"Now listen," said he. "Twice will I call the owl, and once the jackal. If the cry of the hyæna comes back in reply all is well, and we can proceed."
Then, raising both hands to his mouth, he imitated both shriek-owl and jackal, the weird cries echoing again and again through the ruins. We listened intently, but there was no reply. Again the owl and the jackal called; and yet a third time. Then, after a short pause, there arose, within a few yards of us, the unmistakable cry of the hyæna.
"Good," said the sheik, "he has heard. Do you remain here, while I go and interview him. It would not be wise to take you with me, for I must first warn the old man to expect a stranger."
So Faris disappeared into the darkness, and I sat on a heap of brickwork anxiously awaiting his return. He may not have been absent long, though it seemed that he was away for hours. I was dead tired, and more than once I found myself dropping off to sleep, waking up suddenly each time with a start. Then I began to think that I saw beasts crawling about among the ruins; I slipped off my seat, and crouched as low as I was able, with my finger on the trigger of my revolver, which I had drawn ready for an emergency. Lions, I knew, were not uncommon in these parts, and each moment I expected to be set upon by some hungry beast. Gradually I worked myself up to the highest pitch of nervous excitement, prepared to empty my revolver into the first moving object that became visible. As I looked, I saw something crawling towards me; there was no doubt about it. I raised my revolver, fingering the trigger, and nerving myself for the shot, but the object had dropped behind a rock before I could fire. A moment later, I heard the sheik's voice calling to me in an almost inaudible whisper, and fearing that he would discover the state of nervousness at which I had arrived, I hastily put away my revolver, and answered him.
"Quietly," he said, on creeping up to my side, "do not make a noise. There is trouble, and other people are about. The seer is expecting visitors, some of the ruffianly Shammar, of whom he is in great fear. It is within an hour of the appointed time, and I have promised to watch, and help him should he call on me to do so. Keep quiet now, and listen with both ears."
Faris lay flat on the ground with his ear close to it, whilst I sat listening intently. The minutes passed, and no sound disturbed the deathly silence. Suddenly, the sheik whispered to me that he could hear their horses galloping towards us. Save the beating of my own heart, I could hear nothing.
"They have left their horses," said the sheik, "and are walking up to the seer's abode. We will give them time to enter, and then we will follow."
In a few minutes Faris arose, and, bidding me keep close behind him, led the way up a slight incline, and then down into what appeared to be a deep hollow. In the feeble light I could just distinguish some roughly cut steps, which with difficulty we descended. At the bottom, the sheik took me by the wrist and guided me rapidly along a paved path ending in a narrow gateway. Through this we passed, and entered a courtyard, at the far side of which we could see a light streaming through the wide cracks of a massive wooden door. On reaching the door, my companion gripped my arm, and motioned me to halt. Through the cracks we could see clearly all that went on in the chamber within. Several oil lamps burned in little niches in the walls, which were white-washed and bare; from the centre of the domed ceiling hung an iron lamp, containing half a dozen lighted wicks; and another lamp hung over a doorway leading to an inner chamber. Seated on a low couch against one of the walls was a tall thin old man, clothed in a camel's-hair cloak, the hood of which concealed the upper part of his face. Opposite to him sat three stern-faced Bedouins, each with a spear in his hand and daggers protruding from his waistband. High words were already in progress.
"You agreed, Gat-tooth," said one of the Bedouins, "to sell it to us for 2000 kerans; my friends here are witnesses."
"Yes," said another, "and you agreed to meet us at the grove outside Babil, four days since, and deliver it to us."
"I was ill," said the old man, "and unable to do so."
"Know you," said the first Arab, "that your illness cost us the life of our sheik, Abbas-ibn-Rashid, who was ever your friend?"
"I know that he was killed," was the reply, "but he died as he would have wished, and you must all die at one time or another."
"That is indeed true both for you and for us," said the first speaker, "but I would have you know that I am now sheik in my uncle's place, and I have neither his generosity nor his kindness. I have sworn to avenge his death, not only by slaying his murderer, Faris of the Jelas curs, but also by demanding that you shall render up forthwith that for which you would have received 2000 kerans had you kept to your agreement."
"Fine words, Ahmed," replied the seer, quite unperturbed. "Yet pause before you act foolishly. You and your men have come here with naked spear points, which in itself is an insult to the goddess whom I serve. You come to this sacred spot prepared for robbery of the basest kind—robbery from an old man, unable to defend himself with weapons made by human hands. Now, look you, I take these eight beads from my rosary, and I shall let them fall one by one to the floor; when the fourth bead drops you will know that my appeal has reached the gods whom I serve; ere the sixth strikes the ground you must have gone out from this chamber; for, the seventh is the bead of ruin and destruction, and the eighth brings the avenging fire."
What was about to happen I could not conjecture; the old seer, now standing, broke the string of his rosary, and slowly counted out eight beads. I held my breath as I watched him, and wondered if I were dreaming. Faris laid his hand on my arm and held it as in a vice. Then the seer, muttering a few words, stretched out his hand with a bead between the finger and thumb. It dropped to the ground and, rebounding from the bricks, rolled away. The three Bedouins looked at one another and smiled; and Ahmed, rising, addressed the seer.
"Let fall your beads," said he, "and invoke your gods to the utmost. We know them not, and we curse them as vile impostors."
The seer did not vouchsafe a reply, but holding out his hand, let fall a second bead. A slight pause ensued, then the third bead dropped. It seemed to me that the Bedouins now showed some signs of wavering; they no longer smiled; and they shifted in their seats uneasily. The fourth bead was already between finger and thumb, and, like the others, it fell to the ground. Then the Bedouins rose, and I momentarily expected to see them hurl themselves on the strange figure confronting them. But the fifth bead had dropped before they moved, and as it struck the brick floor, it broke in pieces, and, as I thought, gave out some sparks. Whatever occurred was better seen by the Bedouins than by myself, and I noticed that all three of them recoiled. As the sixth bead was raised by the seer, I thought that I saw Ahmed clutch at his spear, but he and his companions now seemed unable to move. The sparks this time were unmistakable; and their effect on the Bedouins was to cause them to step hurriedly back, as if in flight. It was, however, too late, for the seventh bead left the seer's fingers immediately after the sixth; and the eighth followed the seventh as rapidly. In place of dropping this last one like the others, he hurled it with all his force at the very feet of the Arabs. It struck the ground with a report like that of a bomb, and instantly that portion of the floor seemed to open, and give forth great tongues of flame, which leaped up to the roof, and filled the whole chamber. It was a dreadful sight, and I could not restrain myself from shrieking aloud at the horror of it all.
"Fly," shouted Faris, clutching convulsively at my arm, "fly, before we also perish."
Great flames licked up the door in front of us, sweeping it away, then, bursting into the air, shot up, and cast a lurid glare over the ruins. By the light thus given, we were able to dash up the steps and through the piles of broken masonry, out of the hollow, with all speed. At last, when at a safe distance, we stopped, and turned to look back. The flames still poured forth, but now spasmodically, and the smoke grew thicker and blacker. Neither of us spoke, and from what I could see of his face, my companion was as much puzzled at what had occurred as was I. Dawn was approaching, and, as if afraid of the daylight, the flames died down, though the black smoke continued to belch forth through the doorway.
