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"Looks as if they'd got a tip from the marabout's men," he said slowly. "It can be nothing else," Stephen agreed. "I blame myself for calling the twins inside to help me," said Nevill. "If I'd left them to moon about the courtyard, they'd have seen those sneaks creeping away, and reported." "They wouldn't have thought it strange that the Arabs stood outside, watching the boy go.
On the mosque roof a hundred men of the desert knelt praying in the sunset, their faces turned towards Mecca. Down in the fountain-court, the marabout's lazy tame lion rose from sleep and stretched himself, yawning as the clear voice of the muezzin chanted from the minaret the prayer of evening, "Allah Akbar, Allah il Allah, Mohammed r'soul Allah."
I pray for one of my own, for because the Sidi loves me, and did not love the boy's mother, he would care ten thousand times more for a child of mine. The wise woman says so, and I believe it. When thy sister is gone, I shall have a boy, and nothing left to wish for on earth. Send a message to thy lover, saying that the marabout's only son is at school in Oued Tolga, the city.
"But that's where Count Anteoni went when he rode away from Beni-Mora that morning." "Yes, Madame." "Is it far from Amara?" "Two hours' ride across the desert." "But then Count Anteoni may be near us. After he left he wrote to me and gave me his address at the marabout's house." "If he is still with the marabout, Madame."
"Oh don't don't speak of that again, Saidee!" the girl cried, sharply. "I've told you yes that I'll do anything anything on earth to save you pain, or more sorrow. But let's hope let's pray." "There is no hope. I've forgotten how to pray," Saidee answered, "and God has forgotten me." There was no place for a guest in that part of the marabout's house which had been allotted to Saidee.
You wouldn't understand what I mean unless I explained a good many things, and it's hardly the time for explaining more now. You must just take what I say for granted, until I can tell you everything by and by. But there are enormous interests mixed up with the marabout's ambitions things which concern all Africa.
We skirt the precipice of Azrou-n'hour, crowned with its marabout's tomb. The plains at our feet are green and glorious, pearled with white, distant villages. Opposite the precipice the granite rocks open to let us pass by a narrow portal where formerly the Kabyles used to stand and levy a toll on all travelers.
No noises came from the courts of the women's quarters, or those of the marabout's guests, and attendants, and servants; not a voice was raised in that more distant part of the Zaouïa where the students lived, and where the poor were lodged and fed for charity's sake.
The Arabs had left the animals peacefully feeding, and had disappeared into the kitchen, or perhaps to have a last look at the vanishing escort of the marabout's sacred son. Stephen was suddenly conscious of fatigue, and a depression as of great weariness. He envied Nevill, whose boyish laugh he heard.
Nevill and he and Sabine had talked them all over, and decided that, on the whole, there was no great danger of treachery from the marabout, who stood to lose too much, to gain too little, by breaking faith. As for Maïeddine, he was ill with fever, so the sisters said, and Saidee and Victoria believed that he had been kept in ignorance of the marabout's bargain.
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