The Skyland post. [volume] (West Jefferson, N.C.) 193?-1988, 1941-10-23

Camilla rode in silence beside
Ronnie for way. AS he had said
there was no time for sentiment
only brief touch of fingers, q
glance of eyes as they rode to-
ward the moon. 'You know the
Sailed Ahmal?" she asked, as they
gave their weary horses a walk.
GIVE seen him-as I said, an
other descendant of the Prophet
I wonder why I never thought OF
him before I've got to pay him q
visit"
"We," she corrected. I'm going
with you, Ronnie."
He smiled with a fondness she
had begun to understand. "You're
simply incorrigible."
''But how are we going to gel
there?"
"a plane, my dear, the one
flew from Jerusalem. This is q
land Of great distances. Barring
mishaps we should be in Bagdad
this afternoon.
Wonderful man! The magic
carpet of Ronnie al-Rashid."
From time to time, as they
reached an elevation, he turned
in his saddle to look backward
But there were no signs of imme-
diate pursuit. Evidently the death
of Hassan Isar had put tempo
rary damper on their warlike ope,
rations.
"But if they are so many, aren't
your men afraid?"
''The Anazeh don't often cross
the line of the Jebel Hauran. We
have already taught them several
lessons"
Rosy signals had already been
sent up from the horizon before
Jebel Hauran showed it's exact
proportions-a great hill aspir-
ing to be a mountain rising out
of a grove of palm trees. Men
came accommodating. Ell Kerak's
men, she found, and in half an
hour they were in an encampment
very like Hassan's but much larg-
err and set in a cleft of the noun
tain which had grown bigger as
they approached it and comman-
ded view in all directions. Here,
she realized at once, were the
headquarters of Ell Kerak, Ronald
Bankers home in the desert, for
there seemed to be an air of per-
manence in the setup of the tents.
He made her lie in hammock
outside his tent while he saw to
the preparation of the plane for
immediate departure. And then
breakfast of eggs, native bread
made into toast, and coffee. care
you still game?" he asked her. "Or
hadn't I better send you back to
Beirut with some of my men?'-
She grinned at him. eff
wouldn't go before when you
asked me, why should I 60 now?
AS SOOu SpOl LSlllSll-
"You want to be in at the
death? Righto! It's your hunt now
as we'll as mine"
Ronnie had decided to take
Yusef with them and he entered
the cockpit full of joy at the VEN
ture.
Camilla realized as they climbed
the air that she had been less
with Ronnie than with Hassan,
and that here at last was Ronnie
as she had always thought of him,
whether she was with him or not,
sure. determined, cool, command
ing, no longer the fantastic crea-
ture of the many DISCUSSES but a
real Individual Of flesh and blood,
to whom, in spirit as we'll as fact
she had given all her friendship
and all her affection. There had
never been any other. With Ron
ME beside her, that purposeful
look in his eyes, it was Hassan
who was now fantastic and I'M
real. She had kept a tear or two
as she remembered his many
kindnesses, but had dried them
quickly when she remembered
what had happened last night.
One event followed another so
quickly that the remainder of her
pilgrimage to Bagdad, beginning
with the exaltation Of her swift
flight in Ronnie's plane was more
like fancy than reality. And as
she tried to remember what had
happened, she saw a series of pic
lures, recalled a series of CONVEX
sations, like the shifting colors of
a kaleidoscope. The Syrian des-
ert, unrolling like a tapestry be-
meath them, thrilling her with an
alarming sense of the spaciousness
of the earth, an infinite variety of
patches of green that were GASES;
other patches, like inkspots, that
were the tents of the Bedouins;
crawling worms of caravans that
twisted and turned among the hill
locks.