"Sheik," I said in a low voice, hardly daring to break the silence, "what was it?"
"As I have told you many times," he replied, "things happen in the desert which no man can account for. Can you, with all your knowledge of magic, say why fire suddenly issued from the ground and destroyed the inmates of that chamber?"
"I have no knowledge of magic," I said, "and the shock occasioned by what I saw has left me without power to think of a reason for it."
"Then I will tell you," said Faris, impressively. "The seer called on his gods to bring fire and burn up his enemies, yet he as well as they must have perished in the flames; for no man could have remained alive in that chamber."
I knew the uselessness of attempting to argue; neither at that moment was I at all sure that the sheik's solution was not the correct one. So I held my tongue, and sat and watched the smoke hurtling into the air, until, before long, my eyes grew heavy, my head dropped forward, and I sank into a deep sleep.
I slept for hours, and should have continued to do so for many hours longer, had not the sheik roused me.
"It is past mid-day," said he, "and we must be thinking of doing something. You have slept soundly, and should be refreshed. See, the fire is almost out."
Then the horrors of the past night came back to me; it had been no dream after all. I looked towards the doorway in the hollow, and now only a thin wreath of smoke was issuing from it.
"Shall we ride back to camp?" I asked.
"Not yet," replied Faris. "I must go down to the chamber and look. Will you also come?"
I hated the idea, but I felt that it would be cowardly to let the sheik go alone; so we walked down together, and finding that the smoke had now ceased, we peered through the doorway into the blackened chamber. A thick grimy soot caked the walls and the stone ceiling, and the air was laden with a foul smell, not unlike that of the boiling asphalt being prepared for a London street. Hesitating to enter, we stood on the threshold, not knowing that the flames might not burst out afresh; and the remembrance of those long tongues of fire curling through the doorway was sufficient to make us cautious. After a little, Faris took a step forward, and shading his eyes with his hand, looked into the gloom of the interior. I followed, but not without some misgivings. I looked first at the spot where the seer had been standing when I saw the last bead leave his hand. The couch from which he had risen had disappeared; nothing remained but a handful of ashes on the floor. I gazed across at the other side of the chamber, and when my eyes had become accustomed to the dim light, I was able to see a large hole in the floor exactly where I recollected to have seen the couch on which the three Bedouins had been seated. Faris saw it at the same instant, and uttered an exclamation of surprise.
"Let us go carefully, and look at it," he said.
We reached the edge, and found a great pit, how deep we were unable to see. Pungent fumes still issued from it, and we were forced to draw back. I turned to my companion for an explanation, and he dragged me out of the chamber, the atmosphere of which was oppressive.
"It was a bitumen well," said he, "and the seer purposely set it on fire through the agency of his gods. I am as much astonished as yourself; for, I have sat on that couch scores of times, never thinking that such a thing was beneath me. Perhaps it was not always there. Perhaps it was brought by the gods only when the seer invoked their aid. But little did he think that in thus destroying his enemies, he would also bring his own death."
The sheik had hardly finished speaking before we heard a low wailing chant coming from beyond the fatal chamber. Spellbound, we stood and listened. Now the sound grew louder; now died away. Again it came clear and strong. It was a strange unearthly crooning; and, had I been alone, I should have fled from it. That I trembled I have no doubt, and Faris saw my fear.
"Courage, lad," he said, taking me by the arm. "It is someone in the temple beyond. Come, let us go and see. Death only comes once, and our fate has already been arranged for us. If we are to die to-day, then we shall die. We cannot alter our fate."
I made no reply, but nerving myself with a great effort, walked with him through the chamber to the inner doorway. There was no door—whether it had been destroyed by the fire, or whether there never had been one, I cannot say. Beyond the doorway was a narrow bricked passage, with here and there long slanting slits admitting the daylight. A steep flight of steps led us to another stone doorway, on the lintel of which were carved queer figures of beasts. Here we stood and listened. The chanting still continued; and we moved on for a short distance along the tunnel-like passage. Presently we found ourselves in a circular vaulted room, with bare walls rising to a height of some fifteen feet before the dome of the roof began. In the centre of the dome was a hole, a foot or so in diameter, through which the sky was visible. Eight passages, similar to that by which we had entered, radiated from the chamber, so that its walls appeared like solid pillars supporting the roof. We listened again, but no sound could we now hear.
"Sheik," I whispered, fearing to speak aloud, "do you know which way to take?"
"No," he replied, "I know not this place. I have never before penetrated it."
"Then let us return by the way we came," I urged.
"Courage, lad," said the sheik; "we will go on."
The rebuke, uttered a second time, stung me, although I knew that it was meant kindly. I had always thought that I possessed an ordinary amount of courage, but it seemed now to have deserted me.
"Well, which way shall we go?" I asked in desperation.
"We will try this one," said Faris, moving to the nearest entrance on his right.
I followed him closely along the new passage, just able to see the way by the glimmer of daylight falling through the occasional narrow loopholes, which slanted upwards towards the heavens. That the walls were thick and solid we could see from the depth of the loopholes—four feet they must have been, at the least. For some thirty yards or so the tunnel was straight; then it took a sudden turn to the left; then, after a few yards, a sudden turn to the right; again to the left, and twice more in succession to the left; after which we turned at right angles to the right, and going for a short distance, found ourselves in another circular chamber, alike in all respects to the first one. There was again the hole in the vaulted roof, and there were the nine passages leading out of it.
I sighed audibly, and the sheik looked at me and laughed.
"You are a magician," he said, "come, try your magic. Divine for us which path we had better take."
"I know no magic that could avail us in this accursed spot," I replied. "Let us take the way that we came, and retrace our steps out of these underground dungeons; or shall we cast lots as to the road we shall follow?"
"We will do that," said Faris.
I took nine revolver cartridges out of my pouch, and, shaking them in my hands, said that I would throw them on the floor; then we would enter that passage whose entrance lay nearest to a cartridge. The sheik seemed much impressed by this, imagining, no doubt, that I was working magic. So, hurling the cartridges into the middle of the chamber, I watched them roll away. One of them stopped quite close to an entrance, and the sheik forthwith led the way into the tunnel. Our wanderings were much the same as before, and had the same result, in that, after several turns and twists, we arrived at another circular chamber, from which nine passages radiated.
The sheik was now beginning to lose his temper, and he cursed the man who had designed the building that was causing us all this trouble. Then he suddenly stepped forward, and stooping down, picked up something, which he handed to me. That something was one of my own revolver cartridges!
"Do you understand?" asked the sheik.
"I must have just dropped it," I replied.
"No," said he, "it is one of those that you threw on the ground. We have returned to the chamber from which we set out. These tunnels have made fools of us. Shall we leave them, and abandon our search?"
"Yes," I said eagerly, "it is the best thing we can do, for I see that you are right; we certainly have come back twice to the same place."
But now arose a difficulty; there was no difference in appearance between the entrance to one tunnel and that to another. Nine of them confronted us. We knew which one we had just issued from, but we knew nothing else. We walked round the chamber and examined each passage, but found no clue. My heart sank, for I observed that the scanty light which came into the dungeon was rapidly growing less, and that the day, in the outside world, was evidently fast drawing to a close. Faris, though annoyed at being outwitted, was still cheerful—and his cheerfulness irritated me.
