +fingers through her hair, upwards from her forehead, and letting it +fall down again as it felt inclined. Her nicety of dress, too, pleased +her critical inspector. It was fastidiously simple and fastidiously +worn. In this again she was one with her brother. + +When English news had been discussed, their talk turned again to Egypt. +Margaret greatly desired to study Arabic; but although her brother +could speak it extremely well, she knew that he had no time to teach +her. It amazed her how much he had had to learn and had learned during +his years in Egypt. It was after twelve o'clock when the trio parted +for the night. + +When Meg was alone in her room, a certain reaction set in; she felt +tired and just a little depressed. She wanted to do so much and she +knew so little. Beyond the name Rameses she had not recognized the +name of one of the kings her brother had mentioned during their +conversation that evening--indeed, she had failed to grasp the meaning +of almost everything he had said, and yet she knew that he was talking +down to her level, or thought he was. + +Bewildered with the sense of Egypt, she fell asleep and dreamed of the +valley and her wonderful ride. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +Margaret had lived in the valley for a little over three weeks, +immortal weeks of intense interest and new impressions. She had fitted +herself into the atmosphere with a charm and adaptability which left +Michael and Freddy wondering how they had ever got on without her. A +woman in the hut made all the difference; a feeling of "homeness" now +pervaded the camp. Margaret had found so much to do in the way of +adding obvious touches of comfort and convenience to the hut and to the +tents that she had found little or no time to start upon her studies of +Egyptology. + +The moonlight nights she had spent either in the company of her brother +or Michael, wandering about the valley, or sitting alone outside their +primitive home, absorbing the spirit of the desert. She had not felt +ready for book-learning. + +One evening, after dinner, Michael and she had ridden down the valley +and back again, repeating her first journey, so that she might enjoy it +by moonlight. + +The three weeks had done a great deal to help her to distinguish some +of the periods and terms in connection with her brother's work. The +word Coptic, for instance, had now its proper significance in her mind, +and the terms dynasty and century were no longer jumbled hopelessly +together. She also realized that Egypt had been governed by kings and +queens with strong individualities of their own; they were not all +spoken of by Egyptologists as "Pharaohs," a word which hitherto had +suggested to Margaret the title given to the hosts of nameless and half +legendary monarchs who ruled over a semi-Biblical kingdom. + +Thus far and no further had she gone in the story of the world's first +civilization; but she had gone further in her friendship with Michael +Amory and in her knowledge of things Mohammedan. He had helped her to +unravel the skein of difficulties which Egypt's three distinct and +widely-different civilizations had presented to her--the period of +ancient Egypt, the period which we now call Coptic or Early Christian +and the period of the Arab invasion, with its importation of a +Mohammedan civilization. Traces of all these distinct civilizations +and religions perpetually come to light in the work of excavation. +Nothing puzzled the girl more than the fact that while digging on an +ancient Egyptian site, her brother seemed to find Christian and +Mohammedan relics. But even when he was speaking of interesting events +in comparatively modern Egyptian history, which he took for granted she +would appreciate and understand, Margaret felt disgracefully ignorant. + +So Michael took her in hand and he thoroughly enjoyed the work of +helping her to grasp some of the essential points which would clear her +mind before she started upon her serious reading. She had begun taking +lessons in Arabic with Michael who could speak it fluently but could +neither read nor write it, the written and spoken language being +entirely different. + +Margaret's quickness astonished him. He was ignorant of her record at +college. + +He was now having an example of her capacity for learning which she did +at a pace which rather unnerved him. Margaret learnt a language as she +learned the geography of a city. She would quietly and composedly +study a map until the "sense" of the city was in her brain. In +beginning her study of Arabic she explained to her brother that she +must first of all try to grasp the "sense" of the language. + +"I want a map of it, Freddy--you know what I mean." + +And Freddy did know. The Lampton type of brain was familiar to him, +and his own method of absorbing languages, or any of the subjects which +he had had to study for his examinations, was exactly similar to +Margaret's, so he set Michael and their Arabic master on the right +track. + +As a rule, the Arabic alphabet takes a student about three weeks to +learn. Margaret, with apparently very little trouble, mastered it in +one; it took Michael almost a month. Yet Margaret knew that she was +not grasping things with any ease or quickness; she felt too unsettled +and impatient. She was "dying," as she expressed it, to push on with +Arabic so as to be able to talk to the natives and understand things +Mohammedan, but the very fact that Arabic was not going to help her to +read Egyptian hieroglyphics, or understand anything at all about +ancient Egypt, acted as an irritant to her brain, and retarded her +working powers. + +"And when my brain is annoyed, or it feels impatient," she said, "bang +goes my poor intelligence--it simply won't be hurried; it will only +work in its own deliberate way." + +Michael declared that the way it was working was good enough for +him--rather too good, in fact. + +Under such circumstances, the intimacy between Margaret and her +brother's best friend naturally ripened very quickly. Margaret felt as +though she had known him for months instead of weeks, and more than +once she had wondered what life would be like without him. He was much +more imaginative than Freddy and more intellectually excitable and +curious. He theorized and perhaps romanced where Freddy was apt to +accept only proven facts. Michael's temperament was the exact +stimulant which Margaret's brain required. + +That Michael did his share of hard work Margaret had realized when she +accompanied him one day to the scene of his labours. She had had to +bend almost double and crawl down a steep shaft, of slippery, sliding +debris, to what she thought must be halfway through the world, and pick +her way over the rubbish in a semi-excavated chamber in the vast tomb. +Some of the chambers were full of huge stones, which had fallen in with +the roof. It was in a smaller chamber, where the heat was so great +that she could scarcely breathe, that Michael spent his mornings and +the greater part of his afternoons. + +The heat of Egypt, concentrated for centuries and centuries, seemed to +scorch Margaret's face when she entered it. The building was like a +temple with side chapels. In one side chapel Michael sat himself down +to copy a wide band of gaily-painted decorations, which formed a dado +round its three walls. + + * * * * * * + +On this particular night Margaret had returned from a long walk with +Michael. They had left the low level of the valley and its winding +white road and had climbed up on to the heights of the Sahara. It had +pleased Margaret to feel that her feet were pressing the sands of the +great African desert. She had never dreamed that their valley was +actually a rift in the rocks of the Sahara, that ocean of sand which +travels on and on to infinity. + +They had stood side by side on its high ridge, with their eyes looking +towards the plain below, the historic plain which once held the capital +of the world. The plain of Thebes reached to the river, and across the +river lay gay Luxor, with its lights and the luxuries of modern +civilization. + +Their walk was finished. It had drawn them still closer together. The +solitude of the Sahara, with its sense of Divinity, had established a +new link in their sympathies; it had created a feeling between them +similar to that which is the outcome of two people having been together +through strenuous and trying circumstances. They had, as usual, spoken +very little; yet they were conscious of having enjoyed each other's +society intensely and in the best possible manner, the enjoyment of +complete understanding. + +Earlier in the evening, when Michael asked her to go for a walk, +because Freddy was absorbed in some business letters, he had made the +proposal in his habitual way. + +"May I come and keep silence with you to-night in the great Sahara?" + +And Meg had said, "Yes, do. You know, we really talk to each other all +the time--my mind has so much more the gift of speech than my tongue." + +And so their silence had been as golden as the sand at their feet, +which under Egypt's moon never pales. + +Freddy was only too glad that Michael had "cottoned on to Meg," as he +expressed it--in fact, he was extremely pleased, for Meg would drive +"the other woman" out of his thoughts, and if anything should come of +it--well, Mike was one of the very best; Meg could not have a better +husband. + +But so far no such thought had entered Mike's head, nor yet Margaret's. +She was too interested and busy in her new life to think of love; she +was only conscious of living as she had never lived before, and as she +would have asked to live if she had possessed a wishing-ring. Every +hour and minute of her days were a delight. To be with her best "pal" +Freddy in Egypt seemed too good to be true, and added to that, there +was this unexpected pleasure, the friendship and companionship of the +nicest man she had ever met. His rather "drifting" temperament and +nature appealed to her as it appealed to Freddy, for the very reason, +perhaps, that keenly sensitive as she was and susceptible to her +surroundings, her nature and brains were of a practical order. She was +not imaginative or moody. + +She loved to listen to Michael's vivid, unpractical, Utopian theories +and to follow him to where his flashes of brilliance carried him. His +dream cities and dream people delighted Margaret. He told her stories +as she had never been told stories before, invented as he went along, +stories which kept her one minute fighting against tears and the next +in delicious laughter. + +Margaret never could tell stories, not even to little children; she was +not gifted with a creative brain or ingenuity. + +On the heights of the Sahara they, had not broken the silence; it was +only on their return journey, under a canopy of southern stars, that +Margaret had said: + +"A short story, please." + +And Michael had told her a story about a certain king of Egypt who had +a beautiful slave, who had such power over him that she could make him +do anything she liked. The things she liked were more fantastic than +anything Margaret had ever read in _The Arabian Nights_. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +Now, on her lounge-chair in front of the hut, Margaret was resting +after their walk. Freddy and Michael were both indoors. + +Half an hour or perhaps more might have passed, when suddenly a +luminous figure stood in front of her. She had not seen its approach; +it was simply there before her, just as if it had taken form out of the +desert air. + +She recognized that it was the figure of an Egyptian Pharaoh or a high +priest--she could not tell which. It wore the short kilt-like garment +and the high head-dress, with a serpent's head sticking out from the +front of it (the double crown of North and South Egypt, though Margaret +did not know it at the time) which had become familiar to her in the +pictures of ancient Egyptian kings. She had seen many such figures in +her brother's books and in the mural paintings of the tombs. + +As Margaret looked with amazement--certainly not fear--at the face of +the strange apparition in front of her, she thought that it was the +saddest she had ever seen. In the eyes there was a world of suffering +and sorrow. + +She felt conscious of being awake; the moon and the stars were above +her; they surrounded the luminous figure. Her brain struggled for +intelligence. Was this the spirit of some great king of Egypt, or of a +high priest, or what was it? Was it an optical delusion? If it was a +spirit, why had it come to her? + +"Tell me who you are," she said. "Do you want anything?" She spoke +nervously, not expecting an answer. + +"I once ruled over Egypt, and I return to see what my people are doing, +if the seed I sowed has borne fruit." + +"In this, valley there are no people--it is a valley of the dead." + +"My body was brought to my mother's tomb in this valley." + +The voice was so sad that Margaret said: + +"You are in trouble? You cannot rest? Is that why your spirit has +returned to earth?" + +"My spirit is with Aton, the master of that which is ordained. I have +come to deliver a message; it is for you." + +"For me?" Margaret said. "I know nothing at all about Egypt." + +"That is not necessary. Aton's love is great and large. It filled the +two lands of Egypt; it fills the world to-day." + +"But I am ignorant. You think I understand--I don't. . . . I can do +nothing." + +The sad eyes in the emaciated face, the face of a saint and fanatic, +smiled at her fears so tenderly that Margaret's heart was less troubled. + +"You can tell the one who is to do my work, the one who knows and loves +Aton, Aton--the compassionate, the all-Merciful. Tell him that I bid +him take up my work." + +"Your work?" Margaret said. "You were a king of ancient Egypt. . . . +You speak as if you had worshipped our God . . . there is no one who +can do your work . . ." She paused, and then said nervously, "Egypt is +different now--it cannot go back." + +"Egypt must go on, not back. Nothing is different in the heart of man; +your soul is as my soul. Aton liveth for ever in his children. He +filleth the two lands of Egypt with his love. I was his messenger." + +"But who was Aton?" Margaret said. In her mind she was striving to +recall if she had ever heard any references to the worship of one god +in Egypt, except by the children of Israel. + +"The one who is to do my work will tell you. He has studied my +teachings, he understands the love of Aton, whose rays encompass the +world." + +"Thank you," Margaret said. "I will tell him." She knew instinctively +that it was Michael who "understood." + +"He knows my work and my desire for the people of Egypt. He knows that +my people worship one God, but that they have no love of God in their +hearts." + +As the figure moved, it became less distinct. Margaret said: "Is that +all I am to tell him? Are you going away?" She felt distressed; she +knew not why. + +"I will return. Give him my message." + +"That he is to continue your work in Egypt?" + +"That he is to teach my people the love and the goodness of Aton, that +his mercy is everlasting." + +"Tell me, before you go, who is Aton?" + +"You ask, as people asked of a Messenger of God who followed after me +in my distant kingdom of Syria. Did He not answer them: 'Who are those +that draw us to the Kingdom of Heaven? The fowls of the air, and all +the beasts that are under the earth and upon the earth, and the fishes +in the sea, these are they which draw you, and the Kingdom of Heaven is +within you.'" + +"And will he understand if I tell him your words? I am quite ignorant +of your teachings." + +"He will understand because he has studied my teachings. He knows how +fair of form was the formless Aton, how radiant of colour. He knows +that the Kingdom which is Heaven is within us. In loving the world and +the beauty of the world which is Aton's he knows my commandments." + +As Margaret was about to ask why he had not appeared to Michael +himself, for she had no doubt that it was upon him that the mission was +laid, the vision disappeared and she was left alone, under the clear +skies, gazing out over the valley which lay spread before her, in its +eternal stillness. She could hear the sound of her last words +vibrating in the air. There was not a sign of any living thing near +her; only in the distance she could hear the barking of the jackals, a +desert sound to which she had already grown so accustomed as to +scarcely notice it. + +That she had been wide awake she was convinced; she did not feel as +though she had been asleep. As she tried to visualize the vanished +figure and to repeat to herself the words, which she must either have +imagined or heard, Michael came out and offered her a cigarette. + +"Who were you talking to?" he said. "Freddy and I thought we heard +your voice." + +"Michael," she said eagerly, "what time is it? Have I been asleep? +Have I been here long?" + +She spoke anxiously, impatiently. + +"How can I tell if you have been asleep?" he said, laughingly. "As to +the time, it's about eleven o'clock. Do you often talk in your sleep?" + +"Sit down beside me," she said urgently, "and let me tell you what has +happened. If I have been asleep, I have dreamed it; if I was awake, I +have experienced a very extraordinary thing, the moat extraordinary +thing you can imagine!" + +Michael threw himself down on the ground at her feet. + +"While I was sitting here, and, as I thought, wide awake, thinking over +our walk in the Sahara and about your story and enjoying the moon and +the stars, quite suddenly a figure appeared. I was awfully startled, +and yet not frightened." + +"What sort of a figure? One of the house-boys pretending to be a +spook?" + +"No, no house-boy. If I tell you, don't laugh, for even if it was only +a dream--which, of course, it must have been--it was very beautiful and +solemn." + +Now that Margaret was talking to someone about it, the incredibility of +the incident seemed much stronger. "It was probably a dream," she said +humbly. "All the same, don't make fun of it." + +"I won't laugh," he said. "You know I never laugh at such things. I +believe in visions--if you like to call these visitations visions." + +"But the odd thing is that the figure was exactly like the picture of +an Egyptian Pharaoh--that's why it now seems absurd--only his face was +not like the proud, arrogant faces of the Egyptian kings one sees in +pictures--fighting kings. It was more like the face of a suffering +Christ, the saddest face I ever saw, or ever will see again. Oh, those +eyes!" Margaret shivered, and paused. + +"Please go on," Michael said. His voice encouraged her. + +"I can't remember exactly what he said . . . it's all slipping away. +He spoke of some character of which I never heard; he said beautiful +things--I wish I could recollect the exact words he used." + +"Then he spoke to you?" Michael's voice was low, intense. + +"Yes, he spoke. He gave me a message for you." + +"For me?" Michael said passionately. "For me? How do you know it was +for me?" + +Margaret trembled as she spoke. "How do I know it was for you?" She +paused. "I do know--or, at least, I never doubted while the figure was +here. Now it seems foolish--it must all have been a dream." + +"No, go on. I want to hear everything." + +"He said I was to tell you that you were to carry on his work in the +world, he said that you would understand." She paused. "If it was +you, you will understand, because he said you had read his teachings +and believed in them. Does that convey anything?" + +"Yes, yes. Go on--what else?" Michael's voice trembled with +impatience. + +"There was one word he used which I have forgotten . . . and it meant +everything. I wish I could remember it! It's a name I never heard +before." + +"Think," Michael said, "do try to think--it may come to you." Margaret +noticed that he was trying to hide his excitement; he was more nervous +than she was. + +"He spoke of someone as God, and said beautiful things about Him . . . +this God, of everlasting mercy . . . those were his words. . . . Oh, I +remember the name!" she cried. "It was Aton--it seemed to be the name +of his God. He spoke of Aton as St. Francis spoke of Christ. Aton was +in the birds and fishes and flowers and in the cool streams." + +Michael turned round and grasped Margaret's hand. He was trembling +with excitement; he could hide it no longer. + +"It was Akhnaton! Oh, Meg, how wonderful! Tell me everything . . . +the spirit of Akhnaton!" + +"But who was Akhnaton? I am in the dark. He said he was Aton's +messenger." + +"First tell me all you can remember." + +Margaret tried to recall everything that the Pharaoh had said to her. +His exact words she could not repeat, but their essence she contrived +to convey quite clearly to the listening Michael. + +"Akhnaton," he kept murmuring. "It must be Akhnaton . . . a message to +me through you!" + +One sentence she was able to repeat almost word for word. "Who are +those that draw us to the Kingdom of Heaven? The fowls of the air and +all the beasts that are under the earth and upon the earth, and fishes +in the sea, these are they which draw you, and the Kingdom of Heaven is +within you." + +Michael had unconsciously drawn closer to her as she spoke. She heard +him say, with a sigh of intense satisfaction, "His very teachings, +Christ's own words!" + +"Tell me as exactly as you can what he was like." + +Margaret closed her eyes to bring back a picture of the vision, the +wonderful figure, luminous and bright. + +"His sadness is what I remember most plainly. I had thought that all +the Pharaohs were proud, hard warrior kings, with no pity in their +hearts. This king's face spoke of the suffering of Christ, of a man of +sorrows and acquainted with grief. His sorrow seemed to be for +humanity, for our sins, not the sorrow of a man who had known only +personal unhappiness." + +Michael said nothing; he was too deeply moved. + +"As I told you," Margaret continued, "he had a very strangely-shaped +head, more curiously-shaped than I can describe--very long and sloping +upwards to the back. He wore a high head-dress which seemed too heavy +for his slender neck. Coming from behind it there were bright rays, +just like rays of the sun--I have never seen anything like them in any +picture . . . oh, it must have been a dream! It all sounds quite +absurd." Margaret's trembling voice belied her words. + +"Akhnaton!" Michael cried excitedly. "Now there can be no doubt. Oh, +Meg!" He had unconsciously been using Freddy's pet-name for her, his +hand sought hers sympathetically. + +Margaret prized the word "Meg" as it came affectionately from his lips. + +"Meg, it is all too wonderful!" + +Michael said no more; he had buried his face in his two hands. He +would have given his youth to have seen what Margaret had seen. + +"Then you don't think it was a dream?" + +"How could you have dreamed the very appearance of Akhnaton, or dreamed +his personality, when you have never heard of him?" + +"I suppose I couldn't," she said. "But was Akhnaton unlike any other +Pharaoh of Egypt?" + +"As unlike as St. Francis was to Nero." + +A sudden idea came to Margaret. "But," she said, "he spoke to me in +English, in my own language. If it was really the spirit of Akhnaton, +how could he?" + +"Dear Meg, there are more things in divine philosophy than are dreamed +of by you or me. In what language did Our Saviour speak to St. +Francis, who was an Italian, and to St. Catherine?" + +"That is true," Margaret said, in a changed tone. "Will you tell me +all about this Pharaoh?" + +Michael thought before answering her question, and then he said, "I'd +rather not, not yet." + +"But why?" + +"Because I don't want to put any ideas into your head. All this has +come perfectly naturally, and through a modern who was totally ignorant +of the message she was conveying. If you were to receive another +message, if you ever were to see Akhnaton again, and you knew all about +him, it would not be the same thing." + +"Oh," Margaret said quickly, "I forgot--he said as he disappeared, 'I +will return.'" She gave a deep-drawn sigh and said nervously, "Do you +think he will?" + +"Will you be afraid? Were you afraid?" Michael's arm had slipped +almost round her shoulders. It was a moment when close human contact +came very graciously to the girl. + +"Afraid? No, he was too gentle, too sad--there was absolutely nothing +to be afraid of. I didn't stop to think of the supernaturalness of the +vision--I was much too interested. If it was a ghost, I shall never be +afraid of ghosts again." + +Michael shivered. + +Meg looked at him. She had hurt him; she felt a slight shrinking in +his sympathy. + +"Don't speak of ghosts, Meg--I hate the term, with all its cheapness +and irreverence!" + +"Then you believe in visions? You are convinced that I have not +dreamed all this?" + +"If it had been Freddy who had told me, I should have said that he had +been asleep and dreamed it, because he knows all about Akhnaton. We +are constantly discussing his character, a character I admire much more +than he does. But as it was you who saw him and you who have described +him as accurately as if you had his portrait in front of you, I feel +certain it was not a dream." + +Meg remained silent, while her thoughts worked with a new and amazing +rapidity. In Egypt she felt that anything was possible; the +supernatural might very soon become natural. And certainly the face +which she had seen was so unlike the types of the conventional figures +of the Egyptian kings she would have visualized if she had tried her +best to picture one from imagination, that she began to wonder if +Michael was right in his assumption that she had actually seen and been +in communication with the spirit of Akhnaton. + +"But why should he have chosen me, this great Pharaoh?" she said. +"Modern me, with no knowledge whatsoever of his kingdom or his beliefs!" + +"Ah, why?" Michael said. "Have we ever been told why Mary was chosen +to be the Mother of Jesus, the Divine Man Who taught the world what +Akhnaton tried to teach his people thirteen hundred years before His +coming--that the Kingdom of God is within us? Who can tell the manner +or the means by which God works? Not half, or a quarter, of the +Christian world knows, Meg, how often God speaks to them through +mysterious channels--through spirits, if you like. When people are +inspired to do good works, to lead what the material world calls holy +lives, God has spoken to them, the God Who is within them, the God Who +brought you and me together, Meg, to enjoy this valley. Its emptiness +and stillness is full of God. Don't you feel that its beauty and +solitude are due to His presence?" + +Meg shivered. "I know what you mean." + +"Don't be nervous. It is a great privilege, this sense of the divine, +this beautiful closeness to God, this cutting off of our material +selves, this knowledge of our Kingdom of Heaven within us." + +"I am far more earth-tied than you, Mike. I do feel these things, but +more feebly, less convincingly. I have never thought much about them. +We Lamptons are very practical; all our men have led good, clean, +straightforward lives, and our women have not made bad wives and +mothers, but I don't think we have been idealists, or very religious. +Our sense of honour more than our beliefs has kept us straight." + +"Poor, poor Akhnaton!" Michael said. His thoughts had strayed while +Margaret spoke. + +"Why do you say 'Poor Akhnaton?' Why was he so sad?" + +Michael evaded the question by saying, "We won't speak of this to +anyone, if you don't mind. Let it be just between you and me." + +Margaret hesitated for a moment. There was something stirring and +pleasurable to her emotions in the idea of having a secret with +Michael; it was like possessing a part of him all to herself; yet she +shrank from keeping back anything from Freddy. Even this dream--if it +was only a dream--she would naturally have told to him, because it held +such a wonderful idea; it would have interested him. It was +interesting from the scientific point of view, the fact that she should +have been able to project her unconscious brain into the history which +she was going to study and accurately visualize and create for herself +the personality and teachings of a Pharaoh of whom she had never heard. +If it had been the great Rameses, or any Biblical character who in +later years entered into Egyptian history, it would have meant less, +for already the personality of the great builder-king of Egypt was +known to her, by the frequency with which she had heard the expression +"Rameses the Great." But of the heretic Pharaoh she had never heard. + +"Do you mind not mentioning it even to your brother?" Mike said. "If +he was not in sympathy with my belief that it was not a dream, he might +unconsciously affect you--he would probably tell you much that I would +rather you didn't know until we find out more." + +Margaret gave her promise willingly. Michael's reason seemed to her +such a justifiable one that their secret might be kept even from Freddy. + +Presently Freddy shouted out, "I'm off to bed, Meg--kick Mike out and +go to yours--you've had a long day." + +As Mike said good-night, Margaret noticed how strained and grave he +was. "Don't look so serious!" She tried to speak lightly. "To-morrow +we shall both say that it was all a dream. Fancy an Egyptian Pharaoh +rising out of his tomb below the hills to speak to me! I'm not going +to think of it any more--I'll send myself to sleep by trying to say the +Arabic alphabet backwards." + +Michael did not look any the less grave. "He was brought to the +valley," he said, "to his mother's tomb, and I don't suppose that I am +the first person to receive a message from him--perhaps the first +European, but then, I love his teachings. They have not been known +very long." + +"He said he had come to see what his people were doing. Do you really +think he has given this message to others?" + +"Why not?--in another manner. These holy men in Egypt who feel +compelled to give up their lives to preaching and praying, and who +travel from desert-town to desert-town, calling on the people to +worship the one and only God--who knows what the manner of their call +was, or how God came to them?" + +"Then you think that God came to-night, in this valley, in the form of +Akhnaton, to you through me?" + +"I certainly do. Akhnaton, like Christ, became divine. We could all +be divine if we allowed ourselves to be." + +"Good-night," Meg said, for Freddy was shouting again. "It's late, and +I'm afraid I am too matter-of-fact and far too materialistic to follow +your ideas and beliefs." + +"I wish I followed what I believe," Mike said. "On a night like this +you can't help believing that God is in the yellow sand and in the blue +sky and in the beautiful stillness. He is in you and me and around us. +The hills look very holy, don't they? But to-morrow it will be so easy +to forget, to take everything for granted, or to behave as if chance +had produced God's world." He held her hand for one moment longer than +was necessary. "One is so closely in touch with the beauty of God +here, Meg. In busy Luxor or Cairo, or in any city, material things are +the things that matter. God is forgotten, set aside . . . man's +ingenuity is so much more obvious." + +"I know," Meg said. "Do you wonder at hermits and saints?" She smiled +a beautiful "Good-night." + +When she was alone in her room, she opened Maspero's _Dawn of +Civilization_, which Freddy had placed there for her. She turned over +its pages idly. "I wonder if I should find anything about Akhnaton +here," she said, "or if this is too early history?" + +Suddenly she closed the book. "No, I won't--I will keep my promise. I +won't read anything about him." + +She paused and thought for a few moments: her brain was too active for +sleep, her nerves too much on edge, so instead of reading about +Akhnaton, who is known in history as Amenhotep IV., the heretic +Pharaoh, she knelt down and prayed to his God, beginning with the old +familiar words, "Our Father, which art in heaven," for He is the same +God yesterday, to-day and for ever, the God of whom Akhnaton said, "He +makes the young sheep to dance upon their hind legs, and the birds to +flutter in the marshes," and as a modern writer said of Him, "The God +of the simple pleasures of life, Whose symbol was the sun's disc, just +as it was the symbol of Christianity. There dropped not a sigh from +the lips of a babe that the intangible Aton did not hear; no lamb +bleated for its mother but the remote Aton hastened to soothe it. He +was the living father and mother of all that He had made. He was the +Lord of Love. He was the tender nurse who creates the man-child in +woman, and soothes him that he may not weep." [1] + +This was the God Margaret prayed to, not knowing that it was Aton, the +God whom Akhnaton first taught the world to praise, the God for whom +Akhnaton thought his kingdom well lost. He was Margaret's God, as He +is our God, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob, +the God Who revealed Himself to His chosen people in the form of Jesus +Christ. + +One thousand three hundred years elapsed between the mission of +Akhnaton and the mission of Jesus Christ. Still another one thousand +and nine hundred years were to elapse before the world was to know that +there was a king in Egypt, the land of the crocodile-god and the +cat-god, Egypt, a very Pantheon of animal-headed gods, to whom God +revealed Himself as he revealed Himself to Christ, a God of Love, a God +of Tenderness and of Mercy--"The master of that which is ordained." + + + +[1] Weigall's _Akhnaton_, Pharaoh of Egypt. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +The next day Freddy announced at breakfast, which was a typically +English meal--except for the excellence of the coffee--that there was +to be a very extra-special ball the next night at the Cataract Hotel at +Assuan. + +"Would you like to go to it, Meg?" he asked. "I think you'd enjoy +it--I can guarantee you plenty of partners." + +"Would you go to it if I wasn't here?" Meg asked tentatively. The old +Meg in her thrilled at the idea of dancing on a good floor with good +partners. Freddy had told her of Michael's record as a dancer, so she +knew that she could count on two partners, at least, for Freddy and she +had learnt dancing together, and had enjoyed nothing better than +waltzing with each other. + +"Yes, I thought of going," Freddy said. "I can leave everything all +right here, and it's about time we had a day off." He turned to +Michael. "Carruthers is coming to see me. He wants to stay the night, +so that's all right." Carruthers was a fellow-excavator attached to a +camp at Memphis. + +"Then I'd love to go," Meg said. "I haven't danced for ages, but I +left my 'gay rags' at Luxor." + +"I'll send Abdul for them," Freddy said, "and you can go to Assuan +early to-morrow and get your traps in order. I don't want a fright, +mind--the tourists dress like anything." + +Meg laughed. "I'll do my best, but don't expect too much of travelled +garments." + +While she was speaking quite naturally and with genuine interest about +the ball, a vision was forming itself before her eyes, her visitor of +the night before; the dark sad eyes and the emaciated face of the +heretic Pharaoh became extraordinarily clear. It usurped her mind so +completely that she found it difficult to pay attention to the subject +which she was discussing. + +She tried to banish the influence, but failed. She had forgotten the +name which Michael gave to the God whom the Pharaoh had so greatly +loved. She could not even recollect the words of his message. Only +his luminous form and melancholy eyes were there in the sunlight before +her. + +She began to wonder which vision was the more fantastic and unreal--the +picture which she had visualized of the grand ballroom in the +magnificent hotel at Assuan, filled with men and women in modern +evening dress, or the figure of the ancient Pharaoh, as he had come to +her in this barren valley in the western desert. + +"Wake up, Meg!" Freddy said. "Dreaming seems infectious." + +Meg knew what her brother meant. So did Mike. + +"Don't forget that the practical Lampton mind is a jolly good thing. +That old drifter won't like living in a tent or a caravan, on twopence +a day, when he's sixty!" Freddy lit his cigarette; he had finished +breakfast. "You'll come, of course?" His eyes spoke to Mike. "Gad, +what a topping morning it is?" + +"Rather!" Mike said abstractedly. "Unless you want me to stay here?" + +"Carruthers will be all right here alone--he knows the place as well as +I do." Freddy's voice did not express much eagerness for Michael's +company at the ball, and Michael knew the reason. Freddy was unable to +decide in his own mind whether it was wiser to urge Mike to go and let +him see Meg as Freddy knew he would see her in all her pretty finery, +and let him enjoy the pleasure of her perfect dancing, or allow him to +stay behind and so avoid the risk of meeting the woman whom he knew +would be there. He had seen her name in the visitors' list in the +_Egyptian Gazette_. She was staying at the Cataract Hotel at Assuan. +He was so divided as to the wisdom of Michael's going or staying that +his response had lacked his usual note of sincerity. + +"Then I'll go," Michael said, for into his mind had floated a vision of +Margaret dressed in her ball-finery and dancing as Freddy's sister +would dance--dancing with other men. + +"Then that settles it," Freddy said. "We'll go a buster to-morrow +night and we'll make up for it after. You can begin real work next +week, Meg--sorting and painting, if you care to." + +When Freddy was ready to start off to his work, Meg went with him. It +was too early for the sun to be dangerous and the air was deliciously +fresh and clean. Meg's hands were dug deep down into the pockets of +her white silk jersey, just as her brother's were dug deep down into +the pockets of his white flannel coat. Meg's long limbs looked almost +as clean-cut as her brother's in her closely-fitting white skirt. As +Michael watched them walk off together, he said to himself, "They are +absurdly alike; they are like twins--they see eye to eye and think mind +to mind." + +As he said the words his sense of Meg contradicted his last remark, for +he knew that he could say things to Meg which Freddy would not +understand; he knew that if they had thought mind to mind he would not +have asked her to keep the secret which they now held between them. + +Thoughts full of tender affection for Freddy made him feel happily +contented; to have such a friend and to be allowed to work with him was +a privilege deserving of sincere thanks. For a few moments he stood +lost in gratitude and praise. These dreaming moments, about which he +was so often good-naturedly chaffed, were not entirely wasted; they +gave him the spiritual food his nature demanded. The desert holds many +prayers. + +"Why so abstracted to-day, Meg?" Freddy said, as they reached the site +of excavation. Margaret was no great talker at any time, but there was +something new in her silence this morning and Freddy felt it. + +"Am I abstracted? I didn't know it." + +"A bit off colour? Are you feeling the sun? You'd better go back +before it gets any hotter and rest more to-day, if we're to go to the +dance to-morrow." + +"Oh, I adore the sun," Meg said. "I believe in my former incarnation I +worshipped it." + +"A disciple of Akhnaton? I think we all are, if we only knew it. Poor +Akhnaton!" + +"Oh, Freddy, who was this Akhnaton? No, I forgot--don't tell me." Her +voice, for Meg, was emotional, excited. "I want to spell things out +for myself." + +"What do you know about him?" Freddy said. "I thought you hadn't begun +reading yet? Has Mike been preaching his religion? Mike's dotty on +Akhnaton--his religion's all right, but as a king he was an ass." + +"No, no, Mike hasn't told me anything about him and I really would +rather come to him in his proper place in history. I mustn't dip, +though it's a great temptation, but it spoils serious work." + +They had stopped and were looking down from the height of the desert to +the level of the excavation which was furthest advanced. Things had +developed greatly since Margaret's first visit. Now she was able to +see that they were at work upon a vast building of some description. +The enormous size and the beautiful cutting of the stones and the +exquisite strength of the mortarless masonry indicated noble +proportions. + +"How interesting it's getting!" she said. "I love these blocks of +evenly-hewn stone in the sand--they look so mysterious, and eternal." + +"I want to take the men off this, if we're going to Assuan +to-morrow--it's getting too hot." + +"Why?" + +"Because there were indications yesterday that we had struck a sort of +rubbish-heap of things which had been turned out of the tomb." + +"What kind of things?" + +"I don't know yet . . . all sorts of things. Probably the relatives of +the dead threw them out when they visited the tomb from time to time; +just as we throw away faded wreaths and flowers, they threw away +accumulations of broken vases and offerings." + +"And you don't want the workmen to know?" + +"I want to be on hand when they are cleaning it up, and it can't all be +done in one day. They are quite capable of sneaking back here before +the _gaphir's_ about in the morning, to see what they can pick up, to +sell to the visitors in Luxor. It's a great temptation." + +"I suppose they consider the tiny things they find far more theirs than +ours?" + +"I suppose they do, but, mind you, the Museum in Cairo gets its pick +and the choice of all that's found in Egypt in the various sites of +excavation." + +"Oh!" Margaret said. "I didn't know that." + +"Certainly it does," he said, "and rightly, too, although nothing would +be saved or be in any museum if it wasn't for the various European +schools. The natives would eventually plunder and steal everything, +and if the excavation had all been in the hands of the Egyptian +Government, heaven knows where the treasures would be to-day! As it +is, Cairo has the finest Egyptian museum of antiquities in the world." + +"Akhnaton was buried in this valley?" + +"Yes, in later days in his mother's tomb. His first burial-place was +at Tel-el-Amarna." + +"How odd! That's what he told me last night," Meg said dreamily, +almost unconsciously. She could hear again the sad voice of the +Pharaoh, saying, "I was laid in my mother's tomb in this valley." + +Freddy looked quickly up at her; he had left her to descend to the +workmen's level. "So Mike has told you about him, then? I thought he +would!" + +Margaret blushed to the roots of her hair. "Just one or two +things--nothing really very interesting." + +"I knew he would, sooner or later. He's got Akhnaton on the brain." + +"He really has scarcely mentioned him to me--never until last night." + +"Go back, Meg," Freddy said, as he disappeared down a deep channel in +the excavations. "It's getting too hot for no hat. You must be +careful--you can't afford to play tricks with the sun in Egypt. It's +better to worship it like Akhnaton than to trifle with it." + +"All right, I'll go," Meg said, and as she went she wondered how it +came to pass that Akhnaton was both a sun-worshipper and a devout +believer in the Kingdom of God which is within us. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +The ballroom at Assuan was a wonderful sight. Margaret had never been +to a more brilliant dance. The dresses of the women amazed her; they +were so costly and beautiful. The air of Egypt is so dry that their +delicacy of texture had been uninjured by travel. The gay uniforms of +the English officers, the Orders of the officials, looked their best in +the vast room, whose architecture and decorations were a fine +reproduction of ancient Egyptian art. + +Margaret was radiantly happy; she loved beauty and the dignity of vast +surroundings. In Egypt it seemed to her that everything was done on an +imposing and noble scale, everything except the little mud villages of +the desert, her "dear little brown homes in the East." Happiness made +her appear very lovely--indeed, she was beautiful that night and many +people asked who the charming girl was, who danced so well and who +looked so happy. + +She danced very often with Freddy, so naturally people began to say +that at last Lampton had been "caught." She had danced very often, +too, with Michael, and even Freddy's step had not suited hers so well. +With Michael there was something more than mere perfection of dancing; +there was the added sympathy of mind as well as body. When his arms +encircled her for the first time and Margaret felt him steering her +gently but firmly through the well-filled room, such a perfect sense of +rest pervaded her senses that a sudden desire to cry, just softly and +happily, came to her. Happy Margaret! + +Neither of them cared to speak while they were dancing; they remained +as silent as they had done when they stood together in the vast stretch +of the great Sahara, but they were conscious--and happily so--of each +other's enjoyment. Could two young people be so close to each other, +two people so greatly in sympathy with one another, and not know +something of the thought in each other's minds? + +"Will you let me take you in to supper?" was all that Michael said, at +the end of the last dance which they were to have together. He handed +her reluctantly over to her waiting partner as he spoke. + +Meg nodded her assent and smiled radiantly over her partner's shoulder +as she whirled off. + +Her beautiful white shoulders showed up the duskiness of her hair; her +head was distinguished and arrestive. As Michael was watching her and +waiting for her to come round the room again to where he was standing, +so that their eyes might meet, a gentle, caressing hand was laid on his +own and a voice said: + +"Ah! now I know why you have not looked for me. Who is she?" + +Michael started. The low, tender voice instantly thrilled every nerve +in his body, while at the same moment an overwhelming desire to slip +away and lose himself amongst the dancers came over him. + +"She is a fine-looking creature," the voice went on, "but that type +gets coarse at forty, don't you think?" + +Michael swung round quickly and faced the lovely woman who had spoken +to him. Her figure, in spite of its childish slimness, suggested not +youthful purity but a sensuous grace. In her soft, flesh-tinted gown +of chiffon, which left her arms and neck quite bare, a dress which +merely suggested a veiled covering for her tiny body, she was +temptingly feminine. To most men she would have been irresistible, for +she was as supple and straight as a child of thirteen. + +Her eyes gazed familiarly into Michael's; they were inviting and +exquisitely lovely. Even Mrs. Mervill's bitterest enemies had to admit +the charm of her eyes. Hard and cruel they could be, just like the +uncut amethysts which in colour they resembled--eyes of a deep, bluish +purple. They had looked their cruellest a moment ago, for envy had +crossed her path. Every inch of her tiny person was envious of the +girl who had smiled over her partner's shoulder to Michael Amory. She +was envious because she could see at a glance that Margaret was all +that was fine and clean and noble in womanhood. The girl whom Michael +Amory had been looking at would always get what was best in men, while +she could only get what was worst. + +"My partner has had to leave me," she said to Michael, for he had paid +no attention to her remarks about Margaret. "He had a touch of fever; +it came on quite suddenly. Will you take me out of the ball-room?" + +They had moved off together, Michael unable to help himself; he could +not allow her to go alone. + +"If you aren't dancing, let us go and sit out on the balcony--it's too +lovely to be indoors. Now, isn't it?" she said, as they reached the +wide covered loggia, dotted with palms and basket-chairs and small +tables, which looked over the black rocks of the first cataract on the +Nile, a scene which in all Egypt has no equal, for it is unique and +extraordinary. + +Beyond the river, with its black rocks, which showed in the water like +the indefinite forms of seals or shoals of swirling porpoises, there +was the bright yellow sand of the desert, which led into a world of +primitive silence, while above them and all around them there were the +stars and the night of Egypt. + +Mrs. Mervill had left the ball-room early, because she knew that the +balcony would be almost empty during the first part of the evening. + +"Isn't having this all to ourselves better than dancing in that crowd? +This is Egypt." + +"It's beautiful," Michael said, as he arranged the cushions in her +chair to suit her taste, which was scarcely in keeping with the views +of a dignified woman. When he had finished, Mrs. Mervill let her hand +slip down his coat-sleeve--she had laid it there as she spoke to +him--until it rested on his wrist; her fingers were caressing. + +"Tell me," she said, looking up into his face with a winning and soft +expression, "what have you been doing with yourself since we parted? +You have been much in my thoughts--never out of them, indeed." + +"My usual work in the camp," Michael said. "Its interest always +increases, and although it seems pretty much the same every day to +ordinary people, to us it is full of variety." + +"Lucky man! We poor women have no such distractions. I want to live +in the desert," she said eagerly. "I want to sleep in the open under +these stars." + +Anyone might have made the same remark with no _arriere pensee_ in +their words. Mrs. Mervill could not. Her remark contained an +invitation; Michael knew it. + +"Can you never get away?" she asked. "It would be my expedition, if +you would run it for me." + +Michael moved from her side, with the pretence of drawing a chair to +within speaking distance of her. She had reluctantly to let his wrist +slip from her fingers. + +"Say you will arrange it," she pleaded. "For weeks I have felt the +call of the desert and you know you'd love to come." + +"I can't do it," Michael said, almost sternly. "Please don't tempt me +. . . I have work to do." + +"Oh, but I will tempt you!" She laughed the soft, low laugh of +passion. "By every means in my power. With you it is so difficult to +know what will tempt you most. Am I to appeal to the mystic side of +you, or to the human? I think the human Michael will suit me best, the +Michael who longs to let himself go and enjoy the fullness of Egypt and +the wonders of the desert!" + +"Don't appeal to any part of me," he said quickly. "Leave me to do my +work in the best possible way--try not to act as a disturbing +influence." + +"Then I have been a disturbing influence?" Michael's voice had +betrayed the fact that his work had not been accomplished without +difficulty. + +"Yes," he said, for the spirit of truth was always uppermost in +Michael. "For some days after I left you the last time I found great +difficulty in concentrating my mind on my work. . . . I was +dissatisfied." + +"Then I succeeded!" The amethyst eyes, devoid of all hardness now, +caressed Michael and disturbed his nerves. The woman was very +beautiful, and he was conscious that her mind was set on her desire to +win him. He knew that it was not love; he knew that their intimacy was +not one of wholesome friendship. He was becoming more and more awake +to the fact that this wealthy woman, who looked like a child but for +the expression of her eyes, had taken an unreasoning desire to have him +for her lover. In a measure he could not but feel flattered, for with +her beauty and wealth she could have had the attention of better men +than himself. He was too generous in his judgment of women to +attribute her desire to the lowest motives, the prospect of enjoying +through another the innocence which she had lost herself so long ago. + +"I tried to reach you, Mike. I used every effort of my will-power, or +mind-power, or whatever power you like to call it. I insisted on your +feeling me. I sent myself out of myself to you." + +"Why did you do it?" he said. He had leaned forward and had laid his +hand on the cushions of her chair, at the back of her head. His +distressed voice was less harsh. + +"Why did I do it? Because, dear, I want you." Her voice was low and +wooing; it was one of her charms. + +Michael did not answer. His senses were beginning to throb. The sound +of a native earthen drum, with its sensual thud, thud, thudding, and +the watery note of a key striking a glass bottle, as an accompaniment +to the slow measures of bare feet on the deck of a Nile boat, added an +undefinable touch, of Oriental passion to the scene. + +Michael tried to draw away his hand, but she caught it and pulled his +arm round her neck and held his long fingers imprisoned under her chin. + +He protested. The thud, thud, thud of the _darabukkeh_ below kept time +with the throbbing of his pulses, while the subconscious visualizing of +the body-movements of the Sudanese dancers aided and abetted the woman +in her designs. + +"You know, dear, you are behaving very foolishly. I must never see you +again if you do this sort of thing. It can only lead to terrible +unhappiness for us both." + +She gently kissed his fingers, pressing her teeth against his +knuckles--with all her education and fashionable clothes, a creature as +primitive as any tent-dweller in the desert. + +"Don't say you won't see me again. I won't be foolish, I promise. But +I am very lonely, you don't know how lonely, Michael." + +"Poor little woman!" he said breathlessly; he was genuinely sorry for +her. If her nature craved for love and affection, it was hard for her +to live as she did, without it. + +"It's Egypt," she said, "Egypt and the desert. I want you all alone, +Michael, in the loneliest part of the loneliest desert in the world, +and I want as many kisses as there are stars in the heavens--kisses +that only my love and Egypt can teach you how to give!" + +"I must leave you," Michael said again, "if you will speak like that." + +He got up to go. Mrs. Mervill also rose from her reclining position on +her long deck-chair, and sat upright. + +"I do, I do!" she said, while she held up her beautiful lips to his +face. "There is no one to see, there is no one to care! I want a kiss +for every star there is in the heavens." + +The man could bear it no longer; all Egypt was tempting him. He bent +his head and kissed her lips. + +From the river below came the long cries to Allah of the Moslem boatmen +and the clear music of an _'ood_ or lute; the deep note of the native +drums had been silenced. It had given way to the song of an Arab +tenor. The music of the _'ood_, whose seven double strings, made of +lamb's gut, are played with a slip of a vulture's feather, drifted +through the clear air. The tenor song was an outpouring of a lover's +full heart. The passion of the night had triumphed. + +At their feet lay the black rocks and the swirling waters of Egypt's +Aegean and the buried city of Syene, and in the distance, yet surely +affecting their senses with its tragedy and grace, was Philae, the +fairy sanctuary of the Nile. In the submerged temple of Philae lies +the bridal chamber of the beloved Osiris and his wife Isis. + +None of all this was lost upon Michael, whose nature was ever tuned to +the concert pitch of his surroundings. Assuan affected him as a +gorgeous orchestra affects a lover of Wagner. + +But the sound of the hotel band, bringing a waltz to a close, made Mrs. +Mervill leave her lounge-chair and seat herself circumspectly on a more +upright one. Michael did not sit down; he wandered about, speaking to +her abruptly and unhappily at brief intervals. + +She was answering one of his questions when Margaret Lampton, flushed +and radiant with the excitement of dancing, came upon the scene; her +partner was a little behind her. Mrs. Mervill neither saw her nor +heard her footsteps; Michael had both seen and heard her. Margaret, +thinking that he was alone, walked quickly towards him. Suddenly she +heard a hidden voice say caressingly, + +"I will promise you anything you like, Michael mine, and keep it, too, +if you will try to see me as often as ever you can. Remember how +lonely I am, and that I shall live for your visits." + +Margaret stopped. Egypt had become as cold as the Arctic. She felt +lost. Her intention had been to remind Michael that it was almost +supper-time. Her partner was now by her side. He knew Michael Amory +and spoke to him. + +Mrs. Mervill had risen from her chair and as she came forward, Margaret +hated her, even while she thought that she was the fairest and most +beautiful thing she had ever seen. Michael introduced the two women to +each other, excellent foils as they were in their beauty and type. + +As Margaret gave one of her steadfast honest looks right into the eyes +of the delicately-tinted woman in front of her, she was conscious of an +appalling dislike and fear of her. She was equally conscious of the +woman's antagonism to herself, although her words had been charming and +friendly. + +"If she wasn't beautiful and tiny, I'd like to wring her neck and throw +her to the crocodiles below!" + +This was what might be interpreted as Margaret's true feelings as she +answered Mrs. Mervill's question and succeeded in making some banal +remarks about the view and the magnificence of the hotel. When she had +said all that politeness demanded of her, she turned away, a trifle +disconsolately. + +"Please wait one moment, Miss Lampton," Michael said. "I think this is +the supper-interval. Mrs. Mervill," he said, "can I take you back to +your partner? I am engaged to Miss Lampton for supper." + +"No, thanks," she said, "I didn't engage myself to anyone for supper." +Her eyes plainly expressed the fact that they had hitherto at these +dances always enjoyed the supper-interval together. "Will you be very +kind and send a waiter out here with a glass of champagne and some +sandwiches? That is all I want." + +Michael looked disturbed. "But I don't like leaving you alone." + +"I prefer the company of the stars," she said, "to just anybody--really +I do. I never feel that one comes to Egypt for these hotel dances." +This was meant for Margaret, to make her feel frivolous and vulgar. + +Margaret refused to accept it. "My brother and I have been dancing +every dance and every extra and forgetting all about Egypt. Have you?" +She turned to Mike. + +"No, I have been sitting this last one out with Mrs. Mervill. She +feels tired. And certainly Egypt is very much here." He pointed to +the scene before them. + +"Yes, quite another Egypt," Margaret said. "Egypt has so many souls." + +"And I have to be a little careful," Mrs. Mervill said, "of +over-fatigue." + +"I am sorry," Margaret said, while she inwardly noted the woman's +perfect health. The slender feminine appearance of her rival had +nothing in common with ill-health; a blush-rose bud was not more softly +and evenly tinted. She suggested to Margaret something good to +eat--pink and white ice-creams mingled together in a crystal bowl. + +Healthily devoid as Margaret was of sex-consciousness, it was curious +that this first close inspection of Mrs. Mervill should have told her +what she never dreamed of before, or even thought about--that she loved +Michael Amory. This woman was going to come between herself and +Michael; that there was great intimacy between them she felt certain, +also that Michael, even though he might care for the woman, was not +himself under her influence. She had never seen him look as he looked +now. + +The partner who had brought Margaret out on to the balcony constituted +himself Mrs. Mervill's cavalier. He was immensely struck by her beauty +and was inwardly overjoyed when Michael Amory introduced him to her. +He had not engaged himself for supper because there had been no one +with whom he cared to spend the time, except Margaret, and she was +engaged to Michael. Now that he had obtained an introduction to Mrs. +Mervill, he was delighted to attend to her wants. + +If Michael Amory had seen Millicent Mervill's attitude towards her +companion, he might have felt--and very naturally--a certain amount of +vanity. Born with little or no sense of honour or morals, she was +extremely fastidious. No one could have been more selective. +Ninety-nine per cent. of the men she met bored her not to tears, but to +rudeness; for the hundredth she might feel an unbridled passion. + +Margaret and her companion were seated at a little supper-table in the +immense dining-room of the hotel, a room which been built after the +proportions and decorated in the manner of an Egyptian temple. Their +table was close to a column, which was decorated from pedestal to +capital with the most familiar mythological figures of ancient Egypt. +Tall lotus flowers with their green leaves decorated the lower portion +of it. The whole thing certainly was an amazingly clever reproduction +of one of the ancient columns of the famous hypostyle hall at Karnak. +A gayer scene could hardly be imagined, for the bright colours of the +ancient decorations had been faithfully copied. + +Margaret had been talking rather more than was her wont to Michael, +about things which neither really interested her nor were in sympathy +with their mood. Their former intimate silence had given place to a +banal conversation, which hurt them, one as much as the other, while +they kept it up. + +The nicest part of the evening, for so Meg had thought that it would +be, was proving a failure, a dire and pitiful failure. The only thing +to do was to accept Michael under the new conditions and get what +pleasure she could out of the magnificent scene. The Egyptian +servants, in their long white garments and high red tarbushes, the +Nubians, in their full white drawers and bright green sashes and +turbans, were moving silently about, administering as only native +servants can administer to the wants of the fashionably-gowned women +and brightly-uniformed men who filled the magnificent hall. + +"How absurd that woman looks," Margaret said, "sitting with her back to +that figure of Isis." She knew now at a glance the goddess Isis as she +was most familiarly represented. "I do hope I don't look quite so +grotesque!" + +Michael looked at the woman, whose hair was decorated with an enormous +egrette's crest, in the manner of a Red Indian's head-dress. Margaret +knew quite well that she herself did not in any way look grotesque; +since she had been in Egypt she had conceived a horror of the +eccentricities of Western fashions, therefore her speech was insincere. + +"Of course you don't," Michael said absently. "You look just awfully +nice." He felt shy and blushed as he spoke, for he knew that he had +severed himself from Margaret by an unspeakable gulf, that he had now +no right to say anything intimate to her. Earlier in the evening he +could have said with frank enthusiasm how beautiful he thought her, if +an occasion like the present had offered itself. + +They were now at the ice-creams, wonderful concoctions with glowing +lights inside them, and their futile conversation had dribbled out, but +the silence which had fallen upon them was constrained; it had nothing +in common with the old happy silence of mental sympathy, the silence of +united minds. + +Margaret had still two dances to give Michael, and she wondered how +they were to get through them. The supper had proved heavy and +dragging. It seemed scarcely possible that they were the two people +who had stood, delighting in each other's companionship, on the high +ridge of the Sahara desert two evenings ago, that it was this man to +whom she had told her wonderful dream. She wondered if he had +forgotten it. + +As she thought of her dream, their eyes met. Michael's dropped +quickly. With Mrs. Mervill's kisses still burning into his soul, he +banished the thought of the divine King. The seed of evil which she +had planted in the garden of his soul many weeks ago had been watered +and nourished to-night. It had sprung forth like the green blades on +the banks of the Nile after the inundation. + +As Michael's eyes dropped, Margaret took her courage in both hands and +said as brightly as she could, "We're not enjoying ourselves +particularly, are we? We seem to have lost each other. Shall we cut +our two dances and try to find ourselves again in the valley? I hate +this sort of thing." + +"If you wish it." Michael's voice was reproachful. + +"Do be honest--you know I'm boring you. You have lots of friends here, +and I can get partners." + +"Things do seem to have taken a wrong turn," he said, "but it was not +of my willing." Inwardly he cursed the hour he had ever come. She +would never believe that it had been to see her in her evening-dress +and to enjoy the rapture of dancing with her. + +"We are neither of us much good at pretending," Margaret said. "But +never mind--better luck next time! And we had some lovely dances in +the early part of the evening." + +Her words, without meaning it, implied that before she had been +introduced to Mrs. Mervill, they had been happy. They had risen at +Margaret's instigation from their table and were wending their way out +of the supper-room. Michael was drifting towards the wide balcony, +towards the fresh cool air of the river. + +"No," Meg said determinedly, "not there." A vision of Mrs. Mervill, +pink and fair and seductive, had risen before her, the rose-leaf +creature with the hard eyes, who had so abruptly broken her sympathy +with Michael. + +Michael, without speaking, quickly turned the other way. He let her +through the big entrance to the front door of the hotel. The view was +ugly and uninteresting, like the surroundings of any huge Western +public offices or government buildings. The glory of the hotel was the +view from the balcony, overlooking the Nile, and its superb interior +decorations. + +"The old trade-route to Nubia lies back there," Michael said, +indicating the desert, which lay out of sight at the back of the hotel. + +"The old route to 'golden-treasured Nubia'?" Margaret said. "Fancy, so +close to this fashionable hotel--who would ever dream it!" + +"The caravan-route to Nubia--the Kush of the Bible--an immortal road. +To me the word Nubia is full of suggestion." + +There was something so distant in the tone of Michael's voice as he +spoke, that Margaret found little pleasure in hearing what he had to +tell her. How delightful he could have been upon such a subject as the +old trade-route to Nubia she knew only too well, so well that she was +not going to let herself be hurt by his aloof way of mentioning it. + +"Egypt to-night," she said, "for me means a big ball and gay dresses. +I have lost the other sense of Egypt." She turned up her eyes to the +heavens. "Except for the heavens," she said, "I really might have been +at the Carlton Hotel in London, at an Egyptian fete held there, or +something of the kind." + +"As you said, Egypt has so many souls, but its heavens have only one. +The best starlight night at home is a poor, poor affair compared to +this." + +Before he had finished speaking Freddy appeared and claimed Margaret +for a dance. She left Michael almost gladly, yet hating the feeling +that they were still as far apart as they had been when they sat down +to supper. + +What a strange night it had been! The one half pure joy and the other +certainly not happiness. + +Alone in the open space in front of the hotel, Michael stood and cursed +his own weakness. Why had he stooped to those lips? Why had he +allowed himself to be unworthy of his intimacy with Margaret? He was +sorry for Mrs. Mervill, for he believed her stories about her husband's +drunkenness and degrading habits, as he almost believed that she had +for some strange reason fallen in love with himself. He wished with +all his might that women were nicer to one another, so that one of +them, a woman like Margaret, for instance, might have given this +lonely, lovely creature the affection and intimate friendship she +craved for. Women shunned her and so she had to resort to men for the +companionship and also for the affection she needed. + +Michael understood very well the pleasures of sympathetic friendships; +he was conscious that to himself human sympathy meant a very great +deal, and so he felt sincerely sorry for the woman who was denied it. +He liked the quiet places of the untrodden world; cities had no charm +for him. But he needed human sympathy in his solitude to make his +enjoyment complete. He felt sorely annoyed with the fates which made +it impossible for him to give Mrs. Mervill all that she asked of him +and at the same time continue on the footing on which he had been with +Margaret. + +And how was it that he could not? How was it that Margaret had +instantly divined that there was more than an ordinary or desirable +intimacy between Mrs. Mervill and himself? How was it that he had felt +dishonoured and ashamed? + +He had to return to the ball-room to find his partner for the next +dance. As he did so, he passed Mrs. Mervill, who was coming out of it. +She looked at him with laughing eyes, a soft, beautiful creature, of +supple movements, whose perfect lips had told him the promises which +she was capable of fulfilling. If he had not known Margaret, what +would he have done? + +But Margaret held him. He knew that she was worth a thousand Mrs. +Mervills, in spite of the latter's more vivid beauty and her quick wit. +For Mrs. Mervill was clever and could be extremely witty and amusing +when she liked. Her daring tongue stopped at very little, but it had +the gift of suggestion, which always saved her stories or repartees +from indelicacy or vulgarity. + +Margaret, who had offered him nothing but friendship, stood out in his +mind as one of the women with whom it was a privilege for any man to be +on intimate terms. In his thoughts of her, Margaret was high and +strong and pure. When his mind dwelt on her, it soared; when it dwelt +on Mrs. Mervill, it grovelled. He did not wish to grovel; it was not +in his nature to do so; it took a woman such as Mrs. Mervill to bring +his lower self to the surface. He hated himself for even unconsciously +condemning her and he tried always to remember her charming moods, the +hours they had spent together when they first met on the gay +pleasure-boats on the Nile. Those were the days when the clever woman +hid from the man whom she had selected her baser nature. During those +guarded days she had been gay and amusing and apparently as innocent as +a schoolgirl. It was only after a considerable number of meetings and +many exchanges of thought had passed between them, that she began to +show her hand, or dared to convey to him in a hundred insinuating ways +and expressions the real nature of her feelings for him. Very +grudgingly and very reluctantly Michael had to admit to himself that +she had fallen in his estimation, that he would not be sorry if they +were never to meet again. Yet he was not strong enough to cut himself +off from her; her appeal to his pity stood in his way. + +He had never met any woman before in the least like her. Her fearless +audacity had at first, just at first, somewhat amused, as it amazed +him. He had scarcely credited its being genuine. As she owed nothing +to her husband, or so she said, she saw no reason why she should not +live the life of a wealthy bachelor, who enjoyed it to the full. What +was sauce for the gander was sauce for the goose. + +To gain any hold on Michael's affections, she had recognized that she +must go carefully. It was her role to let him think that her passion +for him was a totally new thing in her life, that she had at last found +the man who could help her to be the woman she longed to be. With her +knowledge of man-kind, she knew how to awaken and keep alive in Michael +the only element in his character upon which she could work, the very +element he strove to banish and subdue. + +Later on in the evening she sought him out, because she had discovered +that Margaret Lampton was living in her brother's camp and that she was +in daily companionship with Michael. Freddy had told her this to anger +her. He was proud of his sister's beauty and pleased that Mrs. Mervill +had seen her admired. + +"Michael," Mrs. Mervill said, "that dark girl is in love with you. She +hates me." + +"Don't talk nonsense!" Michael said. "Why will you spoil our +interesting conversation by reverting to a forbidden topic?" + +They had been talking intellectually and seriously for quite half an +hour. Mrs. Mervill was a great reader, and she had determined to place +herself in a position to talk intelligently, if not learnedly, to +Michael about things Egyptian. She had been reading what Ebers had to +say about the tragedy of Isis and Osiris being the foundation of many +latter-day Egyptian romances. It had even found its way into _The +Thousand and One Nights_. + +Mrs. Mervill was much more word-fluent than Margaret. Often her +imagery was charming. + +"Because it fills my heart, Michael. It is the background of +everything. I saw the birth of hatred in her eyes--she has never hated +before." + +"I don't think she knows what hate means," he said, "and I wish you +would leave her alone." + +"I have not spoken about her before." + +"You said she would be fat and coarse at forty." + +Millicent Mervill caught his hands in hers. "You dear silly boy, so +she will, both fat and complacent, but then I shall be thin and +shrewish and shrivelled." + +Michael laughed. "You are a tease!" he said good-naturedly. + +"'The Rogue in Porcelain' used to be my name at school. But tell +me--how long is that dark-haired girl going to stay with her brother?" + +"I don't know," Michael said. "If she doesn't feel the heat, perhaps +until he returns to England and the camp breaks up." + +Mrs. Mervill clenched her pretty teeth. "And you expect me to be good +and quiet and submissive and stay here?" + +"I want you to be reasonable." + +"That's out of the question--I very seldom am, and I am not going to be +to please Miss Lampton, I can tell you!" + +"Then what are you going to do?" He could not be hard on the woman for +loving him; he wished he could help her and induce her to be +reasonable. If she had been free, he would have felt himself bound to +marry her. + +"I will arrange something," she said. "I don't know what." + +"What sort of thing?" he said. "Nothing foolish! Do look at things +dispassionately." + +"I won't!" she said. Her face was upraised to the stars. "I won't +give you up to that dark-haired girl." + +He swung round and spoke roughly. "Don't you know I can't be yours, +and you can't be mine?" + +"And you want me not to be a dog in the manger, while you enjoy the +next best thing that comes along!" + +"I never said so. Your mind jumps at conclusions. I hate such ideas +and conversation. I wish you would stop it." + +"I will be worse than a dog in the manger," she said, "if you make love +to that girl in the desert." + +"Hush!" Michael cried. His grasp of her wrist hurt her. "Hush! You +will make me hate you." + +"No, you won't, Michael," she said, "because you have kissed me. Words +were made to hide our feelings, kisses to reveal them." She suddenly +paused and looked as sad and innocent as a corrected child. "I would +be a saint, if you would let yourself love me, Michael." + +"What would be the good?" he said. "You belong to some one else." + +"A nice sort of belonging!" she said, disconsolately. "He doesn't care +a scrap what becomes of me." + +"Can't you possibly divorce him?" Michael did not mean that he would +marry her if she did; his mind was groping for some solution of the +problem. + +Millicent Mervill remained silent. "I could let him divorce me," she +said at last. + +"Don't!" Michael said intuitively. His voice amused the woman. + +"I don't mean to," she said. "Why should any woman be divorced because +she lives the same life as her husband does when he is apart from her?" + +"You don't, and aren't going to," Michael said earnestly. + +"I would, Michael, with you--only with you." + +"I wish you could have been friends with Miss Lampton instead of hating +her," he said sadly. + +"Pouf!" Millicent Mervill cried. "Thanks for your Miss Lampton--I can +do without her friendship! I prefer hating her." + +"You are so perverse and foolish and . . ." Michael paused ". . . and +difficult." + +"No, loving, you mean, loving, Michael--that's all I'm difficult about." + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +They were back in the valley again and splendid work was going on at +the camp. Another two weeks' hard digging had done wonders, and +Margaret and Michael had found each other again. + +In the dawn, two mornings after the dance, when the mysterious figures, +heralding the light, were abandoning themselves to their God on the +desert sands, Mike had seen Margaret standing at her hut-door, +watching, as he himself so often watched, for the glory which was of +Aton to flood the desert with light. Meg's eyes the day before had +told Michael that she was unhappy; he knew now that she had not slept. + +While the white figures were still bent earthwards and the little +streak of light was scarcely more than visible, Michael went to her and +asked her forgiveness. + +"Forgive me," he said. "I need forgiveness." + +Meg took his hand. "I hate not being friends. Thank you." + +"It made me miserable," he said. + +"Then let's forget. I was stupid. This is all too big and great for +such smallness." She indicated the coming of the unearthly light. + +"Thy dawning, O Aton," Michael said. + +Margaret smiled. "He was very far from us at Assuan." + +"He was there. I stifled my consciousness of him, Meg." + +"Don't," she said. "Let's go forward." + +"I know what you mean," he said. "Regrets are weak, foolish." + +"I don't want to bring the hotel at Assuan into this valley. Let's +just watch the sun transform its infinite mystery into our waking, +working, everyday world--if Egypt can be an everyday world." + +"May I say Akhnaton's beautiful hymn to you? It is about the sunrise. +He must often have seen it just as we are seeing it now." + +"Akhnaton's? Yes, do. How wonderful to think that he wrote hymns!" + +Michael began the famous hymn. "'The world is in darkness, like the +dead. Every lion cometh forth from his den; all serpents sting. +Darkness reigns.'" + +"We might substitute jackals," Margaret said gently. + +"'When thou risest in the horizon . . . the darkness is banished. Then +in all the world they do their work. + +"'All trees and plants flourish, the birds flutter in their marshes, +all sheep dance upon their feet.'" + +"Oh," Margaret said delightedly, "how like it is to the hundred and +fourth Psalm! Do you remember how David said: 'The trees of the Lord +are full of sap. . . . Where the birds make their nests. . . . The +high hills are a refuge for the wild goats'? I think that's how it +goes. I love that Psalm." + +"Yes," Michael said, "verse for verse, the idea is absolutely similar +and the similes are strikingly alike. The next verse is just as much +alike. Listen. . . . I am so glad you like it." + +"First look," Margaret said, "at that light. Yes, now go on--I love +hearing it." + +"'The ships sail up stream and down stream alike. The fish in the +river leap up before Thee and Thy rays are in the midst of the great +sea. How manifold are Thy works. Thou didst create the earth +according to Thy desire, men, all cattle, all that are upon the earth.'" + +"How extraordinarily like!" Margaret said. "How do you account for it? +I suppose it is still allowed that David wrote the Psalms? Did he live +before Akhnaton or after him?" She laughed softly. "Don't scorn my +ignorance. You see, I have kept my promise--I have read nothing at all +on the subject." + +"Akhnaton, you mean? Oh, before David, by about three hundred years. +There are all sorts of theories on the subject. The commonest is that +Akhnaton, having come of Syrian stock, on his mother's side, may have +got his inspiration from some Syrian hymn, as David also may have done. +I reject that theory. The whole of Akhnaton's beliefs and teachings +prove the extraordinary originality of his ideas. He borrowed nothing; +God was his inspiration." + +"You are going to tell me about him, about his work?" + +"Yes, soon, some day. Have you thought about him since?" Michael +referred to the God of Whom Akhnaton was the manifestation, the +interpreter. He always spoke of Akhnaton as a divine messenger. + +His voice betrayed a sense of regret, of unworthiness. Yet in his +heart he knew that, weak as he had been, he had not sinned against the +spirit of Akhnaton, that he realized even more fully his watchword, +"Living in Truth." Akhnaton's love for every created being because of +their creator filled Michael's heart even more fully than it had done +before. He had learned his own moral weakness, his own forgetfulness. +Blame and criticism of even the natives' shortcomings seemed to him +reserved for someone more worthy than himself. They had simply not yet +seen the Light; their evolution was more tardy; they were less +fortunate. Some day all men would be "Living in Truth." Akhnaton's +dream would be realized. How impossible it is for our material selves +to do without the help which is outside ourselves, that help which is +our divine consciousness, Michael had learned over and over again. His +lapses had not affected his beliefs. They were only parts of the +struggle, the oldest struggle known to mankind, the struggle between +Light and Darkness. Just as the Egyptians from the earliest days +believed in the triumph of Osiris over Set, he knew that no thinking +man could doubt the eventual triumph of all those who fight for the +spiritual man. + +"Yes, I have thought about him," Margaret said. "And last night I +dreamed about him--my . . ." she paused ". . . wonderful visitor." + +"What did you dream?" Michael said. "Do tell me." + +The light was breaking over the valley--not the sun's light, the cold +light of dawn. The "heat of Aton" was still withheld. + +A blush which was invisible to Michael tinged Meg's clear skin. Her +dream had been beautiful, vivid. It had illuminated her world again. + +"It was nothing very coherent. I saw no vision, as I did before." Her +words were spoken guardedly. "It was the lesson the dream revealed." + +"I should like to know, Meg." + +"A voice seemed to wake me. It spoke to me of you. I was to help +you . . . you were struggling." + +"You can help me," Mike said. "You have." + +"It spoke of the oldest of all stories, the battle of light against +darkness. It said that Egypt in the early days worshipped light; in +the days which followed light was swallowed up in the worship of false +gods." + +"Osiris and Set--you know the legend--the fundamental ethics of all +religions." + +"I know a little about it," Margaret said. She paused. "Please go +on . . . tell me everything." + +"In dreams we are so vain, so wonderful . . . you know how it always +is! The ego in us has unlimited sway. In my dream I dreamed that my +friendship was to be 'light'; if I withdrew it, you would have +darkness. What glorious vanity!" + +"Oh, Meg, it's quite true! Will you give me back your sympathy? +I . . ." he hesitated, ". . . I am trying to be more worthy of it." + +"We are friends," she said. "I was foolish and conceited, my dream +made me see how foolish. I had no right to . . ." + +He interrupted her. "Yes, you had . . . you weren't foolish. Your +sensibilities told you what was absolutely true. . . . I would explain +more if I could." + +"No, don't explain--things are explained. I thought I should find you +here; I wanted to begin the new day happily. My dream made me see so +very clearly that the world is made up of those who sit in darkness and +those who sit in light, that thoughts are things. My thoughts were +unjust, unkind, so my world was unkind, unjust. I made it." + +"The light which is Aton," Michael said. + +"If we wish to enjoy happiness, we must sit in the light. We must make +our own happiness." + +"In the fullness and glory of Aton." + +"God, I suppose you mean," Margaret said. + +"The one and only God Whom every human being has striven to worship in +his or her odd way ever since the world began. There is God in every +man's heart. It doesn't a bit matter what His symbol may be. Some +races of mankind have evolved higher forms of worship, some lower; +their symbols are appropriate. But they are all striving for the one +and same thing--to render worship to the Divine Creator, to sit in the +Light of Aton." + +"But the sun," Margaret said--she pointed to the fiery ball on the +horizon--"I thought your divine Akhnaton was a sun-worshipper?" + +"He worshipped our God, the Creator of all things of heaven or earth, +even of our precious human sympathy, Meg, for nothing that is could be +without Him, and to Akhnaton His symbol was the sun. The earlier +Egyptians worshipped Ra, the great sun-god; Akhnaton brought divinity +into his worship. He worshipped Aton as the Lord and Giver of Life, +the Bestower of Mercy, the Father of the Fatherless. All His +attributes were symbolized in the sun. Its rising and setting +signified Darkness and Light; its power as the creative force in +nature, Resurrection. It evolved mankind from the lower life and +implanted the spirit of divinity in him through the Creator of all +things created. The sun was God created, His symbol, His +manifestation." + +"Look," Margaret said, "look at it now--it is God, walking in the +desert." + + * * * * * * + +For a little time they stood together, their material forms side by +side. + + * * * * * * + +Michael's house-boy, with a deferential salaam, suddenly informed him +that his bath had been waiting for him and was now cold. + +Before Michael hurried off Margaret said, "Thank you for my first +lesson in Akhnaton's worship." She held out her hands. + +"We all worship as he did, all day long," he said, "when we admire the +sun and the stars and the flowers, when we admire all that is +beautiful, we are seeing God." + +"I adore beauty," Margaret said, "but I forget that beauty is God. +You, like Akhnaton, are conscious of God first, the beauty He has made +afterwards. If there had been the text 'God is Beauty' as there is +'God is Love,' it might have helped us to understand." + +"I forget him," Michael said, "you know how easily." + +"It is far better to know and love, even if you are human and +forget. . . ." she paused ". . . than always to sit in darkness, to sit +outside the door." + +"I don't see how any one can," Michael said. "It is all so exquisitely +evident. The desolation must be so terrifying, like living in this +lonely spot with no watch-dogs to keep off evil-doers. It takes great +courage to live on one's own strength, one's own material self." + +They had parted, Margaret going to her room, Michael to his tent. +Freddy, who was almost dressed, saw two figures approaching, wrapped up +in big coats. + +"That's a good job!" he said. "The sunrise has made them friends +again." He was out in the desert the next moment, hearing the +roll-call of the workmen, who had all ranged themselves up in a line +near the hut. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +One evening, some weeks later, when the trio, Margaret, Freddy and +Michael, were busily engaged in sorting and cleaning the day's finds, +which had been more than usually interesting, Margaret held up for +inspection a tiny alabaster kohl-pot, which she had freed from the +incrustations of thousands of years. It was exactly similar to a +little green glass bottle which she had bought in the bazaar at Assuan, +in which the modern Egyptian, but more especially the Coptic, women +carry the kohl which they use for blacking their eyes and eyebrows. +Margaret showed Freddy the bottle, which led to a discussion about the +similarity of the customs of the modern Egyptians and those in the +pictures in the tombs, whose decorations always reveal the more human +and intimate side of the life of ancient Egypt than the decoration of +the temples. + +"They were as vain and fond of making up as any woman of to-day," +Freddy said. "We find no end of recipes for cosmetics and hair-dyes +and restorers. One popular pomade was made of the hoofs of a donkey, a +dog's pad and some date-kernels, all boiled together in oil. It was +supposed to stop the hair from falling out and restore its brilliancy. +There is another, even more savoury, for hair-dying." + +"Do you suppose they still use that receipt?" Michael said. + +"I shouldn't wonder. Customs never die in Egypt--they have had the +same superstitions and the same customs for thousands of years. The +Copts have clung more jealously to them, of course. The Moslem +invasion did a little to change some of them, but not many." + +Margaret listened while Freddy explained how the Moslems, after the +Arab invasion, behaved with regard to the festivals and superstitions +of the pagans very much in the same way as the Early Christian church +in Rome behaved with regard to the pagan festivities and +superstitions--adapting them, as far as was possible, to the new +religion, grafting on such things as the people would not or could not +renounce. The wisdom of the custom was obvious. The new converts, who +believed in one God Whose Prophet had come to knock down all graven +images in the temples, were still allowed the protection and comfort of +their personal amulets, which were powerful enough to protect them from +every evil imaginable, or to bring them all the blessings their simple +souls desired. Arab workmen, who believe that Allah wills all things, +that whatsoever happens, it is his purpose, will flock round any +soothsayer who professes to see into the future and do the most absurd +things conceivable to keep off the evil eye. The eye of Horus is still +their favourite amulet. + +"Abdul professes to tell fortunes and see into the future. They do +sometimes manage to hit off some wonderfully clever guesses," Freddy +said. "Abdul has been curiously correct in a number of things he has +foretold relating to this bit of work." + +"What did he tell you about this excavation?" + +"He didn't tell me--I overheard the workmen's chatter. He has worked +them up to a pitch of absurd excitement." + +"What sort of things has he foretold? Good or bad? What things have +come true?" + +"I forget the small points now. I really can't tell you. He predicts +all sorts of extravagant things about the inside of the tomb, says he +has seen visions of a wonderful figure of a queen, dressed as if for +her bridal, and the place all glittering with gold and precious +stones--the most superb tomb that has ever been opened." + +"Oh!" Meg said excitedly. "I wonder if it will be?--if there will be +any truth in it?" + +"Tommy-rot!" Freddy said. "But the excitement's spread--the men are +working like mad--never did so much good work before." + +"May I talk to Abdul? I'd love to have my future told!" + +"I'd rather you didn't--at least, I would rather the other workmen +didn't know he had spoken to you. I don't like them to imagine that we +believe in such things." + +"Very well," Meg said. "I see what you mean." + +"You are never wise to let the natives lose their respect for your +disdain of spooks and superstitions. I never scoff at their fears and +beliefs in every sort of imaginable supernatural power, but I like them +to think that my religion places me above such terrors. We pray to our +Christian God to protect us according to His will; they say five +prayers to Allah daily, the one and only God, and at the same time at +every hour of the day they perform countless acts and ceremonies to +propitiate malign spirits and powers. They are a curious people--the +best of them are very devout, but some of the most devout are not the +best by any means." + +"Do you mind if Michael sees the fortune-teller? It would be so +interesting." + +"He knows Abdul." Freddy looked at Mike. "It's different to letting +one of our womenkind meddle in such things." + +"Did the ancients believe in dreams?" Margaret said. Michael's eyes +had spoken; he had seen the man. + +"Don't you remember Joseph's dream?" + +"Oh, of course!" Margaret said. "But Joseph seems a modern in this +valley." + +"The ancients looked upon dreams as 'revelations' from a world quite as +real as that which we see about us when we are awake. They were sent +by the gods and, according to the texts in the tombs, much desired." + +Margaret's and Michael's eyes met. Her dream which had brought them +together again had undoubtedly been sent by God. + +There was an industrious silence for a little time, then Margaret +asked, "Have you ever come across any traces of Akhnaton's religion in +the tombs in this valley?" + +An amused smile hovered round Freddy's mouth. It was obvious that +Margaret had caught something of Mike's enthusiasm for the heretic +Pharaoh. + +"No, nothing of his religion," he said. "It is too far from his scene +of action; his influence was almost local--it was a personal influence +and died at his death. He was a man born before his time; the world +was not ready for his doctrines--they were far above the people's +heads." + +"How do we know?" Mike said eagerly. "Surely God knows best when to +send His messengers, when to reveal Himself?" + +"Anyhow," Freddy said, "you know that when he died his teachings died +too. The people who had professed his beliefs returned to their old +gods. The one and only trace of Akhnaton's influence here is in his +mother's tomb, where every sign of Aton worship has been chopped off +the wall, every trace of his symbols obliterated. Akhnaton had no +doubt introduced them into his mother's tomb; she had shared his +beliefs, which had not, of course, become extreme at the time of her +death." + +"Truth never dies," Mike said. "His beautiful city was abandoned, his +temples neglected and overthrown, his people again became the victims +of the money-making, political priesthood of Amon-Ra. But who can say +that the spirit of Akhnaton is dead to-day? Who can tell that the seed +of his mission bore no fruit? Thought never dies." + +"As you like. Anyhow, even before he was buried--embalming was a +lengthy process--his religion as a state religion, as anything at all +of any influence, or as a power in the land, was doomed." + +"You don't admire him as Mike does," Margaret said. "He seems to have +been almost as perfect as a human being could be--the first living +being to realize the divinity of God." + +"As a religious _devoue_, he was, as you say, almost a saint. He spent +his life throwing pearls before swine--you might as well try to make a +charity-school class see the beauty of Virgil in the original--and +letting his kingdom go to rack and ruin." + +"Oh," Margaret said, "you didn't tell me that." Her eyes searched +Mike's. "Did he let Egypt go to pieces?" + +"He was anti-war, as I am," Mike said, "as all lovers of God and of +mankind ought to be. He was perhaps foolish in his belief that if the +world could be converted to the great religion of Aton, which meant +perfect love for everything that God had created and absolute reverence +for everything because He created it, then there would be no wars. If +God is love and we believe in God, how can we kill each other? +Akhnaton's idea of the duty of a king was the improvement of mankind. +He tried to give men a new understanding of life and of God. The moral +welfare of the human race was more to him than the aggrandizement of +its emperors." + +"I've no patience with all that," Freddy said. "He inherited a +magnificent kingdom; he let it dwindle almost to ruin. If you could +read some of the letters of Horemheb, the commander-in-chief of his +army, begging him to send reinforcements to Syria, imploring him to +realize the danger that menaced Asia, you would feel as impatient as I +do with his mission work at Tel-el-Amarna, his cult of flowers and his +new-fangled art." + +"A man can't go against his own conscience. He didn't approve of war. +It's an interesting fact that the only one of the old gods he +recognized was Mait--he built a fine new temple to the goddess of truth +at Tel-el-Amarna. He carried his enthusiasm too far," Mike said, "I +grant that, but from his point of view these things were of little +account. If he could have turned the heart of Egypt from the worship +of false gods, if he could have imparted unto the minds of men the +wonder and the love of God, all else, he thought, would follow after." + +"A fanatic!" Freddy said. + +"So were all saints." + +"'For what shall it profit a man,'" Meg said, "'if he gain the whole +world, and lose his own soul?'" Her voice was significant. "In his +day, Christ was as great a fanatic, if you like to look at things from +that point of view. Fancy fasting forty days and forty nights in the +wilderness, calling upon men to leave their work and follow him, +preaching against the rich! How you would have scoffed at him!" + +"If Akhnaton hadn't been a king, if he had merely been a prophet and a +teacher, he'd have been all right. But just you listen, Meg," Freddy +said, "while I read you what a modern writer says about him, and he is +an intense admirer of the character of Akhnaton. This is how he +describes what the messengers must have felt when they hurried back to +Egypt to the new capital of the fanatical king at Tel-el-Amarna, +bearing entreaties from the commander-in-chief of the army in Syria to +send reinforcements to help to deliver his distant kingdom from the +oppression of her enemies." Freddy found the book and opened it. +"Here it is--listen to this: 'The messengers have arrived at the City +of the Horizon,' as Akhnaton called his new capital, 'Their hearts are +full of the agony of Syria. From the beleaguered cities which they had +so lately left, there came to them the bitter cry for succour, and it +was not possible to drown that cry in words of peace, nor in the jangle +of the septrum or the warbling of pipes. Who, thought the waiting +messengers, could resist that piteous call? The city weeps and her +tears are flowing. Who could sit idle in the City of the Horizon, when +the proud empire, won with the blood of the noblest soldiers of the +great Thothmes, was breaking up before their eyes? What mattered all +the philosophies in the world, and all the gods in heaven, when Egypt's +great dominions were being wrested from her? The splendid Lebanon, the +white kingdoms of the sea, Askalon and Ashdod, Tyre and Sidon, Simgra +and Byblos, the hills of Jerusalem, Kadesh and the great Orontes, the +fair Jordan, Turip, Aleppo and distant Euphrates . . . what counted a +creed against these? God, the Truth? The only god was He of the +Battles, who had led Egypt into Syria; the only truth the doctrine of +the sword, which had held her there for so many years.'" + +Freddy turned over the leaves of the book which he had been reading +from, and began again quoting from Weigall's _Life of Akhnaton_. + +"'Love! One stands amazed at the reckless idealism, the beautiful +folly of this Pharaoh who, in an age of turbulence, preached a religion +of peace to seething Syria. Three thousand years later mankind is +still blindly striving after these same ideals in vain.'" + +"How pathetic!" Margaret said. "And yet . . ." she hesitated, ". . . +the God of Battles . . . Akhnaton's was the God of Love, the God of +everlasting Mercy." + +"What right had Egypt ever to go into Syria?" Mike said. "It sounds +fine and one can grow enthusiastic over these beautiful old names and +visualize a million greatnesses that Akhnaton was resigning, but what +right had Egypt in Syria? The right of might, the right of the +stronger against the weaker--Prussia's might against Poland, Spain's +might against Flanders, any large country's might against a weaker, the +right of armies, the right of the greed of monarchs! Akhnaton believed +in God, and to his thinking war could not go hand-in-hand with a love +for all that God had created." + +"Get out, Mike!" Freddy said. "You'll get on to Ireland next--I know +him, Meg!" + +"I agree with him in a way," Meg said. "To give people the love of God +and the proper sense of beauty, the enjoyment of all that God has made +for their good, in the best way, which was surely the way of Akhnaton, +seems better than spending the kingdom's wealth and brains in +maintaining armies to kill human beings and invade new territories." + +"The great question," Freddy said, "is nationality. If you don't care +who wipes you out, or to what country or king you belong, well and +good, live the idealized life. Someone will think quite differently +and gobble you up. If Akhnaton hadn't died, there would soon have been +no Egypt, no Egyptian peoples." + +"They'd have been quite as happy," Mike said, "for in those days the +kings actually owned their empires, they were their own property to do +what they liked with. The people fought for their King, not for their +country. An absolute monarch was an absolute monarch, the kingdom was +his to do as he liked with." + +"How was it saved? Was it ever as great again?" Meg asked. + +"It was saved by his son dying almost directly after he did and +Horemheb, the great commander-in-chief, at last got his way. He +persuaded the reigning Pharaoh, who had married Akhnaton's daughter, to +himself lead an expedition and go into Asia. After that Pharaoh's +death, and the death of the next one, Ay, Akhnaton's father-in-law, who +reigned for a short time--and who, to do him justice, tried to remain +faithful to Akhnaton's ideal Aton worship--the great warrior and +commander-in-chief, Horemheb, was raised to the throne. He brought +Egypt back to its old conditions. Do you care to hear what Weigall +says about him?