Part 34 (1/2)

Before Millicent's appearance his men had no doubt talked together in a way which would have shocked a stranger to the East if he could have understood what they were saying, but there had been an absence of any special topic; their talk had been impersonal. Now their interests were awakened, their lowest instincts were on the alert, their pa.s.sion for intrigue whetted. Suggestion, like perseverance, can work miracles.

With Millicent riding by his side and with the whole company of servants discussing their affairs, the desert had lost its purity, its healing powers. In its sands the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil seemed to need no water.

Michael clung to the thought of Margaret. For some few moments they rode in silence. Michael was inarticulate; his thoughts were like a flaming bush. In half an hour's time they would halt for lunch; until that time Millicent held her soul in patience.

Nothing was to be gained by a broken conversation on camel-back. A delicious excitement exalted her; her plans had succeeded; the very devil of insolence danced in her veins. She had trapped Michael and successfully outwitted Margaret Lampton. She was going to thoroughly enjoy herself. Michael, of course, would become quite docile in her hands later on; one of her gentle spells would reconcile him.

”How long have you been in the desert?” Michael asked.

”We've camped for two nights,” she said. ”It's been perfectly beautiful!

We have had no difficulties, no adventures and we've scarcely met a living soul. This eastern desert is awfully desolate, Mike--you're alone with your thoughts if you can't speak to your dragoman.”

”It's very desolate,” Mike said. ”And it's quite different from the Valley in colour and in feeling--at least it is to me.”

”I think so, too. This morning we met a strange creature--the only human we've struck--one of those desert fanatics, 'a child of G.o.d,' as my dragoman called him.”

Michael's heart beat faster; he forgot his annoyance. ”Where did you meet him?” he asked.

Millicent noticed the change in his voice. ”Not long before we sighted you. He was travelling this way--we shall probably pa.s.s him. Our camels were travelling at a good pace.”

”Did you speak to him?”

”No, I couldn't, but Ha.s.san did. I asked him about him. He told me that what we call an idiot or a village simple is really a man whose reasoning powers are in heaven. We see the material part of him, the part that mixes with ordinary mortals. To the Mohammedans such people are considered sacred, special favourites of G.o.d.”

”Yes, I know,” Michael said, ”and the worst of it is that advantage is taken of that charming idea and dreadful things are done by rogues who pretend to be religious fanatics or holy men. Some of them are awful creatures, absolute impostors, but as a rule they frequent towns and cities. The genuine holy man, a 'child of G.o.d,' lives apart from his fellows in the desert.”

”This poor creature wore a long cloak made out of all sorts of bits, a weird Joseph's coat of many colours. His tall staff was hanging with tattered rags and his poor turban was in the last stages of decay.”

Millicent's voice betokened genuine pity. ”He looked terribly thin and tired. I ought to have given him some food--he wouldn't accept money. I don't think he grasped its meaning.”

Michael's thoughts were busy. ”A little child will lead you, do not despise the favoured of G.o.d--their wealth is laid up for them in heaven.”

And so they journeyed on, Millicent pleased at the result of her conversation, it had set Michael dreaming.

”They have lots of beautiful ideas,” she said. She meant Moslems generally, not only the simples or religious fanatics.

”Yes,” Michael said. ”No religion has more lofty or beautiful ideas and ideals.”

”You don't think their ideas are often put into practice?”

”I don't know,” Michael said. ”It isn't fair to judge--the Western mind can't. Their ideas are beautiful and in obeying the laws laid down by the Koran they do beautiful and kindly acts; at the same time, their minds to us seem terribly polluted. Their religion doesn't appear to elevate their general aims or thoughts of life.”

”But isn't it the same with the greater portion of Christians, with many of what we call religious people?” Millicent laughed. ”I know it is with myself, Mike. I go to church and say my prayers and I think I believe in all the tenets of the Church and in the Bible--at least, I'd be frightened to not believe--and yet it doesn't make me feel a bit better. I don't really want to be good. I want to eat my cake on this earth and have it in heaven as well. All the nicest plums with you, Mike!”

Michael laughed. Millicent was always so frank upon the subject of her own worthlessness.

”We don't know what these people would be like if they had no Koran to curb them,” Millicent said. ”It may do more than you think. It's a strong bearing-rein.”

”That's true. The Egyptians are, I suppose, about the most sensual of all Easterns--the women are considered so, at any rate, by Lane, and he knew them intimately.”

Millicent laughed. ”I'm sure they are, speaking generally--that's to say, I suppose you meet exceptions here and there, as in all other countries.”

”The Prophet had his work cut out,” Michael said. ”And the world doesn't give him half the credit he deserves. The rules he laid down in the Koran are the only laws a Moslem really observes or reverences. His own soul teaches him nothing; it has been buried far too long by the laws imposed upon it; his superman is non-existent. The natural man blindly obeys the Prophet's teachings in the hope of the material rewards which will be his when he dies. The future life has always meant a great deal to the Egyptian peoples; their existence on earth has since time immemorial only been looked upon as an apprentices.h.i.+p for the fuller existence. The very fact that their earthly homes, even the Pharaoh's palaces, were only built of sun-baked bricks made of mud, shows that they carried out in practice the saying in the Bible about having no abiding cities here. Their tombs were their lasting cities and _they_ were built to endure throughout all eternity.”