"Come, magician, cast lots again," said he. "Maybe this time they will avail us better. The nearest cartridge to the tunnel which shall bring us freedom. Throw the nine."
Again I threw the cartridges, and, as before, we wandered through a passage, now almost dark, expecting each moment to reach the flight of steps by which we had descended some hours before. We were, however, doomed to disappointment. The passage turned and twisted, and eventually brought us back to the prison chamber, with its high walls and its domed roof.
It was now so dark that we could barely see the entrances to the various passages; there seemed to be nothing for it but to spend the night where we were and again attack the tunnels in the daylight. I, myself, was dejected, dead tired, hungry, and thirsty; perhaps, I thought, we should never get out of the place, but wander about until we died of hunger and thirst. Faris, however, was quite hopeful.
"We will sleep here in comfort," he said, "like true townsmen, with a roof over our heads. There is no water, certainly, but I have some dried dates in my pocket, and they will sustain us. When daylight returns, we will try each passage in turn, until we find that one which leads to the steps."
"Could not we break through the wall," I asked, "and so escape?"
"The walls are thick and firmly cemented, as you must have noticed," he replied. "Save my knife, we have no instruments with which to pick out the bricks. Still, if, when the light comes, we fail to find the passage that we want, then will we attack the walls. Come, here are some dates, eat and be joyful; after which we will sleep and have pleasant dreams. Then to-morrow we will gallop our little horses across the desert. Poor beasts, they must be tired of waiting for us."
All light soon left the chamber, and through the opening in the roof we could see the stars mocking at us. From each of the nine tunnels the chill air appeared to pour in upon us, so that, for warmth, we sat close together, with our backs against the portion of wall which separated one passage from the next. In this position, in absolute darkness, we ate our hard, dried dates, and tried to sleep. Whether or not the sheik and I actually slept I am not certain. I think that I, at any rate, must have done so, because I have no recollection of hearing or seeing anything until I felt the sheik's great horny hand gripping my thigh, and I became aware that something was happening. A light was streaming into the chamber, and, as I looked, I saw the wall between two tunnels exactly opposite to us gradually opening like a hinged door. The portion of wall was, in fact, an actual door, and when it had opened wide, I could see behind it a narrow passage, lighted with small lamps. In the doorway there stood what appeared to me to be an immensely tall naked figure, and so thin that it might have been the representation of a living skeleton. The head and face were streaked with paint, so that they resembled a fleshless skull, and the ribs and other bones of the body were also painted to look like the outline of a skeleton. For a second it hesitated on the threshold, with one arm stretched out towards us; then slowly stepping into the chamber, it closed the door, and thus left us again in darkness.
Neither of us spoke. I, personally, imagined that what I had seen was merely in a dream; but I was wide awake, and could clearly hear my companion breathing. The spectre, or whatever it was, was shuffling about in front of us, and I expected each moment to feel the touch of ghostly hands. Then in a deep sepulchral voice came the words:—
"Strangers are here within the sacred precincts. Let them account for themselves, ere the fire comes to destroy them."
"We are not willingly here," answered the sheik, fearlessly. "We are lost, and if you will guide us to the outside world, we will gladly follow."
"Who are ye who speak thus lightly?" inquired the spectre.
"Faris-ibn-Feyzul," replied the sheik, "and a friend."
Then we heard a click, and the wall-door opened, showing the strange figure standing in the entrance to the lighted passage. The outstretched arm pointed down the passage, and presently the figure turned and motioned to us to follow.
"Come," whispered Faris to me, "we will see what it means, even though it be Death that is enticing us on."
So we started on our new and fearful journey, being led, as it seemed to me, to execution. The passage was not of great length, and it ended suddenly in a blank wall. There was again a clicking sound, and a portion of the wall swung back to allow us to pass through, and what a sight met our gaze!
We entered an octagonal-shaped temple, evidently of a most ancient date, with walls of glazed bricks of various colours and arranged in strange patterns. All around was a species of colonnade, supported by carved pillars, standing on the heads of winged bulls, and in the alcoves of the colonnade were long stone benches. Numerous small lamps illuminated the interior, and in the centre was a black wooden altar, with, immediately above it, an opening in the roof. Even at such a moment as this I could not help thinking what my uncle would give to see this magnificent specimen of a Babylonian temple; and I wondered how it had happened that all the scientific excavators had failed to discover these extraordinary and interesting remains. Such thoughts as these, however, did not occupy my mind for long, for the stern reality of the present soon drove away all musings on the past.
As soon as the door had shut to with the uncanny click, the sound of which was beginning to be familiar, the ghost-man turned and faced us. My hand involuntarily moved towards my revolver; for I had made up my mind that, whatever line the sheik might take, I would defend myself in the event of attack. The figure saw my intention.
"Fear not," said he, in a soft voice, "you are my guests here, in the Temple, and are under the protection of the gods. Faris, it is I, Raspul the Seer, who welcome you. When I heard you in the outer chamber, I was offering a sacrifice to the gods who have recently befriended me. It is a great occasion, and before attending to your wants, I must finish the ceremony required of me."
The sheik's face was a study of utter bewilderment. He looked at our strange host, but said nothing. Neither had he time to do so; for the seer abruptly left us, and began his devotions, while we sank on to a bench in the nearest alcove. The air of the temple and its surroundings was heavy with intoxicating perfumes, which appeared to mount to one's brain; and I noticed that Faris more than once put his hand to his forehead, as if feeling their effects. As to myself, I found it difficult to realise that I was not dreaming. But that things happened as I am about to relate I firmly believe; for I afterwards cross-questioned Faris carefully, and what he described that he saw agreed exactly with what I am convinced that I saw, and he could have had no object in deceiving me. Yet, I have often thought that both of us must have been under some extraordinary influence, which, for the time being, at any rate, warped our intellects, and caused us to see, or to imagine that we saw, things which in more sober moments we should have ridiculed.
One by one the lamps that flickered in the temple were extinguished by the seer, who left burning only those two which hung on either side of the altar. Then Raspul stood before the altar, with arms upraised, and head thrown back so as to look through the roof-hole, apparently wrapped in meditation. His lips moved rapidly, and at times his whole body became convulsed. Finally, he bowed before the altar, and threw dust on his head.
As we watched, we saw the weird figure rise up and walk slowly across the pavement to a small door, through which it passed, and disappeared for a while. When the seer entered the temple again, he was a changed man. He was no longer disguised in paint, but was clothed in a long yellow silken robe. I now for the first time saw his face clearly. It was thin and wan, with a parchment-like skin almost of the same colour as his robe, and clean shaven—as was also the whole of his head. Such a face I had never seen before, and I gazed on it in wonder.
"Is this really the seer of whom you told me," I whispered to Faris, "and the same that we thought had perished in the fire?"
"Yes," he replied, "but do not speak, for fear of breaking the spell which is upon him."
So I remained silent, and watched intently the movements of the seer, who was now busying himself around the massive wooden altar. From the doorway he brought faggots, and piling them up, poured oil over them; then he took a lighted wick from the hanging lamp, and set fire to the pile on all sides. The burning sticks crackled, and the flames shot up towards the hole in the roof, and we could see that the altar itself was ablaze. Why should the man—or priest, as he evidently was—destroy his own altar, I wondered. Could it be that the seer had become mad? Yet he appeared to be perfectly calm, as, standing back from the heat of the fire, he gazed on his handiwork.