--how completely he wiped out the 'idealism of the +dreamer'?" Freddy found the passage he wanted. "'The neglected +shrines of the old gods once more echoed with the chants of the priests +through the whole land of Egypt . . . he fashioned a hundred +images. . . . He established for them daily offerings every day. All +the vessels of their temples were wrought of silver and gold. He +equipped them with priests and with ritual priests, and with the +choicest of the army. He transferred to them lands and cattle, +supplied with all necessary equipment. By these gifts to the neglected +gods, Horemheb was striving to bring Egypt back to its natural +condition and with a strong hand he was guiding the country from chaos +to order, from fantastic Utopia to the solid Egypt of the past. He +was, in fact, the preacher of sanity, the chief apostle of the Normal.'" + +"It was in his reign," Michael said, "that Akhnaton's fair city at +Tel-el-Amarna was utterly abandoned; his beautiful decorations, which +were intended to illustrate to the people the beauty of God in Nature, +were ruthlessly destroyed. His body, which had been laid in the +far-away cliffs behind his city, was removed and placed in his mother +Queen Thi's tomb in this valley." + +"What a tragic life!" Margaret said. She was thinking of the sad face +as she had seen it in her vision. Did any one understand him? Freddy +evidently understood Horemheb, the apostle of the Normal, who scorned +the fantastic Utopia of Akhnaton, much better. + +"He was very much beloved and probably as much understood by a few as +most pioneers have been. It was in his father-in-law's tomb that his +beautiful hymn was discovered, for he was one of his devoted followers +in Akhnaton's lifetime." + +Margaret smiled. "The beautiful hymn you said to me that morning at +dawn, Mike?" + +"The same," Michael said. "I have often thought of it in connection +with St. Francis' Canticle to the Sun." + +"It is difficult," Margaret said, "to know how far wars and +empire-building, and everything that makes for worldly-ambition and +encourages the vanity of monarchs, are compatible with the true meaning +of the words 'God is Love,' with the true conception of Christ's +doctrines." + +"Which were Akhnaton's," Michael said. "He did all in his power to +raise the morals of his people. He was the first king to recognize the +higher rights of women, to insist on the reverence of womanhood. He +brought his queen forward on every public occasion, and that had never +been heard of before. He tried to introduce a new ideal of home-life. +He was a model father and husband. He thought of nothing but the moral +welfare of his people and of their happiness. He was willing to lose +his kingdom for the saving of their souls." + +"And yet he was a bad king?" Margaret said. + +"He had none of the qualities of a ruler or an empire-builder," Freddy +said. + +"Damn empire-building!" Mike said. "If people would only stick to +their own natural territory and not go straying into other peoples!" + +"I wonder what you'd do if Germany strayed into ours? Sit down and let +them walk over you?" + +"I'd do what you'd do," Mike said, with a flash of Irish anger in his +eyes--"kill every damned one of them!" + +"There you are!" Freddy said hotly. + +"No, I am not," Michael said, "for, as I said, what we've got, let us +keep--England's possessions no more belong to Germany than my soul +does. But some of our wars--well!" he laughed. "Empires are built up +in rum ways, ways I don't agree with, but we won't do any good by +handing them over now to feed the vanity of the Kaiser. But the +Egyptians had enough land in Africa to expand in, there was no need for +their warrioring in strange lands." + +"Let's chuck the subject," Freddy said good-naturedly, "and stick to +work. I want to get these boxes cleared out to-night and we never do +good work while we argue." + +"I can't help smiling," Margaret said. "It's really too funny to think +that we've got quite cross and snappy over the character of a man who +lived more than three thousand years ago." + +"Oh, we often do that," Michael said. "You should have heard about a +dozen of us quarrelling some time ago over hair-splitting theories on a +much less human subject, one belonging to pre-dynastic times!" + +"I wish Aunt Anna could see us, Freddy, sitting in this funny hut in +this lonely desert valley, cleaning little objects and broken fragments +of things that were buried three thousand years ago and fighting over a +mummy, as she would say!" + +Margaret had been working busily, so her tin cigarette-box, which had +been quite full early in the evening with all sorts of small blue beads +and tiny bits of pottery, was almost empty. She had been able to enjoy +and follow all her brother's remarks about Akhnaton, as Michael had +told her a great deal about him. In the three weeks which had passed +since their visit to Assuan there had been no return of the vision, so +she had insisted upon Michael telling her all that he could about +Akhnaton. She felt anxious to understand something about the king +whose personality interested and influenced him so greatly. + +Michael had by no means banished the vision from his thoughts. He was +convinced that Margaret had been privileged to see a vision of +Akhnaton--indeed, the more he dwelt on his message, the more he felt +sure that it was the beginning of a new phase in his life. + +Over and over again he had repeated to himself the message: "Tell him +to carry on my work." + +Was he doing any work at the present time to help forward mankind? He +was enjoying himself in a delightful way and to a certain extent he was +assisting Freddy; but such assistance as he gave could easily be given +by another; he was not essential. + +There was only one man whom he had a longing to consult and that was +Michael Ireton. Since his marriage with Hadassah Lekejian, a Syrian +girl of great beauty and strength of character, Michael Ireton had +given his time and brains and money to the founding of settlements in +various parts of Egypt for the raising of the moral status of women in +Egypt. He was a practical man of the world, with a charming +personality. His wife was one of the most cultivated and fascinating +women Michael had ever met. + +If he confided to Freddy his growing desire to do the work which he +felt was the work he was called upon to do, Freddy would only look upon +it as a fresh example of his drifting character. + +The subject of Akhnaton had been dropped and perfect good humour was +restored again. Michael's thoughts had soared into what Freddy called +his "Kingdom of Idle Dreams." Freddy's thoughts were very practical, +although they related to the history of a lost civilization and to the +unearthing of objects which the sands of the desert had concealed for +thousands of years. He and the workers knew that the next few days +would be days of intense excitement. + +So far Freddy's surmises had been correct. The chaff and scoffing +which he had so good-naturedly put up with from the fellow-excavators +who had been to visit the camp were likely to be turned the other way. +He had little or no doubt left that he had struck an important tomb, +probably the tomb of the Pharaoh for whom he was looking. + +In a few days the big shaft which led to the mouth of the tomb would be +cleared. Tons upon tons of debris had been thrown out of it; the work +had been stupendous. The two hundred native workers and the other more +experienced diggers had worked unremittingly. Freddy was living in a +high state of nervous tension. The news had spread far and wide that +"Mistrr Lampton" had discovered a new tomb and one which presumably had +never been entered. Freddy knew that this news would spread, would be +carried on the wings of the morning in a manner which no European can +ever discover. Means of transmitting news is one of the secrets which +no native in Africa, North or South, has ever divulged to an European. +There are hundreds of theories on the subject. Do pigeons act as +carriers? Some people suggest this theory. Or is it by some wireless +method which has been known to all primitive races and only lately +discovered by scientific scholars of the West? + +So far no one has fathomed the mystery. But Freddy knew that the news +would be sent far and wide, and that every seeker after "antikas" would +be prowling round the opened site. Directly the tomb was opened, it +would be the Mecca of every tomb-plunderer. He had sent word for a +guard of police to be ready to come when he summoned them. + +When the tomb was opened he would have to prevent anyone from going +into it until a photographer had arrived from Cairo to photograph it +and until after the Supervisor-General of the Monuments of Upper Egypt +had arrived on the spot and inspected it. + +He could feel the excitement of the natives, who have absolutely no +sense of honour where "antikas" are concerned. It has proved almost an +impossible work to convince them that the excavators and the scholars +who are engaged in the work of archaeology in Egypt, or the wealthy man +who has paid for the expenses of a camp, are not one and all "out on +the make." They are convinced that these eager, enthusiastic scholars +are just the same as they are, interested in it from a pecuniary point +of view. The curios and wonders which they dig out of the bowels of +the earth put gold into their pockets. + +Freddy's _Ras_, or native overseer, was a highly intelligent man, who +had a genuine appreciation for antiques--he was a clever hand at faking +them and did a good business with tourists--but at heart even he +doubted the sincerity and single-minded purpose of the British School +of Archaeology in Egypt, and "Mistrr Lampton's" absolute +clean-handedness in the business. + +Freddy had never left the camp for more than half an hour since the +excavation had become "hot." It was a strenuous time. + +Naturally Margaret's thoughts were centred and engrossed in her +brother's work. She could scarcely hold her soul in patience while the +deep shaft was being cleared, a long and tiresome job. But at last +they could count the time by days before the entrance to the tomb would +be reached. + +The little store-room in the hut was packed full of boxes which held +the small finds. Margaret's work for some days past had been to piece +together (Freddy had taught her how) the tiny fragments of a smashed +vase which her brother had found. The pieces were all there, for it +had been discovered in a little hollow in the sand. The conventional +decoration was of an unique type; and on it was traced a branch of a +plant which seemed to Freddy to resemble with extraordinary exactness a +branch of the Indian fig, the prickly pear, so familiar to all +travellers in Southern Italy. As the Indian fig was not introduced +into Egypt until the Middle Ages, or so it had generally been supposed, +for it was not indigenous, Freddy was anxious to find out if the +decoration on the vase was going to prove that after all it was known +to the Egyptians long before it was brought over from America. He also +held that there was something in the theory which has of late become +current that camels may have been known and used in Egypt from very +early times, that their absence in all pictorial art in temples and +tombs may be owing to the fact that the Egyptians divided animals into +two classes, the clean and the unclean; that neither into temples nor +into tombs could the unclean be introduced in any form of art +whatsoever. + +These were the sort of discussions with which Margaret had already +grown familiar. She felt that in piecing together and sketching as +accurately as possible the cactus-like branch of the little plant +engraved on the broken vase, she was actually helping to forge a link +in one of the minute chains of Egyptian archaeology. + +Her brother's memory amazed her and his intelligence stimulated her. +He had been such a boy at home. Egypt had converted him into a strong +serious scholar. His fair head, bent over his work, with the lamplight +shining on it, was so dear to her that impulsively she put her long +strong fingers on the glittering hair; she longed to kiss it. + +"Dear old boy!" she said. "Isn't it all just too exciting? Isn't life +thrilling? Isn't it lovely to be alive?" + +Freddy did not look up. "Some girls," he said, "mightn't think this +being very much alive--the sorting out of bits of broken rubbish, +thrown out of a tomb which has been forgotten for two or three thousand +years. Did you ever think you'd care to know whether a prickly pear +was indigenous to Egypt or was not? Or whether canopic jars had their +origin in family grocers' jars being lent by the head of the house to +hold the intestines of some dear-departed?" + +Meg laughed. "It is all too odd, but being in it, and actually knowing +that we are going to see into that tomb in a few days and discover who +the king was who was buried there, and all about his personal and +family affairs, and be able to touch the jewels he was buried with, +it's too interesting for words, I think!" + +"I hope you won't be disappointed. It may have been robbed." + +"But you don't think so?" + +"No, I don't--not at present. There was a tomb opened at one of the +camps, not long ago, which told a tragic story of the end of robbery +and plunder. The roof had fallen in while the burglar was busy +unwrapping the cloths from the dead mummy. He was evidently trying to +get at the heart-scarab, I suppose, and at the jewels which the +windings held in their place. He had been smothered, taken in the act. +Probably he had left his fellow-plunderers at the entrance; the roof +may have looked unsafe, but he had hoped to collect all the jewels and +scarabs before it gave way. Fate played him a nasty trick. The roof +caved in, and we have secured all the jewels he had collected together +and have learned a lesson of what must have often happened. The +mummy's body was, of course, still perfect. Of the intruder only bones +were visible and some fragments of his clothes. Things keep for ever +in these hermetically-sealed Egyptian tombs, where neither rust nor +moth ever entered in, but where thieves did break through and steal." + +"How thrilling!" Margaret said. "How did you guess that the skeleton +was the skeleton of a robber? I suppose as he never returned, his +friends just went off and left him?" + +"By the scattered jewels and the way the mummy was lying. Why should a +skeleton be inside a royal tomb? Why should the mummy be out of its +coffin and partly unrobed? We have actually found before now plans +which the sextons and the guardians of the tombs had made for +themselves, of all the tombs in the cemetery which was in their care. +They knew how they could be entered one from another. Of course, this +valley is different. The tombs are isolated and carefully hidden. It +was never a public cemetery." + +"Was Akhnaton's tomb intact? Had it been robbed?" + +Freddy laughed. "Back again to the tabooed subject?" + +Meg laughed too. "We shan't fight this time, I promise." + +"His city and palace and tomb were utterly desolated, but his mummy had +been taken away from his own tomb, before it was desolated, and brought +to his mother's." + +"Oh, you told me--I forgot." Into Meg's mind came again the words +spoken by the sad voice, "My earthly body was brought to my mother's +tomb in this valley." + +When the night's work was completed, Meg voted that they should sit for +a few minutes in front of the hut and try to get the "mummy-shell" and +the microbes of Pharaonic diseases out of their nostrils. Freddy had +never allowed them to sleep right out in the open, much as they had +wished it. It was not safe, even with the dogs and his trustworthy +house-boys. He would not hear of it; and he was wise. + +Gladly he agreed to refreshing their lungs with the beautiful night +air. Indeed, they were all three so happy together and there was so +much to talk about and discuss, that bed seemed a bore. Physically +tired as they were, owing to the nervous excitement in the atmosphere +of their day's surroundings, sleep seemed very far off. + +"Just half an hour, Freddy," Margaret said, as she threw herself down +on a long lounge chair, and clasping her hands behind her head, gazed +up to the heavens. "How glorious it is!" she said. "I'm so happy." + +They all three lighted cigarettes and smoked in silence. Freddy was as +happy as Meg; Mike was restless. + +At the end of the half-hour Meg got up and said, "Who'd exchange this +for a city? Freddy, you ought to get to bed--you're dead tired, +really." + +He rose reluctantly. "I suppose I must." His thoughts were on the +morrow's work. If the tomb was going to be a really big thing, it +meant a lot more to him than Meg understood. He was very young; he had +not as yet struck any remarkable find; he had his reputation to make. +His theories had caused much comment. + +"I could never live in a city again," he said. "This life has made it +impossible. And the odd thing is that it has made cities seem to me +the loneliest, most desolate places in the world. I never feel in +touch with anyone. Even the other night at the ball, jolly as it was, +I never once talked to anyone about anything that really interested me. +I never felt that anyone would understand a single thing about all that +is my real life. I suppose everyone feels the same--that their real +selves are lost in crowds." + +Michael and Margaret looked at each other. They had experienced the +feeling; they had lost each other. In the valley they had come back to +the things of Truth. + +"You know I always abhorred town-life," Mike said, "and all its +artificiality and rottenness and needless accumulation of unnecessary +things." + +"Brains congregate in cities, all the same," Freddy said, "if you can +only strike them. We'd get too one-sided here, too lost in the past. +It's never wise to let your hobbies and work exclude all other +interests." + +"I begin to think there is no past," Meg said. "Time lost itself in +Egypt. Three thousand years mean nothing. The people who lived and +ruled before Moses was born are more alive and real to-day for us than +the events of yesterday's evening paper. I think I have learned just a +tiny bit of what infinity means." + +"Or rather, you have learned that you haven't," Mike said. "By the +time you have discovered that three thousand years are just yesterday, +you have grasped the truth of the fact that no mortal mind can conceive +the meaning of the word infinity." + +"Have you ever seen a ghost in Egypt, Freddy?" Margaret said, +irrelevantly. + +"No, never," he said. + +"Did the ancients believe in them?" + +Freddy was locking up the hut. "We never come across any writing or +pictures to show us that they did, so I don't think it's likely. They +have told us most things about themselves and about what they saw and +feared." + +"I wonder?" Margaret said meditatively. "I wonder if they did or +didn't?" + +"Of course they believed," Michael said, "that the soul of a man, the +_anima_, at the death of the body, flew to the gods. It came back at +intervals to comfort the mummy." + +"That's nothing to do with what we call ghosts," Freddy said, "and no +one but the mummy is supposed to have been visited by it. It took the +form of a bird with human hands and head; it was called the _ba_." + +"Oh, my friendly _ba_!" Meg said. "I have just been reading all about +it--in Maspero's book you see pictures of it sitting on the chest of +the mummy." + +"That's it," Freddy said. "You're getting on. But as for real ghosts, +there's no record of them--not that I know of. Good-night," he said, +"I'm off." + +"Good-night," Meg said, "and the best of luck to tomorrow's dig." + +For a moment Michael and Meg stood together. "I know what is in your +heart," she said. "I begin to think that Egypt is making practical me +quite psychic." + +"I feel I ought to be up and doing. I believe there is work I can +do--I believe it is the work I can do best." + +"You only can judge," Meg said. + +"I have always maintained that a man should devote himself to the work +he can do best, no matter how unpractical or how unremunerative it may +seem to others. He must be himself, he must work from the inside." + +"You are doing good work here." + +"Not my work--another's." + +"I can't advise. I know you must judge." + +"It means leaving this valley if I do it." + +"Oh," Meg said, "not yet? Not until the tomb is opened, anyhow?" + +"No," he said, "I'll wait for that. I want to see Ireton--I'm going to +see him to-morrow when I go to Luxor for Freddy." + +"Are you going?" she said. "I didn't know." + +"Yes," he said. "He wants a lot done and he can't leave the dig." + +"No, he can't." Meg paused; in her heart a fear had suddenly leapt up. +The soft, delicately-tinted woman on the balcony at Assuan stood out +before her as plainly as the luminous figure of Akhnaton had done. She +was at Luxor! Two letters had arrived from Luxor for Mike in a woman's +handwriting. + +"I will see Michael Ireton," he repeated. "His work is magnificent; so +is his wife's. His work is amongst the men." + +"In their settlements, you mean?" + +"Yes, amongst the Copts, most particularly." + +"It will be sad to break up our trio," she said. "We are so happy." +She held out her hand. "Good-night. I was to help, not to retard--I +must remember my dream." + +"Good-night." Mike grasped her hand. "You are part of the light. +Keep close to me when I am in Luxor tomorrow." + + + + +CHAPTER X + +Michael not only had to go to Luxor on business for Freddy, but to +Cairo also. He had gone willingly, because he knew that someone had to +go, and it gave him immense gratification to be able to help his friend +in this time of intense anxiety. + +It was absolutely essential that as little time as possible should +elapse between the opening of the tomb and the arrival of the +photographer and the Chief Inspector. Things which have remained +intact for thousands of years in the even, dry temperature of an +Egyptian tomb, crumble and fade away like the fabric of our dreams when +they are exposed to the open air. + +It might be that there would be nothing inside it worth all the trouble +and the arrangements which had to be made; on the other hand, the Arab +seer's vision might be verified. So far, no trace of burglars, either +ancient or modern, had been discovered. Not infrequently the finding +of an Arab copper coin, or some disk made of modern metal, an amulet +similar to those worn by the ancients, but made of a composition +unknown to them, will indicate to an excavator that the tomb has been +visited, and probably violated, by modern thieves. + +Everything when speaking of time in Egypt is comparative. These +intruders may have dropped the metal talisman or coin centuries and +centuries ago, soon after the Arab invasion. + +Michael had done all his business and was well-content to spend the +remainder of his day in mediaeval Cairo. He shunned the European +quarter, with its expensive hotels and hybrid Western civilization. He +preferred the narrow dark streets of the poor natives. In the East +poverty has at least its picturesque side; in the East, as in Italy, +Our Lady of Poverty has her shrines, not her hovels. In London, he +asked himself, could Browning have sung "God's in His heaven--All's +right with the world!"? + +In London so much is wrong with the world that the true meaning of +Christ's words, "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a +needle than for the rich man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven," +seems obvious. To Michael Amory the world was beautiful; its systems +of laws and customs were all wrong. The misunderstanding of countless +human beings, one with another, through their lack of Love, through +their obliviousness of God, made a whirlpool of his reasoning powers. + +Mike had talked matters over with Michael Ireton, who had allowed him +to unburden his full heart. His ideas and plans were quite unformed. +All that he was now certain of was the fact that he would never settle +down to any profession or career which would mean only the furthering +of his own worldly interests. + +"The clear voice prevents me," he said. "And the fact is, I don't care +a rap about my future position--it can look after itself. I want to +work as you are working, even if I prove a failure. I want to get +something of this off my chest." He laughed. "It's all so difficult +to express, and so easy to see, isn't it? Of course, I know that one +man can't set the wrong in the world right, but each man can do what +his right self advises. Our right self is never wrong." + +"Hadassah helped me," Michael Ireton said, "and life has been worth +twice what it was before. I agree with you--we must lead our own lives +according to our own ideals, not according to the world's." + +"Most people think me a fool," Michael said, "simply a rotter and a +drifter, just because I can't settle down to work at a career of my +own, while the world's burden is booming in my ear." + +"Think things well over," Hadassah said. "Don't rush into plans which +may prove a disappointment. Let your ideas materialize. You are never +really idle--you will be sending thought-waves out into the world; they +will bear fruit. Thought never dies; for good or for evil, it is +everlasting." + +"But I have been thinking--or drifting, as Lampton says, just idly +drifting, for what seems to me like ages." + +"Drifting closer to the Light," Hadassah said. "It has all been in +order, it has all been a part of the Guiding Power." + +"Do you think so? I wish I knew. Lampton thinks I've no ambition. I +have, of a sort, but it's not of a money-making kind, it's not going to +make my name or what you could call a career. I want to teach people +how to live, and I don't know how to do it myself." + +"I understand," Ireton said. "There's something out here, in the +simplicity of desert life and the East generally, that lessens our +wants. The fruits of hard labour are not so necessary as in England; +the flesh-pots of Egypt are in the sunshine. If you have just enough +to get along with, here in the East, and have cultivated tastes, life +can be wonderfully beautiful. Poverty need never mean degradation--in +fact, it has its advantages." + +"That's it!" Michael Amory said. "I want to let people know how +wonderfully beautiful life can be, even without wealth and worldly +power, and why it is beautiful. I want them to realize the essence of +things, to let those poor, crowded, degraded wretches in London know +the sweetness of work in God's open spaces. I feel that I must do my +little bit in helping things forward. I want to let in a few chinks of +light. . . ." + +Hadassah, oddly enough, finished his quotation from "Pippa Passes": +"You want to give them eyes to see that + + "'The year's at the Spring, + And day's at the morn; + Morning's at seven; + The hillside's dew-pearled: + The lark's on the wing; + The snail's on the thorn; + God's in His heaven-- + All's right with the world!'" + + +Michael Ireton suggested that he should go off for a time into the +desert and find himself. "There's nothing else so helpful," he said. +"I've tried it." Hadassah's eyes met her husband's. She understood; +she remembered. + +And so Michael Amory left them strengthened and helped, not so much by +their advice as by their understanding. Hadassah had charmed him, as +she charmed everyone who met her. Her happiness as the wife of the +Englishman who had scorned the gossiping tongues of Cairo by marrying +her, and her pride in the young Nicholas, their son, who was just +learning to walk, made Michael Amory a little envious. Michael +Ireton's home and life seemed almost ideal. This wealthy, happy couple +lived in the world and yet not for the world; they had discovered the +true meaning of life. + +Michael's thoughts were brimful of Hadassah and her husband, her beauty +and the romance of their marriage, the details of which were familiar +to him, as he pushed his way through the labyrinth of native streets in +mediaeval Cairo. + +After the silence of the desert, the noise was terrific--the shouts of +the water-carriers, the yells of the native drivers of the swaying +cabs, as they dashed at a reckless pace through the struggling and +idling crowds. It was the most crowded hour of the day; the native +town was wide awake. Camels laden with immense burdens of sugar-canes +brushed the foot passengers almost off the narrow sideway; small boys, +with large black eyes and small white _takiyehs_, darted in and out +with brass trays piled high with little enamelled glass bowls. + +Michael longed to close his ears with his fingers, but had he attempted +to do so, a donkey, carrying terracotta water-jars of an ancient and +unpractical shape, or a portly, high-stomached Turk would assuredly +have robbed him of his balance. + +He drifted on in a semi-conscious state of all that was going on around +him, hating the noise, but enjoying every now and then the feast of +colour which some group of strangely-mixed races presented. More than +once, in the midst of all this noise and clamour, he saw a devout +Moslem alone with his God. Before all the world, he was praying in +absolute solitude. His mind had created perfect silence. + +And so Michael drifted on. Only his subconscious self was leading him +to his destination. He was going to a court of peace, to a strange +friend who had taught him much simple philosophy and beauty, an African +whose acquaintance he had made two years before, when he was in +Gondokoro. Michael had saved the African's life by giving him some +pecuniary assistance and carrying him on his own camel to the nearest +village. He had come across him while he was on his journey which he +performed on foot--from the heart of Africa to the university of +el-Azhar in Cairo. + +Since his youth, this old man had saved up money for the journey. It +had been the ambition and the desire of his life to study in the great +university of el-Azhar, the most important Moslem university in the +world. His money had all been stolen from him, when Michael's servant +found him. When he told his master of the condition the poor creature +was in, a state of semi-starvation, Michael had taken him to the +nearest village and there paid for a doctor to attend to him, and had +supplied him with sufficient money to greatly mitigate the fatigue and +suffering of his long pilgrimage to Cairo. + +The journey had, of course, not been of such a hopeless character as +might be supposed, for in every Moslem village there is a rest-house +with free food for poor travellers; but even so, Michael knew that the +distances between the desert villages are often enormous, and that they +only supplied the food for the period of rest which the pilgrim needed. + +Eight months later, when Michael was in England, he heard through the +_'Ulama_ of the _riwak_ in el-Azhar to which he belonged by +nationality, that the old man had arrived and that he was now living +the life of a mystic and a recluse. In a beautiful imagery of words, +he had begged the _'Ulama_ to send his gratitude and thanks to the +Englishman by whom, God, in His everlasting mercy, had sent him relief. + +On Michael's return to Egypt the next year, almost the first thing +which he had done on reaching Cairo was to go to el-Azhar and inquire +at the ancient abode of peace if he could see his old friend. He had +been admitted and exceptional courtesy had been extended to him. He +was an unbeliever and a despised Christian, yet it had been through his +act of charity that one of Allah's children had been nursed back to +life and enabled to give his last years to the study of the Koran. He +had been allowed to visit the old man from time to time. + +To-day, as he walked through the noisy streets and smelt the obnoxious +smells coming from an infinite variety of Oriental foods and customs, +he longed to be back in the quiet valley, to feel the golden sand once +more under his feet, to see Margaret's eyes smile their welcome. If he +had caught the midday train, he would have been far away from Cairo by +now. Yet something had led him to the heart of Islam, to that strange +and unworldly seat of ancient learning. The very meaning of the word +Islam suggests the atmosphere of the place--resignation, self-surrender. + +When at last he arrived at the gates and was admitted into the +splendour of the spacious court, his heart was lifted up. Its ancient +dignity, its divine sense of calm and, above all, the sonorous sounds +of the Moslems chanting their _suras_ of the Koran, intoxicated his +senses. As St. Augustine was intoxicated with God, so Michael was +intoxicated with the spirit of Islam. + +He knew that at certain times--during Moslem festivals, for +instance--fanaticism often ran so high in this, the greatest of all +Moslem centres, that it would be dangerous for a Christian to set foot +inside the courtyard gate. It made him glow with pleasure that he, by +his little act of love--or charity, as it is less pleasantly +termed--was permitted to enter the courtyard at almost any time. This, +of course, he would not do; the _'Ulama_ had given him permission, but +he would not take advantage of his gracious offer. + +To this richly-endowed university students come from all parts of the +world, merely to study the interpretations of problematical passages in +the Koran--poor students from India and China, wealthy citizens from +Tunis, delicate-featured Malays from the Straits Settlements and +negroes from Central Africa. + +In the courts of el-Azhar these children of Allah become brothers; +their united flag is the green banner of Islam; their nationality is +Islam. This, Michael felt, was what religion ought to do for mankind. +He tiptoed softly along, winding his way through the devout groups of +students, until he reached a deep colonnade, supported by antique +columns of great beauty, columns which had probably come from ancient +Coptic churches, from Christian churches built in Old Cairo long before +Islam was preached in Egypt. The colonnade was dark and almost cool +after the open court, where the sun was blazing down upon the groups of +picturesque worshippers and students, who seemed to be totally +oblivious of its heat. Some elderly men were merely meditating. It +was a wonderful sight, gracious and solemn and mysterious. The +concentration of many of the worshippers on God was so strong that they +seemed to see Him with their eyes; it was written on their faces; they +looked as if they actually belonged to God. + +Filled with the religious spell of the place, Michael wound his way +through the different class-rooms into which the colonnade was divided, +class-rooms which so little resembled the class-rooms of his own school +or Oxford, that unless he had known what was going on, it would not +have dawned on him that the various professors and teachers were +delivering their lectures and instructing their scholars. The +divisions of the class-rooms were merely an unwritten law; there was no +boundary-line. Here and there groups of students, seated on the floor +of the immense colonnade, which was supported on the inner side by +columns of superb proportions, were waiting for their masters. Here +and there a professor had already arrived; he was standing close to a +column with his pupils grouped round him, just as the village-children +surrounded their native teacher in a desert school. + +Out of the eleven thousand pupils who attend the university every year +not one of them would receive any instruction which would enable him to +earn his living, or take his place in the struggle for wealth and power +in the ordinary world of mankind. Devotion to Islam, and a desire to +enter into a fuller understanding of God through the teachings of the +Koran, alone brought them together from far and near. + +Michael knew his way and presently he found himself in the residential +quarter of the university and outside a partition which divided the +small bare room of the man he had come to see from that of his +fellow-students. The room or cell was empty, except for one +praying-mat and a shelf, which was close to the floor. On it was a +copy of the Koran and some religious books bound in paper. In the wall +of this narrow living-room there was an opening which led into another +cell; a tall man would have had to bend almost double to pass under it. +The small recess served as a bedroom. + +Michael gently pulled a bell, whose chain hung against the iron grating +which fronted the humble abode. As it sounded, an emaciated figure +appeared under the arched aperture and a sonorous voice cried out in +Arabic, "Peace be with you." + +Michael, who knew that this Moslem greeting is reserved for all true +believers, for members of the Islamic brotherhood, that it is rarely, +if ever, offered to Christians, thought that the old man had not seen +him, that his gracious salutation was for one of his own faith. He did +not venture to return it in the prescribed Moslem fashion, "On you be +peace and the mercy of God and His Blessing." He merely waited for a +few moments, until the bent figure stood upright, and the dark eyes in +the thin face met his own. + +"It is you, O my son. I have long looked for you." + +Michael's heart warmed with happiness. Then the Moslem greeting had +been for him. He felt that peace was with him. + +"I seek your counsel, O my father." + +"May Allah counsel me and bring you prosperity." A lean arm, a mere +bone covered with a sun-tanned skin, reached for a key which was +hanging from a nail in the wall. Without speaking, he unlocked the +gate. Michael noticed the fleshlessness of the fingers and wrist. + +"Enter, my son, if it so please you to honour my humble abode." + +Michael entered and waited in silence, until the old African had slowly +and carefully locked the door again. + +"To you, O my son, my dwelling-place seems empty and bare; to me it is +filled with the treasures of paradise, the sweet fragrance of white +jasmine." + +"I understand," Michael said. + +"My son," the old man said, "it is because you understand that I am +here, in this little room, glorified by the presence of Allah, made +beautiful by His exceeding great beauty. I see many flowers; I can +hear the singing of birds and the running of cool waters." + +"Your home is an abode of peace. Its beauty is the perfection of +understanding. Your jasmine is the fragrance of love." + +"Our thoughts, my son, are our real riches. In no place are we far +from Allah. What of your work--has it prospered?" + +This was, Michael knew, the usual Moslem greeting to a friend; it did +not refer to any particular form of work or to his worldly affairs. + +"All is well, O my father." + +"I have no bodily refreshment to offer you, my son." He smiled a +queer, grim smile; it stretched the hard skin of his face, which +mid-African suns had tanned. + +"I need no material food, O my father," Michael said, "I have eaten +well and I know your frugal life. I seek better food." + +"That is well, my son. Prayer is better than food. I have prayed for +you." + +Michael knew that at el-Azhar all studies are absolutely free; the +teaching is entirely gratuitous. The poor students even receive their +food from the rich endowments of the various _riwaks_ to which they +belong. This Michael had learned when he saved the old man's life at +Gondokoro. He had discovered the fact that when once he was inside the +gate of this gracious institution, he would be sheltered and fed and +taught by the love of Islam. Wealthy students pay for privileges and +for more luxurious quarters. This visionary and pilgrim asked for +nothing more than food enough to keep him alive. What he desired of +life was the time and means for studying the teachings of the Koran and +the receiving of instruction from learned professors in the refinements +of theology and in the sacred traditions. His life had been spent in a +treadmill of hard labour. In mid-Africa his duty had been, for as long +as he could remember, the guiding of a camel in its unceasing round of +a primitive native well, the drawing up and emptying of buckets. + +His smile was so mystical and ecstatic while he offered his apologies +to Michael for the lack of hospitality, that Michael knew that he was +visualizing and enjoying far greater luxury and affluence than had ever +been the lot of the richest Mameluke of old days. + +They were seated on the floor of the outer cell. + +"You have been much in my thoughts, O my son. Allah has desired it. I +have seen strange happenings for you. I know that the Light has come +nearer." + +Michael bowed his head and murmured a few words inaudibly. + +"The Lord of the Worlds has revealed himself to you, O my son. My +unworthy prayer has been answered." He paused. "Why have you not +come? Since the Great Weeping (the inundation of the Nile) you have +not left the valley?--you have not come?" + +"Yes," Michael said. "I have left the valley. But only work could +bring me to Cairo. I was busy." + +"I have much to tell you, my son, much that Allah has shown me." + +"Please instruct me, O father. I came to you for counsel; in my heart +there is unrest." + +"I have seen you," he went on, regardless of Michael's almost inaudible +remarks, "I have seen you travelling on a long journey. I have seen +many trials and many temptations for you. I have also seen you in the +great Light. For you there is a treasure laid up, not only in heaven, +but on earth, which will help you in the work which the clear voice +counsels." + +"This is strange," Michael said. "O my father, I am already greatly +disturbed; I come to you for help." + +"Do not fear, my son. God responds to and supplies the demands of +human nature. He has willed that you should devote your life to His +teachings." + +"You forget, my father. I am not of your faith. I have not embraced +Islam." + +"I have my message to deliver. I have seen what I have seen. Every +religion which gives a true knowledge of God and directs in the most +excellent way of His worship, is Islam." + +"You have seen me giving my life to all that I feel to be most urgent +in the life of all who know the truth?" + +"I have seen you, by Allah's aid and by His bountiful mercy, +accomplishing work which will bestow great blessing and peace upon your +soul." + +"I have thought much of all this," Michael said, "since we last met. +The idea has never left me, yet I am puzzled. Why should I feel like +this, when better men do not?" + +"God, in His almighty word, has declared a higher aim of man's +existence, O my son." + +"Then why do I not better understand? I feel nothing but +dissatisfaction, unfruitfulness." + +"A man may not always understand. A hundred different motives may hold +him back. But the truth remains, my son, that the grand aim of man's +life consists in knowing and worshipping God and living for His sake." + +"I wish I could decide! Some people see the road so plainly before +them. Mine is broken, and often it is totally lost in the desert +sands." + +"A man has no choice, my son, in fixing the aim of his life." + +"That is your faith, my father." + +"Man does not enter the world or leave it as he desires. He is a +creature, and the Creator Who has brought him into existence has +assigned an object for his existence." + +There was silence for a little time, while the old man meditated and +recited a _sura_ from the Koran. + +"Already, my son, even though you do not know it, you are in the faith. +You have seen the perfect Light. Remember that no one can fight with +God, or frustrate His designs. Not once, but many times, I have seen +you, my son, travelling on this journey. God has sent many prophets to +lead mankind into the knowledge of truth. Moses and Christ, they had +their divine tasks, but the last and the best of the messengers of God +was Mohammed, praised be His holy name. Some day, O my son, He will +perfect your religion, and complete His favours by making Islam your +faith. Before these messengers there were others, for God has never +left the world in desolation. I have seen you surrounded by Light, a +light which comes from one of God's messengers, who is never far from +you. As I see him, always in the midst of a great light, like the +light of the sun, he resembles no mortal I have ever seen on this +earth, or any king I have been shown in my dreams. He has greatly +suffered for mankind, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, as +was the Prophet Christ." + +Michael was greatly disturbed. The old man's eyes were far from him. +His words had their meaning for Michael more than for himself. The +great sunlight was the rays of Aton. The treasure of which he had +spoken--was it the treasure of which the vision in the valley had +spoken to Margaret? + +"Some day I may have more counsel to offer you, my son. To-day I have +but strange visions, strange messages. This treasure you are to seek +lies in the desert; it is a treasure of great value. I see much gold, +but also, my son, much tribulation. This gold . . . it has been lost +to the world . . . for many centuries. . . ." + +"It is all very strange, my father. Your words are full of meaning. +In Egypt there was a King, before the days of Moses, who sacrificed his +kingdom to give his people God. His was the religion of the true God +and His everlasting mercy." + +The old man recited another _sura_ from the Koran. "Go and pray, my +son, open your heart to prayer, for prayer is better than strife; +prayer is greater than miracles. Perseverance in prayer is Islam." + +"Can you tell me nothing more?" Michael said. "Is it not folly to +start out on a journey which has no definite ending, no practical +purpose?" + +"I cannot tell you more, my son, nor can I tell you why these visions +have been revealed to me. All I know is that I cannot doubt their +source." + +"Do you, my father, then absolutely believe in visions?" Michael said. +"I am only a seeker after truth. I am convinced of so little." + +"My son, believe in visions. Is their meaning not written on the leaf +of a water-melon?" (A thing well-known.) + +"We read of them in the Bible." + +"Did I not tell you that I knew of your coming? It was revealed to me +in a vision. I saw you groping and losing your way. I saw you in +thick darkness. I saw you struggling for the Light. Is all that not +true? Have you never lost the Light? Has your path been straight and +easy? Has the flesh not tempted you?" + +Michael bent his head. + +"For many weeks a friend has been very close to you. She is in the way +of truth. Hold fast to her. There are others who I see in darkness." + +"Yes," Michael said. "That is all true. You have seen clearly." + +"You will leave those you care for most, my son, and go on a journey +into a new country across the river. It is all His purpose; it is all +a part of the Guiding Hand, the Ruling Power." + +Michael remained lost in thought. That the old African loved him as a +son he had no doubt. He knew that his ardent desire was that he should +be the means of converting him to the true faith. He knew that the +little help which he had once been able to give him had won his undying +gratitude. This strange creature, who had only entered upon his +university career after his hair had become white and his body worn to +a shadow, had earned Michael's respect and veneration. He was +conscious of the fact that, devout Moslem as the recluse was, he did +not look upon all Christians as heretics and unclean. Long ago Michael +and he had exchanged thoughts on their conceptions of God. The pious +Moslem had come to the conclusion that but for his lack of a proper +understanding of the Koran and of the Prophet's relation to God, +Michael was at heart a Mohammedan. He worshipped the one and only God +Whom the Prophet had come to reveal. Michael believed in Christ just +as he himself believed in Him, as one of God's Messengers, as one of +God's Methods of manifesting Himself to mankind. + +He had no hesitation in speaking to Michael or in reciting passages +from the Holy Book in his presence. Daily he prayed that he might +embrace the faith of Islam. It was his love for him and his gratitude +which made him eager for this happiness to be bestowed upon his +benefactor. + +For a long time Michael remained with his old friend, who was glad to +learn from him many things which could never have reached his ears from +any other source. He lived as a hermit and a recluse inside his little +cell, which was lost in the vast dimensions of the Mosque of el-Azhar. +As he was lost to the world, so was he surrounded by things of the +spirit. + +It was late in the afternoon when at last Michael said good-bye and the +aged student locked himself into his cell. His adieu was lengthy and +beautiful and expressed in the true Moslem fashion. This ardent +Englishman was as dear to him as a son. He had no sons of his own, or +indeed any friends who loved him. There was scarcely a soul in his old +home who remembered his existence. The man who had guided the camel at +the well had ceased to cause even his late master a passing thought. +The native teacher who had instructed him in the Koran in his boyhood, +along with the other village children, and who had first inspired him +with the desire to study the Sacred Book at el-Azhar, had long since +gone to that world where "black faces shall turn white and white faces +shall turn black." + +As Michael retraced his steps circumspectly through the class-rooms of +the university and across the open court, where the afternoon sun +almost blinded him--the darkness of the old man's cell made it seem +even fiercer than it had been in the morning--his mind was filled with +a thousand thoughts. He was much more restless than he had been on his +arrival. Had he done wisely in paying this visit to the visionary? +Was he only adding unrest and bewilderment to his soul? + +The old man's last words had been to counsel him to follow the dictates +of his own conscience, which was God. + +"On this journey, which will lead you into the Light, a child of God +will guide you, a child of God will point out the way." These had been +his last words. + +Michael knew that with Moslems the expression "a child of God" is +generally applied to religious fanatics, and to simples, people who +have not practical sense to enable them to enter into the struggle for +existence, people who have, as the Western world terms it, "a screw +loose." + +"A child of God will lead you. To him has been revealed this ancient +treasure, which the desert sands have guarded for unnumbered years." + +Michael wondered if he was mad or dreaming. To believe a single word +of the mystic's advice seemed rank folly; but here again he was brought +face to face with a fact stranger than fiction. This African had +spoken of a King who had been God's messenger before the days of Moses +and Christ. He was totally without learning, except in the Koran; he +was ignorant of the existence or personality of the great heretic +Pharaoh: of Egyptian history he knew nothing. Yet what he had said and +visualized fitted in with Michael's theory and belief that Akhnaton had +buried a great hoard of gold and jewels near his capital of +Tel-el-Amarna. Nor was Michael alone in his belief in this theory. + +As the gate of the university court was closed behind him, Michael took +a last look at the wonderful scene. + +Groups of woolly-haired Africans, as black as the basalt tablets in the +museum, were seated on the floor of the white marble court. Some were +eating their frugal meal; some were lying on their backs resting; while +others were lost in prayer. Here and there a tall _sheikh_ or a +professor was standing talking to a group of students, seated on the +ground at his feet, his flowing robes and majestic turban proclaiming +the distinction of his calling. Not one of the professors or teachers +received a penny for their services; the most learned men in Egypt +offered their services free. The idea and theory of the institution is +beautiful and elevating. + +Yet Michael knew that to Freddy the whole thing was a waste of time and +an antediluvian affair. In the matter of education, the modern +Egyptian would have been left hopelessly behind in the progress of the +world, but for the Government schools instituted under the British +occupation. These men at el-Azhar were learning nothing which could +ever serve to put one penny into their pockets. + +He could hear Freddy repeating his favourite words of a great modern +writer, "I should always distrust the progress of people who walk on +their heads. I should always beware of people who sacrifice the +interests of their country to those of mankind." + +Freddy had thrown the words at Michael's head hundreds of times when he +had given expression to his Utopian ideas of oiling the world's +creaking hinges, of preventing his predicted world-wide disaster. +Michael always considered that the whole of what was termed the +civilized world was "walking on its head," that only vanity could blind +those who ruled and governed, only arrogance could hide the fact that +the seats of the mighty were tottering. + +Freddy did honestly distrust people "who walked on their heads," yet +Michael thought that he would surely still more distrust the people who +did not walk according to their consciences, people who lived the lives +marked out for them by others, by the conventions of the world. + +This old man, in his dark cell, nursed in the very bowels of Islam, had +achieved his heart's desire. He had fulfilled the purpose of his life, +a purpose which to Freddy seemed useless and wasteful. That was +another question. He had left a life of endless toil under the +tropical sun of primitive Africa for what to Freddy would have seemed a +mad purpose--to walk to Cairo and spend the last few years of his +existence in the silent contemplation of God. + +As he thought of the man's former life, Michael could hear his sonorous +voice chanting the name of Allah in a hundred beautiful forms, as his +bare brown limbs followed in the slow footsteps of a lean white camel +round and round a native well. + +Truly, perseverance can work miracles. Faith had moved mountains, for +God had sent this pauper at the well means whereby he was to achieve +his life-long prayer. Michael had been allowed to cross his path. +This penniless African had never doubted, he had trusted in Allah. +Conflicting doubts and arguments had delayed Michael. He had drifted, +one day urged by the unconquerable voice, the next cut off from his +purpose by the advice and companionship of prosperous friends. He felt +that his faith would move no mountains, his perseverance perform no +miracles. + +Were Mohammedans more zealous than Christians? Was there in theory, in +ideals, any other institution in the world like el-Azhar? These +students were not paupers; this was no charitable institution. In this +court there were men of all social grades and professions, eager +students gathered together for one purpose from every part of the +Mohammedan world. + +And yet Michael thought that, beautiful as it all was in theory, +wonderful as was the indescribable power of Islam, it gave few, if any, +of its children the true conception of God. They learned nothing of +the tender Father, of the beauty of Aton. In Islam there is no +consciousness of God in the song of the thrush to its mate, no +sacredness in the bud of a lily. In spite of all the exquisite names +by which a Moslem addresses his God, His seat is ever in the high +heavens, He still remains to him the Omnipotent God of Israel, the +all-powerful Jehovah. + +Even his old friend, who could visualize the joys of paradise and smell +the perfume of sweet jasmine in his dark cell, did not hear God's voice +in the laughing brook, or see His raiment in the blue of the lotus. + +Of Akhnaton's closer and more human religion they were ignorant. These +students offered obedience and reverence and complete surrender. How +few of them knew even the meaning of love! This court was full of +ardent students, many of whom had given up well-paid posts to study the +word of Allah as revealed by the Prophet, yet scarcely one of them +loved the creatures of this world because they were the things of God, +because they were God. God sang to Akhnaton when spring was in the +year; the birds were His visible form. God smiled to him when the blue +lotus covered the waters of his lake in the garden-city of his ideal +capital. + +To the Moslems God is in the heavens; His immovable seat is there. To +the ecstatic visionaries who live, as his old friend lived, so cut off +from their natural selves as to be unconscious of their physical body, +these are the delights of paradise, seen through the eyes of mystics. + +Michael, who passionately loved the world and all of God that is in it, +wished that they could see that the joys of paradise are everywhere +around us. No visionary's eyes are needed to enjoy their beauty. + +The university was now far behind him; he was retracing his steps to +modern Cairo, where the calm of Islam would seem like a peaceful dream. +The domes of the mosques looked like stationary balloons, made of +delicate lace, floating in the blue sky, the tall minarets like lotus +buds coming up from a vast lake. A soft mist was etherealizing the +bald realities of the native city. Only here and there a vivid patch +of colour--the jade-green dome of a saint's tomb, the clear blue or +orange of an Arab boy's shirt, the brightly-appliqued _portiere_ of a +public bath, or the purple robes of a student of the Khedivial +School--these, in their Eastern setting, studded the scene with +precious gems. + +Thrust back again into the vortex of noise and striving, Michael felt +as "lonely as a wandering cloud." His interview with his old friend +had not soothed him; it had neither helped him to determine him in his +views, or to deter him from them. His thoughts seemed a part of the +surging street. Michael Ireton's counsel was still the only thing +which he could grasp. He would go and find himself in the desert. + +But mingled with this idea came the two other influences--the old man's +vision, in which he had seen him journeying into the desert in search +of some hidden treasure--and now many visionaries in Egypt had not +found treasure, but had lost their lives and their minds on journeys +after imaginary gold?--and Margaret's influence, Margaret, who had been +given a message for him--of that he felt convinced. She, at least, +could be trusted, with her sane, practical Lampton brain. She had made +up no fable. Her vision had not been the result of her imagination. +And then again came Freddy's voice: + +"I should always distrust the progress of people who walk on their +heads." The words kept recurring over and over again. + +Did he, Michael, spend his life "walking on his head"? He wished that +he knew. + +He was passing the wide terrace of Shepheard's Hotel, where tourists +enjoy afternoon-tea. The scene was cosmopolitan and gay. Michael was +walking on the side-path, under the level of the terrace. + +Suddenly he felt something drop lightly on his hat. He looked up, and +as he did so a stephanotis flower fell into the street and his eyes +were met by two of clear azure blue. + +"What a brown study!" a taunting voice said. "Come and have a cup of +tea." + +"No, thanks," Michael said. "I'm not dressed for this sort of thing." +He indicated the gaily-dressed crowd. + +"I insist," Millicent Mervill said, and as she spoke, she stretched out +her hand and nipped out the book Michael had in his coat-pocket. "Now +you'll have to come and get it, and I'll order tea. Fresh tea, for +two, please, Mohammed," she said to the waiter who was standing near +her table. + +Michael turned reluctantly and walked up the flight of steps which took +him on to the hotel-terrace. + +"How nice!" Mrs. Mervill said happily. "Now tell me where you have +been. I heard you were in Cairo. Were you going back without seeing +me?" + +"How did you know I was in Cairo?" + +"Ah, that's telling! First of all you tell me what you have been +doing. You look tired." Her voice was tender. "You are not happy? +And I have been very good!" + +"I am tired," Michael said. "Cairo tires me after the desert. I have +been to el-Azhar." + +"To the university! I want to go there. If we had only gone together! +Why didn't you take me?" + +A strange smile changed Michael's expression. If Millicent Mervill had +been there! He thought of her in that courtyard, in her luxurious +modern clothes. How absurd her becoming hat would have seemed, how +grotesque her daintily slippered feet! How little she divined his +thoughts. + +"What took you there to-day? Tell me." + +"I have an old friend there, a student." + +"A native, do you mean?" + +"Yes, a native from the country south of Gondokoro." + +"Gondokoro? How did you come to know him?" + +Millicent Mervill's curiosity was unlimited. Her persistence resembled +the perseverance which is Islam. + +"It's a long story," Michael said. "I always go to see him when I come +to Cairo. He's a mystic and a religious recluse. I like him. We are +great friends." + +Mohammed had returned with the tea, and Michael, who was more than +ready for it, lapsed into silence while he ate his Huntley and Palmer +biscuits and drank his tea. His thoughts went back to el-Azhar. + +His silence lasted for some time. He was very far from Shepheard's +Hotel. Margaret had not forgotten her promise. She was closer than +Millicent. + +"You are not very polite--I have had to pump you with questions, or you +would not have spoken at all. I have been patient while you drank your +tea; now talk to me." + +"Please forgive me, but you know I did not want to come. I was hungry +and I was going back to tea. I am not good company." + +"You didn't want to come?" She laughed. "Really, your rudeness is +refreshing! The desert has made you worse than ever." + +Michael looked into her beautiful eyes. "I am in no temper for banter. +You know what I mean, you know why I didn't want to have tea with you +or see you. Rudeness between us is out of the question." + +"All this because you're a dear old puritan. Or is it because"--she +hardened her eyes--"because you're afraid of the dark-haired girl? Has +she forgiven you?" In the same breath she said, "When are we going on +our journey? It's my turn soon." + +"What do you mean?" he said. "I wish you wouldn't talk like that. We +are going on no journey." + +"You'll let me give you another cup of tea?--I'm allowed to do that +much. Well, I had my fortune told two days ago by a man at the +Pyramids. He's supposed to be very clever. He said I was going on a +journey into the desert with a man I loved; he spoke of some great +thing that was going to happen on the journey. He described you +accurately. He was really very funny--I wish you could have heard him. +He saw great wealth for you and some misfortunes." + +Michael looked into her mischievous eyes. "They talk a lot of rot." + +"Then you don't believe in that sort of thing? He saw sickness and +gold and love. We were in the desert. He saw gold." + +"Hush," Michael said. "You must forget all that." + +"It was odd, wasn't it? You know how I have urged you to go with me. +I never saw the man before, he has never seen you." + +Again Michael said "Hush." Again Millicent paid no attention to him, +beyond saying that it was funny that he would never allow her to talk +of her love for him, when he had often told her all about his religion +of love. + +Again Michael said, "I refuse absolutely to be drawn into a discussion +upon the subject. You are frivolous. You and I know quite well that +yours is not love." + +"Perhaps not your kind of love, with a big L. But call a rose by +whatsoever name you will, it smells as sweet. I can't quote, but you +know what I mean, and that true love without passion and passion +without love are both worthless. Every fanatic has passion in his or +her love. That is why they enjoy it--the scourging of the flesh, the +self-denial--the body enjoys this form of self-torture for the object +of its adoration. There," she said, "I will behave like the dear +little innocent you first thought I was if you will come and see the +Pyramids at sunset." The swift transition of her thoughts was typical +of her personality. + +Michael's train did not leave the station for Luxor until nine-thirty. +He had nothing to do. + +"If you'll come," she said, "I'll not do or say one thing to hurt you. +I'll be my very nicest--and I can be nice and good now, can't I?" + +"Then come," he said. "I've not been there since the 'Great Weeping.'" +He used the old man's picturesque term for the inundation of the Nile. + +Millicent Mervill was no fool. She meant to keep to her word, and did. +The evening's excursion proved a great success and restored Michael to +a more normal state of mind. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +When Michael got back to the camp there was so much genuine pleasure in +being one of the trio again that he felt that it had been well worth +the trouble of the journey, to be received back again so warmly and to +see unclouded happiness in Margaret's smile. Her character was +transparently sincere. + +How radiant she looked, as Freddy and she hurried to meet him! A glad +picture for tired eyes. + +"Things are 'piping'!" she said eagerly, when he inquired about the +"dig." "Freddy has only been waiting for you to come back before he +clears out the last few days' debris from the shaft. He has been +tidying up the site--it looks much more important." + +Tired as Michael was after his hot journey, instinctively they turned +their steps to the excavation. Things had certainly advanced greatly +during Michael's absence. The deep shaft was almost cleared of +rubbish; the site was tidied up and in spick-and-span order. + +Michael was very soon drawn into the feeling of excitement and +anticipation. Freddy, he thought, looked tired and anxious, which was, +of course, only natural, for Michael knew that on his shoulders rested +the entire responsibility of the "dig" and that anything might happen +during the time they were waiting for the photographer and the Chief +Inspector. + +Michael's imagination was ever too vivid. He could see a hundred +plundering hands stretched out in the darkness to seize the buried +treasure. He could visualize the poisoning of the watch-dogs and the +silent killing of the guards, and Freddy waking up to find that his +"pet tomb" had been burgled and robbed of its ancient treasures. + +A good deal of discussion ensued between Michael and Freddy which was +above Margaret's head. The approximate date of the tomb and a hundred +different suggestions and problems which were still beyond her +knowledge were gone into by the two Egyptologists. The soothsayer's +predictions were not improbable; there were evidences which suggested +that the tomb was one of great importance. + +"Let's get back to dinner," Freddy said. "I scarcely had any lunch--I +couldn't leave the men. I'm ready for some food." + +Instantly they retraced their steps. Margaret was humming softly the +air of some popular song. Both she and Michael were always anxious to +administer to Freddy's wishes. + +"It's topping to be back," Michael said. "The smells in Cairo were +pretty bad. This is glorious!" + +They had almost reached the hut. + +"We have only mummy smells here," Margaret said. "But they get pretty +thick, as the store-room fills up with finds." She looked round. +"Freddy, if I'd a little water, I could make the desert blossom like +the rose." She sighed happily. "As it is, it's 'paradise enow'--I +don't think I want it other than it is." + +While they were at dinner, which, compared to their usual simple fare, +was of the fatted-calf order and one of Margaret's devising, Michael +told them of all that he had done in Luxor and Cairo, not keeping back +even his excursion to the Pyramids or his visit to el-Azhar. Freddy +was greatly entertained by both episodes, the one as a strong antidote +to the other. + +Michael had, of course, given but few details of either experience. +The mystic's counsel was not, he felt, suited for discussion and +certainly he had no wish to annoy Margaret by unnecessary remarks about +Millicent Mervill. + +There was something in Mike's manner which assured Freddy that the +influence of the mystic had triumphed, that the beautiful Millicent had +not exercised her usual powers over his friend. + +During the recital of his doings, Margaret met Mike's eyes frankly. +Hers were without questions or doubts. She felt as Freddy did--that +the woman whom she so much disliked had not again come between them. +After all, the promise which she had given Michael, and which she had +kept, might have availed. + +As Michael had never spoken one word of love to Margaret, she had, of +course, no right to expect him to behave towards her as if they were +engaged; and yet there was that between them which meant far more than +a mere formal proposal and acceptance of marriage. Some influence had +brought them together in a manner which seemed outside themselves. +They had been the closest friends from the very first. Her vision had +united their interests. + +Of marriage as the definite result of their close, yet indefinite +intimacy, Margaret still never thought. Mike and marriage seemed +qualities which separated like oil and water. All she asked of fate at +present was the continuance of their unique friendship and the life +which she found so absorbingly interesting. A year ago she had longed +to come to Egypt, but a year ago she had never dreamed that she would +become so thrilled with the excavating of a tomb which had been made +for a man who probably lived before Moses. The human side of +Egyptology was being revealed to her. She did not feel now as if her +brother was only going to discover a fresh mummy to put away in a +museum somewhere; he was going to break into the secret dwelling-house +of a man who had taken his treasures with him to live for ever in the +bowels of the smiling hills. There are few tombs in Egypt as the +Western world thinks of tombs; there are eternal mansions, gorgeously +decorated and superbly built and equipped. The abiding cities of the +Egyptians were the cities of the dead. + +Margaret was living on the horizon of life. Every breath of desert air +was like delicious food; every dawn and sunset stored her heart with +dreams; each fresh intimacy with Michael placed a new jewel in the +casket of her soul; every hour with Freddy was a privilege and a +reward. In her veins the dance of youth tripped a lightsome measure. +Happiness made every moment vital. + +During Michael's absence she had been down the valley and up the valley +and through its hidden ways; she was familiar now with the native life +in the camp and with the sights and sounds of Egypt. The flight of a +falcon over the Theban hills seemed as familiar to her as the bounding +of a wild rabbit on the Suffolk wolds. The desolation of the valley +had now become the Spirit of Peace, the Voice of Sympathy. Her +jealousy was aroused at the very thought of another woman being +admitted into the privacy of the camp. Being a true woman, it gave her +intense satisfaction to be the only one, to be the chosen companion of +her brother and of Mike. + +They were always eager for her companionship. If Freddy did not want +her, Mike did; if Mike had work to do which demanded perfect solitude, +she felt that Freddy was not sorry. Yet they were all three such good +friends that more often than not they played together delightfully +childish games. It was nevertheless rather a red-letter day for either +of the two men when circumstances so arranged it that Meg had to go off +with one of them alone on some excursion which combined business with +pleasure. + +Margaret, womanlike, loved the nicest of all feelings--"being wanted." +She would have liked her life to go on for ever just as it was, her +society always desired by two of the dearest men in the world and her +days filled with this novel and extraordinary work. + +But even in the desert, things do not stand still. If they did, +temples could not have been buried and cities lost. So after dinner, +when Freddy, like the dear human brother that he was, allowed Michael +and Margaret to spend some considerable time alone, the high gods took +in hand the affairs of these two human lives, lives which had been well +content to rest on their oars and drift with the tide. + +Michael had had no prearranged desire to change the conditions of their +intimacy. It was beautiful. He had given no thought to himself as +Margaret's lover. He had been content to be her partner in that +tip-toe dance of expectation and in that state of undeclared devotion +which is the life and breath of a woman's existence. + +On the evening of his return to the camp he felt a new joy in +Margaret's presence. Catching the sound of her voice in her coming and +going about their small hut was a delicious assurance of the happiness +that was to be his for some days to come. She illuminated the place +and vitalized his energies. Yet this deepened pleasure told him +nothing--nothing, at any rate, of what the gods had up their sleeves. + +They were standing, as they had often stood before, on some high ridge +of the desert cliff which overlooked its desolation and immensity. +Margaret's face was star-lit; her beauty softened. As Michael gazed at +her, he lost himself. + +As unexpectedly to Margaret as to himself, his arms enfolded her. He +told her that he loved her. + +This confession of his feelings for her was so sudden, a thing so far +beyond his self-control and so inevitable, that Margaret made no +attempt to withstand it. The beauty of it humbled her to silence; the +generosity of life and its gift to her bewildered her. Two tears +rolled quickly down her cheeks. Michael saw them and loved her all the +more tenderly. Absurd tears, when her heart could not contain all her +happiness! Meg dived for her handkerchief. Michael captured her +hands; he took his own handkerchief and dried her cheeks, while +laughter, mingled with weeping, prevented her from speaking. + +"I didn't mean to tell you, Meg," he said. "It just came out, as if it +wasn't my own self who was speaking." + +The humour of his words drove the tears from her eyes. Still she did +not speak, but he saw the inference of her smile. + +"I mean," he said, "that this other me has loved you all the time, the +me that couldn't help speaking, the me that recognized the fact ever +since I saw you at the ferry. How I loved the first glimpse of you, +Meg!" + +He drew her more closely to him. "May I love you, dearest?" He bent +his head; their lips were almost touching; he held her closely. "First +tell me that our friendship is love." + +His breath warmed her cheeks; she could feel the tension of his body. +Lost in his strength, Meg was speechless. The greatness of her love +seemed a part of the wide Sahara. The stillness and his arms were +lovelier than all the dreams she had ever dreamed. + +His voice was a low whisper. "Meg, do you love me?" His lips had not +taken their due. + +Meg's fingers encircled her throat. "Love is choking me. . . . I +can't speak." + +Instantly Michael's head bent lower. He kissed her lips, and then, for +the first time, Margaret knew what it was to be dominated by her +senses. Thought fled from her; her lover's lips and his strength, for +he seemed to be holding her up in a great world of impressions in which +she could feel no foundation, were the two things left to her. + +Michael realized that now and for ever there could be no going back. +Their old state of friendship was shattered. His kiss had carried them +at a rate which has no definition. + +Margaret returned his love with a devout and beautiful passion. Eve +had not been more certain that Adam was intended for her by God. + +"Meg," he said, "how do you feel? I feel just a little afraid, I had +no idea that love was like this. Had you? You have suddenly become as +personal and necessary to me as my own arms or legs. You were _you_ +before--now you are a bit of me." + +They were standing apart, facing each other, arms outstretched, hands +in hands. Now and then the bewilderment of things made it very +compelling, this desire to look and look into each other's eyes, to try +to discover new characteristics born of their amazing confession. + +"It's a tremendous thing," Meg said thoughtfully, "a tremendous and +wonderful thing." + +"If we have only lived for this one hour, it's worth it," Mike said. +"To you and me it's certainly a tremendous thing." + +Some lover's questions followed, questions which Margaret had to +answer, the sort of questions every woman knows whom love has not +passed over, questions which Margaret, with all her fine Lampton brains +and common sense, did not think foolish, questions which she answered +more easily and accurately than any ever set to her in college or +university examinations. She answered them, too, with a fine +understanding of human nature. Lampton brains were not to be despised, +even in the matter of "How, when and where did you first love me?" + +She knew quite well what Michael meant when he said that he was a +little afraid. She, too, felt a little afraid, just because things +could never be the same again. Love in Egypt seemed to become Egyptian +in its immensity and power. It was a part of the desert and in the +brightness of each glittering star. She doubted if she could have felt +this tremendousness of love in England. Had something in the power of +Egypt, in the passing of its civilization and religions, affected her +senses? She could not imagine feeling, as she now felt, in Suffolk. +Here, in this valley of sleeping Pharaohs, in this eternal city of a +lost civilization, she had been transformed into another creature. + +These thoughts jumbled themselves together in her mind, as they dawdled +back to the camp, the happy dawdling of lovers. + +Suddenly Michael caught her in his arms and said, "Meg, how on earth am +I going to make you understand how much I love you?" + +Meg read an unhappy meaning in the words. "I shall understand," she +said. "I think something outside myself will help me to understand." + +He turned her face up to the stars. It was bathed in light. + +"You beautiful Meg, the stars adore you!" + +Meg struggled and laughed. "I'm so glad my face is all right, that you +like it, Mike." + +Mike laughed. "I shouldn't mind if you weren't beautiful, you know I +shouldn't, for you'd still be you." + +Meg's practical common sense was not to be drugged by love's ether. +"Dear," she said happily, "don't talk rubbish! As if you, with your +artistic sense and love of beauty, would have fallen in love with me if +I had turned-in-feet and a face half forehead, just because I was me!" + +They both laughed happily. Then Michael said, sadly and abruptly--his +voice had lost its confidence--"Why have I let myself say all this, +Meg? What thrust my feelings into expression, feelings I scarcely was +conscious of possessing until I saw you lit up by the shining stars? I +never, never planned such a thing." + +"I know," Meg said. "We neither of us dreamed of it when we left the +hut, did we?" + +"I had a thousand other things to consult you about, to tell you," he +said. "I have a thousand other things to do. I have a mission to +fulfil before I speak of love. It just came, it suddenly bubbled up +and poured over like water in a too-full bottle." + +"Do you regret it?" Margaret said simply and sympathetically. She was +not hurt; she knew what he meant; she knew that he had more than once +spoken of the single-heartedness of a man's work, the work which Mike +hoped to do, when he had no family ties, no woman's love to bind him, +to nourish and satisfy. + +"Dearest--I don't regret it," he said. "It was inevitable. Something +else would have called it forth if the stars hadn't. All the same, it +is of you I am thinking . . . I had no right to . . ." + +"To what, Mike?" + +"I'm a drifter, Meg, and I'm not ready to be anything else--I can't be." + +"I don't want you to be anything else." Meg's voice and laugh were +Love. Her sincere eyes were happily confident. + +"People who 'walk on their heads' don't make fortunes, beloved." + +"People who think the desert is 'paradise enow' don't need fortunes." + +Michael pressed the palms of her hands to his lips. "Dear strong +hands," he said, "are they willing to work with mine?" + +"Oh, Mike," she said. "I'm so glad, so happy! It doesn't seem +fair--our world's all heaven to-night--I want others to have just a +little of it." + +They listened to the silence. + +Michael's thoughts were of his world-state, his religion of Love, the +closeness of God. + +"Every star in the sky seems to know about our love," Meg said. "And I +think the waiting silence has been expecting this." + +"I know," Michael said. "To me love seems to be crowding the valley +and flying down from the hills and searching the stillness. Life's +become a new kind of thing altogether, Meg, we'll have to help each +other." + +"That's just what I feel. It's alarming to find yourself quite a +different human being in less than an hour, to have suddenly developed +unsuspected elements in your nature." She laughed. "I never thought I +could be such a complete fool, dearest." + +Michael kissed her rapturously. "Let's be big, big fools, beloved, +let's enjoy this thing that's come to us." He paused. Again he looked +troubled and serious. + +"Why trouble?" Meg said. "I know just what's in your heart. You love +me and I love you, and I trust you. You weren't ready for any +engagement--you never thought of marriage. Well, let all that come in +good time if it is meant to be. Let us be content with love for the +present. It's surely big enough." She sighed. "It's tired me, Mike, +it's so enormous." + +"But, dearest, I meant to talk to you about very different things. +Love just caught me. . . . I was taken unawares . . . some look of +yours did it, or some trick of the stars. . . I can't tell which. +Anyhow, it's done." + +"Tell me," she said. "All that you had meant to talk about. It's not +too late. We must be friends as well as lovers now." + +"It was about my visit to el-Azhar in Cairo." + +"Yes?" Meg said. Her breath came more quickly. + +"My old friend told me the most extraordinary things. He had seen +visions." + +Their eyes met. Meg's held a question; they asked: "Had they any +connection with my vision?" + +"Yes," Michael said to her unspoken question. "He saw me on a long +desert journey. I was often surrounded by a wonderful light--a light +which, he said, had come from one of God's messengers, who was never +far from me. He said he saw the messenger of God always in the midst +of a great light, like the light of the sun, that he resembled no +mortal he had ever seen, or any king he had ever been shown in his +dreams." + +Meg drew in her breath nervously. "Had he ever heard of Akhnaton, +Mike?" + +"No, never. He is quite unread, totally unlearned and ignorant of all +except the teachings of the Koran." + +Margaret's quick breathing showed her excitement. Michael, too, became +nervous. + +"He saw me always in the light of this great messenger, a light, he +said, which surrounded his figure with rays like the rays of the sun." + +"Just as I saw him," Meg said. "How strange! How wonderful!" + +"He spoke of trials and temptations and, strangest of all, of much +gold. He saw the treasure very clearly and repeatedly--much fine gold, +he was certain of that." + +"How are you to discover it?" Meg spoke dubiously. Her practical mind +was fighting against the absurdity of the thing. + +"He could not tell me. In the desert I was to be led by a little +child--you know what that means?" + +"Yes, a simple, a child of God." + +They paused. + +"Now the odd thing is," Michael said thoughtfully, "that when I went to +see Michael Ireton, he strongly advised me to go and find myself, as he +expressed it, in the desert. He said, 'Cut yourself off from your +friends, from opposing influences, and think things out. Go where you +are called.'" + +"He meant Freddy's opposing influence?" + +"I suppose so. Freddy's character is stronger than mine, and we have +opposite views." + +"Are you going?" Meg's voice betrayed a new anxiety and sadness. + +"I meant to." His eyes spoke of his new reluctance. "That was why I +had no right to speak--I really wanted to go." + +"This must make no difference--it must help you." + +"But I shall want to be with you--it's hard to go." + +"If you stayed, you would be restless, dissatisfied." + +"I know." He laughed. "I want both to 'walk on my head,' Meg, and +stand firmly on my two legs--my legs are for a home for you." + +"And your head?" + +"Oh," he said, "for anything that is upside down to what it is now, for +the total destruction of obsolete and effete monuments, for exchanging +new principles for those that are worn out with age, for showing that +fundamental truths are not made by empire-builders, that the world is +God's Kingdom, not man's, that God is the only monarch whose throne is +not tottering." + +"Yes," Meg said. "I suppose destruction must come before the building +up, your task of pulling down, of clearing out the corner-stones, of +cleansing the temple." + +"I know," Michael said. "It's the way with 'cranks.' We all of us jaw +about destroying and offer no new plans for reconstruction." He +paused. "But it's rather like the problem of cleaning out a too-full +house--you can't really get rid of the dust unless you first of all +clear the whole thing out, empty it." + +"You want to abolish so much, Mike." + +"All the rubbish," he said. "All the hindrances. I want to let in +light." + +"Beginning with kings," Meg said, tantalizingly. The voice was +Freddy's. + +"I've no rooted objection to kings, as human mortals," he said. "I +suppose half the monarchs in Europe, and certainly our own included, +are very good men, very anxious for their kingdom's prosperity, if not +for their people's development. It's the condition of affairs which +tolerates such an obsolete form of government. If the king is merely a +picturesque figure-head, like the carved heads of Venus on a vessel's +prow, I'd have no objection, but a despotic and vain peacock like the +Kaiser, who turns his subjects into military instruments, in my opinion +wants destroying along with the other rubbish." + +"But to go back," Meg said, "to your old friend in el-Azhar--do tell me +more about him." + +"He's a splendid old warrior," Michael said tenderly. "When you think +of what he's achieved, isn't he wonderful? I wish you could see him." + +"The force of will-power, of concentration," Meg said. "I suppose he +has never thought of anything else all his life, but this one dream of +el-Azhar." + +"That's it," Mike said. "But what gives these Moslems that wonderful +power of mind-control?" Mike paused. "Now, here am I," he said. "I +came out with you to-night meaning to tell you that I was going away." + +"Oh," Meg said. "Not yet--not until the tomb is opened? Surely not?" + +"No, not until the tomb is opened--I had no intention of that." + +She sighed. "That would be too awful." + +Michael kissed her. "How nice of you!" he said. "You really wanted +me?" + +"Of course! I have visualized the opening of the tomb--you and I +crawling down the 'dig,' with Freddy waiting at the foot to show us his +treasures. You couldn't have gone!" + +"No," he said, "I couldn't. But I wanted to tell you that I was going +soon after. I was going for reasons that only my own heart understood. +And then what did I do? I told you that I loved you! I forgot +everything but you, dearest. Before I knew it, I had spoken of what it +might have been wiser to keep hidden away in my heart, with all my +other mad dreams." + +"But why, Mike? I should have been so very unhappy, so wretched. As +it is, I am just bursting with happiness. I wouldn't change anything +for worlds--not one tiny thing!" + +"If you are contented," he said, "and understand, then it may not have +been unwise, untrue to Freddy's trust in me." + +"Oh," Meg said, "you dear, why, Freddy adores the very ground you walk +on! He chaffs you, but he simply thinks no end of you." + +"He doesn't want a drifter for a brother-in-law, if he's any common +sense in his head. I'm the last husband he'd choose for his sister." + +"But, Mike, how can you?" + +"Yes, Meg, there are times when I don't 'walk on my head,' when I see +with Freddy's sane eyes. It's what he'd call damned cheek of me to +speak of love to you." + +"I'd have called it horrid if you hadn't." + +"You delicious Meg, would you really?" + +"Yes, I would, horrid and cruel. I'd have imagined you really cared +for . . ." she paused and then went on tenderly, ". . . no, I won't say +it, Mike." + +"Really cared!" he said. "Why, you have taught me what that word +means. You'll never doubt that?" + +"No," Meg said. "Not now. I know this is new to us both. I won't +doubt anything ever again." + +"She was friendless," he said. "And for some strange reason she +thought herself fond of me." + +"What a very strange thing to feel! I really can't understand it. +Fancy a woman feeling fond of a thing that walks on its head!" + +"Don't laugh, Meg. She does, or thinks she does." + +Meg looked into his eyes. "I'll never doubt you, Mike," she said, "if +you'll tell me, under these dear stars, which have made you confess +your love for me, that there has been no deep feeling on your side, +that there is nothing that matters between you." + +Mike took her two hands. "On my side, there has been nothing but +friendship, I swear it," he said. "I never, never desired anything +else. There has been nothing that matters." + +"I'm so glad," Meg said. "You're so high, Mike, so awfully high in my +love. Your drifting is all a part of it. I love you for all your mad +dreams and dear unworldliness, for your struggling and striving for the +highest. I should hate to have to believe that you were less high than +I imagined." + +"But I kissed her, Meg," he said, abruptly. The truth was drawn from +him, as his confession of love had been, torn from him by some power +outside himself. He hated giving her pain, and it had been scarcely +necessary if Margaret had been other than she was. + +It had not mattered--yet if truth was beauty and beauty was God, and +his religion was that the kingdom of God is within us, how could he +hold it back, this deed which, little as it might seem in the eyes of +most people, had been for him a thing which did matter? + +"You kissed her!" Meg said. Something that was not love was now +bursting her throat. Her voice was uncertain. It hurt Michael like a +thrust from a sharp knife. + +"Yes," he said. "I kissed her, more than once." + +"Her lips?" Meg asked. + +"Yes, Meg, her lips." + +"You kissed her as you have kissed me to-night?" + +"Good heavens, no!" he cried. "Meg, how could you think it?" + +"Life is strange," Meg said, a little wearily. "When everything seems +most beautiful, some ugliness shows its head . . . the light gets so +dim." + +"Dearest," Mike said, "do you remember what you said on that morning +when we found each other again? You said, 'Let's go forward; things +are explained.'" + +"Yes, I remember," she said, and as she spoke happiness shone in her +eyes like a flame relit; "yes, I said regrets were foolish, I said I +understood. But . . ." she hesitated; the thought of Mike's lips +pressed to any other woman's than her own stifled her. She was his so +completely, that any other man's lips pressed to hers, except Freddy's, +would nauseate her. Yet Mike had kissed Millicent. Was it that night +on the terrace, or the evening at the Pyramids? she wondered. + +"We have gone forward, Meg. Millicent"--Meg shivered as he said the +woman's Christian name--"was splendid at the Pyramids, she really was." + +Again Meg shivered. Splendid! How, she wondered, had she been +splendid? Meg hated being an inquisitor, yet she had to know; it was +her right. + +"Then it was not at the Pyramids that you kissed her?" she asked. + +"No, no!" Mike said. "Of course not!" He looked at her in wonder. +"If it had been, I should not have dared to kiss you to-night." + +"It's nice of you to say that, dear. Oh, Mike," she said tenderly, +"you mean the world to me! I shall grow older by years for each moment +that we don't trust one another! I should have known, I should never +have doubted! You've chosen a very jealous woman, Mike." + +"If you'd gone off to the Pyramids with some one whom I disliked as +much as you dislike Millicent, I'd have been furious!" He felt Meg +shiver. He divined the reason; he would not let that hurt her again. +"You hate her, Meg," he said. "Just in the way I'd hate a man +who . . ." he paused. + +"Who what?" Meg said. + +"Don't ask me," he said. "I never forgot you for one moment when I was +with her at the Pyramids. You kept close to me, dearest. And the +other episode is past and forgotten--it was just a little bit of +vulgarity, Meg, nothing more." + +"Since we made friends, there's been nothing between you that would +make your kisses to me a mere vulgarity, Mike?" + +"Nothing," he said. "And so far as I can help it, I will never see +Mrs. Mervill again." + +Meg's eyes spoke her thanks. His avoidance of the woman's Christian +name showed his sensitiveness to her feelings. Speaking of her as +"Mrs. Mervill" put her pleasantly far away. + +"I was weak and insincere--my kisses were really a dishonour to any +woman, and I hated myself." + +While Meg admired her lover for refraining from the excuse which Adam +was not ashamed to offer His Maker, what was human in her longed to +make him denounce the woman she hated. She had tried to provoke a +justification of his own conduct from his lips by telling her what she +felt to be the truth--that the woman had tempted him. + +It was getting late; they turned towards the hut. + +"We must go in," Meg said. "Freddy will be wondering what has become +of us." She turned swiftly and took Michael's hands in hers. "Until +after the tomb is opened, let us remain as we were--I mean, don't let's +give Freddy any more to think about. Isn't he the dearest brother in +the world?" she said. "I love every glittering hair of his head!" + +"Very well, you dearest woman," Mike said. "Besides, we've only +confessed that we love each other--I've asked for no promise, Meg--I've +no right to. Remember, you are free, absolutely free--this old drifter +isn't to count." + +"Absolutely free!" Meg laughed. "Just as if words made us free! Four +walls do not a prison make! You know perfectly well that I am tied +hand and foot and bound all round about with the cords of your love. I +can never be free again, never belong only to myself, as I used to do." + +"And will you remember that whatever happens to me, Meg, it will be +just the same?" + +She knew that he was referring to his mystical journey, his unsettled +future. + +"It would be so heavenly," she said dreamily, "if we could be content +to sit down and be happy and just live for the enjoyment of each +other's love!" + +"You'd despise me if I did." He looked round at the eternal valley, +resting in the stillness of death. + +"I suppose I should," Meg said. "I suppose I want you to take up arms +for what Freddy calls your 'Utopian Rule of Righteousness,' your +world-state." + +"I think we should both feel slackers, just enjoying ourselves +intellectually, dear, when we could, if we chose, let a few others into +the great kingdom of God. You and I don't understand why they don't +all see it as we do, why they don't realize the things Akhnaton knew +three thousand years ago. We wonder why they remain contented with a +religion of limited dogmas and theological forms. They don't see the +obvious in their striving after doctrines. They fail to see that God +is too big for their churches." + +"You see these things," Meg said. "I'm only creeping behind you." + +"You see that if we understand God and give Him His proper place, He'd +rule us, His throne would govern a world-state. His love would be the +law of mankind." + +"I know," Margaret said. "It's beautiful, it's what ought to be, if +poor mortals were not human beings." + +"Mortals are the best things in God's kingdom--it's all been worked up +for their enjoyment and benefit." + +"I know, dear, I know, but you and I are just you and I, and we have +just found love, and it is so wonderful, I want to enjoy it." + +"Doesn't love make it all the more forcible, Meg? The closeness of God +all the more certain? The weaving of the threads of His beautiful +fabric all the more golden?--Akhnaton's great 'Lord of Fortune,' the +'Master of Things Ordained,' the 'Chance which gives Life,' the 'Origin +of Fate,' call it what you will--the power which brought us here, you +and I." + +"And if we didn't follow that clear voice, Mike, whose rule is +righteousness, why should He allow it?" + +"Do we ever deliberately do what we know to be wrong and not pay for +it, dearest?" + +"But why does He allow it? It's a mill, dearest--one can go round and +round, and round and round." + +"And in the end," Mike said. "It's just God, His prescribed rule, His +unfightable force." + + * * * * * * + +When the two lovers entered the sitting-room, Freddy was instantly as +conscious of the new aura which surrounded them as he was conscious of +the sweet desert air which clung to their clothes and bodies. It came +like a whiff from a far pure world. + +"How fuggy you are in here," Meg said. "Dear boy, stop working." + +"All right," he said. "I was only waiting for you to come in." Freddy +was not the sort to see anything which he was not meant to see. If the +two lovers had anything to tell him, they would tell him. Until then, +he would mind his own business. + +"You go and have a smoke outside," Meg said. "I'll put away all this." + +"All this" meant the boxes of "finds" and the papers of plans and +figures which they had all been working at earlier in the evening. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +It was the dawn of the morning on which the tomb was to be opened. Meg +could not sleep; the overseer's shrill whistle for the roll-call of the +workmen had banished her last hopes that a little sleep would come to +her before the exciting day began. + +The clear whistle called the straggling figures together. They were +still indefinite objects, moving white columns in the darkness which +heralds the dawn. They were to begin work earlier than usual; Meg +could see no signs of the coming day in the sky. + +She sprang out of bed, glad to begin some practical work to banish the +confusion of thoughts which had made her brain too active for sleep. +Before she had her bath or dressed, she felt that she must breathe the +cool, pure air outside the hut for a moment or two. + +During the night her thoughts had been mastered by a consciousness of +the fact that after the great day, after the tomb was satisfactorily +opened and Michael had accomplished the necessary work in connection +with it which Freddy might demand of him, he would start out on his +desert journey. She could not and would not hold him back. Things too +delicate and indefinite to be described had gathered and accumulated, +strengthening his determination to leave the valley and start out on +his apparently objectless journey. As the accumulation of atoms has +formed continents, so the accumulation of thoughts becomes a thing +which controls our destinies. + +The treasure-trove of gold which had been hidden by Akhnaton the +Dreamer was now as real to Michael as the gold-mines in California were +real to the miners of the '49 rush. He had visualized it over and over +again. He was undaunted by the fact that many visionaries had seen +their King Solomon's mines equally clearly; but how many have reached +them? He was satisfied that, though his journey might prove a complete +failure from Freddy's point of view, until he made it any work he tried +to do would be a more complete one. There are treasures laid up in +heaven far beyond the value of rubies and precious jewels, and the +Kingdom of Heaven which is within us Mike was determined to find. + +Meg had given her abundant sympathy, but advice she had none to offer. +The thing was beyond her, taken out of her hands; it belonged to the +part of Michael which she loved and admired but did not fully +comprehend--the superman. Her practical common sense was her +stumbling-block; it held her with the chains of caution and the doubts +of a scientific trend of mind, which demands practical proofs before it +accepts any theory or idea. Although she was influenced more deeply by +Egypt than she had ever imagined it possible to be influenced by the +unseen, or by atmosphere and surroundings, she still walked firmly on +her two feet. Her momentary standings on her head were passing and +spasmodic. She neither felt convinced nor unconvinced upon the subject +of Akhnaton's vision or upon the truth and reliability of the old man's +words at el-Azhar. Suggestion is so often at the root of what appears +to be the supernatural. Michael might have talked to the old man, as +he had often talked to herself, about the possibility of such a +treasure having been hidden by the King when he, Akhnaton, knew that he +was dying and when he realized that his new capital of Tel-el-Amarna +would not long survive his decease, that the priests of the old +religion would do all in their power to obliterate his memory and +teachings. She knew that Michael was not the only person who held this +view. He was not the originator of the theory. + +Meg had never had anything to do with people who believed in visions +and the power of seeing into the future. The occult had had no +fascination for her. Until she arrived in the valley all such things +had come under the heading of charlatanism. Her thoughts were +different now. She had learned more; she had discovered that her +powers of vision might be limited to the very fine mental qualities of +which her family were so proud; she had found out that the sharpest +brains for practical purposes may be extremely blunt for higher ones. +Freddy and she could play with figures; problems which could be worked +out by practical methods were to them difficulties to be mastered by +hard work, and hard work was pleasure to the Lamptons; it was their +form of enjoyment. They were not imaginative; they were combative; +they enjoyed a fight which usurped their mental energies. + +In Egypt Meg had been given new eyes, new understanding. There were +finer things than mathematical problems, things of the super-intellect, +infinitely more delicate and wonderful, to which neither she nor Freddy +held the key. She felt like a child. She was a child again, an +inquisitive child, crying out for answers which would satisfy her +awakening intelligence. Her fine college education had been confined +to the insides of books. She knew nothing whatever of the finer truths +which were every day being thrust upon her senses. It was just as if +Freddy and she were watching a play from a great distance without +opera-glasses, while Michael had very powerful ones. He could see +things beyond their horizon; he was in touch with people who inhabited +a world to which they could not travel. + +Too often Michael's thoughts were divided from hers by continents of +space. She was often alone. She longed passionately to say to him +that she really believed in all that he believed in. Her beautiful +honesty did not permit it. Her limitations tormented her. It was like +having a cork leg in a race. If she could only get rid of her Lampton, +materialistic, common-sense nature, she would be more able to advise +and counsel her lover. Poor Meg! Thoughts like these had fought for +coherence all night. + +She little knew that her nature was the perfect adjustment which +Michael's needed. He came to her, not only as a lover, but as a tired +traveller in search of rest. Her reasoning mind and cautious nature +gave him balance. When he had been standing on his head for too many +hours together, Meg put him on his feet again. + +This morning Meg needed putting on her own feet. She was hopelessly +tormented with questions which she could not answer. One minute +Michael's whole scheme ought to be discouraged; his belief in the +occult was a thing to be suppressed; it was dangerous and unhealthy. +The next, she found herself with energies vitalized and glowing over +the certainty that there must be truth in the idea, that there must be +some meaning in the repeated messages conveyed either by dreams or by +whatsoever one chose to call them. Thoughts certainly had been +conveyed to him. + +Then the glowing vision of Michael actually discovering the lost +treasure of Akhnaton would vanish and she would see him, just as +clearly, alone and ill in the desert, in lack of funds and abandoned by +his men. She knew his casual methods of making practical arrangements +and his total disregard for his personal health and safety. + +She was watching the coming dawn while her thoughts were creating +misfortunes and calling up unhappy visions of Michael alone in the +desert. The old man at el-Azhar had spoken of temptations and +sickness. If the treasure was a fact, then the sickness and temptation +were facts also. But what were the temptations? Did he allude to the +spiritual or the material man? + +Suddenly her thoughts were obliterated, her self-inflicted suffering +wiped out. She had no thoughts, no consciousness; for her nothing +existed but the luminous and wonderful figure of Akhnaton which had +formed itself in front of her. At first her astonished eyes had seen +it dimly, then clearly and still more clearly. + +Meg remained perfectly still. She was too awestruck, too amazed, to +move or speak. The vision became surrounded by light, by the rays of +Aton. It was months since she had first seen it; now in the dawn, it +seemed as if it had only been the night before. A sense of rest came +to her as she gazed at it. + + "Thy dawning is beautiful in the horizon of heaven, + O living Aton, Beginning of Life! + When thou risest in the eastern horizon of heaven, + Thou fillest every land with thy beauty; + For thou art beautiful, great, glittering, high over the earth, + Thy rays, they encompass the land, even all thou hast made." + + +Meg listened intently to the words. They were part of Akhnaton's Hymn +to the Rising Sun, the hymn which Mike had repeated to her. + +She waited until the words were lost in the silent hour. Every thought +of hers was known to the sad eyes, every longing in her heart to be +given power to speak was understood. It seemed to come naturally to +her, the understanding of the needlessness for her to do aught but +listen. The vision was her over-soul, her higher self, which +understood. + +"You have delivered my message. I have seen, I have approved. The +Lord of Peace, the Living Aton, besides whom there is none other, has +brought Life to his heart. The beauty of Aton is there." + +It was of Michael the vision spoke. Meg never doubted. "His pleasure +is to do thy bidding," she said. The words were the unstudied, simple +truth. + +"I have seen, always I have guided, always I have prayed. I have +revealed to him the Light which is Truth. His work, which is the Love +of Aton, is in his heart. The Lord of Fate has perfected it." + +"I would have him go, and yet, because I am not fully in the Light, I +would have him stay. All that is in my heart is plain to you--my +fears, my joys, my imperfect faith. I ask for help; I am troubled." + +"There is no poverty, no fear, for those who have set Aton in their +hearts; for my servant there is no danger. Hearts have health where +Aton shines." + +"But for me--how can I help him?" + +"By the perfection of Love." + +"But my love is imperfect. It is not divine. I fear for his bodily +welfare. I cannot willingly offer him to the Aton of whom you speak. +I can only understand my own selfish love . . . it is human." + +"You are the mistress of his happiness. In my Kingdom, while it was on +earth, my heart was happy in my Queen and in my children. The great +Lord and Giver of Light is none other than the Loving Father, the +tender husband, the devoted son. There is none other than the living +Aton, whose kingdom is within us. We are Love, we are Aton." + +"Then my love is no hindrance?" + +"God is Love, God is Happiness, God is Beauty." + +There was infinite understanding and tenderness in the words, but Meg's +honesty was persistent. + +"My love is not that sort of love, but it is very dear to me. It is +selfish and human. It is wrapped round with natural desires, my own +personal wants." + +"Is there any love which is not of Aton? Does He expect things other +than He has made?" + +"I am in darkness; I have so many fears." + +"Your soul is not shut off from that which it desires. Your fears can +be turned to understanding; no forces of darkness can hold against the +powers of Light. If you open your heart to the Living Truth, the +powers of darkness are disarmed, Aton is enthroned. He is the sole +creator of all things created." + +The sky was changing from a cold grey to the opalescence of dawn. A +line of light was slowly appearing and widening on the horizon. As it +spread and grew more distinct, the luminous figure became less clear; +the rays of Aton shone less vividly. Akhnaton's spirit had come forth +from the Underworld to see the sun rise on the world he so passionately +loved. This had been one of his most insistent and ardent prayers +while he reigned on earth, that after death his "two eyes might be +opened to see the sun," that "the vision of the sun's fair face might +never be lost to him," that he might "obtain a sight of the beauty of +each recurring sunrise." + +Meg stood in an awed silence, her subliminal self alone conscious of +the grave, sad eyes, which were watching the splendour of the sun as it +came over the edge of the desert. The rapidity of its uprising was +amazing. It had burst the bonds of darkness with a strength and force +which resembled the triumph of a victorious army. At its coming the +darkness was scattered. Its quickly-spreading rays were driving back +the forces of the enemy. With fine generalship it was following up the +victory with renewed attacks. + +The form of the Pharaoh was only dimly visible. Its luminousness had +disappeared. It was a shadow in the light. The prayer of all +Egyptians from time immemorial had been that they might each day "leave +the dim Underworld in order to see the light of the sun upon earth." +Akhnaton had prayed this prayer, which was ancient before his day. + +Meg knew that his prayer had been answered. Akhnaton, the King, the +passionate heretic, the visionary and the prophet, was seeing his +adored Sun rising over his kingdom. His persistent prayers had been +granted, his desire realized. His spirit had come forth to see the +sun's rays. As he gazed at the sun, the years had rolled back. Three +thousand years are but a span in the march of eternity. He was alone +with his God, as alone as the Moslem figures who were prostrating +themselves to the ground. He was enjoying the beauty of Aton in the +silent valley, which his footsteps had so often trod, the valley +overlooking the city which to him, in his manhood, became the city of +abomination and desolation, the city of false gods. + +As the light of day flooded the desert, the figure became invisible to +Meg. It seemed to melt into the golden air. She felt that it might +still be standing there, quite close to her, only she could not see it. +Her powers were limited; the light concealed the figure. Being +luminous, she had been able to see it clearly in the darkness, just as +she was able to see the luminous match-box which she always kept on a +table by her bedside. She knew it was there, always shining, only her +eyes were unable to see its brightness in the daylight. The figure of +Akhnaton might be near her still. How clearly it had stood out in the +darkness, how brightly the rays of the sun had declared the symbol of +Aton! + +Had it all been an optical delusion, born of her nervous condition? Or +was it a dream? Was she still in bed sleeping? How could she prove to +herself that she was awake, that she had come out to see the dawn, that +she was standing in front of her hut and not asleep in bed? In her +dreams, she had often dreamed that she was dreaming; she had often told +herself that her dreams were all dreams; she had often done things in +her dreams to prove to herself that they were not dreams. If she +stooped to pick up some sand to prove that her feet were pressing the +desert, might not that, too, be a part of her dream? What on earth was +there to prove the real from the unreal? + +Now that she knew about Akhnaton and his beautiful religion, which is +the religion of all reasoning mortals to-day, and had read something of +his life and mission, was it not quite probable that she was creating +all that she had seen, that she was deceiving herself? It was still +possible that she was dreaming. + +With nerves unstrung and a beating heart, she saw Michael appear. He +was in his early-morning top-coat. He, too, had been greeting the sun. +He had made a hasty sketch of the first colours in the sky. + +"Mike," Meg cried, in a tone of relief and anxiety. "Mike, I want you, +do come here!" + +The next moment Mike's arms were round her; her head was on his +shoulder. + +"What is the matter, dearest?" + +"The vision, Mike! I have seen it again--it has been even more +wonderful. Oh, Mike!" A stifled sob came from Margaret's full heart; +the tension of her nerves was relaxed by the comfort of human arms, of +human magnetism. + +"And you were afraid, dearest?" He held her closer; his strength +nerved her. Oh, welcome humanity! + +"Afraid? No--oh, no, it wasn't fear." + +"What then, dear one?" + +"I can't explain it. If only you had been with me!" She clung to him. + +"I should not have seen him, Meg, it is not meant that I should. Look, +darling, I have been near you--I was making a sketch of the sunrise." + +Meg looked in wonder at the sketch. There was no figure there; that +was the only point of interest it contained for her at the moment. + +"It is not there," she said disappointedly; her voice expressed +astonishment. "Then you saw nothing?" + +"Nothing of what you saw." + +"Then why does it come to me? I am the very last person to understand, +to desire it." + +"Dearest, the wisdom of God's ways is past our present very limited +understanding. Why did He make the world as He did? Why did He form +the mountains by the drifting of particles into the ocean? Why did He +evolve the spirit of man from a source which has baffled science? Why +does He let us know so much and understand so little?" + +"I loved seeing him, Mike. He talked to me. I wasn't afraid while he +was there. It's the wonder of it now that it's past, the strangeness; +something greater than myself gets into me when the vision is there." + +"Consider the privilege, Meg, the amazing privilege!" + +Mike's brain was working and wondering. Why, oh why, had he not been +privileged? Why had Meg again seen the Living Truth? + +Meg divined his thoughts; her fervent wish was that he also had seen +it. "Nothing further from fear ever possessed me, Mike, and yet now I +feel horribly unnerved. If you hadn't come to me, I don't know what I +should have done. The first time it was different. I wonder why. I +wasn't a bit like this, was I, dearest?" + +"No, I don't know why you feel so differently this time. What +happened? Can you tell me, or would you rather wait?" Mike recognized +her nervous state. + +"I came out to see the sunrise. I hadn't slept--I was thinking about +the opening of the tomb and of all that is to happen afterwards." Mike +kissed her tenderly and understandingly. "I was really feeling very +selfish and worldly; and anything but spiritual. I was wondering if +your plans weren't too utterly silly, dearest, if, after all, we hadn't +got into a rather unreal and unhealthy way of looking at things. I was +almost convinced that you ought to stop standing on your head. Quite +suddenly the luminous figure, with the sunrays behind its head, stood +in front of me. Its eyes were fixed on me with a full and wonderful +understanding of all that was in my heart. I instantly knew that my +fears were understood, and the odd thing, now that I look back upon it, +is that I wasn't afraid. The understanding seemed natural, the +understanding of my higher self. It was only when the vision grew +dimmer and dimmer that I began to feel this silly nerve-exhaustion; it +was only then that I began to wonder and doubt." + +"I'm not surprised, Meg--you're splendid. Any other woman would have +fainted, I suppose." + +"No, Mike, they wouldn't; once you've seen and understood, it is like +being born again, with fresh understanding, with fresh eyes. There's +nothing more to be afraid of than there is in seeing death. I was +terrified of death until I saw Uncle Harry die. This is just the same +thing. Your fear is forgotten, a new understanding possesses you. My +only wonder is why I have never seen anything of the same sort before, +and now why, oh why, is it this strange figure of Akhnaton? Why this +King who lived thirteen hundred years before we begin to count our +centuries? I should so love to see Uncle Harry, and it is such a +little time since he went. Why have I never seen him?" + +"My darling, three thousand years are like the minutes spent in boiling +an egg when you dabble with eternity. There is nothing to choose +between Noah and Napoleon; Moses and Mohammed are twins in point of +years." + +"I know," Meg said. "There is nothing so hard for a human mind to +grasp as the impossibility of grasping the meaning of infinity. It +can't shake off its own limitations. But all the same, if I was to +tell anyone except you, dearest, that I had seen and held a +conversation with the spirit of a Pharaoh who lived before Moses, what +would they think? what would they say?" + +"The very few who stand in the Light would not be astonished. Those +who are still completely earth-tied and glory in their ignorance would +scoff and call you crazy; but would they matter?" + +"There was one thing he told me, Mike, which gives me great happiness. +He called me 'the mistress of your happiness,' he understood about our +love." + +"That was his favourite name for his wife. He was a devoted husband +and lover." + +"Then he really understood?" + +"What does Aton not understand, beloved?" + +"But this was Akhnaton, Mike. He said, 'my heart was happy in my +Queen.' He said 'the great Giver of Light is none other than the +loving father, the tender husband, the devoted son, because there is +none other than the living Aton, whose kingdom is within you. You are +Aton and Aton is you. He is everything which He has made.'" + +"That is exactly it," Mike said. "You saw the figure of Akhnaton just +as people who lived in Syria saw the figure of Christ--God's +manifestation of Himself. Of course He understood our love and our +happiness. His bowels of compassion yearn for His children. He is the +spirit of Aton--of God--as manifested by Akhnaton." + +"You are to go, beloved, there is to be no holding you back. I have +received my commission; it is to buckle on your armour. Oh, dearest, +even if all this should be the fabrication of my own dreams, my brain, +it is not self-created--it has some purpose, some meaning. God has put +it there." + +"Everything has its meaning, Meg, nothing is too small to be +intentional." + +"I am to help you by 'the perfection of my love,' and oh, Mike, it is +so imperfect, so pitifully imperfect, so pitifully human!". + +"Pitifully, darling? Why not beautifully human?" + +"Because it thinks first of my own wants; my love makes me wish to keep +you all to myself, to prevent you going on this journey." + +"The beautiful thing about Akhnaton's teachings, beloved, is the value +of happiness, the beauty of humanity. In this capital he gave his +people wonderful gardens and decorated his public places and temples +with the simple joys of nature; he encouraged music and art and +everything that could give his people happiness. He desired his people +to enjoy the world, he wanted them to see it as he saw it, a wonderful +kingdom, radiating with love. He first taught the world that there +need be no sickness or misery if there was no sin. Light disperses +darkness. His was the purest and highest religion the world was ever +given until the mission of Jesus Christ. The rays of Aton first +symbolized the divinity of God." + +The voice of Mohammed Ali brought the lovers back to the practical +things of the hour--a hot bath and the necessity of dressing and eating +a good breakfast. For the time being, the opening of the tomb had been +forgotten. Indeed, Meg found it very hard to bring herself into touch +with all which had been until this morning the absorbing topic for days +past. + +She had a number of household duties to attend to as soon as breakfast +was over--putting in order the room for the Overseer-General and +devising the menu for the day's food. There were to be extra mouths to +feed--the photographer, the Chief Inspector and a few invited +fellow-Egyptologists who had been asked for the occasion. It was +Freddy's day. + +Before they parted to get ready for breakfast Meg said, "I suppose +Freddy will be quite lost to us until the hour arrives! I wonder when +we shall be permitted to see inside it?" She referred to the tomb. + +"Not to-day," Mike said. "At least, I don't expect so. Perhaps +to-morrow. Anyhow, we shall hear all that Freddy has to tell us +to-night or at lunch-time." + +"Poor old Freddy! I shall be relieved when the thing is over, when he +can settle down to regular work again. There will be lots to do, won't +there?" + +"You look tired," Mike said. Meg's eyes were deeply shadowed. + +"Do you wonder? I've lived three thousand years in half an hour. I've +been born again, so to speak. I really feel only half here. Oh, +Mike," she said, impulsively, "I wish I knew more! I should so like to +quite believe, to understand. I can never be the same again, not my +careless, young, old self." She sighed. + +"Do you regret it?" + +"No, only I feel different, not quite so close to earth, lonely. I +can't explain. I wonder how Lazarus felt? I know I'm alive, dearest, +and here with you, but--don't laugh or think me hysterical--in some +other way, a way I can't speak about, I feel as if I had been dead and +come back. I've seen what no one else has, I've been where neither you +nor Freddy have been." + +"With those whose existence is in 'the hills of the West.'" + +"A cold tub will do me good, dearest." Meg hurried off. + +The sun was pouring its full wonder over the land. The mystery of the +dawn was as if it had never been. Egypt was bathed in light, the +fullest light that ever was on land or sea. