Part 4 (1/2)

said the dragoman. ”So you see that all the King's prisoners do not exceed his knee--which is not because he was so much taller, but so much more powerful. You see that he is bigger than his horse, because he is a king and the other is only a horse. The same way, these small women whom you see here and there are just his trivial little wives.”

”Well, now!” cried Miss Adams, indignantly. ”If they had sculped that King's soul it would have needed a lens to see it. Fancy his allowing his wives to be put in like that.”

”If he did it now, Miss Adams,” said the Frenchman, ”he would have more fighting than ever in Mesopotamia. But time brings revenge. Perhaps the day will soon come when we have the picture of the big, strong wife and the trivial little husband--_hein?_”

Cecil Brown and Headingly had dropped behind, for the glib comments of the dragoman, and the empty, light-hearted chatter of the tourists jarred upon their sense of solemnity. They stood in silence watching the grotesque procession, with its sun-hats and green veils, as it pa.s.sed in the vivid suns.h.i.+ne down the front of the old grey wall. Above them two crested hoopoes were fluttering and calling amid the ruins of the pylon.

”Isn't it a sacrilege?” said the Oxford man, at last.

”Well, now, I'm glad you feel that about it, because it's how it always strikes me,” Headingly answered, with feeling. ”I'm not quite clear in my own mind how these things should be approached,--if they are to be approached at all,--but I am sure this is not the way. On the whole, I prefer the ruins that I have not seen to those which I have.”

The young diplomatist looked up with his peculiarly bright smile, which faded away too soon into his languid, _blase_ mask.

”I've got a map,” said the American, ”and sometimes far away from anything in the very midst of the waterless, trackless desert, I see 'ruins' marked upon it--or 'remains of a temple,' perhaps. For example, the temple of Jupiter Ammon, which was one of the most considerable shrines in the world, was hundreds of miles from anywhere. Those are the ruins, solitary, unseen, unchanging through the centuries, which appeal to one's imagination. But when I present a check at the door, and go in as if it were Barnum's show, all the subtle feeling of romance goes right out of it.”

”Absolutely!” said Cecil Brown, looking over the desert with his dark, intolerant eyes. ”If one could come wandering here alone--stumble upon it by chance, as it were--and find one's self in absolute solitude in the dim light of the temple, with these grotesque figures all around, it would be perfectly overwhelming. A man would be prostrated with wonder and awe. But when Belmont is puffing his bulldog pipe, and Stuart is wheezing, and Miss Sadie Adams is laughing----”

”And that jay of a dragoman speaking his piece,” said Headingly; ”I want to stand and think all the time, and I never seem to get the chance.

I was ripe for manslaughter when I stood before the Great Pyramid, and couldn't get a quiet moment because they would boost me on to the top.

I took a kick at one man which would have sent _him_ to the top in one jump if I had hit meat. But fancy travelling all the way from America to see the pyramid, and then finding nothing better to do than to kick an Arab in front of it!”

The Oxford man laughed in his gentle, tired fas.h.i.+on.

”They are starting again,” said he, and the two hastened forwards to take their places at the tail of the absurd procession.

Their route ran now among large, scattered boulders, and between stony, s.h.i.+ngly hills. A narrow, winding path curved in and out amongst the rocks. Behind them their view was cut off by similar hills, black and fantastic, like the slag-heaps at the shaft of a mine. A silence fell upon the little company, and even Sadie's bright face reflected the harshness of Nature. The escort had closed in, and marched beside them, their boots scrunching among the loose black rubble. Colonel Cochrane and Belmont were still riding together in the van.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A silence fell upon the little company p72]

”Do you know, Belmont,” said the Colonel, in a low voice, ”you may think me a fool, but I don't like this one little bit.”

Belmont gave a short gruff laugh.

”It seemed all right in the saloon of the _Korosko_, but now that we are here we _do_ seem rather up in the air,” said he. ”Still, you know, a party comes here every week, and nothing has ever yet gone wrong.”

”I don't mind taking my chances when I am on the war-path,” the Colonel answered. ”That's all straightforward and in the way of business. But when you have women with you, and a helpless crowd like this, it becomes really dreadful. Of course, the chances are a hundred to one that we have no trouble; but if we should have--well, it won't bear thinking about. The wonderful thing is their complete unconsciousness that there is any danger whatever.”

”Well, I like the English tailor-made dresses well enough for walking, Mr. Stephens,” said Miss Sadie from behind them. ”But for an afternoon dress, I think the French have more style than the English. Your milliners have a more severe cut, and they don't do the cunning little ribbons and bows and things in the same way.”

The Colonel smiled at Belmont.

”_She_ is quite serene in her mind, at any rate,” said he. ”Of course, I wouldn't say what I think to any one but you, and I dare say it will all prove to be quite unfounded.”

”Well, I could imagine parties of Dervishes on the prowl,” said Belmont.

”But what I cannot imagine is that they should just happen to come to the pulpit rock on the very morning when we are due there.”

”Considering that our movements have been freely advertised, and that every one knows a week beforehand what our programme is, and where we are to be found, it does not strike me as being such a wonderful coincidence.”

”It is a very remote chance,” said Belmont, stoutly, but he was glad in his heart that his wife was safe and snug on board the steamer.