He was now praying earnestly, and at times stretched out his hands towards the altar in supplication. At first only his lips moved, and no sound came from them; but, presently, in his fervour, he began to speak aloud, and then slowly but clearly came the words.
"O Queen! Great Goddess-Queen! Think not that Raspul, thy slave, thy worshipper, hath done aught to merit thy displeasure. Never had he any intention of betraying his trust, and had not the fire come to help him, he would have willingly died in the defence of the secret. He lied to the tribesmen who sought the treasure, and he made false promises. For such things, I, Raspul, humble myself before my Queen and the gods, and seek their pardon. Manifest thyself, Immortal Sophana, and thus let thy slave know that his deeds have not been misunderstood."
As he spoke, the seer continuously flung handfuls of incense on to the fire, and the flames streaked upwards in varied colours, while the temple was filled with penetrating odours. The glare, the heat, and the heavily-perfumed air made my head throb until I thought it would burst, and the sheik, I noticed, was equally overcome. The altar was rapidly being consumed; the flames had died down; curls of smoke ascended; while the massive timbers, glowing red, began to crumble away and fall to the ground. Then, suddenly the whole structure tottered and fell with a crash, an immense volume of smoke leaping towards the roof-hole, and filling every corner of the temple. Nearly blinded and half-suffocated, I began to fear that the seer was attempting to destroy us in the same way that we had seen him destroy his three Bedouin foes.
"Let us escape," I said to Faris, as I jumped to my feet; "quick, before we are smothered."
"Lie down flat on the floor," he replied, "and keep quiet. The smoke will, in the course of time, all pass through the hole."
"Look!" he said presently, touching me on the arm.
I raised myself from the floor, and turned my eyes towards the spot where the altar had been. The smoke was clearing off; and, as it cleared, I saw, by the dim light of the single lamp, two figures among the pieces of charred wood. One was kneeling, and I recognised in it the form of the seer. The other was standing, and it was the figure of a woman.
"O Goddess-Queen!" muttered the seer in a low tone, "I thank thee for once again coming to me in my old age. It shall be as thou commandest. It were better to destroy it for ever, than to permit it to be the cause of further bloodshed. Maybe, its spirit shall be wafted to the palace wherein thou now dwellest; and, Great Goddess, if it be thy pleasure, permit the spirit of Raspul, thy slave, to pass, at the same time, into thy service in the other world."
The smoke had by this time completely cleared away, and the sheik and I, eager to see the better, quietly rose from the ground, and stood behind one of the pillars. I was now able to see the figure of the goddess distinctly. I looked intently, and it seemed to me that what I saw was a corpse, tightly swathed in grave-clothes. It stood motionless, and as the face was turned away from us, we were unable to distinguish its features. Once or twice I thought that I detected a slight quiver in the body; but I was in a state of intense nervous excitement, and was capable of imagining almost anything. Thus, behind the shelter of the pillar, we stood looking at the strange pair, and anxiously awaiting developments. There was now no sound; Raspul still knelt before the goddess, who neither spoke nor moved; and the moments that passed seemed to us to be endless. At length, the seer rose slowly from his knees, and stood erect, his head bent forward, and his arms hanging by his side. Then, turning in our direction, as if suddenly remembering our presence, he spoke in a solemn, impressive voice which resounded through the whole temple.
"Faris-ibn-Feyzul and that other man," he said, "listen to the command of the Great Goddess Sophana. When you leave this her temple, if you ever leave it alive, you must banish from your minds aught that you have witnessed herein. You will not move from the spot whereon you are now standing until the goddess grants you permission to do so. Should you disobey, then will the curse of the gods be upon you, and by their fires shall you perish. These are the words of the Beloved of the Gods, that Immortal Sophana, who during her sojourn in this world was Queen of the Assyrians. I, Raspul, her slave, have said it."
Having delivered himself of this warning, to which neither of us replied, the seer turned again towards the goddess, and raising his robe took from his waist a roll of silk. Sweeping clean a small space on the floor, he laid the roll upon it, and then began to unwind fold after fold of silk wrappings, and it was soon apparent that a belt was hidden within. Have I lived another life, in another world? I kept saying to myself, as I watched what was taking place. I had, perhaps, dreamed of it; but certainly I had somewhere before seen it all clearly enough. I knew exactly what was going to happen, and that which I expected did actually happen. The last fold of silk was unwound, and there lay in Raspul's hands the GOLDEN GIRDLE. I was not astonished, but the sight of it made me shiver with excitement, until my teeth chattered, and so close was I standing to the sheik that I could feel that he was in much the same state as myself. Even he, the immovable Bedouin, was showing emotion.
"The Serpent Belt," he gasped out in an undertone.
"Yes," I whispered in reply, "it is good to have lived even to have seen it. But what will he do with it?"
"Hush," said the sheik, "let us wait and see."
We were not left long in suspense as to forthcoming events, for no sooner did the seer expose the belt to view than, kissing it reverently, he clasped it round the waist of his goddess. Then, kneeling once more before her, he prayed aloud.
"To the Immortal Goddess," he said, "I, her servant, return that which in her worldly existence ever bore her to victory, and which, when she was taken to rule over the gods, remained behind to become the curse of the covetous inhabitants of the world. It was at thy command, Great Goddess-Queen, that I caused the last man who ever saw it to re-inter it in its abiding-place. It was at thy command that death afterwards came to him. It was at thy command that I, Raspul the seer, recovered it, and by none other than thyself, Sophana Great Goddess-Queen, was I appointed its guardian. The time has now, doubtless, come when it is meet that I should quit this world and pass into the service of the gods. For that reason I willingly obey the behest of my mistress, who ordereth that, through fire, the spirit of the Sacred Belt shall soar into the realms of the Great Unknown."
Much more he said, but he spoke in an undertone and we could only catch a word here and there. I now feared the worst. He was evidently going to destroy the Golden Girdle; and the thought that all my hopes of obtaining it were about to be dashed to the ground made me forget fatigue, hardship, fear, and everything else. I quietly drew my revolver, hardly knowing what I intended to do, but Faris saw the movement, and seized my wrist.
"Fool," said he, "would you murder a priest in the presence of his goddess, in her own temple? Tush! it were madness."
I knew that it would be so; yet, was I to stand by and see the whole object of my journey, the one thing that I imagined that I lived for, destroyed before my very eyes? There was the Golden Girdle almost within my grasp—barely twenty paces from me. I could see each serpent that composed it clearly outlined on the white figure of the goddess. One shot from my revolver would secure the treasure. But the sheik's grip brought me to my senses and saved me from being a murderer.
"Speak to him, then," I said, in a state of agitation. "Offer him a price for the Serpent Belt."
"It would be useless," answered Faris. "He is possessed, and cannot control his actions. See, he is preparing the fire which is to consume it."
The seer had already brought cakes of bitumen and charcoal, and had kindled a small but hot fire. With difficulty he placed a heavy iron vessel over it, and then, blowing on it through a hollow bamboo, watched the fuel ignite and grow red. Every now and then, he prostrated himself before the goddess, and besought her to give heat to the fire, which, it seemed to me, she must have done; for, before long the iron vessel began to glow, and was soon red hot. That the end was near I realised; and as Raspul, after examining the vessel carefully, moved towards the goddess, my hand again sought my revolver—but only again to be arrested by my companion.
