moon. That road we will follow as far as the fertility of
Airud, passing that spot afar off, as even in this month caravans will
congregate there; then crossing the canal a space higher than Suez,
where crowds embark and disembark, we will pick up the Haj road on the
far side, making use of it to pass through the Jebel Rabah range,
leaving it, once through, to strike to the East, and find our way at
last to the peace of my own habitation."

Upon which explanation Jill sat back on her heels, and wrinkled her
brow.

"But surely the easiest way would have been by boat to Suez!"

"True, O! woman, whose eyes ringed with the shadows of fatigue are as
blue flowers growing in the mountain's purple shade. I pondered long
before I made decision in my choice of roads. Upon the one we
traverse, you could but meet fatigue, and in this month, but few
travellers upon the way that leads to Mecca.

"Upon the boat you would have met many of your land, friends maybe, who
perchance would have turned upon you the eyes of suspicion, the
shoulder cold with disdainful convention, whilst their tongue, more
poisonous even than the forked tip of the _cerastes cornutus_,[1]
might, nay, _would_, have striven to corrupt your mind with a festering
mass of doubt and suspicion and misgiving. Therefore have I brought
you on this journey, which is so much longer, and is likely to kill you
with fatigue. Verily, for behold the half is not yet accomplished."

Jill, who had unconsciously taken the sharp stick from the Arab, and
had also, unconsciously, been drawing monstrous beasts in the sand,
lifted her head and made a slight grimace.

"Oh! but you will kill me, you will really! And to think that I
thought you lived quite near Cairo! Where _are_ we going _really_?"

And Hahmed, overcome by an almost irresistible longing to take the girl
in his arms and hold her close against all dangers and discomforts,
suddenly rose to his feet, standing towering over her, and when she
held out both her hands, asking to be helped up, leant down and raised
her as lightly as though she were of thistle's down.

Then there came about one of those pauses which sometimes do come to
pass between man and woman, a pause in which, as there is no midway,
either much is won or lost.

As still as a mouse, Jill lay in his arms, until he very gently set her
upon her feet; and though a little ripple akin to disappointment
disturbed the smooth surface of her content, she