3 1822 01329 8245 LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OP CALIFORNIA SAN OIEQO 3 1822 01329 8245 f THE TURQUOISE CUP J*// -I -^V^V THE TURQUOISE CUP AND THE DESERT BT ARTHUR COSSLETT SMITH ILLUSTRATE D NEfTTORK: CHARLES SCRIBNER S SONS 4 fr "^" _ 1903 Copyright) 1903, by Charles Scribner s Sons Published February, 1903 D. B. Updike, The Merrymount Press. Boston "KHADIJA BELIEVES IN ME" CONTENTS I The Turquoise Cup 3 II The Desert 107 THE TURQJUOISE CUP THE TURQJJOISE CUP L HE Cardinal Archbishop sat on his shaded balcony, his well-kept hands clasped upon his breast, his feet stretched out so straight before him that the pigeon, perched on the rail of the balcony, might have seen fully six inches of scarlet silk stocking. The cardinal was a small man, but very neatly made. His hair was as white as spun glass. Perhaps he was sixty; perhaps he was seventy; perhaps he was fifty. His red biretta lay upon a near-by chair. His head bore no tonsure. The razor of the barber [3 ] The Turquoise Cup and the scythe of Time had passed him by. There was that faint tinge upon his cheeks that comes to those who, having once had black beards, shave twice daily. His features were clearly cut. His skin would have been pallid had it not been olive. A rebellious lock of hair curved upon his forehead. He resembled the first Napoleon, before the latter became fa mous and fat. The pigeon s mate came floating through the blue sky that silhouetted the trees in the garden. She made a pretence of alighting upon the balcony railing, sheered off, coquetted among the tree- tops, came back again, retreated so far that she was merely a white speck against the blue vault, and then, true to her sex, hav ing proved her liberty only to tire of it, with a flight so swift that the eye could scarcely follow her, she came back again [4] The Turquoise Cup and rested upon the farther end of the balcony, where she immediately began to preen herself and to affecl an air of non chalance and virtue. Her mate lazily opened one eye, which regarded her for a moment, and then closed with a wink. "Ah, my friends," said the cardinal, "there are days when you make me re gret that I am not of the world, but this is not one of them. You have quarrelled, I perceive. When you build your nest down yonder in the cote, I envy you. When you are giving up your lives to feeding your children, I envy you. I watch your flights for food for them. I say to myself, I, too, would struggle to keep a child, if I had one. Commerce, invention, specu lation why could I not succeed in one of these? I have arrived in the most in tricate profession of all. I am a cardinal [5] The Turquoise Cup archbishop. Could I not have been a stock broker? Ah, signore and signora," and he bowed to the pigeons, "you get nearer heaven than we poor mortals. Have you learned nothing have you heard no whisper have you no message for me? " "Your eminence," said a servant who came upon the balcony, a silver tray in his hand, "a visitor." The cardinal took the card and read it aloud "The Earl of Vauxhall." He sat silent a moment, thinking. "I do not know him," he said at length ; " but show him up." He put on his biretta, assumed a more ere<5r. attitude, and then turned to the pigeons. "Adieu," he said; " commercialism ap proaches in the person of an Englishman. He comes either to buy or to sell. You have nothing in common with him. Fly [6] The Turquoise Cup away to the Piazza, but come back to morrow. If you do not, I shall miss you sorely." The curtains parted, and the servant announced, "The Earl of Vauxhall." The cardinal rose from his chair. A young man stepped upon the bal cony. He was tall and lithe and blond, and six-and-twenty. "Your grace," he said, "I have come because I am in deep trouble." "In that event, "said the cardinal, "you do me much honor. My vocation is to seek out those who are in trouble. When they seek me it argues that I am not un known. You are an Englishman. You may speak your own language. It is not the most flexible, but it is an excellent vehicle for the truth." "Thank you," said the young man; "that gives me a better chance, since my [7] The Turquoise Cup Italian is of the gondolier type. I speak it mostly with my arms," and he began to gesticulate. " I understand," said the cardinal, smil ing, "and I fear that my English is open to some criticism. I picked it up in the University of Oxford. My friends in the Vatican tell me that it is a patois" "I dare say," said the young man. "I was at Cambridge." "Ah," said the cardinal, " how unfortu nate. Still, we may be able to understand one another. Will you have some tea? It is a habit I contracted in England, and I find it to be a good one. I sit here at five o clock, drink my cup of tea, feed the pigeons that light upon the railing, and have a half-hour in which to remember how great is England, and " with a bow " how much the rest of the world owes to her." [8] T /ie Turquoise Cup "A decent sort of chap, for an Italian," thought the earl. The cardinal busied himself with the tea-pot. "Your grace," said the earl, finally, "I came here in trouble." "It cannot be of long standing," said the cardinal. "You do not look like one who has passed through the fire." "No," said the earl, "but I scarcely know what to say to you. I am embar rassed." "My son," said the cardinal, "when an Englishman is embarrassed he is truly penitent. You may begin as abruptly as you choose. Are you a Catholic?" "No," replied the earl, "I am of the Church of England." The cardinal shrugged his shoulders the least bit. "I never cease to admire your countrymen," he said. " On Sundays they say, I believe in the Holy Catholic [9] T/ie Turquoise Cup Church, and, on work-days, they say, I believe in the Holy Anglican Church. You are admirably trained. You adapt yourselves to circumstances." " Yes," said the earl, a trifle nettled, " I believe we do, but at present I find my self as maladroit as though I had been born on the Continent in Italy, for ex ample." "Good," laughed the cardinal; "I am getting to be a garrulous old man. I love to air my English speech, and, in my ef fort to speak it freely, I sometimes speak it beyond license. Can you forgive me, my lord, and will you tell me how I can serve you?" "I came," said the Earl of Vauxhall, "to ask you if there is any way in which I can buy the turquoise cup." " I do not understand," said the cardi nal. [ 10] The Turquoise Cup " The turquoise cup," repeated the earl. "The one in the treasury of St. Mark s." The cardinal began to laugh then he suddenly ceased, looked hard at the earl and asked, "Are you serious, my lord?" "Very," replied the earl. "Are you quite well?" asked the car dinal. "Yes," said the earl, "but I am very uncomfortable." The cardinal began to pace up and down the balcony. "My lord," he asked, finally, "have you ever negotiated for the Holy Coat at Treves; for the breastplate of Charle magne in the Louvre; for the Crown Jewels in the Tower?" " No," said the earl; " I have no use for them, but I very much need the turquoise )) cup. "Are you a professional or an amateur?" The Turquoise Cup asked the cardinal, his eyes flashing, his lips twitching. "As I understand it," said the earl, slowly, a faint blush stealing into his cheeks, "an amateur is a lover. If that is right, perhaps you had better put me down as an amateur." The cardinal saw the blush and his anger vanished. "Ah," he said, softly, "there is a wo man, is there?" "Yes," replied the earl, "there is a woman." " Well," said the cardinal, " I am listen ing." " It won t bore you? " asked the earl. " If I begin about her I sha n t know when to stop." " My lord," said the cardinal, " if there were no women there would be no priests. Our occupation would be gone. There was [ 12 ] The Turquoise Cup a time when men built churches, beautified them, and went to them. How is it now; even here in Venice, where art still exists, and where there is no bourse? I was speak ing with a man only to-day a man of affairs, one who buys and sells, who has agents in foreign lands and ships on the seas; a man who, in the old religious days, would have given a tenth of all his goods to the Church and would have found honor and contentment in the remainder; but he is bitten with this new-fangled belief of disbelief. He has a sneaking fear that Christianity has been supplanted by elec tricity, and he worships Huxley rather than Christ crucified H uxley ! " and the cardinal threw up his hands. " Did ever a man die the easier because he had grov elled at the knees of Huxley? What did Huxley preach? The doclrine of despair. He was the Pope of protoplasm. He beat [ -3 ] The Turquoise Cup his wings against the bars of the unknow able. He set his finite mind the task of solving the infinite. A mere creature, he sought to fathom the mind of his creator. Read the lines upon his tomb, written by his wife what do they teach? Nothing but let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die. If a man follows Huxley, then is he a fool if he does not give to this poor squeezed-lemon of a world another twist. If I believed there was nothing after this life, do you think I should be sitting here, feeding the pigeons? Do you think but there, I have aired my English speech and have had my fling at Huxley. Let me fill your cup and then tell me of this woman whom I have kept waiting all this time by my vanity and my ill manners. Is she English, French, Spanish, or American? There are many Americans nowadays." "No," said the earl, "she is Irish." [ H] The Turquoise Cup " The most dangerous of all," remarked the cardinal. "It is plain that you know women," said the earl. " I ? " exclaimed the cardinal. " No ; nor any living man." " Her father," resumed the earl, " was a great brewer in Dublin. He made ripping stout. Perhaps you use it. It has a green label, with a bull s head. He kept straight all through the home-rule troubles, and he chipped in a lot for the Jubilee fund, and they made him Lord Vatsmore. He died two years ago and left one child. She is Lady Nora Daly. She is waiting for me now in the Piazza." " Perhaps I am detaining you? " said the cardinal. "By no means," replied the earl. "I don t dare to go back just yet. I met her first at home, last season. I ve followed her [ 5 ] "The Turquoise Cup about like a spaniel ever since. I started in for a lark, and now I m in for keeps. She has a peculiar way with her," continued the earl, smoothing his hat; " one minute you think you are great chums and, the next, you wonder if you have ever been presented." " I recognize the Irish variety," said the cardinal. " She is here with her yacht," continued the earl. " Her aunt is with her. The aunt is a good sort. I am sure you would like her." "Doubtless," said the cardinal, with a shrug; "but have you nothing more to say about the niece ? " "I followed her here," continued the earl, his hands still busy with his hat, " and I ve done my best. Just now, in the Piazza, I asked her to marry me, and she laughed. We went into St. Mark s, and the lights [ 16] The Turquoise Cup and the music and the pictures and the perfume seemed to soften her. Did you mean it? she said to me. I told her I did. Don t speak to me for a little while, she said, I want to think. That was strange, 5 . , 3 >J was n t it r " No," said the cardinal, " I don t think that was strange. I think it was merely feminine." "We came out of the church," con tinued the earl, "and I felt sure of her; but when we came into the Piazza and she saw the life of the place, the fountain playing, the banners flying, the pigeons wheeling, and heard the band, she began to laugh and chaff. Bobby, she said, suddenly, did you mean it ? " Yes, I said, I meant it. She looked at me for a moment so fixedly that I be gan to think of the things I had done and which she had not done, of the gulf there [ -7] The Turquoise Cup was between us you understand?" " Yes," said the cardinal, " I understand that is, I can imagine." "And then," continued the earl, "I ventured to look into her eyes, and she was laughing at me. " Bobby, she said, I believe I ve landed you. I know you re a fortune- hunter, but what blame ? I dare say I should be one, but for the beer. I m throw ing myself away. With my fortune and my figure I think I could get a duke, an el derly duke, perhaps, and a little over on his knees, but still a duke. A well-brought- up young woman would take the duke, but I am nothing but a wild Irish girl. Bobby, you are jolly and wholesome, and auntie likes you, and I ll take you hold hard, she said, as I moved up I ll take you, if you ll give me the turquoise cup. What s that? I asked. The turquoise The Turquoise Cup cup, she said; the one in the treasury of St. Mark s. Give me that and Nora Daly is yours. All right, I said, I 11 trot off and buy it. "Here I am, your grace, an impecu nious but determined man. I have four thousand pounds at Coutts s, all I have in the world; will it lift the cup?" The cardinal rubbed his white hands to gether, uncrossed and recrossed his legs, struck the arm of his chair, and burst into a laugh so merry and so prolonged that the earl, perforce, joined him. " It s funny," said the latter, finally, "but, all the same, it s serious." " Oh, Love ! " exclaimed the cardinal ; "you little naked boy with wings and a bow! You give us more trouble than all the rest of the heathen deities combined -you fly about so you appear in such strange places you compel mortals to [ 19 ] The Turquoise Cup do such remarkable things you debauch my pigeons, and, when the ill is done, you send your victims to me, or another priest, and ask for absolution, so that they may begin all over again." " Do I get the cup ? " asked the earl, with some impatience. "My lord," said the cardinal, "if the cup were mine, I have a fancy that I would give it to you, with my blessing and my best wishes; but when you ask me to sell it to you, it is as though you asked your queen to sell you the Kohinoor. She dare not, if she could. She could not, if she dare. Both the diamond and the cup were, doubtless, stolen. The diamond was taken in this cen tury; the cup was looted so long ago that no one knows. A sad attribute of crime is that time softens it. There is a mental stat ute of limitations that converts possession into ownership. We stole the Kohinoor [oo] The Turquoise Cup so long ago, says the Englishman, that we own it now. So it is with the cup. Where did it come from? It is doubtless Byzantine, but where did its maker live; in Byzantium or here, in Venice? We used to kidnap Oriental artists in the good old days when art was a religion. This cup was made by one whom God befriended; by a brain steeped in the love of the beautiful; by a hand so cunning that when it died art languished; by a power so compelling that the treasuries of the world were opened to it. Its bowl is a turquoise, the size and shape of an ostrich s egg, sawn through its longer diameter, and resting on its side. Four gold arms clasp the bowl and meet under it. These arms are set with rubies en cabochon, except one, which is cut in facets. The arms are welded beneath the bowl and form the stem. Midway of the stem, and pierced by it, is a diamond, as large" The Turquoise Cup the cardinal picked up his teaspoon and looked at it "yes," he said, "as large as the bowl of this spoon. The foot of the cup is an emerald, flat on the bottom and joined to the stem by a ferrule of transpar ent enamel. If this treasure were offered for sale the wealth of the world would fight for it. No, no, my lord, you cannot have the cup. Take your four thousand pounds to Testolini, thejeweller, and buy a string of pearls. Very few good women can resist pearls." "Your grace," said the earl, rising, "I appreciate fully the absurdity of my er rand and the kindness of your forbearance. I fear, however, that you scarcely grasp the situation. I am going to marry Lady Nora. I cannot marry her without the cup. You perceive the conclusion I shall have the cup. Good-by, your grace; I thank you for your patience." r ] The Turquoise Cup "Good-by," said the cardinal, ringing for a servant. " I wish that I might serve you ; but, when children cry for the moon, what is to be done? Come and see me again; I am nearly always at home about this hour." " I repeat, your grace," said the earl, "that I shall have the cup. All is fair in love and war, is it not?" There was a certain quality in the earl s voice that quiet, even note of sincerity which quells riots, which quiets horses, which leads forlorn hopes, and the well- trained ear of the cardinal recognized it. "Pietro," he said to the servant who answered the bell, "I am going out. My hat and stick. I will go a little way with you, my lord." They went down the broad stairs to gether, and the earl noticed, for the first time, that his companion limped. The Turquoise Cup "Gout? "he asked. "No," said the cardinal; "the indis cretion of youth. I was with Garibaldi and caught a bullet." "Take my arm," said the earl. "Willingly," said the cardinal, "since I know that you will bring me into the presence of a woman worth seeing; a wo man who can compel a peer of England to meditate a theft." " How do you know that? " exclaimed the earl; and he stopped so abruptly that the cardinal put his free hand against his companion s breast to right himself. "Because," said the cardinal, "I saw your face when you said good-by to me. It was not a pleasant face." II T HEY went on silently and soon they came to the Piazza. "I don t see her," said the earl; "per haps she has gone back to the church." They crossed the Piazza and entered St. Mark s. "Not here," said the earl. They walked up the south aisle and came to the anteroom of the treasury. Its door was open. They entered what had once been a tower of the old palace. The door of the treasury was also open. They went in and found the sacristan and a wo man. She held the turquoise cup in her hands. "Did you buy it, Bobby?" she ex claimed. She turned and saw that the earl was not alone. -, The Turquoise Cup "Your grace," he said, "I present you to Lady Nora Daly." She bent with a motion half genuflex ion, half courtesy, and then straightened herself, smiling. The cardinal did not notice the obei sance, but he did notice the smile. It seemed to him, as he looked at her, that the treasures of St. Mark s, the jewelled chalices and patens, the agate and crystal vessels, the reliquaries of gold and pre cious stones, the candlesticks, the two tex- tus covers of golden cloisonne, and even the turquoise cup itself, turned dull and wan and common by comparison with her beauty. " Your eminence," she said, " you must pardon Bobby s gaucherie. He presented you to me and called you your grace. He forgot, or did not know, that you arc a cardinal a prince and that I should The Turquoise Cup have been presented to you. Bobby means well, but he is an English peer and a guardsman, so we don t expecl: much else of Bobby." " He has done a very gracious thing to day," said the cardinal. " He has brought me to you." Lady Nora looked up quickly, scenting