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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 40832 ***
+
+The Veiled Man
+Being an Account of the Risks and Adventures of Sidi Ahamadou, Sheikh of
+the Azjar Marauders of the Great Sahara
+By William Le Queux
+Illustrations by Alfred Pearce
+
+The Veiled Man, by William Le Queux.
+
+________________________________________________________________________
+
+________________________________________________________________________
+THE VEILED MAN, BY WILLIAM LE QUEUX.
+
+PREFACE.
+
+AUTHOR'S NOTE.
+
+The remarkable adventures of the notorious robber-sheikh Ahamadou, "the
+Abandoned of Allah," once the terror of the Areg Desert, but now
+friendly to the French, were collected during a journey across the Great
+Sahara.  In the belief that some description of the wild life of the
+Desert, with its romance and mystery, told by one upon whose head a
+price was set for twelve years, and who a dozen times narrowly escaped
+capture, may interest those fond of adventure, I have translated,
+edited, and presented these reminiscences in their present form.
+
+CHAPTER ONE.
+
+THE CITY OF THE SEVEN SHADOWS.
+
+During half a century of constant wandering over the silent sunlit
+sands, of tribal feuds, of revolts, battle and pillage, of bitter
+persistent hatreds, of exploit, foray, and fierce resistance against the
+lounging Spahis, cigarette-smoking Zouaves, black-faced Turcos, and
+swaggering Chasseurs of the French, I have met with some curious
+adventures, and have witnessed wonders more remarkable, perhaps, than
+many of the romances related by the Arab story-tellers.  They mostly
+occurred before I was chosen sheikh of the Azjar; when I was simply one
+of a band of desert-pirates, whose only possessions were a long steel
+lance, a keen, finely-tempered poignard, and a white stallion, the speed
+of which was unequalled by those of my companions.  A thief I was by
+birth; a scholar I had become by studying the _Tarik_, the _Miraz_, the
+_Ibtihadj_, and the Koran, under the Marabut Essoyouti in Algiers; a
+philosopher I fain would be.  When riding over the great limitless
+red-brown sands, I was apt to forget the race whence I sprang, the
+learning that had made me wise, the logical reasonings of a
+well-schooled brain, and give myself up with all the rapture of an
+intense enthusiasm to the emotion of the hour.  It was the same always.
+Essoyouti, a scholar renowned throughout Tripoli and Tunis, had versed
+me in legendary lore, until I had become full of glowing fancies and
+unutterable longing to penetrate the entrancing mysteries to which he
+had so often referred as problems that could never be solved.
+
+I am a Veiled Man.  Openly, I confess myself a vagabond and a brigand.
+Living here, in the heart of the Great Desert, six moons march from
+Algiers, and a thousand miles beyond the French outposts, theft is, with
+my nomadic tribe, their natural industry--a branch of education, in
+fact.  We augment the meagreness of our herds by extorting ransoms from
+some of our neighbours, and completely despoiling others.  Mention of
+the name of Ahamadou causes the face of the traveller on any of the
+caravan routes between the Atlas mountains and Lake Tsad to pale beneath
+its bronze, for as sheikh of the most powerful piratical tribe in the
+Sahara, I have earned an unenviable notoriety as leader of "The Breath
+of the Wind," while the Arabs themselves have bestowed upon my people
+three epithets which epitomise their psychology: "Thieves, Hyenas, and
+Abandoned of Allah."
+
+The only law recognised by my race, the Touaregs, is the right of the
+strongest.  We wear the black _litham_ wrapped about our faces, leaving
+only our noses and eyes visible, and never removing it, even at
+meal-times.  It becomes so much a part of us that any one being deprived
+of his veil is unrecognisable to friends or relatives.  If one of our
+number is killed, and divested of his veil, no one can identify him
+until it has been restored to its place.  We are therefore known and
+dreaded as "The Veiled Men."
+
+My first journey by paths untrodden resulted strangely.
+
+For two whole moons a party of us, numbering nearly three hundred, all
+well-armed and desperate, had been lurking in a narrow ravine in the far
+South, known as the Gueden, close to the point where it is crossed by
+the route taken by the caravans from Lake Tsad to El Aghouat in Algeria.
+News travels fast in the desert.  We had received word that a caravan
+laden with ivory and gold-dust was on its way from Kuka to Timissao, and
+were awaiting it, with the intention either of levying toll, or
+attacking it with a view to plunder.  In our sombre robes of dark blue
+kano cloth and black veils, we were a mysterious, forbidding-looking
+rabble.  As day succeeded day, and we remained inactive, with scouts
+ever vigilant for the approach of our prey, I recollected that in the
+vicinity were some curious rocks, with inscriptions recording the
+Mussulman conquest, and one morning, mounting my _meheri_, or swift
+camel, rode out to inspect them.
+
+The sun rose, and beneath its furnace heat I pushed on into the great
+waterless wilderness of Tasili, the true extent of which is unknown even
+to us Children of the Desert, for the utter dearth of water there
+renders a journey of many days impossible.  Until the _maghrib_ hour I
+remained in the saddle, then dismounting, faced towards the Holy Ca'aba,
+recited my _fatihat_, ate a handful of dates, and squatted to smoke and
+watch the fading of the blood-red afterglow.  On the next day, and the
+next, I journeyed forward over the wide monotonous plain, where the
+poison-wind fanned my brow like a breath from an oven, and nothing met
+the aching eye but glaring sand and far-off horizon, until, when my
+shadow lengthened on the sixth day after parting with my companions, I
+found myself within sight of a range of high hills, looming darkly
+against the brilliant sunset.
+
+Well acquainted as I was with the geography of my native sands, I had
+never heard mention of these hills, and was therefore convinced that I
+had mistaken the route to the great black rock whereon the inscriptions
+were engraved, and was now approaching a region unexplored.  On many
+occasions I had traversed the caravan route to Timissao, and crossed the
+rocky ravine where my companions were now in ambush; but none of us had
+ever before left that track, clearly defined by its bleaching bones, for
+to the solitary traveller in that inhospitable region a pricked
+water-skin or a lame camel means death.  With irrepressible awe I gazed
+upon the hills, clothed in the deep purple light of the descending sun,
+because of one strange thing my eyes had detected.  I saw, above the
+serrated line, two cone-like peaks, rising close to one another, in
+majesty solemn and sublime, and recognised in them a scene exactly as
+described by my master Essoyouti, in one of the curious romances he was
+fond of relating.  I stood recalling every detail of the scene, just as
+I had imagined it when, seated under the vine, in the cool patio of his
+house, in the ancient Kasbah at Algiers, he had told me a story that
+held me breathless and entranced.
+
+Worn with fatigue, exhausted and feverish from long exposure to the
+fiery sun, half stifled by the sand-laden wind, and riding a camel
+scarcely less jaded than myself, I confess that, despite my love of
+adventure, and by reason of the strangeness of the story I had heard, I
+contemplated with no little dread the prospect of passing that night
+alone within sight of those twin mountain-crests.  Twilight is brief in
+the desert, and soon the moon, having risen from behind a bank of cloud,
+afforded an uncertain light, which partly illuminated the prospect, and
+I sat hugging my knees and thinking deeply until sleep closed my eyes.
+
+Before the appearance of the first saffron streak that heralds the sun's
+coming, I had recited a _sura_ and mounted, with my face set resolutely
+towards the unknown range.  In the skin across my saddle I had only just
+sufficient water to enable me to return to our ambush, therefore I broke
+not my fast, determined to hoard up my frugal store.  The sand was soft
+and treacherous.  At every step my camel's spongy feet sank deeper and
+deeper, until, after a toilsome ride of three hours, we arrived near the
+foot of the two dark, ominous-looking mountains.  Then I pulled up,
+fearing to proceed further lest we should be overwhelmed by the
+quicksands.
+
+Near me was a narrow pass between the two mountains, and shading my eyes
+with my hand, I was startled at beholding two gigantic figures standing
+on either side of the entrance.  The sight of them confirmed my
+suspicion that I had approached the Unknown, and with curiosity aroused,
+I urged my _meheri_ still forward, coming at last close up to the
+colossal figures.  They were fashioned from enormous blocks of dark grey
+stone, ten times the height of a human being.  One, carved to represent
+a beautiful woman, had her right hand lifted towards the sky, while the
+other, a forbidding-looking hag, with chipped, time-worn face still
+wearing a repulsive expression, pointed downward.  Between these
+colossal figures was a space of about thirty paces.  According to the
+legend related by the sage Essoyouti, and told by our story-tellers
+through ages, there existed beyond a land forbidden.
+
+I held my breath.  I was about to view a country that had not been
+viewed; the ravine known in story as the Valley of the Ants.  In
+eagerness I pressed onward, leading my camel, and passing up the stony
+valley until at length I came to a second and more fertile space of vast
+extent, covered entirely by the colossal ruins of a forgotten city.
+
+Aghast, I stood gazing upon the remarkable and unexpected scene.
+
+Ruined temples, with long rows of broken columns, and great houses
+cracked and fallen into decay, stood silent and deserted, grim, grey
+relics of a glorious past.  Here and there obelisks and colossi still
+stood, and the broad streets of the giant city were everywhere
+well-defined by the ruins, half-buried by drifting sand on either side.
+Above, a single eagle soared high in the heavens, the only sign of life
+in that once populous and magnificent centre of a lost civilisation.
+
+Having tethered my camel, I started forward through the ocean of soft
+sand that through centuries had drifted over the place, and as I did so
+the story of old Essoyouti recurred to me.  The appearance of the place
+agreed with the strange legend in almost every detail.  The ruler of
+this gigantic capital had been Balkis, the wealthy and luxurious queen
+mentioned in our Book of Everlasting Will.  This was actually the city
+of Saba, once the wealthiest and most magnificent capital in the world.
+According to the legend of the sages, this place existed somewhere in
+the Great Desert, but whereabouts no man had been able to determine,
+although it was believed that its entrance was between two cone-like
+mountains, but surrounded by quicksands of so treacherous a nature that
+none dare approach it.
+
+With hurried footsteps I scrambled on over fallen columns and great
+blocks of hewn stone, with inscriptions in characters unknown to me,
+until suddenly my eyes were bewildered at beholding on the mountain-side
+an enormous palace, with beautiful terraces and pavilions, apparently in
+an excellent state of preservation.  From the city it was approached by
+a long flight of wide stone steps, flanked on either side by a pair of
+colossal figures of similar design to those at the entrance of the
+Valley of the Ants.
+
+At first, I doubted that the scene before me was one of actual reality,
+but having reassured myself that I was not dreaming, and was entirely in
+possession of my senses, I gripped my long lance firmly, and started to
+ascend the thousand steps that gave access to the historic palace of
+Balkis.  Hardly, however, had I placed my foot upon the first step, when
+my eyes were blinded by a lightning-flash, and my ears deafened by a
+crash of thunder, that, shaking the earth, resounded among the hills,
+until it became lost in innumerable echoes.
+
+I halted in suspicion, puzzled to account for the strange phenomenon,
+which seemed like some ominous warning.
+
+Nothing daunted, however, I sprang up the steps, two by two, halting but
+once to regain breath, and in a few minutes entered the great,
+marvellously-sculptured portals of the magnificent dwelling-place of one
+of the most powerful and beautiful women the world ever knew.  About to
+enter, my footsteps were suddenly arrested by the discovery that the
+floor of the palace was of running water, wherein fish disported
+themselves, and in the centre, raised upon a dais of ivory and gold, was
+the great empty throne of Balkis, constructed entirely of chalcedony,
+amethysts, and rubies.
+
+The extent of my discoveries entranced me.  I twisted up my robe, and
+prepared to wade through the water, when, on setting foot into it, I
+discovered to my amazement that the floor was of transparent glass, laid
+over the running water, thus keeping the palace uniformly cool during
+the hottest hours.  On approaching the throne I at once became aware of
+its enormous value, and with my poignard prised from its setting one of
+the largest rubies my eyes had ever beheld.  It was the size of a
+pigeon's egg, and of matchless colour.
+
+Through the wonderful courts of the deserted palace I wandered, amazed
+at every turn.  Of gigantic proportions, with strange grotesque
+embellishments that clearly showed its ancient origin, it had stood here
+in the zenith of its magnificence ages before the days of the Prophet,
+and for many centuries had remained hidden from the sight of man within
+that unknown valley.  From the flat roof of one of its pavilions I stood
+gazing down upon the once mighty city, trying to reconstruct it in my
+imagination, and endeavouring to form an idea of its aspect in the
+long-past days, when the hosts of Balkis went forth to battle, and when
+the beautiful queen herself flashed forth in her golden chariot, amid
+the wild plaudits of the multitude.
+
+Many hours I spent in exploring this wonderful relic of a decayed
+civilisation, visiting pavilion after pavilion and finding most of them
+knee-deep in the accumulated dust of ages, until at last I came to a
+small chamber built right against the side of the mountain.  This I
+entered, finding traces of the most extravagant luxury within.  The
+decorations were richly ornamented with gold even now untarnished, the
+beams supporting the roof being set with gems which sparkled where a ray
+of sunlight fell upon them.  Beyond was a door which, on examination,
+proved to be of solid iron.  On dragging it open there was disclosed a
+small, dark, and cavernous burrow into the mountain-side.  Minutely I
+examined this door, and finding thereon great bolts with sockets sunk
+deeply into the solid rock, it occurred to me that in this place might
+be hidden some of the treasure that the Koran tells us was possessed by
+the great Queen Balkis.  Cupidity prompted me to search, and having
+constructed a large improvised torch, I propped open the door with a
+huge stone sculptured to represent a lion's paw, and started forward up
+the narrow gloomy tunnel.  The natural sides of the cavern were rough,
+gleaming with long pendant stalactites; but soon it grew larger, and the
+air became so warm that the perspiration fell from my brow in big drops.
+One or two articles, old cross-hilted swords, a rusty, dinted helmet
+and a battered breastplate, showed that this place had long ago been
+frequented, therefore I pressed forward eagerly, hoping to discover that
+which would render me wealthy.  The increasing heat within the cavern
+surprised me; nevertheless I went forward, my torch held high above my
+head, my eyes eagerly strained into the impenetrable gloom, and my feet
+stumbling ever and anon over the uneven ground, until suddenly a harsh
+grinding noise fell upon my ears, and next second a crushing blow fell
+full upon my skull, felling me like a log and rendering me unconscious.
+
+How long I remained in that dark stifling tunnel I have no idea.
+
+When, slowly and painfully, I opened my eyes I found that my veil had
+been removed, my brow deftly bandaged, and my fevered head was resting
+upon a woman's cool hand.  A soft feminine voice gave me "Peace," and
+turning I saw by the light of a burning brazier that my companion was a
+girl of wondrous beauty.  Her face was of the pure Arab type, her
+complexion white as those of the Englishwomen who come to Biskra at
+Ramadan; her little skull-cap was thickly embroidered with seed-pearls,
+and her bracelets and anklets, set with beautiful diamonds, gleamed with
+a thousand iridescent fires at each movement.  At first I fancied myself
+dreaming, but when at length I entirely recovered consciousness, I
+recognised that we were together in a small apartment hung with heavy
+hangings of thick dark crimson stuffs.  The golden perfuming-pan
+diffused an intoxicating odour of attar of roses, and the silken couch
+whereon I reclined was soft, restful, and spacious.
+
+Turning to my companion who, instantly divining my longing, handed me
+water in a crystal goblet, I enquired where I was.
+
+"Thou art with a friend," she answered.  "Thou hast dared to enter the
+City of the Seven Shadows bent on plunder, and the wrath hath fallen
+upon thee."
+
+"Didst thou discover me?"  I asked, raising myself upon my elbow, and
+looking at her.
+
+She nodded, and with bent head sat with her luminous dark eyes fixed
+upon the ground.
+
+"Thou hast entered this, the city upon which the seven lights of the
+heavens have cast the shadows of their wrath, and where all who enter
+are accursed," she exclaimed at last, speaking slowly and impressively.
+"Thou earnest hither with evil intent, to secure the treasure of Balkis.
+Yet out of evil cometh good, for in thee I have found a companion in
+adversity."
+
+"In adversity!"  I echoed.  "What art thou?"
+
+"I am Balkis, sole lineal descendant of the great queen who ruled over
+Saba, and guardian of her treasure," she answered.  "I am a queen
+without court; a ruler without people.  The palace that thou hast
+inspected is mine; the throne from the arm of which thou hast filched
+the great ruby is my lonely seat of royalty; for I am queen of a dead
+city.  Although I am bearer of the historic name of Balkis, and possess
+treasure of greater worth than men have ever dreamed, my subjects number
+only fourteen persons, all of whom are my relatives and live here with
+me in this my palace.  As thou hast already seen, our once-powerful city
+with its fifty brazen gates hath fallen into decay because of the curse
+placed upon it by Allah.  The teeming populace that once crowded its
+thoroughfares and market-places have dwindled down until mine own family
+only are left, the last of a long illustrious, world-famed line.  Soon,
+alas!  I, too, shall pass into the grave, and the royal house of Balkis
+will become extinct," and her jewel-laden breast rose and fell slowly in
+a long deep-drawn sigh.
+
+"Why speakest thou in tone so melancholy?"  I asked.  "Thou hast youth,
+health, long life, everything before thee!"
+
+"No," she answered gravely, with her white pointed chin still resting
+thoughtfully upon her palm.  "Already I am threatened; nay, I am
+doomed."
+
+"How?"  I enquired, incredulously.
+
+"Listen, and I will explain," she said, slowly, raising her beautiful
+eyes to mine.  "About two moons ago, attired in the _haick_ of an Arab
+woman, I journeyed with my aged uncle to In Salah, in order to make
+purchases in the market, as is our custom twice each year.  On our
+return hither we came across an encampment of those red-legged dogs of
+French, and having accepted the hospitality of their tents through
+several days on account of the sand-storms, I was surprised and annoyed
+by receiving a declaration of love from the young lieutenant in charge,
+whose name was Victor Gaillard, and whose home, he told me, was in
+Paris.  Believing me to be daughter of an Arab merchant, he announced
+his readiness to take me to Algiers and make me his wife; but hating
+these youthful irresponsible masters of our land, I declined that
+honour.  He then declared that at all costs I should be his, for at the
+end of the year he was going north to the seashore, where he would be
+quartered until the spring, and that if I escaped him he and his host
+who ruled the Desert would treat me and my people as rebellious, and
+shoot us down like dogs.  I laughed his declaration to scorn, for he
+little dreamed of my real name, birth, and dwelling-place.  Next day I
+remained in the encampment, but on the following night, by bribing one
+of the Spahi sentries with a ring from my finger, I and my uncle managed
+to escape, and, beneath the crescent moon, pushed our way forward in the
+direction of Saba.  Through four days we travelled almost incessantly,
+until at midnight on the fifth our camels' feet sank deep into the
+quicksands that render the entrance to Saba unapproachable.  Laughing as
+I congratulated myself on my cleverness at outwitting him, I had gone
+some hundred paces when, chancing to glance back, I saw not far away,
+hesitating at the edge of the treacherous belt of ground, a single
+horseman.  The glint of moonlight on his bright scabbard showed him to
+be an officer of the Roumis, and instantly I recognised the slim
+silhouette of Victor Gaillard.  He sat motionless in his saddle, and
+with his field-glass raised calmly watched our difficult progress
+towards the two colossal statues which have guarded the entrance to our
+city from the day of King Solomon.  My uncle, noticing my alarm, also
+turned and detected our pursuer.  That night, before my family assembled
+in the palace, I explained the whole of the facts, and they, knowing how
+relentless are these harsh infidel rulers of ours, unanimously decided
+upon flight.  But I declined to leave.  Was I not Balkis, Queen of Saba?
+Was not the great store of gold and jewels given into my keeping that I
+should remain and watch them until I drew my last breath?  They urged me
+to accompany them into the mountains, but finding me obdurate all fled,
+leaving me alone to face the unscrupulous man who had declared that at
+all costs I should become his wife.  Ten weary anxious days have since
+gone by.  Yesterday thou earnest hither, thy face wrapped in thy black
+_litham_, and naturally I supposed thou wert the accursed infidel in
+disguise.  I watched thee explore my palace and enter to the cave
+wherein my treasure lieth concealed.  When thou hadst entered I breathed
+more freely, full well knowing that thou hadst gone forward into thy
+grave."
+
+"How?  Is the tunnel azotic?"
+
+"No.  Within is an ingenious mechanical contrivance which was
+constructed by Balkis herself, whereby the unsuspecting intruder
+releases a spring, and is struck down by a great iron mace."
+
+"I was struck," I observed.
+
+She nodded, smiling sadly.
+
+"When I went forward to ascertain whether mine enemy still lived I found
+thy veil unloosened, and that thy features were not those of the hateful
+Frank.  Then I tended thee throughout the night, and at dawn thou didst
+rally and art now rapidly recovering."
+
+"Of a verity I had a narrow escape."
+
+"Assuredly thou didst.  Many others, as adventurous and stout-hearted as
+thyself, have met their fate at that spot."
+
+"So thou hast remained here alone and single-handed to guard the
+treasure of thine ancestor against the pilfering of the Franks?"  I
+said, regarding the beautiful, frail-looking girl with admiration.
+"Assuredly thou art as courageous as the great Balkis who defied the
+combined powers of the ancient world."
+
+She sighed.  "It hath been the duty of the Queens of Saba to remain
+within their kingdom even if evil threatened and all forsake them.  I
+will never be wife of a Frank, neither will I exhibit fear to these new
+rulers of the Desert who are led by amorous youths from Paris
+boulevards," she answered, drawing herself up with queenly hauteur.
+
+"Peradventure he only useth idle threats," I observed.
+
+"No.  The Franks who conquered Algeria and hold it beneath the thraldom
+of the religion they call Christianity, are our rulers also.  He ordered
+me to remain in the encampment on pain of being outlawed.  I disobeyed;
+therefore I and my people are rebels.  That he will return and seek me
+out I am convinced."
+
+"Then why not fly?"  I suggested.  "I will take thee to where my tribe,
+are encamped.  Although we are thieves and brigands, thou, a woman, wilt
+nevertheless meet with chivalrous treatment at our hands."
+
+She shook her head, and with dogged persistence announced her intention
+of remaining, while, on my part, I promised to render her whatever
+assistance lay in my power.
+
+"Then first help me to remove the throne into the treasure-house," she
+said, and opening a door that had been concealed behind the heavy
+hangings she led me into the great hall where water flowed beneath its
+pavement of glass.
+
+Together we dragged the bejewelled seat of royalty through several
+courts, until we came to the small pavilion which gave entrance to the
+cavern.  Then, while she carried a flaming flambeau, I toiled on with it
+after her.  When we had gone some distance into the heart of the
+mountain she stooped to secure the ancient mechanism so that the iron
+mace could not again descend, and advancing some further distance we
+found ourselves in a kind of _cul-de-sac_, with only a black wall of
+rock before us.  To the right, however, was a cunningly-concealed door
+which gave entrance to a spacious natural chamber, wherein I saw, heaped
+indiscriminately, the most wondrous collection of golden ornaments and
+brilliant jewels my eyes had ever gazed upon.  Some of them I took up,
+holding them in my hand in wonderment.  The gems were of the first
+water, the spoils taken in battle by the notorious queen once feared by
+all the world, while heaped everywhere were bejewelled breast-plates,
+gem-encrusted goblets, golden dishes, and swords with hilts and
+scabbards thickly set with precious stones.  Wheresoever I trod there
+were scattered in the fine white dust strings of pearls, uncut gems,
+rings, and ear-ornaments, while all around were piled great immovable
+boxes of hewn stone, like coffins, securely clamped with rusting iron.
+These had never been opened, and contained, according to the story of my
+companion, the tribute of enormous worth sent by King Solomon to Balkis.
+These I examined carefully, one after another, at length discovering
+one, the stone of which had split so that a small aperture was formed.
+I placed my hand inside and withdrew it, holding between my thumb and
+finger three cut diamonds, the like of which I had never before beheld.
+The stone box was filled to the brim with gems of every kind.
+
+In wonderment I was standing, contemplating this vast wealth of a
+vanished nation, when my fair conductress exclaimed--
+
+"There is still one other marvel about this place.  Listen!  Canst thou
+hear a sound?"
+
+Distinctly I heard a dull, monotonous boom, which had continued
+uninterruptedly ever since we had been there.
+
+"Yea.  What is its cause?"  I asked.
+
+"The interior of this mountain is as a fiery furnace.  That roaring is
+the unquenchable flame that has burned therein through ages.  During
+mine own remembrance as a child smoke hath issued from the cone above,
+and so near are we to the fiery interior here in this treasure-house
+that its very walls are warm."
+
+Upon the rock I placed my hand, and so hot was it that I was compelled
+to withdraw it instantly.  Only a thin partition of stone apparently
+divided us from the mysterious fathomless crater.
+
+"One of the beliefs that have come down unto me through ages," Balkis
+said, "is that within this place is Al-Hawiyat, the dwelling prepared
+for infidels and pagans, where their food shall be offal, and they shall
+slake their thirst with boiling pitch."
+
+"Allah is mighty and wise," I answered.  "Alone he knoweth the hearts of
+his servants.  May perfect peace remain ever upon thee."
+
+"And upon thee, O Ahamadou," she responded, raising her bright eyes
+earnestly to mine.  "Now that I have shown thee this, the wealth of my
+ancestors, thou wilt promise never to conspire to gain possession of it
+while any of my family remain here in Saba."
+
+"Although of a tribe of thieves, I swear by Allah's might that never
+will I expose thy secret, nor will I seek to possess myself of what is
+thine," I answered.  "Thy family shall ever be as mine, for I am no
+abuser of the salt."
+
+"In thee do I place my trust," she answered, allowing her soft hand, the
+hand that had so deftly bandaged my injured brow and bathed my face--to
+linger for an instant within my grasp.
+
+Then, drawing from my pouch the great lustrous ruby I had stolen, I
+handed it back to her.  But she made me retain it as _souvenir_ of my
+visit to Saba, the city forgotten.
+
+The atmosphere in the treasure-house was stifling.  Having, therefore,
+deposited the throne of Balkis in fitting place, we left, returning
+through the concealed door to the narrow burrow which had exit in the
+small pavilion.  Side by side we slowly crossed court after court of the
+great palace which had witnessed pageants of such magnificence that
+their splendour has been proverbial till this day, she pointing out the
+principal objects of interest, halting to explain curious sculptured
+wall-pictures and inscriptions commemorating the triumphs of the great
+queen, or pausing to recall some long-forgotten story of love, hatred,
+or malice connected with the spot whereon we stood.  In that mellow
+sunset-hour, as we lingered together beneath the cool shadows, I learnt
+more of the historic, time-effaced empire of Balkis than savants have
+ever known.  As scholar, it delighted me to hear it from the lips of one
+who had descended in the direct royal line from that famous woman, who,
+according to our Sura, entitled "The Ant," became convinced during her
+visit to Solomon that, by worshipping the sun she had dealt unjustly
+with her own soul, and resigned herself unto Allah, the lord of all
+creatures.
+
+She had given me some wine and dates, and we had passed through the
+great hall with its transparent pavement and out upon the terrace before
+the palace when, of a sudden, a loud cry escaped her.
+
+"See!" she gasped, dismayed.  "See!  The Franks are here!"
+
+Next second a hulking Zouave who had secreted himself behind one of the
+great sculptured columns sprang upon her.  She uttered a loud scream;
+but, ere he could secure her hands, I had drawn my poignard and dealt
+him an unerring blow, causing him to reel and fall back heavily upon the
+stones.
+
+A dozen soldiers, headed by Victor Gaillard, their evil-faced,
+narrow-browed, moustached officer in his gold-laced uniform and
+cherry-coloured trousers, had nearly gained the top of the steps.  But
+the ugly sight of blood had already unnerved my fair companion, who,
+turning quickly to me, cried--
+
+"Let us fly!  Follow me.  There is but one way to escape."
+
+She rushed away, and I followed, our pursuers close at our heels.  I no
+longer wore my black _litham_, therefore the elegant youth from Paris,
+sent by the French to rule the Dwellers of the Desert, could not have
+been aware that I was a Touareg, one of the bandits of the Azjar, whom
+he amused himself by hunting when inclined for sport.  Onward we sped,
+crossing court after court, until we again entered the subterranean
+burrow, and groping along it in the darkness, my companion found at last
+another secret door, which she opened, pushed me into it, and entering
+herself, closed it.  Then we listened.  There was no sound.  Apparently
+our pursuers had not dared to follow us there.
+
+"This," she explained beneath her breath, "leadeth by a secret way out
+upon the mountain-side.  We may yet escape."
+
+Upward we toiled in a tunnel so narrow that ofttimes we were compelled
+to crawl upon hands and knees, yet ever ascending, and feeling our way,
+we at last, after half an hour's frantic effort, saw a faint glimmer of
+light above, and succeeded in emerging upon the bare rocky side of the
+giant mountain.
+
+"Let us mount still higher and pass along to the other side," she urged.
+"I know the path."
+
+Together we started off in the fast falling gloom, when suddenly I heard
+an exclamation in French, and, looking down, saw Gaillard, with three of
+his Zouaves below us, scrambling up as quickly as they were able.
+
+Instantly I saw that their further progress was barred by a sheer cliff
+of rock quite fifty feet in height, and that we were in a position
+impregnable.  Balkis, noticing our situation, also turned towards him
+with a low scornful laugh.
+
+Next instant the fierce uncurbed anger of this young _boulevardier_
+found vent, for, with a loud imprecation in French he declared that she
+should never escape him, and ere I could divine his intention he had
+snatched a rifle from the man standing at his side and covered the woman
+he had desired to marry.
+
+I sprang quickly towards my fellow-fugitive; but ere I could drag her
+down to earth, our only cover, there was a flash, a loud report, and
+Balkis, with a shrill shriek, stumbled forward mortally wounded, and
+rolling helplessly down the mountain-side, fell dead almost at the very
+feet of her brutal murderer.
+
+The gold-braided officer laughed.
+
+It was one of the most heartless assassinations I had ever witnessed,
+but knowing that efforts would undoubtedly be made to shoot me also, I
+threw myself upon my stomach and crawled upward quickly with hands and
+toes.
+
+"See, men; I have brought down the dainty little bird!"  I heard
+Gaillard exclaim, as he walked to where the body was lying crumpled in a
+heap.  "Give me her necklaces and bracelets.  The rest of her jewels you
+may divide.  She was merely a rebel.  It is our duty to repress revolt,
+even though we may sometimes be compelled to shoot women."
+
+The Zouaves ruthlessly tore the jewels from the body of the last
+remaining daughter of the Queen of Saba, while their lieutenant amused
+himself by firing at me.  A dozen shots he sent after me, but all the
+bullets sang over my head, until at last, when the darkness became
+complete, I halted, breathless, behind a projection of rock, and there
+waited, watching from my elevated position the camp fires lighted, and
+the soldiers exploring the deserted ruins by the aid of flambeaux.
+
+Once during the night I thought I heard a noise like thunder, and
+distinctly felt the mountain tremble.  But soon after dawn I had the
+satisfaction of seeing our enemies strike their camp and march slowly
+out towards the plain.  The few jewels they found about the palace they
+had divided among themselves, and were apparently in high glee.
+
+Having remained in hiding three hours after their departure I descended,
+passing the body of the hapless Balkis, already surrounded by a
+screaming crowd of grey vultures, and, re-entering the palace to
+ascertain the extent of the depredations of the Franks, I was amazed to
+discover a dense black smoke issuing from the pavilion before the mouth
+of the cave.  I tried to advance, but sulphurous fumes almost overcame
+me.  Instantly I discerned the truth.  The thin partition of rock which
+divided the treasure-house from the burning crater within had been
+broken through, and the suppressed fire of the volcano was issuing in
+great volume from the burrow, together with quantities of molten lava
+and ashes which have since entirely overwhelmed the ruins.
