CHAPTER XXVII – THE FLIGHT
For a long time Daniel lay awake upon his bed at the top of the tower, while his thoughts passed through a number of recurrent phases. More than once he felt that he had made a mountain out of a molehill; but this attitude of mind was dismissed by the recollection that, whether Muriel truly loved him or not, she had come to him “on the sly,” and, by planning this surreptitious interlude (for she had meant it to be no more than that) she had invested their relationship with that very atmosphere of intrigue which he so strongly resented.
He saw in her action the influence of that small section of London society which he abhorred, wherein the women appeared to him to be secret courtesans who would neither abide by the traditional law nor openly flout it; and he was determined either to eradicate that influence or to lose Muriel. He was not entirely clear in his mind as to what he was going to do with her in the Oasis for this fortnight; but of this he was sure, that she needed a lesson, and that he was going to take her in hand, remorselessly, whatever might be the consequences.
The moon, in the last quarter, rose above the far-off hills while yet he was wearily thinking, and realizing thus that daybreak was not more than two hours distant, he obliged himself by force of will, to compose his mind for sleep. In this he was successful and presently he fell into a deep slumber from which it would have been difficult to wake him.
Meanwhile, Muriel had also watched the dim light of the rising moon as it slowly spread over the desert. She had slept for two or three hours – a miserable sleep of exhaustion; but when she was awakened by the hooting of an owl outside the window, she lit her lamp and made no further attempt at repose.
Her one idea was to get away from Daniel and to go back to Kate Bindane, who would still be alone at El Homra until the end of the coming day. She did not want to wait until daybreak, for if Daniel were awake he would perhaps try to stop her; and now the slight illumination given by the moon encouraged her to make her immediate escape. She could hardly miss the road: all she had to do was to mount her camel and ride straight ahead.
Hastily she put on her clothes, and soon she had crept out into the refectory, carrying her heavy dressing-case in her hand. She had slipped her revolver into one of the pockets of her skirt, and in the other she had placed a packet of chocolate unused on the previous day, while her water-bottle was slung across her shoulder.
Her heart was beating, and she was frightened at the prospect of the long journey alone, but there was no practicable way of getting into touch with her dragoman, and she was obliged, therefore, to steel herself for the adventure.
By a stroke of good luck she found the three dogs wandering about the refectory, and they were thus not startled into barking: they followed her with wagging tails as she made her way to the camel-shed outside. There were no doors to open, nor bolts or bars to unfasten; and she could hear the servants snoring at the other end of the building.
Creeping into the shed, lantern in hand, she found her camel and Daniel’s kneeling side by side upon the sand, dreamily chewing the cud, and, having learned the tricks of the stable during her journey from Cairo, she quickly slipped a rope around the bent knee-joint of the foreleg of her own beast, thus preventing it from rising.
The saddle was heavy, and was furnished with a number of confusing straps; but, after a somewhat prolonged struggle, she managed at length to adjust it, and to tie her dressing-case on to the back pommel. Then, removing the tether, she held the nose-rope in one hand, and prodded the unwilling beast with her toe until it floundered to its legs, snarling and complaining as is the habit of the breed.
Leading it out into the open she buckled the girth in a fashion, but for some minutes she failed to make the creature kneel so as to allow her to climb into the saddle. She tugged at the nose-rope, and tapped its legs with her crop, but presently she was obliged to desist, owing to her fear that its whining grumbles would be heard.
She was in despair and was very near to tears, when suddenly she recollected that the native makes a certain noise in the roof of his mouth, like the rolling of a German ch, when he wishes his camel to kneel; and no sooner had she imitated this sound than the creature went down on its knees with the utmost docility. She clambered into the saddle with a sigh of relief, and a moment later was trotting silently northwards while the dogs stared at her in mild surprise as they stood in the light of the lantern which she had left burning at the doorway of the shed.
The soft pads made little sound as she passed under the outer walls of the monastery, and, looking up at the tower, she saw no signs of movement, for Daniel was fast asleep. Nor was there any indication of human life in the Oasis below her as she trotted along the cliff-tops, but the sporadic barking of the village dogs much alarmed her.