a compliment, and ready to meet it, but the cardinal s face was so grave and so sincere that her readiness forsook her and she stood silent. The earl seemed to be interested in a crucifix of the eleventh century. "While my lord is occupied with the crucifix," said the cardinal, " will you not walk with me?" " Willingly," said Lady Nora, and they went out into the church. " My dear lady," said the cardinal, after an interval of silence, "you are entering The Turquoise Cup upon life. You have a position, you have wealth, you have youth, you have health, and," with a bow, "you have beauty such as God gives to His creatures only for good purposes. Some women, like Helen of Troy and Cleopatra, have used their beauty for evil. Others, like my Queen, Margarita, and like Mary, Queen of the Scots, have held their beauty as a trust to be exploited for good, as a power to be exercised on the side of the powerless." "Your eminence," said Lady Nora, "we are now taught in England that Queen Mary was not altogether proper." "She had beauty, had she not?" asked the cardinal. "Yes," replied Lady Nora. "She was beheaded, was she not?" asked the cardinal. " Yes," said Lady Nora, " and by a very plain woman." The Turquoise Cup "There you have it!" exclaimed the cardinal. " If Elizabeth had been beautiful and Mary plain, Mary would have kept her head. It is sad to see beautiful women lose their heads. It is sad to see you lose yours." "Mine?" exclaimed Lady Nora, and she put her hands up to her hat-pins, to reassure herself. "Yes," said the cardinal, "I fear that it is quite gone." Lady Nora looked at him with ques tioning eyes. "Yes," she said, "I must have lost it, for I do not understand you, and I have not always been dull." "My dear lady, "said the cardinal, "the Earl of Vauxhall was good enough to pay me a visit this afternoon." " Oh," exclaimed Lady Nora, clapping her hands, " if I only could have been be hind the curtains ! What did he say?" The Turquoise Cup "He said," replied the cardinal, "that he had asked you to be his wife." " Indeed he has," said Lady Nora, " and so have others." "He also said," continued the cardi nal, "that you had promised to marry him when he brought you the turquoise cup." "And so I will," said Lady Nora. " He proposed to buy the cup," con tinued the cardinal. "He offered four thousand pounds, which, he said, was all he had in the world." "Good old Bobby!" exclaimed Lady Nora. " That was nice of him, was n t it? " and her eyes glistened. "Yes,"said thecardinal/ thatwas nice of him; but when I had explained how impossible it was to sell the cup he bade me good-by, and, as he was going, said, 4 1 shall have it. All is fair in love and war. [30] The Turquoise Cup I feared then that he meant to take the cup. Since I have seen you I am certain of it." "What larks!" cried Lady Nora. "Fancy Bobby with a dark lantern, a bristly beard, and a red handkerchief about his neck. All burglars are like that, you know; and then fancy him creeping up the aisle with hisjohnnie no,hisjimmy and his felt slippers fancy Bobby in felt slippers and he reaches the treasury door, and just then the moon comes up and shines through that window and il luminates the key in St. Peter s hand, and Bobby says, An omen, and he takes out his own key-ring and the first one he tries fits the lock and the door flies open, and Bobby lifts the cup, locks the door, goes down to the steps by the Doge s palace no gondola too late, you know, so he puts the cup in his teeth, takes a header, [31 ] The Turquoise Cup and swims to the yacht. When he comes alongside they hail him, and he comes up the ladder. Where s your mistress? he asks, and they call me, and I come on deck in my pink saut du lit, and there stands Bobby, the water running off him and the cup in his teeth. There s your bauble, he says. (Of course he takes the cup out of his mouth when he speaks.) And here s your Nora, I say, and the boatswain pipes all hands aft to witness the marriage ceremony. No, no, your eminence," she laughed, "it s too good to be true. Bobby will never steal the cup. He has never done anything in all his life but walk down Bond Street. He s a love, but he is not energetic." "You are doubtless right," said the car dinal, "and my fears are but the timidity of age; still " The earl joined them. He had just giv- [3*] The Turquoise Cup en the sacristan ten pounds, and had en deavored to treat the gift as a disinter ested pourboire. He felt that he had failed; that he had overdone it, and had made himself a marked man. The sacristan fol lowed him voluble, eulogistic. "Tommaso," said the cardinal, "this is the Earl of Vauxhall. He is to have every privilege, every liberty. He is to be left alone if he desires it. He is not to be both ered with attendance or suggestions. He may use a kodak ; he may handle anything in the treasury. You will regard him as though he were myself." Tommaso bowed low. Theearl blushed. Lady Nora looked at her watch. "Five o clock!" she exclaimed, "and Aunt Molly will be wanting her tea. The launch is at the stairs. Will you come, Bobby ? And you, your eminence, will you honor me?" [33 ] The Turquoise Cup " Not to-day, my lady," replied the car dinal, "but perhaps some other." "To-morrow?" she asked. "Yes," said the cardinal. "Thank you," said Lady Nora; "the launch will be at the landing at half-past four." " Is it an electrical contrivance? " asked the cardinal, with a smile. "Yes," replied Lady Nora. "Then," said the cardinal, "you need not send it. I will come in my barca. Elec tricity and the Church are not friendly. We have only just become reconciled to steam." Lady Nora laughed. "Good-by," she said, "until to-morrow," and again she made her courtesy. "Until to-morrow," said the cardinal; and he watched them down the aisle. "Tommaso," he said to the sacristan, [34] The Turquoise Cup "give me the turquoise cup." Tommaso handed it to him, silent but wondering. "Now lock the door,"said the cardinal, "and give me the key." Tommaso complied. The cardinal put the cup under his robe and started down the aisle. "Tommaso," he said, "you are now closed for the annual cleaning. You un derstand, do you not?" "Perfectly, your eminence," replied Tommaso, and then he added "When a stranger gives me two hundred and fifty lire it is time to lock my door." The cardinal went out of the church, the turquoise cup under his cassock. He crossed the Piazza slowly, for he was both limping and thinking. He came to the shop of Testolini, the jeweller, under the North arcade, paused a moment, and [35 ] The ^Turquoise Cup entered. The clerks behind the counters sprang to their feet and bowed low. "Signer Testolini?" asked the cardi nal; "is he within?" "Yes, your eminence," said the head clerk. "He is in his bureau. I will sum mon him." " No," said the cardinal, " if he is alone I will go in; " and he opened the door at the back of the shop and closed it behind him. In ten minutes he came out again. Signor Testolini followed, rubbing his hands and bowing at each step. "Perfectly, your eminence," he said. "I quite understand." " It must be in my hands in ten days," said the cardinal. "Ten days!" exclaimed Testolini; "impossible." " What is that strange word? " said the cardinal; "it must be a vulgarism of New [36] The Turquoise Cup Italy, that impossible. I do not like it and I will thank you not to use it again when speaking to me. In ten days, Signore." "Yes, your eminence," said Testolini, "but it will be in the afternoon." "In ten days," said the cardinal, very quietly. "Yes, your eminence," said Testolini. " He looks like Napoleon," whispered the head clerk to his neighbor. The cardinal went limping down the shop. He had almost reached the door when he stopped and spoke to a little man who stood behind the show-case in which are the enamels. "Ah, Signore!" he exclaimed, "how come on the wife and baby? I meant to see them this afternoon, but I was diverted. I wish you to continue the same diet for them take this" and he fumbled in his pocket, but drew a blank. [37] The Turquoise Cup " Signer Testolini," he said to the mas ter at his heels, " I find I have no money. Kindly loan me fifty lire. Here," he said to the little man, and he slipped the money into his hand, "plenty of milk for the child;" and he went out of the shop. "That was not like Napoleon," said the head clerk; and then he added, "Oc casionally one meets with a priest who rises superior to his profession." The little man behind the enamel coun ter said nothing, but he drew his hand across his eyes. [38] III A HE following day was a busy one for the cardinal. While Pietro was shaving him he parcelled out the hours. "What time is it, Pietro?" he asked. "Three minutes past seven, your emi nence." "Good," said the cardinal; "at half- past I make my mass; at eight, I take my coffee; from eight to ten, my poor by the way, Pietro, is there any money in the house?" "Yes, your eminence," said Pietro; "there are eight hundred lire in your desk." " Take fifty of them to Signer Testolini, in the Piazza, with my thanks," said the cardinal, "and put the rest in my purse. Where was I, Pietro?" [39] The Turquoise Cup "Your eminence had reached ten o clock," replied Pietro. "From ten to eleven," continued the cardinal, "audience for the laity; from eleven to half-past, audience for the clergy; half-past eleven, my egg and a salad. Keep all who look hungry, Pietro, and ask them to take dejeuner with me; at twelve, see the architect who is restoring the altar-rail at St. Margaret s; take time to write to the Superior at St. Lazzaro in reference to the proof-sheets of the Life of Eusebius ; from one to three, my poor we must get some more money, Pietro ; from three to four " "There, your eminence!" exclaimed Pietro, "I have cut you." " Yes," said the cardinal ; " I was about to mention it. Where was I?" "Your eminence was at four o clock," replied Pietro. [40] The Turquoise Cup "Four o clock already!" exclaimed the cardinal, "and nothing done; from four to half-past four, interview with the treasurer of the diocese. That s a bad half-hour, Pietro. At half-past four I wish the barca to be at the landing. Have the men wear their least shabby liveries. I am to visit the English yacht that lies over by St. Giorgio. You must dress me in my best to-day." "Alas, your eminence," said Pietro, "your best cassock is two years old." " How old is the one I wore yester day?" asked the cardinal. "Four years at least," said Pietro." You have your ceremonial dress, but nothing better for the street." "I caught a glimpse of myself in one of Testolini s mirrors yesterday," said the cardinal, "and I thought I looked rather well." The Turquoise Cup "Your eminence," said Pietro, "you saw your face and not your coat." "Pietro," said the cardinal, rising, "you should have turned your hand to diplo macy; you would have gone far." At half-past four o clock the cardinal s barca drew up to the molo. The oarsmen were dressed in black, save that their sashes and stockings were scarlet. The bowman landed. It was as though a footman came off the box of a brougham and waited on the curb. While the figures on the clock- tower were still striking the half-hour, the cardinal came limping across the Piazza. The gondoliers at the molo took off their hats and drew up in two lines. The car dinal passed between them, looking each man in the face. He beckoned to one, who left the ranks and came up to him, awkward and sheepish. "Emilio," said the cardinal, "I have The Turquoise Cup arranged your matter. You are to pay four lire a week, and are to keep out of the wine-shops. Mind, now, no drinking." To another he said, "I have looked into your case, Marco. You are perfectly right. I have employed counsel for you. Attend to your business and forget your trouble. It is my trouble, now." To a man to whom he beckoned next he spoke differently. "How dare you send me such a peti tion?" he exclaimed. "It was false from beginning to end. You never served in the legion. The woman you complain of is your lawful wife. You married her in Padua ten years ago. You have been im prisoned for petit theft. You got your gon dolier s license by false pretences. Mark you, friends," he said, turning, "here is one of your mates who will bear watch ing. When he slips, come to me," and he stepped into his barca. [43 ] The Turquoise Cup "To the English yacht," he said. When they arrived they found the Tara dressed in flags, from truck to deck; Lady Nora stood on the platform of the boarding-stairs, and the crew were mus tered amidships. "Your eminence," cried Lady Nora, "you should have a salute if I knew the proper number of guns." "My dear lady," said the cardinal, taking off his hat, "the Church militant does not burn gunpowder, it fights hand to hand. Come for me at six," he said to his poppe. "Surely," said Lady Nora, "you will dine with us. We have ices with the Papal colors, and we have a little box for Peter s pence, to be passed with the coffee. I shall be much disappointed if you do not dine with us." " Wait ! "called thecardinal to his barca. [44] The Turquoise Cup The oarsmen put about. " Tell Pietro," he said, "to feed the pigeons as usual. Tell him to lay crumbs on the balcony railing, and if the cock bird is too greedy, to drive him away and give the hen an opportu nity. Come for me at nine." "Thank you," said Lady Nora; "your poor are now provided for." "Alas, no," said the cardinal; "my pi geons are my aristocratic acquaintance. They would leave me if I did not feed them. My real poor have two legs, like the pigeons, but God gave them no feathers. They are the misbegotten, the maladroit, the unlucky, I stand by that word, the halt, the blind, those with consciences too tender to make their way, reduced gentlefolk, those who have given their lives for the public good and are now for gotten, all these are my poor, and they honor me by their acquaintance. My [45] The Turquoise Cup pigeons fly to my balcony. My poor never come near me. I am obliged, humbly, to go to them." "Will money help?" exclaimed Lady Nora; " I have a balance at my banker s." "No, no, my lady," said the cardinal; " money can no more buy offpoverty than it can buy off the bubonic plague. Both are diseases. God sent them and He alone can abate them. At His next coming there will be strange sights. Some princes and some poor men will be astonished." Just then, a woman, short, plump, red- cheeked and smiling, came toward them. She was no longer young, but she did not know it. " Your eminence," said Lady Nora, " I present my aunt, Miss O Kelly." Miss O Kelly sank so low that her skirts made what children call "a cheese" on the white deck. [46] The Turquoise Cup "Your imminence," she said, slowly rising, "sure this is the proud day for Nora, the Tara, and meself." "And for me, also," said the cardinal. " From now until nine o clock I shall air my English speech, and I shall have two amiable and friendly critics to correcl: my mistakes." "Ah, your imminence," laughed Miss O Kelly, "I don t speak English. I speak County Clare." "County Clare!" exclaimed the car dinal; "then you know Ennis? Fifty odd years ago there was a house, just out of the town of Ennis, with iron gates and a porter s lodge. The Blakes lived there." "I was born in that house," said Miss O Kelly. " It was draughty, but it always held a warm welcome." " I do not remember the draught," said the cardinal, " but I do remember the wel- [47] The Turquoise Cup come. When I was an undergraduate at Oxford, I made a little tour of Ireland, during a long vacation. I had letters from Rome. One of them was to the chapter at Ennis. A young priest took me to that house. I went back many times. There was a daughter and there were several strapping sons. The boys did nothing, that I could discover, but hunt and shoot. They were amiable, however. The daugh ter hunted, also, but she did many other things. She kept the house, she visited the poor, she sang Irish songs to perfec tion, and she flirted beyond compare. She had hair so black that I can give you no notion of its sheen; and eyes as blue as our Venetian skies. Her name was Nora Nora Blake. She was the most beautiful woman I had ever seen until yesterday." "She was my mother!" exclaimed Miss O Kelly. [48] The Turquoise Cup "And my grandmother," said Lady Nora. The cardinal drew a breath so sharp that it was almost a sob, then he took Lady Nora s hand. " My child," he said, " I am an old man. I am threescore years and ten, and six more, and you bring back to me the hap piest days of my youth. You are the im age of Nora Blake, yes, her very image. I kiss the images of saints every day," he added, "why not this one?" and he bent and kissed Lady Nora s hand. There was so much solemnity in the acl: that an awkward pause might have fol lowed it had not Miss O Kelly been Irish. "Your imminence," she said, "since you ve told us your age, I ll tell you mine. I m two-and-twenty and I m mighty tired of standin . Let s go aft and have our tay." [49] The Turquoise Cup They had taken but a few steps when Lady Nora, noticing the cardinal s limp, drew his arm through her own and sup ported him. "I know the whole story," she whis pered. "You loved my grandmother." "Yes," said the cardinal, "but I was unworthy." [ jo] IV T HEY had their tea, two white-clad stewards serving them. The cardinal took a second cup and then rose and went to the side. He crumbled a biscuit along the rail. "I have often wondered," he said, "if my pigeons come for me or for my crumbs. Nora Blake used to say that her poor were as glad to see her without a basket as with one. But she was a saint. She saw things more clearly than it is given to us to see them." The women looked at each other, in silence. " No," said the cardinal, after an inter val, "they do not come; they are as sat isfied with Pietro s crumbs as with mine. Love is not a matter of the stomach ; " and [51 ] The Turquoise Cup he brushed the crumbs overboard. "Per haps the fishes will get them," he added, "and they will not know whence they came. Anonymous charity," he contin ued, coming back to his chair, " is the best. It curbs the pride of the giver and pre serves the pride of the recipient. Open giv ing is becoming a trade. It is an American invention. Very rich men in that country offer so much for an objecl: a college a hospital a library if some one else will give so much. The offer is printed in the newspapers of the land and its origi nator reaps much what is the word I wish? acclaim? no; kudos? no; ah, yes, advertisement; that is the word. Thank God that charity does not thus masquer ade in Italy. There are men here, in poor old Venice, who give half their goods to feed the poor. Are their names published? No. The newspapers reason thus Here T he Turquoise Cup is a gentleman; let us treat him as one. We have no professional philanthropists in Italy. After all," he added, " mere giv ing is the lowest form of charity. If all the wealth of the world were divided the world would be debauched. Binding up wounds, pouring in oil and wine, bringing the wronged man to an