+
+Three years afterwards I had occasion to travel to Algiers to see
+Gaillard, then raised to a responsible position in the Bureau Arabe,
+regarding a Zouave whom we had captured and afterwards set free.  I
+casually mentioned the buried ruins of the forgotten City of the Seven
+Shadows at the spot he knew so well, but he merely replied--
+
+"Ah! yes, I know.  I once explored them and found a curious cave there
+in the side of the mountain.  I blew it up with dynamite in order that
+it should not be used as a hiding-place by any of your veiled tribe.
+The explosion, however, much to our dismay, opened a suppressed volcano,
+with the result that fire issued forth, killing all six of our men who
+performed the work."
+
+Victor Gaillard, although now a Colonel, and back in his beloved Paris,
+where he sits in the Chamber of Deputies as representative of a
+constituency in the Alpes Maritimes, does not know that by the
+irresponsible use of his explosive he lost for ever the greatest
+collection of gold and jewels that has ever been brought together.
+
+The only single gem of the vast treasure of Balkis that has been
+preserved is the magnificent blood-red ruby which at this moment adorns
+my sword-hilt.  In both colour and size it is matchless.  Never can I
+handle that weapon without reflecting upon its tragic story, or without
+visions rising to my eyes of the beautiful queen who reigned so briefly
+over her vanished and forgotten kingdom.
+
+CHAPTER TWO.
+
+A SAPPHO OF THE SAND.
+
+Throughout our breathless land of sun and silence there is a well-known
+adage that the word of a Veiled Man is like water poured upon sand
+which, when once dropped, is never to be recovered.  I am, alas,
+compelled to admit that there is much truth in this; nevertheless, to
+every rule there is an exception, and in every tribe of the Touaregs,
+from those of the Tidikelt to those of the Adrar, are to be found men
+who are not thieves or evil-doers, even though they may be marauders.
+
+Those acquainted with the progress of recent events in Algeria will
+remember that when our brothers, the Kabyles, rose against our now
+masters, the French, and committed the terrible massacres at Al-Setit,
+news was promptly circulated over every one of the vast Saharan plains
+that the forces of Al-Islam had, at last, risen against the infidels.
+Eager for the fray, most of the desert tribes, among them the Touaregs
+of the Benin Sissin, Haratin, and Kel-Owi, or "People of the Light,"
+united against the Roumis.  Hence, we of the Azjar pressed northward in
+force in order to unite with the warlike Beni-Mzab in a formidable
+attack upon the French posts at Gardaia and Wargla, south of the great
+Atlas range.  Assembling at the El Gettara oasis we left our women, old
+men, and children encamped, crossed the high sunbaked lands of the
+Tademayt, then, passing up the rocky waterless valley of the Miya,
+traversed the region of bare red sand-hills known as the Erg, and
+leaving Wargla fifty miles to the east, set our camels' heads towards
+Metlili, halting one day's march off that town.
+
+In ordinary circumstances we should never have dared to approach so near
+the sphere of French influence, especially as this was the region of the
+Beni-Mzabs, who zealously guarded any encroachment upon their territory.
+But war had been declared against the infidel, and the Shorfa
+(Faithful) were uniting beneath the green banner of Al-Islam.  At high
+noon we halted, and soon afterwards there appeared a French Colonel with
+a large escort of his scarlet-burnoused Spahis.  The officer, who had
+ridden from Metlili to intercept us, was received courteously by Tamahu,
+our Sheikh.  He demanded the payment of taxes, but the proud old man
+whom I have since succeeded answered, "Tell that lord of yours, that if
+he wants our taxes he can come for them himself, and we will make sure
+he gets them, in silver coins too, for we will roll each franc into a
+bullet, and deliver it to him ourselves."  The Colonel declared that the
+taxes must be paid, but our Sheikh courteously requested the infidel and
+his horsemen to return to the town.
+
+"Then you intend fighting?" the Colonel asked, at last.
+
+"We do," answered Tamahu.  "Tell thy lord that The Breath of the Wind
+decline to make submission to the French."
+
+"You intend attacking Metlili?" the officer enquired, thoughtfully,
+twirling his pointed moustache.
+
+Our Sheikh nodded, his keen eyes watching the face of the infidel.  The
+latter's countenance grew grave, whereat we, standing around leaning on
+our spears, laughed in derision.
+
+"Thou art of the great army of the infidels," Tamahu said.  "Yet thy
+face palest when we speak of conflict!"
+
+The officer started, and knit his grey brows.
+
+"I fear not thine host of Veiled Men, fierce and relentless though ye
+be.  True, I am a soldier, but one thing alone I dread."
+
+"Thou fearest to lose thy life," observed our Sheikh, knowing that the
+garrison at that little desert town was but small and weak.
+
+"For myself I care nothing," the Colonel answered.  "It is the fate of
+my daughter that I fear."
+
+"Thy daughter!  Why is she here, in the desert, so far from Algiers?"
+
+"Not having seen me for four years she travelled from Paris a moon ago
+to visit me.  Both my captain and my lieutenant have died of fever, and
+we two are now the only Europeans in Metlili.  The rising of thy
+tribesmen hath occurred so unexpectedly, or I would have sent her under
+escort back to the coast."
+
+"Is thy daughter a child?" asked Tamahu.
+
+"She is nineteen," answered the officer, whose name he informed us was
+Colonel Bonnemain.  We at once knew him by repute as a distinguished
+traveller and soldier.
+
+"Thou knowest what is said of the word of a Touareg," the Sheikh said,
+regarding him keenly.
+
+The Colonel nodded.
+
+"Canst thou trust these my tribesmen with the escort of thy daughter?"
+Tamahu asked.  "If thou wilt, no harm shall befall her.  We have agreed
+with the Mzabs to attack and pillage thy town, because thou, with thine
+horsemen, hast established a post therein; therefore it must be done.
+But the Azjars wage not war upon women, and ere we commence the attack
+thy daughter shall find safe asylum within our camp."
+
+For a moment the Colonel hesitated, looking intently into the dark,
+bright eyes of our aged headman.  But seeing honesty and truth mirrored
+in his face the infidel held out his hand, and in silence more eloquent
+than words gripped that of his enemy.  At last his tongue's strings
+became loosened.
+
+"Henceforth, although I am an officer of the French, and compelled to
+fight against thee, I am nevertheless thy friend, and some day will
+prove my friendship.  Gabrielle shall be within thy camp at dawn."
+
+"The Azjars will give her the welcome of friends," answered our Sheikh.
+
+With a brief expression of heartfelt thanks Colonel Bonnemain vaulted
+lightly into his saddle, and wishing us "Peace," spurred away to where
+his troop of expectant Spahis awaited him.
+
+"May Allah guard thee and thine!" answered Tamahu in response to the
+infidel's salutation, and a moment later our enemies were riding hard
+away towards the far-off horizon.
+
+The long breathless afternoon went slowly by.  We had not encamped,
+because we knew not when our allies, the Beni-Mzabs, might approach, and
+rapidity of movement was of urgent necessity, inasmuch as a formidable
+French column was on the march.  Spent by long travel, the majority of
+us stretched ourselves on the hot sands and slept, leaving half-a-dozen
+to act as sentinels and prevent surprise; but at the _maghrib_ hour all
+were awakened by the clear voice of our aged marabout reciting the
+_fatihat_.  Every man, without exception, knelt upon the sand, his back
+turned upon the blaze of crimson in the west, and recited the _suras_,
+praying to Allah to prosper our expedition.
+
+When we arose, Tamahu, his right hand raised to heaven, and his left
+grasping his gleaming spear, exhorted us to remain faithful, and to bear
+arms bravely against the infidels.
+
+"Ye are called forth against a mighty and a warlike nation," he
+exclaimed.  "Ye shall fight against them, or they shall profess Islam.
+If ye obey, Allah will, of a verity, give you a glorious reward; but if
+ye turn back he will chastise you with a grievous chastisement.  Allah
+has promised you many spoils, which ye should take; and he giveth these
+by way of earnest; and he restraineth the hand of man from you; and the
+same may be a sign unto the true believers; and he guideth you in the
+right way.  Allah knoweth that which ye know not; and he hath appointed
+you, besides this, a speedy victory."
+
+Long and earnestly the old Sheikh addressed us, quoting from our Book of
+Everlasting Will to emphasise his declarations.  Then he referred to the
+compact he had that day made with the leader of our enemies.
+
+"A woman of the Franks we shall receive into this our camp.  Remember, O
+my people, that she will partake of our salt, and that while this war
+continueth she is our friend.  Let not a single hair of her head be
+injured.  The word of thy Sheikh Tamahu hath already been given."
+
+That evening we spent in sharpening our spears and shangermangors,
+preparatory to the fight, singing snatches of war-songs and discussing
+the prospects of the attack.  Perhaps of all the tribes in the trackless
+solitudes which constitute our home, we of the Azjar are among the most
+active, vigorous, and enterprising, inured as we are to hardships, and
+with our mental faculties sharpened almost to a preternatural degree by
+the hard struggle for existence in our arid rocky fastnesses.  The
+rearing of oxen, horses, and goats is our chief occupation, but the
+scarcity of water and our speedy exhaustion of the scanty pasturage of
+the oases keep us perpetually on the march.  Agriculture is scarcely
+possible under a sky from which rain does not fall for six or eight
+consecutive years; therefore it is, perhaps, not surprising that we have
+developed into desert-pirates.
+
+Those who have never set foot upon the Saharan plains can possess but a
+vague idea of their appearance.  In the whole of the Great Desert, a
+track comprising over two million square miles, there is not a single
+carriage-road, not a mile of navigable waters, not a wheeled vehicle,
+canoe, or boat of any kind.  There are scarcely even any beaten tracks,
+for most of the routes, though followed for ages without divergence of
+any kind, are temporarily effaced by every sandstorm, and recovered only
+by means of the permanent landmarks--wells, prominent dunes, a solitary
+eminence crowned with a solitary bush, the remains of travellers,
+slaves, or camels that may have perished of thirst or exhaustion between
+the stations.
+
+Long and patiently we waited for the arrival of the woman to whom we had
+promised protection; but although the night passed, the dawn rose, and
+the hours crept on towards the noon, our vigilance remained unrewarded.
+A second day passed in inactivity, then, wearied of waiting, we struck
+camp and moved forward.
+
+The afterglow had deepened into evening dusk when at length we came
+within sight of Metlili.  Looming high up on a pinnacle of rock, white
+against the clear sky, its appearance astonished us, for it looked
+impregnable.  Its flat-roofed houses rose tier upon tier around an
+exceedingly steep eminence crowned by a great mosque with high square
+minaret, while at the foot of the hill were some scattered date-groves.
+
+We had passed over the summit of a sand ridge, and were making a dash
+straight upon the French stronghold, when we noticed that our presence
+had already been detected.  Upon the walls a few Spahis in scarlet and
+some white-burnoused Arabs were moving hurriedly.  Suddenly there was a
+flash from the Kasbah, followed by a report, loud, sharp, echoless.  Our
+enemies had opened fire upon us.
+
+Tamahu instantly gave the word to spur forward on the wings of haste.
+With one accord we rode in a huge compact body so swiftly as to justify
+our popular appellation "The Breath of the Wind," and, regardless of a
+rapid rifle-fire that was poured out from the white walls, pressed
+forward to the foot of the rock.  Here we dismounted, and with loud
+yells of savage rage dashed up the rough narrow way that gave entrance
+to the town.  Many of my companions fell dead or wounded ere they
+reached the hastily-barred gate, but by dint of fierce and dogged
+determination, we pushed forward in force so great that we managed to at
+last batter down the huge wooden doors.  Next second we poured into the
+place in overwhelming numbers.  Up its steep streets, so narrow that two
+asses could not pass abreast, we engaged Spahis and Zouaves
+hand-to-hand.  So strong was our force that soon we overwhelmed them,
+and commenced loud cries of triumph as we dashed up towards the Kasbah.
+Suddenly, however, as we approached it we saw that its walls literally
+swarmed with French soldiers who, at word of command, fired a withering
+volley from their rifles which caused us to hold back dismayed.
+
+Colonel Bonnemain had evidently received reinforcements.  With their
+firearms they were more than a match for us.
+
+"Courage, brothers!"  I heard Tamahu cry as he brandished his spear.
+"Let us show these dogs of infidels that the Touaregs are no cowards.
+Of a verity the Roumis shall never be our masters."
+
+With set teeth we sprang forward towards the high sun-blanched walls of
+the citadel, determined to take it by assault, but alas! its battlements
+were full of well-armed Spahis and Turcos, and from every point showers
+of lead swept down upon us.  Still we kept on undaunted.  Once I caught
+a momentary glimpse of Colonel Bonnemain.  He was standing upon the wall
+bareheaded, shouting and waving his sword.  But only for an instant.  He
+disappeared, and was seen no more.
+
+Almost at the same instant a loud incessant spitting of guns deafened
+us; bullets swept through our ranks in deadly hail, killing us by dozens
+and maiming hundreds.  Then, dismayed, I saw mounted on the wall a
+strange-looking weapon, which once charged shed rifle-balls in hundreds.
+Death seemed inevitable.  My companions, appalled by the sight of that
+terrible engine of destruction, wavered for an instant, then, with a cry
+that Eblis was assisting the infidels, turned and fled.
+
+Above the din of battle Tamahu shouted himself hoarse.  But darkness
+having now fallen, none could discern him amid the dense smoke and
+constant flashing of the guns.  Thus the defenders drove us back,
+sweeping us away with their deadly machine-gun, and, making a sortie
+from the fortress, bayonetted the more valiant ones.
+
+Our cause seemed lost.  As soon, however, as we had drawn the Spahis
+outside their fort, we turned, and re-engaging them hand-to-hand,
+quickly hacked our way back to the very gates of the Kasbah, the streets
+in the vicinity being heaped with dead and dying.  Suddenly, however, at
+the moment when we were relinquishing our hope as a forlorn one, loud
+shouts, followed by the beating of tam-tams, gave us renewed courage.
+From mouth to mouth the glad tidings were repeated.  The Beni-Mzabs, one
+of the most powerful tribes on the desert border, had come up, and being
+our allies, were rendering us assistance.
+
+Of the exciting moments which immediately succeeded, I have but vague
+remembrance.  Suffice it to say that the warlike race of the Atlas to
+the number of two thousand poured into Metlili, and with our forces
+combined we succeeded in dislodging and totally annihilating the French
+garrison.  Everywhere throughout the town fighting quickly became
+general, but in such numbers had we now assembled that those holding the
+Kasbah were compelled to sue for peace.  The Beni-Mzabs declined,
+however, to give quarter, consequently the scenes of bloodshed were
+terrible to behold.  Before dawn the sack of the town had commenced, and
+everywhere the firebrand was applied.  The loot obtainable was, we
+found, of very little value, nevertheless both the Beni-Mzabs and our
+own tribesmen were in high glee at their first success against the
+infidel forces.  It was regarded as precursory of a great victory.
+
+Just as the sun was rising I was inside the ancient citadel so recently
+the infidel stronghold, and was exploring its many courts with their old
+blue-tiled fountains and cool, handsome colonnades, when suddenly as I
+passed beneath an archway in the thickness of the wall a noise startled
+me.  My companions in arms were regaling themselves in an open square
+before the great white mosque, therefore I was alone.  Around me lay
+many bodies of Touaregs, Spahis, and Beni-Mzabs, while some of the
+wounded were still groaning, dying slowly, for there had been no attempt
+to succour the disabled.  To fall in a holy war is not a misfortune, but
+the reverse.  The noise, a loud knock, again sounded, and turning I saw
+a bolted door, which I at once opened, and was confronted by a pretty
+dark-haired French girl, who, glancing at me in terror for an instant,
+screamed and fled down a flight of stone stairs into an impenetrable
+darkness.
+
+In a moment I dashed after her.  Already the Kasbah had been set on
+fire, and to save her life instant escape was necessary.  Below, in the
+small foul stone chamber, used long ago as a prison, I discovered her
+crouching.  She screamed loudly at my approach, fearing me, perhaps,
+because of the mysterious black veil across my face, and knowing that
+the Veiled Men were of evil repute.
+
+"Thou art Mademoiselle Gabrielle, daughter of our friend Colonel
+Bonnemain," I exclaimed in the best French I could articulate.  "Fear
+not, but fly at once with me, or we may both lose our lives."
+
+"How knowest thou my name?" she gasped in amazement.  By the glimmer of
+light that came from the open court above I saw that her face was
+beautiful but deathly pale.  "True, I am daughter of Colonel Bonnemain,
+but thou art a Touareg.  Assuredly thou art our enemy, not our friend.
+Why, it was thine hosts who attacked us!"
+
+Briefly I explained the promise of our Sheikh, assuring her of our
+friendship.  At first she was inclined to doubt my sincerity, but at
+length I prevailed upon her to accompany me in our race for life from
+the burning ruins.  Quickly we sought Tamahu, and as there were no women
+with us she was at once placed under my protection.  I was to be her
+guardian and her champion during the remainder of hostilities.  Long and
+earnestly we both searched and enquired for her father, the Colonel, but
+could discover no trace of him.  Some of his Spahis who survived
+declared that he had been struck down in the earlier hours of the
+conflict, while others maintained that they had seen him fighting
+uninjured up to the very last.  From our enquiries it appeared evident
+that, on receiving unexpected reinforcements from the north, he had
+determined upon holding out against us, and overlooking our agreement
+with the Beni-Mzabs, was ill-advised enough to decline our good offices.
+Then, when he found an attack in force being made, he locked Gabrielle
+in a place of safety until the fight should end.
+
+Full of excitement were those days that followed.  I must, however, here
+confess that within twenty-four hours I found myself deeply attached to
+this bright-eyed fragile girl whoso gallant father had disappeared so
+mysteriously.  We, of the Azjars, leaving the prosperous town of Metlili
+a mere pile of smoking ruins, encamped for a few days in the vicinity
+where there was an excellent well, then together with the fierce
+horsemen of the Beni-Mzab set our heads towards Wargla, another French
+outpost.  At first Gabrielle felt the fatigue of travel terribly.
+Fortunately she could ride well, and as her inseparable companion, I
+endeavoured to render her journey as comfortable as possible.  At my
+suggestion she had exchanged her European clothes for the _serroual_ and
+_haick_ of the Arab women, finding that mode of dress more comfortable
+and less conspicuous than her own; and so light-hearted she grew that
+not unfrequently she would join me in a cigarette.  Her grace and manner
+charmed us all.  The fierce horsemen of the Azjar and the Beni-Mzab are
+scarcely chivalrous where women are concerned, but ere we had been on
+the march three days there was not a single tribesman who would not
+execute her slightest wish.
+
+Riding day by day over the breathless solitudes of sand, no single word
+of complaint ever escaped her.  Whenever we halted, before she ate she
+would busy herself in attending to our wounded; sometimes bandaging an
+arm or a leg, at others pouring out water and handing it to a thirsty
+man with a pleasing smile that quickened his pulse.  Then, after we had
+eaten and turned our faces to the Holy Ca'aba, she would take an old
+Spanish mandoline which one of my companions had picked up cheap long
+ago in Oran, and play and sing to us in a sweet contralto songs from her
+own far-off Paris.  They were mostly gay _chansons_, such as one hears
+in the _cafes_ in Algiers, and those with refrains were sung lustily in
+chorus by the whole of the great assembly.
+
+One night after she had given us several songs I persuaded her to dance.
+To those unaccustomed to life in the desert the scene would have
+appeared a strange one.  The bright moonlight shining full upon her,
+tipped also with silver the keen heads of a couple of thousand spears
+upon which her audience leaned.  She had fascinated them.  Unanimously
+it had been declared that she was an enchantress.  Only one fact
+remained to mar her happiness: her uncertainty regarding her father's
+fate.
+
+"I will dance on one condition, Ahamadou," she answered in French,
+throwing back her pretty head and showing her white teeth as she
+laughed.
+
+"What is that?"
+
+"I will dance if thou wilt take off that hideous black veil.  Thou hast
+been my friend all this time, yet, strangely enough, I have never beheld
+thy face."
+
+I hesitated.  Such a demand was unusual, for a Touareg never removes his
+veil.
+
+My companions overhearing, and noticing my disinclination to acquiesce,
+with one accord urged me to accede, and at last, amid much good humour,
+I unwound my black _litham_.
+
+Long and earnestly she looked into my eyes.  Her gaze lingered upon me
+strangely, I thought; then suddenly clapping her hands, she raised her
+long white arms above her head, and to the thumping of four _derboukas_,
+one of which I held, she commenced a slow graceful dance.  Never tired
+of exerting herself to comfort the wounded or amuse those who were her
+father's bitterest foes, she danced on until she sank completely out of
+breath.  Then she reclined upon the soft rugs spread for her, and, with
+Tamahu and myself, smoked a cigarette in silence.  From her full red
+lips she blew clouds of smoke, and watched it curl upward in the still
+night air.  I glanced at her furtively, and saw that she had grown
+unusually thoughtful.  Her brilliant eyes were fixed upon the stars.
+
+At last, pillowing her handsome head upon a leopard's skin I rolled and
+placed for her, she wished me "Peace," and presently closed her eyes in
+sleep.
+
+Silence, dead and complete, had fallen upon the camp.  The stillness was
+only broken by the uneasy groaning of a camel or the soft footfall of a
+sentry whose spear gleamed afar in the white moonbeams.  Gabrielle's
+heart slowly heaved and fell as she slept.  Through that calm night I
+sat, hugging my knees and thinking deeply.  Try how I would, I could not
+get rid of the one thought that for days had possessed me, the thought
+of her.  That she had entranced me; that she held me in her toils
+irrevocably, I could not deny.  Never before had I looked upon any woman
+with affection until now.  But I loved with all my heart and soul this
+delicate Roumi, whose fair face the sun had never kissed.
+
+Was it not in order to behold my countenance she had that evening
+requested me to remove my _litham_?  Her every word, her every action,
+now that I recalled them, showed plainly that she did not regard me with
+disfavour.  The moon waned, the stars paled, and dawn was nigh ere I
+cast myself upon the warm sand near her, and snatched a brief hour's
+repose, not, however, before I had carefully placed a rug about her,
+fearing lest the morning dew, so deadly to Europeans, should chill her.
+
+One bright balmy night we reached El Okaz, and halted.  It was a large
+oasis with running water, luxuriant vegetation, and many palms.  When
+the _maghrib_ had been said, the evening meal eaten, and the sun was
+slowly sinking, I went forth among the trees to search for camel-grass,
+and invited Gabrielle to accompany me.  She walked by my side, and when
+we were out of hearing I took her tiny hand in mine, and, raising it
+reverently to my lips, declared my love.
+
+Slowly, but resolutely, she drew her hand away.  The last ray of
+sunlight tipped her hair with molten gold as we stood together beneath a
+great high palm.  Her brilliant eyes glistened with unshed tears.
+
+"Alas! no, Ahamadou," she answered huskily.  "We must not love each
+other, it would wreck both our lives."
+
+"Why not?"  I cried passionately, my arm around her waist, her slim
+white hand raised again to my lips.  "I adore you.  To me thou art my
+life, my love, my everything."
+
+"Ah! yes," she sighed sadly.  "To you I owe my life.  You have all been
+so good to me, although I am a woman of the Franks, that I can scarce
+believe that you are actually the Azjars, the dreaded Breath of the
+Wind, reports of whose exploits have times without number caused me to
+shudder."
+
+"An Azjar never forgets a favour nor forgives a false friend," I
+answered.  "To our enemies we are brutal and relentless; yet those who
+eat our salt need never fear.  Already hast thou had experience of the
+treatment the stranger receiveth within our tents."
+
+"True," she answered, her hand closing tightly over mine.  "I have had
+experience of thine own tender care of me, Ahamadou, yet--"
+
+"Yet thou hast already grown tired of our life?"  I hazarded
+reproachfully.
+
+"Ah! no," she said quickly, fixing her brilliant eyes upon mine.  "Thou
+hast asked if I could ever love thee.  I tell thee that I do love thee,
+yet there is between us a barrier of blood, and such love can only bring
+unhappiness unto us both."
+
+"Thou lovest me!"  I cried, delighted, and taking her soft cheeks
+between my hard, sun-browned hands, our lips met for the first time in a
+long passionate caress.  Again, she put me from her, saying--"No, it can
+never be.  We are of different races, different creeds.  What is right
+in thine eyes is sin in mine; what is worship to thee is, to me,
+idolatry.  No, Ahamadou.  It must not be.  We must not love, for we can
+never marry."
+
+I was silent.  Her argument seemed utterly unassailable.  Never before
+had I faced the situation until now.  She had, indeed, spoken the truth.
+
+"But we love each other!"  I cried, dolefully.
+
+"Yes," she sighed, shaking her head.  "I confess that I love thee," and
+her fingers again gripped my hand.  "But it is the very fact that we
+love one another that should cause us to part and forget."
+
+"Why?  Until the war is ended thou must, of necessity, remain in our
+camp," I observed.
+
+"And after?"
+
+"Then we could return to Algiers, or to Oran, and marry."
+
+She remained silent for a few moments, nervously toying with the single
+ring of emeralds upon her finger.
+
+"No," she answered at length.  "This love between us is but a passing
+fancy.  When the war is at an end, thou wilt have become convinced of
+the truth of my words."
+
+"Never," I answered.  "I love thee now; I shall love thee always."
+
+"Alas!" she said, laying her hand softly upon my shoulder, and looking
+earnestly into my face.  "Now that we have both made confession we must
+endeavour to forget.  We love each other, but the wide difference in our
+races renders happiness impossible.  Thou wilt find for wife some good
+woman of thine own people, and I--perhaps I shall find some man of mine
+own nationality to become my husband.  From to-night, Ahamadou, if thou
+lovest me, thou wilt make no further sign."
+
+I bit my lip to the blood.  Although she had uttered these words, I saw
+that she nevertheless loved me with a mad, passionate love, for soon
+down her pink cheeks tears were coursing.
+
+"Thou art all to me--everything, Gabrielle," I cried.  "Allah knoweth
+how deeply and honestly I adore thee, I--"
+
+The sound of a rifle-shot startled us.  With bated breath we both
+strained our ears.  The evening gloom had crept on unperceived, and it
+was almost dark.  In rapid succession other shots sounded, followed by
+the fierce fiendish war-cry of the Beni-Mzabs.  Instantly the truth
+flashed upon me.  We had been surprised by the French!
+
+By the route we had come we sped back to the encampment, where we found
+all confusion.  A large body of Spahis had made a sudden and determined
+attack, but it had been repulsed.  My first thought was of Gabrielle's
+safety.  I found cover for her behind a huge boulder, and telling her to
+seat herself, and not attempt to watch the progress of the fight,
+returned, spear in hand, to bear my part against our enemies.
+
+The cessation of the fighting was only for a few minutes.  We heard the
+sudden sound of a bugle, and from among the trees there dashed a
+formidable troop of red-burnoused horsemen, led by a young European
+officer, who sat his horse as if he were part of it.  Even in that
+moment of excitement I admired the way he rode.  The charge was,
+however, an ill-fated one.  Not half those who dashed forward lived to
+retreat.  The Arabs of the Mechefer, who had recently joined us,
+possessed guns, and the flashing of these, in combination with those of
+our enemies, illumined the darkness, while the still air was full of
+dense, stifling smoke.  More desperate each moment the conflict grew.
+Undismayed by loss or misfortune, we thrice returned their attack, each
+time with increasing force, until our bullets and keen spears commenced
+to work havoc among the infidel ranks.  East and furious became the
+fight, but gradually the attack upon us grew weaker, and at last,
+determined upon reprisals, Tamahu ordered a dash forward.  With one
+accord we charged, and then before us the remnant of the ill-fated troop
+fell back and fled to save their lives.
+
+When I returned I found Gabrielle kneeling beside the officer whose
+riding had been so conspicuous, tenderly bandaging an ugly spear-wound
+he had received in the left shoulder.  She had improvised a torch, and
+beneath its fitful light was pursuing her task unconscious of my
+approach.  Upon the clammy brow of the unconscious man she placed her
+cool, soft hand; then, having felt his pulse, she seemed satisfied, and
+taking her flambeau went forward to one of my own tribesmen who had been
+injured in the breast.  From the deep shadow wherein I stood I watched
+her, white-robed and fair like one of the good genii of whom the Koran
+tells us, passing from one to another, alleviating their sufferings as
+best she could, uttering cheering words, or giving water to the dying.
+I did not approach her, for my heart seemed too full.  It was best, I
+thought, to leave her alone to her merciful work.
+
+Before the sun rose many of those whom she had so carefully tended and
+watched had drawn their last breath, but the young officer, whose name I
+afterwards learned was Andre de Freyville, lieutenant of Spahis, had
+recovered consciousness sufficiently to thank his nurse, and learn from
+her lips the curious circumstances which had led her to accept the
+hospitality of our tents.  He proved a pleasant fellow, and during his
+convalescence we all three had frequent chats together.  Although he was
+our prisoner-of-war, he soon became on excellent terms with Tamahu, and
+his time passed happily enough.  Colonel Bonnemain had, he told us,
+escaped when Metlili fell, and had reached Algiers unharmed.
+
+Soon, in order to join forces with another large body of horsemen moving
+from the great Hammada, or stony tableland, in Tripoli, we advanced to
+the oasis of Medagin, two days' march from El Aghouat, then held in such
+force by the French that we dared not attack it.
+
+Reaching Medagin at noon, we encamped.  When the stars shone both
+Gabrielle and De Freyville sang us some French _chansons_, the one
+accompanying the other upon the mandoline.  Before we scooped out our
+hollows in the sand to form our couches I borrowed a gun from one of the
+Arabs, intending to go out at dawn to shoot some desert-partridges in
+which the oasis abounds.  Ere day broke I rose, and leaving the whole
+camp in slumber, strolled away to a rocky spot I had on the previous day
+noted as a likely place to find the birds.  It was on the edge of the
+oasis, at some distance from the well where we had encamped.  When I
+arrived there the sun had not risen, and the birds were still roosting.
+Therefore, with my rifle loaded with a bullet (for I had no small shot),
+I sat down to wait.
+
+For perhaps half-an-hour I had remained when my quick ear detected the
+sounds of horses' hoofs.  Believing the newcomer to be a French vedette
+I drew back behind a large boulder, with the barrel of my rifle placed
+upon the top of the rock in readiness to pick him off as he passed.  On
+came the horseman, until suddenly he emerged from among the mimosas and
+euphorbias.  An ejaculation of dismay involuntarily left my lips.  There
+was not one horse, but two.  The riders were fugitives.  They were our
+prisoner-of-war, Lieutenant de Freyville, and Gabrielle Bonnemain, the
+woman I loved.
+
+Mounted upon horses they had secured, they spurred forward together at
+headlong speed.  Their way on to the desert lay down a narrow stony
+ravine, to traverse which they would be compelled to pass close by the
+spot where I was lying in ambush.  On they came swiftly, without a word.
+Inwardly I gloated over my revenge.
+
+This man was stealing from me the woman I loved dearer than life.  And
+she--she had declared that she loved me!  Yet her words were foul lies.
+She should die!
+
+I fingered the trigger, and held my gun to my shoulder in readiness as
+the pair pressed forward, unconscious of their approaching doom.  If
+ever the spirit of murder entered my soul, it was at that moment.
+
+When within a leopard's leap of the muzzle of my rifle she turned back
+towards her companion, uttered some gay words to him, threw back her
+head and laughed lightly, displaying her white teeth.
+
+I raised my rifle and took deliberate aim at her panting breast.  My
+hands trembled.  Next second a flood of bitter recollections surged
+through my brain.  I remembered those solemn words she had uttered: "We
+are of different races; different creeds.  What is right in thine eyes
+is sin in mine; what is worship to thee is, to me, idolatry.  It is the
+very fact that we love one another that should cause us to part and
+forget."
+
+Yes, my enchantress had spoken the truth.
+
+My hands were nerveless.  I dropped my gun, the weapon with which I had
+so nearly taken her young life, and through a mist of gathering tears
+watched her ride rapidly away beside her newly-discovered lover, and
+disappear over the dune towards El Aghouat.
+
+When she had gone, my head sank upon my breast and my teeth were set,
+for full well I knew that never again could I love any woman as truly as
+I had loved her.  My pole-star, the light of my life, had for ever been
+extinguished.
+
+CHAPTER THREE.