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +The great hour had arrived. Margaret and Michael were on their way to +see the inside of the tomb, which had proved to be greater by far in +importance and splendour than even the Arab soothsayer had predicted. +It was, in fact, a tomb of unique interest, a tomb whose history was to +baffle the most expert Egyptologists. Freddy had kept the wonder of it +a secret from Mike and Margaret. He had told them practically nothing. +He wished to give them a surprise. + +It had been inspected and photographed and all the necessary +formalities had been gone through, and now, after an admirably borne +period of waiting, Michael and Margaret were to be allowed to visit it. + +Freddy was to await their arrival on the actual site, either the tomb +itself or outside it. + +As Michael and Margaret hurried through the valley and climbed the +hill, leading down into the side valley which held the tomb, they spoke +very little to each other. Their hearts were full of an intense +excitement. Freddy's silence had prepared them for something unusual. + +The sun was blazing like a furnace in the valley; a hot wind was +blowing from the Sahara. Meg and Michael were too excited to be +conscious of their surroundings. Their feet took them mechanically to +the scene of operations. + +The tomb had been photographed before any modern had set foot in it. + +Very hot and very excited, they at last arrived at its entrance, which +was guarded by two important-looking Egyptian policemen in modern +uniforms. Until Michael and Margaret had satisfactorily proved to them +that they had come to assist Effendi Lampton and that they were members +of his camp, they were not permitted to go near the aperture. + +Their identity being established, they at last began their descent down +the deep shaft into the tomb. The hot air which ascended in puffs from +the depths below scorched their faces. Meg felt stifled. Still hotter +air met them as they continued their descent. + +One of the Arab workmen helped Meg by going on in front and making +himself into a pillar for her to rest against when she lost her +footing. Her feet slipped and stumbled in the soft debris, yet +pluckily she always managed to reach the stately Arab. Each time she +reached him, she would halt and take a little breath, and with renewed +forces she would stumble on a few paces further. It was a very +undignified proceeding and an exhausting one. + +At last they reached the level of the tomb; they could safely raise +their eyes. As they did so, Meg gave a sharp cry of surprise. Never +in all the world had she imagined such a wonderful, wonderful sight. A +glitter of gold and white and the gleam of precious stones and the +brilliant hues of vivid enamels, caught her eyes. Freddy was holding +an electric torch in one hand, while with the other he picked up as +fast as he could from the ground the bits of carnelian and turquoise +and blue _lapis-lazuli_ which lay scattered at his feet. Margaret +could see nothing clearly; after the darkness, things were all blurred. +But she recognized the friendly cigarette-boxes; they were there, and +Freddy was filling them as fast as his one hand would allow him. +Thousands of mummy-beads powdered the floor with bright blue. The +white walls showed a wealth of colour in their paintings. + +Freddy was in his white flannels; his modern athletic figure seemed +oddly incongruous. He looked up as they appeared. + +"Hallo, Meg! Take care--stay where you are--don't move one step +further." + +He instantly stopped his work and came to their assistance. + +"You can't walk too softly or be too careful. All these things are as +brittle as burnt egg-shells--the slightest jar may shatter them to +atoms." His voice was full of eager happiness. + +"Oh, Freddy," Meg said. "It's too wonderful! I never imagined such a +scene. You darling!" She hugged his arm. + +"Wait a bit," Freddy said. "There's better things to come. I say, +Mike, keep your coat close to you--that's right. Now, step like cats." + +All three became silent as they picked their way gingerly; their +advance required a nicety and precision of step which permitted of no +talking or examination of the scene which enthralled them. + +At last they reached an inner chamber, the actual tomb itself. An +exclamation of amazement burst from both Michael and Margaret +simultaneously. It certainly was an extraordinary scene which met +their gaze. + +"Good heavens!" Mike said, while Meg caught hold of Freddy's arm. She +was afraid lest their loud cry might shatter the vision before their +eyes. Would it vanish with the coming of the light as the figure of +Akhnaton had vanished two mornings before? + +A queen, dressed as a bride, in all the magnificence of old Theban +splendour, lay stretched at full length on the floor; her arms were +folded across her breast, her face dignified by the repose of death, +the repose of a Buddha, whose eyes have seen beyond. + +This royal effigy was so magnificent, its colours were so untarnished, +that light seemed to radiate from the still figure. Here the might of +royalty had defied time. + +Meg and Mike saw nothing but the bridal figure; they had eyes for it +alone, its pathos, its dignity. + +Freddy pointed to a coffin which lay near the queen. It was empty; one +side of it had been smashed open. A brown and shrivelled mummy, a +ghastly object, had fallen out. It lay quite close to the brilliant +effigy. Surely this was the skeleton at the feast? + +Meg shrank back. In the hot tomb a chill struck her heart. This poor +brown object was the real queen. Here time had triumphed. + +She looked again, while Freddy held the torch nearer. A vulture with +outstretched wings, the ancient emblem of divine protection, cut out of +flat gold, sat upon the forehead of the mummy. Its left claw had +slipped into the empty eye-socket. A row of long white teeth gaped +threateningly up to the roof. The lips had dried and withered until +they had become as hard as brown leather. Alas for human vanity! +Those lips had once been a lover's, those lips had once responded to +human caresses and desires! + +Meg's flesh shrank. It was horrible. It was wrong to pry upon this +pitiful object which centuries had hidden from man's sight, this +humiliation of royal power. Nothing could have illustrated more +vividly the mockery and the futility of human greatness. The ghastly +cheeks, covered with something which had once been human flesh, the +menacing teeth, the embalmed skull, sickened Meg. + +For relief she turned her eyes once more to the sublime effigy, to the +waiting bride. Her chamber had been furnished with the lavish +indulgence of an ardent bridegroom. + +Michael was standing by Margaret's side. Her hand caught his; human +contact was essential. + +The coffin which had once held the mummy had rested on a beautiful +wooden trestle, which had been covered with a golden canopy. The legs +of the trestle had given way, probably with the weight of the coffin, +for the wood had become as brittle and dry as fine egg-shell. With the +fall the mummied body had rolled out and landed on the ground. + +This, Freddy conjectured, was the explanation of the apparent +desecration of the tomb. + +After they had looked at all that Freddy could show them until more +work had been accomplished, at the two figures which occupied the tomb, +the one so abject and distressing the other so magnificent and +romantic, and at the furniture which appeared to Meg to have been made +only the day before, in spite of Freddy's warning that a breath of cold +air would disperse it before their eyes, he told them that "time was +up." + +Meg's astonishment had increased with the examination of every +object--the carved wooden armchair, which appeared to belong to the +best Empire period; the exquisite wedding-chest, of lacquer, the blues +and greens of its floral decorations still daringly brilliant and +vivid--they were far brighter and more perfect than any decorations +which a faker of antiquities would dare to perpetrate. + +"But, surely," she said at last, when they had come to the end, "this +furniture's just pure Empire? Look at it, Mike." She pointed to the +exquisite armchair, an object too beautiful and rare for mere human +forms to rest in; then she made him examine the couch. A portion of +its fine cane seating had given way. Had a ghostly form sat on it? "I +thought the French copied their Empire furniture from ancient Greek +models?" she said. + +"Well, if they did, here we have it in all its perfection," Freddy +said. "In Egypt you'll find the originals of more than Empire +furniture. The thing is, where did the Egyptians get their models +from? None of the Louis's ever gave their Pompadours, nor Napoleon his +Josephine, anything as beautiful as that." He pointed to the casket. + +"And the very air which keeps us alive will destroy these," said Meg. +"It's odd, the way which things that have existed intact for three +thousand years without air will be killed by it!" + +"Have you any definite ideas about that figure?" Mike referred to the +mummy. "Whose is it?" + +"The whole thing is very bewildering. The tomb obviously hasn't been +plundered, for nothing of any value is missing, and yet, as you can +see, some of the gold wrappings have been torn from the mummy, certain +things have been defaced on the walls--the tomb is not as it was when +the body was first laid here." + +"No," Mike said. "Obviously not. The entrance has been tampered with +and those outer walls built; and look at all that debris in the shaft. +Yet, as you say, the obvious things of intrinsic value have not been +removed." + +Meg pointed to a recess in the wall; it still held the canopic jars. +Their lids were splendidly formed out of head-portraits of the queen. +Meg knew their meaning, their use; they held the intestines of the +dead. The Biblical expression, "bowels of compassion," always came to +her mind when she looked at canopic jars. These jars had their +significance. + +A very good significance, too, she thought, for certainly our bowels +are highly sensitive organs, responding and acting in complete sympathy +with our mental condition. And who can say for certain where our +compassions are seated, our sensibilities and sympathies? Why not, as +the Egyptians thought, in our bowels rather than in our brains? +"Joseph's bowels did yearn upon his brother Benjamin." + +"Then you have no idea who the queen was?" Meg said. + +"Not yet," Freddy said. "But we shall know. No Egyptian could enter +into his future abode without his name. It was always plainly and +repeatedly written on the embalmed mummy. His identification was +absolutely essential." + +"What a help to Egyptologists!" Meg said. + +"Probably her name will be written on these golden wrappings and on the +scarabs, if we find any. Nothing has been done yet. This precaution +of the ancients, in the matter of names, has, as you say, saved us +endless work. If plunderers haven't obliterated the name and stolen +the scarabs and other marks of identification, we generally discover +who it is." + +Meg sighed. "Is it just ordinary desert and daylight still up above, +Freddy? I can't believe it. We seem to be back in the Egypt of the +Pharaohs down here." + +They all looked silently again at the wonderful sight, far more +wonderful than words can suggest--the power of Egypt, the mystery of +death. + +"The soothsayer was quite true," Meg said. "His words were more than +true." + +"Yes," Freddy said, "more than true. And the odd thing is that he said +what I thought was a lot of rot about a 'bridal figure,' its splendour, +its brilliance. He visualized it almost correctly. He said, too, that +there would be great trouble for us in the work; he saw difficulties +and errors and wrong judgments. Nothing was clear, beyond the +brilliance of the figure and the objects. I wonder if he will be right +in that as well?" + +Michael and Margaret looked at each other. Obviously Freddy had been +influenced by the accuracy of the visionary's predictions. His voice +was free from scoffing. He owned that it was extraordinary--the manner +in which the man's words had come true. Neither Meg nor Michael made +any remark; they held their tongues in patience. + +"There is certainly plenty of gold," Freddy said, "and jewels and much +fine apparel. I hope we shan't encounter the great difficulty he +expects, as regards the historical problems and arguments it may open +up. He predicts that the opinions of the learned Egyptologists will be +cast out; their judgments will be at fault. What at first will appear +obvious and clear will not be the lasting truth." + +"How odd!" Mike said. "Was he very pleased to hear of the correctness +of his predictions so far?" + +"I haven't told him." + +"Not told him?" + +"No, it's wiser not. I've done my best to keep the astonishing +richness of the tomb from the ears of the natives. No one has been +inside it but the Chief Inspector and the photographer and you two. No +words have been spoken--you must not talk." + +Meg's heart bounded. It was delightful to be one of the privileged +few, to be trusted and accepted as one of the school. She felt like a +great explorer who had set foot in untravelled country. + +"If we stand here, without moving," she said; "quite, quite still, +mayn't we stay for a little bit longer? I'm so full of wonder and +amazement, Freddy. I can't begin to think intelligently or see things +separately--everything is a blurred mass of white and gold and blue and +priceless objects." + +"No, Meg, I'm sorry--I can't let you stay. You see, I must take this +light with me and get on with picking up those small objects. You'll +see all of them to-night. And with out the light you would be in total +darkness--real Egyptian darkness." + +"That's the thing that beats me. Freddy, how do you solve the +problem?--had they electric torches, or were these tombs only built for +supernatural eyes to enjoy?" + +"They certainly didn't use flares or torches in tombs, as the early +Christians did in the Roman catacombs, for there's no trace on the +walls of dirt or smoke as there is on the low walls of the catacombs. +There is absolutely nothing to tell us how they lighted these vast +buildings up, how they even introduced sufficient light to paint them +by or to build them. Look at the minuteness of these figures." + +"Surely they never built all these wonderful tombs and took the trouble +to paint them with the brightest colours if they were never again to be +seen with mortal eyes? I can't believe it." + +"So far we don't know. Perhaps the _Ka_, the part of a man who lived +for ever in his eternal home, had supernatural powers of sight. The +joys were for him. But how did they paint them in the darkness?" + +"Is that fact ever alluded to?" + +"No, the _Ka_ is treated in a perfectly human and natural manner. All +his pleasures were material ones. It's very odd--but we'll discover +the secret yet." + +"If they had some secret form of wireless telegraphy, they may just as +well have had some secret means of producing light, don't you think? +You've not discovered their wireless code, yet, have you?" + +"No, that's still a secret. And they certainly used no apparatus for +electric light, if they knew of it. There are no wires in the tombs." +He laughed. "You know, there is a lift in the Forum at Rome; it was +used for bringing the beasts up to the arena from underground cages. +It is in use to-day, I believe." + +"We've not discovered one hundredth part of what they had or hadn't," +Meg said. "They probably used radium to cure diseases." + +"The Etruscans had dentists who knew the use of gold for stopping +teeth--we know that." + +"Yes, I've seen a skull with gold-stopped teeth in the Etruscan Museum +at Rome." + +They had reached the beginning of the steep climb which was to take +them up to the open desert. Freddy left them with the assurance that +he would come back to lunch. The two policemen were to be responsible +for the guarding of the tomb. If anything was disturbed, they would be +held to account. + +When Margaret and Michael at last reached the open desert, Meg flung +herself down and gazed up into the sky. It had never seemed so blue +and beautiful before. The clear air rushed into her lungs. Oh, the +sweetness and the dearness of the daylight and the real world! The joy +it was to press her body close, close to the desert! She put her face +down to it. Nothing in all her life had ever been so reassuring and +comforting. + +Michael was seated beside her. The world was so wide and open and +bewildering; he felt giddy, stupefied. Surrounding them was the +ever-wonderful light of the desert, the yellow sands and, in the +distance, the masses of moving figures, working like busy insects at +the clearing away of the tomb-rubbish. Native chants and the noise of +picks and spades shovelling up the debris broke the stillness. Life +was just as it had been for the last two months. The desert was as it +had been before the tribes of Israel followed Moses. Down below them, +under the golden sand, in the dark bowels of the earth, Freddy was +still picking up precious jewels and packing them into the +cigarette-boxes, the effigy of the royal bride still lay in all her +Pharaonic splendour. She was there, underneath them, waiting and +waiting as she had waited for three thousand years for her heavenly +bridegroom. And still by her side lay that shrivelled, withered +corpse, the real queen, for whose pride and honour the vast underground +temple had been built. The brown mummy was the thing which mattered, +the real owner of the costly home. + +Freddy, in his white flannels, with his modern mind, was alone with +these two forms, alone and shut off from the embracing, loving light of +the desert. It was not a quarter of an hour since Meg and he had been +there; now they were as far away from the withered mummy and the +resplendent bride as though they had travelled across the breadth of +the world. + +His mind went back to the time before the excavating of the tomb was +begun, when it had seemed absurd to suppose that all this splendour lay +under their feet. It seemed to him now as though the whole of Egypt +might be honeycombed in this subterranean manner. + +Meg still lay embracing the sun-warmed sand, rejoicing in the dazzling +sunshine. + +"It makes one feel very humble," she said at last. "So utterly, +utterly unimportant. It doesn't seem as if it much matters what +happens, not even to our love, Mike." + +Mike raised his face from his hands. "I know," he said. "It is +absolute devastation, nothing more or less. I'm shattered, Meg." + +"It seems hardly worth while trying to do anything. Tomorrow we'll be +like that. It's so difficult to explain, except that it's just wiped +out my eagerness, it's made our own precious happiness seem absurd and +hollow, human beings ridiculous." + +"Dearest, I understand, I feel the same," Mike said. "All that down +there"--he stuck his stick into the sand--"illustrates a bit too +plainly the things we want to forget." + +"It shows us the absurdity of what we think are the things that matter. +It's really destructive to anything like worldly fame and ambition. +Those poor shrunken cheeks, those poor leathery lips, those poor, poor +diadems and jewels!" + +Mike let her ramble on. It was good for her to give utterance to her +incoherent thoughts. + +"They are so different when you see them in a museum," she said. +"They're impersonal there. They don't hurt one's self-importance." + +"In Cairo they belong to a number and a glass case," Mike said. "They +lose their individuality." + +"Here they are a part of Egypt, that ancient, undying Egypt! You and +I, like those dogs, Mike, won't have even bones to record us after +three thousand years. Our bowels of tenderness will not lie intact in +alabaster jars! Oh, Mike, take me in your arms! I want humanity, I +want the things of to-day, I want all which that mummy has ridiculed! +I hated it, Mike! I love life and your love! I want to forget that we +are here to-day and gone to-morrow, mere human gnats." + +Mike held her close to his heart. Meg could hear it beating. Oh, +beloved humanity! Oh, dear human flesh and blood! + +"That's lovely, Mike--that's you and me! That's our certain human +love, our happiness! It is worth while, and it's not going to be like +the running out of an hour-glass while an egg is boiling! It's going +to last for ages and ages, isn't it? Say it is, Mike!" + +"Yes, beloved." Mike kissed her hands. + +She drew them away. "Don't kiss them, Mike. I feel as if they will be +dried skeletons by to-morrow, and as if your lips, dearest, will have +shrunk and shrunk right back until your teeth gape out of your hideous +brown skull up to the blue above. Do you wonder that Akhnaton prayed +so ardently that his spirit might come out and see the sun?" + +Meg's head was buried in her hands. She was visualizing again the +wonderful scene, which had taught her the mockery of all things which +had formerly appeared so precious and important. It seemed to her at +the moment that to sit down in the desert under the blue sky, and there +wait for death, was the only thing to do. Nothing really mattered. +Eternity enthralled her. Her happiness with Mike was but the swift +hurrying of a white cloud across a summer sky, the work of the +Exploration School a mere illustration of worldly vanity. In the great +chaos which possessed her soul there was no light to comfort her. In +looking into the past she had unexpectedly seen into the future. She +had beheld the scorn and callousness of eternity. + +Oddly enough, it was Michael who helped her to pull herself together +and turn her thoughts to practical things, to the needs of the day. +His more mystical nature, his familiarity with the mythology of Egypt +and other occult subjects, had in a measure prepared his mind for the +things which had burst suddenly upon Meg's practical nature. He had +been subconsciously prepared for the tomb to be one of unusual +importance. The soothsayer's prediction had not been mere charlatanry +to him. His secret thoughts were so constantly focussed on what is +termed the superhuman, that Meg's wonder and horror formed only a minor +part of his emotions. + +A thousand thoughts had flashed through his mind when he first saw the +amazing display of jewels and faience and gold, the resplendent queen, +whose royal magnificence had mocked at time. The inexhaustible wealth +of buried Egypt forced before his eyes the treasure of gold of which +Akhnaton had spoken, that imperial wealth which he had buried behind +the hills of his fair capital. He felt convinced that it was there; he +felt convinced that his friend in el-Azhar had seen it, just as the +Arab soothsayer had seen the royal effigy dressed as a bride. + +Mike had little conversation even for Meg. His mind was harassed and +absorbed. The fresh impetus which he had received was pounding like a +sledge-hammer at his natural and supernatural forces. His natural self +was the devil's advocate, and a very able one. It argued against the +super-instincts which led him to the treasure. It made him practical. +It made him, as Freddy would have declared, "sanely critical of the +insane." It admitted the apparent folly of the thing into which he was +drifting. + +He pulled Meg up from her seat on the sand. He realized that her +domestic duties were what her nerves needed; they had lately been +greatly taxed, first by her vision of Akhnaton and now by the +excitement of their entry into the tomb.[1] + +A lover's kisses and strong human arms had done much for Meg. She had +a horror of hysterical females. She pulled herself together and +determined to be practical. Only a few moments before she had felt an +almost uncontrollable desire to burst into tears. How thankful she was +that Mike had saved her from the humiliation! + +But how in the world was she going to bring herself back to the paltry +things of every day? How was she ever again going to feel that life +was real and actual? + +She entered the hut with unwilling feet and troubled mind; for some +unaccountable reason its atmosphere depressed her; she wished to avoid +it--she felt a curious apprehension of bad news or of coming evil. At +the same time, practical work would be beneficial. + +As they came in together, Mohammed Ali greeted Michael with the news +that "One lady and one gentleman has come, very long time they wait. +Lady she stays inside, gentleman he go up the valley." + +Instantly life was real again, and Meg a living, angry woman. "She" +who stayed inside could only mean Mrs. Mervill. The tomb was +forgotten, as was the royal bride. They belonged to the past; the +present was all-engrossing. + +The present hour was the living reality and Michael, her lover, and her +own love were the things that mattered, the woman in the hut the one +brilliant vision. Life was vital, urgent. A gnat's life would be long +enough if it was to be passed with the woman whom she knew, in the +coming struggle, would fight with tools which she, Meg, would not dare +or deign to touch. As vivid as her vision of the tomb was her memory +of Millicent Mervill's beauty. She could see it illuminating their +desert hut; she could feel it eclipsing her own less vivid colouring as +the sun had eclipsed the rays of Akhnaton. + +Mike looked at her. Meg's cheeks were pale, her eyes deeply shadowed. +He hated the woman inside the tent. What had she come for? + +A silent kiss separated them. With the kiss Meg's heart took courage. +It left no room for fear. + + + +[1] The description of the interior of this tomb is taken from various +reliable accounts of the interior of the tomb of Thiy. As Queen Thiy +was the mother of Akhnaton, her tomb must have been discovered before +the events described in this story, otherwise they could not have known +that Akhnaton's mummy had been found in his mother's tomb. + +When the tomb was first examined, the mummy which had fallen out of the +coffin was supposed to be that of Queen Thiy. The light of +after-events and of scientific research have proved that the mummy was +that of a young man of about twenty-five years of age. The conclusion +is that Akhnaton's body was brought from his original burying-place +near his "City of the Horizon," and placed in his mother's tomb in the +Western Hills. + +The name of Akhnaton had been erased from the coffin, but it was still +readable on the gold ribbons which encircled the body. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +When Michael entered the sitting-room of the hut, Millicent Mervill was +reading one of Freddy's French novels. There had been plenty of time +for her to powder herself and cool down and settle to her liking her +dainty person. She looked as fresh and cool and pink as a bough of +apple-blossom. + +She greeted Michael with a charming mixture of friendliness and +discretion. She had brought a friend up the valley, to see all that +tourists had to see. He had been put into her hands by a letter of +introduction from friends in America. They had seen all that her +health would allow her to see, on such a hot day. She had noticed +their camp in passing up the valley and could not resist visiting it on +her way back. Might she ask for an hour's rest from the sun? Her +friend was going to call back for her on the return journey. + +"I knew you wouldn't mind," she said. "And I'm not going to stop your +work, or bother you." + +"I'm not busy," Michael said--"at least, not for the moment." His eyes +avoided Millicent's, which seemed to him bluer than usual; but his +voice was less cold. His first greeting had been curt and almost +impatient. Millicent was evidently wiser and less difficult; she was +the same Millicent who had behaved so delightfully at the Pyramids. +When she was like that he was glad to be nice to her; he was almost +pleased to see her. + +As their conversation continued--it was mostly about the tomb and its +great importance--a subconscious thought that she had come to the hut +for some reason which she was not divulging forced itself more and more +strongly on Michael. He became convinced of it; she seemed so +unusually contented and satisfied with the plan of confining her visit +to a short rest in the hut and their conversation to "the things of +Egyptology," that even Michael was suspicious. She was "_douce comme +un lupin blanc_," as she expressed it to herself later on. Her usual +insistence had vanished. She treated Michael as a friend, with the +proper touch of intimacy. This was when they were alone. + +When Margaret came into the room, she hardened. Naturally Margaret +invited her to stay for lunch. She was Michael's friend. + +"It is always a very light meal with us," she said. "But such as it +is, you are welcome to share it." + +"Freddy likes his proper meal at night," Michael said. + +"Thanks ever so much," Millicent said; she had noticed the coldness of +Margaret's voice. "I'd love to stay--that's to say, if it won't really +be giving you any trouble--you're looking fagged." She turned to +Michael. "What have you been doing with her?" Millicent spoke as if +she really cared. "You're too young for such tired eyes, for these +lines," she touched Meg's eyes and pulled open the corners. Meg's +shrinking gave her satisfaction. "Don't let Egypt ruin your looks, my +dear--a woman is only half a woman when her beauty fades; she's only a +woman in the eyes of one half of mankind while it lasts." + +"Do you think so?" Meg said. "I dare say you're right, but when one is +quite young one never stops to consider these things. As you get +older, I suppose you do." + +The hit went home; the girl had claws. + +"We are only as young as we look, are we not? These few weeks have +ragged you to pieces." + +"I don't mind," said Meg. "It's been well worth it. You may as well +get ten years into ten weeks as ten weeks into ten years. I've been +gobbling up life, years and years of new experiences and sensations in +these last few weeks." Meg meant no more than her words would have +conveyed to any sweet-minded woman, but Millicent Mervill put her own +interpretation on them. Margaret was no mean fencer; she could hit +back as well as parry strokes. + +"You've certainly said good-bye to conventions, my dear. I admire you +for taking your life into your own hands." The blue eyes searched +Margaret's; they spoke of a hundred things which made Margaret long to +throw the tumbler which she was placing on the table at her golden +head. Margaret was neither ignorant nor a fool; Millicent's eyes +explained her meaning. + +"One has to say good-bye to conventions in the desert--nothing can be +too simple here. That's why Western fashions look so grotesque, our +ideas of becoming garments so ludicrous." + +Meg had ignored the innuendoes. Her eyes rested on Millicent's absurd +shoes and fashionably-cut white serge coat and skirt--a charming suit, +but out of place in the hut. + +"Is your brother still here?" Millicent asked the question with a +beautiful insouciance. She was perfectly well aware that he was +personally superintending the excavation of the tomb. Her words were +meant to annoy. + +"Here?" Meg said. "In the hut at this moment, do you mean? No--he is +busy." Meg's eyes flashed with anger. + +Michael was silently enjoying the battle of words and eyes which was +taking place between the two women. The very atmosphere was charged +with antagonism. He was delighted to find that Margaret held her own. + +"No--I meant, is he still in the valley, or are you two alone here? +How deliciously romantic!" Millicent sighed. The sigh was more +suggestive than her words. + +"My brother is in the tomb at this moment," Meg said. "You seem to +have very extraordinary ideas of the ways of excavators"--she had +flushed to the roots of her hair--"of the behaviour of ordinary English +people." + +"What was the desert made for, but freedom, my dear? If one can't live +in this valley as one wants to, where can one, I should like to know?" + +"We are living as we like," Meg said. "Your ideas of freedom may not +be mine. Our interests lie apart--our ideas of enjoyment are, as far +as I can understand, poles apart." + +"A foolish waste of time, my dear, that's all I can say. May I smoke?" + +Michael handed her a box of cigarettes; he noticed the exquisite +refinement of her hands as she picked out a cigarette, her +brightly-polished nails. "Thanks, dear," she said, as she lit the +cigarette from the match which he held out to her--the "dear" was for +Meg's benefit; for as their eyes met hers were full of genuine fun and +mischief. + +"I must tease her," she said, in a low whisper; Meg had gone to the end +of the room. "I love shocking those dark eyes--I enjoy making her hate +me. It's only fun." + +Meg's heart was beating. How dared she call Michael "dear"? How dared +she intrude herself uninvited upon their simple life? Her beauty, her +foolish feminine clothes, angered her. She hated Millicent's fine +skin, which was, even in the desert heat, as poreless as a baby's. It +was a wonderful skin for a grown person, let alone for a woman of +Millicent Mervill's age. Meg thought of the dried mummy's lips. One +day that pure soft flesh, which held the tints of a field daisy, would +be more revolting to look at if it were unearthed than the skin of the +three-thousand-year-old queen. If Meg had possessed a wishing-ring, it +would not have taken long to effect the inevitable change. + +The impudence of the woman maddened her. She knew that she could not, +even if she had wished to, behave as she did. Millicent did exactly as +she liked, as the impulse of the minute suggested. + +Meg wondered how she had passed the time while they were at the tomb. +Had she examined any private object in the hut? Had she interviewed +the servants? She was quite capable of doing it. + +She heard her whisper to Mike. Her own sensitiveness now drove her out +of the hut; if they wished to speak in whispers, let them speak. She +stood sullenly outside the door. + +Why did not some strong man strangle women like Millicent Mervill? Why +had not she herself the courage to tell her what she thought of her? +Probably Millicent would only smile and show her perfect teeth--they +always made Meg furious, because they were even better than her own, +and hers were, so she thought, her strongest asset--and say, "Poor +girl! You are a little overtired"; or she would say, "You have so much +to make you happy, dear, and I have so little. Don't be unkind--I only +long for sympathy." + +Millicent's moments of self-pity were mean and contemptible and yet +they were effective. + +The only thing to do was to leave the two alone, to trust Michael and +go about her business. + +Presently she heard Michael say: "Well, I'll leave you to rest until +lunch-time--I can't idle while Freddy is working like a nigger. You'll +be all right, I know, with your book and a cigarette." + +Margaret slipped round to the back of the hut; she did not want to +speak to Michael; she was thankful that he had left Mrs. Mervill, but +his voice had been too kind, too nice. Meg did not know what she would +have liked him to do, what he could have done otherwise. She only knew +that the niceness of his voice annoyed her. + +When the overseer's whistle for the workmen to "down picks and spades" +sounded and the time was ripe for Freddy to appear, Margaret sauntered +off to meet him. When she saw him coming she hurried towards him. How +she loved him! + +When they met she said, "That cat Mrs. Mervill is here. Oh, Freddy, I +hate her!" + +Freddy laughed. Millicent Mervill, with her extreme modernity and +virile passions, was so far removed from the thought of the tomb, from +the brown mummy, whose golden ribbons he had been examining; his +sister's annoyance was so utterly unlike her mood of the earlier +morning! He had never seen Meg so moved as she had been in the tomb. +He felt a little relieved that a very human and irritating influence +had suddenly thrust itself across her path. Meg was getting too +enthralled in Egypt. These thoughts flashed through his mind. + +"Good old Meg," he said tenderly. "The fighting Lampton's roused, is +it?" + +"Yes," Meg said. "I am roused. She's so insolent, Freddy." + +"What?" he said, stopping her before she got further. "Insolent? to +whom?" + +"To . . ." Meg hesitated. "To life," she said abruptly. "She says +things that I could hit her for saying. Freddy, do squash her!--she +suggests something nasty with every word she utters." + +"I'll try and flirt with her--won't that do?" + +"No, don't, Freddy!" Fear clutched at Meg's heart; the woman in her +trembled for her brother. Millicent was so fair, so tempting; Freddy +was young and, Meg thought, ignorant of the wiles of women. + +"You'd rather I did than Mike?" Freddy's eyes laughed as he watched +the blush rise to his sister's cheeks. It made her extraordinarily +attractive--indeed, fighting seemed to suit Meg. He pinched her arm; +they were close pals, tried chums. "I know your secret, Meg--I've had +eyes for other things than the tomb!" + +"Do you mind, Freddy?" Meg slipped her arm through her brother's; her +eyes shone with happiness. + +Freddy pressed her arm close to his side. Meg loved him for it. "If +I'd minded I shouldn't have let things go so far, should I? I could +have packed you off home." + +"You've been a darling, Freddy, and I'm so happy! I never knew +anything could be so perfect. I sound silly, don't I?" + +"No. Mike's one of the very best, Meg. But you'll have to look after +him a bit." Freddy's voice was graver. + +"How do you mean, Freddy?" Meg at once thought of Mrs. Mervill. +Freddy read her thoughts in her voice. + +"I don't mean in that way--rather not! He's as straight as a die. I +mean, you'll have to help him to walk on his two legs, Meg--stop him +standing on his head, make him practical." + +"I love him for it, Freddy." + +"But it doesn't pay. We're of this world and we've got to live in this +world. Mike's always trying to get beyond it, to get into touch with +the other side. It's no good meddling with that sort of thing, it +always has a disastrous effect on the human mind and human happiness, +which proves to me that we're not intended to know or to get in touch +with those who have left us. It's unwise to give up one's thoughts to +the supernatural." + +"Perhaps it is," Meg said, "but why should we be contented to stand +still about all that sort of thing, while we leap ahead in science and +material progress and everything else? Mike thinks the true +understanding is coming, the darkness we have lived in is passing away." + +"He may be right," Freddy said. "But for your happiness, Meg, I wish +he'd chuck it. The 'sublime truth of spiritualism' he talks about, and +the 'God-ruled world-state'--the one's dangerous to his bodily welfare, +the other's the Utopian dream of failures. I don't want you to marry a +failure, old girl. I want you to have the sort of life you're fitted +for." + +"People must be what they are, Freddy, and failure isn't a failure if +it's done its bit. Rome wasn't built in a day, or the union of Italy +achieved without broken hearts--modern Italy had its failures, its +Utopian dreamers, long before Garibaldi's triumphant thousand marched +into Rome." + +"That's true, only one never wants a failure to be a member of one's +own family. I don't want a dreamer for a brother-in-law, Meg--not for +your husband." + +"The Lamptons always want to come in with the victorious legions," Meg +said. They were nearing the hut. "It seems as if the real victors in +life were what we call the failures, the pioneers of truth." + +"I'm awfully glad, anyway, Meg. Mike's a lucky chap and you're a lucky +girl. You know, I think the world of Mike!" + +"We aren't engaged, Freddy." + +"Oh, aren't you?" He looked at her with laughing eyes. "What do you +call it, then? An understanding? Or are you just 'walking out' like +'Arry and 'Arriet?" + +Meg laughed happily. "We love each other--we've not got beyond that +yet. I suppose we're just 'walking out.'" + +"You've told each other about the loving?" Freddy's kindness was +bringing something like tears to Margaret's eyes. + +"Yes. Michael didn't mean to--it . . ." she paused. + +"Oh, I know! The usual thing. Things seem to be going on all right." +He laughed. "It mustn't run too smoothly." + +"Don't laugh, Freddy. Michael thought you would think it cheek--he +won't allow me to consider myself bound to him." She laughed +deliriously. "The dear boy wants me to feel free to change my mind, +because he's 'a drifter,' because he thinks he isn't a good enough +match for your sister. Your sister, Freddy, comes right above mere +Meg." + +"I see," Freddy said. "Then I'm not to speak about it yet, am I? Just +tell me what you want and I'll do it." + +"Not yet, Freddy--not while that odious woman is here, at any rate." + +"All right, I'll wait. Only I'd rather like to see her face when I +congratulated Mike." + +"Ought you to congratulate Mike? I'm your sister--isn't it the other +way on? Shouldn't you congratulate me?" + +They were close to the door of the hut; Meg lingered. + +"He's the luckiest man I know. I wish he had a sister just like you. +Of course he's to be congratulated! And now I must go and make myself +beautiful." His eyes smiled their brightest. "I bet you I could cut +Mike out with the fair Millicent if I set my mind to it." + +In the sunlight Freddy looked irresistible, with his violet eyes, +shaded by his thick lashes, his crisp hair, as sunny and fair as a +boy's. Meg knew that he was a much better-looking man than +Mike--indeed, he would have been too good-looking if his figure had not +been all that it was, if there had been the slightest touch of the +feminine about him. There was not. Yet in spite of his good looks and +astonishing colouring, Meg was right in her consciousness that for +women there was more magnetic attraction in Mike's mobile plainness, in +his sensitive, irregular features. When the two men were talking +together, the senses and eyes of women would be drawn to the plain man. + +During lunch Millicent Mervill was very good. She was interested in +hearing about the tomb and, Freddy thought, wonderfully intelligent +upon the subject. She was, as he expressed it, as clever as a monkey. +What little knowledge she had she used to the utmost advantage, to its +extreme limit. All her intellectual goods she displayed in her shop +window. She had a telling way of saying, "I am completely ignorant +upon this or that subject," suggestive of the fact that she really did +know a great deal about many other things. She seldom "gave herself +away." + +Freddy came to the conclusion that she was so quick that it was quite +impossible to discover what she really did or did not know or grasp, +and, as he said to Mike afterwards, "What she did not know, she will +set about knowing when she gets home. That brain won't rest still +under ignorance, or let Meg know what it doesn't know." + +The description of the fine effigy of the queen thrilled her; her +appetite for details was insatiable. There was plenty to talk about, +so conversation did not flag and personal topics were avoided. + +Freddy thought that she was nicer than she had ever been before and +even prettier. He enjoyed his lunch; it certainly was a change to have +a beautiful woman, who was not his sister, and who did her best to make +herself attractive, lunching with them in their desert home. After his +tremendous efforts of the last three or four days her presence was +pleasing. Even the modern clothes and aggressively-manicured +finger-nails gave him healthy sensations. His manhood enjoyed her +super-femininity. + +The little room palpitated with life, the antagonism of the two women +was a thing he could feel. He felt it as surely as he had felt the hot +air of the tomb. Freddy enjoyed looking at his sister; her combative +mood vitalized her. + +Her dark hair, so soft and abundant, looked tempting to touch, after +the dragged and matted "something" which clung to the skull of the +mummy. + +Nothing in the room was intrinsically worth a couple of shillings. The +seat on which Michael was sitting had been made out of empty boxes; +they had been converted into a very presentable armchair by the +ingenuity of Mohammed Ali. Yet the atmosphere of the hut was human and +domesticated, the two women sweet and fragrant. + +And so it was not difficult for Freddy to respond to his fair guest's +pleasant chatter. She made him laugh heartily more than once, and he +was ready for a good laugh. He was braced by her quick wit and +humorous way of looking at things. + +Meg was doing her best to appear happy; she was really getting angrier +and angrier every minute with the woman who was so thoroughly enjoying +herself; angry because Freddy, like all other men, was being deceived +by her, because he was obviously thinking her very excellent +company--which she was. He was no doubt already wondering why she, +Meg, hated her so whole-heartedly. Freddy had seldom mentioned +Millicent to his sister; he had kept his own counsel. The Lamptons +were silent men, whose appreciation of women like Millicent never led +them astray in the choosing of their wives. + +Michael had given Millicent his first vivid impressions of the tomb in +a very "Mik-ish" manner. He described Freddy, strikingly +distinguishable in his white flannels, greedily picking up jewels and +gold and bits of blue faience and stowing them away into boxes by the +light of an electric torch. + +"A tomb burglar if ever you saw one! I shall never forget the sight." + +"There's lots of work for you, Meg, to-night," Freddy said. "There's +an awful lot of things to sort and clean--beautiful things." + +"How exciting!" Millicent said. "Can you keep any of the small things? +They'd stick to my fingers, I feel sure." + +"No," Freddy said. "Not unless you are a thief. They aren't ours--I'm +only entrusted with the finding of them." + +Millicent made a face of dissatisfaction, as she felt for something +which she wore fastened to the long gold chain which was hanging from +her neck. + +"I wonder if you will pronounce this genuine or a fake? Do you +remember, Mike, our buying it?" She ran her fingers along the chain. +The genuine antique or fake was not on it; it was missing. She felt +again. No; there was nothing on the chain. + +"Oh, I've lost it!" she said. "My precious eye of Horus, Mike. I +wouldn't have lost it for the world!" Her tone conveyed his +understanding of the personal value which she attached to the amulet. + +"What was it?" Freddy said. "Can't we get another? If you bought it, +it was probably a fake." + +"A new one would never be the same--Mike gave me the one I've +lost"--she purposely used Michael's intimate name--"while we were +staying at Luxor. It has been my 'heaven-sent gift'"--(the ancients' +name for the amulet, which represented the right eye of Horus). + +They all looked to see if the amulet had been dropped in the room, if +it was under the table. But it was nowhere to be found; the eye of +Horus was concealing itself. + +"It was probably only a fake," Freddy said, "if you bought it in Luxor. +I'll try and get a genuine one for you--for ages and ages they were the +commonest of all amulets, judging by the number we find. Almost every +ancient Egyptian must have worn one. It was the all-seeing eye, the +protecting light." + +"The moon was the left eye of Horus and the sun was the right--isn't +that so?" Millicent asked. + +"Roughly speaking, but the eye of Horus is a complicated subject. It's +not just the evil or good eye of Italy, by any means. The eye of Horus +is the eye of Heaven, Shakespeare's 'Heaven's eye,' but it's when it +gets identified with Ra that the complication comes in. The _sacred_ +eye is the eye of Heaven, or Ra. Poets, ancient and modern, have sung +of it, from the time of Job to the days of Shakespeare. But there was +also the evil eye, the one we hear so much about in Southern Italy." + +"Tell me about that. I always like the naughty stories. I've never +grown up in that respect. The evil eye is more interesting to me than +the eye of Heaven. I knew a woman in Italy who was selling lace; she +let a friend of mine buy all she wanted from her at the most absurdly +cheap prices you can imagine. When the lady of the house we were +staying in, who had allowed the woman to call and bring her lace, asked +her why she had sold the lace to a stranger at a price for which she +had refused to part with it to her, she simply threw up her eyes and +said, '_Ma_, Signora, what could I do? She had the evil eye--if I had +not given it to her, what terrible misfortunes she could have brought +to me!'" + +"I remember seeing a crowded tramcar in Rome empty itself in a moment +when a well-known Prince, who was supposed to have the evil eye, got +into it," Michael said. + +"A common expression for a woman in ancient Egypt was _stav-ar-ban_, +which meant 'she who turns away the evil eye,'" Freddy said. + +"Then the Egyptians believed in the evil eye, as apart from the sacred +eye of Ra?" Millicent said. "What a universal belief it seems to have +been! One meets with it all over the world." + +"Wasn't there a book found in the ancient library of the temple of +Dendereh which told all about the turning away of the evil eye?" Mike +asked. + +"I believe so," Freddy said. "But I've never seen it." + +Millicent was still fingering her empty chain. "I feel lost without my +eye," she said to Mike, who had answered her persistent gaze. "You +bought it for me after that long, long day we spent together in the +desert behind Karnak. Do you remember that Coptic convent"--she made a +face of disgust--"and the amusement of the nuns at my blue eyes, and +all the dreadful dogs? You bought the eye from the old man who looked +as if he had lived inside a pyramid all his life." She turned to +Margaret. "It was a wonderful day, and we behaved like children in the +desert, didn't we, Mike?" + +Meg managed to hide her annoyance, but something hurt inside +her--probably her bowels of wrath. + +"It was a lovely day, I remember. The Coptic convent looked like a +collection of beehives huddled together in the desert. You wouldn't go +inside it because you were afraid of the fleas, and I wasn't allowed to +go in because I was a man." + +"I'd had enough of Coptic churches. Have you ever been in the early +Christian churches in Cairo?" she asked Margaret. + +"No, but I've heard about them." + +"Well, I have, and all I can say is that if the early Christians in +Rome were as dirty as the survivors of the Church of St. Mark are in +Cairo, I don't wonder at the pagans. I wasn't going to risk the +monastery after the appalling filth of their churches, dirty pigs!" + +At that precise moment Mohammed Ali brought in the coffee. It was +served in the native fashion, in small enamelled brass bowls, on a +brass tray. When he handed the tray to Mrs. Mervill he pointed to a +small object lying beside her cup. + +"Lady, I find _antika_ all safe." + +Millicent's heart beat more quickly; a little deeper rose warmed her +cheeks. She picked up the eye of blue faience from the brass tray with +well-assumed delight. Margaret's dark eyes were resting on her. She +felt them. + +"Thank you," she said to Mohammed Ali. "I'm so glad." Her hand shook +a little as she lifted her cup. "Heaven's eye is not withdrawn," she +said gaily to Michael. + +"Where did you find it, Mohammed?" Michael asked the question +innocently. + +Mohammed Ali's eyes met Mrs. Mervill's. In them he saw the promise of +a handsome _baksheesh_. + +"When lady get off donkey, chain it catch on the saddle." + +A slight sigh escaped from Millicent's lips; Mohammed was worthy of his +race. + +"Oh, yes! How stupid of me not to remember! I quite forgot that my +chain caught as I dismounted. I never thought of looking to see if I +had lost anything." + +Meg knew that Millicent Mervill was lying and she knew that Mohammed +knew that she was lying. She also knew Mohammed well enough to know +that if she chose, she could buy him back again from Millicent. +Mohammed handled the truth very carelessly; it was still his unshakable +policy to secure as much money as he could and give as much pleasure as +he could to the person who gave him the most. His Eastern knowledge of +human nature told him that Margaret would not be likely to seek to buy +his secret. He might, perhaps, tell her the truth when Mrs. Mervill +had gone away, because he sincerely liked her, but as far as bribery or +corruption was concerned, he must rest content with what Mrs. Mervill +thought a sufficient reward for his intelligence and silence. + +Margaret had felt pretty certain that Millicent's curiosity had not +remained contented with the inspection of the public sitting-room. As +she watched her trembling hand and noted the blush on her cheeks, she +felt that her suspicions were not unjust. Instinctively her mind flew +to her diary; it was lying on a table in her room. She had kept it +very faithfully over since her arrival in the valley. It was an +intensely intimate, human document. It was a record of all her +impressions and of her life in the valley, and of every incident which +had happened in relation to her friendship with Michael. If Millicent +had read any of it, she must have seen into her very soul. Margaret's +whole being writhed at the thought of the thing. She had taken the +precaution to write it in French so that she could leave the book +unlocked in her bedroom. None of the house "boys" could read French; +Millicent, of course, both spoke and read it fluently. + +As Meg thought of this, the cruel laying bare of her inner woman to the +woman she hated, a hot blush dyed her cheeks; she felt giddy. + +Millicent noticed the blush. Her eyes rested upon Meg's until Meg was +compelled to raise hers. Then the two women looked into each other's +souls. Their unspoken thoughts were plainly read by each other. + +It was Millicent who triumphed. No shame made her eyes drop; no fear +weakened their challenge. They boldly said, "You see, I know, I have +learnt. You are not all that you look. I have discovered the other +woman." + +With extraordinary clearness Margaret visualized Millicent's delicate +fingers turning over the pages of her diary. She could see her eyes +gloating over its secret passages. She could feel Millicent's +beautiful presence filling her plain little bedroom, which would never +be the same again. Her delicate fragrance, which was no stronger than +the subtle perfume of English wild flowers, was probably lingering in +it still. Meg felt herself clumsily big and masculine beside her, for +Millicent never allowed you to forget that, above all things, she was a +woman, that in her companionship with men she was not of the same sex. + +When the eye of Horus was once more, with Freddy's assistance, securely +fastened on to the gold chain, and the coffee had been drunk and +cigarettes were being indulged in, Mrs. Mervill's American friend +appeared at the hut. + +He was a very agreeable and cultured man. His chief interest in things +Egyptian was centred in the subject of ancient festivals. When he was +smoking with the party, a really interesting discussion took place +between the three men. Mr. Harben, the newcomer, had been particularly +interested in the "intoxication festivals" held in honour of the +goddess Hathor at Dendereh. + +Michael naturally had read more upon the subject of the festival of +Isis. At her festival the "Songs of Isis" were sung in the temples of +Osiris by two virgins. These festivals were held for five days at the +sowing season every year. These "songs of Isis," of course, related to +the destruction of Osiris by Set and the eventual reconstruction of his +body by his wife Isis and her sister goddess Nephthys. In other words, +it was the festival of the triumph of light over darkness, the power of +righteousness over evil, the oldest of all battles. + +During the discussion Millicent Mervill was at her best. She was +intellectually curious and excitable. The festival of Isis bored her; +she did not care for or believe in the inevitable triumph of light over +darkness. With her evil flourished like a green bay-tree, while +righteousness was its own reward--and a very dull one. She was +religious, after the conventional fashion of the people with whom she +consorted; she enjoyed going to a church where there was good music or +an audacious preacher to be heard. But she never wanted to be better +than she was; her wants were for the further satisfaction of her +material enjoyments on this earth. + +But the Bacchanalian festivals of Hathor had interested her and aroused +her curiosity, from the very first time that she had seen the figures +of the dancing-girls, so realistically carved on the walls of the +temple of Dendereh. She had read all that she could lay her hands on +relating to the subject, which consisted only of such portions of the +papyrus as the translators have seen fit to give to the general public. +Her American friend had gone further. He was not only interested in +the Bacchanalian dances, but in Egyptian festivals generally. + +Both Margaret and Millicent became silent as the discussion proceeded +and for the time being their animosity was forgotten; they found +themselves for once sympathetic listeners and good companions. Michael +was pleased. + +As the discussion gradually soared above their understanding, they +talked of things between themselves. + +Time flew pleasantly, so much so that Margaret felt a little regret +when at last Millicent and her friend said good-bye. She had almost +forgotten her ugly suspicions about Millicent, who had been very +charming and simple. She wished that she had not spoken so hastily to +Freddy about her. Her conscience pricked her. + +Later on, as the trio, Michael, Freddy, and Margaret, watched their two +guests depart, very different thoughts filled their minds. Michael was +hoping that a new phase in the acquaintance between the two women had +begun, that Meg would now hold out a helping hand of sympathy to +Millicent. Meg was wondering if Freddy thought that she had been +unjust and horrid, just because Millicent was beautiful and a cleverer +woman than herself. Freddy had obviously enjoyed her unexpected visit. + +"Your fair friend paid us this honour, Mike, for some reason best known +to herself," he said. "Some reason she has not divulged, I wonder what +it was? There is always a hidden reason in what she does." + +"Curiosity," said Michael, carelessly. "She wanted to see how +excavators live and to find out for herself what we were doing." + +"I guess so!" Freddy said, significantly. "Find out for herself--that +was just it." He laughed. "I wonder how much she did find out?" +Freddy clapped his hand on Mike's shoulder as he spoke. "I didn't give +you away, old chap!" + +Michael faced him squarely. So Freddy knew! + +"Has Meg told you?" His voice was anxious. + +"Told me? Do you suppose I'm blind?" Freddy spoke with such frank +sympathy and pleasure that from his voice more than his words Michael +took heart. + +"It's awful cheek on my part." + +"Yes, 'awful cheek,'" Freddy said. "Considering Meg's just the one and +only Meg in the world." He took Meg's brown hand in his--such a +different hand from Millicent's!--and placed it on the top of Michael's +and held it there. "Bless you, my children!" he said. "I feel like a +heavy father. And I've nothing more to say, except that I'm jolly +glad, and I congratulate you both." + +Meg's eyes were shining. Freddy was so boyish and yet so much her +elder brother. How she loved him! + +"Thanks, old chap," Michael said. "I suppose Meg's told you all about +it?--I mean, how I'm not going to let her bind herself to me? We love +each other, and I forgot and told her I did." + +Freddy laughed. "If something better than you, you old drifter, turns +up, she's to be free to take him. Of course, something will!" + +"Yes," Michael said. "Or if . . ." he paused. + +"If you prove too unpractical for a husband, you old humbug, I'm to +cancel the engagement!" + +Meg linked her arm in her brother's. "I'm quite practical, enough for +us both," she said. "The Lampton common sense wants leavening. We +never rise to heights, Freddy--we're solid dough." + +"We manage to get down into the bowels of the earth, which helps a bit, +if we can't soar very high." + +All three laughed. Freddy meant the tomb, of course. + +Freddy was smoking a cigarette. His eyes were following the two +donkeys which were taking Millicent and her friend down the valley. +They looked like white insects in the distance; they had travelled +rapidly, as donkeys will travel on their homeward journey. + +"The fair Millicent!--and, by Jove, she is fair!"--Freddy said, +meditatively, "didn't come here to find out your engagement--don't +imagine so. She managed to carry away some information more difficult +to obtain than that." He laughed and quoted the old saying, "Love, +like light, cannot be hid. What a pity she isn't all as nice as the +nice parts of her, or as nice as she is pretty!" + +"I always think she looks so nice to eat," Margaret said. + +"I think she looks so nice to kiss," Freddy said laughingly. "If that +American hadn't been there, I'd have taken her off for a walk, and then +I could have told you, Mike, what it was like." + +Meg blushed to the roots of her hair. Her brother's words recalled the +ball at Assuan. She knew that Michael knew what it was like. + +Freddy saw Meg's blush and wondered what it meant. He turned and left +the lovers to enjoy a few moments' uninterrupted bliss and to discuss +the day's events. + +Their bliss consisted in standing together, silently watching the two +figures on the white donkeys disappear into the valley below. When the +last trace of them had vanished and the desert and the sky composed +their world, Meg gave a sigh of relief. Perfect content was expressed +in her attitude and silence, a long silence, too sacred to be broken +rashly. The sun was brilliant, the distance before them immense, +compelling. + +As Meg gazed and gazed, her heart became more and more full of +happiness. The world was a wonderful mother; she had only to trust, to +believe, to love, to have happiness showered upon her. + +"In a book I was reading the other day, Mike," she said, "the heroine +remarked that looking into a great distance always made her long to be +better than she was. How true it is--at least, with me. I knew what +she meant, instantly. I feel it now, don't you?" + +"That's why town-life is so bad for us," he said. "Our vision never +gets beyond the traffic, beyond the progress of commerce. I've often +thought the same thing. Distances are sublime." + +"The distances in the desert make me feel far more like that than any +other distances. The desert has taught me so much--it is a wonderful +mother." + +Michael's eyes answered her. + +"Looking at that distance makes me wish I hadn't been so wicked in my +heart about Mrs. Mervill. I was bursting with hate of her, Mike--I +longed to hurt her as she always hurts me!" + +"You behaved splendidly! I knew it was an awful trial to you. You +knew I understood, Meg?" + +"It was a trial," Meg said, "but why am I so little when I am put to +the test, and why do I feel so big, so far above such contemptible +things, when I look at a distance like that?" + +"Because you're a darling, human woman, Meg." Michael's arms went +round her. "Because there would be no merit in our victories if the +battles were quite easy." + +"I suppose not, but for your belief in me, Mike, I want to be as big as +the biggest thoughts I've got, and I'm only as small as my meanest." + +"You are the mistress of my happiness, Meg." + +Meg's eyes shone with understanding, while his words called up the +figure and the bright rays of Akhnaton. + +"Freddy said that I am to act as a curb on your unpractical tendencies, +Mike. I felt very deceitful. He doesn't know how much I've aided and +abetted them." + +"He never imagined that he'd a practical mystic for a sister, did he?" + +"Never," Meg said. + +"But that's what you are, dearest--a practical mystic. You are a woman +with two sides to your nature--the intensely practical and the +subconsciously mystic. Egypt has developed the mystic half--your +Lampton forbears are responsible for the other." + +"The Lampton half of me keeps my two feet firmly planted on the earth, +Mike." + +"The mystic half loves this silly drifter." He pressed her to him. + +"The practical half says, come back to the hut and help Freddy." + +And so they went. + + + + +PART II + + +CHAPTER I + +Michael's travels in the Eastern desert had barely extended over a three +days' journey by camel and some hours spent on the Egyptian State +Railway, which runs by the banks of the Nile. + +The town of Luxor lies on the right or east bank of the Nile, four +hundred and fifty miles to the south of Cairo. Tel-el-Amarna, or "The +City of the Horizon," Akhnaton's capital, lies about a hundred and sixty +miles south of Cairo. Michael could very easily have gone almost all the +way to the modern station of Tel-el-Amarna, or Haggi Kandil, by boat or +by train from Luxor, which faces the Theban Hills, in whose bowels lies +the great Theban necropolis, the Valley of the Tombs of the Kings, which +had been his home for some months. But that was not his idea; he wished +to spend all his days in the solitude of the desert, so he started his +journey at a point half-way between Luxor and Tel-el-Amarna. + +This was not his first pilgrimage to the eastern desert. + +Luxor and Assuan both lie on the east bank of the Nile; the great Arabian +Desert in Egypt stretches from the Suez Canal to Assuan; after Assuan it +is called the Nubian Desert. The Libyan Desert stretches from Cairo to +Assuan, but on the western bank of the Nile. Michael's desire was for +the uninterrupted ocean of sand which stretches from the shores of the +Atlantic to the cliffs which give the Nile its sunsets. Its infinity of +space drew him to it. + +In the desert, where a traveller begins his day at dawn and ends it at +sundown, where the slow tread of his camel is only interrupted by a short +halt for the midday meal, and the days roll on and into each other as the +sand-dunes roll on and into succeeding sand-dunes, the sense of hours and +days becomes lost. With nothing in front of the eye but an infinity of +sky and distance and nothing active in that distance but dazzling heat, +moving over the desert, the mind becomes a part of the intense solitude. +The traveller's ego is comatized; he takes his place with the elements. + +When the traveller's long day's march is done, the wonder of the starlit +nights makes his past life seem still more unreal. It has been truly +said that the solitary contemplation of the desert stars either for ever +convinces a doubter of the certainty of a God, or confirms his opinions +as an Atheist. When Michael was alone with the stars, the Sweet Singer +of Israel's words ever rang in his ears: + +"When I consider Thy heavens, the work of Thy fingers, the moon and the +stars, which Thou hast ordained; + +"What is man, that Thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that Thou +visitest him?" + + +During the three days spent on camel-back in the desert nothing had +happened which the world calls happening. Michael's small equipment was +proving itself entirely satisfactory and sufficient for his needs. His +guide and his servants were both agreeable and obedient. His head-man or +guide was none other than the soothsayer who had predicted the +astonishing wealth of the tomb which Freddy had discovered. He had +travelled far and wide in the great Arabian Desert and he had also helped +at the excavations at Tel-el-Amarna. + +Although apparently nothing had happened, no events which would bear +recording in the diary of a practical explorer, yet much had happened +which evaded the limitations of words. The things which had happened +were the great things which mattered to Michael's mind. They had +produced an extraordinary sense of repose; they had settled his nerves +and allowed his convictions to steadily develop, to emerge from shadowy +dreams. If he thought less constantly of Margaret as the days wore on, +it was with more satisfaction and confidence. He ceased to blame himself +for confessing his love; he accepted that also as an act of the guiding +Hand. + +On the desert march Michael generally went at the head of his cavalcade. +He liked the wide sweep for the eye, the great expanse, undisturbed, even +by such picturesque figures as the natives on their camels. Over and +over again he rode for hours in a beautiful dream; he gave himself up to +the intoxication of immensity. At such times the thought would come to +him that if he turned the universe upside-down, nothing would happen. +The high heavens would be made of golden sand and the limitless earth of +bright blue--that would be all the difference; nothing would tumble +about, for there was nothing to tumble; nothing would be standing on its +head, for there was nothing which had a head to stand on. God's world +was as it had been before the creation of man. + +Since his _Hijrah_, as Freddy called his flight from the valley, he had +ceased to think about his own standing on his head. He had accepted the +fact that a man must work out his own life as truly as he must work out +his own salvation. To be a weak copy of Freddy would be contemptible; it +would be better to be an out-and-out failure and drifter for the rest of +his days. As a failure he would at least be living the life he best +understood, the life which to him seemed fuller than the lives lived by +successful materialists. + +For the whole three days in the desert he had scarcely passed a living +creature; it was the most desolate journey he had ever taken. Some +portions of the great desert are much more barren than others, more +extraordinarily desolate. The whole thing, of course, depends upon the +all-important water. One writer's words explain the matter +concisely--"there are two kinds of desert in Egypt, the desert of sand, +which is only desert because it is left without water, and the desert +which is desert because nothing profitable will grow there." + +Probably the country over which Michael had travelled belonged to the +last type of desert. There had been wonderful effects of light and shade +and strange changes in the colour of the sand and rocks, owing to +geological reasons. Sometimes such strange effects that he found it hard +to believe, from a distance, that there were not bright carpets or gay +flowers spread on the sands. + +To the uninitiated it sounds as if such a journey could become +dangerously monotonous and boring, and so it would to the eye or mind +which has not the true desert instinct. Michael's had it. He loved its +passionate intensity of sky and space as a true sailor loves the ocean. +He loved his "ship of the desert," which bore him silently over the +rolling waves of sand, as a Jack Tar loves his ship. He loved the +stories of the desert which his guide told him at night under the +southern stars, as an English Jack Tar loves his fo'c's'e yarns. + +Although nothing ever happened, there was for Michael something happening +every minute, some fresh beauty which revealed a new phase of Nature, +some geological surprise which changed the colour and atmospheric effect +of his surroundings. At one time mirage after mirage appeared and +disappeared like delicate, subtle dreams; fair cities sprang up on the +horizon with white-winged sailing-boats drifting on their waters; tall +palm-trees, black against the light, stood up and refreshed the eye, only +to become fainter and fainter until they were no more. + +These fair Jerusalems, God's help to tired travellers, with eyes grown +weary of emptiness and space, made beautiful interludes in the day's +march. Since their first day's march they had seen no real desert +villages, with their much-treasured palm-trees and picturesque +inhabitants, for they had made for the open desert. Where palm-trees +grow, there are also human habitations and Government taxes. Anything +green in the desert which is of lasting duration is the result of +artificial irrigation. But if the sand brings forth no food for man or +beast, its emptiness holds a world of prayers and desires. + + * * * * * * + +It was about noon of the fourth day of Michael's journey when he saw in +the distance a cavalcade of camels riding towards him. It had emerged +out of nothing; suddenly it became clearer and clearer. Was it mirage? +It was still so distant that it might yet prove an optical delusion. + +He stopped his camel. Abdul, seeing that his master evidently wanted +something, rode forward quickly. + +"Look, Abdul," Michael said, "can you see some camels coming towards us?" + +Abdul had no need to look. His eyes could see much further than +Michael's. He had already noticed the cavalcade. + +"_Aiwah, Effendi_, they are camels carrying real human beings." His +master's words had implied that he wondered if he was looking at a +mirage. Michael had never seen a mirage of anything but scenery, +villages with minarets and rivers with boats--reflections, in fact, of +distant towns. + +Abdul assured his master that the camels were real camels and that he was +almost certain that it was an European outfit; it did not belong to +desert natives. + +Michael again rode on ahead for a few moments. He wondered where the +travellers were coming from, and whither they were bound. This fourth +morning's journey had certainly brought them slightly nearer again to the +border of civilization. He knew that they were skirting an ancient +oasis. Perhaps the travellers had come from it. He was still some +distance from Tel-el-Amarna--not the modern Tel-el-Amarna or Haggi +Kandil, which lies about five miles back from the banks of the river, +where passengers travelling by railway alight when they come from Cairo +to visit the ruins of the ancient city--but the ruins of Akhnaton's +capital. At the point on the Nile where Akhnaton chose to build his +city, the limestone cliffs go back from the river about three miles, +returning to it some six miles further on. + +Michael's objective was not the ruins of Akhnaton's city, but the desert +and the hills which lie beyond it. The boundaries of the "City of the +Horizon," Akhnaton's new capital, the seat of the heretic King, were so +carefully laid down and defined by him that there has been no mistaking +its exact size and circumference. + +Michael was going to the original tomb of Akhnaton, cut out of the hills +which formed a half-crescent round the city, like a bay, reaching back +from the river. In these encircling hills the King's body was buried; +the hills were his chosen resting-place. + +"Here Akhnaton elected to be buried, where hyenas prowled and jackals +wandered, and where the desolate cry of the night-owls echoed over the +rocks. In winter the wind sweeps up the valley and howls round the +rocks; in summer the sun makes it a veritable furnace, unendurable to +man. There is nothing here to remind one of the God Who watches over +him, and the tender Aton of the Pharaoh's conception would seem to have +abandoned this place to the spirits of evil. There are no flowers where +Akhnaton cut his sepulchre, and no birds sing; for the King believed that +his soul, caught up into the noon of Paradise, would need no more +delights on earth. + +"The tomb consisted of a passage descending into the hill and leading to +a rock-cut hall, the roof of which was supported by four columns. Here +stood the sarcophagus of pink granite in which the Pharaoh's mummy would +lie. The walls of this hall were covered with scenes carved in plaster, +representing various phases in the Aton worship. From the passage there +led another small chamber, beyond which a further passage was cut, +perhaps to lead to the second hall in which the Queen should be buried, +but the work was never finished." [1] + +Later on, for political and religious reasons, his mummy was disentombed, +taken up the river to the western desert and placed in his mother's +splendid tomb in the Valley of the Tombs of the Kings. It was in these +same hills that Michael believed the King to have concealed his treasure. + +The treasure was Michael's practical objective. To others the idea might +seem absurd and unpractical; to him it was quite possible and practical. +He could not have been more businesslike in his marching and halts if he +had been a general taking his troops across the desert to relieve a +beleaguered city. It was a part of his nature to be practical about the +unpractical. The words of his old friend in el-Azhar often came back to +him as his camel bore him through a spell of light, or as he listened to +the thundering silence of the Arabian desert. He recalled his counsel, +to journey undoubtingly, to follow in the steps of a "child of God," who +would lead him to the treasure which no eyes had seen for countless +centuries. + +So far no child of God had crossed his path. From dawn until dusk he had +seen nothing living or moving but one pale lizard, almost colourless as +the rocks from which it had come; it had scurried across his path, the +sole inhabitant of the untrodden sands, alarmed at the invasion of its +kingdom. + +These thoughts were passing through his mind as his camel bore him nearer +and nearer to the cavalcade which was coming towards him. The unexpected +sight of travellers had raised a whirlwind of new doubts in his brain and +called up undesired visions before his eyes. For the last three days +nothing had disturbed the divine calm of his desert surroundings. He had +contentedly become a part of his camel; its somnolent tread had lulled +his senses like the gentle movement of an ocean steamer on the high seas. + +As the two cavalcades drew nearer to each other, Abdul pressed forward to +his master's side. His long sight, well used to desert distances, had +clearly discerned what to Michael was still indistinct, blurred by the +sun. + +"One lady in party, Effendi." + +Michael showed surprise. It was an extremely unlikely place to meet a +lady on camel-back; there were no tourists in that part of the desert, so +far back from the Nile; it was not a likely place to meet an European +pleasure-party. Michael knew that Abdul had meant an European lady when +he spoke of "one lady" being in the party; he would not have mentioned +the fact if it had been only a Bedouin Arab woman moving her home to some +more desirable spot. Perhaps it was some excavation-party. A number of +European women, he knew, were now engaged on archaeological work in Egypt. + +As the distance shortened, he began to count the number of the camels. +It was not a large equipment. + +Quite suddenly the two leading camels of the approaching party strode +forward, almost at a gallop, the curious gallop of fast-travelling desert +camels. The next minute a clear voice called out: + +"Hallo, good morning! Have you used Pears' Soap?" + +Michael's heart stopped beating. It was Millicent's voice. For the sake +of appearances he returned her greeting gaily, although his heart was +filled with anger. + +"No," he cried back. "But I've used desert sand, which the Prophet said +does as well." + +Millicent had tricked him, cheated him. She had discovered his plans; +she had laid hers very cleverly so as to meet him on the most desolate +part of his journey. A vision of Margaret's anger, had she seen her +riding towards him, rose before his eyes. The tone of Michael's voice +expressed something of his feelings; it made Millicent all the more +daring. + +"I arranged a surprise for you--wasn't I clever?" + +"It is certainly a surprise," Michael said. "Where are you going?" + +"Whither thou goest, I will go," she said laughingly. "Where do you +suppose I am going?" + +"This is absurd, Millicent!" Michael lowered his voice. + +"Why absurd? The desert's big enough for us both, isn't it?" + +"I should have thought it sufficiently big to have made our meeting +unnecessary." + +"Now, Mike, don't be an ungracious pig! Here I am and here I mean to +stay. I won't bother you, so just be nice." + +The mules and camels of both parties had met. The men had joined forces +and much talking was going on amongst the natives. + +"Have you come alone?" Michael asked. + +"My dragoman is with me." + +"Of course," Mike said. "I know that. But are you by yourself, without +any other European?" + +"Quite," Millicent said. "I didn't want anyone. Hassan's a reliable +dragoman. I came to meet you." + +"Do you think it was nice of you?" + +"Well, no," she said. "Perhaps not, but it is nice for me, Mike, and it +will be nice for you, too, if you will only be sensible and accept the +situation." + +"What do you mean by being sensible?" he asked. + +"Just allowing me to come, and being pleasant and happy and enjoying +yourself. I've everything I need--I won't ask you for a single thing but +happiness." + +"I shan't be happy--I wished to be alone. You knew it." + +"What harm shall I do you? I'll halt when you halt, I'll go on when you +go on. I'll be _douce comme un lapin blanc_--I really can be, Mike." +Her eyes asked him if in that respect she was not speaking the truth. + +"Yes," he said. "You can be anything you want to be." He sighed. "I +wish you oftener wanted to be good, Millicent; I wish you oftener wanted +to please me and not always only yourself." + +"I'd get nothing if I did, Mike. I stole this march on you, half for fun +and half because it's no use trusting to you. I never see you--you are +afraid of yourself." + +"I told you it was useless." He moved his camel further from hers. "I +must see what is to be done. You must turn back. Your very presence +disturbs all my ideas." + +"The natives think this is a prearranged plan, of course. They give you +the benefit of being more human than you are." + +Michael looked at her in annoyance. He knew that she was right; he knew +that even Abdul, the visionary, would not believe him if he told him +otherwise; he knew that already he had formed his own opinion of +Michael's surprise. + +Millicent's veil almost completely hid her face. She flung it up over +her sun-hat. As Abdul came to his master's side, Michael saw his eyes +linger on the Englishwoman's beauty. He knew that to the Eastern, +mixture of mystic and fanatic as he was, her freshness and fairness were +like the scent of white jasmine to his nostrils. + +This woman, who loved his master--for already Millicent's dragoman had +confided her secret to him--was very rarely beautiful, and in his eyes +very desirable; but she was false. His eyes had instantly seen beyond. +Because she was false she interested him. She was not like other +Englishwomen; she was not like the girl who was the sister of Effendi +Lampton. This wealthy Englishwoman, whose body was as sweet as a branch +of scented almond-blossom, had thoughts in her heart like the thoughts of +his own countrywomen. In his Eastern mind, Englishwomen retained their +virgin minds and ideas even when they were married women with families; +to their end they retained the hearts and minds of innocent children. +This slender creature, a sweet bundle for a man's arms, thought as his +countrywomen thought. He saw into her mind as he had seen into the +unopened tomb. + +He was amazed at the Effendi, not because of this meeting with his +mistress--it was not an unheard-of thing in the desert; he was not +unaccustomed to the ways of men and women of all nations when their +passions control their actions--he was amazed at his own false impression +of Effendi Amory's character and mind. He had never for one moment +contemplated such a contretemps; he would never have imagined that he +could be false to Effendi Lampton's sister. The meeting, however, lent a +double interest to their journey. + +"The Effendi has been fortunate in meeting his friend," he said +respectfully. Michael had turned to address him. + +"Yes," Michael said. "We have been fortunate." He saw no other way of +settling the question. For the present he must quietly accept the +inevitable. Millicent had insisted that she had a perfect right to +follow him, even if he refused to allow her to join his party. + +"We will go on, Effendi? The _Sitt_ will accompany us?" Abdul's voice +was expressionless, deferential. + +"For to-day, at least," Michael said, "the _Sitt_ will travel with us." +He knew that equivocation was useless. + +Abdul searched his master's eyes. There was no love in them, no passion +for the woman he had taken all this trouble and secrecy to meet. +Englishmen were strange beings. Time would prove which way the wind of +desire blew. Was it from the woman to the man or from the man to the +woman? Had Michael the qualities of Orientals for dissembling his +feelings? It was rare amongst Europeans. + +The cavalcade moved on. A fresh element had been introduced into it. +The at-all-times low talk of the natives soon became more obscene than it +is possible for Western minds to imagine. Its influence affected the +sublime silence of the desert. God no longer shadowed the distance. + +Michael knew the native mind. He had heard the workmen at the excavation +camp, and even the girls and women in the desert villages, discussing +subjects freely and openly which to the Western mind are impossible. He +had heard children and boys using language and ejaculations which would +disgrace the lips of the most degraded Western. + +Before Millicent's appearance his men had no doubt talked together in a +way which would have shocked a stranger to the East if he could have +understood what they were saying, but there had been an absence of any +special topic; their talk had been impersonal. Now their interests were +awakened, their lowest instincts were on the alert, their passion for +intrigue whetted. Suggestion, like perseverance, can work miracles. +With Millicent riding by his side and with the whole company of servants +discussing their affairs, the desert had lost its purity, its healing +powers. In its sands the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil seemed to +need no water. + +Michael clung to the thought of Margaret. For some few moments they rode +in silence. Michael was inarticulate; his thoughts were like a flaming +bush. In half an hour's time they would halt for lunch; until that time +Millicent held her soul in patience. + +Nothing was to be gained by a broken conversation on camel-back. A +delicious excitement exalted her; her plans had succeeded; the very devil +of insolence danced in her veins. She had trapped Michael and +successfully outwitted Margaret Lampton. She was going to thoroughly +enjoy herself. Michael, of course, would become quite docile in her +hands later on; one of her gentle spells would reconcile him. + +"How long have you been in the desert?" Michael asked. + +"We've camped for two nights," she said. "It's been perfectly beautiful! +We have had no difficulties, no adventures and we've scarcely met a +living soul. This eastern desert is awfully desolate, Mike--you're alone +with your thoughts if you can't speak to your dragoman." + +"It's very desolate," Mike said. "And it's quite different from the +Valley in colour and in feeling--at least it is to me." + +"I think so, too. This morning we met a strange creature--the only human +we've struck--one of those desert fanatics, 'a child of God,' as my +dragoman called him." + +Michael's heart beat faster; he forgot his annoyance. "Where did you +meet him?" he asked. + +Millicent noticed the change in his voice. "Not long before we sighted +you. He was travelling this way--we shall probably pass him. Our camels +were travelling at a good pace." + +"Did you speak to him?" + +"No, I couldn't, but Hassan did. I asked him about him. He told me that +what we call an idiot or a village simple is really a man whose reasoning +powers are in heaven. We see the material part of him, the part that +mixes with ordinary mortals. To the Mohammedans such people are +considered sacred, special favourites of God." + +"Yes, I know," Michael said, "and the worst of it is that advantage is +taken of that charming idea and dreadful things are done by rogues who +pretend to be religious fanatics or holy men. Some of them are awful +creatures, absolute impostors, but as a rule they frequent towns and +cities. The genuine holy man, a 'child of God,' lives apart from his +fellows in the desert." + +"This poor creature wore a long cloak made out of all sorts of bits, a +weird Joseph's coat of many colours. His tall staff was hanging with +tattered rags and his poor turban was in the last stages of decay." +Millicent's voice betokened genuine pity. "He looked terribly thin and +tired. I ought to have given him some food--he wouldn't accept money. I +don't think he grasped its meaning." + +Michael's thoughts were busy. "A little child will lead you, do not +despise the favoured of God--their wealth is laid up for them in heaven." + +And so they journeyed on, Millicent pleased at the result of her +conversation, it had set Michael dreaming. + +"They have lots of beautiful ideas," she said. She meant Moslems +generally, not only the simples or religious fanatics. + +"Yes," Michael said. "No religion has more lofty or beautiful ideas and +ideals." + +"You don't think their ideas are often put into practice?" + +"I don't know," Michael said. "It isn't fair to judge--the Western mind +can't. Their ideas are beautiful and in obeying the laws laid down by +the Koran they do beautiful and kindly acts; at the same time, their +minds to us seem terribly polluted. Their religion doesn't appear to +elevate their general aims or thoughts of life." + +"But isn't it the same with the greater portion of Christians, with many +of what we call religious people?" Millicent laughed. "I know it is +with myself, Mike. I go to church and say my prayers and I think I +believe in all the tenets of the Church and in the Bible--at least, I'd +be frightened to not believe--and yet it doesn't make me feel a bit +better. I don't really want to be good. I want to eat my cake on this +earth and have it in heaven as well. All the nicest plums with you, +Mike!" + +Michael laughed. Millicent was always so frank upon the subject of her +own worthlessness. + +"We don't know what these people would be like if they had no Koran to +curb them," Millicent said. "It may do more than you think. It's a +strong bearing-rein." + +"That's true. The Egyptians are, I suppose, about the most sensual of +all Easterns--the women are considered so, at any rate, by Lane, and he +knew them intimately." + +Millicent laughed. "I'm sure they are, speaking generally--that's to +say, I suppose you meet exceptions here and there, as in all other +countries." + +"The Prophet had his work cut out," Michael said. "And the world doesn't +give him half the credit he deserves. The rules he laid down in the +Koran are the only laws a Moslem really observes or reverences. His own +soul teaches him nothing; it has been buried far too long by the laws +imposed upon it; his superman is non-existent. The natural man blindly +obeys the Prophet's teachings in the hope of the material rewards which +will be his when he dies. The future life has always meant a great deal +to the Egyptian peoples; their existence on earth has since time +immemorial only been looked upon as an apprenticeship for the fuller +existence. The very fact that their earthly homes, even the Pharaoh's +palaces, were only built of sun-baked bricks made of mud, shows that they +carried out in practice the saying in the Bible about having no abiding +cities here. Their tombs were their lasting cities and _they_ were built +to endure throughout all eternity." + +"Anyhow, they are delightfully picturesque people in their devotions," +Millicent said. "I feel almost as pious when I watch a Moslem praying +before sunset as I do when a boy's voice is reaching up to heaven in one +of our Gothic cathedrals at home. I think I'm at my best then, Mike, +only no one is ever present to test me." + +Michael knew exactly what Millicent meant. The emotional side of +religion excited her senses. She imagined, when she was listening to a +boy's treble soaring up into the lofty heights of an English minster, +that her soul was soaring with it, that she was deriving spiritual +benefit from the service. He could picture her kneeling with folded +hands, the polished nails conspicuously bright, and eyes upraised, +listening to the boy's clear, pure voice, her whole being in a satisfied +sensuous ecstasy. + +He knew that this state of ecstasy was about as far as Millicent's +religion ever carried her. She was afraid to give up the flesh-pots of +this world in case she found life without them too dull to be +supportable. She enjoyed her state of being so thoroughly that she had +no wish to change it. Her religion and church-going were, she +considered, sufficient to ensure her a place in heaven. It was her way +of paying her future-life insurance policy, as were her many liberal +gifts to charities. + +When the halt for lunch came, Michael and Millicent were to all outward +appearance good friends. Michael had been considering within himself +what attitude he ought to adopt towards her amazing adventure, what face +he should try to put upon their meeting. His knowledge of the East told +him that it was probably best to leave things alone, for whatever he said +Hassan and Abdul would put their own construction on the affair. During +their conversation, which had been carried on without the slightest +regard for Michael's annoyance at her appearance, his thoughts had been +very busy. Their serious talk must come later on, when they halted for +lunch. + +Among the many things which troubled him, Michael tried to solve the +riddle of how Millicent had gained her knowledge of his movements. +Freddy's words had come back to him--that the fair Millicent had not come +to their camp to learn of his engagement to Margaret! She had come to +find out something which was more difficult to discover. Had she seen +the servants in the hut and questioned them when she was alone there? +Had she bribed Mohammed Ali? How otherwise had she found out all that +she wanted to know? + +When lunch-time came, Millicent's splendid basket, exquisitely furnished +and equipped with everything that could be desired for an appetizing and +original lunch, was opened, instead of Michael's, which contained the +simple necessities of a desert outfit. They chose their halting place +under the shadow of a mighty rock--they were reaching hilly ground. +Millicent's outfit included a sun-shelter, which was quickly raised and +in incredible shortness of time they were comfortably seated under it, on +camp chairs at a camp table. Michael could not help showing his pleasure +and admiring the dainty equipment. His child's heart was very easily +touched and pleased. Nothing was left undone which could be done to give +freshness and daintiness to the scene. A luscious fruit salad looked +cool and tempting in a glass bowl, while iced drinks, which had been +carried in ingenious Eastern water-coolers, appealed to his parched lips. +The galantine of chicken and the selection of _hors d'oeuvre_ would not +have disgraced the table of the Cataract Hotel at Assuan. Here, indeed, +were the flesh-pots of Egypt--_la tentation de Saint Antoine_. + +Millicent noticed Michael's pleasure. It was expressive of his simple, +open nature. In such moments he was very lovable. + +"Now, isn't this nicer," she said, "than pigging it alone?" + +"It's beautiful," he said. "What a wonderful outfit! How clever of +you--I feel as if you had a magic wand." + +"Hassan's a good man--I left everything to him." + +"He's done it A1," Michael said, more coldly. Suddenly he felt annoyed, +vexed with himself, for yielding so easily to the pleasures which +Millicent had provided, anticipating the enjoyment he would derive from +eating all the good things. + +After three days' hard travelling in the desert and some days spent in +economical living in Luxor, while his arrangements were being made, he +was readier than he imagined for a good and delicately-appointed meal. +Even at the hut he had never sat down to a lunch such as this. The +renaissance of the old Adam astonished him. + +The servants had betaken themselves to a sheltered spot; discretion being +nine-tenths of a good dragoman's training, Hassan and Abdul saw to it +that their master and mistress should not be disturbed, while they +themselves remained out of sight, but within call. + +"Let's sit down," Millicent said. "I'm starving--the desert turns me +into an absolute primitive." + +They sat down and while Millicent rid herself of her gloves; and sun-hat +and veil, Michael remained lost in thought. How nice it was! As nice as +anything could be, if . . . the "if" was subconscious . . . if he had +only come on this journey into the desert to enjoy himself, if there was +no Margaret. But there was a Margaret, and he adored Margaret, whose +dear dark head and trustful eyes were ever present with him they were as +present in the shelter as the golden head and the inviting, provoking +eyes opposite to him. There never again would be for him a world which +held no Margaret, nor could he endure it if there was. And yet her very +existence robbed this desert feast of its flavour. He knew that to be +loyal and true to Margaret he ought not to be accepting and appreciating +the dainty lunch laid before him. He ought not to be eating it with the +woman Meg detested. + +What if Margaret knew? What if his practical mystic had already had a +vision of their meeting? Had some native carried Millicent's plans to +meet him to the Valley? Had the birds of the air brought the news to +Freddy's ears? Was Margaret now tortured by a vision of this sumptuous +desert picnic? Could she see him sitting alone with Millicent in her +tent? He knew how mysteriously news travels in the desert, how quickly +it journeys. A wave of anger flushed his face as he pictured to himself +what Freddy would think of the situation. + +His hands trembled as he took Millicent's dust-cloak and hat. She looked +extremely pretty in her white muslin dress, which the cloak had hidden. +Millicent mistook the meaning of his trembling hands. She had seen men's +hands tremble many times. + +"Our little home," she said, as she sat down at the table. "My desert +dream realized. I'm so happy!" + +"Why did you do it?" Michael cried passionately. + +Millicent still mistook the nature of his emotion. She leaned across the +table. "Don't ask, dearest--just rest and be content. Hand me the +sardines, like a dear man." + +Michael handed her the sardines. How could he just rest and be content? +If he did, he would allow himself to drift into the woman's mood, he +would be enjoying himself at the cost of his loyalty to Margaret. He +would be drowning "the clear voice" with Moselle cup and smothering it +with galantine of chicken and pigeon-pie. + +"I want you to promise me," Millicent said, "just to eat this one meal +happily with me, eat and forget. For half an hour or more don't ask me +any questions and don't scold!" She handed Michael an olive in her +fingers. "Open," she said. "They're so good." + +Michael opened his mouth, but he took the olive from her fingers into his +own. + +"Will you do what I ask?" she said. "If you will, I'll promise to listen +to you afterwards. Your conscience is an awful bore, Michael." + +"I'm an awful bore apart from my conscience. It's simply your impish +persistence that makes you desire my society. It can't be anything else." + +"Perhaps it is," Millicent said. "All the same, will you promise?" + +"Very well," Michael said. "That's a bargain. I promise." + +"For this one meal you'll be like you used to be?" + +"What was that?" he asked. Her words annoyed him. + +"Mine," she said. "Mine and not Margaret Lampton's." + +Michael put down his knife and fork and looked straight into the eyes of +the woman opposite him. + +"I am Margaret Lampton's," he said, "and you'd better know it. I'm +Margaret Lampton's, body and soul." He flung her hand away. + +Millicent gave a suggestive whistle. "Wh-o-o!" she said, with a low +laugh. "So that's it?" + +"What do you mean?" he said. + +"Nothing--I didn't say anything, did I? Oh, don't let's quarrel--let's +enjoy our lunch." + +"Very well," he said. "Let's, for time's flying. But it's best for you +to know that I'm Margaret's." + +"Never mind--lend yourself to me for a few days. Surely she won't mind +if we amuse ourselves in the desert?" + +"I'm not going to lend myself to you," he said. "What nonsense you talk! +You're going back the way you came. You can play with someone else." + +"You dear silly, you can't make me!" Millicent laughed at the idea. +"Besides, you know you want me all the time, and you've just promised to +enjoy this jolly little meal and to lecture me afterwards. I'm not going +to be unhappy because you belong to Margaret Lampton." + +"So long as you know I do," he said, "I feel I can eat your excellent +lunch." + +"And if Margaret doesn't know, what can it matter?" + +"Oh, Millicent!" + +"You know, Mike, it's what's found out that matters. If you enjoy +yourself and make me happy for two or three days in the desert and +Margaret never knows, what harm could it do?" + +"If you can't see the harm for yourself," he said, "I can't show it to +you." + +"Well, I can't," she said. "But let's talk of something else. Margaret +is taboo--she's spoilt half our lunch." + +"First tell me how you got here, how you knew of my movements. I spoke +of them to no one." + +"No, no, that also is taboo--until after lunch." + +"What can we talk about?" + +Millicent looked at him. Her eyes suggested another topic--themselves. +"Is that taboo as well!" she said, as Michael's eyes dropped under hers. + +"Absolutely," he said. + +"Happy idea!" she cried. "The tomb! If we mayn't talk of Margaret or of +our two selves or of how I got here, or of whence I came or whither you +are going, surely a tomb is a safe topic?" + +"Yes," Michael said, "if any topic is safe with you." + +"Ah," Millicent said. "That's the nicest thing you've said." + +"I didn't mean to be nice. What's nice in that?" + +"But you were nice, awfully nice. If there are so many danger-zones to +be avoided between us, you don't feel very safe, very sure of yourself. +That's triumph number one for Millicent; Margaret's lost one point +already." + +"I thought Margaret was taboo?" + +"Oh, so she was--I beg her pardon!" She sighed. "'One word is too often +profaned for me to profane it,' etc." She put her elbows on the table. +"Oh, Mike, aren't you an odd darling? I do love teasing you. If you +weren't so easily ragged, I wouldn't." + +"Do go on with your lunch," he said. "And don't chatter so much. We +only have a certain amount of time for lunch and digestion. This pie's +delicious." + +"Where are we going? When do we go on?" Millicent was not oblivious of +the fact that he spoke of their going on as an accepted fact. + +"So you don't know? You haven't found out everything?" + +"No, I knew enough to bring me to you. That was all I wanted. You can +tell me the rest." + +Michael was silent. + +"My dear man, you needn't tell me if you don't want to, but remember that +no secrets are hid from the hand that hath _baksheesh_. I found out what +I wanted to know; I can find out more." + +"I'd rather you found out," he said, "than I told you." + +"Right ho! Funny man!" + +"Do you want to hear about the tomb, or don't you?" + +"Oh, yes, rather!" Millicent's teeth were busy picking the leg of a +pigeon. "Tell me everything." + +Michael told her everything he could remember, the things which he knew +would interest her, the most personal facts relating to the minute +examination of the tomb. It was proving a great puzzle to Egyptologists. +There were many conflicting theories about it--whether the mummy which +was found on the floor beside the effigy of the dead queen was the +mummified body of the queen or not. It had been sent away to be +carefully examined by experts; the report of the examination had not yet +been made known. If it was the body of the queen, why had they +endeavoured to cut off the golden wrappings which had been rolled round +her body? Why had her name been roughly cut out of the inside of the +coffin? Why had this queen, who had been buried with such royal +magnificence, been "debarred from all benefits of the earthly prayers of +her descendants? Why had she become a nameless outcast, a wanderer +unrecognized and unpitied in the vast underworld?" [2] + +These questions had not yet been solved. Millicent was excited and +interested and Michael enjoyed telling her about it. She was inquisitive +and insistent. She wanted to know all about the doings in the camp since +her visit to the Valley, and Michael thoroughly enjoyed talking to a +sympathetic, intelligent listener. Like all Celts, he had the gift of +words. + +He was so engrossed that Hassan appeared with their coffee long before he +was ready for it or expected it. Noticing his surprise, the man +instantly took his cue. He salaamed respectfully in front of Millicent. + +"_Ta, Sitt_," he said, "will it please you to wait for another hour? The +camels are not yet rested, the day is still young." + +Millicent looked at Michael. Time really did not matter to him one +scrap, yet she dared not hint so. He could just as well look for this +phantom treasure a year from now. It was all a mystic's mirage to her, a +delightful excuse for a sojourn in the outer desert. + +"I'm ready if you are," she said, addressing Mike. Her woman's tact told +her the wisdom of putting no hindrance in his way. + +"If the Effendi will graciously consent, it would be wiser to remain here +for one hour more," Hassan said. "The men are tired, also." + +Michael assented. If the beasts and the men were tired, they would wait. +The excuse was not unwelcome. The good meal had relaxed his energies. +Hassan thanked him and silently disappeared. + +Michael sipped his coffee; it was perfect. He lit a cigarette, after +they had turned their chairs to the open front of the shelter. Presently +Millicent slipped down from her chair and sat on the sand in front of the +tent; there was more air. Soon Michael did the same. + +They had lunched well and were friends. A certain delicious apathy stole +over Michael, which kept him from referring to any unpleasant topics. He +left alone the subject as to why Millicent had trapped him and forced her +company upon him. For the time being she was good and gentle, the reason +being that she also was relaxed and inert--the result of a good meal +after a strenuous morning on camel-back. + +Michael had been riding since dawn. The temptation to let things alone +was an unconscious one; he submitted to it. + +A great expanse of the desert was before them. Millicent lay curled up, +like a golden tortoise-shell cat, in the sun; Michael, with his legs +doubled up to his chin, rested his head on his knees. He would have been +asleep in a few minutes if Millicent had not spoken; suddenly she said: + +"Look! Surely that's my holy man, whose reasoning powers are in heaven? +There, look--far away, over there!" + +Michael raised himself and looked to where she pointed. There was +nothing to indicate any particular spot in the stretch of sand before +them. + +"I can just see the tattered rags of his staff. I'm sure it's the same +man. Can't you see him?" + +Michael looked again. "I can only distinguish something moving in the +distance. I can't say what it is, or if it is coming this way." + +"Can't you see a thing like a flag fluttering in the air? I can--there, +can't you see him now?" + +"Yes, now I can," Michael said. He got up from his low seat, his +energies fully alert, his drowsiness gone. He held himself in check. It +was absurd to appear so interested in a desert-fanatic--or an +idiot--coming across their path. They were both common enough +occurrences in the East. + +Millicent watched his face. Why was he so thrilled, why so interested? +Michael's first impulse was to go and meet the man. He was afraid that +he would not notice their encampment. He was afraid that he would not +come their way. At the same time, he was conscious that if there was any +truth in the old man's words, their meeting would come about naturally +and not by his seeking. The "child of God" would find him out. + +They waited for some time and nothing happened. Michael's hopes abated. +The figure with the fluttering rags disappeared. It seemed as if it had +vanished into the sands. Michael felt disappointed. + +The shelter was taken down and packed up, the lunch-basket refilled and +the camels harnessed. Hassan appeared. + +"_Ya, Sitt_, all is ready." + +Nothing had been said about Millicent's plans; nothing had been said +about how she had contrived to meet Michael; no lecture had been +delivered. The subject had been forgotten, forgotten by Michael at +least, whose interest had been absorbed in the talk about the tomb and in +the glimpse he had of the distant figure. Millicent had not forgotten +the promised lecture, but it had been her object to make Michael forget +it. She had gladly let the matter rest. Why wake sleeping dogs? She +let them lie so undisturbed that not one bark had been heard. They slept +so soundly that her heart was full of triumph and amusement when, seated +on her camel, she took her place in Michael's cavalcade. + +She had managed to get through the starting without his feeling any +annoyance at her presence. He had simply forgotten his objection to her +accompanying him. + + + +[1] Weigall's _Akhnaton, Pharaoh of Egypt_. + +[2] Weigall's _Akhnaton, Pharaoh of Egypt_. