ow he must care. He wouldn't
be human not to."

"He isn't human! He's superhuman!" She laughed, to cover her pain of
humiliation. "I suppose--long ago--he has started out on his wonderful
mission. I keep thinking of him travelling on and on through the desert,
and I pray he may be safe, and succeed in finding the Lost Oasis he
believes in. He told me in Algiers that to find it would crown his
life."

"He hadn't started when I left Touggourt," Max said rather dryly.

"What--he was still there? Then my father must have seen him. How
strange! He didn't refer to him at all."

"You mentioned that the colonel wrote in a hurry." Max hinted at this
explanation to comfort her, but he guessed why DeLisle had not been in a
mood to speak of Stanton to his daughter. "There is a reason," he had
said, "why I don't want to ask Stanton to put off starting and go to
Djazerta." And Max, having seen the dancer, Ahmara, had known without
telling what the reason was.

"Do you think Richard may be there when we get to Touggourt?" she asked,
shamefaced, yet not able to resist putting the question.

"I think it's very likely." Max tried to keep his tone at reassuring
level, though he hoped devoutly that Stanton might be gone. He could not
bear to think of his seeing Sanda again after the Ahmara episode. With a
man of Stanton's strange, erratic nature and wild impulses, who could
be sure whether--but Max would not let the thought finish in his mind.

Sanda suddenly dropped the subject. Whether this was because she saw
that Max disliked it, or whether she had no more to say, he could not
guess.

"Tell me about yourself, now," she said. "My father has told me some
things in letters, but I long to know from you if I made a mistake in
wanting you to try the Legion."

"You made no mistake. It's one of the things I have to thank you
for--one of several very great things," said Max.

"What _other_ things? I can't think of one unless you thank me for
having a splendid father."

"That's one thing."

"Are there more?"

"Yes."

"Tell me, please. Anyway, the greatest, or I shan't believe in any."

Max was silent for an instant. Then he said in a voice so low she could
hardly hear it, bending down from her bassourah, "For giving me back my
faith in women."

"I? But you hadn't lost it."

"I was in danger of losing it, with most of my mental and moral baggage.
Through you--I've kept the lot."

"That's the most beautiful thing ever said