+
+THE SECRET OF SA.
+
+Through the very heart of the barren, naked Saharan country, that
+boundless sea of red-brown arid sands, which, like the ocean itself, is
+subject to fitful moods of calm and storm, there runs a deep rocky
+ravine which has ever been a mystery to geographers.  It commences near
+the shore of Lake Tsad, and extending for nearly eight hundred miles due
+north to Lake Melghir, is known as the Igharghar, and is the dried-up
+bed of a river, which, with its tributaries, once rendered this bare
+wilderness one of the most fertile spots on earth, but which, for
+upwards of two thousand years, has ceased to flow.  Strangely enough,
+the country traversed by this great stony ravine is to-day the most arid
+and inhospitable in the world.  The river, which, according to the
+legendary stories told in the market-places of the desert towns, must
+have been as mighty as the Nile, dried-up suddenly from some cause which
+has always puzzled geographers.  A portion of its course, about two
+hundred miles, half filled with sand, has for ages been used as the
+caravan route between the city of Agades, the capital of the Air
+country, and Temasinin, at the foot of the Tinghert Plateau; but the
+remainder is of such a rocky character as to be impassable, and has on
+many occasions served us as ambush when fighting the Ouled Sliman
+marauders, our hereditary foes.
+
+On one of these expeditions we were encamped in the shadow of some great
+rocks, which had once been covered by the giant flood.  Around us on
+every hand was the sandy, waterless waste, known by the ominous name of
+_Ur-immandess_, "He (Allah) heareth not," that is, is deaf to the cry of
+the way-laid traveller.  It is a dismal tract, one of the most hot and
+arid in the whole of Northern Africa.  The poison-wind blows almost
+continually, and the general appearance of the sand dunes is altered
+almost hour by hour.  We were six days' march off an interesting little
+walled town I had once visited, called Azaka 'n Ahkar, where stands the
+curious tomb of a chieftain who fell during the Arab invasion over a
+thousand years ago, and to the west, within sight, was the low dark hill
+known to us as Mount Hikena, a spot feared universally throughout the
+desert as the abode of the jinns.
+
+Already had we engaged the fierce host of the Ouled Sliman in deadly
+conflict at the well of Agnar, but finding our opponents armed with
+rifles procured from European traders, we had drawn off in an endeavour
+to entice them into the Wady Igharghar, where our superior knowledge of
+the ground would give us distinct advantage.  Our losses three days
+before had been very serious, and our Sheikh Tamahu had despatched
+messengers in all haste to the oasis of Noum-en-Nas, six marches
+distant, to urge forward reinforcements.  That night, when the moon had
+risen, I accompanied Hamoud, one of my companions, as scout, to travel
+northward along the dried-up watercourse, to make a _reconnaissance_,
+and to ascertain if the enemy were in the vicinity.  To ride up that
+valley, choked by its myriad boulders, was impossible, therefore we were
+compelled to journey on foot.
+
+Had we ascended to the desert we should have imperilled our camp, for
+our enemies in search of us would undoubtedly detect our presence.  We
+had pitched our tents at a secluded inaccessible spot, where the
+dried-up river had taken a sudden bend, in the heart of a country
+scarcely ever traversed.  Through the long brilliant night with my
+companion I pressed forward, sometimes clambering over rough rocks,
+split by the heat of noon and chills of night, and at others sinking
+knee-deep in soft sand-drifts.  When dawn spread we now and then
+clambered up the steep sides of the valley and cautiously took
+observations.  In that region, the surface of the desert being perfectly
+flat, any object can be seen at great distances, therefore we at all
+times were careful not to stand upright, but remained crouched upon our
+faces.  So dry also is the atmosphere that any sudden movement, such as
+the flapping of a burnouse or the swish of a horse's tail, will cause
+sparks to be emitted.
+
+Beneath the milk-white sky of noon, when the fiery sun shone like a disc
+of burnished copper, we threw ourselves down beneath the shadow of a
+huge boulder to eat and rest.  Hamoud, older than myself, was a typical
+nomad, bearded, bronzed, and a veritable giant in stature.  His physical
+strength and power of endurance was greater than that of any other of
+our tribesmen, and he was always amiable and light-hearted.  While he
+lit his keef-pipe and chatted, I gazed about me, noticing how, by the
+action of the eddying waters of this dried-up river, the very name of
+which is lost to us, the hard, grey rock above had been worn smooth and
+hollow.  The mystery of the Igharghar had always attracted me since my
+earliest boyhood.  Why this mighty stream, in some places nearly six
+miles wide, should have suddenly ceased to flow, fertilise, and give
+life to the great tract it traversed was a problem which the wise men of
+all ages had failed to solve.  True, the One Merciful heard not in that
+wild, unfrequented region.  It was the country accursed and forgotten of
+Allah.
+
+When, in the cooler hours, we resumed our journey, ever-watchful for the
+presence of the Ouled Sliman, on every side we noticed unmistakable
+traces of the enormous width and depth of the giant waterway.  About
+noon on the second day I had ascended to the desert to scan the horizon,
+when I discovered some ruined masonry, half-buried beneath its
+winding-sheet of sand.  On the keystone of an arch I found an
+inscription in Roman characters, and here and there stood broken columns
+and portions of grey time-worn walls.
+
+It was the site of an effaced and forgotten city; a centre of culture
+and civilisation which had owed its very existence to this great river,
+and had declined and fallen when the stream had so mysteriously ceased
+to flow.  The once fertile land had withered, and become a dreary,
+sunburnt, uninhabitable wilderness.
+
+Ask any marabout from Morocco to far-off Tripoli, and he will declare
+that for some reason unknown, Allah, before the days of his Prophet, set
+the mark of his displeasure upon the country known to us as the Ahaggar.
+It is not, therefore, surprising that the Ouled Sliman, our enemies,
+should be known throughout the desert as the Children of Eblis.
+
+As, spear in hand, I walked at Hamoud's side along that vanished fluvial
+basin, I discussed the probable causes of the sudden failure of that
+mighty flow.  He suggested that its source might by some means have
+become exhausted; but geographers having ages ago disposed of that
+point, I explained to him how every theory possible had already been put
+forward and dismissed.  The mysterious forgotten river was still a
+geographical problem as great as the existence of open water at the
+poles.
+
+Through two more days we journeyed forward, ever-watchful, yet
+discerning no sign of our enemies; but at length, coming to a steep bare
+cliff, once undoubtedly a roaring cataract, we found its granite bed had
+been worn into ridges two thousand years ago by the action of the
+torrent.  At this point the plateau over which we had journeyed
+descended sheer and steep on to the plain, of which we commanded an
+extensive view for many miles.  An hour before sundown the sky had
+suddenly darkened, indicative of an approaching sandstorm, therefore we
+resolved to remain there the night and retrace our steps next day.  Our
+fears were realised.  Shortly before midnight, as we sat together
+smoking, the unclouded starry sky assumed an extraordinary clearness.
+The atmosphere was perfectly still, when suddenly in the east a black
+cloud began to rise with frightful rapidity, and soon covered half the
+heavens.  Presently a strong gust of wind enveloped us with sand, and
+threw little pebbles as large as peas into our faces.  Soon, while we
+crouched beneath a rock, we were surrounded by a dense cloud of sand,
+and stood still in impenetrable gloom.  The storm was of unusual
+severity.  Our eyes were filled with grit every time we ventured to open
+them.  We did not dare to lie down for fear of being buried.  The
+tempest at last passed, the night quickly grew clear again, and,
+extricating ourselves from the sand that had drifted high about us, we
+lay down exhausted to sleep.
+
+Before dawn I rose, and, without disturbing the heavy slumber of my
+companion, strode forth along the brink of the dried-up cataract to
+examine more closely the hitherto unexplored spot.  The sun-whitened
+boulders were all worn smooth where the gigantic rush of the waters had
+whirled past them ere they dashed below into that once fertile plain.
+And as I went along I presently discovered a place where I could descend
+the face of the cliff.  Without difficulty I at last reached its base,
+and stepping forward, placed my foot upon soft drifted sand that gave
+way beneath my tread.
+
+With startling suddenness a strange sound fell upon my ears, deafening
+me.  I felt myself falling, and in clutching frantically at the objects
+around, struck my head a violent blow.  Then all consciousness became
+blotted out.
+
+How long I remained insensible I do not know.  I have an idea that many
+hours must have elapsed, for when painfully I struggled back to a
+knowledge of things about me, I found myself enveloped in a darkness
+blacker than night, my ears being filled by a continuous unceasing roar
+like thunder.  I was chilled to the bone, and on stretching forth my
+hand, found myself lying upon a mass of soft slime, that splashing over
+my face had half-suffocated me.  With both hands outstretched, I tried
+to discover into what noisome place I had so suddenly been precipitated.
+Intently I listened.  The roaring was that of some mighty unseen
+torrent.
+
+Creeping cautiously forward upon my hands and knees, fearing lest I
+should stumble into any further chasm, I soon came to water flowing
+swiftly past.  Then the truth dawned upon me that I was beside the bank
+of some unknown subterranean river.  Of the extent of that dark
+cavernous place I could obtain no idea.  Thrice I shouted with all my
+strength, but in that deafening roar my voice was echoless.
+
+With a supplication to Allah to envelop me with the cloak of his
+protection, I cautiously pursued my way over the stones and slime in the
+direction the unseen stream was rushing.  The incline was steep, and as
+the air seemed cool and fresh, I felt assured there must be some outlet
+to the blessed light of day.  Yet onward I crept slowly, chilled by the
+icy mud, until my limbs trembled, and I was compelled to pause and rub
+them to prevent them becoming benumbed.
+
+Truly mine was an unenvious position.  Throughout my life it has been my
+endeavour to tread those crooked and laborious paths whereby knowledge
+of hidden mysteries may be gained, therefore I worked on like a mole in
+the dark, and by diligent industry gained ground considerably.  During
+several hours I pushed my way forward, until at length my hands came
+into contact with a wall of rock which barred all further passage,
+although the water lapping it swirled past on its downward course.
+Eagerly I felt about the rock, searching for some mode of egress, but
+could find none.  The wall of the enormous cavern extended sheer and
+unbroken for five hundred paces, then turned back in the direction I had
+already traversed.  Thus was a terrible truth forced upon me.  I was
+entombed!
+
+My injured head pained me frightfully, and I must have become weakened
+by loss of blood.  The terrors of that foul, fearsome place, where the
+deafening roar was unceasing, and the blackness could be felt,
+overwhelmed me.  I groped back to the edge of the roaring torrent
+exhausted, and sinking, slept.
+
+When I awoke I was amazed to find the cavern illumined by a faint
+greenish light, just sufficient to enable me to see that the rushing,
+foaming waters were of great width and volume, and that the cavern
+whence they came was low, but of vast extent.  Then, turning towards the
+light, I found that it shone up through the water beyond the wall of
+rock which formed that side of the cave.  At first the strange light
+puzzled me, but I soon ascertained that the subterranean river emptied
+itself into the open air at that spot, and that the sun shining upon the
+water as it rushed out of its underground course, reflected the welcome
+light up to where I stood.  The discovery held me breathless.  I saw
+that in such enormous volume did those icy waters sweep down, that the
+opening in the rock whence they were let free was completely filled.
+There was, after all, no exit.
+
+At the edge of the boiling torrent I stood calmly contemplating the
+advisability of plunging in and allowing myself to be swept out into the
+air.  The only thing which deterred me from so doing was the fear that
+outside the cataract fell down from some dizzy height into a foaming
+flood below, in which case I must be either battered to death upon the
+rocks or drowned beneath the descending tons of water.  The thought of
+this terrible fate thrilled me with horror.
+
+Of a sudden I heard above the roar a man's voice; and startled, turned
+round, and saw a long boat, shaped something like a canoe, containing
+two dark figures, being propelled swiftly towards me.
+
+Agape in wonder I stood watching them.
+
+Ere I could realise the truth, they had run their craft up high and dry
+where I stood, and were beside me, questioning me in some strange,
+unknown tongue.  In that faint green light they looked weird, impish
+figures.  Small of stature, their skins were a lightish yellow; they
+wore curious necklets and armlets of chased bones, and their loincloths
+were scaly, like the skin of some fish or serpent.  In their hands they
+both carried long barbed spears.  They had been fishing, for their boat
+was nearly full.
+
+To their rapid questions I could only shake my head, when in an instant
+the roar of the waters increased, until speech became impossible.
+Terrified they both, next second, leaped into their boat and dragged me
+in after them.  Their promptitude saved my life, for ere an instant had
+elapsed our boat became lifted by an enormous inrush, which flooded the
+whole cavern to a depth of many feet.  Our boat rose so near the roof
+that we were compelled to crouch down to prevent our heads being jammed,
+and soon I found myself being rowed rapidly along in triumph into the
+impenetrable darkness.  I had escaped death by a hair's breadth, but
+what grim adventure was yet in store for me I dreaded to anticipate.
+
+My impish captors bent hard at their paddles, exchanging muttered words,
+until soon the roaring of the torrent sounded indistinct, and we found
+ourselves out upon a great subterranean lake of limitless extent.  The
+eyes of my companions, accustomed to that appalling darkness, could
+discern objects where I could distinguish nothing.  As we went forward
+the current became weaker, and now and then I felt a splashing as a
+large fish was lifted from the water impaled upon a spear.  Yet ever
+forward we kept on and on, for fully two hours, until suddenly I saw a
+faint glimmer of grey light upon the wide expanse of black water, and
+when we neared it I discerned that there was a huge crack in the roof of
+rock and it was open to the sky, but so great was the distance to the
+world above, that only a faint glimmer penetrated there.
+
+By its light I distinguished how clear and deep were the waters, and
+noticed that the fish my companions had caught were of a uniform grey
+colour, without eyes.  In the impenetrable darkness of those
+subterranean depths the organs of vision, I afterwards ascertained,
+never developed.  The eyes of the two men with me were also
+strange-looking, set closely together, dark and bead-like.
+
+But we paused not, holding straight upon our way, plunging again into
+the cavernous blackness, until presently there showed before us a golden
+shaft of sunlight striking full into the waters, and in a few moments we
+emerged into an open space green and fertile, surrounded on every side
+by high rocks, honeycombed with small caves, while the great unknown
+river itself disappeared beyond into a wide dark tunnel.
+
+Scarcely had we disembarked than the place literally swarmed with the
+uncanny-looking denizens of this underground realm, who, issuing from
+their cave-dwellings, eyed me curiously with greatest caution.  I had
+not removed my _litham_, and they undoubtedly were suspicious of a
+stranger who veiled his face.
+
+My captors, with much wild gesticulation, explained the circumstances in
+which they had discovered me, and presently, when I had been thoroughly
+inspected by all, and my appearance commented upon, my veil was
+surreptitiously snatched from my pallid face, and I was hurried into one
+of the small cell-like caverns, and there secured to the rock by a
+rudely constructed chain.  Soon food was brought me, and the inhabitants
+of the curious unknown country formed a ring near the river bank, and
+commenced to execute a kind of wild dance, accompanied by fiendish
+yells, working themselves into a frenzy, like the dancers of the Ouled
+Nails.  For a long time I watched their weird pantomimic gyrations, when
+at length my eyes were startled at beholding, in the centre of the
+circle, a tall man of much paler complexion than my own, dressed in a
+few dilapidated rags.  Once or twice only I caught a glimpse of him, and
+then I recognised that his face was that of an European, and his dress
+the tattered remains of a French military uniform.  His beard and
+moustache seemed ashen grey, and upon his haggard countenance, as he
+stood motionless and statuesque amid the dancers, was a weary look of
+blank despair.  He also was a captive.
+
+The strange-looking, yellow-skinned people of this riparian region at
+length ceased dancing, and with one accord knelt around him in
+adoration, worshipping him as though he were an idol.  The scene, as
+they gabbled words in an unknown tongue, was weird and impressive.  My
+fellow-captive did not apparently notice me, therefore, fearing to rouse
+the ire of this hitherto undiscovered people by shouting, I possessed
+myself in patience.  The curious form of pagan worship at last ended;
+the unfortunate European was released and allowed to seek his abode, a
+small hole in the rock close to mine, and the impish-looking men
+dispersed, leaving me to my own dismal thoughts.  Ere long the shadows
+lengthened as the sun sank behind the high rocks, and dusk crept on.
+About the open space which served as street, men and women of the
+curious tribe squatted, smoked, and chattered, while others, entering
+their boats armed with fishing-spears, paddled off down the subterranean
+stream in the direction I had come.  Night fell, and at last the
+cave-dwellers slept.
+
+Slumber, however, came not to my wearied eyes, and for many hours I sat
+thinking over my strange position, my thoughts being suddenly disturbed
+by a noise as of some one moaning near me.  It was the mysterious
+European.
+
+With slow steps and bent head he passed by, when, in a low clear voice,
+I accosted him in French.
+
+Startled, he halted, peering towards me; and when I had uttered a few
+reassuring words, telling him that I was his fellow-captive, he came
+towards me, looking half-suspiciously into my face, and enquired my
+name.
+
+I told him who I was, then made a similar enquiry.
+
+"My name is Flatters," he answered in Arabic.  "Thou mayest, perhaps,
+have heard of me in thy wanderings through the Desert?"
+
+"Flatters!"  I cried.  "Art thou Colonel Flatters, the lost explorer
+whom the French have sought these three whole years?"
+
+"The same," he answered, sighing deeply, his arms crossed over his
+breast.  "For three years I have been held captive in this noisome Land
+of Sa."
+
+His tall dark figure stood out against the starlight, his head bowed in
+dejection.  By this brave explorer's exploits the whole world had more
+than once been thrilled.  By his intrepidity and ability to withstand
+the sudden extremes of heat and cold in our Great Desert, the French War
+Department had been enabled to complete their map of the Saharan plains.
+It was he who explored all the hitherto unknown region around El Biodh;
+who discovered and published explanations of the wonderful ruins of
+Tikbaben; who found the Afeli source; who climbed the mountain of
+Iraouen, and penetrated the country of the Ennitra, into which even we
+of the Azjar feared to venture.  Twice he traversed the stony Tinghert
+tableland; but on the third occasion, while in the far south near Lake
+Tsad, he suddenly disappeared, and although the French authorities had
+offered a reward of ten thousand francs to any one who could solve the
+mystery of his death or capture, and had sent two formidable expeditions
+across the desert, with a view of obtaining some tidings of him, all
+efforts had been futile.
+
+Yet he had been here, a prisoner in the hands of these uncanny dwellers
+beneath the earth's surface!
+
+"Hast thou made no attempt to escape?"  I enquired, as he seated himself
+wearily upon a ledge of rock near me.
+
+"Yes," he answered despondently; "but my diaries and geological
+collections have been lost.  All egress from this place is closed.  Yon
+rocks are too sheer and high to be scaled, and the black flood hath
+risen so that there is neither entrance nor exit."
+
+Briefly, I told him the manner in which I found myself in that dark
+cavern with its noisy torrent, and when I had finished he explained the
+manner in which he had disappeared.
+
+"I set forth from Algiers with five European companions, and after
+travelling for nine months along unfrequented paths in the inhospitable
+Ahaggar, found myself at Mount El Aghil alone, all my fellow-travellers
+having died.  Unable to return by the route I had come on account of the
+fierce hostility of the Kel-Rhela, whose vengeance I had narrowly
+escaped, I was compelled to push on still southward through the Air
+country, reaching at last, close to the dried-up course of the
+Igharghar, a large and curious oasis, the earth of which was perfectly
+black and quite soft, contrasting strangely with the dull red sand of
+the surrounding desert.  The vegetation was luxuriant, water-melons grew
+in rich profusion, and in exploring it I discovered, to my astonishment,
+a small but beautiful lake.  About the oasis were large rocks, and in
+one of these I found an opening with curious signs rudely curved at the
+entrance.  They appeared to be the hieroglyphics of some ancient race,
+and their strange character aroused my curiosity.  Unlike any hitherto
+discovered, they were of huge design, representing men, monstrosities,
+and animals of unknown species, yet only superficially outlined,
+apparently with the most inadequate tools.  Not only were they at the
+entrance, but on lighting a torch I found the interior of the cavern
+completely covered by these grotesque drawings; and it was while engaged
+in these interesting investigations that I suddenly stumbled into a
+narrow chasm that had evidently been hidden by dried branches to form a
+pitfall for the unwary.  When I recovered consciousness I, like thyself,
+found myself captive in the hands of these fierce primitive barbarians
+of the nether world."
+
+"But who are they?"  I enquired.  "I have never heard mention of them
+before."
+
+"Nor I," he answered.  "To our world they are as absolutely unknown as
+this mighty subterranean flood.  During my captivity I have managed to
+learn some words of their tongue.  Their gloomy, mysterious region is
+known to them as Sa."
+
+"But the river itself amazes me," I observed.
+
+"True.  Our accidental discoveries have proved an important geographical
+fact hitherto undreamed-of, namely, that the reason the mighty Igharghar
+no longer flows to irrigate the desert is because it has found a
+subterranean channel, and for ages has been still roaring on beneath its
+ancient bed towards the sea."
+
+"Whence, in your opinion, cometh this mysterious river?"  I enquired.
+
+"From Lake Tsad, undoubtedly.  The fish in its waters, although grey and
+sightless, because of the perpetual darkness in which they live, are of
+the same species as those I found in the lake.  The strangest part of my
+adventure is that these people, never having before seen a white man,
+believe me to be some supernatural visitant, and worship me as Sa, their
+principal god."
+
+Then, while he listened attentively, I told him of the cavern where the
+river apparently rushed out into the open air, and suggested that, as a
+desperate and last resource, we might endeavour to escape by plunging
+into the chilly stream and allowing ourselves to be carried forth into
+the unknown.  On due consideration, however, we agreed that this project
+was not feasible, on account of the swollen state of the dark flood, and
+as an alternative resolved to steal one of the canoes and explore the
+upper reaches of the mysterious underground stream.  This decision we
+followed by immediate action.  The explorer, obtaining a roughly
+fashioned hammer of stone from his own little cave, quickly severed my
+fetters, and together we crept out across the small deserted grass-plain
+to where the boats were moored.  In one of them we found paddles,
+torches and spears, and, stepping in, pushed off and shot silently out
+into the darkness.  Ere we had done so, however, we heard a loud ringing
+shout close to the bank.  Our flight had been discovered.
+
+We each seized a paddle and pulled away with all our might against the
+stream.  Quickly we entered the cavern opposite that through which I had
+been conveyed.  The blackness was complete, but we strained every muscle
+in our efforts to propel forward our frail craft.  Soon behind us we
+heard the wild, fierce yells of our pursuers, and knowing that their
+eyes, accustomed to that appalling gloom, could discern objects where we
+of the outer world could detect nothing, we feared lest we might be
+overtaken.  Their angry voices echoed weirdly along the rocky roof, and
+we could hear the violent splashing of their paddles as they sped along
+in our wake.
+
+In this mad dash into the unknown realm of perpetual night we shot
+forward with utter disregard of what dangers lay before.  We knew not,
+from one moment to another, whether we were heading up the great broad
+river, or whether rowing straight towards the rocky sides of the cavern.
+So light and flimsy was our craft that the least collision with a piece
+of jutting rock would have sent us down to depths unfathomable.  At that
+moment we were enveloped by an hundred perils.
+
+To our surprise and profound satisfaction, we at length realised that
+the voices of our irate pursuers were growing fainter.  They had
+evidently mistaken the direction we had taken, therefore we slowed up,
+and presently rested, spent and panting.
+
+I could hear the French officer's hard breathing, but the darkness was
+so intense that we could not see each other.
+
+"We have unconsciously entered a tributary of the main stream," he
+observed, gasping for breath.  "Listen, the sounds are receding.  At
+least for the present we are safe.  Let us rest."
+
+Nothing loth, I bent slowly across my paddle, now and then pulling a few
+strokes to prevent us drifting, and discussing our position in a low
+voice so that no echo should betray our presence.  Thus we remained
+fully half-an-hour, until both of us had refreshed ourselves, then
+together we paddled on swiftly, yet full of caution.  No glimmer of
+light penetrated that dispiriting gloom, and we feared to ignite one of
+our torches.  Toiling forward, the perspiration rolling off us in great
+beads, we still continued pulling against the strong current for several
+hours, until suddenly we saw before us two large shafts of brilliant
+light striking down from above into the water.  Slowly we approached
+lest any of the denizens of Sa should be lurking there; but ere long, as
+we came nearer, our eyes were dazzled by a sight so amazing that
+expressions of wonder involuntarily escaped our parched lips.
+
+In the light before us we saw clearly outlined a colossal face with
+hideous grin, carved from the black rock.  It was truly gigantic,
+marvellously fashioned, with huge ears and an expression absolutely
+demoniacal, the two shafts of bright light issuing forth from the eyes
+giving it an expression of intense ferocity.  We rested on our paddles
+beneath it, and looked up aghast.
+
+"This," cried Colonel Flatters, "must be the god Sa, of whom I have
+heard so much during my sojourn with these people.  He is their
+principal deity, and supposed to be the inexorable guardian of this
+remarkable kingdom."
+
+"See!"  I exclaimed, regarding the extraordinary stone countenance in
+amazement.  "The light from those eyes is sunlight!  They are merely
+holes upon which the sun is shining full!"
+
+And such it proved to be.  Through the round apertures far up above,
+light and air were admitted from the desert.
+
+When at last our vision became accustomed to the welcome rays of light
+we made another bewildering discovery.  The rock descended sheer into
+the black flood, but in little niches which had been rudely fashioned
+lay small heaps of gold ornaments and glittering gems, the sacrifices of
+this stone god's votaries.  Together we pulled our canoe close to the
+rock, taking care that the rapid swirl of the current did not hurl our
+craft against the jagged stones, and with my hand I clutched a heap of
+fine ornaments set with emeralds, pearls, and diamonds.  In the sunlight
+we both examined them, finding they were evidently of very ancient
+manufacture, possibly the spoils of war against some long-forgotten but
+cultured nation.  In workmanship they were similar to the ornaments
+found in the tombs of ancient Egypt; they had evidently never been
+manufactured by the barbarous people into whose possession they had
+passed.
+
+Before us was blackness impenetrable, and upon our ears there broke a
+distant roar, as of a cataract.  The sound appalled us.  If a cataract
+actually lay before, then escape was absolutely hopeless.
+
+But the fact that far above gleamed the sun gave us renewed courage, and
+after some discussion we became convinced that, this colossal face being
+regarded as the guardian of the unexplored country, an exit existed
+there.  After some difficulty we ignited one of our torches, and with it
+stuck in the bows of the canoe, rode backwards and forwards, minutely
+examining the base of the rock.  Once we passed so near that my
+companion was able to secure a handful of gems for himself, and both of
+us secreted these stolen votive offerings about our garments.  The two
+parallel shafts of light from the eyes of the graven monstrosity,
+striking deep into the river, revealed curious fish and water-snakes
+disporting themselves around the boat, while great black bats which had
+come in through the two openings, startled by our presence, circled
+about us ominously with wide-spread flapping wings.
+
+The water glittering beneath the torch's uncertain rays, flowed past so
+swiftly, that we were compelled to continue pulling in order to remain
+abreast of the idol.  Long and earnestly we both searched to find some
+means by which we could reach the two holes that formed the idol's eyes;
+yet they seemed so small that it was questionable whether, even if we
+successfully clambered up the sculptured face, we could squeeze our
+bodies through.  A dozen times we allowed the canoe to drift past, while
+I endeavoured to discover some means by which to reach those glaring
+eyes.  But the bright sunlight dazzled us, and beyond the tiny niches
+filled with jewels there was no other inequality to serve as foothold to
+gain the narrow ledge which formed the lips.  Again, if I made a false
+step I should be instantly swept away by the swirling current, and lost
+for ever in the dark whirling flood.
+
+At length however my companion, muscular and agile, succeeded in
+springing clear of the canoe and gripping one of the small niches,
+tossing the jewels into the water by his frantic efforts.  For an
+instant he struggled, his legs dangling in mid-air; then presently his
+toes found foothold, and he commenced slowly to clamber up the chin of
+the gigantic visage towards a kind of long ledge.  I watched his
+progress breathlessly, not daring to utter a word, but keeping the canoe
+in readiness to row after him if he fell.  With difficulty he ascended,
+clinging on to the face of the rock until he reached the great grinning
+mouth and stood up facing me.
+
+"What do you find?"  I shouted, my voice echoing weirdly.  I had noticed
+that as he glanced along the spot where he stood his face became
+transfixed by horror.
+
+"Follow me!" he replied hoarsely.  "Have a care, a single false step
+means death."
+
+At that instant the boat was passing the spot where he had gripped the
+rock's face, and without hesitation I followed his example and sprang,
+clutching the narrow slippery ledge with both hands.  My feet found a
+resting-place, yet next second a thought which crossed my mind held me
+appalled.  I had omitted to moor the boat.
+
+Over my shoulder I throw a hasty glance.  It had already drifted out of
+sight.
+
+I heard my white companion shouting, but taking no heed toiled on up the
+great face until a strong helping hand gripped mine, and I found myself
+standing beside him upon the narrow ledge forming the lips of the
+hideous countenance.
+
+Next instant, glancing round, my eyes encountered a sight which hold me
+petrified.
+
+A long dark aperture, about the height of myself, formed the mouth, and
+set therein were broad sharp teeth of rusted sword-blades, which
+overlapping, prevented entrance to the cavernous throat.  Twenty blades
+were set in the jaw above and twenty below, forming an impassable
+barrier of razor-edged spikes.  Our only means of escape being cut off
+by the drifting of the canoe, one fact alone remained to give us
+courage.  From where we stood we recognised the utter impossibility of
+passing through, the eyes of the colossus, yet, as together we looked at
+the formidable teeth, we saw a human skeleton lying beneath them.  The
+skull was beyond the row of blades, the legs towards us, proving that
+some means existed by which those jaws could be opened.  The unfortunate
+man had, apparently, been impaled by the descending blades while in the
+act of escaping.
+
+After brief consultation we began an active search to discover the means
+by which the mouth could be opened.  What lay beyond in that dark
+cavernous throat we knew not, though we strained our eyes into the
+blackness, and shook the sharp steel spikes in a vain endeavour to
+loosen them.  For a full hour we searched, discovering nothing to lead
+us to any solution of the problem.  That freedom lay beyond we felt
+convinced, by reason of the light and air from above; but whatever were
+the means employed to raise the deadly jaw they were a secret.  Time
+after time we examined every nook and crevice minutely, until at last,
+when just about to give up our search as futile, I suddenly espied,
+projecting from the river's surface, a short bar of iron, with the
+appearance of a lever.
+
+To reach it was imperative, therefore at imminent risk I let myself
+carefully over the edge of the rock, slowly lowering my body until I
+could grip it.  Beneath my weight it slowly gave way, and next instant
+there was a loud gurgling as of water drawn in by a vacuum, followed
+immediately by a harsh metallic grating sound.
+
+"At last!"  I heard the Colonel cry in French.  "It rises!  Be careful
+how you ascend."
+
+Slowly, and with infinite care, I crept upward, but as I did so I heard
+my companion's echoing footsteps receding into the gloomy throat of Sa,
+yet just as I had gained the ledge forming the lips I heard a piercing
+shriek, followed by a loud splash.
+
+I shouted, but there was no answer.  My companion had stumbled into some
+chasm, and I was alone.  The light of the hideous eyes had died out, and
+the spot was in almost total darkness.  A dozen times I called his name,
+but there was no reassuring reply.  Then, cautiously creeping forward
+upon my hands and knees, fearing the worst, I soon came to the edge of
+an abyss.  Some stones I gathered and flung in.  By the sound of the
+splash I knew the water must be of enormous depth.  There, in that dark
+uncanny spot, had Colonel Flatters, the great explorer, whose
+intrepidity has been for years admired by the world, met his death.
+
+A long time I spent alternately shouting and listening.  He might, I
+reflected, have been saved by falling stunned upon some rocky ledge.
+But I remembered hearing the splash.  No, he had undoubtedly been
+precipitated into the water: the inky flood had closed over him.