inn, giving him your companionship, your sympathy, so that he shows his heart to you and lets you heal its bruises that is your true charity." "That s what I m telling Nora," ex claimed Miss O Kelly; "she s forever drawing checks. There was my nephew, Nora s cousin, Phelim. He gave away all he had. He gave it to the piquet players in the Kildare Club. Aunt Molly, he said to me, piquet has cost me fifteen thou sand pounds, and I am just beginning to learn the game. Now that I know it a bit, [S3 ] The Turquoise Cup no one will play with me. Your bread cast on the waters may come back, but it s ten to one it comes back mouldy, from the voyage. Phelim is the flower of the fam ily, your imminence. He is six foot three. He was out twice before he was two-and- twenty.The first time was with Liftennant Doyle of the Enniskillens. T was about a slip of a girl that they both fancied. The Liftennant fired at the word and missed. Try your second barrel, called Phelim, I m still within bounds (that s pigeon- shootin talk, your imminence). The Lif tennant laughed and the two went off to the club, arm in arm, and they stayed there two days. There s waiters in theclub yet, that remembers it. The next time Phelim was out, t was with a little at torney-man from Cork, named Crawford. There was no girl this time; t was more serious; twas about a horse Phelim had [ 54] The Turquoise Cup sold, and the little attorney-man had served a writ, and Phelim went down to Cork and pulled the littleman s nose. Whin the word was given the attorney-man fired and nicked Phelim sear.Phelimraised his pistol, slow as married life, and covered the little man. Take off your hat ! called Phelim. The little man obeyed, white as paper, and shakin like a leaf. Was the horse sound? called Phelim. He was, said the little man. Was he six years old? called Phelim. At least, said the little man. None of your quibbles, called Phe lim. He was six, to a minute, said the little man, looking into the pistol. Was he chape at the price? asked Phelim. He was a gift, said the attorney. Gentle men, says Phelim, you have heard this dyin confession we will now seal it, and he sent a bullet through the attorney- man s hat. I had it all from Dr. Clancey, c 55] The Turquoise Cup who was out with them. They sent Phe- lim to Parliament after that, but he took the Chiltern Hundreds and came home. He said his duties interfered with the snipe-shootin . You d like Phelim, your imminence." "I am sure I should," said the cardinal. "He s in love with Nora," said Miss O Kelly. "Ah," said the cardinal, " I spoke too quickly." Meanwhile the shadows began to creep across the deck. The cardinal rose from his chair. "At what hour do you dine ? " he asked. " I made the hour early when I heard you order your barca for nine," said Lady Nora; "I said half-past seven." "Then," said the cardinal, "I should excuse you, but I do it reluctantly. I am keeping you from your toilet." C J6] The Turquoise Cup Miss O Kelly laughed. "Your immi nence," she said, " when a woman reaches my age it takes her some time to dress. I told you I was two-and-twenty . It will take my maid nearly an hour to make me look it," and, with a courtesy, she went below. Lady Nora stayed behind. "Your emi nence," she said, "the evening will be fine; shall we dine on deck?" "That will be charming," said the car dinal. "Whenever you wish to go to your room," said Lady Nora," you have but to press this button, and the head steward will come." She still loitered. "I think it very likely," she said, hesitating, "that the Earl of Vauxhall will drop in; he often does. I should have mentioned it be fore, but I was so delighted at your stay ing that I forgot all about him." "My dear lady," said the cardinal, "to [ 57] The Turquoise Cup supplant the Earl of Vauxhall in your thoughts is great honor." She looked at him quickly, blushed, cast down her eyes, and began, nervously, to play with a gold boat-whistle that hung at her belt. When she had exhausted the possibilities of the whistle she looked up again, and the cardinal saw that there were tears upon her cheeks. When she knew that he had seen them she disre garded them, and threw up her head, proudly. " Yes," she said, " I think of him far too often; so often that it makes me angry, it makes me ashamed. He is an earl; he is tall and straight and beautiful and clean, and he loves me I know it," she ex claimed, her face illumined; "but why," she went on, "should I give myself to him on these accounts? Why should he not earn me? Why does he compel me [58] The Turquoise Cup to so one-sided a bargain? I, too, am tall and straight and clean, and not ill-favored, and, in addition, I have that curse of un married women I have money. Why does he not do something to even up the transaction ? Why does he not write a page that some one will read? Why does he not write asong that some one will sing? Why does he not do something that will make the world call me his wife, instead of call ing him my husband? The other day, when he and love were tugging at me, I told him I would marry him if he brought me the turquoise cup. It was an idle thing to say, but what I say I stand by. I shall never marry him unless he brings it to me. You know us Irish women. We have our hearts to contend with, but we keep our word. I set my lord a trivial task. If he really wants me he will accomplish it. I am not dear at the price." [ 59 ] The Turquoise Cup "With true love," said the cardinal, "I do not think there is any question of price. It is an absolute surrender, without terms. I say this guardedly, for I am no ex pert as to this thing called human love. I recognize that it is the power that moves the world, but, for more than fifty years, I have tried to forget the world." "Yes," cried Lady Nora, "and, but for a cruel mistake, you would have married my grandmother." "Yes," said the cardinal, "but for a cruel mistake." "The mistake was hers," exclaimed Lady Nora. The cardinal threw up his hands. "It was a mistake," he said, " and it was buried fifty years ago. Why dig it up?" "Forgive me," said Lady Nora, and she started toward the hatch. "My child," said the cardinal, "you [60] The Turquoise Cup say that you will not marry his lordship unless he brings you the cup. Do you hope that he will bring it?" She looked at him a moment, the red and white roses warring in her cheeks. "Yes," she said, "I hope it, for I love him," and she put her hands to her face and ran below. "If the earl is the man I take him to be," said the cardinal to himself, "I fear that I am about to shut my eyes to a felony," and he pressed the eleclric but ton at his side. The head steward ap peared so quickly that he overheard the cardinal say "I certainly should have done it, at his age." [61 ] A .T six bells there was a tap on the car dinal s door. "Come in," he said. The head steward entered. He had ex changed the white duck of the afternoon for the black of evening. He was now the major-domo. He wore silk stockings and about his neck was a silver chain, and at the end of the chain hung a key. "Your eminence s servant has come on board," he said. "Pietro?" asked the cardinal. "I do not know his name," said the steward, "but he is most anxious to see your eminence." " Let him come in at once," said the car dinal. The steward backed out, bowing. There was a loud knock upon the door. The Turquoise Cup "Enter," said the cardinal. Pietro came in. He carried a portmanteau. "What is it?" exclaimed the cardinal. "Is any one dying? Am I needed?" "No,youreminence,"said Pietro, "the public health is unusually good. I have come to dress you for dinner with the English." "They are not English," said the car dinal ; "they are Irish." " In that event," said Pietro, " you will do as you are." " No," laughed the cardinal, " since you have brought my finery I will put it on." Pietro opened the portmanteau with a sigh. "I thought they were English," he said. "The Irish are as poor as the Ital ians. If I dress your eminence as I had intended they will not appreciate it." "Do not fear," said the cardinal. "Do your best." [ 63 ] The Turquoise Cup At seven bells there was another knock at the cardinal s door. Pietro opened it. "Shall dinner be served, your emi nence?" asked the head steward. "Whenever the ladies are ready," re plied the cardinal. "They are already on deck, your emi nence." "At once, then," said the cardinal, and he went up the companion-way, lean ing on Pietro s arm. The after-deck was lighted by scores of incandescent lamps, each shaded by a scarlet silken flower. The table stood, white and cool, glitter ing with silver and crystal. In its centre was a golden vase, and in the vase were four scarlet roses. The deck was covered with a scarlet carpet, a strip of which ran forward to the galley-hatch, so that the service might be noiseless. Lady Nora was dressed in white and [ 64] T he Turquoise Cup wore nojewels. Miss O Kelly was partially clad in a brocaded gown, cut as low as even the indiscretion of age permits. A necklace of huge yellow topazes empha sized the space they failed to cover. The cardinal came into the glow of the lights. His cassock was black, but its hem, its buttons, and the pipings of its seams were scarlet; so were his stockings; so was the broad silk sash that circled his waist; so were the silk gloves, thrust under the sash; so was the birettina, the little skull cap that barely covered his crown and left to view a fringe of white hair and the re bellious lock upon his forehead. The lace at his wrists was Venice point. His pecloral cross was an antique that would grace the Louvre. Pietro had done his work well. The cardinal came into the zone of light, smiling. "Lady Nora," he said. " Ireland is the home of the fairies. When The Turquoise Cup I was there I heard much of them. Early in the morning I saw rings in the dew- laden grass and was told that they had been made by the little people, dancing. You, evidently, have caught a fairy prince and he does your bidding. Within an hour you have converted the after-deck into fairy-land; you have " Just then, out of the blue darkness that lay between the yacht and Venice, burst the lights of a gondola. They darted alongside and, a moment after, the Earl of Vauxhall came down the deck. " Serve at once," whispered Lady Nora to the major-domo. "Pardon me, your eminence," she said, "you were saying " "I was merely remarking," said the cardinal, "that you seem to have a fairy prince ready to do your bidding. It seems that I was right. Here he is." [66] T he T urquoise Cup Lady Nora smiled. "What kept you, Bobby," she said, " a business engagement, or did you fall asleep?" "Neither," said the earl; "I lost a shirt- stud." "Your eminence is served," said the major-domo. They stood while the cardinal said grace, at the conclusion of which, all, ex cept the earl, crossed themselves. "Was it a valuable jewel, my lord?" asked Miss O Kelly, in an interval of her soup. " No," said the earl ; " a poor thing, but mine own." "How did it happen?" asked Miss O Kelly; "did your man stale it?" " Dear, no," said the earl ; " it happened while I was putting on my shirt." Miss O Kelly blushed, mentally, and raised her napkin to her face. [ 67] The Turquoise Cup "It twisted out of my fingers," con tinued the earl, " and rolled away, some where. I moved every piece of furniture in the room; I got down on all fours and squinted along the floor; I went to the dressing-table to look for another; my man, after putting out my things, had locked up everything and gone to his din ner. I couldn t dine with you, like free dom, with my bosom bare " "No," said Miss O Kelly, glancing down at her topazes, "you couldn t do that." "Certainly not," said the earl, "and so I put on my top-coat and went out toTes- tolini s in the Piazza, and bought a stud. I was lucky to find them open, for it was past closing time. They told me they were working late on a hurry order. I put the stud in my shirt, raced across to the molo, jumped into a gondola, and here I am. Am [68] The Turquoise Cup I forgiven?" "Yes," said Lady Nora ; " you were only five minutes late and your excuse is, at least, ingenious. You could not have come unadorned." "Unadorned!" exclaimed the earl; "it was a question of coming unfastened." Pietro began to refill the cardinal s glass, but his master stopped him. Pietro bent and whispered.The cardinal laughed. "Pietro tells me," he said, "that this is better wine than that which I get at home and that I should make the most of it. The only difference I remark in wines is that some are red and some are white." "That minds me of one night when Fa ther Flynn dropped in to dine," said Miss O Kelly " twas he had the wooden leg, you remember, Nora, dear and he and Phelim sat so late that I wint in with fresh candles. I call that good whiskey, says The Turquoise Cup the father as I came in. ^ Good whiskey? exclaimed Phelim; did ever you see any whiskey that was bad Now that you mintion it, says hisriverince, I never did; but I ve seen some that was scarce. An other bottle, Aunt Molly, says Phelim, his riverince has a hollow leg. When I came back with the bottle they were talk ing to a little, wild gossoon from the hills. He was barefooted, bareheaded, and only one suspinder was between him and the police. Is your mother bad? asked his riverince. Dochtor says she ll die afore mornin , says the gossoon. Will you lind me a horse, Phelim? asked his riverince. You ride a horse, with that leg! says Phelim. No, I ll drive you, in the cart; and he went off to the stables. In five minutes he came back with the dog-cart and the gray mare. His riverince got up, with the aid of a chair, the little gossoon [70] The Turquoise Cup climbed up behind, and the gravel flew as the gray mare started. They wint a mat ter of ten rods and then I saw the lamps again. They had turned, and they stopped before the porch the gray mare on her haunches. Phelim, I says, what ails you, you ve a light hand whin you re sober. His riverince leaned over and whispered The oil cruet, Miss Molly, and don t let the gossoon see it. I wint in, came out with the cruet in a paper, and handed it to him. All right, Phelim, he says, and the gray mare started. At six in the mornin I heard the gravel crunch, and I wint to the door. There stood the gray mare,her head down, and her tail bobbin . You ve over-driven her, Phelim/ says I. Perhaps, says he, but I knew you were sittin up for me. The curse of Ireland/ says he, is that her women sit up for hefr men. How is the poor woman? I says. [71 ] The Turquoise Cup She s dead/ says Phelim; Father Flynn is waiting for the neighbors to come. And the little gossoon? says I. Phelim leaned down from the dog-cart; Aunt Molly, says he, we can t afford to keep what we have already, can we? No, says I. Thin, says Phelim, we can just as well afford to keep one more; so I told him to come to us, after the funeral." "I don t quite follow that reasoning," said the earl. "I am more sure than ever, that I should like Phelim," said the cardinal. "Why do you not have him on?" "He s six foot three," explained Miss O Kelly; "the yacht wouldn t fit him. He couldn t stand up, below. There is six foot seven between decks, but the eleclric lights project four inches. Then the beds there isn t one more than six foot six. We had Phelim on board and tried him. The Turquoise Cup He stayed one night. Aunt Molly, he said, in the mornin , Nora has a beautiful boat, plenty of towels, and a gooo 1 cook. I should like to go with you, but I m scared. I kept awake last night, with my knees drawn up, and all went well, but if ever I fall asleep and straighten out, I ll kick the rudder out of her. We could n t have Phelim aboard, your imminence; he d cancel the marine insurance." While Miss O Kelly had been running on, the cardinal had been politely listen ing. He had also been discreetly observ ing. He had the attribute of politicians and ecclesiastics he could exercise all his senses together. While he was smiling at Miss O Kelly he had seen Lady Nora take from the gold vase one of the scarlet roses,press it,for an instant, to her lips aricl then, under cover of the table, pass it to the earl. He had seen the earl slowly lift the [73 ] The Turquoise Cup rose to his face, feigning to scent it while he kissed it. He had seen quick glances, quivering lips that half-whispered, half- kissed ; he had seen the wireless telegraphy of love flashing messages which youth thinks are in cipher, known only to the sender and the recipient; and he, while laughing, had tapped the wire and read the correspondence. "It is all over," he said to himself. "They are in love. The little naked boy with the bow has hit them both." Promptly at nine, Pietro announced the barca. The cardinal made his adieus. " My lord," he said to the earl, "if you are for the shore, I should be honored by your company." "Thank you," said the earl, "but I or dered my gondola at ten." Lady Nora and the earl stood watch ing the cardinal s lantern as it sped toward [74] The Turquoise Cup Venice. It was soon lost in the night. Lady Nora s hand rested upon the rail. The earl covereditwithhisown. Shedid notmove. " Have you bought the cup, Bobby," she asked. "Not yet," he answered, "but I shall have it. The treasury is closed for the an nual cleaning." "When you bring it," she said, "you will find me here. I should like you to give it me on the Tara. There is your gondola light. Aunt Molly seems to be asleep in her chair. You need not wake her to say good-night." "I sha n t," said the earl. Herhandstill rested upon therail his hand still covered hers. She was gazing across the harbor at the countless lights of Venice. The warm night breeze from the lagoon dimpled the waters of the har bor until the reflected lights began to [75] The Turquoise Cup tremble. There was no sound, save the tinkle of the water against the side and the faint cry of a gondolier, in the distance. "Bobby," said Lady Nora, finally, "it is nice to be here, just you and I." He made a quick motion to take her in his arms, but she started back. "No, no," she said, "not yet; not till you earn me. There may be many a slip twixt the cup and" she put her fingers to her lips. Miss O Kelly s chin fell upon her to pazes so sharply that she wakened with a start. "Nora, darlin ?" she cried, looking about her. " Here I am," said Lady Nora, coming into the light. "Ah," said her aunt,"and Lord Robert, too. I thought he had gone. I must have had forty winks." [76] The Turquoise Cup " I was only waiting," said the earl, " to bid you good-night." "An Irishman," said Miss O Kelly, " would have taken advantage of me slum bers, and would have kissed me hand." "An Englishman will do it when you are awake," said the earl. "That s nice," said Miss O Kelly ; " run away home now, and get your beauty- sleep." [77] VI URING the following week the car dinal was so occupied with his poor that he nearly forgot his rich. He saw the yacht whenever he took his barca at the molo, and once, when he was crossing the Rialto, he caught a glimpse of Lady Nora and her aunt, coming up