Burning Sands Part 3

It was not long before Daniel rose to take his departure. "Oh, by the way," he said, with a broad smile, "I have one little favor to ask you...."

"Certainly, certainly," responded Lord Blair warmly. "Anything I can do, I'm sure-anything. You have put me under a great obligation by coming so promptly to my aid in this matter."

"Well, will you be so good as to walk as far as your front gate with me?

There's something I want to show you."

Lord Blair, somewhat mystified, accompanied him on to the veranda; and here they chanced upon Lady Muriel again taking the air with Rupert Helsingham who was once more her partner. The couple were strolling towards them as they came out of the house.

Daniel made for the steps. "What I want you to see is over here," he said, pointing to the gateway.

"One moment," Lord Blair interjected, taking hold of his arm. "I want to introduce you to my daughter."

He called Muriel to him, who replied somewhat coldly that she had already met Mr. Lane.

"Really?" exclaimed his Lords.h.i.+p. "Splendid, capital!"

"Yes," said Daniel, taking his pipe out of his mouth, "when she was quite a kid; but I'm blest if I know where it was."

He was standing again almost with his back to Muriel, his pipe between his teeth, and once more a sense of annoyance entered her mind. She would have liked to pinch him, but for all she knew he might turn round and fling her into the middle of the drive. She racked her brains for something to say, something which would show him that she was not to be ignored in this fas.h.i.+on.

"Ah," she exclaimed suddenly, "now I remember. It was in the Highlands that we met. You came over to tea with us: I was staying with my cousin the d.u.c.h.ess of Strathness."

Daniel scratched his head. "I'm so bad at names," he said. "What's she like?"

Lord Blair uttered a sudden guffaw, but Muriel did not treat the matter so lightly. A man with gentlemanly instincts, she thought to herself, would at any rate _pretend_ he remembered.

"Oh, why bother to think it out?" she answered, her foot ominously tapping the floor. "It's of no consequence."

"None," Daniel replied, looking at her with his steady laughing eyes.

"You're still you, and I'm still I.... But I did like your pigtails."

Muriel turned to her partner, who stood anxiously fiddling with his eyegla.s.s. "Come along," she said; "let's go back. The music's begun again."

She nodded with decided coolness to Daniel, and turned away. He gazed after her in silence for a moment; then he put his hand on her father's arm, and gently propelled him towards the gates.

As they walked down the drive in the moonlight, the sentry peered at them through the iron bars, and, recognizing Lord Blair, suddenly presented arms, becoming thereat a very pa.s.sable imitation of a waxwork figure.

Lord Blair put his arm in Daniel's. "What is it you wanted to show me?"

he asked, as they pa.s.sed through the gate and stood upon the pavement outside.

"A good soldier," said Daniel, indicating the sentry, whose face a.s.sumed an expression of mingled anxiety and astonishment. "I wanted to call your attention to this lad. Do you think you could put in a word for him to his colonel? I was very much struck this evening with the way in which he dealt with a ruffianly tramp who apparently wanted to get into the grounds. He showed great self-restraint combined with determination and devotion to duty." There was not the trace of a smile upon his face.

Lord Blair turned to the rigid Scotchman, whose mouth had fallen open.

"What's your name, my man?" he asked.

"John Macdonald, me Lord," he answered unsteadily.

"Now, will you make a note of it?" said Daniel. "And if you get a chance, recommend him for his soldierly conduct. Or, better still, send him a little present as a mark of your regard."

"Certainly, certainly," replied Lord Blair, still somewhat puzzled.

"Thanks, that's all," said Daniel. "Good-night."

"Will you come to luncheon tomorrow?" Lord Blair asked, as they shook hands. "I will then show you the draft of my reply to the Minister of War."

"Thank you," Daniel answered, knocking the ashes from his pipe. "I'll be delighted, if it isn't a party. I haven't got any respectable clothes with me."

"Tut, tut!" murmured his Lords.h.i.+p. "Come in anything you like." And with that he patted his friend on the arm, and hastened with little tripping steps back to the house.

Daniel put his hands in his pockets and faced the sentry, who was once more standing at ease. "John Macdonald," he said, "is the account square?"

The Scotchman looked at him with a twinkle in his eye. "Ye mus' na'

speak tae th' sentry on duty," he answered.

Daniel uttered a chuckle, and walked off across the square.

CHAPTER III-THE WORLD AND THE FLESH

When a man, in the heyday of his manhood, voluntarily lives the life of a monk or hermit, his friends suppose him to be either religious, defective, or possessed of a secret mistress. Now, n.o.body supposed Daniel Lane to be religious, for he seldom put his foot inside a church: and people seem to be agreed that religion is, as it were, black kid gloves, handed out with the hymnbooks and, like them, "not to be taken away." Nor did anybody think him abnormal, for a figure more sane, more healthy, or more robust in its unqualified manhood, could not easily be conjured before the imagination.