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +It was not until their rest at sundown that anything of unusual +interest happened to the travellers. Their short halt while they drank +their tea had passed without incident--in fact, Millicent had drunk +hers alone on camel-back, for it had been carried in thermos flasks, +their Amon-Ra, as Hassan called the magic bottles whose contents +retained the heat with no obvious aid. + +Michael had spent the time, while he drank his refreshing cup, in +consulting Abdul about their route. The camels were not unsaddled. +About this Millicent made no demur. She saw no earthly reason why they +should not have rested for as long as they felt inclined, but she did +not say so. If this treasure which Michael sought had lain in its safe +hiding-place, out of sight of man, for more than two thousand years, +why should it not wait there in safety for another couple or so of +hours? This she kept to herself; it was her wise policy to remain +_douce comme un lapin blanc_, which she did. The night might still see +her an accepted part of Michael's cavalcade. The adventure thrilled +her with excitement. + +They had finished their evening meal, which Millicent had supplied--a +very satisfying and delicate dinner. They had eaten it in the open +desert during the cool hours which precede sundown. Michael had +thoroughly enjoyed it. The evening light transformed the desert; a +heavenly Jerusalem seemed very near. Even Millicent was obedient to +the unseen. + +As the sun sank lower and lower in the heavens, their conversation +drifted towards the subject of Akhnaton's Aton worship. The kneeling +figures of the Arabs, praying in the desert before sundown, had +introduced the topic. + +They sat on until the globe of gold dropped behind the horizon--a +wonderful sight in the desert. For a minute or two its sudden and +complete disappearance leaves the world chill and desolate; a cold hand +clutches at the human heart; a loneliness enters the soul. God has +abandoned the world; the warmth of His love becomes a memory. + + * * * * * * + +The afterglow was at its most flamboyant; its orange and yellow, +streaked with black, suddenly became vermilion. Lights from the +underworld struck across the desert like swords of fire; arms of flame +broke the vermilion, soaring to heaven like the fires from hell's +furnace let loose. The anger and beauty and recklessness was +appalling. Then with magic swiftness, during the flickering of an eye, +the horizon became one vast lake of sacrificial blood. + +The transition was so unexpected, so devastating to the human mind, +that fear filled Millicent's heart. Instinctively she had drawn a +little closer to Michael. She craved for arms to guard her, to protect +her from the terror of the heavens. + + * * * * * * + +Like a black silhouette against the lake of blood, a human figure rose +up out of the desert, a John the Baptist, "a burning and shining +light," a voice calling in the wilderness. + +As the sonorous words of the Koran were borne to them, Millicent said, +"Oh, Mike, it's my holy man! How mysterious he looks against that +wonderful sky!" + +Subconsciously Michael had been so grateful to Millicent for her +silence during the stupendous glory of the sunset that his heart was +full of gentleness towards her. + +"Yes," he said. "I see him." Something had told him that the figure +which she had described to him during luncheon would appear again; he +was not surprised when he distinguished the staff, with its tattered +rags waving against the crimson light. + +"Isn't it all wonderful, Mike!" Her voice was reverent; the awfulness +of the heavens had humbled her. "I was almost afraid--it seemed like +the end of the world, the sky seemed all on fire. The destruction of +the world had begun." + +"'Thy setting is beautiful, O living Aton, who guidest all countries +that they may make laudation at thy dawning and at thy setting.'" + +"Are those Akhnaton's words?" + +"Yes, and his constant song was, 'O Lord, how manifold are Thy works.' +Most surely he would have said so to-night." Michael's thoughts flew +to the morning at whose dawn he had first recited to Margaret +Akhnaton's hymn to the rising sun. + +Millicent did not guess that Margaret was present while they stood +together in silence, watching the blood tones grow fainter and fainter. + +As they stood looking towards the horizon until all violence had left +the heavens, the desert figure drew nearer. Millicent knew him by his +long, unkempt hair. Even at a distance his fine white teeth gleamed +against his tanned skin. + +"He's a mere skeleton," Millicent said. "Look at him! He's all eyes +and hair and teeth!" + +"Poor creature!" Michael said. "_He_ has certainly no flesh left to +subdue." + +As they spoke, the fanatic suddenly tottered, strode forward and fell, +face downwards, on the sand of the desert. Instinctively Michael +hurried forward to his assistance. There was little doubt but that he +was famished and exhausted for want of food; the distances between +desert villages are immense. + +"Don't go!" Millicent cried. "Don't, Mike! He's probably filthy and +crawling with vermin; he looked awful this morning. I'll send two of +my men to him and I'll tell Hassan to prepare some food for him. +Hassan! Hassan!" Her voice was clear and far-reaching. + +Abdul instantly appeared. Hassan was busy giving orders to the men for +pitching the tents. So quickly did Abdul come that he might have +sprung up out of the desert at her very feet. This immediate response +to her call always made Millicent suspicious of eavesdropping. + +"Abdul," she said, "the holy man we met this morning is ill. Tell the +bearers to go to him--don't let the Effendi touch him, Hassan." + +"_Aiwah, Sitt_, I will attend." With the same breath Abdul screamed +for two of the men to come and help the saint. They came with flying +leaps towards him. + +"Mike, oh Mike!" Millicent cried. "Please, please come back! You are +so rash. Abdul, don't let the Effendi touch that man. He's filthy. I +saw him this morning--he's a dreadful creature." + +Abdul looked at the Effendi Amory's mistress, the Christian harlot. +Such a woman dared to speak in this manner of one who was favoured of +God, a blessed saint, of one to whom the devout women of his country +would willingly give themselves as an act of grace! This child of God, +beloved of Islam, was filthy in her vile eyes! + +It was in this manner that Millicent unconsciously earned the vengeance +of Abdul. Nothing of his hatred or scorn was noticeable. Millicent +was under the impression that all Easterns are sensualists and slaves +to beauty; she was ignorant of their profound contempt for all women; +that their vilest thoughts are for Christians. With an outward +approval of her anxiety that Michael should run no risks by touching +the sick man, Abdul left her and hurried after the Effendi. + +But Michael had already reached him; the fleshless figure lay bathed in +the dying light of the afterglow. Hanging round his neck, a neck which +looked like the neck of the dried mummy in Freddy's wonderful tomb, +there were many strings of cheap beads, and suspended from a bright +green cord--the Prophet's green--was one white cowrie shell. Half +covered by his garment of many colours, and jealously enclosed in a +small black cloth bag, was the most precious article of his scanty +possessions. Michael knew that this pouch contained nothing less +valuable than a few grains of sand from the Prophet's tomb at Mecca. + +At Michael's approach the fanatic raised himself and recited in +half-delirious tones the _Fat'hah_, or the opening chapter of the Koran: + +"In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Gracious. Praise be unto God, +the Lord of the worlds, the Merciful, the Gracious, the Ruler of the +day of judgment. Thee do we worship, and of Thee do we beg assistance. +Direct us in the right way, in the way of those to whom Thou hast been +gracious, upon whom there is no wrath, and who have not erred." + +When the _sura_ was finished the man fell back; his strength failed +him. Michael knelt down beside him in the desert. He raised his head; +his wild eyes and emaciated face touched his heart. He knew something +of the zeal of these religious Moslems, these desert sons of Allah. +This man had obviously wasted himself to a skeleton. Truly, his +reasoning powers were in heaven; his religious ecstasies had well-nigh +bereft him of his senses. + +Michael asked him if he was ill or if he was only faint from want of +food. The saint did not know; physical exhaustion overpowered him. At +intervals he called loudly upon the name of Allah, in almost the same +phraseology as the ancient Egyptians called upon Amon-Ra, the Lord of +all worlds, whose seat was in the heavens. In the unchanging East, +expressions never die. Akhnaton taught his disciples to pray to "Our +Father, which art in Heaven." + +As Michael listened to his appeals to Allah, he felt totally at a loss +to know what to do for the material benefit of the zealot. He was +afraid that he would die from exhaustion. He was relieved when Abdul +and the bearers came to his assistance. Abdul soon persuaded the man +to drink some of the water which he had brought in a cup. As he did +so, he noticed with satisfaction that the saint's head was resting on +Michael's arm, that his master was totally self-forgetful in his act of +charity. Christian though he was, he was sincerely obeying the +teaching of the Prophet Jesus, the one sinless Prophet of Islam, the +Prophet Who, next to Mohammed, is best beloved of the faithful. +Mohammed considered Jesus sinless; to his own unrighteousness he often +alluded. In this act of grace, at least, the Effendi had not failed +Him. + +When Michael offered the man another cooling drink, he swallowed it +eagerly. It was like the waters of paradise to his parched throat. +His flaming eyes tried to express his gratitude to his deliverer. Who +was this heretic whose fingers had the gift of healing, from whose +heart flowed the divine waters of charity? + +Michael understood. Inspired by the love in his heart for all +suffering humanity, with something akin to the graceful imagery of +words which comes naturally to the humblest native's lips, he spoke to +the man in a suitable manner. Rendered into English it would sound +absurd. + +The servants appeared with some food which was sustaining and +appetizing, but the effort necessary for swallowing anything solid +proved too much for the exhausted pilgrim. + +"Bring him to the camp, Abdul," Michael said. "I will give him some +brandy. As a medicine it is not forbidden?" + +"No, Effendi, it is not forbidden." + +The total absence of the sun had made the desert seem inhospitable and +dreary. The saint was too weak to protest and so he was carried to the +camp. Millicent watched the slow procession with anger and amazement. +She knew that Michael was rash and impetuous, but she had not given him +credit for being such a fool. + +While he was being put to bed in a tent, and carefully attended to, +Michael tried to discover if the saint was really ill, if he was +suffering from some specific malady, or if he was merely worn out with +fatigue. He administered a drug to him which he hoped would soothe his +nerves and allow him to sleep. + +In a dog-like manner the man's tragic eyes eloquently expressed both +his astonishment and gratitude. It was long since he had slept in a +comfortable bed, under sheets and blankets. He rarely spoke, except to +mutter or loudly chant in a half-delirious manner _suras_ from the +Koran. + +When Michael had attended to his simple wants and seen to it that his +servants were not only willing but eager to nurse him, he left him to +their care and immediately hurried off to his own tent to change his +clothes and disinfect himself as thoroughly as possible--a necessary +precaution, although the man had not been as dirty as Millicent had +depicted. His _dilk_, or Joseph's coat, was indeed tattered and his +turban in the last stages of decay, but they were clean. His person +was not offensive. A pathetic figure, fleshless and worn and neurotic; +yet in the sands of the desert he had performed his ablutions before +prayer, as prescribed by the Prophet in the Holy Book. The untrodden +sands of the desert are as cleansing and purifying as the waters of +Jordan. + +When Michael at last returned to Millicent, she said quite gently, +although her inward woman burned with anger, "Mike, are you mad or a +saint? How could you touch him?" + +"I'm far from being a saint!" he said. + +"You are as much one as that wretched creature, who has pretended he is +one for so long that he now believes he is." + +"Or his Moslem brethren do, perhaps you mean!" + +"Well, he acts up to their superstitious ideas." + +"I can't tell. He is too ill to speak. He is probably as sincere a +Moslem as St. Jerome was a Christian--why not?" + +"What's the matter with him?" A little fear clutched at Millicent's +heart. + +"I don't know--Abdul couldn't discover. The man is too exhausted to +talk. I'll speak to him in the morning and find out." + +"I hope it's nothing infectious--you were very rash, Mike!" + +"It's probably only physical exhaustion. He couldn't eat anything, but +he drank the water I gave him. I poured a little brandy in it--he +wouldn't have touched it if he had known." + +"Oh, wouldn't he?" Millicent's voice expressed her disbelief. + +"The Koran forbids the drinking of spirits." + +Millicent laughed. "You wouldn't think so when you pass the native +cafes in Cairo! I thought you said they lived up to the letter of +their religion, and missed the spiritual essence of it?" + +"There are Moslems and Moslems. Do we all live up to the spirit of +Christ's teachings? Have you always seen Christ-like Christians?" + +Millicent shrugged her shoulders. "Well, I don't pretend to live up to +the spirit of my religion. There's the comforting reflection of a +death-bed repentance for all Christians--it's never to late to mend, +Mike!" + +"What about battle and murder and sudden death?" + +"I take that risk. But, honestly, dear, are you going to adopt that +fanatic, take him on with you?" + +"I'm going to look after him until he's better," Michael said, "if +that's what you mean." + +"You've got one _protege_ in el-Azhar. I wonder where this one will +find his home?" + +"He will be all right in the morning. Some food and sleep will set him +on his way again." Michael's eyes expressed the fact that his thoughts +had travelled to Millicent's own position in his camp. She had wished +to avoid this; she had tried to obliterate her own personality. Her +desire was to let Mike get pleasantly accustomed to her companionship, +to her place in his camp, to her harmless presence. She felt certain +that if she could manage it for a day or two, he would let things +slide. It was his nature to drift. + +The evening was almost at its close; night was drawing near. The +evening star, with its one clear call, had appeared in the pale sky, +guarded by the soft pure crescent of a new moon. The single star in +the vast heavens made a tender appeal to the hearts of both Millicent +and Michael. It intensified their solitude. It touched their senses +with longing. If Margaret had been with Michael, his arms would have +encircled her. + +Millicent owed her self-restraint to her calculating common sense. To +have had a lover on such a night as this would have been a splendid +reward for all her trouble. In her heart she called the man at her +side a fool, a pitiful fool, and herself an idiot for loving him. + +"It was a beautiful idea for Mohammed's banner," Michael said at +length. He had driven the thought even of Margaret from his mind. +Suggestion is too potent a drug. + +"Was that what he took it from?" Millicent said. "I never thought of +it before--of course, it must have been." + +"He must often have watched the evening star as we are watching it now, +when he was a boy living in the desert. Later on, when he became the +warrior prophet, he must have visualized the heavens as the background +of his banner, and taken the evening star and the crescent moon as his +symbols--the star and the crescent of Islam." Michael paused. "In the +same way, the full rays of the sun became the symbol of Aton, +Akhnaton's god and loving father." + +"Your friend?" Millicent said eagerly; it pleased her that Michael +should speak of the things nearest his heart. He was allowing her to +approach him. + +Michael laughed. "And yours, too, I hope?" + +"Why?" Millicent's heart quickened. + +"Because Akhnaton was the first man to preach simplicity, honesty, +frankness and sincerity, and he preached it from a throne. He was the +first Pharaoh to be a humanitarian, the first man in whose heart there +was no trace of barbarism." [1] + +"Really?" Millicent said. Michael's earnestness forbade levity. "How +interesting! Do tell me more about him." + +"He was the first human being to understand rightly the meaning of +divinity." + +"But what he taught didn't last. We owe nothing to his doctrines, do +we? Did it ever spread beyond his own kingdom?" + +"Like other great teachers, he sacrificed all to his principles. Yet +there can be no question that his ideals will hold good 'till the swan +turns black and the crow turns white, till the hills rise up and travel +and the deeps rush into the rivers.' That's how Weigall ends up the +life he has written of the great reformer. How can you say that we owe +nothing to him? You might as well say that we owe nothing to any of +the great men of whom we have never heard, and yet you know that +thought affects the whole world. Akhnaton made himself immortal by his +prophecies--they were the eternal truths revealed to him by God." + +"By a prophet, do you mean that he was a prophet like Moses, Jeremiah, +Isaiah and so on?" + +"I mean that prophets were the seers to whom God communicated +knowledge. Prophets were the people to whom He made revelations; he +enlightened their minds; He certainly revealed Himself to Akhnaton, or +how else could he, in that age of darkness, have evolved for himself an +almost perfect conception of divinity? Weigall says 'he evolved a +monotheist's religion second only to Christianity itself in its purity +of tone.' If God had not revealed Himself to Akhnaton as He did later +on to Moses and Abraham, and as I believe He still does to our true +reformers, how could he, as Weigall says, have evolved his beautiful +religion 'in an age of superstition, and in a land where the grossest +polytheism reigned absolutely supreme'?" + +"And are you now on your way to visit his tomb, Mike? How thrilling!" + +"Yes," Michael said. He answered her simply, forgetful of the fact +that she could only have obtained her information on this point in an +underhand manner. + +"You know where it is?" + +"He was buried in the hills which lie beyond his city." + +"Tel-el-Amarna?" + +"Yes, the City of the Horizon, the capital he built when he found it +necessary for the progress of his new religion to get away from Thebes, +from the priests of Amon-Ra." + +Michael's thoughts became absorbed. They travelled to the mid-African +in el-Azhar and then became mixed up with this meeting with the +desert-saint. Could this poor, emaciated figure, so shrunken and worn +with tropical fevers and famished for want of food, have any knowledge +of the hidden treasure which the seer had visualized? + +Millicent allowed his thoughts to wander. She knew the force of silent +companionship. She knew that, although he was apparently far from her, +he was conscious of her presence. She would have liked to ask him a +thousand questions, to have talked rather than held her peace; but her +instinct as a woman forbade it. Something told her that during their +talk Michael was one half saint, one half man, and the man-power was +stronger than he knew. + +Many stars had appeared in the sky, which had deepened. It was now the +violet-blue of a desert night. The passion of the heavens was +beginning. Could man and woman remain outside it? + +In the distance an occasional roar from one of the camels interrupted +the silence. Surely it was a night for love, the love that needs no +telling? + +Millicent and Michael were seated on the sand, gazing into the +deepening heavens. Michael was sorely disturbed. + +"Could anything be more Eastern?" Millicent said dreamily. In speech +she had to walk very carefully. Her mystic baffled her. + +"Nothing," Michael said. "Isn't it sad to think what city-dwellers +miss?" + +"I love even the roar of the camels, don't you?" Her eyes were looking +at the animals, as they knelt at rest in the distance, their long day's +journey done. What stored-up revenge their roars suggest! They always +seem to say, "My day will come, if it is yours to-day." + +"Let's think of the most English thing we can, Mike," she said +suddenly, "just by way of contrast." + +They thought for a moment or two in silence. The arid desert was +softened by the absence of the sun, its desolation was made more +manifest. At night even more than by day, you could feel the immensity +of its distance, its silent rolling from ocean to ocean. Nothing +speaks to man's heart more eloquently than the voice of perfect silence. + +For the sake of prudence Michael was consenting to Millicent's +suggestion to think of the most English scene he could. Was it a +village public-house, full of hearty English yokels, drinking their +evening tankards of beer? This was about the time they would assemble. +He had not yet formed his picture into words, Millicent had not spoken, +when suddenly Abdul appeared and begged permission to speak to his +master. + +The sick man was better; he had eaten some food and was conscious. +Abdul had evidently some information which was for his master's ear +alone. He politely inferred that he could not say it before the +honourable lady. + +Michael rose from his seat beside Millicent, who, being wise in her +generation, said: "Then I will say good-night and go to bed. I am very +tired." + +"Good-night," Michael said brightly, while a sudden sense of relief +came to his heart. "I think you are very wise. You must be quite +tired out." + +"So far, so good," Millicent said when she was alone. "What a weird +mystic I've attached myself to!" She alluded to Michael, not to the +Moslem saint. + +Her camp-outfit was so complete that in her desert bedroom there was +scarcely an item missing which could ensure her comfort. She +contemplated going to bed with enjoyment. Where money is, there also +are the fleshpots of Egypt, even if it is in the waterless tracts of +the Arabian desert. + +Material comforts meant very much to Millicent. She enjoyed using all +the little accessories belonging to a fastidious woman's toilet; she +enjoyed, too, the occupation of expending care on her person. Her +rising up and lying down were ceremonies which she performed with +unremitting attention. In her tent in the desert her perfumes and +cosmetics and bath-salts afforded her a curious satisfaction. They +told her that her management had been perfect; they appealed to her +barbaric love of contrasts. It fed her pride very pleasantly to know +that she could command these luxuries; to know that by her own wealth +she could bring the trivialities of civilization into the elemental +life of the desert excited her senses. + +Her natural beauty could have triumphed over the ravages made by the +sun and the dry desert air. She was one of those fortunate women who +needed few, if any, of the absurdities which she carried about with her +wheresoever she went. To have done without them would have been to +deprive herself of a very genuine pleasure, to have starved one of her +eager appetites. Margaret's rapid tub, the swift brushing and combing +and plaiting of her dark hair, generally while she read some passage +from a book which interested her, and her total disregard for +cosmetics, would have horrified Millicent if she had known of her +habits. The height of civilization to Millicent was expressed in a +luxuriously-appointed dressing-table and in an excessive care of her +body. Progress touched its high-water mark in the perfection of her +creature comforts. Taken from this standpoint, progress could scarcely +go any further, or so Michael would have thought if he had watched her +ritual of going to bed. + +She dawdled pleasantly through it, enjoying every moment of the time, +appreciating the handling of artistically-designed silver objects, +performing with care the washing of her face with oatmeal and the +dusting of her fair skin with the latest luxury in powder. She liked +to take the same care of her person as a young mother takes of her +first baby, and--as she expressed it--to smell like one when the +ceremony was finished. + +Her love of contrasts appealed to her, when she stood, all ready for +bed in her foolish nightgown--a mere veil of chiffon--becomingly +guarded by a Japanese kimono of the softest silk. She visualized the +timeless desert outside her tent, the trackless ocean of silence, the +uninhabited primitive world. She felt like a queen, travelling in +state through a waterless, foodless world. + +She held up her empty arms. Some other night! Some other night! Her +heart assured her. With a sigh of content she lay down to sleep, well +satisfied with her own diplomacy and cunning. Her last conscious +thoughts were of Margaret Lampton. What was she doing to-night? What +were her thoughts? + + * * * * * * + +Late that night, as Abdul passed the Englishwoman's tent, he spat at +her door. + + + +[1] Weigall's _Akhnaton, Pharaoh of Egypt_. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +What was Margaret doing that night? + +Many days had passed since she had heard from Michael, but there was +nothing in that to cause her anxiety. She did not expect to hear from +him after his desert journey had begun, except by happy chance. If he +passed a desert mail-carrier, he would give him a letter to be posted +when he arrived at the nearest town. + +A desert mail-carrier is a weird object to Western eyes or to the eyes +of a city-dweller. Almost naked, he travels across the desert on swift +camels, carrying a long sword for the protection of the royal mails. + +So far Margaret had received no desert letter. Her days had passed +smoothly and swiftly, for Freddy had kept her hard at work. Each day +her interest in his work intensified; the more she learned of +Egyptology and of archaeology generally, the more wholly absorbing it +became. She had developed into a very essential member of the camp. + +With splendid common sense and determination, she had succeeded in +throwing herself body and soul into the work which filled her days. +She had made up her mind when she parted with Michael that not even by +thought would she retard his work and mission. When she allowed her +mind to travel to him, it was to convey currents of stimulating love +and encouragement. If thoughts are things, as he always told her, then +the things her thoughts were to give him must be happiness and +confidence. Keeping this steadily before her, she had spent healthy, +happy days with her brother. In their sympathies and interests they +had drawn even closer together. Strangers might well have taken them +for lovers, so eagerly did they look forward each morning to their long +evening to be spent together. There was very little time for play; +their days were made up of hard, exacting work. + +Experts were busy forming their opinions and writing their official +reports upon the contested subjects connected with the tomb. The +mythological and archaeological finds in it were of exceptional +interest. + +On this night, when Millicent in the eastern desert had held up her +arms to the heavens and questioned the unseen, Margaret had gone early +to bed. For some reason--perhaps owing to the great heat of the day +and to the airlessness of the chamber of the tomb where she had been +painting, she had felt a bit "nervy," as she had expressed her state of +being to Freddy. She had tried to read, but had failed. Her thoughts +had wandered; her memory had retained nothing of what she had read; at +the end of a paragraph she knew as little of what it had been about as +though she had never read it. Concentration was beyond her power. + +"I'm only wasting time, Freddy," she said after a last desperate effort +to concentrate her thoughts on her book. "I'm going to bed. If I +talked, I'd probably grouse--that's how I feel." + +"Right you are, old girl. I'll soon be off, too. How'd you like to go +to Luxor for a few days?" + +"Oh, no, Freddy!" Meg's whole being rejected the idea. + +"All right--only don't get the jumps." + +"A good sleep will put me right," she bent her head as she passed her +brother and lightly kissed his glittering hair. He was busy with a +plan, of extraordinarily minute details. "You're such a dear, Freddy." + +"Rot!" + +"You are, a thumping old dear." + +"Don't you worry, old girl. Mike's all right. Bad news travels on +bat's wings, so they say. You'd have heard long before this if +anything was wrong." + +It was just like Freddy to understand. Meg felt cheered. She sat +herself down beside him, quite close to his elbow, and watched him for +some moments. They were perfectly silent. Freddy's practical, +healthy, buoyant personality soothed her. Her big love for him brought +a sudden lump to her throat. Happy tears dimmed her sight. Hungrily +she pressed his arm close to hers and rubbed her cheek against his +coat. The next moment she had left the room. + +Freddy's eyes followed her. "Not the life for a girl, somehow," he +said, a line of worry puckering his forehead, and for a few moments his +thoughts deserted his work. It became faulty; he had to use his +india-rubber over and over again. It was Meg's vision of Akhnaton that +had intruded itself upon his work; he must drag his thoughts back again. + +Meg had told him about her vision. Before the tomb had been opened, +Freddy would have completely pooh-poohed the whole thing. He gave no +real credence to it now; still, there was a subtle difference in his +attitude towards the whole subject of the supernatural. His mind did +not so completely reject it as he thought. The extraordinary exactness +of the seer's vision of the inside of the tomb had not been without its +effect. He also knew how constantly and ardently Akhnaton had prayed +that his spirit might "go forth to see the sun's rays," that his "two +eyes might be opened to see the sun," that he might "obtain a sight of +the beauty of each recurring sunrise." + + * * * * * * + +When Meg went to bed, she slept soundly, very soundly. She must have +been asleep for some hours when suddenly she awoke with unusual +alertness. The intensity of her dream had wakened her. She had heard +Michael's voice crying, as though it were vainly trying to reach her. +It was as clear as the overseer's whistle each morning; it had wakened +her just as suddenly. The anguish of his soul came to her out of the +silence. Three times he had called her distinctly. + +She started up, with the words "Yes, Mike, I'm coming." They were said +before she realized that she was separated from him by the Valley and +the river and the eastern desert. + +Sitting up in bed she listened. Everything was still. She jumped out +of bed and looked out of the window. The stars in the sky shone down +on the hills which covered the sleeping Pharaohs as they had shone when +Michael had told her that he loved her, as they had shone before the +Valley became a city of the dead. + +Margaret slipped on her dressing-gown and opened the door. She went +quietly out and stood in front of the hut, with eyes raised to the +heavens. She felt as if her heart was bursting with the prayers that +filled it. What could she do? Nothing--nothing but give herself up to +God, open her heart and reveal its burden to the Lord of all worlds, +trust her inarticulate prayers to His everlasting mercy. Very softly +she whispered, almost ashamed of her own impotence, "I want to go to +Michael. Allow my spirit to console him." + +Her hands were clenched. An imploring agony held her unconscious of +all else but her desire to get outside herself and appear to her lover. +She had no more words; speech was needless. Her wants were as +infinitely beyond the limits of speech, as infinity is beyond our +conception of space or time. + +For a few minutes she stood lost in the one thought. And who shall say +in what name her prayer was answered by the divine mercy? + +Gradually a subtle untightening of her muscles relaxed her hands even +while they remained folded. Something had gone out of her. Was it +virtue? Unconscious of her material self, for her thoughts had not yet +returned from their mission of healing, she remained standing in the +same attitude of appeal. + +Suddenly her imagination folded her in her lover's arms. She heard him +say, "My beautiful Meg, the stars adore you!" + +And she answered, "I am with you, Mike, just as I was on that night +when your love made a new world for me. You called to me and so I +came. Your arms are round me. . . . I can hear your voice." + +Margaret sighed. Consciousness of her material surroundings was +returning. She heard a step behind her; someone was present. It was +Freddy. + +"What are you doing, Meg?" he said anxiously. + +She turned swiftly to him. "Oh, Freddy, Michael wanted me. My dream +was too real not to have some meaning. I couldn't bear it--I had to +try to help him!" + +"You were dreaming? You were in bed?" + +"Yes, and sound asleep. Suddenly he called me. It was extraordinarily +real." Meg put her hands up to her head as though it was tired. + +"But you can't help him by standing out here. It's too chilly." + +Meg shivered. "It is cold," she said wearily. "And I'm awfully tired." + +Freddy linked his arm through his sister's. "Let's sit and talk +together indoors, for a bit. Have a cigarette?" + +Meg thanked him with tired eyes. Freddy put his hands on her shoulders +as she sank into a deck-chair, and looked into her eyes. "No more +visions, old girl?" + +"No, Freddy, oh no, no vision." Meg spoke dreamily, absently, and with +an exhaustion which worried her brother. + +"Then why so tired?" + +"I don't know. I suppose it was my dream. I feel as if I'd travelled +for days and days!" + +"Look here, you're going to have some of this." Freddy poured out a +small portion of brandy into a glass and made her swallow it. "The +desert plays the dickens with the strongest nerves. Don't be so rash +again, Meg." + +"I promise." Meg swallowed the brandy and Freddy lit her cigarette. +With a tact she little dreamed of he contrived to divert her thoughts +into a channel far removed from the eastern desert and personal matters. + +The news from home for the last few weeks had been far from +satisfactory. English politics seemed to revolve round the atrocious +acts of the suffragettes who believed in the militant policy and the +disturbances in Ireland. Freddy's sympathies, of course, were with +Ulster; the Nationalists and Sinn Feiners belonged to the unemployable +unemployed class of agitators who "walk on their heads." + +When at last the brother and sister parted, Meg was restored both in +mind and body to her normal healthy condition. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +When Michael entered the sick man's tent, he was surprised to find how +much better he seemed. He had regained a little strength and partial +consciousness. But he was still weak and suffering from the effects of +malarial fever, or so Michael imagined, though he was articulate and +his mind seemed to be clearing. + +The more Michael saw of him the more sure he was that he was neither an +idiot nor a lunatic, nor one of the class in the East whose flagrant +acts of immorality do not affect their fame for sanctity. Certainly +his thoughts and reasoning powers appeared still to be in heaven, but +that was because he was a religious zealot. Of the genuineness of his +piety there could be no doubt. The impostors and charlatans who bring +discredit upon the term "holy man," who trade upon the credulity of the +natives, do not seek the wastes of the arid eastern desert. The +neighbourhood of hospitable villages and cities suits their profession +and tastes better. + +The saint had requested of Abdul that he might thank the Effendi for +his charity. Before sunrise he wished to leave the tent. + +As Michael approached him, he called out in a weak but sonorous voice a +_sura_ from the Koran: + + +"'Verily those who do deeds of real kindness shall drink of a cup +tempered with camphor.'" + + +The word camphor (_kafier_), which is derived from the word _kafr_, +means to "suppress or cover." Michael understood. The quaffing of +camphor, as spoken of in the Koran, is supposed to subdue unlawful +passions; it cleanses the heart; it rids man's mind of all material +desires. + +"I thank you, O my father." Michael used the ordinary form of a Moslem +in addressing one of a higher spiritual station than himself. In Egypt +even the native Christians reverence Moslem saints or holy men. They +pay frequent visits to them to ask for counsel and to hear their +prophecies, to beg a hair of them in memory, "and dying, mention it +within their wills, bequeathing it as a rich legacy unto their issue." +Any relic of a venerated saint is worn as a protection from evil. + +Quite apart from Michael's feeling on the subject as to whether this +desert fanatic would prove of any real assistance to him on his +journey, he had no inclination to scoff at his religious zeal. Were +there not St. Jeromes, who lived in the desert and trusted to the +ravens of the air to feed them? Were passions in the desert not known +before the days of Mohammed? Why should saints no longer exist? + +It seemed to him very wonderful that this semi-conscious Arab should +have chosen a text from the Koran so singularly appropriate to his +condition. There were hundreds of _suras_ familiar to Michael, +relating to the benefits to be received by the faithful who performed +disinterested acts of charity. "Do good to the creatures of God, for +God loves those who do good." These words came to his mind as more +suitable, as referring only to his hospitality to the fainting +wayfarer. Or again, "The truly righteous are those who, in order to +please God, assist their kindred out of their wealth, and support the +orphans and take care of the needy, and give alms to the wayfarer." + +In the moral conditions of the Koran, there are many _suras_ relating +to charity, the love which covers a multitude of sins. Yet he had told +Michael that because of his love for one of God's creatures he would +"drink of a cup tempered with camphor." Had the sick man a seer's +vision? Had he read the secrets of his, Michael's, heart? + +Or might it have been that already Abdul had confided to him the gossip +of the camp? Had his seer's eyes told him who lay in the white tent, +the white tent whose open door so persistently invited him to turn in? + +He rejected the idea that the saint's apt choice of a text could have +been mere accident. To Michael there was no such thing as chance. +Nothing is unessential, nothing unforeseen by the All-seeing. + +He spoke to the saint seriously and sympathetically of his condition +and tried to persuade him that he was too weak to travel. He must rest +for one whole day, and after that he must allow Michael to see him on +his journey. To Michael's offer of hospitality and help on his +pilgrimage, he again answered by quoting the Koran: + +"'Verily to the "favoured of God" no fear shall come, nor shall they +grieve.'" + + +His eyes, lit with spiritual fire, expressed his complete confidence in +divine protection. + +Michael expressed his belief that God did look after those who were +specially favoured of Him, but he asked if it might not be that it was +by God's guidance that he, Michael, had been permitted to offer one +specially beloved of Allah the rest he so greatly needed? If it was +not also decreed by Allah that the saint should remain in his tent +until he was stronger? + +"Whither are you going, O my son? If Allah wills it we shall not part." + +Michael described his geographical destination; he did not mention the +real mission of his journey. + +"What seek you there, O my son?" + +"The tomb of a holy man." + +"An infidel or a child of Allah?" + +"Of a prophet, O my father, a prophet to whom God revealed himself even +before the days of Moses, a prophet born in Egypt, who lost his distant +kingdoms to gain his own soul." + +"Your heart is full of charity, O my son. In the name of the Lord, the +Compassionate, the Merciful, may the divine light surround you." + +"If I acknowledge but one God, O my father, and truly love Him, I must +love all things that He has created, for without Him was not anything +made that is in heaven or on earth." + +"Truly said, O my son. And praise be to Allah! you are no infidel. +You worship but the one God Who is the Lord of the worlds. The +ignorant infidels--Allah have mercy on their souls!--give the Prophet +Jesus equal glory with the God Almighty, they divide the honours which +belong to God alone." + +"There are many seekers after the truth, O my father. Are there not +many roads to heaven?" + +"To all who do truly seek the light, God will be revealed to them. He +will cover them with His mercy, He will join them to the companionship +on high. God's mercy extends to every sinner, He provides for even +those who deny Him." + +The fanatic fell back on his pillow exhausted. Michael waited for a +moment, until his religious excitement had abated. Feebly words came +from his parched lips. + +"Great is Thy Name, great is Thy Greatness. There is no God but Thee." + +Michael poured a little moisture down his throat. He swallowed it +eagerly; his thirst was pathetic. After waiting for a few minutes +beside the silent figure, Michael rose to go. One of the servants must +come and look after him and watch by him during the night; he was too +ill to be left alone. + +Suddenly the saint called to him. "_Hena_ (here)." He wished Michael +to bend his head nearer to his lips; his voice was weak. His splendid +eyes glowed with the fire of spiritual triumph. Michael watched him +raise his hand up to his head. It was for some reason, for it was not +without effort that he guided his first finger to his fine, +delicately-shaped ear, the concha of which was very large. There +seemed to be something hidden in it which he was endeavouring to take +out. + +Michael tried to help him. Had he stowed away some relic of +exceptional value in the opening of his ear, or was it giving him pain? +The saint did not answer. Michael stood in silence until the thing was +extracted. It was a little pellet of tissue-paper. + +The saint put his finger to his lips, to caution Michael to be silent. +With trembling fingers he unwrapped the tiny packet. It was so small +that probably it contained an atom of hair reputed to have been cut +from the Prophet's beard. + +When the object was unrolled, the saint said, "_Hena_," and tried to +reach Michael's hand. Michael placed his right hand in the two +emaciated ones of the fanatic. Something hard was pressed into his +palm, and his fingers were jealously folded over a tiny object. When +it was safely in his keeping, the saint fell back on his pillow, +muttering a _sura_ from the Koran. + +"'Give your kindred what they require in time of need and also to the +poor and the traveller, but waste not your substance wastefully.'" + + +Michael opened his hand and looked at what the zealot had placed in it. +He was thrilled with curiosity to see what the precious relic could be. +He recognized the greatness of the honour which had been bestowed upon +him. + +When he saw what it was, he was too astonished to speak. Wonder robbed +him of words. A crimson amethyst, uncut and of ancient smoothness, lay +like a large drop of blood in his hand. With half-believing eyes he +gazed at it. Still in silence and with doubting senses, he turned it +over with the fingers of his left hand. Had the holy man performed a +miracle? How could he have become possessed of an ancient gem of such +rare beauty and size? Michael had often seen conjurers raise up +palm-trees and flowers on the deck of a steamer, out of a pot full of +sand; a wave of their magic wand had transformed the deck of the +steamer into a flowery garden. But this poor sick wanderer was no +trickster. + +Michael held up the amethyst to a lamp. It seemed to him a stone of +great value. As it was uncut, he could only judge by its colour. +There might be some flaw which he could not see. He tried to put it +back into the sick man's hands. + +"Keep it, my son, it is safer with you. I could not use it for the +benefit of mankind, for the wayfarer and the needy, and for myself I +have no wants which Allah in His mercy does not supply. His children +suffer no greater privations than they can bear." + +Michael still pressed the jewel back into his hand. He could not and +would not accept it. At his refusal the fanatic became excited and +distressed. + +"It is easy for me, my son, to find many more such jewels, and also +much fine gold, the pure gold of Ethiopia. Allah has had hidden +treasures laid up in the desert for such of His favoured children as +require them." + +The words came curiously to Michael's ears, for he had in his +subconscious mind anticipated them. Yet his material mind regarded +them as fantastic imagination due to the man's abnormal condition. The +unpolished jewel had probably been given to him by a devout Moslem, who +imagined that he had derived some benefit from a visit which he had +paid to the saint. His subconscious mind pressed the question: + +Had this poor creature, dressed in rags, whose famished body had fallen +in the sands, exhausted by his perpetual mortification of the flesh, +found Akhnaton's buried treasure? Had he resisted the gold and +precious jewels which he had found there? Had he only carried away +this one crimson amethyst to prove to Michael that his theory was +correct? Was it a beautiful link in the long chain of ordained events, +an act of the divine law? + +The idea seemed incredible. Yet the saint had spoken simply and +sincerely, as if he never doubted but that Allah, in His all-seeing +mercy, had provided this mine of wealth for the use of His favoured. + +Was this gem which the saint had carried in his ear an actual and +tangible proof of the treasure he was seeking? Had the saint actually +seen and touched the wealth of gold and the jewels which Akhnaton's +hands had hidden in the hills near his tomb? Others besides Michael, +students of Egyptology, had treasured the idea that the heretic King, +knowing that his days were numbered, and that when he was dead +everything in his fair city would be stolen and desecrated, taken to +Thebes and there turned into wealth for the gods of Amon, had hid from +his enemies his private hoard of jewels and gold. + +A glorious excitement overwhelmed Michael. His thoughts travelled on +the wings of light. But he must be practical; he must determine how it +was best to question the saint, to gather from him the most helpful +information on the subject. It would be no easy matter, for it would +be unwise to express any marked curiosity about the hidden treasure or +to show his personal desire to find it. + +With great self-control he concealed his intense interest and +excitement. For the present it was best to let the saint's words about +the treasure pass unquestioned. Very tactfully and with gentleness he +persuaded him to keep the amethyst until they parted. In the morning, +if he was really strong enough to go on his way and if he still wished +him to accept the gem, he would do so. + +With this the fanatic was contented. He wrapped up the gem which had +once belonged to the heretic Pharaoh, whose one and only God was Aton, +and replaced it in its strange jewel-case. + + * * * * * * + +When Michael left the tent where the saint lay, he turned his back on +the encampment. He wished to be alone. His thoughts were bewildering. +He turned his back upon the encampment because the crouching man in him +knew that in the camp was the white tent of the woman. If he passed +it, would the primitive man in him spring up and force him to turn in? + +"Turn in, turn in, my lord, and he did turn in." How the words had +kept ringing in his ears. + +Alone in the desert he must drink of the cup tempered with camphor. +Henceforth his one thought and object must be the finding of the +treasure he had journeyed thus far to discover. The saint's news had +so excited him that he wished that he could waken all the sleeping +servants and order Abdul to begin their journey. Action would drive +the white tent and its persistent call out of his mind. The sky was so +light that they could easily see to travel. + +His nerves chafed at the unnecessary delay. And yet he must not hurry, +for his mind foresaw great difficulty, even in the matter of persuading +the holy man to travel with them. + +The seer at el-Azhar had promised him that a "child of God" would lead +him. If he waited and trusted and just let things take their course, +all things would come right. Haste comes of the devil--a true Eastern +proverb, a warning far too little regarded by the Western children of +speed. But his conscience rebuked him. Had he verily been one of +those who do deeds of real kindness? Was he worthy to drink of the cup +tempered with camphor? Had his deed been sincerely inspired by +disinterested love towards his fellow-beings? Had it not been so +mingled and mixed up with his anxiety to find the hidden treasure that +he had gladly seized the opportunity of offering help to the wayfarer, +hoping that he might prove to be the very child of God who was to guide +him to the secret spot? + +Yet surely, in doing this deed of kindness, even though it was affected +by self-interest, he had already drunk of the cup tempered with +camphor? The desires of his frail human flesh, desires which had had +their renaissance since Millicent's appearance, were they quite +banished? Had the woman in her white tent meant nothing to him? As if +in contradiction to his words, he flung himself on the sand. A voice +cried within him. + +What was he to do with the woman? Oh, God, what was he to do with her? +Spiritually he emptied his arms of her and flung her far from him on +the sands. All day her presence had been too near him--oh, God, far +too near! She was there in her tent, a beautiful vision. Her eyes, as +violet as the night sky, invited him. Her voice, soft with love, wooed +him. It cried again and again: "Turn in, my lord, turn in!" + +His knowledge of the East told him that the whole camp expected him to +visit the white tent that night. He was no St. Anthony in their eyes, +resisting his temptation. + +For one moment his mind enjoyed the satisfaction of her beauty. The +cup tempered with camphor was rudely dashed from his lips. Some unseen +hand had offered him instead the deep red wine of passion. With the +sudden violence of a southern wind gathering swiftly over the desert, +his emotions were tossed and driven. As the sands lift and rise from +the flatness of the desert into one obliterating column before the +traveller's eyes, so had his vision of the woman obliterated every +other thought from his mind. In the limitless desert there was nothing +but the one white tent of the woman. + +In his vision he saw the crimson amethyst hanging from a chain round +her neck. On her white breast it lay like a full drop of pigeon's +blood. Where had this idea come from? Unsought, undesired, what had +forced it with merciless vividness before his eyes? What part of him +responded to her caresses of thanks? What had Akhnaton's jewel to do +with his profane vision? + +St. Anthony had never deserved his temptation less. With the distant +glimpse of the white tent which he had caught on his way from the sick +man, desire had stormed the citadel of his soul. Its hidden forces had +surprised and overwhelmed the unsuspecting Michael. It held him in its +grip. + +In his agony of spirit he cried aloud. "Margaret! Margaret! +Margaret, if you love me, come to me!" + +He pressed his body more closely to the desert sand. Let the great +Mother Earth enfold him. + +With all the stars in the heavens shining down upon him, and the clear +sky purifying a world of desolation, Michael lay purging his mind, +cleansing his heart. The white tent became very distant, a mere speck +on his mental horizon. + +Suddenly his senses became alert; he felt a presence very close to him. +No footfall on the sand had warned him that he was no longer alone; he +was simply conscious that some one was standing by his side. He jumped +up, anxious to see who it was; he had been lying face downwards on the +sand. No one was there. He listened. Surely he had not been +mistaken? Someone had touched him gently with their hands, some +presence had come quite close to him. He was conscious that a feeling +of peace had come to him, as if virtue had passed into him from those +unseen hands. Then suddenly he knew that Margaret was beside him; they +were standing together as they had stood together on the night when +they plighted their troth. He could hear her saying, "I have come to +you, Mike. You called me and so I came." He could feel the divine +beauty of her passion, the exquisite wonder of her love. Her presence +was as real and helpful to him as though his arms encircled her +material body. + +In the midst of his happiness a sense of shame overwhelmed him. +Margaret had come to him because she understood; his sense of shame +evoked her sympathy. He heard her say, "But Mike, I shall understand. +I think something outside myself will help me to understand." + +He could see her starlit face. He remembered how he had turned it up +to the heavens and said, "You beautiful Meg, the stars adore you!" His +own words rang in his ears. + +She had come to help him to make his love for her still more complete. +She was with him still. He enfolded her in his arms and wept out his +passion on her breast. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +"Let's begin where we left off yesterday, Mike," Millicent said. + +They had finished their lunch and were sitting in the desert watching +the "common or garden" day's idleness of the inhabitants of a Bedouin +camp. The tents were huddled together under the shade of some +feathery-leaved palm-trees, a typical desert homestead. + +They had made a short excursion from the site of their own camp, for +the sick man's condition had necessitated their halting for at least +one whole day. + +Subtly conscious of the fact that Satan finds some mischief even in the +desert for idle hands to do, Michael had suggested a picnic to a small +oasis which lay to the west of their route. Millicent and her dragoman +and her servants still formed a part of his camp; her splendid supply +of food and medicines was so valuable for the saint that Michael's +silent consent to her presence had been given. Again he was drifting. + +"Let us return to where we left off yesterday," referred to her +suggestion of the evening before that they should tell each other of +the most English thing they could imagine, things seen in England as in +comparison to things seen in Egypt. + +It was a typically Eastern scene which lay before them--the yellow +sands of the Arabian desert, the dark palm-trees and the picturesque +Bedouins idling under the shelter of the palms. Not one of the group +was occupied. Some goats and a great number of naked children were +lying about on the sand. The purple shadows of the palm-trees +intensified the bareness of the sunny desert. + +One little figure, with a very protruding stomach, and a very large +white metal disc on her dark chest for her only article of attire, +suddenly appeared in front of them. Silently she had risen up out of +the hot sand at their feet. Her big eyes stared at the two strange +beings whom she had been brave enough to approach. When Millicent +spoke to her she screamed and flew back to her mother's side. The +woman looked like a man, clean-limbed and as tanned as leather. Her +tent was supported by two sticks; to enter it she had to bend almost +double. + +The naked child had appeared so suddenly and it had run away so +swiftly, that Millicent laughed like a child. It really was a +delicious bit of nature. The metal disc shone like a small sun. + +"What a 'tummy'!" she said. Her laughter was contagious. "Just like a +baby blackbird's before it has got its feathers. And that big silver +disc!--like the family plate on the family chest." + +"It's protection from all evil, poor wee mite." + +"What a filthy-looking hovel," Millicent said. "Worse than a +gipsy-tent in England." + +"And yet it's a home," Michael said. "And there are no more passionate +lovers of home than these tent-women, or more hospitable people." + +"Do these date-trees bear fruit?" Millicent asked the practical +question irrelevantly. Her mind was charged with new interests, while +her eyes looked at the soaring trees. The tent-dwellers interested +her. She would like to have questioned them about all sorts of +intimate subjects. + +"Rather! These people pay taxes, too." + +"Really? Isn't there any spot on the globe where people can just live +as they like, where they can get away from income-tax and authorities?" + +"I don't know if the Bedouins pay any tent-taxes, but I suppose that if +they didn't aspire to owning date-palms, they could live in the arid +desert without paying anybody anything. It's the old, old, unchanging +subject--water." + +Millicent lapsed into silence. Her chin was resting on her hands; she +was lying face downwards on the sand. Michael was resting beside her. +Hassan and the few servants they had taken with them to attend to their +picnic-lunch were fast asleep. The camels and mules made a picturesque +note in the distance. On Millicent's camel a pale blue sheepskin rug +covered the fine saddle; it looked like a patch of the heavens dropped +down to earth. + +"I know what is the most English thing I can think of," she said, "the +most English thing compared to all this Easternness--how I adore it, +Mike!" + +"The English thing you've thought of, or the Easternness?" + +"Oh, the Easternness. England's placid and fat and bountiful, but all +this throbbing emptiness----!" + +"Tell me your English scene," he said. Something in Millicent's eyes +drove him into speech. He, too, knew the throbbing silence, the +solitude that thunders, the emptiness that is full of passion. + +"Well, first look at that tent and at those lazy, straight, +brown-limbed women--they are just a bit of nature. Summer and winter, +autumn and spring, will never change the scene. Look at that ocean of +sand, and the moving heat, passing like a wave over the desert. Take +off your blue glasses, Mike, and dare to look at the sun. Face your +great God Aton--look Him in the face." + +Michael was silent, but he took off his blue glasses. He was no eagle; +his eyes shrank from the world of blinding, unlimited light. + +"Now visualize a wee robin 'flirting,' as Wells says, across a green +English lawn." + +The suggestion called up a thousand memories. A cloud of home-sickness +dimmed the brightness of the sun. Michael could see a green, green +lawn and the figure of his mother busy at her flower-beds; the robin's +flirting was growing bolder; it was peeping up into her very face! The +smell of moisture came to his nostrils. + +"Nothing is more English than an English robin, Mike! In the autumn, +when it comes near the house, what a darling it is--so well-turned-out, +so fearless of humans!" + +"Nothing," Mike said, "unless it's my mother herself, in her gardening +gloves, cutting off the dead heads from the rose-beds." + +"But she's Irish!" + +"Well, I meant British. When you said things seen in England I +visualized _my_ robin in Ireland, juicy, green, luscious Ireland!" + +"Tell me about Ireland," Millicent said lightly. As she spoke, she +made a hole in the sand; she pushed her hand and wrist into it--her +gloves were off. She drove it in still further, until her elbow only +was above the sand; her arm was buried in the desert. + +"Take care of sand-flies," Michael said. Millicent's sleeve was rolled +up. + +"Are there any here? I've not been troubled with them." + +"No, probably not--they are the plague of Upper Egypt." + +"They were awful at Assuan. It's awfully hot, Michael!" Millicent +referred to the sand. She withdrew her arm. "Give me your hand--just +feel it." She pulled up his sleeve and took his hand. She held it in +her own and thrust it into the hot, soft sand. With her free hand she +pulled up her own sleeve and Michael's so as to allow their arms to +sink still further into the sand; they were bare to the elbow. Her +wrist and the palm of her hand were pressed close to Michael's. +Suddenly her hand ceased boring; she remained still, her soft fingers +embracing Michael's. Her eyes sought his. He read their invitation. + +"It's only our hands, Michael--let them rest." Her fingers tightened +round his as she spoke; her eyes challenged him. At the challenge his +pulses leapt, his hand ceased to resist. For two days he had been +playing with fire. In the wilderness that surrounded them what waters +would quench its leaping flames? + +Millicent's soft arm lay with his; it was human and caressing. Then a +fear came to him, born of a sudden intense hatred. She was such a +little thing. He could strangle her, crush her to atoms. That was the +way to put an end to it all. + +The next moment Millicent was alarmed, terribly frightened. She was in +Michael's arms. He was crushing her, crushing her to atoms. It was +not a lover's embrace; it was the mad fury of a roused mystic. Would +he crush her until he killed her? + +"Don't, Mike, you'll choke me! You are choking me now. Do you want to +kill me?" + +"I could," he said. "And I'd like to!" He flung her from him on the +soft sand. "Go away," he said. "Leave me and my camp for good and +all!" His words were broken, mere breathless ejaculations. His eyes +made a coward of the reckless woman, but she collected her quick wits. + +She lay where he had flung her. She was not hurt or even stunned, but +she knew that if she lay there in the position in which he had flung +her, presently he would come to her and ask her if he had been too +brutal. She traded on his tenderness to women, his horror of +inflicting pain. + +She lay motionless, the blue sky above her, the yellow sands stretching +to the far-off horizon. She had tempted him willingly, deliberately. +Something had compelled her to test her power. Her annoyance at his +apparent indifference to her presence had become too poignant to hide +any longer. Anger was exhausting her nerves. She was conscious that +she had burnt her boats, that her tactics were at fault. + +Michael did not look at her. He was conscious of nothing in the world +but an unbearable contempt for his own manhood. Why had he not driven +her away long before this? Why had he silently acquiesced to her +companionship? + +Despising her as he did, why was she able to lower him in his own eyes? +Why did he tolerate her? Why had she any qualities which appealed to +him? Why, oh why was she just what she was? He hated her at the +moment, but he hated himself still more. When they got back to the +camp he would tell Hassan that their ways must lie apart. And now, at +this very instant, he would go and tell her that she must leave; he +must have it out with her. + +He went to her and stooped over her. "Millicent," he said, "I want to +speak to you." + +"Yes, Mike." + +"Get up and look at me. I want you to listen." + +Still Millicent lay perfectly motionless. "I am listening." + +He knelt down beside her. "Have I hurt you?" + +A little groan was all her answer. Michael turned her face to his. +His hands were on her shoulders. She winced. + +"Have I hurt you? I am sorry. I was too rough." + +Millicent raised herself to her knees. Her face was tense, agonized. +She put her hands up to her head and held it. + +Michael thought he heard a sob. Shame or pain convulsed her body; she +rocked herself backwards and forwards. + +"I am sorry I was so brutal," he said. "But you deserved it. I had to +do it. I always have to be unkind--you are so foolish." + +Still Millicent wept. She removed her hands and gazed at him with wet, +mournful eyes. Michael put his arm round her and tried to raise her. + +"You were very naughty--why were you so naughty?" + +One of his arms was supporting her as she struggled to her feet. The +next instant Millicent swung herself nimbly round and flung herself on +his breast. He was helpless. Her hands were clasped behind his head. + +"You wanted to kill me, Mike." Her fingers slipped round his throat. +"And now I should like to kill you, yes, kill you! Strangle you and +leave your austere, ascetic body for the vultures to enjoy!" + +Mike tried to shake her off, to unclasp her hands. She was as strong +as a young leopard. + +"I would," she said. "For I hate you and despise you! + +"Then leave me," he said. "I wish to God you would!" + +"Ah, but I won't!" The cry came from Millicent savagely. "I won't +leave you, not until my will has subjected yours! Before I leave your +camp you will have been my lover--mystic, aesthetic, dreamer, drifter!" + +"Never!" Michael said. "Never, never that!" + +Still Millicent clung to him. Her angry words blew her hot breath over +his cheeks. + +"You are not altogether the ascetic or the saint you appear to be. You +have scorned my love. I will break your will. I will humble you in +your own fine estimation of yourself. When I take it into my head to +do a thing, I generally accomplish it." + +Michael disengaged her hands with a tremendous wrench. If he hurt her +thumbs he could not help it. He held her from him at arm's length and +shook her, shook her as though she was a naughty child in a paroxysm of +passion which had to be subdued by extreme severity. + +"You little devil!" he said. "You'll leave my camp at once, this very +day! I've had more than enough of you!" + +Millicent's eyes, as unflinching as Michael's, laughed triumphantly. + +"What about my food and medicine for your sick man, your valuable guide +to the hidden treasure? You can't afford to let him slip through your +hands!" + +Michael's eyes dropped. He had allowed Millicent to remain +unquestioned, even willingly, as a member of his expedition, since the +sick man was in need of the delicate food and medicine her equipment +contained. + +As his eyes dropped, he asked her what she knew about the hidden +treasure. He had only told her about the tomb of Akhnaton; he had +particularly refrained from mentioning the Pharaoh's hidden store. + +"How did I get to know all I wanted to know?" She glanced at him +tauntingly. "It wasn't quite all my love for you, dear man! Perhaps +I, too, wished to pick up some of the jewels in King Solomon's Mines!" + +"I never mentioned them to you--what do you know about them?" + +"What about the precious jewel in the saint's ear--the oriental +amethyst, the ninth jewel in the high priest's breast-plate, as +mentioned in Exodus, 'and the third row a ligure, an agate, and an +amethyst'?" Millicent trilled off the text laughingly. + +"You have stooped to spying," he said. "You have an eavesdropper in +your camp?" + +"'Verily those who do deeds of real goodness shall drink of a cup +tempered with camphor'! Well, is it tempered enough, Michael?" She +laughed mockingly, derisively. "Was the deed pure goodness? Was this +fanatic not the 'favoured of God' who was to lead you to Akhnaton's +treasure?" + +"Go!" he cried. "I have heard enough!" + +"And take all my provisions and medicines with me!" + +"We must do the best we can for him without your luxuries, if you have +no mercy, no heart for the suffering." + +"And how are you going to get rid of me?" + +"You are going. I don't know how, but you're going." + +"What if I refuse to go?" + +"You won't." + +Millicent laughed. + +"You won't," he repeated. "You must go. You can't stay." + +"And why?" + +"Because. . . ." Michael hesitated. "Because . . . you know . . . you +know why . . . you know, what you have just said." + +"Because you are afraid you will end by being my lover?" + +"No. Because I wish to be free of spies and hindrances." + +"Then I do hinder? You know my spying has not hurt you!" Her eyes +glowed. + +Michael gazed sternly into them. He never lied. With him the truth +was instinctive, masterful; it was the keynote of his religion. "Yes," +he said. "You are a spiritual hindrance. I am a human man--you are a +sensual woman. You have determined to do everything in your power to +keep me ever mindful of the fact. Because I love Margaret Lampton and +I do not love you, you have determined to make me unworthy of her, you +have trapped me and tricked me and followed me into the wilderness." + +"You must admit I managed that part of the job very neatly." +Millicent's words were brave, but a little fear had crept into her +heart. Michael was in no mood for trifling. Her game was lost. + +"How did you do it?" he said. His hands tightened; they held her +shoulders. The gentle aesthete was a furious Celt. He wished that it +was a man with whom he was dealing. + +Still Millicent was brave, her voice scornful. "_Baksheesh_--the +moving finger in the East." + +"You contemptible creature!" he said. "Who did you pay?" + +"That would be telling." + +"I know it would," he said. "And you are going to tell me." He held +her with painful firmness. + +Millicent's courage gave way. Michael's eyes alarmed her. Something +in them warned her that, once roused, he was a dangerous man to trifle +with. There is not an immeasurable distance between the mystic and the +madman. The pressure of his fingers on her shoulders warned her of his +strength; his thumb was like a turnscrew. + +"Who did you pay?" he asked. "Tell me, or you will regret it." His +grasp became an agony. + +"Mohammed Ali," Millicent murmured. "He showed me Margaret's diary." + +Michael groaned. "You little beast!" he cried. "You mean little +beast!" + +Millicent burst into a flood of weeping. She knew that it was her only +chance, a woman's deadliest weapon with such a man. "I loved you so! +Oh, Mike, I loved you so! Can't you understand? Is there no humanity +in you? Is your nature so devoid of passion, of human love, that you +can't understand the mad heights and the depths it can lead you to? I +have never been given the chance of rising to the heights." + +Mike heard her sobs. He saw her beautiful body convulsed with anguish. +The real woman was there at his feet, a weak creature, whose love for +himself had driven her to do these deeds he despised. He felt that he +was in a manner to blame; for him she had sunk to this degradation. + +"I am so ashamed, Mike, but for days my shame has been drowned in +anger. I followed you and trapped you and spied upon you." She looked +up pleadingly. "And I'd do it all over again, even worse, Mike, I know +I would, even though I am despicable in my own eyes." + +"Don't!" he said. "It has become a madness with you, an obsession." + +"Love is a madness," she said. "It is an obsession. It is devouring +me. No one can judge of its power until they have felt it." + +He sat down beside her. "Millicent," he said gently, "have you ever +thought of praying, of asking for help?" He paused. "You poor, poor +soul, have you ever in your life tried to reach your higher self, to +get away from all this?" + +"No, never." The words came frankly. "First let me enjoy this human +love, Michael." Her eyes pleaded. "Then I may try to be as you are, +but not till then." + +"It would be no enjoyment," he said. "Only a hideous mockery, a wilful +lowering of your better self." + +"Not of my better self, Mike--not really. I might rise to higher +things afterwards, with that one beautiful memory to help me, an Eden +in the desert." Her voice was humble; her eyes swam with tears--a +beautiful Magdalen. + +"Poor little soul!" he said. "Poor little Millicent!" + +"Yes, Mike, poor little soul, poor lonely soul!" + +"I wish I could do something to help you, show you that there is a +higher, stronger support than any poor love of mine." + +"But I don't want it--at least, not now. It doesn't appeal to me. I +don't want it, for if I tried to be better, I'd have to try to kill my +desire for you, and even if it gives me no happiness, I'd rather have +it than kill it. I couldn't relinquish it. It would be giving up the +only thing I have of you--my poor, unwanted wanting of you." + +"What can I say? What can I do?" Michael was in despair. "How can I +help you?" + +This humble, tearful Millicent made him wretched. He felt guilty and +unkind. He was the innocent cause of her unhappiness. It was not +possible to be human and remain untouched by her passion for himself. +Yet he knew that he must not allow her to know that, or how his heart +ached for her. Her spiritual loneliness horrified him. She had +absolutely nothing to turn to, nothing to rely upon. Her religious +observances were mere conventional occupations. And yet mixed up in +the woman there was a mental quality very rare and sympathetic, a +strange fitful brilliance, extremely pleasing. Once or twice on their +journey she had expressed the peculiar quality of the scenery in words +which were not far off prose poems. It had puzzled him to know how her +intellectual refinement could dwell in the same temple as her low +characteristics. + +"I don't know, Mike." Her voice was very gentle. "I don't see how you +can help me." + +"I can pray," he said. "I will pray. Perhaps that is where I have +been to blame. I have left you out of my prayers." + +Millicent looked at him. Her eyes questioned. + +"I have thought only of myself, my own safety, the keeping of my +thoughts pure and true to Meg, my fight for self-control." + +"Oh, Mike!" Millicent's voice was crushed, envious. + +"I should have tried to help you as well. We can all help each other +by prayers and thoughts and beliefs, belief in the kingdom of God which +is in us. I behaved as if you were not divine, Millicent." + +"I'm not. How can I be divine? I am absolutely worldly--I've no wish +for your divine love!" + +"Divinity is in you," he said. "It is yours, you cannot get away from +it." He paused. "You were ashamed just now--that was the light which +cannot be put out. Now, every day, I will try to be less selfish, I +will pray for you. Prayer will help to bring you into the light. Soon +you will begin to peep into the kingdom of God which is in you. You +will see how wonderful it is. Love will hold out its arms to you from +every passing cloud, from every comer of the wilderness. I am to +blame, for I only tried to banish you, instead of helping you. I must +begin to-day. We must all help each other by our thoughts as well as +by our actions. Do you understand? I, who ought to have known better, +have failed." + +Millicent took his hand and raised it to her lips. "Why should God +have so blessed Margaret Lampton?" she said. "She is your 'guarded +lady,' as Hassan would say." + +"When you know her better, you will see that it is not Meg, but I, who +have been blessed, I who have reason to be thankful. Margaret's +thoughts constantly reach me; they have helped me over and over again." + +"Will you forgive me, Mike?" + +"Of course I will," he said. "Else how could I help you?" + +"It's your very goodness I love, Michael. I realize that. And yet how +horribly I have tried to spoil it!" + +"We are going to start afresh, we understand each other." He looked at +her with sincere eyes. "Isn't that so? Do you want me for your +friend, Millicent?" + +"More than anything in the world . . . except . . ." she paused. +". . . except . . ." + +His eyes held hers; they became stern. "We have settled all that. You +know now that it can never be, and if I am to be your friend, you must +forget all that you have ever said." + +"Yes, yes--the crumbs, Mike, they are sweeter than nothing." + +"My help," he said, "and sympathy--that is what I can give you." + +"And may I remain in your camp for a little time?" + +"No." His voice was firm. "We must part. But that will make no +difference. I will help you, I promise. I can help you as Margaret +helps me." + +Millicent made no demur. It was useless. "Will the saint be well +enough to travel to-morrow, do you think?" + +"I don't know. His headache was better this morning. If he can retain +some food, he may soon pick up." + +"And you will go on to Akhnaton's tomb?" Millicent did not refer to +the buried treasure. + +"Whenever he is better." Michael looked at his watch. "We had better +be going back," he said. "I want to make preparations." + +"And I am to return to civilization!" + +Michael did not answer. He called Hassan. "We are ready, Hassan," he +said. + +In a short time they were off. + +Before mounting her camel Millicent said: "Thank you, Michael. I don't +deserve your kindness." + +On their homeward journey Michael's heart held many a prayer. He was +no longer merely to turn this woman out of his thoughts, to thrust her +behind him, a thing of Satan. He was to help her. He was to help her +until such a time as she could help herself. He was to bring her mind +to the consciousness of the truth. He was to reveal to her, by his +prayers, what Akhnaton taught his people--that God is happiness, God is +beauty, God is Love. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +It was close upon sundown when Michael and Millicent got back to the +camp. Abdul had come a little way to meet them. To an observant eye, +the calm of his Eastern countenance showed some anxiety. Millicent did +not see it. Michael was riding on ahead when Abdul met him. Abdul +turned his mule and rode by his master's side. + +"You have something to tell me, Abdul?" + +"_Aiwah_, Effendi, I have something to tell you." + +They increased the space between themselves and the camels which were +following them in Indian file. Abdul spoke in Arabic, as he always did +to his master. When he had confided his secret to Michael he lapsed +into silence. The Effendi looked very grave. The news was far from +pleasant. + +"You need not tell Madam," Michael said. "Not until you are quite +sure, Abdul. It will only alarm her." + +"_Aiwah_, Effendi, I gave it to your ears alone." + +"How is he?" Michael referred to the saint. + +"His temperature has fallen--head no longer aches. That is always the +case." + +"You have done all that is necessary?" + +"All I could do, Effendi. Madam has good medicines, praise be to +Allah! We can be hopeful." + +They rode on to the camp in silence. Michael's thoughts were busy. +What would Millicent say? Would she be afraid? The idea was not +pleasant. + +When they had dismounted Michael went at once to see the saint and +Millicent hurried off to her tent to change her dusty garments for +daintier ones. She was still penitent and half-ashamed. Who knows but +that Michael's efforts to help her were already beginning to bear +fruit? If thoughts can purify, Millicent's heart should have been as +fair as a white lotus flower whose roots are in the mud. Michael's +thoughts had baptized it. + +When she had tidied up and was beautifully fresh in her snow-white +muslin frock, she went outside and waited for the dinner-gong to sound. +Even that item of civilization had not been forgotten--it is true it +was only a drum, an earthen _darabukkeh_, but it filled its purpose +well. Its dull thud, thud, had scarcely ceased vibrating the air when +Michael appeared. As he came towards her, Millicent went to meet him. +He had not yet changed his day clothes. + +"Don't come near me!" he called out. "Not any further." + +"Why not?" Millicent said. "What's the matter? Are you stricken with +the plague?" She spoke laughingly. + +Michael stopped within a few feet of her. "Perhaps I am stricken with +the smallpox," he said. "The saint has got it--it may be of a very +malignant order. We don't know." + +Every vestige of colour left Millicent's face. She felt sick. "And +you have been to him? You touched him!" + +"Of course. I wished to judge for myself. There is no doubt about it." + +"M-i-c-h-a-e-l!" The word was a long-drawn-out expression of horror. +A wave of inexpressible terror and disgust overwhelmed Millicent; she +could scarcely speak or move. "You knew, and yet you went to him. How +could you, oh, how could you?" + +He scarcely heard her. "These natives who have never been vaccinated +take it very badly. Smallpox is a scourge with all Africans, from the +north to the south." + +Millicent's mind was now working furiously. She did not wish to let +Michael see how terrified she was, or how angry. + +"Go and change," she said. "Go at once. Get Abdul to disinfect you--I +brought any amount of stuffs." + +"Oh, I'm all right--I'm not afraid. I was with him for a long time +last night. If I'm going to take it, the mischief's done." + +Millicent's quick mind travelled. Michael had been with this sick +saint the night before. He, Michael, might be a carrier of the +disease, even if he were immune from it himself. And she had been fool +enough to throw herself into his arms! Oh, what a fool! She might +even now be incubating the horrible, loathsome disease. She was +soul-sick. Her fear and rage were inseparable. But she must, of +course, make a good show. + +"Never mind, Mike, about last night. Probably the disease was not at +such an infectious stage as it is now--you may not have contracted it. +Take what precautions you can--go quickly and disinfect yourself. Are +you really sure it's smallpox?" She said the last words with a +shudder. "Ugh! it's horrible!" + +"Yes," Michael said. "The spots have appeared on his wrists and at the +back of his neck. Abdul knows the beastly disease only too well--the +vomiting and the headaches and the fall in the temperature. It appears +that he told Abdul that he had been very, very sick for some days +before we met him. But malaria might have accounted for the +sickness--and the headaches. No one could have diagnosed it until the +spots appeared. Abdul's not to blame." + +"What are you going to do?" Millicent said. "Stick to him? I suppose +you will!" she shivered. + +"I will isolate his tent. I can't go on and leave him here, if you +mean that." + +"Oh, you're crazy! Think of Margaret, if you won't think of yourself!" + +"She wouldn't have me do it." + +"Leave one or two of the men behind with him. It's absurd, running +such a risk. He will probably die, in any case." + +"When I needed his help I meant to stick to him. When he now needs +mine, am I to desert him? You said my goodness was not disinterested. +It was not, but I can't stoop to that." + +"If these Moslems really think he's a saint, they'll nurse him +faithfully. I'll pay them what they ask--anything." + +"Money isn't everything, Millicent--surely you know that?" + +"It can do a great deal. If you hadn't met him, he'd have died." + +"But I have met him. Doesn't that show that I am entrusted with his +welfare?" + +"A chance meeting." + +"That absurd word! By chance you mean such a big thing that your mind +can't imagine it! You choose to call a link in the Divine Chain +chance! the Chance which gives life, the Master of that which is +ordained, you mean!" + +"You can't nurse him, you can't do anything more for him than see that +he has all that he wants. 'The faithful' will carry out your +instructions. Do be practical, reasonable." + +"It's no use, Millicent, I can't leave him. I won't." Michael +shivered. "It's chilly. Let's go and eat our dinner." + +"You must change first--I insist. It's only right to others." + +"Then don't wait for me." + +"Oh yes, I will. Only be quick." Millicent knew that she was too sick +with fear to eat and enjoy the excellent dinner which had been prepared +for them. As she waited for Michael, she cursed her own folly, her own +abominable bad luck. If Michael was a carrier, she had no chance, +unless she was one of those rare people who are immune from the +disease. She did not think she was, because when she was last +vaccinated, when she was fifteen, she had been very, very ill and sick. +She felt physically tired, for her brain was quick. It was imagining +horrible things. She was visualizing her own beauty spoilt, her fair +skin deeply pitted with pock-marks, her colour all gone. The disease +would take the glitter from her hair, the glow from her personality. +She knew the result of smallpox. She saw herself, a little, +washed-out, yellow-skinned woman, with weak eyes and drab-coloured hair. + +Oh, why had she ever called Michael's attention to the saint? If he +had not gone to his rescue, he would have died where he fell, bathed in +the blood-red light of the afterglow. Why had Michael been such a fool +as to touch him and nurse him? Had she not warned him that the fanatic +was filthy and probably infectious? And, to make matters still worse, +to leave no room for chance, she had of her own will flung herself into +Michael's arms! Her determination to subject his will to hers, to +triumph over Margaret, had brought her to this! Michael was further +from her than ever. She had disgusted him; his only thought for her +now was his desire to make her as religious as himself. She had to +admit her defeat. + +And this was how it had ended! Michael, the mystic, the quixotic +idiot, had taken into his camp a creature sick with smallpox, and she, +Millicent, had probably contracted it by her act of rashness! The +desert seemed scarcely large enough to hold her anger. It stifled and +exhausted her. + +During dinner very little was spoken between the two, for Millicent was +devastated by her own terrors and Michael was making plans for the sick +man's isolation. His tent must remain where it was, while Michael's +own, and all the servants', except those inhabited by the men who +wished to nurse the saint, must be moved to a safe distance. +Millicent's going was driven from his mind. + +Millicent was thankful that Michael did not notice how little she ate +at dinner. The servant did; nothing passes a native's eye. He knew +the woman's terror. + +Soon after their coffee was served they separated, Millicent going to +her own tent and Michael to consult with Abdul. When Millicent reached +her tent and had managed to compose her mind, she sent for Hassan. +Half an hour later he left her. He had much to do. The _Sitt's_ +orders were comprehensive. + + * * * * * * + +Michael went early to bed. He was very tired. At about two o'clock in +the morning he stirred in his sleep. Was he hearing the distant sound +of camels roaring, or was he dreaming? He was too lazy to find out. +If there were jackals prowling about, the night-guards would see to +them. Undoubtedly something had disturbed him, for as a rule he slept +without moving the long night through. + +Conscious of feeling deliciously sleepy and totally indifferent to +anything but his own comfort, he soon fell asleep again. In his dreams +he heard again the liquid sound of bells--mule bells and camel +bells--growing fainter and fainter as the animals travelled into the +distance. + + * * * * * * + +In the morning, when he awoke, it was with a new lightness of spirit +and refreshed vitality. A sense of freedom exalted him, a subconscious +freedom, which had been absent for some days. The glory of the desert +called to him. He felt spiritually and physically vitalized. + +Even the recollection of the nature of the saint's illness did not damp +his spirits. He would recover with careful nursing, and when he was +better they would go on their way rejoicing. The Promised Land seemed +nearer. + +It was scarcely time for his early cup of tea, yet he saw Abdul +bringing it. Perhaps the joy of life had waked him, too, perhaps he +also was eager to get up and greet the morn. What a wonderful morning +it was! All pure, cool, clear sunlight. Michael's heart, a throbbing +organ of praise, sent forth a paean to the pagan skies. + +"Is the Effendi awake? May his servant enter?" + +"Yes, Abdul, come in." + +Abdul entered with the noiseless movements of his race. As he stood by +his master's bed, Michael saw that the unemotional native was +attempting to hide his anger. Something had greatly upset him. + +"What is it, Abdul? Has anyone been unkind to the saint?" + +"_Aiwah_, Effendi, it is not that." Abdul spoke lengthily and in the +correct Arabic fashion. He must not approach the subject too quickly. + +"Tell me," Michael said. "What troubles you, Abdul?" + +"_Aiwah_, Effendi, the honourable _Sitt_ has left you. She has +gone--there is no trace of her camp." + +"What?" Michael jumped out of bed. "The _Sitt_ has gone? No sign of +her camp?" + +"_Aiwah_, Effendi, that is so. Your servant offers his apologies for +bringing you bad news." + +To Abdul's eternal amazement, Michael burst into a roar of laughter, +hearty, unsuppressed enjoyment of a good joke. + +"Gone?" he repeated. "The _Sitt_ has gone, made a moonlight flitting? +The little devil!" + +Abdul's mystification was so complete that he could only salaam. + +"The little coward!" Michael said. "The miserable little coward!" + +He spoke so rapidly, and in English, that Abdul could not fully +understand. Indeed, he was totally at a loss to comprehend anything of +the situation. It baffled him. His master actually seemed pleased and +highly amused at the cowardly conduct of his mistress! + +"When did the _Sitt_ leave the camp, Abdul?" + +"At about two o'clock this morning, Effendi. She has taken everything +with her," he threw up his hands. "Her medicines, her delicate food, +everything we need for the saint." + +"Curse her!" Michael said. "What a dirty trick!" + +"The _Sitt_ was very much afraid, Effendi." + +"Well, perhaps that was quite natural, Abdul. But to take everything +away! What shall we do without her tins of milk, her medicine-chest?" + +"_Insha Allah_, we will save the 'favoured of God,' Effendi. There in +the Bedouin camp they will give us milk--they have goats." + +"How is he this morning?" + +"The Answerer of Prayer has heard the cry of His children. He has +again bestowed upon us His everlasting mercy, His compassion is +infinite." + +"The saint is better?" + +"The malady is running its course. _Insha Allah_, it will do so +without any complications. The pox now appears on his back and body. +The condition of the saint's general health is not such as to cause any +undue anxiety to the Effendi." + +"Is he conscious?" + +"His thoughts are in heaven, but his mind is clearer, praise be to +Allah." + +"And the _Sitt_?" Michael said. "How did she get away?" + +"She gave minute instructions to Hassan early in the evening." Abdul +salaamed. "_Aiwah_, honourable Effendi, you will be relieved of a +double anxiety--the _Sitt_ was greatly afraid." + +"Yes, Abdul, I'm thankful, very thankful." Michael stretched out his +arms and breathed a deep breath of freedom. Thank God she had gone, +gone of her own free will! This, then, was the meaning of his sense of +liberation. The white tent was there no longer. It had vanished. + +Then he remembered having stirred in his sleep. The bells he had heard +were the bells on the animals which were carrying the frightened +Millicent. Her _hijrah_ had not been achieved without affecting his +subconscious mind. + +Meanwhile, Abdul was studying his master's mind. He was reading his +thoughts as one reads a story from the illustrations of a book. He saw +relief and freedom--and, above all, thankfulness. His master's +besetting sin was his dislike of scenes, his hypersensitiveness in the +matter of causing pain to others, the desire to surround himself with +happiness. + +"_Gehenna_ to the harlot!" he said to himself. "_Insha Allah_, she +will regret last night's work, even though it may benefit the Effendi!" + +"You will be lonely, Effendi," he said. "But without the honourable +_Sitt_ your work will progress. Women are a hindrance to men's minds, +an anxiety." + +"I am well pleased, Abdul. We were not lonely before Madam came." + +"_Aiwah_, Effendi, there was the prospect of the meeting with the +honourable _Sitt_. Now there is desolation." + +"I did not seek the meeting, Abdul. All is well." + +"_Insha Allah_, things will progress more favourably." + +Abdul left his master. He had learned all that he wanted to know. The +Effendi did not love the harlot. He knew now that the woman had +followed Michael, and that she had got wind of the hidden treasure. + +When he was alone, he gazed at the shrunken encampment. The white tent +was there no longer; the place was rid of the woman and her luxuries. +Had she decamped with two ends in view--to get away from the infected +spot and to anticipate the Effendi in his search? + +"_Gehenna!_" he said again. "I did not tell the honourable Effendi +that the linen sheets in which the saint slept last night belonged to +the _Sitt_--that they are packed with her clothes which she will wear +again! She has made her own bed--let her sleep in it. Hassan will see +to that." + +The distance of the flat desert had obliterated Millicent's cavalcade. +Was it journeying towards civilization, hurrying from the plague-spot +in the desert, or was it going to the hills behind Akhnaton's city? + +When Michael had hurried to the saint the night before and had shown +himself totally fearless and unmindful of his own welfare, the saint +had implored him to leave him. He knew the danger and the awfulness of +smallpox; he knew the risk the Englishman was running. + +When Michael made him understand that he had no intention of leaving +him, that he was going to wait for him until he was better, the sick +man was overwhelmed with gratitude. He told Michael that he would show +him, if Allah permitted, the place in the hills where the hidden +treasure lay. But in case it should please the Giver of Death to allow +His servant to look upon the beauty of His face (which was the sick +man's way of saying in case he should die), he would beg of the Effendi +to listen to what he had to tell him. + +"While my memory is clear, while the All-Merciful permits me to speak +to the Effendi, I will instruct him, the treasure shall be his." + +Had the saint's instructions been passed on to Millicent's ears? Were +her fast-moving camels bearing her to the crocks of fine gold and the +wealth of jewels which the hermit of el-Azhar had visualized? + +The fate of every man hangs round his neck. If Allah had willed it? + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +The saint was dead. At dawn his soul had passed into _Barzakh_, or the +second world, the intermediate state between the present life and the +resurrection. + +While administering to him, Abdul's anxious ears heard the ominous +rattle in the dying man's throat, he turned his face Mecca-wards and +reverently closed his eyes. At the same moment the faithful who had +gathered round him--among whom were some of the inhabitants of the +Bedouin village, for the presence of the hermit-saint in the +foreigner's camp was known--in one voice acclaimed ecstatically: + +"Allah! Allah! There is no strength nor power but in God. To God we +belong, to Him we must return! God have mercy on him. _La ilaha +illallah_." + +His death had taken place one hour before sunrise; it was now one hour +before sunset and Michael was sitting on a little knoll in the desert, +watching the mourners return from the funeral of the holy man. It was +a very simple affair, far different from the splendid ceremony which +would have been accorded him if he had died near a city or of a less +contagious malady. There were no hired mourners, no fine trappings on +the bier, no wild women whose quavering "joy-cries" (_zaghareet_) rent +the air with their shrill voices. + +The little procession which followed the emaciated corpse to its last +resting-place in God's wide acre of sand and sky was composed of +sincere mourners. The corpse had been wrapped in white muslin and +enclosed in a white linen bag. When devout pilgrims or pious Moslems +go on a lengthy journey, they usually carry their grave-cloths with +them. The saint had not provided himself with even his shroud. As a +favoured of God, the clothes in which he would be buried would be +forthcoming; he took no thought for the morrow. All his life, by +Allah's guidance, men had provided for his simple wants. A +hermit-saint is never without his devotees. As a _welee_ he was worthy +of a costly funeral, but the nature of his death demanded immediate +burial. His fame would follow after. Michael knew that probably some +day a white tomb, like a miniature mosque, would mark the spot where +his bones had been laid to rest. And to that tomb, a conspicuous +object in the flat desert, with its white dome silhouetted against the +deep blue sky, devout pilgrims would travel, for many generations. + +Michael had not attended the funeral. He had consulted Abdul and they +had come to the conclusion that it would be wiser for him, as a +professing Christian, not to be present at the actual religious +ceremony. From a raised spot in the desert he had seen all that had +taken place. In accordance with Moslem superstition, the funeral had +been before sunset. All Moslems dislike a dead body remaining in the +house overnight; it is always, when circumstances permit, buried in the +evening of the day on which death has taken place. + +Abdul had told Michael that the dead man would, in all probability, +guide the bearers to the exact spot where they were to bury him; if +they were going in the wrong direction he would impel them to stop. +Michael had watched with interest to see if this would take place, if +the bearers halted or altered their course. Evidently the saint was +pleased with the spot they had selected, for they journeyed on +unhaltingly until they were lost to sight. + +And now the little procession was returning, in the fading sunlight. +The holy man's emaciated frame, enclosed in its white bag, lay under +the golden sand of the eastern desert. + +This desert burial seemed to Michael a very simple and beautiful method +of disposing of the dead. The dull chanting of the mourners had lent +an emotional note to the scene. It was a sad little incident, but one +totally free from the ordinary melancholy which attends a Western +burial. For a Moslem, death has little horror. A pilgrim in the +desert, when he knows that his death is approaching, either from +fatigue or exhaustion or some disease, will dig his own grave and lay +himself down in it, covering his body up to his neck with sand. There +he will quietly, with Eastern philosophy, await his end. He knows that +the four winds will bring drifting sand to the spot where his body +lies; it will gather and gather, as it does against any excrescence, +until his body is well covered. In the desert many are the ships that +pass in the night. + +The saint had been in Michael's camp for a fortnight and during that +time no other member of the party had developed smallpox. Michael was +in blissful ignorance of the fact that the servant whom he had sent +back to Freddy Lampton's hut in the Valley of the Tombs of the Kings, +bearing a letter to Margaret, in which he had told her everything that +had happened--not omitting Millicent's visit and her sudden +departure--had never even reached Luxor. He had fallen sick by the way +and had died of smallpox in a desert village. He alone of the whole +party had contracted the disease. The letter which he carried was +burned by the _sheikh_ of the village, a wise and cautious man, who had +been called in to give his advice as to the treatment of the infectious +traveller. A _sheikh's_ duties are many and varied; he is indeed the +father of his village. The traveller had, of course, gone to the +hostel or rest-house for travellers in the village, where he was +entitled to one night's rest and food. + +It was during the long, anxious days when the saint hovered between +life and death that the true hospitality of the Bedouin camp was put to +the test. And it was not wanting; whatever was theirs to give they +gave with a beautiful hospitality. It was to them a pleasure and +satisfaction; Allah be praised that they were able to render any +service to the holy man and to help the stranger who had shown him so +great an act of charity. Eggs and milk and the flesh of young kids +they had in abundance, and these offerings they sent to the camp in +such quantities that Michael felt embarrassed and overwhelmed. Michael +knew that they are not a devout people, but in this instance their +instinctive hospitality, stimulated by their superstitions, served in +place of blind obedience to the teachings of the Koran, in which the +rules set forth on the subject of charity are splendid and far-reaching. + +The little figure with the silver disc and the protruding "tummy" had +become quite a familiar sight in his camp; it came and went with the +nervous agility of an antelope. + +On this evening, as Michael watched the party of mourners drawing +nearer and nearer to the camp, he tried to understand their thoughts. +He knew that each one of them believed exactly the same thing; their +spiritual ideas never strayed one letter from the Koran; their minds +had never thought for themselves--it would have been rank heresy so to +do. They were as certain now as though they had seen it there that the +saint's soul was in Barzakh. It had left this, the first world, the +world of earning and of the "first creation," the world where man earns +his reward for the good or bad deeds which he has done. In Barzakh the +saint would have a bright and luminous body, for such is the reward of +the pious. + +Was not this in keeping with the luminous appearance of Meg's vision? +Abdul had often told Michael that he himself had seen in this, the +"first world," the spirits of both evil and right doers, and that the +spirits of the evildoers were black and smoky, whereas the spirits of +the pious were luminous as a full moon. + +Michael envied the completeness of their belief, even while he pitied +them. They had evolved nothing for themselves; their salvation was +merely a matter of obeying the teachings of the Koran unquestioningly. +Obedience and surrender were their watchwords. How much better were +Akhnaton's "Love and the Companionship of God"! To walk and talk with +God, how much more enjoyable, how much more edifying to man's higher +self, than the mere obeying of His laws! Even though they prayed, +these simple Moslems, five times a day, they never recognized God's +voice in the song of the birds: they did not know that it was He Who +was singing--the birds were His mediums. In the winds of the desert, +heaven's wireless messengers, they caught no messages. What the Koran +did not specify did not enter into their religion or spiritual +understanding. + +Abdul approached his master. The saint was buried and the procession +of the faithful had gone to perform their various tasks; it was now +time to return to practical matters. Michael was amazed at his +cheerful expression. Abdul asked his master if it would suit him to +continue their journey the next day. Would he give instructions? + +Michael assented. A little of his ardour had vanished. "Yes, Abdul," +he said. "I suppose we must be going on our way. It is sad to leave +this camp, where we have witnessed such a wonderful example of humility +and singleness of purpose. Don't you shrink from leaving him to such +utter desolation?" + +"_Aiwah_, Effendi, but you know there is joy for us all, not sadness. +The beloved ones of God do not die with their physical death, for they +have their means of sustenance with them." + +"In the second world, Abdul, is your saint already tasting the joys of +paradise?" + +"_Aiwah_, Effendi. Punishments and rewards are bestowed immediately +after death, and those whose proper place is hell are brought to hell, +while those who deserve paradise are brought to paradise." + +"Then in the third world, what greater rewards are there than the +pleasures of paradise? Surely that is infinite happiness?" + +"The manifestation of the highest glory of God--that is the supreme +reward, Effendi, the meeting of God face to face." + +"Then in paradise, in the second world, the saint will not yet see God?" + +"_La_, Effendi. The day of resurrection is the day of the complete +manifestation of God's glory, when everyone shall become perfectly +aware of the existence of God. On that day every person shall have a +complete and open reward for his actions. He shall actually see God." + +Michael's thoughts flew to the vision of Akhnaton. If the luminous +state was significant of Barzakh, or the second world, perhaps it was +only during that period that the spirits were able to return to earth. +He was never forgetful of the fact that in Eternity time cannot be +measured, yet three thousand years spent in the second world seemed to +his human mind a long time of waiting! + +They were walking together towards the camp. + +"_Aiwah_, Effendi," Abdul said, "to-morrow we depart at dawn?