+
+After diligent search I found a spot where the abyss ended, and again
+crept forward, still in darkness most intense.  Yet the air seemed
+fresh, and I felt convinced that some outlet must lay beyond.  How long,
+however, I toiled on in that narrow tunnel I know not, save that its
+dampness chilled me; and when at last it widened in ascending, I found
+myself a few minutes afterwards amid brushwood and brambles in the outer
+world.
+
+That night I wandered across the large fertile tract, but could not at
+first recognise it.  When dawn spread, however, I saw around me a ridge
+of dunes that were familiar landmarks, and recognised, to my amazement,
+that I was at the oasis of Am Ohannan, on the direct caravan route that
+runs across the barren Afelele to Touat.
+
+I had travelled nearly seventy miles in a subterranean region unknown to
+man, but in so doing had solved the problem that had so long puzzled
+geographers, the reason why the Igharghar no longer flowed.  Besides, I
+had ascertained the fate of the hapless explorer, whose loss is lamented
+by both Arabs and Roumis to this day.  Within one moon of my escape I
+was enabled to rejoin my people, and when news of my adventure reached
+the Bureau Arabe, in Algiers, I was summoned thither to give a detailed
+account of it before a small assembly of geographers and military
+officers.
+
+This I did, a report of it appearing in English in _The Geographical
+Journal_ a month later.  Of late, several attempts have been made by
+French expeditions to reach that uncanny realm of eternal darkness, but
+without success.  Its entrance beneath the dry cataract of the Igharghar
+is now merely an overflowing well, around which a little herbage has
+grown, while its exit on the Am Ohannan I have unfortunately failed to
+re-discover.  But since this strange adventure I have been known among
+my fellow tribesmen throughout the desert as "El Waci," or The Teacher,
+because I have been enabled to prove to the French the existence of an
+undreamed-of region, and to elucidate the Secret of Sa.
+
+CHAPTER FOUR.
+
+THE THREE DWARFS OF LEBO.
+
+When my beard, now long, scraggy, and grey, was yet soft as silk upon my
+youthful chin, I was sent as spy into Agadez, the mysterious City of the
+Black Sultan.  At that time it was the richest, most zealously guarded,
+and most strongly fortified town in the whole Sahara, and surrounded, as
+it constantly was, by marauding tribes and enemies of all sorts, a
+vigilant watch was kept day and night, and woe betide any stranger found
+within its colossal walls, for the most fiendish of tortures that the
+mind of man could devise was certain to be practised upon him, and his
+body eventually given to the hungry dogs at the city gate.
+
+In order, however, to ascertain its true strength and the number of its
+garrison, I, as one of the younger and more adventurous of our clansmen,
+was chosen by Tamahu, our Sheikh, to enter and bring back report to our
+encampment in the rocky fastness of the Tignoutin.  Therefore I removed
+my big black veil, assumed the white haik and burnouse of the
+Beni-Mansour, a peaceful tribe further north, and contrived to be
+captured as slave by a party of raiding Ennitra who were encamped by the
+well of Tafidet, five miles from the capital of Ahir.  As I had
+anticipated, I was soon taken to the City of the Black Sultan, and there
+sold in the slave-market, first becoming the property of a Jew merchant,
+then of Hanaza, the Grand Vizier of the Sultan.  As personal slave of
+this high official I was lodged within the palace, or Fada, that
+veritable city within a city, containing as it did nearly three thousand
+inhabitants, over one thousand of whom were inmates of his Majesty's
+harem.
+
+In the whole of Africa, no monarch, not even the Moorish Lord of the
+Land of the Maghrib, was housed so luxuriously as this half-negro
+conqueror of the Asben.  When first I entered the Fada as slave, I was
+struck by the magnificence of the wonderful domain.  As I crossed court
+after court, each more beautiful than the one before, and each devoted
+to a separate department of the royal household, the guards, the
+janissaries, the treasurer, the armourers, and the eunuchs, I was amazed
+at every turn by their magnificence and beauty.  At last we came to the
+court of the Grand Vizier, a smaller but prettier place, with a cool,
+plashing fountain tiled in blue and white, and shaded by figs, myrtles,
+and trailing vines.  Beyond, I could see an arched gateway in the black
+wall, before which stood two giant negro guards in bright blue, their
+drawn swords flashing in the sun.  Of my conductor I enquired whither
+that gate led, and was told it was impassable to all save the Sultan
+himself, for it was the gate of the Courts of Love, the entrance to the
+royal harem.
+
+Through the many months during which I served my capricious master, that
+closed, iron-studded door, zealously guarded night and day by its mute
+janissaries with their curved scimitars, was a constant source of
+mystery to me.  Often I sat in the courtyard and dreamed of the thousand
+terrible dramas which that ponderous door hid from those outside that
+world of love, hatred, and all the fiercest passions of the human heart.
+The Sultan was fickle and capricious.  The favourite of to-day was the
+discarded of to-morrow.  The bright-eyed houri who, loaded with jewels,
+could twist her master round her finger one day, was the next the merest
+harem slave, compelled to wash the feet of the woman who had succeeded
+her in her royal master's favour.  Truly the harem of the Sultan of the
+Ahir was a veritable hotbed of intrigue, where ofttimes the innocent
+victims of jealousy were cast alive to the wild beasts, or compelled to
+partake of the Cup of Death--coffee wherein chopped hair had been
+placed--a draught that was inevitably fatal.
+
+One brilliant night, when the silver moonbeams whitened the court
+wherein I lived, I sat in the deep shadow of the oleanders, sad and
+lonely.  Through six long dreary months had I been held slave by the
+Grand Vizier, yet it was Allah's will that I should have no opportunity
+to return to my people.  So I possessed myself in patience.  Through
+those months mine eyes and ears had been ever on the alert, and long ago
+I had completed my investigations.  Suddenly my reflections were
+interrupted, for I saw standing before me a veritable vision of beauty,
+a pale-faced girl in the gorgeous costume of the harem, covered with
+glittering jewels, and wearing the tiny fez, pearl-embroidered zouave,
+and filmy _serroual_ of the Sultan's favourites.  Not more than
+eighteen, her unveiled countenance was white as any Englishwoman's; her
+startled eyes were bright as the moonbeams above, and as she stood mute
+and trembling before me, her bare, panting bosom, half-covered by her
+long, dark tresses, rose and fell quickly.  I raised my eyes, and saw
+that the negro guards were sleeping.  She had escaped from the Courts of
+Love.
+
+"Quick!" she gasped, terrified.  "Hide me, while there is yet time."
+
+At her bidding I rose instantly, for her wondrous beauty held me as
+beneath some witch's spell.  And at the same time I led the way to my
+tiny den, a mere hole in the gigantic wall that separated the royal
+harem from the outer courts of the palace.
+
+"My name is Zohra," she explained, when she had entered; "and thine?"--
+she paused for an instant, looking me straight in the face.  "Of a
+verity," she added at length, "thine is Ahamadou, the spy of the dreaded
+Azjar, the Veiled Men."
+
+I started, for I had believed my secret safe.
+
+"What knowest thou of me?"  I gasped eagerly.
+
+"That thou hast risked all in order to report to thy people upon the
+Black Sultan's strength," she answered, sinking upon my narrow divan,
+throwing back her handsome head and gazing into my eyes.  "But our
+interests are mutual.  I have these ten months been held captive, and
+desire to escape.  By bribing one of the slaves with the Sultan's ring I
+contrived to have poison placed in the kouss-kouss of the guards--"
+
+"You have killed them!"  I cried, peering forth, and noticing the
+ghastly look upon their faces as they slept at their posts.
+
+"It was the only way," she answered, shrugging her shoulders.  "To
+obtain me the Sultan's men murdered my kinsmen, and put our village to
+the sword.  Mine is but a mild revenge."
+
+"Of what tribe art thou?"  I enquired eagerly, detecting in her soft
+sibillations an accent entirely unfamiliar.
+
+"I am of the Kel-Oui, and was born at Lebo."
+
+"At Lebo!"  I cried eagerly.  "Then thou knowest of the Three Dwarfs of
+Lebo?"
+
+"Yea.  And furthermore I have learnt their secret, a secret which shall
+be thine alone in return for safe conduct to my people."
+
+"But my clansmen are in deadly feud with thine," I observed
+reflectively.
+
+"Does that affect thy decision?" she enquired in a tone of reproach.
+
+I reflected, and saw how utterly impossible it seemed that I myself
+could escape the vigilance of these ever-watchful guards of the many
+gates which lay between myself and freedom.  I glanced at the frail girl
+lying upon my poor ragged divan, her girdle and throat blazing with
+jewels, and felt my heart sink within me.
+
+"Thou thinkest that because I am a woman I have no courage," she
+observed, her keen eyes reading my secret thoughts.  "But hist! listen!"
+
+I held my breath, and as I did so the footsteps of men fell upon the
+flags of the courtyard.  We peered forth through the chink in the wooden
+shutter, which at night closed my window, and saw two men carrying a
+bier, followed by two gigantic negro eunuchs.  Upon the bier was a body
+covered by a cloth; and as it passed we both caught sight of
+gay-coloured silks and lace.  Below the black pall a slim white hand,
+sparkling with diamonds, moved convulsively, and as the _cortege_
+passed, a low stifling cry reached us--the despairing cry of a woman.
+
+"All!" gasped my companion, dismayed.  "It is Zulaimena!  Yesterday she
+ruled the harem, but this morning it was whispered into our lord's ear
+that she had tried to poison him, and he condemned her and myself to be
+given alive to the alligators," and she shuddered at thought of the fate
+which awaited her if detected.
+
+Conversing only in whispers, we waited till the palace was hushed in
+sleep.  Then, when she had attired herself in one of my old
+serving-dresses and bound her hair tightly, we crept cautiously out into
+the moonlit court.  Over the horse-shoe arch of the harem-gate the
+single light burned yellow and faint, while on either side the guards
+crouched, their dead fingers still grasping their ponderous scimitars.
+All was still, therefore quietly and swiftly we passed into the Court of
+the Treasury, and thence into that of the Eunuchs.  Here we were
+instantly challenged by two guards with drawn swords, clansmen of those
+who lay dead at the harem-gate.
+
+"Whence goest thou?" they both enquired with one voice, suddenly
+awakened from gazing mutely at the stars, their blades flashing in the
+moonbeams.
+
+"Our master, the Grand Vizier, has had an apoplexy, and is dying!"  I
+cried, uttering the first excuse that rose to my lips.  "Let not his
+life be upon thine heads, for we go forth to seek the court physician
+Ibrahim."
+
+"Speed on the wings of haste!" they cried.  "May the One Merciful have
+compassion upon him!"
+
+Thus we passed onward, relating the same story at each gate, and being
+accorded the same free passage, until at last we came to an enormous
+steel-bound door which gave exit into the city; the gate which was
+closed and barred by its ponderous bolts at the _maghrib_ hour, and
+opened not until dawn save for the dark faced Sultan himself.
+
+Here I gave exactly the same account of our intentions to the captain of
+the guard.  He chanced to be a friend of my master's, and was greatly
+concerned when I vividly described his critical condition.
+
+"Let the slaves pass!"  I heard him cry a moment later, and, with a loud
+creaking, the iron-studded door which had resisted centuries of siege
+and battle, slowly swung back upon its creaking hinges.  At that
+instant, however, a prying guard raised his lantern and held it close to
+my companion's face.
+
+"By the Prophet's beard, a woman!" he cried aloud, starting back, an
+instant later.  "We are tricked!"
+
+"Seize them!" commanded the captain, and in a moment three guards threw
+themselves upon us.  Swift as thought I drew my keen _jambiyah_, my
+trusty knife which I had ever carried in my sash throughout my
+captivity, and plunged it into the heart of the first man who laid hands
+upon me, while a second later the man who gripped Zohra, received a cut
+full across his broad negro features which for ever spoilt his beauty.
+Then, with a wild shout to my companion to follow, I dashed forward and
+ran for my life.
+
+Lithe and agile as a gazelle in the desert she sped on beside me along
+the dark crooked silent streets.  In a few minutes the tragedy of the
+harem-gate would be discovered, and every effort would be then made to
+recapture the eloping favourite of the brutal Black Sultan.  We knew
+well that if captured both of us would be given alive to the alligators,
+a punishment too terrible to contemplate.  But together we sped on, our
+pace quickened by the fiendish yells of our pursuers, until doubling in
+a maze of narrow crooked streets, we succeeded at last, with Allah
+directing our footsteps, in evading the howling guards and gaining one
+of the four gates of the city, where the same story as we had told in
+the Fada resulted in the barrier being opened for us, and a moment later
+we found ourselves in the wild, barren plain, at that hour lying white
+beneath the brilliant moon.  We paused not, however, to admire
+picturesque effects, but strode boldly forward, eager to put as great a
+distance as possible between ourselves and the stronghold of the Ahir,
+ere the dawn.
+
+Fortunately my bright-eyed fellow-fugitive was well acquainted with the
+country around Agadez, therefore we were enabled to journey by
+untravelled paths; but the three days we spent in that burning
+inhospitable wilderness, ere we reached the well where we obtained our
+first handful of dates and slaked our thirst, were among the most
+terrible of any I have experienced during my many wanderings over the
+sandy Saharan waste.
+
+On that evening when the mysterious horizon was ablaze with the fiery
+sunset, and I had turned my face to the Holy Ca'aba, I was dismayed to
+discover that, instead of travelling towards the country of her people,
+the Kel-Oui, we had struck out in an entirely different direction, but
+when I mentioned it she merely replied--
+
+"I promised, in return for thine assistance, to lead thee unto the Three
+Dwarfs of Lebo, the secret of which none know save myself.  Ere three
+suns have set thine eyes shall witness that which will amaze thee."
+
+Next day we trudged still forward into a stony, almost impenetrable
+country, utterly unknown to me, and two days later, having ascended a
+rocky ridge, my conductress suddenly halted almost breathless, her tiny
+feet sadly cut by the sharp stones notwithstanding the wrappings I had
+placed about them, and pointing before her, cried--
+
+"Behold!  The Three Dwarfs!"
+
+Eagerly I strained mine eyes in the direction indicated, and there
+discerned in the small oasis below, about an hour's march distant, three
+colossal pyramids of rock of similar shape to those beside the Nile.
+
+"Yon fertile spot was Lebo until ten years ago, when the men of the
+Black Sultan came and destroyed it, and took its inhabitants as slaves,"
+she explained.  "See!  From here thou canst distinguish the white walls
+of the ruins gleaming amongst the palms.  We of the Kel-Oui had lived
+here since the days of the Prophet, until our enemies of the Ahir
+conquered us.  But let us haste forward, and I will impart unto thee the
+secret I have promised."
+
+Together we clambered down over the rocks and gained the sandy plain, at
+last reaching the ruined and desolate town where the cracked
+smoke-stained walls were half overgrown by tangled masses of greenery,
+welcome in that sunbaked wilderness, and presently came to the base of
+the first of the colossal monuments of a past and long-forgotten age.
+They were built of blocks of dark grey granite, sadly chipped and worn
+at the base, but higher up still well preserved, having regard to the
+generations that must have arisen and passed since the hands that built
+them crumbled to dust.
+
+"By pure accident," explained the bright-faced girl when together we
+halted to gaze upward, "I discovered the secret of these wonders of
+Lebo.  Thou hast, by thy lion's courage, saved my life, therefore unto
+thee is due the greatest reward that I can offer thee.  Two years ago I
+fell captive in the hands of thy people, the Azjar, over in the
+Tinghert, and it was by thine own good favour I was released.  That is
+why I recognised thee in the palace of Agadez.  Now once again I owe my
+freedom unto thee; therefore, in order that the months thou hast spent
+in Agadez shall not be wholly wasted, I will reveal unto thee the secret
+which I have always withheld from mine own people."
+
+Then, taking my hand, she quickly walked along the base of the giant
+structure until she came to the corner facing the direction of the
+sunrise; then, counting her footsteps, she proceeded with care, stopping
+at last beneath the sloping wall, and examining the ground.  At her feet
+was a small slab, hidden by the red sand of the desert, which she
+removed, drawing from beneath it a roll of untanned leopard-hide.  This
+she unwrapped carefully, displaying to my gaze a worn and tattered
+parchment, once emblazoned in blue and gold, but now sadly faded and
+half illegible.
+
+I examined it eagerly, and found it written in puzzling hieroglyphics,
+such as I had never before seen.
+
+"Our marabout Ahman, who was well versed in the language of the
+ancients, deciphered this for me only a few hours before his death.  It
+is the testimony of the great Lebo, king of all the lands from the
+southern shore of Lake Tsad to the Congo, and founder of the Kel-Oui
+nation, now, alas! so sadly fallen from their high estate.  The
+parchment states plainly that Lebo, having conquered and despoiled the
+Ethiopians in the last year of his reign, gathered together all the
+treasure and brought it hither to this spot, which bore his name, in
+that day a gigantic walled city larger by far than Agadez."
+
+I glanced around upon the few miserable ruins of mud-built houses, and
+saw beyond them large mounds which, in themselves, indicated that the
+foundations of an important centre of a forgotten civilisation lay
+buried beneath where we stood.
+
+"Lebo had one son," continued Zohra, "and he had revolted against his
+father; therefore the latter, feeling that his strength was failing, and
+having been told by the sorcerers that on his death his great kingdom
+would dwindle until his name became forgotten, resolved to build these
+three pyramids, that they should remain throughout all ages as monuments
+of his greatness."
+
+"And the treasure?"  I asked.  "Is it stated what became of it?"
+
+"Most precisely.  It is recorded here," she answered, pointing to a
+half-defaced line in the mysterious screed.  "The king feared lest his
+refractory son, who had endeavoured to usurp his power in the country
+many marches farther south, would obtain possession of the spoils of
+war, therefore he concealed them in one of yonder monuments."
+
+"In there!"  I cried eagerly.  "Is the treasure actually still there?"
+
+"It cannot have been removed.  The secret lies in the apex of the third
+and lastly constructed monument," she explained.
+
+"But the summit cannot be reached," I observed, glancing up at the high
+point.  "It would require a ladder as long as that of Jacob's dream."
+
+"There is a secret way," she answered quite calmly.  "If thou art
+prepared for the risk, I am quite ready to accompany thee.  Let us at
+once explore."
+
+Together we approached the base of the third pyramid, and Zohra, after
+careful calculation and examination, led me to a spot where there was a
+hole in the stone just of sufficient size to admit a human foot.  One
+might have passed it by unnoticed, for so cunningly was it devised that
+it looked like a natural defect in the block of granite.
+
+"Behold!" she cried.  "Climb, and I will follow."
+
+The day was hot, and the sun had only just passed the noon, nevertheless
+I placed my foot in the burning stone, and scrambling forward found that
+she had made no mistake.  At intervals there were similar footholds,
+winding, intricate, and in many instances filled with the nests of
+vultures, but always ascending.  For fully half an hour we toiled upward
+to the apex, until we at length reached it, perspiring and panting, and
+minutely examined the single enormous block of stone that capped the
+summit.  By its size I saw that no human hands could move it.  If the
+treasure lay beneath, then it must remain for ever concealed.
+
+"That parchment giveth no instructions how the spoils of war may be
+reached.  We must discover that for ourselves," she observed, clambering
+on, still in her ragged male attire with which I had furnished her
+before leaving the stronghold of the Black Sultan.
+
+I was clinging with one arm around the apex itself, and with the other
+grasping her soft white hand.  She had looked down from the dizzy height
+and shuddered, therefore I feared lest she might be seized with a sudden
+giddiness.  But quickly she released herself, and proceeded to scramble
+along on hands and knees, making a minute investigation of the wall.
+
+Her sudden cry brought me quickly to her side, and my heart leapt wildly
+when I discerned before me, in the wall of the pyramid, immediately at
+the base of the gigantic block forming the apex, an aperture closed by a
+sheet of heavy iron, coloured exactly the same as the stone and quite
+indistinguishable from it.  Some minutes we spent in its examination,
+beating upon it with our fists.  But the secret how to open it was an
+enigma as great as that of the closed cavern in our book of the
+"Thousand Nights and a Night," until suddenly, by merest chance, we both
+placed our hands upon it, and it moved slightly beneath our touch.  Next
+moment, with a cry, we both pushed our hardest, and slowly, ever so
+slowly, it slid along, grating in the groove, which was doubtless filled
+by the dust of centuries, disclosing a small, dark, low chamber roofed
+by the apex-stone.
+
+Stepping inside, our gaze eagerly wandered around the mysterious place,
+and we at once saw that we had indeed discovered the treasure-house of
+Lebo the Great, for around us were piled a wondrous store of gold and
+gems, personal ornaments and great golden goblets and salvers.  The
+aggregate value of the treasure was enormous.
+
+"Of a verity," I cried, "this is amazing!"
+
+"Yea," she answered, turning her fine eyes upon me.  "I give this secret
+entirely and unreservedly unto thee, as reward for thine aid.  At the
+going down of the sun I shall part from thee, and leave this home of my
+race for ever.  In six hours' march, by the secret gorges, I can reach
+our encampment, therefore trouble no further after me.  Close this
+treasure-house, return to thine own people, and let them profit by thy
+discovery."
+
+"But thou, Zohra, boldest me in fascination," I cried passionately.
+"Thou hast entranced me.  I love thee!"
+
+"Love can never enter mine heart," she answered with a calm smile, but
+sighing nevertheless.  "I am already the wife of thine enemy, Melaki,
+ruler of the Kel-Oui."
+
+"Wife of Melaki!"  I exclaimed amazed.  "And thou hast done this?"
+
+"Yes," she answered in a lower voice.  "I have given thee thy promised
+reward, so that thou and thy people may become rich, and some day make
+brotherhood with us, and unite against the Black Sultan."
+
+"If such is in my power it shall be done," I said, stooping and
+imprinting a passionate kiss upon her soft white hand.  Then soon
+afterwards we closed the mouth of the chamber and descended, finding the
+task no easy one.  At the base of the "Dwarf" we parted, and never since
+have mine eyes beheld her beautiful countenance.
+
+Ere a moon had passed away, I had conducted a party of my clansmen unto
+the Three Dwarfs, and we had removed the treasure of the great founder
+of the Kel-Oui.  Of such quantity was it that seven camels were required
+to convey it to Mourzouk, where it was sold to the Jews in the market,
+and fetched a sum which greatly swelled our finances.
+
+True to my promise, when I assumed the chieftainship of the Azjar, I
+effected a friendly alliance with the Kel-Oui, and endeavoured to seek
+out Zohra.
+
+But with poignant grief I learnt that soon after her return to her
+people she had been seized by a mysterious illness which proved fatal.
+Undoubtedly she was poisoned, for it was her evil-faced husband, Melaki,
+who told me how he had found in her possession a mysterious screed
+relating to the treasure of Lebo, and how, when questioned, she had
+admitted revealing its secret to the man who had rescued her from the
+harem of the Black Sultan.
+
+Melaki never knew that the man with whom she fled from Agadez, and who
+loved her more devotedly than any other man had ever done, was myself.
+
+CHAPTER FIVE.
+
+THE COMING OF ALLAH.
+
+One breathless evening, when the golden sun had deepened to crimson, and
+the shadows of the rocks were lengthening upon the white furnace of the
+sands, an alarm spread through our camp that strange horsemen were
+riding hard down the valley in our direction.  Marauders that we were,
+fierce reprisals were of no infrequent occurrence, therefore the women
+and children were quickly hurried out of the way, the camels tethered,
+and each man gripped his spear, prepared to resist whatever onslaught
+might be made.
+
+Along the Wady Ereren, six days' march south of the town of Ghat, where
+we were at that time encamped, we had taken the precaution to post three
+men in order to give us warning in case of any projected attack by the
+Kel-Alkoum, the powerful people with whom we were at feud on account of
+the murder of six of our clansmen up in the north of Fezzan.  Our
+outposts, however, had sent us no word, therefore the only conclusion
+was that they had been surprised and killed ere they could reach us.
+
+Hearing the news, I clambered up the bank of the ancient dried-up
+watercourse, in the bed of which we had pitched our tents, and, looking
+across the bend, we saw four dark specks approaching.  The eye of the
+Touareg is as keen as that of the eagle, for, living as we do upon
+plunder, our intelligence becomes so sharpened that we somehow
+instinctively scent the approach of the stranger long before we see or
+hear him.  In a few moments the men crowded about me for my opinion.
+Tamahu was dead, and this occurred in the first year of my chieftainship
+of the Azjar.
+
+"Let all four be captured and brought to me," I said, my eyes still
+fixed upon the approaching figures.  "If they resist, kill them."
+
+In an instant twenty men, dark and forbidding in their black veils,
+sprang into their high-backed brass-mounted saddles, and with their
+gleaming spears held high, ready to strike, swept away down the valley
+to meet the new-comers.
+
+Half an hour passed anxiously.  The women in the rear chattered
+excitedly, and the children, held back by them, rent the air by their
+cries.  From where I stood I was unable to witness the meeting of our
+men with the strangers, but suddenly the sound of firearms reached our
+ears.  Then I felt assured that the mysterious horsemen must either be
+the advance-guard of some valuable caravan from Algeria, or of an army
+from the north.  Yet again and again the guns spoke forth, and so
+rapidly that I feared for the safety of our men; but at last there was
+silence deep and complete, and when I descended to the camp I found a
+tumultuous excitement prevailing.  The four men, escorted by those who
+had gone to arrest them, were still carrying their guns, and as they
+slipped from their saddles before me, smiles broadened their unveiled
+faces.
+
+I looked at them puzzled.  It seemed as though the firing had been but
+powder-play.
+
+"Behold!  O Ahamadou, our Sheikh!  We are thy kinsmen, yet thou hast
+sent to attack us!" they exclaimed.
+
+"Our kinsmen!"  I cried, noticing that they wore the white burnouse of
+the north, with their _haicks_ held around their heads by ropes of
+twisted camel's hair.  They wore no veils, and a Touareg is
+unrecognisable, even to his relatives, if his black _litham_ be removed.
+
+"Yea," cried one, the elder of the four.  "Lend us a veil, and we will
+show thee."
+
+A strip of black cotton cloth was thrust into his hand by one of the
+crowd, and he assumed it, twisting it deftly as only a Touareg can.
+Then he turned and faced the onlookers, who with one accord laughed
+immoderately, hailing him as Taghma, son of Ifafan.  Then the other
+three assumed the veil, and were, one by one, recognised and received
+back by their relatives.
+
+At the conclusion of this strange ceremony, Taghma turned to me
+explaining how long ago before Ramadan they had wandered afar with their
+flocks to the oasis of Ezirer, and were there taken captives by the
+Kel-Alkoum.
+
+"But," he added, "we have seen with our eyes the greatest wonder on
+earth.  Allah himself hath come down from heaven!"
+
+"What?"  I cried, starting to my feet.  "Thou liest!"  The sensation
+caused by the man's calm announcement was intense.
+
+"If my tongue uttereth falsehood, O Sheikh! then let it be cut out," he
+said.  "I have seen Allah, the One.  He guideth the Kel-Alkoum our
+enemies, and we are of a verity forsaken."
+
+"Ah!" wailed the old marabout Ajrab.  "Did I not warn ye that because of
+your inattention to your devotions and your neglect to say the five
+prayers, the One Merciful would leave you to perish and be eaten by the
+vultures like the lame camel in the wilderness?"
+
+"Loose not thy tongue's strings," I commanded quickly.  "Let us hearken
+unto Taghma, who hath seen the One from above."
+
+"Of a verity, O Ahamadou!" answered the escaped captive, "we are lost,
+for Allah hath promised to render assistance unto the people he favoured
+in their expeditions.  He declareth that we, of the Touaregs, are the
+parasites of the earth, and that we shall be exterminated, not one being
+left.  Truly he can render our spears as broken reeds, and our blades as
+useless as rusted tin.  Each day at the _maghrib_ he standeth beneath a
+baldachin of purple and giveth the people an assurance of his favour,
+while all fall down and kiss the hem of his crimson garment so that they
+may be blessed.  In Salemma, El Had, El Guerat, and the villages around
+Gatron, he hath healed the sick and performed wondrous miracles, while
+before our own eyes hath he caused a great tree to rise from the bare
+sand--a marvel which no earthly being could accomplish."
+
+"The latter thou hast thyself seen?"  I enquired, much interested in
+this most remarkable statement.
+
+"We have, O Sheikh!" he answered.  "The face of Allah is in the darkness
+as a shining light.  Verily the promise in the _sura_ is fulfilled.  He
+hath come in person to lead the Faithful unto conquest."
+
+Alone I sat in my tent that night, smoking and pondering deeply over the
+strange report.  In the camp the excitement had already risen to
+fever-heat.  The aged Ajrab was addressing the crowd of men and women,
+urging them to earnest supplication.  Allah had come, and would vent his
+wrath upon those who had discarded His Book of Everlasting Will.  From
+my divan I could hear the grey-bearded marabout's declaratory argument,
+and began to wonder whether the statement that Allah had descended upon
+earth had any foundation in fact.  I confess to being sceptical.  From
+the wailing of the women, and the low growls of the men, I knew plainly
+that the belief in the report must have a seriously disheartening effect
+upon our fighting men, who, if convinced that Allah assisted their
+enemies, would no doubt throw down their arms and flee.
+
+I therefore saw that the statement of Taghma and his companions must be
+investigated, and after deep thought at length resolved to assume a
+disguise, and go myself to the camp of the Kel-Alkoum and see the
+miracles of which the men had spoken.  To leave the Azjar without its
+Sheikh at such a time would, I knew, result disastrously; therefore,
+calling together the marabout and three of the most trusted headmen, I
+secretly explained to them my intention, and told them to account for my
+non-appearance during the next few days by spreading the report that I
+was seized by a slight fever and confined to my tent.
+
+Then just before the waning of the moon, the dress that Taghma had worn
+was brought to me, and, assuming it, I mounted a fleet horse and set
+forth alone down the winding wady.
+
+With the facts I had elicited from the four fugitives vivid within my
+mind, I journeyed forward, arriving ten days later in the little
+stone-built town of Zemnou, a cluster of white houses surrounding its
+small mosque capped by three thin whitewashed minarets.  Wearing as I
+did the correct garb of a tribesman of the Kel-Alkoum, my presence was
+unnoticed, and I was therefore enabled to stroll about the market-places
+and make my observations while pretending to bargain for goods I had no
+intention of purchasing.
+
+At sunset each day, when the voice of the _mueddin_ sounded from the
+minaret, "Allah is great!"  I crossed to the mosque, washed my feet in
+the marble basin and entered, in the expectation of seeing the Ruler of
+Earth, but was each day disappointed.  At that hour the surrounding
+terraces were peopled with white forms, which stood out against the
+summits of the palm-trees and the green of the baobab.  Their backs were
+turned to the purple splendours of the dying light, for their faces
+looked towards the already darkened east, lighted for us by that eternal
+light in which Mecca is to be found.  At length, after a week had
+elapsed, a great and excited crowd gathered in the market, and, when I
+enquired its reason, I learned that Allah was coming.
+
+For an hour we waited in the full glare of the noon-day sun, until
+suddenly a shout of joy arose, and all fell upon their knees in
+adoration.  Then, lifting my eyes, I witnessed for the first time the
+One Merciful in the flesh.  Truly Taghma had not lied.  He was of
+middle-age, a trifle pale, but his dark eyes had a kindly, sympathetic
+look, and his countenance was open and bright, a face such as is never
+seen on earth.  In his robe of blood-red he stood with his head
+uncovered, and while the people about him kissed his feet and the hem of
+his robe, he stretched forth both hands over them, pronouncing upon them
+his blessing and an assurance of his favour.
+
+One fact, however, struck me as curious.  Abreha, the Sheikh, stood
+aloof, with arms folded, watching the scene from beneath his shaggy
+brows.  The glare in his keen eye told me that within his heart he
+concealed a fierce jealousy that his power had thus been eclipsed.
+
+The people, frantic with joy at the words of the Giver of all Good
+Gifts, cried aloud their praises, repeating their _fatihat_, and making
+open declaration of their belief.  The scene was the strangest and most
+exciting that ever I had witnessed, for, carried away by their
+enthusiasm, many fell fainting, and were trampled upon by the crowd
+eagerly struggling to press Allah's garment to their lips, and obtain
+the remission of all past sins.
