Evening star., 1933-05-31
a. VALIANT dust

was there a yellow streak in his char
acter? She had told him. at the time,
! that she did not love him and had
talked about a IL months engagement.
Here Margaret pulled herself up
sharply. once again.
| whoever he was, and whatever he
was. she had married him of her own
| free WILL and with her eyes open-and
she would make the best of it. He
was her husband and she would make
! the best of him.
If he were weak. she must try and
| strengthen him. and if Morocco had a
! bad effect upon him, she must get him
out of the country and never let him
come back to it.
| And, in any case, they must get out
of this horrible place. 1t was like liv-
ing in the Tower of London in the days
of Richard III OF Henry VIII.
And meanwhile what to do? How to
/ find Jules?
How long had she been in this beastly
room? And what would happen if she
merely sat tight? Ell lisa Beth el Ain
her mother er-in-law!-had simply said
IF you insist on remaining in this room
I'll leave it,
Another hour passed, and a gnawing
hunger was added to Margarets other
| troubles.
! If she grew tired of waiting. and
| went away. would she be readmitted If
she returned?
| On the other hand, she would look
rather foolish if she merely sat there
! suffering self-inf1icted imprisonment.
She was being absurd. Everybody had
! treated her perfectly kindly and she
! had nothing whatever of which to COM
| plain-save for Raisuls incredible mad
ness of last night.
OF course, this woman, Ell lisa Beth
. el Ain was bitterly jealous of her, but
/ surely she would do her own sons wife
! no harm, nor permit anybody else to
injure her?
! Anyhow, this was no good.
Springing up, Margaret went to the
| outer door and hammered upon it, as
/ El Isa Beth el Ain had told her to do.
! Almost at once the heavy lock was
turned, a big bolt withdrawn and the
! door opened by HaSSan el Miskeen.
/ Il want to find my husband, the Sidi
Jules Maligni," she said: repeated the
statement in French and attempted 1t
in shocking jargon of Spanish and
Arabic, as she realized that it was a
/ waste of time to address this dirty old
man in English or French.
| HasSan el Miskeen, smiling pleas
antly. shook his head and then, OPEN
ing widely a cavernous mouth, made
patent the fact that he had no tongue.
Margaret shuddered, pushed past him
and rushed down the corridor. turned
to the right at the end Of it and tried
to remember whether the turning that
she should take out of this passage
was the third or fourth on the left, or
! the second or third on the right.
She could try both sides. and If one
passage did not lead her to the stairs
another would.
The second on the right seemed
familiar, and, yes, there were the steep,
worn stone steps that led down to the
inner courtyard which was the garden
and place Of recreation.
But no, this was wrong. There should
be three flights of stairs and she had
only come down two flights. Should
she go back, or follow this gloomy. tun-
nellike passage in search Of another
descending flight of steps, and, If So
should she turn to the left or TO the
right?
Well she could explore in both di-
rections and return to these steps, II
. she did not find the other flight that
, she must descend to get down to the
, courtyard
She must not get lost and she must
not yield to panic. She must remem-
, Der that she was an English girl, stay
ing with her husband in the house
/ where his parents dwelt. She mus
fight against this foolish fear, this
: idiotic feeling that she was caught
/ trapped and in some hideous danger.
/ Turning the corner at the end of the
passage, Margaret stopped. What wa:
= that sound?
/ Had somebody coughed or spoken, Of
!, dropped something?
Or had it been the sound Of a foot
! step?
IL Go be continued tomorrow.