The day was now breaking in the east, while the moon also gave a certain amount of light; and she therefore found the track with ease, and in less than half an hour had left the Oasis behind and was heading out into the open desert across the high ground.
The excitement of her escape had prevented her from thinking of her actual sorrow, and now she was too nervous, too overawed by her surroundings, to be conscious of more than a general horror. A six hours’ ride across an absolutely uninhabited and lifeless stretch of country, with nothing but a packet of chocolate for sustenance, was likely to be a physical ordeal; and already she knew that the nervous strain was going to be very great.
As has been said, there were three wells upon the route, and the nearest of these, some six miles from the Oasis, she reached within the hour. The sun being now well above the horizon, she did not halt; for she realized that Daniel, on his tower top, would already have been awakened by its rays, and would perhaps be even now in pursuit.
This, in fact, was the case. When he had descended from the tower he had quickly discovered her flight, and had sent Hussein scuttling into the stable, while he himself put on a shirt and a pair of trousers and slipped his bare feet into the old canvas shoes which lay to hand.
Snatching his water-bottle and a tin of biscuits from the living-room, and pocketing his pipe and pouch, he ran through the refectory like a charging bull, sprang on to his camel, and was off and away before his servant had recovered from his first astonishment.
“Walla kilma!” he shouted to the staring Hussein, which means “Not a word!” And the loyal native thereupon went back to the kitchen, muttering to himself ”His Excellency has gone hunting,“ as though to convince himself of the veracity of the statement, which, after all, was not very far removed from the truth.
As Daniel raced along in the sparkling sunshine he could detect here and there the marks of Muriel’s camel upon the tracks before him, and he knew that, at the pace at which he was travelling, he would have the chance of overtaking her before she had accomplished half the journey back to El Homra; for he had not been long asleep, and her departure could not have taken place earlier without attracting his attention. He therefore settled down to a protracted and pounding chase, and in the brisk morning air his steed did not fail to show its mettle.
He was travelling at twice Muriel’s pace, and he caught sight of her, and she of him, as he descended from the high ground into the wide plain which lay between the two oases. She was over a mile ahead of him, a mere speck, like a little fly crawling across a vast brazen dish, and a considerable time passed before he had come close enough to observe her movements.
He saw her now urging her camel forward, beating it with her crop. Her hat had been discarded, and her hair had fallen down and was being tossed out behind her by the north wind like a fluttering banner.
She turned to glance at him, and he saw her flushed face, as again she belaboured her tired beast. He was about to call out to her when suddenly her camel stumbled. The loosely buckled girth gave way, and the saddle slipped over to one side. For a moment she clutched on to it, while her camel went round in a circle as though about to overbalance and fall on top of her. Then she slid to the ground, fell on her hands and knees, picked herself up, and set off running like a maniac, while the startled camel went staggering off to one side.
Daniel did not slacken his pace, and in a few moments he was close upon her heels.
“Stop!” he called, coming to a halt. “It’s no good running like that!”
For answer she suddenly swung round and faced him, panting and distracted. Her hand dived into her pocket, and issued again holding her revolver. He saw the sunlight flash upon it as she pointed it at him.
His camel was well trained, and he did not wait to tether it. Vaulting from the saddle he walked rapidly towards her, regardless of the menace of the weapon which covered him.
“Don’t dare to come any nearer,” she gasped, “or I’ll shoot you, you brute!”
He stretched out his arms. “Very well, shoot!” he said. “Good God! D’you think I value my life now?”
He saw her fingers press the trigger. There was a flash, a sharp report, and the bullet went singing past his ear, not close enough, perhaps, to suggest that she had taken aim at him, but not so distant that he could ignore it. He ran at her, therefore, and grasped her wrist, so that the revolver fell to the ground. Instantly she flung herself upon her knees and grabbed at it with her left hand, but he dragged her back by her arm, pulling her to her feet.
“You beast!” she exclaimed. “Leave me alone!” and she struck at him with her free hand. Her eyes were flashing, and her hair was tossed about her shoulders.
He put his arm about her, holding her as in a vice, and, stooping, he picked up and pocketed her revolver.
“Now sit down there,” he said, lowering her on to the sand, “and get your breath.”
She saw that there was no use in resisting, and she sat, therefore, glaring up at him as he stood before her.