+
+Suddenly the tall, erect, imposing figure in blood-red, truly kingly,
+raised both arms above his head, and, in a clear voice that echoed
+across the market above the clamours of the wild perspiring crowd,
+commanded silence.  In an instant one could have heard a cricket chirp.
+Every mouth was open in breathless eagerness, for Allah was about to
+speak to them, his chosen, with his own lips.
+
+"Give ear, O my well-beloved!" he cried, with an accent unfamiliar.
+"Among ye have I come because ye have repeated your _suras_ faithfully,
+and have believed in my Prophet.  Of a verity will I bless you with
+abundant blessings, and the sun of my favour shall shine upon you so
+that your enemies may wither before the dazzling light shed by your
+faces.  You, the Kel-Alkoum, my beloved, shall sweep from the face of
+the earth the wicked who have oppressed you, and their entrails will be
+burned by the all-consuming fire of my vengeance.  The Touaregs, those
+who hide their faces in veils because of the hideousness of their
+iniquities, shalt thou put to the sword, and they shall be consigned to
+the place Al-Hawiyat, where their food shall be offal, and melting pitch
+shall slake their thirst.  I am thy leader, henceforward fear not, for
+thou hast a stronger hand than all nations of the earth, and at my will
+all who oppose thee shall be routed and die.  The Kel-Alkoum, my chosen,
+shall rule the world."
+
+He paused, and glanced round with an eye keen as a falcon's, while loud
+praises arose from every hoarse throat around.
+
+"We will rout the Azjar from their mountain fastnesses!" they cried.
+"We are ready at any moment to do thy bidding, and sweep away the
+wicked.  Thou wilt give strength to our arms that none can resist.  Be
+praised, O King of earth and heaven!  Be praised, O One!"
+
+A smile of satisfaction played about the lips of the red-robed visitant
+from the unknown; but, without further word, he turned and stalked
+slowly to the mosque, the excited crowd closing in behind him, rending
+the air with their adulatory cries.
+
+Throughout many days I remained in Zemnou.  Once I saw the mysterious
+visitant pass in the darkness, and truly his luminous face shone like a
+lamp.  One morning, however, while wandering among the palms outside the
+town, I met the Ruler of Earth walking alone, his head sunk upon his
+breast in pensive attitude.  With his red cloak trailing heedlessly in
+the dust, he presented a decidedly dejected appearance.  My footsteps
+startled him, and, raising his head quickly, he walked erect with his
+usual gait, apparently being desirous of concealing his melancholy.
+
+"Praise!"  I exclaimed, stopping, and bowing low before him.  "If thou
+art, indeed, Allah, thou alone knowest the innermost thoughts of thy
+servant."
+
+He paused, and stretched both his white tapering hands above my bowed
+head.
+
+"Thy thoughts are of me," he answered.  "Thou desirest speech with me
+alone.  Speak."
+
+So calmly he looked upon me that I was convinced that such a kindly,
+sympathetic face, with its expression of a sweet sadness, could not be
+human.  Besides, had he not healed the sick, and caused trees to grow
+from out the desert sand?  Yet a spirit of scepticism possessed me, and,
+scarcely knowing what words I uttered, I said--
+
+"If thou art the mighty and wise One thou canst tell me my name, and
+whence I have come."
+
+In an instant his brows knit, and his eyes flashed angrily.
+
+"Thou art an unbeliever, and one of my accursed.  Thou, who darest to
+question my immutability and omnipotence, go dwell with Eblis, Ruler of
+Darkness, where maleficient spirits shall haunt thee, and the tortures
+of the flesh shall rend thee for ever.  Begone!"
+
+And drawing his robe about his shoulders, he moved forward with truly
+imperial gait.
+
+At that moment I saw through the trees a pious fanatical crowd
+approaching.  The news had evidently spread that the All-merciful was
+walking in the outskirts of the town, and they had come forth to touch
+his garments and receive his blessing.  But when he saw them he halted,
+and, pointing towards me, cried--
+
+"Lo!  Yonder is one of the sons of Eblis, a scoffer and unbeliever.  Let
+his body be given to the dogs."
+
+Ere I could realise that the kind-faced man had condemned me to death,
+the mob, with loud yells of execration, rushed forward to seize me, and
+hurry me to an ignominious end.  But in an instant I dashed in among the
+trees, and fled for life so quickly that I at length managed to
+out-distance my irate pursuers, and till evening I slept beneath the
+shadow of a rock.  Then, determined to speak again with the Almighty
+One, I returned into the town, taking the precaution to purchase new
+garments to prevent recognition.
+
+The All-powerful had aroused further suspicion within me by his
+embarrassment when I had questioned him, and by his anxiety that I
+should be killed ere I could utter denunciation.  Without doubt, he
+possessed a mixture of firmness and independence which raised him above
+all prejudices, for he expressed his opinions to Abreha, the Sheikh,
+with the same frankness he employed towards the humblest tribesman;
+nevertheless, when we had spoken, I had detected a dramatic pose and an
+artificiality of manner which puzzled me.  Again, at the moment when I
+had addressed him, I had noticed, walking at some little distance behind
+him, a young girl of extreme beauty.  She was unveiled, in the manner of
+the Kel-Alkoum, but somehow her face struck me as familiar, and I
+desired to again behold her.  With that object I resumed my former
+quarters in the market-place, and kept watchful vigil.  Next morning she
+came.  Her face was paler than before, and it wore an anxious, terrified
+expression.  I inquired who she was, and was told that to all she was a
+mystery.  Whence she came no man knew, but Allah had declared her to be
+one of his chosen, hence none molested her, or made enquiry.
+
+I smiled, for I had recognised her.  She was Mezouda, daughter of one of
+our fighting men, who had been long ago captured by the Kel-Oui, and
+whose whereabouts had remained unknown.
+
+An hour later I contrived to have secret speech with her.  At first she
+did not recognise me, but when I told her who I was, then she at once
+expressed her eagerness to return to her own people.
+
+"Thou shalt return to our camp only on one condition, namely, that thou
+wilt induce that man known as Allah to accompany thee," I answered.  "He
+is thy friend."
+
+"But the Kel-Alkoum are his well-beloved," she said, using the same
+expression he so often used.
+
+"He must forsake them," I observed, explaining to her the baneful effect
+the report had exercised upon our men of the Azjar.
+
+But she shook her head.  "No, he will not leave the Kel-Alkoum.  He is
+already their ruler," she said.  "The power of Abreha is now fast
+waning."
+
+"Take me to him," I commanded.
+
+"But his house is a holy place.  None dare enter on penalty of being
+cast out for ever."
+
+"I will risk it," I answered.  "Guide thither my footsteps."
+
+Reluctantly she led me through a number of narrow crooked streets, until
+she paused before a small mud-built hut, and pointed to it.
+
+Without ceremony I pushed open its closed door, and, entering, discerned
+the great King, half-dressed, standing before a scrap of broken mirror
+combing his beard.  His face and neck were brown, so were his hands, but
+his breast and arms were white!  The sympathetic countenance and
+tapering fingers were ingeniously stained to match the colour of the men
+of the desert, but the remainder of his body showed him to be a
+European.
+
+"How darest thou thus disturb my privacy, accursed son of Eblis?" he
+cried in anger, evidently recognising me as the one whom he had
+condemned to death on the previous day.
+
+"I have entered in order to denounce thy profane chicanery," I answered
+boldly.  "Thou, the self-styled Allah, art an infidel, an impostor, and
+a fraud!"
+
+He started at my fierce declaration, for the first time recollecting
+that parts of his chest, arms, and legs were exposed to my gaze.  His
+face blanched beneath its artificial colouring, and his white lips
+trembled.
+
+"Well!" he gasped, "and if thou hast discovered my secret--what then?"
+
+"The people of the Kel-Alkoum shall be made aware of how completely they
+have been tricked," I answered, taking up a small pot, which I smelt,
+and found contained a preparation of phosphorous.  This he had evidently
+used to cause his face to be luminous in the darkness.
+
+"No!" he cried, "anything but that.  I would rather kill myself outright
+than face the ferocity of these people."
+
+"Then truthfully answer my questions," I said firmly, when I had
+explained to him who I was, and the sensation caused in our camp by the
+report of his assistance to our enemies.  "Whence comest thou?"
+
+"I come from the land of the Roumis over the great black water," he
+answered, suddenly casting off all cant and concealment.  "My name is
+Mostyn Day, and I am an English mining prospector.  Long ago, while in
+my own country, I read of the ease with which the fanatical Arabs may be
+imposed upon by fearless and unscrupulous men who desire to obtain power
+over them; and, truth to tell, hearing that great mineral wealth existed
+in the country of the Kel-Alkoum, and knowing Arabic well, I conceived a
+plan to come here, announce myself as Allah, and obtain over the tribe
+such complete authority and control that I should either become their
+Sheikh or obtain a concession to exploit all the mines in this rich
+region.  My object was very nearly accomplished.  To-morrow there is
+arranged a great rising of the people against Abreha, with the object of
+declaring me their ruler, but,"--and he paused sighing--"your discovery
+has put an end to it all."
+
+"But what of the miracles you have worked in various villages?"
+
+"Mere conjuring tricks and sleight-of-hand," he laughed.  "Once, long
+ago, I was connected with an English travelling show, therefore I am
+familiar with most stage tricks.  But now I have confessed to you, you
+will not expose me.  Remember, unless you allow me to fly, these people
+will assuredly take my life."
+
+"I will preserve silence on one condition only," I replied.  "That
+to-night, an hour after sundown, you leave with me, journey to my
+encampment, and there exhibit to my people your painted face and arms,
+explaining to them the reason of your imposture, and showing them how
+you contrived to render your countenance luminous at night."
+
+At first he demurred, but finding me inexorable he at length submitted,
+and asked to be allowed to take Mezouda with him.
+
+"She is my wife," he explained.  "I married her in Algiers two years
+ago, and by her aid alone have I been enabled to approach so nearly the
+realisation of the plot I had conceived."
+
+"It was truly an ingenious one," I laughed.  "Yes, Mezouda shall go with
+thee.  Remain in silence of thine intentions, and meet me among the
+palms outside the town an hour after sundown."
+
+At first I feared that the intrepid Englishman, who had so nearly been
+the cause of a great Jehad through the whole Sahara, would endeavour to
+escape, but both he and his pretty and adventurous wife kept the
+appointment, and after some days we eventually arrived at our
+encampment.
+
+The excitement caused by our appearance was unbounded.  Taghma and his
+companions at once recognised the Englishman in his blood-red robe as
+the Allah of the Kel-Alkoum, and all fell on their knees, crying aloud
+in adoration.
+
+But their supplications were quickly cut short by the few loud words of
+authority I uttered, and when half an hour later the reckless adventurer
+exhibited his stained face and hands, and then entertained them by
+showing the simple means by which he accomplished his tricks of magic,
+the air was rent by roars of laughter.  The veiled warriors of the Azjar
+danced for joy, and held their sides when convinced how completely their
+enemies had been tricked, and how dejected they, no doubt, were when
+they knew that the Allah, in whom they trusted, had forsaken them
+without a single word of farewell.
+
+For a month the ingenious impostor remained a guest within our tents;
+then he departed for the north, taking his wife Mezouda with him.  But
+since that day the Kel-Alkoum, believing themselves the forgotten of
+Allah, have ever been a cowed and peaceful nation.
+
+CHAPTER SIX.
+
+THE EVIL OF THE THOUSAND EYES.
+
+The camp fire was dying in the gloomy hour before the dawn.  In the
+Great Desert the light comes early from the far-off Holy City, golden as
+the Prophet's glory, to light our footsteps in those trackless waterless
+wastes which are shunned by man and forgotten by Allah.  My tribesmen of
+the Azjar, still wrapped in their black veils, were sleeping soundly
+prior to the long march of the coming day, and all was quiet save the
+howling of a desert fox, and the shuffling tread of the sentries as they
+traversed the camp from end to end, silent and weird in their long black
+burnouses and veils.  Alone, I was sitting gazing into the dying embers,
+deep in thought.  I had been unable to sleep, for a strange premonition
+of danger oppressed me.  We were in the country of the Taitok, a tribe
+of pure Arabs, fierce in battle, who when united with the Kel-Rhela,
+their neighbours, were among our most formidable opponents.  The Sheikhs
+of both tribes had made treaty with the French, and placed their country
+beneath the protection of the tricolour of the Infidels, therefore in
+our expedition, against their town of Azal, we knew that we must meet
+with considerable opposition.
+
+We had exercised every caution in our advance, travelling by various
+ancient dried-up watercourses known only to us, "The Breath of the
+Wind," approaching in secret the town we intended to loot and burn as a
+reprisal for an attack made upon us a month before.  But the report of a
+spy, who had gone forward to Azal, was exceedingly discouraging.  The
+French had occupied the Kasbah, the red-burnoused Spahis were swaggering
+about the streets and market-places, while the tricolour floated over
+the city gate, and the fierce fighting men of the Taitok were now
+fearless of any invader.  It was this report which caused me
+considerable uneasiness, and I was calmly reflecting whether to turn off
+to the east into the barren Ahaggar, or to push forward and measure our
+strength with our enemies, the Infidels, when suddenly my eyes,
+sharpened by a lifetime of desert wandering, detected a dark crouching
+figure moving in the gloom at a little distance from me.  In an instant
+I snatched up my rifle and covered it.  Unconscious of how near death
+was, the mysterious stranger still moved slowly across, lying upon his
+stomach and dragging himself along the sand in the direction of my tent.
+As I looked, a slight flash caught my eye.  It was the gleam of the
+flickering flame upon burnished steel.  The man held a knife, and at the
+door of my tent raised himself before entering, then disappeared within.
+
+Quick as thought I jumped up, drew my keen double-edged _jambiyah_ from
+my girdle, and noiselessly sped towards my tent, drawing aside the flap,
+and dashing in to capture the intruder.
+
+The dark figure was bending over a portfolio wherein I keep certain
+writings belonging to the tribe, the compacts of friends and the threats
+of foes.
+
+"Thou art my prisoner!"  I cried fiercely, halting inside, casting aside
+my knife and raising my rifle.
+
+The figure turned quickly with a slight scream, and by the feeble light
+of my hanging-lamp I was amazed to detect the features of a woman,
+young, beautiful, with a face almost as white as those of the Roumi
+women who sit at cafes in Algiers.
+
+"Mercy, O Ahamadou!" she implored, next second casting herself upon her
+knees before me.  "True, I have fallen prisoner into thine hands, but
+the Book of Everlasting Will declares that thou shalt neither hold in
+slavery nor kill those who art thy friends.  I crave thy mercy, for
+indeed I am thy friend."
+
+"Yet thou seekest my life with that knife in thine hand!"  I cried in
+anger.  "Whence comest thou?"  I demanded, for her Arabic was a dialect
+entirely strange to me.
+
+"From a country afar--a region which no man knoweth," she answered.
+
+"The country of the Azjar is the whole of the Great Desert," I answered,
+with pride.  "Every rock and every wady is known unto them."
+
+"Not every wady," she replied, smiling mysteriously.  "They know not the
+Land of Akkar, nor the City of the Golden Tombs."
+
+"The Land of Akkar!"  I gasped, for Akkar was a region which only
+existed in the legendary lore of the Bedouins, and was supposed to be a
+fabulous country, wherein lived a mysterious race of white people, and
+where was concealed the enormous treasure captured during the Mussulman
+Conquest.  "Knowest thou actually the position of the wondrous Land of
+Akkar?"
+
+"It is my home," she answered in soft sibillation, as stretching forth
+my hand I motioned her to rise.  I saw that her beauty and grace were
+perfect.  She wore no veil, but her dark robe was dusty and stained by
+long travel, while her striking beauty was enhanced by a string of cut
+emeralds of great size and lustre across her brow, in place of the
+sequins with which our women decorate themselves.  She wore no other
+jewels, save a single diamond upon the index-finger of the right hand, a
+stone of wondrous size and brilliancy.  It seemed to gleam like some
+monster eye as she sank upon the divan near, a slight sigh of fatigue
+escaping her.
+
+"And thy name?"  I enquired.
+
+"Nara, daughter of Kiagor," she answered.  "And thou art the great
+Ahamadou, whom all men fear from Lake Tsad, even unto the confines of
+Algeria, the leader of the dreaded Breath of the Wind.  In our secret
+land reports of thy prowess and ferocity in the fight, of thy leniency
+towards the women and children of thine enemies, have already reached
+us, therefore I travelled alone to seek thee."
+
+And she looked up into my face, her full red lips parted in a smile.
+
+"Why?"  I enquired, puzzled.
+
+"Because I crave the protection of thine host of black-veiled warriors,"
+she answered.  "Our land of Akkar is threatened by an invasion of the
+Infidel English, who have sent two spies northward from the Niger.  May
+Allah burn their vitals!  They succeeded in penetrating into our
+mountain fastness, and were captured by our scouts.  One was killed, but
+the other escaped.  He has, undoubtedly, gone back to his own people;
+and they will advance upon us, for they are a nation the most powerful
+and most fearless in all the world."
+
+"Of a verity thy lips utter truth," I observed, "for we once fought in
+the Dervish ranks against the English on the Nile bank, and were cut
+down like sun-dried grass before the scythe.  But who hath sent thee as
+messenger to me?"
+
+"I come on my own behalf," she responded.  "I am ruler of the Akkar."
+
+It was strange, sitting there in conversation with the ruler of a
+mysterious region, the existence of which every Arab in the Soudan and
+the Sahara firmly believed, yet no man had ever set foot in the
+legendary country, the fabulous wealth and strange sights of which were
+related by every story-teller from Khartoum even unto Timbuktu.  And yet
+Nara, the Queen of Akkar, was a guest within my camp, and had fallen
+upon her knees before me in supplication.  Ambition was fired within me
+to visit her wondrous land of the silent dead, and I announced my
+readiness to effect a treaty with her, first accompanying her alone to
+see the wonders of her mystic realm.  As I spoke, however, a curious
+change appeared to come over her.  Her face flushed slightly, her eyes
+gleamed with a fiery glance, and there was a hardness about her mouth,
+which, for one brief moment, caused me suspicion.
+
+"Thou art welcome, O Ahamadou!" she answered, smiling bewitchingly, next
+instant.  "We will start even now, if thou wilt, for no time must be
+lost ere thine armed men unite with the guards of my kingdom to resist
+the accursed English, that white-faced tribe whom Eblis hath marked as
+his own.  Let us speed on the wings of haste, and within a week thou
+mayest be back here within thine own camp."
+
+And she rose in readiness to go forth.
+
+"My _meheri_ is tethered behind yon rock," she continued, pointing out
+beyond the camp where a great dark rock loomed forth against the
+fast-clearing sky.  "Join me there, and I will guide thy footsteps unto
+my City of the Golden Tombs."
+
+Whilst she went forth secretly I called Malela, son of Tamahu, and
+imparted to him the circumstances, telling him of my intention to go
+secretly to Akkar, and giving him instructions how to preserve from the
+tribe the fact that I was absent.  Malela was one of the fiercest of
+desert-pirates, as valiant a man as ever drew a _jambiyah_ against an
+enemy; but when I mentioned my intended visit to the silent legendary
+land, the wealth and terrors of which he had heard hundreds of times
+from the lips of the story-tellers and marabouts, his face paled beneath
+its bronze.
+
+"May the One of Praise envelope thee with the cloak of His protection,"
+he ejaculated with heartfelt fervency.  "Have we not heard of the awful
+tortures of those in the mute land--the mysterious region which the
+Moors have declared to be the veritable dwelling-place of Eblis, the
+region inhabited by those who have served the Devil and refused both the
+blessings of Allah and the intercessions of his Prophet?"
+
+"Are not the Azjar without fear, and is not Ahamadou their leader?"  I
+asked proudly, reflecting upon Nara's marvellous beauty, and feeling an
+intense curiosity to visit the country wherein no man had hitherto set
+foot.  Again, had not the Queen of Akkar singled out the Veiled Men of
+the Azjar as her allies against the eaters of unclean meat, the Infidels
+whose bodies Allah will burn with his all-consuming fire.
+
+Again Malela uttered a prayer to the One, as he stood facing the Holy
+Ca'aba, and I, too, murmured a _sura_ as I thrust some cartridges into
+my pouch, drew tighter my belt with its amulets sewn within, and buckled
+on my sword with the wondrous jewel in the hilt--the mark of
+chieftainship--for I was to be guest of the Queen of an unknown land.
+
+Then, with a whispered farewell to Tamahu's son, I stole forth, treading
+softly among my sleeping tribesmen, and carefully avoiding the sentries
+until I came to my own swift camel, I mounted it, and a few minutes
+later joined my handsome guide.  She had already mounted, and had
+twisted a white haick about her face until only her eyes and the row of
+emeralds across her brow remained visible.
+
+It is needless to recount the long breathless days we spent together in
+journeying westward, resting by day and travelling ever in the track of
+the blood-red afterglow, until we came upon a range of giant
+snow-crested mountains, as great as the monster Atlas that loom as a
+barrier between ourselves and the so-called civilisation of the Franks.
+
+"Yonder," she said, pointing to them, when first their grandeur burst
+upon our view in the pale rose of dawn.  "Yonder is our land which none
+can enter, save those who know the secret way.  There are but two
+entrances--one here and the other far south, the way through which the
+English have unfortunately discovered."
+
+"Then on all sides but one thy kingdom is impregnable," I observed,
+gazing with amazement at the serrated barrier, which seemed to rise
+until it reached the misty cloud-land.
+
+"On all but one," she answered.  "Those who know not the secret must
+meet with death, because of the dangers by which Akkar is surrounded as
+safeguards against her enemies."
+
+Throughout two days we travelled, slowly approaching the snowy range,
+and one night we halted beside a narrow lake, beyond which was
+practically an impassable barrier of rugged cliffs and towering
+mountains.  The night was moonless, and as I laid down to sleep, only
+the rippling of the water lapping the pebbles broke the appalling
+stillness.  At last, however, I dropped off into a heavy slumber, and
+was only awakened by a strange roar in my ears like the thunder of a
+cataract.
+
+I put forth my hand and tried to open my eyes, but both efforts were
+alike useless.  To my amazement I found my hands secured behind me, and
+my eyes blindfolded.
+
+Then, in an instant, it occurred to me that I had been entrapped.  I
+struggled and fought to free myself, for the air was hot and stifling,
+and I felt myself being asphyxiated with a deadening roar in my ears,
+and a close indescribable odour in my nostrils.  In my attempt to tear
+the irritating bandage from my eyes, my head came suddenly into contact
+with something soft.  I placed my cheek against it, and found to my
+amazement that I was lying on some kind of silken divan, my head
+supported by an embroidered cushion of the kind usual in our harems.
+But the odour about me was not the intoxicating fragrance of burning
+pastilles, but a damp mouldy smell, as of a chamber long closed.
+
+How long my mental torture and sense of utter helplessness continued I
+know not.  All I recollect is that, of a sudden, the air seemed fresher
+and cooler, the thunder of the waters died away instantly, and the smell
+of the charnel-house gave place to a delicate perfume of fresh flowers.
+There was a genial warmth upon my cheeks, and I awakened to the fact
+that the sun was shining upon me, when I felt a hand unloosen the
+bandage tied behind my head, and heard the voice of Nara say--
+
+"Lo, the danger is past.  Thou art in Akkar," and she drew away the
+piece of black folded silk that had held me without vision.
+
+In abject amazement I looked around stupefied.  We were together in a
+kind of boat shaped like an inverted funnel, which opened only at the
+top and could be closed at will by a complicated arrangement of levers
+and wire ropes, a subaquatic vessel fitted with comfortable lounges,
+having a lighted lamp hanging in the centre.  Everything--seats, tables,
+and all the fittings--swung in rings, therefore, whichever way the boat
+rolled, even though it might turn complete somersaults, those riding in
+it could remain seated without inconvenience.  On looking back I saw
+that the narrow stream we were navigating was fed by a mighty torrent
+that rushed from the mountain-side, a roaring, boiling flood which sent
+up a great column of spray, reflecting in the sunlight all the colours
+of the spectrum; and I also observed that we had entered the Land of
+Akkar by means of that strangely-shaped boat of bolted iron plates as
+strong as the war-ships of the Infidels, and were now in a deep and
+fertile valley, having descended from the lake by an unknown
+subterranean watercourse through the very heart of the giant mountain.
+
+I gazed about me in blank amazement, for even as my conductress spoke,
+she deftly stretched forth a pole and arrested the progress of the boat
+at a flight of well-worn steps, while above, my wondering eyes fell upon
+the great white facade of a palace with an enormous gilded dome.
+
+"Yonder is my dwelling-place," she explained with a wave of the hand,
+and as we stepped upon the bank a crowd of fierce-looking armed warriors
+appeared, raising their spears high in salutation.
+
+"This is Ahamadou," she explained, "the dreaded Sheikh of the Azjar, who
+hath come to make brotherhood with us.  He is guest of Nara, thy Ruler."
+
+"Welcome, O Ahamadou!" they cried, with one voice.  "Of a verity thou
+art the lion of the desert, for the leader of the Breath of the Wind
+knoweth not fear."
+
+"I am thy friend, O friends," I answered, as by Nara's side I strode
+onward to the wondrous palace, so magnificent, yet of such delicate
+architecture that one marvelled how human hands could have fashioned it.
+The country I had entered was red with flowers and green with many
+leaves; a fruitful, peaceful region, the spires and domes of the great
+City of the Golden Tombs rising in the distance far down the valley,
+white and clear-cut as cameos against the liquid gold of the sunset.
+
+Together we ascended the long flight of marble steps which led to the
+great colonnade, and gave entrance to a palace of similar design to
+those of the ancient palaces of Egypt in those forgotten days long
+before the Prophet.  As our feet touched the last step, the air was rent
+by a fanfare of a hundred trumpets, causing the valley to re-echo.  Then
+a file of armed men, headed by the blood-red banner of Akkar, lined our
+route, bowing low as we passed on into a hall, high vaulted and of
+enormous proportions, in the centre of which stood a wonderful throne of
+gold, covered with hundreds upon hundreds of eyes of every variety and
+size, wrought in gems to imitate those of human beings and of animals.
+As I gazed upon it I suddenly recollected what I had heard from the
+story-tellers about this wondrous seat of Akkar's Queen.  It was the
+ancient throne whereon, for nearly two thousand years, the rulers of the
+City of the Golden Tombs had sat, and was known in legendary lore as the
+Throne of the Thousand Eyes, each eye recording a battle, and being
+formed of the greatest gem taken in the loot on that occasion.  As I
+approached I saw that some were of diamonds, others of rubies, of
+emeralds, of jade, of jacinth, of jasper, of pearl, and of sapphires,
+each perfectly formed, but some kindly-looking, while on others the
+expression was that of terror, of hatred, or of agony, truly the
+strangest and weirdest seat of royalty in all the world.
+
+Around me the excitement rose to fever-heat as the people assembled, and
+Nara seated herself upon the throne after casting aside the
+travel-stained haick she had worn on the journey.  I saw everywhere
+evidences of unbounded riches.  The silken robes of the courtiers were
+sewn with jewels, and as their queen sank among her soft cushions, and
+her women put upon her necklaces and anklets of enormous worth, the
+great chamber became filled with the clank of arms and the murmur of
+many voices, while I was closely scrutinised and my appearance commented
+upon.  Suddenly, the great Queen rose, lifting her arms, and with an
+expression of uncontrollable anger upon her white face, said--
+
+"Lo, my people, hear this my word!  I have travelled afar into the
+country of our enemies, and have brought hither the person of Ahamadou,
+their chief."
+
+"I am not thine enemy, O Queen!"  I hastened to assure her.  "Thine
+ally, if thou wilt."
+
+"I have brought hither this man," she cried, "I have brought him hither
+in fulfilment of my oath in order that punishment shall be meted out to
+him."
+
+"Punishment!"  I gasped, wondering if I had taken leave of my senses.
+
+"Remember, that this man is Ahamadou, chief of the pirates, who have
+captured so many of our caravans, and who slew my son Kourra, heir to
+this my throne, six moons ago!" she cried, in a paroxysm of rage,
+lifting her thin bare arms, her face growing hideous in her fearful
+ebullition of anger.  I saw that I had fallen helplessly into the hands
+of my enemies, and bit my lip without uttering a single word.  To escape
+from that unexplored rock-bound kingdom was hopeless.  I could only show
+them that fear dwelleth not in the heart of an Azjar, even though
+thousands lifted their hands against him.
+
+"I have," she cried, "sought out this man, alone and unaided, according
+to the oath I took before the sacred scarabaeus upon this the Throne of
+the Thousand Eyes, and conducted him hither in order that ye may pass
+judgment upon him.  Speak, say what torture shall he undergo?"
+
+In an instant the air was rent by loud cries of--
+
+"Let the scarabaeus devour him!  Let him witness the torture of the
+spies, and afterwards let the same be applied to him!  Let him die the
+most terrible of all deaths; let the sacred beetle crush him beneath its
+fangs!"
+
+A dozen men, aged, white-robed, with beards so long that some almost
+swept the ground, whom I judged were priests, held brief consultation:
+then, amid the uproar, they seized me, wrenched from me my arms, and led
+me away ere I could raise my voice to charge their dreaded ruler with
+treachery.  Followed by the jeering, excited multitude, they conducted
+me along the wide level road to the mysterious city, upon the high gates
+of which were mounted strong guards, with breast-plates whereon the
+image of the sacred beetle was worked in crimson, and through great
+streets and squares until we came to a huge mosquelike structure, the
+three golden domes of which I had noticed glittering afar as the dying
+rays of the sunset slanted upon them.
+
+The dimly-lit interior was magnificent, but as they dragged me forward,
+I saw placed beneath the central dome a colossal figure of the sacred
+Scarabaeus a hundred feet in height, and two hundred feet square, plated
+over with gold.  From the two hideous eyes shone lines of white light
+like the rays of the searchlights of the Infidels, while, by some
+mechanical contrivance, the wide mouth now and then opened and closed,
+as though the monstrous emblem of the eternal were eager to devour those
+who worshipped before it.
+
+The bearded priests who held me threw themselves upon their knees before
+it in adoration, uttering a low kind of chant, while almost at the same
+instant a quivering terrified man, haggard, thin, and bearing signs of
+long imprisonment, was dragged forth from a kind of cell in the colossal
+walls, and made to bend upon his knees upon a grey circular stone
+immediately before the monster Throat of Death.
+
+"No! no!" he shrieked in horror.  "Kill me by the sword!  Let my body be
+given to the alligators--anything--but spare me the torture of the
+Beetle!  I am innocent!  It is but Nara's love of bloodshed and torture
+of the flesh that hath caused her to condemn me.  May the curse of the
+Beetle be ever upon her!"
+
+Ere he could utter another word six black slaves, veritable giants in
+stature, seized the unfortunate wretch, and as the mouth of the monster
+again opened, they flung him headlong into it.
+
+Next second the cruel terrible mouth closed, and the shrieks and
+crushing of bones told how terrible was the torture of the human victim
+within its insatiable maw.
+
+The sight caused me to shudder.  To this frightful ignominious death had
+this fair-faced, soft-spoken woman condemned me.
+
+Again the enormous golden jaws opened, and again, as they closed, the
+victim's piercing shrieks told that his agony was renewed, and that
+death did not come quickly within that weird colossal figure of the
+insect, once held sacred from the shores of the Red Sea unto the great
+black ocean.  In this, the last place in all the world where its worship
+still remained, the people were the most cruel and relentless of any in
+our great dark continent, Africa.  A dozen times the mouth opened and
+closed, and each occasion the cries of the agonised man were frightful
+to hear, until at last they died away, and as they did so the light also
+died from the monster's eyes.
+
+Soon, however, another thin, cringing man, starved almost to a skeleton,
+was brought forth, and with similar scant ceremony was cast into the
+colossal jaws, whereupon the light in the giant eyes grew brilliant
+again, and the shrieks for release, as the mouth reopened, were only
+answered by the loud jeers of the assembled multitude, by this time
+increased until every part of the magnificent building was crowded to
+suffocation, while at that instant Nara, still upon the Throne of the
+Thousand Eyes, was dragged in by a crowd of nearly a thousand persons.
