that
you will forget the wretchedness and failure of the past. A new life
will begin for both of us, if you will only trust me, and forget the
scruples of which you write--false scruples, believe me. As he had a
wife living when he married you, and has taken another since, surely
you cannot consider that you are bound by the law of God or man? Let me
save you from the dragon, as fairy princesses were saved in days of old.
If I might speak with you, tell you all the arguments that constantly
suggest themselves to my mind, you could not refuse. I have thought of
more than one way, but dare not put my ideas on paper, lest some unlucky
chance befall our little messenger. Soon I shall have perfected the
cypher. Then there will not be the same danger. Perhaps to-morrow night
I shall be able to send it. But meanwhile, for the sake of my love, give
me a little hope. If you will try to arrange a meeting, to be settled
definitely when the cypher is ready, twist three of those glorious
threads of gold which you have for hair round the cord when you send the
messenger back."

All the rosy colour had died away from the woman's face by the time she
had finished reading the letter. She folded it again into a tiny square
even smaller than before, and put it into one of the three or four
little engraved silver boxes, made to hold texts from the Koran, which
hung from her long amber necklace. Her eyes were very wide open, but she
seemed to see nothing except some thought printed on her brain like a
picture.

On the mosque roof a hundred men of the desert knelt praying in the
sunset, their faces turned towards Mecca. Down in the fountain-court,
the marabout's lazy tame lion rose from sleep and stretched himself,
yawning as the clear voice of the muezzin chanted from the minaret the
prayer of evening, "Allah Akbar, Allah il Allah, Mohammed r'soul Allah."

The woman did not know that she heard the prayer, for as her eyes saw a
picture, so did her ears listen to a voice which she had heard only
once, but desired beyond all things to hear again. To her it was the
voice of a saviour-knight; the face she saw was glorious with the
strength of manhood, and the light of love. Only to think of the voice
and face made her feel that she was coming to life again, after lying
dead and forgotten in a tomb for many years of silence.

Yes, she was alive now, for he had waked her from a sleep like death;
but she was still in the tomb, and it seemed imp