He turned his head and glanced at the camels, and as he did so she stretched out her foot and kicked his shins.
“Ough!” he exclaimed. “Don’t do that – it hurts!”
“Oh, I wish we were near Cairo,” she cried. “I’d turn the servants on to you and have you whipped. Go and fetch my camel!”
“Yes,” he answered, “I’m just going to. And don’t you start running away again, or I’ll not be so gentle with you when I catch you.”
He hastened across the desert, and, without any difficulty, caught Muriel’s wandering and tired animal, and readjusted the saddle. Soon he had tethered it beside his own; and coming back to her, he sat himself down a yard or two away from her, and lit his pipe.
“Say when you’re ready to start back,” he said, stretching himself out and resting his head upon his elbow.
“I’m not coming back with you,” she replied. “I’m going back to El Homra.”
“No, you’re not,” he told her. “You’re going to stay with me for this fortnight you’ve so carefully planned.”
She scrambled to her feet, her fists clenched. “If you try to force me to come with you,” she burst out, “I shall … I shall bite you.”
He also stood up. “Now look here,” he said. “Understand me: you’re going back with me, whether you like it or not. And if you struggle I shall tie you up. Now, come along quietly.”
He caught hold of her wrist, and led her towards the camels.
“Take your hand off my arm!” she gasped. “You’ve got me in your power now, but you just wait till my father hears of this. He’ll have you hounded out of Egypt.”
He did not reply, but releasing her, left her to climb into the saddle.
“Go and get my crop,” she said. “I dropped it somewhere here.”
“Very well,” he replied, “but, remember, if you ride off while my back is turned, I’ll come after you and tie your hands behind your back.”
Muriel wriggled furiously in her seat, but she knew that it was useless to attempt to escape. Presently Daniel found her crop and brought it back to her. Then he mounted his camel, and the two of them rode off southwards side by side.
“We shall come across your hat soon,” he said. “Be on the lookout for it. You’ll get sunstroke without it, in spite of all that mass of hair.”
She uttered something like a growl as she jogged along beside him over the blazing sand.
CHAPTER XXVIII – THE SURPRISING FORTNIGHT
It was mid-morning when they reached the house, and Daniel advised Muriel to go at once to her room, whither Hussein presently brought refreshments and cans of water for the bath.
“Send Mustafa to me,” she said to him, but, understanding no English, and grasping only the name of the dragoman, he pointed towards the Oasis, indicating by signs that the man had not yet returned.
At this she went to the door of her room and called out sharply “Mr. Lane!”
Daniel, who at the moment had just ducked his head in a pail of water, came into the refectory drying his hair with a towel.
“What’s the matter?” he asked. “Anything I can do for you?”
“Where’s my dragoman?” she asked, suspiciously.
“I don’t know,” he replied. “I haven’t touched him.”
Hussein volunteered the information that Mustafa had not yet returned, and Daniel translated the statement into English.
“Well, when he comes,” she said, “please send him to me at once.”
“No,” he replied, very decisively, “I’m going to send him straight off to El Homra before he hears of our little trouble this morning. I can trust Hussein to say nothing in the village, but Mustafa I don’t know very well.”
She turned angrily to him. “You do like bullying women, don’t you!” she sneered.
He looked at her with steady, serene eyes, “You won’t need a dragoman for a fortnight,” he remarked. “He may as well make himself useful to the Bindanes.”
With that he went back to his ablutions, and when, half an hour later, Mustafa made his appearance, Daniel immediately sent him off on his long journey, telling him to convey his compliments to Mr. and Mrs. Bindane and to say that her Ladyship was in the best of health, and would come back to them on the thirteenth day from now.
This done, he called Hussein to him and spoke to him somewhat after this manner: “Her Excellency,” he said, “desires to go back to her friends, but I believe I shall be carrying out the wishes of her father by obliging her to remain here. You will therefore take her camel and mine into the village, so that she cannot get at them; and you will notify me at once if she leaves the house. Otherwise you are to treat her with the deference due to her high rank; and I think it will be best to make no mention of what I have told you to your friends.”
Hussein bowed, and at once went off to find a suitable stable for the camels.
When luncheon was announced a couple of hours later Muriel came into the living-room, carrying herself with dignity.