the canal in their gondola. As for the earl, he haunted St. Mark s. Many times each day he went to the treas ury only to find it locked. The sacristan could give him no comfort. "Perhaps to morrow, my lord," he would say when the earl put his customary question; "it is the annual cleaning, and sometimes a jewel needs resetting, an embroidery to be repaired all this takes time per haps to-morrow. Shall I uncover the Palo [78] The Turquoise Cup d Oro, my lord, or light up the alabaster column; they are both very fine?" And the earl would turn on his heel and leave the church, only to come back in an hour to repeat his question and receive his an swer. One day the earl spoke out "Tom- maso," he said, "you are not a rich man, I take it?" "My lord," replied Tommaso, "I am inordinately poor. Are you about to tempt me?" The earl hesitated, blushed, and fum bled in his pocket. He drew out a hand ful of notes. "Take these," he said, "and open the* treasury." "Alas, my lord," said Tommaso, "my virtue is but a battered thing, but I must keep it. I have no key." The earl went out and wandered [79] The Turquoise Cup through the arcades. He came upon Lady Nora and Miss O Kelly. They were look ing at Testolini s shop-windows. Lady Nora greeted him with a nod Miss O Kelly with animation. "I m havin a struggle with me con science," she said. So was the earl. "Do ye see that buttherfly?" continued Miss O Kelly, putting her ringer against the glass; "it s marked two hundred lire, and that s eight pounds. I priced one in Dublin, just like it, and it was three hun dred pounds. They don t know the value of diamonds in Italy. I ve ten pounds that I got from Phelim yesterday, in a letther. He says there s been an Englishman at the Kildare Club for three weeks, who thought he could play piquet. Phelim is travellin on the Continent. Now, the question in me mind is, shall I pay Father Flynn the [so] The Turquoise Cup ten pounds I promised him, a year ago Easter, or shall I buy the buttherfly? It would look illigant, Nora, dear, with me blue bengaline." Lady Nora laughed. " I am sure, Aunt Molly," she said, "that Phelim would rather you bought the butterfly. I ll take care of your subscription to Father Flynn." With an exclamation of joy, Miss O Kelly ran into the shop. "Nora," said the earl, "the treasury is still closed." "Oh," said Lady Nora, "why do you remind me of such tiresome things as the treasury? Didn t you hear Aunt Molly say that Phelim is on the Continent? I hafl a wire from him this morning. Read it; it s quite Irish." She handed the earl a telegram. "Shall I read it?" he asked. "Of course," she answered. T /ie Turquoise Cup He read "I m richer , but no shorter. Is there a hotel in Venice big enough to take me in? Wire answer. PHELIM." " Will you send this reply for me? " she asked, when the earl had read Phelim s telegram. "To be sure I will," he said. "How many words are there?" she asked. "I ll pay for it." Thus compelled, the earl read her an swer "Come, rich or poor, long or short. Come. NORA." The earl went off with the telegram, thinking. The next afternoon the earl came out of the church his fifth visit since ten o clock and there, near the fountain, were Lady Nora and her aunt. The earl marked them from the church steps. There was no mistaking Miss O Kelly s green parasol. [81] The Turquoise Cup This time Lady Nora met him with animation. She even came toward him, her face wreathed in smiles. "Phelim has come!" she exclaimed. "Quite happy I m sure," said the earl. "He s prompt, isn t he?" "Yes," said Lady Nora, "he s always prompt. He doesn t lose shirt-studs, and he never dawdles." "Ah!" said the earl. "Here he comes!" exclaimed Lady Nora, and she began to wave her hand kerchief. The earl turned and saw, coming from the corner by the clock-tower, a man. He had the shoulders of Hercules, the waist of Apollo, the legs of Mercury. When he came closer, hat in hand, the earl saw that he had curling chestnut locks, a beard that caressed his chin, brown eyes, and white teeth, for he was smiling. The Turquoise Cup "Nora," he cried, as he came within distance, "your friend the cardinal is a good one. He puts on no side. He had me up on the balcony, opened your letter, took out the check, and read the letter before even he looked at the stamped pa per. When a man gets a check in a letter and reads the letter before he looks at the check, he shows breedin ." "The Earl of Vauxhall," said Lady Nora, "I present Mr. Phelim Blake." The two men nodded; the earl, guard edly; Phelim, with a smile. " I think, my lord," said Phelim, " that you are not in Venice for her antiquities. No more am I. I arrived this mornin and I ve been all over the place already. I was just thinkin that time might hang. Twice a day I ve to go out to the yacht to propose to Nora. Durin the intervals we might have a crack at piquet." The Turquoise Cup The earl was embarrassed. He was not accustomed to such frankness. He was embarrassed also by the six feet three of Phelim. He himself was only six feet. "I do not know piquet," he said. "Ah," said Phelim, "it cost me much to learn what I know of it, and I will gladly impart that little for the pleasure of your companionship. I will play you for love." The earl took counsel with himself "So long as he is playing piquet with me," he said to himself, "so long he can not be making love to Nora." " How long will it take me to learn the game?" he asked. "As long," answered Phelim, "as you have ready money. When you begin to give due bills you have begun to grasp the rudiments of the game." "Then," said the earl, "I shall be an [85] The Turquoise Cup apt pupil, for I shall give an I O U the first time I lose." "In piquet," said Phelim, squaring himself, and placing the index finger of his right hand in his left hand, after the manner of the didaclic, "the great thing is the discard, and your discard should be governed by two considerations first, to better your own hand, and second, to cripple your opponent s. Your moderate player never thinks of this latter consid eration. His only thought is to better his own hand. He never discards an ace. The mere size of it dazzles him, and he will keep aces and discard tens, forgetting that you cannot have a sequence of more than four without a ten, and that you can have one of seven without the ace, and that a king is as good as an ace, if the latter is in the discard. I am speakin now," con tinued Phelim, "of the beginner. Let us [ 86 ] The Turquoise Cup suppose one who has spent one thousand pounds on the game, and is presumed to have learned somethin for his money. His fault is apt to be that he sacrifices too much that he may count cards. I grant you that you cannot count sixty or ninety if your opponent has cards, but you may, if cards are tied. When I was a beginner I used to see Colonel Mellish make dis cards, on the mere chance of tyin the cards, that seemed to me simply reckless. I soon discovered, however, that they were simply scientific. One more thing al ways remember that there is no average card in a piquet pack. The average is half way between the ten-spot and the knave. Now, what are the chances of the junior hand discardin a ten and drawin a higher card? In the KildareClub they are under stood to be two and three-eighths to one against, although Colonel Mellish claims [ 87 ] The Turquoise Cup they are two and five-eighths to one. The colonel is an authority, but I think he is a trifle pessimistic. He " "There, Phelim," said Lady Nora, "I think that is enough for the first lesson. We dine at eight. If Lord Vauxhall has nothing better to do perhaps he will come with you." "We ll dine on deck, Phelim, dear," said Miss O Kelly. "You won t have to go below." [88] VII A HE next morning the earl went to the church, as usual. He had not slept well. The advent of Phelim had set him to thinking. Here was a rival; and a dan gerous one. He admitted this grudgingly, for an Englishman is slow to see a rival in a foreigner, and who so foreign as an Irishman? At dinner, on the yacht, the night be fore, Phelim had been much in evidence. His six feet three had impressed the earl s six feet. Phelim had been well dressed. "Confound him," thought the earl, "he goes to Poole, or Johns & Pegg. Why doesn t he get his clothes at home?" Then Phelim had talked much, and he had talked well. He had told stories at which the earl had been compelled to [ 89] The Turquoise Cup laugh. He had related experiences of his home-life, of the peasants, the priests, the clubs, hunting and shooting, his brief stay in Parliament, what he had seen in Venice during the last few days; and, when din ner was over, Lady Nora, who had been all attention, said: " Sing for us, Phelim," and they had gone below, Phelim stoop ing to save his head; and he had struck those mysterious chords upon the piano, by way of prelude, that silence talk, that put the world far away, that set the men to glancing at the women, and the wo men to glancing at the floor and making sure of their handkerchiefs, and then he had sung. How can one describe a song? As well attempt to paint a perfume. When Phelim finished singing Miss O Kelly went over and kissed him, and Lady Nora went away, her eyes glistening- [90] The Turquoise Cup The earl remembered all these things as he went up the aisle. He had passed that way five times each day for nine days. He came to the door of the treas ury, thinking, not of Nora, but of Phelim and the door was open. He went in. The gorgeous color of the place stopped him, on the threshold. He saw the broidered vestments upon which gold was the mere background; jacinths were the stamens of the flowers, and pierced diamonds were the dewdrops on their leaves; he saw the chalices and patens of amethyst and jade, the crucifixes of beaten gold, in which rubies were set solid, as if they had been floated on the molten metal; he saw the seven-light can delabrum, the bobeches of which were sliced emeralds, and then his eyes, grop ing in this wilderness of beauty, lighted on the turquoise cup. [ 91 ] The Turquoise Cup " My God ! " he exclaimed,"she is right. She is selling herself for the most beauti ful thing in the world. To steal it is a crime like Cromwell s too great to be punished," and he put out his hand. Then, with the cup and Nora within his reach, he heard a still, small voice, and his hand fell. He began to argue with his conscience. "Who owns this cup?" he asked. "No one. The cardinal said it had been stolen. He said no one could sell it because no one could give title. Why, then, is it not mine as well as any one s? If I take it, whom do I wrong? Great men have never let trifles of right and wrong disturb their conduct. Who would ever have won a battle if he had taken thought of the widows? Who would ever have attained any great thing if he had not despised small things?" and he put out his hand [ 9*] The Turquoise Cup again; and then came surging into his mind the provisions of that code which birth, associations, his school life, and, most of all, his mother, had taught him. What would they say and do at his clubs? Where, in all the world, could he hide himself, if he did this thing? He turned and fled, and, running down the church steps, he came face to face with Lady Nora and Phelim. They were laughing gayly; but, when they saw the earl s face, their laughter ceased. "Have you seen a ghost, my lord?" asked Phelim. ~ The earl did not answer; he did not even hear. He stood gazing at Lady Nora. For one brief moment, when he stood be fore the cup, he had questioned whether a woman who would impose such a con dition could be worth winning; and now, before her, her beauty overwhelmed him. [ 93 ] T he Turquoise Cup He forgot Phelim; he forgot the passers- by; he forgot everything, except the wo man he loved the woman he had lost. " Nora," he said, " I give you back your promise. I cannot give you the cup." The color left her cheeksand her hands flew up to her heart she gazed at him with love and pity in her eyes, and then, suddenly, her cheeks flamed, her white teeth pressed her lower lip, her little foot stamped upon the pavement. "Very well," she said, "I regret hav ing given you so much trouble; " and she went toward the landing. She took three steps and then turned. The two men stood as she had left them. "Phelim," she said, smiling, "you would do something for me, if I were to ask you, would you not?" "Try me," said Phelim. "Would you like the Campanile for a paper-weight ? " [94] The Turquoise Cup "No," she said, "not that, but some thing else. Come here." He went to her, and she whispered in his ear. "I ll bring it you in half an hour, aboard the yacht," said Phelim, and he started across the Piazza. Lady Nora went on toward the land ing. The earl stood watching her. She did not look back. The earl looked up at the clock-tower. "In half an hour," he said to himself, " he will bring it to her, aboard the yacht;" and he turned and re-entered the church. He went up the aisle, nodded to the sacristan, entered the treasury, took the turquoise cup, came out with it in his hand, nodded again to the sacristan, went down the steps, crossed the Piazza, ran down the landing-stairs, and jumped into a gondola. "To the English yacht!" he cried. [ 95 ] The Turquoise Cup He looked at his watch. "It seems," he said to himself, "that one can join the criminal classes in about six minutes. I ve twenty-four the start of Phelim." They came alongside the Tara, and the earl sprang up the ladder. "Lady Nora?" he asked of the quar termaster. "She is below, my lord. She has just come aboard, and she left orders to show you down, my lord." "Me?" exclaimed the earl. "She didn t name you, my lord;" said the quartermaster, "what she said was A gentleman will come on board soon; show him below." The earl speculated a moment as to whether he were still a gentleman, and then went down the companion-way. He came to the saloon. The door was open. He looked in. Lady Nora was seated at [96] The Turquoise Cup the piano, but her hands were clasped in her lap. Her head was bent and the earl noticed, for the thousandth time, how the hair clustered in her neck and framed the little, close-set ear. He saw the pure outlines of her shoulders; beneath the bench, he saw her foot in its white shoe; he saw, or felt, he could not have told you which, that here was the one woman in all this great world. To love her was a distinction. To sin for her was a dispen sation. To achieve her was a coronation. He tapped on the door. The girl did not turn, but she put her hands on the keys quickly, as if ashamed to have them found idle. "Ah, Phelim," she said, " you are more than prompt; you never keep one wait ing," and she began to play very softly. The earl was embarrassed. Despite his crime, he still had breeding left him, [97 ] The Turquoise Cup and he felt compelled to make his pres ence known. He knocked again. "Don t interrupt me, Phelim," she said ; "this is my swan-song; listen;" and she began to sing. She sang bravely, at first, with her head held high, and then, sud denly, her voice began to falter. "Ah, Phelim, dear,"she cried, "I ve lost my love ! I ve lost my love ! " and she put her hands to her face and fell to sobbing. "Nora!" said the earl. It was the first word he had spoken, and she raised her head, startled. "Here is the cup, Nora," he said. She sprang to her feet and turned to him, tears on her cheeks, but a light in her eyes such as he had never seen. "Oh, my love," she cried, "I should have known you d bring it." "Yes," he said, "you should have known." [98 ] The Turquoise Cup She stood, blushing, radiant, eager, waiting. He stood in the doorway, pale, quiet, his arms at his side, the cup in his hand. "Nora," he said, "I ve brought you the cup, but I do not dare to give it to you. I stole it." "What?" she cried, running toward him. She stopped suddenly and began to laugh a pitiful little laugh, pitched in an unnatural key. "You shouldn t fright en me like that, Bobby, "she said; "it isn t fair." "It is true," said the earl; "I am a thief." She looked at him and saw that he was speaking the truth. "No," she cried, " tis I am the thief, not you. The cardinal warned me that I was compelling you to this, and I laughed at him. I thought that you would achieve [99] The Turquoise Cup the cup, if you cared for me; that you would render some service to the State and claim it as your reward that you would make a fortune, and buy it that you would make friends at the Vatican that you would build churches, found hospitals, that even the Holy Father might ask you to name something with in his gift I thought of a thousand schemes, such as one reads of but I never thought you would take it. No, no; I never thought that." "Nora," said the earl, "I didn t know how to do any of those things, and I didn t have time to learn." " I would have waited for you, always," she said. "I didn t know that," said the earl. " I hoped you did n t," said Lady Nora. "Come!" and she sprang through the door. The earl followed her. They ran T he Turquoise Cup up the companion-way, across the deck, down the boarding-stairs. The earl s gon dola was waiting. "To the molo in five minutes," cried Lady Nora to the poppe, "and you shall be rich." They went into the little cabin. The earl still held the cup in his hand. They sat far apart each longing to comfort the other each afraid to speak. Between them was a great gulf fixed the gulf of sin and shame. Half-way to the landing, they passed Phelim s gondola, making for the yacht. The cabin hid them and he passed in si lence. "I sent him for some bon-bons," said Lady Nora. "I did it to make you jeal ous." They reached the molo in less than five minutes and Lady Nora tossed her purse The Turquoise Cup to the oarsmen, and sprang out. "Put the cup under your coat," she said. The earl obeyed. He had stolen it openly. He brought it back hidden. They crossed the Piazza as rapidly as they dared, and entered the church. The sacristan greeted them with a smile and led the way to the treasury. "They haven t missed it yet," whis pered Lady Nora. The sacristan unlocked the outer and the inner door, bowed, and left them. Lady Nora seized the cup and ran to its accustomed shelf. She had her hand outstretched to replace it, when she ut tered a cry. "What is it?" exclaimed the earl. She did not answer, but she pointed, and the earl, looking where she pointed, saw, on the shelf the turquoise cup. They stared at the cup on the shelf [ 102 ] The Turquoise Cup at the cup in Lady Nora s hand and at each other dumfounded. They heard a limping step on the pave ment and the cardinal came in. His face was very grave, but his voice was very gentle. " My children," he said, " I prayed God that you would bring back the cup, but, mea culpa, I lacked faith, and dared not risk the original. Would God let Nora Blake s granddaughter make shipwreck? The cup you have, my child, is but silver- gilt and glass, but it may serve, some other day, to remind you of this day. Look at it when your pride struggles with your heart. Perhaps the sight of it may strengthen