Then Raspul knelt, and began to unclasp the belt, while I held my breath. It was undone. The seer took it in his hands, turned it over, and fondled it. Great beads of perspiration stood out on my forehead as I saw the glitter of the golden serpents, which seemed to writhe and twist about as if alive. Faris grew impatient and, to my horror, stamped his foot on the ground.
Whether Raspul and his goddess heard that stamp no man can say; but, as if in response to it, there occurred the most fearful noise that has ever fallen on my ears. With a terrific crash, huge portions of the roof surrounding the hole rained down on the head of the unfortunate seer, who must have been instantly killed. Enormous masses of masonry hurtled on to the goddess, who, however, stood unmoved. At first, I imagined that the wrath of the gods had overtaken Faris and myself for my companion's thoughtless stamp, but why the faithful Raspul should have suffered I could not understand. All this, and many other thoughts, passed through my mind in the space of a second; for, no sooner did we see the seer stricken down than we forgot all dread of the consequences and rushed to his assistance. Yet, barely had we advanced a couple of steps into the actual temple, before another portion of the roof fell, and with it the lamp which provided the only light. Suddenly we heard a chorus of voices above us; and, looking up at the great gap in the roof, we could see that day was just dawning, and that a number of men were peering down into the temple.
"Stand quiet," said the sheik, softly. "Get your revolver ready, and we will fall on them when they enter. By their speech I take them for some of the twice-accursed Shammar."
Then, by the scanty light coming through the hole, we saw a rope lowered from above, and immediately a man descended to the ground. In another second he gave a shout, and before we realised what was taking place, he was swiftly hauled up again through the gaping roof. We waited for others to descend, but no others came. Presently, we heard a wild shout of exultation, and the sounds of many feet hurrying over the roof. Then all was quiet.
"What is it that has happened?" I asked the sheik, when I could find my tongue.
"Allah alone knows," said he. "It may be that the Shammar came to avenge their three friends whom the seer caused to perish by fire. They are satisfied, and have gone. But, come, there is light enough now, let us see if the unfortunate man is truly dead."
Over the pile of fallen masonry, in the fast growing light, we clambered to the spot where Raspul lay. There we found his body, with the life crushed out of it by great heaps of stone and brickwork. Close by stood the goddess, beautifully sculptured in white stone, but broken and chipped by the avalanche that had recently descended on it. Faris looked at the figure with a certain amount of reverence, then sat on some stones in silence—a silence which I, for my part, felt no inclination to break. I had passed through enough in the last few hours to desire nothing but quiet, so, sinking on to the ground, I endeavoured to collect my thoughts.
After a while, the sheik suddenly turned to me, and looked steadily into my face.
"You are a great magician," he said, "to have caused all this to happen. I told you once that your magic could not prevail against that of Raspul. I spoke foolishly, for he lies dead before you."
"Sheik," I replied, vehemently, "I have denied to you that I am a magician. I swear it before my God, before Allah, and before the gods of the heathen. I have had no hand in these terrible events. I possess no power to work good or ill; and I beseech you to believe my words."
"Then I will believe you," he replied, holding out his hand and grasping mine; "for, under such circumstances as these, I doubt if any living man would dare to speak otherwise than truly. But what is done is done, and we cannot alter it. It was Raspul's fate to die thus, and from what we heard him say, he knew that he was to die soon. His spirit has doubtless gone whither he wished it to go, but he cannot have taken the Golden Serpents with him. That will be your reward for all that you have passed through."
It seemed to me that there would be something of sacrilege in taking the belt from the hands of the dead seer, lying at the feet of the image of his goddess. I did not like the idea of it—in fact my heart failed me. I argued with myself on the folly of neglecting the opportunity now that it had come; but the longer I reflected the less inclined did I feel to have anything to do with the mysterious girdle. I brought to mind all that the sheik had told me of its strange history, and I remembered that so long as it remained wound round with silk it was harmless. Here with my own eyes I had seen a dire calamity follow the unwinding of the silk wrappings, and the exposure of the shining metal. Superstition had seized hold of me, and I dreaded to touch the thing. I confessed my misgivings to Faris, and I saw him smile.
"You are a Christian," he said, "yet you fear the wrath of the gods of the heathen! I myself will take the serpent belt, and if evil befalls me then I shall count it my fate. I do not want the belt, nor the money that it is worth, but if I can but obtain the shoe of Shahzadi, as a reward for sending it to the big house of which you spoke, then shall I go down to my grave in happiness."
He stepped across to the pile of rubbish under which Raspul was almost buried, and I felt impelled to follow. We looked on the ground among the débris, but could not see the object of our search. Removing the stones and bricks from the body of the seer, we placed it gently on a bench in one of the alcoves. The belt was not in his hand, as we imagined that it would have been; neither could we discover it anywhere near the spot where he had fallen. I became as excited as did the sheik, and together we removed the stones, and hunted everywhere for the lost treasure. At last we desisted, and looked at one another in bewilderment.
The Golden Girdle had disappeared.
"Possibly," I suggested, "the unfortunate seer flung the belt into the cauldron as he fell, and it was melted."
"No," said the sheik, "that he did not do. I saw the serpents glittering in his hand when he was on the ground. Besides, look, there is no melted gold in the cauldron."
That was certainly true; for, though the great iron vessel had been overturned, there was no sign of gold upon it, or anywhere on the ground about it.
Suddenly leaping to his feet, Faris swore a fearful oath.
"Fools that we have been!" he almost shrieked in his rage. "Fools, ten thousand times fools! That Shammar devil with the rope came to steal it, and he carried it off. I see it all now; and we let him escape! To think that I, Faris-ibn-Feyzul, should have been outwitted thus by my enemies! I swear by yonder corpse," he continued, solemnly extending his hands, "that I will avenge the death of Raspul; that, so long as my life continues, I will war against the Shammar scoundrels who have done this thing. I will pursue them to the uttermost ends of the earth, though it may cost me my own life, and though it may cost my tribe the lives of all the fighting men. I have sworn it, and may the curse of the Golden Serpents, which is the curse of Sophana, the Great Queen, again harry the Shammar, as it did of yore."
The man's wrath was terrible to witness. I did my best to calm him; for, in reality, the disappearance of the girdle was rather a relief to me than otherwise; and, after a while, he became more reasonable, and suggested that I must be hungry. Under the circumstances it was a somewhat prosaic suggestion; but it was certainly a fortunate one, in that it recalled both of us to our senses. More dried dates furnished us with a meal; and, to our joy, we found, standing in a corner of the temple, some pots of water, of which we drank greedily. To sleep, or even rest, was out of the question, for neither of us wished to remain longer than necessary on the spot. How to get out of it was our next thought, and we simultaneously decided that our only possible way of escape would be by the hole in the roof. The idea of again attempting to enter the maze of tunnelled passages we never for a moment entertained; and we at once set about to discover a means by which we might reach the opening above us. The height of the centre of the dome was at least fifteen feet from the ground. We searched for a ladder, but could find none; we sought in vain for wood and cords out of which we might improvise one; and after each fruitless search I became more and more dejected. Things had been bad enough before; but now I saw before me a lengthy incarceration in this temple prison, if not even death by starvation. Yet, the sheik's courage never left him. He was impatient, certainly, at not being able to pursue his enemies forthwith; but he did not appear to think for a moment that there was any great difficulty in our way to freedom.