“Am I obliged to eat my meals with you?” she asked.
“It will be more convenient,” he replied.
“I shall probably be sick,” she muttered.
“You’ll get used to it,” he answered; and therewith they sat down at the table.
The meal was eaten in a distressing silence, broken only by Daniel’s polite profferring of salt, pepper, and the like, and by his pressing but vain invitations to her to eat a little more of this or that dish. When at length they rose from the table, he advised her to go to her room to rest. “You must be very tired,” he said, “after getting up so early, and all that excitement.”
“I’ll lie down,” she replied, “but I don’t suppose I shall sleep. The very fact of being anywhere near you disgusts me too much to allow me to go to sleep.”
“You must try to master that feeling,” he said, with perfect seriousness. “It hurts nobody but yourself. I can quite understand your being angry; but I think Al Ghazzali, the Muslim philosopher, put the matter in a nutshell when he said: ‘God loves those who swallow down their anger, and not those who have no anger at all.’ It only makes you yourself miserable to be in a temper; but try to say to yourself that you won’t let me be of such importance in your life as to have the power to upset you. You ought to say: ‘Nothing that this fellow does can shake my equanimity: he has absolutely no power over my inner self.’ If you can really say that to yourself you’ll sleep all right. There’ll be some tea going at half-past four.”
She stared at him freezingly and went out of the room, while Daniel quietly settled down to his writing, refusing to allow himself any further thoughts in regard to her.
At tea-time he told her that he wanted her to come down into the Oasis with him. “It will take your thoughts off yourself,” he said.
“Thank you,” she replied. “I prefer to stay here in my prison. I wish you’d realize that your society is obnoxious to me. I hate the sight of you.”
“I quite understand that,” he said, “but, all the same, I want you to come, please.”
“If I refuse,” she retorted, “I suppose you’ll drag me down by the hair?”
“No.” he replied, “not by your hair: only by your hand.”
She was too tired to put up any resistance, and soon they left the house together, descending by the rough path down the cliffs to the lower level, where the shadow lay deep.
Presently they entered the forest of palms, wherein, here and there stood a mud-brick hut or cluster of huts, upon the flat roofs of which the goats and chickens ran about, and sometimes a dog looked down at them and barked.
The shadow of the cliffs extended for some distance, like a blue veil, but further ahead the sun still struck down upon the Oasis, and the mellow light, seen between the tree-trunks and foliage, was made so rich by contrast with the cool tones of the shadowed foreground that Muriel was constrained to remark on its beauty. Pigeons fluttered to and fro amongst the trees, those close at hand being white as snow, but those in the sunlit distance appearing to flash before the eyes like gilded birds of a fairy tale.
Soon they passed out of the shadow, and now the sunlight was sprinkled upon them from between the rustling palm-branches overhead, and the dust of their footsteps was like a haze of powdered gold. Before them, in a clearing, a number of rough buildings, some of them whitewashed, encircled an open space of sun-baked ground wherein a number of natives sauntered to and fro. Here there were a few stalls, sheltered by tenting or tattered fragments of brown camel-cloth: grain being on sale at one of them; at another, basket-work; at another, pottery.
The loiterers and salesmen greeted Daniel with polite salaams, and to some of them he spoke a few words; but they were too well-mannered, or perhaps too indifferent, to show any particular interest in Muriel, and even when she paused to pat the shaven head of a little naked urchin, and to give him a piastre, there were few curious eyes upon her. The villagers seemed to be dawdling through a peaceful dream, unruffled by the ardours and eagerness to which the Westerner is accustomed; and Muriel had the feeling that she had come into a lull in the breeze of life, as when a sailing boat is becalmed and the sails flap idly. Even the tempest in her heart was quietened, and the warmth of the evening caused her to feel a languor that was temporarily almost serene.
Daniel led her across the open ground to a lane between the ramshackle buildings on the far side. Here, at a crazy-looking door, he paused.
“I want you just to shake hands with an old man,” he said. “He acted as guide years ago to one of your father’s predecessors.”
“There’s no need to say who I am, is there?” she asked, a little anxiously.
He smiled. “Your dragoman will have spread the news already.”
“I told him not to,” she answered.
