bear in mind the saying of a traveller
who knew the desert men better than most people:

"If you want to be friendly with them, and safe among them, give
cigarettes to the men, and leave the women alone.

"'I see a good deal, monsieur, owing to the situation of my little
house.'

"I looked at him in silence. Then I said:

"'What have you seen?'

"He led me to the door, and pointed towards the great dune beyond the
dancing-house.

"I saw your friend this afternoon talking there with one whom it is
especially unsafe to be seen with in Beni-Koujtlar.'

"'With whom?'

"'A dancer called Algia.'

"'Talking, monsieur! Marnier knows no Arabic.'

"The aumonier pursed his lips in his black beard.

"'The conversation appeared to be carried on by signs,' he responded.
'That did not make it less but more dangerous.'

"I'm afraid I was rude, and whistled softly.

"'Monsieur l'Aumonier,' I said, 'you must forgive me, but this air is
certainly the very devil.'

"He smiled, not without irony.

"'I became aware of that myself, monsieur, when first I came to live in
Beni-Kouidar. But I am a priest, and--well, monsieur, I was given the
strength to say: "Get thee behind me, Satan."'

"A softer look came into his sunburnt, wrinkled face.

"'Better take your friend away as soon as possible,' he added, 'or there
will be trouble.'"

III

"That night I found myself confronted by a Marnier whom I had never seen
before. The desert wine had gone to the lad's brain. That was certain.
No intonations of the Oxford don lurked in the voice. No reminiscences
of the Oxford 'High' clung about the manner. A man sober and the same
man drunk are scarcely more different than the Marnier who had ridden
with me up the sandy street of Beni-Kouidar the previous day and the
man who sat opposite to me at dinner in the 'Rendezvous des Amis' that
night. I knew in a moment that the aumonier was right, and that I must
get the lad away at once from the intoxicant which nature poured out
over this far-away city. His eyes were shining feverishly, and when I
mentioned Mr. Ruskin in a casual way he looked unutterably bored.

"'Ruskin and all those fellows seem awfully slow and out of place here,'
he exclaimed. 'One doesn't want to bother about them in the Sahara.'

"I changed the subject.

"'There doesn't seem very much to see here,' I said carelessly. 'We
might get away the day after to-morrow, don't you think?'

"He drew his brows down