Evening star., 1923-01-04
A Son of the Sahara
A Modern Story of the Desert
b hs bacau Co
Bv Louise Gerard sss.aE.s.sss..s..uuu

writing pad on her knee. For some
minutes she stayed frowning at a
blank piece of paper 1t was SO diff
cult to know what TO say to savage
chief who held the lives Of her father
and friends in his hands.
. After some minutes thinking she
wrote:
ITO the Sultan Casim Ammeh:
Perhaps you. do not know that
| am very rich. Any price you may
fathers life and freedom. for the
lives and freedom of my English
friends who are also your prisoners,
and for my own. The ransom Will
be paid to You in gold. All you will
have to do will be to mention the
| sum you want, and allow me to send
a message through to my bank in
England
"PANSY LANGHAM BARCLAY"
| The note was put into an envelope,
sealed addressed and taken out TO
Edouard.
suddenly recollected that the sultan.
for all his wealth and power, might
be ignorant of the arts of reading
and writing.
Can he read French?" she asked.
An amused look came 10 the doc
| tors face
"Tf he can't make it out. I'll read it
10 him." he replied
1t WAS evening before lie Breton got
| the note. lie Breton again as Pansy
knew him. in khaki riding suit just
as he had returned from a ride on
her old race-horse. that had been
| brought TO his camp the day OF her
| capture, and was now in the palace
stables.
| The note was lying on his desk.
| with the name that Pansy now hated
the Sultan Casim ANN meh--written
! on the envelope in her pretty hand.
! A tender look hovered about his
mouth as he picked up the letter and
read it. Again the girl was doing
! her best for some helpless creatures
filled him with an even greater ad-
miration for Pansy, il did not lessen
! his hatred for her father.
,, He sat down and dashed off brief
reply in an assumed hand:
"All the gold in Africa will not buy
my vengeance from me; ,
His answer reached Pansy with her
dinner. reducing her to despair.
1t seemed that nothing she could do
| would have any influence with this
savage ruler.
Hopeless days followed: days that
brought her nothing but series or
elaborate meals. Yet she knew that
life went on around her: life quite
different from any she had been ac-
Customed to.
Morning and night she heard faint
voices wailing from unseen minarets.
Over the high walls OF her garden
came the hum of a crowded city.
From her screened gallery she saw
camel trains loom out Of the haze of
distance to El-Ammeh. with wran-
gle of sweet bells: camels that came
from some vast unknown.
And there was another sound that
Pansy heard; sound that hailed from
J somewhere within the palace; that
always came about bedtime, and al
ways set her shivering. the sound of
girl screaming.
Each morning with her early tea
| there was a basket of rare flowers.
flowers she did not trouble to tell
Alice to move now; she put them
down to some palace custom. nothing
that had any bearing on the sultan
She never thought OF lie Bretons $
words:
still only a few flowers Pansy?"
And each evening she sat in the
dim. scented room and waited for
| those muffied screams. She knew
somewhere behind one of the locked
doors leading into her room.
Limp and listiess. she dragged
| through the hot, monotonous days
| brooding on her own fate and her
fathers. envying the ragged blacn
crows that flew free. like bits OF
| burnt paper. high in the scorching
sky.
Pansv had been about fortnight
in El-Ammeh, when something hap
pened.
One morning. as she stood by the
sunken pond. feeding the greedy carp
with rolls she was too miserable 70
eat. Alice came to her round-eyed and
startled-looking.
"Oh, Miss Pansy. dey hab come for
you" she gasped.
'Who?' Pansy asked quickly.
DE sultan's soldiers"
Are they going to take me to
him." she asked, feeling the inter
view she desired and dreaded was
now at hand.
"Dey take you to de slave market
To be sold. Oh. OH" the girl walled
Alice's hysterical sobs followed
| Pansy down the dim passage some
minutes later, when. with strained
| face and tortured eyes. she went with
guard of eight Arab soldiers TO
meet the fate the Sultan Casim AM
meh had promised for her more than
sixteen years before.