--the +weather grows hotter." + +"Yes, Abdul, at dawn. I will be ready--never fear." + +"Has the Effendi ever allowed himself to think that the honourable +_Sitt_ who left him two weeks ago may have journeyed to the hidden +treasure?" + +Michael stared. "No, Abdul, no, I have never thought of such a thing." + +"The Effendi has a beautiful mind. The beloved saint, whom Allah has +seen fit to remove from our sight, had a heart no more free from evil." + +"But, Abdul. . . ." Michael stopped. His mind was suddenly filled +with new thoughts. Abdul's suggestion had opened up a deep chasm of +ugly suspicions; his whole being seemed to have fallen into it. Abdul +waited. + +"Madam was terrified--she was flying from the danger of smallpox. She +would think of nothing but of getting safely back to civilization, I +feel certain." + +"_Aiwah_, Effendi, but the honourable _Sitt_ has a woman's soul, and a +woman's soul has often been sold for gold and jewels and much fine +raiment." + +"That is true, Abdul." + +Had not Millicent stooped to the lowest means of trapping him and of +obtaining the information she desired? If she could do the one deed, +why not the other? + +But the idea was absurd. She was so totally ignorant of the geography +of the desert. She had had no more idea of where she was going than a +blind kitten. He reminded Abdul of the fact. + +"_Aiwah_, Effendi, but the honourable _Sitt_ had a spy in her camp. I +have seen him at his work." + +"What could he have discovered? You, I know, never discuss my +affairs--we have never even talked of them together." + +Abdul salaamed. "My master's secrets are his servant's." + +"Then how could he find out?" + +"Tents have ears, Effendi. The saint's voice was weak, but not too +weak for the super-ears of a spy. When the saint told the Effendi, +very secretly and minutely, how to find the hidden treasure, on that +night when he knew that Allah had decreed his death, Abdul was also +playing the part of a spy. He saw the servant of the honourable +_Sitt_, he saw his ear, and how it was placed at a little aperture in +the sick man's tent." + +Michael was silent for a few seconds. + +"_Ma lesh_! The Effendi need not trouble too much. I did not tell +him--there was nothing to be gained by causing my master unhappiness." + +"I am not troubling, Abdul. If it has been so willed that I am to +discover Akhnaton's treasure, even the spy of the cleverest woman on +earth will not prevent it. I am fatalist enough for that, Abdul!" + +"The Effendi is wise. Avarice destroys what the avaricious gathers. +Allah will reward the spy according to his merits." + +Michael smiled. "I'm afraid it is more my nature than my piety which +makes it easy for me to resign myself to the inevitable." + +"_Ma lesh_! The Effendi understates his obedience to God's will--there +is much good in patiently tolerating what you dislike." + +"There's another way of expressing the same thing, Abdul--Effendi +Lampton calls it 'drifting.' I am too like the desert sands, he +thinks. I am without ambition, I too easily accept what seems to me +the deciding finger of fate." + +"Content is prosperity, Effendi." + +"And we say that God helps those who help themselves." + +"_Aiwah_." Abdul smiled. "Our rendering of the proverb is more +beautiful--'God helps us so long as we help each other.' The Effendi +showed much charity--he helps others rather than himself." + +"My help was unworthy of mention, the merest human sympathy for the +helpless and suffering. Who could have done less?" + +"We consider sympathy the next best thing to a proper belief in God, +sympathy for others." Abdul bowed. "The Effendi has much sympathy--he +himself is not aware of how much." + +"Thank you, Abdul, but I do believe in God. I believe in Him so fully +and unreservedly that I often wonder why I am not a good man. +Sometimes I am not so bad, or I think I am not, for I am very conscious +of Him, He is very near to me. At other times the world is a +wilderness and God is very far." + +"We are never far from God, Effendi. We cannot be. He is closer to us +than the hairs of our head, there is nothing nearer than God." + +"I know that, Abdul, I know it, but yet these lapses come. I feel +alone, abandoned, useless, my life purposeless, wasted." + +"A man has no choice, Effendi, in settling the aims of his life. He +does not enter the world or leave it as he desires. The true aim of +his life consists in the knowing and worshipping of God and living for +His sake. Our Holy Book says, 'Verily the religion which gives a true +knowledge of God and directs in the most excellent way of His worship +is Islam. Islam responds to and supplies the demands of human nature, +and God has created man after the model of Islam and for Islam. He has +willed it that man should devote his faculties to the love, obedience +and worship of God, for it is for this reason that Almighty God has +granted him faculties which are suited to Islam.'" + +Michael listened with reverent attention. He knew that Abdul was +conferring a special favour on him in that he was actually quoting the +very words of the Holy Koran to a Christian. As a matter of fact, +Abdul had ceased to think of Michael as a Christian--from his Moslem +point of view, as an enemy of Islam. He rather considered his +condition as that of one who was searching for the Light and would +eventually enjoy the perfection of Islam. He knew that Michael did not +divide the honours of the one and only God; he believed, as Moslems +believe, that the Effendi Jesus was not the Son of God, but a prophet +to whom God had revealed Himself. + +When they parted for the night, Abdul was again the practical servant, +the excellent dragoman. By dawn the camp would be on its way to its +objective, the hills beyond the outline of the lost "City of the +Horizon." Abdul, the visionary and the pious Moslem, was as keen about +reaching Akhnaton's treasure as Pizarro was obsessed with the reports +of the wealth of Peru. + +For half of that short night Michael tried unsuccessfully to sleep. He +needed rest, for it had been a trying and eventful day, beginning with +the saint's death and ending with his solemn and picturesque burial. + +Sleep was indeed very far from him. His brain was too excited; his +nerves were beginning to feel the strain of the dry desert air. The +moment he closed his eyes he could see the emaciated frame of the dying +saint as he had last seen him, a few hours before his death. He could +hear with extraordinary persistence the cries of "Allah! Allah! There +is no strength nor power but in God. To God we belong, to Him we must +return." The words had never left the desert stillness; the air held +them and repeated them time after time. + +He could see Abdul reverently pull the eyelids over the death-glazed +eyes; he could see the weeping mourners perform the last ceremonies for +the dead saint. + +Then the scene would change to the one he had watched in the +evening--the white figures, with blue scarves of mourning wound round +their heads, bearing the saint reverently across the golden sands. + +How tender it had all been, how vivid the clear, open light of +uninterrupted space and cloudless sky! + +And now it was all over. He had met the holy man who was to lead him +to the secret spot where the treasure lay; he had heard from his lips +the account of how he had accidentally come across the crocks of gold, +when he had made for himself a dwelling-place in a cave in the heart of +the hills. The crocks were full of blocks of Nubian gold; the jewels +were in caskets which had fallen to pieces, even before his eyes, when +the winds of the desert had reached them. + +Was it all a wonderful dream? Had he really in his possession the +crimson amethyst, of Oriental beauty, which the saint had carried in +his ear? Was it locked in the belt-purse which he wore under his +clothes by day and laid under his pillow by night? He put his hand +below his pillow and opened the purse; no doubt his fingers would feel +the jewel. But what was there to tell him that it was really there, +that he was not the victim of some strange hallucination? Thoughts +were things. Had he thought about this treasure until it had become to +him an actual reality? + +Then vision after vision was forced upon his sight--Millicent in her +varying moods, the saint's ecstasies, the now familiar figures of the +Bedouin, bearing their offerings to the sick man, their polite and +beautiful expressions as they laid the eggs and milk at his feet. He +got so tired of the visualizing and recitation of all that he had seen +and heard during the days which he had spent in anxious uncertainty +that he could endure it no longer. + +He got up and lit his candle; things would seem more real in the light. +He stretched out his hand for the book which always lay near his bed. +The Open Road, his Bible and this little volume of selected verse +constituted his desert library. He wanted a poem which would +completely transfer his thoughts from the throbbing present, which +would change the arid desert and limitless space into green England, +with its enclosing hedges and leafy woods. His nerves were jaded; they +needed the relaxation of moderation. Knowing almost every poem in the +volume, he quickly found Bliss Carman's "Ode to the Daisies." His mind +recited it even before his eyes saw the words: + + "Over the shoulders and slopes to the dune + I saw the white daisies go down to the sea, + A host in the sunshine, an army in June, + The people God sends us to set our hearts free." + + +He read the next verse and then turned to Wordsworth's immortal lines: + + "I wandered lonely as a cloud . . ." + + +He read the poem through, although he knew each dear, familiar word of +it. Reading it helped his powers of concentration. It was amazing how +quickly the suggestion of the words soothed him. As clearly as he had +seen all the events of the day repeating themselves, he now saw the +host of golden daffodils, + + "Beside the lake, beneath the trees." + + +They obliterated the desert, with its immortal voices, its passionate +appeals. He was no longer wandering lonely as a cloud. He was happy, +he was one with the dancing daffodils, as he watched them + + "Tossing their heads in sprightly dance." + + +To how many weary minds has the poem brought the same solace, the same +spiritual refreshment? + + "Beside the lake, beneath the trees, + Fluttering and dancing in the breeze." + + +His fingers relaxed their hold on the book. It dropped from his hand. +Margaret stood among the daffodils, Margaret, with her steadfast eyes +and dark-brown head, Margaret calling to him in the breeze. + + * * * * * * + +At dawn, when Abdul came to wake his master, he found the candle still +burning. It was a little bit of wick floating in melted grease, like a +light in a saint's tomb. The book which the Effendi had been reading +had fallen to the floor. + +Abdul looked at his master anxiously. He must have been reading very +late. Why had he not been asleep? He ought to have refreshed himself +for his long journey. For many days past he had looked tired and +anxious. + +Abdul folded his hands while he looked at the sleeping Michael. + +"_Al hamdu lillah_ (thank God)," he said. "The Effendi has been in +pleasant company." + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +The camp had moved on. Two days had passed since the saint had been +laid to rest. They were now making for a rock-village, which would +take them slightly out of their direct route, but from Abdul's account +of the place Michael thought that the delay would be well worth while. +A short extension of their journey could make but little difference to +the finding of the treasure. + +The village was a subterranean one; its streets and dwelling-houses +were cut out of the desert-rock. It had been inhabited by desert +people since immemorial times. Obviously its origin had been for +secrecy and security. Fugitives had probably made it and lived in it +just as the early Christians, during their period of persecution, lived +in the catacombs in Rome. + +Michael had been far from well for some days past. Abdul was anxious +about his health. There had been no fresh cases of smallpox in the +camp and Michael's present condition indicated a touch of fever rather +than any contagious malady. He often felt sick; he was easily tired +and his excellent powers of sleeping had deserted him. + +He was troubled about Margaret. He had neither heard from her nor was +he certain that she had received any of his letters. During the +saint's illness he had written her two letters, which his friends at +the Bedouin camp had promised to deliver to the next desert +mail-carrier who passed their hamlet. He had sent a runner to the +village to which he had told Margaret that she was to write. The +runner returned, bearing no letter. + +It was consistent with native etiquette that he should pay a visit to +the _omdeh_ of the subterranean village, which he wished to pass +through. Abdul had a slight acquaintance with him and, being more than +a little anxious about his master's health, he thought that Michael's +visit to him might prove of value should any serious illness overtake +him. + +It was about three o'clock in the afternoon when they arrived at the +entrance of the village, an uninviting underground labyrinth, where the +sun never penetrated and where men, women and children lived in homes +cut out of the virgin rock. It was, of course, necessary to leave +their camels and go through the village on foot. Abdul told the +servants that he alone would go with his master; they were to meet them +in the desert at the other entrance to the village. + +As Michael followed the tall figure of Abdul through the narrow +streets, which were as dark as railway tunnels, he felt horribly sick. +He was well accustomed to the torment of Egyptian flies, but these +particular flies belonged to the order of things whose deeds, being +evil, loved darkness. They covered his face and hands the very moment +after he had shaken them off. Do what he would, he could not keep them +away from the corners of his mouth or from going up his nostrils. + +"Abdul," he said, "this gives one a new vision of hell. Look at those +disgusting children!" He pointed to the groups of pale mites, with +yellow skins and frail bodies, who were paying like puppies in the +garbage of the narrow pathway; their faces were covered with large +black house-flies--they hung in clusters from their eyes and ears and +from the corners of their mouths. + +"_Aiwah_, Effendi, but these people will live in no other surroundings. +They prefer this darkness, this unwholesome atmosphere." + +"And these awful flies?" + +"_Aiwah_, Effendi. They seldom go up to see the sky; perhaps they have +never sung to the moon." + +"To every bird his nest is home, Abdul." + +"_Aiwah_, Effendi. But I will take you to the _Omdeh's_ house--we +shall soon be out of this." + +"Is his house amongst these hovels?" Michael pointed to one +particularly dark cavern. Unlike the ordinary desert peoples, the +women were veiled; only their dark eyes were visible to the stranger +whom they flocked to see. They showed great surprise when Michael +spoke to one of the men in fluent Arabic. + +At Michael's suggestion that the _Omdeh's_ house would be like one of +the cave-houses, Abdul had flung back his head. His smile was +scornful; a little annoyance was perceptible in his voice. + +"_La_, Effendi. The _Omdeh's_ house is like a bower in paradise. The +Effendi will enjoy a cup of caravan-tea and a long rest in the cool +orchard, where water flows and caged birds sing." + +"He has an orchard in a cavern like this!" Michael steadied himself by +catching hold of Abdul's staff; he had almost fallen over a baby. + +"_Aiwah_, Effendi. The _Omdeh_ does not live in the rocks, like the +bats. His house is just outside the village. He is very rich--he owns +many camels and much cotton and he has a date-farm. He is entitled to +three wives." + +"Very well, Abdul. I put myself in your hands." Michael sighed. +"This village makes me feel rather sick--the whole thing is too +horrible, too sad--God's blue sky just up above, and His sweet, clean +desert sand, and down here this living death, these idle, dirty women, +these sickly, fly-covered babies." + +"_Aiwah_, Effendi, it is custom." Abdul shrugged his shoulders. "Did +the Effendi not say that to every bird his nest is home? These women +were born here, their children will grow up here, they will have their +children here. It is their home." + +"We must get out of it, Abdul. I can't stand it any longer!" Michael +tried to walk faster. "If I had only a fly-switch! I can't keep the +beasts out of my mouth--it's disgusting!" + +"_Aiwah_, Effendi, I told you it was not a wholesome village. I +assured the Effendi it would be wiser for him only to pay his respects +to the _Omdeh_ and not to pass through his village." Abdul darted into +one of the houses, whose open front was flush with the rock-wall of the +street, which was simply a tunnel in a vast rock; he returned with a +palm-leaf fan; a half-piastre had purchased it. He fanned his master +with it until he saw the colour return to his cheeks. "The Effendi is +better?" + +"Thank you, Abdul, I am all right. It was only this stifling +atmosphere, and I've been feeling a bit off colour for the last few +days--my usual powers of sleep have deserted me." + +"The Effendi has some trouble on his mind?" + +"That is true, Abdul, but the trouble would not be there if I was +feeling quite my usual self--I could banish it." + +"The Effendi's heart must not be distracted." + +"I have received no letters from the Valley, Abdul. What do you think +has happened?" + +"The Effendi must not ask for things impossible." + +"I suppose not, Abdul. When I left the Valley I agreed that I should +not expect to receive letters--they were not to write unless there were +things taking place which I ought to know, yet my heart is troubled--I +have written so often." + +"May the Effendi's servant know the cause of his master's unrest? Will +he permit two hearts to bear the burden?" + +"I should feel at rest if I was certain that the Effendi Lampton had +received my letter, if I knew that scandal had not been carried to the +hut." Michael paused. "I wished to be the first to tell him that +Madam was a member of our camp, that I met her unexpectedly, that fear +sent her away. My happiness depended upon his answer, upon his +absolute belief in my explanation." + +"_Aiwah_, Effendi, Abdul understands. The situation has +complications--ill news travels apace." + +"I should not like the _Sitt_ to hear from other sources that Madam was +with us." + +"But your letter should have reached the hut by this time, Effendi." + +"Has there been time to get an answer? Do you believe my letter +reached Effendi Lampton, Abdul?" Michael asked the question +interestedly. Had this seer any second knowledge on the subject? Had +he the conviction that in the Valley of the Tombs of the Kings there +was no misgiving, no fear, that Margaret's heart was undisturbed? + +Abdul knew what his master meant, but with his native dislike of giving +an unpleasant answer when a pleasant one would serve, he parried the +question. + +"The honourable _Sitt_ has a noble nature, a clean heart. She is not +like Madam. The Effendi's thoughts make his own unhappiness, they are +not the thoughts of the gracious lady. The thoughts that come from her +travel on angel's wings; they gave the Effendi dreams last night." + +"You are right, Abdul. Ah, thank goodness!" Michael gave an +exclamation of pleasure; he had caught a glint of sunshine, had felt a +breath of desert air. The Living Aton was penetrating the rat-pit. + +"_Aiwah_, Effendi, that is the exit of the village. The _Omdeh's_ +house is not far off--in less than five minutes the Effendi will be +reposing in his cool _selamlik_, his throat refreshed with caravan tea." + +In a native house the _selamlik_ is a spacious room or summerhouse, set +apart for the receiving of guests. To Michael the _Omdeh's selamlik_ +seemed like a foretaste of paradise. The _Omdeh_ was a courteous old +gentleman, who played the part of host and government official with a +simple dignity and friendly hospitality. + +The open front of the _selamlik_ faced a beautiful orange orchard; low +seats, comfortably cushioned, ran round its three walls. The _Omdeh_ +sat on his feet on his _mastaba_. His splendid turban and flowing +white robes gave him the appearance of a _Kadi_ dispensing justice from +his throne. Abdul and Michael reclined on the seat which faced him. +They had both been presented with an elaborate fly-switch, whose +handles were decorated with bright beads. + +The old man was astonished and delighted to find that Michael could +speak Arabic. He was an intelligent, well-read man and something of a +politician, an ardent supporter of the British rule in Egypt. He was +greatly interested in all that Michael could tell him relating to the +news from the outer world. + +In his turn, he expressed his regret that more trouble was not taken to +suppress the secret, seditious, and anti-English propaganda which was +being taught and preached in the desert schools and mosques. + +"Where they started, no man knows," he said. "Nevertheless, Effendi, +their headquarters is 'somewhere.'" He smiled the peculiar smile of +the Eastern, so baffling to the Western mind. "The English are without +suspicion, Effendi; they trust everyone." + +Michael expressed his ignorance as to what he alluded to. Was he +referring to the Nationalist Party in Egypt? + +"They do not know their worst enemies, Effendi. They tolerate the +presence of mischief-makers, who seduce the ignorant. And these +strangers are clever, Effendi, they spare no trouble. In the mosques +and the schools they are teaching, or causing to be taught, strange and +new ideas. No village is too far off for this propaganda to reach. It +is well to believe in others as we would be believed in ourselves, +Effendi, but England is like the ostrich which buries its head in the +sand. I grieve to tell the Effendi these truths." + +To Michael the man's words rang with the truth of conviction. They +suggested a new danger to British rule in Egypt. And yet he had heard +nothing of the unrest to which he alluded while he was in Luxor or in +Cairo; it seemed to flourish in the desert. When he questioned the old +man, he became as secret as an oyster; what he definitely knew he did +not mean to present to every passing stranger. + +While they had been talking, Michael had enjoyed countless small cups +of tea. It was so good and fragrant that he realized that for the +first time he had drunk tea as it was meant to be drunk. He understood +how greatly it deteriorates by crossing the ocean; this tea had +journeyed all the way to the _Omdeh's_ house by caravan; it had been +brought overland by the old trade-route. + +When Michael had rested he began the lengthy preliminaries of saying +good-bye. The _Omdeh_ would not hear of his going; he invited him to +visit his orchard, a beautiful Eden of fruits and exotic flowers, +abundantly irrigated by rivulets of clear water. The contrast between +this emerald patch, where golden globes of fruit were still hanging +from some of the orange-trees, struck Michael as flagrantly cruel. The +_Omdeh_, because of his wealth and social position, was living in a +cool, well-built house, surrounded by all that was fresh and fair, an +ideal home; yet, not a stone's throw from his secluded orchard and cool +_selamlik_, were the narrow streets, littered over with filthy +children, encrusted with scabs and black with flies! An overwhelming +pity for the ignorant, subterranean people, who were content to live +like rats in their holes, filled his soul. How could the _Omdeh_ +permit it? He seemed kind and he knew that he was intelligent. +Probably when the poor were in trouble they instinctively came to him; +he administered the affairs of the village, no doubt, with scrupulous +impartiality. In this ancient and conservative land it was simply a +part of his inherited belief and tradition that such extremes would +always exist, that the condition of these people was the condition of +which they were worthy, that it was no man's business but their own. +They were in Allah's hands. If He willed it, He would help them to +rise above it. Our wants make us poor--these men and women had no +wants; they were not poor. + +It was with much difficulty that Michael at last bade his host adieu, +an adieu of abounding phraseology and grace of speech. The _Omdeh_, +with native hospitality, had tried to persuade his guest to remain with +him for some days, or if he could not do that, to at least do honour to +his humble house by spending one night in it. If the honourable +Effendi would only remain, he would tell his servant to kill a sheep +and have it roasted; he would send for a noted dancer, to beguile the +later hours of the evening; he would have his four gazelles brought to +the _selamlik_ and Michael should see how beautifully they ran and +jumped--they were of a very rare species, much admired by all who could +appreciate their points. + +To all these inducements Michael turned a deaf ear, even to the last, a +blind musician, whose _'ood_ playing was greatly celebrated. It was +not easy to refuse these pressing inducements, which were all put +before Michael with the elaborate charm of Arabic speech. It was he +who was to confer the pleasure by remaining; it was he who was to be +unselfish and bestow so unexpected and great a pleasure on his humble +host. + +Determined to get on his way that same afternoon, Michael hardened his +heart. He told the _Omdeh_ that Abdul had arranged that they were to +travel to within one day's journey of their destination that same day; +their camp would be in readiness. On the following day Abdul and he +were to leave the servants in charge of the camp and start out on the +last portion of their journey. They were now but one day and a half +from the Promised Land. + +Michael had agreed with Abdul that their secret must not be divulged, +that the servants must remain in ignorance of the real purpose of their +tour. They imagined that it was to visit the ancient Pharaoh's tomb. + +Just as they were leaving the orchard the _Omdeh_ said: "There have +been strange rumours afloat, Effendi. Men say that a wealth of buried +treasure has been discovered in the hills to which you are travelling. +Is it known to you?" + +"Indeed?" Michael said evasively. "What sort of treasure? Do the +authorities know of it? Who has discovered it?" He managed to speak +calmly and without emotion. + +The _Omdeh_ threw back his head. "It is not worth a wise man's breath +inquiring. It is but one of the many foolish fables which travel with +the winds." He shrugged his shoulders. + +"What started the rumour? Where did it originate? There is generally +some fire where there's smoke." + +"Where do such things have their birth? It is no easier to discover +than the birthchamber of the anti-British propaganda in Egypt, Effendi." + +"You do not attach any belief to the rumour?" + +"_La_, Effendi. Who would believe that men are standing knee-deep in +jewels and precious stones, and that there is enough gold to build +three mosques in these hills, so near the village?" + +Michael laughed. He remembered the reports which had been spread +abroad about the wealth of Freddy's find. One Englishman had heard +that Freddy had been wading ankle-deep in priceless scarabs and jewels +and gold collars and necklaces. + +"You may well laugh, Effendi. The poor and ignorant will believe +anything. I must see the jewels first." + +Michael wondered what he would say if he showed him the crimson +amethyst which had had its second hiding-place in the saint's ear. + +"But who is reported to have found this King Solomon's mine?" + +"Some poor man, whom no one has seen or spoken to--every man who tells +you the fairy-tale has heard it from his trusted friend, from a +reliable source. I never believe in these trusted friends, or any +reliable source but my own eyes. And even then, with the wise, seeing +isn't always believing." + +Michael stole an unseen glance at Abdul. His face was as +expressionless as a death-mask. The report appeared to him to be +beneath contempt. He politely warned his master that the sun was not +so high in the heavens; they had many hours to travel. + +When they were out of hearing and all the polite good-byes had been +spoken--a proceeding which is always a trying one to the impatient +traveller--Michael and Abdul talked together in low accents and in +English. What had the _Omdeh's_ news really meant? + +In Abdul's heart there was little doubt as to who had found it, if +there was any truth in the rumour. Even if they divided the wealth of +the treasure by a hundred, and made all due allowances for native +exaggeration, it still seemed as though the treasure was one of unusual +importance. + +"Then you believe there is truth in the report that the treasure has +been found, Abdul?" + +"Who but the spy of Madam could have known of it, Effendi? and +certainly this rumour is disturbing." + +"Some natives might have hit upon it by accident. Such things have +happened before." + +"_Aiwah_, Effendi." Abdul smiled his unbelieving, unpleasant smile. +"Just at this particular time, after all these thousands of years, the +coincidence would indeed be strange." + +"Then you believe, Abdul, that Madam has anticipated us? that she has +secured the treasure?" + +"_Aiwah_, Effendi, I do, if there is any truth in the story. And if +there is not, it is very strange that such a rumour should have been +started at this moment." + +"I agree," Michael said. "And yet something in my heart tells me that +Madam has not done the deed." + +"The little voice, Effendi, it is always true, it knows. If the little +voice counsels, always obey it." + +"It tells me, Abdul, that in this one instance Madam is innocent. I +agree with you that if the treasure has been found, it is passing +strange and points only to one thing. And yet, if I was to lay my hand +on the Holy Book and swear my belief, it would not be that she was +guilty of this piece of treachery." + +"If Madam has not anticipated the Effendi, then the treasure is intact! +The rumour is false. It is strange what wonderful treasures have +melted into thin air before this, Effendi. I have known of dealers in +_antikas_ travelling for days without end, only to find . . .!" Abdul +threw back his head. + +"A mare's nest," Michael said. "That is what we call it, Abdul." + +"A good expression, Effendi." In Abdul's heart there was anger and +chagrin. Had the harlot outwitted them? Was she even now in +possession of the jewels and gold which the saint had discovered, which +he himself had clearly visualized? + +A beatific smile lit up his face. If the woman had lain in the sheets +which had made the sick man's bed, not all the jewels of the Orient or +the gold of Ophir would now make her hideous face pleasing in the sight +of men! What would her emeralds and topazes and cornelians be worth? +They would only mock her pox-pitted face! + +In Abdul's Moslem heart there was no pity. His eyes visualized and +rejoiced in the sight of the treacherous woman's spoilt beauty. She +had earned his hatred, and she had had it ever since the moment when +she had spoken scornfully of the saint, a hatred which had grown and +flourished like the Biblical bay-tree. To despise a Christian--and +more especially a Christian woman--was in keeping with his Oriental +mind and Moslem training; he despised Millicent not only as a woman and +a Christian, but as a harlot. No evil which he could do to her would +inflict the least shame upon his own soul. The contemplation of what +her misery would be when she discovered that she was sickening for the +smallpox afforded him a gratifying pleasure. He had drunk deeply of +the cup of hate; it was not tempered with camphor. + + * * * * * * + +When they pitched their camp that night, Michael felt weary and +depressed. A physical lassitude, which he had found it increasingly +difficult to fight against for the last two days, overwhelmed him. He +was glad to go to bed and try to sleep. His efforts met with little +success; he felt horribly wide awake and acutely conscious of the +smallest sound. + +When at last sleep came to him, it did little to give him the rest he +required, or to restore peace to his nerves, for his dreams were a +vivid repetition, horribly exaggerated, of his journey through the +subterranean village. He had lost his way; he was wandering through +the airless arteries of the village. His body was covered with +house-flies; his nose and ears tickled with them; they crawled into the +corners of his mouth; scabs had broken out on his face and body. No +little child in the street was a more hideous and loathsome object than +he felt himself to be. + + * * * * * * + +No child was ever more pleased to see its mother than Michael was to +see Abdul, when he came to wake him and remind him that that same +evening they ought to reach the hills, and prove that the _Omdeh's_ +rumour about the treasure was either false or true. Never for one +instant had Abdul doubted the vision; he had never considered the fact +that there might never have been any treasure at all. His second +sight--his truer sight--had seen it. That was sufficient. + +Michael felt strangely disinclined to exert himself to get up and ride +from sunrise until sundown. It seemed to him a task which he could +never fulfil. But Abdul was obviously full of suppressed excitement. +He was eager for his master to bestir himself and show something of his +usual enthusiasm and vitality. The _Omdeh's_ story had sorely +disturbed him. + +"I will be ready, Abdul," Michael said. "Make me some strong coffee." + +"_Aiwah_, Effendi." + +"Very strong, Abdul!" + +"_Aiwah_, Effendi, very strong." + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +In the Valley where the Pharaohs sleep, below the smiling hills, the +heat and the power of the sun were becoming an actual danger. The best +working hours were those which began at dawn and terminated at eleven +o'clock. + +In the early summer, for Egypt knows no spring, as it knows no +twilight, the heat compels even the natives to abandon work during the +hottest hours of the day. The sun is at its most dangerous point in +the sky at three o'clock in the afternoon; at that hour, as the season +advances, little exposed work can be done. + +One particularly hot afternoon Margaret was waiting for her brother to +come to tea. She had always contrived to keep their sitting-room fresh +and cool by closing its windows and drawing down wet blinds before the +sun got a chance of entering it. The windows were kept open all night. +She had tried almost every possible device--and had been very +successful--for excluding "the brightness of Aton" from their home. + +If the windows were left open after sunrise, an army of flies too great +to combat would invade the room, and ten minutes of sunshine would warm +the room for the whole day. If the sun never penetrated it and the +windows were kept open during the chilly hours of the night, it was +always an agreeable and refreshing place to enter after a long spell in +the blinding sunlight. It was so essential for Freddy's health that he +should have a cool, dark room to rest in, that Margaret gave the +subject her best care and unremitting attention. + +The dryness of the air in Upper Egypt can hardly be imagined by those +who have not experienced it. + +Margaret had heard the overseer's whistle; she knew that work was +suspended for some hours. A beautiful sense of order and neatness had +been developed out of the mess of debris and broken rocks which had +disfigured the site of the tomb, and some new chambers had been cleared +and examined. + +When Freddy appeared, Margaret asked him a few questions about his +work. Had he heard from the experts who were examining the skull and +bones of the mummy? Freddy answered her absently and half-heartedly. + +"No, not yet--no report has come. Let's have some tea, first, before +we talk--my throat's bone dry." + +Meg was conscious of some constraint, some anxiety in his manner. +Freddy's silence could be very eloquent. She gave him his tea and +administered to his wants. For some days he had had a little touch of +diarrhoea, the result of a slight cold caught during one of the quick +falls of temperature which take place in Upper Egypt. Margaret knew +that in Egypt diarrhoea must never be neglected, for it too often leads +to dysentery. She had made her brother take the proper remedies, a +gentle aperient followed by concentrated tincture of camphor, and she +had been very careful not to allow him to eat any fatty food or fruit +or meat. + +Freddy did not take kindly to a diet of arrowroot or rice boiled in +milk, adulterated with water. This afternoon he looked tired and out +of spirits. Meg wondered if the tiresome complaint had been troubling +him again. + +As she handed him the bread and butter she said, "Should you eat +butter, Freddy! Tell me the truth--are you not feeling so well to-day? +Has there been any return of the trouble?" + +Freddy looked at her in astonishment. His thoughts were so far removed +from his own health. If abstaining from the flesh of animals and the +eating of fruit would ease his anxiety, he felt that for the rest of +his life, he would never ask for any other food than watery arrowroot. + +"I'm perfectly all right. That trouble's quite gone--your care has +done the trick. Thanks awfully." + +"Then what is it, Freddy?" Meg laid her hand on his arm, her eyes held +his. If he attempted to deny the fact that there was something on his +mind, she knew that he knew that his eyes could not hide it from her. + +"I am bothered about something, Meg. There's an ugly report going +about--I've made up my mind to tell you." + +"Report about whom? You?" Meg's eyes showed battle. The Lampton +fighting instinct was roused. + +"No, I wish it was about me--I'd soon settle it!" Freddy's eyes were +still searched by his sister's. + +"It's about Michael," she said. She rose from her seat. "I have +expected it. I knew it was coming." + +"What?" Freddy looked at her in amazement. "You expected it?" + +"I felt there was some trouble. I don't know what--I can't even +guess--but I felt it was coming." She stood in front of her brother. +"Out with it, old boy! Tell me the worst at once. Is he dying? Has +he been murdered? I can bear anything except suspense." + +"It's something uglier than death, Meg." + +"Treachery?" + +"Yes, treachery." Freddy thought that Meg meant treachery on her +lover's part. She had thought of treachery from enemies. Had some one +forestalled Michael with the treasure? + +He paused. What could he tell her next? + +"Oh, go on!" Meg cried. "For heaven's sake, don't spare me! A woman +can stand almost anything, Freddy, anything but uncertainty." + +"Can she stand unfaithfulness, Meg, dishonour?" Freddy's eyes dropped. +He could not inflict upon himself the pain which Meg's trusting eyes +would cause him. + +A cry rang through the room. "No, not that, not that! Go on, go +on--what more?" As she spoke, she threw up her head. "It's a lie, +Freddy, a hideous lie!" + +"I'm afraid there must be some truth in the story, Meg." Freddy's voice +was terrible. It conveyed his reluctant, yet absolute, belief that her +lover was guilty. Before he had finished speaking, another cry rang +through the room. It startled Freddy with its intensity, its rage and +independence. + +"I tell you it's a lie! It's not true! And what's more, until I hear +it from his own lips, I will never believe a word of the scandal." + +"Poor old chum!" Freddy tried to comfort her with the assurance of his +sympathy. + +Meg flashed round upon him. "Don't pity me! Don't dare to pity me! +It's all the basest treachery. I'll have no pity. I don't need it!" + +Freddy was silent. It was like Meg not to cry or collapse, as most +girls would have done. She was fighting splendidly for her man, whose +honour was dearer to her than his life. He wished that Michael could +have been there to see her, unworthy though he apparently was of such +unwavering loyalty. + +"What is this report?" she asked. Her cheeks were as white as a +blanched almond; her eyes splendidly alight. The excitement of battle +vitalized her. Margaret was beautiful in her wrath. + +"I have heard it from several sources that Millicent Mervill joined +Michael in the desert, that she now forms part of his camp, that she +is, in fact, your lover's mistress. I can't have it, chum." + +"It's a lie! How can you believe it? A hideous, abominable lie! It's +contemptible of you to listen to it, to give it a moment's +consideration." She shivered. "Oh, these filthy native tongues!" + +"I wish I could think so, Meg." + +Meg swung round on him and for a moment he thought she was going to +strike him. + +"Damn you!" She flashed out the words just as he himself would have +said them. "How dare you say so? He is your friend, he has been +closer to you than a brother! He has no one to defend his name! You +know that he would kill any man who attempted to slander you behind +your back!" + +Freddy did not resent her attack. She had done just what he would have +done to any man who had reported any slander against her fair name. + +"I know it's awfully hard for you to believe it." + +"I don't believe it, Freddy, nor do you!" + +"I told you I wished I didn't. The evidence is too clear." + +"You haven't told me that you believe it is true. You can't get beyond +the fact that there's ugly gossip going round and that I'm in love with +him. If you thought this was your dying oath, that heaven depended +upon the truth of your statement, can you say that in your soul you +believe that Michael has taken this woman with him, that he is utterly +treacherous and faithless? Does your unconquerable voice condemn him?" + +Freddy thought for a moment. "It looks very black, Meg. The evidence +is very convincing." + +"Confound the evidence!" she said. "That is not an answer. I asked +you, does your inner self, your super-man, believe absolutely in his +guilt?" Meg was staring at him with hard, questioning eyes; all trace +of her love for him had been driven out. + +"Well no, if you put it like that, perhaps not. But I can't have your +name connected with these stories." + +"My name?" she cried. "What do you mean?" + +"I mean that our women have married straight, clean, honourable men." + +"The Lamptons again!" she said. "Am I never to be free from tradition? +Just because I'm a Lampton, I am to behave in a mean, disloyal manner +to the man I swore to trust? Do you suppose I'm going to? If you do, +you're much mistaken. In my own heart I've been Michael's wife for +weeks and weeks, so you needn't imagine I'm going to divorce him." + +"But I do, Meg." Freddy rose from the table. "Now, look here," he +said, "try to speak dispassionately. How can I, as your sole male +guardian, countenance an engagement between you and Michael while there +is only too much ground for belief that this story is true? I've not +only heard it from the natives." + +"You're wholly without reason. You just said you didn't believe it!" +The words flashed from Meg's lips like the fire from a gun. + +"I find it hard to believe. One always wants to hear two sides of a +story. If Michael can swear that it is not true----" + +"There is only one side to this story--that it is a lie." + +"Then why has this report been spread about? There is always some fire +where there is smoke, even in Egypt." + +"I don't know, Freddy." Meg's voice broke; something suddenly choked +her. + +"The story goes that they met as if by accident in the open desert. +Millicent had taken a splendid travelling equipment with her. She has +made no secret of her love for Michael in the camp." + +Meg was silent. A furious rage was gnawing at her bowels; it was going +to her brain. + +"Michael made a fine show of surprise," Freddy continued. "But it did +not deceive the natives. She doesn't seem to be very popular with +them." + +Meg was thinking and thinking. Was this the explanation why over and +over again she had had presentiments that Michael was in trouble, that +he needed her? She had so often tried to reach him. Suddenly a light +broke on her darkness, her whirlwind of anger abated. + +"Freddy," she said, more gently. "If Millicent was in the camp, their +meeting in the desert _was_ unexpected by Michael. She trapped him, +she planned it all. Don't you remember, that night when you found me +on the balcony? I told you I had heard Michael calling to me. I can +hear his voice now." She paused. "He woke me as surely as Mohammed +Ali wakes me every morning. He wouldn't have wanted my help if he had +been happy with Millicent, if he had arranged the meeting." Meg +laughed, but there were tears in her voice. "That's the explanation, +as clear as daylight. It's been sent to me, this light, to lighten my +darkness." + +"What is as clear as daylight, Meg? You put far too much faith in +dreams and visions. I want to get you out of this. I wish you were +more like your old practical self. What has this wonderful light made +clear?" + +"That Millicent tricked and trapped Michael, that she followed him." + +"Do you mean that you think that she met Michael against his wish?" +Freddy's soul wondered at the faith of women. + +"I do. I don't think she ever mentioned her plans to him. I can see +it all as clear as a pikestaff." A sudden sob broke Meg's voice. Her +thankfulness at the unexpected revelation of the mystery caused it. +"Of course, that's it. Millicent tempted Michael, after she had once +met him. He thought he was proof against her woman's wiles, but while +we're on earth we're only human, Freddy, and he was afraid of his own +weakness. He called to me. We arranged to help each other--we were +always to try our best to reach each other when we felt troubled. Love +is not such a simple thing as it seems. I used to think that when once +one was engaged to the man one loved, one would just be at anchor in a +divine calm." + +"You believe in dreams and all that sort of thing too much. Michael's +led you off--he's to blame." + +"There are some things one must believe in, Freddy. Our development is +in other hands." + +"What are they? Mere old wives' tales and charlatans' prophecies." + +"Oh, Freddy!" + +"Well, Michael's religion's got so mixed, he doesn't know what he is or +what he believes in and doesn't believe in. He has a fine scorn for +the old order of things. The beliefs of our forefathers have kept the +Lampton men pretty straight and made splendid wives and mothers of +their women, and I think that's good enough for this everyday, +practical world!" + +"Has it been their belief that has done it, Freddy, or their family +traditions? I think we Lamptons are as true ancestor-worshippers as +any Shintoists in Japan. I was never taught anything about my higher +self as a child, or made to see that religion was a vital part of our +existence. It was the shades of our ancestors, nothing more or +less--what would Uncle John have thought, or what would Aunt Anna +think? It was never what would your own soul think--was it now? It +was pure Shinto. Our god-shelf bore the family-portraits." + +"A jolly good worship, too. You can't do anything very far wrong if +you never disgrace the honour of your ancestors. I think it's as good +a principle, and far more practical and restraining than Michael's +mixture of Akhnaton's Aton worship and I don't know what else. I get +lost when he expounds his idea of God." + +"It annoys you that his God is too big for any church. The Lamptons +have always been ardent upholders of the Established Church of England." + +"Let him enlarge his church, build his God a bigger one." + +"That's just what he has done, that's just what he says the Protestant +church has failed to do. Their church has never expanded. People's +minds have grown, while the Church of England--and, in fact, all +churches--have stood still." + +"Michael can't do things in moderation--he's just an enthusiast about +his religion, as he has been about all his phases." + +"The best of all things! What were your Luthers, your Cromwells, and +St. Francis?" Meg paused. Her voice fell. "And Our Lord? Weren't +they enthusiasts? Did they take things moderately? Does moderation +ever achieve anything? Napoleon said no country was ever conquered by +half methods." + +"Mike's enthusiasm is only theoretical. If he has done this thing, his +new religion allows him too much latitude. He'd much better have stuck +to our plain ancestor-worship." + +"But he hasn't done it! You know he hasn't. Don't go over it again. +That detestable woman met him and trapped him." + +"And tempted him? The old, old story--the world's first romance--'the +woman tempted me and I fell.'" + +Meg's tears had dried very quickly. She was strong again. "I don't +see how you can speak like that. You told me that Michael was straight +as a die--you know you did." + +"But I said he was weak--I told you that, too, didn't I?" + +"If being human is weak, then I suppose he is. I never met a man who +was a saint. And if believing that we are all more good than bad is +weak, then I admit his lack of strength. It is his humility that makes +it impossible for him to think evil of anyone. I have often proved it. +Almost any man is a better man than himself in his own eyes." + +"Bosh!" Freddy said. "I do wish he was more ordinary, less of a crank +about these things! How can he think he isn't as good a man as that +fair-tongued, lying Mohammed Ali, for instance, or any of these lying +sensualists? It's the ugliest of all prides, the one that apes +humility, Meg. Lots of religious enthusiasts have it." + +"No, not with Michael. He thinks he is less good than they are because +he is perfectly conscious of God, as he expresses it. He enjoys all +the privileges of a close connection with God; he doesn't only pray to +Him, as we do. He lives with him; Mike is never alone. And yet, with +all that sense of God, he is full of faults and failings. These men +and women, who to us appear so bad, are simply further back in their +evolution. They can't be bad, if it is not their fault. They have not +had the same privileges, they are only gradually evolving. Spiritually +they are like the dwellers in the slums as compared with the inmates of +the beautifully-appointed hygienic house in the country. Michael is in +the light; these poor souls are in darkness. It is all a part of the +Great Law." + +Freddy had finished his tea. It had afforded him little pleasure. He +must come to some definite understanding with Meg. His thoughts had +been all centred on the plan of sending her home, getting her away from +the atmosphere which had so strong a hold over her imagination. +Perhaps if she was back in England, she might be able to put Michael +and his ideas out of her thoughts. He had no wish to be disloyal to +his friend, or to give him no chance to defend himself; but he had to +admit that he was very thankful that it was Michael himself who had +insisted that there was to be no recognized engagement between them. +Had he at the time had any motive for insisting on the fact? That was +an idea; it had not occurred to him before. + +He turned to Meg and said abruptly. "What about going home, Meg? It's +getting too hot for this sort of thing--the Valley is stifling." + +"What do you mean?" + +"It's too hot--the year's advancing." + +Meg tried to speak calmly. + +"Don't treat me like a naughty child, Freddy. If it gets hotter than +the Inferno I won't leave the place until I hear from Michael." She +was not going to be a Lampton in one respect and not in another. A +horse with the staggers was not in it with a mulish Lampton. + +"If you hear from him, or find undeniable proofs that the story is +true, will you go then?" + +"Yes, when Michael tells me with his own lips, or I see it in his own +handwriting, or I myself am convinced that Millicent was with him, I +will meekly obey you. You can rely upon the Lampton pride. It won't +fail me." + +"Right you are, old girl! That's all I'll ask." Freddy bent down and +pressed her head to his breast. "I hope to God that will never be, old +lady, you know that." + +Freddy's little touch of tenderness was the last straw. It was too +much for Meg. She turned round and hid her face against his shoulder. +A very fountain of weeping welled up. + +"You dear, blessed old thing! I've been a brute, a perfect brute, but +I love him awfully! Oh, Freddy, you don't know how much I can love, +and you hurt me dreadfully!" She had sobbed out the words. The fiery +Lampton was now a sorrowing, heartsick girl, hungering for her lover's +caresses. Freddy's gentleness had called up a thousand wants. + +Freddy knew that affection was what she needed, but he was a bad hand +at any show of brotherly emotion. The Lampton men were fine lovers; no +woman had ever found them wanting in the art. But it was part of their +tradition to suppress all outward signs of family affection. Instinct +told him that some caresses and a petting were what his sister longed +for. For weeks she had been robbed of a lover's devotion, a very fine +lover, who had filled her days with romance and her heart with song. + +"You weren't a bit a brute, Meg. You were just as usual, a bit more +like a man than a girl. I'd have done and said just as you did if +anyone had said things about the woman I loved--or, I hope I should." + +Meg only hugged her brother. Words were beyond her. She knew by the +way he was speaking that he was quite glad to help her, now that he had +got over the disagreeable business of telling her and warning her, that +his efforts would be turned now towards the finding of Michael's +whereabouts and dotting to the bottom of the gossip. She looked up +with cheerful eyes. + +"Do you remember that day, Freddy, when Millicent Mervill lunched here?" + +"Rather!" + +"And you said she came for some object which she took care not to +reveal?" + +"Yes, I remember." + +"Well, I never told you, because I thought you had good reason for +thinking that I was too hard on her, that I was jealous of her, to the +exclusion of all reason. . . ." + +"You are pretty good at hating, Meg." + +"Well, Mohammed Ali has since told me where he found her eye of Horus. +Guess where it was." + +Freddy laughed. "I'm sure I couldn't." + +"She read my diary all the time she was here alone. He says she asked +if she might rest and tidy up in my room. He found the eye of Horus +just beside the table where she had been reading it. He thinks that it +must have caught in the key of the drawer in the table. Probably she +thought we were coming and moved quickly away--the ring was easily +wrenched open." + +"The little cad!" Freddy said slowly. "The venomous little toad!" + +"In my diary, Freddy, I referred to Michael's strange journey, his +journey to King Solomon's Mines, as we always called it." + +Freddy freed himself from his sister's arms and lit a cigarette. + +"What a mean little brute! Mohammed Ali was probably in her pay; he +told her he had found the eye at the spot where she dismounted." + +"He said he told that lie because Madam made a face at him. He +confesses to that." + +Freddy thought for a moment while he smoked, then he said slowly and +deliberately: "If she got that information from your diary, she could +easily get more. _Baksheesh_ will make the dead give up their secrets. +That is why Bismarck said to his generals, never tell your own shirt +what you want kept a secret. Diaries are dangerous things, Meg." + +"I wrote it in French," Meg said. "I thought only the servants would +stoop to reading it and they can't read French." + +"Next time, try invisible ink. In Egypt, once a thing is written or +told, it is public property." + +"I scarcely write anything now," she said. "I feel as if some spy will +see it, and the dry bones of a diary never interest me." + +As Freddy was leaving the sitting-room--he was going to bed for a +couple of hours before he began work again--Margaret said to him: + +"Just tell me before you go, where you first heard the report about +Michael, and from whom you heard it." + +"One or two days ago," he said. "I heard a smouldering gossip about it +going on amongst the workmen. They'd got wind of it somehow. No one +ever knows how these things begin. Then I met young King from +Professor L----'s camp, and he told me the whole story. He knew +Millicent very well. He said she's not what you could call an immoral +woman so much as a woman without morals. He confesses he never met +anyone in the least like her before, and he rather prides himself on +his knowledge of the world--he would have us believe that he has seen a +devil of a lot. He wondered at a man of Michael's refined temperament +taking her into the desert in the way he has done." + +"He never took her," Meg said. "Isn't it hateful, Freddy, hearing +people make these assertions about our Mike?" + +"That's what I meant," Freddy said, "when I told you that I hated your +name being mixed up with his." + +"Oh, that's not what troubles me. No one knows me out here, or my +affairs. I meant that it's such a wicked libel on Michael, who's not +here to defend himself." + +"But if she's there with him, what can you expect the world to say, to +believe?" + +"If she followed him and joined him, it wouldn't be very easy to shake +her off, would it?" + +Freddy smiled. "You're right there--the fair Millicent wouldn't go +because she wasn't wanted!" + +"I often ask myself why and how we tolerated her." + +"Did we?" Freddy laughed. + +"Well, yes, we did. Even I found myself liking her that day after +lunch. I began to wonder if I had always been too hard on her, if I +had had my judgment perverted by my jealousy." + +"Surely you're not really jealous of Millicent?" Freddy paused. "That +is, if you are confident that Michael is not with her at the present +moment?" + +"I am confident, Freddy. All the same, I have lots to be jealous of. +Her beauty amazes me every time I look at her and, after all, beauty is +a rare and wonderful thing. Lots of women are good to look at and +attractive, but Millicent is beautiful. You have often said how rare +real beauty is and how carelessly we use the expression. Millicent +deserves it." + +"You needn't be jealous of mere beauty, Meg. Even when she's on her +best behaviour, she never could impress a stranger as being anything +but what she is, a soulless little minx." + +"Yet you thoroughly enjoyed her company, Freddy." + +"I know I did. She's amusing, her personality is stimulating. But I +shouldn't like to have too much of it." + +"Yet you'd have kissed her if you'd been alone with her--you said you'd +try!" + +Freddy did not deny the accusation. + +"Men are queer things," Meg said; "but you must get off to bed, you +look awfully tired." + +She hated to have to send him away, for it was only on very rare +occasions, and quite unexpectedly, that Freddy expressed his opinions. +He belonged to the silent order of mankind; to strangers he never +revealed himself; he rarely said anything in their presence which +suggested that he had opinions at all, or that he was really an +exceedingly thoughtful person. Meg knew that he had ideas and +thoughts--very sound, clear ideas, too. She knew that Freddy thought +while other men talked. All the same, his opinions and thoughts, apart +from his profession, were apt to be strangled and suffocated by +tradition. Tradition was a mighty force in the Lampton family. It +almost, as Meg said, amounted to ancestor-worship. Freddy's choice of +a profession had been his one act of emancipation. He had, according +to family tradition, been destined for either the navy or the army, and +it had taken no little strength of character to cut the first link in +the chain. + +When Freddy had gone to lie down and the little hut was left to its +midday silence--the tropical breathless silence of Upper Egypt, when +the sun is so hot that even a lizard would not venture from its +shelter--Meg sat down on a chair close to the table, and laid her head +on her arms. + +She was tired, tired, tired. She must forget things for a little time, +before she even tried to review the situation, or think out what was +best to be done. If only she could will herself into absolute +unconsciousness for a little time, how sweet it would be! If she let +herself sleep--even though sleep seemed very far from her--she might +dream of Millicent, and that would be worse than wakefulness and +remembrance. To trust herself to the lordship of dreams was to seek +refuge in the unknown, and that was dangerous. It was total +unconsciousness which she desired, the restful unconsciousness of a +blank mind. She remained perfectly still for a little time, asking for +rest, asking for the power not to think. She concentrated her thoughts +on this one desire; she opened her being for the reception of peace. + +Suddenly the voice which heals spoke. It suggested a respite for her +troubles. "No mind can remain a blank," it said. "Try instead to +think of your vision, fill your whole being with its beauty, repeat to +yourself all that happened during that wonderful revelation." + +Unconsciously and swiftly Meg's painful thoughts drifted away. The +picture of Millicent amusing and tempting her lover, which had danced +before her eyes, was no longer there--or, at all events, it was not +dominating her mind, and Freddy's words no longer rang in her ears. +Her misery, made by her own thoughts, left her, as a headache leaves a +sufferer when a sedative has been administered. The gentle voice, the +divine attendant, achieved its work. Meg had asked for rest and for +forgetfulness. Her prayer was being answered. It repeated to her the +tender words of Akhnaton; it told her in Michael's own dear way the +true explanation of her vision. With tightly-closed eyes and her head +bowed, she saw again the whole scene. It was unnaturally vivid--the +luminous figure, with the pitying, sorrowful eyes. As she gazed at it, +to her spirit came the same quiet comfort as had come to her on that +night when the vision had visited her. So clearly could she see the +rays of Aton behind the high crown of Upper and Lower Egypt, that she +lifted up her head. Perhaps He was there, in the sitting-room, +standing just in front of her? Had the luminous body penetrated the +darkness of her tightly-closed eyes? + +Meg blinked her eyes to rid them of their confusion; her fingers had +been tightly pressed against them. She looked fixedly into the space +in front of her. Nothing was there; the room was just as it had been +when she closed her eyes. The disordered table, the cigarette-ash in +the two saucers, the crumbs from a Huntley and Palmer's cake on the +table-cloth--these homely things struck her as incongruous. She had +expected a vision of Akhnaton; she had hoped for it. + +She put her head down on her arms again; her thoughts had been very +sweet; with closed eyes they might come back again. How absurd it was +to think of such material things as the silver paper round the imported +cake, and to remember that Freddy had said he was sick of tinned +apricot jam! + +These domestic thoughts had taken but a second. She was going back to +her vision and to the happiness it had given her. + +And so it came to pass that just as Michael had found solace for heart +and mind in the dancing of the daffodils which he had visualized in the +eastern desert, so Meg's bruised heart lost its sense of fear in her +visualizing of the world's first reformer. + + * * * * * * + +When Freddy returned to the sitting-room, refreshed and invigorated, he +woke his sister by his noisy entrance. He was extremely angry with +himself, and showed his sorrow very tenderly. + +Meg looked at him with half-awakened senses. Where was she? What was +she doing? What hour of the day was it? + +"Never mind, Freddy, I've slept long enough." She smiled, and looked +as though the thoughts from which she drew her happiness were far away. + +Freddy put his two hands on her shoulders and looked into her eyes. +"Were your dreams very nice, old girl? You look as if you'd been +playing on the Elysian plain, or had been re-born!" + +Meg pulled-her brother's face down to the level of her own and +whispered, "Heavenly, Freddy, heavenly!" + + + + +CHAPTER X + +"Does my master feel refreshed?" + +It was Abdul who spoke, as he wakened Michael after his midday siesta +on the day which had brought them within sight of the Promised Land. + +It had been a morning of intense heat; the desert held not one breath +of air. The spell of Egypt, which is its light, had vanished; the vast +emptiness was as colourless as Scotland in an east wind. Piled up on +his camel, Michael had ridden under a raised shelter, such as is used +by caravan travellers on long journeys. It was made of bamboos, bent +into half-hoops and covered with a light canvas. Abdul had been afraid +of exposing his master, in his uncertain state of health, to the full +force of the desert sun. Michael had been very grateful, for during +the last two days it had made him feel sick and his head had ached +perpetually. + +"A touch of the sun," was Abdul's expressive description of his +condition. He knew the symptoms only too well, and fortunately he also +knew how to treat them. + +In answer to Abdul's question, Michael yawned and stretched out his +arms. "Yes, greatly refreshed, Abdul. How long have I slept? What +time is it? I feel very much better." + +"The Effendi's words give happiness to his servant," Abdul said. "With +care my master will enjoy good health in a day or two." + +"I'm all right now, Abdul. That last compress has done me a world of +good. My headache has lifted." It was characteristic of Michael's +temperament that when he was down, he was very, very down, and when he +was up, he bounded and became scornful of all care and precautions. + +"Everything is in readiness when my master is ready," Abdul said. +"There are still three hours before sunset." + +Michael rose from the impromptu couch which Abdul had made for him +under the shadow of a mighty rock. The desert was no longer a +shoreless sea of golden sand; they were reaching the reef of hills +which was their objective. + +When Michael found himself on his feet and ready to mount his +camel--that undignified proceeding, which always made him realize his +own helplessness and evoked from the camel ugly roars of justifiable +resentment--he found himself scarcely as fit as he had thought; he was +giddy and still distressingly tired. It was very annoying, not feeling +up to his best form, now that they were drawing so close to the +exciting spot. He had imagined that he would feel like a gold-miner +hurrying to peg out his claim, instead of which he was conscious of but +one feeling, physical and nervous exhaustion. + +He braced himself up. The air was cooler; a little breeze was lifting +the sand and carrying its invisible atoms across the surface of the +desert. How many times on his journey he had seen this noiseless +drifting of the sand! Now, as he watched it from his high seat, it +made him think of the saint's grave. Even in this short time much sand +would have collected on the mound which covered his bones. + +This ceaseless drifting of the sand was an object-lesson which +illustrated very practically the complete obliteration of Egypt's +ancient cities and lost civilizations. Michael knew that on such a day +as this he had only to lay some small object down in the desert, and +very soon an accumulation of sand would gather round it. After a +little time the object would be completely lost to sight, and in its +place there would be a little mound, which would grow and grow as the +years rolled on, until it became a feature in the landscape. In such a +way were the neglected temples of the gods saved from the ravages of +fanatics. + +To Michael this provision of Nature, this preserving of the world's +earliest treasures and story, was very beautiful. It meant a great +deal more than the mere accumulation of wind-blown sands; it meant that +the Creating Hand is never still, that the making of the world is +eternal. In Michael's opinion there was no doubt but that Egypt's +priceless treasures had been designedly hidden, that the Author of +Nature had preserved them until such a time as mankind was capable of +appreciating them and guarding them. The drifting sands--ever at the +caprice of the four winds to those who have eyes to see and see +not--have saved Egypt's history, which is written in stone. + +Reflecting, as was his wont, on these side-issues of the world's +evolution, he journeyed on. The breeze was stiffening, a cool, +invigorating breeze, which had cleared the sky and brought some white +clouds into it. In the Valley of the Tombs of the Kings the heavens +rarely held a cloud; in the eastern desert his travels had carried him +northwards, where the dews are heavier and the sudden changes in the +temperature less noticeable. + +With the cooler atmosphere his spirits rose, his vitality quickened. +Wonderful pictures danced before his eyes, pictures which he had seen +over and over again, his first visualizing of the treasure. The vision +had never been far from his mind. He could see himself inspecting the +bars of gold which Akhnaton had hidden in the hills, and fingering the +ancient jewels while he thought once more of the story he had been told +by a member of an excavating camp in Egypt. The story reassured him: +Some native workmen, belonging to the camp, had come across a number of +terra-cotta crocks hidden under a flight of steps. They were full to +the brim of bars of pure gold. The gold had obviously been thrust into +the jars very hurriedly. The theory they suggested to experts was that +the citizens, suddenly becoming alarmed by the approach of a besieging +army, had thrust the wealth of the public treasury into the jars and +hidden them in the hollow behind the steps of a staircase in some +public building. If the Romans ever besieged the city, they had +overlooked the jars and so the gold had remained in its simple +hiding-place until the enthusiasm of modern Egyptologists discovered +it. In the jars there was sufficient gold to pay for a year's +excavation on the historical site. + +Michael knew that such things were possible in Egypt, where tales as +wonderful as any in _A Thousand and One Nights_ are still being +enacted. Egypt's buried treasures are infinite. In that land of +amazing discoveries there has been nothing more amazing than the means +of their discovery. + +High up in the blue, on his swaying seat on the camel's back, he felt +like a man in a cinematograph-theatre, gazing upon film after film as +it came into view and dissolved away. + +The desert was the stage, his thoughts were the films. At one moment +the picture presented was his old friend in el-Azhar, rejoicing in the +knowledge that Michael's journey was accomplished, the treasure +realized. He could see the African's eyes glowing like living fire; he +could hear his sonorous chanting. His next vision was of Margaret and +her triumphant happiness; the next his own troubles and embarrassments, +the troubles of too great wealth. What was he to do with the treasure +now that he had discovered it? There were new laws and stringent +regulations and restrictions which must be adhered to; the Government +had become more grasping. + +But these troubles he put aside. "Sufficient for the day was the +finding thereof," the proving to scoffers that visionaries had legs to +stand upon as well as heads. He could hear Freddy's boyish laugh, a +laugh of sheer incredulity and amazement, and while Freddy laughed he +could see and feel Margaret's eyes shining with victory. It made him +very nervous and excited to think that soon he would be able to +actually touch and examine the treasure and sacred writings of the +world's first divinely-inspired prophet. The doubts of his material +mind would be forever silenced when his fingers had held the jewels and +his eyes had seen the gold. + +Again he felt convinced that the spirit of Akhnaton had selected him to +do this work. Freddy had been chosen to bestow upon mankind the +contents of the royal tomb, which held such a mass of confounding +matter. We are all the chosen workers in the Perfect Law, units in the +Divine State. + +As he rode on and on, he wondered what Abdul was thinking about, what +his feelings were. Was he anticipating disappointment or success? +What had his eyes seen? + +They were approaching the spot indicated by the saint. It would, of +course, take them some time to discover the chamber which held the +hidden treasure, but it was sufficiently thrilling to be drawing nearer +and nearer to the hills. The canvas had been removed from his +sun-shelter; only the framework remained. It looked like the +skeleton-ribs of an animal against the blue of the sky. + +Suddenly Abdul came riding forward. He had something to say; he never +disturbed Michael's meditations unnecessarily. + +"Does the Effendi see anything in the distance?" + +"No, Abdul, nothing. What do you see?" + +Abdul's calm voice had betrayed a little emotion. + +"Look once more, Effendi--over there, to the left, close to the hills." + +Michael looked, and while he looked he was conscious of an ominous +atmosphere in the silence. + +"Can the Effendi see nothing?" + +"No, Abdul, absolutely nothing. Yet I thought my eyes had improved, my +seeing-powers developed. I was vain enough to think they were pretty +good." + +"For Western eyes they do see far, Effendi. You must allow some few +privileges for those who are deprived of the benefits of civilization." + +They rode on in silence. + +"You can see something now, Effendi?" Abdul's voice trembled as it +broke the stillness. "It is very clear now, O my master." + +"Is it a mirage, or what, Abdul? What am I to see?" + +"No mirage, Effendi--I wish it were one." + +"Then out with it!" Michael said impatiently. He had not the vaguest +idea what Abdul was hinting at; his mind had no room for side issues. +"What desert monster lies in waiting for us? Don't make such a mystery +out of nothing!" + +"It is the Khedivial flag, O Effendi. I see it fluttering in the +breeze." + +"The Khedivial flag?" The words conveyed no meaning to Michael; the +reason for its being there did not penetrate his brain. "What is there +to trouble us about the Khedivial flag, Abdul?'" + +"_Aiwah_, Effendi, do not feel anger in your heart for your servant +when he tells you what it means." + +"We ate the salt of our covenant together, Abdul, on the night when you +brought the saint in your arms to my camp. I can never forget that you +are more than my servant. You are my friend and companion." + +"Our faith is a gift of God, Effendi, and all the good works we perform +are the effects of a principle implanted and kept alive within us by +the Spirit of God." + +"Granting that is so, Abdul, which I do, nevertheless, the covenant of +our friendship is sacred. Tell me, why does the flag trouble you?" + +"Can my master see it now? Can he not distinguish any other objects?" + +Michael looked again. They had travelled quickly. As he looked his +heart stopped beating; his brain became confused; he felt like a +drunken man. Clearly his eye had seen! + +"My God!" he said inaudibly. "It can't be that, it can't be that!" + +To his naked eye the crescent and the star on the waving flag were +still invisible, but he could see its vivid red, and he could see other +objects--white patches, like a collection of saints' tombs. + +"Abdul," he said--his voice was miserably broken and spent--"what are +those white things?" + +"Tents, Effendi." + +"Government tents?" + +"_Aiwah_, Effendi." + +"What are they doing near the hills?" + +"Must Abdul speak the words which will cause his master pain? Will the +Effendi not wait until we draw nearer? It is not wise to anticipate +evil." + +A horrible suspicion devastated Michael's brain. He could brook no +uncertainty. Abdul's lengthy manner of getting to the point irritated +him as it had never done before. + +"Out with it, Abdul! Having said so much, you must say more." Michael +was compelling his servant to give utterance to the suspicion which had +become almost a certainty in his mind. + +"_Aiwah_, Effendi. The treasure has already been discovered." + +"Good God! Do you think it is that, Abdul?" + +"_Aiwah_, Effendi." Abdul's voice was contrite. + +Michael felt as if all movement in the world had suddenly been +arrested. Then his mind began scrambling amid the ruins of his dreams +for some lucid thought, for some reason which would explain why he was +seated high up on a camel's back in the eastern desert. + +He had never dreamed of such an ending to his dreams. In his most +despondent moods he had contemplated no greater misfortune than the +stealing of the jewels and the gold, the looting of its portable +treasures by native _antika_ hunters. His super-man had never +seriously contemplated even that misfortune; his faith was unshaken, +his optimism complete. + +The shock he had received affected his physical as well as his mental +condition. An overwhelming desire came to him to get off his high seat +and throw himself down on the sand and go to sleep for ever and ever. +That hateful flag, those smiling tents! whose whiteness had brought a +vision of Millicent's tent floating before his eyes. + +"There are three tents, Effendi. Shall we journey towards them?" +Abdul's voice sounded far away. What was he talking about? Michael +tried to concentrate his thoughts. + +"Oh yes, of course!" His voice was listless. "We must go on. You may +be wrong." He struggled for mind-control. + +He urged his camel to a quicker pace. They rode on in silence. Abdul +was now convinced that the harlot--or, in other words, Mohammed Ali's +"golden lady"--had wreaked her vengeance on his master. He had taken +into his camp the fever-stricken saint; she had slipped away in the +night and discovered the treasure. With a comprehensiveness which +would have astounded the impurest of Western ears, he cursed Millicent +and her vile offspring into the third and fourth generations. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +As Michael got off his kneeling camel, a young Englishman left a tent, +the outer one of the three which formed the excavation-camp, the white +tents which Michael had seen from his high seat, and came quickly +forward. It was obvious that strangers might come thus far and no +further. In a voice of official authority, yet by no means +ungraciously, he said to Michael: + +"Can I do anything for you? What do you want? I'm afraid you can't +come any nearer." + +Michael looked blankly into the thin, intelligent face, a sunburnt +face, which any woman would have described as attractively ugly. For a +moment or two neither man spoke. There was an unpleasant silence. It +was significant of the atmosphere of the meeting. It expressed to the +excavator strain, rather than shyness, on the traveller's part. He had +told Michael that he might come no further; he had asked him if he +wanted anything. + +At both remarks Michael almost laughed hysterically. He was not +allowed to come any closer to his own treasure, to the gift of +Akhnaton, to the legacy of the Pharaoh, which had been divinely +revealed to him! This interloper had asked him if he wanted anything! + +Quicker than light these thoughts flashed through his bewildered brain, +while between himself and this representative of the Government the +figure of the world's first divinely-inspired man, with the rays of +Aton shining brilliantly from behind his head, became clearer and +clearer. It obliterated the figure of the excavator. + +"What are these tents doing here?" He managed to ask the question by +sheer force of will power; he felt relieved that the words had come. +"And that flag?"--he pointed to the Khedivial banner. + +His companion hesitated for a moment. Who was this dazed questioner, +who had suddenly appeared out of the sands of the desert? He looked +almost as worn and physically exhausted as a desert fanatic. + +"This is an excavation camp which has just been sanctioned by the +Minister of Public Works. We are engaged in making temporary +researches. The time-limit is one month." + +Without being in the least discourteous, his words conveyed the +impression that in so short a time there was more to be done than talk +to curious travellers. + +"How long has the camp been here?" Michael asked. "I hope you won't +think my questions impertinent. I have a very particular reason for +wishing to know." + +The blue eyes in the thin face became more alert. They searched +Michael's face with the same scrutiny as they searched the debris of +the ruins. + +"About four days," he said coldly. + +"Has the Government claimed the site?" Michael's voice trembled as he +asked the question; it was so hard to keep cool. + +"The Government is entitled to expropriate any land containing +antiquities on paying a valuation and ten per cent. over, but this, of +course, was not private property. It belongs to the Government." + +"Yes, of course. I know something about these new rules--I have been +working with Lampton in the Valley." + +"Oh!" The stranger's voice at once became cordial and intimate. "I +didn't know that I was speaking to a fellow-digger. How's Lampton?" + +"I wasn't actually digging--I was doing some painting for him, and +inking the pottery drawings. His latest discovery has developed +amazing theories." + +"So I've heard. But you look a bit done up. Come inside and have a +drink." Before entering the tent, the stranger looked round. "Who's +your man? Is he all right?" + +"He's one of Lampton's men--absolutely trustworthy. He's been more +than a servant to me for some weeks now." Michael paused, and then +said abruptly, "Who told the Government of this site? What do you +expect to find?" + +"Will you first tell me where you got your information? Did you know +we were here?" + +"The _Omdeh_ in the subterranean village spoke of it. He told me that +the natives had discovered a hidden treasure, a sort of King Solomon's +Mine, and that they were wading knee-deep in jewels and falling over +crocks stuffed with Nubian gold--a desert fairytale, I suppose?" + +"Absolutely! If there ever was any gold, it was not here when we +arrived, and as for the jewels. . . !" He laughed. "Hallo! Are you +feeling queer?" + +Michael had managed to get inside the tent, but it was the limit of +what his legs and head were fit for. He collapsed on to a lounge, made +of wooden boxes covered with some rugs. + +The stranger unfastened the padlock of a similar box to one of those +upon which he was sitting with a key which hung from a chain at his +side. He raised the lid; it had been converted into a wine-cellar. + +"Hold hard," he said, in a kindly voice. "I'll give you a drink." + +Michael was not fainting; he was merely in a state of physical +collapse. He gladly accepted the proffered hospitality. + +When he had swallowed the whisky, he said: "I'm sorry, but I've been +feeling a bit queer lately. For some days past I've had a touch of the +sun." He could not tell this stranger of his bitter disappointment. + +"Have you ridden far to-day?" + +"Yes. I've been in the desert for some time now. We started this +morning at dawn." He put the glass down on the rough trestle-table. +"Thanks most awfully. I feel a lot better. You said there was no +truth in the report about the gold and the jewels--what are you +expecting?" + +"We have seen no trace of gold so far, but you must remember that it +was a native who brought the information. Any discoverer is bound to +inform the Government, and any portable object accidentally found must +be given up within six days." + +"But the finder receives half its value?" + +"Yes, but if there was this treasure-trove of gold and jewels, it's +doubtful if natives would hand that over. It would have been a +different thing if it had been monumental objects, or even antiques, as +they always run the risk of being caught trafficking in them. They +would be inclined to think that half their value is better than none, +with the added risk of the heavy penalty. The new rules are very +stringent." + +"But the jewels? Is there no trace of any precious stones? Don't you +think there's a little fire for all that smoke?" + +"We heard all these wonderful reports, but we have found no trace of +any treasure. What the native reported was that he, along with some +other _fellahin_, had accidentally come across some traces of ancient +masonry, not far from Akhnaton's tomb. After digging for a few days, +they discovered an underground passage, which led into a chamber; in it +we came upon some papyri." + +"You have found papyri?" Michael said. His tired eyes suddenly glowed; +his excitement was obvious. + +"Yes, we have found papyri. They promise to be of exceptional +interest." + +"Of what dynasty?" Michael could scarcely speak, or hide his anxiety +while he waited for an answer to his question. To be able to assume an +outward appearance of calmness, he was putting a great strain on his +self-control. He held himself so well in hand that the stranger little +guessed how much his answer meant to the exhausted traveller. + +"Amenhotep IV." + +A cry rang through the room. "Akhnaton! did you say? Then it is +true!" Margaret, the old man in el-Azhar, and the saint, they had all +seen and spoken the truth. For a moment the stranger was forgotten. +It was Margaret who was looking at him with glad triumphant eyes. +Happy Meg! + +"Yes, the heretic Pharaoh," the stranger said, as he gazed fixedly at +Michael. Was this man more than a little touched with the sun? He +felt nervous of how to proceed. Why was he so excited and pleased? +"These hills, you know, were the boundary of his capital. You appear +interested in him? He certainly was a wonderful character." + +The more conventional and colder tones of his voice made Michael +guarded. Kind as he was, he was just the type of man who would laugh +to scorn anything he might have told him. Freddy's friendly laughter +never troubled Michael; the scorn of a stranger was a different thing. + +"Have they deciphered any of the papyri?" + +"No, we haven't had the time. We've only gone into them sufficiently +to discover their date. This is, of course, a temporary search. We +can only do in a month what is absolutely necessary. If regular +excavations are to be made, which I presume there will be, we shall, of +course, have to wait for a bit, while the final regulations are gone +through, and until the necessary money is forthcoming. These last new +rules and restrictions are putting a stop to any private enterprise. +There is nothing left to pay the cost of the dig." + +"On the whole, I suppose, they do good?" + +"They don't do what they were meant to do--and that is, stop the +stealing and the selling of valuable antiques which the Government, +rightly enough, does not wish to leave the country, and desires to have +the disposal of." + +"I had hoped the new restrictions would stop that." + +"You see, the penalties only apply to the natives and the Turks, with +the result that the native dealer simply puts an Italian or a Greek +name over his door. To the foreigner, the native is only the agent, +officially--the dealer is the Greek or Italian whose name is over the +door." + +"They'd be sure to get out of the difficulty somehow," Michael said. +"About antiques they have no conscience, and they are awfully clever." + +"An inspector may now raid their premises at any time of the day or +night, and nothing is allowed to be sold outside authorized and +licensed shops. Every dealer has to keep a day-book, with an entry of +each object in his shop over five pounds in value, the purchaser's name +must be filled in, and every page of the register sealed by the +Inspector of Antiquities." + +Michael laughed. "Trust the native mind to find a way to circumvent +all these fine restrictions!" + +His thoughts had flown to Millicent. If she had, as Abdul believed, +discovered the jewels and the gold, where were they now? It was very +odd that, even with this damning evidence that she had anticipated his +find before his eyes--for she and she alone could have known of it--his +finer senses refused to believe that she had cheated and tricked him. +He had no argument to put forward to justify his belief; it was one of +those beliefs which are rooted in something finer and truer than +circumstantial evidence. His only argument in her favour was that he +had never found her mercenary, but, as Abdul had answered him, a woman +will sell her soul for jewels. + +He felt woefully sick and dejected, far too physically exhausted to run +the risk of exposing himself to the scorn and laughter of the +excavator, who was speaking to him in a manner which unconsciously +betrayed to the hypersensitive Michael that he considered the traveller +rather too odd to waste much valuable time over. Michael wondered, in +a slow, broken sort of way, what the cold eyes would look like if he +suddenly produced the uncut crimson amethyst from the purse in his +waistbelt. He would probably have said that it was a clever part of +the native fable; he would probably say that the ancient stone might +have come from any royal tomb in Egypt, that it proved nothing. + +As a lengthy silence had elapsed, Michael felt that it was incumbent on +him to be getting on his way. He must pretend to the excavator that he +was now well enough to resume his journey. As he rose, rather inertly, +from his low seat, he said: + +"You say the native who brought the information of the find said +nothing at all about the jewels and the gold?" + +"Not a word! We have heard all that since. As you know, news travels +in the desert in the most amazing fashion, once the natives get ear of +it." + +"Won't you try and follow up the track of the story--find out how it +originated? Are you content to take it for granted that it is all +moonshine?" + +"We are doing something about it--but it's very difficult." The +stranger spoke guardedly. "The only way is to set a thief to catch a +thief. Gold can be melted, ancient stones can be cut, a hundred +dealers will be eager to run any risk to get them." + +A flood of anger coloured Michael's face; it brought out beads of +perspiration on his forehead. He could scarcely contain himself; his +rage tore at his bowels. His long journey, all that he had gone +through--was this the end of it? Could anything be more fiat, more +stale, more unprofitable? What a sudden tumble from the blue to brown +earth! Above all, how maddening to have to hold his tongue, because no +man would believe the story he could tell them, to have meekly to +submit to the conventional etiquette of the moment! He felt anything +but conventional. His anger had driven all finer feelings from his +mind. If he could only find the native who had desecrated the +treasure-trove, he would hang and quarter him without mercy! + +"I'm afraid I must be getting back to my work," the excavator said. +"But you needn't hurry. Rest here for as long as you like, only don't +think me inhospitable if I leave you. Time's too precious to waste one +moment." + +"Thanks very much," Michael said. "But I'm quite fit. You've been +awfully kind. It's time I was on my way." + +"Where are you going to?" + +"Back to my camp." + +"Back to your camp? where did you leave it?" + +Michael told him. + +"Then did you come on here on purpose to visit this dig? Had you heard +of it before you saw the _Omdeh_ in the underground village?" + +"I'd rather not answer your question at present, if you don't mind. +All that I know about it, Lampton also knows. . . . Some day, I hope, +if we meet again, I will tell you the whole thing. It's an odd story, +even for Egypt." + +The man looked annoyed. "You can't tell me anything more? Have you +any information that could help us? We have our suspicions that things +aren't straight. If the natives weren't wading knee-deep in jewels, +there was probably, as you say, some truth in the report that there +were valuable antiques." + +"I've nothing reliable to go upon," Michael said. "Nothing that a man +in his normal senses would pay any attention to--that was Lampton's +verdict." + +Again the stranger looked at Michael with calm, searching eyes. + +"Yet you believe in what you heard? You believed enough to bring you +across the desert to find it?" + +"If you ask Lampton, he'll tell you that I'm not quite in my normal +senses--that I frequently walk on my head." + +"Lampton's a sound man." + +"Well, that's his opinion." + +"You're a rum chap," the stranger said, as he noticed that a glint of +humour had for the moment driven the expression of exhaustion from +Michael's eyes. "Anyhow, I hope you'll not feel too knocked up when +you arrive in camp, and that we'll meet again." + +"I feel as if I could sleep for a year." + +"Have another whisky before you go?" + +"No thanks. I think one has been more than enough--it's made me +confoundedly tired." + +They were standing at the open front of the tent. + +"Good-bye," Michael said. "And thanks most awfully for your +hospitality. I suppose you won't settle on the work here until next +season?" + +"No, it will be hot enough at the end of three weeks, though it's +cooler here than with Lampton in the Valley. If the money is +forthcoming, we shall take up work again next October." + +They parted abruptly, as Englishmen do. Two _fellahin_, mere hewers of +wood and drawers of water, would have gone through a set formula of +graceful words before they separated. They are ever mindful of the +teachings of the Koran, which says: + +"If you are greeted with a greeting, then greet ye with a better +greeting. God taketh account of all things." + +Michael had turned his back on the stranger and the waving flag. +Mechanically he put his hand to his belt-pouch. Yes, the crimson +amethyst was still there. He felt for it as though he were in a dream. +The bright light made him giddy. The stone was his link with and his +tangible assurance that the life which he had led for the past weeks +was a reality; it was his sacred token that the vision of Akhnaton was +no mere phantom of an over-imaginative brain. Yet, even as he felt its +hard substance between his thumb and forefinger, he wondered if it was +really there. He knew that imagination can create strange things; +phantom tumours have been produced by imagination, tumours which are +visible to a physician's eye while the patient is conscious and his +mind obsessed with the conviction that it is there; he knew that such +swellings disappear when the patient is asleep. He felt dazed, and as +if he himself were unreal; his feet refused to tread firmly on the +earth; they never managed to reach it. When he looked for Abdul and +the camels, they were floating in the heavens above the horizon, miles +and miles away; there was a belt of sky between them and the desert +sand. If his legs had been paralysed, they could not have felt heavier +or more useless. + +He struggled on, but very soon the desert and the sky became one; the +world in front of him rose suddenly up and stood on end. It was quite +impossible to reach Abdul--he was receding as the horizon recedes when +a clear atmosphere foreshortens the distance. In his brain there was a +confused jumble; it was full of things which had no meaning or +cohesion. Millicent was the centre of the absurd medley, Millicent, +naked and unashamed, her slender figure as thickly covered with uncut +jewels of huge dimensions as the statues of Diana of Ephesus are +covered with breasts. The jewelled vision of Millicent dominated every +other picture in his brain. It was clearer than the village of flies, +or the African's cell in far-off el-Azhar, or the procession of white +figures returning from the burial of the desert saint. It moved along +in the clear air in front of him. He had no reasoning powers left, or +he would have asked himself why his subconscious brain had fashioned +this vision of Millicent wearing the sacred jewels when he still +believed in her innocence. The clear voice, man's divine messenger, +had kept him assured of the truth of his conviction. + +Everything was dreadfully confused. He wished that the horizon would +not come right forward and almost throw him off his balance. He seemed +to be constantly hitting up against it. And Abdul, why was he floating +further and further away? The harder he tried to get to him, the +further he went. And yet he could actually hear him reciting his +prayers. He was telling his rosary. Why did he tantalize him by +coming so near and then floating off again? Sometimes he came so near +that he could see his fine fingers automatically pulling the beads +along the string; a tassel of red silk hung from the end of it. There +were ninety-nine small red beads and one large one. He had reached the +fifty-ninth. Michael could tell that, because the words "O Giver of +Life" came to him sonorously across the desert stillness. The next one +would be "O Giver of Death," but Abdul had floated away again. Now he +had come back; he had said "O Living One," "O Enduring," "O Source of +Discovery." + +That was the sixty-third bead. Why had Abdul stopped at that one? Why +did he keep on repeating the words "O Source of Discovery," "O Source +of Discovery"? He ought to pass on to the next--"O Worthy of All +Honour," and after that the sixty-fifth, "O Thou Only One." No one +ever stopped at the sixty-third bead; all the attributes of Allah had +to be recited. But Abdul was still saying it over and over again. "O +Source of Discovery," "O Source of Discovery." The words danced before +Michael's eyes in letters of gold, like the advertisement of Bovril +which he had watched so often from the Thames Embankment, as it +appeared and disappeared in the sky across the river. + +And then again the letters were obliterated by the nude figure of +Millicent, with her hanging breasts of jewels. How delicate her limbs +were, how white her skin! The sun would blister it; if he could only +reach her, he would give her his coat. Like himself, she was walking +in the clear air and not on the firm earth. She was walking as St. +Peter had walked on the waves of the sea. + +Then something happened. He stumbled and would have fallen, but for a +great strength which gathered him up and sheltered him under the shadow +of Everlasting Arms. + + * * * * * * + +Abdul, with Eastern philosophy, had sat himself down to wait while his +master interviewed the director of the "dig." His soul was vexed and +his mind was ill at ease. His master's health was the principal cause +of his anxiety. His anger at the harlot, and his disappointment, +mingled with this anxiety, made him unusually despondent. + +He seated himself on a knoll where his master could easily see him when +he left the excavator's tent. It was not yet time for the performance +of his maghrib, or sunset prayer, which had to be said a few minutes +after the sun had set. He began to recite his rosary, telling an +attribute of God to each bead. When he had got about half-way through +the long list of names which form the Mohammedan rosary and by which +the Moslem addresses his Creator, he saw Michael leave the tent and +walk out into the sunlight. + +For a moment or two he seemed to be walking quite steadily and to be +coming towards him. Then suddenly he began to stagger and lurch like a +drunken man. + +Abdul rose from his seat and hurried towards him. What had seemed such +a long way to Michael had only been a few yards. His visions and fears +and the constant repetition of the sixty-third attribute of Allah had +been concentrated into the last few seconds before he stumbled and +fell, just as our dreams are enacted in the last moments before we +wake. Abdul had scarcely said the words "O Source of Discovery" for +the first time when he rose from his seat and hurried to his master, +who had stumbled and fallen. In his Moslem arms was God's Everlasting +Mercy. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +The heat in the Valley had become intense. The work in the +excavation-camp was at a standstill; nothing more could be done on the +actual site until the late autumn. + +Margaret and Freddy were soon to say good-bye to the little hut which +had been their home for many months. + +No direct news had come to them of Michael. Freddy had heard many +accounts and varying reports from unreliable sources of his travels in +the eastern desert. He was almost convinced that Michael's silence was +due to the fact that there was some foundation for the scandal, which +was persistent, that Millicent was one of his party. The report had +drifted to him from so many sources that he could scarcely doubt it. +It had sprung up and flourished like seed blown over light soil. He +was loath to believe that his friend, even if it had not been by his +own willing or desire, should have permitted the woman to stay with him +when he was Margaret's acknowledged lover. He despised him for being +such a weak fool. If Freddy could have left his work, he would have +started off without delay to look for Michael, or at least he would +have contrived to discover the reason for his silence and what degree +of truth there was in the story of Millicent's being with him. +Situated as he was, it was impossible for him to desert his post. He +had purposely avoided opening up the subject again with Margaret; it +was better to wait until a sufficient length of time had elapsed and +then, if no word came from Michael, he would speak to her again and +hold her to her promise to return home and try to drive the whole +affair from her mind. + +Even as he said the words to himself, he knew that they were absurd, +that such a thing was hopeless. Meg was not the sort of woman to trust +and love a man and then forget him. There could be no driving him from +her mind. Freddy knew that she had enough strength of character to do +whatever she thought was right. If circumstances compelled her to give +Michael up, she would do it, but in so doing her youth would be killed, +her heart broken. Her life would have to be re-made. A love like +Margaret's was a serious thing; Freddy realized that. He must go to +work carefully and judiciously. + +It hurt him more than Meg ever knew, to watch her suffering and +ever-growing anxiety. She made no complaint and very seldom alluded to +her lover's silence or to his absence. When she spoke of him, it was +generally to recall some happy incident which had happened in their +secluded life, little things culled from the store-closet of her +precious memories. + +It was to the stars and to the wide heavens that her heart relieved +itself. They heard the full story of her trust and loyalty and the +confessions of her jealous woman's heart; they bore her cry to the +understanding ear. + +It was impossible for Margaret to believe any wrong of her lover. If +she had short waves of doubt and agonizing moments of uncertainty and +indecision, they were always dispelled by the sudden inflow of +beautiful thoughts, which came like divine visions to her, as direct +assurances of Mike's loyalty and steadfastness. + +It was Freddy who caused her the cruellest suffering. It was so +dreadful to think that he, of all people, doubted, distrusted Mike! If +she had not cared for him so greatly it would not have mattered, but +apart from Michael he was the being she loved and respected most on +earth. His eyes haunted her; the doubt in them never left her mind; it +argued against her finer judgment. That her dear chum should be +working against her higher voice, her super-self, troubled her. It +seemed to set up a barrier between them, which was the cruellest part +of the whole affair. If he would only let her alone, she would go to +some cooler spot and there wait and wait until Michael came to her, for +she knew that he would come back to her, bringing her the same +beautiful love as he had carried away. She knew perfectly well that in +spite of her foolish fits of depression and distrust, he was wholly and +absolutely hers while he was alive on this earth. + +Freddy bore the expression of one who was waiting to deliver judgment. +Meg could see his annoyance kindling day by day. She could feel him +looking at her when he thought that she was not noticing. The deeper +circles under her eyes told Freddy their tale; the sagging of her +clothes, as they hung from her boyish limbs, the pitiful flattening of +her young breasts. This new and delicate-looking Margaret was very +beautiful. Our Lady of Sorrows had laid her hand upon her with a +softening grace; the new Meg had acquired what boyish Meg had never +possessed. Under her eyes, on her clear skin there were dark shadows, +which looked as if they had been made by the impress of carboned thumbs +which had pressed tired eyes to sleep. Meg's steadfast, honest eyes +now expressed things of a deeper meaning than mere comradeship and +brains; their beauty was quickened by the soul of suffering. Even in +Freddy's eyes she was much more attractive than she had been six months +ago. She was now a great deal more than merely pretty. As he watched +her bearing her anxiety and what appeared to him her humiliation with +so much calm dignity and braveness, he said to himself over and over +again, "She's a thousand times too good for a man who could behave like +a weak fool, if indeed Mike isn't worse!" + +He was looking at her now, as she lay in a deck-chair, her eyes closed +and her hands folded across her book. They had both been reading, +after a hard day's work. Meg had not turned many pages of her book; +her thoughts had wandered. As she felt her brother's eyes upon hers, +she raised her eyelids and looked at him steadily as she said: + +"Freddy, I'm going to see Hadassah Ireton." + +Freddy sat bolt upright. He, too, had been lying stretched out on a +lounge-chair. + +"Going to see Mrs. Ireton? But you don't know her!" + +He did not ask Meg why she was going; he knew. + +"That doesn't matter--I know all about her. My heart and mind know +her, and, after all, that's the important thing--it's the only thing +that matters." + +"But, Meg----" + +"Chum, no 'buts'--'buts' belong to small things. This is my life. We +must do something. You can't leave your work; I am no longer needed." + +"But what can Hadassah Ireton do?" + +"I don't know--she'll know, I feel she'll know. That's why I'm going." +She paused. "I've been told to go." + +"Oh, nonsense! How's this going to clear things up?" Freddy paused. + +"I don't know. If I did, I shouldn't go to the Iretons'. It's because +I don't know, and nothing's being done, that I mean to go to her and +consult her." + +"But why on earth trouble a stranger? I dislike the idea." + +"There are some human beings who are never strangers. Suffering unites +people. Hadassah Ireton has suffered." + +Freddy knocked the ash from his cigarette. A lump had risen up in his +throat. + +"What are you going to ask her to do?" Meg did not know the pain her +words had given him; he spoke huskily. + +"She's going to advise me what to do." Meg raised herself from her +reclining position. "She will help me, if Michael's ill, Freddy." + +"I don't suppose he is--I think we'd have heard." + +"I think that's why we haven't heard," Margaret said quickly. + +Freddy remained silent. He thought otherwise. He had a man's +knowledge of men. If Millicent Mervill was with him, he did not for +one moment believe that even Mike would be proof against such +temptation. + +"If he is ill," Meg said, "the Iretons will find out. They are in such +close touch with native life. Anyhow, they understood Mike and I want +to see them." + +Meg's last words were a little cry. Freddy could only feel pity for +her, although her words stung him. She must actually go from him to +strangers for the sympathy she needed. + +"Well, I won't stop you, but I think it's a pity. Whatever made you +think of such a thing?" + +"The thing that you call inspiration, chum--I know another name for it +now." + +Freddy looked amazed; Meg had absorbed so many of Mike's strange ideas. +"I don't know Ireton," he said. His voice had grown colder. + +"He married a Syrian--you wouldn't. The Lamptons don't do that sort of +thing." + +Freddy kept his temper, and the moment after Meg had said the words she +felt ashamed, disgraced. + +"I'm sorry, chum." She spoke gently. "It's my tongue that says these +hateful things, not my heart. Forgive me, like a dear." + +"All right, old girl." Freddy had never told his sister that he had +refused the hospitality and cut himself off from the friendship of more +than two English families, residents in Cairo, because they had taken a +prominent part in the outcasting of Michael Ireton from English society +when he had married Hadassah Lekejian. He knew that Margaret had +spoken the words hastily and unthinkingly. When Meg's nerves were on +edge was the only time she was ever cross and out of temper. "The +Iretons are delightful people. If I'd known Ireton when he was a +bachelor, I should have visited them after his marriage, but I didn't, +and I haven't much time for paying society calls. Besides, it might +have looked like patronizing them. The way they were treated by some +of the English out here was so abominable that one had to be jolly +careful. Ireton never minded a scrap--he's too big to care for the +social rot that goes on out here, but all the same, I didn't like to +make a point of calling. I'm a digger, Meg, not a resident with a +house to invite people to." + +"From what Mike told me, they must be the most delightful people. I +can't imagine Hadassah snubbing me if I went to see her, can you?" + +"I don't suppose she would. What will you say to her? It's a rum +idea." Freddy became meditative. + +"I don't know, but whatever one arranges to say on such occasions is +just the thing one doesn't say. The atmosphere will suggest the +words--it always does with me. I've never yet said the things I +planned to say. Have you?" + +"Scarcely ever, but it might be well to think things out." Freddy +disliked the idea of confiding family secrets to strangers. "When do +you think of going?" + +"When you leave here, I can go straight to Cairo. It will be cooler +there. I don't know Cairo--don't forget, I've never seen even the +Pyramids." + +"And when do you mean to go home? The season's getting on." + +"I don't know. It all depends on what news I can gather, or if a +letter comes. I can easily stay in Cairo until I hear. You won't +object to that?" + +"No. It's beastly hot here, by Jove!" Freddy poured himself out a +lemon-squash and drank it off. "I'm not sorry it's time to go home." + +"I don't feel the heat very much--the nights keep pretty cool." + +"You're looking fagged, all the same." + +"Oh, I'm all right--it's anxiety that kills. If only I was certain +that he wasn't ill, Freddy!" + +"I don't see why you should think Mike's ill. He's leading an awfully +healthy life. He's well accustomed to the desert. It's cooler with +him than it is here." + +"I know, but it's a very strained life. I have a conviction that he's +ill. Whenever I think intently of him, I see him ill and suffering. +These things must have their meaning." + +"I think we should have heard if he was ill. We got the other news +quick enough, didn't we!" + +Meg frowned. + +"It will be cooler in Cairo, but give me your word that you personally +won't do anything foolish in the way of looking for Michael, or going +off alone into the desert." + +"No, I won't do anything foolish. That's not in my line, is it now? I +have some Lampton common sense." + +"Not about some things." + +Meg laughed. "Wait till you know what it is like, chum." + +"Well, you'll not forget your other promise?" + +Meg thought for a moment before answering and then she said +emphatically, "No, I won't forget my promise. I'm not in the least +afraid that I shall be tempted to break it." + +"You have promised to go back to England if you find undeniable proof +that Michael and Millicent were together in the desert." + +"Yes, I promise. I will go back to the old life, which seems like a +dream." Meg gave a little shiver as she visualized her old-world +Suffolk home and the narrowness of her life there. "Any old place +would do, chum, to bury myself in if my heart was broken." + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +Through a labyrinth of narrow streets, echoing with native cries and +Oriental traffic, a wonderful sight and sensation to strangers +unfamiliar with Cairene commercial life, Margaret Lampton found her way +to "the home of enchantment," as she afterwards called the Iretons' +ancient mansion. It was a native house, typical and expressive of the +most resplendent years of the Mameluke rule in Egypt. + +A licensed guide, with a brass-lettered number on his arm, in a blue +cotton jebba and a scarlet fez, had volunteered to show her the way; it +would have been impossible for a stranger to find it alone. The +Cairene licensed guides, although they are pests, have their uses. + +As Margaret passed under the lintel of the outer door, which led into a +quiet courtyard, of Hadassah Ireton's house, a Nubian servant rose from +the stone _mastaba_--the guards' seat--upon which he had been lying +half asleep; he conducted her with the silence of a shadow to the gate +of the inner or women's courtyard. This courtyard was overlooked by +the women's quarters of the house only. + +Margaret rather timidly entered the second courtyard. She scarcely +knew what to expect. She was certainly not prepared for the vision of +beauty which she saw directly the door was opened. She had heard +nothing at all of the fantastic beauty of the superb old Mameluke +palaces in Cairo; she did not know that the Iretons lived in one. + +A fat servant, also a Nubian, but more amply clad the guard at the +outer door, rose from a wooden seat, grown grey with age. With the +same silence and mystery he conducted Margaret across the courtyard. + +Margaret could, of course, only glance at the bewildering beauty of her +mediaeval surroundings as she followed the servant, but brief as her +vision of it was, it left a never-to-be-forgotten picture in her mind. +A vision of coolness and peace, of oriel windows--chamber-windows for +unreal people, jealously screened with weather-bleached _meshrahiyeh_ +work--and one high balcony, the special feature of the courtyard, a +dream of romantic beauty, shaded by the dark leaves of an ancient +lebbek tree. It was a vision as dignified as it was touching. It was +like a lost piece of a world which had passed away, a lonely cloud +which had detached itself from a world of romance and had hidden itself +in the heart of a seething city of ugliness and sin. + +Surprise temporarily drove from Margaret's mind the object of her +visit; it was not until she was seated in the spacious room which +overlooked the courtyard, and whose front wall consisted of the +_meshrahiyeh_ balcony--it was now Hadassah Ireton's drawing-room--that +she was brought face to face with the unusualness of her visit. + +The room was beautifully cool, screened as it was by the delicate +lace-work. _Meshrabiyeh_ was invented to fill two wants--to screen the +windows through which women could look out, without being seen +themselves, and to admit fresh air while it excluded the sun. It is a +substitute for glass in a warm climate. + +Margaret would have liked to have sat for a little time longer to +collect her thoughts and to take in the beauty of the room; but that +was not to be; the door opened and her hostess entered. + +Of all the beautiful pictures which she had seen since she entered the +inner courtyard of this mediaeval home, Hadassah Ireton was the most +beautiful. She had brought her baby-boy with her; he was just learning +to toddle. A sob rose in Margaret's throat, as she saw the fair-haired +child beside the tall young mother. + +Hadassah had greeted her with the conventional "How do you do?" +Margaret answered it as conventionally. + +Hadassah lifted her boy up and held him out to Margaret. "This is my +son," she said. "I know he wants to welcome you." + +The boy held up his face to be kissed. As he did so, Margaret took him +in her arms and held him close to her breast. Hadassah, who had +brought him to administer to that very want--a woman's empty arms--went +to the balcony and made a pretence of letting in some fresh air and +excluding the shaft of sunlight which was coming from one of the small +oriels that had been left unclosed. + +When she turned to her guest, she saw something very like tears in +Margaret's eyes. The child, who did not know the meaning of the word +fear or shyness, was speaking to Margaret as if he had known her all +his short life. + +"He has taken you into his elastic heart," Hadassah said. "Because, if +you don't mind me saying so, I think we are rather like one another." + +"Oh, no!" Margaret said impulsively, while she blushed. "I'm not like +you!" + +Her words were expressive of admiration. Hadassah did not pretend to +misunderstand them; she was well accustomed to admiration. + +"The boy sees the resemblance, I'm sure." + +"We have both dark heads and we are both tall," Margaret said +laughingly. "But there the likeness ends." She looked at Hadassah's +eyes as she spoke and wished that she could believe that she was in the +least like her. She had never seen such a beautiful expression in any +woman's eyes before. Was she really the Syrian girl whom Michael +Ireton had dared to marry? + +"Let us sit down," Hadassah said. "But before we begin our talk, I +must send Michael to the nursery. I am really so foolish about him--I +wanted you to see him." She rang the bell and a pretty Coptic girl in +native dress came into the room; the boy went on with her without +demur. The girl had looked at Margaret with big brown eyes; they +carried her mind back to the portraits of Egyptian women painted in +Roman times on the walls of tombs. + +"What a good little chap!" Margaret said. "I'm sure he wanted to stay +with you. How marked the Coptic type is!