you. Take it, not as the present of a car dinal, or an archbishop, but as the wed ding-gift of an old man who once was young, and once knew Nora Blake." "A wedding-gift?" exclaimed Lady [ I0 3 ] The Turquoise Cup Nora. "What man would ever marry such a wretch as I?" "Nora!" cried the earl; and he held out his arms. " My pigeons are waiting for me," said the cardinal; and he went away, limping. [ 104 ] THE DESERT THE DESERT JT AR down in the Desert of Sahara is the little oasis of El Merb. It is so small that our crude atlases miss it. It has but one well, and the fertile land is not more than forty rods in diameter. It has a mosque, a bazaar, a slave-market, and a cafe. It is called by the traders of Biskra "The Key of the Desert." It is called by the Mohammedan priests of Biskra "The Treasury of the Desert." It is called by the French commandant at Biskra "A place to be watched." The only com munication between El Merb and Biskra c The Desert is by camels, and Abdullah was once the chief caravan-master. Abdullah, having felt the humps of his camels, turned to his driver. "We start to-morrow, AH," he said; "the beasts are fit." AH bowed and showed his white teeth. "To-morrow," continued ^Vbdullah, "since it is Friday; and immediately af ter the middle prayer. I hear in the ba zaar that the well at Okba is choked. Can we make forty-two miles in one day, so as to cut Okba out ? " "We can," said AH, "during the first three days, when the beasts do not drink; after that no." "Good," said Abdullah; "I will make a route." Some one plucked at his sleeve and he turned. [ 108 ] The Desert " Sir," said a man with a white beard and eager eyes, " I learn that you start for Biskra to-morrow." "If Allah wills," said Abdullah. "In crossing the desert," said the old man, " I am told there are many dangers." " Friend, "said Abdullah, "in sitting at home there are many dangers." " True," said the old man ; and, after an interval, he added, " I think I may trust you." Abdullah shrugged his shoulders and rolled a cigarette. "Would it please you," said the old man, "to take a passenger for Biskra?" "At a price," replied Abdullah, strik ing a match. "What is the price?" asked the old man. "Do you pay in dates, hides, ivory, or gold-dust?" [ I0 9 ] T he Desert "In dust," replied the old man. Abdullah threw away his cigarette. " I will carry you to Biskra," said he, "for eight ounces, and will furnish you with dates. If you desire other food, you must provide it. You shall have water, if I do." "It is not for myself that I seek pas sage," said the old man, "but for my daughter." "In that event," said Abdullah, "the price will be nine ounces. Women cast responsibility upon me." "And her maid-servant? "asked the old man. "Eight ounces," replied Abdullah. "It is all I have," said the old man, "but I will give it." " If you have no more," said Abdullah, "Allah forbid that I should strip you. I will carry the two for sixteen ounces." "Allah will make it up to you," said The Desert the old man. "If you will deign to ac company me to the bazaar, I will pay you immediately." They went to the arcades about the square and entered the shop of Hassan, the money-changer. The old man pulled at his girdle and produced, after many contortions, a purse of gazelle skin. "Friend Hassan," he said, "I wish to pay to this, my son, sixteen ounces. Kindly weigh them for me." Hassan produced his scales. They con sisted of two metal disks, suspended by silk threads from the ends of a fern stem. He balanced this stem upon the edge of a knife, fixed above his table. In one of the pans he placed a weight, stamped with Arabic characters. The pan fell to the table. Hassan produced a horn spoon, which he blew upon and then carefully The Desert wiped with the hem of his burnoose. He handed the spoon to the old man, who felt of the bowl. " It is dry," he said ; " nothing will stick to it." Hassan plunged the spoon into the bag and brought it out, filled with gold-dust, which he poured into the empty pan. The scales rose, fell, trembled, and then set tled even. " I nearly always can judge an ounce," said Hassan; "a grain is another matter." He weighed out sixteen ounces. The last ounce he left in the pan. Then he turned and, with a sweep of his arm, caught a fly from off the wall. He handled it with the greatest care until he held it in the tips of his fingers; then he put it into his mouth and closed his lips. In a moment he took it out. The fly was moist and dejected. He placed it upon the gold- [ it*] The Desert dust in the pan. The fly began to beat its wings and work its legs. In a moment its color changed from blue-black to yellow. It was coated with gold-dust. Hassan lifted it with a pair of tweezers, and popped it into an inlaid box. " My commission," he said. " Good-by. Allah be with you." The old man tied up his bag, which seemed to be as heavy as ever. "I thought," said Abdullah, glancing at the purse, "that seventeen ounces was all you had." " What remains," said the old man, and there was a twinkle in his eye, "belongs to Allah s poor, of whom I am one." "I regret," said Abdullah, with some heat, "that I did not treble my usual price. I merely doubled it for you." The old man s face clouded, but only for an instant. [ "3 ] The Desert " My son," he said, " I am glad that I have intrusted my daughter to you. You will bring her to Biskra in safety. At what hour do you start? " "Immediately after the noon prayer," answered Abdullah, "and I wait for no one." "Good," said the old man, "we shall be there; s/ama" "S/ama," said Abdullah, and they parted. Abdullah went back to his camels. He found Ali asleep between the black racer and the dun leader. He kicked him gen tly, as though he were a dog, and Ali sat up smiling and pleased to be kicked, when he saw his master. " We take two women with us," said Abdullah. "Allah help us," said Ali. "He has already," said Abdullah; "I [ iH] T/ie Desert have sixteen ounces in my girdle." "It seems, then," said Ali, grinning, " that not only Allah has helped you, but you have helped yourself." "Peace," said Abdullah, "you know nothing of commerce." "I know, however," said Ali, "that the Englishwoman whom we carried two years ago, and who made us stop two days at the wells of Okba, because her dog was ailing, gave me a bad piece of silver that I could not spend in Biskra. Twas she of the prominent teeth and the big feet. I used to see her feet when she mounted her camel, and I used to see her teeth when I saw nothing else." " Peace," said Abdullah. "Allah who made us made also the English." "Perhaps," said Ali, "but one cannot help wondering why He did it." " If we carry these two women," said The Desert Abdullah, "we must leave the cargo of two beasts behind. Leave four ba^es of hides; I took them conditioned upon no better freight offering; and put the wo men on the two lame camels. In this way we profit most, since we sacrifice least merchandise. The porters will be here at sunrise to help you load. See that they are careful. You remember what happened last time, when our cargoes kept shifting. All seems well to-night, except you have loaded that red camel yonder too high on the right side. How can a camel rest if, when he kneels, his load does not touch the ground? He must support the weight himself." "I intended to alter that in the morn ing," said Ali. "The morning may never dawn," said Abdullah, "and meanwhile you rob the beast of one night s rest. Attend to it at [ "6] The Desert once. The speed of a caravan is the speed of its slowest camel." "Who should know that better than I?" exclaimed AH. "Have I not crossed the desert nine times with you? Oh, mas ter, bear with me, I am growing old." "What is your age?" asked Abdullah. " One-and-thirty," replied AH. "My friend," said Abdullah, "you are good for another voyage; and know this, when you fail me, I quit the desert, and turn householder, with a wife or two, and children, if Allah wills it. I myself am six- and-twenty. I have earned a rest. Slama" And he turned on his heel to go, but he turned again. "AH," he said, "who lives in the first house beyond the mosque, on the left the house with the green lattices?" " I do not know, my master," replied AH, " but I shall tell you in the morning." [ "7] The Desert f "Good," said Abdullah; "and there is a damsel who sits behind the lattice, and always wears a flower in her hair, a red flower, a flower like this," and he put his hand into the folds of his burnoose and brought out a faded, crumpled, red olean der. "Who is she?" "To-morrow," said Ali. "Good," said Abdullah, and he went away. "Slama" said Ali, and then he added, to himself, "There goes a masterful man, and a just one, but love has caught him." And he hurriedly eased the red camel of her load. II T HE next morning the departing car avan had many visitors. The merchants from the arcades came to see that their ventures were properly loaded. They passed comments upon the camels as Englishmen and Americans do upon horses in the paddock or the show-ring. Some they criticised, some they praised, but they were of one mind as to their condition. " Their humps are fat," they all agreed ; and, as a camel draws upon his hump for food as he draws upon the sacs surround ing his stomach for water, the condition of the caravan was declared to be mleh^ which is the Arabic equivalent for "fit." Abdullah was a busy man. He signed manifests, received money, receipted for T/ie Desert it, felt of surcingles, tightened them, swore at the boys who were teasing the camels, kicked AH whenever he came within reach, and in every way played the role of the business man of the desert. Suddenly, from the minaret of the mosque came the cry of the mueddin. The clamor of the market ceased and the Mussulmans fell upon their knees, facing the east and Mecca. The camels were al ready kneeling, but they were facing the north and Biskra. While the faithful were praying, the unbelievers from the Soudan fell back and stood silent. A cry to God, no mat ter what god, silences the patter of the market-place. Abdullah prayed as a child beseeches his father. "Give me, Allah, a safe and quick journey. Unchoke the wells at Okba. Strengthen the yellow camel. Make high The Desert the price of dates and low the price of hides; tis thus I have ventured. Bring us in safety to Biskra. And bring me to the damsel who sits behind the green lattice. These things I pray thy sinful son, Ab dullah." He rose, and the old man stood at his elbow. Abdullah had forgotten his pas sengers. "This," said the old man, turning to a woman veiled to her eyes, " is my daugh ter, and this," he added, "is her maid," and a negress, comely and smiling, made salaam. "I pray thee," he continued, "to deliver this invoice," and he handed Ab dullah a paper. Abdullah was too busy to notice his passengers. "Let them mount at once," he said, slipping the paper under his gir dle, and he left them to Ali, who came up showing his white teeth. The Desert There were the last words, instruc tions, cautions, adieus, and then Abdul lah held up his hand. Ali gave the cry of the camel-driver and the uncouth beasts, twisting and snarling under their loads, struggled to their feet. Another cry, and they began their voy age. They traversed the square, passed the mosque, turned down a narrow street, and in five minutes crossed the line that bounded the oasis, and entered upon the desert. Immediately the dun leader took his place at the left and slightly in advance. The fourth on the right of the dun was the black racer. He carried two water- skins and Abdullah s saddle. Then came, in ranks, fifteen camels, Ali riding in the centre. On the right flank rode the two women, with enormous red and white cotton sunshades stretched behind them. The Desert Then, at an interval of six rods, came fifteen camels unattended. They simply followed the squad in front. The dun leader and the black racer had lanyards about their necks. The other camels had no harness save the surcingles that held their loads. In a panic, a sand-storm, a fusillade from Bedouins, a mirage, and a race for water, if Abdullah and Ali could grasp these lanyards, the caravan was saved, since the other camels followed the dun leader and the black racer as sheep follow the bell-wether. Abdullah walked at the left, abreast of the dun. At intervals he rode the black racer. The pace of a caravan is two miles an hour, but Abdullah s, the two cripples included, could make two miles and a quarter. The black racer could make sixty The Desert miles a day for five days, without drink ing, but at the end of such a journey his hump would be no larger than a pin cushion, and his temper ? For centuries it has been the custom of Sahara caravans to travel not more than five miles the first day. Abdullah, the iconoclast, made thirty-three. Ali came to him at two o clock. "Shall we camp, master?" he asked. "When I give the word," replied Abdullah. "You forget that the wells at Okba are choked. We shall camp at El Zarb." " El Zarb," exclaimed Ali. " We should camp there to-morrow." " Must I continually remind you," said Abdullah, "that to-morrow may never dawn? We camp at El Zarb to-night." At nine o clock they marched under the palms of El Zarb. Abdullah held up The Desert his hands; Ali ran to the head of the dun leader; the caravan halted, groaned, and knelt. The first day s journey was over. Ill 1 HE moment that the halt was ac complished, Abdullah went about, loos ing the surcingles of his camels. Then he began to pitch his tent. It was of camel- skins, stretched over eight sticks, and fas tened at the edges with spikes of locust wood. It was entirely open at the front, and when he had the flaps pinned, he gath ered a little pile of camels dung, struck a match, and began to make his tea. He had no thought for his passengers. His thoughts were with his heart, and that was back at the house beyond the bazaar the house with the green lattices. Be fore the water boiled, Ali came up, eager, breathless. " Master," he said, " the passengers are cared for, and the mistress wears a flower [ The Desert like 1 ike that; the one you showed me;" and he pointed to Abdullah s bosom. " You are either a faithful servant," said Abdullah, "or you are a great liar. The morrow will tell." And he started toward the passengers tent. He found it closed. Being a woman s tent, it had front flaps, and they were laced. He walked back and forth before it. He was master of the cara van, more autocratic than the master of a ship. He might have cut the laces, en tered, and no one could have questioned. That is the law of the desert. He could more easily have cut his own throat than that slender cord. He wandered back and forth before the tent. The twilight faded. The shadows turned from saffron to violet, to purple, to cobalt. Out of the secret cavern of the winds came the cool night-breeze of the Sahara. [ I2 7 ] The Desert Still he paced up and down, before the little tent. And as he measured the sands, he measured his life. Born of a camel- driver by a slave; working his way across the desert a score of times before his wages made enough to buy one bale of hides; venturing the earnings of a lifetime on one voyage making a profit, when a loss would have put him back to the begin ning venturing again, winning again buying three camels leasing them buying three more starting an ex press from the Soudan to Biskra one day short of all others; carrying only dates and gold-dust insuring his gold-dust, something he learned from the French in Biskra; buying thirty camels at a plunge at once the master camel-driver of the Sahara and here he was, pacing up and down before a laced tent which held behind it a woman. [ T/ie Desert The night of the desert settled down, and still he paced. The stars came up the stars by which he laid his course; and, finally, pacing, he came for the hundredth time to the tent s front and stopped. " Mistress? " he whispered. There was no answer. "Mistress?" he called, and then, after an interval, the flies of the tent parted a white hand, and a whiter wrist, appeared, and a red oleander fell on the sands of the desert. Abdullah was on his knees. He pressed the flower to his lips, to his heart. Kneel ing he watched the flaps of the tent. They fluttered ; the laces raced through the eye lets; the flaps parted, and a girl, unveiled, stepped out into the firelight. They stood, silent, gazing one at the other. "You have been long in coming," she said, at length. There is no love-making in the desert. The Desert Thanks to its fervent heat, love there comes ready-made. "Yes," said Abdullah, "I have tarried, but now that I have come, I stay for ever;" and he took her in his arms. "When did you love me first?" she whispered, half-released. "When first I saw you, behind the green lattice," gasped Abdullah. "Ah, that green lattice," whispered the girl; "how small its openings were. And still, my heart flew through them when first you passed. How proudly you walked. Walk for me now here, in the firelight, where I may see you not so slowly with your eyes turned toward me, but swiftly, smoothly, proudly, your head held high that s it that is the way you passed my lattice, and as you passed my heart cried out, There goes my king. Did you not hear it ? " The Desert " No," said Abdullah; " my own heart cried so loudly I heard naught else." "What did it cry? What cries it now?" she said; and she placed her cheek against his bosom, her ear above his heart. "I hear it," she whispered, "but it beats so fast I cannot understand." "Then," said Abdullah, "I must tell thee with my lips." "Oh, beloved," she whispered, "the camels will see us." " What matters," he said ; " they belong to me." "Then they are my brethren," she said, "since I, also, belong to thee," and with arms entwined they passed out of the fire light into the purple of the desert. When they came back, the hobbled camels were snoring, and the unfed fires were smouldering. The Desert "Allah keep thee," said Abdullah, at the door of her tent. "And thee, my master," said the girl, and the flaps fell. Abdullah went slowly toward his own tent. He stopped a moment by one of the lame camels. "Thou broughtest her to me," he said, and he eased the beast s surcingle by a dozen holes. He reached his tent, paused, faced the western horizon, lifted his arms, breathed in the sweet, cool air of the desert, and entered. Ali had spread a camel s hide, had cov ered a water-skin with a burnoose for a pillow, and had left, near it, a coiled wax- taper and a box of matches. Abdullah un twined his turban, loosened his sash, felt something escape him, fell on his knees, groped, felt a paper, rose, went to the tent s door, recognized the invoice which The Desert the old man had given him, went out, kicked up the embers of the fire, knelt, saw that the paper was unsealed, was fas tened merely with a thread, played with the thread, saw it part beneath his fin gers, saw the page unfold, stirred up the embers, and read: TO MIRZA, Mother of the Dancers at Biskra, by the hand of Abdul/ah. I " send thee, as I said, the