to write. To satisfy Si Maieddine that she would
not be indiscreet in any admission or allusion, she suggested
translating for him every word she wrote into French or Arabic; but he
refused this offer with dignity. She trusted him. He trusted her also.
But he himself would post the letter at an hour too late for it to be
delivered while she was still in Algiers.

It was arranged that she should carry only hand-bags, as it would be too
conspicuous to load and unload boxes. Her large luggage could be stored
at the hotel until she returned or sent, and as Lella M'Barka intended
to offer her an outfit suitable to a young Arab girl of noble birth, she
need take from the hotel only her toilet things.

So it was that Victoria wrote to Stephen Knight, and was ready for the
second stage of what seemed the one great adventure to which her whole
life had been leading up.

XIX

Victoria did not wait in her room to be told that the carriage had come
to take her away. It was better, Si Maieddine had said, that only a few
people should know the exact manner of her going. A few minutes before
seven, therefore, she went down to the entrance-hall of the hotel, which
was not yet lighted. Her appearance was a signal for the Arab porter,
who was waiting, to run softly upstairs and return with her hand
luggage.

For some moments Victoria stood near the door, interesting herself in a
map of Algeria which hung on the wall. A clock began to strike as her
eyes wandered over the desert, and was on the last stroke of seven, when
a carriage drove up. It was drawn by two handsome brown mules with
leather and copper harness which matched the colour of their shining
coats, and was driven by a heavy, smooth-faced Negro in a white turban
and an embroidered cafetan of dark blue. The carriage windows were
shuttered, and as the black coachman pulled up his mules, he looked
neither to the right nor to the left. It was the hotel porter who opened
the door, and as Victoria stepped in without delay, he thrust two
hand-bags after her, snapping the door sharply.

It was almost dark inside the carriage, but she could see a white
figure, which in the dimness had neither face nor definite shape; and
there was a perfume as of aromatic amulets grown warm on a human body.

"Pardon, lady, I am Hsina, the servant of Lella M'Barka Bent Djellab,
sent to wait upon thee," spoke a soft and guttural voice, in Arabic.
"Blessings be upon thee!"

"And upon the