--they are the true +descendants of the ancient Egyptians, aren't they? He looked so fair +beside her." + +"Dear little son! He will be perfectly happy with her. He loves +everybody and everything. I sometimes wonder if it means a lack of +character. He rarely cries, and he sings baby-songs to himself all day +long." + +"What a darling!" Margaret said. "And how fair!" + +"Yes," Hadassah said, "quite English." The words were spoken without +malice, but they brought the colour to Margaret's cheeks. Hadassah saw +it, and said laughingly, "I was granted my wish--I wanted to have a boy +as like my husband as possible. He wanted a girl, I think." + +Margaret laid her hand on Hadassah's arm. "Did you mind me writing?" +she said. "I hope you didn't think it very odd?" Her voice broke. "I +wanted your advice. I knew you and your husband could help me." + +"Dear Miss Lampton," Hadassah said, "I'm so glad you wrote, and of +course I understood. It's worth while to have suffered oneself, so as +to be able to understand and help others in their suffering." + +Margaret knew all that the words implied, but with her habitual +reserve, she answered as though Hadassah had referred to her cousin's +death. The Nationalist plot in which he was implicated had added to +the horror which British society in Cairo had openly expressed at +Michael Ireton's marriage with a Syrian, who was a cousin of the +ill-advised youth. + +"Michael told me something of the tragedy," Margaret said. "You must +have felt his death terribly." + +Margaret's words were conventional, but Hadassah did not miss the +sympathy and feeling which lay underneath them. + +"I did," Hadassah said. "But the boy would never have been happy--he +was one of the pitiful instances you meet in Egypt; of misguided +idealists. Girgis had a fine character, but he was fastened upon +because of his wealth by the wrong set of the Nationalist party, who +misled him and then turned on him and killed him because he wouldn't go +as far as they wanted him to go in their horrible outrages. It was a +pitiful story, greatly distorted and misinterpreted by the press." + +"His death was splendid," Margaret said. "It wiped out all the +rest--it proved his real worth." + +"Yes," Hadassah said. "Poor Girgis died a hero's death. He was as +brave as a lion. But come," she said, "let me hear your news. These +things we are talking about are ancient history to everybody but +myself, and I never think of them if I can help it. It is better not." +She sighed reflectively. "Dear Girgis knows that I can never forget +him. He gave me all his fierce young love at a time when it was very +precious." + +"Ignorance was at the bottom of it all," Margaret said. She was +alluding to the behaviour of the British residents in Cairo in respect +to Hadassah's marriage. Hadassah understood. + +"I have learned to know and realize that," she said. "And, after all, +one must pity ignorance. I have got so far that I can actually feel +sorry for such narrow minds. As for Michael, he never gave it a +thought. If our characters are widened through suffering, I have +gained--they have lost. Something fine always leaves our natures when +we do or think unkind things--nothing is truer or surer than that." + +"Michael always says the same thing," Margaret said eagerly. "He +thinks unkind thoughts and uncharitable acts--want of love, in +fact--the unpardonable sins." + +"Both our men have the same name." Hadassah's eyes smiled. "I like +your man so much, if I may say so. He is worth a great deal. We can't +expect big things to come to us in a small, mediocre way, can we?" + +"I am so glad you like him," Margaret said. "And you believe in him? +Your husband believes in him, in his . . ." she hesitated ". . . +unpractical mind?" Hadassah's understanding and gentleness made her +feel childishly weak. It would have been a relief to give way to +weeping. Her nerves were at the point when any rebuke would have +braced her sympathy was undoing. + +"Why, of course!" + +"May I tell you why I came?" + +"Will you have some tea first? You are tired!" + +"No thanks, really. I had numerous cups of coffee on my way here." + +"Then let me hear all you want to tell me. Even if I can't help you, I +know how nice it is to talk over one's troubles with another woman. +You have lived very much cut off from women's society all these months. +Where is Mr. Amory? Did he go into the desert? We haven't heard of +him or from him since he spoke to my husband about going off on a long +journey. He had a great scheme in his head. He's an odd creature." +She laughed. "You and I both like individualities, I think." + +"He went into the eastern desert soon after you saw him. I haven't +heard from him since he went. His letters may have gone astray. But +in the meantime a report has been spread abroad that he has taken a +woman with him, a Mrs. Mervill. Have you heard of her?" + +"Millicent Mervill? I know her!" + +"Well, she is in love with him. You know how beautiful she is. . . ." +Margaret's voice lost its steadiness. + +"Yes, and also I know how thoroughly lacking in morals. She is very +well-known by this time. Last season she was the fashion; she +entertained lavishly. This year she has thrown caution to the winds." + +"She certainly has, for she has positively hunted Michael to earth." + +"Michael Amory, of all men!" Hadassah's laugh encouraged Margaret; it +was so expressive of what she herself felt. + +"Yes, I think she is annoyed because. . . ." Margaret paused ". . . +well, I can't express what I mean, but Michael isn't that sort. He +would be her friend if she would let him, but friendship isn't enough." + +"I know what you mean. He certainly isn't that sort, there can be no +mistaking that." + +Margaret smiled happily. "Then you believe he isn't?" + +"Of course! Who doesn't?" + +"My brother objects to my name being mixed up in the scandal." Margaret +had evaded answering Hadassah's question. + +"But what scandal?" + +"The reports that are going about that Mrs. Mervill is with him in the +desert, that that is why I haven't heard from Mike. Everyone is saying +it." Meg's words conveyed an apology for her brother. + +"Your brother really believes this, and yet he knows Mr. Amory?" + +"Yes. But you mustn't blame him. He has tried not to believe it; he +is really awfully good about it all. And I must admit that it looks as +if the story was true, but I just know it isn't." + +"Of course it isn't!" Hadassah said, almost sharply. "Who spread the +report?" + +"First it came from the native diggers in the valley, and then my +brother heard it from Mr. King. Now lots of people are talking about +it, and my brother wants me to go home. . . . I've promised to go +if . . ." Margaret paused. "That's why I came to you. I want your +advice. If we could only hear from Michael, I know the whole thing +would be explained. My brother would do anything he could to help me, +but his business ties him and . . ." again she paused and then said +hurriedly, "You know what men are--he hates my name being bandied +about." + +"I'll get my husband to comb out the truth from all these lies." +Hadassah put her hand on Margaret's. "You'll laugh at your fears one +day." + +"If you only knew how thoughtless Michael is about the opinion of the +world! If he isn't doing wrong, he never stops to think what +construction the world may be putting on his action, nor does he care." + +"Personally I think it's the malicious talk of some enemy, or of Mrs. +Mervill herself. Can she have intercepted his letters, and spread the +report so as to separate you?" + +"She may have followed him. If she is with him, she is self-invited." + +Hadassah Ireton interrupted her. "Even Mrs. Mervill could scarcely do +that!" + +"My brother says that I may wait in Cairo until we can find definite +proofs one way or another. A letter may come from Michael at any +moment. I know it will come if he is all right, but I'm so afraid he +is ill--that is really what I came to ask you about." + +"You want us to try to find out if he is ill?" + +"Yes, if you will, if it is not asking too much. Something keeps on +telling me that he is ill, that he is in need of help." Margaret was +speaking more earnestly and with less restraint. "I have had queer +visions and many presentiments since I lived in the Valley. I seem to +be able to see beyond . . . if you know what I mean. They have come +true in many instances--it is not mere imagination. But perhaps you +have as little belief as I once had in these things?" + +"Where ought Mr. Amory to be just now--have you any idea?" Hadassah's +voice conveyed the idea to Margaret that the subject was too serious to +be spoken of hastily or decisively. + +"He ought to have reached his destination, the hills beyond the ruins +of Tel-el-Amarna. Did you know the object of his journey?" Margaret +spoke nervously, shyly; she shrank from speaking of her lover's belief +in the treasure of Akhnaton. + +"Yes. He told my husband the twofold reason of his wish to make the +journey. He believes in the theory that there is a buried treasure in +the hills beyond Tel-el-Amarna, where Akhnaton was buried, and I think +he also wanted . . . what shall I say? . . . to find himself--I suppose +I must use that hackneyed phrase for want of a better--to find himself +in the desert. Wasn't that it?" + +"Yes. He is a born wanderer." Margaret said the words dreamily; her +thoughts had flown, to the luminous figure of Akhnaton. In this superb +mansion, fashioned by Oriental genius and Eastern wealth and +imagination, her vision took its place, not unnaturally, in the strange +list of things which her eyes had seen or her mind had received during +her life in Egypt. + +"Will you enjoy a wandering life? Don't you think women like a home?" + +"With an intellectual companion any place is home; with a stupid one a +palace becomes a wilderness. I have learnt that in the desert, if I +have learnt nothing else, I think. Michael could make a real home out +of a bathing-machine and a box of books." She laughed. "He is never +dull, he doesn't know the meaning of the word bored. His only trouble +is that no day is long enough. He'd forget the dimensions of the +bathing-machine--it would become to him a beautiful house like this." + +"What a wonderful thing love is!" Hadassah said to herself, as she +watched Margaret's eyes glow and shine. Her thoughts had transformed +her. "A wonderful and beautiful thing! Whatever would the world be +without it? And yet there are some people who go through life without +the faintest idea of what it really means!" + +"What we three have got to do," she said aloud, "is to discover where +the wanderer is. The sooner he is found the sooner he can start life +in a bathing-box. I agree with you so far that I think it's more than +likely that he is ill--not necessarily seriously ill, but ill enough to +have been delayed on his journey. Still, that is not the only solution +of the problem. His letters may be lying in some native post-office. +I've known letters remain for weeks on end in out-of-the-way village +post-offices. The official can't read the address; he puts the letter +aside until someone comes along who can. It may be sooner, it may be +later; they eventually reach their destination." + +Margaret smiled. "Michael's writing is not too clear--that may be the +cause of the delay." + +"My husband has received letters which have been months on a journey +which should have taken days. Time means nothing to desert peoples, as +you know." + +"You have made me feel much happier," Margaret said brightly. She +could have kissed the beautiful woman by her side out of sheer +gratitude. + +For some time longer they discussed the subject more fully and laid +their plans. + +Suddenly Hadassah said, "Where are you staying in Cairo?" + +When Margaret told her the name of her hotel, she said, "You must come +to us. We have lots of spare room in this big house, and if you are +here we can work together so much better. The hotel is too public. It +would really give us great pleasure if you will. I feel sure it would +be wiser." + +"How kind of you to ask me!" Margaret said. "I am quite a stranger to +you! I'd love to come. Michael has told me something about your work +among the Copts--indeed, everyone speaks of it, of your new educational +scheme and the progress you have made in so short a time. I should +like to understand more about it, if I may." + +"Perhaps our minds have met many times before, for I think we are +scarcely strangers," Hadassah said. "I hope you don't feel towards me +as one?" + +Margaret looked pleased. "I have heard so much about you, about your +work." + +"It is very uphill work. You can only hope for very slow results +amongst a people who have been scorned and persecuted and rejected for +generations and generations. I, as a Syrian, know what social +persecution means, so it is my highest ambition to do what little I +can, with my husband's help and my father's wealth, to elevate the +ideals and the moral standard of the young Coptic girls. You can do +nothing, or next to nothing, with the older women. Their characters +are formed, their prejudices too deeply-rooted." + +"I suppose so. It is the same in India--the women there are the +bitterest opponents to the reforms for women. They cling to the +suffering and oppression they endure." + +"These Copts have absorbed so many of the worst features of the +Mohammedan civilization--their superstitions, their domestic customs +as regards the women, and a great many of their least desirable +religious ceremonies. It is hard, for instance, for a stranger to +distinguish between a Christian native's marriage or funeral and a +Moslem's--indeed, it is often not easy even if you have a lifelong +knowledge of the country. The finest qualities of Islam--and they +are many--they have rejected, and for so doing they have suffered +unthinkable hardships and persecutions. Bad as things are to-day, they +were far, far worse in the days before the British Occupation, when the +Christians were at the mercy of the fanatical Moslems." + +"It is such a pity that the native Christian population is the one +which no one trusts in this country. The Mohammedans are respected, +the Copts are despised. I find that, even in connection with my +brother's work. The brains and industry of the country seem to belong +to the Copts; the honour and reliability to the Moslems." + +"I know," Hadassah said. "And that's what my husband and I are +fighting against. He wants to prove that the people of any country and +of any religion, even the English," Hadassah's eyes twinkled, "will +become degraded and untrustworthy in time, if they are persecuted and +oppressed. With the Christian element in Egypt, it has been a case of +every man for himself and the devil take the hindmost. If we were to +take some Coptic children and Mohammedan children, of the same social +grade out here, and had them educated in England as Christians, you +would soon see that it is not the Copts who ought to be despised, but +their intolerant oppressors and persecutors." Hadassah smiled. "You +know, Miss Lampton, how easy it is to be good and strong when one is +trusted and loved. Love makes finer, better women of us." + +Margaret rose from her seat. "You have done me so much good," she +said. "I feel as if my world had been re-made." + +"That's splendid!" Hadassah said. "I always try to remember that it is +a privilege to suffer. It is one of the divine fires which tests us; +suffering links us to the great brotherhood. You wouldn't choose to be +outside it. The older we grow the more we realize that it is +suffering, not happiness, which makes the whole world kin." + +Margaret's silence, which often was more eloquent than other women's +speech, told Hadassah that she agreed. Suffering was teaching her its +lessons. + +"When may we expect you?" Hadassah said. "The sooner the better, don't +you think?" + +"May I come in a day or two? I have some business to do for my +brother--I have promised to see one or two people for him; he is going +home very soon." She looked round the hall through which they were +passing. "I can't imagine myself ever really living here. It looks as +if it had all been created by the wand of some magician for a princess +in a fairytale. What a contrast to our hut in the Valley!" + +"You like it better than a new house in the European settlement? You +think I chose wisely?" + +"Of course I do. Who wouldn't?" + +"This house costs us no more than a good flat would in the European +part of the city, but you have to come through the native quarters to +get to it, remember. Many people would object to that." + +"I hate the European quarter of Cairo," Margaret said. "It seems to me +so vulgar and degenerate. The native quarter is just what it sets out +to be, no better and no worse." + +"Well, you must come and stay with us--my husband will enjoy showing +you the hidden beauties of Cairo. He is devoted to it." + +Margaret's ears caught the sound of water. It was coming from a tall +fountain which was playing in the centre of the outer hall. Above it +was a pendentive roof, richly carved and coloured. A suggestion of +turquoise-blue and the gleam of iridescent tiles showed through the +clear water in the octagonal basin set in the floor. The jets of water +came from a large ball of blue faience resting on the top of a slender +spiral column. The fountain was only one of the beautiful features of +that Eastern mansion which Margaret noticed as her hostess conducted +her to the inner courtyard. + +"How enchanting it all is!" Margaret said. "I feel much too prosaic to +imagine spending my everyday working hours in it." Her life in the hut +seemed better suited to her practical nature. + +"I love it," Hadassah said. "And I like its emptiness. That is the +native idea. We have tried not to make it look like a mediaeval +museum, not to stuff it up with things. It's a great temptation." + +"Its sense of space is its greatest charm. There is everything you can +possibly want in it, and yet it has none of the absurd knick-knacks and +useless lumber of Western houses. My brother and I have learned to do +without so much that I don't think we shall ever fall into the sin of +overcrowding our rooms again." + +Hadassah laughed. "Will you have the courage to burn family +relics?--Aunt Maria's uncomfortable ottoman, Aunt Elizabeth's +escritoire, which is too small to write at, and Aunt Anne's firescreen +with strawberries worked in bead-work?" + +"Oh, I know them all," Margaret said. "Just compare them to these +beautiful things!" + +"Don't forget," Hadassah said, "that you are comparing the things of +England's worst period to the things of the finest period in Cairo. If +you saw some of the native houses, furnished from the European store in +the Ezbekiyeh, you would think Queen Victoria's private apartments at +Osborne beautiful," Hadassah's voice expressed her meaning. + +"Good-bye," Margaret said laughingly. "It is hard to believe that, but +I take your word for it." + +As Margaret walked through the outer courtyard, she kept saying to +herself, "So that is the Syrian's daughter, the girl whom the English +people rejected and would have none of!" + +Freddy had often corrected his sister for her careless use of the word +"beautiful." He maintained that few people had ever seen a really +beautiful human being. The Greeks idealized their models in their +types of Venus and Apollo. Margaret felt that at last she could +truthfully tell him that she had seen a beautiful woman, and that that +woman was a Syrian, Michael Ireton's "wife out of Egypt." + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +When Margaret reached her hotel she was more than astonished to hear +that in her absence her brother had called to see her. He had left a +message to say that he would return in half an hour. + +"How long ago was that?" Margaret asked. + +The very grand servant, in his elaborately-embroidered and gold laced +native dress, said, "About twenty minutes ago, my lady. The gentleman +said that it was important that he should see you." + +"I will wait for him on the terrace," Margaret said. "Bring him to me +directly he arrives." + +She was so taken back by this inexplicable piece of news that she heard +nothing more of what the man said. Why on earth had Freddy come to +Cairo? Margaret knew that he had business which was to have kept him +four more days at least in Luxor. Her first thought was that he had +heard something about Michael, but she doubted if even that would have +made him neglectful of his duty. With Freddy his work and the +responsibility it entailed came before every other consideration. +Margaret had ever been mindful of the fact that her presence in the +camp was not to interfere with his work. She knew him so well, or she +fancied that she did. His coming must be in some way connected with +his work. Perhaps he wished to stop her carrying out the instructions +which he had given her; he might have learned something in Luxor which +had upset his plans. + +A few minutes before the half-hour was up, Margaret saw her brother +walking quickly towards the hotel. The moment she caught sight of him, +she left the terrace and hurried down the street to meet him. There +was no one else within sight. He was walking with his head bent and as +though he was deeply immersed in thought. + +When she got within speaking distance, she called out, "Oh, Freddy, +what is it? Why have you come?" + +His expression had convinced her that something was wrong, that +something very serious had brought him to Cairo. + +Freddy linked his arm in his sister's and took a deep breath before he +spoke. "Chum dear," he said, "I've brought bad news for you." + +"Michael's dead!" Meg stood still and dropped her brother's arm. It +was a pitiful face, that paled to the lips as her eyes gazed into +Freddy's. + +"No, Meg, Mike's not dead." + +"Then he's dying, and you're afraid to tell me!" Margaret strode +forward, as if she was then and there starting off to find her dying +lover. Freddy laid his hand on her arm. "Freddy, let me go!" she said +impatiently. "Take me to him quickly. Wild horses won't detain me!" +She shook off his hand. + +"Steady, old girl. Let me tell you all about it. Mike's quite well, +so far as I know. I've heard nothing about any illness." + +"Then what's the matter? More lies? Hadassah Ireton doesn't believe a +word of them! She is an angel--she is going to help me." Meg's head +dropped; her chest rose and fell with suppressed emotion. + +"Don't walk so quickly, Meg. I can't tell you while you dash on like +that. Have some pity on me--I hate my job." + +Meg fell back. "Well, tell me--out with it!" + +"The Government has got wind of the 'site.' Michael's discovery has +been anticipated. Experimentary digging has begun." + +"And where is Mike?" Meg's eyes blazed. + +"That is just it! He ought to have reached the hills two weeks ago, at +least. While he has been idling, someone has played him +false--betrayed him--informed the Government for the sake of the +reward." + +Meg gave a little cry. It lashed Freddy to fury against Michael; it +was the cry of a crucified soul. + +"It's just his casual drifting again!" + +"But you didn't believe in the treasure!" Meg's loyalty was up in arms +against Freddy's voice of accusation. + +"I know I didn't, and it's yet got to be proved that it is there. But +the fact remains that I heard from the Director of Public Works that a +temporary camp has been pitched on the very site Mike was going for. +The whole story is a complication of truth and fiction." + +Meg spoke with difficulty. The agony at her heart was choking her. +"Why have they suddenly sent excavators to that particular spot, if +there is nothing there?" + +"On the strength of the information given by a native." + +"And what had the native found? Isn't it just too diabolical and +wicked?" + +"It's jolly hard lines, but if Mike had gone there straight and as +quickly as he could, if he hadn't played the idiot, he'd have been +there before the native who has betrayed him." + +While Freddy was speaking, thoughts came to Meg of her vision of +Akhnaton, of the strange and occult incidents connected with the story +of the hidden treasure. + +"What do you mean by playing the fool?" she said. "Have you heard from +Michael? Have you any reliable ground for supposing that he played the +fool?" Meg's voice was beautifully scornful. + +"I've heard again, that Millicent was with him. The facts are +undeniable. The whole thing makes me furious. Why couldn't he have +written to me and told me, if she followed him, as you suggested? His +silence condemns him." + +"It makes me more than furious." Meg's voice was horrible in Freddy's +ears; it was older, shriller, cruelly defiant. "It makes me furious to +think how easily evil is believed of the absent, who can't defend +themselves." + +They strode along. Both were walking blindly forward. + +"It makes me sick, sick, sick!" She flung the words out and then broke +into a little cry. "Oh, Freddy, have you no faith? no trust? Is that +your friendship?" + +"What can I do?" he said. "I'm not blinded with love as you are. I +see things dispassionately. I want to do what is best for you. Why +hasn't he written? I'm quite willing to believe what Michael tells +me--I don't doubt his word--but he has said nothing. This is another +example of his weakness." + +"Do you believe that Millicent is still with him?" + +"Her dragoman who took her into the desert has returned to Luxor. I +haven't seen him--he could tell us everything we want to know." + +"The news came from him?" Meg's voice was a stinging reproach. + +"Yes. He only remained in Luxor a few hours; he was going to his home +in Assiut, but he spread the story." + +There was a pause. + +"He took Millicent to Michael?" + +"He took her into the desert; they met." + +"And because we have had no word from Michael, no explanation, you are +ready to condemn him?" Meg's words were loyal, while her heart was +torn with jealousy. + +"Meg," said Freddy gently, "will you go home to England?" + +"No." The word came sharply, abruptly. + +"You promised, old girl." + +"I never promised to accept the words of a dragoman against my own +knowledge of Michael, against my conscience. I have another promise to +keep, my promise of absolute trust." + +"The dragoman can have no object in lying, and added to his report, +there is the fact that if Michael had not dallied for some reason or +another, he would have reached the hills long before this. He has +allowed the Government to anticipate him." + +"Freddy, I believe in God, and He has told me that Michael is as true +to me as I am to him." + +"Poor old girl!" Freddy said tenderly. "You're such a loyal old thing." + +But Meg rounded on him; she was a truer Lampton than she ever +suspected. "Oh, don't 'poor' me, Freddy! I can't bear it. It sounds +as if I were half an imbecile, or as if Michael was a villain! I've +got my wits all right--and Egypt has given me super-wits. It has shown +me things beyond. If there is such a thing as conscience, then I +should be sinning against mine if I doubted my lover for one instant." + +"But didn't you say that the Lampton pride would not be wanting when +you really discovered that Mike had taken Millicent with him?" + +"And it won't be wanting, if either Mike or Millicent tell me with +their own lips that they have been together on this journey. I'll +start off home by the next boat." + +"Oh, do be reasonable, Meg! You won't see either of them. If this +thing has happened, they'll keep out of the way. That's why they are +keeping silence." + +"You are asking me to accept circumstantial evidence of what I call the +lowest order--dragomans' gossip. Well, I simply say I won't do it." + +"What about the time he has taken to reach the hills?" + +"I don't pretend to understand. Mike will explain when he gets a +chance. I only know that he wouldn't believe a word of the story if he +heard that I had been away with six good-looking men who admired me." + +Freddy gave a mirthless laugh. "There is safety in numbers, Meg. If +he had the evidence you have, I wonder what he'd feel?" + +"Just what I feel. I have seen Hadassah Ireton. Her husband will help +me. He knew Mike; they planned this journey together." + +"I wish you'd leave things alone. I asked you to." + +"I can't. Michael may be ill." + +"It doesn't sound like it. Bad news travels quickly." + +"Look here, Freddy," Margaret said, "you haven't the slightest idea of +what it feels like to be in love. When you do, you will understand. +What a lot you have still to learn! You won't believe any old lie that +comes along about the girl you have vowed to trust and whom you believe +in as you believe in your God. As lovers we Lamptons don't deal in +half measures." + +"Then are you going to remain in Cairo indefinitely, waiting and +waiting for Michael to come back to you, when he is away fooling with +another woman?" + +"Don't kill me, Freddy! I can't stand much more." A sob burst from +Meg's lips. "All that's best in me trusts in Michael and all that is +bad doubts and distrusts. It's the bad that is killing me. Do you +understand? For pity's sake, if you care for me, don't add to the +evil, don't give it the upper hand. Freddy, I need you, I need some +trust to add to mine!" + +"I'd kill myself if it would help you, you know I would!" + +"Yes, I know it, of course I know it. I just go mad when you doubt +him, Freddy, I see red. I could kill you. It's because your doubts +feed my evil thoughts. I can't explain, but I know what I mean myself." + +"I want to save you further pain, Meg." + +"Hadassah Ireton said, which is quite true, that it is sometimes a +privilege to suffer. If only you, Freddy, won't doubt Mike, I can +endure almost anything. You're just a bit of myself. I can't bear you +to doubt. It's like myself doubting and forgetting, forgetting the +most beautiful thing in my life." + +They had wandered on until they had come to the Nile Bridge. The sight +of the tall masts of the native boats, silhouetted against the crimson +of the evening sky, reminded Freddy that already they had gone too far. +He stopped abruptly. + +"We must drive back, Meg, as quickly as we can. I've my train to +catch. We shall only just do it." + +"Did you come to Cairo on purpose to see me?" + +Freddy had signalled to a cab--an open landau, of ancient and decayed +splendour, driven by two white horses. They came dashing up at a wild +gallop. The native driver, in his red fez and white cotton jacket, +barely gave Freddy time to jump into the carriage after Meg was seated +when, with a noisy cracking of his whip, he urged the horses to a still +more reckless speed. + +"I had to come. I was afraid you might get the news in some horrible +way. You've been a brick, but you can't think how I dreaded telling +you." + +"I've not been a brick. I've been horrid. I am always horrid +nowadays." Meg's voice was contrite and humble. + +"I like you for it. We understand each other." + +"You're the dearest and best brother on earth, Freddy, and you know I +think so, and yet I speak as if I hated you!" + +"We're chums," he said, as he put his hand on the top of Margaret's. +After that conversation became impossible. The horses were going at a +mad pace, through crowded, noisy streets. Margaret was a little +nervous, but she realized that there was only just time for Freddy to +catch his train, if he allowed the coachman to take his own way, to +drive in the arrogant native style. Every other minute she felt sure +that they would run over a child or dog, or knock down a foot +passenger. It seemed to be the privilege of anyone who could afford to +pay for a cab to drive over pedestrians if they got in the way; the +humble poor were of less account than the dust beneath the horses' +feet. The coachman's absurd cries to "clear the way" pierced +Margaret's ears without amusing her, while the cracking of the whip +almost drove her to despair. The noise and crowd of idle human beings +was bewildering to her nerves after the silence of the desert. + +At last they reached the station, where they had to say good-bye +hurriedly and regretfully. + +"I'll let you know," Margaret said, "what Michael Ireton advises. +Remember, I'm all right. Don't worry. You've been a dear. It was +awfully good of you to come." + +"Good-bye, old girl," he said. "Take care of yourself." + +As Meg walked back to her hotel, she comforted herself with the +assurance that Michael Ireton would find some way to help her. She +visualized to herself repeatedly the personality of Hadassah and her +expression of absolute confidence in Michael's Amory's loyalty and +honour. Her finer senses told her that it was natures like Hadassah's, +natures keenly sensitive to purity and uprightness, which could judge +people like Mike justly. The magnet of righteousness draws kindred +souls together. If Hadassah had doubted, then indeed she might have +listened to Freddy's counsel. Freddy was just and splendid in his way, +but Margaret did not blind herself to the fact that his knowledge of +human nature, even though it was singularly correct in most instances, +was derived from a more material source of evidence. His judgment was +governed by his practical common sense rather than by his super-senses. +Hadassah's nature was tuned to the inner consciousness of human beings, +as a musician's ear is tuned to the harmonies and discords of music, +even to the hundredth part of a tone. + +If a woman like Hadassah had doubted Michael, or given a moment's +thought to the gossip of the dragoman, Margaret's faith might have been +troubled. But as matters stood at present, she knew that she herself +had a finer understanding of Michael than Freddy possessed, in spite of +his years, as compared to her own months of friendship. She tried to +strengthen herself against the invasion of unhappy thoughts by thinking +over in her mind all the various objects of beauty she had seen in the +Iretons' house. The picture of the cool courtyard, with the +dark-leaved lebbek-tree reaching up to the romantic balcony, brought a +smile to her lips. It was such an ideal setting for an Eastern Romeo +and Juliet. Busy as she knew the Iretons' life to be, their mediaeval +home suggested the repose and the charm and the romance of Love in +Idleness! + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +To assure herself of her complete confidence in the arguments which she +had used to Freddy and of her own heart's happiness, as a thing widely +apart from her anxiety, Margaret dressed herself in her most becoming +frock that same evening for her first appearance at the hotel _table +d'hote_. She sat at a little table by herself, in the enormous +dining-room. The season was far advanced; the tourists in Egypt had +all returned to Cairo, there to disperse to their various countries. + +There were many fair and attractive women in the room, of widely varied +types--Americans, Austrians and English: that was how they took their +place in the scale of beauty in Margaret's opinion. Amongst them all +there was perhaps no one who was more commented upon and admired than +herself. Sitting by herself, for one thing, provoked curiosity, while +for another her claim to good looks had the high quality of +distinguished individuality; in an assembly of well-dressed women of +the world, Margaret, like Hadassah, could never be overlooked. + +She had been out of the world of fashion and frivolity for so long that +the gay scene interested her and made it easy for her to temporarily +put aside her troubles. She had lived in the Valley, studying the +lives and customs of lost civilizations until they had become a part of +her own life. Now she found it amusing to be back again amongst the +men and women of to-day, people who were, as she reminded herself, in +their own little way creating history. They were as typical of the +world's evolution in the twentieth century as the Pharaohs in their +tombs and the painted figures of men and women and dancing girls on the +temple and tomb-walls were typical of the world's evolution three +thousand years ago. + +After dinner she drank her coffee in the fine lounge of the hotel, +under tall palm-trees, while a Hungarian band played music which +stirred her blood and pulses. It made her feel very much alone and a +little desolate. She had been happier before the music began; it made +calls upon her heart, it gave re-birth to a thousand wants. Her sense +of loneliness increased as she watched more than one pair of lovers +gradually drift off and settle themselves down somewhere out of sight. +She heard one radiant couple making arrangements for going to see the +Pyramids by moonlight. + +She had never seen the Pyramids or the Sphinx. Perhaps when she was +staying with the Iretons, they would take her to see them. She had +certainly no desire to make the excursion alone. + +As she thought of the Pyramids, and Mike's association with them, a +wave of hate and rage spread over Margaret like a blush. She wondered +if any of the curious eyes of the tourists had noticed it; she had been +conscious of being freely criticized all the evening. She looked about +her quickly. The place had become almost devoid of young people; only +some elderly men and women were left, reclining in big chairs. With +the absence of youth, Margaret's spirits sank very low; it was not +bracing to her strained nerves and lonely condition to sit with the +elderly invalids and watch them passing the time away in a semi-dozing +condition until it was the recognized hour for going to bed. + +To be true to Michael she must not allow herself to grow despondent. +Hadassah Ireton had gone through far greater trials and suffering than +she was facing, and what had been her reward? Margaret visualized her +married life, her expression of happiness as she greeted her, her pride +in the small son who was toddling at her side. It was a condition of +life well worth suffering and waiting for. + +When the clock struck ten, Margaret rose from her retired seat. She +felt justified in going early to bed after such a long and trying day. +There was nothing better to do. As she entered the lift which was to +take her up to her floor, she suddenly found herself face to face with +Millicent Mervill. + +She was so wholly unprepared for the meeting that she never afterwards +was able to understand why she did not lose her presence of mind. It +is on such occasions that the metal we are made of is put to the test. + +The two women faced each other in silence. The next moment the lift +went swiftly up, and as it went, Margaret had but one clear +thought--that she would stop at the first floor and get out; she could +walk up the remaining flight of stairs. The next second she realized +that that would be a foolish and weak thing to do. It was her duty to +speak to Millicent and learn the cause of the scandal from her own +lips. She owed it to Michael. She must do the one thing which she +could to clear his name of the dishonour of which Freddy accused him. + +Millicent was getting out at the first landing. The lift shot up so +quickly that the silence between them had been of the briefest. +Margaret left the lift at the same moment and again the two women stood +facing one another, as the gate closed behind them and the lift began +its downward journey. + +"Good evening," Millicent said gaily. "I never expected to have the +pleasure of seeing you in Cairo." A smile which might have hidden any +meaning lit up her eyes and showed the perfection of her mouth and +teeth. But even at that critical moment, Margaret was conscious that +her beauty had lost something of its radiance. Had her youth, which +had seemed eternal, vanished at last? Had it left her as rats leave a +sinking ship? Had the gods recalled what had already tarried too long? + +"Good-evening," was all that Margaret managed to say. Her heart was +floundering in a sea of anger; her mind was struggling for wise words, +words which would drag the truth from the pretty lips, playing over +still prettier teeth. She was determined not to let the opportunity +slip. + +But Millicent was too quick. She left Margaret no chance to take the +lead in the conversation; she seized and kept it to the end. Margaret +should know just as much as she, Millicent, wished her to know, and no +more. She meant to enjoy herself; the devout Margaret was going to +receive some nasty knocks. + +"How is our mystic?" she asked lightly. + +The word "our" instantly deprived Meg of her resolution to speak +tactfully and even hypocritically, if it was necessary. Millicent did +not wait for her tardy answer. Meg's expression had flamed the devil's +fire of mischief in her callous heart. + +"Have you heard from him since I left him?" + +Here Margaret's pride helped her. She threw up her chin; a trick with +her when her fighting spirit was roused. + +"I really don't know. I forget how long ago it is since you saw him." + +"I left him almost within sight of his promised land, of his King +Solomon's mine. Has he found it? Were the jewels very wonderful?" + +The woman's audacity amazed Margaret, while it infuriated her, but +thanks to the blood of her ancestors, a fight always braced her nerves +and quickened her wits; it was tenderness which brought tears. She was +not going to allow the brazen little beast to know or see what her +words meant to her; she was not going to tell her of Michael's +disappointment. If she had betrayed him and robbed him of Akhnaton's +treasure, she was not going to let her batten on the suffering she had +caused, so she said: + +"My brother has just heard that information of the discovery has come +to the Minister of Public Works. The Government has sent out some men +to make the preliminary excavations, so I suppose it is all right." + +Millicent's eyes gleamed. Something like sympathy pleasure beautified +them; for a moment her desire to wound the girl who had robbed her of +the lover she desired was forgotten; it was lost in surprise. + +"Then Mike was right? He has really discovered his precious treasure, +his legacy of Akhnaton? I'm so glad!" She paused. "I never really +believed he would, did you? It seemed to me mere moonshine, a +delightful excuse for a desert romance." + +Margaret was still more amazed. What an actress the woman was! If she +had not known her true character, she would have believed that she was +innocent of the base treachery of which she was guilty. + +"Yes, it would appear so," she said coldly. "But we know very +little--we have only had the official news of the discovery. His +letters will tell us more. Does the news surprise you?" + +Millicent looked at Margaret keenly. Their eyes met as bitter +antagonists. Millicent supposed that Margaret thought that Michael +would have written to her and told her the news; she answered +accordingly. + +"His breathless letters--you know how he writes--are probably resting +in some desert village. They'll come along all right. But I'm awfully +glad the dear man hasn't found a mare's nest, aren't you?" She spoke +again quickly, before Margaret had time to answer. "What does your +brother say about it? Isn't he surprised? He thought it was all +tommy-rot, didn't he? How different they are!" + +"It is always difficult to tell what Freddy thinks," Margaret said. +"He is a very reserved person. If the whole thing turns out as Michael +expected, he will be delighted and interested." + +"If there is anything there at all," Millicent said, "that ought to be +sufficient proof of the seer's powers--I mean, things of Akhnaton's +period. The portable treasure might have been stolen--it probably was. +If the saint had discovered it, why not others?" + +"I have had no particulars," Meg said coldly. She felt certain that +Millicent was pumping her for her own pleasure. + +"Your brother never mentioned the King Solomon's mine of gold and the +jewels," Millicent said laughingly; "yet even my men were talking about +it quite openly on my homeward journey. Mike and I were so careful--we +never mentioned a word about it. To all outward appearances we were +merely journeying in the desert for pleasure; our objective was to be +the tomb where Akhnaton's body was buried. They must have learned all +about it from the holy man--tents have ears. You have heard all about +our meeting with the 'child of God,' of course?" She searched +Margaret's eyes as she spoke and then added lightly: "I should like to +have seen Mike in his strange counting-house, counting out his money, +shouldn't you?" + +Margaret very nearly said, "You little liar, get out of my sight!" The +sudden temptation to shake her was almost past enduring; it was all she +could do to keep her hands off her and remain silent. She had heard +from the woman's own lips what she had told Freddy she never would +hear; her promise to him flashed through her mind. Her doom was +sealed. The psychological and archaeological interest of what +Millicent had told her did not penetrate her brain; even her reference +to their meeting with a "child of God" fell on deaf ears. Millicent +had asked her if she had shared Michael's beliefs in the occult and +mystic interpretation of the discovery, in tones which implied that she +did not expect Margaret to understand or sympathize with that side of +Michael Amory's character. + +Margaret managed to keep her wits about her. The agony which she was +enduring must at all costs be hidden from her enemy. + +With a calm that surprised her own ears, she said. "Did you enjoy your +time in the desert? Why did you return before the eventful discovery? +If you had waited, you would have seen Mr. Amory wading in the historic +jewels." + +Millicent was very quick. She had arranged in her own mind how much +and how little she was going to tell Margaret. It was to be enough to +ruin her happiness and trust in her lover, enough to rob Michael of the +woman who had robbed her of him; but not enough to let her know why +she, Millicent, had flown from the camp. + +"Oh, we both loved it!" she said. "We had some unique and strange +experiences, things we shall never forget. But I had to come back, my +time was up. I am leaving for England on the twenty-eighth--I have so +much to pack and collect." + +"It is getting very warm," Margaret said. "The tourists are all going +back." + +"Oh, I never mind the heat--I like it--but unfortunately I have to go +home--money matters. I've been rather lucky, in a manner--a rich +relation in Australia died a few months ago and I have just heard that +he has left me a nice little bit." + +Millicent's words instantly confirmed Margaret's suspicions. The +unscrupulous woman had secured at least a part of the buried gold. +Margaret wondered if it would be wise to attack her on the subject. +She refrained; instinct cautioned her. With Margaret it was always a +case of--When in doubt, hold your tongue. + +"What a fortunate coincidence!" she said coldly. "How very odd!" + +Millicent looked at her sharply. What did her words mean? What was +she driving at? Margaret never spoke unthinkingly. + +"I don't understand what coincidence you refer to, but certainly I've +been lucky as regards legacies and money. I've always been fortunate +about money, but there is a saying that money goes where money is, and +that if you get one legacy you will get three. I really could have +done without the last windfall. I have enough of this world's goods +for a lone woman--if I had some babies it would be different." + +There was a note of sadness in Millicent's words which would have +appealed to Margaret if she had not known what a perfect actress the +woman was. How was she to believe anything she said after what she had +done? + +"You needn't let it be a burden to you." Margaret pretended to laugh. +"There are other people's babies who have none. There are plenty of +ways of disposing of super-wealth. Why not pay for the costs of some +of the Egyptian exploration work next autumn? It would interest you +and . . ." Margaret paused. ". . . it would be a suitable way of +spending the gold. It would repay Mr. Amory." + +In saying these words, Margaret felt that she was going as near to the +point as she dared. As she said them, Millicent's eyes hardened. She +had spoken with sincerity when she said that she could have done +without her uncle's fortune, for there were moments when she deceived +herself into believing that if her grand passion for Michael had been +returned, that if she had ever been loved as greatly as she felt that +she herself could love, or if she had had any children, she would have +been a good and noble woman. No chance of goodness had ever come her +way, and she had never stepped aside to look for it. + +"I don't know about repaying Mike," she said coldly. "There are some +things which can never be repaid or bought." + +Meg certainly got as good as she had given. "I never meant to suggest +that I had so much wealth that it would be a burden to me. I think I +shall find some way of spending it enjoyably." She turned to the left +wing of the corridor; her bedroom lay there. "Now I must say +good-night," she said, still more coolly. "I have a great deal to do." +She looked down at her dress. "My luggage has never come on from +Luxor--it's such a nuisance. I had to wear a 'dug-out' to-night, a +blouse and skirt I wore in the desert. They have lain packed all that +time--I never thought I should have to wear them again." As she spoke, +she visualized her last evening in the camp, when she had given Hassan +her instructions for their flitting. She had worn the blouse that same +evening. + +"It looks very nice," Margaret said carelessly. + +"Oh, it's terrible! I didn't venture to come down to _table d'hote_ in +it--I dined in my room. Good-night." + +"You still wear your eye of Horus?" Margaret said; she had noticed the +amulet the moment she saw Millicent in the lift. + +"Of course! It is my most treasured possession." + +Margaret longed to tell her that she knew where the bit of blue faience +had been found on the day when it was lost in the hut. She burned to +say, "You little prying cat, you read my diary!" instead of which she +said, quite calmly: + +"The Divine Eye ought to have known better than to be the cause of +Mohammed Ali's telling one of his finest lies." + +"What do you mean?" Millicent asked. But even as she spoke, her face +paled a little. "Your language has become quite cryptic--the result, I +suppose, of your work in the tombs!" + +"Probably," Margaret said. "Life in the Valley has taught me many +things--but first and foremost, above all others, it has shown me the +power and the danger of _baksheesh_. Good-night," she added quickly. +"I've been keeping you." + +Millicent looked at her with steely eyes. Meg's words were not too +cryptic for her comprehension. "Good-night," she said. "When I hear +from Mike, I'll let you know." + +When Margaret reached her room, she flung off her self-restraint. +Catching up a sofa-cushion, she flung it at an imaginary Millicent; two +more went flying in the same direction. + +"Oh, you beast, you hateful little beast!" she cried. "I believe you +have won, after all! I wanted to find out if Michael was to blame, I +wanted to make you confess that you trapped and followed him into the +desert! And all I succeeded in doing was to hear from your own lips +what all the hateful tongues in Egypt have been screaming and shouting +in my ears for weeks past!" She sank down on the low sofa. "My pride +spoilt everything. I wouldn't let you know that I cared, that I didn't +know a word about anything, that I have never heard a line from +Michael." Her mind stood at attention; a new thought held it. The +holy man! Millicent had spoken of the holy man. Was he the "child of +God" who was to lead Mike to the hidden treasure? She groaned. Oh, +why had she not questioned her, why had she not controlled her own +anger and her pride, and learnt from Millicent a thousand things she +longed to know? She had not even asked her at what definite place in +the desert she had left Michael! She had asked her absolutely nothing +which would help her to find him. She had only gleaned from her the +one fact, the fact which made it absolutely imperative for her to +return at once to England. Her pride was so cruelly injured that she +accepted that fact as absolute. Even if Michael was entirely innocent +of any dishonour to herself, it was impossible not to feel wounded and +hurt to the quick by his silence. She had sworn to trust him, but was +he not asking too much of human nature? Might he not have given a +thought to the fact that Freddy and all the world would condemn him? + +Of Michael's health Millicent had told her nothing. She had spoken in +a manner which suggested that she had left him in the enjoyment of +perfect health. Her excuses for him to Freddy had melted into thin +air. How was she to tell Hadassah Ireton? Hadassah, whose complete +trust had made her ashamed of Freddy. + + * * * * * * + +She had gone to her room early, but it was far into the night before +she began to undress and get ready for bed. She was tired and unhappy +and for once she allowed herself to accuse Michael. She began by +saying that he had been thoughtless and neglectful, that he ought to +have managed somehow to get a letter through to her as soon as +Millicent appeared on the scene. She felt convinced that she would +have contrived to let him hear under similar circumstances it . . . +well, if she had wanted him to hear, if she had had a satisfactory +explanation to offer. It was the horrible "if" which kept Margaret +awake. That mustard-seed of suspicion grew and grew until its flowers +of evil covered her whole world. Thought can make our heaven or our +hell. Margaret's thoughts that night created no divine vision, no fair +City of the Horizon. + +If Millicent had come back to Cairo, because of business, surely +Michael could have sent a letter by her servants, even if he had not +cared to entrust it into her own hands. That was the thought which +triumphed--it shed its darkness over the things of light. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +The next morning Margaret rose early. During her long and sleepless +night she had reviewed her position over and over again; there seemed +to be no way out of it. She must and would keep her promise to Freddy. + +It is impossible to give a lucid interpretation of her tortured +feelings. In her practical, reasoning mind her thoughts were black and +suspicious; her heart was full of doubts, anger, wounded pride; while +in the background, still shining like the dim light on the horizon at +the approach of dawn, was her unconquerable belief in her lover's +honour. + +She felt compelled to act up to her practical judgment, to her promise +that she would go home to England if she heard from either Michael's or +Millicent's own lips that they had been together in the desert. But it +was the horizon-light which helped her and made her able to bear the +shock of Millicent's brutal announcement. + +For one whole night she had faced the certain fact that Millicent had +camped in the desert with Michael. Anyone who has considered the +ceaseless workings of the human brain will understand what no pen could +describe--the countless arguments for and against her lover's honour +which came and went in an endless rotation in Margaret's mind. + +She was glad when daylight flooded the room and she could get up and +take the definite steps which would settle her doom. There is nothing +so unendurable as lying in bed, a victim to miserable thoughts. + +As soon as she was dressed she wrote a brief letter to Freddy. She +felt like a criminal writing a warrant for her own arrest, but as the +thing had to be done, it was best to get it over soon as possible. + + +"DEAR CHUM, + +"Last night I saw Millicent Mervill and what she told me leaves me no +choice. I will keep my promise and go back to England. A boat goes +next Tuesday; if I can book a passage I shall go by it. Until then I +will stay with Hadassah Ireton. I like her most awfully. + +"Please don't think that by keeping my promise to you I am condemning +Mike or that I have given up hope that one day he will be able to +explain everything satisfactorily. Don't worry about me, dear old +thing. I'm all right and I will take every care of myself, so keep +your mind easy on that point. I'm not nearly so wretched as I should +be if I believed everything that this letter implies. + +"Yours ever, + + "MEG. + +"P.S.--Millicent pretended not to know anything about the information +which the Government has received. She told me, with an air of +beautiful innocence, that an uncle in Australia had left her a nice +legacy. Funny isn't it? I think I managed to behave pretty well--the +shades of our ancestors guarded me, I suppose." + + +When the letter was posted, and could not be retrieved, Meg went into +the coffee-room and tried to soothe her soul with material comforts. +An excellent cup of coffee made a good beginning. The letter settling +her fate was in the post-office; she was going home to England in a few +days. She was trying to swallow the hard facts with each mouthful +which she drank. + +What a contrast her leaving Egypt would be to her arrival in the +country! How flattened out and disillusioned she would feel! What an +ordinary, everyday ending to her vivid romance in the Valley! When she +thought of the little hut, almost hidden in one of the many wrinkles of +the hills, she smiled. Her senses glowed; she visualized the arid +scene, suddenly transformed into an Eden with Love's passion-flowers. +No garden in paradise could suggest to a Moslem mind diviner voices or +greater radiance. Cairo, with its confusion of sounds and its medley +of human races, was empty and meaningless; it was wiped out. She was +once more in the Valley, where life was vital and human. + +After a little time of happy dreaming, the bitter fact came back to +her, like a cold wind disturbing a summer's heat, that she had actually +written to her brother promising him that she would go home. What +would Hadassah think? What did her own conscience say? + +Yet only one hour ago she had felt convinced that she was doing her +duty, that her honour and womanly pride demanded that she should keep +her promise. She had nerved herself against a thousand inner voices to +obey her brother. She blushed for shame. In writing the letter she +had practically admitted Michael's unfaithfulness as a lover. How +could she have allowed herself to be so devastated by jealousy, have +allowed her mind to be so concentrated on the unlovely side of the +story? Even Hadassah Ireton had scorned it, while she, "the mistress +of Mike's happiness," had doubted and despaired! + +Poor Margaret! If she had been less human, her Valley of Eden had held +no flowers. The desert had been a wilderness indeed. + + * * * * * * + +The psychic and devotional side of her lover's nature engrossed her +thoughts. She recalled to her mind all that he had taught and +explained to her about the views and religion of the tragic Pharaoh, +the world's first conscientious objector. + +Since she had heard of the scandal, she had scarcely thought of the +occult and psychic side of the journey. Her attitude had been +self-engrossed and materialistic. + +She sighed. How difficult it was to drive self out of one's thoughts, +for was there anything as interesting in the whole of the wonderful +world as one's self, one's miserably unworthy, puny self? + +Hadassah had truly said, "We have two selves . . . what armed enemies +they are!" Surely she, Margaret, had more than two selves? It seemed +to her that she had a hundred, for every hour of the day and year. + +Long ago, in her untroubled college days, she had been one woman, with +one mind and one purpose--her intellectual work. Egypt had changed +her. The great mother of the world-civilization had revealed to her +some of the amazing secrets hidden in the human heart; from her +immortal treasury of things good and evil she had bestowed upon her +child the jewel of suffering, the pearl of passion. As a devout pupil +Margaret had knelt at her knee. + +In her very modern surroundings she felt quite another being from the +Margaret who had seen the vision of Akhnaton in the Valley. She had +allowed herself to forget that she had been instrumental in developing +the psychic side of Michael's nature. The thought of it now seemed +absurd; it was probable that her surroundings and her work had been +accountable for the visions. Her imagination had unconsciously +pictured them. + +And yet there was a sound argument against this common-sense, practical +view of the thing, for she had visualized almost exactly the type and +individuality of a character in history of whom she was totally +ignorant. Even in the modern hotel, in her everyday surroundings, she +could see with extraordinary clearness the rays of light which had +surrounded that head. Nothing could ever obliterate the picture of the +suffering Pharaoh from her memory. + +She had left the breakfast-room, and as she waited for the lift to +descend, she was almost afraid that it would bring Millicent down with +it from the floor above. But it did not. There was a grain of +disappointment in the elements which made up Margaret's feelings as she +saw that it was empty. The Lampton combative instinct demanded a fight +to the finish, and an open, broad-daylight attack. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +Margaret kept her promise to Freddy. During the three days which she +spent with the Iretons nothing transpired to make it possible for her +to break it. No word, either by letter or by native word of mouth, had +arrived from Michael. + +Even to Hadassah's generous mind, Michael Amory's conduct seemed +strange and inexplicable. His silence, in a manner, condemned him as +casual, even if he was not guilty. She began to wonder if he had been +carried off his feet by Millicent, if he had been weak and forgetful of +Margaret for a little time. Millicent would certainly have done her +best to deprive him of his higher instincts and ideals. If he had been +faithless to Margaret, he was the type of man who would exaggerate the +sin. + +When she reviewed the situation calmly, she found that there was much +to be said from Freddy Lampton's standpoint, and Margaret herself was +growing more and more wounded by her lover's conduct--not so much by +the fact that Millicent had been in the desert with him, for she knew +the woman's persistence, but by the lack of effort which he had made to +explain the situation to her. Even if he had allowed himself to be +carried away by Millicent's wiles, she would have forgiven him, for +Margaret was very human, and she was no fool. Never had she imagined +that her lover was a saint. What she felt it harder and harder every +day to forgive was his silence, his want of courage, his lack of trust. + +During those three days Margaret's beautiful world and life seemed to +have crumbled into dust, just as she had seen the unearthed objects in +Egyptian tombs crumble into atoms when the first breath of air from the +desert reached them. Her contact with the world of to-day had melted +her romance of the desert into thin air. It was a beautiful vision +which her strange life had created; it had flourished during her short +stay in the Valley. It was not suited for the practical everyday world. + +While she was with the Iretons, she tried to interest herself in +Hadassah's work as much as possible. She contrived very bravely to put +aside her wretchedness and at least appear interested and eager. + +Her dignity and self-control added greatly to Michael Ireton's +admiration for her. He, too, had been struck by her resemblance to +Hadassah, so her beauty appealed to him very strongly. + +Hadassah and her husband allowed her to go home to England without +protest. Cairo was becoming very hot for an English girl, and they +both agreed that it might do Michael Amory good to learn, when he did +turn up, that his conduct had hurt Margaret's pride, that she was +seriously wounded. As Millicent had spoken to Margaret of Michael as +being in robust health, they had banished the idea that his silence was +due to illness. + +Outwardly Margaret behaved as though the whole episode of her +love-affair with Michael Amory was at an end. A woman's life is +dog-eared by her love-affairs; this was the first in Margaret's book of +life. To the Iretons she was always very insistent that there had been +no formal engagement between them, that Michael had not allowed her to +think of herself as bound to him in any way--for only one reason he had +not considered himself justified in asking her to become his wife or to +wait for him. This to the Iretons meant nothing. He had made Margaret +love him--that was the essential point--and his sensibilities must have +told him that with such a girl love was no light thing. He must have +realized that Margaret had given him the one perfect gift in her +possession, an unselfish love. + +Margaret was very loyal to her lover. It was easy to be that, for in +her super-senses she was convinced of his great love for her, as a +thing apart from anything else. She found it wise to discuss the +mystery of his silence less and less; for she knew that no one but God +knows what is in our hearts, or what He has put there for our +consolation, and that to all outward appearances things looked very +black for Michael. + +And so it came to pass that she sailed for England in the same boat as +Freddy. He had hurried through his business and had managed to secure +a passage, so as to look after her and be a companion to her on her +disconsolate voyage. + +On the journey to Marseilles, Margaret discovered qualities in Freddy's +character which, even with all her love for him, she had never +imagined. For her sake he contrived to hide his anger at Michael for +his treatment of her, and thus express a sympathetic understanding of +the temptations which had beset him. If Margaret had not suffered, he +would have ignored the affair altogether, as a matter which did not +concern him. Freddy was very far-seeing. Margaret had kept her +promise; she had shown that in spite of her romantic love for Michael +her womanly pride had not been wanting. Any opposition or harsh +denouncement of her lover would have brought out the obstinacy in her +Lampton character. Persecution inflames the ardour of both love and +religion. Margaret had confided to Freddy the true state of her +feelings--her love was perhaps even greater than ever for the tardy +Michael; jealousy had invigorated and reinforced it: but her pride and +her love were wounded, and until Michael wrote to her or came to her, +with a full and absolute apology and a good reason for his silence, she +was determined not to play the part of a woman whose love would submit +to any sort of casual treatment. + +Freddy was well content. Time would settle things; Margaret was very +young; she was scarcely aware yet of the possibilities that were in her +own nature, of the things which can make life worth living, as apart +from love and its passions. Love had buried her under an avalanche of +its mystery and revelations. + +Their journey home was as uneventful as it was surprising, for summer +on the Mediterranean, where there is no spring, opened Margaret's eyes +to a new phase of Nature's beauty. There was so much to see, and +Freddy was such an excellent companion, that the time passed far more +quickly and happily than Margaret could have believed possible. Did +she know that it was the guarded light, which dispersed her brooding +thoughts, thoughts which tried to spoil the beauty of the fairest +scenes she had ever seen? + +It was a voyage of solace and healing. As they sat together, the +brother and sister, idly watching the spell of light resting on an +archipelago of dreaming islands, or sailed out of the Bay of Naples on +a morning of tender unreality, they little dreamed that in her womb the +world was breeding a hellish massacre of God's highest creatures, a +wholesale slaughter of His children; that that same summer's sun was to +fall on fields of crimson, dyed with the blood of civilized nations, +precious blood drawn from the veins of patriots and heroes by the lies +and lust of a war-mad king. + +Ischia, lost in its ancient sleep, cradled in the beauty of the world's +fairest waters, was to be waked with the bugles of war. From her +mountain heights and her seagirt fields she was to send forth her sons, +to fight until they became drunk with the smell of blood. + +How little did either Margaret or Freddy dream that they were gazing +for the last time together upon a land of dreams, upon a world of +peace! As they sat and marvelled at a world which under a summer sun +seemed as fair as heaven and as pure as an angel's dream, they little +realized that Europe nursed and flattered a people more steeped in +iniquity and eager for licentious cruelty than any nation recorded in +the world's darkest story. The primitive barbarities of uncivilized +races, and the war-atrocities of ancient Egypt and Assyria, which were +familiar to Margaret, and against which Akhnaton had come to preach his +mission of peace, were as nothing compared to the acts which were to be +committed by a nation which had preached the mission of Jesus for a +thousand years, and had carried His doctrines into the farthest corners +of the earth. + +In the years to come that journey from Alexandria to Marseilles was to +be one of the greatest consolations of Margaret's life. + +In the days to come, when Margaret, knowing all things and enduring all +things, looked back upon the journey, it comforted her to think of how +much Freddy had enjoyed his well-earned rest and how eagerly he had +looked forward to his holiday in Scotland. + + * * * * * * + +The war, which has set a date in England from which every event of +importance counts and will be counted by her people for generations to +come, had not been whispered or dreamed of by ordinary people. Like +Ischia, England was still dreaming and trusting. Her ideals of honour +forbade that she should doubt the honour of a sister-nation, bound to +her by the closest ties of blood and sympathy. + +When Freddy and Margaret landed in England they went their separate +ways. + +Margaret, at the outbreak of the war, at once offered her services as a +V.A.D. Three months later she was working as a pantry-maid in a +private hospital. Her work was very hard and deadly dull, but she had +been promised that after working for a time as pantry-maid, she should +be allowed to help in the wards. When Freddy left for the Front she +was able to say good-bye during her "two hours off." + +Fresh air and sunshine, after the dark basement-pantry in which she +worked, seemed to her sufficient enjoyment and all the pleasure she +wanted. She seldom did anything in these hours but sit on a bench in +the garden-square near her hospital and rest her tired feet. For the +first month they were so swollen that she could not get on her walking +shoes. By four o'clock she was back in her pantry again, setting out +cups and saucers on little trays and laying the tea for the staff. Her +work was lonely and unrecognized. + +After she had washed up and put away the cups which had been used for +afternoon tea and also the cups which had been used for the last meal +of the day, which was served at seven o'clock in the wards, she went +home to her quiet room, in a house on the other side of the square. It +was an old house, which had known better days. The locality always +carried Margaret's mind back to the gay world into whose society Becky +Sharp so persistently pushed her way. + +If Margaret was not happy, she was far too busy to be unhappy. She +had, except for those two afternoon hours of rest, no time to think; +and as thoughts make our heaven or our hell, Margaret lived in an +intermediate state, for she had none. Her physical tiredness dominated +all other sensations. + +The war dominated her life; it drilled her, and drove her, and exacted +the last fraction of her endurance and courage. It chased personal +things away into the dim background of her life. When she thought of +the Valley and her experiences there, it was as if she was visualizing, +not her own past life, but some story which she had read and remembered +with the sharp, clear memory, which never leaves us, of our childhood's +days. + +With Margaret, as with most people, the war opened up a completely new +phase of mental as well as physical experiences. Nor could her +thoughts ever be the same again. Margaret's phase resembled the state +of a patient gradually recovering from a serious illness, an illness in +which she has faced the true proportions of the things belonging to +this life, and the triviality of human tragedies as they had existed +before the war. Her life had begun all over again. The war was +remaking it. After a serious illness or a shattered love-affair no +woman can take up life at exactly the same standpoint as before. + +Margaret found it impossible to imagine personal ambitions and personal +amusements ever forming a part of her life again. Happiness brought +scorn with the very mention of it. The excitement and the +daily-accumulating list of horrors which shocked the unsuspecting +people of England during the first few months of the war, must be +vividly in the reader's thoughts while he pictures Margaret in her life +as a pantry-maid, a physically-weary pantry-maid, in a vast house in +London which had been converted into a hospital. She was only one of +the many girls in London in the various homes and hospitals who were +drudging with aching limbs and loyal hearts from morning until night. + +She preferred being pantry-maid to lift-maid, which was the only other +post in the house which she had been offered. Taking visitors up and +down in a lift all day long seemed to her more monotonous than washing +up cups and saucers which the wounded drank out of, and scrubbing +boards and washing out cupboards. Margaret was only doing her humble +bit, a bit which required few brains and little education; a bit which +necessitated a good deal of sturdy grit and devotion. Not a soul in +the house knew nor cared anything about the life which she had led +before the war, and her college record was of less account than the +fact that she looked practical and strong. She had been given the post +on the strength of her physical perfection rather than her proficiency +as a V.A.D. + +During the first three months she heard fairly often from Freddy, who +was cheerfully enduring what thousands of young Englishmen endured +during the early days of training. + +If this is a war of second-lieutenants, Freddy was an excellent +specimen of the men who have won renown. His physique laughed at +hardship; his practical mind adored the order and method which is +essentially a part of military efficiency. His work in Egypt, far as +it seems removed from modern warfare, served a good purpose when +trench-digging and planning became a part of his training. + +October had come and still no news had reached him of Michael, nor had +Margaret had any word of her lover through the Iretons. Freddy was +comforting himself with the assurance that the war had satisfactorily +driven him out of Margaret's mind. She seldom mentioned his name in +her letters, which were as brief and matter-of-fact as his own. + +Sometimes in the busy London streets, and in crowded omnibuses, a +vision of the Valley and the smiling Theban hills would rise before her +eyes, but it would fade away and become as unreal as the Bible story of +the world's creation. + +Physical exhaustion made it possible for her to see these visions of +the Valley, and the stars in the Southern heavens, with no throbbing in +her veins or sense of Michael's lips pressed on her own. Physical +labour leaves little expression for fine sentiment and imagination. + + * * * * * * + +On the morning of the day when Margaret was to see Freddy off to the +Front, she experienced a curious re-birth of personal existence; she +was a partner in the world's agony. Since her work had begun she had +lived like a machine; she was outside the great multitude of the elect; +she had no one belonging to her in immediate danger. She had almost +envied the personal anxiety of those who had their dearest at the Front. + +Having no right to indulge in personal troubles which were entirely +outside the subject of the war and the world's welfare, she had ceased +to have any existence at all outside her dull duties as pantry-maid. +But on the day of Freddy's departure she had a curious fluttering in +her pulses, and a breathless excitement was in the background of all +that she did. She found her hands trembling when she placed the cups +in their saucers, or poured milk into the jugs. + +Freddy's going was to link her to the great brotherhood. The +consciousness of his danger would be like the weight of an unborn child +under her heart. He was husband and father and lover to her now; he +seemed to be taking with him to France the last remnant of her girlhood. + +At Charing Cross she found the khaki-clad figure. He was waiting for +her below the clock. His men, and hundreds of others, were sitting +about at rest, on the few seats which had been provided for soldiers +going to the Front, or on the floor. Most of the men were accompanied +by proud and tearful relatives or lovers. It was an affecting and +typical scene--a peaceful country suddenly torn and driven by the +throes and novelty of war. + +Margaret had already witnessed such scenes several times. It always +left her wondering how any order or method came out of such a +bewildering mass of hastily-organized effort. + +Freddy looked so handsome in his uniform that Margaret's heart felt +bursting with tragic pride. Nothing was too good to die for England, +but surely, surely Freddy was too beautiful to be blinded or disfigured +by all the hellish contrivances which the brutalized enemy had proved +themselves past masters in devising? Even in Egypt he had not been +more sunburned, and never had his hair looked so adorably bright and +youthful. Margaret could think of nothing but his beauty; it seemed to +burst upon her suddenly and unexpectedly. + +Freddy was conscious of her pride and admiration, but being true +Lamptons, their greeting of one another was characteristically brief. +It was the first time that Freddy had seen his sister in her V.A.D. +uniform; his eyes took in all her points with one quick glance. She +looked clean and slight and attractive, and conspicuously well-bred. +Her abundant hair showed to advantage under her blue hat, while her +teeth and her eyes seemed to Freddy remarkably beautiful. A V.A.D. +uniform is not becoming, but if a girl is striking-looking, it +accentuates her good points; frumps and mediocrities it extinguishes +altogether. + +"Come and have some tea," Freddy said. "I'm frightfully thirsty." + +Margaret walked off with him proudly. He was her own brother, the +Freddy she had worked with so long and so intimately in the little hut +in Egypt, this alert, dignified soldier. The war was in its infancy; +women were still thrilled by khaki, and extraordinarily proud of their +men who wore it. Margaret felt so proud of Freddy that she was a +little awed by him. In her heart she was kneeling at his feet, while +in her subconscious mind there was a prayer, that his beauty and youth +might not be spoilt, that his splendid manhood might be given back to +England--it had other work to do. + +Her tea, which Freddy had ordered in the large tea-room at Charing +Cross Station, proved very difficult to swallow. Something filled her +throat; it almost choked her, something which was a strange mixture of +pride and tears and happiness. She had no desire to eat or drink; she +was quite content to sit still. All she wanted to do was just to be +near Freddy and look at him. + +In this last half-hour, perhaps the last she would ever spend with him, +there seemed to be nothing important enough to say. She certainly +could not speak of the things which were in her heart. When people +realize that they are together for perhaps the last time on earth, is +there anything which is more eloquent than silence? + +It was Freddy who came to the rescue; he talked to save Margaret's +dignity. With his keen eye and appreciation of her character, he knew +the fight she was making for self-control. His talk was of his men and +of his life as an officer in the Army, and of the politics of the day. +When he spoke of Ireland and of the satisfactory way in which she was +behaving, their eyes met. + +The question in Margaret's eyes was answered by a shake of his head and +an immediate change of topic. + +"Are you liking your work?" he said quickly. + +"It's not thrilling, but it's doing my bit." + +"Splendid!" he said, and Margaret knew that he understood. + +A little silence followed, and then Freddy said, in rather a shamed +voice, "Look here, Meg, we'd better be practical. I've left all my +things in order--if I don't come back, you won't have any difficulty. +Of course, all I've got will be yours. There are a few things I know +you'll always look after, things I specially value." + +Meg's throat was bursting and her lips began to quiver, but she choked +back her emotions and regained her self-control. It came to her quite +suddenly, just after speech had seemed hopeless. + +"I understand--the Egyptian things. You can trust them to me." + +"I know I can," he said. "And do take care of yourself. . . . We'd +better be making a move, I suppose." + +They both got up and shook their uniforms free of crumbs. + +"I'm jolly thankful I managed to get the work in the Valley pretty well +settled before this happened." + +"It was a bit of luck," Margaret said. "Doesn't it seem a shame that +all that wonderful work and all intellectual life must come to a +standstill, everything must be put aside for the one job that +counts--the killing of human beings? That is now the one and only +thing that matters; the most effectual way of killing masses of men is +the problem which scientific minds have set before them!" + +Freddy looked keenly at her for a moment. Was Meg still imbued with +Michael's anti-war views? England was at that moment tuned to such a +pitch of war-enthusiasm that there was but one popular feeling and +belief--that this war was sent to cleanse and purify the world, that it +was a blessing in disguise, that but for this war England would have +gone to the dogs. Anyone who dared to express an opinion contrary to +this myth was condemned as pro-German or unpatriotic. + +Meg felt her brother's eyes questioning her. "Never fear," she said. +"If I don't think that the war was necessary as the chosen means of +arresting England in her downward course, I know that it has got to be +fought to the finish, I know that the Allies have to prove that they +will not submit to Prussian militarism dominating Europe. I never +believed in the rottenness of England, and surely the spirits of our +young men who are fighting ought to prove that it isn't? England +decadent, indeed!" + +"You're right," Freddy said. "England wasn't a bit rotten--or, at +least, no rottener than she ever was, only the rottenness was all +dragged into the limelight. Things are discussed in papers and from +pulpits to-day which were never even spoken of between fathers and sons +or husbands and wives in days gone by. If the war will stop all the +absurd talk about England going to the dickens, it won't be fought for +nothing. We've decried our country long enough." + +They had only four minutes before they had to part. Margaret was +beginning to feel numb and speechless. Were these four minutes to be +the last she would ever spend with Freddy, and were they to go on +talking as if he was only going back to Oxford after the long vacation? + +Two more minutes passed and they had said nothing that mattered. Truly +words were given to hide our thoughts! + +As Margaret looked up at the clock, Freddy put his arms round her and +held her closely to him. This was Meg's first tender embrace since her +farewell with Michael. It was very nearly her undoing. + +"Good-bye, old girl," was all that Freddy said; it was all he could say. + +Meg clung to him and kissed him silently. Freddy felt her agony. It +was greater than his own, for he had many responsibilities on his mind, +and the excitement of actually going to take part in the "real thing." +He kissed her with a tenderness which was almost a lover's. + +Meg was still silent. She dared not attempt to speak; she knew that +Freddy would hate tears. The next moment, after a closer hug, he put +her decisively from him. + +"Time's up, old girl! I must look after my men. We are very much +alone, we two. I wish I could have left you in someone's care." + +"I'm so glad," Meg said, a little brokenly, "so glad it's just we two. +I've never had to share you with anyone--you've always been my very +own." + +Margaret knew that Freddy had made a covert allusion to the fact that +if Michael had not failed her, she would, in the event of his death, +have had a lover to comfort her. She chose to ignore his meaning, to +speak as if Michael had no place in her thoughts. Freddy was not to be +worried by things which were past and over. The war had made her +independent. + +Freddy understood perfectly. They had reached the barrier; his men +were filing through the open gateway to the platform. + +"Good-bye," he said again, hurriedly. "Don't wait in this awful +crowd--I shan't be able to speak to you any more." His eyes looked +into hers tenderly. "God bless you, Meg! I hate leaving you all +alone." + +"Good-bye, Freddy." + +Margaret's lips said the words bravely. In her heart they expressed +their old and grander meaning. + +She had turned her back on the khaki-clad men who were filing on to the +departure-platform. Her silent prayer mingled with hundreds of others, +travelling from proud, torn hearts, to the listening ear of the Master +of that which is ordained. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +The news of Freddy's death reached Margaret only a fortnight later; it +came to her from the War Office in the ordinary official way. He had +not died, as he would have wished to have died, in action, in a great +offensive against the enemy; he had been sniped, shot through the head +when he raised its brightness for half a minute above the parapet of +his trench. His courage and ability had never been put to the test; he +had fallen like a first year's bird hit by a deadly shot. + +His youth and brains and beauty were the offerings which he had laid on +the altar of Liberty. Fame had been denied him. + +As England's blackest days passed, and Margaret read in the papers the +horrible accounts of the poisonous gas which was blinding and +suffocating our men at the front, and when hospital nurses told her of +the pitiful "gas" cases which they had seen, Freddy's painless death +became almost a thing to be thankful for. + +Pessimism was running its course. Germany's triumphs were magnified, +the Allies' work belittled. She had come to think that it could only +have been a case of time before he would either have been permanently +injured or killed; the death-rate of officers was terrible. Freddy had +died as he had lived, an almost perfect example of England's manhood--a +striking proof that her decadence was an ugly scandal, whose birthplace +was Berlin. It was one of Germany's many clever forms of propaganda, +intended to undermine England's prestige in the eyes of neutrals when +the "great day" came. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +A few weeks after Freddy's death a curious thing happened to Margaret, +a thing which shook her nerves and disturbed the automatic calm into +which she had drilled her thoughts. + +She was still a hard-working pantry-maid, doing the same daily round of +apparently unwarlike work. She was thankful that she had got it to do, +and considered herself lucky, for the waiting lists of able and eager +V.A.D.'s, whose names were down at hospitals and convalescent homes, +ran into many figures, girls who were longing to be given any sort of +occupation, however humble, which would place them amongst the women of +England who were really in touch with the agony of the world. Margaret +had still the promise before her of promotion, the hope that eventually +she would reach the wards. Time would make its demands on the long +lists of V.A.D.'s who were unemployed and eager for work. It would not +be long before they would all be required. Someone else would step +into her humble post when she was promoted. It was merely a case of +patience and pluck; the voluntary hospitals were dependent on voluntary +aid. She gave hers gladly. + +It was a very lonely, self-contained Margaret who wandered about London +during her "off-hours." Two hours gave her very little time for making +expeditions or seeing the sights of London, which were all unknown to +her, so she spent the greater part of her time in the secluded +garden-square close to her lodgings. It always reminded her of a small +public garden in Paris, in the old-fashioned quarter of the city, in +which she had lived for a year with a French family while she was +perfecting her French. The odd mixture of people who frequented it, +and monopolized the seats in it for hours at a time, interested her. +The work which they brought with them was as diverse as it was +peculiar. Not a few of the regular habitues made a home of it, even on +wet days, only returning to their shelter to sleep. Youth and elegance +seldom entered it, except, it might be, when a pair of lovers, of +non-British birth, drifted into it, seeking refuge from the madding +crowd. + +A London church, as black and white with smoke and the wearing winds of +time as the marble churches of Lombardy, raised its belfry, of +unnamable architecture, picturesquely above the square on one side, +while a portion of its graveyard, which had been incorporated in the +garden-square, and which seemed to Margaret in its shabby condition +much older and more pathetically forlorn than the temple-tombs under +the Theban hills, attracted the aged and the melancholy. + +Margaret was the only lady who ever patronized the bench-seats in this +secluded city oasis. Her V.A.D. uniform, and perhaps her air of +unconscious dignity, defended her from any unpleasantness. She had +never met with disrespect or lack of courtesy. + +One of her chosen companions, an elderly, haggard woman, with a keen +sense of humour and traces of lost beauty, who always brought a bundle +of old rags and clothes to pick down, had made friends with her almost +immediately. She proved a source of great amusement to Margaret. The +woman's occupation had caused her much speculation. + +She soon discovered, for the woman was not at all reticent, that she +had been a low comedian and a dancer at Drury Lane Theatre, and like +most comedians, high tragedy was her passion, and had been her ambition. + +Margaret's off-hours flew on wings while she listened to the woman's +accounts of her dramatic experiences. She had seen her days of +prosperity and undoubtedly enjoyed much admiration. She was no +grumbler and still retained an appetite for life. The sparrows and the +fat pigeons which waited for the crumbs which fell from the pockets of +the clothes she unpicked were her friends; her dreams of the past were +her recreations. + +When Margaret discovered that her desire for theatre-going was still +unabated and unsatisfied, and that she considered that there was no +pleasure on earth which wealth could bring her to be compared to the +excitement of a "first night," as viewed from the gallery, she +determined to give her a treat. She had not been to the theatre for +many years; the necessary shilling for the gallery was never +forthcoming; picking down old uniforms was not a lucrative occupation. + +Margaret contrived to put the necessary shilling in her way by leaving +it lying on the seat when she got up. + +When she appeared in the garden-square the next day, the aged comedian +told her about her "find," and asked her anxiously if she had lost a +shilling. Margaret lied nobly; yet her lie was only half a lie, for +she certainly had not lost it. She had vividly realized the finding of +it. + +Margaret never laid out a shilling to better account. It was returned +to her fourfold as she listened to the glowing descriptions and the +good criticisms of the first performance of one of the most popular +war-plays which had been played in London. + +And so the days passed and ran into each other, impersonal and +unselfish days. The story of Margaret's individual life was marking +time; but if her romance was arrested, her sympathies were expanding. +It was impossible for her to be dull, and she did not allow herself to +be sad. Freddy's example forbade self-pity or repining. + +Of society in London she knew nothing and cared less. The war had put +"society" out of fashion. If she could count amongst her friends many +strange and questionable characters, they helped and cheered her as +nothing else could have done. More than one poor home in which there +was little food and much courage looked forward to the visits of the +tall, dark girl, whom they called by no other name than "Our V.A.D." + +It was her intimate acquaintance with the inner life of some of +London's poor, and the example they unconsciously set her by their +cheerful acceptance of their pitiful circumstances and hideous +surroundings, which made Margaret see how contemptible it would be to +indulge in self-pity or repining. They expected so little, while she +wanted so much--perfect happiness as well as worldly prosperity. They +contrived to get enjoyment out of life even when it seemed to her that +they would be better dead. She had a thousand things in life which had +been denied to them. How could she expect to be given everything? +There she was face to face with crowds of human beings who exaggerated +their joys and rose above their afflictions. The unconquerable courage +of the poor--that was what life in London was teaching Margaret. + + * * * * * * + +It was one wet afternoon when she was seated in a Lyons' tea-shop, in a +crowded part of a West End shopping district, waiting for a cup of +coffee to be brought to her, that the strange incident happened. To +make use of her time, she had taken out a small writing-tablet which +she carried in a bag with her knitting, and was beginning to write a +letter to her Aunt Anna. She had written the first words, "Dear Aunt +Anna," and had paused before writing further. Her pencil was close to +her tablet; her mind was thinking of what she was going to say. +Suddenly her hand began writing very fast, automatically, something +after the manner in which an actor writes on the stage. Margaret let +it write swiftly and uninterruptedly, without either considering it +strange that it should be doing so, or wondering, at the time, what she +was writing. Her thoughts had, in a curious way, become subservient to +her actions. Afterwards, when she tried to remember what she had felt, +she could recollect no impression. + +When the quick movement of her hand stopped and the automatic writing +ceased, her powers of thought seemed suddenly to reassert themselves. +Probably what she had been writing was mere unintelligible scribble. + +Margaret had never heard of the writing of the "unseen hand." She was +more nervous than she was aware of; there was a heavy beating at her +heart, a wonder in her mind. She looked with apprehension at the sheet +of paper on the tablet. Her hand had certainly written something, but +the writing was not her own. It was untidy and broken. She tried to +read it, but the first words made her so nervous that she could not go +any further. They brought the colour flying to her face, but it +quickly left it; she became wide-eyed; her hands trembled. It was +horrible to think that some outside influence had taken possession of +her actions. She fought for self-control, and managed to read the +message. + +"The rays of Aton, which encompass all lands, will protect him, the +enemy will fear him because of them. The living Aton, beside Whom +there is no other, this hath He ordained. The Light of Aton will +scatter the enemy and turn his hand from victory. When the chicken +crieth in the egg-shell, He giveth it life, delighting that it should +chirp with all its might. The same Aton, Who liveth for ever, Who +slumbers not, neither does He sleep, knows the wishes of your heart. +The Lord of Peace will not tolerate the victory of those who delight in +strife. His rays, bright, great, gleaming, high above all earth. . . ." + +There the writing became almost indecipherable; many words were quite +meaningless; only the end of the last line was distinct: + +"To the mistress of his happiness, Aton, the Loving Father, giveth +counsel." + +When Margaret had finished reading the amazing thing that her hand had +written, she was faint and frightened. What had come over her? How +could she account for the mysterious thing which had happened? + +The state of her nerves prevented her thinking connectedly or sensibly. +The meaning of the message scarcely formed any part of her +bewilderment; it was the automatic writing itself which disturbed her. +It made her very unhappy. She had never heard of anything like it +happening to anyone else. She wished that she had only dreamed it; but +there the words were, lying on the tablet before her. If she was real, +they were real. + +It was so long since she had read anything about Akhnaton's +Aton-worship that she could not have composed the sentences in exactly +the manner of the Pharaoh's writing if she had set herself down in a +retired place and tried very hard to remember his style and his +language. Here, in this modern and vulgar tea-room, filled with men +and youths in khaki and shop-girls in cheap and showy finery, she had +suddenly and unconsciously written a thing which had absolutely nothing +to do with her thoughts or surroundings. + +The girl who brought her coffee and was standing waiting to make out +her bill, looked at her sympathically and asked her if she felt ill. + +At the sound of her voice, Margaret dragged her thoughts back to the +fact that she had been waiting for a cup of coffee. + +"No," she said, jerkily. "I am not ill, only a little tired, thank +you." + +"You're working hard, I suppose? One coffee, threepence," she jotted +down. "Are you in a hospital? I wish I was nursing, instead of doing +this." + +Margaret looked at her blankly for a moment. She wished that she would +not talk to her; she felt afraid of her own answers. + +"No, I'm not nursing--I'm a pantry-maid in a private convalescent +hospital." + +"Well, I never!" the girl said; she was not ignorant of Margaret's good +breeding. "Do you like the work?" + +"It's very like your work, I suppose. I never stop to think about +whether I like it or not. Someone has to do it, and I've been given +it--every little helps." + +"Isn't that splendid?" the girl said. "And I don't suppose you ever +worked before?" + +"Not in that way," Margaret said. She smiled a queer sort of smile, as +her thoughts flew back to her work in the hut, the cleaning and sorting +of delicate fragments and amulets which had been made and treasured by +a people of whom the girl had probably never even heard, the mascots +and art-treasures of a forgotten civilization, which had lasted for +thousands of years. + +Margaret paid for her coffee, and looked at the clock. She had only a +few minutes in which to drink it. She poured in all the cream which +she had ordered to cool it, but still it was too hot to drink. While +she waited she wondered whether her hand would write anything else if +she left it lying on her writing pad. Nervously she took up her pencil +and while she tried to sip her coffee, she left her right hand lying on +the pad just as it had been before. + +Nothing happened. Her hand never moved; she was extremely conscious of +her own feelings and expectations. + +She looked at the writing on the tablet once more. Yes, it was totally +and absolutely unlike her own. She tore off the sheet on which it was +written and folded it up and put it safely in her note-case. If she +was to drink her coffee, there was no more time for thought. + +Hurriedly she left the crowded tea-rooms and started off in the +direction of her hospital. + +It was well for her that she had to hurry, and that her thoughts for +the next few hours had to be given to the carrying-out of everyday +things. With practised mind-control she put the incident of the +"unseen hand" away from her as far as she could. When it came creeping +back again, like leaking water, into the foreground of her thoughts, +she fought it splendidly. + +Freddy had so extremely disliked her dabbling, as he called it, in +occult matters, that for his sake, for his memory, she must not allow +herself to be mastered by it. She had scarcely ever allowed herself to +think even about her vision in the Valley for this very reason, and had +refused to be drawn into the wave of fortune-telling by palmistry and +by crystal-gazing and psychic sciences which the war had given birth to +in London. The nurses and the staff generally at the hospital spent a +great deal of time and money on palmists. + +Margaret could honestly say to herself that no one had sought those +strange experiences less than she had, no one had been less interested +in Spiritualism and black magic, as it used to be called, than she had +been--and, indeed, still was. Michael had called her his practical +mystic, yet she had never felt herself to be one. + +For Freddy's sake she would not encourage this new phase of the +super-mind which had suddenly come to her. He had considered +spiritualism a dangerous and undesirable study. With only his memory +to cling to, she would do nothing which would cause him any trouble. +Here again was the Lampton ancestor-worship developing to its fullest. