rian wine, through that sea of mud, which probably goes
all the way through to China. Aren't they splendid? Wait till you've
been in this country as long as I have, and you'll respect mules as I
do, from army mules down to the lowest dregs of the mule kingdom. I
don't ask you to love them--and neither do they. But how they work here
in Africa--and never a groan! They go on till they drop. And I don't
believe half of them ever get anything to eat. Some day I'm going to
start a Rest Farm for tired mules. I shall pay well for them. A man I
know did write a paean of praise for mules. I believe I'll have it
translated into Arabic, and handed about as a leaflet. These natives are
good to their horses, because they believe they have souls, but they
treat their mules like the dirt under their feet." And Nevill began
quoting here and there a verse or a line he remembered of the "mule
music," chanting in time to the throbbing of the motor.

"Key A minor, measure common,
One and two and three and four and--
Every hoof-beat half a second
Every hoof-beat linked with heart-beat,
Every heart-beat nearer bursting.
Andantino sostenuto:
In the downpour or the dryness,
Hottest summer, coldest winter;
Sick and sore and old and feeble,
Hourly, hourly; daily, daily,
From the sunrise to the setting;
From the setting to the sunrise
Scarce a break in all the circle
For the rough and scanty eating,
For the scant and muddy drinking,
For the fitful, fearful resting,
For the master haunted-sleeping.
Dreams in dark of God's far heaven
Tempo primo; tempo sempre."

And so, through pools of wild flowers and the blood of poppies, their
road led to wild mountain scenery, then into the embrace of the
Djurdjura mountains themselves--evil, snow-splashed, sterile-seeming
mountains, until the car had passed the fortified town of Tizi Ouzou, an
overgrown village, whose name Stephen thought like a drunken term of
endearment. It was market-day there, and the long street was so full of
Kabyles dressed apparently in low-necked woollen bags, of soldiers in
uniform, of bold-eyed, scantily-clad children, and of dyed sheep and
goats, that the car had to pass at a walk. Nevill bought a good deal of
Kabyle jewellery, necklaces and long earrings, or boxes enamelled in
crude greens and reds, blues and yellows. Not that he had not already
more than he knew what to do wit