"Well," I asked at last, "what do you propose that we shall do?"
"Build a tower," replied Faris, laughing, "like that of the Birs Nimroud, until we reach the outer world. Then for our poor little horses; a long gallop home to our tents; and, before many days, with spear and sword against the Shammar."
I caught the sheik's enthusiasm when I realised that his plan was feasible; and we both set to work with a will to collect and arrange carefully the blocks of stone and brickwork that lay scattered about. The goddess, we found, was firmly fixed in the ground, so around the figure we formed the foundation of our tower, and before long we had built up to the level of her head and had completely concealed her. Each of us in turn, like children, climbed to the top of the loose pile to see how high we were from the ground, and then continued to add stone after stone to the fast-growing heap. Occasionally we were delayed by a sudden collapse at the bottom; but we built up again rapidly, and at length came the time when, standing upright, I was able to place my fingers on the edge of the broken roof. It was a glorious moment, and I could almost sniff the desert air outside. The thought of being once more free sent a thrill through me, and I remembered a certain gymnastic feat at which I had excelled when at school. It occurred to me that I was confronted with the identical thing, the only difference being that in place of having to pull myself up over the edge of, and on to, a smooth wooden platform, I now had before me a rough, jagged edge of brickwork. It was worth the attempt, and I tried it.
Firmly, with both hands, I gripped the edge, and slowly I let my weight hang on my hands, when, horror of horrors, an immense portion of roof broke off, and fell with a crash to the ground. At the same moment I lost my balance, and though, fortunately, I kept my feet, my descent was so unpremeditated that I brought down half our loosely-built structure on my heels. Faris, standing at a little distance, could not make up his mind whether to laugh or be angry. Of one thing, however, both of us now became aware: it was improbable that the roof of the dome would support our weight, so loosened had the materials composing it become by the rough treatment it had received at the hands of the Shammar. Still, there remained the fact that we had heard people walking about on it with impunity, and this gave us hope; moreover, I had brought down such a huge sheet of the roof, that it was now broken away in one part almost to the wall that supported it. We soon made up our minds, therefore, that our tower would have to be built over again, and closer in to the side wall, so that, by breaking down another piece of the dome, we should be able to climb out over the actual top of the wall. How we laboured at the new tower! Hours passed before it had attained the required height; but, at last we were able to again reach the edge of the roof, when, with the greatest care, we pulled down the foot or two that remained between it and the wall top. Then we added to the height of our pile, until the happy moment came when the sheik, climbing slowly upwards, was able to rest his elbows on the wall, and haul himself up. I quickly followed; and there we two lay panting, and looking down with joyous eyes on the surrounding ruins and the boundless desert in the distance.
If I had had my way, I should have remained there for hours, and rested; but Faris was on his feet in a few minutes, and urged me to hurry after him, so that we might get to our horses, and start on our journey. When I come to think of it now, after a lapse of many months, I am astonished at the absurd confidence that we had, that we should find our horses where we had left them. I myself never gave the matter a thought; and if the sheik had any misgivings, he did not disclose them. As can be imagined, therefore, when we reached the spot where the hobbled horses had been left, and found that they had disappeared, our hearts sank. The sheik examined the ground in all directions, and soon broke it to me that the Shammar had carried off our horses; he was able to trace their footprints among those of the Shammar horses; and they had added insult to injury by breaking his spear in pieces and taking away the blade.
"I ought to have known that it would have been so," he said, almost in despair. "The Shammar dogs have again made fools of us."
"Never mind," I said, trying to treat the matter lightly; "we must walk."
"Walk!" he replied, derisively. "How think you we shall walk through that waterless waste, when even to ride through it is courting death?"
"Perhaps," I suggested, "Sedjur, finding us gone so long, will come to meet us."
"He may do so," said the sheik hopefully "In any case, we may as well die in the desert, as among these infernal ruins. So, come, let us walk."
I never in my life felt less inclined to start on a long tramp; and the knowledge that we had no water and nothing to carry it in, and no better food than a few dried dates, did not add to my spirits. However, I pulled myself together, and stepped out behind Faris, whose swinging pace was terrific. Towards sundown we approached the marsh through which we had ridden two days before, and to our astonishment saw, on the far side, a thin curl of smoke rising upwards.
"Sedjur to the rescue," I said.
The sheik smiled, and bade me remain where I was, while he went to reconnoitre. On looking carefully, we could see that there were tents, camels, horses, and a goodly number of men, and the spot which they had selected for their encampment was close to the edge of the lake, a mile or so from us. To approach them was easy, as the rushes of the marsh grew almost up to the encampment. Divesting himself of his clothes, and cutting some of the rushes, Faris quickly knotted them together in large bunches, and tied them in wisps round his head and the upper part of his body. Then he waded into deep water towards the edge of the rushes, and concealing himself carefully, gradually worked his way round towards the tents. As he said, there was little chance of our being noticed, as no Bedouins would think of looking out for anyone on foot in such a desolate and remote part of the desert.
I sat on a tuft of rush grass, and watched the waterfowl taking their evening flight, hopeful that relief was not far off, and expecting each moment to hear a wild shout of welcome from across the water. I thought of the delight of finding George Edwards, Sedjur, and others, waiting to receive us, with fresh horses, good food, and a comfortable tent in which to sleep in peace for hours. So I dreamed on, and nearly fell off to sleep, but no shout came. Then, in an hour or so, the sheik returned, and shattered all my hopes. He had crept up close to the tents, and had discovered that the party evidently consisted of some important personages, probably proceeding, from some interior town, on a pilgrimage to Meshed Ali, or returning home, with a strong escort of a tribe, the men of which he was unable to identify.
"Suppose," I said, "we go boldly up to the encampment, tell the strangers that we have lost our horses, and seek their hospitality. They cannot refuse to befriend us."
"It would be worse than folly," said the sheik. "For all I know, they may be my bitterest foes. Besides, they would never be taken in by your disguise, and would suspect us at once."
"But," I argued, "I could tell them from the first that I was an English traveller."
"No," said the sheik, "it would not do. The risk would be too great I have a better plan. I observed how their horses were fastened to pickets; and where their water-skins lay ready filled. When it is dark, and they have gone to rest, we will take two of the horses and some water-skins, and proceed on our journey."
I did not like his plan, and I told him so.
"If we are caught," I said, "they will give us what we deserve as horse-thieves."
"Inshallah!" he replied; "what matter? As good a death as starvation, and, at any rate, a quicker one. But, if you will follow my instructions, we shall not be caught."
"All right," I unwillingly acquiesced, "I will do whatever you wish."
We waited for a couple of hours, and then moved through the rushes in the direction of the encampment. The moon was in the first quarter, and gave us a little light, thus enabling us, when we approached the tents, to see how things were situated. The sheik pointed out to me the position of the water-skins, and two outlying horses which he had decided that we should seize. We were now in the lake itself, standing almost up to our necks in water, and not more than ten yards from the bank. About a hundred yards to our right front were the tents; between us and them, lying on the edge of the lake, were the filled water-skins; while fifty yards or so to our left front stood the two horses. Faris now gave me my orders. I was to wade straight to the water-skins, secure two of them, and make my way as stealthily as possible to the horses; while he himself cut them loose, and waited for me.