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +When Margaret got back to her hospital, she found no time for psychic +reflections, for news had come that a fresh consignment of patients was +to arrive at the hospital the next morning, and as the number was +considerably more than they had expected, or the wards had beds for, it +meant that the staff, from the humblest to the highest in command, had +plenty of extra work to do. + +She did a hundred and one odd jobs which kept her busy until nine +o'clock. A V.A.D. whose duty it was to run the lift was ill; she had had +to go home, so Margaret took her place until a girl-scout appeared, who +was a sister of one of the staff-nurses. The proud girl-scout became +lift-boy in her after-school-hours and kept the post until the V.A.D. was +well enough to resume her work. During the day the V.A.D.s filled the +post between them, taking it in turn. + +It was not until all her work was done, and Margaret was alone in her +bedroom, with its air of ghostly fashion, that she found it increasingly +difficult to drive the incident of the automatic writing from her mind. +She did not wish to think of it because of her promise to Freddy. While +she had been busy it had never entered her head. Certainly Satan finds +some mischief for idle thoughts as well as for idle hands to do. But was +it Satan who had sent these thoughts? Was she dabbling in black or in +white magic? + +She wondered whether, if she looked at the writing once more, and thought +over every incident of the strange occurrence which had happened to her, +very clearly and thoroughly, it would help her to drive it from her mind, +in the same way as saying some haunting lines of a poem over and over +again will often drown their insistence in our ears. Certainly she must +make an effort to free herself from the obsession of the incident. It +was unnerving her. + +She took the sheet of paper out of her note-case and read the writing on +it aloud, very distinctly and slowly. She said the words thoughtfully, +so as to get their precise value. As she read them, she tried her utmost +to subdue the increasing nervousness which they produced, a nervousness +which she certainly had not in any way experienced when her hand had +hurriedly written down the words. + +As she read them aloud, she realized with a sudden and astounding +clearness their true meaning, which had either escaped her intelligence, +or she had been too astonished and interested in her own action to +appreciate before. Her first feeling had been one of amazement and +interest; now she felt quite convinced that the message had been sent to +her to tell her that Michael was at the Front, that she was not to +trouble or be afraid, for his safety was in divine hands. + +How much or how little her super-senses had understood this fact she +could not be certain. Her over-self was an independent factor. Her +natural consciousness had certainly not appreciated the news. She had +never said the fact to herself, or derived any comfort from it, or +questioned it. She had been too overwhelmed by the practical evidence +that she was once more in touch with her vision to grasp the real purpose +of the message. Its value had been lost upon her, even though it had +told her that Michael was fighting, that he was in the war. But was he? +That was the question which her natural mind forced upon her. She must +take it on faith or reject the whole thing as a fabrication of her own +brain. + +The writing had told her that the Light of Aton would guard him, that the +rays of Aton, which were God's symbol on earth, would encompass him and +confound his enemies. To the reasoning, practical Margaret it seemed +incredible nonsense, and yet Egypt had taught her that nothing is +incredible. She had thought of many solutions of the problem of +Michael's disappearance, many answers to her riddle of the sands, but she +had, to her conscious knowledge, never once imagined that he would be +taking part in this most horrible of all wars. Knowing his views upon +the subject of war, the possibility had never entered her mind that he +might have volunteered to fight in it. He had said over and over again +that Germany's desire for war was a myth, a mere mania which obsessed a +certain class of mind; that if such a thing happened it would be the +death-blow to the spread of Christianity, and rightly so, for a religion +which had done no more for the most scientifically-advanced race in the +world was not likely to be adopted by non-Christian races. + +And yet the hand had written words which could have no other meaning. +She had no friends or relations at the Front. Her first cousins were all +too young, and their fathers too old, to fight. Freddy had represented +her personal and intimate interest in the army at the Front. + +She read the words over and over again, until she knew them by heart, +until the strange handwriting which her own pencil had formed had become +familiar to her. She knew that she could never have written the words +except by some outside power. But what was that power? Had anyone else +ever experienced it? Was it known to Spiritualists? + +As she asked herself the question, a picture formed itself in her mind of +Daniel interpreting "the writing on the wall" to the guests at the feast +of Belshazzar. She saw the hand write the three words: _Numbered, +weighed, divided_. She saw the wonder of the King and the curiosity of +his friends. God only, who sent the omen, explained it, and all which +Daniel under His direction uttered, explaining it, was fulfilled. + +Egypt had reconstructed in Margaret's mind the proper proportion of time +as applied to the history and evolution of the world's civilization. The +deeds and the victories of Cyrus, the grandson of Nebuchadnezzar, were +not mythical deeds because they belonged to a mythical and lost age. In +Egypt they had seemed to her legends of a comparatively late date. +Darius, the Mede, to whom Biblical authority awards the succession of the +kingdom of the vanquished and slain Belshazzar, was removed by almost a +thousand years from the world which had known the gentle King, the +youthful Pharaoh, who loved not war, and whose God was the Prince of +Peace. + +As compared to Michael's beloved Akhnaton Belshazzar was a mere modern. +Almost one thousand years before the impious King had reigned over +Babylon Akhnaton had told the Egyptian people of the unspeakable goodness +and loving-kindness of God, he had preached a religion which was to +abolish all wars, which was to unite all nations under the banner of +universal brotherhood. + +The Biblical handwriting on the wall had come into her thoughts for a +good purpose. The vision of it had been sent to prove to her that such +things had happened in the world before, and that there was no reason to +believe that they had not often happened since. God works in a +mysterious way, His wonders to perform. + +Her fight against her desire to believe had been solely on Freddy's +account. He had so intensely disliked her interest in occultism that for +his sake she had struggled faithfully to subdue it. Now she knew that +she could no longer ignore the influence which had entered into her life +in this strange manner, not understood by her material self. She +possessed powers and qualities which with all her heart she wished that +she did not possess. She dreaded this last evidence of the mysterious +power which had made her very actions subservient to its will. + +Yet even as she said the words she was ashamed. If the message had any +connection with the figure in her vision, how could she hate it? +Instantly the tragic eyes, glowing with the light of divine love, were +before her; their reproach and pity made her blush, for in denying her +belief in things spiritual, she was surely denying the power of the Holy +Spirit in just the same way as Peter had denied and mocked at Jesus for +His assumption of divinity. + +Believing, with the intuition of her higher self, with her divine mind, +whose reasoning powers were in heaven, like the desert child of God--for +so the everyday world would say of her if they had known--in the +spiritual source of the amazing message, she ceased to question the why +or the wherefore of it. She could not treat it as the mere creation of +her own overwrought imagination, and yet she would be true to Freddy in +the sense that she would do absolutely nothing to get into closer touch +with the world behind the veil. She would make no effort to develop her +powers. + +On that point her conscience was absolutely clear. She had been loyal +and true to Freddy; she had left all occultism and mysticism severely +alone. And surely never in the world had her mind been farther separated +from things Egyptian or occult than on this afternoon, when she had +suddenly felt her hand begin to write of its own free will? Of all +people in the world, her Aunt Anna was the last who would call up any +suggestion of her vision in the Valley, and Freddy would agree that a +Lyons' tea-room was amazingly unsuited for such an experience. + +She puzzled her brain to find out any reason why this message should have +been sent to her at this particular time, why Michael had been thrust so +vividly into her life again. Her pride had driven him from her mind +until he had at last actually lost his place in her daily thoughts. It +would be impossible now not to think of him; she was thinking of him with +a beautiful rebirth of her first romantic love. + + * * * * * * + +Was he, with all his horror of bloodshed and war, in the trenches while +she was snug and sleeping in her bed at night? were some mangled and +unrecognizable fragments of his body lying on the battle-fields of +Flanders? Or, sadder than all, had he, like Freddy, never been in +action? Had his life also been a useless sacrifice? + +As she asked herself the question, the bright rays of Aton shone round a +figure in khaki; she saw Michael clearly and beautifully. He was +illuminated by a bright and shining light. Margaret remained motionless +and spell-bound. Her visualizing was more than a mere mental +reproduction of an imaginary scene. The bright light which surrounded +Michael revealed to her how instantly his enemies would quail before him, +how terrified and amazed they would be! + +In an ecstasy of wonder and surprise Margaret called to him. Her voice +broke the spell; her eyes saw nothing, nothing but the shadows and the +half-lights shed by her inadequate gas-jet in the large room. + +She fell on her knees beside her bed. She must get closer to God, she +must feel Him, for there was no human being in whom she could confide. +She was terribly alone; her body hungered for arms of sympathy, her mind +for understanding ears. The lonely and love-starved will know how she +craved to be gathered up and comforted; how she longed to throw off her +self-reliance, to let it be lost in a strength which would make her feel +like a little child in a giant's arms. As only God knows what is in our +hearts, only God understood her unspoken prayer. He was not shocked by +its pitiful humanity. That night He permitted the tired V.A.D. to sleep +in the strength of His everlasting arms. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +Some few days later a letter arrived for Margaret from Hadassah Ireton. +It contained interesting and surprising news. Michael Ireton had been +thrown in close contact with one of the excavators who had formed the +camp in the hills behind Tel-el-Amarna--they were now both employed in +the same Government office in Assiut. + +From the excavator Michael Ireton had learned that the secret police +had traced the movements of the native who had given the Government the +information about the chambers in the hills, and had discovered him. +But, as bad luck would have it, he was ill with smallpox and incapable +of giving any information. The man had died without recovering +consciousness. The excavators had become more and more convinced that +he had stolen the treasure, and that it was now resting in its second +hiding-place, awaiting, it was to be hoped, its final discovery. + +If the man had recovered, his information could no doubt have been +bought. To an Eastern a guinea in the hand is worth twenty in the bank. + +The reason, Hadassah explained, for the excavators' belief that there +had been a hidden treasure, of jewels if not of gold, was the fact that +half a mile or more beyond the site of the excavation three uncut +jewels of considerable value had been found in the open desert. They +had been covered and hidden from sight by the drifting sand, and there +they would have lain perhaps for ever but for the stumbling of a tired +donkey, which was carrying a native and a huge load of forage to a +subterranean village, not very far from the site of the excavation. +The disturbing of the sand had exposed the jewels, which caught the +sunlight and the sharp eyes of the desert traveller. + +He was an old man, exceedingly honest, uncontaminated with the ways of +city dwellers, so he took the jewels to the _Omdeh's_ house and asked +him if he thought that they were valuable, and if they were, what he +should do with them. + +The _Omdeh_ (it was the same _Omdeh_ who had so little credited the +story of the hidden treasure when he had spoken of it to Michael) was +as surprised as he was suspicious. His interest was aroused. Could +these fine jewels have been dropped by the thief who had burgled the +tomb? These were his thoughts, although Hadassah did not know it. + +He at once carried them off to the Government camp in the hills. The +excavators pronounced them to be ancient stones of great value. + +The other reason for their belief that the treasure had been stolen was +the fact that the inner chamber, in which they had found absolutely +nothing, had obviously been built with a view to holding objects of +great value. It had all the qualities of a royal treasury. The +inscription on the wall spoke of it as "the treasure-house of Aton." +That no ancient plunderer had entered this chamber, which the heretic +King had cut out of the rook under the hills behind his city, was +obvious. There had been practically no excavating to be done, in the +sense in which Margaret thought of excavating, because the chambers +were all in a state of perfect preservation; none of them were blocked +up with rubbish. Once the entrance had been opened up--and this had +been done by the native who had discovered the site--they met with +little difficulty. + +The entrance had been so skilfully hidden, that the excavators wondered +how it had happened that the ignorant native who gave the information +had discovered it (this Hadassah considered extremely interesting and +convincing from Michael's point of view) and what had put him on the +track of the hidden treasure. + +These questions, Hadassah said, her husband had refrained from +answering. He considered that the treasure, in its second +hiding-place, belonged to Michael, that it must remain there until he +found it. Michael Ireton had listened to all that the excavator had to +tell and had held his tongue on the subject of Mr. Amory's expedition; +the psychical part of it would probably have called forth much derision +and scoffing. + +Hadassah ended her letter by congratulating Margaret on the fact that +the treasure, whether it was great or small, did exist, that it was an +actual fact. The finding of the jewels proved that Michael's theories +and occult beliefs were justified. "And after the war you will be able +to go with him on his second pilgrimage, for certainly the spirit of +Akhnaton has saved the treasure for him. What the world calls chance +has preserved the King's legacy from profane hands." + + * * * * * * + +The letter was written from the Fayyum, where Hadassah was staying with +her boy. Her constant visits to this beautiful oasis had wrought great +changes in the house in which her cousin Girgis had spent the greater +part of his life. Her aunt and cousin had, with native quickness, +learned to speak English quite fluently, and Hadassah had, by her tact +and sympathy, helped to develop their lives and intellects. The +household was scarcely recognizable as the one in which, only a few +years ago, she and Nancy had endured a terrible half-hour at +afternoon-tea. + +Hadassah often wished that Girgis could have seen the development and +change which the widening influence of Western ideas had brought about +in his old semi-native, semi-European home. + +In all things relating to the war it was an ardently pro-English +household, which, ever since its outbreak, had become a veritable +institution for Coptic war-workers. Veiled figures hurried to it, +carrying their knitting, proud and pleased to be imitating the efforts +of the European ladies in Egypt, and knit they did from morning until +night, with the patience and endurance of the uncomplaining East. + +Hadassah's letter greatly disturbed Margaret. If it had only come +before Freddy was killed, how she would have gloried in it, how +delightful it would have been to tell him that even a scientific body +of excavators had come to the conclusion that a treasure had been laid +up by the religious fanatic--for that was Freddy's summing-up of +Akhnaton--that the seer's vision had again proved true! + +But now she had no one to rejoice with. Freddy had been taken from +her, and Michael was lost, and there was not a creature in all her +world who would care one brass farthing about the strange materializing +of Michael's spiritualistic theories. All that she cared most about +she had to subdue and crush back. Probably Freddy, in his new life, +was understanding and sympathizing, for she knew now with a nervous +certainty that the veil is very thin. + +Hadassah had said in her letter, when referring to the death of the +native, "This sounds as if Millicent's servants had played her false. +The police report that she never reached the hills, so whether her +dragoman deliberately took her off the track, and allowed one of her +servants to go to the hills and secure the treasure, remains a mystery +which may never be solved. But one thing is pretty clear--that her +cavalcade was never seen in that part of the desert, for, as you know, +the drifting sand in Egypt carries information; it conceals and reveals +many things undreamed of in our Western philosophy." + +As Margaret read these lines she cursed her own stupidity with a bitter +curse. If she had used a little more tact and shown less jealous rage, +she could have learnt from Millicent all which now so baffled them. +She could easily have discovered if she had ever reached the hills. + +Margaret was rereading the letter in her off-hours. Her first reading +of it had been very hurried, for it had arrived by the first post, and +she had only found time to devour it with eager eyes, eyes which +searched its pages for one precious item of news. She was scarcely +conscious of her desire for news of Michael's whereabouts. There was +always the hope, unexpressed even to herself, that he had written to +the Iretons. If he really was at the Front, surely he would have told +them? But the letter contained no such information. + +Her disappointment was, however, drowned in surprise and pride. With +one fell swoop the letter had obliterated the passion and obsession of +war which had held her in its clutches. It made her forget, for a +little time, at least, that such a country as Germany existed. Her +mind was again vivified with visions of the desert and the various +scenes which Hadassah's letter suggested. Flashing before her eyes was +the open desert, the unbroken light, and the stumbling donkey, +heavily-laden and meekly submissive, with the gleaming gems, betrayed +by the rays of Aton. She could visualize the astonished native +fingering them and holding them up to the light; the sunlight, +Akhnaton's symbol of divinity, was to bear testimony to the fact that +the bright objects which had caught the Arab's eyes were beautiful and +rich-hued gems, that they were indeed a portion of the treasure which +he had hidden from the avarice of the priests of Amon, who set up +graven images and worshipped false gods. + +For the first time since she had been doing the work of a pantry-maid, +Margaret set out the tea-trays and washed up the cups in an automatic, +aloof manner. Her material body was busy in the hospital-pantry, while +spiritually she was far away. Visions rose and faded before her eyes +in rapid succession, but the one which she saw oftenest was the look of +surprise and smiling incredulity on Freddy's face. The cry in her +heart was for his sympathy, for his knowing, for his congratulations on +the wonderful piece of news. Why could he not have been allowed to +know it while he was still alive on this earth and able to talk to her? +She wanted to be personally and materially close to him while he read +the letter. + +She longed for that more ardently and whole-heartedly than anything +else; she hungered for it even more fiercely than the coming back of +Michael, whose return into her life she was convinced would eventually +happen. Whether it would be for her happiness or otherwise she was +ignorant. + +When she thought of his coming and of her first meeting with him, her +pride rose up in arms, her mind was devastated with embarrassment. The +meeting would open up old wounds, which she had imagined were healed. +There she had been mistaken; they were like the wounds of a patient +which appear to be healed while he lies at rest in the hospital, but +which break out again when he resumes his normal life. The war had +drugged Margaret's senses. + +She had curiously little fear for Michael as a soldier, for whenever +she thought of him as one, as fighting at the Front, she saw the bright +light surrounding him, and disarming his amazed opponents. + +During the short time which Freddy was at the Front, how different her +thoughts had been! His beauty and ability seemed to say to her, as she +watched him on that memorable afternoon at the station, "Whom the gods +love die young." He seemed to typify to her England's brave and +beautiful young whom the war chose for its victims. The wages of the +war were England's youth and devotion. She knew that much as Freddy +loved his work and enjoyed his life, he would be the last to grudge his +death. It was she herself who so ardently wished that he had died in +action; that his brains and ability had been given a chance; that he +could have done as he would have wished to do, taken a life for a life; +that he could avenge in honest warfare the hideous death of his +comrades. + +This letter from Hadassah made Margaret realize the awful fact that +Freddy was dead as nothing else had done, that his death meant that she +could never, never again consult him, or speak to him, or hope to hear +from him. It was not only a case of patience and the distance of half +the world between them; it was a case of never, never again on this +earth. She had scarcely known the meaning of death until this +starvation for his sympathy revealed itself to her. The awful +difference between mere distance and death had escaped her. Hundreds +of men were dying, but death was talked of unconvincingly, +superficially. + +Now, by some strange means, she suddenly saw the years of doing without +Freddy stretching out before her. The Valley where his work lay would +never see him again. His brains and extraordinary energy were lost to +the world; his archaeological work would be taken over by others. + +The pent-up tears which Margaret had not shed when she received the +news of his death, or during all the busy days which followed it, +mingled themselves with the unrestrained weeping which Nature sent to +save her overwrought system. She cried uninterruptedly, until the +urgency of tears subsided. She dried her eyes and braced herself up. +Her weeping had stopped suddenly; it had exhausted itself. + +It seemed to her that she could almost hear a voice repeating to her a +sentence out of Hadassah's letter. It was strikingly like Hadassah's +own voice. "Try to remember that your wonderful brother is still doing +his bit. He is working hard, wherever he is--be sure of this, for it +is what he would wish." + + * * * * * * + +Margaret carried this thought in her mind as she returned to her +pantry. Hadassah was right. Freddy was working; wherever he was, he +was busy, for he could not be happy if he was not working and helping +on the cause of the Allies. Freddy had been one of the few enthusiasts +in the early days of the war who had never pretended, even to himself, +that England's primary object in declaring war against Germany was to +avenge the devastation of Belgium. He knew that England had to enter +it to save herself and France from a similar devastation. + +When she was busy at work again, Margaret said to herself, "Of all the +strange things which have happened during the last six months, perhaps +the strangest of all is the fact that in all the wide world, the only +human being to whom I should dream of applying for help or for sympathy +in the things that matter is Hadassah Ireton, Hadassah the Syrian, +whose marriage with an Englishman of good family would have so shocked +and horrified me not so very long ago!" + +A smile of amusement changed the expression of her face. She was +thinking of Hadassah as she really was, and of the outcast Hadassah as +she would have pictured her. The smile lost itself in the shame with +which the memory of her ignorance and prejudice filled her. How well +Hadassah and her husband could afford to forget the narrow-mindedness +and the conceit of it all! + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +And now to return to Michael. During the weary weeks of anxiety and +suffering which Margaret spent in Egypt before she sailed for England, +Michael lay hovering between life and death in the _Omdeh's_ house near +the subterranean village in the Libyan Desert. + +Abdul had taken him there when he gathered him up in his strong arms on +the eventful evening when he left the excavation-tent in the hills. A +violent attack of fever, made more serious and difficult to throw off +by the overwrought condition of his nerves, kept Michael a helpless +exile in the hands of the hospitable but somewhat ignorant _Omdeh_ and +the devoted Abdul. + +When the fever was at its height, Michael was very often delirious; in +his ramblings he let the discreet Abdul see deep down into the secret +hiding-places of his heart. Sometimes he spoke in English, and +sometimes in Arabic. Abdul could understand a great deal more English +than he could speak, and as Michael often repeated the same things in +Arabic--when he thought he was addressing Abdul--he soon found the key +to much which, without the Arabic translation and constant reiteration, +might have escaped his understanding. Arabs learn a language with +extraordinary rapidity; it is no unusual thing to meet a dragoman who +can understand three or four languages, and speak a fair smattering of +each; the same man is probably unable to read or write in any one of +the four. From the deep waters of affliction came strange and terrible +revelations, of desires and temptations which the conscious man had not +allowed himself to recognize. In his helplessness they leapt forth and +proclaimed themselves unmistakably. He innocently betrayed the nature +of the woman who had earned Abdul's hatred. + +At other times he called upon Margaret and implored her forgiveness, +denouncing the woman who had followed him. He cursed her in horrible +words. Even Abdul was surprised at their impiety. Once, when Abdul +laid his fine fingers on his burning forehead, Michael took his hand +eagerly and tried to kiss it. The next instant he rejected it and with +the strength of delirium threw it from him and tried to get out of bed. + +"That's not Margaret's hand?" he said angrily. "And I want no other +woman than Margaret. I have told you that before--I belong to +Margaret, I am Margaret's body and soul. I told you that the first +time we ate our meal together, even before your white tent went up." + +When Abdul managed to subdue his master's fears, he laughed wildly and +idiotically. "Of course it is only you, Abdul. I had forgotten. I +seem to forget everything . . . I thought that . . ." here his words +became incoherent. "I was so tired, Abdul, and you were sitting up in +the sky above the horizon . . . so very tired." + +Abdul fanned his babbling master and offered him a cooling drink. +Michael swallowed it eagerly; his bright eyes gazed pitifully into +Abdul's after the last drain was swallowed. + +"Don't let the other woman come near me," he pleaded. "She is wearing +all Akhnaton's precious stones--they are hung round her neck, her +breasts are covered with them. But her skin is so white and tender, +the sun is burning it--I must lend her my coat." He laughed horribly. +"Mean little beast, Abdul, how frightened she was! The saint gave me +the amethyst--it's for Margaret." + +Abdul listened to these strange outpourings with the philosophy and +trust of a devout Moslem. If Allah willed it, He would let his master +recover. He had put the Effendi in his care, and no trouble was +anything but a pleasure to him if it brought some sense of ease and +comfort to the delirious Michael. + +The _Omdeh_ was the very soul of hospitality. He observed the +teachings of the Koran in the spirit as well as in the letter. He +spoke no English, so he was ignorant of all that Michael's delirious +words conveyed to Abdul. On his master's concerns, Abdul was a well of +secrecy. + +By night and by day he heard him go over the same ground again and +again. His life in Egypt for the last few months was expressed in +broken sentences and vivid declarations, uttered sometimes with +astonishing gravity and lucidity. At times Abdul was deceived into +thinking that he was conscious, that his reasoning powers had returned, +that he was quite sensible. But he was soon undeceived by a sudden +breaking-off in the continuity of the words, or a return to confused, +half-meaningless sentences. It was only by the constant repetition +that Abdul learned the whole truth. A bit out of one raving fitted +into another, and things hard to explain were made clear. + +Once he said very gravely, "Hadassah Ireton will help Margaret, the +beautiful Hadassah. She is more beautiful than Margaret, Abdul, much +more beautiful, but Margaret is the mistress of my happiness." + +Abdul answered by saying, "_Aiwah_, Effendi, she is your guarded lady, +she will be the mother of your sons." + +"She who sends me to rest with a sweet voice, and with her beautiful +hands bearing two sistrums." + +Abdul was ignorant of the fact that his master was quoting the words of +Akhnaton, as written in the tomb of Ay in reference to his queen. He +thought they were his master's own words, and so thinking, his heart +was cheered, for Michael's voice was gentle and reasonable. But the +hope was suddenly wiped out. + +"Are the camels ready, Abdul? We must get away, get away from the +woman. It's the only way. And you thought I cared, you came in sorrow +to tell me that the little beast had slipped away, just while Margaret +was standing among the daffodils. I heard her calling, calling in the +breeze. I was in England with Margaret." + +Abdul saw that he had been mistaken. His master had never been +sensible; he was declaiming again, in his high-pitched, unnatural voice. + +"I was a Christian--they wouldn't allow me to see the holy man buried. +But he gave me the jewel, the gem precious beyond all rubies. Abdul +covered his poor body with quick-lime; he said it would prevent +infection. Freddy won't believe it, Margaret, so we won't tell him--he +would only laugh. 'A child of God shall lead you'--that is what the +old African said. But I never told Freddy; he thinks I stand on my +head . . . Abdul! Abdul!" Michael's cry was ringing forlorn. "Do +you see the Government flag? It's all up, Abdul, it's all moonshine! +We're too late, too late. Freddy will say that Millicent detained me! +Is it the fluttering flag of the saint? It was Millicent who saw it in +the sunlight." + +In despair Abdul recited a _sura_ from the Koran. "The God Who gives a +good reward for the good deeds of His creatures, and does not waste +anyone's labour." + +Michael took up the last words of Abdul's prayer, in the way in which a +delirious mind will often carry on a sentence which drifts to the brain. + +"Nothing is ever wasted, Freddy--I've told you that over and over +again. You say I waste my time. You won't say so, when you see the +jewels. The saint kept it in his ear, Abdul--wasn't that clever for a +child of God? Look, look, Abdul!" Michael stared into the distance; +his eyes became transfixed; he was excited, strong physically. +"Millicent's small breasts are so white, so white and fair. Her two +breasts are like two fawns that are twins of a roe, that feed among the +lilies. They are covered with jewels, they catch the sunlight. How +beautiful she is! Do you see her, Abdul? She is walking in the air in +front of me, all the way, Mohammed Ali's 'golden lady.'" + +Abdul applied a wet towel to his master's burning temples. He sank +back on his pillow exhausted; his voice became low and feeble. + +"The little white tent, it is always calling, calling, its open door is +always inviting me. Why does it say, all day long, 'Turn in, my lord, +turn in'? But Margaret came to me, she saved me. Listen--can you hear +the bells, Abdul? I heard them in the night, they sounded like the +bubbling of water. Then peace came, peace, when the woman had sneaked +away. Freddy always said I walked on my head, Abdul; he always +declared that the whole affair was moonshine, no one in their senses +would believe it. I always believe in people who have no sense, for +God gives finer _senses_ to people who have no sense. Sense never sees +beyond, Abdul." + +Often he became very wild; broken sentences would pour from his lips, +the foolish, unmeaning ravings of a fevered brain. + +After these wild outbursts intervals of exhaustion would set in, in +which he would lie in a semi-conscious state of stillness. On one such +occasion the stillness was suddenly broken by the solemn recitation, in +exactly Abdul's devout tones, of the Mohammedan rosary. When he +reached the sixty-third attribute of God, he repeated it with great +unction. Then his pious tones suddenly changed to a querulous cry. + +"Abdul, why do you go on saying 'O Source of Discovery'? You know that +we've discovered nothing, nothing at all. It's all mere moonshine. I +wish Abdul would stop--he's sitting in the sky above the horizon, +repeating those same silly words over and over again! If I could only +get at him . . . but the horizon never gets any nearer." He laughed +vulgarly and hoarsely, and then lost the trend of his thoughts. "It +was a crimson amethyst--he always kept it in his ear. They buried me, +Meg, beside the saint. The sand drifts very quickly, it runs and runs +along the surface of the desert, so quickly and silently, like oozing +water over a dry river-bed." He gazed wildly at Abdul. "Will you tell +my old friend at el-Azhar that I have been dead for a long time? Tell +him that the sands drift very quickly. Margaret mustn't cry. The wind +is the desert grave-digger. Take your wicked hands away!" Abdul had +touched his wrist. "You'll never, never tempt me any more, because I'm +dead, I tell you. I was go tired, I got off my camel, and lay down, +and you ran away, you little coward. And the sands covered me, and I'm +dead, thank God!" + +Abdul waited and watched and trusted in Allah. His devotion was +complete; he surrendered himself to his master in his material life as +completely as he surrendered himself spiritually to his God. And he +had his reward, for gradually Michael's youth and splendid constitution +asserted themselves; the fever abated--natives have their own wise +methods of treating it. There were days when he seemed almost well, +far on the way to recovery, but they were often followed by hours of +reaction and high delirium. These reactions were familiar to Abdul; +they did not depress him. Nevertheless they required time and +patience. It was Michael's first attack of fever, and therefore he was +able to throw it off more completely than if his system had been +undermined by it. + +To Abdul his convalescent stage was a time of perfect content. As is +often the case with Orientals, he loved his European master with a +sentiment and romance which finds no equivalent in Western natures. +This sentiment and romance had increased intensely during Michael's +illness. Abdul now looked upon him as a personal possession; he had +nursed him back to life and health; he was a gift which Allah had +placed in his hands. He had no sons of his own, so his master filled +the unforgettable void. His conversion to Islam was Abdul's most +earnest prayer. + +The only cloud in his blue sky was the knowledge that Michael was +disappointed and distressed by the fact that he had not, in some manner +or other, let the Effendi Lampton know that he was seriously ill. +Abdul could not have written himself, for he could neither read nor +write English; he always spoke to Michael in Arabic. It was therefore +impossible for him to write to the Effendi Lampton, and to the native +mind time was of so little account that one day was as good as another. +Besides, deep down in his heart there was a pool of jealousy; he wished +to nurse his beloved master back to life and health with his own hands. +If the Effendi Lampton knew that he was ill, he would come to him or +send someone to wait upon him who would rob him of his sweet work. And +to do Abdul justice, he did not know if his master would like any +stranger, or even the Effendi Lampton himself, to know all the secrets +of his heart which his ravings revealed. Michael had so often +expressed the wish to Abdul that it should be from his own lips, or +from his own letters, that the Effendi Lampton should hear that the +harlot had been with them in the desert, and the whole story of their +desert journey. + +Abdul was quite convinced that his master's letters had not yet been +delivered at the hut in the Valley. It did not seem to him a very long +time for a letter to take to travel across the desert and the Nile. +The carrying of news was a different matter; he had a native's +knowledge of how that can be transmitted with great rapidity. A letter +belonged to a widely-different means of communication. And so he let +the matter rest. + +To the hospitable _Omdeh_ he confided nothing. The old man was pleased +and delighted to have Michael as his guest. During the patient's rapid +recovery, after his first weeks of intermittent convalescence, he was +as pleased as a child to be allowed to entertain Michael with all the +delights which he had held out before his eyes when he had invited him +to spend two or three days with him, before he journeyed to the camp in +the hills. + +During that time Michael became learned in the points of well-bred +gazelles. He saw some native dancers, both male and female, who +charmed him with their beauty and their art. And he listened so many +times to celebrated _A'laleeyeh_ (professional musicians) that, with +the help of the _Omdeh_, be became familiar with the remarkable +peculiarity in the Arab system of music--its division of tones into +thirds. Egyptian musicians consider that the European system of music +is deficient in sounds. This small and delicate gradation of sound +gives a peculiar softness to the performance of good Arab musicians. + +At first Michael was unable to appreciate the excellence of the music +he listened to, for the finer and more delicate gradations of tone are +difficult to discriminate with exactness; they are seldom heard in the +vocal and instrumental music of people who have not made a regular +study of the art. But as his ear became more habituated to the style, +the more it delighted him. He had seen the rapture on Abdul's face and +had heard the exclamations of "God approve thee!" "God preserve thee!" +from the _Omdeh_, many times before the knowledge came to him. He knew +that it was his own ignorance, and not the musicians' lack of skill, +which was to blame. Until now he had only been familiar with the music +of the Nile boatmen and the popular music of the people. + +It was delicious, or so Abdul thought, to sit with his master and the +_Omdeh_ in the cool garden, under the shade of a fantastic arbour, +darkened by the leaves of oleanders and other semi-tropical trees, and +there listen to the songs of famous Arab singers, or to the music of +the _'ood_, or the _nay_, a picturesque native flute, made out of a +reed about half a yard in length, pierced with holes. + +Sometimes story-tellers would arrive. One would begin his romance +early in the evening and it would not be nearly finished by bed-time, +which came late in the hot summer nights. The reciting of it was +broken by pleasant intervals for discussions, or for the sipping of +sweet syrups and cool native drinks. The romance always left off at a +thrilling point; sometimes it took three evenings to finish it. + +Abdul lived in a condition of satisfaction only to be expressed by a +Moslem mind. As for Michael, he had never imagined that he could feel +himself so much at home and so closely in sympathy with purely native +life. He began it at the point in his convalescence when nothing +mattered; the path of least resistance was the only one which he could +take. He continued in it when he no longer desired to resist. + +He had received no word from the Valley or from the outer world. He +felt that he was cut off and abandoned. Millicent had no doubt taken +pains to let Margaret know that she had been with him in the desert, +and what could he expect but that Freddy would be justly indignant? + +But he was getting better every day. He had had no return of the fever +for some time. Whenever he felt fit to travel, he would go to the +Valley and see if he could discover anything of Freddy's whereabouts. +Of course, he could not stay there during the hot weather, but the +guards in charge of the excavation-site might be able to tell him where +he was to be found. + +It was no difficult matter for Michael to let things drift, and easier +for him under the circumstances than it might otherwise have been. + +It was only after his complete recovery, and at the end of his long +journey with the faithful Abdul back to the Valley, that he realized +the utter desolation which faced him. + +He had said good-bye with regret and gratitude to the Omdeh, who was +every day becoming more concerned about the secret propaganda which was +being preached in the desert mosques, and had travelled as quickly as +he could, more by train than by camel, back to Luxor. On an afternoon +of blistering heat he had crossed the Nile and ridden over the plain of +Thebes. He had to rest for a little time under the cliffs which +shelter the great temple of Hatshepsu at Der-el-Bahari, before he +continued his journey up the Valley of the Tombs of the Kings, to the +hut in the wrinkles of the hills. + +As he rode through the Valley, his thoughts were full of his first +meeting with Margaret. He remembered how at a certain point of the +desolate track, which winds like a dry river-bed through the Theban +hills, she had said, "Does Freddy live here all alone?" and how, when +he had assured her that Freddy was well guarded by watch-dogs at night, +she had said. "But dogs couldn't keep off this!" For Margaret they +had not kept off "this," the spirit of Egypt; nothing can keep off +Egypt; its power and mystery defy both time and science. + +He remembered her almost childish eagerness, when she first listened to +his explanation of Akhnaton's beliefs and teachings. Then her vision +of the suffering Pharaoh came back to him, and all her arguments +against her super-sense, which told her that she had seen the spirit of +the first divinely-inspired man. He visualized her honest eyes and +their expression of interest when he had argued with her that God had +revealed Himself to mankind in many individuals and in many countries. +Surely she could not believe that God had left a single nation without +some revelation of Himself, that he had not sent upon all nations the +gift of His Spirit by some redeemer? + +Margaret had said. "You mean, don't you, that Christ revealed Himself +to all nations?" + +Michael had rejected her correction, for Christ was but one of God's +manifestations of Himself upon earth. There have been others--Buddha +was one, so was Mohammed; all great reformers, and those who are +inspired with the spirit of truth, and seek to reveal its beauty to +mankind, were to Michael God's revelations of Himself upon earth. He +gave to China, Confucius, to India, Krishna, and so on. To Palestine +he gave Jesus, Whose teachings have lightened the darkness of the +Western world. + +"You may call them all Christ or Jesus, if you like," he had said. +"For they are all imbued with the same Spirit, which is of God. Jesus +has become our ideal and example, He it is Whom God chose to teach a +doctrine suited to Western minds." + + +In the heat and stillness of the Valley Michael pondered in his heart +over all the arguments and discussions which he had had with Margaret +under the star-lit heavens, or in an expanse of blinding sunlight, +which left not a shadow as big as a man's hand on the golden sands of +the Sahara. + +He was living again in the days which preceded his adventures in the +Libyan Desert. Abdul was conscious of his master's total absorption in +the thoughts which his return to the Valley had called up. For many +weeks the heat of the summer sun had made the Valley like a furnace; +even now, though the hottest hours of the day were past, it was +stifling and almost unendurable. The air scorched Michael's face like +the hot air which comes from an oven when its door is opened. + +As they drew near to the hut which had once been his home, the +loneliness and desolation became more intense. It hurt Michael +indescribably; the contrast between the present and the past was +horrible. What he had looked upon as his home, and what had meant for +him so much activity of mind and body, was now a mere wilderness. It +was an inferno of heat and sandhills; even lizards and scorpions sought +the shade. Nothing but the dead Pharaohs under the hills remained to +tell him that this had been his Eden, where passion-flowers bloomed. + +The wooden hut was bolted and barred and closely shuttered. + +"Certainly the family are not at home," he said to Abdul, with grim +humour. "There's no good looking for Mohammed Ali--he won't greet us +with his white teeth and smiling eyes." + +They halted. Not a movement or sound disturbed the Pharaonic +stillness; not a sign of even insect life caught their searching eyes. +Abdul drew a native whistle from his pocket and put it to his lips; its +sound travelled and echoed round the hills. + +Instantly a white turban appeared and the tall figure of a _gaphir_ +came forward, with his signal of office, a long staff carried in the +Biblical manner, in his hand. Tall and bearded, in his flowing white +robes, he might have been Moses praying apart in the wilderness, +pleading for the children of Israel until the anger of the Lord was +turned away. + +With inimitable dignity he came towards the two riders, who had so +suddenly appeared in the Valley. He was the trusted servant of the +Excavation Society; his duty it was to patrol the district which +surrounded the freshly-opened tomb, the one which Freddy had +discovered; his duty it was also to see that no harm came to the hut, +to which the Effendi Lampton would return in the autumn. + +When Michael asked him for information about the Effendi Lampton, he +threw back his head. He had heard nothing from him, or about him, +since he had left the Valley and that was in the second week in May. +He had gone away in a great hurry, and had left some of the settling of +his papers and the packing of his _antikas_ which were in the hut, in +charge of the Effendi King. When Michael questioned him if the _Sitt_, +his sister, had remained with him until he left the Valley, the +_gaphir_ appeared uncertain; he, personally, had not seen the _Sitt_, +but then he had only come to take up his job the day before Mistrr +Lampton had gone away; the _Sitt_ might have been there--he did not +know. + +As the dignified personage seemed to be disinclined to volunteer any +information, and he was unable to give Michael a satisfactory answer to +the questions he asked him, there was nothing else to do but to let him +return to his meditations. Michael supposed that there were native +mounted police in the Valley, whom the man could call to his assistance +if any trouble arose; they would appear from some sheltered fold in the +hills in answer to his signal. + +Down the Valley of Death, in which the flames of the inferno seemed to +have licked and scorched the dry air ever since the world was created, +Michael rode with Abdul at his side. He had turned his back on the +hut, for the place thereof knew him no more. Freddy and Margaret had +left it; it was as though their presence there had never been. He knew +that he had been foolish to hope to find either Freddy or Margaret in +the Valley; it was far too late in the season and too hot for any +excavating work in Egypt. This he had been conscious of, but in his +heart he felt the urging necessity of going to the Valley and proving +the fact with his own eyes. Perhaps there was hidden in the back of +his mind a hope that some message had been left there for him, that +Freddy would have known that even if it was midsummer before his +journey was accomplished, he would return there as soon as he could; +something would draw him to the scene of their united labour and +happiness. + +But Freddy's practical mind had not thought of any such folly; he had +left the Valley to the sun by day and the stars by night, and had gone +like the swallows to a cooler and greener land. + + * * * * * * + +Michael was compelled to spend that night at Luxor. His urgent desire +was to reach Cairo as quickly as possible and discover if the Iretons +knew anything of Freddy and Margaret. They were now his one hope. In +Luxor the fine European hotels were closed, so he found accommodation +in the house of one of Abdul's friends, a clean, well-managed native +inn. Luxor in May was without one blot or blemish of foreign life. + +The next day he travelled by train to Cairo. The new moon was just +appearing in the evening sky when he found himself nearing the Iretons' +ancient Mameluke mansion. With the absence of all tourists and +European life, the mediaeval city seemed to Michael so Biblical that he +would not have been astonished if he had come across the city +magistrates, sitting apart in conclave to hear the witnesses of the new +moon's appearance and settle the time. He could picture the scientific +men in their midst, making their astronomical calculations, and judging +whether the testimonies agreed with their calculations. If they did, +the president of the assembly proclaimed the new moon by the sound of a +trumpet, and set open the gate of Nicanor, the great eastern brazen +gate of the temple. + +But instead of the trumpet proclaiming the new moon, Michael heard the +sonorous cries of the _mueddin_, calling out the hour of Moslem prayer +from the galleries round the tall minarets, which rose from the city +like the lotus-headed columns of ancient Egypt. All the large mosques +in Cairo are open from daybreak until two hours after sunset. The +great university-mosque of el-Azhar would, Michael knew, remain open +all night, all but one small portion, the principal place of prayer. + +When he reached the Iretons' house, he rang the bell at the door of the +outer courtyard. The Nubian who was stretched out on the mastaba +behind it did not trouble to rouse himself. Let the fool ring--surely +everyone knew that his master and mistress were not living in the city +in this weather, when they had a beautiful mansion in the cool oasis to +go to? + +Michael rang again, but even as he rang his heart was beginning to +sink; he knew that no servant would have kept a guest waiting behind +the big door if his master was at home; it was his one and only duty to +guard it and admit visitors. The second time he rang, he did it so +emphatically that the noise vibrated through the courtyard. + +A moment later Michael heard a movement. The bar was lifted from its +iron hooks, the door was grudgingly opened, and a black face, with +thick lips and goggle eyes, was thrust out. In a great many more words +than were necessary the Nubian told the anxious Michael that his master +and mistress were away from home; they were in the country; the house +was closed and would not be opened until October. + +When Michael urged him for more particulars, as to the precise address +of his master, the effusive Nubian became as close as a sphinx. His +duty to his master forbade him giving any information to strangers at +the gate; he only retained the post because he could be trusted. + +As Michael looked into the deserted courtyard, its sense of romantic +isolation was as affecting as the desolation of the Valley had been. +It seemed to him as if all his friends were dead, as if he was the sole +survivor of his generation and civilization. The native city, bathed +in the mystery of the falling night and the secrets of its great age, +lay behind him. It, too, was a world which had outlived its +civilization, a relic of the Middle Ages, as lonely as his own soul. + +Mechanically he bade the Nubian good-night; the half-piastre which he +dropped into the pink palm of his black hand brought down blessings on +his unbelieving head. + +He wandered aimlessly on. He was very tired and absolutely friendless; +he had no place or part in the city, whose arteries were throbbing with +the prayers and praise of an infinite variety of Oriental peoples, +peoples whose countries were separated by oceans and continents, joined +in one vast brotherhood in Islam. He felt miserably alone, a homeless +and friendless alien. + +At the hour which follows sundown Egypt has always new secrets to +reveal. On this night of the new moon, the late afterglow of the +summer sun spread an opal haze, flame-tinted and milky, over the +sin-soiled city of the Caliphs. It descended from the heavens like a +veil of righteousness. + +Michael had no desire to return to his hotel. He did not know what to +do; the absence of the Iretons from Cairo had shattered his last hope. +Surely it was ordained? He was to realize that he was reaping the +punishment he deserved for his weakness and folly. It was obvious to +his tired nerves and hypercritical senses that Margaret had purposely +returned to England without leaving any indication of her destination. +He would go to Cook's post-office the next morning; that was his last +forlorn hope. If there was no letter awaiting him there, he would take +his dismissal as final. It had been he himself who had insisted that +Margaret should consider herself free. + +He knew Freddy's English address, but dared he write to him? He had +ignored all his letters and had gone back to England without making any +effort to communicate with him. This was certainly his dismissal. And +if Margaret had gone also without leaving one word of comfort for him, +he must draw the same conclusion from her silence. + +Tired out with walking through the narrow streets, he stood on the +steps of a small mosque, whose doors were closed. He must think over +what he ought to do. As his eyes rested on the Eastern scene before +him, a sudden vision of his old friend at el-Azhar came to him. The +university-mosque would not be closed, its gate would open and receive +him into the Perfection of Peace. + +For a few moments the desire to throw himself into the arms of Islam +overwhelmed him; it was the way of peace, the way of forgetfulness, the +way of self-surrender. + +He remembered Abdul's teachings, and how he had often said, "A sort of +death comes over the first life, and this state is signified by the +word Islam, for Islam brings about death of the passions of the flesh +and gives new life to us. This is the true regeneration, and the word +of God must be revealed to the person who reaches this stage. This +stage is termed 'the meeting of God.'" + +Michael imagined that he would find that stage if he went to his old +friend at el-Azhar, if he went humbly and asked him to lead him into +the way of peace, if he went that very night and confessed to him his +own failure to reach the stage which is enjoyed by all devout Moslems. +The burning fire which is Islam, the fire which consumes all low +desires and gives to men that love for God which knows no bounds, would +that be his state, if he surrendered himself intellectually and +spiritually to the laws and the teachings of the Koran? + +There was nothing in the ethics or the moral code of the Prophet with +which he disagreed; the excellence of his teachings as laid down in the +Koran was extraordinarily far-reaching and comprehensive. Michael's +whole being for the moment was filled with the devotion and abandonment +of Islam. Mohammed's mission was to turn the hearts of his people to +the worship of the one and only God; his desire, like Akhnaton's, was +to throw down the false gods from the altars, and reinstate the simple +and undivided worship of the Creator in men's hearts and minds. To +Michael, his teachings had always been the teachings of a great and +inspired reformer. At that moment, when the spell of Islam was +baptizing him, he forgot that Mohammed's God was not the Sweet Singer +in the spring-time, or the bright eye of the daisy in June, or the +laughter of the babbling brooks. The beauty of God, to the Moslem, +consists in His unity, His majesty, His grandeur and His lofty +attributes. Michael overlooked the difference. He loved to walk with +God in the cornfields, to speak to Him when he visited the +lotus-gardens on the Nile. The Moslem succeeds in abandoning himself +to God's will, but he fails to enjoy Him in the scent of the hawthorn, +or hear His voice in the whisper of the pines. + +The Moslem city was pouring into his veins the beauty of its spiritual +calm; the hour was kind to its imperfections, its hidden sores were +forgotten. + +His feet mechanically descended the flights of stone steps which had +raised him above the level of the street and had placed him under the +shadow of the ancient doorway of the mosque. Without asking himself +where he was going, or what he intended to do, he walked in the +direction of el-Azhar. + +As he threaded his way through the narrow streets, darkness was quickly +obliterating the dirt and unsightliness which was visible in the +noonday. His mind was vexed with a thousand questions. Why did a +Western civilization and the Protestant religion make human beings +restless and questioning? Why were they for ever desiring the things +which are withheld? Why had his life and his interests suddenly +tottered to the ground? Surely it was because he had not learned to +put the things of the spirit above things material? If he resigned his +will to Islam, would he in return be granted the calm philosophy of a +Moslem, who accepts his condition and his disappointments as the +unquestionable and far-seeing decree of the Cause of all causes? + +Drifting and dreaming, Michael wandered on, the summer heavens above +him, the mediaeval city surrounding him. The hot day's work was over; +men and women were enjoying in their Oriental fashion the cooler and +sweeter air of the late evening. Portly figures of elderly men were +descending the high steps which raise the mosque-doors from the level +of the street; narrow, two-wheeled carts, of immense length, packed +full of black bundles--Egyptian women closely veiled--were taking tired +workers back to their homes in the suburbs. Darkness, which falls so +quickly and early in the East, even in mid-summer, was bringing relief +to sun-tired eyes. + +Reaction was affecting Michael very strongly. It had only set in when +the absence of the Iretons from Cairo had suddenly opened up a chasm of +distrust and doubt before his feet. In his desolate wandering through +the city, Margaret seemed very far away. Indeed, he had never felt any +assurance of her sympathy and presence since he had recovered from his +illness. He had nerved and braced himself to make the supreme effort +which he knew would be demanded of him if he was to reach the Valley; +he had made it wholly unaided by any subconscious sense of her +spiritual presence. His assurance of her unchanged confidence in his +devotion had left him. It was to his material, not spiritual, +will-power and determination that he owed his victory over the physical +exhaustion which he had experienced. + +He scarcely thought of Margaret as he wandered on; in his mood of +self-pity he felt abandoned. Every minute he was drawing nearer and +nearer to the gates of el-Azhar. Unconsciously he desired that when he +reached the gate which led into the Court of the Perfection of Peace, +it would open, and strong arms would gather him up as they had gathered +him up in the Libyan Desert, and drown his restlessness and doubts in +their strength; that he might spend his future at rest under the shadow +of the Everlasting Arms--The God of Akhnaton, the God of Jesus, the God +of Mohammed, His Arms encompass and enfold the world. + +At the gates of el-Azhar Michael paused and listened. The praises of +Allah, and man's love for Him, went up from a hundred devout voices. +The pillared courtyard looked vast and solemn; the soft air of the +summer night vibrated with the sonorous chanting of students and +professors. The peace of God which passeth all understanding +beautified the mediaeval building, which has been for long centuries +the centre of culture and learning for the scattered Moslem world. It +baptized Michael's fevered soul as the waters of Jordan baptized those +who were converts of the forerunner of Jesus. Centuries of meditation +and player have left their divine influence on the place. + +All sacred enclosures hold the gift of healing. Michael had felt it in +the temples of Egypt, in the temples of the Greeks, in the mosques. +The things of the spirit remain in them, the thoughts which have been +born by communion with the soul. + +Impulsively Michael lifted the iron handle of the bell; it hung from a +long chain which lay against a square column, one of the two posts at +the outer gate. Here was the rest he was seeking, the beauty of divine +meditation. + +As he lifted the handle and his palm pressed it with the tightening +grasp necessary for pulling it, he let it drop. Something made him +drop it. He had ardently desired to ring it; it was not the lateness +of the hour, or the nervousness which he might well have felt at taking +a step which would lead him into fresh perplexity and doubt, which had +made him pause. He had dropped it because he was compelled to, and as +he dropped it, he knew that he would never again ring it for the same +purpose. His super-self had triumphed; it had dominated his actions. + +Suddenly the overwhelming significance of the step which he had been +about to take so rashly made him tremble and feel apprehensive. He +turned round quickly, as if he expected to see the hand which had +stayed him. No one was there. + +He stood tense, perfectly still, listening. Only the prayers from the +courts of Islam came to his ears. Mingled with their solemnity, came +with vivid clearness the picture of himself, seated on the marble floor +of the courtyard, pretending that he was one in heart and soul with the +others. He could see their devotion, their bridled intellects, their +impersonal minds, strange peoples of every Oriental nation--black +Nubians, pale Arabs, flat-featured Mongolians--all sincere and honest +in this one thing at least, their absolute belief in, and surrender to +Islam. He saw himself, a Western, with a Western mind; ha saw himself +a hypocrite and charlatan. He saw the deadly monotony of the life +which only a moment before had seemed the Way of Perfect Peace. His +old friend, who had given him such wonderful counsel, would have read +into his heart: he would have seen there the vast difference which lay +between Michael's sincere beliefs and the beliefs which he was +professing. + +Resolutely he turned his back on the university-mosque. He would visit +his friend at a more suitable hour, and ask him to explain to him some +of the things that had happened. He would ask him if he was aware that +his desert journey had, in a material sense at least, ended in failure, +if his seer's vision had enabled him to discover what had happened to +the treasure. + +On his way back to the European quarter of Cairo he rested for a short +time by the roadside, in a strange little cemetery of poor Moslem +tombs. It lay exposed to the turmoil and dust of a rough road, a +sun-baked spot in the daytime; at night it was grimly mysterious. The +memorial stones--the humbler for the women, of course, the grander +ones, with turbans cut in the grey stone, for the men--had sunk into +the ground until they stood at strange angles. The rough white stones +had become grey with age, and many of them were sadly broken. + +A donkey-boy, who had perchance taken some portly Turkish merchant back +to his home in the country after his day's work in the city, came +hurrying down the hill. It was steep, and loose stones covered the +path. When he reached the dilapidated cemetery he pulled up his +suffering animal. Michael, from his hidden corner, watched the boy +fling himself from the donkey's back; the animal remained motionless, +while its rider, in his one garment--a short white shirt, which only +reached to the knees of his tanned legs--stepped in amongst the +gravestones. Finding the one he sought, he said a short prayer beside +it in devout tones, then hastened back to his donkey. When he started +down the hill and the tired beast stumbled, he belaboured it with a +heavy stick and cursed it. His foul language rang out into the +stillness; it echoed among the stones under which lay the bones of his +ancestor--or was it, perhaps, the bones of some humble saint, whose +favour he was inciting? + +The little incident was as illustrative of the effects of Islam as the +peace within the courts of el-Azhar. + +Michael sat in the cemetery, which had seemed to him to be of no more +consequence than a heap of stones by the wayside, awaiting the +roadmender's hammer. Yet, with the strange inconsequence of Orientals, +it was evidently a sacred spot. It had its pilgrims and its uses. +This city cemetery brought to his mind the drifting sand of the open +desert, and the ever-increasing mound which Nature was piling up over +the bones of the holy man, which lay in an ocean of sweet silence and +expanse. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +Early the next morning Michael again stood at the gate of the +university-mosque, but it was a different Michael to the Michael of the +night before. The unseen hand which had stopped him when he was about +to ring the bell did not have to interfere a second time. He rang it +resolutely, thinking calm thoughts, and despising himself for his +foolish mood of the night before. + +When the gate was opened to him, he passed in and hurried across the +blinding brightness of the open courtyard. He made haste to reach the +shelter of the colonnade; he was in no drifting humour; he was again +asserting his capacity for being practical about the unpractical. He +did not even allow himself to dwell on the memories which the scene +recalled of the day when he had visited his friend, before he +determined to leave the Valley and go into the Libyan Desert. + +When he reached the portion of the building where the old African +student lived, his steps slackened. What if he was dead? He was an +old man for a mid-African, and his physique had been greatly exhausted +by continued chastening of the flesh. + +When he was well within sight of his cell he saw the lean, gaunt figure +of the hermit-student standing inside the iron-barred gate; he was +straining his eyes into the distance; he was looking for someone. + +When Michael was near enough to address him, which he did in tones of +pleasure and respect, the African opened the gate slowly and not +without difficulty, his trembling hands thinner and more bloodless even +than they had been when Michael had visited him before. + +After the proper greetings were exchanged, the African invited Michael +to enter, and asked him if he would lend a patient ear to what he had +to tell him. + +"I am an old man," he said. "I can see the end of this existence--it +is not far off. It is well that you have come." + +When Michael expressed his sorrow, the tired eyes flashed. + +"Do not grieve, my son. When the righteous servant of God sees death +face to face, he does not contend with his God--that is to oppose His +will, that is not in accordance with total resignation." + +Michael said that his grief was for himself, not for his friend; his +words were an apology. The old man had seated himself in a humble +attitude on the floor in front of Michael; with the never-failing +courtesy of an Oriental, he was not forgetful of the etiquette which +prescribes for the seating of oneself in the presence of a superior. +There is always a position of honour in a native room, and this, even +in his cell, the zealot of Islam reserved for his professors and for +his honoured guests, if they were his social superiors. + +When they were seated and the tired old man had rested for a few +moments, he said, in the lengthy and flowery style of Orientals: + +"I looked for you, my son; your coming was foretold. I have long and +eagerly awaited it." + +"Were you watching for me?" Michael asked. "I saw you at the door of +your cell. I am glad I came." + +"Even as you came, I looked for you. The Lord of Kindness knows the +desires of our hearts; He grants all those which in His mercy He deems +fit." + +"You desired to see me, O my father?" + +"_Aiwah_, for long I have desired it." + +A rosary was in his hands; he pulled the beads slowly along the string. +Michael had learned to banish impatience in the presence of natives. + +"I have been in great tribulation," he said. "Did you know that? I am +even yet sorely troubled." + +The African answered with his eyes. + +"O Lord, give us in our affliction the contentment of mind which may +give us patience." + +"My peace of mind has gone, O my father. I feel that my feet have +strayed far from the way of peace. I came to hear your counsel." + +The old man's eyes flamed with the fire of righteousness. "My son," he +said, "the Lord has revealed to His dying servant the things which as +yet you know not. You speak of peace where there is no peace, for I +have seen the Armageddon of God's enemies; I have seen the world washed +in the blood of those who know not Islam; I have seen the heathen +nations of the earth blind with rage. Why do these nations of the +earth so furiously rage together? I tell you, O my son it is because +they have not the love of God in their hearts." + +Michael was silent. The old man's words conveyed very little to him, +for as yet there was no rumour of the war which was breeding in Europe. +The internal troubles in Ireland, distressing as they were, were not of +a nature to be spoken of with such appalling gravity. The old man's +anxiety and sincerity were unmistakable, but what did he mean? While +he sat in silence, wondering what the seer had in his mind, Michael saw +that his dark eyes were far away. His attitude was that of one who had +detached himself from his surroundings; his spirit was immeasurably +removed from his material body. Suddenly he spoke. + +"Take heed, my son, for everywhere, even unto the ends of the earth I +can see bloodshed and suffering, and an agony of evil such as the world +has never seen. I can see nations rising against nations, and the +blood of kindred spilt by each other's swords, for they know not God." + +Michael, not without a feeling of mental irritation, listened to the +African's foretelling. It seemed to him the imaginings of a zealot's +weakening brain. This war which he foretold was to Michael an +impossible thing amongst civilized nations, but he listened patiently +to all that he had to say. Blood which was to pour like a river over +the Western world, was to be spilt for the cause of Truth; it was to be +the punishment and final agony of the unbelievers; war was to spread +over the world like a deadly plague. God in His wisdom had willed it, +for it was to be a proof that the infidels, who had flourished like the +green bay-tree, were at last to suffer the vengeance of God. This war, +which he saw as clearly as astrologers see the stars and the moon in +the heavens through their scientific instruments, was ordained by +Allah, it was the work of His hand, it was His terrible revelation to +mankind of the falseness of the doctrines preached by those who called +themselves the followers of Christ. For nearly two thousand years they +had fed the nations on lies and set up images which were abhorrent to +the one and only God. They had, to suit their own doctrines and +dogmas, perverted the meaning of the words of Jesus; they had made the +name of Christ a byword to all true believers. The sin of hate and the +lust for blood, which was to fill the hearts of all Christian +countries, was to be a token to all true believers that the teachings +of Christians had been vain and fruitless. They had lived without God +in their hearts; now even the example of the Prophet Jesus they laughed +to scorn. + +"God is alone in His personal attributes, He has no partner, He is +neither a Son nor a Father, for there is none of His kind." + +Knowing the religious fervour of devout Moslems, Michael listened to +his warning, but without the interest which he would have felt if he +had had the slightest inkling of the agony which was so soon to +convulse Europe. He thought that as the African's end was not far off, +he was becoming more troubled and desirous for the conversion of the +world to Islam. He said to himself, "If he knows nothing about my +experience in the desert and my failure to find the treasure, I will +give no second thought to this imaginary war of nations." While he +listened to his strange and fervent warnings, he determined to find out +if he knew what had happened. When the African paused, he said: + +"Pray tell me, O my father, if it was known to you the things that +befell me in the desert. If not, I have much to tell you." + +The African was far away; only his emaciated body was in the cell when +Michael spoke; when he drew back his mind to his material presence, he +met Michael's questioning eyes; his own were tragic and stricken. + +"These things are past, my son, in this new world of despair and +suffering there is no place for them. Very often I saw you, very often +you were in great trouble, trouble as the world understood trouble in +the days of peace. But because of the avarice of ungodly rulers there +is sorrow and mourning coming to the world, which will teach men that +they knew not the meaning of anguish. In the Armageddon they will +understand the suffering of the Prophet Jesus, the Man of Sorrows Who +was acquainted with grief." + +Michael, convinced that the seer's mind was obsessed with this one +idea, accepted the fact philosophically; he shrank from asking him the +more personal questions he wished answered. Nevertheless, he was +extremely curious to learn if he was ignorant of the result of his +expedition. + +"Tell me, my father, did you see me securing the great treasure of gold +and jewels which I went into the desert to find? Did you know how +greatly I have reaped my reward?" + +"My son, speak to me of the truth which is in thy heart, not of lies." +His angry eyes rebuked Michael. "Stand fast to truth and justice. The +men of truth shall find a rich reward--they do not sit in the company +of liars." + +"I ask your forgiveness, O my father. Truly I spoke not after the +fashion of those who have understanding." + +"My son, I have seen what I have seen. Your deeds of charity are known +to God, His power extends over all things; not a chicken cheeps in the +egg-shell but He has created. Your trials and losses are known to Him, +they are His ordaining. Because of your weakness and the carnal +thoughts and desires which were in your heart, God saw fit to remove +the treasure from your sight. Again in the days of peace you must seek +it, in the bowels of the earth it is laid up for you." + +Michael's heart stood still. Verily the old man had seen, for in his +words there were truth and meaning. + +"My son, listen to the teachings of the Prophet, God bless his holy +name. 'Believing men should restrain their eyes from looking upon +strange women, whose sight may excite their carnal passions. Draw not +near unto fornication. The word of God restrains the carnal desires of +man even from smouldering in secret.'" + +"You know, O my father, that I sought not the presence of the strange +woman in my camp?" + +"My son, through the grace of Allah I have seen. Your temptation was +great, your charity was acceptable in God's sight. He knows that many +unbelievers look towards Him, but do not see Him." + +"And what now is thy counsel, O my father?" + +The African shook his head. "Prayer, my son, that is my counsel. The +world has much need of prayer. Pray that through Allah's guidance all +nations of the earth may learn how to live peacefully one with another. +I can see nothing further; that is my counsel: Work and pray. I can +give you no assurance, but Allah granting, I will pray without ceasing. +You must humbly submit to the will of Allah. This I give you as my +counsel. You took the great journey; your heart is still filled with +the eagerness of youth, with the vanity of earthly ambition. But all +these things will be purged from your heart, your bowels of compassion +will yearn for the mothers of sons, who weep for their sons because +they are not. Your journey was not in vain. If your fingers have not +yet touched the treasure which you sought, if your desires have strayed +from the path of righteousness, if you have not always stood in the +Light, there is a new treasure laid up in your heart, my son, the +treasure of meekness. Meekness is one of the moral conditions of the +Koran, and the servants of the All-Merciful are those who walk meekly +upon earth. This treasure has been revealed to you, you have learned +many strange and wonderful things, a spiritual treasure has been +bestowed upon you which is of greater richness than the gold and the +jewels which you sought. You dreamed not of man's weakness, O my son, +you relied upon your own strength. Allah has chosen His own method of +revealing to you the manner of man's carnal nature." + +Michael remained lost in thought while the old man finished his counsel +by reciting a beautiful _sura_ from the Koran. In his mind there had +been gathering the conviction that there was more truth than he had at +first imagined in his daring prophecy, in his foretelling of the +calamity which was to befall all Christian countries. He had been +perfectly accurate on the subject of his own journey, that it had not +been successful in regard to the treasure of Akhnaton. He had seen +with extraordinary clearness all which had happened, even to the +reading of his heart. It was unnecessary for Michael to tell him in +words all that he had gone through, for the African was tired, and his +eyes had seen. There was just one thing he had been craving to ask him +about; it had been glowing at the back of his mind like a light from a +sacred lamp. That precious thing was Margaret. Had this mid-African, +whose feet were bending to the open grave, any seer's knowledge which +would assist him? + +"I would ask you yet one more question, O my father. Of my dear +friends, whom I left in Upper Egypt when I journeyed into the +desert--have you counsel regarding them which will ease the anxiety I +feel?" + +The old man's eyes flashed brightly. He had forgotten; his voice was +expressive of human sympathy. "Your guarded lady, _insha Allah_, the +future mother of your sons, she was never far from you, she it was who +many times comforted you. Often have I seen her spiritual presence +very close to you." + +"Your words are the truth, O my father. When the weakness of man's +nature overwhelmed me, she came to me in the desert." + +"Spiritually you embraced her, my son; Allah, in His perfect +understanding, granted you this great comfort." + +"I have not heard from her, my father, nor has her spiritual presence +been close to me for many weeks. My heart is desolate." + +"Pray for fortitude, my son, that moral condition which enables us to +meet danger and endure pain with calmness." As he said the last words, +his eyes looked into the future; his expression became agonized. +"Fortitude," he repeated the word slowly and deliberately, +"fortitude--you must pray for it without ceasing, for without it you +cannot face the future." + +"You do not explain, O my father, why I do not see or hear anything +from those who love me." + +Michael had seen by the visionary's expression that his thoughts were +again obsessed with the Armageddon he had visualized. + +The African shook his head. "Some things I may not see, O my son, +Allah withholds them from my imperfect human understanding. It is only +by His ordaining that I can see what I see. If your heart is clean and +worthy, my son, doubt not the faithfulness and steadfastness of the +woman to whom you are spiritually united. She raises not her eyes to +strange men; if by your own weakness you have lost your spiritual +connection with her, then hasten to act worthily of her. The world +will have need of all those who have the love of God in their hearts, +of all those who have the moral quality of forgiveness and sympathy. +It is an easy matter to forgive those whom we love. Go you forth into +battle and learn to forgive those whom you hate. Never have your +opportunities been greater." + +As his last words were uttered, with extreme earnestness, through the +colonnade and courtyard of the ancient building came the midday call to +prayer; it was sonorous and prolonged. + +Michael rose hastily from his low seat. The aged student did not +detain him. Their farewell was comparatively brief, owing to the +_mueddin's_ harmonious and sonorous chanting of the _adan_. + +"I will return," Michael said. "I will not leave Egypt without saying +farewell to you, O my father, and asking for thy blessing." + +"_Insha Allah_ (if God wills), my son. Very soon God will permit His +servant to enjoy the blessings of paradise." + +"It will not be many days before I go to England." + +"_Aiwah_, the time draws near when each man will return to the land +which gave him birth. The Lord of Battles has decreed it, the Lord of +Battles will send forth His summons. From the uttermost ends of the +earth all those who have denied Him, all those who have denied that He +is God beside Whom there is none other to be worshipped, they will +answer to the call: with pride in their hearts they will slaughter +those who should be their brethren. The voice of the slain will travel +even as the wind travels to the world's end. Woe unto those nations +who have taught false doctrines, who have stretched out their hands to +oppress the widows and the helpless, for the anger of the God of +Battles is turned against them. He knows everything, and nothing lies +hidden from His sight." + +Michael made no answer. His mind was groping after the true +understanding of all that the African said. + +"If Allah had so willed it, my son, great would have been my happiness, +my rejoicing, to see the final triumph of Islam, to see the nations +upon the earth loving each other, all borders and barriers broken down, +to see the love of God ruling all men and all countries. When men live +with the image of the true God in their hearts, there will be no +dividing barriers. True patriots will be the obedient children of God, +the banner of Islam the universal banner of mankind. Farewell, my son, +God be with you." + +His gate was shut behind Michael; the lean figure hastened to obey the +call to prayer. + +As Michael hurried to the outer gate and crossed the thronged courts of +el-Azhar, he meditated on the old man's words. What did they mean? +What had his eyes seen? Locked away in his obscure cell in the centre +of the Moslem university-mosque, how could he know what was going to +happen in the great countries of Europe? He would find it difficult, +no doubt, to assign to England her correct position on the map. And +yet his warnings were strangely intense. Had they any connection with +the tales of political sedition of which the _Omdeh_ had so often +spoken? Nothing belonging to the present seemed to matter to him now; +his thoughts and visualizing were riveted on the agony of the world +which he foretold. His prayers were for this new agony and world-wide +disaster which had been revealed to him. + +It was strangely perplexing. Michael felt great pity for him, that his +last few weeks on earth should be so saddened; even though he was +convinced that this agony was to be for the final triumph of Islam, it +was tearing at his bowels of compassion. His gentle nature was +suffering for the children whom Allah now saw fit to punish. + + + + +PART III + + +CHAPTER I + +The war was six months old and Margaret was still a pantry-maid in the +private hospital in St. Alphege's Square. She was to be promoted to +the wards in a few weeks' time, to fill the place of a V.A.D. who was +going out to France. Before taking up her more interesting work, she +had been granted a fortnight's leave; the exacting matron realized that +the willing horse which works its hardest is one which will eventually +collapse under its burden. + +Margaret was now visiting an aunt in a northern town, drinking in the +keen air of the winter hills and the resin of the pine-woods. She was +conscientiously building up her tired system, fitting herself for fresh +endeavours; she considered that her brief holiday had been given her +for this purpose. Her health and capacity for work were the two assets +which she could give to the war; it was as much a matter of duty to +nurse that capital and increase it as it was the duty of the engineers +on a ship to keep the driving power of the vessel in perfect order. + +During her holiday the only form of war-work which she allowed herself +to do, except the mechanical one of knitting, was to help at a +railway-station canteen, which supplied free meals to all the soldiers +and sailors who passed through. The aunt whom she was visiting had the +entire responsibility for the free-refreshment-room for one of the +shifts for two nights in the week; her shift began at six and ended at +nine o'clock. Punctually at nine o'clock another member of the +canteen, or "barrow-fund," as it was called, took the responsibility +off her hands and kept it until two-thirty a.m. Margaret's aunt asked +her to take the place of a helper who had suddenly been telegraphed for +to see a wounded brother; who had just arrived at a hospital in +Edinburgh. + +At the large station, a very important junction, the third-class +ladies' waiting-room had been given over to this energetic body of +women war-workers, who had converted it into an attractive +refreshment-room. Margaret was established behind the buffet in her +V.A.D.'s uniform. The wide counter in front of her was covered with +cups and plates, piled high with tempting sandwiches and bread and +butter, cakes and scones; immense urns, full to the brim with steaming +coffee and tea, gleamed brightly on a wide shelf behind her. +Everything was in readiness, and there were a few minutes to spare +before the first train was due, which would bring a bevy of hungry men +into the hospitable room. Margaret used those few minutes to make a +tour of inspection; she had to see that plenty of post-cards and +writing materials were in evidence on the centre table, that the +illustrated papers were conspicuously displayed. The barrow, or the +moving refreshment buffet, was already out on the platform; it served +the men who had no time to leave their carriages. It was winter, so +flowers were scarce, but hardly a night passed but there was a fresh +bouquet on the counter and table. The owners of large country-houses +saw to that. The dominoes and draught-boards had been forgotten; +Margaret put them on the table in the centre of the room. And then, +satisfied that all was right, she took up her position again behind the +counter. She was to be responsible for the serving of the tea and +coffee; the men helped themselves to the contents of the plates. Her +aunt attended to the tea and coffee urns, keeping them replenished and +their contents in good condition. Margaret's was distinctly the +pleasanter work of the two. + +The sharp air of the north had brought back the glow to Margaret's eyes +and a freshness to her rather London-bleached cheeks. She looked a +deliciously fresh and pleasing waitress in her crisp indoor V.A.D. +uniform. The red cross on the front of her apron was as becoming to +her as a bunch of scarlet geraniums. It was too hot, standing so near +the steaming urns, for hats and coats, so she had the advantage of +showing her rippling hair. The cosy atmosphere of the room made her +forgetful of the severity of the wintry atmosphere outside. Margaret's +pretty figure and dark head appearing above the buffet-counter were +certainly great assets to the free-refreshment-room. Her aunt, who was +a conscientiously undemonstrative woman, felt proud of her niece. She +more than once that evening thought to herself what pleasure the girl's +beauty would give to the men. It was unfortunately against her +principles to allow Margaret to even guess how much she both approved +of her and admired her. + +Her aunt's thoughts were correct. Margaret's pretty head and her dark +eyes were remembered by many an aching heart that night; from her hands +the tea and coffee they drank had more flavour than that which was so +casually dispensed to them in the army canteens. + +"Here they come, Margaret!" her aunt called out, as the door opened and +a crowd of khaki-clad figures poured into the room. Most of their +faces brightened as they saw the inviting buffet. + +They had only twenty minutes in which to enjoy their refreshment and +change trains; most of them were going to London. This was only one of +the many train-loads of men which would visit the room that night. +There were about forty men, pushing and elbowing their way to the +counter. + +With a sharp-spouted, blue-enamelled tin jug in her hand, Margaret +began her work, quickly filling the empty cups on the counter. As fast +as her active movements would allow her she filled and refilled the +saucerless cups. What seemed a never-ending stream of men pushed +forward and tried to get closer to the counter. + +"Help yourselves, please, to sandwiches and cakes," came from +Margaret's lips every few minutes, for some of the men were shy--she +had to keep on repeating the invitation. She had scarcely time to +glance at them, or raise her eyes from the cups which she was filling. +As there were no saucers, it required a steady hand to prevent the tea +from splashing on the counter. Such a large majority of the men took +tea that she had to tell them that there was coffee. "Tea or coffee?" +she would ask, with quickly raised eyes. "We have both." + +There was on these occasions no opportunity for any conversation with +the men. Their time was too limited for speech, and she was too busy +to distinguish one khaki-clad figure from another. It was only a pair +of eyes which she met now and then, when it was possible to raise hers +from the extended cup she was refilling. More than once her +blue-enamelled jug ran dry, and impatient men had to wait while she +replenished it from one of the big urns which were steaming on the +shelf behind her. When the jug was quite full, it was so heavy to hold +extended, that she had to exercise care not to spill some of its +contents on the sandwiches and cake. It was exceptionally difficult +not to spill any of it when cups were held high up to be refilled. + +One tall man, a late-comer, had with difficulty pushed his way forward; +he was waiting to be served. He held up his cup, thinking that it +would make it easier for Margaret to reach it. Before filling it, she +recollected to say, "Would you rather have some coffee?" + +She raised her eyes as she spoke. Some curious sense of the man's more +refined personality had made her think that coffee might appeal to him. +As she did so, Michael's Irish-blue eyes gazed back into hers. + +For a moment the world stood still for Margaret. Her poor heart beat +so quickly that her hand gave a spasmodic shake, with the result that a +considerable quantity of the tea from the enamelled jug splashed over +the brim and drenched a plate of scones. + +Michael had not spoken, nor could Margaret. What she had waited so +long to ask him could not be called out over a dozen eager heads. + +A kilted Scot, broad-faced and broad-kneed, had pushed himself in front +of Michael, who recognized that it was his duty to step back from the +counter now that his cup was full, and allow the man just behind him to +get his chance. + +Margaret had to go on filling white cups with tea. She dared not even +raise her eyes to see if she could catch sight of Michael above the +crowd of khaki figures. It was hopeless now, for another train had +brought in a fresh batch of weary, cold, homesick men, all eager for a +hot cup of tea. Most of the first-comers had already disappeared; one +or two of them were hastily addressing with pen and ink the pencilled +postcards which they had written in the train. The writing of many +post-cards seemed to afford them great comfort. While Margaret was +filling cups as fast as she could, she was often interrupted by men who +would hold out a penny and ask if she kept postage-stamps. Stamps were +the only things which were not given away in the free refreshment-room; +a copper always went into the little red box when a stamp was taken +out. The men were eager to get them. + +Another voice would ask for a time-table, and another would inquire if +she sold pipes; he had lost his in the train and he dreaded the twelve +hours' journey which lay before him without the comfort of even his +pipe. + +All these demands had to be attended to quickly and sympathetically. +The twenty minutes which the first batch of men had to spend in the +station was almost up. On record nights the canteen had served three +hundred men in half an hour. Margaret felt rather than knew that +Michael was still in the room, that he was standing behind the first +line of men, looking at her. Her heart was throbbing and her mind +distracted. How could she reach him? How could she learn where he was +going to? + +His eyes had told her nothing; they had simply gazed into hers as +though he had seen a vision. Of the surprise and relief which hers had +afforded him she knew nothing. In the midst of the hurly-burly of +hungry, tired soldiers she had met his eyes--that was all. She had +scarcely seen his figure. + +The place was emptying. Michael, having stayed to the very last +second, turned and quickly left the room. Soon there would be a lull, +but Margaret could not wait for it. She put down her can as Michael +disappeared and moved down the counter to its exit, a little door which +opened inwards and allowed her to pass into the room. To reach it she +had to brush past her aunt. As she did so, she said as calmly as she +could: + +"I must fly out to the platform for a few minutes, aunt, even if these +men go without their tea--I really must go and speak to a soldier I +know." + +Her aunt looked at her in astonishment. This new emotional Margaret +was so very unlike the reliable V.A.D., whose dignity was one of her +individual charms. + +"Very well, my dear, I can manage. Go along." + +There was no time for more words--indeed, Margaret did not wait to be +allowed. She darted out of the refreshment-room like an arrow freed +from the bow. She had but one idea, to follow Michael. When the door +closed behind her, she gazed up the wide expanse of platform. She +caught sight of him, but he was well ahead, and he was walking very +quickly. Even if she ran, she doubted if she could catch him. After +the heat of the room, the air was bitingly cold. Margaret did not feel +it; her eyes were trying to keep Michael's khaki-clad figure in sight. + +She tried, but failed, for soon he was lost in the crowd of men who +were boarding the train. Bevies of women and girls and children had +gathered on the platform to see their relatives leave for the Front. +Before Margaret's flying feet could overtake Michael he had jumped into +a carriage and was as completely lost to sight as a needle in a stack +of hay. He was a common Tommy, as heavily-laden, Margaret thought, as +an Arab-porter, with his accoutrements of war. All the window seats in +the train had been taken up long before he entered it, so it was quite +impossible for her to distinguish him amongst the late-comers who were +struggling to find even standing-room. + +Margaret stood for a moment or two in breathless despair. What could +she do? He was there somewhere, in that very train. She was standing +beside it, and yet she could not even see him. She was only wasting +time; her sense of duty urged her to return to the hungry men in the +refreshment-room. Had she forgotten how eager and longing everyone of +them was for something to drink? + +Her conscience might urge her, but for this once she was a human, +love-hungry girl, as eager to speak to her man as the men were to +swallow big mouthfuls of tea. With tear-blinded eyes she saw the train +leave the platform; she had allowed herself that extension of time. +After all, if the soldiers' throats were starved for moisture, had not +the whole of her being suffered a far more acute starvation for many, +many months? Her womanhood was crying out for its rights. + +As the end of the train was lost to sight, she turned away. She was +just the girl he had left behind him, forlorn and desolate. A +soldier's wife, who was crying healthily, almost tripped Margaret up as +she swung quickly round. Her baby, a tired little fractious creature, +was in her arms. + +As Margaret apologized to her, the idea came to her to ask the woman +where the men in the train were going to. + +"Most of them to the Front," the woman said. "I lost my only brother +two months ago, and now my man's gone. Oh, this is a cruel war!" Her +sobs became heavier. "When my brother went to France, I thought it was +a grand thing--I was awfully proud. It's a different thing now." She +looked at Margaret keenly. "Has someone you care for gone to the +Front? Is he in yon train?" She indicated the vanishing train. + +Margaret's eyes answered. The woman saw that she was making an effort +to keep calm. + +"But he's not leaving his little ones behind him--ye'll no be married? +I've got two at home to keep." + +"You have his children--I have nothing," Margaret said enviously. + +The woman burst into fresh weeping. Margaret envied her abandonment. + +"They are a comfort," she said, "in a way. But they're a deal of +trouble and anxiety--ye're well off without them." + +The woman looked poor and clean. Half a crown left Margaret's purse +and took its place beside the coppers which lay in the woman's. It +seemed to her horribly vulgar and insulting to offer the woman money as +a form of comfort, but her knowledge of the very poor told her that on +a cold northern night, the feeling that an extra half-crown had been +added to her income would help. It would "keep the home-fire burning" +for a week or so, at least. + +With quick feet Margaret retraced her steps to the free +refreshment-room. Her selfish absence from her post pricked her +conscience. When she entered it she saw that it was almost empty. One +man was lying stretched out at full length on a seat; a pillow was +under his head and he was fast asleep. He had lost his "connection" +and would not be able to get a train until after midnight. He was safe +from temptation in the hospitable room. Another man was writing +letters at the big table; he had already addressed half a dozen +postcards. + +Margaret knew that in this quiet interval her aunt would be busy +washing up and drying the dirty cups at the wash-basin in the inner +ladies' room. She hurried to join her. + +"Have I been very long?" she said. "I do feel so selfish." + +"No, no, my dear," her aunt said quickly. "I managed quite well--the +rush had ceased." She looked at her niece questioningly. "I suppose +you recognized a friend?" + +"I saw a man, aunt, amongst the soldiers, whom I knew very well in +Egypt. He was Freddy's best friend. I haven't seen him since. I +wonder if he knows that Freddy is dead? I wanted to speak to him if I +could." + +"And did you?" + +"No." Margaret's voice trembled. "He had got into the train. The men +were packed like sardines, and I couldn't find him. It left punctually +to the minute--I hadn't much time to look." + +Her aunt noticed the emotion in Margaret's voice. The woman in her +longed to put a motherly arm round the girl as she stood beside her, +but her training and national reserve prevented it. So instead of +letting her niece see how generous her sympathy was, she said, in +rather a strident voice, the result of her suppressed feeling: + +"There is a good cup of coffee waiting for you in the small brown pot, +and you'll find some egg-sandwiches on a plate on the high shelf above +the tumbler-cupboard. Go and eat them at once, before a fresh lot of +men come in." + +"Oh, I don't want anything," Margaret said pleadingly. "Let me help +you wash all these cups, please do, aunt. I really don't want anything +to eat." + +"Whether you want it or not, I insist upon your eating it. Go now, at +once, don't waste time." + +Her niece obeyed meekly. When her aunt talked like that, and brought +those tones into her voice, Margaret instantly lapsed back into her +childhood. She was once more the little black sheep of Kingdom-come, +the little black sheep who, at the death of her parents, had very +quickly learned to fear rather than to love the various paternal +relatives who had considered it their duty to bring her up in the way a +Lampton should go. + +If Margaret's aunt could only have brought herself to speak to her +niece as she many times spoke to strangers of her, how different things +might have been between them! But this God-fearing woman never did. +She was too God-fearing and too little God-loving. She still clung +tenaciously to the old order of things, to the method of rearing girls +and responding to human nature which had been considered wise in her +young days. + +While she dried the tea-cups, with a genuine feeling of sympathy for +Margaret in her heart, for she was convinced that this man's going to +the Front had upset her pretty niece, and while Margaret ate her +sandwiches and drank her coffee because she had been bidden to do so, +Michael's train was carrying him through the dark night. He was +sitting in the corridor, on the top of his kit, lost in thought. He +had missed his chance of getting a seat in any of the overcrowded +carriages by his delay in the free-refreshment-room. But what did it +matter? He was accustomed to discomfort, to unutterable hardships. + +As he sat there, he heard and saw nothing of his surroundings, for +Margaret's eyes and beauty had given him a delicious new world of his +own. They had told him that she had always trusted him. They had +obliterated the war, and the fact that he was journeying towards it. +They had made his pulses throb again with the wine of passion and gay +romance. He was an individual once more, enjoying the sweetness of the +woman whose love had been so devoutly his. + +It seemed so odd that the fresh, clean, proud-looking girl, with the +dark hair and the crimson cross on her breast, behind the food counter, +was actually the woman who had trembled in his arms under the desert +stars, for her very fear of her love for him. She had once been very, +very near to him; she had seemed an indispensable part of his life. +To-night, standing behind the buffet, although she was materially quite +close, she was hopelessly far away. His only privilege had been to +take a cup of tea from her hands. A world of fresh experience and +emotion had separated them. + +For a long time he sat motionless on his kit, dreaming only of +Margaret. Now it was of the wonderful things which her eyes had told +him; now it was of the distance and circumstances which separated them. +Later on he roused himself out of his reverie, for the men in the +carriage at whose open door he was sitting were singing, "It's a long, +long way to Tipperary"--the song had not yet been depopularized by +"Keep the home-fires burning"; it was still sung by soldiers and +civilians and gramophones. The lusty, cheery voices brought Michael's +mind back to the stern reality of war. He peeped out into the night, +lifting up the blind from the window-pane and putting his head under it. + +The cold, bleak day had given place to a starlit night, with a +high-sailing moon. The snowcapped mountains and distant forests of +solemn pine-trees looked serenely indifferent to the material affairs +of mankind. Their purity and indifference wounded Michael. How could +Nature remain so callously superior, so selfishly peaceful, while he +was hurrying to France, to witness cruelties which it had taken the +world all its great age to invent and put into action? These cold +mountains, rushing streams and hidden glens would just go on smiling in +the sunshine by day and sleeping peacefully under the moonlight, while +golden youth was sacrificing itself on the altar of Liberty. + +As the train rushed on through the darkness, emitting sparks which +showed her pace, Michael's thoughts drifted to the old African in +el-Azhar and all that he had visualized. As his eyes peered out from +the jealously-covered windows and rested on the long line of mountains, +high in their snowy whiteness, he repeated the old man's words: + +"Why do the heathen so furiously rage together and the people imagine +vain things in their hearts? I tell you, my son, it is because they +have not the love of God in their hearts." + +Yes, why, oh why, did they do it? The world he looked out upon was +surely meant for grander and better things? It had nothing to do with +bloodshed. And yet, even as he said it, words and voice answered back: + +"Pray for fortitude, my son, that moral condition which enables us to +meet danger and endure pain with calmness. I tell you to pray for +fortitude, for without it you cannot face the future." + +As his thoughts were lost in this prayer, he got back his assurance +that this war of wars had to be fought in the cause of freedom. He +knew that it had to be won by the Allies, to ensure the triumph of +right over might. This was the war which was to terminate all wars; +the victory of the Allies was to bring about the disarmament of all +powerful nations. It was the forerunner of a higher civilization. + +He put his head between his hands and rested it on his knees. He knew +that his words were true. And yet, had not his old friend in el-Azhar +been as sincerely convinced that this war which he had visualized was +to be fought for the triumph of Islam? Was he not certain that Allah +had ordained it to prove to all countries upon the earth that the +Christian nations had shown that their religion was hideous in Allah's +sight, that it was a failure, that it had not redeemed mankind? + +And Germany! What of Germany? Michael saw, with his vivid imagination +and unprejudiced mind, German mothers and fathers praying for their +sons who were fighting for the cause of the beloved Fatherland, the +cause which they believed was the cause of righteousness. Did they +also not pray earnestly and sincerely? Did they, too, not believe that +God would be on the side of righteousness? + +Why were these agonized parents and brave soldiers to be made to suffer +if it was all to be in vain, if their cause was not the just cause? +Had they not obeyed the cult of their land and the teachings of their +spiritual pastors and masters? He remembered the African's words: "The +time draws near when each man will return to the land that gave him +birth." + +In this war which was raging, all the soldiers who suffered, and the +parents who gave up their only-begotten sons to save their countries +from extermination--all of them were the victims of circumstance. They +were all heroes answering to the call which demanded of them life's +highest sacrifice. They were victims of militarism, which must be +wiped out of civilization. + +Michael became agonized with the hopelessness of answering the +questions which stormed his brain. Over and over again he said to +himself the words, "Why do the heathen so furiously rage together and +the people imagine vain things in their hearts?" And over and over +again the answer came, "I tell you, my son, it is because they have not +the love of God in their hearts." + +He repeated the words almost mechanically until they indefinitely +became a sort of refrain which kept time to the thud, thud of the +engine, and the rushing noise of the train. + +At last, tired out both mentally and physically, he fell asleep. In +his dreams Margaret was very near to him. It was the old Margaret, +radiant with the new wonder of love, fragrant with the night-air of the +Sahara which surrounded them. + +The war and its demands were wiped out; the world was back again to the +fair free days which knew neither hate nor fear. