s way and that until she impatiently tore it
from before her face, and struggling against the arm which held her
like a vice, managed to screw herself round to look behind, whereupon
the Arab jerked her suddenly back, looking down into her white face
with eyes ablaze with jealousy.

"Hast thou no circumspection, O! wife of mine?" he cried, the wind
carrying the words from his lips almost before they were uttered.
"Mine, all mine thou art, and yet thou strivest to look upon the
countenance of that madman who would have outraged my honour by looking
upon thy face!"

"Oh, but Hahmed! you don't understand--that was Jack Wetherbourne, my
neighbour and brother and friend, and do for pity's sake make the camel
go slower, I am being bumped to bits!"

Which of all foolish utterances was the most foolish she could have
uttered, fanning the man's jealousy to a pitch where it burned right
through the barrier of self-restraint, making him desire to stop her
foolish words with kisses, and long to strangle her as she lay in his
arms, and cast her on to the sands for the vultures to pick at.

"Thy friend and brother! How could any man unborn of thy parents be
anything but the would-be lover and husband of thy beautiful self!
Verily, woman, could I beat thee for such words until thy shoulders ran
blood. I know of him and his foolish futile searchings for thee, yet
it is _I_ who hold thee, and in very truth can call thee wife; nor will
I stay this my camel so that thou mayest have speech with him; this
pale faced yearling, who dared to look upon thy shadow; but by the
grace of Allah, I will so bewilder him who blundereth after thee
astride the product of the bazaar, that his sightless skull shall stare
blindly at the moon to-morrow night, whilst I shall feast my eyes upon
the whiteness of thy satin skin."

And Jill lay still, knowing that she was up against something with
which she could not cope, noticing not at all that the camel began a
wide circle to the left, therefore being excessively surprised when an
hour before the dawn, upon the very outskirts of Cairo itself, the man
caused his camel to kneel, and placing the girl like a bundle of hay
upon the ground, turned towards Mecca; and the time of prayer being
passed, came to her suddenly and held her to him, raining kisses upon
the fairness of her face, shining pale and shadowed in the light of the
coming day.

CHAPTER XL

You have only to stare long enough at it to