Evening star., 1919-12-07
BY SAX ROHMER

taking base advantage of that desert
hospitality which 10 unbounded'
which knows no suspicion and takes
no count of cost, I remained In the
tent which had been vacated Tor me-
In this voluntary camp I learned
little of the doings Of the camp. All
day lay dreaming of two dark eyes
and at night when the 5ackals howled
i thought Of the wanderer who had
counseled me to leave. One day lay
so; a second: a third again: and the
women of Said Mohammed's house
hold tended me. closely veiled, OF
course. But in vain I waited for that
attendant whose absence was render
ing my feigned fever a real one.
1t was in the violet dusk of the
fourth day, as lay there with a sort
of shame of my deception struggling
for birth in my heart, that she came.
She came through the tent door
bearing a bowl of soup. and the rays
Of the setting sun outlined her fairy
shape through the gossamer robe as
she entered.
With her face modestly veiled, the
Bedouin maid knelt beside me, plac-
ing the wooden bowl upon the ground.
My eager gaze pierced the yashmak.
but her black lashes were laid upon
her cheek, her glorious eyes averted.
MY heart--or was 1t my vanity
told me that she regarded me at
least with interest, that she was not
at ease in my company; and as, hav-
ing spoken no word. having ventured
no glance. she rose again to depart, I
was .emboltiened to touch her hand
Like a startled gazelle she gave me
one rapid glance. and was gone!
The Bedouin girl Is a woman when
a European woman Is but child,
and Sakina. whose eyes could search
mans soul, was but twelve years
of age-twelve? Can you picture that
child of twelve squeezing a lovers
heart between her tiny hands, en-
twining his imagination in the coils
Of her hair?
You, my friend. may perhaps be
able to conceive this thing. for you
know the east, and the women of
the east. At ten or eleven years OF
age many of them are adorable; at
twenty -one most Of them are passe;
at twenty-six all of them--with rare
exceptions--are shrieking hags.
But to you, my other friends, who
are strangers to our oriental ways.
who know not that the peach only
attains to perfect ripeness for one
short hour. 1t may be strange. 1t may
be horrifying, that loved, with all
the ardor which was mine, this little
Arab maiden, who. had she been born
IN France. would not yet have escaped
from the nursery. But digress.
The Arabs We're encamped. Of course.
in the neighborhood Of spring. 1t
lay in slight depression amid the
tiny palm grove. Here. at sunset,
came the women with their pitchers
on their heads. graceful Of carriage.
yelled, mysterious.
Very soon then the barrier Of re-
serve which. like the screen ~ the
haren, stands between eastern women
and love was broken. My trivial
scruples had cast to tho winds. and,
feigning weakness, I would sally
forth to take the air in the cool Of
the evening-this two days later.
My steps. be assured. led mo to the
spring. and you who are men Of the
world will know that Sakina. braving
the reproaches of the sheikh's house,
hold, neglectful of her duties, was
last of all the women who came to
the well for water.
taught her to say my name-Rene!
How sweet it sounded from her lips.
as she strove In vain to roll the "R"
in our Provencal fashion. Some ginnee
most certainly presided over this en-
chanted fountain, for. despite the
nearness of the camp, our rendezvous
was never discovered, our meetings
were, never detected.
With her pitcher upon the ground
beside her. she would sit with those
wistful, wonderful eyes upraised to
mine. and sway before the ardor of
my impassioned words as young
and tender reed sways in the Nile
breeze.
Next to Said Mohammed, her father,
Sakina's brother was the finest horse
man OF the tribe. and his white mare
their heetest steed. ! had cast COW
etous eyes upon this glorious creature.
my friends, and secretly had made
aAI tr>