Daniel made a gesture of impatience. “We must try to correct that,” he said. “Secrecy is very unpleasant, though it is sometimes necessary. You’ll find it always best to be frank when you can.”
In response to his knocking the door was opened by a small, smirking boy, and they entered a little yard, wherein a clean cow, several emaciated hens, and a couple of goats wandered about in front of a two-roomed house, the rear wall of which appeared to be about to collapse. Here a dim-eyed old man sat upon a native bedstead of split palm-branches, engaged in hunting for fleas in his cloak, and, as his gnarled old fingers plucked at the folds, his grey-bearded mouth was pursed and pushed forward in the manner of a monkey.
He rose, creaking, to his feet as he caught sight of his visitors, and, tottering forward, grasped Daniel’s extended hand, who then introduced him to Muriel.
Daniel spoke to him in Arabic, and presently, turning to his companion, asked her to say something to the old man.
“What shall I say?” Muriel enquired.
“He is very old,” Daniel replied. “Wish that God’s face may shine upon him. Say you hope the evening of his life may be full of peace and blessedness.”
“Yes, tell him that,” she answered.
“Anything else?” he asked.
“Oh, make up something for me,” she replied.
“No,” he answered, severely. “Please take your thoughts from yourself, and concentrate them on this old fellow. Think what is the best thing you can wish him. Think hard.”
Muriel glanced at him in surprise, while her host turned his fading eyes to Daniel, asking what she was saying.
“She is trying to think what is the most blessed wish she can make for you,” he replied, speaking in Arabic; and the old man beamed upon her.
Muriel made an effort, and, taking his horny hand in hers, told him that she hoped he would keep his health and that his affairs would prosper. With an eye on his cloak, she wanted to add that she hoped he would have good hunting, but she restrained herself.
Daniel translated the words into the native tongue, and, after a brief conversation, they took their departure.
As they walked down the lane Muriel asked him, freezingly, why he had so particularly wished her to make herself polite to the old man.
“I had no reason,” he answered, “except that I wanted you to think of him and not of yourself.”
“Why?” she asked with increasing ill-humor. “Am I usually selfish?”
“You have been trained to think first of yourself,” he answered, with disconcerting candour, “though by nature you are not really selfish at all. During this fortnight I want you to think mostly of other people.”
She had no time to reply before Daniel stopped at another and larger door, which he pushed open without a preliminary knock. Here, in a shed, two camels and a donkey stood feeding from a trough.
“This,” he told her, “is my hospital for sick animals. Both these camels have saddle-sores, as you see, and the old moke foaled the other day, but the youngster died. She is very depressed about it.”
Muriel was interested, and patted the donkey affectionately, while Daniel, stepping on to an inverted box, examined the camels’ sores.
“Just hand me that bottle over there,” he said. “It’s my patent mixture of carbolic and lamp-oil. It keeps the flies off, and heals up the sores mighty quick.”
Muriel haughtily gave him the bottle, and watched him as he poured a few drops on to the wounds. Her attention was presently attracted by a board nailed to the wall, upon which an inscription was written in large, flowing Arabic characters.
“What does that say?” she asked, forgetting for the moment that she was not really desirous of holding any communication with him.
“It is a quotation from the Koran,” he told her. “I wrote it and stuck it up for a lesson to these people. It reads ‘The Prophet has written: There is no beaston earth, nor bird that flieth, but the same is a people like unto you, and unto God shall they return.’”
“I like that,” she said.
He fetched a broom from the corner of the shed and held it out to her. “Would you mind just sweeping the ground a bit while I clean up the troughs?” he asked. “The native attendant is off duty today.”
He busied himself with his work, and Muriel, making a grimace, did as she was bid. It was less awkward than standing still, and the cause was good though the job unpleasant.
They walked home in silence through the gathering dusk. Daniel offered her his hand to help her up the steep path which ascended the cliff to his house, but she frigidly refused it; and when, presently, she stumbled and nearly fell, she scrambled to her feet once more in surprisingly quick time, as though to avoid his proffered aid.
Later she sat down to the evening meal without uttering a word, and the silence was extremely oppressive.
“Look here,” Daniel broke out at last, “I don’t know what you feel about it, but for my own part I rather object to this silence.”