+Twelve black slaves slowly fanned her as she sat, her chin resting upon
+her hand, watching in silence.
+
+One after another were victims brought forth and hurled to the horrible
+monster, to be slowly cut to pieces by the myriad gleaming knives and
+fine-edged saws set within those terrible jaws, until at last some one
+in the crowd cried out with a loud voice--
+
+"Let the pirate Ahamadou die!  His men killed our Prince, the valiant
+Kourra, therefore no mercy shall be shown the Veiled Man.  Let him be
+given to the Sacred Beetle!"
+
+In an instant the cry was taken up on every hand.  "Let him die!" they
+shouted wildly.  "Let us witness his body being cut to ribbons!"
+
+The priests hesitated, while in that perilous moment I repeated a
+_sura_, and heeded not these Infidel worshippers of insects and
+idolators of golden effigies.
+
+But at a sign from Nara, the relentless figure in white seated upon her
+wondrous Throne of the Thousand Eyes, they seized me, forced me to kneel
+upon the circular stone, and then, as those hideous jaws opened with a
+swift movement, they lifted me and cast me in.
+
+For an instant my head reeled, and all breath left me, for I knew that a
+fearful agonising death was nigh; but as Allah willed it, I alighted
+upon my feet, and finding in the darkness that the floor sloped down, I
+started running with all my might, gashing myself upon the knives, set
+upright like teeth, but nevertheless speedily forward, heedless of the
+pain.  Slowly and surely the walls of that strange torture-chamber
+closed about me with a creaking and groaning horrible to hear, until I
+found myself squeezed tightly with irresistible force on every side.  I
+held my breath, for upon my chest was a great weight, and I knew that
+next instant my frame must be crushed to pulp.
+
+Slowly, however, almost imperceptibly, the frightful pressure upon my
+body began to relax, and ere I realised the welcome truth, I found
+myself able to breathe again.  By dashing forward I had advanced far
+down the dreaded Throat of Death to a point where the passage began to
+widen, and by the freshness of the air I now felt that some outlet lay
+beyond.  Therefore, without hesitation, I sped again onward, stumbling
+over some soft objects on the ground, which I instinctively knew to be
+the remains of my fellow victims, until a faint grey glimmer of light
+showed in the distance.  The floor still sloped steeply, and by feeling
+about me, I discovered that the Throat was now simply a natural burrow
+in the rock.
+
+Without loss of a second I soon gained the outlet, and peered forth,
+aghast to discover that the tunnel ended abruptly in the face of a bare
+precipice; and that in the valley some two hundred feet below lay a
+great heap of sun-bleached bones, the remains of those who had passed
+through the Throat of Death.  Undoubtedly, when the channel became
+choked with the rotting remains of the victims they were cast forth to
+the vultures and the wolves.
+
+Eager to escape from the noisome place, I climbed with difficulty down
+the face of the mountain, and on gaining the valley, quickly recognised,
+with satisfaction, that I was actually beyond the confines of the
+accursed Land of Akkar.  Truly I had encountered death as a very near
+neighbour.  The high range with their snowy crests were the same as my
+treacherous guide had pointed out to me, and next day I skirted the lake
+which, emptying itself by the subterranean river, gave entrance to the
+mystic land of Nara.  Through many weary weeks I travelled hither and
+thither, ill and half-starved, until at length I fell in with a camel
+caravan, and travelling with them to Ideles, subsequently rejoined my
+own tribesmen, who had, by that time, begun to despair of my safety.
+
+Within six moons I made a report of the mysterious land, and all that I
+had witnessed therein, to the Bureau Arabe, in Algiers, and ere six more
+moons had waned, the Franks sent an armed expedition to enter and
+explore the country.  Of this expedition I was appointed guide, all past
+offences of my tribesmen being forgiven; but the soldiers of Nara
+offering a determined resistance, their country was at once subdued and
+occupied by the white conquerors.  The sacred Scarabaeus was destroyed
+by dynamite, and the Throat of Death widened until it now forms one of
+the entrances to the land so long unknown.  The dreaded Nara was sent as
+prisoner down to Senegal, where she still lives in exile; but her
+wondrous throne still remains in her great white palace--now a barrack
+of the Spahis and Chasseurs--and the Arab story-tellers in every desert
+town, from the Atlas to Lake Tsad, continue to relate weird and
+wonderful tales of the City of the Golden Tombs and the Evil of the
+Thousand Eyes.
+
+CHAPTER SEVEN.
+
+THE GATE OF HELL.
+
+Lounging on a bench under the tall date-palms in the market-place of
+Hamman-el-Enf, I smoked a rank _cherbli_ in dreamy laziness.  The day
+was dying; the blazing African sun sank, flooding the broad Bay of Tunis
+with its blood-red afterglow, and the giant palms cast their long,
+straight shadows over the hot, sun-blanched stones.  There are no half
+lights in Northern Africa; all is either glaring brilliance or sombre
+shadow.  Little twilight is there in that land of mosques and marabouts;
+night follows the death of day with astonishing rapidity.  Even while I
+sat, darkness crept on; the squatting, chattering crowd of
+white-burnoused Moors and Arabs and red-fezzed negroes had dispersed,
+and the sunbaked little village seemed almost deserted.  Suddenly the
+white figure of an Arab woman glided slowly and ghost-like from the deep
+shadow of the ilexes.  Like all others of her sex, she was enshrouded in
+a _haick_, and the lower portion of her face was hidden by her thick
+white veil, only a magnificent pair of black sparkling eyes, and a
+forehead upon which rows of gold sequins tinkled, being visible.
+
+Halting for a few seconds, she stared at me as if in surprise, then, in
+soft musical Arabic, gave me peace, exclaiming--
+
+"Sadness dwelleth in the heart of the Touareg.  Of a verity thou art not
+more sad than I," and, sighing, she drew her _adjar_ closer across her
+face, and was about to pass on.
+
+"Sad, art thou?"  I answered, surprised that she should address me, a
+veiled man of the desert.  In the dim light I could distinguish that her
+hose were of the finest white silk, that her tiny shoes were Paris made
+and of patent leather, and that the hand which held the _haick_ around
+her was loaded with valuable rings.  "Loosen thy tongue's strings, O one
+of beauty," I said, gallantly.  "Tell me why speakest thou unto me; why
+unhappiness hath fallen upon thee."
+
+"Ah, no!" she replied, in a hoarse half-whisper, glancing round in
+apparent fear.  "My people must not observe me having speech with thee.
+Ah, Allah may bring one of us to Certainty before to-morrow, and--if
+thou wouldst only help me!"
+
+"What service can I render?"  I asked, quickly, well aware that the fact
+of her speaking to a Touareg in a public place was of itself a very
+grave offence in the eyes of the fanatical Aissawa.  The barrier between
+the Berber and the Touareg in Tunis is still insurmountable.
+
+"First, thou must trust me," she said frankly.  "I am called Fathma
+Khadidja; and thy name--already I know it.  It is dangerous for me to
+hold converse here with thee.  Let thy footsteps follow mine.  Come, and
+may Allah, who knoweth the innermost parts of the breasts of men, shower
+upon thee bounteous blessings," and she turned and started off with that
+waddling gait peculiar to all Arab women.
+
+I hesitated.  If really in distress, it was strange that she had not
+called upon her own people to help her, instead of requesting a Touareg
+and a stranger to render assistance.
+
+No.  I decided not to go, and sat watching her receding figure cross the
+market-place where slaves were sold even within recent years, and
+disappear in the shadow of the mosque.
+
+In an hour I had forgotten the mysterious Fathma and her troubles, and
+returned to Tunis.
+
+Next afternoon, as I entered my temporary abode in the Kasbah-Kasneh, my
+slave handed me a note.  As I tore it open it emitted an odour of
+geranium, the favourite perfume of the harem.  Having read the three
+long lines of sprawly Arabic characters it contained, I placed the
+missive in my pocket and turned away.  If I valued my life, I was to
+meet Khadidja that evening.  Was that a threat, or a warning?  During
+the remainder of that day I lounged outside the cafes and pondered
+deeply.  For hours I ruminated over absinthe and mazagran, cassis and
+bock; and, after much consideration, I at length resolved to keep the
+appointment, and ascertain the extent of the mysterious danger of which
+she wrote.
+
+At the appointed hour I awaited her at a secluded spot outside the Bab
+Alewa.  The clock of the Mosque of Sidi Mahrez, close by, struck
+solemnly, and as the last sound died away I heard the _frou-frou_ of
+feminine garments, as a shrouded figure advanced to meet me.
+
+"Ah, so thou hast kept thine appointment, O Touareg!" she exclaimed,
+stretching forth to me a soft white hand.  "Thou thinkest, because I
+believe in the One, and in Mahomet his Prophet, that I am unworthy thy
+regard; that I am not to be trusted, eh?"  Then she laughed lightly,
+adding, "Come, let us hasten.  I want to have serious speech with thee
+upon a matter that affecteth us both."
+
+Without replying, I walked on beside her, wondering whether she were
+ugly or beautiful.  Crossing a deserted garden, we passed out to where
+two asses were tethered, and, mounting them, rode away into the
+darkness.  I remember that we went through several villages, and at
+length came to a larger place built upon the low cliffs, where a number
+of spacious flat-roofed houses overlooked the sea.
+
+Suddenly she dismounted before a low arched door in one of the great
+square, inartistic, whitewashed residences, and placed her fingers upon
+her lips indicative of silence.  Taking a key that was suspended around
+her neck, she unlocked the door and led me into a dark passage so
+thickly carpeted that my feet fell noiselessly as she guided me onward.
+Once I caught a glimpse of a spacious patio, rendered cool by a plashing
+fountain and green with many leaves; then through two small chambers we
+passed, until we came to a closed door, which she opened, and I found
+myself in a spacious, dimly illumined apartment, decorated in quaint
+Arabesques of dark crimson and dull gold.  Everything was rich and
+luxurious.  The air was heavy with sensuous odours rising in a thin blue
+column from the gold perfuming-pan.  On the floor lay costly Arab rugs,
+and a couple of lion skins were thrown down on each side of the centre
+mat.  A _derbouka_, and a _ginkri_, fashioned from a tortoise-shell, lay
+thrown aside, while from a magnificent hanging-lamp of gold a soft,
+mellow light was diffused, though scarcely sufficient to show the heavy
+draperies that concealed the walls.
+
+"Best thee a moment, and I will return," my mysterious veiled guide
+said; and then, drawing aside some of the silken hangings, she
+disappeared through a door that had been hidden.
+
+With hands behind me, I slowly wandered round, wondering what apartment
+of the house this was, when some half-finished embroidery that had
+apparently been tossed hurriedly aside upon a coffee stool of inlaid
+pearl and silver caught my eye.  That told me the truth.  My heart gave
+a sudden bound.  I was in the harem!
+
+A French novel lay open on one of the little tables.  I took it up, and,
+as I stood in wonderment, a movement behind me caused me to turn, and
+then I beheld the most beautiful woman I had ever gazed upon.  She was
+not more than twenty-two, with a complexion fresh as a Frenchwoman's,
+features that were perfect, pretty lips parted in a glad smile, and a
+dress that was the most gorgeous I had ever seen.  The ugly _haick_ had
+been replaced by a _rlila_ of palest leaf-green brocaded silk, beneath
+which showed a rose-pink velvet vest; and, in the place of the baggy
+trousers, she wore the _serroual_, of silken gauze.  Her tiny bare feet
+were thrust into slippers of rose velvet; on her head was set jauntily a
+little crimson skull-cap embroidered with seed-pearls; and her _fouta_,
+or sash, was of tricolour-striped silk, richly ornamented with gold.
+Upon her bare arms and ankles diamonds flashed and sparkled with a
+thousand fires, and her bangles jingled as she moved.  She dazzled and
+fascinated me.
+
+With an apology for having left me, she sank slowly among her cushions
+with graceful abandon, at the same time losing one of her slippers, and
+motioning me to a seat near her.
+
+"Thou thinkest it strange," she said; "perhaps even thou art angry, that
+I have brought thee hither alone unto this gilded cage.  But I must
+speak with thee, O Man of the Desert--to warn thee;" and her dimpled
+chin rested upon her dainty palm as she, with seriousness, looked
+straight into my eyes.
+
+"To warn me!  Of what?"
+
+"Thou art threatened," she answered slowly.  "Thou wilt, perhaps,
+remember that a month ago thou wert in Kabylia, and left Fort National
+for Tizi Ouzou.  Thou hadst the careless indifference that thy free life
+giveth, and, no doubt, thou wert prepared to meet Eblis himself if he
+promised an adventure.  On that occasion with whom didst thou travel?"
+
+"I journeyed in company of a wealthy man of thy people, who was
+returning from the wine market."
+
+"True, O friend," she replied.  "A week ago thou didst describe that
+journey to a Frank of the _Moniteur de l'Algerie_, and ridiculed thy
+companion.  See here!" and stretching forth her hand, she took up a
+paper containing an interview in which I had treated the journey in a
+comic vein, and had denounced in no measured terms the bigotry of my
+fellow-traveller.
+
+"Thou art a Veiled Man; and that man," she continued, "hath sworn upon
+the book of Everlasting Will to kill thee!"
+
+"How dost thou know this, O thou whose face is rivalled only by the
+sun?"  I asked quickly.
+
+"Because--because the man thou hast ridiculed is my husband!" she
+replied, rising, and adding wildly, "Because I overheard the villainous
+scheme that he hath planned with his brother to take thy life, and at
+the risk of mine own honour I determined to save thee.  Allah alone
+knoweth how terrible is my life alone in this place with my servants,
+bound to a fierce, brutal man who loveth me not, and upon whose brow the
+Cafer hath set seal."
+
+"Is thy husband neglectful, then?"  I asked, noticing the poignant
+sorrow that in that moment seemed to have crushed her.
+
+"Alas! yes.  Whithersoever I go the curse of Sajin seemeth upon me," she
+sighed, passing her slim, bejewelled hand slowly across her white
+forehead.  Tears welled in her brilliant eyes, as she added in a broken
+voice, "I am lost--lost to all; soulless, uncared for, unloved."
+
+She hesitated a moment thoughtfully, glancing first at her own
+bejewelled hands find then at mine.  With a quick movement she drew from
+one of her fingers a curious ring of silver, around which were Arabic
+characters in gold.
+
+"See!" she cried, as if a sudden thought had occurred to her.  "Take
+this, and wear it.  It is my talisman, and as long as it is upon thy
+finger no harm can befall thee.  It beareth the stamp of `La Belle,' and
+will preserve thee in health and guard thee in the hour of tribulation."
+
+She took my hand in hers, and drawing my own ring from my finger,
+replaced it by her strange-looking talisman, afterwards slipping my own
+ring upon her hand.  A sob escaped her.  "We have exchanged rings!" she
+exclaimed brokenly, looking up into my face with tear-stained,
+world-weary eyes.  Then, clutching her bare breast as if to still the
+throbbing of her heart, she cried, "When--when thou art far away, thou
+wilt, peradventure, sometimes gaze upon mine, and remember that a
+service was once rendered thee by a poor, unhappy woman--thou wilt
+recollect that her name is Fathma Khadidja--that--that--ah! forgive me,
+for I am mad! mad!"
+
+Raising my hand to her warm lips, she kissed it passionately with all
+the fire and ardour of the Child of the Sun.  Then, releasing me, she
+tottered back, panting, and sank upon her silken divan, with her face
+buried in her hands, sobbing as if her heart would break.
+
+"_Cama tafakal kathalika tola ki_," I said, quoting at random from the
+Koran.  "Come, come," I added sympathetically, sinking down beside her,
+tenderly stroking her long, silky tresses.  "Despair not.  The One
+Worthy of Praise knoweth how thou sufferest, and will give unto thee
+strength in the hour of thy need, and bring thee into the shadow of the
+great lote tree."
+
+"Ah!  Thy mouth uttereth pearls of wisdom," she cried wildly.  "But I
+have touched thee, a Touareg, and am accursed by Allah.  I care nought
+for the future, for already am I forsaken, already have I tasted of the
+bitter fruit of Al-Zakkum, and am doomed to the torture of Al-Hawiyat,
+the place prepared for the evil-doers."  Then, raising her face to mine,
+with an intense look of passionate love, she said in a soft, sibilant
+whisper, "Once only!  Kiss me once!  Then thou mayest go, and never
+shall we meet--never!"
+
+Her beautiful head fell upon my shoulder, and her hair--soft as spun
+silk--strayed across my face.  For a moment her lips met mine in a hot,
+passionate kiss, a caress enough to make any man's head reel.
+
+"I love thee," she whispered, in low, half-frightened tones, as she
+clung to me, and would not allow me to release myself.  "Unseen by thee,
+I have watched thee many moons, and to-night have I brought thee hither
+to tell thee--to confess to thee my secret."
+
+I tried to draw my lingering lips from hers, but with the fire of
+passion gleaming in her brilliant eyes she gripped me with a force I
+should not have supposed her capable of.
+
+"Stay," she whispered.  "Without thee the canker-worm of love eateth
+away my heart."
+
+But I tore myself from her and left.
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+Next day my business of selling sheep took me to the Haras Fortress,
+away behind the hills of Ahmar, and the voices of the _muddenin_ were
+already calling the faithful for the _maghrib_ when I re-entered the
+Kasbah.  Kasneh, my slave, was playing _damma_ in the courtyard, but
+rose quietly, saluted, and told me that he had taken to my room a small
+package which had been left by the negro servant that had brought the
+letter on the previous day.
+
+Could it, I wondered, be a present from Khadidja?  Rushing in, I found
+on my table a small box, packed in white paper and secured with black
+seals.  Eagerly I tore away the wrappings and opened it.
+
+As I did so a shriek of horror escaped me.  I fell back awe-stricken at
+the sight presented.  Inside a satin-lined bracelet-case, bearing the
+name of a Paris jeweller, on a piece of pale-blue velvet, there was
+stretched a human finger that had been roughly hacked off at the joint!
+It lay stiff, white, and cold, with the blood coagulated where the blunt
+knife had jagged the flesh.  The finger was a woman's--slim,
+well-formed, with the nail stained by henna.  It was loaded with costly
+rings, which scintillated in the golden ray of sunset that strayed into
+the room, and fell across them.  As I looked, breathless in amazement, I
+saw among the ornaments my own ring!
+
+A scrap of paper that fluttered to the ground bore the words, scrawled
+in Arabic character, "From the husband of Fathma Khadidja!"
+
+That same night I strode furiously along the seashore, watching the
+glimmering lights in the distance.  In fear and trepidation, I took the
+hideous souvenir of love, and, when far from the city, cast it away from
+me into the dark rolling waters.
+
+Perhaps there, deep in its lonely hiding-place, it met the white, dead
+thing of which it had once formed part--the body of the matchless
+daughter of the sun whose wondrous hair enmeshed me, whose full, red
+lips held me like a magnet, shackling me to the inevitable.  Who can
+tell?
+
+Truly, in that brief hour when I lounged at her side, I was at the
+dreaded Bab-el-Hawiyat.
+
+CHAPTER EIGHT.
+
+THE QUEEN OF THE SILENT KINGDOM.
+
+I entered the Silent Kingdom six years ago.
+
+Praise be to Allah, whom the weight of a pearl upon the earth does not
+escape.  May prayer and salvation be with the master of the first and
+last, our Lord Mahommed.  Of a verity have I been blessed with blessings
+abundant, and enveloped by the cloak of his protection.
+
+We had left the shore of Lake Tsad after pillaging a great caravan from
+the north, and were moving westward across the stern, sterile desert in
+the direction of Gao, or Kou-kou, as it is popularly known among us,
+where we could dispose of our stolen merchandise.  For months we had
+travelled across that immensity of sands where the very birds lose
+themselves, our camels often stumbling upon some skull, tibia, or even
+an entire skeleton, the remains of bygone generations of travellers who
+had perished on those lonely wastes.  The sun blazed fiercely in the
+flaming sky, the skin cracked, the lips were parched.  All the water we
+had was warm and impure, and even that was insufficient to quench our
+thirst.  A scaly viper occasionally crossed our route, and at long
+intervals the swift flight of an antelope was seen.  For days, months,
+nothing had rejoiced our eyes save the deceitful vision of the mirage,
+and one evening I decided upon a three days' halt for rest.
+
+On the previous day our eyes had been gladdened by the sight of a small
+well, where we filled our water-skins, therefore we were enabled to take
+our case; although being in an entirely unfamiliar country, the
+watchfulness of our sentries was never for a single instant
+relinquished.  We were travelling with the sun only as our guide,
+therefore knew not into what territory we had entered, save that it was
+as barren and inhospitable a region as it had ever been our lot to
+encounter,--a shadowless land of solitude, abandonment, and misery.
+
+In our raid upon the caravan near Lake Tsad a bundle of papers had come
+into our possession, and these had been handed to me; but travelling
+constantly, I had not had time or inclination to examine them.  That
+night, however, alone in my tent, I untied them and spread them out.
+Most of them, including a kind of diary, were written in the language of
+the Roumis, and as some bore the image of the Liberty of the Franks, I
+concluded that they must have belonged to some French officer in the
+northern region of the Desert, who had probably perished in an attempt
+to penetrate south.
+
+One paper, however, the last I took up, was written in my own tongue,
+and I read it eagerly.  It was an official letter, dated from Paris,
+urging its recipient to secure, if possible, during his explorations,
+the _Fatassi_ of Koti, as the French Government were extremely anxious
+to obtain possession of it, and by that letter offered to pay any sheikh
+or tribesman almost any sum in exchange for it.
+
+I put the letter down, smiled, and resumed my pipe.  The hapless
+explorer, whoever he was, had probably died, and certainly his hopes
+would never be realised, for the _Fatassi_ of the learned Koti was the
+phantom book of the Soudan.  There was not a clansman in the whole of
+the Great Desert who did not know all about that priceless volume, yet
+no one had ever seen it.  It had been lost to the world for ages.
+
+Mohaman Koti, or Koutou, the great marabout, lived in Timbuktu in the
+year 850 of the Hegira, and was the most esteemed and even tyrannical
+councillor of our ancestor, its powerful king.  His authority is said to
+have originated in the following manner.  The king one day distributed
+some dried dates to his court, and Koti, who had recently arrived, was
+overlooked.  Shortly afterwards the learned councillor assembled a
+number of people and dispensed fresh dates among them.  This miracle--
+for we have no dates in that region of the far south--having reached the
+king's ears, he discerned that upon Koti was set the divine seal, and
+from that moment gave him all his confidence.  A few years later,
+according to Tarik e Sudan, Koti edited a history of the Kingdoms of
+Ganata, Songhoi, and Timbuktu, the only history written of those once
+all-powerful centres of civilisation, and in addition he dealt with the
+concerns of many peoples and many men.  Families, since grown rich and
+powerful, and the chiefs of various countries, were shown to be with
+very humble origins, sometimes being the offspring of slaves.  But while
+the book was being written, news was conveyed to the King of Timbuktu
+that the Songhois had revolted, and had combined with the great nation
+of Mossi to attack and capture his capital; therefore, in order to save
+his great store of treasure, he at once had it made up into single
+camel-loads, taken out of the city, and secreted in various distant
+spots on the confines of his empire.  It was necessary, of course, to
+keep a strict and minute description of each spot where the wealth of
+the capital was concealed, in order that it might be recovered after the
+war; therefore Koti was ordered to inscribe in his book instructions how
+to unearth the great store of gold and gems, the spoils of war during
+four centuries.  This, according to a legend completely borne out by our
+Tarik, he did, and the precious manuscript was given into the king's own
+keeping.  Ere one moon, however, the learned historian died suddenly at
+Tindirma, where a little white mosquelike house marks his grave till
+this day.  The war was fought, proving, alas! disastrous to the king,
+who was compelled to fly, but, strangely enough the Tarik maintains
+silence regarding his subsequent adventures, or of what became of the
+precious _Fatassi_.  Legend has it that the king was treacherously
+poisoned by a slave, as rulers were apt to be in those turbulent days;
+but by whatever means the once-powerful monarch met with his death, the
+fact remains that the priceless volume and guide to the enormous
+treasure of ancient Timbuktu was lost to all.  For more than four
+centuries the recovery of the _Fatassi_ has been the dream of poor and
+rich alike.  The scholar coveted it because it would shed so much light
+upon the obscure past of these vast regions; the camel-driver, the
+merchant, and the prince alike desired to possess it for the information
+it was known to contain regarding the long-lost wealth.
+
+It was because of the latter that the government of the Franks desired
+to obtain it.  But theirs, like my own, was but a vain desire.
+
+A whole moon passed, and still we pressed forward towards Gao, ever in
+the crimson track of the setting sun.  One night, however, when the camp
+was asleep, the guards raised the alarm, but so suddenly were we
+attacked that we scarce had time to defend ourselves from a column of
+French Spahis who had swept down upon us.  It was a mad, terrible rush.
+Although our tribesmen fought valiantly and well, it was impossible to
+withstand the frightful hail of bullets poured forth upon us by a gun
+they carried which spat forth lead in deadly hail.  Our men, seeing the
+havoc wrought by this new weapon, turned and fled.  Fortunately the
+poison-wind had sprung up, and its clouds of sand cannot be faced by the
+men of the north; therefore we were enabled to escape, although
+unfortunately compelled to leave the greater part of the stolen camels
+and merchandise in their possession.
+
+As, in the confusion, I sprang upon a horse and rode through the
+blinding sandstorm for my life, I heard the thud of the horses' hoofs of
+my pursuers.  From the noise there must have been a score of men,
+anxious, no doubt, to secure the marauding chief feared by all the
+caravans.  But swift as the wind itself, I rode on alone the greater
+part of that hot, stifling night, until, pulling up, dismounting, and
+placing my ear to the ground, I could, detect no sound of pursuit.  In
+the glimmering twilight, as night gave place to day, I saw before me a
+huge, dark rock, shaped like a camel's hump, rising from the sand, and,
+riding onward, I there tethered my horse beneath it, and flung myself
+down to snatch an hour's sleep ere the sun rose, intending then to go
+forth again and rejoin my scattered people.
+
+How long mine eyes were closed Allah alone knoweth; but when I opened
+them I found myself lying on a panther's skin in a darkened chamber,
+filled with the music of running water.  The place was cooled by the
+stream, and in the dim recesses of the room I could distinguish rich
+divans.  Suspended from the roof was a fine Moorish lamp of chased gold,
+which shed a soft, yellow light, and from a perfuming-pan was diffused
+the sweet odour of attar of rose.  The light was soft and restful, and
+in wonder I rubbed my eyes and gazed about me.
+
+"Allah give thee peace, O stranger!" a thin squeaking voice exclaimed.
+And glancing quickly behind me, I beheld a wizen-faced man, small of
+stature, dressed in a robe of bright blue silk, and so bent by age that
+his white beard almost swept the ground.  Notwithstanding his venerable
+appearance, however, his face was dark and forbidding, and his small,
+black piercing eyes, that time had not dimmed, had a glint of evil in
+them.  Instinctively, ere we had spoken a dozen words, I mistrusted him.
+
+"To whose hospitality do I owe the rest and repose I have enjoyed?"  I
+inquired, slowly rising to my feet and stretching my cramped limbs.
+
+"My name," the old man croaked, "is Ibn Batouba.  I discovered thee
+sleeping in the sun outside this my dwelling-place, and brought thee in,
+for the rays had smitten thee with a grievous sickness, and thou wert on
+the point of death.  Thou hast remained here twelve days."
+
+"Twelve days!"  I cried, with incredulity, at the same moment feeling my
+head reeling.  "Then to thee I owe my life?"
+
+The hideous old man in blue grinned with satisfaction, regarding me with
+a strange, covert glance.
+
+By this time my eyes had grown accustomed to the semi-darkness, and I
+saw that the chamber was a natural one--a kind of arched cavern, the
+floor of which had been levelled, and a channel formed for the cool
+spring that bubbled forth and rippled away into gloomy depths.
+
+"This thy dwelling is beneath the surface of the earth," I observed,
+glancing around me.  "Why dwellest thou here in secret?"
+
+"The true Arab answereth not the question of Ahamadou, Sheikh of the
+Azjar Touaregs," he replied, with a sneering accentuation on the final
+word.  "Allah hath sent thee as my guest; partake of all that I have,
+but seek no explanation of who or of what I am."
+
+He evidently recognised me, and his strange words puzzled me.  First, I
+had no idea that such a luxurious abode could exist in the centre of
+that inhospitable region; secondly, the very fact pointed to the
+conclusion that in my flight I had approached near to a town; but
+thirdly, I had already proof positive that my strange host, the man who
+declared he had saved my life, lied to me.  At the well where we had
+halted on the day before the fight, I had plucked a sprig of jasmine,
+and placed a tiny piece behind my ear, beneath the black nicab around my
+head.  This I recollected, and, taking it in my hand, found it still
+limp and undried.  By that alone I knew I had not been there many hours,
+and that his story was untrue.
+
+I suggested that I should be reluctantly compelled to leave; but he at
+once became profuse in his hospitality.
+
+"No, not yet," he urged.  "I am alone, save for my slaves, and thy
+companionship is pleasant.  Remain, and I will show thee over this my
+hidden dwelling-place.  It may interest thee."  And taking down a torch,
+he lit it and led the way across a tiny bridge that spanned the running
+water, and opening a door in the rock, conducted me through several
+intricate passages, narrow and dark, until we came to a series of
+caverns of various sizes, each hung with rich silken hangings, and the
+floors covered by the most beautiful carpets from the East.  Over each a
+great golden lamp of filigree shed a soft light, showing how rich and
+costly were the antique tables of inlaid pearl and silver, and how wide
+and soft were the divans.  In each the thin blue smoke, curling upward
+from the golden perfuming-pan, gave forth an intoxicating fragrance, and
+in one I noticed lying discarded a pair of tiny green slippers,
+embroidered with seed-pearls, and a ginkra, one of those little
+two-stringed guitars fashioned from a tortoise-shell, both betraying the
+presence of a woman.
+
+When we had passed through half a dozen similar chambers in the solid
+rock, the old man, croaking as he went, stopped suddenly at the further
+end of the last and most gorgeous of all his subterranean domain, and
+with a grim expression on his evil countenance, said--
+
+"And this is the Bab-el-Hawiyat--the dreaded Gate of Evil, whence none
+return."  I started, and drew back.  Throughout the Desert there has
+been for all ages a legend that somewhere there exists the entrance to
+the dreaded kingdom of darkness where Eblis reigneth.  He opened wide
+the small door; but there was only darkness impenetrable, and an odour
+of damp earth.  Holding his torch aloft, he crossed the threshold, and
+bade me peer in.  Then I distinguished, a few spans from where he stood,
+a great yawning chasm opening to the very bowels of the earth.
+
+"Hearken!" he cried in his squeaking, uncanny voice, at the same time
+returning into the room and snatching up from one of the coffee-stools a
+large metal dish, which an instant later he hurled into the dark abyss.
+
+I listened to ascertain its depth.  But no sound came back.  I
+shuddered, for I knew it was unfathomable.
+
+As he faced me in closing the door I detected in his keen eyes a strange
+exultant look, and was seized by a sudden desire to ascend once again to
+the light of day.  True, I could have crushed the life out of him as
+easily as I could crush a spider in my fingers, while in my belt was my
+jambiyah that had a score of times tasted the life-blood of mine
+enemies, yet he had not harmed me, and to kill one's host is forbidden
+by Al-Koran.  Therefore I stayed my hand.
+
+As we retraced our steps he poured upon me nauseating adulations,
+declaring me to be the most valiant sheikh in the Great Desert, and
+using the most extravagant simile of which the Arabic tongue is capable,
+a fact which in itself filled me with increasing suspicion.  Suddenly,
+however, as we reached the chamber where flowed the cooling spring, the
+truth was made plain.  As he opened the door two officers of the French,
+in linen garments and white helmets, who had apparently been lying in
+wait, pounced upon me, uttering loud cries of triumph.