I at once started to carry out my instructions; reached the water-skins, but was appalled by their weight. I was afraid to stand up and carry them in the ordinary way; to crawl on the ground with a bulky skin in each hand was out of the question. Fortunately, however, I had always possessed a certain amount of ready resource, and I quickly took out my knife, ripped my saturated cloak into strips, with which I secured a skin loosely to either side of my waist. Then I began to crawl towards the horses, and a toilsome operation it was; but it was successfully accomplished, and in far less time than I had expected. Faris, too, had played his part, and not only had he freed the horses, but he had managed, moreover, to find saddles for them.
"Quick," he said, seizing the two water-skins and flinging them across his saddle, "mount and away."
I required no second bidding, and I followed my fellow-robber, as he forged ahead into the sandy desert skirting the lake. Hour after hour, through the night did we keep going, and when, soon after dawn, the sheik pulled up among some low sand-hills, and dismounted, we had put many miles between ourselves and the former owners of our horses. Faris was in better spirits than I had ever known him to be; he appeared to have forgotten all our strange adventures, and to be living only in the present—a free man in a free land; but even he, inured to endless hardships, I soon discovered, was suffering from exhaustion. I inwardly rejoiced when I observed it, for I myself was completely done up. All our garments were wet through, and most of them in a filthy condition of slimy mud; so we agreed unanimously that it would be quite safe to rest for a time; and, taking off our clothes, we spread them out in the sun to dry.
We hobbled the horses, partook of a few hard dates and a mouthful of water, and, stark naked, lay down on the slope of a hummocky sand-billow to rest our wearied limbs. How delightful was the warmth of the sun to my damp body! But how miserably tired and sleepy I felt!
"A little sleep, sheik," I said, "would be a good thing."
He made no reply, and looking at him, I found that he had forestalled my suggestion, and was already breathing heavily. I roused myself to a sense of duty; both of us must not sleep at the same time; I would watch while he slept; and then my turn would come. I began to wonder how long it would be before he woke up. I wondered why people wanted to sleep, and I remember that I found it most difficult to find a solution for the problem—so many things kept crowding into the argument. I was annoyed with myself for not being able to work it out successfully; and then, somehow or another, all my good intentions must have faded away, and unwittingly I must have dropped off to sleep.
I awoke suddenly with a start. People were talking. I rubbed my eyes and looked. Was I dreaming, I wondered; for, within a couple of yards of me, I saw Sedjur and George Edwards in Arab dress, sitting on their horses and talking to the sheik. I jumped up to greet them, but I grew dizzy and sank back again. Edwards dismounted and ran across to me.
"What is the matter, old man?" he asked, taking my hand.
"I am a bit done," I replied.
"You are in for a bout of fever," he said, "and no wonder, from what I have just heard from the sheik. But we will soon put you to rights. You have been lying out in the sun here for some time, I expect, judging by the blisters on your body. You had better get into your clothes again, and have another snooze."
I struggled into my dirty garments as best I could, and wished that I had something cleaner to put on, but I had hardly finished dressing before Faris and Sedjur rushed up to us in a state of excitement, telling us that they could see a party of horsemen galloping towards us from the direction of the lake.
"They have followed our tracks," said the sheik to me, "and hope to recover their horses. We must get away at once."
I looked over the sand-hill nearest to me and could just make out a small black mass some miles away. I got up and moved towards my horse, but I was too feeble to mount.
"I cannot manage it, George," I said, "I shall stop here, wait till they arrive, and give myself up. You clear off with the others—I shall be all right."
"Likely!" replied Edwards, indignantly.
Faris, seeing that something serious was the matter, came back to us, and asked why we were not hurrying.
"We are not coming," said Edwards; "he is too ill. You and Sedjur escape while you have time."
"No," replied the sheik, "we will stand here and fight."
But Edwards and I besought him to go, and at last he consented.
"We should have no chance against them," he said; "they are ten to one. But Sedjur shall take their horse, and leave you his, when they will find that you two have your own horses, and are not the thieves that they are after."
A hasty word of parting, and our two Bedouin friends were in the saddle and away. For some reason, they did not take the direct route by which Faris and I had ridden a few days before, and which Edwards and Sedjur had followed, but struck off, half right, towards a low ridge. The country was undulating, and, to our relief, in a few seconds we saw them disappear from view. Then Edwards looked over our sand-hill, and told me to prepare myself, as the band of horsemen were approaching; and in another minute we were surrounded by some forty wild-looking Arabs, armed with matchlocks and spears. I fully imagined that they would finish us off, without inquiry; but the chief of the party motioned to his men to stand back, and advanced towards us. Edwards stood up, and greeted him.
"Where are our horses?" demanded the chief.
"Horses," said Edwards, "you appear to have many."
"I speak," said the Bedouin, frowning, "of the two that you stole from us in the night."
"I have stolen no horses at any time from any man," replied Edwards, with considerable force. "I and my friend here, who is sick with fever, are Englishmen, travelling in the desert. We have only our own horses, as you can see."
The chief and his followers looked perplexed, and not a little surprised at the sight of two foreigners. A long consultation then took place, after which the chief, regarding us with evident suspicion, addressed us again.
"See, now, Ingleezee," he said, "last night two horses were stolen from our camp. We have followed their footprints up to this point; and here we find you, but with two other horses. We do not believe that even you are able to change a horse's skin and shape. Tell me, from which direction did you ride hither?"
Edwards pointed out the direction.
"I believe it," said the Arab, "for the hoof marks which brought us here are certainly not those of your horses. Answer me yet again, did you meet any Bedouins as you rode hither?"
"Not a soul," replied Edwards, equivocating perhaps, but nevertheless speaking the truth.
While this cross-examination was going on, some of the party were casting round and looking at the horses' footprints on the ground. I soon saw that they were on the right scent, and one of them shouted to the chief that he had found the marks of their two stolen horses. This caused tremendous excitement, and a dozen horsemen were sent off in pursuit, while the chief and the remainder looked after us. Then came another surprise, when someone discovered that, besides the hoof marks of our own two horses, there were also the marks of two other horses, though apparently two or three days older, but all coming from the same direction.
"What abominably cunning brutes they are," I said to Edwards.
"Yes," said he, "they will worm it all out of us before they have done. But they will have their work cut out if they mean to overtake the sheik and Sedjur, with the good half-hour's start that they had."
We could see that this new discovery had upset their calculations considerably, and presently the chief informed us that, though he did not now suspect us of being implicated in the theft of the horses, we must accompany him to the camp, in order that we should be properly examined by his lord and master, the Governor of Adiba. Ill as I was, I was compelled to mount my horse and ride with the party. As we started, we found that two or three men had taken up the tracks left by the horses which Faris and I had ridden on our journey to the seer. They had not come across them on their way from the camp, as they lay a considerable distance to one side, since Faris had taken a straight line to the margin of the swamp, and the spot from which we had stolen the horses was a mile or more to the east of it.
