Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1923-01-03
CHAPTER X.

CHAPTER y.
BY the time the news of the disap-
pearance of Sir Georg Barclays party
reached England, Pansy was well on
her way to El-Ammeh
She arrived there one night after
dark. a darkness out from which high
walls doomed and over them strange
sounds came; the thin wall of string
ed instruments; a tom-tom throbbing
through the blue night; the plaintive
song of some itinerant musician. and
the shuttle of crowded human life.
She was not given much time to
dwell upon those things. Her escort
skirted the high walls. big horse
shoe arch doomed up, with heavy iron
gates; gates that changed back as
they approached. And the flare of
torches showed a long passage lead
ing into darkness.
Into the passage her litter was car
ried with swaying somnolent move
ment. Then the gates closed with a
outside; and she and Alice were alone
with the flaming torches, the black,
engulfing passage and half dozen
huge negroes in gorgeous raiment.
With sickly feeling Pansy slipped
from her litter.
The journey had lasted over SIX
weeks. Under other circumstances
Pansy would have enjoyed it. 1t
could not have been more comfort
able. She had travelled in the cool
of the morning and in the cool of
the evening. Always for the long
midday halt the same sumptuouS tent
was up. awaiting her reception. taken
down again after she had departed
and up again before she arrived at
the next hating place.
The country she travelled through
was an interesting one, park-like and
grassy at first, as the weeks passed
becoming ever more sandy and arid,
with occasional patches that were
wonderfully fertile. Until. finally,
like a glowing, yellow sea before her.
she had her first glimpse of the Sa-
hara on it's southern side-billow
upon billow of flaming sand. stretch
ing away TO a tensely blue sky. with
here and there a stunted bush,
twist of coarse grass. or a clump OF
distorted Cacti with red flowers blaZ-
ing against the heated. shimmering
air-a vast solitude where nothing
moved.
For a week they had journeyed
through the desert. Late one even
ing lake came into view. with
where date palms, olives and cluster
ing vines f1ourished. On the far side
a walled city showed.
1t lay golden in the misty glow of
evening, it's minarets standing out
against Swallowed sky. Even as
she approached it had been swallowed
by darkness. Softly the lake Tapped
as they skirted it and the world was
filled with q constant Kissing sigh.
the sound of shifting sand when the
wind roamed over 1.-THE voice of
the desert
Much as PanSy dreaded her journeys
end she welcomed it.
She lived for nothing now but to
see the sultan. to plead with him for
her father, her friends, herself. And
she buoyed herself up with the hope
that her own riches would enable
her to ransom them all.
But if she failed.
She grew sick at the thought. And
the thought was with her as she
stood in the stone passage, her
strained eyes on the gigantic negro
guards who had come to escort her
tired from head to foot in rich.
brightly colored silks. and they lit
orally blazed with jewels.
The man who was their master
might have SO much money that he
would prefer revenge.
This thought was in Pansy's mind
some minutes later when she sat
alone with her maid in one of the
many apartments in the palace of Ell
Ammeh.
1t was big room with walls and
floor of gold mosaic and domed CELL
ing of saDphire-blue. where cut rock
crystals flashed like stars. Five gol
den lamps hung from it. suspended
by golden chains: lamps set with fat
emeralds and rubies and sapphires.
1t was furnished very much as her
tent had been, except that there were
wide ottomanS against the gilded
walls and the tables and stools were
large bureau of the same sweet
scented wood, beautifully carved
Three heavy. pointed doors of sandal
wood led into the apartment. The
place was heavy with it's sensuous
odor.
In little alcove draped with cur
tains of gold tissue the negroes de-
posted Pansy's belongings. Then
they withdrew, leaving the girl and
her maid alone; Pansy with the de-
pressing feeling that money might
not have much influence with the
Sultan Casim Ammeh.
Two of the doors of her gilded
prison were locked, Pansy. quickly
discovered. Outside of the one she
had entered by couple of negro
guards were stationed. who refused
to let her pass.
On learning this she went out into
the fretted gallery. Below a garden
lay. She stood at the head of the
steps leading into it, anxious to get
away from the dim scented silence
of the great room. in touch with the
trees and stars and the cool, rose
scented breath Of night that she I'M
derstood
Continued in Tomorrow's Star.)
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