most beautiful wo- " man in the world. She has been carefully " reared. She has no thought of commercialism. " Two and two are Jive to her as well as four. " She is unspoiled. She never has had a coin in " her finger S) and she never has had a wish " ungratified. She knows a little French ; the " French of courtship merely. Her Arabic is " that of Medina. Tou, doubtless, will exploit " her in Biskra. Tou may have her for two "years. By that time she may toss her own The Desert " handkerchief. Then she reverts tome. I shall " take her to Cairo, where second-rate Eng- " lishmen and first-rate Americans abound. " Tfolf r thy receipt for the thirty ounces "you sent me. "ILDERHIM." When Abdullah had read this invoice of his love, he sat long before the little fire as one dead. Then he rose, felt in his bosom, and drew out two flowers, one withered, the other fresh. He dropped these among the embers, straightened himself; lifted his arms toward heaven, and slowly entered his tent. The little fires smouldered and died, and the great desert was silent, save for the sighing of the camels and the sing ing of the shifting sands. [ 134] The Desert THE MAN WHO KEEPS GOATS I THE next morning broke as all morn ings break in the desert, first yellow, then white, and always silent. The air bore the scent of sage. The hobbled camels had broken every shrub within their reach, and stunted herbage is, almost always, aromatic. Abdullah gave no heed to the sun. He who for ten years had been the most ener getic man of the desert had over night be come the most nonchalant. Like Achilles, he sulked in his tent. At five o clock Ali ventured to bring his master s coffee. He found Abdullah fully dressed and reading a paper, which he hurriedly thrust into his burnoose when he was interrupted. "Your coffee, master," said Ali. "We The Desert have twelve leagues to make to-day." "Ali," said Abdullah, "the night be fore we started I asked you who lived in the house with the green lattices the next house beyond the mosque and you promised to tell me in the morn- ing." "Yes, master," said Ali, "but in the morning you did not ask me." " I ask you now," said Abdullah. Ali bowed. "Master," he answered, " the house is occupied by Ilderhim, chief of the tribe of Ouled Nail. He hires it for five years, and he occupies it for the three months, Chaban, Ramadan, and Chaoual, of each year. He has also the gardens and four water-rights. He deals in ivory, gold-dust, and dancing-girls. He formerly lived in Biskra, but the French banished him. They have also banished him from Algiers, and he has been warned from [ -36 ] The Desert Cairo and Medina. He has a divorced wife in each of those cities. They are the mo thers of the dancing-girls. The one in Bis kra is Mirza. Every one in Biskra knows Mirza. Doubtless you, master " "Yes," said Abdullah, "but the dam sel. Who is she?" "His daughter," replied Ali. " How know you this? " demanded Ab dullah, fiercely. "Master," said Ali, "last night, when you were looking at the stars with the mistress, I had a word with the maid. She came to me, while I was asleep by the dun leader, and shook me as if I had been an old friend. " Save her, she whispered, as I rubbed my eyes. " Willingly, I replied. Who is she? " My mistress, said the maid. They are taking her to Biskra. She has been sold The Desert to Mirza. She will dance in the cafes. This sweet flower will be cast into the mire of the market-place. Save her. " How know you this? I asked. " Ah, she answered, this is not the first time I have crossed the desert with one of Ilderhim s daughters. Save her. "Does the damsel know nothing of this does she not go with her eyes open ? I asked. " She thinks, said the maid, that she goes to Biskra to be taught the manners and the learning of the French women to read, to sing, to know the world. Her heart is even fairer than her face. She knows no evil. Save her." Abdullah groaned and hung his head. " Forgive me, Allah," he said, "for that I doubted her. Forgive me for that I burned the flowers she gave to me," and he went out. [ 138] T he Desert "Your coffee, master," cried Ali, but Abdullah paid no heed. He went swiftly to the little tent, and there was the dam sel, veiled, and already mounted on the lame camel, ready to march. "Beloved," said Abdullah, "you must dismount," and he lifted her from the back of the kneeling beast. "Ali," he cried, "place the damsel s saddle on the black racer, and put mine on the dun. We two start on at once for the oasis of Zama. We can make it in thirteen hours. Give us a small water- skin and some dates. I leave everything else with you. Load, and follow us. We will wait for you at Zama. I go to counsel with the Man who Keeps Goats." In five minutes the black racer and the dun leader were saddled. "Come, beloved," said Abdullah, and without a word she followed him. She [ 139 ] T he Desert had asked no question, exhibited no curi osity. It was enough for her that Abdul lah said, "Come." They rode in silence for some minutes. Then Abdullah said: "Beloved, I do not know your name." She dropped her veil, and his heart fell to fluttering. "The one who loves me calls me be loved, " she said, "and I like that name." " But your real name? " said Abdullah. "I was baptized Fathma, " she said, smiling. " Doubtless," said Abdullah ; " since all women are named for the mother of the Prophet; but what is your other name, your house name?" "Nicha," she answered; "do you like it?" "Yes," he said, "I like it." " I like beloved better," said the girl. The Desert " You shall hear it to your heart s con tent," said Abdullah. They went on again, in silence, which was broken by the girl. " Master," she said, " if you do not care to speak to me further, I will put up my veil." "Do not," exclaimed Abdullah, "un less," he added, "you fear for your com plexion." " I do not fear for my complexion," said the girl, "but for my reputation;" and she smiled again. " That," said Abdullah, " is henceforth in my keeping. Pay no heed to it." " I am not yet your wife," said the girl. "True," said Abdullah, "and we are making this forced march to learn how I may make you such. Who is your father, beloved?" "Ilderhim," she answered; "but why The Desert do you ask? You saw him when we started from El Merb." "Do you love him?" asked Abdullah. "I scarcely know," answered the girl, after a pause. " I have not seen him often. He is constantly from home. He buys me pretty clothes and permits me to go to the cemetery each Friday with my maid. I suppose I love him not as I love you, or as I love the camel that brought me to you, or the sandal on your foot, or the sand it presses still, I think I must love him but I never thought about it be fore." "And your mother?" asked Abdullah. "I have no mother," said the girl. "She died before I can remember." "And why do you go to Biskra?" asked Abdullah. "My father sends me," said the girl, "to a great lady who lives there. Her T/ie Desert name is Mirza. Do you not know her, since you lived in Biskra?" Abdullah did not answer. Something suddenly went wrong with his saddle, and he busied himself with it. "I am to be taught the languages and the ways of Europe," continued the girl, "music and dancing, and many things the desert cannot teach. I am to remain two years, and then my father fetches me. Now that I consider the trouble and ex pense he is put to on my account, surely I should love him, should I not?" Abdullah s saddle again required at tention. They rode for hours, sometimes speak ing, sometimes silent. Twice Abdullah passed dates and water to the girl, and always they pressed on. A camel does not trot, he paces. He moves the feet of his right side forward at once, and follows [ H3 1 The Desert them with the feet of his left side. This motion heaves the rider wofully.The girl stood it bravely for six hours, then she began to droop. Abdullah watched her as her head sank toward the camel s neck; conversation had long ceased. It had become a trial of endurance. Abdullah kept his eye upon the girl. He saw her head bending, bending toward her cam el s neck; he gave the cry of halt, leaped from the dun, while yet at speed, raced to the black, held up his arms and caught his mistress as she fell. There was naught about them save the two panting camels, the brown sands, the blue sky, and the God of Love. Abdullah lifted her to the earth as tenderly, as mod estly, as though she had been his sister. It is a fine thing to be a gentleman, and the God of Love is a great God. It proved that the girl s faintness came T he Desert from the camel s motion and the cruel sun. Abdullah made the racer and the dun kneel close together. He spread his burnoose over them and picketed it with his riding-stick. This made shade. Then he brought water from the little skin; touched the girl s lips with it, bathed her brow, sat by her, silent, saw her sleep; knelt in the sand and kissed the little hand that rested on it, and prayed to Him that some call God, and more call Allah. In an hour the girl whispered, "Ab dullah?" He was at her lips. "Why are we waiting?" she asked. "Because I was tired," he answered. "Are you rested?" she asked. "Yes," he answered. "Then let us go on," she said. They rode on, hope sustaining Abdul lah, and love sustaining Nicha, for she [ >45] The Desert knew nothing but love. Then, after eight hours, on the edge of the desert appeared a little cloud, no larger than a man s hand. Abdullah roused himself with effort. He watched the cloud resolve itself into a mass of green, into waving palms then he knew that Zama was before him, and that the march was ended. He turned and spoke to the girl. They had not spoken for hours. "Beloved," he said, "a half-hour, and we reach rest." She did not answer. She was asleep upon her saddle. "Thank Allah," said Abdullah, and they rode on. Suddenly the trees of the oasis were blotted out. A yellow cloud of dust rolled in between them and the travellers, and Abdullah said to himself, " It is he whom I seek it is He who Keeps Goats." [ 146] The Desert ii THEY met. In the midst of threescore goats whose feet had made the yellow cloud of dust was a man, tall, gaunt, dressed in the garb of the desert, and burned by the sun as black as a Soudanese. "Ah, my son," he cried, in French, when he was within distance, "you travel light this time. Whom have you with you, another mistress, or, at last, a wife?" " Hush," said Abdullah, "she is a little damsel who has ridden twelve leagues and is cruel tired." "God help her," said the man of the goats; "shall I give her some warm milk -there is plenty?" " No," said Abdullah; "let us go to thy house," and the goats, at the whistle of their master, turned, and followed the camels under the palms of the oasis of Zama. [ H7] The Desert They halted before a little hut, and Abdullah held up his hand. The camels stopped and kneeled. The girl did not move. Abdullah ran to her, took her in his arms, lifted her, turned, entered the hut, passed to the inner room, laid her upon a low couch, beneath the window, put away her veil, kissed her hand, not her lips, and came out. In the outer room he found his host. Upon the table were some small cheeses, a loaf of bread, a gourd of milk. Abdul lah fell upon the food. "Well, my son," said his host, after Abdullah began to pick and choose, "what brings you to me?" "This," said Abdullah, and he felt in his bosom, and drew out the invoice of his passenger. His host took from a book upon the table a pair of steel-bowed spectacles The Desert the only pair in the Sahara. He placed the bow upon his nose, the curves behind his ears, snuffed the taper with his fingers, took the invoice from Abdullah, and read. He read it once, looked up, and said noth ing. He read it a second time, looked up, and said: "Well, what of it?" "Is it legal?" asked Abdullah. " Doubtless," said his host, "since it is a hiring, merely, not a sale; and it is to be executed in Biskra, which is under the French rule." " The French rule is beneficent, doubt less?" asked Abdullah. His host did not answer for some min utes; then he said: "It is a compromise; and certain souls deem compromises to be justice. The real men of this age, as of all others, do not compromise; they fight out right and wrong to a decision. The French came into Algeria to avenge a [ H9 ] T he Desert wrong. They fought, they conquered, and then they compromised. Having com promised, they must fight and conquer all over again." "You are a Frenchman, are you not?" asked Abdullah. "No," replied his host, "I am a Pari sian." "Ah," exclaimed Abdullah, " I thought they were the same thing." "Far from it," replied his host. "In Brittany, Frenchmen wear black to this day for the king whom Parisians guillo tined." " Pardon," said Abdullah ; " I have been taught that Paris is French." "Not so, my son," rejoined his host; "Paris is universal. If you will go to the Museum of the Louvre, and take a seat before the Venus of Milo, and will remain long enough, everybody in this world, T he Desert worth knowing, will pass by you ; crowned heads, diplomats, financiers, the demi monde; you may meet them all. They tell me that the same thing happens to the occupant of the corner table of the Cafe de la Paix the table next to the Avenue de 1 Opera; if he waits long enough, he will see every one " "Pardon me, Monsieur," said Abdul lah, "but I care to see no one save the little maid sleeping within." "Ah," said his host, "it is love, is it? I thought it was commercialism." " No," said Abdullah; " it is a question of how I can keep the woman I love, and still keep my commercial integrity. She is consigned to me by her father, to be delivered to Mirza, the mother of the dancers, in Biskra. I am the trusted cara van owner between El Merb and Biskra. In the last ten years I have killed many The Desert men who tried to rob my freight of dates, and hides, and gold-dust. Now I long to rob my own freight of the most precious thing I have ever carried. May I do it, and still be a man; or must I deliver the damsel, re-cross the desert, return the passage money to her father, come once more to Biskra, and find my love the sport of the cafes? " The Man who Keeps Goats rose and paced the floor. " My son," he said, finally, "when the French occupied Algeria, they made this bargain Mussulmans shall be judged by their civil law. It was a compromise and, therefore, a weakness. The civil law of the Mohammedans is, virtually, the Koran. The law of France is, virtually, the Code Napoleon. The parties to the present contract being Mohammedans, it will be construed by their law, and it is [ 15* ] T he Desert not repugnant to it. If, on the contrary, the damsel were a Christian, the French commandant at Biskra would tear the con- tracl: to pieces, since it is against morals. Better yet, if you were a Christian, and the damsel your wife, you might hold her in Biskra against the world." Abdullah sat silent, his eyes half closed. "Monsieur," he said at length, "is it very difficult to become a Christian?" The Man who Keeps Goats sat silent in his turn. "My son," he said, finally, "I myself am a priest of the Church. I have lived in the desert for twenty years, but I have never been unfrocked. I cannot answer you, but I can tell you what a wiser than I declared to a desert traveller who put this same question nineteen hundred years ago." [ "53 ] The Desert He took up the book upon the table, turned a few pages, and read " And the angel of the Lord spake unto Philip, say ing, Arise, and go toward the south unto the way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is desert. And he arose and went: and, behold, a man of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority under Can- dace queen of the Ethiopians, who had the charge of all her treasure, and had come to Jerusalem for to worship, was re turning, and sitting in his chariot read Esaias the prophet. . . . And Philip ran thither to him, and heard him read the prophet Esaias, and said, Understandest thou what thou readest? And he said, How can I, except some man should guide me? And he desired Philip that he would come up and sit with him. . . . Then Philip opened his mouth, and be gan at the same scripture, and preached [ 154] T he Desert unto him Jesus. And as they went on their way, they came unto a certain water: and the eunuch said, See, here is water; what doth hinder me to be baptized? " And Philip said, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. " And he commanded the chariot to stand still: and they went down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch; and he baptized him." Scarcely had the reader ceased when Abdullah sprang to his feet. "Father," he cried, "see, here is water. What doth hinder me to be baptized? 3 "My son," said the old man, "how canst thou believe with all thine heart? No Philip has preached Jesus unto thee." "What need?" exclaimed Abdullah. "Can a man s belief need preaching to [ >55 ] The Desert in such a case as this? How long must I believe a religion that saves her I love? A month, a year, until it avails noth ing, and she is gone? This eunuch was a blacker man than I; like me, he was a man of the desert. He did not ride with Philip long. I have not only heard what Philip said to him, but I have also heard what you have said to me. Both of you have preached unto me Jesus. What right have you to doubt my belief in a God who will save my love to me? Again, I ask you, what doth hinder me to be baptized?" " Nothing," said the old man, and they went out both to the well, sparkling be neath the palms, both Abdullah and the Man who Keeps Goats; and he baptized him. When Abdullah rose from his knees, his forehead dripping, he drew his hand [ 156] The Desert across his face and asked, "Am I a Chris tian?" "Yes," said the priest, "so far as I can make you one." "Thank you," said Abdullah; "you have done much, and in the morning you shall do more, for then you shall baptize the damsel and shall marry us according to your pardon me our religion." They entered the hut, and the priest, pointing toward the chamber-door, asked : "Does she believe?" "She believes what I believe," said Abdullah. The priest shook his head. "You speak," he said, "not as a Christian, but as a Moslem. You were brought up to look upon woman as a mere adjunct, a necessary evil, necessary because men must be born into the world. A female [ 157] The Desert child, with you, was a reproach; she was scarcely seen by her parents until she was brought out to be sold in marriage. With Christians it is different. A woman has a soul " "Hush," said Abdullah, "or you will awaken the camels with that strange doc trine. A woman has a soul, has she? You read me no such proposition from your prophets, a half-hour ago. Woman was not mentioned by Philip or by the Ethio pian in what you read to me. Is there aught in your book that argues that wo man has a soul? " " Doubtless," said the priest, " but I do not recall it." He caught up his Bible. He opened it unluckily, for the first words that met his eye were these, and he read them: "Wo man, what have I to do with thee?" and he paused, embarrassed. [ 158 ] The Desert "Whose words were those?" asked Abdullah. The priest hesitated, crossed himself, and answered: "They were the words of Jesus. 