Hence the rumour had arisen in Cairo that the daughters of the Bedouin were not strangers to him; but actually, like most rumours, this was entirely incorrect. He did, in very truth, live the life of a celibate in his desert home; and if this manner of existence chanced to be in accord with his ideas of bachelorhood, it was certainly in conformity with the nature of his surroundings. Some men are not attracted by a diet of onions, or by a skin-polish of castor oil.

When he had been commissioned by a well-known scientific inst.i.tute to make a thorough study of the manners, customs, and folk-lore of the Bedouin tribes of the Egyptian desert, he had entered upon his task in the manner of one dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge; and he found in the life he was called upon to lead the opportunity for the practice of those precepts of the philosophers which, in spite of his impulsive nature, had ever appealed to him in principle during the course of his wide reading.

Almost unwittingly he had cultivated the infinite joys of a mind free from care, free from the desires of the flesh; and, with no apparent, or, at any rate, no great effort, he had established in himself a condition of undisturbed equanimity, by virtue of which he could smile benevolently at the frantic efforts of his fellow men and women to make life amusing. To him his existence in the desert was a continuous pleasure, for the great secret of human life had been revealed to him-that a mind at peace in itself is happiness.

But here in Cairo circ.u.mstances were different; and as he walked from the Residency through the moonlit streets to the Orient Hotel his thoughts were by no means tranquil. He did not feel any very noticeable fatigue after his long ride; for a series of recent expeditions through the desert had hardened him to such a point that the hundred and fifty miles which he had covered in the last three days had in no way strained his always astonis.h.i.+ng physical resources. His senses were alert and active, and, indeed, were near to a riotous invasion of the placid palace of his mind, where his soul was wont to sit enthroned above the clamour of his mighty body.

He took the road which led him past the Semiramis Hotel, and through its brilliantly illuminated windows he could see the richly dressed throng of visitors, and could hear the strains of the orchestra which was playing selections from a popular musical comedy. He turned his head away, and gazed across the Nile which lay on his other hand; but here too the lights of the gay city glittered and were reflected in the water, while from a dahabiyah moored against the opposite bank there came the sound of tambourines and the rhythmic beating of the feet of native dancers.

In the main streets of the city the light of the lamps seemed strangely bright to his unaccustomed eyes; and the great square in front of the Orient Hotel presented an animated scene. Crowds of people were here streaming out of the Opera House, and carriages and automobiles were moving in all directions. The trees of the Esbekieh gardens were illuminated by the neighbouring arc lamps, and rich cl.u.s.ters of exotic flowers hung down towards the dazzling globes. The cafes on the other side of the square were crowded, and hundreds of small tables, standing in the open, were occupied by the native and continental inhabitants of the city. The murmur of many voices and the continuous rattle of dice upon the marble table-tops could be heard above the many sounds of the traffic; and somewhere a Neapolitan orchestra was playing a lilting tune.

The terrace and facade of the hotel were illuminated by numerous rows of small electric globes, and as Daniel ascended the steps to the brilliantly lighted main entrance he was met by a throng of men and women in evening dress pouring out on to the terrace. Evidently the weekly ball was in progress, and the couples were emerging into the cool night air to rest for a few brief moments from their exertions.

For some time he wandered about the hotel, furtively watching the dancers; but in his rough clothes he did not feel quite at his ease, and he was conscious that many pairs of eyes looked at him from time to time with wonder, while those of the hall-porter and the waiters, so he thought, expressed frank disapproval, if not disgust. He had no wish, however, to retire to his room; for the music of the orchestra would undoubtedly prevent sleep for yet some time to come. Moreover, he felt excited and disturbed by the brilliant scenes around him; and the seclusion of his desert home seemed very far away.

At length he found a seat upon a sofa at the end of a pa.s.sage near the American Bar, where, except during the intervals between the dances, he was more or less alone; and here he settled himself down to enjoy the cigar which he had pocketed at the Residency. He wanted to be quiet; his mind was disturbed by his sudden incursion into the world, and he was aware of a number of emotions which he had not experienced for many months.

Suddenly the swinging doors of the Bar were burst open and a red-headed young man, m.u.f.fled in an overcoat, sprang through and darted down the pa.s.sage. He was clutching at a lady's gold bag; and for a moment Daniel supposed him to be a thief. An instant later, however, he was followed by a girl, wearing an evening cloak and a large black hat, who called after him in broken English, telling him to behave himself. At this the man paused, tossed the bag to her, and, with a wave of his hand, disappeared round the corner.

The bag fell at Daniel's feet. He therefore stooped down, and, picking it up, returned it to her.

"A silly boy-that one," she smiled. "He like always the rag."

"I nearly shot him for a thief," said Daniel, placing his hand significantly upon his hip-pocket, where he still carried the revolver which had accompanied him on his journey.