He made a quick gesture with his fingers. "It is accursed. Death lurks
beside those broken palm trees," he said, looking at her curiously.
She jerked her head with a sudden smile. "For you, perhaps, but not for
me. Allah's curse rests only upon those who fear it. But since you are
afraid, Mustafa Ali, let us go on." She gave a little light laugh, and
Mustafa Ali kicked his horse savagely as he followed.
The distance before her spread out cleanly with the sharp distinctness
that precedes the setting sun. She rode on until she began to wonder if
it would indeed be night-fall before she reached her destination. They
had ridden longer and faster than had ever been intended. It seemed odd
that they had not overtaken the baggage camels. She looked at her watch
with a frown. "Where is your caravan, Mustafa Ali?" she called. "I see
no sign of an oasis, and the darkness will come."
"If Mademoiselle had started earlier----" he said sullenly.
"If I had started earlier it would still have been too far. To-morrow
we will arrange it otherwise," she said firmly.
"To-morrow----" he growled indistinctly.
Diana looked at him keenly. "What did you say?" she asked haughtily.
His hand went to his forehead mechanically. "To-morrow is with Allah!"
he murmured with unctuous piety.
A retort trembled on Diana's lips, but her attention was distracted
from her annoying guide to a collection of black specks far off across
the desert. They were too far away for her to see clearly, but she
pointed to them, peering at them intently. "See!" she cried. "Is that
the caravan?"
"As Allah wills!" he replied more piously than before, and Diana
wished, with a sudden feeling of irritation, that he would stop
relegating his responsibilities to the Deity and take a little more
active personal interest in his missing camel train.
The black specks were moving fast across the level plain. Very soon
Diana saw that it was not the slow, leisurely camels that they were
overtaking, but a band of mounted men who were moving swiftly towards
them. They had seen nobody since the traders' caravan had passed them
in the morning. For Diana the Arabs that were approaching were even
more interesting than the caravan had been. She had seen plenty of
caravans arriving and departing from Biskra, but, though she had seen
small parties of tribesmen constantly in the vicinity of the town, she
had never seen so large a body of mounted men before, nor had she seen
them as they were here, one with the wild picturesqueness of their
surroundings. It was impossible to count how many there were, for they
were riding in close formation, the wind filling their, great white
cloaks, making each man look gigantic. Diana's interest flamed up
excitedly.