5 "To whom were they spoken? "asked Abdullah. The answer lagged. Finally, the priest said, "To His mother." "Master," said Abdullah, "the more I learn of my new religion, the more I am enamoured of it; " and he went to the chamber-door and knocked. "Beloved," he said, and waited. He knocked again, and again he said, "Beloved." "Who art thou?"came a voice. C "T is I, Abdullah," he said. "Enter," said the voice. "Not so," said Abdullah; " but come you out." [ "59] T he Desert "Art thou alone?" asked the voice. "No," replied Abdullah, "the man who keeps goats is here." " I have no light," said the voice. Abdullah took the taper from the table, opened the door six inches, felt a warm soft hand meet his own, pressed it, left the taper in it, closed the door, and groped in darkness to his seat. " Father," he said, after some moments of silence, " have women souls?" "Doubtless," answered the priest. "God help them," said Abdullah; "have they not trouble enough, without souls to save?" The two men sat silent in the darkness. The door creaked, a line of light ap peared; the door swung wide out, and on the threshold stood Nicha, the taper in her hand. The two men sat silent, gazing. [ 160] The Desert She had put off her outer costume of white linen and stood dressed for the house, the seraglio. Upon her head was a chachia^ a little velvet cap, embroidered with seed-pearls. Her bust was clothed with a r/i/a, or bolero of brocaded silk, be neath which was a vest of muslin, heavy with gold buttons. About her slim waist was a fouta^ or scarf of striped silk. Be low came the serroual^ wide trousers of white silk that ended mid-leg. Upon her feet were blue velvet slippers, pointed, turned up at the toes and embroidered with gold. About her ankles were redeefs^ orbangles of emeralds, pierced, and strung on common string. At her wrists hung a multitude of bangles, and on her bare left arm, near the shoulder, was a gold wire that pinched the flesh, and from it hung a filigree medallion that covered her crest, tattooed beneath the skin. It is always so [ 161 ] The Desert with the tribe of Ouled Nail. This was the costume of the woman, but the woman herself, as she stood in the doorway, the taper in her hand, who may describe her? Tall, lithe, laughing her black hair, braided, tied behind her neck, and still reaching the ground; her eyebrows straight as though pencilled; her ears small and closely set; her nose straight and thin, with fluttering nostrils; her shoulders sloping; her bust firm and pulsating beneath her linen vest; her slen der waist; her little feet, in the blue vel vet slippers; the charm of breeding and of youth; the added charm of jewels and of soft textures; what wonder that the two men sat silent and gazing? Abdullah spoke first. "Beloved," he said, " I have broken your night s rest that you may have eternal rest." The girl laughed. " That is a long way The Desert off," she said. "The cemetery, with the cypress-trees, is beautiful, but this hut, with thee, is better. Why did you wake me?" "Because, since you slept," said Ab dullah, "I have changed my religion." "Good," exclaimed the girl; "then I change mine. I am tired of a religion that makes me plait my hair for eight hours of the day and sends no man to see it." "What religion do you choose?" asked Abdullah. "Yours," said the girl, seating herself and dropping her hands, interlaced, and covered with turquoise rings, about her knees; "why should a woman question anything when her husband has passed upon it?" "Did I not tell thee?" said Abdullah. "Yes," said the priest, "but I waited for her own words." The Desert " You have them now," said Abdullah, and they went out to the spring. "I name thee Marie," said the priest, "since it is the name borne by the Mother of our Lord." "Ah," said the girl, "I was baptized Fathma, after the Mother of the Prophet. There seems to be not so much difference thus far." When the sacrament had been admin istered and they had returned to the hut, the priest addressed his converts. " My children," he said, "in order to do a great right I have done a little wrong. I have baptized you into a religion that you know nothing of. How should you? You, Ab dullah I beg your pardon, Philip that was the name I gave you, was it not?" Abdullah bowed. "You, Philip," resumed the priest, " have changed your religion to win a wo- The Desert man whom you love; and you, Marie, have changed yours because the man you love bade you. Neither of you knows any thing of the faith you have adopted. I have had no chance to instruct you; but one thing I declare to you, the Christian religion tolerates but one husband and one wife." Nicha rose, pale, hesitating. She stepped slowly into the light. Her beauty added to the light. "Beloved," she said, "knew you this?" "No," he said, "but I know it now, and welcome it." "Oh, my beloved," she cried, "to think that you are all my own, that I do not have to share you," and she flung her arms about him. "Hush," said the priest, "or, as Philip says, you will wake the camels." "Father," asked Abdullah, "will you [ 165 ] The Desert now marry us, since we are Christians?" "I would," answered the priest, "but it is necessary to have two witnesses." Abdullah s face fell, but in an instant it brightened again. He went to the door of the hut and stood, listening. In a moment he turned and said, "Allah is good, or, rather, God is good. This new religion works well. Here are our wit nesses." And, even as he spoke, there came out of the darkness the halt-cry of the camel- driver. "It is Ali," said Abdullah, "and Nicha s maid is with him. They have caught us up." He ran out and found the camels kneel ing and Ali easing the surcingles. "Ali," he cried, "you must change your religion." "Willingly," said Ali; "what shall the [ 166] The Desert new one be? The old one has done little for me." "Christian," said Abdullah. "That suits me," said Ali; "under it one may drink wine, and one may curse. It is a useful religion for a trader." "And the maid?" asked Abdullah. " We have travelled a day and a part of a night together," said Ali, " and she will believe what I tell her to believe." "The old religion is good in some re spects," said Abdullah. "Call the maid;" and they went to the hut. " Here are the witnesses," said Abdul lah, "ready to be Christians." " It is not necessary," said the priest, "if they can make their mark; that is all that is required." So, in the little hut, before an impro vised altar, they were married the camel-driver and the daughter of the [ -67 ] *The Desert Chief of Ouled Nail. The next morning the caravan took up the march for Biskra. THE MOTHER OF THE ALMEES IT was the great fast of Rhamadan, and the square of Biskra was crowded with white-robed men waiting for the sun to set that they might eat. The rough pavement was dotted with fires over which simmered pots filled with what only a very jealous God in deed would have called food. About them were huddled the traders from the bazaars, the camel-drivers from the des ert, the water-carriers from Bab el Derb. Each man held a cigarette in his left hand and a match in his right. He would smoke before he ate. In the long arcades the camels, in from the Soudan, knelt, fasting. An Arab led [ 168 ] The Desert a tame lion into the square and the beast held back on his chain as he passed the flesh-pots, for he, too, was fasting. Crowds of little children stood about the circle of the fires, fasting. A God was being pla cated by the sufferings of His creatures. There is little twilight in the latitude of Biskra. There is the hard, white light of the daytime, five minutes of lavender and running shadows, and then the pur ple blackness of the night. The mueddin took his place on the minaret of the mosque. His shadow ran to the centre of the square and stopped. He cried his admonition, each white- robed figure bowed to the earth in sup plication, a cannon-shot at the citadel split the hot air, and in an instant the square was dotted with sparks. Each worshipper had struck his match. The fast was over until sunrise. [ 169 ] The Desert The silence became a Babel. All fell to eating and to talking. A marabout, grace ful as a Greek statue, came out of the mosque and made his way among the fires. As he passed, the squatting Mussulmans caught at his robe and kissed it. Mirza, the mother of the Almee girls, her golden necklaces glinting in the firelight, came walking by. As she passed the marabout he drew back and held his white burnoose across his face. She bent her knee and then went on, but as she passed she laughed and whispered, "Which trade pays best, yours or mine? " and she shook her neck laces. " Daughter," said the marabout, " there is but one God." "Yes," she replied, "but He has many prophets, and, of them all, you are the most beautiful, "and she went on. An officer of spahis rode in and, stop- [ 170 ] The Desert ping his horse before the arched door of the commandant, stood motionless. The square was filled with color, with life, with foreignness, with the dancing flames, the leaping shadows, the fumes of the cook-pots, the odor of Arabian tobacco, the clamor of all the dialecls of North Africa. A bugle sounded. Out of a side street trotted a cavalcade. The iron shoes of the horses rang on the pavement, and the steel chains of the curbs tinkled. The com mandant dismounted and gave his bridle to his orderly. The commandant walked through the square. He wore a fatigue cap, a sky- blue blouse, with white loopings, white breeches, tight at the knee, and patent- leather boots, with box spurs. He walked through the square slowly, smoking cig arette after cigarette. He was not only The Desert the commandant but he was the commis sioner of police. With seventy men he ruled ten thousand, and he knew his weak ness. The knowledge of his weakness was his strength. As he walked through the square he met Mirza. He passed her without a sign of recognition and she, on her part, was looking at the minaret of the mosque. In their official capacities they were strangers. On certain occasions, when the commandant was in muftl^ they had, at least, passed the time of day. The com mandant walked through the long rows of fires, speaking to a merchant here, nod ding to a date-grower there, casting quick glances and saying nothing to the spies who, mingling with the people, sat about the kouss-kouss pots, and reported to the commandant, each morning, the date set for his throat-cutting. This was many The Desert years ago, before there was a railroad to Biskra. The commandant, having made the round of the fires, crossed over to his house under the arcades. He dismissed the sergeant and the guard, and they rode away to the barracks, the hoof-beats dy ing in the distance. The spahi remained, silent, motionless. The commandant was about to enter his door, when a man sprang from behind one of the pillars of the arcade and held out to him a paper. The commandant put his hands behind his back. The spahi edged his horse up closely. "Who are you? "asked the comman dant, in French. The man shook his head, but still held out the paper. "Who are you?" asked the comman dant again, but now in Arabic. The Desert " I am Ali, the slave of Abdullah," answered the man, " and he sends you this letter." The commandant remained motion less. "Will your horse stand, corporal?" he asked of the spahi. "Perfectly, my colonel." " Leave him, then," said the comman dant, "and bring one of your pistols." The spahi gathered his long blue cloak off the quarters of his horse, took a revol ver from its holster, swung his right leg over his horse s head, so that he might not for an instant turn his back, threw the reins over his horse s neck, brought the heels of his red boots together, sa luted, and stood silent. The horse began to play with the pen dant reins and to shift his loosened bit. "Go in," said the commandant, and the spahi opened the door. "You next," [ 74] The Desert and All followed. The commandant brought up the rear. They entered at once not a hall but a room. So all Eastern houses are ordered. A lamp was burning, the walls were hung with maps of France and of North Africa, a few shelves held a few books and many tin cases labelled "Forage," "Hospital," "Police." Behind a desk sat a little man, dressed in black, who was dealing cards to himself in a game of solitaire. He rose and bowed when the commandant entered, and then he went on with his game. "Stand there," said the commandant, pointing to a corner, "and put your hands over your head." Ali obeyed. "Search him," said the commandant. The spa hi began at Ali s hair and ended with his sandals. "He has nothing," he reported. [ 175] The Desert "Now give me the letter," said the commandant. All twisted himself, fumbled at his waist, and drew out a knife. He placed it on the desk, smiling. " Do not blame the corporal for over looking this," he said; "I am so thin from the journey that he took it for one of my ribs." "I will trust you," said the comman dant, and he took the letter. The little man in black kept dealing solitaire. The commandant read the letter to himself and laughed, and then he read it aloud: "70 Monsieur the COUNT D APREMONT, Commandant at Biskra. MONSIEUR: Since last I saw you strange things have happened. I The Desert " have turned Christian, and I have mar- " ried. I wonder at -which of these statements ^you will laugh most. " May I bring my wife to your house ? " She will be the only Christian woman in " Biskra. Say yes or no to the bearer. I " am halted a mile outside of the town, await- " ing your answer. " Mirza, the mother of the Almees, has " a certain claim upon my wife ; how valid I " do not know. I need counsel, but first of all I need shelter. May I come ? "ABDULLAH." "Of course he may come," said the commandant; "what is to prevent?" "The law, perhaps," said the little man in black, shuffling the cards. The commandant turned quickly. "Why the law, Monsieur the Chancel lor?" he asked. [ 177 ] The Desert "Because," answered the little man, still shuffling the cards, "he says that Mirza has a certain claim upon his wife, how valid he does not know ; and he needs counsel and he needs shelter. When a man writes like this, he also needs a lawyer;" and he commenced a new deal. The commandant stood a moment, thinking. Then he raised his head with a jerk, and said to Ali: "Tell your master that I say yes." Ali made salaam and glided from the room. " He has left his knife," said the lawyer. The commandant turned to the spahi. "Corporal," he said, "go to the citadel and bring back twelve men. Place six of them at the entrance of the square, and six of them before my house. When Ab dullah s caravan has entered the square, have the further six close in behind. You [ -78] The Desert may take your time. It will be an hour before you are needed." The spahi saluted, and went out. The commandant turned to the little man in black. "Why in the world," he asked, "did you objecl: to my harboring Abdullah ? He is my friend and yours. He is the best man that crosses the desert. He has eaten our salt many times. If all here were like him, you and I might go home to France, with our medals and our pensions." "True," said the lawyer, gathering his cards, " and very likely there is no risk in harboring him and his wife." He shuffled the cards mechanically, his eyes fixed on the opposite wall. "My friend," he said, at length, "whom do you consider the most powerful person in Biskra, the person to be first reckoned with?" The Desert The commandant laughed. "As I am in command," he said, "I should be court-martialled if I denied my own su periority." "And yet," said the lawyer, "you are only a poor second." The commandant, who was sitting astride of his chair, his hands upon its back, demi-vaulted as if he were in the saddle of a polo pony. "What do you mean?" he demanded. The lawyer kept shuffling the cards, but he paid no attention to them. " Go to the window," he said, " and tell me what you see." The commandant rose, and went to the window, his spurs jingling. He drew the curtain and looked out. "What do you see?" asked the coun sellor. " I see the square," answered the com- The Desert mandant, "with five hundred kettle- lights, and three thousand Mussulmans gorging themselves, making up lost time." " Look over at the left corner," said the lawyer. "I see the mosque," said the com mandant, "with its lamps burning." "There you have it," cried the lawyer. "This religion that you and I are sent to conquer keeps its lamps burning con stantly, while the religion that comes to conquer lights its candles only for the mass. Mankind loves light and warmth. What do you see now?" "I see Mirza," replied the comman dant; "she is walking up the centre line of the fires. Now she stops. She meets a man, draws him hurriedly aside, and is speaking close to his ear." "Has he a green turban?" asked the [ ,81 ] The Desert lawyer. "Has he been to Mecca?" "Yes," answered the commandant. "There you see the most powerful person in Biskra," said the counsellor. "Who?" asked the commandant. "The man in the green turban?" "No," said the lawyer, "the woman he is speaking to." " Mirza? " exclaimed the commandant. "Yes," said the lawyer. "The centre of affairs, since the world was sent spin ning, has always been a woman. Who placed the primal curse of labor on the race? Was it the man, Adam, or the wo man, Eve?" "As I remember," said the comman dant, "the serpent was the prime mover in that affair." "Yes," said the lawyer; "but being more subtile than any beast in the field, he knew that if he caught the woman [ 182 ] The Desert the man would follow of his own accord. Julius Cssar and Antony were dwarfed by Cleopatra. Helen of Troy set the world ablaze. Joan of Arc saved France. Catha rine I saved Peter the Great. Catharine II made Russia. Marie Antoinette ruled Louis XVI and lost a crown and her head. Fat Anne of England and Sarah Jennings united England and Scotland. Eugenie and the milliners lost Alsace and Lorraine. Victoria made her country the mistress of the world. I have named many women who have played great parts in this drama which we call life. How many of them were good women? By good I do not mean virtuous, but simply good." "Out of your list," said the comman dant, "I should name Joan of Arc and Victoria." "A woman," repeated the lawyer, "is the centre of every affair. When you go [ 183 ] The Desert back to France, what are you looking for ward to?" "My wife s kiss," said the comman dant. "And you, since you are a bache lor?" "The scolding of my housekeeper," said the lawyer, and he shrugged his shoulders. The commandant laughed. " But what of Mirza?" he asked. "Why is she so powerful?" " For the same reason that your wife and my housekeeper are powerful," said the lawyer; "she is a woman." "A woman here," said the comman dant, "is a slave." "A good woman, I grant you," said the