+
+The old white-bearded recluse--may Allah burn his vitals--had betrayed
+me.  He had held me, and sent word to the Franks to come and capture
+their prize--Ahamadou, the chieftain of the Azjar.  But in an instant I,
+upon whose head a price was set, drew my blade and defended myself,
+slashing vigorously right and left, succeeding at last in escaping down
+the dark winding passage through which we had just passed.  Forward I
+dashed through room after room, upsetting some of the tables in my mad
+rush, while behind me were the white-faced officers with drawn swords,
+determined to take me alive or dead.  Well I knew how desperate they
+were, and in that instant believed myself lost.  Yet, determined to sell
+my life dearly, it flashed across my mind that rather than suffer the
+ignominy of being taken in chains to Algiers, the infidel city, and
+there tried by the tribunal as others had been, I would cast myself into
+the fathomless pit.
+
+I sprang towards the small, low door, but at first could not open it.
+In a few moments the crafty Ibn Batouba, with the Franks, gained the
+spot; but I had already unlocked the door and flung it open.  Then, just
+as they put out their hands to seize me, I swung aside, lifted my knife,
+and struck my evil-faced betrayer full to the heart.
+
+With a piercing shriek he fell forward over the door lintel, and his
+lifeless body rolled into the awful chasm, while at the same instant I
+gave a bound, and with a cry of defiance, leaped down into the darkness
+after him.
+
+I felt myself rushing through air, the wind whistling in my ears as deep
+down I went like a stone in the impenetrable gloom.  Those moments
+seemed hours, until of a sudden a blow on the back knocked me
+half-insensible, and I found myself a second later wallowing in a bed of
+thick, soft dust.  Instantly it occurred to me that because this carpet
+of dust deadened the sound of things pitched into the chasm, the belief
+had naturally arisen that it was unfathomable.  I rose, but sank up to
+the knees in the soft sand, which, stirred by my fall, half-choked me.
+Far above, looking distant like a star, I saw the light of a torch.  My
+infidel pursuers were peering into the fearsome place in chagrin that I
+had evaded them.  The air, however, was hot and foul, and I knew that to
+save my life I must be moving; therefore, with both hands outstretched,
+I groped about, amazed to discover the great extent of this natural
+cleft in the earth, formed undoubtedly by some earthquake in a remote
+age.
+
+Once I stumbled, and bending, felt at my feet the still warm body of my
+betrayer--may Eblis rend him.  I drew my jambiyah from his breast, and
+replaced it in its sheath.  Then, tearing from his body the silken gauze
+which formed his girdle, I fashioned a torch, igniting it after some
+difficulty with my steel.  Around me was only an appalling darkness, and
+I feared to test the extent of the place by shouting, lest my pursuers
+above should hear.  So forward I toiled in a straight line, floundering
+at every step in the dust of ages, until the cleft narrowed and became
+tunnel-like with a hard floor.  I stooped to feel it, and was astounded
+to discover that the rock had been worn smooth and hollow by the tramp
+of many feet.
+
+Besides, the air had become distinctly fresher, and this fact renewed
+courage within me.  At first I felt myself doomed to die like a fox in a
+trap; but with hope reawakened there might, after all, I thought, be
+some outlet.
+
+Of a sudden, however, there arose before me a colossal female figure
+seated on a kind of stool, with features so hideous and repulsive that I
+drew back with an involuntary cry.  It was a score times as high as
+myself, and as I hold my torch above my head to examine it, I saw it was
+of some white, semi-transparent stone of a kind I had never before
+beheld.  The robes were coloured scarlet and bright blue, and the face
+and hands were tinted to resemble life.  One hand was outstretched.  On
+the brow was a chaplet of wonderful pearls, and on the colossal fingers,
+each as thick as my own wrist, were massive golden rings which sparkled
+with gems.  But the sinister grinning countenance was indeed that of a
+high-priestess of Eblis.
+
+In amazement I held my breath and gazed about me.  Around the sides of
+the cavern were ranged many other smaller female figures, seated like
+the central one, and the face of each bore a hideous, repulsive grin, as
+if in mockery of my misfortunes.  Before the great central colossus was
+a small triangular stone altar, upon which was some object.  I crossed,
+and glancing at it found to my dismay that it was a beautiful and very
+ancient illuminated manuscript of our holy Koran.  But through it had
+been thrust a poignard, now red with rust, and it had been torn,
+slashed, and otherwise defiled.
+
+The truth then dawned upon me that this noisome place into which I had
+plunged was actually the abode of the ancient and accursed sect who
+worshipped Eblis as their god.
+
+As I gazed wonderingly about me, I saw everywhere evidence that for ages
+no foot of man had entered that dark silent chamber.  The dust of
+centuries lay smooth and untrodden.
+
+Again I passed beneath the ponderous feet of the gigantic statue, when
+suddenly my eyes were attracted by an inscription in Kufic, the ancient
+language of the marabouts, traced in geometrical design upon the hem of
+the idol's garment.  My torch had burned dim, so I lit another, and by
+its flickering rays succeeded in deciphering the following words:--
+
+"Lo!  I am Azour, wife of Eblis, and Queen of all Things Beneath the
+Earth.  To me, all bow, for I hold its riches in the hollow of my hand."
+
+I glanced up quickly, and there, far above, I distinguished that in the
+idol's open palm there lay some object which the fickle flame of my
+torch could not reveal.  But consumed by curiosity, I at once resolved
+to clamber up and ascertain what riches lay there.  With extreme
+difficulty, and holding my flambeau in my left hand, I managed at length
+to reach the platform formed by the knees of the figure, and then
+scrambled up the breast and along the outstretched arm.  But on mounting
+the latter, I was dismayed to discover that the object for which I had
+toiled was neither gold, silver, nor gems, but merely a brown and mouldy
+parchment scroll.  Standing at last upon the open hand, I bent and
+picked it up; but in an instant I recognised that my find was of
+priceless value.  Ere I had read three lines of the beautifully formed
+but sadly faded Arabic characters, I knew that it was none other than
+the long-sought manuscript of the _Fatassi_, the mysterious phantom book
+of the Soudan.
+
+I placed my treasure beneath my dissa, and at once proceeded to descend,
+eager to discover some means of escape from that gloomy cavern, peopled
+by its hideous ghosts of a pagan past.  In frantic haste I sought means
+of exit; but not until several hours had elapsed did I succeed in
+entering a burrow which, leading out into a barren ravine in the desert,
+had once, no doubt, been used as entrance to the secret temple of those
+who believed not in the One Merciful, but in Eblis and Azour.
+
+After travelling many days, I succeeded in rejoining my people at a spot
+four marches from Gao, bearing concealed in my dissa the priceless
+history of my ancestors, with the minute plans for the recovery of their
+hidden treasure.  At this moment the _Fatassi_, traced by the hand of
+Koti, so long coveted by the Franks, is in my possession; though only to
+two of my headmen have I imparted the secret that I have recovered it.
+
+To seek to unearth the ancient treasure at present would be worse than
+useless, for our conquerors would at once despoil us.  But when the
+great Jehad is at last fought, and more peaceful days dawn in the
+Soudan, then will the secret treasure-houses be opened and the Azjar
+become a power in the land, because of the inexhaustible riches left to
+them by their valiant ancestors for the re-establishment of their lost
+kingdom.  Until then, they possess themselves in patience, and trust in
+the One.
+
+To thee, O Reader of this my Tarik of toil and tumult, peace.
+
+CHAPTER NINE.
+
+THE FATHER OF THE HUNDRED SLAVES.
+
+Ahamadou, squatting upon his haunches before our camp fire, calmly
+smoking his long pipe, related to me the following story, declaring it
+to be a true incident.  All wanderers in the Great Desert, be they Arabs
+or Touaregs, are born story-tellers, therefore I reproduce the narrative
+as he told it.  It must be remembered that the Azjars were, at one
+period--not so very long ago--slavers who made many raids in the
+primeval forests south of Lake Tsad, and that Ahamadou himself profited
+very considerably by that illegitimate trade.  It was rumoured down at
+"the coast" that the leaders of these Touareg raiders were not Africans,
+and this story appears to substantiate a statement which was, at the
+time, ridiculed at the Colonial Office in London.
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+"Get up, you lazy devil.  Stir yourself.  We're in a complete hole!"
+
+"Hole? hole?  Ah, your English tongue is indeed extraordinaire!  A hole
+is a place in the ground, _n'est ce pas_?"
+
+"Yes, and you'll have a hole in the ground all to yourself, my dear
+Pierre, if you don't bustle up a bit."
+
+Pierre Dubois, the man addressed, a bronzed, grey-bearded, stout,
+small-eyed Belgian of fifty, was lying tranquilly on his back on a pile
+of soft rugs, like an Oriental potentate, smoking his _shisha_, or
+travelling pipe, and being fanned by an extremely ugly negress.  Dubois
+was the name he had adopted after leaving the Congo hurriedly, carrying
+with him a goodly sum belonging to the Belgian Government, in whose
+employ he had been for ten years.  A native of Liege, he was one of the
+pioneers of that so-called Central African civilisation of trade, gin,
+and the whip; but after lining his pockets well, and making good his
+escape through the boundless virgin forests of "darkest Africa," he had
+started as a trader in that most marketable of all commodities--black
+ivory.
+
+Pierre Dubois and Henry Snape, his partner, were slave-raiders.  They
+dressed as Arabs, and lived as Arabs.
+
+Outside in the blazing noon, beneath the scanty shade of a few palms and
+mimosa scrub which surrounded that desert watering-place known as Akdul,
+a number of their heavily-armed followers were lying stretched upon the
+sand, sleeping soundly after their two-bow prayer to Allah, while here
+and there alone sat one of their number on his haunches, wrapped in his
+white burnouse, hugging his knees, his rifle at his side, keeping watch.
+They were a forbidding, evil-looking lot these Songhoi Touaregs,
+pirates of the forests and the desert, each with his black _litham_
+wrapped around his face concealing his features, a complete arsenal of
+weapons in his girdle, a string of charms sewn in little bags of yellow
+leather around his neck, and, strapped beneath his left arm, a short
+cross-kilted sword, keen-edged as a razor.
+
+Beyond, lying in the full sun glare, were sixty or seventy wretched,
+woolly-haired negroes, men and women, chained together and guarded by a
+dozen of the veiled men.  Throughout Northern and Central Africa the
+very name of the Songhoi was synonymous with all that was fierce, cruel,
+and relentless, for they lived by robbing the desert caravans or
+capturing slaves in the boundless virgin forests between the Niger and
+the Congo, being essentially a nomadic race, and having no other home
+than their tents in the Sahara, that limitless wilderness of rock and
+sand.  Of all the slavers of Central Africa these "veiled men" were the
+worst, for they attacked and burned villages, placed the unfortunate
+blacks to torture to compel them to reveal the hiding-places of their
+store of ivory, and afterwards took them prisoners, and sold them in the
+great central slave-market at El Obeid, away in Kordofan.
+
+Among the natives of the Upper Congo and the Aruwimi, even the hordes of
+that notorious king of slavers, Tippu-Tib,--so called by the negroes
+because the guns of his men created a noise, from which they have named
+him phonetically,--were more tolerated than the fierce Songhoi bands,
+with their black veils, which none ever removed, sleeping or waking; for
+the track of the latter through the forest or grass-land was always
+marked by murder, devastation, and wanton cruelty.
+
+Dubois, when in the service of King Leopold, had been active in
+endeavouring to put down the trade, but seeing how lucrative it was, and
+finding Snape, an English adventurer, ready to join him, he had
+collected a following of the fiercest Touaregs he could gather, and as
+he paid all well for their services, while on their part they were proud
+to be led by a white man in whom they had once lived in fear, their
+trade had, for a long time, been a most lucrative one.  They were the
+terror of the whole region from Stanley Falls to Tanganyika.  A dozen
+times they had been north to El Obeid with ivory of both varieties,
+white and black, and on each occasion the profits had been far beyond
+their expectations.  The trade is still easy enough in the Congo State,
+and slaves are captured without very much difficulty.  The great risk,
+however, is to transport them by the route they had been following for
+the past two months, as, in order to reach the central market, they had
+to pass through that portion of British territory where a very watchful
+eye is kept, and where the notorious Arab raider Kilonga-Longa met his
+fate only a few months before.
+
+But Dubois and Snape had run the gauntlet many times, and were
+absolutely fearless.  On the present raid through the country of Emin
+and Junker, they had made their captures in the Moubouttou, within the
+Belgian sphere of influence, with the complicity of the Belgian agent at
+Sanga, whom they, of course, bribed with a goodly present of ivory;
+then, marching through the great Forest of Eternal Night, due northward
+to Zayadin, they had passed through the Dinka country to Fatik, which,
+being only two days' march from the Bahr-el-Guebel upon which the
+British have posts, is a dangerous point.  Nevertheless, they had pushed
+forward night and day, and were now in the centre of that great,
+sunburnt desert, the Wilderness of Nouer, which stretches northward for
+three hundred miles to El Obeid.
+
+Dubois grumbled loudly at the Englishman for interrupting his
+meditations, saying--
+
+"Go and sleep, _mon cher_.  You'll be getting fever if you worry too
+much."
+
+"Worry!" echoed Snape.  "There's danger, I tell you.  Surely you're not
+a confounded fool, man?"
+
+"Ah," answered his partner, quite calmly, "is there not always danger
+here, in Africa?  You have a wonderful imagination, my dear Henri, I
+quite admit; but do allow me to finish my sleep.  Then let us talk of
+this extraordinary hole, whatever it may be."
+
+"Idiot!" ejaculated the Englishman, hitching up his flowing white
+burnouse.  He was a tall, good-looking fellow of forty, whose career,
+however, had been a singularly eventful one.  Since he left Balliol he
+had met with a good many adventures in various lands, most of them being
+to his discredit.  He had been a born gambler, and had drifted from the
+London clubs to the tables at Monte Carlo, and thence, by a very crooked
+channel, to that sink of the world, Africa, where chance had brought him
+in contact with the scoundrel and arch-slaver Dubois.  They were a
+well-matched pair.  At college Snape had taken honours for Arabic,
+therefore his knowledge of that language now served him in good stead.
+He was one of those men who could never run straight, even though he had
+often tried.  He was a born outsider.
+
+"Why idiot?" inquired his partner lazily.  The old negress waved the fan
+backwards and forwards, understanding not a word of the conversation
+between the headman and the great white Sheikh, who, on account of his
+raiding, the Touaregs had named The Father of the Hundred Slaves.
+
+"Well, I'm not the sort of fellow to let the grass grow under my feet
+when there's any danger," snapped Snape.  "You remember what Zafar said
+yesterday."
+
+"He's like yourself, _mon cher_,--always apprehensive of some horrible
+calamity," muttered the Belgian, blowing a cloud of smoke from his lips.
+
+"This time, I tell you, it's no mere imagination," the Englishman went
+on.  "Last night, after the _dua_, I left secretly, so as not to arouse
+any misgivings, and rode due east until the dawn, when I discovered,
+encamped among the _aghrad_, a whole troop of Soudanese soldiers.  I got
+near enough to ascertain that the officers were Englishmen."
+
+"Well?"
+
+"They've got word somehow that we are passing through," he said.  "And
+now, if you don't stir yourself, you'll never see Brussels again--you
+understand?"
+
+"I have no wish to see Bruxelles, _mon cher_," the elder man replied,
+quite undisturbed.  "If I did, it would only be to see the inside of a
+prison.  No; I prefer Africa to the pleasures of the miniature Paris.
+Here, if one has a little ivory, one is a king.  Life is very pleasant."
+
+"I admit that," his companion said.  "But do, for Heaven's sake, get up
+and let us decide what to do.  There's danger, and we can't afford to be
+trapped, especially with all those niggers tied in a string.  The
+evidence is a bit too strong against us, and the officers are English.
+There's no bribing _them_, you know."
+
+The Belgian stirred himself lazily at last, and asked--
+
+"Are they at a well?"
+
+"No.  They are without water."
+
+"Then as this is the only well for about a hundred miles, they'll arrive
+here to-day--eh?"
+
+"Of course.  That's why I came straight to warn you.  There's no time to
+be lost.  Let's strike camp and get away.  It's skip or fight."
+
+"If we skeep--I suppose you mean march--ah! your English language!--then
+they will skeep in pretty quick time after us.  They've got wind of our
+presence in the vicinity, therefore why not remain and fight?"
+
+"Fight my own people?" cried Snape.  "No, I'm damned if I do!"
+
+"Why not?" asked the Belgian, with gesticulation.  "Our Touaregs will
+slice them into mincemeat.  Besides, at long range they're as good
+shots, and better, than those Soudanese, all fez and swagger."
+
+"No," the Englishman argued.  "Let's fly now, while there's time.  In
+two days we shall be in the Nioukour, and they'll never find us in the
+mountains.  We hid there quite snugly once before, you recollect."
+
+"Muhala," said the Belgian, turning to the old negress, "go.  Call
+Yakub, and remain outside."
+
+The hideous old woman went forth into the sun glare, and in a few
+moments an old thin-faced Touareg entered, making a low salaam.
+
+"Now, Yakub," exclaimed the Belgian in Arabic, "answer me.  Of what did
+our caravan consist when we left the Aruwimi?"
+
+"Three hundred and thirty-three slaves, and twenty-nine tusks," answered
+the villainous-looking old fellow.
+
+"And now?"
+
+"Seventy-three blacks and twenty-nine tusks."
+
+"Then two hundred and sixty have died?"
+
+"Yea, O master," he responded.  "The new lash of elephant hide has
+killed many, and the black death has been responsible for the remainder.
+Five are suffering from it now, and never a day passes ere one or more
+is not attacked.  I have feared that none will live to sight the mosques
+of El Obeid."
+
+"In short, Yakub, they are a diseased lot--eh?  You think they're
+worthless?"
+
+"Only two women are left, O master, and both were seized by the black
+death yesterday."
+
+"In that case," observed the Belgian, turning to his partner, "the whole
+batch are not worth transporting.  The game is not, as you English say,
+worth the lamp."
+
+"Then what's your suggestion?" asked Snape.
+
+"Well, as you are so much in fear of these confounded English, we must,
+I suppose, act."
+
+"How?"
+
+"It is quite simple.  We just abandon the whole lot, and save ourselves
+and the ivory."
+
+"Very well," his companion agreed.  "I'm open to any move except
+fighting against the English."
+
+"Bah!  You are full of scruples, _mon cher_ Henri," he laughed.  "I have
+none--none.  And I am happy--perfectly happy."  He was silent a moment,
+as though reflecting deeply.
+
+"But," he added, "I do wish we could teach these interfering English a
+lesson.  It would do them good.  They try to rule Africa nowadays.  Ah!
+if we could--if we could!"  And there was a strange glint of evil in his
+eyes.
+
+An hour later Dubois and Snape, at the head of their formidable troop of
+brigandish horsemen, were riding at full speed across the desert due
+west, towards the far distant forest of Dyonkor, it having been decided
+to skirt this, and then travel south for a fresh raid in Congo
+territory.
+
+As for the poor wretches bound together, and dying of thirst and
+disease, they were still secured to the palm trunks and abandoned to
+their fate, tortured by being within sight of the well, yet unable to
+slake the frightful thirst consuming them.  Dwellers in the damp, gloomy
+forest, where the sunlight never penetrates, the intense heat of the
+desert struck them down one after another, sending them insane or
+killing them outright.
+
+Time after time Snape turned in his high Arab saddle, glancing back
+apprehensively to see if they were followed.  But his partner only
+laughed sarcastically, saying--"You still fear your friends the English?
+Ah! you have the heart of the chicken.  All is quite unnecessary.  We
+have made them a present of the whole lot, and I hope they will
+appreciate our kindness.  Now we shall take it easy, and hope for better
+fortune with the next batch.  I fancy that the new lash must be too
+hard.  The women can't stand it, so it seems."
+
+"A little less whipping and a little more water would keep 'em in better
+condition," Snape observed.  "Yakub is eternally lashing them for some
+imaginary laziness or offence."
+
+"Yes, it's all due to that new lash," the Belgian admitted.  "It must be
+used with less frequency on the next lot."
+
+"It's a revolting punishment.  Twenty blows kill a strong nigger," his
+companion declared.  "The thing ought to be thrown away."
+
+"Ah, yes," sneered his companion.  "You would, if you had your own way,
+keep women to brash the flies off them, and carry feather-beds for them
+to sleep on.  You always forget that you are not dealing with civilised
+beings.  They're mere niggers."
+
+"Well, we're not of the most civilised type, you and I, if the unwelcome
+truth be told," the Englishman responded.  "If we are trapped there'll
+be a howl in Europe."
+
+"But I, for one, don't mean to be caught," laughed the Belgian gaily,
+with perfect confidence of his security.  And they both rode side by
+side, the troop of white-burnoused Pirates of the Desert thundering on
+behind, raising a cloud of dust which, in that clear atmosphere, could
+be seen many miles away.
+
+On, on they sped over the burning sand, riding easily at a hand gallop,
+without a halt, the black-veiled raiders laughing and chaffing,
+chattering, pushing forward, even in the blood-red track of the dying
+day.
+
+Night fell quickly, as it does in that region.  The slavers encamped in
+a sandy hollow beneath the rocks, and Dubois, ordering the tent to be
+pitched, sat smoking with his partner after the dish of _dakkwa_
+(pounded Guinea-corn with dates) which old Muhala had prepared.  They
+were alone.
+
+"To camp like this before we reach the forest is, to my mind, simply
+inviting capture," Snape grumbled.  "The military detachment is
+evidently out in search of us, and the little lot we've abandoned will
+point out to them the direction we've taken.  Then they'll follow and
+overtake us."
+
+"Oh no, they won't," answered the Belgian, with a serene smile.
+
+"What makes you so sure?"
+
+"Remember that, coming up from the river, they must have been at least
+six days without water; therefore they'll halt at Akdul to drink and
+fill their water-skins before pushing forward."
+
+"Well?" inquired Snape.
+
+The crafty Belgian looked curiously into the face of his companion, and
+smiled grimly.
+
+"Well, if they halt there," he said, "they won't trouble us any more."
+
+"I don't understand."
+
+"I doctored the water before we left.  That's why I didn't leave the
+blacks loose to drink it."
+
+"What!" gasped the Englishman wildly, starting to his feet.  "You've
+actually poisoned the well?"
+
+The Belgian nodded and laughed, without removing his _shisha_ from his
+lips.
+
+"You scoundrel!  You fiend!" the Englishman shouted, his face white with
+passion.  "I've done some shabby tricks in my time, but, by Heaven!  I'd
+rather have given myself up than have assented to the wholesale murder
+of my own people like that!"
+
+A sarcastic smile crossed the Belgian's sinister features.
+
+"Excitement is entirely unnecessary, _mon cher_ Henri," he said, calmly.
+"It may, you know, bring on a touch of fever.  Besides, by this time
+there isn't many of them, white or black, left to tell the tale.  Yakub,
+whom I left behind to watch, has just come in to report that they
+arrived an hour after we had left, released the slaves, and watered
+freely, enjoying themselves immensely.  Before he started to return,
+fully fifty were dead or dying, including all the white officers.  But
+why trouble further?  We've saved ourselves."
+
+"Trouble!" roared Snape, his eyes flashing with a fierce fire of
+indignation, "Get up, you infernal scoundrel, or I'll shoot you as you
+lie!  You're an outlaw; so am I.  Trouble!  Why, one of those white
+officers was Jack Myddleton, my brother, and," he added in a harsh
+tone--"and I'm going to avenge his death!"  Instantly Dubois saw his
+partner's intention, and sprang to his feet, revolver in hand.
+
+Two reports sounded almost simultaneously, but only one man fell.  It
+was the Belgian, who, with an imprecation on his lips, dropped back with
+a bullet through his temple, and in a few seconds expired.
+
+At dawn Muhala discovered her master dead, and his companion missing.
+Search was at once made for the Englishman, who was found lying dead
+upon the sand half a mile from the camp.
+
+He had committed suicide.
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+Around the well of Akdul the caravans that water there in crossing the
+arid wilderness still see quantities of hones of horses and of men.
+Long ago the vultures have stripped them, and they now lie bleaching in
+the sun, a mute record of a coward's treachery, of the revolting
+vengeance of The Father of the Hundred Slaves.
+
+CHAPTER TEN.
+
+THE MYSTERY OF AFO.
+
+In the mystic haze of the slowly dying day, mounted on a _meheri_, or
+swift camel, I carried my long rifle high above my head, and rode
+speedily over the great silent wilderness of treacherous, ever-shifting
+sand.  Once I drew rein to listen, turning my eyes to the left, where
+the distant serrated crests of the mountains of Nanagamma loomed forth
+like giant shadows; but as nothing broke the appalling stillness, I, a
+mere tribesman then, sped forward again, reaching a small oasis, where I
+made my camel kneel, and then dismounted.
+
+As I strode towards the lonely shrine of Sidi Okbar--a small doomed
+building constructed of sun-dried mud, under which reposed the remains
+of one of our most venerated marabouts--I fear my burnouse was brown,
+ragged, and travel-stained; the haick that surrounded my face was torn
+and soiled, and upon my feet were rough, heavy slippers, sadly the worse
+for wear.  The latter, however, I kicked off on approaching the shrine;
+then, kneeling close to the sun-blanched wall, cast sand upon myself,
+kissed the earth, and, drawing my palms down my face, repeated the
+Testification.  In fervent supplication I bowed repeatedly, and, raising
+my voice until it sounded distinct on the still air, invoked the
+blessing of Allah.
+
+"O Merciful!  O beneficent Grantor of Requests!"  I cried; "O King of
+the day of Faith, guide us, ere to-morrow's sun hath run its course,
+into the path that is straight, and leadeth unto the _kasbah_ of our
+enemies of Abea.  Strengthen our arms, lead us in times of darkness and
+in the hours of day, destroy our enemies, and let them writhe in
+Al-Hawiyat, the place prepared for infidels, where their meat shall be
+venomous serpents, and they shall slake their thirst with boiling
+pitch."
+
+Startled suddenly by a strange sound, I listened with bated breath.  The
+thought occurred to me that my words might have been overheard by some
+spy, and instinctively my hand drew from my belt my _jambiyah_, the
+long, crooked dagger that I always carried.  Again a noise like a
+deep-drawn sigh broke the silence, and I sprang to my feet and rushed
+round to the opposite side of the building, just in time to see a
+fluttering white robe disappearing in the gloom.  Quick as lightning I
+sprang towards it, and in twenty paces had overtaken the eavesdropper,
+who, with a slight scream, fell to earth beneath my heavy hand.
+
+"Rise!"  I cried, roughly dragging the figure to its feet.  "Thou son of
+Eblis!"  Next second, however, I discovered that the fugitive was a
+woman, veiled, enshrouded in her haick, and wearing those baggy white
+trousers that render the Arab females hideous when out of doors.
+
+"Thou hast overheard my orison," I cried, raising my knife.  "Speak!
+speak! or of a verity will I strike!"
+
+But the mysterious woman uttered no word, and in a frenzy of desperation
+I tore the veil from her face.
+
+Aghast I stood; the knife fell from my lingers.  The countenance
+revealed was amazingly beautiful, so charming, indeed, that instantly I
+became entranced by its loveliness, and stood speechless and abashed.
+
+She was not more than eighteen, and her features were regular, with a
+fair complexion, a pair of brilliant dark eyes set well apart under
+browns blackened by kohl, and a forehead half-hidden by strings of
+golden sequins that tinkled musically each time she moved.  Upon her
+head was set jauntily a little scarlet _chachia_, trimmed heavily with
+seed-pearls, while her neck was encircled by strings of roughly-cut
+jacinths and turquoises, and in the folds of her silken haick there
+clung the subtle perfumes of the harem.
+
+Slowly she lifted her fine eyes, still wet with tears, to mine, and,
+with her breast rising and falling quickly, trembled before me, fearing
+my wrath.
+
+"Loosen thy tongue's strings!"  I cried at last, grasping her slim white
+wrist with my rough, hard hand.  "Thou art from Afo, the City in the
+Sky, and thou hast gained knowledge of our intended attack?"
+
+"Thy lips, O stranger, speak the truth," she faltered.
+
+"Why art thou here, and alone, so far from thine home on the crest of
+yonder peak?"  I inquired, gazing at her in wonderment.
+
+"I came hither for the same purpose as thyself," she answered seriously,
+looking straight into my face,--"to crave Allah's blessing."
+
+"Art thou a dweller in the house of grief?"  I asked.  "Tell me why thou
+didst venture here alone."
+
+She hesitated, toying nervously with the jewelled perfume-bottle
+suspended at her breast; then she answered, "I--I am betrothed to a man
+I hate.  The Merciful Giver of Blessings alone can rescue me from a fate
+that is worse than death--a marriage without love."
+
+"And who is forcing thee into this hateful union?  If it is thy father,
+tell me his name?"
+
+"Yes, it is my father.  His name is Abd el Jelil ben Sef e' Nasr, Sultan
+of Abea."
+
+"The Sultan!"  I cried in amazement.  "Then thou art Kheira!"  I added,
+for the extraordinary beauty of the only daughter of the Sultan of Abea
+was proverbial throughout the Great Desert, from Lake Tsad, even to the
+Atlas.
+
+"Yes," she replied.  "And from thy speech and dress I know thou art of
+the Azjar, our deadliest enemies."
+
+"True," I answered.  "To-morrow my tribe, to the number of ten thousand,
+now lying concealed in the valley called Deforou, will swarm upon thine
+impregnable city and--"
+
+"Ten thousand?" she gasped, pale and agitated.  "And thou wilt kill my
+father, and reduce our people to slavery.  Ah, no!" she added
+imploringly.  "Save us, O stranger!  Our fighting men went south one
+moon ago to collect the taxes at Dehagada, therefore we are unprotected.
+What can I do--how can I act to save my father?"
+
+"Dost thou desire to save him, even though he would force upon thee this
+odious marriage?"
+
+"I do," she cried.  "I--I will save the City in the Sky at the cost of
+mine own life."
+
+"To whom art thou betrothed," I asked, tenderly taking her hand.
+
+"To the Agha Hassan e Rawi, who dwelleth at Zongra, beyond the
+Nanagamma.  He is threescore years and ten, and 'tis said he treateth
+his wives with inhuman cruelty.  One of his slaves told me so."
+
+I stood silent and thoughtful.  Though I was a member of a tribe who
+existed wholly upon loot obtained from the caravans and towns we
+attacked, yet so earnestly did the Sultan's daughter appeal, that all
+thought of preserving the secret of our intended attack by murdering her
+disappeared, and I found myself deeply in love.  Mine was a poor chance,
+however, I told myself.  The proud Sultan of Abea would never consent to
+a brigand as a son-in-law, even if she looked upon me with favour.
+
+"To-night, O Daughter of the Sun, we meet as friends; to-morrow as
+enemies," I said.  "Our spies have reported that thy city remaineth
+undefended, and, alas! there is a blood-feud between my people and
+thine; therefore, when the hosts of the Azjar enter with fire and sword,
+few, I fear, will be spared.  Wilt thou not remain here with my
+tribesmen, and escape?"
+
+"No," she answered proudly.  "I am a woman of Afo, and I will return
+unto my people, even though I fall before to-morrow's sundown under thy
+merciless swords."
+
+As she spoke, one hand rested upon her supple hip, and with the other
+she pointed to the high, shadowy peak whereon stood the great white
+stronghold known to the Kanouri people as The City in the Sky.
+
+"But thou, who art like a sun among the stars, knowest our plans, and it
+is my duty to kill thee," I said, hitching my burnouse about my
+shoulders.
+
+"I am in thine hands.  If thou stainest them with my blood, thou wilt
+ever have upon thy conscience the remembrance that thou hast taken the
+life of one who was innocent of intrigue.  If thou givest me freedom, I
+shall have at least one brief hour of felicity with my people before--
+before--"
+
+And she sighed, without concluding the sentence.