We appeared to have hoodwinked the party most successfully, and the chief discussed the situation with us quite affably. His views were fairly reasonable, and he was convinced that he had fathomed the mystery up to a certain point. He imagined that, two or three days before, two horsemen had passed through the gap in the sand-hills, and had proceeded to a point at the southern end of the lake. The footprints, he affirmed, were not those of our horses, and our horses had evidently never gone beyond the gap; neither had the other horses ever returned from the lake to the gap. The men who had stolen the horses might have been those whose horses' tracks were now being followed towards the lake; but what he could not understand was why they should have discarded their own horses and stolen the others.
"Of course," he said, "there may be no connection whatever between the two horsemen and the thieves, and that matter is of no real consequence. We know where the scoundrels have gone, and our men will doubtless catch them. Who they are is immaterial—so long as they suffer the penalty of their crime."
The only point of doubt seemed to be whether we were or were not in league with the robbers, and that, the Arab said, was for his master, the Governor, to decide. He himself felt certain of our innocence, and thought it probable that the thieves had passed through the gap and disappeared before we had reached it from the opposite direction.
Eventually we came within sight of the encampment, and, from the excitement that prevailed, it was apparently thought that the thieves had been caught. Bitter was the disappointment when it was learned that the stolen horses had not been recovered; and the Governor, who stood waiting for us outside his large tent, vented his wrath on his unfortunate captain before the latter could offer an explanation. When, however, he had heard what the chief of the escort had to relate, the great man changed his tone and ordered us to be taken away to a tent and looked after, until such time as the two absent parties should return and give an account of themselves. As it proved, the ride had not done me much harm; I was wretchedly weak, but the fever had passed off, and I was able to eat heartily of the supper which our friend the chief provided for us. After my diet of dried dates, the steaming dish placed before us was a positive feast, and neither before nor since have I ever partaken of a meal with greater relish.
How Edwards and I talked that night! I had to tell him all my adventures, and answer a thousand questions; but, all through, I had the feeling that he thought I was romancing, and he politely but firmly refused to believe that I had really seen the Golden Girdle.
"I am afraid, my dear boy," he said, "that was hallucination, produced by your old friend's intoxicating perfumes."
"All right," I replied, almost angrily, "you need not believe it unless you like; but if we ever meet old Faris again, we will get him to give his version."
"I wonder," said Edwards, changing the conversation, "how we shall get out of this hole. It seems to me that ever since we left Baghdad, we have been in a perpetual state of jumping out of the frying-pan into the fire. However," he concluded philosophically, "they say that everything has an end, and I trust that our end may be peace."
At an early hour next morning, the captain of the escort paid us a visit, and brought us food. We discovered that he considered himself our host, and he chatted with us in a most friendly way. He told us that both parties of horsemen had returned; that those who had tracked the two horses to the lake had come in early in the night, with the information that the horses had passed through the swamp and had gone straight on, so they had given up the search as not likely to lead to any result. The other party, he said, after a fruitless pursuit of the missing horses, had just come back. They stated that they had seen the two thieves riding in the far distance, but all hope of overtaking them had gone, and, their horses being exhausted, they had been forced to abandon the chase. The Governor was very angry, because the stolen horses were his own property, and what attitude he would adopt towards ourselves was extremely doubtful. But this before long we would discover for ourselves, as he had given orders that we should be brought before him in an hour's time.
"For my own part," added our friend, "I think he will order you to proceed with him to Adiba. If you cannot satisfy him as to your innocence, he will probably take your horses from you. But he will be afraid to keep you at Adiba for any length of time; doubtless he will give you asses and tell you to depart to Baghdad."
Our interview passed off much more satisfactorily than we had anticipated. Ali Khan, the governor, asked us endless questions as to who we were, where we had been, and where we were going, and finally gave his opinion that we knew nothing about the theft of the horses. He upbraided us for our folly in wandering about the desert without an escort, and he told us that we should remain as his guests until he reached his home, when he would endeavour to send us with some caravan to a place from which we should be able to return to Baghdad in safety. We thanked him profusely, and, afraid of showing any disinclination to accompany him, we agreed to accept his offer. We were soon on very good terms with our new host, and, in the course of the conversation that followed, I told him that Edwards was a great doctor.
"If that be so," said the Governor, turning to Edwards, "when we reach Adiba, you shall try your skill on my small son, whom none of my own doctors are able to cure."
"That will I certainly," replied Edwards enthusiastically.
"Good," said the Governor, "and should you want for anything, ask for it, and it shall be yours. We shall proceed on our journey in the morning, and, if it please Allah, in about two weeks from now shall be in the town."
Edwards and I were overjoyed at our good fortune, for it seemed to us that we were going to make a most interesting expedition under the most favourable circumstances, and when we returned to our tent we solemnly shook hands and congratulated ourselves.
"We shall be back in Baghdad in no time," said Edwards. "I have already overstayed my leave, but I daresay, when I turn up safe and sound, the Consul-General will understand, and will put matters right."
"You do not mean to say," said I, "that you propose rushing back to Baghdad?"
"As straight as a die," said he, "and jolly glad I shall be to get there."
"But what about our old friends, the sheik and Sedjur?" I asked.
"Oh," said he, "I can find out what happened to them when I get back to Baghdad. You surely do not suggest that we should continue to fool about in the desert any longer?"
"My dear boy," I said, "you can think of nothing but that wretched leave of yours. Do, for goodness' sake, forget it. You are overdue now, and if you start from Adiba the day after you get there, you will be weeks late. In all probability, the authorities have killed us, buried us, and put up memorial tablets to us by now. Much better let them go on grieving a bit longer."
Edwards looked at me and laughed.
"You are the most extraordinary person that I have ever come across," said he. "Here you are, a perfect wreck, and looking as if you had seen a hundred ghosts in the last few days; yet you do not seem at all anxious to get back to an ordinary life of peace and comfort."
"You do not understand," I argued. "You have not been inspired by the sight of the glittering serpents. Think, George, what it would be to get hold of it, and ride into Baghdad with it!"
"It would be tolerably nice," he replied, "to ride into Baghdad even without it. Honestly, I do not much care which it is. I waive all claim to carrying the Golden Girdle."
"What a scoffer you are," I said. "You do not really believe in its existence. For my part, I should not be a bit surprised if at this very moment it was in the Jelas camp. Faris is as keen about it as I am, and he would not waste any time in preparing for his raid on the Shammar. I agree that we must go to Adiba now, but as soon as we leave the place, we will make straight for our old quarters, see what the sheik has been about, and find out if he has heard anything of the girdle."
"All right," said Edwards, "I will see you through the business. You shall have your way, and I will stick to you. But I beg of you not to let me in for adventures such as you and Faris have just been indulging in. My feeble brain would not stand that sort of thing."
During the journey of the succeeding fortnight or more, we made friends with all the members of the caravan, and George Edwards covered himself with glory by looking after the ailments of the party. Fortunately, no one had attempted to rifle his saddle-bags, and, when starting with Sedjur on the ride to meet me, he had taken the precaution to bring with him his travelling medicine-case and instruments. It was an uneventful ride, through a barren and ugly country, and glad were we when, at last, we came in sight of the walls of Adiba, and saw a body of horsemen issuing out to greet their Governor.