“I have nothing to say to you,” she replied.
“That doesn’t matter,” he said. “I will do the talking. I shall choose a subject and talk about it: you can listen if you want to.”
Therewith he gave her an account of the Bedouin tribes of this part of the desert, how they had come to settle there, how he had recovered a part of their history from the old tales and ballads which he had recorded; and he told her something of their curious laws and customs.
Muriel’s face did not betray any interest whatsoever, but Daniel persevered courageously until the meal was finished.
“You can stay in this room and read a book if you like,” he said to her, as they rose from the table.
Muriel looked at him coldly. “Thank you,” she replied, with an emphasis which she hoped was withering, “I prefer to go to my room. Good-night!” And with that she took her departure.
The day had seemed intolerably long to her, and her smouldering anger had flamed up within her at frequent intervals. She realized that Daniel was playing the schoolmaster to her, and she was determined not to knuckle under to him. If he had decided to keep her a prisoner here for the full fortnight, she would do her best to make him thoroughly uncomfortable. His cool, impersonal attitude annoyed her; she was amazed that a man who but yesterday was branding her with his burning kisses could be today so entirely detached from emotion, and she flushed at the insult of it.
Her only consolation lay in the thought that he was injuring himself by his behaviour. She would now never be even so much as a sister to him – not even so much as a friend. When she had escaped from this horrible place she would go to England, and soon, no doubt, she would marry a nice, ordinary man, with sleek hair and a tooth-brush moustache and long, thin legs; and as she came out of the church after the marriage ceremony she would catch sight of Daniel in the crowd and would smile contemptuously at him…
She was very tired, and many minutes had not passed before she abandoned the pretence of reading the anthology of English verse which Daniel had placed in her room on the previous evening, nor was it long before she fell into a deep and dreamless sleep which held her as it were entombed until Hussein caused her resurrection by bringing in the bath-water in the morning.
The cool breeze and the sparkling air brought a certain feeling of well-being into her heart; but the meeting with Daniel at the breakfast table was a wretched business, and was made all the more distasteful by his evident good health and the morning freshness of his mind.
“I hope you are feeling fit,” he said to her. “We have a busy morning before us.”
That he was not speaking in jest was proved by the event. Soon after breakfast he took her down to the house of Sheikh Ali, and introduced her to the old man and his son Ibrahîm. Thereafter the four of them walked over to the open ground outside the mosque, where a large number of men and camels were gathered, while on the outskirts of the area many women and children stood in the shade of the palms. Daniel explained to her that a large number of the chief men of the El Hamrân were setting out upon the long journey to the far-off Oasis of El Khargeh, where there was to be a great gathering of the tribes. Sheikh Ali himself was too old and too feeble to go with the caravan, and his eldest son, Ibrahîm, was remaining with him; but his younger sons and most of his male relatives and adherents were going.
She watched the animated scene with interest, and the hubbub came to her ears with the wonder of novelty – the women uttering their strange, whinnying cries in token of their grief at parting with their husbands; the white-bearded old Sheikh embracing his sons, like a Biblical picture come to life; the diversely robed figures steering their camels in circles and firing their rifles in the air; the barking of innumerable dogs skulking amongst the palms; and over all the brilliant sunshine and the deep blue of the sky.
She and Daniel shook hands with a very large number of men, and, as she walked homewards after the caravan had departed, she had a confused memory of smiling bearded faces, dark eyes, and many-coloured robes fluttering in the wind.
After sundown he took her down to the village, armed with pots of ointment, to help him to doctor the eyes of two little grandchildren of the Sheikh, who were suffering from ophthalmia, and whose sight his daily ministrations were saving. And in the evening he continued his writing, leaving her to read a book until, with many yawns, she betook herself to her room.
This day was typical of all the others in that surprising fortnight. Quietly and impersonally he led her through her duties, obliging her to make herself useful in a score of different ways. Now he set her to the task of classifying his photographs and notes; now he sent her down to the animals’ hospital to doctor the camels’ sores; now he asked her to massage the sprained ankle of a small girl who had been brought to the house for treatment; now he made her grace with her presence a village wedding festival; and now he dispatched her with milk and eggs to the hovel of a blind old woman who lived on her neighbours’ charity.