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +Nearly four months had passed and Margaret was still a pantry-maid in +the same private hospital. The V.A.D. who was to have gone to France +had suffered as great a disappointment as Margaret, for at the very +last moment word had been sent to her--it had been unavoidably +delayed--that her services in France would not yet be required. +Margaret, with her bigness of nature, had insisted upon the girl +retaining the post in the wards and letting things go on as they were. +Her "bit" was very, very dull, but it was her "bit," and nothing she +did, she knew, could in any way compare in dullness to the lives of the +boys in the trenches. So she worked and endured, and found the +necessary change of scene in the mixed company of her garden-square +society. + +The days fled past. It was a dull life for a young girl, but since the +war began all girls worthy of their country had said good-bye to the +pleasures of youth. Youth had no time to be young; old age had +forgotten that it was old. The renaissance of patriotism had +transformed England. The war recognized neither old age nor youth; it +opened its hungry jaws and took everyone in. + +Margaret had neither seen nor heard anything of Michael since the +eventful winter night when she had handed him a cup of coffee in the +free-refreshment-room at the large northern station. She did not even +know what regiment he was in. That, of course, was owing to her own +stupidity; it was a matter of constant regret to her that she had not +at the time had the forethought to ask the weeping woman on the +platform what regiment her husband was in. Knowing nothing more than +that Michael was at the Front, all she could do was to keep an eye on +each day's casualty list in _The Times_ newspaper. But even as her +eyes hastily scanned the long columns of small print, she said to +herself, "I need not look--his name will not be there. I have had my +assurance of his safety." + +She was certain now that the mystic message, which lay locked away in +the dispatch-box which held her most important papers, had been sent to +her to help her. It had been given to her to lessen her loneliness and +to ease her anxiety. + +Of course, this state of certainty had its feebler moments, and many, +many times as she did her day's work she became affected by the waves +of pessimism which spread at intervals over the British Isles. At +these times she went about the pantry chalk-faced and tragic-eyed; but +generally, when her suffering was becoming more than she could endure, +from visualizing Michael blind, or limbless, or, still worse, an +imbecile through shell-shock, a clear voice would speak to her, her +super-self would repeat the contents of her treasured message. + +The fact that her hand had written the message before and not after +Michael's going to the Front established her confidence in it. If it +had been after, her sound judgment told her that suggestion might have +had something to do with the automatic writing. + +It was early spring, and Margaret's country-loving nature cried out for +the smell of damp fields, for the scents and the sounds of untrodden +paths. The long twilight evenings seemed the loneliest hours to her in +London. Their beauty was wasted. But the real country was denied her, +for what distance could her two-hours-off take her from London? +Scarcely beyond soot-blackened trees and the prim avenues of suburban +respectability. But she had one great pleasure to look forward to--the +Iretons were to be in London for the season, or, rather, what used to +be termed the season in London. + +They were to arrive in Clarges Street that very night. They were +coming to England to help in the arrangements for the better equipping +of native military hospitals in Egypt. Hadassah's knowledge of the +native's likes and dislikes was considerable. + +Margaret was now on her way to a tube railway-station. The afternoon +was so glorious that she was going to make an excursion to Kew. She +would just have time to look at the maythorns and hurry back. The one +brave laburnum which gave brightness and fragrance to her garden-square +told her that in the larger open spaces the flowering shrubs would be +at their best. + +As she ran down the steps of the tube station, she saw that a train +which would take her to Hammersmith, where she would have to change for +Kew Gardens, was drawn up at the platform; the passengers who were +leaving it were trying to ascend the stairs. With youthful tightness +she leapt down the last two or three steps and sprang across the +platform. She only just had time to step into the train before the +iron gates closed behind her. + +A little breathless with excitement and greatly pleased that she had +succeeded in catching the train, she obeyed the order of the officious +guard to "Step along--don't block the gangway!" + +The carriage was not full, but there were not many empty seats in it, +so Margaret hastily sank into the one which was nearest to her and +close to the door. It happened to be near to one on which a soldier +was seated. His kit was lying at his feet in front of him. As she sat +down, a voice said quietly: + +"I'd advise you to sit a little further on--I'm not very nice." + +Margaret never grasped the meaning of the words; the voice was all she +heard. It made her heart bound, and her senses reel; her bewilderment +was overwhelming. + +Some instinct made the soldier swing right round; he had been sitting +with his broad back turned to the vacant seat, which Margaret still +occupied. They faced each other; the soldier was Michael. + +Under his ardent gaze Margaret paled pitifully and made a valiant +effort to speak, to collect her thoughts. All that came from her +trembling lips were the prosaic words, rather timidly spoken: + +"Is it you, Michael?" + +They seemed to content Michael and tell him a thousand things which +dazed and intoxicated him. His surprise was even greater than +Margaret's. + +"Yes, it is me, Meg," he said. "Thank God we've met!" + +For Margaret, in one moment all the long months of doubt and pride were +wiped out. Michael's eyes had banished them. Her characteristic +courage and her self-possession returned. She put her hand on the top +of Michael's, the one which held his rifle. Her touch thrilled the +soldier home from the Front; it travelled through his veins like an +electric current. Margaret's eyes had dropped; now they met her +lover's again. + +The train in its narrow channel under the city was making such a noise +that it was impossible to hear even a loud voice above its hideous +rattle. There are few noises more devastating to conversation than the +awful roar of a London tube-railway. But Love speaks with an eloquence +which no noise can drown; its sympathy and passion carry it far above +the din and noise of battle. Margaret and Michael knew it well. If +Love depended upon words, what a poor cold thing it would be! No +quarrels would ever be settled, no journeys end in lovers' meetings. + +Michael moved the hand which Margaret clasped. It was hard to do it, +but he felt compelled to. + +"I'm horribly verminous," he said, apologetically. "I'm just back from +the trenches--you ought to keep further off." + +Margaret's eyes dropped; a flame of love's shyness spread over her +glowing face. It heightened her beauty and bewildered Michael. He +longed to take her in his arms and kiss her--even before the whole +carriage-full of people. Perhaps in the early days of the war the +scene would only have brought tears and tender smiles to worldly eyes. + +Margaret tried to say something, she scarcely knew what--just anything +to break the passion of their silence, but the roaring of the train +drowned her trembling question. How she hated the swaying and groaning +and the rattling of the tube train as it dashed through its confined +way! Never before had it seemed so awful, so maddening. + +Michael, too, was tongue-tied. How could he offer Margaret any +explanation, or ask if she had understood, while the train drowned the +loudest voices? What a hideous place for a lovers' meeting, after +months of weary longing! + +When the train drew up at Knightsbridge Margaret rose from her seat. +Her desire to see Kew had fled. It mattered little now where she went; +she was only conscious of the fact that she must put an end to the +present strain. If Michael was as anxious to speak to her as she was +to speak to him, he would follow her. He was obviously home on leave. +He was a free man. + +As she rose from her seat, Michael hurriedly gathered his kit together +and rose also, and pushed his way through the crowd of passengers who +were disgorging from the train. Whatever happened, he must keep her in +sight; her obviously unpremeditated leaving of the train left him in +doubt as to her feelings towards him. + +He was on leave, he was in "Blighty," and Margaret was only a few steps +ahead. He would risk anything rather than let her disappear and be +lost once more. + +When Margaret reached the platform, she turned round. She wondered if +Michael had left the train. He was standing by her side. She laughed +delightedly, a girl's healthy laugh, and gave a breathless gasp. + +"May I?" he said. "I have risked annoying you." + +"Annoying me!" Margaret's eyes banished the idea; they carried him off +his feet. He was a soldier, home from the war; she was a girl, fresh +and sweet. She laid her hand on his arm. "I'm not angry, Michael--I +never was angry. Besides, you're . . . you're . . ." she hesitated. +"You're a Tommy," she said, "and I love every one of them." + +Michael knew that her shyness made her link him with the men who were +fighting for their country. Even with the fondest lovers, there is a +nervous shyness between them for the first moments of meeting after a +prolonged separation. Margaret had moved closer to his side. His +passion drew her to him; it was like the current of a magnet. + +"You mustn't stand so close," he said, laughingly. "I'm horribly +verminous--really I am!" + +"As if I cared, Mike!" Margaret's words poured from her lips. +Ordinary as they were, they were a love-lyric to his ears. + +"May I come with you?" he asked. "Where were you going to? I've so +much to say, so much to ask you!" + +"I was going to Kew," she said, blushingly. "But I changed my mind." + +Their eyes laughed as they met; he knew why she had changed her plans. + +As they went up the station steps together, they were separated by a +number of people who were hurrying to catch the next train. When they +reached the open street, Michael made a signal to the driver of a +taxi-cab who was touting for passengers. He instantly drew up, jumped +from his seat and opened the door. Michael stood beside him, while +Margaret, obeying his eyes, stepped into the cab. She asked herself no +questions; she was only conscious of Michael's air of protection and +possession. After her lonely life in London, it almost made her cry. +It was the most delicious feeling she had ever experienced. She gave +herself up to it. + +In Michael's presence her pride and dignity and wounded womanhood were +swept away. Even Freddy, in his soldier's grave, was forgotten. Her +whole life and world was Michael; he began it and ended it. This +verminous and roughly-dressed Tommy, who was gazing at her with eyes +which bewildered and humbled her, was the dearest thing on earth. + +She was comfortably seated; Michael had shut the door, and they were +side by side, waiting for the taxi to go on. The next moment the +driver popped his head in at the window. + +"Where to, sir?" he said, politely. Michael's worn, weatherbeaten face +had called up his sentiment for the men at the front. + +"Where to?" Michael repeated foolishly. He paused. "Oh, anywhere! +Anywhere will do--it doesn't matter." He smiled. "I'm back in old +Blighty--that's all that matters--anywhere is good enough for me." + +"Right you are, sir! I'll take you somewhere pleasant." + +Margaret smiled. She was, indeed, all smiles and heart-beats and +nervous anticipation. + +The moment the taxi had swung away from the station, it entered a quiet +street, bordered with high houses on either side. Michael lost no +time; he folded her in his arms and kissed her again and again, and +held her to him. + +"This is heaven, just heaven, darling!" he said ardently. "I could eat +you all up, you're so fresh and sweet and delicious!" + +Meg was unresisting. Her yielding told her lover more than hours of +explanation could have done. All she said was: + +"But what if I don't think it's heaven?" + +"What indeed?" he said, happily. "But don't you?" He had released her +to read her answer in her eyes. + +She said nothing; words seemed for lighter moments. + +"Say something nice," he pleaded. + +"I love you, Mike," she said shyly. "Is that enough?" + +"It's all I want," he said, while Meg wound her arms round his neck and +drew his face nearer hers to receive her kiss. As she nestled against +him, he said tenderly, "Remember, I'm verminous; I'm not fit to touch, +dearest." + +"I don't care! I don't mind if I get covered with them," she laughed. +"And I don't care if all the world sees me kissing you! I just love +you, Mike, and you're here--nothing in all the world matters except +that!" + +She unclasped her hands. Her weeping face was pressed to his rough +uniform; horrible as it was, she was kissing it tenderly, almost +devoutly, stroking it with her fingers. It gave her a sense of pride +and assurance that he was there beside her. + +In the beautiful way known to love and youth, the foolish things they +said and left unsaid told them whispers of the wonderful things which +were to be. Michael was too exacting in his demands to allow of +sustained conversation; sentences lost themselves in "one more kiss," +or in one more bewildering meeting of happy eyes. + +At last Michael said--not without a feeling of nervousness, for he had +asked few questions, and the scraps of information which Margaret had +volunteered he had so often interrupted by his own impetuous demands, +that she had accepted the fact that all explanations and questioning +must wait until the excitement of their meeting had abated--"Why did +Freddy not answer my letters? Why did you leave Egypt without one +word?" + +His voice expressed the fact that his letters had contained the full +explanation of his conduct. It also said, "Why this forgiveness, if +you were so unkind?" + +It brought a strange revelation to Margaret of the ravages of war, of +the changes which it had made in their lives. She remained lost in +thought. + +"Will Freddy consent? Will he understand, as you do?" + +Margaret shivered. Her hand left Michael's; her fingers touched the +band of crepe which she was wearing on her uniform coat-sleeve. + +"No, no, Meg!" he cried. "Not Freddy! Anybody but Freddy!" His words +were a cry of horror, of anguish. In the surprise and excitement of +their meeting, he had forgotten to ask for Freddy. Even though he was +in his soldier's uniform, his happiness had obliterated the war. He +had the true soldier's temperament--a fighter while fighting had to be +done, a lover of pleasure in peace-time. + +"Yes," she said, "Freddy. He was only in Flanders a few weeks." + +Michael put his arms round her tenderly, protectingly. "You poor +little girl, you brave little woman!" + +Margaret loved his anguish, his complete understanding of the fact that +of all people it was Freddy who should have been spared. + +"If you had only seen him, Mike! He was so young, so fair. And he +never had a chance." + +Michael's eyes questioned her words. + +"He was just sniped at the very beginning. That was the hardest part +of it--to know that all his talents and intellect had been wasted!" + +Michael held her closer. "Not wasted, dearest, don't say that." + +"I didn't exactly mean wasted. But he could have done such great +things for the world; he could surely have been given work more worthy +of his abilities!" + +"He is doing wonderful things now, Meg, he's hard at work. Freddy just +got his promotion--look at it that way." He kissed her trembling lips; +tears were flooding her glorious eyes. + +"That's what Hadassah says." + +"Hadassah?" + +"Yes, Hadassah." Margaret sighed. "Oh, Michael, we have so much to +talk about--whatever shall we do?" She laughed tearfully. Telling +Michael about Freddy's death had brought back the anguish of the year +which had separated them. "You can't imagine how kind and sweet she +has been to me, and how hard they both tried to find you!" She paused. +"Freddy tried, too--he was the best and dearest brother, Mike." + +"I know it," he said; his words were a groan. He was trying to grasp +the truth of Margaret's news. Nothing which he had seen in the war +brought its waste and sacrifice more vividly before his eyes than the +fact that Freddy was dead, the living, vital Freddy, the energetic, +brilliant Freddy, whom he always visualized picking up the gleaming +gems in the vast Egyptian tomb; he saw the scene with painful clearness. + +There was a little silence. Margaret's hands were clasped tightly in +the sunburnt hands of her "Tommy." Freddy was in both their minds, and +the life they had shared with him in the Valley--the sense of order and +method and ardour for work which he had instilled into their days. + +Margaret was resting against Michael, as open about her love for him as +any 'Arriet. She could think of Freddy without any feeling of guilt or +even doubt of his approval. The things which come from within cannot +be explained by forces from without. It was not what Michael had done +or had said which had banished her pride and told her of his +faithfulness. It was the consciousness which came from within, the +consciousness which had always fought back the forces from without. +She had not felt one qualm of conscience, for Freddy was understanding +and approving. He would know that any doubt she had ever had had been +banished the moment Michael had taken her in his arms. Freddy, who had +only blamed him for his weakness, would realize that even in that he +had misjudged him. If Michael had had any guilt on his conscience, he +would never have behaved as he had done. He had read in her eyes that +her love for himself was unchanged, and knowing himself to be worthy of +her love, he had not stopped to consider smaller things. She was so +thankful that he had taken the bull by the horns. + + * * * * * * + +And now they were thinking of less bewildering things than their own +love for each other. Michael was tenderly dreaming of Freddy. +Margaret was reviewing Freddy's true attitude towards Michael in her +mind. It was true that he had said that until he gave some +satisfactory explanation of his behaviour, she was not to treat him as +her lover. Well, her finer senses told her that Michael had given her +a satisfactory explanation, and she was certain that Freddy also knew +it. He had, by his taking her in his arms without one word of pleading +or explanation, given her the fairest and most perfect assurance of his +faithfulness to her and of his right to ask for her love. + +These thoughts passed rapidly through her mind, while she silently +enjoyed the delight of feeling Michael's close presence by her side. +Never, even in Egypt, under the high-sailing moon in the great Sahara, +had she loved him as romantically as she did at this moment. As a +weather-stained, wind-tanned Tommy he was dearer to her than ever he +had been in the days when, as a painter and an Egyptologist, he had +opened her eyes to a new world of intellectual enjoyment. + +Michael's mind was obsessed by Freddy's death. He had never for one +moment imagined that such a thing was in the least likely to happen. +He did not know that Freddy was at the Front; he had imagined to +himself that such exceptional brains and unusual qualities would have +been given other work to do, than to stand all day long knee-deep in +mud in the trenches of Flanders. His heart ached for Margaret. Her +devotion to Freddy was exceptional; her pride in him had been the +keynote of her existence. He spoke abruptly, while his hands clasped +hers hungrily and tightly. + +"Would Freddy mind?" he said. "I can't be disloyal to him!" + +"Mind?" Meg said questioningly. "Mind my loving you? He knew my love +could never change--it was born in unchanging Egypt." + +"Yes, mind if you married me while I'm on leave?--I've got a whole +fortnight, and my commission." + +"Oh!" Meg said breathlessly. "You go at such a pace!" + +Michael laughed boyishly at her astonishment. Her woman's mind had not +thought of marriage; it was satisfied with the present conditions. + +"I don't think Freddy would mind--not now. But"--her laugh joined +Michael's--"you see, you haven't asked if I'd mind. We aren't even +engaged--you wouldn't be. Do you remember?" + +Michael pulled round her head with his hands, and kissed her lips. "I +don't care if the whole world sees," he said, quoting her words. +"Don't pull away your head--I'm just 'a bloomin' Tommy' back in Blighty +with his girl." + +Meg resigned herself to his kisses. "All London's doing it," she said +breathlessly. "You'll see fathers and sons, and mothers and sons, and +lovers walking arm in arm, in the West End even. Their time together +is too short and precious to think of stupid conventions. The national +reserve of the English nation is swept away." + +While Margaret was speaking, she was thinking and thinking. Could she +marry him before he returned to the Front? It was all so sudden. But +why not? War had taught women to take what happiness they could get in +their two hands, not to let it slip. Michael made her thoughts more +definite. + +"Did Freddy trust me?" he asked. + +Meg's eyes dropped; her heart beat painfully. + +"He didn't," Michael said. "Don't pain yourself, dearest, by +answering. He'll understand better now--everything will be made clear." + +"Don't blame him, Mike!" + +"I'm not blaming him--I'd have done the same. It sounded beastly, the +whole story. Hang Millicent Mervill!" + +Margaret proceeded to tell him in broken sentences that she had seen +Millicent in Cairo, and related something of what she had told her and +how, after that, she had kept the promise which she had made to Freddy, +to go back to England if she heard from either Michael himself or from +Millicent that they had been together in the desert. + +"And you heard that she was in my camp?" + +"Yes--Millicent took care that I heard that, and . . ." she paused. + +Michael looked into her eyes. "And you went back England?" + +"Yes, I kept my promise." Her eyes told him that she had kept it +because her honour demanded it, not because she believed all that +Millicent had told her. + +"And, knowing her story, you didn't condemn me, you still believed in +me and loved me?" His eyes thanked her. + +Margaret returned his steadfast gaze. "Yes, it was not hard to trust +you, Mike. I remembered our promise to help and trust one another. +What are promises and vows made for if they are not to be kept when +they are put to the test? We did not make ours lightly--I told you I +should understand." + +"Dearest, how beautiful your love is! To-day you welcomed me without +one shadow of reproach! Had I not read in your eyes all that I did, I +should not have dared to follow you when you left the train." + +"Would you have taken me in your arms if you had been guilty, if +Millicent had told the truth?" The words conveyed a world of meaning +to Michael. "I have often grumbled, Mike--I have thought that you +might have let me hear the story from your own lips, or by letter. I +know that in his heart Freddy always thought you were only to be blamed +for allowing her to stay in your camp--I know he never really believed +that you had arranged the meeting, or that you were her lover." + +Michael grasped her two hands in his, tightly. "I never was, Meg, I +never was! I hated her for coming, I tried to get rid of her." + +"I knew it, Mike--deep, deep down I knew it. But it hurt." She leaned +against him. "Oh, how it hurt, dearest! And you never wrote or +explained--that was what I found hardest to bear. I suppose you were +so certain that I trusted you that you never thought about what others +might say; but love makes us exacting, jealous, and you might have +written, dearest! Then Freddy would have known. How could I make him +understand all that my heart knew? How can one make others see the +things which come from within?" + +Michael put his arms round her. "My darling," he said, "I did write, I +wrote often. I wrote directly Millicent appeared in the desert; I +wrote again before I was ill. You know how many letters go astray--you +know how many were intercepted by German spies before the war broke +out." + +"You were ill?" Meg started. "I knew you were, I told Freddy you were +ill. But Millicent spoke as if you were in such perfect health that I +had to abandon the conviction." + +Her voice was an apology. + +"I was so ill with fever," Michael said, "that I wasn't able to write, +and the faithful Abdul couldn't. Like many Arabs, he can speak a +smattering, and a very fair one, of three or four languages, but he +can't write a line in any one of them. As soon as I was strong enough +to travel I went back to the Valley." + +"Oh, did you?" He felt Margaret tremble as she said the words. + +"I went back to find our Eden a barren desert, Meg, no sign of either +Freddy or you in it. It was horrible. I started off to Cairo in hopes +of learning from the Iretons where you had gone to, to discover what +you had heard of Millicent." His pressure of Meg's hands explained the +full meaning of his words. "But they had left Cairo--it was very +hot--so I returned to England by way of Italy. In Naples I had a +slight relapse--I had to wait there for some time, until I was able to +continue my journey. I only arrived in London the day before war was +declared. Of course I volunteered at once--I was glad to do it. Life +seemed empty of all its former sweetness. I don't think I cared what +happened to me; and I did care what happened to England and Belgium. I +was at last going to fight in the great fight against absolute monarchy +and militarism!" + +When Michael had finished his short account of his doings, which merely +touched on essentials, they realized that they were in Hyde Park. +Margaret's eyes had caught sight of a clock over the gateway as they +entered; she had noticed how her two hours were flying, even while her +conscious self was enthralled with her lover's story. Spring was in +the year; it was in the hearts of the united lovers. Love smiled to +them from the budding shrubs and from the daffodils swaying in the +breeze. + +To Michael "Blighty" was the most beautiful land in the world. His +heart was so burdened with happiness that Margaret had to laugh at his +high spirits and absurd remarks. He was the old enthusiastic Mike, +delighting in life and embracing it rapturously. + +In the midst of this intoxication of happiness, Margaret's sense of +duty and responsibility, her Lampton characteristics, urged her. The +clock over the archway had subconsciously reminded her that she was, +after all, a pantry-maid in a hospital full of wounded soldiers; that +the soldier by her side was a part and portion of the great war; that +war, not love, ruled the world; this interlude had been stolen from the +God of Battles. + +"Time's flying, dearest," she said. "I've less than one more hour. +Let's drive to a little garden-square close to my hospital--we can +dismiss the taxi there and talk until I have to go in--that's to say, +if you are free to come." + +"Are you nursing?" he said. His eyes looked questioningly at her blue +uniform. + +"No, not yet--I'm a pantry-maid." + +"A what?" he said, laughingly. "You're a darling!"' + +"I wash up tea-cups and saucers which Tommies drink from, and lay out +trays with tea-cups and saucers all day long." She paused. "That's as +near as I've got to the war." + +"With your brains, Meg--is that all they could find for you to do?" +His encircling arm hugged her closely. Each moment she was becoming +more desirable and beautiful in his eyes; each moment life in the +trenches seemed further and further away. + +"Freddy was sniped," Margaret said, "before he even killed a German. +Washing up dirty cups makes me mind it less." + +"You dear darling," Michael said. "I understand and Freddy knows." + +"I'll tell the man where to drive to," Margaret said bravely. "Then we +can be together until I have to begin work." She raised the +speaking-tube to her lips and told the driver where to go, explaining +the most direct way to the secluded square, When she dropped the tube +and sank back into her seat Michael's arm was round her; she had felt +his eyes and their passion, gazing at her while she instructed the +driver. + +"Will you marry me the day after to-morrow?" he said. "I'll get a +special licence. Let's start this little time of perfect happiness at +once, Meg--it may never come again." + +Meg laughed nervously, but there was gladness in the sound of her +voice. "But, Mike, it's so sudden--the day after to-morrow!" + +"So was our love, darling--don't you remember?" He paused. "Am I +asking too much? You might be my wife for less than two weeks, +beloved, remember that." + +They looked into each other's eyes. Meg knew the meaning of his words; +he was a Tommy on leave. + +"I can't go on having hairbreadth escapes to the end of the war," he +said. "Up to now I'm the mascot amongst the boys; I've had prodigious +luck." + +Meg remained silent. Her heart was beating. His hair-breadth +escapes--what were they due to? She saw her vision of him in her +London bedroom, surrounded by the rays of Aton. She nursed the +knowledge of it in her heart--she dared not tell him. + +"Over and over again, Meg, the most extraordinary things have happened. +I can't tell you them all now--they would sound like exaggerations, but +I'm almost beginning to agree with the boys that I've a charmed life." + +Meg longed to confide her secret to him, but something held her back; +something said to her that he was not meant to know it, that if he knew +he might be tempted to do still more foolhardy deeds, he would feel +compelled to put her mystical message to the test. She remained +silent; her mind was working too quickly for speech. She had forgotten +that Michael wanted her answer. Her heart had given it so willingly +that words were scarcely needed, but he pressed her for her consent. +There are some words which lovers like to hear spoken by beautiful lips. + +"You are the mistress of my happiness," he urged. "And if our +happiness in this world is to be condensed into twelve days, surely it +would be worth while seizing it and being thankful for it? In this +world of agony and death, twelve days of life at its fullest is of more +account than a long lifetime of unrecognized benefits and indefinite +happiness." + +Meg agreed that the war had taught people to be thankful for what +seemed to her pitifully small mercies; people married for ten days or +for a fortnight at the longest, knowing that for that little time of +forgetfulness their husbands were among the quick; at the end of it +they might be among the dead. + +"Then, if I can get a special licence to-morrow, will you marry me the +day after? If I may go back to the Front as your husband, Meg, I think +I can win the war. My life will be more charmed than ever." He +laughed gaily. "What will the boys say? I'm the only one in the +trench who doesn't write to about six girls every day, telling each one +that she is the only girl he loves." + +Margaret's answer was in her laugh, which was all love, and in the lips +she held up to meet Michael's kiss. "And it's proud I'll be to be Mrs. +Amory!" she said. "And ye can tell the boys that, if you like." She +broke off suddenly from her mock Irish tones, and said more gravely, +"Isn't it wonderful? Only an hour ago I was alone in London, so lonely +that the very flowers hurt me! I hated the spring in the year--it +laughed at my dull room and humdrum existence. And now----" + +"And now," he said, "you are going to be a soldier's wife, you are +going to marry a verminous Tommy in two days' time, you darling!" + +Meg looked at her own dark uniform. "I don't see even one," she said, +"but I'll have to be careful. I'll change when I go in. Are you +really as bad as that?" + +"I tried to clean myself up a bit," he said. "But I have been awful. +That's the thing I hate most about the whole business. I've got used +to all the other discomforts long ago, and to everything else." + +"Even to the killing of human beings, Mike?" + +"Yes," he said. "Even to the killing of brave men. I know what you're +saying to yourself--I thought that too, I thought it would send me mad, +I longed to kill myself to get out of it. But, in an attack, when +you've seen your own jolly pals, who have lived in the trenches with +you, bleeding and tattered, spatchcocked against barbed wire, and had +to leave them sticking to it, their eyes haunt you, your blood gets up, +you long for a hundred hands to shoot with, instead of only two. When +you've seen the result of Prussian militarism on decent German +soldiers, you know that it's your duty to destroy it, to give the +German people, as well as the rest of the world, their freedom and +rights." + +"If only we could get at the Prussian military power, and spare the +wretched soldiers--they are all sons and husbands, and somebody's +darlings," Meg said pathetically. + +"But we can't. It's their punishment, perhaps, poor devils, for having +submitted to such an arrogant, absolute monarchy. To get at the rulers +we have to slaughter the innocent. It sounds all wrong, but I know +it's the only way." + +"I suppose so," Margaret said. "But it does seem hard, just because +they have been law-abiding, industrious, obedient subjects, they are to +be slaughtered like sheep and made to do all sorts of cruel acts which +will brand them for ever as barbarians in the eyes of the world. There +must be thousands and thousands of them who are decent men." + +"There is a saying that every country has the Government it deserves. +They have got theirs. A German Liberal has written these words to-day, +or something like them. He says, 'Peace and war are, after all, not so +much the result of foreign policy (strange though it may appear) as the +inevitable consequences of the inward constitution of the State. +"International anarchy" is not a thing apart, but only the natural +consequence of feudal military institutions. Hence away with these +institutions.'" + +"But will they ever away with them in Germany?" + +"Not unless we, the Allies, crush the feudal military constitution; not +until the people realize that their submission has brought this war +upon themselves." + +"But surely up to now we have admired law-abiding, uncomplaining +peoples?" + +"I haven't," Michael laughed. "You know I haven't." + +"Oh no, you haven't! But then you're a firebrand, always 'agin the +Government.'" + +"I always walked on my head." He hugged her as he spoke. "I'm doing +it to-day, darling." + +"Poor old Freddy!" Margaret said. "If he could only hear us now, he'd +think I was anti-war, and you were pro-war." She sighed. "If he could +only see you in a Tommy's uniform, defending the morality of taking +human lives!" + +"_Qui sait_, Meg? He probably sees far more of it than you or I do. +Don't you make any mistake about that. He knows that I'm fighting in +the war because I'm anti-war, with a vengeance. If this war isn't won +by the Allies, Meg, there will be no end to war. It will never cease; +it will burst out at intervals until the Kaiser's Alexandrian and +Napoleonic dream is accomplished. If he wins this war, he'll turn his +eyes in other directions, for new worlds to conquer. With Europe +subdued, there is Egypt, India, America. Lamartine said, 'It is not +the country, but liberty, that is most imperilled by war.'" + +"What did he mean?" Margaret asked. + +"'That every victorious war means for the victorious nation a loss of +political liberty, whilst for the vanquished it is a foundation of +inspiration and democratic progress.'" [1] + +"Oh, Mike, and if we win? I mean, when we win?" + +"As our cause is the cause of right over might, ours is not a war of +aggression or annexation. He was speaking of an aggressive war." + +"Who was speaking?" + +"Well, I was voicing Hermann Fernau, the brave Liberal who is exiled +from the Fatherland. I can't give you his exact words, but he says +something like this in his wonderful book, _Germany and Democracy_: +'For what would happen if we Germans emerged victorious from this war? +Our victory would only mean a strengthening of the dynastic principle +of arbitrary power all along the line. Those of us who bewail the +political backwardness of our Fatherland must realize that a German +victory would prolong this backward condition for centuries. And not +only Germany, but the whole of Europe, would have to suffer the +consequences.'" + +"Fancy a German saying that!" + +"There are some sane Germans left, darling. Fernau belongs to the +small band of German Liberals who have been driven from their country." + +The taxi had reached the garden-square. They got out and Michael +prodigally overpaid the driver. The man took the money. + +"I'd have driven you for nothing, sir," he said delightedly, "if the +car was my own. I was young once, and so was the missus." He saluted +respectfully. + +As they turned into the quiet little garden, Michael said happily, +"Why, Meg, what a dear little bit of France! How did you discover it?" + +"My hospital's just across the square, and so is my bedroom. This is +my sitting-room." + +They found a quiet seat amongst the tombstones and sat down, a typical +resort for a Tommy and his sweetheart. When they had been seated for a +few moments, Michael said: + +"It's a far cry to the Valley, and the little wooden hut, and the tombs +of the Pharaohs, Meg." + +Meg's eyes swept the garden-square; the laburnum-tree was shedding +flakes of gold from its long tassels; they were falling like yellow +rain in the spring breeze. + +"Very, very far," she said as her eyes pointed to the smoke-begrimed +tombstones. "Here the homes of the dead seem so forsaken, so humble. +Death has triumphed. In the Valley the dead were the eternal citizens, +their homes were immortal. The dead have no abiding cities here, and +even the palaces of the living will be crumbled into powder before +Egypt's tombs show any signs of wear and decay." + +Their thoughts having turned to Egypt, beautiful memories were +recalled. Often broken sentences spoke volumes. Their time was very +short, so short that Love devised a sort of shorthand conversation, +which saved a thousand words. + +And so for the rest of Margaret's precious hour they talked and dreamed +and loved. There was so much to explain and so much to tell on both +sides that, as Margaret laughingly said, they would both still be +trying to get through their "bit" when Michael would have to leave for +the Front. + +Margaret just left herself time to hurry upstairs and change her +uniform in her lodgings before she returned to the hospital. Michael +waited for her in the square. + +Before they left it, Margaret said, "I want you to shake hands with an +old friend of mine. We'll have to pass her seat; she is always here. +She's a great character, an old actress--such a good sort." + +As they passed the shabby little woman, picking down old uniforms, Meg +stopped. The woman looked up; her eyes brightened. The V.A.D. had a +soldier with her--her lover, she could see that at a glance. He had +brought an atmosphere of romance and passion into the laburnum-lit +garden. + +Margaret introduced Michael, who was perfectly at his ease on such an +occasion. + +"My friend has arrived from the Front," she said. "We are going to be +married the day after to-morrow . . ." she paused, ". . . that is to +say, if I can get leave from my hospital for a week." + +The woman looked up at the handsome couple. "Well, what a surprise!" +she said, as she stared hard at Michael. "Who would ever have thought +that you were going to be married so soon? You never even told me you +were engaged! You were very sly." She smiled happily. + +Margaret laughed at her astonished expression. "I mustn't stop to tell +you about it now," she said. "My time is up--I ought to be back in ten +minutes to my cups and saucers. I just wanted you to shake hands with +the man I'm going to marry." + +The woman rose from her seat. As she did so, the old scarlet coat +which she had been unpicking fell to her feet. She glanced at her +hands, as much as to say, "They aren't very clean." Michael held out +his, ignoring her hesitation, and gave her slender, artist's fingers a +hearty shake and warm grasp. + +The old actress's emotions were kindled; poverty had not dimmed the +romance of her world. + +"You'll do, sir," she said. "You'll do--you'll do for the sweetest and +truest lady that lives in London town." + +"We have your blessing, then?" he said gaily. "And you'll look after +her when I'm at the Front--promise me that?" + +"That I will, sir. But it's she who looks after me, and more than me." +She cast her eyes round the strange neighbourhood. "Looks after us and +helps us in a hundred different ways." But she was speaking to +Michael's retreating figure, for Margaret and her lover had left her. +As she watched his swinging strides, she murmured to herself, "He'll +do for her--there's no mistaking his kind. He'll do for her." Her +thoughts flew to familiar scenes. "There was something in his voice +which reminded me of . . ." she recalled a celebrated actor. "He would +make a fine Hamlet, a heavenborn Hamlet." + +As they left the gardens Margaret said, "I have a feeling, Mike, that +someone has been watching us ever since we came into the gardens--have +you?" + +"No," Michael said. "I hadn't any eyes or ears for anything but you." + +Margaret smiled. "I felt it," she said, "rather than saw it. But, +just this minute, didn't you see that dark figure?" + +"No. Anyhow, let them watch--I don't care. Everybody's doing it." +His arm was round her. + +Meg laughed, but not so whole-heartedly, and when she was saying +good-bye to him at the hospital, she said, nervously and anxiously, +"There's that black figure again--she's just passed us. I saw her +yesterday--she watched me go in after my hours on." + +In spite of that fact, Margaret kissed her Tommy quite openly and +flagrantly and in the broad daylight. She had promised to walk with +him again on the next afternoon during her hours off, and to marry him +the day after, if he got the licence and she got her leave. + +When they had parted she said to herself, "Ours will be a war-wedding +with a vengeance! When I went out for my two hours this afternoon I +was absolutely free, not even engaged. Now," she blushed beautifully, +"I am the bride-elect of a Tommy home on leave for a fortnight!" + +After her day's work was done, she tried to find the busy matron. When +she found her, she went straight to the point--it was Margaret's way. + +"I want to get married the day after to-morrow," she said. "Could you +get someone to take my place? Can you let me go?" + +"For good, do you mean?" The matron was scarcely surprised. These +sudden marriages were all a part of her day's work, the flower and the +passion of war. + +Margaret's eyes brightened. "If you could get a temporary V.A.D., I +think I'd like to come back when he's gone." + +The older woman looked at her. "I think you'd better take a rest. +You've been at this dull job for a long time now. Don't you think you +would be better for it?" + +"Perhaps you are right," Margaret said. "I really haven't had time to +consider details--I'd only got as far as wanting the week while he is +at home, to get married in." + +"Take it, by all means," the matron said. "I've a good long +waiting-list on my books of voluntary helpers to choose from." She +paused. "I don't mean that it will be easy to replace you, Miss +Lampton--I wish all my workers gave me as little trouble as you have +done." + +"Oh, but it's been such ordinary work! Anyone could have done it as +well." + +"I've not been a hospital nurse for twenty years, Miss Lampton, for +nothing. You can comfort yourself with the fact that a good worker +always makes herself felt in whatever capacity she is in. No sentiment +or romance finds its way into an area-pantry, though there's plenty of +it in the wards." She smiled. "But in spite of that, your romance +seems to have progressed. I wish you every happiness and the best of +luck." + +Luck nowadays, Margaret knew, meant but one thing--the life of her +husband. "Thank you," she said. "I've loved being of use. I've +really been grateful for the work--it's been what I needed." + +"I think I can get a V.A.D. to take your place to-morrow morning--you +will want all your time. If you will look in at your usual hour, you +will hear if we have got one. But take my advice, Miss Lampton," the +matron said, as she turned to leave the astonished Margaret, "if you +are going to nurse, go in for a thorough hospital training. You'd make +a good nurse . . ." she paused, ". . . that is to say, if you are free +to do it when your husband is at the Front. Anyhow, think it over. It +seems to me a pity that you should be content to remain a V.A.D. when +you may be wanted for much more serious work later on." + +When she had said good-bye, Margaret fled to the telephone. She had so +much to do and arrange that she had to go from one thing to another as +fast as she could. She rang up the rooms in Clarges Street where she +knew that Hadassah Ireton was going to stay. She ought to have arrived +that afternoon. When at last she got on to the right number, she was +answered by the husband of the landlady, an ex-butler, and an admirable +_maitre de cuisine_. + +"Has Mrs. Ireton arrived yet?" Margaret asked. + +"Yes, she arrived at five o'clock. Who shall I say speaking?" + +"Ask her if she can speak to Miss Lampton, please, for a few minutes. +Will you tell her that it is very urgent?" + +The next minute Margaret heard Hadassah's voice. + +"Hallo! Miss Lampton, is that you?" + +"Yes," Margaret said. "But, please, not Miss Lampton!" + +"Well, Margaret--I always think of you as Margaret. How nice of you to +ring me up and welcome me to London!" + +"Hadassah," Margaret said breathlessly; her heart was beating with her +news; she spoke rather loudly, "I rang you up to tell you that I'm +going to be married the day after tomorrow!" + +Hadassah heard Margaret sigh even through the telephone. It was a sigh +of pent-up emotion, an expression of relief. + +Margaret waited. She knew that she had taken Hadassah so completely by +surprise that she had no answer ready. + +"Margaret!" she said at last, in amazement, "who to?" + +Margaret detected, or fancied she did, a little coldness in her +question. There was certainly not the pleased ring of congratulation +which she had expected in her words. + +"Why, to Michael Amory, of course! Who else could it be?" Margaret's +happy laugh crackled in Hadassah's ears. + +"Oh, my dear, I'm so glad! What a wonderful surprise! Is he in +London? When did he turn up?" + +"He has been to the Front--as a Tommy, but he's got his commission in +the same regiment. I only met him to-day--he's just got back. I feel +too bewildered to think; I scarcely know what I am saying." + +"Is this the first time that you've seen him since you parted in +Egypt?" Hadassah's voice expressed both amusement and eager curiosity. + +"Yes, to speak to. We met in the train. Some months ago I saw him at +a railway-station in the North. He was passing through, and I was +there, but we had no opportunity of speaking to each other." In the +same breathless voice she said, "Freddy would approve. I know what you +are thinking, but it's all right--he's as keen as Freddy about the war, +and there never was anything wrong." + +"I'm so awfully glad. You know I never doubted him." + +"He arrived in England the day before war was declared by us. He tried +to find me, but he couldn't, and so he just gave himself up to the war. +He lost himself in it--you know his way! He thought that Freddy and I +would approve. He was always worthy of me, Hadassah, but now I'm so +proud of him. He would have joined up in any case, but he thought that +in doing his bit he would atone for his weakness about Millicent. It +was only his old method of letting things slide--he couldn't get rid of +her, but he was absolutely loyal to me." + +"I understand," Hadassah said. "But I admit that it was difficult for +Freddy to look at it in that light." + +"It's so hard to explain over the 'phone," Margaret said. "And indeed, +it isn't what he has told me so much--it's just what he makes me feel." + +"I know, dear. I feel it's all right--I always felt it was." + +"He has been absolutely true, Hadassah. Freddy must know that now. +And you know, I can afford to marry." Her voice lost its buoyancy. + +"Yes, I know, dear. I saw your brother's will." + +"And you approve, Hadassah? It seems a shame not to grasp this little +bit of happiness." She paused, for above her practical words came the +assurance of Michael's safety; the words of the message almost came to +her lips. + +"I quite approve. In these awful days, even a fortnight of happiness +is a wonderful thing. Use your own judgment, Margaret--it's been +unerring so far. Take this joy right to your heart." + +"Will you and your husband witness our marriage? I want to telegraph +to Aunt Anna--may I say that I am being married from your house? We +won't bother you--is it awful cheek asking you?" + +"Why, my dear, of course you can come here to-morrow, as early as ever +you like, and we'll go into all the details, and fix up everything +quite nicely. With telephones and money and London at our backs, you +will be astonished at what a nice little _dejeuner_ we shall have ready +for you." Hadassah laughed. "Money has its uses, my dear, in spite of +all your Mike's oblivion of the fact." + +"Oh, you are too kind! Won't it be nice--a little _dejeuner a quatre_ +in your rooms? Your husband is with you? I forgot to ask." + +"Yes, he's here. He'll stand by your Michael. Now, all you've got to +do is to look after your own concerns--get your things together and +send them here. I'll have them packed for you and do all the rest." + +"You angel!" Margaret said. "Oh, don't cut us off!" she cried to the +girl at the exchange, for a buzzing sound filled her ears. "Are you +there? Can you hear? I won't take much on my honeymoon," she said, +but her words did not reach Hadassah; no answer came back to her. They +had been cut off. She quickly put the receiver back on its hook and +hurried off to do the next thing which suggested itself as being the +most important--writing a short list of the things which she would have +to buy the next day, and sending a telegram to her Aunt Anna. + + + +[1] Hermann Fernau: _The Coming Democracy_. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +The next day, when Margaret met Michael in the garden square, she was +not in her V.A.D.'s uniform. She told him that she was now her own +mistress, so much so that she had that morning almost completed the +purchase of her trousseau, and that she was free to stay out as long as +she liked. + +"But I want you," she said, "to return with me now to Clarges Street, +to the Iretons. They are in town, and Hadassah says we can be married +from their rooms to-morrow." + +"They are the kindest people in the world," he said. "I felt sure you +were making friends with Hadassah while I was in the desert. I often +comforted myself with the fact that she would understand the whole +situation and help you." + +"She's a brick!" Margaret said. "She has been your ardent champion all +the time." + +They signalled to a taxi-cab to drive them to Clarges Street. It was +necessary to do everything as quickly as they could; there was no time +for leisurely walking or discussion. + +Suddenly Margaret said, "Look! Quick, Mike, there! I saw that black +figure again. She was sitting in the gardens when I arrived. She +never used to be here--I feel convinced that she is following us. I +believe one of these taxies is waiting for her." Her eyes indicated +two taxis, which were waiting outside the gardens. + +"Why do you think so?" Michael said. "What can any human being want +with us? Why should our movements be interesting to any one but our +two selves?" He laughed. "By Jove, they are interesting to us, +though, aren't they?" + +His eyes spoke of the morrow. + +Margaret laughed, too. Michael's high spirits allowed her no time for +reflection. He was carrying her off her feet in his old magnetic way. +If he had only beckoned, she would have followed him to the ends of the +earth; wings would have carried her, the air would have borne her. The +dull realities of her life in London had vanished as if they had never +been. The black figure, which had stepped into a cab and followed +them, was forgotten. + + * * * * * * + +For something like half an hour Michael sat talking with Hadassah and +Margaret. He had so much to tell them that he succeeded in telling +them nothing connectedly or completely. He began a hundred different +things and left most of them halfway through, to plunge headlong into +another and entirely different subject. The things he wanted to say +were tumbling over each other in his mind. The bewildering idea that +he was going to be married the next day sent all his thoughts reeling. + +Margaret was not the sort of girl to worry over a lot of superficial +clothes for a ten days' honeymoon. What she needed she had got +together in a couple of hours at Harrod's and one or two good shops in +the West End. + +They had made up their minds to spend their brief period of married +life together at Glastonbury. It was not too far from London and +Michael had once stayed in the historical old inn in that quiet city of +Arthurian romance. In Egypt he had inspired Margaret with a desire to +see Glastonbury in the spring time, when the maythorns were in bloom +and the luscious meadows gay with flowers. + +Like all soldiers, Michael was very silent upon the subject of his own +personal experiences at the Front, although at intervals he would +suddenly burst out with some dramatic incident in which he had taken +part. + +When Hadassah congratulated him on being offered a commission, he +laughingly said, "Oh, I must accept it. It isn't fair to shirk it, +though I'd rather remain as I am." + +Margaret's heart stood still. She knew what he meant; she was not +ignorant of the appalling death-rate of officers. + +"You mean," Hadassah said, "that----" + +She got no further, for Michael interrupted her. "I mean that if I'm +capable of leading the men I ought to do it, but I dread the +responsibility. That's why I never tried for a commission--I. didn't +feel confident. But as the deaths amongst the officers are much +greater than among the men, I can't remain a Tommy, can I?" He pulled +his notebook out of his pocket. "Read that," he said. "That's the +sort of thing that proves whether a man can lead or not." + +Margaret and Hadassah read the newspaper cutting. It had been quoted +from the _Petit Journal_. + +"The British High Command relies more and more on the value of the +individual soldier, and in this we see one of the main factors which +will mean German defeat. Take the case of the heroism of a sergeant +who, seeing his officer seriously wounded, himself assumed command of +his company and led them victoriously to the third line. There he fell +in his turn, but one of the men immediately took his place and +completed the conquest of the objective. It is thanks to such acts +that . . . has been seized, crossed and left behind." + +When Hadassah and Margaret looked up, they met Michael's eyes. They +were looking into the things beyond, things very far from Clarges +Street. + +"That was my sergeant," he said, "the finest fellow that ever wore +shoe-leather!" + +"And the Tommy," Hadassah said, "has he been promoted?" + +Michael's eyes dropped; his tanned skin flushed slightly. + +"Of course he'll have to take a commission if it's offered to him. He +can't very well refuse. He has proved his ability to lead, poor chap! +I expect he'd rather remain as he was. I know I would--it's a terrible +responsibility, inspiring your men as well as teaching them, but one +can't shelter oneself while others face greater risks." + +Hadassah's quick brain read the truth, while Margaret merely lost +herself in visualizing the dangers which Michael would so soon have to +face. The twelve days would be gone so soon that they were scarcely +worth counting. + +From the war their sketchy talk returned again to Michael's experiences +in the desert. He told them briefly about the saint, omitting the +nature of his illness. He spoke so naturally and unguardedly about +Millicent, and of his annoyance at her appearance and at her +persistence in remaining, that if there had been any lingering doubt in +Hadassah's mind upon the subject of his absolute loyalty to Margaret, +it was completely dispersed. + +When he was hurriedly telling them about the meeting of the saint and +all about his knowledge of the hidden treasure, and how completely it +tallied with the African's prophecies, he produced a tiny parcel from +his pocket-book. He handed it to Margaret, who felt as if she had been +listening to the last chapter of a long story from _The Arabian Nights_. + +The little packet was made up of many folds of tissue-paper. With +nervous fingers Margaret unwrapped it. + +When the last piece was discarded and she saw that uncut jewel lying +against the palm of her hand, she gave a cry of delight mixed with +apprehension. Its beauty was unique, its colour as indescribable as +the crimson of an afterglow in the Valley. + +She looked almost pitifully at Michael. She wished that the world was +a little less strange; some of the humdrum of her pantry-maid's +existence would be almost welcome. + +"The saint carried it in his ear," he said. "He took it from +Akhnaton's treasure." + +"Have you had it with you at the Front all this time?" Hadassah said. +Margaret's emotion touched her. + +"Yes. But now it is for you, Meg. I will have it made into anything +you like, so that you can always wear it. It will be my +wedding-present, a jewel of Akhnaton." + +"No, no!" Margaret said quickly. "You must take it, it belongs to you. +You must always carry it about with you, Mike--it is your talisman." +She stopped, for Michael had closed her fingers over the stone. + +"But I want you to have it," he said. "Let it be my +wedding-gift--there is no time for the buying of presents." + +"No," Margaret said. "Don't urge me, Mike. I shan't like it. +Hadassah, don't you agree with me?--he must never part with it!" She +smiled. "I should be terribly afraid if you did, I should think your +luck had deserted you. Dearest, do take it--I believe Akhnaton meant +you to keep it." + +While she spoke she was longing to tell him of the hand which had +written, of her message. The words almost passed her lips, but again +she refrained, she obeyed her super-senses. She was convinced that +Michael, when his blood was up, ran terrible risks, that he was +reckless to the verge of folly. She had heard a letter read in the +hospital which had been written to a mother about her son. His Colonel +had said, "There are some men who will storm hell, there are others who +will follow, and there are some who will lag behind. Your son belongs +to the first of the three. What he needs to learn is caution and the +value in this war of officers as able as himself." Margaret knew that +Michael's rash nature needed no encouragement. + +Hadassah championed Margaret. "I think you should keep it," she said +to Michael, "and give it to Margaret after the war." + +They all laughed, not unmirthfully, and yet not happily. "After the +war!" they echoed in one voice. "Oh, that wonderful 'after'!" + +"That promised land," Michael said. "Never mind--it's coming. The +labour and travail of the war will bring forth Liberty. The pains of +childbirth are soon forgotten--mothers know how soon, when the infant +is at their breast." + +Hadassah and Margaret looked at one another. Their eyes said many +things; Margaret's were full of pride because Hadassah was hearing from +his own lips that Michael was as whole-heartedly in the war as even +Freddy could have desired. + +She was still fingering and gazing at the wonderful stone. It seemed +scarcely more strange to her that it had actually once belonged to the +first king who had abhorred war, had once formed a part of his great +royal treasury, than the fact that it had played its part in the +mystical drama of her life in Egypt. As Michael talked, she questioned +herself dreamily. Which was real--her humdrum pantry-maid existence in +London, with her dreary walks through darkened streets, with now and +then a Zeppelin scare to make her lonely bedroom seem more lonely? Or +her life in the Valley, surrounded by the unearthly light of the Theban +hills, her life of intellectual excitement and strange intimacy with +things and people which the world had forgotten for thousands of years? + +Michael felt her abstraction. He put his hand on the top of hers, +which held the jewel, and pressed it. + +"Come back," he said, laughing. "We're in Clarges Street, and we're +going to be married to-morrow." + +Meg looked up with startled eyes. "Are we?" she said. + +"My dear, practical mystic, we are." He caught her round the waist and +looked at Hadassah as he spoke. "You'll get her ready, won't you?" + +She laughed. "Well, if you really mean it, I think we must all be up +and doing." + +"If!" Michael cried. "With this in my pocket, I should rather think I +do mean it!" He brandished the special licence in the air. "Do you +know what this means, Meg? It's your death-warrant. Are you resigned? +Have you anything to confess? You've not been married to anyone else +while I was away?" + +Margaret shook her head. He had brought laughter back to her eyes. +Just at that moment the ex-butler entered the room. As they all turned +to look at him, he said: + +"A person has called to see Miss Lampton." + +"Who is it?" Margaret said. Her thoughts flew to her dressmaker, who +was hurriedly making a light frock, bought ready-made, the proper +length for her; in all other respects it fitted her. + +"I don't know, miss. She has a box in her arms." + +"Oh, I'll go," Margaret said. "I won't be long." + +"Then, while you're gone, I'll make use of my time," Michael said as he +rose to his feet. "I'll be back in ten minutes." He looked into +Margaret's eyes. "Don't waste any time on dressmakers, Meg! Wear any +old things,--you always look delightful." + +"Catch me wasting time!" Margaret said. Her eyes assured him of her +words. "Come upstairs for me in ten minutes--I'll be ready." + + * * * * * * + +A minute or two later Margaret returned to the sitting-room. Michael +had left it. She was glad. + +"Hadassah," she said, "listen. The most extraordinary thing has +happened. Millicent Mervill is up in the drawing-room." Margaret was +trembling with anger and nervousness. + +"What? That woman here? How has she found you, how dare she come to +see you?" Hadassah's voice was indignant, furious; her eyes flashed. + +Margaret hurriedly explained to her how for the last two days she had +felt that someone was following her, a dark figure, indistinctly +dressed in black. + +"She watched me in the square this morning. With her old cunning, she +managed to get in by bringing some corset-boxes with her. Smith +thought she had come to try something on. Isn't it like her?" + +"Have you seen her?" + +"No, not yet. She gave this note to Smith to give to me; he thought it +was just a list of the things she had brought. I knew her handwriting +the moment I saw it. Please read it." + +Hadassah read the letter. It was very short. + + +"Dear Miss Lampton, + +"If you will let me see you, I will tell you something which you ought +to know. Please don't refuse. What I know may greatly help Mr. Amory. + +"I only heard the other day that he never discovered the treasure. It +is about that I want to see you. + +"Yours, + + "MILLICENT MERVILL." + + +When Hadassah had finished reading the note, she raised her eyes; they +met Margaret's. + +"You had better see her." Hadassah spoke quickly. + +"Yes, I must, I suppose. I only wanted to know if you would mind--it +is your house. I think it's such impertinence." + +"Of course not. But what can she have to tell you?" + +"I don't know, but whatever it is, I do wish she hadn't come." +Margaret sighed. "We were all so happy, and she is associated with +everything that is hateful." + +"Would you like me to come with you?" + +"No, no." Margaret shook her head. "I am always best alone, but I +dread the interview." + +She paused for a moment or two before leaving the room. She was +building up her courage, trying to subdue her nervousness. As she went +out, Hadassah's eyes followed her. + +"Poor girl!" she said to herself. "She has gone through so much. I +thought she was in for a little time of peace and happiness. Poor +Margaret!" She sighed. "And what is there still before her?" +Hadassah's eyes looked into the future, "with this cruel, cruel war +only beginning, for we are really just getting into it!" + +She had been preparing to write some letters relating to Margaret's +affairs, but for a moment or two she did not take up her pen. A little +of the truth of what did actually happen to Michael on the battlefields +of Flanders swam before her eyes; it was just the things which were +happening and have happened to England's brave boys and men during +these three wonderful years. The war was still in its infancy, but +even then the vices of Germany were as old as her race and as terrible. + +She pictured the truth--Michael's charmed life, his reckless courage, +his magnetic power over his men. She foresaw it all. His temperament +foretold it, his absolute belief in the triumph of righteousness. + +While Hadassah was thinking these things, and thanking God in her heart +that her husband, by reason of his special qualifications, had at once +been placed in a post of great responsibility and one far removed from +the danger-zone, Margaret had reached the drawing-room. She paused for +a moment outside the door; she needed all her self-control. + +As she entered the room, and before she had closed the door behind her, +a slight figure, so shapelessly enveloped in black and closely-veiled +that she could not distinguish any individuality, turned from the +window, which opened into a small glass recess full of ferns and +flowers. + +Margaret did not hold out her hand; she could not. Nor did Millicent +Mervill; she stood before Margaret, her head bent and her hands clasped +in front of her, a slight bundle of drooping black, as mysterious as +any veiled Egyptian woman. + +"You have something to tell me?" Margaret said. In spite of her anger, +the humility of the fragile figure brought a suggestion of pity into +her voice. The radiant beauty whom she had steeled her nerves to meet +had given place to this meek, formless penitent. "Please put up your +veil--I can't see you." She knew that she could not trust the woman's +words; she wished to watch her eyes while she spoke. + +"I am wearing it," Millicent said, "because I can't bear you to look at +me, to see how changed I am. Please let me keep it down, while I tell +you all I know about Mr. Amory and the treasure." + +"What has happened?" Margaret said. Millicent's voice was agonized. + +"I had smallpox in Alexandria--it has left me hideous. Soon after I +last saw you I sickened with it. I was very, very ill." + +"Smallpox!" There was genuine sympathy in Margaret's voice. "Are you +really disfigured? How dreadful that nowadays you should be!" + +"Yes," Millicent said, lifelessly. "I have nothing left to live for +now. My looks are gone. I was very ignorantly nursed; they were kind +people, but hopelessly ignorant." + +"Perhaps your looks will come back--give yourself time." Even as +Margaret spoke, she wondered how she found it possible to talk to the +woman in the way she was doing. Only five minutes ago she had hated +her, hated her so intensely that she had had to exercise great control +over her passions so that she should not lose her temper in her +presence. Now she felt a sincere pity for her, the poor creature. +Margaret's subconscious womanhood knew the reason. It was because she +could afford, to be sorry for her, now that all rivalry between them +was dead. + +"I didn't come to tell you about myself," Millicent said. "It is +nothing to you--you must be glad." She wrung her hands more tightly. +"You are saying in your heart at this moment that I deserve it. So I +do. I see things clearly now--I do deserve it. I brought it all on +myself, everything. But I have suffered, you don't know how I have +suffered." + +"Sit down," Margaret said quietly, "and tell me all about it." + +"No, no. You are only speaking like this because you feel you ought +to, because I am now a thing to pity. You really hate me. I came to +tell you that I never reached the hills, I never saw the hidden +treasure, I never tried to find it." She paused. "And that your lover +was never mine. He never desired any woman but you--he scorned me, +ignored my advances." + +"I know that," Margaret said hotly. A fire had kindled her calm eyes; +it quickened her spirit. + +"But it is none the less my duty to tell you. Your lover is too fine, +too loyal--he won't stoop to tell you how I tempted him. He wouldn't +blacken even _my_ name. He has too much respect for womanhood." + +"Then why tell me?" Margaret said. "I don't want to hear it. All that +is past. We are going to be married tomorrow--Michael is home from the +Front. We are perfectly happy--don't recall it all." + +A cry rang through the room. Its tone of envy and passion convinced +Margaret that even in the worst human beings there is the divine spark. +It actually hurt her that her own joy should mean this agony to another +woman. + +"You are going to be married," Millicent said, "to the finest lover and +the truest gentleman I have ever known, or ever shall know, the finest +in the world, I think." + +"Yes," Margaret said. "He is all that, and more--at least, to me." + +"Much more," Millicent said, "much more. And will you tell him that I +never reached the hills, that I am not guilty of that one meanness?" + +"Then who did?" Margaret said quickly. + +"Oh, then you thought I did? You thought I robbed him of his +discovery? Does he think so, too?" Her voice shook. Her curious +sense of honour scorned the idea. + +"No, no," Margaret said. Her love of truth made her speak frankly. +"He wouldn't believe it. He is still convinced that you never went to +the hills, that you are innocent." + +"But you believed it?" + +"Yes," Margaret's voice was stern. "Yes, I believed it for a time." + +"I have nothing worth lying for now," Millicent said bitterly; "so what +I tell you is perfectly true. I never reached the hills; I was too +great a coward. I fled away in the night, as fast as I could, back to +civilization." + +"Then who anticipated Michael's discovery? It's absurd to assume that +someone who knew nothing of his theory should have discovered it at the +very same time, almost. Do you expect me to believe that?" + +"My dragoman told me that one of my men absconded. He left me on the +same night as I left Michael's camp. He must have discovered it; he +must have heard the saint telling Michael all about it." She paused. +"You know the whole story, don't you? All about the saint, and how his +illness turned out to be smallpox?" She shuddered at the very mention +of the saint. + +"No," Margaret said. "I haven't heard about the smallpox. Was that +how you got it?" + +"Indirectly, yes, but it was my own fault. When I heard that he had +got it, I stole away in the night, I left Michael to face it alone." +She paused. + +Margaret held her tongue. There was something so horrible about +smallpox that, in spite of the woman's cowardly behaviour, she felt +some sympathy for her. + +"He had begged me to go before the saint turned up. I wouldn't. When +the saint appeared he forgot almost everything else, and so for one +whole day I remained confident in the belief that he had taken my +presence for granted. And then," she shuddered, "he came to tell me +that the holy man had smallpox." + +"And you forgot your love?" Margaret said. + +"It was swallowed up in fear, in anger. I was so furious at Michael's +rash generosity. I had warned him that the man might be suffering from +some contagious malady, but I never dreamed of smallpox." + +"It was horrible!" Margaret said. "And Michael has never said a word +about it." + +"His charity is divine," Millicent said. "It is Christ-like, if you +like." + +"It is true charity, for it is love, love for everything which God has +created." + +"He is so happy that he can afford to love almost everything and +everyone." + +"He is happy because he loves them." + +"I don't believe he has ever heard of hell," Millicent said. "His +religion's all heaven and beauty and love." + +"Hell!" exclaimed Margaret. "But surely," she paused, "surely we're +not primitives, we don't need the fear of such impossible cruelties to +keep us from doing wrong? His great saint, or reformer, Akhnaton, had +no hell in his religion, and he lived, as you know, centuries before +David. Even Akhnaton realized that human beings create their own +hells. The other hell, of fire and brimstone, which terrorized the +ignorant people into obedience and order, belongs to the same category +as the crocodile god and the wicked cat-goddess Pasht, of Egypt. It +was necessary in its day." + +"You and Michael live on such a high plane!" + +"Oh no, we don't. You know Michael is very human--that is why he is so +understanding, so forgiving." + +"He will never forgive me--that would be expecting too much. But I had +to come and tell you all that I know about his treasure. I have only +just heard--I saw it in the Egyptian monthly Archaeological +Report--that Michael never had the glory of discovering the Akhnaton +chambers in the hills." + +"You didn't know that when I saw you in Cairo?" + +"No, I never dreamed of it. If you had only told me that he hadn't, I +should have explained, I should have told you about the man who +absconded." + +Margaret looked at her searchingly, but she could learn nothing more +than the voice told her, for Millicent's veil was still covering her +disfigured face. + +"I never wished to rob him of the honour of the discovery. If I had +known when I saw you, I should have cleared my name, at least, of that +contemptible deed." + +Margaret blushed. "I couldn't tell you," she said. "I was too +unhappy, too angry. I didn't want you to know of our disappointment. +I pretended that I had heard from Michael." + +"You led me to suppose that he had discovered it." + +"I know," Margaret said. "I didn't wish to add to your satisfaction by +telling you of his disappointment. I was convinced that you knew, and +that you had slipped off to the hills." She paused. "We were bluffing +each other." + +"I was incubating smallpox. I was wearing a blouse and skirt which had +been packed with the clothes I wore in the desert. Probably it had +come in touch with some infected thing." + +"Were you very bad?" Margaret said. "Where have you been all this +time?" + +Millicent shivered. "I was just going to sail for England, but I was +too ill when I reached Alexandria to go on board the boat--I had to +stay behind. I have been hiding myself from the world ever since. +Yes, I was dreadfully ill, and now. . . ." Her voice broke. "You +don't know what I feel when I look at myself--my own face makes me +sick." + +"I am so sorry," Margaret said. "You were so beautiful, such a +wonderful colour!" + +"How kind of you to say so!" Millicent's voice left no doubt of her +feeling of shame, although Margaret's nobility was beyond her +understanding; it humbled her. "I came to you because I wanted to do +what I can to undo what I have done. If Michael had known that my +servant anticipated his discovery, it might have given him a clue as to +where the treasure has gone. You do believe now that I never saw the +jewels? I never dreamed of robbing him!" She paused. "In my poor way +I loved him. I couldn't have done that--not that." + +"And yet you were so horribly cruel! You knew a great deal about men. +Michael is only human, and he is so ready to believe the best of +everyone." + +"Yes, I know. But I suppose I was born bad, born with feelings you +don't understand. Michael did his best to help me; he tried to awaken +something higher in me. I suppose you won't believe it, but he has--he +has helped me; I am not quite what I was. While I was ill, when I +thought I was dying, all that he had ever said to me came back to me +with a new meaning. I determined that if I got well I would tell you +everything--how wonderful his love for you is, how strong he can +be--and it is not the strength of a man who does not feel." + +"Oh, I know it," Margaret said. Her voice was resentful. + +"But please let me tell you, even if you do know it. It is only right +to Michael--I must exonerate him, even if you resent hearing me speak +of his love for you. Let me make a clean breast of it, show you how +ignorant he was of my plans for meeting him. He never was more +surprised in his life." + +"I didn't mean to resent it, but there are some things we never need +telling, things which are better left unsaid. Michael needs no telling +that you never stole the jewels, for instance, that you never tried to +reach the hills." + +"Stole the jewels! No, I never stole them. You thought that?" Horror +was in Millicent's voice. "You thought I stole them for my personal +use? To wear them?" + +"It would not have been so cruel as to steal my lover, would it?" + +"It would have been less difficult." + +"You tried--oh, how you tried to steal him! How could--you?" A +revulsion of feeling hardened Margaret. Her eyes showed it. She was +visualizing Millicent in all her former beauty. Even without beauty, +she knew how strongly her vitality would appeal to men. Despondent, in +her drooping black shawls, Millicent was keenly alive still. Margaret +had always felt her vitality; she knew that men felt it. It stirred +them to conquest; it invited contest. + +Millicent answered her truthfully. "Because I am bad, not good, and I +loved him with the only kind of love I know. It swept aside all +scruples. You can't judge--try to believe that--you can't begin to +judge. I lived for conquest and men's admiration, and now I have lost +both." + +Margaret felt humbled to the dust. Her judgment had been so crude, so +narrow. She realized that the woman before her left her far behind in +the matter of vitality, passion and self-criticism. Her energy and +vitality demanded an outlet, an object. + +"Don't feel like that," she said gently. "Your looks will come back. +Do let me see your face. It is early days yet--the marks will +disappear, grow fainter. It is only one year--give it time, forget all +about it in hard work, and while you are working. Nature will be +working too." + +"No, no!" Millicent cried. "Never! I am going to fly from my +friends--I am going to hide myself." + +Margaret had attempted to raise her thick veil, but Millicent refused +to let her. Instead, she threw another thickness of it over her face. +Her pride could not stand even Margaret's pity and comforting words. + +"I am humbled enough as it is," she said. "Don't do that." + +"I didn't want to humble you," Margaret said. "I only thought, and I +do still think, that you are exaggerating the change in your +appearance. One sees every little thing about oneself so clearly. I +know how a wee spot seems like a Vesuvius when it is on one's nose. +With smallpox the marks do get more and more invisible." + +"No, my looks will never come back," Millicent said miserably. "And +for a woman like me, when her looks are gone, what is there left?" + +"Work," Margaret said. "The war will make you forget all about +personal things--it will, really. Life is different now. If you will +only take up some war-work--and I know you will, for every able-bodied +woman in England is working at something; every superfluous woman has +become a thing of value--life will be completely changed. There is +only one idea, one aim for us all--to win the war. You must do your +bit. It is just our 'bit' that keeps us sane, for without it we should +have time to think. We women must not think, we must work." + +"But what could I do?" + +"Almost anything," Margaret said. "You know you could--you are so +clever." + +"Don't flatter, please," Millicent said. "How can you be so forgiving?" + +"I suppose because I'm so happy. As soon as ever you can," Margaret +said, "take up some work which necessitates using all your brain, all +your energy. You will become so interested in what you are doing that +you will forget your troubles. I had no time to grieve over mine when +I was working in the hospital. At night I was so tired out that I went +to sleep as soon as my head was on the pillow. The atmosphere of work, +the awfulness of this war, makes personal things seem very trivial--one +grows ashamed of them." + +"You are trying to give me hope," Millicent said. "It is so big and +kind of you, but honestly, I only came here to tell you about your +lover, not to talk about my hideous self. What does it matter what I +do? You were always a worker--I was not." + +"Well, you have told me about Michael, and now I can at least try to +help you. I have seen the effect of almost a year of the war on the +idle women of England. It is wonderful! And we used to be called +superfluous!" Margaret laughed proudly. + +"You believe me? You know that I am not lying? that I never reached +the hills? that I never knew that Michael had not discovered the +treasure?" Millicent had gone back to the original object of her +visit. What Margaret had advised seemed to her impossible. + +As she said the last words, the door opened and Michael entered the +room. He had heard Millicent's voice. His eyes were fixed on +Margaret. The tableau created by his unexpected entrance was tense, +painful. + +Millicent turned her head away and hid her face in her hands. Her +first thought was that he must not see her face. She flung herself +down on the sofa. + +Margaret became deadly pale, but remained motionless. Michael looked +from her to Millicent with an expression of horrified surprise on his +face. He had expected to see her in all her perfection of toilet and +looks, her shining head, the "golden lady," instead of which a bundle +of crepe, a mere armful, something soft and black, lay face downwards +on the sofa before him. + +"What are you doing here?" he said sternly. "Haven't we seen the last +of you yet?" + +Margaret put up her hands as if to ward off his words. Her own +happiness had made her feel more pity than anger for the miserable +woman, who for probably the first time in her life was trying to act +honourably and courageously. The security of love made her wondrous +kind. + +"What has she come for?" Michael demanded. But for his sunburn, his +face would have been as white as Margaret's own. The sight of +Millicent's cowering figure brought back to him, with the quickness of +light, the evening in the desert when he had flung her from him in his +agony of temptation. + +"She came to give us some information, Mike. Tell him, Millicent, why +you have come." + +Millicent took no notice of Margaret's words. She was crouching on the +sofa, her face still buried in her hands. + +"No, no," she moaned, when Margaret again urged her to speak. "I only +wanted to tell you. Ask him to go away--do, please, beg him to go. If +he wants you I will disappear and never come back again. I have said +all I have to say." + +"I am going to stay here," Michael said, "until I hear what you came to +say. Was it necessary to come?" He looked to Margaret for his answer. + +"It was better," Margaret said. "She never reached the hills, she +never saw the treasure." + +Michael started. "Go on," he said. "That is not all--she need not +have come to tell us that. I never accused her; I never believed it. +I thought that after all she did do, she would have had shame enough to +stay away." + +Millicent's body quivered. His words lashed her. + +"One of her servants ran away--he left her the same night as she left +your camp," Margaret said. Again Michael saw the black figure shiver +as Margaret spoke of her cowardly act. The very mention of it brought +to both their eyes a vivid picture of the surroundings which had +witnessed their last meeting. Millicent knew that Michael was seeing +it as clearly as though they had been standing together under the +golden stars, the tents dotted about on the pale night sands. She +could hear the sick man reciting _suras_ from the Koran in sonorous +tones. + +"And she thinks he found the treasure?" Michael said the words +absently, as though his mind was occupied with distant visions. + +"Yes--he was a likely character to do the deed." + +"Does she know anything about him--where he went to?" + +"No, Mike, but I do." Margaret spoke gently. "Millicent has been very +ill. She only heard yesterday that the Government had anticipated your +discovery. She came to try and help you. She is in trouble." +Margaret's voice told Michael more than her words. + +"She scarcely deserves your pity," he said. "Only her own heart knows +how she has tricked us both . . . there are some things one cannot +forgive . . . Millicent knows." + +The black figure slipped from the couch to the floor. "Look, I will +kneel at your Margaret's feet," she said in tones of abject shame. +"Tell her everything. Tell her what a beast she has been kind to. She +ought to know." She raised her head. "I think I shall enjoy the +agony--anything but this living death." + +She pressed her hands on Margaret's feet. "I am far worse than you +knew! You are not made like me, you won't even understand if he tells +you the things I did." + +"I don't wish to speak of it to Margaret," Michael said. "Get up. I +have seen your penitence once too often to believe in it now--get up." + +"Oh," Millicent moaned, "I know, I know! You think this is just +another bit of the old Millicent. It isn't--it is true." + +"Get up," Margaret said kindly. "I was only trying to be kind because +. . . well, perhaps it is because I am so happy myself that I can +afford to forgive you. Don't kneel like that . . . I hate to see you. +Michael knows how little I deserve it . . . I have hated you with all +my heart and soul, I have longed for my revenge." + +"My God!" Michael said quickly, "I hate to see the little coward near +you! How dared you come? Get up!" he said again. "And clear out! I +thought we had finished with you for ever!" + +Millicent dragged herself to her feet. She stood before him, a +slender, nun-like figure; one of the black shawls which enveloped her +had fallen to the floor. + +"Go on, say all you feel--I deserve it, every word of it! I left you +to your fate when you were in danger, I fled from the camp with but one +idea in my head--my own safety, my desire to get as far as I could from +the infection of smallpox. I carried the hateful disease with me; I am +so disfigured that you must never see me. Never!" Her words ended in +a low cry of self-pity. + +"My God!" Michael said. "Are you speaking the truth! Did you get +smallpox?" He knew that the blame was partly his. + +"Yes, but don't look at me. I can't bear it. Anything but that, oh +not that!" Michael had stooped to raise her a veil. + +His eyes met Margaret's. "Poor soul!" he said. "Poor little soul!" + +"Yes, fate has punished me," Millicent said. "You can do no more." + +Michael groaned. "We have not talked of it all yet, Margaret," he said +miserably, "the horror of the smallpox." + +"Millicent has told me about it, Michael." She tried to smile. "It is +a thing of the past. What good will talking do? We are happy again." + +Millicent turned to Michael. "I have told her a very little," she +said. "And now I have something which I must tell you. When I saw her +in Cairo I told her that I had been with you, I told her that you would +write to me, I inferred that you and I were lovers." + +Michael bent his head. He was innocent of any deed of unfaithfulness, +but what of his desires? What of the night when Margaret's presence +had saved him? He wondered if she was conscious of the part she had +played in his renunciation. + +"And you still trusted me?" Michael's words were so full of gratitude +and wonder that Margaret's veins were flooded with happiness. How +greatly he had been tempted! + +"I remembered my promise. More than once it seemed to me that I +succeeded in being very near you." + +Her eyes questioned him. He understood; his eyes answered her. + +"I told her that I had been with you," Millicent said, "but not for how +long. She never dreamed that my coming was quite unknown to you, that +I was with you for so short a time, that you hated my presence in the +camp. How well she knew you!" + +Margaret turned to Michael. "Yes, I knew him," she said. "Thank God, +I knew him! We learnt to know each other in the Valley, and I think I +realized the situation better than you thought I did." + +"But I must tell you, I must show you even more than you dream of how +true and loyal he has been." + +"No, no, please don't," Margaret said. "Michael has told me all I want +to know." She was sorry for Michael's embarrassment; he writhed under +the whole thing. + +Millicent paid no attention to her words. She repeated the story for +Margaret's benefit. Michael turned away impatiently. He had meant to +tell Margaret all the details of his life in the desert when they were +married and alone together. + +"As I told you," Millicent said, "I met him in the desert. I had found +out where he was going to. He was furiously angry . . . he wanted me +to go back. I stayed against his wishes. The saint turning up the +same day as I did made him forget me. I often tried to win him from +you . . . and I thought I was succeeding. The only reason he didn't +turn me out of the camp was because of my equipment and food--they were +good for the holy man, who was ill. He was sickening with the +smallpox, only we didn't know it. Michael took him into his camp. I +told you about that. We didn't know what was the matter with him, but +Michael behaved like an angel to the lunatic. When he discovered that +he had smallpox, I implored him to leave him. When he wouldn't, I +fled. That very night I left him alone, even though I had told him +that I loved him--I had offered myself to him. I took all my luxuries +with me. I was mad . . . furiously angry. He had taken the sick man +in against all my entreaties; he had scorned my love. The next morning +Hassan told me that one of my men had deserted, left our camp at dawn." + +"Stop, that's enough!" Michael cried. "Stop it!" Every word had +lashed his nerves and brought back to his memory his own struggles, his +own weakness. + +"I fled," Millicent went on, not heeding his interruption. "I spent +some weeks in Upper Egypt. I thought I had escaped the horrible +disease. . . . I thought Hassan had taken every precaution. He sent +some of my boxes straight on to Cairo; I opened them the night I saw +you. They must have carried the infection--that is how I got smallpox. +It lay in wait for me." She paused, breathless, and then went on +excitedly: "I know nothing about the treasure. I am absolutely +innocent in that one respect. I can tell you nothing more, nothing." + +As Millicent ceased speaking, Michael took up her story. + +"Margaret," he said, "some days after she left us the saint died. When +he was buried, we moved on." As he spoke, he visualized the desert +burial. "We journeyed to the hills. On our way we passed through a +subterranean village--a terrible place, of flies and filth! The +_Omdeh_ of the village, a fine old gentleman, told us of the growing +unrest among the desert tribes--German work, of course; we are seeing +the fruit of it now. I paid no heed to him; I felt too ill, too tired. +I only cared about reaching the hills. When we did reach them, we +found that a camp was already established. Information had been given +to the Government." He heaved a deep sigh. "The thing was out of my +hands. I suppose the shock finished me for the time being, for when I +left the excavation-camp I became ill, so ill that Abdul had to take me +as quickly as he could to the _Omdeh's_ house near the subterranean +village. I stayed there until late on in May." He stopped abruptly. + +"The rest won't bear speaking about. What made things so much worse, +Meg, was thinking about what you would be suffering, what Freddy would +be saying." His eyes sought Margaret's. "It is best to forget, it is +wiser to think of tomorrow." + +"Yes, let us forget all about it," Margaret said. Michael's expression +frightened her. As a soldier he had enough to bear without raking up +what was past. + +"Abdul became as dear to me as a brother," Michael said quietly. "His +devotion was wonderful! We are not of the same faith"--he was speaking +to himself--"but our God is the same God, our love for Him the same. +Abdul knew that." + +"And your illness?" Millicent said. "Was it smallpox?" + +"No, no--none of my camp caught it. It was enteric fever. I suppose I +was worn out, both mentally and physically. The disappointment about +the treasure was the last straw, it was so cruel. I am able to accept +it now, it doesn't hurt me any longer. The war has done that; the war +is like concentrated time--it obliterates and wipes out, and even +heals." + +"But you discovered it, Michael! You were the real discoverer. If it +hadn't been for you, and for your special knowledge, the man who stole +it, who gave the information, would never have found it. And, after +all, as Michael Ireton says, that is the main point of interest." +Margaret's eyes glowed with pride. "And haven't you heard the sequel +to that tragedy?--the finding of some ancient jewels which the thief +must have dropped in the desert, not so very far from the +hill-chambers?" + +As Michael had not heard that the gems had been found, Margaret told +him the story which Hadassah had written to her. + +"They prove, Mike, what after all is to us the most important fact in +the whole affair--that you were right, that all the information given +you by the seer was correct." + +Margaret did not include her vision of Akhnaton in Millicent's +presence; it was always a sacred subject between them. + +"That is what Abdul said, and I know it is true. But who can prove it? +To the disbelieving no one can prove that there was any treasure, any +gold or great wealth of jewels." He looked into Margaret's eyes. He +said plainly, "Freddy died unconvinced on that point." + +Margaret understood. She had so often wished that Freddy could have +known all that had transpired since his death. + +"I will spend all my money and wits on finding the wretch," Millicent +said humbly. "I will hunt this treasure to earth. If there were +jewels, they shall be found. I will never stop until I have traced +them, never! That will give me some interest in life--if you will let +me do it, that is to say." + +"The jewels will all be cut by this time, the gold will be melted. No +one will be able to recognize them." + +"You can't find the thief," Margaret said. "He died of smallpox--Mr. +Ireton heard that from the Government authorities. They set detectives +on his track, and discovered his whereabouts, but he was unconscious. +They think that he buried the treasure, that it is again lost to the +world. It is still waiting for you, Mike." + +"I know that there were many more jewels where the crimson amethyst +came from," Michael said, "whether they are ever found again or not." +He was thinking of the words of his old friend in el-Azhar. If he came +out of the war alive, he might again hope to discover them. + +"I can do something else," Millicent spoke pleadingly. "Say you will +let me! I am rich--my money is no good to me." + +Michael looked at her for an explanation. His eyes were cold. + +"I can spend some of my money in paying the expenses of the digging, +for excavating on the site. The war will put a stop to all excavating +work in Egypt and the Holy Land so far as England is concerned, but if +I give sufficient money, you can employ the best Egyptologists in +America, so that the work can go on this autumn. You will not have to +wait until the war is over before you find out all there is to be known +on the subject." + +"The papyri will prove a great deal," Michael said; "they found +papyri." Millicent's words scarcely penetrated to his brain. He was +obsessed with the idea that the Egyptologists suspected that the +treasure was again buried. If it was, how exactly it all tallied with +the African's vision! + +"I believe that there is very little excavating work to be done," +Margaret said. "I have had so little time with Hadassah that I have +not even referred to the subject." She smiled, surprised at the fact +when it was brought before her. "But in a letter she told me that the +chambers were singularly perfect. They are cut in the virgin rock; +they are not extensive, but nothing had been destroyed. One of the +chambers was evidently intended for a royal treasury." + +"In Flanders," Michael said, "life is very real." He turned to the +window as he spoke; Margaret's news had troubled him. "Germany has +made all our lives horribly real. What you have told me seems to +belong to another state of our existence." His eyes were far away from +either Margaret or Millicent; they were with his comrades in the +trenches. "When I was knee-deep in mud in the trenches I often thought +that our hut-home in the silent Valley was a dream, a beautiful dream, +one of those dreams we can never forget, however long we live, but only +a dream." + +He drew himself up. "We have been brought back to firm earth. Our +apprenticeship on this side isn't finished, Meg. We aren't ready to +fully understand the things beyond. While we are on this earth, I +believe it is wiser to rest content with the things that are here." He +smiled. "Perhaps Freddy is right--it is wiser to walk on our two feet." + +"Perhaps it is," Margaret said wistfully. "But thank God I trusted to +the progress of one person who occasionally walks on his head." + +While Michael's back was turned to the door, and Margaret was looking +at him with eyes of sympathy, and with the knowledge in her heart that +he was living over again scenes and actions in Flanders which left her +far behind him, Millicent had slipped from the room. With her white +corset-boxes in her arms she fled downstairs and silently opened the +front door. As silently it shut behind her. + +For a moment she paused, before descending the steps. London was there +in front of her, London with its luxuries and its sins, which not even +the strength of Germany or the sacrifice of young lives could +obliterate. The spring made no call to her; the sunshine mocked her +because of her empty world. + + * * * * * * + +When Michael and Margaret discovered that she was gone, they stood for +a little while locked in each other's arms. As Margaret raised her +head from Michael's breast, he bent his head and kissed her lips. + +"Dearest," he said, "you and I can afford to forgive her, poor lonely +little soul!" + +"I can forgive anybody anything, Mike." + +"Even the Kaiser, beloved woman?" + +Margaret shivered. "Don't let's think of him--not for eleven days, at +least." + +"We shall be able to be sorry for even him some day," he said. His +confident tones delighted her, for his mention of the war had brought +the angel with the flaming sword into her Eden. + +"You really think so, Mike? Your inner self feels it? Sometimes I +almost despair--they are so strong, so clever." + +"I do believe it," he said. "You foolish woman, of course I believe +it. The day may be a long way off, but it is coming, just the same. +The triumph of light over darkness, Meg, the old, old fight--we shall +see the resurrection of Osiris and the defeat of Set all over again. +The sun of righteousness will stream over the world when the devil of +militarism is crushed for ever." + +He kissed her again rapturously. Their time together was so short; it +left them little opportunity for lengthy talks on any subject. The way +in which Michael broke off in the middle of his sentences to make love +to her, and question her eagerly and impetuously, suggested the hosts +that disturbed his mind. He wanted to tell her all about the old +African's idea of the meaning of the war, and about his visualizing of +the treasure for the second time; but he wanted still more her lips and +her own exquisite assurances of her love for him, the eternal subject, +which neither age nor war can affect. The one important fact which +could not wait was that tomorrow she was to be his wife, and if he did +not let her return to her preparations, there was the possibility that +some hitch a might occur. So they went back to Hadassah and told her +all that had happened. + +For everyone concerned the rest of that day flew on wings. Each hour +passed like a flash. Bed-time came, and Margaret scarcely seemed to +have achieved half or quarter of the things she had meant to do. + +A telegram had arrived, in answer to hers, from the aunt with whom she +had lived as a child and young girl. The bride-elect had felt just a +little worried about her aunt; she had written her a letter which she +would receive on her wedding morning. In it Margaret had told her all +about her friendship with Michael while she was living with Freddy in +Egypt, and of Freddy's friendship with him, which was of a much longer +duration. Also, she took pains to assure her aunt that, as far as +pedigree was concerned, he had the blood of Irish kings in his veins. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +Their wedding-day was the sort of day which made Browning, when he +lived in Florence, sing: + + "Oh, to be in England + Now that April's there. . . . + * * * * + "And after April, when May follows, + And the whitethroat builds, and all the swallows . . ." + + +Margaret said the words to herself as the day greeted her when she +pulled up her blind in the morning. + +London, even in war time, was inviting and charming for such as drove +about the West End in taxis, for they had not yet disappeared from the +highways and byways. The day was clean and fresh and sweet-smelling. +The promise of brilliant sunshine in the midday hours made the +fashionable streets near the Iretons' rooms very busy and gay. +Khaki-clad figures were everywhere; some were accompanied by +daintily-clad girls, proud of their soldier lovers; others were walking +with portly old gentlemen, their generous grandfathers or godfathers, +most probably; while many of them had given themselves over to their +mothers for the morning. Nor were they, as they would have been in the +days of peace, embarrassed by their affectionate grasp of their arms +and the unconcealed adoration and love. + + * * * * * * + +Things had happened with such bewildering rapidity that Margaret drove +through the streets to the church in which they were to be married in a +sort of open-eyed dream. She saw with extraordinary vividness all that +was going on around her, even to the faces of the boys and girls who +passed them in taxis; but she was incapable of concentrated thought. +The hurry and excitement in which she had lived for the last two days +left her breathless and vague. + +She was driving with Michael Ireton, who was amazed at her outward +calm. He little knew that the bride whom he was to give away was +physically and nervously almost exhausted. The sudden end to the +strain which she had endured so long had produced a dreamlike phase of +almost semi-consciousness. + +Margaret knew that Michael was ahead of her, in another taxi with +Hadassah. She also knew that they were driving to the church with the +outside pulpit which stands a little way back from the road in +Piccadilly. She had always felt a special attraction for the quiet +courtyard, right in the hurly-burly of one of the main arteries of +London. She knew that she would have to say her responses in the +marriage-service. Yet somehow she felt more like another person +looking on from a great distance at the doings of someone else. One +would feel the same remoteness if one was saying to oneself, "At this +very moment Margaret will be getting married, she will be on her way to +the church." + +"Here we are," Michael Ireton said abruptly. + +The taxi had stopped at the iron gate in the centre of the railings +which guarded the precincts of the church. He jumped out quickly and +Margaret followed him. In the porch of the church they stopped for a +moment, to make sure of the fact that Michael was waiting to receive +Margaret at the chancel steps. Then, still in a dream-state, Margaret +walked up the aisle of the church on Michael Ireton's arm. She was not +nervous; things were too unreal for her to be conscious of being +nervous. + +A few idle Londoners, seeing that there was going to be a wedding, had +strayed into the church; otherwise it was empty. Michael thought it +rather dark and solemn. + +Margaret was daintily dressed in white, a frock suitable for +travelling. Michael was still in his Tommy's uniform. + +Nothing could have been simpler than the service which made them man +and wife, or more unlike what Margaret's aunts would have considered +suitable for their niece. It was a wedding after Michael's and +Margaret's own hearts, a solemn sacrament of two people, not a society +gathering of critical guests. + +It was not until Michael took Margaret's hand in his, and pressed it +eagerly and firmly, with an air of happy possession, that Margaret came +to her full consciousness and to the significance of what she was +doing. She had repeated her vows after the clergyman clearly and +correctly; she had even said "I will" because her subconscious mind had +impelled her to say it. The importance of the words had escaped her. +It had been only her material body which stood by her lover's side. + +Michael felt her air of aloofness, her distance. Her eyes had not met +his when he had sought them, eager to welcome her. She had walked up +the aisle and taken her place by his side like a spirit-woman, who was +a stranger to him. + +When at last his strong hand clasped hers, she looked up. Their eyes +met. A long sigh travelled from Margaret's wakening heart to her lips. +Michael felt her emotion. He held her hand more possessingly, as he +said, very clearly: + +"I, Michael Amory, take thee, Margaret Lampton, to be my wedded wife." + +He tightened his grasp on her hand. Its dearness and magnetism +affected her. Her feeling of somnolence vanished. Things became real, +tremendously real and wonderful. + +Michael was saying the words, "to love and to cherish, until death us +do part." + +At the word "death" Margaret's throat tightened. Something seemed to +almost choke her. The words made her visualize the blood-soaked fields +of Flanders. Weak tears filled her eyes; the loudness of her heart's +beating made Michael's next vow, "according to God's holy ordinance," +almost inaudible. The din of battle thundered in her brain. Death was +going to part them almost directly; it was standing behind them now; it +had been coming nearer and nearer for the last four months; it was only +waiting until Michael had left her, until she was no longer near him. +Like an avalanche crushing down upon her from a great height, the +terror of death swept over her. Just as a shot from a rifle, or the +vibration of a body of men marching under a precipice of loosened snow, +will bring it down and cover them, the words "until death us do part" +had overwhelmed Margaret. + +Then a strange thing happened. As Michael said proudly and distinctly, +"And thereto I give thee my troth," Margaret saw that he was surrounded +by a brilliant light. He stood in the centre of long shafts of +sunshine; they played round his head like the rays of Aton. Her terror +of death vanished as swiftly as it had come. This was the light which +guarded Michael in battle. A super-elation dispersed the thought of +the brief married life which might be hers, that she might be stepping +into widowhood even while she repeated her vows. + +Bewilderment made her forget her part in the ceremony. She felt, but +did not see the clergyman take her hand from Michael's. He separated +them for a moment and then put her hand on the top of Michael's. He +whispered something to her. Then she remembered her part, and said +slowly and clearly after him the same words which Michael had repeated. +The words "until death us do part" were said as she might have said +them in pre-war days. + +After that she was free from all nervousness and all sense of +unreality. She saw Michael take the ring from the clergyman's fingers +and hold it in his own hand. She smiled to him happily, as she saw his +expression of relief and tenderness. In one moment more they would be +man and wife; no distance or grief could change that. + +When they knelt together for the first time as man and wife, and +listened to the words of the beautiful prayer that they might "ever +remain in perfect love and peace together," Margaret's happiness made +her prayer a song of praise. If it was ordained that Michael was to be +spared to her, how simple and natural a thing it would be for ever to +remain in perfect love and peace together! Loving each other as they +did, that would not be one of their difficulties. It was so restful to +kneel side by side with Michael, listening to the gentle and solemn +words, that she would have liked the prayer to go on for a long time. +Her nervous condition made her apprehensive. Here, in the quiet +church, which lay right in the heart-beat of the city, there was a +divine sense of security. + +Their heads were bent together; their arms were almost touching; their +heart-beats were in unison; their minds were one. + +But the prayer was finished. Michael's hand had clasped hers again; he +was far more conscious of his part in the ceremony than she was of +hers. He held her hand as if it was his world, the kingdom he had come +into, while his eyes expressed his emotion and gratitude. + +As the words "Those whom God hath joined together let no man put +asunder," and "I pronounce you man and wife," echoed through the +chancel, Michael Ireton and Hadassah gave a pent-up sigh of relief. + +When the clergyman turned to the altar and read aloud the sixty-seventh +Psalm--Michael had requested it in preference to the hundred and +twenty-eighth, which is perhaps the more usual--Hadassah saw the bride +and bridegroom smile happily to each other. They smiled, because +Michael had often read the Psalm to Margaret and remarked on its +similarity to the prayers of Akhnaton. + + +"God be merciful unto us, and bless us: and show us the light of His +countenance, and be merciful unto us; + +"That Thy way may be known upon earth: Thy saving health among all +nations. + +"Let the people praise Thee, O God: yea, let all the people praise Thee. + +"O let the nations rejoice and be glad: for Thou shalt judge the folk +righteously, and govern the nations upon earth. + +"Let the people praise Thee, O God: yea, let all the people praise +Thee." + + +"Thou shalt govern the nations upon earth." That had been Akhnaton's +mission, to preach these words, to tell the people that God, and man's +understanding of His Love, must rule the world. + + +"Then shall the earth bring forth her increase: and God, even our own +God, shall give us His blessing." + + +Akhnaton had sung his Hymn of Praise in his temples and in the +pleasure-courts of his city in almost the very same words. + +Confident that righteousness would triumph, that God's world-kingdom +had come, he suffered the wrath of his military commanders, who were +watching the breaking-up of his kingdom in far-off Syria. + + * * * * * * + +Two hours later the bride and the bridegroom, the two happiest people +in London, drove away from the Iretons' rooms in Clarges Street. +Hadassah and Michael Ireton watched them until the taxi was out of +sight. As they turned into the hall, with something very like tears in +their eyes--for even in the happiest marriages there is the quality of +tears--Michael put his arms round his wife and drew her to him. As she +looked up into his rugged face, his eyes more than his words said: + +"We know how they feel, dearest! God bless them! Such happiness makes +one weep in these days." + +Hadassah pressed her dark head against his coat-sleeve. He held her +closely; each day she was more precious in his sight. + +"They are worthy of each other." His voice broke. "Really, when one +sees such happiness, one says to oneself, even if they have only a +fortnight together, it is a great deal, a wonderful thing." + +Hadassah looked at her husband searchingly. "Somehow I've no fear for +Michael--have you?" + +Michael Ireton thought before he answered. "No, I don't think I have." + +"There is a certain something about some people that makes one either +afraid or not afraid for them--the men going to the Front, I mean. For +Michael Amory I haven't any fear. I can't explain why--it's not that +he will save himself by caution." She laughed. + +"I know," her husband said. "Michael seems extraordinarily lucky. He +told me a few things last night, of the escapes which he daren't tell +Margaret, ghastly adventures. I'm afraid he's awfully rash. Like all +Irishmen, when his blood's up, he hasn't any conception of the danger +he's facing. He has the super-bravery of the Celt, and all his +recklessness." + +"I just hope that as a married man he will keep that supernatural +nerve. A wife often destroys it." + +"I know," Michael Ireton said. "One sees it so often--No wife, no +danger--a wife at home, more caution, less nerve." + +Hadassah was silent. Her husband's arms were still round her. He +kissed her passionately. + +"I feel like a bridegroom myself! Seeing Michael standing there +waiting for Margaret brought our wedding-day back to me." His eyes +caressed her. + +"Did you notice the wonderful light that suddenly surrounded them just +as Michael took Margaret's hand in his when he said, 'And thereto I +give thee my troth'? The church had been rather dark and dreary up to +then; all at once the sun streamed right down on them. It was really +quite extraordinary, just as if an unseen hand had turned on the +limelight. It was almost uncanny." + +"I noticed it," Michael said. + +"The effect was startling. I wondered if Margaret noticed it--it +surely was a happy omen?" + +Her husband smiled into her eyes. "I feel sure that Michael's +subconscious self would be saying the grand words of his beloved +Akhnaton: + + "'Thou bindest them by Thy love. + Though Thou art afar, Thy rays are upon earth; + Though Thou art on high, Thy footprints are the day.'" + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THERE WAS A KING IN EGYPT*** + + +******* This file should be named 23994.txt or 23994.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/3/9/9/23994 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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