lawyer, " but a bad woman, if she chance to be beautiful, is an empress. Do you know how many men it takes to officer a mosque of the first class, such a one as we [ 184 ] The Desert have here? Twelve," and he dropped the cards and began to count his fingers. " Two mueddinS) the chaps that call to prayer; two tolbas^ who read the litanies; two hez- zabin, who read the Koran; a mufti^ who interprets the law; a khetib^ who recites the prayer for the chief of the govern ment each Friday, and who is very un popular; an iman^ who reads the five daily prayers; a chaouch^ who is a secretary to the last of the list, the oufa /, who collects the funds and pays them out. The oukil is the man who governs the mosque. He is the man in the green turban whom you saw talking with Mirza. They are part ners. He attends to the world, she to the flesh, and both to the devil. It is a strong partnership. It is what, in America, they call a trust. The oukil sends his clients to Mirza, and she sends hers to the oukil. Look out of the window again. There [ 85 ] The Desert are three thousand religionists who have passed through the hands of the oukil and Mirza, and she, making the most money, has the last word. Do you ask, now, why she is the most powerful person in Biskra? " "It seems," said the commandant, "that it is because she is a woman, and is bad." "And beautiful," added the lawyer. "Do you think her beautiful?" asked the commandant. The lawyer thought a moment. "Did you ever see a hunting-leopard?" he asked. "No," said the commandant. "I used to see them," said the lawyer, " when I was in Sumatra, looking after the affairs of some Frenchmen who were buy ing pearls from the oyster-beds of Arippo. They were horribly beautiful. Mirza re minds me of them, especially when she The Desert seizes her prey. Most beasts of prey are satisfied when they have killed all that they can devour; but the hunting-leopard kills because she loves to kill. So does Mirza. She destroys because she loves to destroy. A hunting-leopard and Mirza are the only two absolutely cruel creatures I have ever seen. Of course," he added, "I eliminate the English, who deem the day misspent unless they have killed some thing, and who give infinite pains and tenderness to the raising of pheasants, that they may slaughter a record number of them at a battue. Aside from a hunting- leopard and a hunting-Englishman, I know of no being so cruel as Mirza; no being that takes such delight in mere ex termination. They used to call our nobil ity, in the time of Louis XIV and Louis XV, cruel, but they did not kill, they merely taxed. In the height of the ancient [ is?] The Desert regime^ it was not good form to kill a peas ant, because then the country had one less taxpayer. The height of the art was to take all the peasant had and then to in duce him to set to work again. When he had earned another surplus, his lord came and took it. France had an accomplished nobility. England had a brutal one. The latter used to take all the eggs out of the nest and then kill the hen. The French noble took all the eggs but one or two, and spared the hen. He could rob a nest a dozen times and his English contempo rary could rob it but once." "My friend," said the commandant, laughing, "you reassure me. When you begin comparing England with France, I know that you have nothing of impor tance at hand and that your mind is kick ing up its heels in vacation. You have a charming mind, my friend, but it has been The Desert prostituted to the law. If you had been bred a soldier " He stopped, because the murmur of the square suddenly stopped. The cessation of a familiar clamor is more startling than a sudden cry. The two men ran to the window. The fires under the pots were still burning and the square was light as day. At the opposite side, where the caravan road debouched, three thousand white-robed Mussulmans stood, silent. Above them the commandant and the lawyer could see the heads of the six spahis, they and their horses silent. Be yond, were the heads of many camels. The commandant threw up the sash. Across the silent square came a woman s voice, speaking Arabic in the dialeft of Ouled Nail. "That is Mirza," said the lawyer. Then there came a man s voice, evi- The Desert dently in reply. "That is Abdullah," said the lawyer. " How can you distinguish at this dis tance?" asked the commandant. The lawyer shrugged his shoulders. "While you are drilling your soldiers," he said, " I am drilling myself. If a man yonder sneezes, I can name his tribe. A sneeze, being involuntary, cannot be arti ficial, and therefore it is the true index of race and character. Take the Oriental Express any night from Paris to Vienna. If you will sit up late enough and walk up and down the aisle, you may tell from the sneezes and the coughs the national ity of the occupant of each berth. A Ger man sneezes with all his might, and if there is a compatriot within hearing he says, Gesundheit? An Italian sneezes as if it were a crime, with his hand over his face." The Desert "Hush," said the commandant. Out from the white-robed crowd came two forms, Mirza and the oukil. Mirza held a paper in her hand. They went to the nearest fire and Mirza gave the paper to the man with the green turban. He read it, thought a moment, read it again, and then the two went back to the silent crowd by the mosque. There was con versation, there were vehement exclama tions which, if they had been in Eng lish, would have been oaths there was a sudden movement of the horses and the camels; the outskirts of the crowd surged and broke, and then, above their heads, flashed the sabres of the spahis. The commandant went to the door. "Corporal," he said, "take your men to the mosque, join your comrades, and bring to me Abdullah, his wife, Mirza, and the oukil" Desert The corporal saluted, gave an order, and the little troop trotted across the square. The commandant closed the shut ters of the window. "I do not care to see the row," he said, and he lit a cigarette. But if he did not see the row, he heard it, for presently came the yelp and snarl of an Oriental mob. "It is growing warm," said the com mandant. "Hospitality cannot be lightly practised here." " Nor anywhere," said the lawyer, who had resumed his cards; "because it is a virtue, and the virtues are out of vogue. The only really successful life, as the world looks upon success now, is an absolutely selfish life. It is the day of specialists, of men with one idea, one object, and the successful man is the one who permits nothing to come between him and his The Desert object. Wife, children, honor, friendship, ease, all must give place to the grand pur suit; be it the gathering of wealth, the discovery of a disease germ, the culture of orchids, or the breeding of a honey bee that works night and day. Human life is too short to permit a man to do more than one thing well, and money is be coming so common that its possessors require the best of everything." "Old friend," said the commandant, " you are a many-sided man, and yet you are one of the best lawyers in France." " You have said it," exclaimed the lawyer; "one of the best, not the best. The one thing I have earnestly striven for I have not attained." "What is that?" asked the comman dant. "Do you wish to be Minister of Justice?" [ 193 ] The Desert "No," said the lawyer; "but I should like to be known as the best player of Napoleon solitaire." A sabre-hilt rapped on the door. "Enter," cried the commandant. The door opened, and there entered first the sharp cries of the mob, and then the corporal, Abdullah, a woman clothed all in white, the oukil, and, last of all, Mirza. The moment she was within the room she dominated it. The other occu pants were blotted out by comparison. She entered, debonair, smiling, and, as she crossed the threshold, she flung up her hand in a military salute. " Hail, my masters," she cried in Ara bic. "Would you believe it? but just now I was nearly robbed, before your windows, of merchandise that cost me thirty ounces." "Be good enough to speak French," [ 194 ] The Desert said the commandant; "it is the etiquette of the office." "And to you?" exclaimed Mirza, in the speech of Paris, "to you, who speak such charming Arabic. It was only last week, the evening you did me the honor of supping with me, that Miriam per haps you will pay her the compliment of remembering her the little girl who played and danced for you, and who, when you were going, hooked on your sword for you, and gave you a light from her cigarette? well, Miriam said, when you were gone, It is a pity the gracious commandant speaks any language save Arabic, he speaks that so convincingly. What could you have whispered to her, Monsieur le Commandant, as you left my poor house? " The commandant moved nervously in his chair and glanced out of the cor- [ 195 1 The Desert ner of his eye at the lawyer, who had re sumed his cards. Reassured by the appar ent abstraction of his friend, the com mandant gathered himself and essayed a pleasantry. " I told her," he said, "that if she lived to be twice her age, she might be half as beautiful as you." Mirza made an exaggerated courtesy and threw a mocking kiss from her fin ger-tips. "I thought," she said, "that a woman s age was something that no well- bred Frenchman would speak of." Then she drew herself up and her face, from mocking, became hard and cruel. " I know," she said, slowly, " that I am old. I am eight-and-twenty. I was a wife at twelve, and a mother at thirteen. Such matters are ordered differently here, Mon sieur. A girl is a woman before she has had any childhood. I married Ilderhim. [ 196 ] The Desert Of course, I had never seen him until we stood before the cadi. I had the misfortune to bear him a daughter, and he cursed me. When I was fourteen, a Russian Grand Duke came to Biskra and my husband sold me to him. I refused to submit my self. Then Ilderhim beat me and turned me out of his house. You understand, Monsieur le Commandant, that under our blessed religion a man may have as many wives as he chooses and may divorce them when he chooses. Well, there I was, with out a husband, without a home, without my child, and I passed the night in the ar cades, among the camels. The next morn ing I went to the hotel and asked for the Grand Duke. Monsieur, I said to him, I am Mirza. I would not sell myself to you, but if you will take me as a gift, be hold, here am I. He took me to Paris, to Vienna, to St. Petersburg. For a year he T /ie Desert did not tire of me. That was a long time for a savage to amuse a Grand Duke, was it not? Then one day he gave me money, bade me keep the jewels he had given me, and sent me back to Biskra. Since then I have been, first a dancing-girl, and then, the mother of them all. I have never given the authorities any trouble. I have ob served the laws of France. What will the laws of France doforme?"andshehanded to the commandant the invoice which Abdullah had brought with his freight. The commandant read the paper and his face grew troubled. "Chancellor," he said, "is this bind- ing?" The lawyer read the paper twice. "Yes," he said, "it is a mere hiring; it is not a sale. I don t see how we can in terfere." "Mirza," said the commandant, "it [ 198 ] The Desert seems that you have a good contract, un der Moslem law." "Excellent," cried the oukil y rubbing his hands. " Silence," thundered the commandant. " Speak French, and that only when you are spoken to. Abdullah, have you any thing which you wish to say to me?" Abdullah bent and whispered in the ear of the girl who sat trembling; then he stepped forward. "Monsieur le Commandant," he said, "will you have the kindness to read this?" and he held out a paper. It was yellow with age and of quarto size and twice folded. The commandant took it, unfolded it, and read aloud, "The grace of our Lord Jesus Chris the with you all. Amen" "Why, this is the last page of a Bible," he said. "I do not know," said Abdullah. "He [ T 99 ] tore it from a book upon his table. It was the only paper that he had. Upon the other side is writing." The commandant reversed the paper and again read: THIS is to Certify that on the nineteenth day of February, 187-, in the Oasis " of Zama, in the Great Sahara, having Jirst " baptized them, I did unite in marriage " Philip (formerly Abdullah) and Marie " (formerly NichaJ, in accordance with the " rites of our holy Church. "JOSEPH, " Who Keeps Goats. " Witness, his "ALi, the son of All X mark her " ZINA, parentage unknown X her X mark "Ah, ha," exclaimed the lawyer, "this changes the complexion of affairs," and he [ 200 ] threw the cards upon the floor. "I could swear to Joseph s handwriting, I have his I O U s, but as I am now sitting as a magis trate, I cannot swear to anything. Where are the witnesses, Abdullah?" " With the camels, across the square," said Abdullah; "if you will permit the corporal to go for them " "Pardon," said the oukil; "if I am permitted to speak I can save you the trouble. We admit all that the goatherd certifies." "Then," said the chancellor, "you ad mit yourselves out of court, since, if one Christian marries another, the law of France obtains, and this contra6l which Mirza produces is abhorrent to the law of France, being immoral." "Pardon," said the oukiL "In every word you speak I recognize my master, but is it not possible that my master The Desert may nod? As one of a conquered people, I have studied the code of my conqueror. It is true that a religious ceremony has been performed here, but how about the civil marriage which, as I read the French code, is absolutely necessary?" The lawyer sat silent. Then he put out his hand. "My friend," he said, "I have done you a great wrong. I have looked upon you as a mere religionist. It seems that you are a student. You remind me of my duty. I, as the chief legal officer of this colony, should marry these people at once. Thank you many times for re minding me." " Pardon," said the oukil; " but if I have read the laws of France aright, there can not be a civil marriage without the con sent of the parents." "My friend," said the lawyer, "will you place me doubly in your debt by [ 202 ] The Desert shaking hands with me a second time? If you were to exchange your green tur ban for the silk hat of the boulevards, your photograph would soon be in the shops. You know my law much better than I know yours, and I shake hands with you intellectually, not socially. Who is your father, Abdullah?" he asked. "I do not know his name," answered Abdullah; "he was a camel-driver of the Sahara." " And your mother? " asked the lawyer. "How can one, born as I, know his mother?" replied Abdullah. "And you," said the lawyer, turning to Nicha, "who is your father? " " Ilderhim of El Merb," she answered. "And your mother?" asked the law yer. " She died before I can remember." " Her father, Ilderhim," said the oukil^ [ 203 ] The Desert "signs the invoice which you have read. He does not consent. * " He is nobody," said the lawyer. " He was banished from Algeria years ago. It is as though he had never existed." " I had overlooked that, "said the oukll; and then he added, "As the mistake this time is mine, perhaps you will again shake hands." "No," said the lawyer; "I pay pen ance only when I am in the wrong." The oukil bowed low, but when he drew himself up to his full height there was murder in his eye. " Well," said the commandant, "what is the solution?" "I advise you," said the lawyer, "that this contract comes under the law of France and is void, because it is immoral and opposed to public policy. It comes under the law of France because the [ 204 ] T ke Desert young woman is a Christian and has mar ried a Christian. The religious marriage is complete. The civil marriage is only delayed that the young woman may pre sent proofs of her mother s death. Her father is already civilly dead." "Mirza," said the commandant, "do you hear?" "Yes," she said, "I hear, and, being a woman, I am accustomed to such deci sions. I pay thirty ounces to Ilderhim for two years hire of a girl. The girl turns Christian and I lose the thirty ounces." "Not so," said Abdullah; "they are here," and he placed a bag upon the commandant s table. "Take it," said Mirza; and she tossed it to the oukil. " To make his contract good," she con tinued, " Ilderhim, my former husband, pays sixteen or seventeen ounces freight The Desert on the girl and her maid. The girl turns Christian. Who loses the freight?" " I," said Abdullah, and he placed an other bag upon the table. "Take it," said Mirza, and the oukil grasped it. "Let us see this girl who has kept us all up so late," said Mirza, and she strode over to Nicha. Abdullah put out his hand to keep her off. " You Ve won," she said ; " why be dis agreeable? Let us see what you have gained and I have lost," and she stripped the veil and the outer garment from the girl, who sat passive. When the veil and the burnoose fell, the beauty of the girl filled the room as would a perfume. The commandant and the lawyer sat speechless, gazing. The oukil wrung his hands and exclaimed: "What have we lost!" Abdullah stood, proud and happy. [ 206 ] The Desert The corporal at the door shifted his feet and rattled his side-arms, and Mirza laughed. Then she stepped back a pace; the laughter died upon her lips, and her hands flew to her bosom. "Little one," she said, "the life you would have lived with me would not have been so hard when one remembers what the life of woman is, at best. It is to amuse, to serve, to obey. You are too young to understand. You are, perhaps, fourteen?" "Yes," said Nicha. "When I was fourteen," said Mirza, "I too was beautiful; at least my hus band and my mirror told me so. There is something in your face that reminds me of the face I used to see in my glass, but when one grows old, and I am eight- and-twenty, one is sure to see resem blances that do not exist. How prettily The Desert they have dressed you! Did Ilderhim, your father, give you these silks and these emeralds?" "Yes," said Nicha. " If you are hoping to be a good wife," said Mirza, "you must not think too much of silks and jewels. When I was in Paris, with the Grand Duke, I noticed that the women who had sold themselves had taken their pay in pearls and dia monds. The honest women went more soberly. I see you are of the old tribe the tribe of Ouled Nail. Let me see your name." She raised the filigree medallion that hungupon Nicha s upperarm. Shelooked at the tattooed crest, started, drew her hand across her eyes, looked again, and fell to trembling. She stood a moment, swaying, and then she staggered to the commandant s table. She rested one hand The Desert upon it and with the other she began playing with Ali s knife. Her face was gray but her lips were pitifully smiling. "Monsieur the Chancellor," she said, each word a sob, "you need no longer delay the civil marriage. I consent to it. This is my daughter. It seems," she added, in a whisper, "that Allah has not altogether forgotten me. He has saved my child from me." And with an exceeding bitter cry she went out. The End A 000 820 562 7