Evening journal., 1922-11-22
CHAPTER II


window and sat down. She leane
on her elbows, looking out, her fac
in her hands, her heavy hair fall
ing over her thin blue-veined fiI
gers.
The maid came with excited re
monstrance. Madame must so a
once to bed. The doctor had or
dered It. Madame was taking
chance with her life. Her lung
would congest. She would die i'm
mediatelyl In spite Of the dry at
mosphere, there was a certaii
dampness from the Nile at evening
But the woman gave no attention
She sat quite motionless LOOKING
down at the man on the gray Arab
at the edge Of the Place Esbekiya
She could see only the white helmet
the firm shoulders. the nervous
horse. and the sun in the street be
meath il. She could not see tn,
mans face. but she knew the fea.
lures of Il.
For some days he had been a dis.
tinguished figure in the city. Under
the visor OF the helmet she could re-
construct the face. with those domi-
mating eyes OF sword-blade. and the
features that in repose seemed mod
eled over iron.
And there arose in her an appal-
ling sense Of loss--a ghastly sense
OF having been trapped and cheated.
Here was the destiny for which she
was born into the world, and she
had been turned another way into
The pit. All. Godl II she had only
had this bronze wall behind her.
how far and how wonderfully she
would have gonel
Meanwhile the riot OF sound and
color poured along the Street Kamel
Pasha, drifted across the Place Es-
bekiya, and entered The Rue Muski
on the way to the Tombs OF the Ca
lphs. Now and then. one, exhausted
dropped out OF the mad current and
fell in the street, swathed in his
burnoose like a corpse
The whole square of the Place
Esbekiya was sown with these mo-
ropless figures.
Suddenly. far off in the border
OF the garden Of the Esbeykiya a
gaunt figure arose from among these
Rhastly groups. as in a garden OF
the dead--a creature Infinitely old,
matted with hair and faxed under
his burnoose. he extended his arm.
and his voice drifted with the vague
wind northward as from the desert.
1t came to the man sitting tho gray
Arab as from a remote distance; a
voice carried on the wave crest of
inDumerabie sounds; a long, wailing
desert cry. weird, eery. the words
slurred over and blurred.
20 Sirdar! I viii give Il to you
I will give it to you. And may It
cruelty your soul"
The voice trailed off in a thin in
distinguishable whine. and the ema-
ciated creature sank down under
his burDoose. =
The man looked up and about him
Ike one who hears a whispering in
the sky. Then he turned his horse
and rode on slowly in the wake of
the procession. He followed it east
In the Rue Muski
The horse picked its way along.
careful TO avoid the exhausted mad
men who iay everywhere. The rider
gave the horse no attention. He rode
with the reins slack in his fingers.
As the Rue Muski entered the
Neuve. the horse, TO avoid a camel.
stepped on the caftaD of an exhaust
ed dervish. lying in a heap like a
relaxed dead man. The hook barely
touched the garment, but the drug
crazed creature beneath It suddenly
rolled over and buried his teeth in
the horses leg above the fetlock. II
was the quick, savage lunge Of an
infuriated dog. The horse bolted.
and to keep him from going head
long into the crowd. the rider turn
ed hiM into a side street.
Blu he could not master the mad
dened horse. The beast was wild;
the iron bit clamped into its jaws as
II cemented into a stone. AS though |
infected by virus. the horse was
now as crazed as the drug-drunken
dervish. Nevertheless the horse did
moi get away.
He fought down the narrow street
and out through the native quarter
OF the city, but the rider controlled
him and, but for an accident, would
have got him in hand. A water
skin had broken in the street. and
when the plunging horse struck the
wei earth he fell.
The thing all happened in
flash, and the man was thrown out
Of the saddle As he arose a native
servant. in livery, handed him his
helmet. which had rolled into a
neighboring doorway. A motor-car
had S opped and woman was out
in the street beside him
"Oh, she cried. "are you hurt?"
The voice had the soft liquid tones
Of some southern country.
He was not in the least hurt and
be FASTENED TO say It.
The car was new and smart-the
sort OF wonderful thing one sees at
eleven in the Rue de Ia Paix. The
woman was extremely young, mere
girl, he thought. for the lines of her
slim figure we're not yet rounded
out.
1t was amazingly good in a suit Of
white Chinese silk heavy as duck 1
and cut, in a half sporting style.
with plated coat, belt and patch /
pockets. by a first-ciass London
tailor,
The girl was bushing slightly.
Her eyes colored like the velyet hull