Part 47 (1/2)

He looked at her gravely and steadily for a moment, and then very calmly he told her what had occurred. While Ibrahim and those of his adherents who had not gone to El Khargeh were attending the funeral, the rival faction had seized every camel and donkey in the Oasis, for of the former more than half the number owned by the inhabitants had gone with the caravan. They had disarmed the village _ghaffirs_, or guards, they had proclaimed their own chief as Sheikh of the Oasis, and they had picketed every track leading out into the desert and to the lands beyond.

Daniel had found his and Muriel's camel gone from the stable, and he had encountered a group of ”enemy” leaders who had informed him that he would not be permitted to communicate with the outside world for several days.

”Their idea,” he explained, lighting his pipe, ”is to get their man firmly established in power before the police hear of it, and then it will be a _fait accompli_. It is to be a peaceful revolution, without bloodshed if possible; but I don't suppose they will hesitate to shoot anybody who tries to get away. So, you see, we're caught.”

Muriel received the news calmly. According to the time-table the Bindanes would return to El Homra tomorrow or the next day, and then, if she had not made her reappearance, they would probably send her dragoman and a trooper or two to fetch her. But Daniel pointed out that three days might elapse before these men arrived, and two weeks before the authorities in Egypt could give instructions. Moreover, their coming might lead to an awkward situation for himself and her.

”You see, they know that I will support Ibrahim's claim,” he said, puffing quietly at his pipe, ”for I promised his father I would do so; and if an unfortunate accident could account for you and me, it would be all the better for them. Supposing, for example, you and I were found to have gone out hunting, and to have lost our way, and to have fallen over a cliff or something of that kind, there would be n.o.body much to uphold Ibrahim against a rival already established in office.”

Daniel did not take his eyes from hers as he put this aspect of the matter before her. It was as though he were testing her nerve; or perhaps it was that he thought candour best in regard to a contingency the possibility of which would doubtless occur to her.

”It seems to me,” she said presently, ”that human nature is much the same all the world over. You were rather intolerant of the intrigues of Cairo; but rivalries and disputes evidently go on in the desert too. I'm very disappointed.”

”So am I,” he replied, with disarming candour. ”The only thing to be said for it is that it has been done pretty openly and boldly.”

”What do you intend to do?” she asked. She was remarkably calm.

”I'm going to slip away after dark,” he replied, with a smile, ”and walk to El Homra.”

”It's thirty miles,” she said. ”And supposing you get shot or caught...?”

”You can come too, if you like,” he replied. He might have added that this actually was his intention.

She remained silent for some moments, her face a little flushed, her fingers drumming on the table. In spite of her self-control he could see that she realized the danger. ”Yes,” she said at length, ”I'll come too.”

He smiled broadly. She caught sight of his strong white teeth, in which the stem of his pipe was gripped.

”I don't see anything to smile about,” she remarked.

He did not answer. In his mind there was an astonis.h.i.+ng sense of exultation. He had had no idea that she would show such quiet pluck: he had hardly dared to think, as he put the graver possibilities of their situation before her, that she would receive the news without a tremor.

But now, suddenly, his heart was crying out within him: ”This is my mate; this is the woman who will dare all with me”; and he laughed to think of their present absurd relations.h.i.+p. He did not realize how deep was their estrangement.

After the midday meal he sent her to her room to rest, and, pocketing his revolver, went down into the village. Here all was quiet, but he observed that small groups of the revolters were moving to and fro, some of them carrying their antiquated firearms. Ibrahim, he was told, was more or less a prisoner in his own house, and he thought it politic to make no attempt to visit him.

”Time will show,” he said to an adherent of the usurper, ”whether your master is worthy to be Sheikh”; and that was as far as he would commit himself.

At tea-time he returned to the monastery, and now he gave full instructions to Hussein. The latter was to go to bed as usual that night, and was to take no part in the events of the darkness. He was to call his master an hour after sunrise, and if it chanced that he failed to find him, he was to take what steps he chose to report the disappearance and exonerate himself from blame.

It was not until after nightfall that any outward signs of their dangerous situation were to be observed. Daniel found then that three armed natives were loitering outside the ruined walls, and, in answer to his enquiries as to their business, they told him amiably that they were there to prevent him leaving the Oasis.

”But how can I leave it without a camel?” he asked. ”In the morning you must tell your master that the two camels must be brought back to me.

They must be here before midday.” His voice was peremptory, and the natives salaamed respectfully.

It was at about an hour before midnight that, from the top of his tower, he took a final survey of his surroundings. There was a young moon in the heavens, and by its pale light he observed the figure of one of the guards reclining on the sand, his back against the wall, directly beneath the window of Muriel's room. The other two, as he had previously noticed, were seated in a more or less comatose state at the entrance of the monastery, at which point they no doubt presumed that reason required them to remain.

He descended stealthily from the tower, and, feeling his way through the dark refectory, found Muriel seated, ready, upon her bed. In silence she rose to her feet, and thereupon Daniel gathered up the bedclothes in his arms and crept with them to the window. She did not know what he was about to do, but presently she saw him crouching upon the sill, his figure silhouetted against the sky.

Suddenly, with a flutter of the blankets, he disappeared, and from outside she heard a series of m.u.f.fled sounds. Darting to the window, she saw him struggling with what appeared to be a furiously animated bundle of bedclothes from which two kicking brown legs protruded; and, a moment later, this bundle was lifted from the ground.