in the city
in this weather, when they had a beautiful mansion in the cool oasis to
go to?

Michael rang again, but even as he rang his heart was beginning to
sink; he knew that no servant would have kept a guest waiting behind
the big door if his master was at home; it was his one and only duty to
guard it and admit visitors. The second time he rang, he did it so
emphatically that the noise vibrated through the courtyard.

A moment later Michael heard a movement. The bar was lifted from its
iron hooks, the door was grudgingly opened, and a black face, with
thick lips and goggle eyes, was thrust out. In a great many more words
than were necessary the Nubian told the anxious Michael that his master
and mistress were away from home; they were in the country; the house
was closed and would not be opened until October.

When Michael urged him for more particulars, as to the precise address
of his master, the effusive Nubian became as close as a sphinx. His
duty to his master forbade him giving any information to strangers at
the gate; he only retained the post because he could be trusted.

As Michael looked into the deserted courtyard, its sense of romantic
isolation was as affecting as the desolation of the Valley had been.
It seemed to him as if all his friends were dead, as if he was the sole
survivor of his generation and civilization. The native city, bathed
in the mystery of the falling night and the secrets of its great age,
lay behind him. It, too, was a world which had outlived its
civilization, a relic of the Middle Ages, as lonely as his own soul.

Mechanically he bade the Nubian good-night; the half-piastre which he
dropped into the pink palm of his black hand brought down blessings on
his unbelieving head.

He wandered aimlessly on. He was very tired and absolutely friendless;
he had no place or part in the city, whose arteries were throbbing with
the prayers and praise of an infinite variety of Oriental peoples,
peoples whose countries were separated by oceans and continents, joined
in one vast brotherhood in Islam. He felt miserably alone, a homeless
and friendless alien.

At the hour which follows sundown Egypt has always new secrets to
reveal. On this night of the new moon, the late afterglow of the
summer sun spread an opal haze, flame-tinted and milky, over the
sin-soiled city of the Caliphs. It descended from the heavens like a
veil of righteousness.

Michael had no desire to return t