+
+"Thou, a fresh rose from the fountain-head of life, art in fear of a
+double fate,--the downfall of to-morrow, and the marriage feast next
+moon.  Let not thy mind be troubled, for I stretch not forth the tongue
+to blame," I said at last, endeavouring to smile.  "In Ahamadou, of the
+tribe Azjar, thou hast a devoted friend, and one who may peradventure
+assist thee in a manner thou hast not dreamed.  Therefore mount thine
+horse and return with all speed to Afo--not, however, before thou hast
+given me some little souvenir of this strange meeting."
+
+"Thou slakest my thirst with the beverage of kindness!" she cried in
+joy.  "I knew when first I saw thee that thou wert my friend."
+
+"Friend?--nay, lover," I answered gallantly, as, taking her tiny hand
+again, I pressed her henna-stained nails softly to my lips.  She blushed
+and tried to draw away, but I held her firmly until she withdrew one of
+her gold bangles from her wrist, and, with a smile, placed it upon mine.
+
+"Behold!" she exclaimed with a merry, rippling laugh, "it is thy badge
+of servitude to me!"
+
+"I am a slave of the most handsome mistress in the world," I said
+happily.  Then, urging her to warn the Sultan of the intentions of the
+Azjar, I kissed her once tenderly upon the lips, lifted her into the
+saddle of her gaily caparisoned horse, and then she twisted her torn
+veil about her face, and, giving me "Peace," sped away swift as an arrow
+into the darkness, bearing intelligence that would cause the utmost
+sensation in the mountain fastness.
+
+"I love her," I murmured, when the sound of her horse's hoofs had died
+away.  "But how can I save her?  To-morrow, when we enter Afo and loot
+the Palace, she will be secured as slave.  No!"  I cried, "she shall
+never fall into Nikale's brutal hands--never while I have breath!"
+
+The sound of whispering caused me to fix my gaze upon a dark shadow
+thrown by some ethel-bushes, and next second, half a dozen of my fellow
+tribesmen advanced.
+
+"So, dog of a spy! thou hast betrayed us!" cried a voice, which in a
+moment I was startled to recognise as that of my enemy Mohammed El
+Sfaski.
+
+"Yes," the others shouted with one accord; "we watched the son of offal
+speaking with the woman, and we overheard him telling her to warn the
+Sultan!"
+
+"Follow her on the wings of haste!" cried El Sfaski.  "Kill her, for
+death alone will place the seal of muteness upon the lips of such a
+jade."  And in a few seconds two black-veiled figures vaulted into their
+saddles and tore past in the direction Kheira had disappeared.
+
+"Speak!" thundered El Sfaski, who, with the others, had now surrounded
+me.  "Knowest thou the punishment of traitors?"
+
+"Yes," I answered, hoarsely.
+
+"Who is the woman whose blackness and deceit hath captivated thee?"
+
+Three rapid shots sounded in the distance.  The men had evidently
+overtaken and murdered the daughter of the Sultan!
+
+I held my breath.
+
+"I--I refuse to give thee answer," I said, resolutely.
+
+"By Allah! thou art a traitor to our lord and to our tribe, and of a
+verity thou hast also the eye of perfection.  Therefore shalt thou die!"
+Then, turning to the others, he added--
+
+"We have no time to bandy words with this accursed son of the Evil One.
+Tie him to yon tree, and let the vultures feast upon their carrion."
+
+With loud imprecations the men seized me, tore off my haick and
+burnouse, and bound me securely to a palm trunk in such a position that
+I could only see the great expanse of barren sand.  Then, with that
+refinement of cruelty of which the nomadic Azjar are past-masters, they
+smeared my face, hands, and feet with date-juice, to attract the ants
+and other insects; and, after jeering at me and condemning me to
+everlasting perdition and sempiternal culpability, they remounted their
+horses, and, laughing heartily, left me alone to wait the end.
+
+Through the long, silent night, with arms and legs bound so tightly that
+I could not move them, I remained, wondering what terrible fate had
+befallen the beautiful girl who had overheard my orison.  My two
+clansmen had not returned.  I knew the men were splendid riders,
+therefore it was more than probable that they had very quickly overtaken
+her.  Utterly hopeless, well knowing that to the blazing sun and the
+agonies of being half-devoured by insects I must very soon succumb, I
+waited, my ears on the alert to catch every sound.
+
+In the sky a saffron streak showed on the edge of the sandy plain,
+heralding the sun's coming.  I watched it gradually spread, knowing that
+each moment brought me nearer to an end of agony.  I lifted my voice in
+supplication to Allah, and showered voluble curses upon the expedition
+about to be attempted by my tribe.  The pale, handsome face of Kheira
+was ever before me, haunting me like a half-remembered dream, its beauty
+fascinating me, and even causing me to forget the horror of those hours
+of dawn.
+
+Saffron changed to rose, and rose to gold, until the sun shone out,
+lighting up the trackless waste.  The flies, awakened, began to torment
+me, and I knew that the merciless rays beating down upon my uncovered
+head would quickly produce the dreaded delirium of madness.  The furnace
+heat of sunshine grew intense as noon approached, and I was compelled to
+keep my eyes closed to avoid the blinding glare.
+
+Suddenly a noise fell upon my ear.  At first it sounded like a low,
+distant rumbling; but soon my practised ears detected that it was the
+rattle of musketry and the din of tom-toms.
+
+The City in the Sky was being attacked!  My tribesmen had arranged to
+deliver the assault at noon, but what puzzled me was a sullen booming at
+frequent intervals.  It was the sound of cannon, and showed plainly that
+Afo was being defended!
+
+From where I was I could see nothing of it.  Indeed, the base of the
+mountain was eight miles distant, and the city, perched upon its summit,
+could only be approached from the opposite side by a path that was
+almost inaccessible.  Yet hour after hour the rapid firing continued,
+and it was evident a most desperate battle was being fought.  This
+puzzled me, for had not Kheira said that the city was totally
+undefended?  Still, the tumult of battle served to prevent me from
+lapsing into unconsciousness; and not until the sun sank in a brilliant,
+blood-red blaze did the firing cease.  Then all grew silent again.  The
+hot poison-wind from the desert caused the feathery heads of the palms
+to wave like funeral plumes, and night crept on.  The horrible torture
+of the insects, the action of the sun upon my brain, the hunger, the
+thirst, and the constant strain of the nerves, proved too much; and I
+slept, haunted by spectral horrors, and a constant dread of the
+inevitable--that half-consciousness precursory of death.
+
+So passed the second night, until the sun reappeared; but mine eyes
+opened not.  The heat of the blazing noon caused me no concern, neither
+did the two great grey vultures that were hovering over me; for it was
+not until I heard voices in the vicinity that I gazed around.
+
+One voice, louder than the others, was uttering thanks to Allah.  I
+listened; then, summoning all my strength that remained, I cried aloud,
+in the name of the One Merciful, for assistance.
+
+There were sounds of hurrying footsteps, voices raised in surprise, a
+woman's scream, and then objects, grotesquely distorted, whirled around
+me, and I knew no more.
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+When I again opened my weary, fevered eyes, I was amazed to find myself
+lying upon a soft, silken divan in a magnificent apartment, with slaves
+watching, ready to minister to my wants.  I took a cooling draught from
+a crystal goblet handed to me, then raised myself, and inquired where I
+was.  The slaves made no reply, but, bowing low, left.  Then in a few
+moments the _frou-frou_ of silk startled me, and next second I leaped to
+my feet, and, with a cry of joy, clasped Kheira in my arms.
+
+In her gorgeous harem dress of pale rose silk, with golden bejewelled
+girdle, she looked bewitching, though around her eyes were dark rings
+that betrayed the anxiety of the past few days.  As our lips met in hot,
+passionate kisses, she was followed by a tall, stately, dark-bearded man
+of matchless bearing, whose robe was of amaranth silk, and who wore in
+his head-dress a magnificent diamond aigrette.  Kheira saw him, and
+withdrawing herself from my embrace, introduced me to her father, the
+Sultan of Abea.
+
+"To thee I owe my life and my kingdom," said the potentate, giving me
+"Peace," and wringing my hand warmly.  "Kheira hath related unto me the
+mercy thou didst show towards her; and it was thy word of warning that
+enabled us to repel and defeat the Azjar."
+
+"Then thou, didst escape, O signet of the sphere of elegance!"  I cried,
+turning to the Sultan's daughter.
+
+"Yes; though I was hard pressed by two of thine horsemen, I took the
+secret path, and thus were they baffled."
+
+"The Director of Fate apprised our fighting men of our danger," said the
+Sultan; "and they returned on the same night.  The breeze of grace blew;
+the sun of the favour of Allah shone.  The news brought by Kheira was
+quickly acted upon, and the defences of the city so strengthened, that
+when at noon the assault was delivered, our cannon swept thy tribesmen
+from the pass like grains of sand before the sirocco.  For six hours
+they fought; but their attempts to storm the city gate were futile, and
+the handful of survivors were compelled to retire, leaving nearly five
+hundred prisoners, including your Sheikh himself, in our hands."
+
+"And how was I rescued?"  I inquired, after briefly explaining how my
+conversation with Kheira had been overheard.
+
+"On the day following the fight, we went unto the shrine of Sidi Okbar
+to render thanks to Allah, and there found thee dying of heat and
+thirst.  Thou didst sacrifice thy life to save our ruler and his city,
+therefore we brought thee hither," she said.
+
+Then, taking my hands, the Sultan added, "Thou hast the verdure of the
+meadows of life.  May Allah preserve thee, and grant unto thee long
+years of perfect peace, and an eternal rose-garden of happiness.  Wipe
+off the rust of _ennui_ and fatigue from the speculum of thy mind, and
+follow me; for a feast is already prepared for the celebration of this
+victory."
+
+And we passed onward through the private pavilions--bewildering in their
+magnificence of marble and gold, and green with many leaves--to the
+Great Hall of the Divan, where, standing under the royal baldachin of
+yellow silk brocade, the Sultan of Abea rejoiced me with his favours,
+proclaiming me, Ahamadou, tribes man of the Azjar, the Saviour of the
+City in the Sky.
+
+No Touareg has ever contracted marriage with an Arab; therefore, after
+tarrying in Afo for many moons, I made peace with my people and returned
+unto them, for the wild life of the limitless sands was more congenial
+to me than the ease and perfumes of palaces and the favours of kings.
+
+THE THRONE OF THE GREAT TORTURE.
+
+Far south, beyond the Atlas Mountains, beyond that great, limitless
+plain of the Talidat where nothing meets the aching eye but a dreary
+waste of red-brown, drifting sand, one experiences some curious phases
+of a life comparatively unknown, and little understood in European
+civilisation.  There, life to-day is the same as it was ten centuries
+ago--the same as it will ever be: free and charming in its simplicity,
+yet with many terrors ever present, and sun-bleached bones ever
+reminding the lonely traveller that a pricked water-skin means the end
+of all things.
+
+The Veiled Man--by William Le Queux
+
+On a journey alone from Biskra to Mourzouk, in Fezzan, I foolishly
+disregarded the injunctions of my fellow tribesmen, and was rendered
+extremely uncomfortable by the astounding discovery that the camel
+caravan I had joined in Zaouia Timassanin, and with which I had been
+travelling for twenty days, belonged to the Kel-Izhaban, a tribe of
+marauders and outlaws with whom we had had for years a fierce
+blood-feud, and whose depredations and relentless butchery of their
+weaker neighbours caused them to be held in awe from Morocco across to
+Tripoli, and from Biskra to Lake Tsad.  In addition, I ascertained that
+the Sheikh, known to me as Sidi El-Adil, or "The Just," was really none
+other than Abdul-Melik, like myself, a pirate of the desert, against
+whom the French Government had sent three expeditions, and upon whose
+head a price had been set.
+
+With bronzed, aquiline features, long grey beard, and keen, deep-set
+eyes; tall, erect, agile, and of commanding presence, he was a splendid
+specimen of the true-bred Arab of the plains.  Though he expressed
+intense hatred for the Infidel, and invoked curses most terrible upon
+the horsemen of the Roumis in general, and those of the Azjar in
+particular, he, nevertheless, treated me with haughty courtesy, and
+extended to me the hand of friendship.  As, at the head of our cavalcade
+of two hundred armed horsemen and a long string of camels, he rode day
+by day across the parched wilderness, interspersed by small sand-hills
+and naked ledges of rock, speckled with ethel-bushes half overwhelmed by
+sand, he was truly an imposing figure.  His burnouse was of finest white
+wool, embroidered heavily with silk; the haick surrounding his face was
+of spotless china-silk, and around his head was wound many yards of
+brown camel's hair.  The saddle upon which he sat was of crimson velvet,
+embroidered with gold and set with precious stones, and stirrups and
+spurs of massive silver completed the trappings of his splendid
+coal-black horse, which he managed with rare perfection and skill.  On
+my white Ku-hai-lan stallion, I usually rode at his side, chatting to
+him in his own tongue, while two hundred of his people, erect in their
+saddles, and with their long-barrelled rifles slung behind, were ready
+to instantly execute his slightest wish.
+
+The days were breathless and blazing.  Scorched by the sun, and
+half-suffocated by the sand-laden wind, our way lay through a wilderness
+that Nature had forsaken.  At night, however, when the outlaws of the
+desert had cast sand upon their feet and prayed their _maghrib_, and we
+had encamped under the palms of the oasis, eaten our dates and
+kouss-kouss, and slaked our thirst from our water-skins, then commenced
+the real luxury of the day--the luxury of idleness--as, reclining on a
+mat in front of the Sheikh's tent, with coffee and a cigarette, the
+great Abdul-Melik would relate with slow distinctness stories of past
+encounters between his people and the hated Christians.
+
+While sentries with loaded rifles kept a vigilant look-out lest we
+should be surprised by the ever-watchful Spahis or Chasseurs, half--a--
+dozen Arabs would squat in a semicircle before the great Sheikh, and,
+twanging upon their queer little banjos fashioned from tortoise-shells
+over which skin is stretched, would chant weirdly, in a strange
+staccato, Arab songs of love and war.  At that hour a coolness falls
+over everything, intense silence reigns, the sky above grows a deeper
+and deeper blue, and the palms and talha trees look mysterious in the
+half-light.  Soon the stars shine out like diamond points, and it grows
+darker and darker, until the chill night-breeze of the desert stirs the
+feathery heads of the date-palms.  Then the lawless nomads, my
+companions, would wrap their burnouses closely about them, scoop out a
+hole in the warm sand, and there repose until the first flush of dawn.
+
+About five weeks after I had inadvertently thrown in my lot with the
+Kel-Izhaban, and after penetrating a region that, as far as I am aware,
+has never been explored by Europeans--for it remains a blank upon the
+most recent map issued by the French Depot de la Guerre--we were one
+evening, at a spot evidently pre-arranged, joined by a body of three
+hundred horsemen, who armed themselves with the rifles they obtained
+from our camel's packs, and then, leaving the camels in charge of
+half-a-dozen men in a rocky valley called the Anzoua, we all continued
+our way in high spirits, jesting, laughing, and singing snatches of
+songs.  Throughout that night, and during the following day, we rode at
+the same steady pace, with only brief halts that were absolutely
+necessary.  On the second night darkness fell swiftly, but the moon
+rose, and under its bright mystic light we sped forward, until suddenly
+the gaunt man, in a dirty, ragged burnouse, who acted as our guide,
+shouted, and we pulled up quickly.  Then, in the moonlight, I could just
+distinguish among the trees of the little oasis a few low, white houses,
+of what I subsequently learned was the little desert village of Tilouat,
+inhabited by the Kel-Emoghri, and distant ten leagues from the town of
+Ideles.
+
+Abdul-Melik shouted an order, clear and distinct, whereupon the horsemen
+spread themselves out in two long lines, and with their guns carried
+across their saddles, the first line crept slowly and silently forward.
+By this movement I knew that we were about to attack the village, and
+held my own rifle ready for purposes of self-defence.  Sitting in the
+second line, I advanced with the others, and the breathless moments that
+followed were full of excitement.
+
+Suddenly a shot startled us, and at the same moment a muttered curse
+fell from the Sheikh's lips as he saw that our presence had been
+detected, for the shot had been fired in the village as a sound of
+warning.  Almost instantly it was apparent that we had been betrayed,
+for a great body of horsemen galloped out to meet us, and in a few
+moments I found myself lying behind my horse pouring forth volley after
+volley from my rifle.
+
+The fusillade was deafening, and for fully half an hour it was kept up.
+About twenty of our men had been killed or wounded, when suddenly the
+first line rose with loud shouts as if they were one man, and, mounting,
+rode straight at their opponents, while we followed at headlong speed
+upon our enemies almost ere they had time to realise our intention.  The
+melee was awful.  Swords, rifles, and keen, crooked _jambiyahs_ were
+used with terrible effect, but very soon all resistance was at an end,
+and the work of looting the village commenced.
+
+Half demented by excitement and success, my companions entered the
+houses, shot down the women with relentless cruelty, tore from them what
+little jewellery they possessed, and plundered, wrecked, and burned
+their homes out of sheer delight in destruction.  I stood watching the
+terrible scene, but unable to avert the great calamity that had fallen
+so swiftly upon the peaceful little place.  The fiendishness of our
+enemies had, alas! not been exaggerated.  Abdul-Melik laughed gleefully,
+uttering some words as he rode past me swift as the wind.  But I heeded
+him not; I loathed, despised, and hated him.
+
+While dawn spread in rosy streaks, the work of plunder still proceeded,
+but when the sun shone forth, only the smoke-blackened walls of Tilouat
+remained standing.  The plunder was quickly packed upon our horses, and
+soon afterwards we rode off, carrying with us twenty men and women who
+had been captured, all of whom would eventually find their way into the
+great slave-market, far away at Mourzouk.
+
+At sundown, five days afterwards, we descended into a rocky valley, and
+suddenly came upon a wonderful mass of scattered ruins, of amazing
+magnitude and extent, which Abdul-Melik told me were the remains of a
+forgotten city called Tihodayen, and as we approached, I saw by the
+massive walls of hewn stone, the fallen columns half embedded in the
+sand, and by an inscription over an arched door, that they were relics
+of the Roman occupation.  When we dismounted, I found that the ruined
+city gave shelter to the outlaws, and was their habitual hiding-place.
+
+An hour later, reclining on mats under the wall of what had once been a
+great palace, the outlaw Sheikh and myself ate our evening meal of
+_saubusaj, beryseh_, and _luzinyeh_, and drank copiously of _dushab_,
+that luscious date-syrup which is so acceptable after the heat and
+burden of the Saharan day, while my companions feasted and made merry,
+for it appeared that they kept stores of food concealed there.
+
+On commencing to smoke, Abdul-Melik ordered that the captives should be
+brought before him, and when, a few minutes later, they were ushered
+into his presence, they, with one exception, fell upon their knees,
+grovelled, and cried aloud for mercy.  The single captive who begged no
+favour was a young, dark-haired girl of exquisite beauty, with black,
+piercing eyes, pretty, dimpled cheeks, and a complexion of almost
+European fairness.  She wore a zouave of crimson velvet heavily
+embroidered with gold, a heavy golden girdle confined her waist, and her
+wide trousers were of palest rose-pink silk, while her tiny feet were
+thrust into velvet slippers of green embroidered with gold thread.  But
+her dress had been torn in the fierce struggle with her pitiless
+captors, and as she stood, erect and defiant, with her hands secured
+behind her with a leathern thong, she cast at us a glance full of
+withering scorn.
+
+The Sheikh raised his hand to command silence, but as her
+fellow-captives continued wailing, he ordered the removal of all but
+this girl, who apparently set him at defiance.  Turning his keen eyes
+upon her, he noted how extremely handsome she was, and while she
+returned his gaze unflinchingly, her beauty held me in fascination.  In
+all my journeys in the Land of the Sun I had never before seen such an
+absolutely perfect face.
+
+"Who art thou?" demanded the dreaded chief, roughly.  "What is thy
+name?"
+
+"I am called Khadidja Fathma, daughter of Ali Ben Ushshami, cadi of
+Ideles," she answered, in a firm, defiant tone.
+
+"Ali Ben Ushshami!" echoed Abdul-Melik, knitting his brows fiercely.
+"Thou art his daughter; the daughter of the accursed son of offal who
+endeavoured to betray me into the hands of the Roumis," he cried,
+exultantly.  "I have kindled the lights of knowledge at the flambeau of
+prophecy, and I vowed that I would ere many moons seek vengeance."
+
+"I have anticipated this thy wrath ever since thine horde of cowardly
+ruffians laid hands upon me," she answered, with a contemptuous toss of
+her pretty head.  "But the daughter of the cadi of Ideles craveth not
+mercy from a servant of Eblis."
+
+"Darest thou insult me, wench?" he cried, pale with passion, and
+starting up as if to strike her.  "Thou art the child of the man who
+would have given me into the hands of the Spahis for the sake of the two
+bags of gold offered for my head.  I will return his good offices by
+sending him to-morrow a present he will perhaps appreciate, the present
+of thine own hands.  He will then be convinced that Abdul-Melik knoweth
+how to repay those who seek to injure him."
+
+"Dost thou intend to strike off my hands?" she gasped, pale as death,
+nevertheless making a strenuous effort to remain calm.
+
+"At sunrise the vultures will feast upon thee, and thine hands will be
+on their way to Ideles," he answered, with a sinister smile playing
+about his hard mouth.
+
+"Malec hath already set his curse upon thee," she said, "and by each
+murder thou committest so thou createst for thyself a fresh torture in
+Al-Hawiyat, where thy food will be offal and thou wilt slake thy thirst
+with boiling pitch.  True, I have fallen captive into thine hands,
+having journeyed to Tilouat to see my father's mother who was dying; but
+thinkest thou that I fear thee?  No!" she added with flashing eyes.
+"Though the people dread thee as the great and powerful Chief, I despise
+thee and all thy miserable parasites.  If thou smitest off mine hands,
+it is but the same punishment as thou hast meted out to others of my
+sex.  Thou art, after all, a mere coward who maketh war upon women."
+
+"Silence, jade!" he cried, in a tumult of passion, and, turning to the
+men beside him, commanded: "Take her away, secure her alone till dawn,
+and then let her hands be struck off and brought to me."
+
+Roughly the men dragged her away, but ere she went she cast at us a look
+of haughty scornfulness, and, shrugging her shoulders, treated this
+terrible mandate with ineffable disdain.
+
+"The jade's hands shall be sent to her father, the Cadi, as a souvenir
+of the interest he taketh in my welfare," the Sheikh muttered aloud.
+"Her tongue will never again utter rebuke or insult.  Verily, Allah hath
+delivered her into my hands a weapon to use against mine enemies."
+
+I uttered eager words of intercession, pointing out the cruelty of
+taking her young life, but he only laughed derisively, and I was
+compelled to sit beside him while the other captives were questioned and
+inspected.
+
+That night I sought repose in a shed that had been erected in a portion
+of the ruins, but found sleep impossible.  The defiantly beautiful face
+of the young girl who was to die at dawn kept recurring to me with
+tantalising vividness, and at length I rose, determined if possible to
+save her.  Noiselessly I crept out, my footsteps muffled by the sand,
+saddled one of Abdul-Melik's own horses, and without attracting the
+notice of either sentry on duty at each end of the encampment, I entered
+the ruin where, confined to an iron ring in the masonry by a leathern
+band, she crouched silent and thoughtful.
+
+"_Fi amani-illah_!"  I whispered, as I approached.  "I come to have
+speech with thee, and assist thee to escape."
+
+"Art thou a friend?" she inquired, struggling to her feet and peering at
+me in the gloom.
+
+"Yes, one who is determined that the outlaw's command shall never be
+executed," and taking the _jambiyah_ from my girdle, I severed the
+thongs that confined her hands and ankles, and next second she was free.
+
+Briefly I explained how I had saddled a fleet horse and placed a
+saddle-bag with food upon it.
+
+"If I get safely away I shall owe my life to you," she said, with
+intense gratitude, pressing my hand for an instant to her quivering
+lips.  "I know this place, and ere two moons can have risen I can travel
+through the rocky defile and be at my father's house in Ideles.  Tell me
+thy name, so that my father may know who was his daughter's liberator."
+
+I told her, and in the same hasty breath asked for some souvenir.
+
+"Alas!  I have nothing," she answered; "nothing but a strange ornament
+which my father's mother gave to me immediately before she died, an hour
+previous to the attack being made upon the village," and placing her
+hand deep into the breast of her dress she drew forth a rough disc of
+copper, about the size of a crown piece, with a hole in it, as if it had
+been strung upon a thread.
+
+"When she gave it to me she told me it had been in her possession for
+years, that it was a talisman against terror, and that some curious
+legend was attached to it, the nature of which I do not now recollect.
+There is strange writing upon it in some foreign tongue of the Roumis
+that no one has been able to decipher."
+
+I looked, but unable to detect anything in the darkness, I assured her
+that its possession would always remind me of her, and slipped it into
+the pocket of my gandoura.
+
+Then together we crept along under the shadow of the wall, and, gaining
+the spot where the horse stood in readiness, I held her for a second
+while she kissed my hand, uttering a fervent word of thanks, and
+afterwards assisted her into the saddle.  Then a moment later, with a
+whispered "_Allah iselemeck_!" she sped away, with her unbound hair
+flying behind her, and was instantly lost in the darkness.
+
+On realising that she had gone I was seized with regret, but feeling
+that at least I had saved her from a horrible doom, I returned to my
+little shed and, wrapping myself in my burnouse, slept soundly until the
+sun had risen high in the heavens.
+
+Opening my eyes, I at once remembered Khadidja's quaint souvenir, and on
+examining it, was astonished to find both obverse and reverse of the
+roughly fashioned disc covered with an inscription in English crudely
+engraved, or rather scratched, apparently with the point of a knife.
+Investigating it closely I was enabled, after some difficulty, for I
+have only an elementary knowledge of the tongue of the Roumis, to read
+the following surprising words:--
+
+"_This record I leave for the person into whose hands it may fall, for I
+am starving.  Whosoever reads this let him hasten to Zemnou, in the
+Zelaf Desert, two days from the well of El Ameima, and from the
+Bab-el-Oued pace twenty steps westward outside the city wall, and under
+the second bastion let him dig.  There will he be rewarded.  John Edward
+Chatteris, held captive in the Kasbah of Borku by order of the Sultan
+'Othman, Sunday, June 13, 1843_."
+
+Chatteris!  Instantly it occurred to me that a celebrated English
+explorer, archaeologist, and member of the Royal Geographical Society of
+that name, had years ago been lost, and his fate had remained a complete
+mystery.  Inquiries for news of him had been circulated throughout the
+great Desert among the wandering tribes, with an offer of a reward.
+This, then, was a message inscribed, with apparent difficulty within the
+impregnable citadel of the warrior Sultan of Borku, whose little
+mountain kingdom was situate five hundred miles south of Mourzouk,
+between the Tibesti Mountains and Lake Tsad; a secret that for half a
+century had been in the keeping of those who could not decipher it.
+
+What might not be buried at the spot indicated by this curious relic of
+the great traveller?  My curiosity was excited to the utmost.  Impatient
+to investigate the truth, but compelled, nevertheless, to remain patient
+until such time as I could escape from my undesirable companions, I
+concealed the disc and rose to join Abdul-Melik at his morning meal.
+
+Khadidja's escape caused the old outlaw intense chagrin, and his anger
+knew no bounds, but luckily no suspicion fell upon me, and having
+remained with them during two whole moons I succeeded one day, when we
+were near the town of Rhat, in evading them and getting away.  As
+quickly as possible I returned to In Salah, where I exhibited the metal
+disc with its strange inscription to our three headmen, who became at
+once interested in it, announcing their intention to accompany me next
+day to investigate the truth of the engraved record.
+
+With an escort of twenty of our men, all well mounted and armed, we rode
+out of In Salah at dawn, and for nine days continued our journey across
+the desert due eastward, first taking the caravan route to Tarz Oulli,
+beyond the French boundary, and continuing through the rocky region of
+the Ihehaonen and across the Djedid Oasis, until one evening, at the
+_maghrib_ hour, the high white walls and three tall minarets of the
+desert city of Zemnou came within view.  It was unsafe to take our men
+nearer, therefore we returned and bivouacked until darkness set in.
+Then, dressed in the haick and burnouse of the Arab of the plain, the
+three headmen with myself, carrying spades concealed beneath our flowing
+drapery, approached the town and crept under the shadow of the walls,
+until we reached the Bab-el-Oued, or principal gate.  Guarded by strong
+watch-towers on either side, the gate was closed, and silently we crept,
+anxious and breathless, on over the sand westward until we had counted
+twenty paces and reached the second bastion.
+
+Then, after glancing eagerly around to reassure ourselves that we were
+not observed, we all five commenced to dig beneath the wall.  Discovery,
+we knew, would mean death.  The sand was loose, but full of stones, and
+for some time we worked without result.  Indeed, I began to fear that
+someone had already been able to decipher the record and obeyed its
+injunctions, when suddenly the spade of one of my companions struck
+something hard, and he uttered an ejaculation.  With one accord we
+worked with a will, and within ten minutes were unearthing an object of
+extraordinary shape.
+
+At first it puzzled us considerably, but at length, when we had cleared
+the earth sufficiently to remove it, we made a cursory examination by
+the aid of wax tapers, and discovered that it was a kind of stool with a
+semi-circular seat, supported by six short columns of twisted gold in
+imitation of serpents, the seat itself being of gold inlaid with many
+precious stones, while the feet consisted of six great yellow topazes,
+beautifully cut and highly polished, held in the serpents' mouths.  The
+gold had become dimmed by long contact with the earth, but the gems, as
+we rubbed off the dirt that clung to them, gleamed and sparkled in the
+tapers' fitful rays.
+
+The stool, or throne, was so heavy that it was with difficulty two men
+dragged it out of the trench, and breathless with anxiety we all lent a
+willing hand to carry it over the five miles of open desert to where the
+men were awaiting us.  Our arrival was greeted with cheers, but quickly
+the strange relic was wrapped in saddlebags and secured upon the back of
+a spare horse.  At once we set out on the first stage of our return
+journey, reaching In Salah in safety ten days later, and learning with
+satisfaction on our arrival that Abdul-Melik had, during our absence,
+been killed in a skirmish with the French Spahis in the Ahaggar.
+
+Not until I had sent the jewelled seat to England, through an Arab
+merchant whom I knew in Algiers, and it was exhibited before a meeting
+of the Royal Geographical Society, was I aware of its real antiquarian
+value.  From the letters sent home by the intrepid Dr Chatteris, and
+still preserved in the archives of the Society, it appeared that during
+1839 Salman, the great Sheikh of Aujila, assembled a formidable
+following, and proclaiming himself Sultan of Tunis, led an expedition
+through the country, extorting money from the people by reason of
+horrible tortures and fearful barbarities.  While sentencing his
+unfortunate victims, he always used a curiously-shaped judgment-seat,
+which, for ages, had been the property of the Sultans of Sokoto, and it
+thus became known and dreaded as the Throne of the Great Torture, it
+only being used on occasions when he sentenced the unfortunate wretches
+to torture for the purpose of extracting from them knowledge of where
+their wealth was concealed.
+
+Against this fierce rebel the Bey of Tunis was compelled to send a great
+expedition, and after several sanguinary encounters at Sinaun, and in
+the Um-el-Cheil, he was utterly routed and killed in his own stronghold
+at Aujila.  Dr Chatteris, in the last letter received from him,
+mentioned that he had secured the jewelled throne, but that on account
+of the superstitions of the Arabs it was an extremely difficult matter
+to convey it to the coast.
+
+Fearing lest he should lose it, he had apparently buried it, and soon
+afterwards unfortunately fell into the hands of the Sultan of Borku, who
+held him captive until his death.
+
+Khadidja is still living in Ideles, where she is happily married to the
+younger son of the Governor, but in the seclusion of her harem she is
+still in ignorance that, by the curious little souvenir with which she
+rewarded me, she added to England's national collection of antiquities a
+valuable and highly interesting relic.
+
+Visitors to the British Museum will experience but little difficulty in
+finding it, for in the Oriental section at the present moment one of the
+most frequently inspected and greatly admired treasures is the quaint,
+historic, and bejewelled Throne of the Great Torture.
+
+The End.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Veiled Man, by William Le Queux
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 40832 ***